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The importance of cell pyroptosis in immunity regulation is becoming increasingly obvious, especially in diseases of the cardiovascular system. Nevertheless, it is unknown whether the pyroptosis signalling pathway is involved in the immune microenvironment regulation of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of pyroptosis on the immune environment in dilated cardiomyopathy. We found that expression of 19 pyrolysis-related genes (PRGs) in DCM samples was altered compared to healthy samples. Subsequently, based on these 12 hub pyrolysis-related genes, we developed a classifier that can distinguish between healthy samples and DCM samples. Among the hub pyrolysis-related genes, RT–PCR analyses demonstrated that five of them exhibited significant differential expression in DCM. Interestingly, we observed that immune characteristics are correlated with pyroptosis: higher expression of GSDMD is positively correlated with infiltrating activated pDCs; GSDMD is negatively correlated with Tregs; CASP1 is positively related to parainflammation; and CASP9 is negatively related to the type II IFN response. In addition, distinct pyroptosis-mediated patterns were identified, and immune characteristics under distinct patterns were revealed: pattern B mediates an active immune response, and pattern A leads to a relatively mild immune response to DCM. We also compared the biological functions between these patterns. Compared with pattern A, pattern B had more abundant pathways, such as the NOTCH signalling pathway and pentose phosphate pathway. In summary, this study proves the important influence of pyrolysis on the immune microenvironment of dilated cardiomyopathy and provides new clues for understanding the pathogenesis of dilated cardiomyopathy.

Background Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of coronary chronic total occlusion (CTO) is one of the most challenging procedures of interventional cardiology. Debate continues with regard to the predictors that influence the antegrade procedure outcome. Methods The CTO PCIs were prospectively registered from May 1, 2012 to August 22, 2017 in a single center. Variables of patients' characteristics, CTO morphology, PCI strategy, procedure materials and outcomes were recorded. Multivariable logistic regression model was adopted to identify predictors of procedure outcome. Results A total of 193 CTO PCIs were consecutively included, and 187 antegrade PCIs were finally analyzed. The antegrade technical and procedure success rates were both 67.91%. Multivariable logistic regression indicated that stumpless lesion (OR: 2.813; 95% CI: 1.120–7.062, p = 0.028) and occlusion length ≥ 20 mm (OR: 2.196; 95% CI: 1.087–4.437, P = 0.028) independently predicted the procedure outcome. The area under the receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curve for discriminating failed CTO PCI was 0.621 (95% CI: 0.534–0.708, p = 0.008) for Japanese multicenter CTO registry (J-CTO) score, which significantly increased to 0.673 (95% CI: 0.592–0.755, p = 0.000) after modifying stumpless lesion score from 1 to 2 points. Conclusions Stumpless lesion and occlusion length ≥ 20 mm independently predict the antegrade CTO procedure failure. Scoring 2 points to stumpless lesion improves the value of J-CTO score in predicting the procedure outcome.

Abnormal cardiac fibrosis indicates cardiac dysfunction and poor prognosis in myocardial infarction (MI) patients. Many studies have demonstrated that the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of fibrosis. Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1), a member of the UPS, is related to fibrosis in several heart diseases. However, whether UCHL1 regulates cardiac fibrosis following MI has yet to be determined. In the present study, we found that UCHL1 was dramatically increased in infarct hearts and TGF-β1-stimulated cardiac fibroblasts (CFs). Inhibition of UCHL1 with LDN57444 (LDN) reversed the myocardial fibrosis in post-MI heart and improved cardiac function. Treatment of LDN or UCHL1 siRNA abolished the TGF-β1-induced fibrotic response of CFs. We further identified GRP78 as an interactor of UCHL1 through screening using immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometer. We determined that UCHL1 interacted with glucose-regulated protein of 78 kDa (GRP78) and prompted GRP78 degradation via ubiquitination. Furthermore, we found that GRP78 was upregulated after UCHL1 knockdown and that the GRP78 inhibitor HA15 diminished the antifibrotic function exerted by UCHL1 knockdown in CFs stimulated with TGF-β1. This suggests that UCHL1 regulates cardiac fibrosis post MI through interactions with GRP78. This work identifies that the UCHL1-GRP78 axis is involved in cardiac fibrosis after MI.

Paeoniforin (Pae) is a monoterpenoid glycoside compound and has many biological activities, such as immunosuppression, anti-inflammation and anti-cell proliferation. However, the effects and mechanisms of Pae on chronic heart failure (CHF) remain unclear. This study was conducted to assess the effects and mechanisms of Pae on myocardial fbrosis in isoprenaline (Iso)-induced CHF rats. Pae (20 mg/kg) was intragastrically administrated to CHF rats for 6 weeks. Cardiac structure and function were assessed. The protein and mRNA levels of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and p38 were detected. Compared to Iso group, Pae could alleviate myocardial fibrosis and improve cardiac function in CHF rats. The levels of collagen volume fraction (13.75%±3.77% vs. 30.97%±4.22%, P

OBJECTIVES Uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (UniVATS) is widely used as a minimally invasive thoracic operation. The goal of our study was to analyse the effect of long-term experience with the UniVATS lobectomy on the learning curve. METHODS The learning curves were quantitatively evaluated by the unadjusted cumulative sum, and they were segmented using joinpoint linear regression analysis. The variables were compared between subgroups using trend analysis, and linear regression analysis was applied to correlate clinical characteristics at different stages of the learning curve with the duration of the operation. RESULTS The learning curve for the UniVATS lobectomy can be divided into 3 phases of proficiency at ∼200–300 procedures, with a fourth phase as the number of procedures increases. The 1st–52nd, 52nd–156th, 156th–244th and 244th–538th procedures comprised the preliminary learning stage, preliminary proficiency stage, proficiency stage and advanced proficiency stage, respectively. Surgical outcomes and their variability between stages improved with increasing case numbers, with the most significant addition of an auxiliary operating port and conversions. In multivariable analysis, as stages progressed, influences other than surgical experience increased the operative time, with male and extensive pleural adhesions in the preliminary proficiency stage; male and incomplete pulmonary fissures in the proficiency stage; and male, extensive pleural adhesions and incomplete pulmonary fissures in the advanced proficiency stage. CONCLUSIONS As the number of procedures increases, there may be 4 different proficiency stages in the UniVATS lobectomy learning curve. The surgeon enters the fourth stage at approximately the 244th procedure. Moreover, at stage 4, the perioperative indicators tend to stabilize, and influences other than surgical experience become more significant.

Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3)-induced myocardial damage always leads to serious heart failure by inducing cardiac injury. NLRP3 inflammasome activation has been identified as a central player in the pathogenesis of CVB3-induced viral myocarditis. Therefore, restraining NLRP3 inflammasome activation has been supposed to significantly alleviate the severity of myocardial damage and improve cardiac function. Morroniside (MR), one of the main iridoid glycosides, has the ability to depress the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and restrain the expression of caspase-3 and -9. Of importance, ROS and caspase are essential for NLRP3 inflammasome activation in response to CVB3 infection. Therefore, in the present study, MR was selected as a model drug to alleviate CVB3-induced myocardial damage. The results of cardiac function index determination showed that abnormal indexes including mean arterial pressure, heart rate, and left ventricular systolic pressure of myocardial damage rats could be recovered by treating with MR. Such results can be further verified by histopathological evaluation, with the heart tissues of CVB3-infected rats displaying the most amount of H&E and TUNEL positive cells. The underlying mechanism by which MR improves the cardiac function was subsequently investigated. The detection of various gene levels indicated that NLRP3 inflammasome activation was inhibited by MR through down-regulating the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines: interleukin (IL)-β and IL-18, the pivotal factors that lead to inflammatory responses. More importantly, the related genes, cardiac function indexes, and various myocardial damage markers of normal rats treated with MR did not exhibit any obvious changes compared with the control group, indicating a satisfactory biocompatibility of MR. In summary, MR holds a great potential in the alleviation of CVB3-induced myocardial damage with a negligible cytotoxicity to normal heart tissues.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently emerged disease with formidable infectivity and high mortality. Emerging data suggest that diabetes is one of the most prevalent comorbidities in patients with COVID-19. Although their causal relationship has not yet been investigated, preexisting diabetes can be considered as a risk factor for the adverse outcomes of COVID-19. Proinflammatory state, attenuation of the innate immune response, possibly increased level of ACE2, along with vascular dysfunction, and prothrombotic state in people with diabetes probably contribute to higher susceptibility for SARS-CoV-2 infection and worsened prognosis. On the other hand, activated inflammation, islet damage induced by virus infection, and treatment with glucocorticoids could, in turn, result in impaired glucose regulation in people with diabetes, thus working as an amplification loop to aggravate the disease. Therefore, glycemic management in people with COVID-19, especially in those with severe illness, is of considerable importance. The insights may help to reduce the fatality in the effort against COVID-19.

This meta-analysis is conducted to assess the efficiency and safety of triple antiplatelet therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who have received coronary stents implantation. The risk of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs), target vessel revascularization (TVR), target lesion revascularization (TLR), myocardial infarction (MI) and bleeding events were evaluated in this meta-analysis. Eight randomized controlled trials incorporating 1700 participants were included. During a follow-up of 12 months after stents implantation, the risk of TVR, TLR and MACEs in Triple group were lower than that of Dual group. There was no significant difference in the comparison of stent thrombosis and bleeding events between the two groups. Triple antiplatelet therapy is effective in reducing adverse cardiovascular outcomes in T2DM patients after stents implantation, without increasing the risk of bleeding events. Advanced designed and large-scale trails are deserved in the future.

Platelets are major sources of microparticles (MPs) in peripheral bloodstream, and platelet-secreted MPs (P-MPs) transfer biological information to neighboring cells. In the present study, we found that the platelet- and P-MPs-derived microRNA-4306 (miR-4306) expression were downregulated in coronary artery disease (CAD) and platelet-derived miR-4306 was an independent poor prognostic factor in CAD. Plasma miRNA-4306 mainly cofractionated with MPs instead of Argonaute2 complexes or HDL. P-MPs could effectively deliver miR-4306 into human monocyte-derived macrophages (HMDMs). MiR-4306 noticeably inhibited the HMDMs migration in vitro and reduced the number of macrophage cells in cardiac tissue in myocardial infarction mice. This functional impact of miR-4306 was mediated directly through VEGFA to inhibit ERK/NF-κB signaling. In conclusion, our study suggested that intercellular transfer of miR-4306 by platelet microparticles inhibited the HMDMs migration through VEGFA/ERK1/2/NF-κB signaling pathways.

We evaluated change in resting heart rate (RHR) and its impact on prognosis in Chinese coronary artery disease (CAD) patients treated with bisoprolol, and also assessed drug safety and tolerability.This phase IV, single arm observational study was a sub-study of the BISO-CAD study conducted across 20 hospitals in China between October 2011 and July 2015 with follow-up at 6, 12 and 18 months after baseline. The primary endpoint was occurrence of composite cardiac events.A total of 663 CAD patients (baseline RHR 75.47 ± 6.62 bpm) were enrolled in the intent-to-treat (ITT) set, and 513 patients were included in the efficacy analysis (EA) set. In the ITT set, the risk and the number of composite cardiac events in patients with mean RHR 69-74 bpm were significantly higher than in the65 bpm group (ITT: estimate 1.03 ± 0.47, p = .029). The incidence of the composite cardiac endpoint was not affected by continuous mean RHR (p = .5070). RHR significantly decreased from baseline to 18 months, most obviously in the first 6 months (p .0001). Ejection fraction and fractional shortening significantly improved in both the ITT and EA sets. An average RHR of 69-74 bpm had a significant effect on admission to hospital for acute coronary syndrome in the ITT (estimate 1.10, HR 3.004, p = .0196) and EA (estimate 1.26, HR 3.526, p = .0132) groups. Seven (1.1%) patients reported drug related adverse events.Reduction in RHR with bisoprolol lowered the incidence of composite cardiac events along with an acceptable safety and tolerability profile.

In the process of traditional ecological floating island purification, floating plants have limited absorption capacity. And it also have limited effect on deepwater treatment. Because of the shortcomings of the traditional floating island, the "Combined Artificial floating island" device, which combines the ecological floating island, activated carbon fiber and aeration, is proposed to study its purification effect on black-odorous water. After 22 days of experiment, the removal rates of COD, TN and TP reached 83.9%, 50.2% and 26.4% respectively for the "Combined Artificial floating island" combined treatment unit, while it reached 70.5%,39.2%and 17.5% respectively for the traditional ecological floating island. The experimental results show that the removal rates of COD, TN and TP in water body are increased by 13.4%, 11% and 8.9% respectively for the treatment of "Combined Artificial floating island" combined treatment unit, and the purification effect is greatly improved compared with the traditional ecological floating island. The “Combined Artificial floating island” uses synergistic effect of particle sedimentation, plant absorption, microbial degradation and activated carbon fiber adsorption to purify water. Therefore, it can adapt to water bodies with different water quality and water depth, and has wider application range and stronger adaptability.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have found that adropin is associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). This meta-analysis sought to assess the relationship between serum adropin level and CAD. METHODS: Online databases including the Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMbase, Ovid, CBM, CNKI, VIP and WanFang Data were electronically searched for the clinical study concerning the relationship between serum adropin levels and CAD, including acute myocardial infarction (AMI), unstable angina pectoris (UAP), and stable angina pectoris (SAP). Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed methodological quality of included studies. Standard mean difference (SMD) with its 95% confidence interval (CI) was used as the effect size in this study. Then meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.2 software. RESULTS: A total of seven articles involved 945 participants were included. The results indicated that serum adropin level in CAD group was lower than healthy control group (SMD =−2.44, P=0.0008). In the subgroup analysis, the levels of serum adropin in AMI group (SMD =−2.96, P

Based on an analytical formula of the Tolman length, some estimations of the Tolman length were obtained. The Tolman length is non-negative. The Tolman length of the fluid is zero while isothermal compression rate of the fluid is zero. The Tolman length is divergent at the critical point. The curvature dependence of surface tensions of spherical droplets can be further gotten based on this analytical formula of the Tolman length. The surface tensions increase as the radii of spherical droplets increase. Two estimations of the Tolman length are obtained based on Egelstaff–Widom formula and Sanchez’s equation. Based on the results of molecular dynamics simulations, it can be calculated that the value of dimensionless structure constant A of droplets consisted of argon molecular system is 1.9398 when the temperature is 96 K. An estimation of the Tolman length is obtained based on a relationship between the isothermal compressibility, liquid density and speed of sound in a liquid.

The chemical composition and antioxidant activities of the essential oil from Nandina domestica fruits were studied for the first time. Twenty-two compounds, representing 82.79% of the oil, were identified from the oil. The major compounds were 3-hexen-1-ol (12.9%), linalool (12.3%), 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (9.9%), oleic acid (8.0%), furfural (5.8%) and 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol (5.7%). The antioxidant activities of the oil were evaluated using reducing power, metal chelating ability and scavenging capacity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2'-azinobis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonate (ABTS) and superoxide anion free radical. The oil exhibited significant antioxidant activities.

Cardiac stem cells (CSCs) can differentiate into cardiac muscle‑like cells; however, it remains unknown whether CSCs may possess the ability to differentiate into pacemaker cells. The aim of the present study was to determine whether angiotensin II (Ang II) could promote the specialization of CSCs into pacemaker‑like cells. Mouse CSCs were treated with Ang II from day 3-5, after cell sorting. The differentiation potential of the cells was then analyzed by morphological analysis, flow cytometry, reverse transcription‑polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry and patch clamp analysis. Treatment with Ang II resulted in an increased number of cardiac muscle‑like cells (32.7 ± 4.8% vs. 21.5 ± 4.8%; P

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text, Background: Cardiac arrest (CA) is a serious threat to human health. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an effective treatment for CA. Early and high-quality CPR is closely related to the survival rate of patients with CA. But manual chest compression has a lot of defects. To solve the defects and improve the quality of CPR, mechanical CPR device was invented. However, it has still controversy whether manual chest compression or mechanical chest compression is better. This systematic review was aimed to investigate the difference in clinical outcomes between manual chest compression and Lund University Cardiac Assist System (LUCAS) assisted CPR in patients with out-hospital CA. Methods: Original research studies, conducted on adult out-of-hospital CA, were included. PubMed/Medline, EMBASE, Scopus, Cochrane Library, CNKI, and Wanfang database were searched from the setting to February 21, 2019. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was selected as effect scale index for evaluation of the difference in return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), survival to hospital admission, survival to hospital discharge, and survival to 30 days. Random effects model was used in this study to estimate overall mean effects. Results: A total of 6 articles, including 4 randomized controlled trials and 2 nonrandomized controlled trials, were selected. And 8501 subjects were involved to analyze the clinical outcomes of LUCAS and manual chest compression for patients with out-hospital CA. Comparisons of ROSC (33.3% vs 33.0%, P = .98; OR = 1; 95% CI: [0.89,1.13]), survival to hospital admission (22.7% vs 24.3%, P = .32; OR = 0.86; 95% CI: [0.65,1.15]), survival to hospital discharge (8.6% vs 10.7%, P = .50; OR = 0.92; 95% CI: [0.73,1.17]), and survival to 30 days (7.5% vs 8.5%, P = .50; OR = 0.92; 95% CI: [0.73,1.17]) were made. No significant difference was found. Conclusion: The synthesis of available evidence does not support that mechanical chest compression with LUCAS device improves clinical outcome in out-of-hospital CA patients compared with manual chest compression. Large scale studies with improved designs are still needed in the future.

the carbide can be used as of Calcium carbide residue is a kind of industrial waste produced in the preparation of acetylene gas from hydrated calcium carbide, and the main component of the calcium carbide residue is calcium hydroxide. In this paper, the production of calcium carbonate by calcium carbide residue was studied, and carbide slag and ammonium bicarbonate was the main materials. The impurity in the carbide slag was removed through the leaching reaction, and the calcium carbonate was prepared by liquid-liquid reaction. The different reaction conditions which had an influence on the grain diameter of the product in the process of leaching and carbonation reaction were also investigated. The characteristics of materials and products in the experiment were tested by XRD, SEM and laser particle size instrument. The results showed that the calcium carbide residue after appropriately treated can be used as the raw materials to prepare calcium carbonate in different particle size.

Coal component is the basic unit of coal, each component of coal has its special processing properties, Now under the demand of energy conservation and environmental protection , how to sort coal components reasonably and effectively has become a problem needed to resolve immediately. Picking vitrain and fusain by hand, analyzing the pH and add in different solution under the condition of different drugs both surface potential difference, and through the flotation tests determine the appropriate separation conditions. The results show that the enrichment rate of the maceral have improved by electrochemical flotation method .

Meso-fabric of gravel particles is not only a reflection of the unique sedimentary history, but also directly affects the geotechnical properties of moraine soil. However, there are few researches on it so far in geotechnical engineering field, due to the difficulty of obtaining undisturbed moraine soil sample. To change this situation, we succeeded in getting undisturbed moraine soil samples from the west side of the Yulong Snow Mountain with the delicate manual cutting work. We scaned the 6 pieces of moraine soil samples by CT instrument and obtained the real meso-fabric images of internal moraine soil for the first time. After CT images binarization and denoising processing with the help of Matlab, section fabric indexes of stone area ratio, grain orientation and particle shape of moraine soil gravel particles were described with conventional statistical methods. The results show that the differences between vertical sections are little, but the differences between vertical sections and horizontal sections are much more obvious.

To develop an effective software for finite element (FE) model updating of bridges, the interface technology between VC++ and MATLAB was investigated firstly, and then a software for updating FE model of bridges, named Doctor for Bridges (version 1.0) was developed. Finally, a model ofconcrete-filled steel tube arch bridge was applied to verify the performance and effectiveness of the proposed software.

Concrete-encased composite girder with corrugated steel web is proposed to improve the mechanical performance of continuous girder under hogging moment, avoiding the buckling of the corrugated web and compressive flange caused by large combined shear force and bending moment. The structural behavior under combined shear force and bending moment was investigated experimentally and analytically, the load-carrying capacity and failure mode of composite girders with different length of concrete encasement were investigated. Analytical results show that the failure modes of composite girders depend on the length of concrete encasement, and the ratio of shear to bending affects the shear stiffness after concrete cracking and ductility at ultimate load state. Based on experimental results, the analytical evolution of shear strength and bending strength were investigated, also interaction equation with respect to shear and bending strength was proposed to evaluate loading capacity of such composite girders.

The chemical composition and antioxidant activities of the essential oil from Nandina domestica fruits were studied for the first time. Twenty-two compounds, representing 82.79% of the oil, were identified from the oil. The major compounds were 3-hexen-1-ol (12.9%), linalool (12.3%), 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (9.9%), oleic acid (8.0%), furfural (5.8%) and 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol (5.7%). The antioxidant activities of the oil were evaluated using reducing power, metal chelating ability and scavenging capacity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2′-azinobis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonate (ABTS) and superoxide anion free radical. The oil exhibited significant antioxidant activities.

The present study examined the effect of atorvastatin on CRP-induced apoptosis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. The HUVECs were cultured in vitro. Apoptosis of HUVECs were observed by acridine orange/ethidium bromide fluorescence staining. After HUVECs were incubated with different

Wetting of a spherical nanodroplet in smooth and homogeneous cylinder surface rotated by quadratic curve was studied by methods of thermodynamics. The solid-liquid-vapor system was separated into six parts using Gibbs method of dividing surface. The system free energy was calculated. A generalized Young equation for the equilibrium contact angle is proposed taking the line tension effects into consideration. On the basis of some assumptions, this generalized Young equation is the same as the classical Young’s equation.

Wetting of droplets on homogeneous and spherical concave rough surfaces is investigated based on thermodynamics. In this study, neglecting the droplet gravity and the thickness of the precursor film of the liquid–vapor interface, the three-phase system is divided into six parts using Gibbs concept of dividing surface. The system Helmholtz free energy is established based on thermodynamics. Supposing the temperature and chemical potential to be constant, a new generalized Young’s equation of the equilibrium contact angle for a spherical droplet on a spherical concave rough surfaces is obtained including the line tension effects. Under certain conditions, this generalized Young’s equation is the same as the Rusanov’s equation.