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Abstract This study pooled data from SPRINT (Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial) and ACCORD-BP (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes Blood Pressure) trial to estimate the treatment effect of intensive BP on stroke prevention, and investigate whether stroke risk score impacted treatment effect. Of all the potential manifestations of the hypertension, the most severe outcomes were stroke or death. A composite endpoint of time to death or stroke (stroke-free survival [SFS]), whichever occurred first, was defined as the outcome of interest. Participants without prevalent stroke were stratified into stroke risk tertiles based on the predicted revised Framingham Stroke Risk Score. The stratified Cox model was used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) for the intensive BP treatment. 834 (5.92%) patients had SFS events over a median follow-up of 3.68 years. A reduction in the risk for SFS was observed among the intensive BP group as compared with the standard BP group (HR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.65, 0.89; risk difference: 0.98([0.20, 1.76]). Further analyses demonstrated the significant benefit of intensive BP treatment on SFS only among participants having a high stroke risk (risk tertile 1: 0.76 [0.52, 1.11], number needed to treat [NNT] = 861; risk tertile 2: 0.87[0.65, 1.16], NNT = 91; risk tertile 3: 0.69[0.56, 0.86], NNT = 50). Intensive BP treatment lowered the risk of SFS, particularly for those at high risk of stroke.

The production of Chi-aroma Baijiu generates free radicals, which may pose potential health risks. This study aimed to scavenge free radicals in Chi-aroma Baijiu and assess the impact on the composition of volatile compounds (VOCs) by using distillers’ grains-derived homologous peptides. Five peptides—Pro-Ala (PA), Pro-Val (PV), Gly-Leu (GL), Asp-Phe (DF), and Pro-Leu (PL)—were isolated from the distillers’ grain filtrate. These peptides are present in trace amounts in Chi-aroma Baijiu. By supplementing five peptides to Chi-aroma Baijiu, they could completely scavenge hydroxyl radicals. The rate of scavenging alkoxy radicals ranged from 10.84% to 35.66%. Furthermore, these peptides had an impact on ethyl nonanoate, diethyl acetal, and octanal, which were recognized as characteristic compounds. Ultraviolet spectroscopy simulation revealed that the highest absorption peaks of certain peptides shift when they interact with various esters. Those peptides interact with ethyl acetate and ethyl lactate via hydrogen bonding and Van der Waals forces, demonstrating their influence on VOCs. These findings offer new insights into free radical scavenging, flavor compound regulation, and the valorization of Baijiu by-products in Chi-aroma Baijiu production.

Abstract Background Gestational diabetes mellitus increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study is to compare cardiometabolic and renal outcomes for all women in New Zealand with gestational diabetes (2001–2010) with women without diabetes, 10–20 years following delivery. Methods A retrospective cohort study, utilizing a national dataset providing information for all women who gave birth between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2010 (n = 604 398). Adolescent girls

Hypocrellin A (HA) is a valuable pigment with promising applications in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. The submerged cultivation of Shiraia bambusicola offers a strategic opportunity to enhance HA production. This study investigates the regulatory mechanisms for HA biosynthesis through urea supplementation and presents a strategy to increase HA yield. In the absence of urea, S. bambusicola (GDMCC 60438) does not synthesize HA. However, the addition of 40 g/L urea 12 h into the fermentation process results in a final HA production of 46.7 ± 8.2 mg/L. Morphological analysis reveals an optimized environment for HA synthesis, characterized by a densely intertwined and reticular hyphal structure with minute pores. RNA sequencing shows significant upregulation of genes involved in DNA repair, recombination, and metabolism. Conversely, genes related to cellular homeostasis, cell-wall chitin, and amino polysaccharide metabolism are downregulated. Urea supplementation facilitates the upregulation of amino acid metabolism and the cysteine desulfurase gene, enhancing acetyl-CoA accumulation within the mycelium and providing the necessary precursor materials for HA synthesis. Our work underscores the pivotal role of urea in regulating HA biosynthesis and proposes a practical approach to enhance HA production. The findings contribute novel insights to the fields of biotechnology for pharmaceuticals.

A strain isolation pad is a critical connection mechanism that enables deformation coordination between the rigid thermal insulation tile and the primary structure in the thermal protection system of a reusable hypersonic vehicle. An experimental investigation has been conducted to determine the static, loading–unloading, and high-cycle fatigue (HCF) responses of the SIP with 0.2 mm adhesive under through-thickness tension at room temperature. The contributions of the rigid thermal insulation tile and metallic substructure have not been considered so far. The results indicate that the tensile behavior of the SIP joint is highly nonlinear. The static and fatigue tensile failures both initiate from the corner close to the adhesive/SIP interface due to the stress concentration and the edge effect. The uniform breakage of the aramid fiber can be seen on the cross-section. A novel method is proposed to quantify the residual strain due to the short-time ratcheting effect of the SIP joint in the initial loading–unloading tensile response. As the number of fatigue cycles increases, the thickness of the SIP joint continues to increase until failure. An explicit expression associated with the growth of SIP joint thickness, fatigue cycle number, and peak cyclic stress is established. The turning point of the thickness growth rate with the fatigue cycle number is proposed as a new fatigue failure index for the SIP joint under tensile fatigue, and a fatigue life prediction model is developed.

Introduction Physical activity (PA) in older people is associated with improved morbidity and mortality outcomes. Increasing numbers of older people are choosing to live in retirement villages, many of which promote themselves as providing opportunities for activity. Aim To explore the characteristics of PA village residents were undertaking and the associated individual and village factors. Methods Health, functional and wellbeing information was collected from 577 residents recruited from 34 villages in Auckland, New Zealand, using an International Resident Assessment Instrument and customised survey tools containing items on self-reported PA. Managers from villages completed a survey on village characteristics and facilities. Results The mean age (s.d.) of village residents was 82 (7) years, and 325 (56%) reporting doing one or more hours of PA in the 3 days prior to assessment. Moderate exercise was performed by 240 (42%) village residents, for a mean (s.d.) of 2.7 (3.4) h per week. The most common activities provided by villages included: bowls/petanque (22, 65%) and exercise classes (22, 65%), and walking was the most common activity undertaken (348, 60%). Factors independently associated with PA included individual factors (gender, fatigue, constipation, self-reported health, number of medications, moving to village for safety and security, utilising village fitness programme, use of the internet, and satisfaction with opportunities to be active) and village-related factors (access to unit, and ownership model). Discussion PA uptake is determined by many factors at both personal (physical and psychosocial) and environmental levels. Clinicians should focus on individualised PA promotion in those with identified risk factors for low levels of PA.

Abstract A novel castor oil‐based multifunctional polyol (CM) is fabricated through mild thiol‐ene photo induced reactions using castor oil (CO) and 1‐thioglycerol (MPD) as building blocks. The effect of the reaction time, molar ratio of thiol to carbon–carbon double bond, and the loadings of photo‐initiator are optimized. The resulting CM is combined with CO and employed as cross‐linkers to prepare castor oil‐based water‐borne polyurethane emulsion with desirable mechanical properties and water resistance. Owing to the incorporation of CM cross‐linker with high hydroxyl value of 371 mg KOH/g (which is 2.27 times higher than that of the CO), the prepared castor oil‐based waterborne polyurethane (CMWPU) possesses compacted 3D network structure with high cross‐linking degree, leading to improved glass transition temperature (45 °C), tensile strength (10.8 MPa), water contact angle (87.4°), and decreased water absorption rate (16.12%) with 20% CM additions. Overall, this work illustrates the feasibility of introducing bio renewable CM combined with CO to develop castor oil‐based WPU employing a sustainable development strategy.

This journal retracts the article, ‘An Adaptive Hierarchical Network Model for Studying the Structure of Economic Network’ [...]

Abstract Background Hypocrellin A (HA) is a perylene quinone pigment with high medicinal value that is produced by Shiraia bambusicola Henn. (S. bambusicola) and Hypocrella bambusae (Berk. & Broome) Sacc. (Ascomycetes) with great potential in clinical photodynamic therapy. Submerged cultivation of S. bambusicola is a popular technique for HA production. However, there is not much research on how temperature changes lead to differential yields of HA production. Results The temperature regulation of submerged fermentation is an efficient approach to promote HA productivity. After a 32 °C fermentation, the HA content in the mycelia S. bambusicola (GDMCC 60438) was increased by more than three- and fivefold when compared to that at 28 °C and 26 °C, respectively. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis showed that the regulation of the expression of transcription factors and genes essential for HA biosynthesis could be induced by high temperature. Among the 496 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) explicitly expressed at 32 °C, the hub genes MH01c06g0046321 and MH01c11g0073001 in the coexpression network may affect HA biosynthesis and cytoarchitecture, respectively. Moreover, five genes, i.e., MH01c01g0006641, MH01c03g0017691, MH01c04g0029531, MH01c04g0030701 and MH01c22g0111101, potentially related to HA synthesis also exhibited significantly higher expression levels. Morphological observation showed that the autolysis inside the mycelial pellets tightly composted intertwined mycelia without apparent holes. Conclusions The obtained results provide an effective strategy in the submerged fermentation of S. bambusicola for improved HA production and reveal an alternative regulatory network responsive to the biosynthesis metabolism of HA in response to environmental signals.

Abstract Background Recent guidelines recommended a systolic blood pressure (SBP) target of < 130 mmHg for patients with or without diabetes but without providing a lower bound. Our study aimed to explore whether additional clinical benefits remain at achieved blood pressure (BP) levels below the recommended target. Methods We performed a secondary analysis of the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) among the non-diabetic population and the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes BP (ACCORD-BP) trial among diabetic subjects. We used the propensity score method to match patients from the intensive BP group to those from the standard group in each trial. Individuals with different achieved BP levels from the intensive BP group were used as “reference.” For each stratum, the trial-specific primary outcome (i.e., composite outcome of myocardial infarction (MI), acute coronary syndrome not resulting in MI, stroke, acute decompensated heart failure (HF), or cardiovascular death for SPRINT; non-fatal MI, non-fatal stroke, or cardiovascular death for ACCORD-BP) was compared by Cox regression. Results A non-linear association was observed between the mean achieved BP and incidence of composite cardiovascular events, regardless of treatment allocation. The significant treatment benefit for primary outcome remained at SBP 110–120 mmHg (hazard ratio, 0.59 [95% CI, 0.46, 0.76] for SPRINT; 0.67 [0.52, 0.88] for ACCORD-BP) and SBP 120–130 mmHg for SPRINT (0.47 [0.34, 0.63]) but not for ACCORD-BP (0.93 [0.70, 1.23]). The results were similar for the secondary outcomes including all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, MI, stroke, and HF. Intensive BP treatment benefits existed among patients maintaining a diastolic BP of 60–70 mmHg but were less distinct. Conclusions The treatment benefit persists at as low as SBP 110–120 mmHg irrespective of diabetes status. Achieved very low BP levels appeared to increase cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality.

Summary: Background: Plasma cardiac markers may assist in prediction of incident cardiovascular disease. Methods: The incremental value of cardiac Troponins (T and I) and NT-proBNP added to risk factors in the PREDICT score for incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) in primary care, was assessed in 4102 asymptomatic participants in a randomised controlled trial of Vitamin D (ViDA). Findings were corroborated in 2528 participants in a separate community-based observational registry of CVD-free volunteers (HVOLS). Findings: Hazard ratios for first cardiovascular events adjusted for PREDICT risk factors, comparing fifth to first quintiles of marker plasma concentrations, were 2.57 (95% CI 1.47-4.49); 3.01 (1.66-5.48) and 3.38 (2.04-5.60) for hs-cTnI, hs-cTnT and NT-proBNP respectively. The C statistic for discrimination of the primary endpoint increased from 0.755 to 0.771 (+0.016, p = 0.01). Cardiac marker data correctly reclassified risk upwards in 6.7% of patients and downwards in 3.3%. These findings were corroborated by results from HVOLS. Interpretation: Increments in plasma cardiac biomarkers robustly and reproducibly predicted increased hazard of incident CVD, independent of established risk factors, in two community-dwelling populations. Cardiac markers may augment risk assessment for onset of CVD in primary care. Funding: ViDA was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (grant 10/400) and the Accident Compensation Corporation. HVOLS was funded by the Health Research Council of NZ Programme Grants (grants 02/152 and 08/070) and by grants from the Heart Foundation of NZ and the Christchurch Heart Institute Trust. Roche Diagnostics provided in-kind support for NT-proBNP and hs-cTnT assays and Abbott Laboratories for hs-cTnI assays.

Aim:To examine which hypertension subtypes are primarily responsible for the difference in the hypertension prevalence and treatment recommendations, and to assess their mortality risk if 2017 American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association (AHA) hypertension guideline were adopted among Chinese adults.MethodsWe used the nationally representative data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to estimate the differences in the prevalence of isolated systolic hypertension (ISH), systolic diastolic hypertension (SDH) and isolated diastolic hypertension (IDH) between the 2017 ACC/AHA and the 2018 China Hypertension League (CHL) guidelines. We further assessed their mortality risk using follow-up data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) by the Cox model.ResultsThe increase from the 2017 ACC/AHA guideline on hypertension prevalence was mostly from SDH (8.64% by CHL to 25.59% by ACC/AHA), followed by IDH (2.42 to 6.93%). However, the difference was minuscule in the proportion of people recommended for antihypertensive treatment among people with IDH (2.42 to 3.34%) or ISH (12.00 to 12.73%). Among 22,184 participants with a median follow-up of 6.14 years from CHNS, attenuated but significant associations were observed between all-cause mortality and SDH (hazard ratio 1.56; 95% CI: 1.36,1.79) and ISH (1.29; 1.03,1.61) by ACC/AHA but null association for IDH (1.15; 0.98,1.35).ConclusionAdoption of the 2017 ACC/AHA may be applicable to improve the unacceptable hypertension control rate among Chinese adults but with cautions for the drug therapy among millions of subjects with IDH.

This paper investigates the problem of buffer-aided relay selection to achieve reliable and secure communications in a two-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) network with an eavesdropper. Due to the fading of wireless signals and the broadcast nature of wireless channels, transmitted signals over the network may be undecodable at the receiver end or have been eavesdropped by eavesdroppers. Most available buffer-aided relay selection schemes consider either reliability or security issues in wireless communications; rarely is work conducted on both reliability and security issues. This paper proposes a buffer-aided relay selection scheme based on deep Q-learning (DQL) that considers both reliability and security. By conducting Monte Carlo simulations, we then verify the reliability and security performances of the proposed scheme in terms of the connection outage probability (COP) and secrecy outage probability (SOP), respectively. The simulation results show that two-hop wireless relay network can achieve reliable and secure communications by using our proposed scheme. We also performed comparison experiments between our proposed scheme and two benchmark schemes. The comparison results indicate that our proposed scheme outperforms the max-ratio scheme in terms of the SOP.

Abstract Background Pakistan ranks amongst the top 20 highest burden tuberculosis (TB) countries in the world. Approximately 369,548 cases of TB (all forms) were notified in 2018, with an estimated incidence of 265 per 100,000 people per year. In other settings, TB has been shown to demonstrate seasonal variation, with higher incidence in the spring/summer months and lower incidence in the autumn/winter; the amplitude of seasonal variation has also been reported to be higher with increasing distance from the equator. Methods Notifications of newly-diagnosed pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB cases were obtained for 139 districts in Pakistan from 2011 to 2017. Data were provided by the Pakistan National TB Control Programme, Islamabad, Pakistan. Statistical analyses were performed to determine whether there was seasonal variation in TB notifications in Pakistan; whether the amplitude of seasonal variation in TB notifications varied according to latitude; whether the amplitude of seasonal variation of TB in Pakistan differed between extrapulmonary TB vs. pulmonary TB. To assess the quarterly seasonality of TB, we used the X-13-ARIMA-SEATS seasonal adjustment programme from the United States Census Bureau. The mean difference and corresponding 95% confidence intervals of seasonal amplitudes between different latitudes and clinical phenotype of TB were estimated using linear regression. Results TB notifications were highest in quarter 2, and lowest in quarter 4. The mean amplitude of seasonal variation was 25.5% (95% CI 25.0 to 25.9%). The mean seasonal amplitude of TB notifications from latitude 24.5°N-

Abstract Background Long-term residential care (LTC) supports the most vulnerable and is increasingly relevant with demographic ageing. This study aims to describe entry to LTC and identify predictive factors for older Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand) and non-Māori. Methods LiLACS-NZ cohort project recruited Māori and non-Māori octogenarians resident in a defined geographical area in 2010. This study used multivariable log-binomial regressions to assess factors associated with subsequent entry to LTC including: self-identified ethnicity, demographic characteristics, self-rated health, depressive symptoms and activities of daily living [ADL] as recorded at baseline. LTC entry was identified from: place of residence at LiLACS-NZ interviews, LTC subsidy, needs assessment conducted in LTC, hospital discharge to LTC, and place of death. Results Of 937 surveyed at baseline (421 Māori, 516 non-Māori), 77 already in LTC were excluded, leaving 860 participants (mean age 82.6 +/− 2.71 years Māori, 84.6 +/− 0.52 years non-Māori). Over a mean follow-up of 4.9 years, 278 (41% of non-Māori, 22% of Māori) entered LTC; of the 582 who did not, 323 (55%) were still living and may yet enter LTC. In a model including both Māori and non-Māori, independent risks factors for LTC entry were: living alone (RR = 1.52, 95%CI:1.15–2.02), self-rated health poor/fair compared to very good/excellent (RR = 1.40, 95%CI:1.12–1.77), depressive symptoms (RR = 1.28, 95%CI:1.05–1.56) and more dependent ADLs (RR = 1.09, 95%CI:1.05–1.13). For non-Māori compared to Māori the RR was 1.77 (95%CI:1.39–2.23). In a Māori-only model, predictive factors were older age and living alone. For non-Māori, factors were dependence in more ADLs and poor/fair self-rated health. Conclusions Non-Māori participants (predominantly European) entered LTC at almost twice the rate of Māori. Factors differed between Māori and non-Māori. Potentially, the needs, preferences, expectations and/or values may differ correspondingly. Research with different cultural/ethnic groups is required to determine how these differences should inform service development.

An Intrabody Nanonetwork (IBNN) is composed of integrated nanoscale devices, implanted inside the human body to collect diagnostic information and tuning medical treatments. The non-invasive continuous monitoring and precision of these nanoscale devices in the diagnostic of diverse diseases is improving advanced monitoring, therapeutic, and telemedicine services. The unique feature constraints of these nanoscale devices (such as inadequate energy, storage, and computational resources) along with the molecular absorption thermal challenges due to Electromagnetic (EM) communication in the Terahertz band (THz) are the primary limitations in enabling efficient routing in IBNNs. Our proposed protocol explicitly addresses these challenges and proposes a routing scheme, which enables temperature-aware energy-efficient data transmission to avoid hotspot formation and controlled energy consumption. Furthermore, our proposed temporal correlation based data decision approach allows only those Nano Bio Sensors (NBSs) to transmit the periodic data packets that have updated information for avoiding unnecessary energy consumption and antenna radiation exposure on biological cells. The presented work also considers the instant data retrieval requirement of the healthcare system and introduces an on-demand data retrieval approach that ensures instant transmission of updated information to the healthcare system. The effectiveness of our proposed scheme is evaluated by comparing it with the flooding scheme and thermal-aware routing algorithm (TARA) using the Nano-SIM tool. The results obtained from extensive simulations validate that our proposed protocol achieves 75% - 85 % low temperature rise and improved network lifetime.

Developments in wireless communications and wearable devices have facilitated the emergence of a network of tiny sensors embedded in, on or around human body called Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). Over the last decade, WBAN has increasingly been playing a vital role in modern medical systems because of its potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery. The data collected by the sensors contain sensitive information and are transmitted via wireless channels. However, the openness of these channels makes WBAN vulnerable to attacks by unauthorized users. Therefore, secure authentication and data encryption schemes in WBAN are essential. The resource constraint nature of the sensors makes traditional cryptographic schemes unsuitable. Consequently, authentication schemes based on channel characteristics are proposed, which are more suitable with fewer requirements. However, existing approaches do not consider mutual authentication as well as passive/active attacks. Motivated by these limitations, we propose in this paper, a mutual authentication and data encryption scheme based on signal propagation characteristics and enhanced butterfly algorithm. To validate the effectiveness of our scheme, we conducted an extensive real-world experiment involving 5 volunteers in indoor and outdoor areas, under distinct scenarios. We further conducted security and performance analyses to validate the effectiveness of our scheme in terms of resources and its resilience to various attacks. The results of the experiments and the analyses show that our scheme could mutually identify legitimate users and protect user data against active/passive eavesdropping attacks with minimal overhead.

BackgroundFew studies investigated the concordance in hypertension status and antihypertensive treatment recommendations between the 2018 Chinese Hypertension League (CHL) guidelines and the 2017 American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines and assessed the change of premature mortality risk with hypertension defined by the ACC/AHA guidelines.MethodsWe used the baseline data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to estimate the population impact on hypertension management between CHL and ACC/AHA guidelines. Mortality risk from hypertension was estimated using the data from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS). Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals(CIs).ResultsAmong 13,704 participants analyzed from the nationally representative data of CHARLS, 42.64% (95% CI: 40.35, 44.96) of Chinese adults were diagnosed by both CHL and ACC/AHA guidelines. 41.25% (39.17, 43.36) did not have hypertension according to either guideline. Overall, the concordance in hypertension status was 83.89% (81.69, 85.57). A high percentage of agreement was also found for recommendation to initiate treatment among untreated subjects (87.62% [86.67, 88.51]) and blood pressure (BP) above the goal among treated subjects (71.68% [68.16, 74.95]). Among 23,063 adults from CHNS, subjects with hypertension by CHL had a higher risk of premature mortality (1.75 [1.50, 2.04]) compared with those without hypertension. The association diminished for hypertension by ACC/AHA (1.46 [1.07, 1.30]). Moreover, the excess risk was not significant for the newly defined Grade 1 hypertension by ACC/AHA (1.15 [0.95, 1.38]) when compared with BP

ObjectivesThe development of frailty tools from electronically recorded healthcare data allows frailty assessments to be routinely generated, potentially beneficial for individuals and healthcare providers. We wished to assess the predictive validity of a frailty index (FI) derived from interRAI Community Health Assessment (CHA) for outcomes in older adults residing in retirement villages (RVs), elsewhere called continuing care retirement communities.DesignProspective cohort study.Setting and participants34 RVs across two district health boards in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). 577 participants, mean age 81 years; 419 (73%) female; 410 (71%) NZ European, 147 (25%) other European, 8 Asian (1%), 7 Māori (1%), 1 Pasifika (MethodsinterRAI-CHA FI tool was used to stratify participants into fit (0-0.12), mild (>0.12-0.24), moderate (>0.24-0.36) and severe (>0.36) frail groups at baseline (the latter two grouped due to low numbers of severely frail). Primary outcome was acute hospitalization; secondary outcomes included long-term care (LTC) entry and mortality. The relationship between frailty and outcomes were explored with multivariable Cox regression, estimating hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs).ResultsOver mean follow-up of 2.5 years, 33% (69/209) of fit, 58% (152/260) mildly frail and 79% (85/108) moderate-severely frail participants at baseline had at least one acute hospitalization. Compared to the fit group, significantly increased risk of acute hospitalization were identified in mildly frail (adjusted HR = 1.88, 95%CI = 1.41-2.51, pConclusions and implicationsThe FI derived from interRAI-CHA has robust predictive validity for acute hospitalization, LTC entry and mortality. This adds to the growing literature of use of interRAI tools in this way and may assist healthcare providers with rapid identification of frailty.

Microbial fermentation with immobilized cells possesses many advantages. However, this fermentation mode is restricted to the production of extracellular products. Our previous study demonstrated that the extractive fermentation of Monascus spp. in nonionic surfactant micelle aqueous solution can export Monascus pigments that are supposed to be mainly intracellular products to extracellular culture broth and, in the meantime, extracellularly enhance the production of yellow pigments at a low pH condition; consequently, this makes the continuous production of yellow pigments with immobilized Monascus cells feasible. In this study, immobilized-cell fermentation and extractive fermentation in Triton X-100 micelle aqueous solution were successfully combined to continuously produce Monascus yellow pigments extracellularly. We examined the effects of cell immobilization and Triton X-100 on cell growth, pigment production, and pigment composition. In the repeated-batch extractive fermentation with immobilized cells, the biomass in Ca-alginate gel beads continued to grow and reached 21.2 g/L after seven batches, and dominant yellow pigments were produced extracellularly and stable for each batch. The mean productivity of the extracellular yellow pigments reached up to 22.31 AU410 nm/day within the first four batches (13 days) and 19.7 AU410 nm/day within the first seven batches (25 days). The results also provide a new strategy for producing such intracellular products continuously and extracellularly.

Graph neural network has been widely used in various fields in recent years. However, the appearance of an adversarial attack makes the reliability of the existing neural networks challenging in application. Premeditated attackers, can make very small perturbations to the data to fool the neural network to produce wrong results. These incorrect results can lead to disastrous consequences. So, how to defend against adversarial attacks has become an urgent research topic. Many researchers have tried to improve the model robustness directly or by using adversarial training to reduce the negative impact of an adversarial attack. However, the majority of the defense strategies currently in use are inextricably linked to the model-training process, which incurs significant running and memory space costs. We offer a lightweight and easy-to-implement approach that is based on graph transformation. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach has a similar defense effect (with accuracy rate returns of nearly 80%) as existing methods and only uses 10% of their run time when defending against adversarial attacks on GCN (graph convolutional neural networks).

Signed graph neural networks learn low-dimensional representations for nodes in signed networks with positive and negative links, which helps with many downstream tasks like link prediction. However, most existing signed graph neural networks ignore individual characteristics of nodes and thus limit the ability to learn the underlying structure of real signed graphs. To address this limitation, a deep graph neural network framework SiNP to learn Signed network embedding with Node Polarity is proposed. To be more explicit, a node-signed property metric mechanism is developed to encode the individual characteristics of the nodes. In addition, a graph convolution layer is added so that both positive and negative information from neighboring nodes can be combined. The final embedding of nodes is produced by concatenating the outcomes of these two portions. Finally, extensive experiments have been conducted on four significant real-world signed network datasets to demonstrate the efficiency and superiority of the proposed method in comparison to the state-of-the-art.

Fermentation results in the release and biotransformation of phenolic compounds in guava leaves. This study aimed to evaluate the bioaccessibility, safety and antidiabetic effect of phenolic-rich extract from fermented guava leaves (PE-fgl) using Monascus anka and Bacillus sp. BS2. The total phenolics and flavonoids were 51.18% and 16.60% bioaccessible after gastrointestinal digestion, respectively. High bioaccessibility was observed, particularly for ellagic acid, isoquercitrin, quercetin-3-O-β-D-xylopyranoside, quercetin-3-O-α-L-arabinofuranoside and avicularin, resulted in high recovery of α-glucosidase inhibition activity and antioxidant capacity. Moreover, PE-fgl was practically nontoxic with a median lethal dose (LD50) greater than 5000 mg/kg and was without evidence of toxicity following subchronic administration up to the dose limit of 2000 mg/kg. Furthermore, PE-fgl significantly improved serum glucose and lipid levels as well as antioxidant capacity in diabetic mice. Liver, kidney and pancreas damage was also significantly alleviated. These results suggested that PE-fgl could be a nontoxic candidate for diabetes treatment.

Signed network embedding concentrates on learning fixed-length representations for nodes in signed networks with positive and negative links, which contributes to many downstream tasks in social media, such as link prediction. However, most signed network embedding approaches neglect hierarchical graph pooling in the networks, limiting the capacity to learn genuine signed graph topology. To overcome this limitation, this paper presents a unique deep learning-based Signed network embedding model with Hierarchical Graph Pooling (SHGP). To be more explicit, a hierarchical pooling mechanism has been developed to encode the high-level features of the networks. Moreover, a graph convolution layer is introduced to aggregate both positive and negative information from neighbor nodes, and the concatenation of two parts generates the final embedding of the nodes. Extensive experiments on three large real-world signed network datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and excellence of the proposed method.

For the study of privacy-utility trade-off in local differential privacy,the utility optimization models of binary generalized random response mechanism for the case of differential privacy and approximate differential privacy were established.By graphic method,optimality proof,software solution and extreme point method,the exact expression of the optimal utility with privacy budget and the distribution of input data was obtained,and the corresponding optimal randomized response mechanism was given.The results show that both the optimal utility and optimal mechanism are related to privacy budget and input data distribution.Moreover,the discussion for multivariate randomized response mechanism shows that the method of extreme points of local differential privacy is feasible to the solution.

Scientific collaboration networks are frequently subjected to various unexpected pressures and shocks, which would lead to system performance dropping substantially and even becoming invalid. Resilience is the capability of a scientific collaboration network to maintain its effectiveness in the event of any attack or perturbation against the network. Here, we investigate an effective measurement index for network resilience and try to accurately predict resilience thresholds in advance. Once resilience is close to or lower than the threshold value, risk evaluation, and resilience-based strategies should be immediately adopted to adjust to a range of actions, thereby ensuring that the network endures large perturbations before reaching the bifurcations and risking a transition to undesired states. Quantitative analysis framework for resilience begins with designing a knowledge dissemination model with interactive collaboration item and different types of experimentally mapped networks. Then, a variety of perturbations are imposed on these simulated networks controlled by the constructed model to test network resilience and its thresholds. Limited by the multidimensional parameter space of the system, critical transitions marking the loss of resilience are unpredictable. Inspired by Gao's work, mapping the multi-dimensional equations into a 1-D resilience function, network resilience can be measured by the effective mapping parameter and bifurcation points of resilience can be solved theoretically. We also validate the calculated critical values with numerical simulations. Our findings can help to design optimal principles for dealing with perturbations or intervention strategies for preventing the loss of resilience happening in scientific collaboration networks.

Extensive efforts on capacity studies for the mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) mainly focus on either the unicast traffic or the asymptotic results under multicast traffic. However, the former ones cannot support future multicast-intensive applications, and the latter ones cannot reveal the real achievable non-asymptotic capacity, such that it still remains largely unknown in such networks. This paper, for the first time, investigates the non-asymptotic capacity in MANETs under a general packet routing scheme with multicast traffic, where each source has multiple destinations. Under the routing scheme, when the destinations move into the communication range of their source, a packet at source will be directly sent to destinations; otherwise, it can be replicated to multiple different relays, which help to forward it to destinations. To study the non-asymptotic capacity in the MANETs, we first develop the two Markov chain theoretical frameworks to characterize the fastest packet propagation process at source and the fastest packet reception process at destinations under the routing scheme. Based on these two theoretical frameworks, we then derive an analytical expression for the capacity. Finally, the simulation and numerical results are conducted to validate our theoretical capacity and also to explore the impact of system parameters on the capacity performance.

Background: Ginsenosides with less sugar moieties may exhibit the better adsorptive capacity and more pharmacological activities. Methods: An efficient method for the separation of four minor saponins, including gypenoside XVII, notoginsenoside Fe, ginsenoside Rd2, and notoginsenoside Fd, from Panax notoginseng leaves (PNL) was established using biotransformation, macroporous resins, and subsequent preparative high-performance liquid chromatography. Results: The dried PNL powder was immersed in the distilled water at 50°C for 30 min for converting the major saponins, ginsenosides Rb1, Rc, Rb2, and Rb3, to minor saponins, gypenoside XVII, notoginsenoside Fe, ginsenoside Rd2, and notoginsenoside Fd, respectively, by the enzymes present in PNL. The adsorption characteristics of these minor saponins on five types of macroporous resins, D-101, DA-201, DM-301, X-5, and S-8, were evaluated and compared. Among them, D-101 was selected due to the best adsorption and desorption properties. Under the optimized conditions, the fraction containing the four target saponins was separated by D-101 resin. Subsequently, the target minor saponins were individually separated and purified by preparative high-performance liquid chromatography with a reversed-phase column. Conclusion: Our study provides a simple and efficient method for the preparation of these four minor saponins from PNL, which will be potential for industrial applications. Keywords: ginsenoside Rd2, gypenoside XVII, notoginsenoside Fd, notoginsenoside Fe, Panax notoginseng leaves

Single crystal superalloys are the preferred materials for manufacturing turbine blades of advanced aero-engines, due to their excellent high temperature comprehensive performance. The interfacial reaction between alloys and ceramic mould are an important factor to influence the surface quality and service performance of the turbine blade. It is very important to reveal the interfacial reaction mechanism to improve turbine blade quality and yield rate. In this paper, the interfacial reactions between DD6 single crystal superalloy and ceramic mould were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). The results show that the main reaction products were HfO2, Al2O3 and Y3Al5O12 when the yttrium oxide powders were the prime coat materials, while alloy surface suffered undesirable sand fusion; the thicknesses of the reaction layers were over 20 μm. The reaction layer can be divided into two layers, the layer close to the alloy was mainly composed of Al2O3 and Y3Al5O12, and the layer close to the mould was composed of SiO2, Al2O3 and Y3Al5O12. Avoiding the formation of Y2O3-Al2O3-SiO2 ternary low-melts can solve the interfacial reaction between DD6 alloy and yttrium oxide mould.

Hypocrellins (HYPs) are natural perylene quinone derivatives from Ascomycota fungi. Based on the excellent photosensitization properties of HYPs, this work proposed a photocatalytic advanced oxidation process (PAOP) that uses HYPs to degrade rhodamine B (RhB) as a model organic pollutant. A synergistic activity of HYPs and H2O2 (0.18 mM of HYPs, 0.33% w/v of H2O2) was suggested, resulting in a yield of 82.4% for RhB degradation after 60 min under visible light irradiation at 470–475 nm. The principle of pseudo-first-order kinetics was used to describe the decomposition reaction with a calculated constant (k) of 0.02899 min−1 (R2 = 0.983). Light-induced self-degradation of HYPs could be activated under alkaline (pH > 7) conditions, promising HYPs as an advanced property to alleviate the current dilemma of secondary pollution by synthetic photocatalysts in the remediation of emerging organic pollutants.

BackgroundThe Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) showed significant reductions in death and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk with a systolic blood pressure (SBP) goal of Methods and findingsWe used nationally representative baseline data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) (2011-2012) to estimate the prevalence and number of Chinese adults aged 45 years and older who meet SPRINT criteria. A validated microsimulation model was employed to project costs, clinical outcomes, and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) among SPRINT-eligible adults, under 2 alternative treatment strategies (SBP goal of ConclusionsAlthough adoption of the SPRINT treatment strategy would increase the number of Chinese adults requiring SBP treatment intensification, this approach has the potential to prevent CVD events, to produce gains in life-years, and to be cost-effective under common thresholds.

The interdependence of financial institutions is primarily responsible for creating a systemic hierarchy in the industry. In this paper, an Adaptive Hierarchical Network Model is proposed to study the problem of hierarchical relationships arising from different individuals in the economic domain. In the presented dynamically evolving network model, new directed edges are generated depending on the existing nodes and the hierarchical structures among the network, and these edges decay over time. When the preference of nodes in the network for higher ranks exceeds a certain threshold value, the equality state in the network becomes unstable and rank states emerge. Meanwhile, we select four real data sets for model evaluation and observe the resilience in the network hierarchy evolution and the differences formed by different patterns of hierarchy preference mechanisms, which help us better understand data science and network dynamics evolution.

The existing work has conducted in-depth research and analysis on global differential privacy (GDP) and local differential privacy (LDP) based on information theory. However, the data privacy preserving community does not systematically review and analyze GDP and LDP based on the information-theoretic channel model. To this end, we systematically reviewed GDP and LDP from the perspective of the information-theoretic channel in this survey. First, we presented the privacy threat model under information-theoretic channel. Second, we described and compared the information-theoretic channel models of GDP and LDP. Third, we summarized and analyzed definitions, privacy-utility metrics, properties, and mechanisms of GDP and LDP under their channel models. Finally, we discussed the open problems of GDP and LDP based on different types of information-theoretic channel models according to the above systematic review. Our main contribution provides a systematic survey of channel models, definitions, privacy-utility metrics, properties, and mechanisms for GDP and LDP from the perspective of information-theoretic channel and surveys the differential privacy synthetic data generation application using generative adversarial network and federated learning, respectively. Our work is helpful for systematically understanding the privacy threat model, definitions, privacy-utility metrics, properties, and mechanisms of GDP and LDP from the perspective of information-theoretic channel and promotes in-depth research and analysis of GDP and LDP based on different types of information-theoretic channel models.

In the present study, oats were successively hydrolysed by cellulase and fermented with Monascus anka, and the phenolic profiles, antioxidant activities and enzyme inhibition activities of the soluble and insoluble phenolic fractions were investigated. The results revealed that the cellulase could release great quantities of insoluble phenolics from oats. Compared to the traditional fermentation system, the system of fermentation following enzymatic hydrolysis (FEH) further increased the soluble and insoluble phenolic contents (24.38% and 31.05%, respectively). The contents of gallic, chlorogenic and ferulic acid in the soluble fraction increased by 42.49%, 85.79% and 46.42%, respectively. Both soluble and insoluble phenolic fractions from the FEH system showed great DPPH and ABTS+ radical scavenging abilities. Moreover, the soluble phenolic fraction exhibited significantly (p

To evaluate the bio-availability of raspberries (Rubus idaeus L.), raspberry dried fruits (RDF) and seeds (RDS) were subjected to in vitro simulated digestion. In total, 2158.6 mg and 1904.7 mg GAE/100 g DM of phenolics could be released from RDF and RDS, respectively, after four in vitro digestion stages, including oral, gastric, small-intestine and large-intestine digestion. The phenolics were mostly released in the gastric digestion stage for RDF and in the small-intestine digestion stage for RDS. The results include an analysis of ten major phenolic compounds, which showed that ellagic acid pentoside was the major compound released from RDF and RDS during gastric digestion, whereas ellagic acid was the primary compound released in small-intestine digestion. A significantly positive correlation existed between the observed bio-activities and the total phenolics/flavonoids released. Consequently, both raspberry fruits and seeds can be considered as raw materials of functional food enriched in natural antioxidants.

Guava leaves (GLs) were processed by solid-state co-fermentation with Monascus anka and Bacillus sp., and the impact of the fermentation degree on the phenolic composition and their bioactivities was investigated. Three representative HPLC fingerprints of phenolic compositions from GLs can be clearly distinguished for the different fermentation degrees. Four characteristic compounds, including gallic acid, quercetin-3-O-α-L-arabinopyranoside, quercetin, and kaempferol, that significantly responded to the changes of bioactivity in the fermented GLs were identified as the marker components by principal component analysis. High levels of the four marker components in the HPLC fingerprints are an indication that the fermented GLs are mature. In addition, the correlation analysis confirmed that the total phenolic, total flavonoid, and the quercetin and kaempferol contents strongly correlated with its bioactivities. These results can provide a theoretical basis to quickly evaluate and control the mature degree of fermented products, which will help to obtain high bioactive fermented products.

Hypocrellin is a natural 3,10-xylene-4,9-anthracene derivative compound that originates from the stroma of Shiraia bambusicola (S. bambusicola) and Hypocrella bambusae with excellent photobiological activities. Submerged fermentation with the mycelia of S. bambusicola is generally regarded as an ideal technology for hypocrellin production. This study developed a co-cultivation strategy for an obvious promotion of the hypocrellin yield by incubating S. bambusicola (GDMCC 60438) with the endophyte fungus Arthrinium sp. AF-5 isolated from the bamboo tissue. The results indicated that the yield of hypocrellin A (HA) reached a 66.75 mg/g carbon source after an 84-h co-cultivation of the two strains, which was a four-time increase of that by the fermentation only with the S. bambusicola. The microscope observation found that the mycelia of the two strains were intertwined with each other to form the mycelium pellets during the co-cultivation. Moreover, the mycelium pellets of the co-culture showed a contracted and slightly damaged morphology. The addition of H2O2 in the fermentation media could further increase the HA production by 18.31%.

Abstract Background Monascus pigments are widely used in the food and pharmaceutical industries due to their safety to human health. Our previous study found that glucose concentration induced extracellular oxidoreduction potential (ORP) changes could influence extracellular water-soluble yellow pigment production by Monascus ruber CGMCC 10910 in submerged fermentation. In this study, H2O2 and dithiothreitol (DTT) were used to change the oxidoreduction potential for investigating the effects of oxidative or reductive substances on Monascus yellow pigment production by Monascus ruber CGMCC 10910. Results The extracellular ORP could be controlled by H2O2 and DTT. Both cell growth and extracellular water-soluble yellow pigment production were enhanced under H2O2-induced oxidative (HIO) conditions and were inhibited under dithiothreitol-induced reductive conditions. By optimizing the amount of H2O2 added and the timing of the addition, the yield of extracellular water-soluble yellow pigments significantly increased and reached a maximum of 209 AU, when 10 mM H2O2 was added on the 3rd day of fermentation with M. ruber CGMCC 10910. Under HIO conditions, the ratio of NADH/NAD+ was much lower than that in the control group, and the expression levels of relative pigment biosynthesis genes were up-regulated; moreover, the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) was increased while 6-phosphofructokinase (PFK) activity was inhibited. Conclusions Oxidative conditions induced by H2O2 increased water-soluble yellow pigment accumulation via up-regulation of the expression levels of relative genes and by increasing the precursors of pigment biosynthesis through redirection of metabolic flux. In contrast, reductive conditions induced by dithiothreitol inhibited yellow pigment accumulation. This experiment provides a potential strategy for improving the production of Monascus yellow pigments.

Abstract Background Monascus pigments are promising sources for food and medicine due to their natural food-coloring functions and pharmaceutical values. The innovative technology of extractive fermentation is used to promote pigment productivity, but reports of pigment trans-membrane secretion mechanism are rare. In this study, tracking of pigment accumulation and secretion in extractive fermentation of Monascus anka GIM 3.592 was investigated. Results The increased vacuole size in mycelia correlated with fluorescence intensity (r > 0.85, p

Abstract Monascus species can produce secondary metabolites that have a polyketide structure. In this study, four types of extracellular water-soluble yellow pigments (Y1–Y4) were generated by submerged fermentation with Monascus ruber CGMCC 10910, of which Y3 and Y4 had strong yellow fluorescence. The composition of the pigment mixtures was closely related to the fermentation temperature. The dominating pigments changed from Y1 to Y3 and Y4 when fermentation temperature increased from 30 to 35 °C. Increasing the temperature to 35 °C changed the metabolic pathways of the pigments, which inhibited the biosynthesis of Y1 and enhanced the biosynthesis of Y3 and Y4. Moreover, the yield of Y1 reduced insignificantly, while the yields of Y3 and Y4 increased by 98.21 and 79.31% respectively under two-stage temperature fermentation condition. The expression levels of the relative pigment biosynthetic genes, such as MpFasA2, MpFasB2, MpPKS5, mppR1, mppB, and mppE, were up-regulated at 35 °C. The two-stage temperature strategy is a potential method for producing water-soluble Monascus yellow pigments with strong yellow fluorescence.

This work aims to investigate the effects of fermentation with Monascus anka on the phenolic components and antioxidant activities of oats. Results revealed that the fermentation process significantly increased total phenolic content, especially free phenolic content. Moreover, the dominate phenolic compositions of free, conjugated and bound phenolic fractions from oats varied with fermentation. Both catechin in free phenolic fraction and ferulic acid in bound phenolic fraction were enhanced more than 100-fold, while the amount of newly generated rutin was up to 355.07 mg/kg in the conjugated fraction. All three phenolic fractions from fermented oats, especially the conjugated fraction, demonstrated greater DPPH and ABTS+ radical scavenging abilities than that of unfermented oats. It was revealed that most of the phenolic compounds had a strong positive correlation with antioxidant activities. Consequently, fermentation may be a potential approach to improve oats’ phenolic content and antioxidant capacity for functional foods in health promotion.

The leaves of Psidium guajava L. (PGL) were co-fermented with Monascus anka and bacillus sp. to promote the release of insoluble-bound polyphenol components. The variation tendency of polyphenols contents were tracked during fermentation. Polyphenol compounds from unfermented PGL (UPGL) and fermented PGL (FPGL) were identified by HPLC-TOF-ESI/MS. The antioxidant activities of polyphenols extracts from UPGL and FPGL were determined by different standard methods. The results indicated that total polyphenols and soluble polyphenols contents especially for quercetin were enhanced at the first 8 days of fermentation. Polyphenol extracts from FPGL had higher antioxidant than that from UPGL. Soluble polyphenol extracts exhibited higher antioxidant activity and protective effect against Fenton-induced DNA oxidative damage compared to insoluble-bound polyphenol extracts. This microbial co-fermentation way significantly increased the antioxidant capacities of soluble polyphenols from PGL. Our study provided a new way to upgrade polyphenols or other bioactive compounds with higher health beneficial effects.

Abstract Background Traditional submerged fermentation mainly accumulates intracellular orange pigments with absorption maxima at 470 nm, whereas extractive fermentation of Monascus spp. with Triton X-100 can promote the export of intracellular pigments to extracellular broth, mainly obtaining extracellular yellow pigments with absorption maxima at approximately 410 nm. In this study, a strain of Monascus (M. anka GIM 3.592) that produces high yields of pigments was employed to investigate the differences in pigment fingerprint profiles between submerged and extractive fermentations. Results Using extractive fermentation with this high-yield strain, the extracellular pigments exhibited an absorption maximum at 430 nm, not 410 nm, as previously observed. By comparing the pigment fingerprint profiles between submerged and extractive fermentations, extractive fermentation was found to not only export intracellular pigments to the extracellular broth, but also to form four other yellow pigments (Y1-Y4) that accounted for a large proportion of the extracellular pigments and that were not produced in submerged fermentation. The yields of Y1-Y4 were closely related to the concentration and feeding time point of Triton X-100. Y1-Y4 presented identical UV-Vis spectra with absorption maxima at 430 nm and fluorescence spectra with absorption maxima (emission) at 565 nm. HPLC-MS and the spectral analysis showed that the four pigments (Y1-Y4) had not been previously reported. The results indicated that these pigments may rely on the bioconversion of orange pigments (rubropunctatin and monascorubrin). Conclusions Using extractive fermentation with M. anka led to a high yield of extracellular yellow pigments (AU410 nm = 114), and the pigment fingerprint profile significantly differed compared to the results of traditional submerged fermentation. These results provide information and a detailed view of the composition and variation of pigments in extractive fermentation and could also contribute to characterizing pigment metabolism during extractive fermentation.

Abstract The biosynthesis of microbial secondary metabolites is induced by a wide range of environmental stresses. In this study, submerged fermentation of Monascus yellow pigments by Monascus ruber CGMCC 10910 under high glucose stress was investigated. The increase of lipid content was the major contributor to the increase of dry cell weight (DCW), and the lipid-free DCW was only slightly changed under high glucose stress, which benefited the accumulation of intracellular hydrophobic pigments. The fatty acid composition analysis in Monascus cell membranes showed that high glucose stress significantly increased the ratio of unsaturated/saturated fatty acid and the index of unsaturated fatty acid (IUFA) value, which would improve the fluidity and permeability of the cell membrane. As a consequence, high glucose stress increased extracellular yellow pigments production by enhancing secretion and trans-membrane conversion of intracellular pigments to the broth. The total yield of extracellular and intracellular yellow pigments per unit of lipid-free DCW increased by 94.86 and 26.31% under high glucose stress compared to conventional fermentation, respectively. A real-time quantitative PCR analysis revealed that the expression of the pigment biosynthetic gene cluster was up-regulated under high glucose stress. The gene mppE, which is associated with yellow pigment biosynthesis, was significantly up-regulated. These results indicated that high glucose stress can shift the Monascus pigment biosynthesis pathway to accumulate yellow pigments and lead to a high yield of both extracellular and intracellular yellow pigments. These findings have potential application in commercial Monascus yellow pigment production.

The study of molecular communication is more and more prevalence, and channel model of molecular communication plays an important role in the molecular communication system. Different propagation environment and modulation techniques lead to different channel model, and most of the previous researches are mainly concentrate on the channel model in horizontal direction. However, in nature the communications between nano-machines are in short range and some of the information propagation are in the vertical direction, such as transpiration of plants, biological pump in ocean, etc. Therefore, in this paper a vertical channel model was proposed in which nano-machines communicate with each other mainly through diffusion at the vertical direction. Firstly, proposing a vertical molecular communication model, we mainly focus on the gravity, though the channel model is also affected by other main factors, such as the flow of the medium, the distance between the transmitter and the receiver, the delay or sensitivity of the transmitter and the receiver, etc. Secondly, we set up a test-bed for the vertical channel model, and verify the differences between the theoretical result and the experimental result. Finally, we get the parameters of the channel model which was proposed for the test-bed by utilizing the experimental data and the non-linear least squares method.

BackgroundThe literature regarding diverticular disease of the intestines (DDI) almost entirely concerns hospital-based care; DDI managed in primary care settings is rarely addressed.AimTo estimate how often DDI is managed in primary care, using antibiotics dispensing data.Design and settingHospitalisation records of New Zealand residents aged 30+ years during 2007-2016 were individually linked to databases of community-dispensed oral antibiotics.MethodPatients with an index hospital admission 2007-2016 including a DDI diagnosis (ICD-10-AM = K57) were grouped by acute/non-acute hospitalisation. We compared use of guideline-recommended oral antibiotics for the period 2007-2016 for these people with ten individually-matched non-DDI residents, taking the case's index date. Multivariable negative binomial models were used to estimate rates of antibiotic use.ResultsFrom almost 3.5 million eligible residents, data were extracted for 51,059 index cases (20,880 acute, 30,179 non-acute) and 510,581 matched controls; mean follow-up = 8.9 years. Dispensing rates rose gradually over time among controls, from 47 per 100 person-years (/100py) prior to the index date, to 60/100py after 3 months. In comparison, dispensing was significantly higher for those with DDI: for those with acute DDI, rates were 84/100py prior to the index date, 325/100py near the index date, and 141/100py after 3 months, while for those with non-acute DDI 75/100py, 108/100py and 99/100py respectively. Following an acute DDI admission, community-dispensed antibiotics were dispensed at more than twice the rate of their non-DDI counterparts for years, and were elevated even before the index DDI hospitalisation.ConclusionDDI patients experience high use of antibiotics. Evidence is needed that covers primary-care and informs self-management of recurrent, chronic or persistent DDI.

The study of Molecular Communication(MC) is more and more prevalence, and channel model of MC plays an important role in the MC System. Since different propagation environment and modulation techniques produce different channel model, most of the research about MC are in horizontal direction,but in nature the communications between nano machines are in short range and some of the information transportation are in the vertical direction, such as transpiration of plants, biological pump in ocean, and blood transportation from heart to brain. Therefore, this paper we propose a vertical channel model which nano-machines communicate with each other in the vertical direction based on pure diffusion. We rst propose a vertical molecular communication model, we mainly considered the gravity as the factor, though the channel model is also affected by other main factors, such as the ow of the medium, the distance between the transmitter and the receiver, the delay or sensitivity of the transmitter and the receiver. Secondly, we set up a test-bed for this vertical channel model, in order to verify the difference between the theory result and the experiment data. At last, we use the data we get from the experiment and the non-linear least squares method to get the parameters to make our channel model more accurate.

Ceria nanoparticles (nano-ceria) have recently gained a wide range of applications, which might pose unwanted risks to both the environment and human health. The greatest potential for the environmental discharge of nano-ceria appears to be in their use as a diesel fuel additive. The present study was designed to explore the pulmonary toxicity of nano-ceria in mice after a single exposure via intratracheal instillation. Two types of nano-ceria with the same distribution of a primary size (3–5 nm), but different redox activity, were used: Ceria-p, synthesized by a precipitation route, and Ceria-h, synthesized by a hydrothermal route. Both Ceria-p and Ceria-h induced oxidative stress, inflammatory responses and cytotoxicity in mice, but their toxicological profiles were quite different. The mean size of Ceria-p agglomerates was much smaller compared to Ceria-h, thereby causing a more potent acute inflammation, due to their higher number concentration of agglomerates and higher deposition rate in the deep lung. Ceria-h had a higher reactivity to catalyzing the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and caused two waves of lung injury: bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) inflammation and cytotoxicity in the early stage and redox-activity-evoked lipid peroxidation and pro-inflammation in the latter stage. Therefore, the size distribution of ceria-containing agglomerates in the exhaust, as well as their surface chemistry are essential characteristics to assess the potential risks of using nano-ceria as a fuel additive.