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Inorganic modified green mudstone (MGM) was prepared from the green mudstone (GM) residue of Fushun West Open Pit Mine and characterized by XRF, XRD, FTIR, and SEM of GM and MGM. According to the calculation of pore size and the BET equation, the pore size and specific surface area of the MGM were larger. The results of adsorption kinetics and isothermal adsorption experiments showed that the adsorption capacity of MGM for phosphate increased from 0.1 mg/g to 0.71 mg/g, which was obviously better than that of GM. The GM and MGM accorded with the quasi-second-order kinetic model. The isothermal adsorption data of GM accorded with the Freundlich model, and the isothermal data of MGM accorded with the Langmuir model, which indicated that the model of GM and MGM was an adsorption process from a double layer to a single layer. Thermodynamic data showed that the increase in temperature was beneficial to the adsorption of MGM. The internal diffusion model showed that due to the change of pore size structure after modification, the number of adsorption sites that could provide phosphate was increased, and at the same time, the change of internal elements led to the extension of the chemical reaction time by 700 min. Because of the ligand exchange and electrostatic interaction between phosphate, GM, and MGM, the adsorption results showed that acidity was better than alkalinity. To improve the recycling ability of MGM, hydrochloric acid with a concentration of 0.1 mol/L was determined as the best phosphorus resolving agent, and the resolving rate was still close to 80% after five cycles. The results showed that the MGM could be a promising adsorbent for the removal of phosphorus, providing a new way for resource utilization of mining waste residue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. To establish an effective and accurate prognostic nomogram for lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Patients and Methods. 62,355 LUAD patients from 1975 to 2016 enrolled in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database were randomly and equally divided into the training cohort (n = 31,179) and the validation cohort (n = 31,176). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses screened the predictive effects of each variable on survival. The concordance index (C-index), calibration curves, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and area under the ROC curve (AUC) were used to examine and validate the predictive accuracy of the nomogram. Kaplan–Meier curves were used to estimate overall survival (OS). Results. 10 prognostic factors associated with OS were identified, including age, sex, race, marital status, American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM stage, tumor size, grade, and primary site. A nomogram was established based on these results. C-indexes of the nomogram model reached 0.777 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.773 to 0.781) and 0.779 (95% CI, 0.775 to 0.783) in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. The calibration curves were well-fitted for both cohorts. The AUC for the 3- and 5-year OS presented great prognostic accuracy in the training cohort (AUC = 0.832 and 0.827, respectively) and validation cohort (AUC = 0.835 and 0.828, respectively). The Kaplan–Meier curves presented significant differences in OS among the groups. Conclusion. The nomogram allows accurate and comprehensive prognostic prediction for patients with LUAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of information technology, the internet of things (IoT) technology has been integrated into most people's daily life and work. However, the IoT must confront many new security challenges. Specifically, the increase in the variety of IoT-connected devices has diversified the network. Meanwhile, the high data rates and spectral efficiency offered by 5G cellular networks facilitates the increasing capacity of IoT network traffic. Therefore, network traffic data are characterized by an expanded large scale, wide diversity, and high dimensions, which greatly affects the functionality and efficiency of intrusion detection methods. Although the existing neural network-based intrusion detection methods partially resolve the above problems, they need to execute a lot of nonlinear transformations when learning and characterizing data, resulting in a large loss of feature information. To address this problem, in this paper, we first design a new neural network model based on the gate recurrent unit (GRU), namely, the supplement gate recurrent unit (SGRU). Compared with a traditional GRU, through loss compensation, a SGRU can reduce the loss of feature information caused by nonlinear transformations when learning and characterizing network traffic data. Then, we adopt the SGRU to propose a novel intrusion detection method to monitor the security of the network. Finally, we developed the corresponding prototype system and verified its performance. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed intrusion detection method is more accurate than previous intrusion detection methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. This study aims to evaluate whether adjuvant traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can improve the survival of patients with primary liver cancer (PLC). Methods. A total of 1,859 patients with PLC at Beijing Ditan Hospital between August 2008 and September 2017 were included. The patients were divided into TCM and control groups according to whether the patients took TCM for ≥3 months. There were 1,111 patients in the TCM group and 748 in the control group. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to analyze the factors affecting the 3-year survival of patients with PLC. To reduce selection bias, 1 : 1 propensity score matching (PSM) was performed between the two groups. The overall survival outcomes were evaluated using the Kaplan–Meier (K–M) survival curve, and the log-rank test was used to compare the differences in survival curves. Results. After multivariate Cox regression analysis, TCM was an independent favorable factor for the 3-year survival of patients with PLC (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 0.359, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.292–0.441, P < 0.001). Before and after PSM, the 3-year overall survival rates were 33.3% and 54% in the control group and 79.7% and 69.7% in the TCM group, respectively. The 3-year mortality risk in the TCM group was lower than that in the control group for different PLC subgroups. Conclusions. TCM adjuvant therapy increased the 3-year overall survival rate of patients with PLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Retinal vein occlusion (RVO) is the second most common vision-threatening retinal vascular disease. Intravitreal dexamethasone implant has been applied to treat macular edema secondary to RVO (RVO-ME). However, the alteration of morphologic features detected with optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) has not been fully studied in RVO-ME patients before and after the treatment. Objective. This study is aimed at identifying potential therapeutic targets in RVO with integrative bioinformatic analysis and compares the OCTA characteristics alterations in patients with RVO-ME receiving injection of dexamethasone intravitreal implant. Methods. Bioinformatic analysis was analyzed in GSE101398 dataset from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Multiple functional enrichment analyses were performed, and protein-protein interaction network was constructed to visualize the key node genes. Eleven eyes with RVO-ME were examined with OCTA before and after intravitreal dexamethasone implant. The OCTA parameters, including macular thickness, vessel density, foveal avascular zone parameters, the number of hyperreflective foci (HRF), area of cystoid edema, and subretinal fluid (SRF), were compared. The correlation was analyzed between best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and OCTA parameters. Results. A total of 79 differentially expressed genes were identified. Functional enrichment analyses revealed the enriched inflammatory events in RVO. In RVO-ME, Pearson correlation revealed that baseline BCVA was positively correlated with the area of SRF and central macular thickness, while no correlation was detected between baseline BCVA and HRF number or the area of cystoid edema. The visual acuity improved, and the central macular thickness was decreased after intravitreal dexamethasone implant injection. Besides, the number of HRF, the area of cystoid edema, and SRF were significantly alleviated after dexamethasone intravitreal injection. Conclusion. Retinal inflammation plays a crucial role in RVO pathogenesis. The imaging biomarkers of RVO including Müller glial intracellular edema, and retinal pigment epithelium dysfunction, could be assessed in OCTA and attenuated by intravitreal dexamethasone implant effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proteasome has been validated as an anticancer drug target, while the role of a subunit of proteasome, PSMC6, in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has not been fully unveiled. In this study, we observed that both the RNA and protein of PSMC6 were highly upregulated in LUAD compared with the adjacent normal tissues. Moreover, a high PSMC6 expression was associated with poor prognosis. In accordance with this finding, PSMC6 was associated with poor tumor differentiation. Furthermore, the silence of PSMC6 by small interference RNAs (siRNAs) could significantly inhibit cell growth, migration, and invasion in lung cancer cell lines, suggesting that PSMC6 might serve as a promising therapeutic target in LUAD. To further explore the molecular mechanism of PSMC6 in LUAD, we observed that the proteasome subunits, such as PSMD10, PSMD6, PSMD9, PSMD13, PSMB3, PSMB1, PSMA4, PSMC1, PSMC2, PSMD7, and PSMD14, were highly correlated with PSMC6 expression. Based on the gene set enrichment analysis, we observed that these proteasome subunits were involved in the degradation of AXIN protein. The correlation analysis revealed that the positively correlated genes with PSMC6 were highly enriched in WNT signaling-related pathways, demonstrating that the PSMC6 overexpression may activate WNT signaling via degrading the AXIN protein, thereby promoting tumor progression. In summary, we systematically evaluated the differential expression levels and prognostic values of PSMC6 and predicted its biological function in LUAD, which suggested that PSMC6 might act as a promising therapeutic target in LUAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salting is important to maintain the food quality. This study aimed to evaluate the physicochemical properties and microstructure of Russian sturgeon fillets under vacuum impregnation and find out appropriate salting conditions. The treatments varied in salt concentration (5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) and time (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 hr); samples treated under atmospheric pressure with 10% were included as controls. In our study, vacuum impregnation improved the salting efficiency and helped to maintain a complete microstructure to enhance the water‐holding capacity, especially after salting for 2 hr, the maximum value was 32.4%. Moreover, it increased the values of hardness and springiness and reduced L* and a*. In addition, the fillets under vacuum impregnation had lower TVB‐N and Carbonyl content, which were 15.91 mg/100 g and 311.38 nmol/L after salting for 5 hr, respectively. Consequently, vacuum impregnation was a better way of salting for its higher salting efficiency and better physicochemical properties. Practical applications: The results of this study provide information to food industry about the effects of different salt concentration and time under vacuum impregnation on the Russian sturgeon fillets. It can be seen from the results that vacuum impregnation can improve the salting efficiency and protect the original organizational structure as completely as possible. As a result, vacuum impregnation is a better way of salting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capturing walking trajectories is useful for motion planning and various location-based services. Traditionally, it is a challenging task because it is expensive to install infrastructures, especially in an outdoor setting. As another choice, the reconstructed walking trajectories suffer from the drifting problem from captured inertia data. In this work, we study the biped walking motion and propose a method to recover walking trajectories by introducing local measurements between the feet to the system, in combination with the orientation from inertia data. We design a few local measurements which can be passively captured. After analyzing these measurements, the walking trajectory is progressively recovered by solving a set of small-scale optimization problems. By comparing with the trajectories extracted from optical motion capture systems, we tested our method on different subjects, and the quality of the recovered walking trajectory is evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. Fuzhenghuayu (FZHY) capsule can inhibit the progression of cirrhosis. This study explored whether FZHY can reduce the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with hepatitis B-caused cirrhosis (HBC) undergoing antiviral therapy. Methods. A retrospective review of 842 patients with HBC between 2011 and 2015 was performed, including 270 treated with FZHY combined with nucleos (t) ide analogues (NAs) and 572 with NAs alone. The incidence of HCC was compared between the FZHY (n = 259) and control (n = 259) groups using 1 : 1 propensity score (PS) matching. The incidence of HCC in patients with HBC with different Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) classifications and Toronto HCC risk index (THRI) scores was analyzed using Kaplan–Meier curves. Results. The 5-year cumulative incidence of HCC before and after PS matching was 151 (17.9%) and 86 (16.6%), respectively. In PS-matched samples, the multivariate Cox proportional-hazards model indicated that the FZHY group demonstrated a significantly lower risk for HCC than the control group (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 0.32, 95% CI 0.19–0.53 P < 0.001). The risk of HCC diminished with increased duration of FZHY use. The stratified analysis revealed that the FZHY group, regardless of CTP classification, benefited significantly from FZHY therapy. Patients in the medium- and high-THRI risk groups were the dominant population for FZHY. Conclusions. FZHY combined with NAs was associated with a significantly lower risk of HCC than NAs alone in patients with HBC, which supports the integration of FZHY with antiviral treatment into clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) shear wall with concrete filled steel tube (CFST) columns is an innovative composite structure. In order to calculate the shear strength of SFRC shear wall with CFST columns, the softened strut and tie model (SSTM) of SFRC shear wall with CFST columns was proposed based on the analysis of shear mechanism of SFRC shear wall with CFST columns. The SSTM was composed of diagonal, horizontal, and vertical mechanisms, in which the contributions of concrete, reinforcement, and steel fiber to the shear strength of SFRC web of shear wall were identified. The shear capacities of 24 shear walls were calculated and compared with the available test results, and reasonable agreement was obtained. The results also showed that the steel fibers distributed randomly in concrete could be treated as longitudinal and transverse reinforcement in the shear strength analysis of SFRC web, and the SSTM was reasonable and useful to analyze and predict the shear strength of SFRC shear wall with CFST columns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-slotted channel hopping (TSCH) is a part of an emerging IEEE 802.15.4e standard to enable deterministic low-power mesh networking, which offers high reliability and low latency for wireless industrial applications. Nonetheless, the standard only provides a framework, but it does not mandate a specific scheduling mechanism for time and frequency slot allocation. This paper focuses on a centralized scheme to schedule multiple concurrent periodic real-time flows in TSCH networks with mesh topology. In our scheme, each flow is assigned a dynamic priority based on its deadline and the hops remaining to reach the destination. A maximum matching algorithm is utilized to find conflict-free links, which provides more chances to transfer high-priority flows at each time slot. Frequency allocation is implemented by graph coloring to make finally selected links interference free. Simulation results show that our algorithm clearly outperforms the existing algorithms on the deadline satisfaction ratio with a similar radio duty cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study evaluated the potential combined effects of NAFLD and MetS on the development of osteoporosis. The relationship between NAFLD and MetS and osteoporosis was assessed in 938 postmenopausal female participants. Moderate and severe NAFLDs were combined as significant NAFLD (SNAFLD). All the subjects were divided into 4 subgroups based on the status of SNAFLD and MetS. Relative excess risk of interaction (RERI), attributable proportion (AP) of interaction, and synergy index (SI) were used to investigate the additive interaction of those two factors. NAFLD, SNAFLD, and MetS were independent factors for osteoporosis with the adjustment of age and other confounders. The incidence of osteoporosis in MetS (+) SNAFLD (+) group was significantly higher than that in other three groups. RERI was 2.556 (95% CI = 0.475–4.636), AP was 0.454 (95% CI = 0.201–0.706), and SI was 2.231 (95% CI = 1.124 to 4.428), indicating the significant combined interaction of SNAFLD and MetS on the development of osteoporosis. SNAFLD and MetS are independent risk factors for osteoporosis in postmenopausal females, respectively. Moreover, SNAFLD and MetS have an additive effect on the development of osteoporosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective data access is one of the major challenges in Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) that are characterized by intermittent network connectivity and unpredictable node mobility. Currently, different data caching schemes have been proposed to improve the performance of data access in DTNs. However, most existing data caching schemes perform poorly due to the lack of global network state information and the changing network topology in DTNs. In this paper, we propose a novel data caching scheme based on cooperative caching in DTNs, aiming at improving the successful rate of data access and reducing the data access delay. In the proposed scheme, learning automata are utilized to select a set of caching nodes as Caching Node Set (CNS) in DTNs. Unlike the existing caching schemes failing to address the challenging characteristics of DTNs, our scheme is designed to automatically self-adjust to the changing network topology through the well-designed voting and updating processes. The proposed scheme improves the overall performance of data access in DTNs compared with the former caching schemes. The simulations verify the feasibility of our scheme and the improvements in performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wide spread of the 802.11-based wireless technology brings about a good opportunity for the indoor positioning system. In this paper, we present a new 802.11-based indoor positioning method using support vector regression (SVR), which consists of offline training stage and online location stage. The model that describes the relations between the position and the received signal strength (RSS) of the mobile device is established at the offline training stage by SVR, and at the online location stage the exact position is determined by this model. Due to the complex indoor environment, RSS is vulnerable and changeable. To address this issue, data filtering rules obtained through statistical analysis are applied at offline training stage to improve the quality of training samples and thus improve the quality of prediction model. At the online location stage, k -times continuous measurement is utilized to obtain the high quality RSS input, which guarantees the consistency with the training samples and improves the position accuracy of mobile devices. Performance evaluation shows that the proposed method has a higher positioning accuracy compared with the probability and neutral network method, and the demand for the storage capacity and computing power is also low at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-animal fluorescence-enhanced imaging involves the detection of weak fluorescent signals emanating from nanomolar to picomolar concentrations of exogenous or endogenously produced fluorophore concurrent with the rejection of an overwhelmingly large component of backscattered excitation light. The elimination of the back-reflected excitation light of the collected signal remains a major and often unrecognized challenge for further reducing the noise floor and increasing sensitivity of small-animal fluorescence imaging. Herein, we show that the combination of three-cavity interference and holographic super notch filters with appropriate imaging lenses to collimate light improves rejection of excitation light, enabling more accurate imaging. To assess excitation leakage, the "out-of-band (S(λx))" to "in-band (S(λm) -- S(λx))" signal ratio from phantom studies and the target-to-background ratio (TBR) from in vivo animal imaging was acquired with and without collimating optics. The addition of collimating optics resulted in a 51% to 75% reduction in the ratio of (S(λx))/(S(λm) -- S(λx)) for the phantom studies and an improvement of TBR from 11% to 31% and of signal-to-noise ratio from 11% to 142% for an integrin-targeting conjugate in human glioma xenografts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic fluorescence images were obtained from xenografts bearing a subcutaneous human Kaposi's sarcoma (KS1767) immediately following the intravenous injection of an integrin-receptor targeting Cy5.5-c(KRGDf) at a dose ranging from 0.75 to 6 nmol/mouse. The fluorescence images were acquired using an intensified charge-coupled device system and were analyzed with a three-compartment pharmacokinetic (PK) model to determine uptake parameters in the tumor and normal tissue regions of interest as a function of administered dose. Our results show that the uptake of Cy5.5-c(KRGDf) in tumor regions were: (i) significantly greater than the contralateral normal tissue regions; (ii) linearly increased with dose of Cy5.5-c(KRGDf) up to 1.5 nmol/mouse; and (iii) blocked by preinjection of c(KRGDf). Above doses of 1.5 nmol/mouse, the uptake no longer increased with dose, suggesting integrin receptor saturation. In normal tissues, the PK uptake parameters were not influenced by Cy5.5-c(KRGDf) dose nor by the preadministration of c(KRGDf). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In vivo optical imaging is potentially useful for evaluating the presence of tumor markers that are targets of molecular medicine. Here we report the synthesis and characterization of integrin αvβ3-targeted peptide cyclo(Lys–Arg–Gly–Asp–Phe) [c(KRGDf )] labeled with fluorescence dyes with wavelength spanning from the visible/near infrared (Cy5.5) to the true near infrared (IRDye800) for optical imaging. In vitro, the peptide – dye conjugates bound specifically to tumor cells expressing αvβ3. When administered intravenously into mice at a dose of 6 nmol /mouse, the conjugates accumulated in tumors expressing αvβ3. The tumor-to-background ratios for human KS1767 Kaposi's sarcoma in mice injected with Cy5.5–c(KRGDf ) and Cy5.5 were 5.5 and 1.5, respectively. Preinjection of c(KRGDf ) blocked the uptake of Cy5.5–c(KRGDf ) in tumors by 89%. In αvβ3-positive M21 and αvβ3-negative M21-L human melanoma, fluorescence intensity in the tumor of mice injected with IRDye800 – c(KRGDf ) was 2.3 and 1.3 times that in normal tissue, respectively. Dynamic imaging revealed that Cy5.5– c(KRGDf ) was rapidly taken up by KS1767 tumor immediately after bolus injection. The rate of its uptake in the tumor was reduced by preinjection of c(KRGDf ) in an interval time-dependent manner. Our data suggest that nearinfrared fluorescence imaging may be applied to the detection of tumors expressing integrin αvβ3 and to the assessment of the optimal biological dose and schedule of targeted therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of recent advances in near-infrared laser diodes and fast electro-optic detection has spawned a new research field of diagnostic spectroscopy and imaging based on targeting and reporting exogenous fluorescent agents. This review seeks to concisely address the physics, instrumentation, advancements in tomography, and near-infrared fluorescent contrast agent development that promises selective and specific molecular targeting of diseased tissues. As an example of one area of the field, recent work focusing on pharmacokinetic analysis of fluorophores targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is presented in a human breast cancer xenograft mouse model to demonstrate specificity of molecularly targeted contrast agents. Finally, a critical evaluation of the limitations and the opportunities for future translation of fluorescence-enhanced optical imaging of deep tissues is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]