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TiO2 loaded with zinc oxide (ZnO/TiO2) catalysts were prepared and showed good catalytic performance of the transesterification of diphenyl carbonate (DPC) with 1,4-butanediol (BDO) to produce polycarbonate diol (PCDL).

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antitumor effects of 2,2',4'-trihydroxychalcone (7a) on the A549 human lung cancer cell line. A549 cells were treated with different concentrations of 7a for different time periods. Cells without 7a were used as the negative control group. Cell proliferation, invasion, vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation, heterogeneous adhesion and apoptosis were measured using Cell Counting Kit-8, Transwell invasion, VM, adhesion and flow cytometric assays, respectively. In addition, the expression of related proteins was determined using western blot analysis or ELISA. The present study found that 7a had a significant inhibitory effect on the survival rate of the A549 lung cancer cells but almost no effect on BEAS-2B human lung epithelial cells or human venous endothelial cells. The migration rate, VM length, invasion rate and heterogeneous adhesion number of cells treated with 7a significantly decreased as the concentration increased, while the apoptosis rate increased. Western blot analysis showed that 7a treatment significantly increased the expression levels of E-cadherin, cleaved poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase, Bax and caspase-3 and simultaneously decreased the expression levels of metalloproteinase-2/9, Bcl-2, phosphorylated (p)-PI3K, p-AKT, p-mTOR, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), E-selectin and N-cadherin. At the same time, the ELISA results showed that the level of the pro-angiogenic factor VEGF in the culture media was reduced in the presence of 7a. In addition, 7a could also reduce the nuclear NF-κB protein expression, which could inhibit the gene transcription of tumor apoptosis and metastasis-related proteins. Therefore, 7a may exert inhibitory effects on A549 cells by inhibiting cell proliferation, migration, VM formation and heterogeneous adhesion, as well as by inducing apoptosis through the suppression of the PI3K/AKT/NF-κB signaling pathway; these findings suggested that 7a may be a promising agent for the treatment of lung cancer.

Background Key performance indices such as door-to-balloon times have long been recognized as quality metrics in reducing time to care for patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). In the situation where patients do not present to a facility capable of 24/7 percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) delays in time to therapy can exceed the recommendation of 90 min or less. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of transfers on performance indices for patients diagnosed with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods Over a seven month collection period, all patients presenting with symptoms suggestive of ACS and admitted for PCI were studied. Patients were divided into dichotomous groups of direct presentations or transfers from a secondary non-PCI capable hospital with key times recorded, including symptom-onset, first hospital and PCI-capable hospital arrival and balloon inflation times to evaluate time of treatment for STEMI patients. Results Of the 87 patients diagnosed with STEMI, transferred patients experienced statistically significant delays in symptom-onset to the PCI-capable hospital (PCI-H) arrival (215 vs. 95 min, P < 0.001), symptom-onset to balloon inflation (225 vs. 160 min, P = 0.009) and first hospital arrival to balloon inflation times (106 vs. 56 min, P < 0.001). Only 28% (n = 9) of transferred patients underwent balloon inflation within 90 min from first hospital arrival, while 60% (n = 19) did within 120 min, although all received balloon inflation within 90 min from arrival at the PCI-H. After controlling for confounding factors of socio-economic status, presentation date/time and diagnostic category, transferred patients experienced an average 162% longer delays from symptom-onset to PCI-H door arrival, and 98% longer delays in symptom-onset to balloon inflation; compared to patients who present directly to the PCI-H. No statistically significant differences were noted between transferred and direct patients when measured from PCI-H door-to-balloon times. Conclusions This study shows that transferred patients experience a greater overall system delay, compared to patients who present directly for PCI, significantly increasing their time to treatment and therefore infarct times. Despite the majority of transfers experiencing pre-hospital activation, their treatment hospital arrival to balloon times are no less than direct presenters after controlling for confounding factors, further compounding the overall delay to therapy.

Fly ash from municipal solid waste incineration is considered as a hazardous waste, which would raise great threats on environmental safety due to the inherent toxic heavy metals and organic pollutants. In this study, we applied the life cycle assessment to evaluate the thermal plasma vitrification process for stabilization of fly ash from municipal solid waste incineration. We established four scenarios: (i) plasma vitrification, including centralized and off-site plasma treatment, (ii) fuel-based vitrification, (iii) water-washing treatment followed by a rotary kiln, and (iv) conventional solidification and landfill. We found that the environmental impacts, especially toxicity to ecosystem quality and human health, could be significantly reduced by deploying plasma vitrification technology. We also found that centralized plasma vitrification facilities possessing larger treatment capabilities with clean electricity could further reduce the environmental impacts. In contrast, the water-washing treatment exhibited the highest environmental impacts due to the emissions of vaporized heavy metals. Based on the LCA and sensitivity analysis, we confirmed that the thermal plasma vitrification should be considered as an environmentally-friendly solution to sustainable treatment of fly ash from municipal solid waste incineration. Lastly, we provided several perspectives and prospects of plasma vitrification for realizing the sustainable materials management.

Based on traditional twin-roll casting process, Invar/Cu clad strips were successfully fabricated by using solid Invar alloy strip and molten Cu under conditions of high temperature, high pressure and plastic deformation. A series of tests including tensile test, bending test, T-type peeling test and scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) measurements were carried out to analyze the mechanical properties of Invar/Cu clad strips and the micro-morphology of tensile fracture surfaces and bonding interfaces. The results indicate that no delamination phenomenon occurs during the compatible deformation of Invar/Cu in bending test and only one stress platform exists in the tensile stress−strain curve when the bonding strength is large. On the contrary, different mechanical properties of Invar and Cu lead to delamination phenomenon during the uniaxial tensile test, which determines that two stress platforms occur on the stress−strain curve of Invar/Cu clad strips when two elements experience necking. The average peeling strength can be increased from 13.85 to 42.31 N/mm after heat treatment at 800 °C for 1 h, and the observation of the Cu side at peeling interface shows that more Fe is adhered on the Cu side after the heat treatment. All above illustrate that heat treatment can improve the strength of the bonding interface of Invar/Cu clad strips.

The lithology of rock mass isnon-homogeneity，anisotropy, andexists size effect. The mechanical parameters of rock mass gotten by engineeringapproaches cannot reflect these properties. Therefore, a newmethod of determining the mechanical parameters of jointed rock mass isproposed: gneiss in Shuichang open-pit mine was selected as a case, thefracture system of the rock mass was measured and analyzed by non-contactmeasuring system of 3GSM and probabilisticmethod,the probability distributions of geometry parameters were analyzed and a 3Djoint geometry model was made by using the program of 3D network modeling.Cubes with different sizes were selected to be tested by tri-axial compressionof numerical simulation with 3DEC based on the 3D network model of joints,thus, the REV and its mechanical parameters were determined, which providedcredible parameters for slope stability analysis.

Cordyceps, a well-known and precious traditional Chinese medicine, has received increasing attention worldwide due to its outstanding curative effects for different diseases. Nucleosides are the main active compounds of Cordyceps, and are usually the chemical marker used for the quality control of Cordyceps and its bioproduct. In this study, an optimal condition for extracting nucleosides in Cordyceps jiangxiensis was achieved by an orthogonal design as follows: 15% ethanol-water extraction solvent, 10 min extraction time, 20:1 solvent to sample ratio, and 1 extraction frequency. Also, a simple, rapid, and reliable method by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode-Array Detection (HPLC-DAD) was successfully used to simultaneously and qualitatively identify seven nucleosides compounds in C. jiangxiensis. Determination was achieved on a Shimadzu VP-ODS column (4.6 × 250 mm i.d. 5 μm) using a gradient elution with a methanol/water mobile phase. All calibration curves showed good linearity (R2>0.99) within the test ranges. The overall relative standard deviations for intra- and inter-day of seven analytes were less than 4.2%. Under the developed method, the findings indicated that uridine was the most abundant nucleoside, adenosine was inferior to uridine, and cordycepin with antitumor activity was also detected in C. jiangxiensis. The method developed might be applied as an alternative approach in assessing the quality of other Cordyceps species. Key words: Cordyceps jiangxiensis, nucleosides, extraction, quantitative detection, High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode-Array Detection (HPLC-DAD).

The homogeneous grafting of methyl methacrylate (MMA) onto cellulose was carried out by using ammonium persulfate as an initiator. DMAc/LiCl was used as the solvent for the dissolution of cellulose and the media for the homogeneous graft polymerization of MMA onto cellulose. The efficient reaction conditions of the grafting reaction were confirmed by weighing methods. The results showed that the efficient reaction conditions were as follows: reaction time, 2h; mass ratio of MMA/cellulose, 1/1(g/g); mass ratio of initiator/cellulose, 6/50 (g/g); and reaction temperature, 80°C. Under these conditions, the GP of homogeneous grafted cellulose can reach 76%. The grafted polymer was characterized by FTIR, SEM and TG-DTA.

In this paper the design and experiments of image sensor controlling circuit using in wireless endoscopic MEMS was studied. Through comparing the excellency and deficiency of various types of image sensors, and considering the working environment and requirements in the human body, it is pointed out that the CMOS image sensor with high integration density, low power consumption, small dimension and analog image signal output is suitable for the wireless endoscopic MEMS. By theoretically analyzing, the controlling circuits of two typical image sensors were designed successfully. The images captured in the animal experiments prove the validity of the designed circuits for the wireless endoscopic MEMS.

In order to study the stability of layered rock mass, a shear failure criterion for layered rock mass is presented and its program is compiled in C language. The shear failure criterion consists of two parts: firstly, four empirical expressions are suggested in which shear strength parameters vary with the direction; secondly, a pilot calculation method is developed to judge whether a shear failure plane in layered rock mass occurs or not and give its occurrence under three dimensional stress condition. A triaxial numerical experiment on layered rock mass is designed to test the shear failure criterion, and its results reflect the characters including obliquity effect, confining pressure effect and failure mode which conform to the previous triaxial tests.

Let Z/(p e) be the integer residue ring modulo p e with p an odd prime and integer e ≥ 3. For a sequence $$\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} $$ over Z/(p e), there is a unique p-adic decomposition $$\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} = \underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _0 + \underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _1 \cdot p + \cdots + \underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _{e - 1} \cdot p^{e - 1} $$ , where each $$\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _i $$ can be regarded as a sequence over Z/(p), 0 ≤ i ≤ e − 1. Let f(x) be a primitive polynomial over Z/(p e) and G′(f(x), p e) the set of all primitive sequences generated by f(x) over Z/(p e). For μ(x) ∈ Z/(p)[x] with deg(μ(x)) ≥ 2 and ged(1 + deg(μ(x)), p − 1) = 1, set $$\varphi _{e - 1} (x_0 ,x_1 , \cdots ,x_{e - 1} ) = x_{e - 1} \cdot \left[ {\mu (x_{e - 2} ) + \eta _{e - 3} (x_0 ,x_1 , \cdots ,x_{e - 3} )} \right] + \eta _{e - 2} (x_0 ,x_1 , \cdots ,x_{e - 2} ),$$ which is a function of e variables over Z/(p). Then the compressing map $$\varphi _{e - 1} :G'(f(x),p^e ) \to (Z/(p))^\infty ,\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} \mapsto \varphi _{e - 1} (\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _0 ,\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _1 , \cdots \underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _{e - 1} )$$ is injective. That is, for $$\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} ,\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{b} \in G'(f(x),p^e ),\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} = \underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{b} $$ and only if $$\varphi _{e - 1} (\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _0 ,\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _1 , \cdots \underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _{e - 1} ) = \varphi _{e - 1} (\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{b} _0 ,\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{b} _1 , \cdots ,\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{b} _{e - 1} )$$ . As for the case of e = 2, similar result is also given. Furthermore, if functions e e − 1 and ψ e − 1 over Z/(p) are both of the above form and satisfy $$\varphi _{e - 1} (\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _0 ,\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _1 , \cdots \underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} _{e - 1} ) = \psi _{e - 1} (\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{b} _0 ,\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{b} _1 , \cdots ,\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{b} _{e - 1} )$$ for $$\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} ,\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{b} \in G'(f(x),p^e )$$ , the relations between $$\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{a} $$ and $$\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle-}$}}{b} $$ , e e − 1 and ψ e − 1 are discussed.

Coronary artery disease remains a major cause of mortality. Presence of atherosclerotic plaques in the coronary artery is responsible for lumen stenosis which is often used as an indicator for determining the severity of coronary artery disease. However, the degree of coronary lumen stenosis is not often related to compromising myocardial blood flow, as most of the cardiac events that are caused by atherosclerotic plaques are the result of vulnerable plaques which are prone to rupture. Thus, identification of vulnerable plaques in coronary arteries has become increasingly important to assist identify patients with high cardiovascular risks. Molecular imaging with use of positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) has fulfilled this goal by providing functional information about plaque activity which enables accurate assessment of plaque stability. This review article provides an overview of diagnostic applications of molecular imaging techniques in the detection of plaques in coronary arteries with PET and SPECT. New radiopharmaceuticals used in the molecular imaging of coronary plaques and diagnostic applications of integrated PET/CT and PET/MRI in coronary plaques are also discussed.

Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET) in the assessment of myocardial viability in patients with known coronary artery disease (CAD) when compared to 99mTc single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and echocardiography, with invasive coronary angiography as the gold standard. Methods Thirty patients with diagnosed CAD met the selection criteria, with 10 of them (9 men, mean age 59.5 ± 10.5 years) undergoing all of these imaging procedures consisting of SPECT and PET, echocardiography and invasive angiography. Diagnostic sensitivity of these less invasive modalities for detection of myocardial viability was compared to invasive coronary angiography. Inter- and intra-observer agreement was assessed for diagnostic performance of SPECT and PET. Results Of all patients with proven CAD, 50% had triple vessel disease. Diagnostic sensitivity of SPECT, PET and echocardiography was 90%, 100% and 80% at patient-based assessment, respectively. Excellent agreement was achieved between inter-observer and intra-observer agreement of the diagnostic value of SPECT and PET in myocardial viability (k = 0.9). Conclusion 18F-FDG PET has high diagnostic value in the assessment of myocardial viability in patients with known CAD when compared to SPECT and echocardiography. Further studies based on a large cohort with incorporation of 18F-FDG PET into patient management are warranted.

To evaluate the incidence and predictive factors of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) in patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE).Clinical data of 104 patients with CT angiography-proven PTE were collected and Wells score, revised Geneva score and ECG score were calculated. Blood gas analysis, CK-MB and D-dimer values were analyzed. Heart chamber diameters and pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) were assessed by echocardiography. Qanadli obstruction index and Mastora obstruction index were evaluated according to computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA). Patients were followed up by telephone or clinic visit to assess the WHO functional class and the incidence of CTEPH.During the 25.47±16.94 months (4 to 62 months) follow-up, 7 out of 104 patients were lost to follow-up and data from the remaining 95 patients were analyzed. The incidence of CTEPH was 14.4% (14/97). Baseline PASP, incidence of recurrent PTE, right atrium and right ventricle diameters and CK-MB were significantly higher in CTEPH group compared to non-CTEPH group (all P0.05). Higher CK-MB (odds ratio: 8.3) and baseline PASP (odds ratio: 5.0 per 20 mm Hg increment) were independent predictive factors for CTEPH in this cohort.Higher CK-MB and baseline PASP values are independent predictive factors related to the development of CTEPH post acute pulmonary thromboembolism.

A new compound, named jiangxienone, has been isolated from a culture of the traditional Chinese medicinal mushroom Cordyceps jiangxiensis, and its chemical structure was established on the basis of spectroscopic and chemical techniques. Jiangxienone showed potent cytotoxic effects against human gastric adenocarcinoma SGC-7901 cell and human lung carcinoma A549 cell with IC(50) values ranging from 1.38 to 2.93 μM, i.e., with at least approximately six-fold stronger cytotoxicity than cisplatin, a first-line chemotherapy drug for cancer patients.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm is a common vascular disease that affects elderly population. Open surgical repair is regarded as the gold standard technique for treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, however, endovascular aneurysm repair has rapidly expanded since its first introduction in 1990s. As a less invasive technique, endovascular aneurysm repair has been confirmed to be an effective alternative to open surgical repair, especially in patients with co-morbid conditions. Computed tomography (CT) angiography is currently the preferred imaging modality for both preoperative planning and post-operative follow-up. 2D CT images are complemented by a number of 3D reconstructions which enhance the diagnostic applications of CT angiography in both planning and follow-up of endovascular repair. CT has the disadvantage of high cummulative radiation dose, of particular concern in younger patients, since patients require regular imaging follow-ups after endovascular repair, thus, exposing patients to repeated radiation exposure for life. There is a trend to change from CT to ultrasound surveillance of endovascular aneurysm repair. Medical image visualizations demonstrate excellent morphological assessment of aneurysm and stent-grafts, but fail to provide hemodynamic changes caused by the complex stent-graft device that is implanted into the aorta. This article reviews the treatment options of abdominal aortic aneurysm, various image visualization tools, and follow-up procedures with use of different modalities including both imaging and computational fluid dynamics methods. Future directions to improve treatment outcomes in the follow-up of endovascular aneurysm repair are outlined.

In an effort to investigate the chemical constitutes of submerged cultivation mycelium of Cordyceps jiangxiensis anamorph.The mycelia of C. jiangxiensis anamorph produced by submerged cultivation technique were separated and purified using various chromatographic techniques such as repeated liquid column chromatography, preparative thin layer chromatography etc. , and then the chemical structures of compounds obtained were elucidated on the basis of physicochemical analysis and spectroscopic techniques such as 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and MS.Nine compounds were obtained from the petroleum ether and ethyl acetate extractive fractions of mycelial methanol extract, and were identified as follows: uracil (I), adenine (II), adenosine (III), uridine (IV), 3'-methoxyuridine (V), succinic acid (VI), nicotinic acid (VII), 1-monostearin (VIII), tetracosanoic acid (IX).Chemical constitutes of C. jiangxiensis anamorph are systematically separated for the first time, and compounds V, VII, VIII, and IX obtained are separated from Cordyceps species firstly.

To investigate the antimicrobial potential of Metarhizium tail and its corresponding active fractions.The agar diffusion method and growth-rate assay were employed individually to measure the antibacterial and antifungal activities of M. taii. The microdilution and disk colony count was used to test the minimal inhibitory concentration and minimal bacterial concentration.The extraction fractions of M. tail could evidently inhibi the growth of Gram positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Gram negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aerzginosa, and Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Enterococcus faecalis,and phytopathogenic fungi such as Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium oxysporum, hereby M. taii had a broad spectrum antimicrobial effect including potent antibacterial and antifungal activities. The antimicrobial active ingredients of M. tail mainly existed in three extraction fractions including ethyl acetate extract in fermented broth, chloroform, and ethyl acetate extracts in mycelia. However there was an evident discrepancy on the antibacterial spectrum and competence for different active extraction fractions.M. taii possess potent and broad-spectrum antimicrobial potential, and it is a good edible and medicinal resource for the functional food development and the discovery of new antimicrobial drug.

In this paper, we propose a novel image annotation algorithm based on Markov model. This algorithm treats each candidate keyword as a state in Markov chain, and implements image annotation by estimating the probability of Markov transition. On one aspect, compared with classical algorithms, the proposed algorithm stops making the assumption that each keyword is independent to each other; instead, they are related to the existed keywords; On the other hand, not only considering correlation between keywords that improves results of image annotation, but our proposed approach also takes image visual content into account. Experimental results on the typical Corel dataset demonstrate the effectiveness and the increasing annotation precision of our proposed algorithm.

A novel system based on cooperative distributed space-time block code (DSTBC)and multi-band orthogonal frequency division multiple (MB-OFDM) is proposed which works well on multiple single-antenna users wireless networks in ultra-wideband system. In this system, using MB-OFDM technology modulate data to subcarriers, can resist the influence of frequency selective fading channel effectively. Over cooperative diversity scheme based on DSTBC-MB-OFDM, a theoretical bit error rate (BER) performance expression of the system has been derived. Also its closed-form expression is derived by means of the moment generating function (MGF). Monte Carlo simulation results are given to demonstrate the BER performance of DSTBC-MB-OFDM outgoes non-cooperative MB-OFDM with distinctive gains.

In this paper, we give an investigation on the performance of cellular dual-hop cooperative communication systems with regenerative relays over flat Rayleigh fading channels. M-ary phase-shift keying (M-PSK) is considered. Two linear diversity reception techniques are adopted in the destination, i.e.,maximal-ratio combining (MRC) and selection combining (SC).We first derive the symbol error rate (SER) expression of dual hop communication with MRC scheme and all relays randomly distributed between the source and the destination. We then derive asymptotic SER expression. With the aid of the a symptotic analysis, asymptotic-optimal power allocation(A-OPA) strategy provides more significant performance improvement compared to equal power allocation (EPA) strategy. Next, we analyze the performance and the asymptotic performance of dual-hop communication with SC scheme.

A method of elemental determination is put forward in this paper. Namely, Pt, Pd, Au in 10-20 g samples were preconcentrated in milligram microgranular silver alloy by using fire assay. When compounded in solution, trace platinum, palladium, and gold in the solution were determined by ICP-AES. The detection limits of this method were 0.01, 0.005, and 0.01 microg x mL(-1) for Pt, Pd and Au, respectively. Recoveries of standard were more than 97% with precision of 0.1%, 0.12%, and 0.09% of RSD (n=10), respectively. It has proven that this analysis method is quick, simple and accurate. The method has been applied to the determination of contents of Pt, Pd and Au in samples.

The system, which adopts barometric pressure as controlled measure, is a nonlinear and variable delay-time system. To conform such a system's model and optimum answer is very difficult. The paper proposes an intelligent hierarchical method based on the knowledge/reasoning regulation, according to the control demand. It is, guided with the knowledge base, to realize a practical scheme and operation by distributing the performance parameter gradually. The system described has outstanding stability, and flexible and convenient control performance.

To the Editor: Coronary arterial involvement is rare in Takayasu's arteritis. We describe successful coronary artery stenting in a 17-year-old teenager with Takayasu's arteritis and acute inferior myocardial infarction due to occlusion of the right coronary artery. The patient, a male student, 17-year-old, was admitted to our emergency room with persistent retrosternal pain accompanied by sweat 2 h. The patient had no history of hypertension or diabetes, and he neither drank alcohol nor smoked. There was no family history of coronary heart disease. On his physical examination, blood pressure of left arm was 140/70 mmHg and 100/70 mmHg for the right. Vascular murmur can be heard in the neck, supraclavicular and groin area. His initial electrocardiogram revealed II, III, avF ST-segment elevation 0.6–0.7 mV, laboratory test revealed a markedly elevated troponin I (>100 ng/ml), so we considered Takayasu's arteritis could not be excluded. We performed emergency percutaneous coronary interventional therapy. Coronary angiography revealed that the middle of the right coronary artery was totally occlusive [Figure 1a]. The proximal stenosis of left anterior descending branch was 50% and formed collateral circulation to the distal right coronary artery [Figure 1b]. Therefore, drug-eluting stent was implanted in the occlusion of right coronary artery [Figure 1c]. On the 2nd day of admission, his C-reactive protein level (20 mg/dl) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (48.7 mm/h) were high. After 4th day of stenting, large vessel computed tomography (CT) was performed. CT angiography of the aorta showed that bilateral proximal subclavian arteries, internal carotid artery and renal artery had severe stenosis, celiac trunk had moderate stenosis. The superior mesenteric artery had severe stenosis. Figure 1 (a) Coronary angiography of right coronary artery; (b) Coronary angiography of left coronary artery; (c) Coronary stenting in right coronary artery. Takayasu's arteritis is a rare chronic nonspecific inflammatory disease, its cause was unknown and predominantly affected the aorta and its main branches, including coronary arteries and pulmonary arteries. Coronary arterial involvement is rare in Takayasu's arteritis.[1,2] Coronary angiographic and pathologic studies together have revealed coronary artery lesions in 9–11% of cases.[3] We performed emergency coronary angiography successfully and implanted a drug-eluting stent in the occlusion of right coronary artery. It is important to select the appropriate operation time for the treatment of Takayasu arteritis with early detection and treatment, hormone drugs should be taken under the supervision of doctor. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.

In this paper a new continuous variable called core-ratio is deflned to describe the probability for a residue to be in a binding site, thereby replacing the previous binary description of the interface residue using 0 and 1. So we can use the support vector machine regression method to flt the core-ratio value and predict the protein binding sites. We also design a new group of physical and chemical descriptors to characterize the binding sites. The new descriptors are more efiective, with an averaging procedure used. Our test shows that much better prediction results can be obtained by the support vector regression (SVR) method than by the support vector classiflcation method.

Adrenal computed tomographic (CT) scanning was conducted in twelve patients with Addison's disease during the clinical course. In tuberculous Addison's disease (n = 8), three of four patients examined during the first two years after disease onset had bilaterally enlarged adrenals, while one of four had a unilaterally enlarged one. At least one adrenal gland was enlarged after onset in all six patients examined during the first four years. Thereafter, the adrenal glands may atrophy bilaterally, in contrast to adrenal glands in idiopathic Addison's disease, which atrophy bilaterally from disease onset (n = 2). Adrenal calcification was a less sensitive clue in tracing pathogenesis, i.e., adrenal calcification was observed in five of eight patients with tuberculous Addison's disease, but not in idiopathic patients. Thus, adrenal CT scanning could show the etiology of Addison's disease (infection or autoimmunity) and the phase of Addison's disease secondary to tuberculosis, which may be clinically important for initiating antituberculous treatment.