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Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently rampant worldwide, resulting in unpredictable harm to humans. High blood levels of cytokines and chemokines have been marked in patients with COVID-19 infection, leading to cytokine storm syndrome. Cytokine storms are violent inflammatory immune responses that reveal the devastating effect of immune dysregulation and the critical role of an effective host immune response. Methods: Scientometric analysis summarizes the literature on cytokine storms in recent decades and provides a valuable and timely approach to tracking the development of new trends. This re-view summarizes the pathogenesis and treatment of diseases associated with cytokine storms com-prehensively based on scientometric analysis. Results: Field distribution, knowledge structure, and research topic evolution correlated with cyto-kine storms are revealed, and the occurrence, development, and treatment of disease relevant to cy-tokine storms are illustrated. Conclusion: Cytokine storms can be induced by pathogens and iatrogenic causes and can also occur in the context of autoimmune diseases and monogenic diseases as well. These reveal the multidisci-plinary nature of cytokine storms and remind the complexity of the pathophysiological features, clinical presentation, and management. Overall, this scientometric study provides a macroscopic presentation and further direction for researchers who focus on cytokine storms.

Aiming to solve the problem of low-light-level (LLL) images with dim overall brightness, uneven gray distribution, and low contrast, in this paper, we propose an effective LLL image enhancement method based on the guided filter and multi-scale fusion for contrast enhancement and detail preservation. First, a base image and detail image(s) are obtained by using the guided filter. After this procedure, the base image is processed by a maximum entropy-based Gamma correction to stretch the gray level distribution. Unlike the existing methods, we enhance the detail image(s) based on the guided filter kernel, which reflects the image area information. Finally, a new method is proposed to generate a sequence of artificial images to adjust the brightness of the output, which has a better performance in image detail preservation compared with other single-input algorithms. Experiments show that the proposed method can provide a more significant performance in enhancing contrast, preserving details, and maintaining the natural feeling of the image than the state of the art.

BACKGROUND The cytogenetics of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) increases exponentially with age. Adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients have specific psychosocial and other challenges, influencing their ability to access appropriate treatment. Therefore, in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) for AML, inferior outcomes would be observed in AYA patients compared to children. METHODS We defined the age range of AYA patients as 15 to 29 years. Sixty-three patients who underwent allo-HSCT from 1998 to 2020 at Chang Gung Children Hospital were enrolled in this study. Overall survival was the time duration from HSCT to death from any cause. Disease-free survival was the time duration from HSCT to the last follow-up or first event (failure to achieve complete remission, relapse, secondary malignancy, or death from any cause). RESULTS Thirty-seven (59%) patients were

Low-light images always suffer from dim overall brightness, low contrast, and low dynamic ranges, thus result in image degradation. In this paper, we propose an effective method for low-light image enhancement based on the just-noticeable-difference (JND) and the optimal contrast-tone mapping (OCTM) models. First, the guided filter decomposes the original images into base and detail images. After this filtering, detail images are processed based on the visual masking model to enhance details effectively. At the same time, the brightness of base images is adjusted based on the JND and OCTM models. Finally, we propose a new method to generate a sequence of artificial images to adjust the brightness of the output, which has a better performance in image detail preservation compared with other single-input algorithms. Experiments have demonstrated that the proposed method not only achieves low-light image enhancement, but also outperforms state-of-the-art methods qualitatively and quantitatively.

Multiple studies on the pathomechanisms of depressive disorder and antidepressants have been reported. However, literature involving scientometric analysis of depressive disorder is sparse. Here, we use scientometric analysis and a historical review to highlight recent research on depression. We use the former to examine research on depressive disorders from 1998 to 2018. The latter is used to identify the most frequent keywords in keyword analysis, as well as explore hotspots and depression trends. Scientometric analysis uncovered field distribution, knowledge structure, research topic evolution, and topics emergence as main explorations in depressive disorder. Induction factor, comorbidity, pathogenesis, therapy and animal models of depression help illustrate occurrence, development and treatment of depressive disorder. Scientometric analysis found 231,270 research papers on depression, a 4-fold increase over the last 20 years. These findings offer a vigorous roadmap for further studies in this field.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory intestinal disease caused by an abnormal response of the intestinal mucosal immune system, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. IBD is also accompanied by extraintestinal complications, such as joint, skin, and eye diseases. In recent years, phytomedicine has played an important role in the treatment of IBD because of its strong anti-inflammatory activities and minor side effects. Due to the lack of a review of the literature examining the extent to which phytomedicine can be used to treat IBD, this paper summarizes the experimental research on IBD from the perspective of phytomedicine according to the structural classification of phytomedicine and provides a reference for the further development of new IBD therapies.

Ag mesh transparent conductive films (TCFs) were prepared on the commercial FTO/Glass substrate by ultrafast laser direct writing, trying to improve its overall photoelectric performances. The effects of laser scanning speed, laser fluence and Ag mesh height on photoelectric properties of the Ag mesh/FTO TCFs were systematically studied. The results indicated that a small scanning speed or a high laser fluence would cause excessive ablation of the FTO film and result in an increased Ag mesh line width, which was detrimental to the photoelectric properties of the resulting TCF. It was found that the optimal parameters for fabricating Ag mesh/FTO TCFs were a laser scanning speed of 2200 mm/s, a laser fluence of 0.050 J/cm2 and an Ag mesh height of 2500 nm. The as-fabricated TCF possessed the highest figure of merit of 13.03 × 10−2 Ω−1, which was significantly superior to that of the commercial FTO film. Finally, transparent heaters (THs) were prepared respectively based on the optimal Ag mesh/FTO TCF and the FTO/Glass substrate. The Ag mesh/FTO TH exhibited a more excellent heating performance than the FTO TH, further confirming that the overall photoelectric performance of the FTO/Glass substrate had been greatly improved.

In this study, we investigated the immunomodulatory effects of sinensetin (SI) on RAW 264.7 macrophages and cyclophosphamide (CY)-induced immunosuppressed mice. The results showed that SI enhanced macrophage activity and promoted the secretion of NO, IL-1β, and TNF-α

A laser etching method was performed to achieve the dual purpose of fabricating grating structures and laser annealing on aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films, and thus improve the film photoelectric performances. Different line spacings and laser fluences were adopted to systematically explore the optimal laser etching condition. Too narrow line spacings or too high laser fluences led to light reflections at the grating external surface to cause more light dissipation, and too wide line spacings or too low laser fluences resulted in relatively small total grating lateral areas being detrimental to multiple internal light reflections. Moreover, too narrow line spacings brought about laser-caused lattice disorder and too high laser fluences produced laser-ablated spots or overburned traces. Therefore, using the medium line spacing and laser fluence, e.g. 40 μm and 0.6 J/cm2 in the present work, was more suitable for synchronously realizing grating structure fabrication and laser annealing. The corresponding AZO film exhibited the maximum figure of merit of 2.89 × 10−2 Ω−1, which was 1.6 times that of the untreated AZO film. This study is expected to expand performance improvement methods of TCO films and promote the application of laser-etched grating structures.

As a functional bowel disorder, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), especially IBS-diarrhea (IBS-D), affects approximately 9-20% of the population worldwide. Classical treatments for IBS usually result in some side effects and intestinal microbial disorders, which inhibit the clinical effects. Natural edible medicines with beneficial effects and few side effects have received more attention in recent years. Puerarin is the main active ingredient in pueraria and has been used in China to treat splenasthenic diarrhea and as a natural food in folk medicine for hundreds of years. However, there have been no reports of using puerarin in the treatment of IBS-D, and the underlying mechanism is also still unclear. In this study, a comprehensive model that could reflect the symptoms of IBS-D was established by combining neonatal maternal separation (NMS) and adult colonic acetic acid stimulation (ACAAS) in rats. The results showed that puerarin could reverse the abdominal pain and diarrhea in IBS-D rats. The therapeutic effect was realized by regulating the richness of the gut microbiota to maintain the stabilization of the intestinal micro-ecology. Furthermore, the possible mechanism might be related to the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis by the suppressed expression of corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor (CRF) 1. At the same time, intestinal function was improved by enhancing the proliferation of colonic epithelial cells by upregulating the expression of p-ERK/ERK and by repairing the colonic mucus barrier by upregulating occludin expression. All these results suggest that puerarin could exert excellent therapeutic effects on IBS-D.

An effective method based on laser etching and driving layer strategy was proposed to prepare patterned Ag nanoparticles (Ag NPs) on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)/glass substrate and thus to enhance the photoelectric properties. This method successively included depositing an aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) driving layer, laser etching, depositing an Ag layer, furnace annealing and laser removal. Different AZO and Ag layer thicknesses were adopted, and the surface morphology, crystal structure and photoelectric properties were investigated. An Ag NPs/FTO/glass sample without an AZO driving layer was prepared for comparison. It was found that furnace annealing of the Ag layer combined with the AZO driving layer, rather than that without the AZO driving layer, was more conducive to generating patterned Ag NPs. Using a 20-nm-thick AZO layer and a 150-nm-thick Ag layer led to the formation of uniformly distributed Ag NPs being aligned along the laser-etched grooves to form a pattern. The as-obtained sample had the best comprehensive photoelectric property with an average transmittance of 79.95%, a sheet resistance of 7.11 Ω/sq and the highest figure of merit of 1.50 × 10−2 Ω−1, confirming the feasibility of the proposed method and providing enlightenment for related researches of transparent conductive oxide-based films.

In this study, the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) film on a glass substrate was etched by using a femtosecond pulsed laser with a wavelength of 1030 nm, a repetition rate of 1 MHz and a pulse duration of 262 fs. The effect of laser fluence and scanning speed on the quality of the groove etched on the FTO film surface was systematically studied, trying to improve the groove quality. The results indicated that in order to obtain high quality grooves for use on touch screens, a balance needed to be achieved between laser fluence and scanning speed. Excessive laser fluence caused cracks at the bottom of the groove with shoulder protrusions formed at the edge of the groove, and the scanning speed had a considerable influence on the groove width at the same time. After discussing and comparing the results of five groups of experiments, the best groove quality was determined at the scanning speed of 3000 mm/s and the laser fluence of 1.1 J/cm2. In this case, the edge of the groove was sharp without obvious cracks and shoulder-like protrusions, and the groove width was 7.92 μm, which made it possible to process small etched areas for touch screen. Furthermore, the optimal parameters were confirmed to be available for processing a pattern on the touch screen sensor layer with a line spacing of 5 μm.

Selective laser ablation (SLA) of silver (Ag) films, which were deposited on glass substrates by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering, was performed by using a 532 nm nanosecond (ns) pulsed laser. Two kinds of simple and mask-free SLA strategies featured by two new scanning paths (i.e. frame-typed serial scanning, FTSS, and frame-line combined scanning, FLCS) were proposed to improve the edge quality and optical transmittances of the SLA patterns. The effects of laser scanning speed (v), hatch distance (HD) and scanning path on edge quality of the laser-ablated grooves and SLA patterns were systematically studied. The results indicated that compared with the conventional line-typed cyclic scanning (LTCS) path, which resulted in unsmooth edge with semicircle-shaped boundaries and some Ag residues, the proposed scanning paths of FTSS and FLCS produced clean and smooth edges without obvious heat-affected zone and Ag residues under the condition of using a v value of 15 mm/s and an HD value of 90 μm. As a result, the as-obtained SLA patterns exhibited relatively high optical transmittances. The simple methods of adopting the FTSS or FLCS path for improving the edge quality during SLA and thus the optical transmittance of SLA patterns may have great potential application in various fields.

The accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) lowers anaerobic digestion (AD) performance. In this study, electrodialysis (ED) was coupled with AD to remove VFAs. The results show that acetate and propionate were removed once the current was applied during ED even in the presence of medium. However, current efficiency was

A simple transparent cover-assisted laser annealing strategy, which used a coverglass or a PET sheet as the transparent cover, was proposed to improve photoelectric properties of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) thin films. Pure laser annealing was also performed for comparison. Transparent cover-assisted laser annealing was found to be more effective for producing densely distributed particles, decreasing surface roughness and increasing grain size, thus enhancing transmittance and conductivity of the film. More importantly, compared with coverglass-assisted laser annealing, PET-assisted laser annealing enabled the film surface to be covered with more uniform and denser particles and exhibit a remarkable increase in grain size. Therefore the film had the highest total transmittance of 84.32%, the highest specular transmittance of 75.88%, a slightly decreased haze of 10.01% and the lowest sheet resistance of 7.36 Ω/sq. The simple PET-assisted laser annealing method may be a promising substitution for the conventional laser annealing treatment.

As a functional bowel disorder, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), especially IBS-diarrhea (IBS-D), affects approximately 9-20% of the population worldwide. Classical treatments for IBS usually result in some side effects and intestinal microbial disorders, which inhibit the clinical effects. Natural edible medicines with beneficial effects and few side effects have received more attention in recent years. Puerarin is the main active ingredient in pueraria and has been used in China to treat splenasthenic diarrhea and as a natural food in folk medicine for hundreds of years. However, there have been no reports of using puerarin in the treatment of IBS-D, and the underlying mechanism is also still unclear. In this study, a comprehensive model that could reflect the symptoms of IBS-D was established by combining neonatal maternal separation (NMS) and adult colonic acetic acid stimulation (ACAAS) in rats. The results showed that puerarin could reverse the abdominal pain and diarrhea in IBS-D rats. The therapeutic effect was realized by regulating the richness of the gut microbiota to maintain the stabilization of the intestinal micro-ecology. Furthermore, the possible mechanism might be related to the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis by the suppressed expression of corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor (CRF) 1. At the same time, intestinal function was improved by enhancing the proliferation of colonic epithelial cells by upregulating the expression of p-ERK/ERK and by repairing the colonic mucus barrier by upregulating occludin expression. All these results suggest that puerarin could exert excellent therapeutic effects on IBS-D.

From Oct. 2019 to Apr. 2020, LAMOST performs a time-domain spectroscopic survey of four $K$2 plates with both low- and med-resolution observations. The low-resolution spectroscopic survey gains 282 exposures ($\approx$46.6 hours) over 25 nights, yielding a total of about 767,000 spectra, and the med-resolution survey takes 177 exposures ($\approx$49.1 hours) over 27 nights, collecting about 478,000 spectra. More than 70%/50% of low-resolution/med-resolution spectra have signal-to-noise ratio higher than 10. We determine stellar parameters (e.g., $T_{\rm eff}$, log$g$, [Fe/H]) and radial velocity (RV) with different methods, including LASP, DD-Payne, and SLAM. In general, these parameter estimations from different methods show good agreement, and the stellar parameter values are consistent with those of APOGEE. We use the $Gaia$ DR2 RV data to calculate a median RV zero point (RVZP) for each spectrograph exposure by exposure, and the RVZP-corrected RVs agree well with the APOGEE data. The stellar evolutionary and spectroscopic masses are estimated based on the stellar parameters, multi-band magnitudes, distances and extinction values. Finally, we construct a binary catalog including about 2700 candidates by analyzing their light curves, fitting the RV data, calculating the binarity parameters from med-resolution spectra, and cross-matching the spatially resolved binary catalog from $Gaia$ EDR3. The LAMOST TD survey is expected to get breakthrough in various scientific topics, such as binary system, stellar activity, and stellar pulsation, etc., Comment: 22 pages, 19 figures, 7 tables. Accepted for publication in RAA

This paper presents a novel machine reading comprehension model based on deep learning techniques in Chinese environment. In our manner, the training process can be performed using a general-level GPU, and the convergence of the training process can be accelerated for a shorter period of time. In the architectural design, two main constituting parts include Self-Attention Mechanism and Convolutional Neural Networks. To enhance the interaction between an article and questions, we carry out the operation of Context-Query Attention twice, so that our model is more effectively for acquiring the information of the questions related to the article and converges faster while training. In the experiment, we adopt the Delta Reading Comprehension Dataset for model evaluation in Chinese environment. The experimental results reveal that our model is able to reach the accuracy of 64.9% for EM and 79.0% for Fl. The convergence time is less than 1 hour using the Titan XP GPU, and the memory usage is comparatively lower. The training performance is about 3 times faster than other models with state- of-the-art architecture.

A new ultrafast laser direct writing process to fabricate completely embedded silver mesh flexible transparent electrodes (TEs) using sputtered silver thin films and their applications for flexible transparent heaters (FTHs) are reported. The optimal laser etching parameters were determined, and the effects of mesh pitch and height on photoelectric properties of the silver mesh flexible TEs were systematically studied, with an aim to obtain a TE with excellent comprehensive performance. The resulting TE had a lower sheet resistance (0.86 Ω/sq) and a higher optical transmittance (91.26%) than traditional TEs. Good environmental stability of the TE, i.e. maintaining good electrical conductivity in air or deionized water without significant changes for 40 days, was also demonstrated. The fabricated representative FTH also presented stable heating performance, reaching a high temperature in 60 s under a DC voltage of 1.0 V and finally stabilizing at 98 ℃. This heating performance was confirmed to be stable and consistent after 20 cycles or under the conditions of bending and twisting. In addition, a deicing experiment was performed to illustrate the possible application of the FTH. The results indicated the availability of the laser direct writing method for fabricating high-performance metal mesh-based flexible TEs.

We developed a kind of Cu/Ag composite mesh transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) with low reflection on glass substrates through a simple and effective method, and successfully applied them to fabricate transparent heaters with high performance. By combining laser direct writing and PVP coating-assisted localized removal of sputtered metal layers, Cu/Ag composite mesh TCEs with excellent optical and electrical properties were efficiently prepared and showed a low average reflectance down to 5.71% while maintaining a high average transmittance of 86.49% and a low sheet resistance of 0.43 Ω/sq. The transparent heater based on the as-obtained Cu/Ag composite mesh TCE exhibited an effective and rapid heating performance, being confirmed by achieving a steady-state temperature of ~131 °C within 100 s under an ultra-low applied voltage of 0.8 V. A deicing test of an ice block on the transparent heater was also successfully demonstrated. Good optical and electrical properties as well as excellent thermal stability and reliability imply that the transparent heaters based on the Cu/Ag composite mesh TCEs hold great promise in windshield deicing devices.

With the ultrashort timescale and high-power density, femtosecond laser is a powerful tool for localized material ablation with high processing accuracy and cleanliness. In this work, femtosecond laser direct writing was used to selectively ablate and remove the copper/silver (Cu/Ag) double-layer metal films on glass substrates for fabricating mesh-type transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs). In particular, the effects of laser fluence and laser scanning speed on surface morphology and photoelectric properties of the TCEs were studied. By using a laser fluence of 1.1 J/cm2 and a laser scanning speed of 400 mm/s, the optimal removal result of the Cu/Ag double-layer metal film was achieved with the minimal damage to the glass substrate. The as-obtained TCE showed a high average transmittance of 87.89% and a low sheet resistance of 1.36 Ω /sq. As an application, a transparent heater based on the as-obtained TCE exhibited an efficient, rapid and stable heating performance, being confirmed by achieving a high temperature of ∼ 144 °C under a low applied voltage of 2.0 V. The femtosecond laser selective ablation strategy for laser patterning of metal-based films provides a unique scheme for the rapid fabrication of metal mesh-type TCEs under the mask-free condition and room temperature.

The physical and chemical heterogeneities of soils make the soil spectral different and complicated, and it is valuable to increase the accuracy of prediction models for soil organic matter (SOM) based on pre-classification. This experiment was conducted under a controllable environment, and different soil samples from northeast of China were measured using ASD2500 hyperspectral instrument. The results showed that there are different reflectances in different soil types. There are statistically significant correlation between SOM and reflectence at 0.05 and 0.01 levels in 550–850 nm, and all soil types get significant at 0.01 level in 650–750 nm. The results indicated that soil types of the northeast can be divided into three categories: The first category shows relatively flat and low reflectance in the entire band; the second shows that the spectral reflectance curve raises fastest in 460–610 nm band, the sharp increase in the slope, but uneven slope changes; the third category slowly uplifts in the visible band, and its slope in the visible band is obviously higher than the first category. Except for the classification by curve shapes of reflectance, principal component analysis is one more effective method to classify soil types. The first principal component includes 62.13–97.19% of spectral information and it mainly relates to the information in 560–600, 630–690 and 690–760 nm. The second mainly represents spectral information in 1 640–1 740, 2 050–2 120 and 2 200–2 300 nm. The samples with high OM are often in the left, and the others with low OM are in the right of the scatter plot (the first principal component is the horizontal axis and the second is the longitudinal axis). Soil types in northeast of China can be classified effectively by those two principles; it is also a valuable reference to other soil in other areas.

In advanced ovarian cancer, traditional therapy included debulking surgery and postoperative chemotherapy. We proposed immunochemotherapy (IMCT) combined with picibanil (OK-432), interleukin-2 (IL-2), and traditional platinum- and taxol-based chemotherapy as a better treatment option for advanced ovarian cancer. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 51 patients with advanced ovarian cancer between 2007 and 2015 at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Linkou Medical Center, including 26 patients who were treated with OK-432, IL-2, and platinum- and taxol-based chemotherapy (IMCT group) after debulking surgery; another 25 were treated with traditional platinum- and taxol-based chemotherapy (traditional chemotherapy group) after debulking surgery. We analyzed the difference in age, follow-up period, recurrence rate, and diagnosis-to-recurrence period between the 2 groups. We also analyzed the difference in complete blood cell counts, differentiating counts, and cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) at 1 month after treatment. The recurrence rate between the IMCT and traditional chemotherapy groups showed a significant difference (53.8% vs 88%; P =.0128). The diagnosis-to-recurrence duration was longer in the IMCT than in the traditional chemotherapy groups (33.21 vs 25.63 months), although no statistical significance was found (P =.4668). In laboratory analysis at 1 month after treatment, the white blood cell, absolute neutrophil, and absolute lymphocyte counts (ALCs) were significantly higher in the IMCT group. On the other hand, CA-125 was significantly lower, and ALC was significantly higher in the nonrecurrence group. Combined IMCT and chemotherapy have lower recurrence rate compared to traditional chemotherapy after debulking surgery for the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer.

We report on a distributed circuit model for multi-color light-actuated optoelectrowetting devices. The model takes into consideration the large variation of absorption coefficient (15×) of photoconductors in the visible spectrum and the nonuniform distribution of photogenerated carriers. With the help of this model, we designed opto-electrowetting devices with optimum thickness of photoconductors. This leads to significant improvement in performance compared with prior reports, including 200× lower optical power, 5× lower voltage, and 20× faster droplet moving speed. This enables the use of commercial projectors to create on-demand “virtual” electrodes for large-scale parallel manipulation of droplets. We have achieved simultaneous manipulation of 96-droplet array. Finally, we have demonstrated parallel on chip detection of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 within 45 min using a real-time isothermal polymerase chain reaction assay.