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The independent associations of extreme temperature and ambient air pollutant with the admission to hospital and mortality of ischemic stroke have been widely investigated. However, knowledge about the modification effects of variation in season and temperature on the association between exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO

The central and southern sections of the Tanlu fault zone experience frequent seismic activity and have a dense population distribution. Infrastructure, such as high-speed rail and the South–North Water Diversion project, as well as world heritage sites, such as the Grand Canal, ancient city ruins, and cultural landscapes, is located along the fault. A strong earthquake occurring in the future may cause significant social impacts and property losses. It is necessary to clearly understand the current activity characteristics and potential seismic risk of the fault zone to scientifically and reasonably reduce the losses of earthquake disasters. However, there are little data on its current activity through geodetic data. Based on GPS observation data from 1991 to 2018, the fine slip distribution characteristics between present earthquakes in the mid–southern segment of the Tanlu fault zone were retrieved based on the fastest descent method. On this basis, the lock degree and slip rate deficit characteristics of this section were obtained. The differences in the deformation characteristics between the two phases of the mid–southern segment of the Tanlu fault zone were analysed by comparing the surface strain results from 1991 to 2007 and 2013 to 2018. The results show that the interseismic sliding rate of the mid–southern segment of the Tanlu fault zone was 0–1 mm·a-1. The northern Tancheng–Sihong section showed right-handed thrust, and the sliding rate was 0.2–1 mm·a-1. The southern Sihong–Tongcheng section was stretched left–right, and the sliding rate was 0–0.5 mm.a-1 The degree of blockage in the mid–southern segment of the Tanlu fault zone was segmented along the fault strike. In the northern section, the locking depth of the Changyi–Tancheng section was relatively high, with the deepest reaching 32 km, and the maximum compression-slide loss rate reached -1 mm·a-1; the Tancheng–Wangji closure coefficient decreased significantly, with a concentrated distribution between 0.2 and 0.7. The Wangji–Jiashan section has a high degree of closure, small and medium earthquakes are not active, and it is the unruptured section, being more prone to stress accumulation.

The central and southern section of Tanlu fault zone is a section with frequent seismic activity and dense population distribution.Along the fault are infrastructure such as high-speed rail and the South-north Water Diversion project, as well as world heritage sites such as the Grand Canal, ancient city ruins and cultural landscapes. If a strong earthquake occurs in the future, it may cause great social impact and property losses.It is necessary to have a clear understanding of the current activity characteristics and potential seismic risk of fault zone to reduce the loss of earthquake disaster scientifically and reasonably.However, there are few data on its current activity characteristics through geodetic data.Based on GPS observation data from 1991 to 2020, the characteristics of fine slip distribution between present earthquakes in the mid-southern segment of the Tanlu fault zone are retrieved based on the fastest descent method. On this basis, the lock degree and slip rate deficit characteristics of this section are obtained；Finally, by comparing the surface strain results from 1991 to 2007 and 2013 to 2020, the differences of deformation characteristics between the two phases of the mid-southern segment of the Tanlu fault zone are analyzed.The results show that the interseismic sliding rate of the mid-southern segment of the Tanlu fault zone is 0 ~ 1 mm·-1，In the northern Tancheng-Sihong section, it showed right-handed thrust, and the sliding rate was between 0.2 ~ 1 mm·-1；The Sihong - Tongcheng section of the southern section is dextrorotally stretched, and the sliding rate is between 0 and 0.5mm.The degree of blockage in the mid-southern segment of the Tanlu fault zone is segmented along fault strike.In the north section, the locking depth of Changyi-Tancheng section was relatively high, with the deepest reaching 32 km,and the maximum compression-slide loss rate reaching -1mm·a-1；Tancheng-Wangji closure coefficient decreased significantly, with a concentrated distribution between 0.2 and 0.7. The Wangji-Jiashan section has a high degree of closure, small and medium earthquakes are not active, and it is the unruptured section, which is more prone to stress accumulation.

Giardia duodenalis is a zoonotic intestinal protozoan parasite that may cause host diarrhea and chronic gastroenteritis, resulting in great economic losses annually and representing a significant public health burden across the world. However, thus far, our knowledge on the pathogenesis of Giardia and the related host cell responses is still extensively limited. The aim of this study is to assess the role of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in regulating G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis during in vitro infection of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) with Giardia. The results showed that the mRNA levels of ER chaperone proteins and ER-associated degradation genes were increased and the expression levels of the main unfolded protein response (UPR)-related proteins (GRP78, p-PERK, ATF4, CHOP, p-IRE1, XBP1s and ATF6) were increased upon Giardia exposure. In addition, cell cycle arrest was determined to be induced by UPR signaling pathways (IRE1, PERK and ATF6) through upregulation of p21 and p27 levels and promotion of E2F1-RB complex formation. Upregulation of p21 and p27 expression was shown to be related to Ufd1-Skp2 signaling. Therefore, the cell cycle arrest was induced by ER stress when infected with Giardia. Furthermore, the apoptosis of the host cell was also assessed after exposure to Giardia. The results indicated that apoptosis would be promoted by UPR signaling (PERK and ATF6), but would be suppressed by the hyperphosphorylation of AKT and hypophosphorylation of JNK that were modulated by IRE1 pathway. Taken together, both of the cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of IECs induced by Giardia exposure involved the activation of the UPR signaling. The findings of this study will deepen our understanding of the pathogenesis of Giardia and the associated regulatory network.

Fractions are an important mathematical concept for elementary students. However, students with mathematics learning disabilities (MLD) struggle with learning fractions. Research has demonstrated that concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) instruction is an effective practice for students with learning and developmental disabilities. Here we investigated whether CRA instruction can support struggling learners’ understanding of fractions in China. Using a multiple probe across-students single-case design, we applied CRA instructions to 4 fourth-grade students with MLD. Results showed that CRA instruction improved students’ fraction proficiency. Limitations of the study, as well as implications on CRA instruction for elementary students with MLD in practice, are discussed.

Density functional theory has been used to elucidate the mechanism of Pd copolymerization of cyclopropenone with ethylene. The results reveal that introducing ethylene and cyclopropenone to Pd catalyst is thermodynamically feasible and generates the α,β-unsaturated ketone unit (UnitA). Cis-mode insertion and Path A1a are the most favorable reaction routes for ethylene and cyclopropenone, respectively. Moreover, cyclopropenone decomposition can generate CO in situ without a catalyst or with a Pd catalyst. The Pd-catalyzed decomposition of cyclopropenone exhibits a lower reaction barrier (22.7 kcal/mol) than its direct decomposition. Our study demonstrates that incorporating CO into the Pd catalyst can generate the isolated ketone unit (UnitB). CO is formed first; thereafter, UnitB is generated. Therefore, the total energy barrier of UnitB generation, accounting for the CO barrier, is 22.7 kcal/mol, which is slightly lower than that of UnitA generation (24.0 kcal/mol). Additionally, the possibility of copolymerizing ethylene, cyclopropenone, and allyl acetate (AAc) has been investigated. The free energy and global reactivity index analyses indicate that the cyclopropenone introduction reaction is more favorable than the AAc insertion, which is consistent with the experimental results. Investigating the copolymerization mechanism will help to develop of a functionalization strategy for polyethylene polymers.

The homeostasis of gut immunity and microbiota are associated with the health of the gut. Dechlorane 602 (Dec 602) with food web magnification potential has been detected in daily food. People who were orally exposed to Dec 602 may encounter increased risk of health problems in the gut. In order to reveal the influence of short-term exposure of Dec 602 on gut immunity and microbiota, adult female C57BL/6 mice were administered orally with Dec 602 (low/high doses: 1.0/10.0 μg/kg body weight per day) for 7 days. Lymphocytes were examined by flow cytometry. Gut microbiota was measured by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Results showed that fecal IgA was upregulated after exposure to the high dose of Dec 602, suggesting that there might be inflammation in the gut. Then, changes of immune cells in mesenteric lymph nodes and colonic lamina propria were examined. We found that exposure to the high dose of Dec 602 decreased the percentages of the anti-inflammatory T regulatory cells in mesenteric lymph nodes. In colonic lamina propria, the production of gut protective cytokine interleukin-22 by CD4

In this article, a novel full-chip EM simulation tool, called EMSpice simulator is proposed. The new method starts from first principles and simultaneously considers two major interplaying physics effects in EM failure process: the hydrostatic stress and electronic current/voltage in a power grid network. The new tool starts by reading the power grid layout information from Synopsys IC Compiler. It then removes immortal interconnect wires by considering both nucleation phase immortality and incubation phase immortality for multi-segment interconnects. Thereafter, a finite difference time domain (FDTD) solver is employed for stress analysis for every mortal interconnect tree for both nucleation and post-voiding phases. At the whole power grid circuit level, the EM analysis is coupled with IR drop analysis of a whole power grid network at each time step so that we can consider the interaction among stress, void growth, resistance change and IR drop in a single simulation framework. Accuracy of EMSpice is validated by comparing with a published EM simulator, XSim, for nucleation phase, and finite element method based COMSOL for post-voiding phase. The comparison results show that EMSpice agrees well with both methods with. Experimental results on two practical processor chip designs show that the proposed coupled EM-IR drop analysis method can further reduce the overly conservative EM-aware power grid design as the number of the failed trees found by EMSpice simulator is up to 76.7% less than the Black’s method and 66.7% less than a recently proposed full-chip EM analysis method respectively. Furthermore EMSpice simulator is the least conservative one for lifetime estimation of individual tree wires among the three methods.

Aerosol transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) via sanitary pipelines in high-rise buildings is possible, however, there is a lack of experimental evidence.The field simulation experiment confirmed the existence of a vertical aerosol transmission pathway from toilet flush-soil stack-floor drains without water seal. This report provided experimental evidence for vertical aerosol transmission of clustered outbreaks on 18 floors of a 33-story residential building.The water seal on floor drains is a necessary barrier to prevent the risk of vertical aerosol transmission of infectious disease pathogens in buildings. It is necessary not only to have a U-shaped trap in the drainage pipe, but also to be filled with water regularly.

High leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) expression caused by an inflammatory condition was reported to promote tumor proliferation and the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in various malignant tumors, but those effects have not been studied in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HSCC) and the molecular mechanism remains unclear. This study was aimed to determine whether YAP/TAZ is involved in the regulation of LGR5 expression in the inflammatory condition. Human hypopharyngeal carcinoma FaDu cells were stimulated with inflammatory medium. The cell invasion ability were evaluated through wound healing assay and transwell invasion assay. The expression levels of EMT-related proteins, LGR5, and p-YAP were detected by real time PCR, western blotting, and immunofluorescence. The results showed that LGR5 expression and the EMT process were significantly enhanced under inflammatory condition. The expression of EMT-related proteins was up-regulated, while that of p-YAP was decreased. After inhibiting the high LGR5 expression with short interfering RNA, the expression of EMT-related proteins was also down-regulated, while that of p-YAP was significantly increased. The use of verteporfin (VP), an inhibitor of YAP activity that promotes YAP phosphorylation, did not affect LGR5 expression. In conclusion, we suggest that the inflammatory condition leads to high LGR5 expression, which up-regulating the expression of EMT-related proteins by inhibiting the YAP phosphorylation.

Density functional theory (DFT) is employed to investigate the promotion of B(C6F5)3 as a ligand for titanium (or vanadium) catalysts in ethylene/1-hexene copolymerization reactions. The results reveal that (I) Ethylene insertion into TiB (with B(C6F5)3 as a ligand ) is preferred over TiH, both thermodynamically and kinetically. (II) In TiH and TiB catalysts, the 2,1 insertion reaction (TiH21 and TiB21) is the primary pathway for 1-hexene insertion. Furthermore, the 1-hexene insertion reaction for TiB21 is favored over TiH21 and is easier to perform. Consequently, the entire ethylene and 1-hexene insertion reaction proceeds smoothly using the TiB catalyst to yield the final product. (III) Analogous to the Ti catalyst case, VB (with B(C6F5)3 as a ligand) is preferred over VH for the entire ethylene/1-hexene copolymerization reaction. Moreover, VB exhibits higher reaction activity than TiB, thus agreeing with experimental results. Additionally, the electron localization function and global reactivity index analysis indicate that titanium (or vanadium) catalysts with B(C6F5)3 as a ligand exhibit higher reactivity. Investigating the promotion of B(C6F5)3 as a ligand for titanium (or vanadium) catalysts in ethylene/1-hexene copolymerization reactions will aid in designing novel catalysts and lead to more cost-effective polymerization production methods.

Density functional theory (DFT) was used to investigate the three-component coupling reactions of aldehydes, alkynes, and amines (A3 coupling) using N-heterocyclic carbene silver as the catalyst. This study reveals that the addition reaction between the catalyst N-heterocyclic carbene silver and phenylacetylene (PAE) forms Ag_PAE. Subsequently, one hydrogen atom of the Ag_PAE migrates to the nitrogen atom of the Amine. Thereafter, the amine aldehyde condensation reaction generates a molecule of water and an imine ion with (Path one) or without (Path two) another amine catalyst. Path one has a lower reaction barrier than Path two. Subsequently, the imine ion reacts with silver phenylacetylide to generate the A3 coupling reaction product propargylamine (PPA). Furthermore, the triple bond and −N3 group in PPA undergo a cycloaddition reaction and generate the final product (PR). The entire reaction is strongly exothermic, and, therefore, the reaction is easy to conduct. Moreover, conceptual density functional theory calculations confirm the reaction mechanism. Investigating the mechanism of these reactions will be helpful for understanding and developing new synthesis strategies for similar functional compounds.

The longitudinal distance between the vehicle and the forward vehicle, as well as the longitudinal distance between the vehicle and the opposite vehicle, is the main risk factor of overtaking behavior on two-way two-lane roads. Accurate measurement of these distances is the basis and key to automatic driving technology of two-way two-lane roads. In order to measure these longitudinal distances and improve the ranging accuracy, a vehicle distance measurement method of two-way two-lane roads based on monocular vision was proposed. Firstly, the vehicle detection model suitable for two-way two-lane roads was trained using YOLOv5s neural network. Secondly, aiming at the problem that the camera roll angle is not considered in the traditional geometric ranging method, the influence of the roll angle of the camera on ranging results using the traditional geometric ranging method was analyzed. In addition, the improved geometric ranging method considering the roll angle of the camera was proposed. Then, tests were conducted on a two-way two-lane road, and the results showed that the proposed method was effective. Compared with other methods, the improved geometric ranging method has higher ranging accuracy in this scene and can provide a reference for vision-based vehicle distance measurement in multi-lane scenes.

The dioxin-like substances polyhalogenated carbazoles (PHCZs) may trigger the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) signaling pathway. Although the crosstalk between AhR and the hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) pathways is generally believed to occur, the exact mechanisms of the HIF-1 pathway in PHCZ toxicity have not been determined. We aimed to elucidate the effect of PHCZs on the HIF-1 pathway and its involvement in the regulation of target genes of HIF-1. Herein, we employed human HepG2 cells transiently transfected with a hypoxia response element (HRE) luciferase reporter to identify PHCZs that could influence HIF-1 pathway. We found that exposure to one of the four selected PHCZs, specifically 1,3,6,8-tetrabromo-9 H-carbazole (1368-BCZ), induced a significant enhancement of the activity of HRE activity. In silico data supported 1368-BCZ-induced HIF-1α activity preferentially. Moreover, 1368-BCZ significantly upregulated the expression of HIF-1 target genes, including endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and erythropoietin. Importantly, the stimulated secretion of VEGF by 1368-BCZ promoted the angiogenesis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Therefore, the present experimental and computational studies provide new and direct evidence of 1368-BCZ - HIF-1 interaction, which sheds light on the HIF-mediated cardiovascular toxicity and allows a knowledge-based risk assessment of emerging pollutants.

Chlorinated flame retardant Dechlorane 602 (Dec 602) has been detected in daily food, indicating that it may pose a risk to intestinal health. The intestinal microenvironment plays an important role in intestinal health. Intestinal microbiota and metabolites are two important factors for maintaining the microenvironment. However, little is known about the effects of Dec 602 on intestinal microbiota and metabolites.We aimed to probe the effects of Dec 602 on the intestine by revealing the changes that Dec 602 caused to the intestinal microbiota and metabolites.Adult female C57BL/6 mice were exposed to Dec 602 (low/high doses: 1.0/10.0 μg/kg body weight per day) orally for 7 consecutive days, and sacrificed after 7 days of recovery. The composition of colonic microbiota was measured by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and the colonic metabolites were determined by LC-ESI-MS/MS. Finally, the effects of Dec 602 on the colon were validated by histopathological analysis.The intestinal microbiota composition was altered toward a pro-inflammatory status after exposure to Dec 602. Dec 602 exposure also up-regulated oxidative metabolites (glutathione disulfide, taurine and retinoic acid) and pro-inflammatory metabolites (prostaglandin EDec 602 interfered with the colonic microbiota and metabolome, and exhibited inflammatory features. Histopathological studies confirmed that Dec 602 exposure did induce colonic inflammation.

In this work, we propose a new counter-based stochastic-behaving approximate integer unsigned multiplier, called COSAIM, for many emerging error tolerant application workloads such as deep neural networks. Unlike existing approximate multipliers, which are based on some deterministic ad-hoc methods or mathematical formula, the new design is an improved stochastic multiplier, which performs improved sequential counting for multiplication operation in a deterministic way. In this work, we further improve the counting efficiency by introducing approximate schemes to significantly speed up the counting process, which leads to significant clock cycle reduction with no accuracy loss. COSAIM bears all the advantages of stochastic computing such as built-in configurability for progressive performance-accuracy trade-off. At the same time, it shows very small latency and high energy efficiency. Our evaluation shows that the COSAIM with error improvement operation can achieve very low error bias (0.06%), along with lower mean error (0.30% to 3.49%), and low peak errors (around 1.81%) with variance of 1. $47\times 10^{-4}$ %. Experimental results obtained from Xilinx ISE show that compared with the 8-bit exact multiplier baseline, COSAIM can save up to 53.95%, 32.84%, 52.24%, 21.05% in area, power, energy and the product Area. 1/Throughput, respectively. Furthermore, by doing shared parallel design, COSAIM can further lead to improvements in area, power and energy reduction by 60.44%, 53.33% and 68.54%, respectively compared to the baseline. We also implement COSAIM in a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) and test it on CIFAR10 dataset and find that CNN with COSAIM delivers similar inference accuracy compared to some state of art approximate multipliers.

Three-dimensional 3D printing binders are important in the modern industry. Several types of binders and printing materials are used. Thus, printing binder requirements differ considerably depending on the printing methods utilized. In this study, the characteristics and research status of biomimetic materials and polymer binders used in Selective Laser Sintering-based printing (SLS), Spray molding technology (such as, solid inkjet printing [3DP] and Metal binder jet printing (MBJ), and extruded bio-printing technology (EBP) are reviewed.

Background: Metal exposures have been reported to be related to the progress of metabolic syndrome (MetS), however, the currents results were still controversial, and the evidence about the effect of multi-metal exposure on MetS were limited. In this study, we intended to evaluate the relationships between metal mixture exposure and the prevalence of MetS in a mid-aged and older population of China. Methods: The plasma levels of 13 metals (aluminum, magnesium, calcium, iron, manganese, cobalt, copper, arsenic, zinc, selenium, cadmium, molybdenum and thallium) were detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in 1277 adults recruited from the Eighth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University (Shenzhen, China). Logistic regression, the adaptive least absolute shrinkage and selectionator operator (LASSO) penalized regression analysis and restricted cubic spline (RCS) analysis were used to explore the associations and dose-response relationships of plasma metals with MetS. To evaluate the cumulative effect of metals, the Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) model was applied. Results: The concentrations of magnesium and molybdenum were lower in the MetS group (p

In order to improve the driving safety of vehicles in foggy environment, a set of intelligent control system for vehicle fog lamp that can automatically control the fog lamp on and off by identifying the weather conditions is designed. Firstly, Jetson Nano, IMX219 camera, Raspberry PI display and LED indicator simulating fog lamp were selected as the system hardware components. Secondly, a weather recognition algorithm based on capsule network was designed. In the process of testing images which contain foggy, rainy, cloudy and sunny days, the recognition accuracy of the algorithm is 97.5%. Finally, the algorithm model was transplanted to Jetson Nano for debugging and testing. The test results show that the intelligent control system of vehicle fog lamp based on Jetson Nano basically meets the design goals and functional requirements of the system, that is, the fog lamp can be automatically turned on/off in foggy/nonfoggy environment.

Stochastic computing (SC) promises extremely low cost and energy efficiency for error-tolerant arithmetic operations in many emerging applications such as image processing and deep neural networks. Existing SC-based nonlinear functions like division, however, require highly correlated bit-streams, which does not fit well with the existing SC computing framework in which randomness is required for accuracy. In this paper, we propose a novel SC-based divider design based on recently proposed counting-based stochastic computing scheme, which is much more accurate and faster than traditional SC, and does not depend on randomness of bit-streams for accuracy. We show how such counting-based SC can be applied to nonlinear functions like division. The new divider, called counting-based divider, or CBDIV, exploits both the correlation requirement of existing SC-based division methods and high efficiency of counting-based SC scheme. It essentially combines the best of two worlds in SC and the resulting division operation can be performed as a more efficient partial counting process. Experimental results show that the proposed CBDIV implemented in a 32nm technology node outperforms state of art works by 77.8% in accuracy, 37.1% in delay, 21.5% in area, 50.6% in ADP (area delay product) and 25.9% in power. CBDIV also saves 31.9% in energy consumption when compared to the fixed-point division baseline, and is much more energy efficient than existing SC-based dividers for binary inputs and outputs required in efficient image process implementations. Furthermore, CBDIV with 5-bit precision can even outperform state of art works with 7-bit precision in accuracy by 15.4%. Finally, we compare CBDIV with other state of art SC dividers in contrast stretch application and show that CBDIV can improve the accuracy with 20.6dB in average, which is a huge improvement.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the associations between air pollution exposure and pediatric outpatient visits for dry eye disease (DED) in Shenzhen, China.Methods: Generalized additive models were utilized to explore the acute effects of air pollution exposure on pediatric outpatient visits for DED.Results: Single-day lag exposures to NO2, O3, PM2.5, and PM10 were associated with DED outpatient visits at lag days 0, 6, 4 and 2. Relative risks (RRs) for DED given a 10-μg/m3 increase in NO2, O3, PM2.5, and PM10 concentrations were 1.062[95% confidence interval (CI) 1.003, 1.123], 1.015(95% CI 1.001, 1.031), 1.052(95% CI 1.001, 1.115), and 1.038 (95% CI 1.002, 1.076), respectively. RR for DED given a 10-μg/m3 increase in NO2 over cumulative lag days 0–1 was 1.075 (95% CI 1.009, 1.147), and RR for DED given a 10-μg/m3 increase in PM10 over cumulative lag days 0–4 was 1.051 (95% CI 1.003, 1.102).Conclusion: The observed associations between air pollution and outpatient visits for DED may provide evidence for policy makers to consider implementing measures to reduce the risk of DED owing to air pollution in China.

In this paper, we propose a new dynamic reliability technique using an accuracy-reconfigurable stochastic computing (ARSC) framework for deep learning computing. Unlike the conventional stochastic computing that conducts design time accuracy power/energy trade-off, the new ARSC design can adjust the bit-width of the data in run time. Hence, the ARSC can mitigate the long-term aging effects by slowing the system clock frequency, while maintaining the inference throughput by reducing the data bit-width at a small cost of accuracy. We show how to implement the recently proposed counter-based SC multiplication and bit-width reduction on a layer-wise quantization scheme for CNN networks with dynamic fixed-point data. We validate an ARSC-based five-layer convolutional neural network design for the MNIST dataset based on Vivado HLS with constraints from Xilinx Zynq-7000 family xc7z045 platform. Experimental results show that new ARSC DNN can sufficiently compensate the NBTI induced aging effects in 10 years with marginal classification accuracy loss while maintaining or even exceeding the pre-aging computing throughput. At the same time, the proposed ARSC computing framework also reduces the active power consumption due to the frequency scaling, which can further improve system reliability due to the reduced temperature.Experimental results show that new ARSC DNN can sufficiently compensate the NBTI induced aging effects in 10 years with marginal classification accuracy loss while maintaining or even exceeding the preaging computing throughput. At the same time, the proposed ARSC computing framework also reduces the active power consumption due to large frequency scaling, which can further improve system reliability due to the reduced temperature.

China has experienced a serious public health burden because of the increased incidence of ischemic stroke. Evidence describing the association between short-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NOA time-stratified case-crossover study was conducted between 2003 and 2014 among 98,482 ischemic stroke hospitalizations. Conditional quasi-Poisson regression was used to estimate the percentage changes in ischemic stroke admissions in relation to each 10 μg/mNOOur findings provide evidence that reductions in NO

In this paper, we propose a novel accuracy-reconfigurable stochastic computing (ARSC) framework for dynamic reliability and power management. Different than the existing stochastic computing works, where the accuracy versus power/energy trade-off is carried out in the design time, the new ARSC design can change accuracy or bit-width of the data in the run-time so that it can accommodate the long-term aging effects by slowing the system clock frequency at the cost of accuracy while maintaining the throughput of the computing. We validate the ARSC concept on a discrete cosine transformation (DCT) and inverse DCT designs for image compressing/decompressing applications, which are implemented on Xilinx Spartan-6 family XC6SLX45 platform. Experimental results show that the new design can easily mitigate the long-term aging induced effects by accuracy trade-off while maintaining the throughput of the whole computing process using simple frequency scaling. We further show that one-bit precision loss for the input data, which translated to 3.44dB of the accuracy loss in term of Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) for images, we can sufficiently compensate the NBTI induced aging effects in 10 years while maintaining the pre-aging computing throughput of 7.19 frames per second. At the same time, we can save 74% power consumption by 10.67dB of accuracy loss. The proposed ARSC computing framework also allows much aggressive frequency scaling, which can lead to order of magnitude power savings compared to the traditional dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) techniques.

Background High leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) expression caused by an inflammatory microenvironment was reported to promote tumor proliferation and the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in various malignant tumors, but those effects have not been studied in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HSCC) and the molecular mechanism remains unclear. Additionally, YAP/TAZ, an upstream or downstream factor of multiple signaling pathways, can promote tumor proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis. Our study was aimed to determine whether YAP/TAZ is involved in the regulation of LGR5 expression in the inflammatory microenvironment.Methods We stimulated FaDu cells, a hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma cell line, with inflammatory medium. The expression levels of EMT-related proteins, LGR5, and p-YAP were detected by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction, western blotting, and immunofluorescence.Results The results showed that LGR5 expression and the EMT process were significantly enhanced. The expression of EMT-related proteins was up-regulated, while that of p-YAP was decreased. After inhibiting the high LGR5 expression with short interfering RNA, the expression of EMT-related proteins was also down-regulated, while that of p-YAP was significantly increased. The use of verteporfin (VP), an inhibitor of YAP activity that promotes YAP phosphorylation, did not affect LGR5 expression.Conclusions Our findings suggest that the inflammatory microenvironment leads to high LGR5 expression, up-regulating the expression of EMT-related proteins by inhibiting the YAP phosphorylation.

Previous studies have demonstrated the characteristics of patients with 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions on the epidemic in Shenzhen, China remains unknown. Individual data of 417 cases were extracted from the epidemiological investigations and the National Infectious Disease Information System between January 1, 2020 and February 29, 2020. On the basis of important interventions, the epidemic was divided into four periods (January 1-15, January 16-22, January 23-February 5 and after February 6). We used a susceptible-exposed-infectious-asymptomatic-recovered model to evaluate the effect of interventions. Results suggested that about 53.7% were imported from Wuhan. The median age was 47 years and 52.8% were women. Severity risk increased with age and associated with male and co-existing disorders. The attack rate peaked in the third period and drastically decreased afterwards across sex, age groups and geographic regions. Children younger than 5 years showed a higher attack rate than those aged of 6~19. The effective reproductive number decreased from 1.44 to 0.05 after the highest level emergency response since January 23. Overall, the non-pharmaceutical interventions have effectively mitigated the COVID-19 outbreak in Shenzhen, China. These findings may facilitate the introduction of public health policies in other countries and regions.

The potential health hazards of trihalomethanes (THMs) contamination in drinking water in Shenzhen were estimated. The concentrations of THMs in drinking water from 13 centralized water supply systems were determined from Jan 2015 to Dec 2016 in Shenzhen. The water environmental health risk assessment model recommended by USEPA was established based on the water monitoring data of THMs. Preliminary health risks of THMs through ingestion of drinking water were assessed. The median concentrations of THMs, TCM, DBCM, BDCM and TBM in drinking water were 37.0, 24.5, 2.3, 7.8 and 0.3 μg/L respectively. The values of carcinogenic risks for THMs, TCM, DBCM, BDCM, and TBM to the individual per year in drinking water were 4.52 × 10-5, 2.38 × 10-5, 6.07 × 10-6, 1.52 × 10-5 and 7.45 × 10-8 respectively. The values of non-carcinogenic risks for THMs, TCM, DBCM, BDCM and TBM to the individual per year in drinking water were 9.32 × 10-2, 7.68 × 10-2, 3.61 × 10-3, and 1.23 × 10-2 and 4.71 × 10-4 respectively. The health risk caused by THMs to the individual through ingestion of drinking water was in the order of TCM, BDCM, DBCM and TBM from high to low. The carcinogenic risks induced by THMs through ingestion of drinking water are acceptable with tolerable value offered by USEPA (1.0 × 10-6 - 1.0 × 10-4), but reached to the tolerable value (5.0 × 10-5) by International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). The non-carcinogenic risk of THMs is tolerable (HI < 1).

Many previous studies have demonstrated the SNARC effect-i.e., participants are faster to respond with their left/right hand to small/large numbers. However, there is a debate on whether it is based on working or long-term memory (i.e., relative or absolute magnitude). Here, we examined the flexibility of the spatial-numerical associations using orientation judgment tasks. Participants were asked to judge the orientation of a rotated frame surrounding an Arabic digit under numerical ranges 1-6, 4-9 (Experiment 1), and 1-9 (Experiment 2). The task difficulty was manipulated by rotating stimuli. We observed a significant SNARC effect for range 1-6 and a reversed SNARC effect for 4-9, regardless of the total numerical range presented in the task. Furthermore, the SNARC effect became more salient with increasing task difficulty. Our results suggest that the SNARC effect is based on the absolute magnitude of digits, supporting the long-term memory explanation.

Background Metal exposures are suspected to associate with the risk of hyperuricemia (HUA), but the current results are still conflicting. Objective To investigate the associations between multiple plasma metal exposures and HUA risk. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in 1406 Chinese Han adults who underwent routine physical examination in the Eighth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University in Shenzhen. The plasma levels of 13 metals were measured by the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Multivariable logistic, linear regression models, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) penalized regression analysis, and restricted cubic spline (RCS) models were applied to assess the associations. Results The median plasma uric acid concentration in HUA group (434 μmol/L) was significantly higher than that in non-HUA group (305 μmol/L). The multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of HUA were 1.62(1.08–2.43) for magnesium, 1.61(1.05–2.47) for copper, 1.62(1.06–2.49) for zinc, 1.87(1.26–2.81) for arsenic, 1.50(1.01–2.23) for selenium, and 1.70(1.16–2.49) for thallium based on the single-metal logistic regression models, comparing the highest versus the lowest quartile of metal levels. Further multi-metal logistic, linear regression models and the LASSO analysis all indicated positive associations of zinc, arsenic with HUA risk or uric acid levels. RCS model indicated an inverted V-shaped positive association between zinc levels and HUA risk (p for non-linearity = 0.048, p for overall association = 0.022), while arsenic levels showed a positive and linear dose-response relationship with HUA risk (p for non-linearity = 0.892, p for overall association Conclusions Higher plasma levels of zinc and arsenic might increase HUA risk and showed positive dose-response relationships. Further cohort studies in larger population are required to testify our findings.

The pollution from nuclear leaks and nuclear disasters (e.g. radioactive iodine) would cause serious harm to human beings and ecosystems for many years. Cocoon silk and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are both green substances. DESs are easily synthesized, cheap, highly biocompatible and highly biodegradable. Here, we combine the removal of organic dyes and the capture of radioactive iodine by using green DES-pretreated cocoon silk. It is the first time organic dyes have been removed from wastewater by DES-disrupted silk for the purpose of favourably removing iodine. Organic dyes-captured DES-pretreated cocoon silk could be used to capture iodine efficiently. It opens a new route to dispose of one waste from nuclear energy with organic dyes from wastewater captured by green solvents-pretreated natural silk.

This paper presents a new power grid network design and optimization technique that considers the new EM immortality constraint due to EM void saturation volume for multi-segment interconnects. Void may grow to its saturation volume without changing the wire resistance significantly. However, this phenomenon was ignored in existing EM-aware optimization methods. By considering this new effect, we can remove more conservativeness in the EM-aware on-chip power grid design. Along with recently proposed nucleation phase immortality constraint for multi-segment wires, we show that both EM immortality constraints can be naturally integrated into the existing programming based power grid optimization framework. To further mitigate the overly conservative problem of existing immortality-constrained optimization methods, we further explore two strategies: first we size up failed wires to meet one of the immorality conditions subject to design rules; second, we consider the EM-induced aging effects on power supply networks for a target lifetime, which allows some short-lifetime wires to fail and optimizes the rest of the wires. Numerical results on a number of IBM-format power grid networks demonstrate that the new method can reduce more power grid area compared to the existing EM-immortality constrained optimizations. Furthermore, the new method can optimize power grids with nucleated wires, which would not be possible with the existing methods.

The aim of the present study was to elucidate the role of the non‑syndromic autosomal recessive deafness 12 allelic variant of cadherin 23 (CDH23) in Chinese patients with non‑syndromic hearing loss. The present study focused on a Chinese family with hearing loss in which there were two siblings with autosomal, recessive deafness, ranging from severe to profound hearing loss over all frequencies. DNA sequencing was used to assess the genetic factors in the disease etiology. The data revealed a compound heterozygous mutation of CDH23 in both patients. Genetic CDH23 variants are known to be responsible for non‑syndromic hearing loss, and CDH23 variants frequently occur in various populations, including Japanese and Republic of Korean. Results from the present study, indicated a significant contribution of CDH23 variants to the non‑syndromic hearing loss in Chinese patients.

Temperature change is an important meteorological indicator reflecting weather stability. This study aimed to examine the effects of ambient temperature change on non-accidental mortality using diurnal temperature change (DTR) and temperature change between neighboring days (TCN) from two perspectives, intra-day and inter-day temperature change, and further, to explore seasonal variations of mortality, identify the susceptible population and investigate the interaction between temperature change and apparent temperature (AT). We collected daily data on cause-specific mortality, air pollutants and meteorological indicators in Shenzhen, China, from 1 January 2013 to 29 December 2017. A Quasi-Poisson generalized linear regression combined with distributed lag non-linear models (DLNMs) were conducted to estimate the effects of season on temperature change-related mortality. In addition, a non-parametric bivariate response surface model was used to explore the interaction between temperature change and AT. The cumulative effect of DTR was a U-shaped curve for non-accidental mortality, whereas the curve for TCN was nearly monotonic. The overall relative risks (RRs) of non-accidental, cardiovascular and respiratory mortality were 1.407 (95% CI: 1.233–1.606), 1.470 (95% CI: 1.220–1.771) and 1.741 (95% CI: 1.157–2.620) from exposure to extreme large DTR (99th) in cold seasons. However, no statistically significant effects were observed in warm seasons. As for TCN, the effects were higher in cold seasons than warm seasons, with the largest RR of 1.611 (95% CI: 1.384–1.876). The elderly and females were more sensitive, and low apparent temperature had a higher effect on temperature change-related non-accidental mortality. Temperature change was positively correlated with an increased risk of non-accidental mortality in Shenzhen. Both female and elderly people are more vulnerable to the potential adverse effects, especially in cold seasons. Low AT may enhance the effects of temperature change.

Background Heavy metal exposure induces oxidative stress, which is critical for adverse male reproductive health. Objective To explore the mediating effect of oxidative stress on the relationship of heavy metal exposure with semen quality. Methods Urinary levels of three oxidative stress markers, semen quality, and urinary arsenic, cadmium and lead were examined among 1020 men. Multivariate linear regression was applied to explore cross-sectional associations, and the role of oxidative stress as mediators was investigated. Results Quartiles of metals showed significant dose-dependent relationships with increasing levels of 8-hydroxy-2deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), 8-iso-prostaglandin F2α (8-isoPGF2α) and 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal-mercapturic acid (HNE-MA). Significant or suggestive associations were also found between urinary 8-OHdG levels and the percentage of normal sperm morphology (ptrend Conclusions Our findings suggest that higher urinary arsenic, cadmium and lead levels were associated with increased oxidative stress markers, which also related with altered semen quality. 8-isoPGF2α and 8-OHdG might be the possible mediators of the associations between urinary heavy metals and total motility, progressive motility or the proportion of normal sperm morphology.

Background: China is at its most important stage of air pollution control. Research on the association between air pollutants and human health is very important and necessary. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between PM2.5 concentrations and residents’ mortality and to compare the effect of PM2.5 on the different diseases, accidental deaths, sex or age of residents from high polluted areas with less polluted areas. Methods: The semi-parametric generalized additive model (GAM) with Poisson distribution of time series analysis was used. The excess risk (ER) of mortality with the incremental increase of 10 µg/m3 in PM2.5 concentration was calculated. Concentration-response relationship curves and autocorrelation between different lags of PM2.5 were also evaluated. Results: PM2.5 exposure was significantly associated with the mortality of residents. The strongest ERs per 10 µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 were 0.74% (95% CI: 0.11–1.38%) for all-cause, 0.67% (95% CI: 0.01–1.33%) for non-accidental, 1.81% (95% CI: 0.22–3.42%) for accidental, 3.04% (95% CI: 0.60–5.55%) for total respiratory disease, 6.38% (95% CI: 2.78–10.11%) for chronic lower respiratory disease (CLRD), 8.24% (95% CI: 3.53–13.17%) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 1.04% (95% CI: 0.25–1.84%) for male and 1.32% (95% CI: 0.46–2.19%) for elderly. Furthermore, important information on the concentration-response relationship curves was provided. Conclusions: PM2.5 can increase the risk of residents’ mortality, even in places with less air pollution and developed economy in China.

Extreme temperature has been reported to be associated with an increase in acute disease incidence in several cities. However, few similar studies were carried out in Shenzhen, which is a subtropical city located in the southern China. This study explored the relationship between the emergency incidences and extreme temperatures, and investigated the role of air pollutants played in the temperature-related effects on human health in Shenzhen. We conducted a distributed lag nonlinear model study on the effect of extreme temperatures on emergency incidences in Shenzhen city during 2013–2017. Here, only the total emergency incidences, emergency incidences for respiratory diseases, and cardiovascular diseases were taken into consideration. Air pollution, subgroups, and seasons were adjusted to investigate the impacts of extreme temperatures on emergency incidences. Relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated with the R software. From lag 0 to 21 days, the RR of temperature-total emergency department visits, temperature-cardiovascular, and temperature-respiratory diseases was 1.09 (95% CI: 0.98–1.20), 1.22 (95% CI: 0.96–1.56), and 1.06 (95% CI: 0.70–1.60) at extremely low temperature (first percent of temperature, 10 °C), respectively. During the same lag days, the RR was 1.02 (95 % CI: 0.92–1.14), 0.64 (95% CI: 0.49–0.86), and 0.92 (95% CI: 0.56–1.53) between extremely high temperature and total emergency department visits, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases, respectively. The cumulative effects gradually went up with time for all types of emergency incidences in warm seasons (5 days moving average of temperature

Pepsin plays an important role in laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR), a risk factor for the development of hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (HPSCC). However, the role of pepsin in HPSCC is not clear. We show by immunohistochemistry that pepsin positivity occurs in a significant proportion of human primary HPSCC specimens, and in many cases matched adjacent uninvolved epithelia are negative for pepsin. Pepsin positivity is associated with nodal involvement, suggesting that pepsin may have a role in metastasis. Treatment of FaDu cancer cells with pepsin increased cell proliferation, possibly by inducing G1/S transition. We also observed significant changes in expression of genes involved in NF-kappaB, TRAIL and Notch signaling. Our data suggest that pepsin plays an important role in HPSCC and that targeting pepsin could have potential therapeutic benefits.

Background The intricate association of mortality risk with ambient air pollution and temperature is of growing concern. Little is known regarding effect of changes in season and temperature on daily cardiovascular mortality associated with air pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Objectives Our study aimed to assess the effect of NO2 on cardiovascular mortality modified by season and daily air temperature in the effect, and further to identify the population highly susceptible to cardiovascular mortality associated with NO2 and air temperature. Methods We collected daily cause-specific death data, weather conditions, and air pollutant concentrations in Shenzhen from 2013 to 2017. Distributed-lag linear models were employed to analyze the effect of season on the NO2-associated mortality. Furthermore, generalized additive models were combined with stratification parametric analysis to estimate the interaction effect of NO2 with air temperature on cardiovascular mortality. Results In the cold season, the percentage increase in daily mortality for every 10 μg/m3 increment in NO2 concentration over lags of 0–2 days was 4.45% (95% CI: 2.71–6.21%). However, no statistically significant effect of NO2 was observed in the warm season. Compared with high-temperature days (>median temperature), a 3.51% increase in mortality (95% CI: 2.04–5.01%) over low-temperature days (≤median temperature) for the same increase in NO2 was significant. Air temperature modified the effect of NO2 on daily mortality by 4.08% (95% CI: 2.28–5.91%) for the elderly (age ≥ 65 years) on low-temperature days vs. -0.82% (95% CI: −3.88–2.34%) on high-temperature days, and 3.38% (95% CI: 1.50–5.29%) for males on low-temperature days vs. -0.73% (95% CI: −3.83–2.47%) on high air temperature days. Conclusions The cold season and low temperatures could significantly enhance the effect of NO2 on cardiovascular mortality. The elderly and males suffering from cardiovascular disease should take precautions against low temperature and NO2 air pollution.

Capture of radioactive iodine has been paid much attention due to the release of radioactive iodine from nuclear accident and metal fission. Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are green solvents. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) possesses the merits of no toxicity, high biocompatibility, high biodegradation and low cost. Here, we for the first time design a series of PEG-based DESs for efficient iodine capture. PEG:thiourea+ethanol mixture owns the highest rate and capacity for iodine capture. Effect of mass, mol ratio, organic solvent, molecular weight of PEG and composition of DESs on iodine capture is investigated. W = W∞(1 − e−kx) is first fitted for DESs to capture iodine. Conventional, difference and the PCMW2D-COS UV–Vis spectra show that PEG:thiourea+ethanol interacts with iodine mainly via halogen bonds before 75 min and via induced force after 75 min. The iodine-capturing rate by PEG:thiourea+ethanol is slightly higher than that of the reported DESs with the highest efficiency while in the same condition. Although the presence of volatile ethanol in PEG:thiourea decreases the iodine storage efficiency, it would provide a new route of improving iodine-capturing rate and capacity.

This study aimed to elucidate the protective effect of minocycline against streptomycin-induced damage of cochlear hair cells and its mechanism. Cochlear membranes were isolated from newborn Wistar rats and randomly divided into control, 500μmol/L streptomycin, 100μmol/L minocycline, and streptomycin and minocycline treatment groups. Hair cell survival was analyzed by detecting the expression of 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT) in cochlear hair cells by immunofluorescence and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Expression of 3-NT and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and poly (ADP-Ribose) polymerase (PARP) and caspase-3 activation were evaluated by western blotting. The results demonstrated hair cell loss at 24h after streptomycin treatment. No change was found in supporting cells of the cochleae. Minocycline pretreatment improved hair cell survival and significantly reduced the expression of iNOS and 3-NT in cochlear tissues compared with the streptomycin treatment group. PARP and caspase-3 activation was increased in the streptomycin treatment group compared with the control group, and pretreatment with minocycline decreased cleaved PARP and activated caspase-3 expression. Minocycline protected cochlear hair cells from injury caused by streptomycin in vitro. The mechanism underlying the protective effect may be associated with the inhibition of excessive formation of nitric oxide, reduction of the nitration stress reaction, and inhibition of PARP and caspase-3 activation in cochlear hair cells. Combined minocycline therapy can be applied to patients requiring streptomycin treatment.

Although the growths of ambient pollutants have been attracting public concern, the characteristic of the associations between air pollutants and mortality remains elusive. Time series analysis with a generalized additive model was performed to estimate the associations between ambient air pollutants and mortality outcomes in Shenzhen City for the period of 2012–2014. The results showed that nitrogen dioxide (NO2)-induced excess risks (ER) of total non-accidental mortality and cardiovascular mortality were significantly increased (6.05% (95% CI 3.38%, 8.78%); 6.88% (95% CI 2.98%, 10.93%), respectively) in interquartile range (IQR) increase analysis. Also, these associations were strengthened after adjusting for other pollutants. Moreover, similar associations were estimated for sulfur dioxide (SO2), particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of

Background: China began to carry out fine particulate matter (PM2.5) monitoring in 2013 and the amount of related research is low, especially in areas with lighter air pollution. This study aims to explore the association between PM2.5 and cardiovascular disease (CVD), ischemic heart disease (IHD) and cerebral vascular disease (EVD) mortality in areas with lighter air pollution. Methods: Data on resident mortality, air pollution and meteorology in Shenzhen during 2013&ndash, 2015 were collected and analyzed using semi-parametric generalized additive models (GAM) with Poisson distribution of time series analysis. Results: Six pollutants were measured at seven air quality monitoring sites, including PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO and O3. The PM2.5 daily average concentration was 35.0 &plusmn, 21.9 &mu, g/m3, the daily average concentration range was from 7.1 &mu, g/m3 to 137.1 &mu, g/m3. PM2.5 concentration had significant effects on CVD, IHD and EVD mortality. While PM2.5 concentration of lag5 and lag02 rose by 10 &mu, g/m3, the excess risk (ER) of CVD mortality were 1.50% (95% CI: 0.51&ndash, 2.50%) and 2.09% (95% CI: 0.79&ndash, 3.41%), respectively. While PM2.5 concentration of lag2 and lag02 rose by 10 &mu, g/m3, the ER of IHD mortality were 2.87% (95% CI: 0.71&ndash, 5.07%) and 3.86% (95% CI: 1.17&ndash, 6.63%), respectively. While PM2.5 concentration of lag4 and lag04 rose by 10 &mu, g/m3, the ER of EVD mortality were 2.09% (95% CI: 2.28&ndash, 3.92%) and 3.08% (95% CI: 0.68&ndash, 5.53%), respectively. Conclusions: PM2.5 increased CVD mortality. The government needs to strengthen the governance of air pollution in areas with a slight pollution.