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Osteoporosis is one of the most frequent skeletal disorders and a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the expanding aging population. Evidence suggests that hesperidin may have a therapeutic impact on osteoporosis. Nevertheless, little is known about the role of hesperidin in the development of osteoporosis. Bioinformatics analyses were carried out to explore the functions and possible molecular mechanisms by which hesperidin regulates osteogenic differentiation. In the present study, we screened and harvested 12 KEGG pathways that were shared by hesperidin-targeted genes and osteoporosis. The p53 signaling pathway was considered to be a key mechanism. Our in vitro results showed that hesperidin partially reversed dexamethasone-induced inhibition of osteogenic differentiation by suppressing the activation of p53, and suggest that hesperidin may be a promising candidate for the treatment against dexamethasone-induced osteoporosis.

A simple and efficient photocatalytic method for the synthesis of dihydropyrimidinones (DHPMs) and their derivatives via porous ultrathin carbon nitride nanosheets (p-CNNs) without solvents was demonstrated. The yields of 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones/thiones and their derivatives were up to 97.0%. Furthermore, the yield of 5-ethoxycarbonyl-6-methyl-4-phenyl-3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-one in the 10th cycle retained 98.9% of its 1st value. Considering the environmental and economic benefits, this work exhibits various merits including excellent yields, environmental friendliness, inexpensiveness, and avoiding the use of solvents and metal-based photocatalysts. In addition, the excellent performance of the p-CNNs and environmentally benign reaction system have also been checked by the photocatalytic synthesis of 12-phenyl-9,9-dimethyl-8,9,10,12-tetrahydrobenzo[a]xanthen-11-one and 5-phenyl-1(4-methoxyphenyl)-3[(4-methoxy-phenyl)-aminol]-1H-pyrrol-2(5H)-one. This work paves a new way for carrying out a three-component reaction using metal-free photocatalysts under mild reaction conditions.

Background Cysteine cathepsin C encoded by the CTSC gene is an important member of the cysteine cathepsin family that plays a key role regulation of many types of tumors. However, whether CTSC is involved in the pathological process of glioma has not yet been reported. We comprehensively analyzed data from multiple databases and for the first time revealed a role and specific mechanism of action of CTSC in glioma, identifying it as a novel and efficient biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of this brain tumor. Methods The expression of CTSC in glioma and its relationship with clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients with glioma were analyzed at different levels by using clinical sample information from several databases. CTSC expression levels in glioma and normal brain tissues, as well as in glioma cells and normal brain cells, was validated by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to reveal the signaling pathways that CTSC may participate in. The connectivity map was used to reveal small molecules that may inhibit CTSC expression in glioma, and the putative effect of these compounds was verified by RT-qPCR. Results Our analyses showed that the expression of CTSC in glioma was higher than that in non-cancerous cells. GSEA showed that CTSC expression may regulate the malignant development of glioma through Toll-like receptor signaling pathways, pathways in cancer, and extracellular matrix receptor interaction signaling pathways. And we proved piperlongumine and scopoletin could inhibit CTSC expression in glioma cells. Conclusions CTSC may serve as an efficient molecular target for the diagnosis and therapy of glioma, thereby improving the poor prognosis of patients with glioma.

As more and more artificial intelligence (AI) technologies move from the laboratory to real-world applications, the open-set and robustness challenges brought by data from the real world have received increasing attention. Data augmentation is a widely used method to improve model performance, and some recent works have also confirmed its positive effect on the robustness of AI models. However, most of the existing data augmentation methods are heuristic, lacking the exploration of their internal mechanisms. We apply the explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) method, explore the internal mechanisms of popular data augmentation methods, analyze the relationship between game interactions and some widely used robustness metrics, and propose a new proxy for model robustness in the open-set environment. Based on the analysis of the internal mechanisms, we develop a mask-based boosting method for data augmentation that comprehensively improves several robustness measures of AI models and beats state-of-the-art data augmentation approaches. Experiments show that our method can be widely applied to many popular data augmentation methods. Different from the adversarial training, our boosting method not only significantly improves the robustness of models, but also improves the accuracy of test sets. Our code is available at \url{https://github.com/Anonymous_for_submission}., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures

Additional file 1: Table S1. Characteristics of patientswith glioma based on CGGA RNA-seqdata. Table S2. Characteristics of patientswith glioma based on CGGA microarray data. Table S3. Characteristics of patientswith glioma based on TCGA RNA-seq data

This study aimed to isolate starch and evaluate its chemical and structural characteristics from six Chinese hulless barley (HB) cultivars. Starch isolated from naked barley displays A‐type crystalline packing and a regular granular shape. We measured peak viscosity values ranging from 237 to 264 cP, trough viscosity values from 305 to 380 cP, breakdown values from 390 to 535 cP, final viscosities from 357 to 523 cP, setback values from 245 to 354 cP and 383 to 460 cP, peak times from 5.53 to 5.73 min, and pasting temperatures from 93.10 to 94.65°C by RVA. Transition temperatures (T 0, T p, and T c), gelatinization temperature ranges (ΔT r), and enthalpies of gelatinization (ΔH) were measured on a differential scanning calorimeter analyzer (DSC) and ranged from 57.81 to 61.25°C, 64.36 to 67.57°C, 82.03 to 84.70°C, and 21.52 to 26.89°C and 7.14 to 10.66 J/g, respectively. The varying chemical and structural characteristics of HB starch isolated from different cultivars suggested the potential for broader applications of the cereal.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Characteristics of patients with glioma based on CGGA RNA-seq data.

Additional file 2: Table S2. Characteristics ofpatients with gliomabased on CGGA RNA-seq data.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-pic-10.1177_09544062211027199 for Machine learning approach to improve vapor recovery: Prediction and frequency converter with a new vapor recovery system by Yajun Liu, Shenchao Zhang and Zhendong Liu in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science

Additional file 1: Table S1. siRNA sequences targeting GNG5.

Additional file 2: Table S2. Characteristics of patients with glioma based on CGGA microarray data.

Additional file 3: Table S3. Clinical characteristics of glioma patients based on CGGA RNA-seq data.

Additional file 2: Table S2. RNA-specific primers sequences.

The performance of deep segmentation models often degrades due to distribution shifts in image intensities between the training and test data sets. This is particularly pronounced in multi-centre studies involving data acquired using multi-vendor scanners, with variations in acquisition protocols. It is challenging to address this degradation because the shift is often not known \textit{a priori} and hence difficult to model. We propose a novel framework to ensure robust segmentation in the presence of such distribution shifts. Our contribution is three-fold. First, inspired by the spirit of curriculum learning, we design a novel style curriculum to train the segmentation models using an easy-to-hard mode. A style transfer model with style fusion is employed to generate the curriculum samples. Gradually focusing on complex and adversarial style samples can significantly boost the robustness of the models. Second, instead of subjectively defining the curriculum complexity, we adopt an automated gradient manipulation method to control the hard and adversarial sample generation process. Third, we propose the Local Gradient Sign strategy to aggregate the gradient locally and stabilise training during gradient manipulation. The proposed framework can generalise to unknown distribution without using any target data. Extensive experiments on the public M\&Ms Challenge dataset demonstrate that our proposed framework can generalise deep models well to unknown distributions and achieve significant improvements in segmentation accuracy., Accepted by MICCAI-2021

Additional file 4: Figure S1. Circle diagram of co-expression analysis results.

Additional file 3: Table S3. Characteristics of patients with glioma based on TCGA RNA-seq data.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-pic-10.1177_09544062211027199 for Machine learning approach to improve vapor recovery: Prediction and frequency converter with a new vapor recovery system by Yajun Liu, Shenchao Zhang and Zhendong Liu in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science

Additional file 4: Table S4. Characteristics ofpatients with gliomabased on TCGA RNA-seq data.

Deep models often suffer from severe performance drop due to the appearance shift in the real clinical setting. Most of the existing learning-based methods rely on images from multiple sites/vendors or even corresponding labels. However, collecting enough unknown data to robustly model segmentation cannot always hold since the complex appearance shift caused by imaging factors in daily application. In this paper, we propose a novel style-invariant method for cardiac image segmentation. Based on the zero-shot style transfer to remove appearance shift and test-time augmentation to explore diverse underlying anatomy, our proposed method is effective in combating the appearance shift. Our contribution is three-fold. First, inspired by the spirit of universal style transfer, we develop a zero-shot stylization for content images to generate stylized images that appearance similarity to the style images. Second, we build up a robust cardiac segmentation model based on the U-Net structure. Our framework mainly consists of two networks during testing: the ST network for removing appearance shift and the segmentation network. Third, we investigate test-time augmentation to explore transformed versions of the stylized image for prediction and the results are merged. Notably, our proposed framework is fully test-time adaptation. Experiment results demonstrate that our methods are promising and generic for generalizing deep segmentation models., Comment: Accepted by MICCAI STACOM 2020

Additional file 1: eTable 1. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the excluded participants ≥75 years of age in the cohort study. eTable 2. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the excluded hypertensive patients ≥75 years of age in the clinical trial. eTable 3. Mean and variability in blood pressure in the cohort study and clinical trial over the follow-up period. eTable 4. Adverse effects of statins.

In this study, apple–pear pomace dietary fibers were treated with acid, alkali, cellulase, and hemicellulase. The effects of these treatments on the chemical constitutions, structural characteristics, functional properties, and the quality of apple–pear pomace dietary fibers were investigated. The results showed that the purity of apple–pear pomace dietary fibers was 79–83%, and the fiber contained cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin, and lignin. Their monosaccharide structures included mannose, glucosamine, ribose, rhamnose, glucuronic acid, galacturonic acid, galactosamine, glucose, galactose, xylose, arabinose, and fucose. The scanning electron microscopy showed that all the apple–pear pomace dietary fibers were beehive shaped, but their functional and physico-chemical properties were different. Using the main constituents and the functional and physico-chemical properties as indicators, through a principal component analysis, we determined the main constituents and characteristics of four apple–pear pomace dietary fibers.

To solve the dynamic reactive power optimization problem in the distribution network, a novel optimization algorithm (variable step size beetle antennae search algorithm, VBAS) is introduced. Meanwhile, from the economic point of view, the minimum network loss and capacitor switching cost are taken as the objective functions, and the dynamic reactive power optimization model is established. In contrast with the majority of existing traditional algorithms that are intricate in process, the conducted algorithm is of less calculate and easier achieved. Besides, the variable step size strategy is introduced to improve optimization accuracy. The effectiveness of this algorithm is verified by simulation analysis on the IEEE 33- bus system, and the results show that VBAS obtains the optimum operation point and outperforms traditional algorithms significantly.

With the expansion of power system scale, the operation of the power grid system has been greatly challenged. Reactive power optimization can make the power system operate safely and economically. In this paper, an improved differential evolutionary algorithm is applied to reactive power optimization of power system. We take the minimum power system loss as the objective function, the power balance condition as the equality constraint, the control variables and state variables as the inequality constraint conditions to establish the system model. Finally, IEEE30 bus and IEEE33 bus power system are selected to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Coriolis mass flowmeter is widely used in various fields due to its high accuracy, but it still needs to be improved in some special conditions. This paper proposes a deep learning-based signal processing method for Coriolis mass flowmeter. Firstly, we set up an experimental platform to collect data, taking the vibration signal as the input feature and the mass flow as the sample label. Secondly, we designed networks with different structures (including LSTM, RNN and ANN) and adopted batch normalization to speed up convergence. Finally, Bayesian model fusion and moving average were used to reduce generalization error. Experiment results prove that the model with LSTM layer is better than other single models and the mean square error of the optimized model reduces to 0.0047, which is far superior to the calibrated meter (0.1200). These findings that get rid of traditional methods are expected to break through existing bottlenecks.

Ganoderic acid D (GAD) is a highly oxygenated tetracyclic triterpenoid. This study aims to assess the effects of GAD on the energy metabolism of colon cancer through the regulation of SIRT3 expression and whether this effect is related to acetylated cyclophilin D. The results demonstrated that GAD inhibits the energy reprogramming of colon cancer cells including glucose uptake, lactate production, pyruvate and acetyl-coenzyme production in colon cancer cells. Meanwhile, GAD upregulated the protein expression of SIRT3. Furthermore, the interruption of SIRT3 expression significantly reversed all the effects of SIRT3 on the energy reprogramming of colon cancer. In addition, GAD induced the deacetylated cyclophilin D (CypD) by SIRT3, whereas SIRT3-shRNA inhibited its combining effect on CypD. The energy reprogramming effects of GAD on colon cancer seem to be mediated by SIRT3 upregulation via acetylated CypD inhibition.

As the heart of chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL), the singlet oxygen generator (SOG) has been focus of research for many years. A novel eject singlet oxygen generator was designed based on research of industrial ejectors and cyclone separators. Simulations and experiments were performed on the chemical reaction of O2(1). This eject SOG can make larger gas-liquid surface area through nozzle compared with traditional SOGs, and therefore it has a high chemical efficiency. Gas and liquid were separated by a cyclone separator which was designed to fit for the high separation efficiency and low residence time. This SOG has a chlorine utilization of 97%-99% and O2(1) yield of 40%-50%.

It is important to maximize the saturated throughput of VANET broadcasting protocol for fully utilizing wireless channel. The saturated throughput of broadcasting protocol is related to contention windows valve and contending nodes in the networks. We propose a discrete markov analytic model for performance evaluation broadcasting protocol under saturation condition for VANET, and analysis the relationship between the number of vehicle nodes and the contention windows. So, the analysis results show suitable contention window value can optimize the throughput of broadcasting protocol of VANET. The results show that the proposed analytic model and optimization contention windows value can enhance the system throughput.

Monodispersed droplets could be easily generated in coaxial microdevice, and a reaction based upon these discrete droplets is an attractive approach thanks to isolated reaction units, efficient mixing, and precise residence time control. In this work, free radical polymerization of butyl acrylate was conducted in monodispersed droplets of several hundred microns. Two different heating methodologies, microwave heating and conventional heating with oil bath were adopted to initiate polymerization, respectively. The polymerization under conventional heating could be regarded as an isothermal process, while the polymerization under microwave heating gradually underwent a temperature increase. So the poly (butyl acrylate) obtained by microwave heating has larger average molecular weight and higher polydispersity index. Meanwhile, the conversion of butyl acrylate was significantly improved by microwave heating compared with conventional heating, even though the reaction temperature under microwave heating might be lower than the temperature of the oil bath. This remarkable enhancement was a direct proof of the nonthermal effect of the microwave field for free radical polymerization. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013

In this work, an asymmetrical T-shaped micromixer with replaceable channels was used to investigate comparatively the micromixing performance in various micromixing configurations by Villermaux/Dushman method and CFD simulation, and the scale-up strategy of mixing configuration was discussed as well. The results show that both the convergence region and mixing channel contribute considerably to the mixing, and widening the continuous fluid channel of micromixer to several millimeters in individual can still exhibit high micromixing performance as Re is above 6000. In an asymmetrical T-shaped micromixer with a constant height of mixing channel, the intensity of mixing ( I M ) has a nearly linear relationship with Re in the range from 2000 to 10,000 while independent on the width of the mixing channel. Compared with one-dimension scale-up in the vertical direction, one-dimension scale-up in the horizontal direction can benefit from less deterioration to micromixing performance. Adapting for this scale-up strategy, lower mechanical energy dissipation per mass is needed at higher operational capacity. The Re can be used as a fundamental criterion for an asymmetrical T-shaped micromixer to adjust the width of mixing channel according to the operational capacity. Our results would be helpful for understanding the mixing phenomena in the asymmetrical T-shaped micromixer and optimizing configuration or operation conditions for micromixer of this kind.

Based on m-stems and semi-extensible structure, a model is presented to represent RNA planar pseudoknots, and corresponding dynamic programming algorithm is designed and implemented to predict arbitrary planer pseudoknots and simple non-planar pseudoknots with O(n4) time and O(n3) space. The algorithm folds total 245 sequences in the Pseudobase database, and the test results indicate that the algorithm has good accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. *Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 60573024 and 60573181), the Research Project of Shandong Economic University (01610784), and NSF of Shandong Provice (2005BS01014)

High press, gravity-independent, singlet oxygen generator (HGSOG) [1] with small reaction zone and high chemical efficiency was designed and fabricated. The mixing, reaction and separation processes happened simultaneously in the reaction zone of HGSOG. The size and the configuration of reaction zone are very important for HGSOG. In this paper, p-τ value was calculated to determine the upper limit of the volume of reaction zone. The condition of gas-liquid separation was calculated to determine the lower limit of the volume of reaction zone. The utilization rate of Cl 2 achieved 90% and the yield of O 2 ( 1 Δ) reached 70%.

A lifting and sliding mechanical parking system with combined drive of hydraulic cylinder and pulley block has the advantages of multiple layers, fast lifting speed, steady operation and low cost. In the present study, we investigated the structure and operation features of the lifting equipment of vehicle plates in a mechanical car parking garage. We calculated the energy and time consumption of vehicle plates when the plates declined and lifted vehicles at different speeds. To ensure the operation efficiency of the garage, and to effectively reduce the energy consumption of the plate lifting equipment, the reasonable operation speeds of vehicle plates at various levels were determined, and the structure parameters and key operation parameters of plate lifting equipment were decided. Our study provides scientific basis for the lifting equipment design of vehicle plates in a high-speed multi-layer lifting and sliding mechanical parking garage.

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone malignancy in children and teenagers, and its clinical outcome remains poor. Previous studies have investigated the association between excision repair cross-complementing (ERCC) and prognosis of osteosarcoma patients, but their results were inconsistent. We aimed to clarify the associations between ERCC polymorphisms and osteosarcoma prognosis by using meta-analysis. We searched relevant studies in PubMed, Embase, coupled with Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) in human osteosarcoma published prior to April, 2014. Hazard ratios (HR) together with their 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) were used to measure the relationship between ERCC mutations and prognosis in patients with osteosarcoma. Pooled results showed that polymorphism of ERCC2 Lys751Gln was associated with the overall survival of osteosarcoma (GG vs. AA, HR = 0.40; 95 % CI 0.18–0.86), and ERCC5 His46His mutation was associated with the event-free survival of osteosarcoma (CC vs. TT, HR = 0.37; 95 % CI 0.15, 0.93). In addition, there is no evidence of association on ERCC1 Asn118Asn, ERCC1 Gln504Lys, and ERCC2 Asp312Asn polymorphisms with prognosis in osteosarcoma. In summary, the ERCC2 Lys751Gln and ERCC5 His46His polymorphisms might influence osteosarcoma prognosis.

In order to solve the conflict between compensation effect and power consumption of heave compensation system which installed on floating drilling platform, a new type of drill string heave compensation system is designed. This system has the advantages of low energy consumption of passive compensator and stable performance of active compensator. The mathematical model of semi-active heave compensation transient response is established based on MATLAB/SIMULINK through dynamic mechanics analysis. The results of simulation show that the semi-active heave compensation system with good compensation effects is stable and reliable. According to similar theories, heave compensation test bed based on the data of simulation is built to simulate heave movement, drill string load and heave compensation experiment. The experiment results of passive, active and semi-active heave compensation show that the semi-active heave compensation system is the most effective in compensation effect and consumes the lowest energy.

Heave compensation system is one of key equipments of floating offshore drilling system, which compensation effect is affected by many factors. Due to constraints, the research on the test bench, which has been built, is relatively limited. Against the actual test bench, virtual prototyping is established with the help of the simulation software ADAMS, and the compensation effect and its affecting factors are investigated in a virtual environment. The influences of accumulator, control parameters and pump flow on compensation effect are analyzed, and the basis on selection of operating parameters is provided for the test bench.

The paper describes the theoretical and experimental analysis of centrifugal flow singlet oxygen generator in order to identify the optimal conditions needed to satisfy the COIL requirement. The optimal conditions had been analyzed under Cl2 flow rate, reaction length and generator pressure. The performance was achieved Cl2 utilization of 94% and O2(1Δ) yield of 72%.© (2010) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Entertainment venues in China are associated with risky sexual behavior. Most previous studies related to entertainment venues in China have focused on sex workers and commercial sex, but this study addressed sexual health in a sample of the general urban population. A randomly selected sample of market vendors (n = 4,510) from an eastern city was recruited and assessed to examine relationships between entertainment venue visits and sexual risk. Both behavioral (self-reports of unprotected sex) and biomedical (STD test results) measures were used. About 18% of the sample (26.8% of men and 9% of women) reported visiting entertainment venues in the past 30 days. Those who visited entertainment venues were more likely to be male, younger, single, with higher education, and to have more discretionary income. For both men and women, visiting entertainment venues was a significant predictor for unprotected sex and STD infection. Gender differences were observed in predicting unprotected sex and STD infections. Entertainment venues could be potential sites for place-based intervention programs and outreach for the general population.

Objective To assess the difference of arterial stiffness in prehypertensive subjects in comparison to normotensive subjects. Methods Non-invasive ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and ultrasonography of carotid arteries were performed in 337 subjects with prehypertension and 338 normotensive subjects. Symmetric ambulatory arterial stiffness index and carotid artery compliance were calculated. Results Symmetric ambulatory arterial stiffness index, ambulatory arterial stiffness index and common carotid artery intima-media thickness in prehypertensive subjects were higher and carotid artery compliance was lower than that in normotensive subjects. Both symmetric ambulatory arterial stiffness index and ambulatory arterial stiffness index positively related to common carotid artery intima-media thickness, and negatively correlated with carotid artery compliance in prehypertensives. After adjustment for covariates, the correlation remains persistent. Correlation was closer between symmetric ambulatory arterial stiffness index and common carotid artery intima-media thickness, carotid artery compliance than that between ambulatory arterial stiffness index and common carotid artery intima-media thickness, carotid artery compliance. Conclusions Symmetric ambulatory arterial stiffness index, ambulatory arterial stiffness index and common carotid artery intima-media thickness values were higher, and carotid artery compliance value was lower in prehypertensive subjects than those in normotensive subjects. It is concluded that there is subclinical atherosclerosis in prehypertensives.

Objectives To investigate the impact of high level of postprandial plasma glucose on heart rate turbulence and cardiac structure and function in elderly essential hypertensive patients. Methods Oral glucose tolerance test were performed in all 257 elderly essential hypertensives, aged from 60 to 79 years (mean: 66.8 ± 9.7 years). Then, according to the results of the test, participants were divided into three groups, namely, control group, high postprandial plasma glucose group and diabetes group. All participants were conducted physical examination, 24h ambulatory electrocardiogram, echocardiogram and blood test. Results Compared to control group, turbulence onset (TO), total premature ventricular contraction of 24h, the end systolic diameters of left ventricle (LVESD), fractional shortening of the left ventricular minor semi axis (LVFS), interventricular septum thickness (IVST) and Tei index were markedly elevated, and turbulence slope (TS), the standard deviations of all normal RR intervals (SDNN), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and ratio of E/A were significantly decreased in high postprandial plasma glucose group and diabetes group (P Conclusions High level of postprandial plasma glucose may be an important risk factor for reducing heart rate turbulence, promote cardiac structure remolding, and inducing cardiac dysfunction.

Objective To investigate the effect of different body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference on arterial elasticity in essential hypertension. Methods The basic information was collected in a total of 776 essential hypertensive patients. According to BMI and waist circumference level, all patients were divided into four groups, namely, normal BMI and normal waist circumference group (Igroup, n = 194 cases), normal BMI and elevated waist circumference group (IIgroup, n = 195 cases), excessive BMI and normal waist circumference group (III group, n = 196 cases), excessive BMI and elevated waist circumference group (IVgroup, n = 191 cases). Brachial ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) and ankle-brachial blood pressure index (ABI) were observed in all patients. Arterial stiffness index (AI) was calculated using the blood lipid of all hypertension patients. Results baPWV (2120 ± 263) and AI (3.35 ± 0.87) in IV group were significantly higher than Igroup ( P P P P P > 0.05). Results of 2 × 2 factorial analysis showed that there was a distinctive and synergistic effect between excessive BMI and elevated waist circumference on arterial stiffness. Conclusions Arterial elasticity function was aggravated damaged in essential hypertension in patients with abdominal obesity. Excessive BMI and elevated waist circumference had interaction and synergistic effect on the damage of arterial elasticity function.

Objective To investigate the relationship between variability of self-measured blood pressure at home (HBPV) and carotid artery atherosclerosis and endothelial function in normotensive and mild-moderate hypertensive individuals. Methods Seven consecutive days HBP monitoring, carotid artery ultrasound, brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) were performed in 314 volunteers. HBPV was assessed by the standard deviations of the daily BP average of the last 6 consecutive days. Plasma endothelin-1 level was tested using ELISA. Results The tendency of systolic HBPV significantly increased from normotension to moderate hypertension group. Systolic HBPV was closely correlated with carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) ( r = 0.569, p r = 0.447, p r = –0.636, p r = 0.649, p p Conclusions HBPV was increasing with BP level elevated. It significantly associated with carotid artery atherosclerosis and endothelial function in normotensive and mild-moderate hypertensive subjects.