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Most natural plant protein molecules are spherical, and the excessively compact structure limits the nutrition and functionality of plant proteins. Spherical plant protein molecules can be transformed into plant protein fiber by various techniques such as molecular self-assembly, screw extrusion, shearing, wet spinning, electrospinning and solution blow spinning. Plant protein fiber is characterized by a high aspect ratio, clear molecular orientation, high mechanical strength, and strong functionality, and can be directly eaten, used as food additives or used to encapsulate active substances, which greatly expands the application of plant proteins in the food field and improves the added value of plant proteins. However, the addition of poisonous and harmful chemical reagents, and the morphological defects, poor stability, low yield and high production cost of plant protein fiber limit its wide popularization and industrial production. This article reviews the techniques for the preparation of plant protein fiber and its application in the food field, analyzes its advantages, disadvantages and limitations, and proposes future directions.

In order to improve the accuracy of remaining useful life (RUL) prediction of insulated gate bipolar transistor(IGBT) modules across working conditions to enhance their reliability, an RUL prediction method based on the ProbSparse self-attention mechanism and transfer learning was proposed based on the transient thermal resistance features of IGBT modules under different working conditions. An accelerated aging test bench of the IGBT module was designed ang built to perform power cycling experiments in different temperature ranges, and state data of full life-time under different working conditions were collected. Transient thermal resistance change data during the IGBT module degradation were calculated, and the transient thermal features that can accurately reflect the aging state of the IGBT module were extracted and selected. These features were used to predict the RUL of IGBT modules across different working conditions based on the proposed method. The experimental result shows that the accuracy of the proposed RUL prediction method of IGBT modules across working conditions outperforms other compared methods. Particularly, the RUL prediction accuracy during the early degradation stage has been significantly improved.

Through logical analysis of the phenomenon of recovery faults after train arrivals in a semi-automatic receiving station from a departure station, this paper confirms the lighting status of the indicator lights on the console displays of the two stations under fault conditions, observes the operation of the relays in the recovery circuits of the two stations during faults, tests the receiving and sending voltage values and amplitude of the distributing terminal boards in the signal mechanical rooms of the two stations during faults, and observes the time length of the pulse signal. This paper then makes full use of microcomputer to monitor and replay the fault phenomenon, browses and compares the voltage curve status, data, amplitude and pulse time curve status and curve lengths of the negative pulses sent and received by the two stations under the fault conditions, so as to accurately determine the fault range, confirm the fault point, and quickly deal with the fault. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a strong candidate for the new type of non-volatile memories and artificial synaptic devices, memristor has a huge development prospect in aerospace, Mars exploration and other space science and application fields. Once large-scale application of memristor requires extremely stringent radiation resistance performance for the memristors. In order to improve the radiation resistance of memristors, it is necessary to explore the radiation effect mechanism and develop an effective radiation resistance technology. This paper summarizes the research status and trends of irradiation effects on memristors, describes the mechanism and analysis method of irradiation damage of memristor, and focuses on the irradiation effects of the memristors with transition metal oxide material system. Additionally, the possibility of scientific problems and key technologies are discussed, so as to provide some ideas for the radiation hardening and space application of memristor.

AIM: To investigate the effect of hypoxia-preconditioned human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes (hUCMSC-Exos) on pulmonary vascular endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) in hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (HPH). METHODS: (l) Primary hUCMSCs were isolated and cultured by tissue adhesion method, and hUCMSC-Exos were extracted by ultrafiltration and identified. (2) Twenty-four SPF male SD rats were randomly divided into normoxia (N) group, hypoxia (H) group, hypoxia+normoxic hUCMSC-Exos group and hypoxia+hypoxia-preconditioned hUCMSC-Exos group, with 6 rats in each group. The rats in H group and intervention groups were placed in a cabin that simulated the hypoxic environment at an altitude of 5 000 m, and normoxic hUCMSC-Exos, hypoxia-precon-ditioned hUCMSC-Exos or equivalent volume of PBS were injected through the tail vein on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th and 14th days in hypoxia environment. After 21 d of modeling, the right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP) and right ventricular hypertrophy index (RVHI) of the rats were detected, and the pathological changes of lung tissues were observed by HE staining. (3) After starvation for 12 h, human pulmonary arteriole endothelial cells (HPAECs) were randomly divided into normoxic control (N-Con) group, hypoxic model (H-Con) group, hypoxia+normoxic hUCMSC-Exos group and hypoxia+hypoxia-preconditioned hUCMSC-Exos group. The migration ability and tube formation ability of HPAECs were detected by Transwell assay and tube formation experiment. The expression of CD31 and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in HPAECs was detected by immunofluorescence double-staining. The protein levels of CD31, VE-cadherin, α-SMA and vimentin in pulmonary vessels and HPAECs were assessed by Western blot. RESULTS: (1) The HPH rat model was successfully established after 21 d of hypoxia, and EndMT occurred in pulmonary vessels. Compared with N group, the levels of RVSP, RVHI, percentage of vascular wall area (WA%) and percentage of vascular wall thickness (WT%) in H group were significantly increased (P<0.01), pulmonary vascular wall thickening and the protein levels of CD31 and VE-cadherin were significantly decreased (P<0. 01), while the protein levels of α-SMA and vimentin were significantly increased in pulmonary vessels (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Compared with H group, the RVSP, RVHI, WA% and WT% (P<0.01) were significantly decreased (P<0.05 or P<0.01), and pulmonary vascular remodeling was attenuated after normoxic or hypoxia-preconditioned hUCMSC-Exos intervention. After hypoxia-preconditioned hUCMSC-Exos intervention, HPH pul-monary vascular remodeling and EndMT formation were significantly inhibited. (2) After 48 h of hypoxic treatment, the migration, tubule formation and EndMT of HPAECs were induced. Compared with H-Con group, cell migration and tube formation were significantly decreased after hypoxia-preconditioned hUCMSC-Exos intervention (P<0. 01). The protein levels of CD31 and VE-cadherin were increased, while the protein levels of α-SMA and vimentin were decreased (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Hypoxia-preconditioned hUCMSC-Exos attenuate the formation of HPH pulmonary vascular remodeling by inhibiting pulmonary vascular EndMT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problems of Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism, such as low node activity, untimely elimination of error nodes, and unreasonable distribution of book keeping income, an improvement scheme is proposed. The improvement scheme mainly improves the counting mechanism and incentive mechanism of DPoS. The improved vote counting mechanism takes more information of the node as an integral part of the vote, so that the vote can more comprehensively reflect the credit status of the node. According to the voting record of the node, the weight of the node's vote is dynamically adjusted to speed up the elimination of the wrong node. The improvement of the incentive mechanism is divided into two parts: voting incentives and accounting incentives. The voting incentives provide corresponding incentives for all nodes participating in the consensus, and encourage the nodes in the system to actively participate in voting. Accounting incentive is based on the Banzhaf power index in game theory to carry out the secondary distribution of income, which makes the distribution mechanism more reasonable and helps to reduce the centralization trend of the system. The effectiveness of the improved scheme are verified by experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the patterns of recurrence and the related factors in patients with pT3N0M0 thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) after two-field esophagectomy., Methods: From Jan 2008 to Dec 2009, 208 patients with stage pT3N0M0(2002, UICC) thoracic ESCC were treated with two-field esophagectomy in our hospital. There were 138 males and 70 females, and the median age was 60 years old (range 33-78). There were 33 patients in the upper-, 134 in the middle-, and 41 in the lower-thoracic esophagus, with a median length of lesion of 5 cm. There were 32 patients with no-, 78 with mild- and 98 patients with severe adhesions at surgery. The median number of dissected lymph nodes was 9 (range 1-27). 98 patients were treated with surgery alone and 110 with postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. The statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 13.0 software., Results: The follow-up was ended on July 2013. In the total group of 208 patients, the total recurrence rate was 41.8% (87/208). Among them, 52 patients had locoregional recurrence (LR), 15 had distant metastasis (DM) and 20 patients had both local recurrence and distant metastasis. 40.2% (35/87) of all recurrences were found within one year after operation, 67.8% (59/87) within 2 years, 86.2% (75/87) within 3 years, and 100% (87/87) within 4 years. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) rate was 83.0%, 62.8% and 56.3%, respectively. The overall locoregional recurrence rate was 34.6% (72/208), among them, 9 cases had recurrence in the cervix (all were supraclavicular lymph node metastasis), 66 cases in the mediastinum and 4 cases had para-aortic lymph node metastasis. 83.3% (60/72) of the locoregional recurrence was located in the carinal region or upper area. The 1-, 3-, 5-year locoregional recurrence rate was 15.6%, 32.2%, and 36.8%, respectively, and the median time of recurrence was 15.5 months. The overall distant metastasis (DM) rate was 16.8% (35/208). The 1-, 3-, and 5-year DM rate was 4.4%, 15.3%, and 20.1%, respectively, and the median time of DM was 24 months. The most common site of DM was the lung and bone. The univariate analysis showed that age and tumor site were associated with PFS, tumor site and small lymph node in the mediastinum (diamter <1 cm) before surgery were related with LR (P<0.05 for all), and tumor site, histological differentiation and LR were related with distant metastasis after surgery (P<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that the tumor site was an independent prognostic factor affecting the progression-free survival and locoregional recurrence (P<0.05), and histological differentiation and LR were independent factors associated with distant metastasis (P<0.05 for all)., Conclusions: The recurrence rate is very high in patients with pT3N0M0 thoracic ESCC after surgery, and most of them occur within 3 years after operation. Locoregional recurrence occurs more frequently and shortly than distant metastasis, and most of LR is located in the carinal region or upper-mediastinum. LR rate in upper-thoracic ESCC is very high, therefore, postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) is strongly suggested. LR rate in middle thoracic ESCC is also rather high and PORT is suggested. LR occur much less in the lower-thoracic ESCC, thus, PORT is not suggested routinely. Patients with poorly differentiated ESCC and LR have a high rate of distant metastasis.

Objective: To determine the clinical efficacy and feasibility of multiple special formed titanium mesh cages (TMCs) to treat lumbo-sacral spinal tuberculosis via posterior approach., Methods: From July, 2007 to June, 2013, 25 patients with lumbo-sacral spinal tuberculosis underwent one-stage posterior debridement, internal fi xation, and interbody fusion using multiple special formed titanium meshes. We compared the parameters as follow: the pre- and post-operative American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) score, lumbo-sacral angle, the height of intervertebral space, visual analogue scale (VAS), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and observed operation time, intraoperative blood loss, and time of bone graft fusion., Results: Operation time ranged from 90 to 180 min, (128±24) min in average. Blood loss in the operation ranged from 100 to 800 mL, (310±125) mL in average. The patients were followed up for 24 to 59 months, (43±7) months in average. One patient delayed healing of wound. ASIA score was improved in a certain degree in patients with neurological dysfunctions. The lumbo-sacral angle and the height of intervertebral space in the post-operation were significantly higher than those in the preoperation (P< 0.001). VAS was reduced obviously after 2 weeks of operation. The ESR recovered to the normal level 6 months after operation in all the patients. Solid fusion was achieved within 4 to 8 months, 6 months in average. No sinus tract, cerebrospinal meningitis, tuberculosis recurrence and titanium mesh subsidence were found., Conclusion: For lumbo-sacral tuberculosis, multiple special formed titanium mesh cages via posterior approach is safe and effective, which is good to the stability in spine reconstruction.

Background: The fusion (rearrangement) of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene has been identified as an import factor to the tumorigenesis and development of lung cancer. ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (ALK-TKIs) have been proved to have good effects to ALK positive lung cancers. The increasement of the relevance ratio of ALK will be very important to patients. The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical pathological features of ALK positive lung cancer, and the roles of immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in screening and confirming the ALK positive cases in the testing flow of ALK., Methods: IHC analysis of ALK in tumor specimens was performed on 525 lung cancer patients. 34 cases among them were confirmed by FISH., Results: The positive incidence of ALK by IHC was 5.14% (27/525). The ALK positive patients were significantly younger than ALK negative patients (P<0.05), and femal was predominant (P<0.05). The proportion of solid predominant adenocarcinoma was significantly higher in ALK positive patients (P<0.05). While acinar and lepidic predominant adenocarcinoma were significantly lower in ALK positive patients (P<0.05). FISH was applied in 34 cases. The coincidence rate was increased with the increasement of positive intensity of IHC staining. All the IHC positive cases with or without EGFR mutation must be confirmed by FISH., Conclusions: IHC is a reliable detection method to screening the ALK in lung cancer, and then enhance the relevance ration. To make a definite diagnosis of ALK positive lung cancer, FISH is a significant detection method.

We constructed transgenic chicken bioreactor vector, driven by chicken ovalbumin promoter, lentiviral vector and cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter control vector encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP) and luciferase (Luc) as reporter genes. The three vectors were used to transfect or infect chicken primary oviduct epithelial cells, embryo fibroblasts cells, mouse 3T3-L1 preadipocytes cells and bovine mammary epithelial cells. High efficient and specific expression vector for transgenic chicken bioreactor was determined by detecting fluorescence and luciferase activity. Reporter gene analysis showed that chicken ovalbumin promoter expression vector was not cell type-specific in these four different cells. Additionally, luciferase reporter analysis illustrated that the chicken ovalbumin promoter activity was over 100 times lower than that of the CMV promoter in four different cells. Both of these two reporter genes were expressed in those four different cells infected by lentiviral expression vectors. Similarly, the GFP reached the similar expression level in cells infected by lentivirus and cells transfected with CMV promoter plasmid vectors when the multiplicity of infection was 20. In conclusion, the transgenic chicken bioreactor vector under the control of chicken ovalbumin promoter was not highly efficient and cell type-specific. However, the efficient expression and extensiveness oflentiviral vector could be used for studying chicken oviduct bioreactor.