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Aims: Uremic patients require dialysis to replace the declined kidney function, and arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is a commonly used dialysis access route. Our study aimed to explore vascular endothelial cells cadherin (VE-cadherin) and Delta-like ligand 4 (DLL4) expression in uremic patients undergoing primary AVF surgery and their correlation with AVF maturation. Methods: We conducted a prospective study that included n = 55 voluntary uremic patients receiving their initial AVF procedure for renal replacement therapy, subjects were divided into a mature group and a failure group based on whether the AVF matured within 3 months post-operatively. We analyzed the association of VE-cadherin and DLL4 with AVF maturation by examining their expression levels in serum and the endothelium of cephalic veins. Results: Pre-operative serum VE-cadherin, in the mature group measured 125.07 (106.77–167.65) ng/L, and DLL4 was 92.78 (83.83–106.72) pg/mL, while the failure group had VE-cadherin at 95.40 (79.03–107.16) ng/L (P = 0.001), and DLL4 at 60.42 (43.98–80.15) pg/mL with a statistical significant; (P = 0.002), binary logistic regression analysis indicated a significant association between cephalic vein diameter, VE-cadherin, DLL4 levels, and AVF immaturity (P = 0.024, P = 0.014 respectively). Immunohistochemical staining showed slightly higher VE-cadherin levels in the mature group than in the failure group (P = 0.366). DLL4 was primarily located in the cell membrane and cytoplasm, concentrated in the inner membrane, with significantly higher levels in the mature group compared to the failure group (P = 0.027). Conclusion: The failure group exhibited lower levels of VE-cadherin and DLL4 in serum and vascular tissue, these results suggest that VE-cadherin and DLL4 might play pivotal regulatory roles in the onset and the progression of fistula immaturity, potentially serving as promising targets for future interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For well-known orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), the cyclic prefix (CP) is essential for coping with multipath channels. Nevertheless, CP is a pure redundant signal, which wastes valuable time–frequency resources. We propose a novel waveform based on symbol repetition, which is presented to cut down the CP overhead in OFDM. In the presented OFDM with symbol repetition (SR-OFDM), one CP is inserted in the front of several transmitted symbols, instead of only one symbol, as in the conventional way. As a result, it can save the overhead created by CP. Furthermore, due to the existence of the remaining CP, the multipath channel can still be converted into the frequency domain, and single-tap equalization can still be used to equalize information free from interference. In addition, we also extend the proposed SR-OFDM into multiple input–multiple output (MIMO) systems. Finally, the proposed schemes are validated by computer simulations under the various channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since current real-name management for construction workers is unreasonable, this study has divided the management levels of construction companies into five categories, based on their IT applications. Apart from adopting literature induction approach and the project management maturity model (PMMM), the study also considers the six modules of human resource management. It has solicited expert opinions and evaluated them with different indicators and the improved Delphi method. Moreover, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is employed to determine the algorithm of multiple indicators and the weights. This study has created a system to evaluate the maturity of real-name management of construction workers, offering reference fo enterprises' personnel information management. It can also be used for industrial and social supervision to promote real-name management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]