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High-pressure groundwater brings great challenges to the construction of mountain tunnels. Hence, controlling and discharging groundwater are two key problems that must be addressed before constructing tunnels in high-pressure and water-rich region. Fluid–solid coupling seepage analysis method is used to analyze the variation of displacement, stress and pore water pressure of the tunnel. A waterproof and drainage method suitable for tunnels in high-pressure and water-rich region is proposed. Curtain grouting plays a dual role in waterproof and reinforcing surrounding rock. Decompression drainage holes are designed in order to further reduce the pore water pressure acting on the initial lining. The thickness of grouting circle, the permeability coefficient ratio and the decompression drainage holes distribution rate of the initial lining are the main factors that affect the waterproof and drainage effect of tunnels in high-pressure and water-rich region. Suggested parameters on waterproof and drainage measures for tunnels in high-pressure and water-rich region are given after comprehensive analysis, which can provide basis for the technology on high-pressure groundwater treatments and constructions of underground engineering under complex geological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel therapeutic regimen showed that the oncolytic type II herpes simplex virus (oHSV2) was able to prevent colorectal cancer growth, recurrence, and metastasis. However, no study has yet explored whether oHSV2 has an impact on the development of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). We chose the clinical chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin (DOX) as a positive control to evaluate the effect of oHSV2 infection on the apoptotic, invasive, and proliferative capacity of DLBCL cells. We next further explored the therapeutic efficacy of oncolytic virus oHSV2 or DOX in DLBCL tumor bearing BALB/c mice, and evaluated the infiltration of CD8 + T cells and CD4 + T cells in tumor tissues. A pathological approach was used to explore the effects of oHSV2 on various organs of tumor bearing mice, including the heart, liver, and kidney. Next, SU-DHL-4 cells were co-cultured with cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) to mimic the tumor immune microenvironment (TME), to explore the impact of oHSV2 on the immune environment at the cellular level, and then analyzed the relationship between oHSV2 and the PD-1/PD-L1 immune-checkpoint. Subsequently, we further validated the efficacy of combined oHSV2 and PD-L1 treatment on transplanted tumor growth in mice at the in vivo level. DLBCL cells were sensitive to the action of the oncolytic virus oHSV2, and the decline in their proliferative activity showed a time-and dose-dependent manner. oHSV2 and DOX intervention preeminently increased the cell apoptosis, restrained cell proliferation and invasion, with the greatest changes occurring in response to oHSV2 infection. oHSV2 application effectively improved the immune status of the tumor microenvironment, favoring the invasion of CD8 + T and CD4 + T cells, thereby enhancing their antitumor effects. Besides, oHSV2 treatment has a safety profile in the organs of tumor bearing mice and indeed inhibits the PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint in DLBCL. Interestingly, the combination of oHSV2 and PD-L1 antibodies results in more profound killing of DLBCL cells than oHSV2 infection alone, with a significant increase in the proportion of CD4 + T cells and CD8 + T cells. The antitumor effect was the best after combining oHSV2 and PD-L1 antibodies, suggesting that the combination therapy of oHSV2 and PD-L1 would have a better prospect for clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most extant nutrition labeling studies examine how different nutrition labels affect consumers' purchase intentions or how nutrition knowledge influences shoppers' final decisions. However, most scholars have ignored that the channel of risk attitudes toward a food product may indirectly affect shoppers' purchase intentions as a result of the health risk perception arising at the time of seeing nutrition labels. We empirically compare the effect of the Traffic Light (TL) label with the icon-only nutrition label on participants' attitudes and health risk perceptions linked to their purchase intentions regarding a pizza product. The findings from the online experiment show that the TL label has a more significant effect on purchase intention than the icon-only nutrition label. However, this effect is different based on consumers' health risks perception. Consumers with low health risk perception were more likely to purchase pizza, but those with high health risk perception decrease their purchases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of the maritime transportation industry, the number of ships is increasing and the ships are becoming more intelligent. Due to the rapid development of maritime communication, the demand for communication spectrum is increasing. Therefore, the maritime cognitive radio (CR) system is an effective solution. Because of the multipath fading caused by sea surface and atmosphere has a more serious influence on communication signals, which increases the instability of the signal reception, the spectrum sensing technology in maritime cognitive radio is more challenging than the spectrum sensing on land. In order to solve this problem, a cyclostationary detection algorithm for multiple antennas in fading model is proposed. A maximum ratio combining algorithm based on optimal weight correlation value (OWCV-MRC) is proposed for the diversity gain and system performance degradation caused by diversity technology on multipath fading channels. The algorithm uses the correlation values of the attenuation gains on the two different branches as the weighting coefficients of each branch, thus improving the coefficient matrix in the maximum ratio combining (MRC) algorithm. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively detect the target signal in the fading channel with ultra-low signal to noise ratio (SNR). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yucha is a home-made, fermented fish product in South China. The quality of yucha can vary depending on environmental factors. In order to determine the effects of temperature on bacterial biodiversity and quality of fermented yucha products, in the present study, yucha was fermented at 15°C, 20°C, 25°C, and 30°C. Bacterial cells in all yucha samples grew from 3.7 log CFU/g at the onset of the fermentation and reached growth over 7.0 log CFU/g within 1 week. Lactobacillus plantarum was predominated in the 20°C and 25°C fermented yucha products, while Lactobacillus sakei and Lactobacillus brevis were the most abundant in the yucha products fermented at 15°C and 30°C, respectively. Predominant bacterial species are presumed to be potential starters to drive yucha fermentation. Evaluation of yucha qualities demonstrated that lower biogenic amine contents, better texture properties, and more desirable volatile compounds were identified in yucha products fermented at 20°C. Therefore, this temperature is recommended for industrial yucha processing in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have been exploring the genetic mechanisms underlying the control of liver regeneration (LR). However, an integrated analysis of circRNAs expression of rat regenerating livers during the proliferation phase has not been performed yet. For this purpose, circRNAs expression profile was globally analyzed by high-throughput sequencing. It showed that 10,003 circRNAs were detected, and 164 circRNAs were differentially expressed. Subsequently, 27 circRNAs were predicted to bind to 58 candidate miRNAs and compete for miRNA-binding sites with 2195 mRNAs. By applying GO and KEGG analysis, it was predicted that these circRNAs significantly participated in tissue regeneration, regulation of cell proliferation and Ras, p53, Wnt, Jak-STAT, MAPK signalling pathways. Based on the number of the corresponding miRNAs and their role enriched and reported in cell proliferation of LR or hepatocellular carcinoma, four kinds of circRNAs (circ_03848, circ_08236, circ_13398 and circ_15013) were considered as the key circRNAs. The predicted competing endogenous RNA networks and bioinformatics analysis revealed the potential role of these circRNAs in LR, which would provide useful information for understanding the mechanism of LR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitraria sibirica is a halophyte and belongs to the family Nitrariaceae. The chloroplast genome of Nitraria sibirica (159,466 bp) has a quadripartite structure, which consists of a large single-copy (87,914 bp) region, a small single-copy (18,316 bp) region, and a pair of inverted repeats (26,618 bp). Sequencing analyses indicate that the chloroplast genome contains 113 distinct genes, including 79 peptide-coding genes, 30 transfer RNA genes, and 4 ribosomal RNA genes. We also identified 105 perfect simple sequence repeats, 12 most divergent non-coding regions, and 6 most divergent coding regions when compared to the chloroplast genomes of the Sapindales plants. Phylogenetic analyses using the concatenated amino acid sequences of 58 protein-coding genes from 48 species suggest that the ‘basal’ position of Nitraria sibirica belongs to the Sapindales clade. We also found that the inverted repeat expansion resulted in a duplication of rps19 in Nitraria sibirica when comparing its chloroplast genome structure with Theobroma cacao, Vitis vinifera, Eucalyptus erythrocorys and Arabidopsis thaliana. The duplication of rps19 gene was consistent with that in Zanthoxylum piperitum, Azadirachta indica, Sapindus mukorossi and Citrus sinensis, all of which belong to the order Sapindales, but different from most Rosids plants. In summary, the analyses of Nitraria sibirica chloroplast genome not only provide insights into comparative genome analysis, but also pave the way for a better understanding of the phylogenetic relationships within the Sapindales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conclusion: The T-SPOT test for Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection (T-SPOT.TB) can be used for early diagnosis of laryngeal tuberculosis (TB). Objective: The incidence of TB is increasing on a global scale. Laryngeal TB is the most common extrapulmonary form of TB and its early diagnosis is still difficult. This study investigated the performance of the interferon-γ release assay in the diagnosis of laryngeal TB. Methods: A total of 83 patients with laryngeal neoplasms were confirmed to have laryngeal TB by pathology, acid-fast staining, and/or fluorescence quantitative PCR. In addition, 52 patients with vocal cord polyps were enrolled as the control group. Two groups underwent both T-SPOT.TB and tuberculin skin test (TST). Results: T-SPOT.TB was positive in 75 cases in the laryngeal TB group and 4 cases in the control group, showing a sensitivity of 90.3% (75/83) and a specificity of 92.3% (48/52). The TST was positive in 42 cases and 20 cases, respectively, in these two groups. Obviously, TST and T-SPOT.TB were significantly different in terms of sensitivity when applied for detection of laryngeal TB ( p < 0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and efficient electrocatalytic carboxylation of arylic bromides has been developed using silver as cathode and magnesium as anode in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) under mild conditions. The influences of some key factors (such as the nature of cathode material, current density, and temperature) on this reaction were investigated. The investigations were extended to other arylic bromides under the optimized conditions, and the corresponding carboxylic acids were obtained in moderate to good yields (30-78%). The electrochemical behavior was studied at different electrodes (Ag, Cu, Ni, and Ti) by cyclic voltammetry, which showed significant electrocatalytic effect of the silver electrode toward the reductive carboxylation of arylic bromides. [image omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To report the results of the Neuroform, Leo and Wingspan stents used to treat cerebral aneurysms in vessels of small caliber. Materials and methods: We reviewed 12 cases of wide-necked aneurysms treated with stent deployment into small cerebral vessels with diameter range from 1·0 to 2·5 mm. All stents were deployed for aneurysm treatment in combination with coiling. Aneurysm locations were as follows: A1 (n=4), anterior communicating artery (n=2), A2 (n=1), M1 (n=2), M2 (n=1) and P1 (n=2). Clinical follow-up ranged from 3 to 12 months. Imaging follow-up (range: 3–6 months) was performed with cerebral angiography. Results: Twelve self-expanding stents (six Neuroform stents, three Leo stents and three Wingspan stents) were deployed for 12 wide-necked cerebral aneurysms arising from vessels measuring ≤2·5 mm in diameter. Eleven procedures were successfully performed without immediate or delayed device-related complications with one stent misplacement. Intraprocedural thrombus developed within the stent in one patient. There were no clinical neurological symptoms related to the treated vessel territory at clinical follow-up. Conclusion: Development of newer small endovascular devices, such as Neuroform, Leo and Wingspan stents, allow access and ability to treat lesions farther out in the smaller cerebral vessels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expanded CD4+CD28null T cells have not been described in the circulation of patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). The aim of the present was to detect and characterize the surface phenotype and functional capacity of these cells in CHB patients. Expanded CD4+CD28null T cells were detected in the circulation of CHB patients with high viral load and elevated aminotransferase levels. Most CD4+CD28null T cells showed a CD27-CD45RA-CD45RO+ surface phenotype. The markers CD56, CD57 and killer immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) were detected on CD4+CD28null T cells, but the majority were positive for CD57. Functionally, CD4+CD28null T cells were found to be potent cytotoxic T lymphocytes with perforin and granzyme B secretion profiles. These findings indicate that the expanded CD4+CD28null T cells are cytotoxic memory T cells and display a distinct functional phenotype in comparison with CD4+CD28+ T cells. The presence of these cells appears to be associated with inflammatory conditions, suggesting that these elevated CD4+CD28null T cells might be involved in the pathogenesis of CHB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]