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Yitian Zheng,1– 3,* Yu Qi,1,* Samuel Seery,4,5 Jie Yang,2,3 Chen Li,2,3 Wenyao Wang,1 Jun Gao,1 Xiangbin Meng,1 Chunli Shao,1 Yi-Da Tang1 1Department of Cardiology and Institute of Vascular Medicine, Peking University Third Hospital, NHC Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Molecular Biology and Regulatory Peptides, Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiovascular Science, Ministry of Education, Beijing Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Receptors Research, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Cardiology, State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 3Graduate School of Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Science & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 5Faculty of Health and Medicine, Division of Health Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yi-Da Tang, Department of Cardiology and Institute of Vascular Medicine, Peking University Third Hospital, NHC Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Molecular Biology and Regulatory Peptides, Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiovascular Science, Ministry of Education; Beijing Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Receptors Research, Beijing, 100191, People’s Republic of China, Email tangyida@bjmu.edu.cnObjective: Anti-inflammatory therapies are reported to have additional benefits beyond lipid control for patients with cardiovascular disease. However, no study has focused on the relationship between inflammation status and long-term outcomes for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).Methods: 277 COPD-PCI patients were divided into two groups according to hsCRP status upon admission. Major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in high hsCRP patients were compared to patients with low hsCRP. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) analysis was performed using MACE hazard ratios (HR) to investigate interrelations with hsCRP, as a continuous variable.Results: Patients in the high hsCRP group incurred more inflammation activation, in terms of higher white blood cell counts, neutrophil, lymphocytes, and had higher smoking rates, compared to those with lower hsCRPs. A significant increase in MACEs was observed in hsCRP high group, compared to the low hsCRP group (HR: 2.47, 95% CI: 1.22– 5.00; p = 0.012). RCS curves suggest that HRs rise beyond 1.0, after the 0.24 juncture for Lg HsCRP (base 10 logarithm with hsCRP), HR per SD: 1.19 (95% CI: 0.96– 1.48). Further subgroup analysis implies that elevated hsCRP is associated with a higher risk of MACEs across the sub-groups tested.Conclusion: HsCRP could be a useful indicator for COPD-CAD patient prognosis, after PCI. This is because hsCRP highlights inflammation activation. More multi-center research, designed for COPD-CAD patients should be conducted to more accurately determine the cut-off value for hsCRP.Keywords: HsCRP, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary artery disease, percutaneous coronary intervention, outcomes

With the continuous development of technologies such as sensors, computers, and artificial intelligence, intelligent mobile robots with thinking, perception, and dynamics functions are widely used in military, political, and scientific research. Its development has had a significant impact on national defense, society, economy, science, and technology and has become a strategic research goal in the high-tech field of various countries. Robot positioning technology is one of the key research technologies for portable robots, and reliable posture is the key prerequisite for completing various tasks. This article aims to study the robot walking route driven by big data and the intelligent determination of real-time positioning based on cloud computing. This paper proposes an active general positioning algorithm based on real-time positioning function, which can improve the convergence speed and robustness of general positioning when different map scenes do not have clear geometric features and contain map noise. The most basic requirement for robots to perform autonomous operations is to have reliable positioning performance. The experimental results in this paper show that dynamic global positioning and adaptive behavior tracking are effective. Compared with the traditional algorithm, the improved algorithm increases the convergence speed of the global layout by 41.59%.

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to identify prognostic factors in Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients with HFpEF, with a particular focus on the role of FT3 levels.Research Design and MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study of 992 patients with HFpEF who were admitted to our two medical centers between 2009 and 2019. We collected demographic and clinical data, including FT3 levels, and conducted univariate and multivariate Cox analyses, KM survival curve analysis, and RSC curve analysis to identify prognostic factors and evaluate the non-linear predictive value of FT3.ResultsWe found that age, atrial fibrillation, and NT-proBNP levels were all significant prognostic factors in patients with heart failure. Additionally, FT3 levels were a significant independent predictor of all-cause mortality and cardiac transplantation. Patients with lower FT3 levels had worse long-term prognoses, and the critical value of FT3 was 2.885.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that FT3 levels are an important prognostic factor in patients with heart failure and should be considered when evaluating patient outcomes. Clinicians should monitor FT3 levels and consider interventions to maintain or improve thyroid function in patients with heart failure.Article HighlightsFT3 levels are a significant independent predictor of all-cause mortality and cardiac transplantation in Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients with HFpEFPatients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy combined with HFpEF have a poorer long-term prognosis with lower FT3 levels, with a critical FT3 value of 2.885Age, atrial fibrillation, and NT-proBNP levels were also significant prognostic factors in Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients with HFpEFClinicians should monitor FT3 levels and consider interventions to maintain or improve thyroid function in Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients with HFpEF.

With the comprehensive development of information technology, the continuous optimization of products can make enterprises stand in the market. Various industries are involved in the upsurge of computer-enabling products; computer-aided (CAD) technology has also been rapid development. CAD technology is composed of problem analysis, innovative method, problem transformation and problem-solving invention principle, standard solution, and so on. In this paper, the theoretical system, basic scheme, and solving algorithm of CAD technology are described in detail. Meanwhile, the content of value evaluation and root cause analysis is analyzed and solved to further illustrate the application process of CAD technology optimization products and gradually form a more perfect application method of CAD innovation technology so that its solution process is more scientific, operable, and universal.

In order to solve the problems of many lines, troublesome movement and redundant management of traditional electrical parameter monitoring system, a design and implementation of electrical parameter monitoring system based on ZigBee wireless communication is proposed. Taking the monitor as an example, this paper briefly introduces the application status of the monitor monitoring system and electrical safety detection. According to the comparison of wireless communication technology and the analysis of actual demand, this paper expounds the advantages of ZigBee wireless technology. Based on the combination of received signal strength indication (RSSI) ranging algorithm and trilateral positioning algorithm, the wireless positioning of mobile targets is realized. Then, the sparse correlation matrix of signal attenuation coefficient between base stations is established in the upper computer to optimize the positioning by using the look-up table method. The relevant test results show that through the serial port test software 2000 times of data transmission and reception, 1866 times of communication are successful, and the success rate is 93.3%, which basically meets the requirements of data transmission stability; After data transmission time detection, it takes about 1.4 seconds to send data from the monitor to the client for reception. The client sends the module query command, and the time when the command reaches the monitor is 1.6 seconds. The data transmission speed can basically meet the requirements of real-time monitoring. The design and implementation of the monitoring system can not only help to reduce the workload of medical staff in hospital nurse stations and improve their work efficiency, but also provide the possibility of practical significance for developing into an application tool for patient family members or personal health management in the future.

ObjectivesThis observational study aims to explore the predictive role of postoperative arterial lactate in off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)-associated acute kidney injury (AKI).Materials and methodsA total of 500 consecutive patients who underwent off-pump CABG from August 2020 to August 2021 at the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, were included. Logistic regression analysis was used to confirm the independent risk factors of off-pump CABG-associated AKI. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was performed to evaluate the discrimination ability and Hosmer–Lemeshow goodness of fit test was performed to evaluate the calibration ability.ResultsThe incidence of off-pump CABG-associated AKI was 20.6%. Female gender, preoperative albumin, baseline serum creatinine, 12 h postoperative arterial lactate and duration of mechanical ventilation were independent risk factors. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 12 h postoperative arterial lactate for predicting off-pump CABG-associated AKI was 0.756 and the cutoff value was 1.85. The prediction model that incorporated independent risk factors showed reliable predictive ability (AUC = 0.846). Total hospital stay, intensive care unit stay, occurrence of other postoperative complications, and 28-day mortality were all significantly higher in AKI group compared to non-AKI group.Conclusion12 h postoperative arterial lactate was a validated predictive biomarker for off-pump CABG-associated AKI. We constructed a predictive model that facilitates the early recognition and management of off-pump CABG-associated AKI.

BackgroundThe prognostic implication of liver fibrosis in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients are scarce. We sought to evaluate whether liver fibrosis scores (LFS) were associated with thrombotic or bleeding events in patients with acute coronary syndrome.MethodsWe included 6386 ACS patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). This study determined liver fibrosis with aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI), aspartate aminotransferase to alanine aminotransferase ratio (AST/ALT ratio), Forns score, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease fibrosis score (NFS). The primary endpoint was major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE), a composite of all-cause mortality (ACM), myocardial infarction (MI), and ischemic stroke (IS).ResultsDuring the follow-up, 259 (4.06%) MACCE and 190 (2.98%) bleeding events were recorded. As a continuous variable or a categorical variable stratified by the literature-based cutoff, LFS was positively associated with MACCE (p > 0.05) but not with bleeding events. Compared with subjects with low APRI scores, AST/ALT ratio scores, Forns scores, and NFS scores, subjects with high scores had a 1.57- to 3.73-fold increase risk of MACCE after adjustment (allp ConclusionsIn ACS patients, increased LFS predicted an elevated risk of thrombotic events but not bleeding. LFS may contribute to thrombotic risk stratification after ACS.

To solve the key problem of diagnosing the operating condition of an oil transfer pump unit in a 3D closed space, this paper presents an approach for a point sound source location and detection method based on a hemispheric distributed sound pressure sensor array. The array model consists of 19 sound pressure sensors acting in the radial direction and uniformly distributed over the hemispherical surface. A spatial rectangular coordinate system is established by taking the projection point of the central sensor arranged at the apex of the hemisphere to the ground as the origin of the spatial coordinates. With reference to the central sensor, the point sound source is located by selecting the maximum measured sound level and its spatial coordinate in each of the three layers of sensors surrounding it as parameters and using a triangular or a quadrilateral area location algorithm based on virtual instrument technology. According to the location of the source, the A-weighted sound level of the sound source point is derived by the inversion of the sound field distribution law. Results show that the triangular and quadrilateral area location algorithms are both effective. The errors in location become larger for a measured sound source far from the centre.

This study focuses on the measurement of mathematical ability in the Chinese Compulsory Education Qualification Monitoring (CCEQM) framework using bifactor theory. First, we propose a full-information item bifactor (FIBF) model for the measurement of mathematical ability. Second, the performance of the FIBF model is empirically studied using a data set from three representative provinces were selected from CCEQM 2015–2017. Finally, Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to demonstrate the accuracy of the model evaluation indices and parameter estimation methods used in the empirical study. The obtained results are as follows: (1) The results for the four used model selection indices (AIC, SABIC, HQ, BIC) consistently showed that the fit of the FIBF model is better than that of the UIRT; (2) All of the estimated general and domain-specific abilities of the FIBF model have reasonable interpretations; (3) The model evaluation indices and parameter estimation methods exhibit excellent accuracy, indicating that the application of the FIBF model is technically feasible in large-scale testing projects.

ObjectivesThis study aims to investigate whether the ratios of cell types in peripheral blood could be used as reliable predictors of off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)-associated acute kidney injury (AKI).Materials and methodsWe retrospectively reviewed patients (n = 420) undergoing off-pump CABG from January 1, 2021 to January 1, 2022 in Qilu Hospital of Shandong University. We used logistic regression analysis to identify the potential predictors of off-pump CABG-associated AKI and construct a predictive model. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the predictive ability of predictors and prediction models.ResultsThe prevalence of AKI associated with off-pump CABG was 20.95%. Patients in the AKI group had significantly higher ratios of peripheral blood cells on postoperative day (POD)1 than patients in the non-AKI group (P ConclusionThe NLR on POD1 was a reliable predictive biomarker of off-pump CABG-associated AKI. And we successfully construct a prediction model, which contribute to the early recognition and management of off-pump CABG-associated AKI.

Three generations of single-crystal superalloys (AM3, DD5 and DD90) were produced with directional solidification and seeding. The square-calculation method and direct-measurement method were used to study the primary-dendrite spacings of the three single-crystal superalloys at different solidification distances (50, 150 and 250) mm. Statistical results showed that, firstly, as the solidification heights increased, the average primary-dendrite spacings of the three alloys were gradually enlarged; secondly, the average primary-dendrite spacings calculated with the square-calculation method and the direct-measurement method were similar, which indicated the high precision of the two methods; thirdly, the primary-dendrite spacings of the three alloys were distributed randomly in a relatively large range, following a normal distribution. The maximum values of the primary-dendrite spacings were 4.7–8.5 times larger than the minimum ones at different solidification distances and were different from the values from previous studies.

The existing discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element method (FEM) for the numerical simulation of elastic wave propagation is primarily implemented in two dimensions. Here, a discontinuous FEM (DFEM) for efficient three-dimensional (3D) elastic wave simulation is presented. First, the velocity–stress equations of 3D elastic waves in isotropic media are transformed into first-order coefficient-changed partial differential equations. A DG discretisation method for wave field values on a unit boundary is then defined using the local Lax–Friedrichs flux format. The equations are first transformed into equivalent integral equations, and subsequently into a spatial semi-discrete ordinary differential equation system using a hierarchical orthogonal basis function. The DFEM is extended to an arbitrary high-order accuracy in the time domain using the exponential integrator technique and the explicit optimal strong-stability-preserving Runge–Kutta method. Finally, an efficient method for selecting the calculation area of the geometry of the current shot record is realised. For the computation, a multi-node parallelism with improved resource utilisation and parallelisation efficiency is implemented. The numerical results show that the proposed method can improve both the accuracy of the simulation and the efficiency of the calculation compared with existing methods.

Limited studies have focused on the impact of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) to albumin ratio (CAR) on cardiovascular outcomes in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Hence, the present study evaluates the association between CAR and cardiovascular outcomes in patients undergoing drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation. We consecutively enrolled 9375 CHD patients undergoing DES implantation. All patients were divided into 3 groups according to their CAR: tertile 1 (CAR ≤.02, n=3125), tertile 2 (.02.06, n = 3125). The primary endpoint was major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE). Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that the incidences of MACCE and MI increased with high tertiles of the CAR (MACCE: 8.7 vs 10.5 vs 12.3%, log-rank P < .001; MI: 3.3 vs 4.0 vs 4.7%, long-rank P = .015). Cox regression analysis suggested that CAR was an independent risk factors for MACCE (HR per standard deviation (SD) increase: 1.07, 95% CI, 1.01–1.14, P = .024), and MI (HR per SD increase: 1.11, 95% CI, 1.01–1.22, P = .028). In conclusion, the CAR is an independent predictor of MACCE and MI in CHD patients.

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to analyze long-term outcomes of Chinese coronary artery disease (CAD) patients with (and without) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).BackgroundChronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a chronic condition which often develops in conjunction with CAD. PCI is a core therapy for CAD, although we still need to understand CAD-COPD outcomes and to identify factors that influence prognoses, across ethnicities.MethodsThis double-cohort study involved 12,343 Chinese CAD patients who received PCI. Baseline characteristics were collected in two independent, specialty centers. Propensity-score matching was performed to control confounding factors, using a nearest neighbor matching method within a 0.02 caliper and on a propensity score scale of 0.1 for each center. Comorbid CAD-COPD cases were compared to non-COPD patients in terms of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs).ResultsPatients with COPD were generally older than those without COPD (65.4 ± 9.2 vs. 58.2 ± 10.3, p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in the end points between COPD and non-COPD groups after PCI (All p > 0.05); however, the incidence of MACEs increased after 450 days. Further subgroup analysis suggests that COPD is approximately four times more prevalent among those aged over 75 years (HR, 3.818; 95%CI, 1.10–13.29; p = 0.027) and those aged below 55 years (HR = 4.254; 95% CI, 1.55–11.72; p = 0.003).ConclusionHaving COPD does not appear to have a significant impact on CAD outcomes 2 years after PCI, and beyond. However, an increasing number of MACEs was observed after 450 days, which suggests that there may be a double-stage effect of COPD on PCI prognosis. There is a need for focused comorbidity management, specifically for those aged below 55 years and above 75 years.

In recent years, the four-parameter model (4PM) has received increasing attention in item response theory. The purpose of this article is to provide more efficient and more reliable computational tools for fitting the 4PM. In particular, this article focuses on the four-parameter normal ogive model (4PNO) model and develops efficient stochastic approximation expectation maximization (SAEM) algorithms to compute the marginalized maximum a posteriori estimator. First, a data augmentation scheme is used for the 4PNO model, which makes the complete data model be an exponential family, and then, a basic SAEM algorithm is developed for the 4PNO model. Second, to overcome the drawback of the SAEM algorithm, we develop an improved SAEM algorithm for the 4PNO model, which is called the mixed SAEM (MSAEM). Results from simulation studies demonstrate that: (1) the MSAEM provides more accurate or comparable estimates as compared with the other estimation methods, while computationally more efficient; (2) the MSAEM is more robust to the choices of initial values and the priors for item parameters, which is a valuable property for practice use. Finally, a real data set is analyzed to show the good performance of the proposed methods.

Recent studies suggested that both left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) lower than 60% or higher than 65% were associated with an increased mortality in the general population. Uncertainty remains regarding adverse outcomes across LVEF in coronary artery disease (CAD). The common understanding was that LVEF40% was associated with an increased risk of mortality. But the threshold at LVEF of 40% was arbitrary because quite a lot of adverse outcomes existed in patients with ejection fraction40%. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between LVEF and mortality or adverse events in CAD patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).A total of 10 252 CAD patients undergoing PCI from an observational cohort were studied. All-cause mortality and major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) were set as outcomes. Kaplan-Meier curves, adjusted Cox regression models, and restricted cubic spline analyses were used for evaluation. A total of 137 (1.3%) patients had all-cause mortality, and 816 (8.0%) patients had MACCE during a median of 2.4 years of follow-up. The median LVEF was 64%. All-cause mortality and MACCE rates changed substantially across LVEF categories, and a linear inverse relationship of LVEF with all-cause mortality and MACCE risk was observed. All-cause mortality or MACCE risk increased significantly below an LVEF of 55 or 65%, respectively. Patients with LVEF55% had a more than 3.5-fold higher mortality than those with LVEF ≥55%. Patients with LVEF65% had a more than 1.3-fold higher MACCE than those with LVEF ≥65%. Below 55 or 65%, there was a rise in mortality or MACCE. A gradient-response relationship was observed, with an all-cause mortality risk range between 8.6-fold and 3.0-fold increase from LVEF40 to 50-54.9% and MACCE risk range between 2.4-fold and 1.4-fold from LVEF40 to 60-64.9%.In CAD patients undergoing PCI, LVEF lower than 55% or LVEF lower than 65% was correlated with increased all-cause mortality and MACCE respectively, whereas higher LVEF was not.

BackgroundObservational studies have shown an association between early age at menarche (AAM) and myocardial infarction (MI) with recorded cases. In this Mendelian randomization (MR) study, we used large amounts of summary data from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) to further estimate the association of genetically predicted AAM with genetically predicated risk of MI and investigate to what extent this association is mediated by genetically determined lifestyles, cardiometabolic factors, and estrogen exposure.MethodsA two-step, two-sample MR study was performed by mediation analysis. Genetic variants identified by GWAS meta-analysis of reproductive genetics consortium (n = 182,416) were selected for genetically predicted AAM. Genetic variants identified by the Coronary ARtery DIsease Genome-wide Replication and Meta-analysis plus The Coronary Artery Disease Genetics Consortium (n = 184,305) were selected for genetically predicted risk of MI. Genetic variants from other international GWAS summary data were selected for genetically determined mediators.ResultsThis MR study showed that increase in genetically predicted AAM was associated with lower risk of genetically predicted MI (odds ratio 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.84–0.98). Inverse variance weighted (IVW) MR analysis also showed that decrease in genetically predicted AAM was associated with higher genetically predicted alcohol intake frequency, current smoking behavior, higher waist-to-hip ratio, and higher levels of systolic blood pressure (SBP), fasting blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and triglycerides (TGs). Furthermore, increase in genetically predicted AAM was associated with genetically predicted longer sleep duration, higher levels of high-density lipoproteins, and older age at which hormone replacement therapy was started. The most essential mediators identified were genetically predicted current smoking behavior and levels of HbA1c, SBP, and TGs, which were estimated to genetically mediate 13.9, 12.2, 10.5, and 9.2%, respectively, with a combined mediation proportion of 37.5% in the association of genetically predicted AAM with genetically predicted increased risk of MI in an MR framework.ConclusionOur MR analysis showed that increase in genetically predicted AAM was associated with lower genetically predicted risk of MI, which was substantially mediated by genetically determined current smoking behavior and levels of HbA1c, SBP, and TGs. Intervening on the above mediators may reduce the risk of MI.

Ground fracturing is a new and effective method for controlling high-level hard roofs. In underground coal-seam mining, the maximum principal stress is horizontal stress, along with the direction of hydraulic fracture propagation. In this study, the control mechanism of the horizontal fracture plane formed by ground fracturing on the strata breaking span was analyzed theoretically, and the effect of the horizontal fracture plane on the structural characteristics, stress distribution, and impact effect of the high-level thick and hard strata (hereinafter referred to as THS) were numerically investigated. To verify the results, the 8218 working face in the Tashan coal mine of the Datong mining area was selected as a case study. The fractured stratum was 20 m thick and was separated vertically from the coal seam by 110 m. After ground fracturing, the extension range of the fracture plane was 216 m in length and 30–100 m in width, covering the working face. In situ monitoring of the mine pressure revealed that the bearing strength of the supports in the working face was weakened by the ground fracturing, and that the roadway deformation was significantly reduced, indicating that ground-fracturing technology plays an important role in controlling high-level THS and improving the mining environment of the working face.

Aiming at serious deformation and failure of large‐section coal roadway under mined zones in ultra‐thick coal seam, its deformation and failure characteristics are analyzed based on the field measurement. This paper reveals the mechanism of roadway roof separation, roof leakage, and right rib extrusion. Based on the mechanism, two kinds of secondary support schemes are proposed, that is, “grouting + I‐steel support + bolt” (scheme I) and “grouting + U steel support + anchor + anchor cable” (scheme II). The industrial experiment is carried out at 1070 auxiliary transportation roadway in Tashan Coal Mine. The measured results show that the roadway roof separations of the secondary support scheme I and II are only 1/11 and 1/46 of the original support scheme, respectively, while the lateral displacements of the roadway are only 1/7 and 1/44 of the original support scheme. It could be seen that the deformation and failure of the roadway surrounding rock have been well controlled.

Introduction and ObjectivesThe risk of ventricular arrhythmia and heart failure in patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) is much higher than that in the general population. More and more pieces of evidence showed that HOCM is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young people. We reported our experience in a study, comparing surgical myectomy, alcohol septal ablation (ASA), and medical therapy.MethodsThe original cohort included 965 consecutive patients with HOCM. The patients were divided into three groups according to treatment strategies: myectomy group (n = 502), ASA group (n = 138), and medical treatment group (n = 325). The median follow-up duration was 42.99 ± 18.32 months, and the primary endpoints were all-cause mortality and heart transplantation.ResultsBoth in short- and long-term observations, surgical myectomy reduced the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) gradients more effectively (7 days, 16.15 ± 12.07 mmHg vs. 42.33 ± 27.76 mmHg, p < 0.05; 1 year, 14.65 ± 13.18 mmHg vs. 41.17 ± 30.76 mmHg, p < 0.05). Among the three groups, the patients in the medical treatment group were at a higher risk of mortality and cardiac transplantation (vs. the myectomy group, p < 0.001 by log-rank test; vs. the alcohol septal ablation group, p = 0.017 by log-rank test), and the myectomy group shows a lower risk of reaching the primary endpoint than the two other groups. In the multivariate Cox regression analysis, previous atrial fibrillation (AF), N terminal pro B type natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP), and surgical myectomy predicted an HOCM prognosis. However, the impact of surgical myectomy on HOCM prognosis seems to be limited to the ConclusionsThe patients with medical treatments seemed to suffer from the highest risk of achieving an all-cause mortality and the endpoint of heart transplantation. In the long-term survival and clinical outcome, myectomy seemed better than alcohol septal ablation, especially the younger patients. Due to the less-controllable degree, periprocedural complication frequency after alcohol septal ablation was higher, compared with myectomy. Furthermore, gradients after myectomy are lower at late follow-up. To sum up, when selecting treatment strategies, the patients should be individually evaluated by a multidisciplinary team of cardiologists and surgeons.

ObjectiveTo explore the correlation between the incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) and thyroid dysfunction in patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM).MethodsThyroid function testing in 755 consecutive patients with HOCM were examined at the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases (China) from October 2009 to December 2013. Patients were divided into four groups according to the TSH levels: TSH10.00mIU/L(n=17).ResultsA total of 107 patients were diagnosed with AF (14%).(1) Compared to HOCM patients without AF,HOCM patients with AF have older age (PConclusionOur results suggested that thyroid dysfunction was associated with an increased risk of AF in patients with HOCM.

OBJECTIVE In recent years, some studies have indicated that a novel marker described as the stress hyperglycemia ratio (SHR) can reflect true acute hyperglycemic status and is associated with the short-term poor prognosis in patients with acute myocardial infarction. In the current study we evaluated the association of SHR with adverse cardiovascular events among patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We consecutively enrolled 5,562 ACS patients who underwent drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation. All subjects were divided into five groups according to SHR, which was determined by the following formula: ABG / [(28.7 × HbA1c %) − 46.7], where ABG is admission blood glucose level. The primary end point was major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) at the 2-year follow-up, and the secondary end point included major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) at 2-year follow-up, cardiac death, and nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) at 2-year follow-up and in-hospital cardiac death and nonfatal MI. RESULTS A total of 643 MACCE were recorded during a median follow-up of 28.3 months. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed the lowest MACCE incidence in quintile 3 (P < 0.001). Moreover, the outcomes of restricted cubic spline analysis suggested that there was a U-shaped or J-shaped association between the SHR and early and late cardiovascular outcomes even after adjustment for other confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS There were U-shaped associations of SHR with MACCE rate and MACE rate at 2-year follow-ups and J-shaped associations of SHR with in-hospital cardiac death and MI and that at 2-year follow-up in ACS patients who underwent DES implantation, and the inflection point of SHR for poor prognosis was 0.78.

Hot stamping components with tailored mechanical properties have excellent safety-related performance in the field of lightweight manufacturing. In this paper, the constitutive relation and damage evolution of bainite, martensite, and mixed bainite/martensite (B/M) phase were studied. Two-dimensional representative volume element (RVE) models were constructed according to microstructure characteristics. The constitutive relations of individual phases were defined based on the dislocation strengthening theory. Results showed that the damage initiation and evolution of martensite and bainite phases can well described by the Lou-Huh damage criterion (DF2015) determined by the hybrid experimental–numerical method. The calibrated damage parameters of each phase were applied to the numerical simulation, followed by the 2D RVE simulations of B/M phase under different stress states. To study the influence of martensite volume fraction (Vm) and distribution of damage evolution, the void nucleation and growth were evaluated by RVEs and verified by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Three types of void nucleation modes under different stress states were experimentally and numerically studied. The results showed that with the increase of Vm and varying martensite distribution, the nucleation location of voids move from bainite to martensite.

Pioglitazone is currently used as an anti-diabetic agent and can reduce cardiovascular events in in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction has been recognized as an early manifestation of myocardial dysfunction in T2DM patients. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate changes in the left ventricular diastolic function after the treatment of pioglitazone.A systematic literature search of PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library until May 2021 with keywords pioglitazone and left ventricular diastolic function was performed in accordance with the meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology guidelines and preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses statement. Three reviewers independently selected the studies and extracted data. Quality assessment of the included studies was undergone. A fixed effects model was used to calculate overall effect sizes. Subgroup analyses were subsequently performed. A fixed effects model was used to calculate the overall effect size. Subgroup analyses were then performed.Seven studies with 233 patients were investigated. We found pioglitazone significantly improved hemoglobin A1c (%) in patients with T2DM and left ventricular diastolic function had an improvement tendency (weighted mean difference [WMD], 0.03; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.01-0.05, P.01) despite moderate heterogeneity (I2 = 66%). Subsequent subgroup analysis indicated that left ventricular diastolic function were significantly improved (WMD, 0.20; 95% CI, 0.12-0.29, P.001) in T2DM patients whose average age55 after receiving pioglitazone treatment. However, in T2DM patients with mean age ≥ 55 years, there was no significant improvement of left ventricular diastolic function (WMD, 0.02; 95% CI, 0-0.04, P = .04).Pioglitazone treatment significantly improved left ventricular diastolic function in type 2 diabetic patients with a mean age of55 years, but did not improve left ventricular diastolic function in patients with a mean age of ≥ 55 years.

OBJECTIVE: Presently, an effective model to predict long-term cardiac mortality in patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) is lacking. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of the modified Age, Creatinine clearance, and Ejection Fraction (mACEF) score for long-term cardiac mortality in patients with HOCM. METHODS: Two hundred and ninety two patients with HOCM treated non-invasively were enrolled in this study, all of whom had intact medical information. RESULTS: Over a median follow-up period of 41.9 months, 28 cardiac deaths occurred. In univariate Cox regression analysis, the mACEF score was associated with long-term cardiac death [hazard ratio (HR)=1.795, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.518–2.124, p

The recycling of construction waste and the use of a new sintering process in the field of sintered bricks can greatly solve the problems of clay resource depletion, soil structure destruction, and high CO2 emissions that always limit the development of the sintered brick field. The study was carried out using an orthogonal experiment to derive the optimal mix ratio for the preparation of sintered bricks, and subsequently, the sintered bricks were prepared using the optimal mix ratio. The experimental results show that the maximum compressive strength of construction waste sintered brick (MRB sintered brick) prepared using high-temperature sintering is 8.1 MPa, and the water absorption is 11. When the waste glass slag is mixed with 10%, it can show a better fluxing effect in the preparation of sintered bricks by mixing construction waste with waste glass slag (MGB sintered bricks), so that the MGB sintered bricks have a higher densification. The compressive strength is 32.9% higher and the water absorption is 3.5% lower than that of MRB sintered brick. MGS sintered bricks were prepared by mixing Yellow River sedimentary sand into MGB sintered bricks. The strength of MGS sintered bricks increased with the replacement rate of Yellow River sedimentary sand, and when the replacement rate of Yellow River sedimentary sand reached 16%, the strength of the MGS sintered bricks increased by 88.9%, and the water absorption rate was reduced by 4.6% compared with the MGB sintered bricks. The sintering mechanism had significant effects on the compressive strength, weathering resistance, and frost resistance of the sintered brick. The microwave sintering process has the characteristics of high efficiency, uniform heating, selective heating, and low thermal inertia, which can increase the compressive strength of MGS sintered brick by 4.6%, reduce the water absorption by 12.9%, shorten the sintering time by 43.6%, and improve the frost resistance.

To understand the influences of emission sources, transport and environmental factors on the characteristics of organic carbonaceous aerosols in the marine area, organic carbon (OC) and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) were measured in atmospheric samples collected from the coastal region and over the Bohai and Yellow Seas from 2015 to 2016. Compared with the averages of 19.28 and 10.61 μg·m−3 in the coastal samples, the average concentrations of OC and WSOC decreased to 2.17 and 1.54 μg·m−3 in the marine aerosol samples, respectively. WSOC contributed 60% to OC in Qingdao, while 68.4% to OC over the ocean, suggesting that WSOC is likely influenced by the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in surface seawater. The highest OC/EC ratios (6.56) were observed in the samples collected from the air masses originating from the north land source, indicating that OC mainly comes from anthropogenic sources. The OC concentrations in the air mass samples from marine sources were only 50% of those in the samples from terrestrial sources. A negative correlation between the WSOC and transport distance over the sea and decreased OC/EC ratios were observed, which indicated that the contribution of secondary organic carbon (SOC) to OC decreased during the transport from land to sea. OC increased by 88.5% under the influence of Asian dust, while WSOC did not exhibit substantial changes. The positive matrix factorization (PMF) model showed that anthropogenic sources were the major source of carbonaceous aerosols, contributing 70% of the OC in Qingdao. The positive correlation between OC and particulate matter (PM) suggested that the OC affected the air quality.

The four-parameter logistic model (4PLM) has recently attracted much interest in various applications. Motivated by recent studies that re-express the four-parameter model as a mixture model with two levels of latent variables, this paper develops a new expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm for marginalized maximum a posteriori estimation of the 4PLM parameters. The mixture modelling framework of the 4PLM not only makes the proposed EM algorithm easier to implement in practice, but also provides a natural connection with popular cognitive diagnosis models. Simulation studies were conducted to show the good performance of the proposed estimation method and to investigate the impact of the additional upper asymptote parameter on the estimation of other parameters. Moreover, a real data set was analysed using the 4PLM to show its improved performance over the three-parameter logistic model.

The underground mining of extra-thick coal seams causes substantial migration of the overburden and generates extreme ground pressures. In view of the strong ground pressures produced by breakages and instabilities in high-level hard strata and the difficulties in their containment, we proposed an innovative solution to fracture high-level hard strata by ground hydraulic fracturing (GHF). Taking a 20 m thick coal seam in Tashan coal mine (Datong mine area, China) as an example, in situ ground hydraulic action experiments on the high-level hard rock strata was performed. In-situ measurements was performed to determine the key strata (KS) to be hydraulic fractured, and KS3 and KS4 were selected to be the target strata which were 110 m and 145 m away vertically above the coal seam, respectively. Fracturing was then performed using vertical wells. Micro-seismic measurements showed that the hydraulic fissure in KS3 is 250 m long, whereas 218 m in KS4. The fractured regions are 30–120 m in width. The hydraulic fissures in KS3 and KS4 exhibit an interlaced pattern that enhances the fracturing effect. Ground hydraulic action changed the fracturing structures of the high-level rock strata, thereby relieving the stress concentration around the working face. No strong strata behavior was observed on the working face after fracturing. The forces exerted on the supports was significantly reduced and the deformation of advanced roadways was controlled. This first-time field GHF experiment to control the strong strata behavior was successful, paving the way for new possibilities to high-level hard strata control for safety mining.

The use of planting concrete (PC) is one of the most prevalent slope protection methods. However, PC offers poor plant growth properties and poor ecological performance due to its high alkalinity. Therefore, in this study we used an orthogonal experimental design to optimize the mix design, and we used three alkali reduction treatments to reduce alkalinity and improve plant growth properties. The compressive strength, interconnected porosity, and pH values were analyzed to obtain the optimal level. Subsequently, the plant growth property test was conducted both indoors and outdoors. Stem length was used to evaluate different plants, which were grown in both natural soil (NS) and construction waste (CW). The experiment results show that the paste–aggregate ratio (PR) has the greatest impact on the above properties and that the optimum levels for PR, water–binder ratio (W/B), and fly ash addition level (FA) are 1/5, 0.29, and 10%, respectively. Additionally, the compound alkali reduction treatments, which combined the use of 0.4% ferrous sulfate in the planting substance and 3% potassium dihydrogen phosphate in the soaking solution, were effective. Furthermore, tall fescue may have potential applications in combination with CW. In conclusion, PC that has undergone alkali reduction treatments shows potential for application in slope protection, and thus may help to improve sustainability.

Long non-coding RNA Plasmacytoma Variant Translocation 1 (LncRNA PVT1) was involved in various human diseases, but its role in aortic dissection (AD) remained to be fully examined. In this study, the viability and migration of human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMCs) were respectively measured by MTT assay and wound-healing assay. Relative phenotypic switch-related protein expressions were measured with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot as needed. An AD model was established in animals and hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining was used for pathological examination. We found that, in HASMCs, microRNA (miR)-27b-3p could competitively bind with PVT1. In AD, PVT1 expression was upregulated, yet that of miR-27b-3p was downregulated. Downregulating PVT1 reversed the effects of growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) treatment on PVT1, miR-27b-3p and expressions of phenotypic switch-related markers, and cell viability and migration, while downregulating miR-27b-3p reversed the effects of downregulating PVT1. Moreover, downregulating PVT1 suppressed the effects of upregulated PVT1 and downregulated miR-27b-3p induced by AD as well as media degeneration in vivo. In conclusion, downregulating PVT1 expression suppressed the proliferation, migration and phenotypic switch of HASMCs treated by PDGF-BB via targeting miR-27b-3p.

Relation extraction methods based on domain adaptation have begun to be extensively applied in specific domains to alleviate the pressure of insufficient annotated corpus, which enables learning by utilizing the training data set of a related domain. However, the negative transfer may occur during the adaptive process due to differences in data distribution between domains. Besides, it is difficult to achieve a fine-grained alignment of relation category without fully mining the multi-mode data structure. Furthermore, as a common application scenario, partial domain adaptation (PDA) refers to domain adaptive behavior when the relation class set of a specific domain is a subset of the related domain. In this case, some outliers belonging to the related domain will reduce the performance of the model. To solve these problems, a novel model based on a multi-adversarial module for partial domain adaptation (MAPDA) is proposed in this study. We design a weight mechanism to mitigate the impact of noise samples and outlier categories, and embed several adversarial networks to realize various category alignments between domains. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed model significantly improves the state-of-the-art performance of relation extraction implemented in domain adaptation.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of surgical resection of muscle layer on the long-term survival of patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). METHODS The original study cohort consisted of 552 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), including 380 patients with HOCM and 172 patients with nonobstructive HCM. All these patients had a definite diagnosis in our center from October 1, 2009, to December 31, 2012. They were divided into three groups, viz., HOCM with myectomy group (n=194), nonoperated HOCM group (n=186), and nonobstructive HCM group (n=172). Median follow-up duration was 57.57±13.71 months, and the primary end point was a combination of mortality from all causes. RESULTS In this survival study, we compared the prognoses of patients with HOCM after myectomy, patients with nonoperated HOCM, and patients with nonobstructive HCM. Among the three groups, the myectomy group showed a lower rate of reaching the all-cause mortality with statistically indistinguishable overall survival compared with patients with nonobstructive HCM (p=0.514). Among patients with left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction, the overall survival in the myectomy group was noticeably better than that in the nonoperated HOCM group (log-rank p

Xiangbin Meng,1,* Wenyao Wang,2,* Kuo Zhang,2,* Yu Qi,2 Shimin An,2 Siyuan Wang,2 Jilin Zheng,2 Joyce Kong,3 Henghui Liu,4 Jing Wu,4 Yong Zhou,5 Chuanyu Gao,1 Yi-Da Tang2 1Department of Cardiology, Zhengzhou University People’s Hospital, Zhengzhou, Henan, China; 2Department of Cardiology Medicine, Coronary Heart Disease Center, State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China; 3New York Institute of Technology-College of Osteopathic Medicine, Old Westbury, NY, USA; 4Beijing Recdata Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing, China; 5Department of Cardiology, Beijing An Zhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood Vascular Diseases, Beijing, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is considered an important source of bioactive molecules that can influence coronary arteries directly and is related to the concurrent presence of both obstructive coronary stenosis and myocardial ischemia independently. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become an emergent health problem worldwide. Aim: This cross-sectional study aimed to address the relationship between the volume of EAT and NAFLD and other cardiovascular risk factors in the general population. Materials and methods: In this study, we selected a total of 2,238 participants aged at least 40 years from the Jidong community in Tangshan, China. The 64-slice CT was used to survey the volume of EAT and liver ultrasonography was used for the diagnosis of NAFLD. The study cohorts were compared according to EAT volume. Results: Cardiovascular risk factors, such as coronary artery calcium score, carotid intima-media thickness, NAFLD, and ideal cardiovascular health metrics were also found to be related to EAT. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, NAFLD groups showed significant association with higher EAT volume, after correcting for main cardiovascular disease risk factors (OR [95% CI], 1.407 [1.117, 1.773]). Conclusion: Our findings in a general community population provide evidence that EAT is strongly associated with NAFLD and other cardiovascular risk factors. Keywords: epicardial adipose tissue, EAT, coronary artery calcium, CAC, carotid intima-media thickness, CIMT, ideal cardiovascular health metrics, CVH

Event detection is an important information extraction task in nature language processing. Recently, the method based on syntactic information and graph convolution network has been wildly used in event detection task and achieved good performance. For event detection, graph convolution network (GCN) based on dependency arcs can capture the sentence syntactic representations and the syntactic information, which is from candidate triggers to arguments. However, existing methods based on GCN with dependency arcs suffer from imbalance and redundant information in graph. To capture important and refined information in graph, we propose Multi-graph Convolution Network with Jump Connection (MGJ-ED). The multi-graph convolution network module adds a core subgraph splitted from dependency graph which selects important one-hop neighbors' syntactic information in breadth via GCN. Also the jump connection architecture aggregate GCN layers' representation with different attention score, which learns the importance of neighbors' syntactic information of different hops away in depth. The experimental results on the widely used ACE 2005 dataset shows the superiority of the other state-of-the-art methods.

Objective Patients with severe pure aortic regurgitation (PAR) undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is still under controversial. J valve™, a China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) certified device, has specific positioning and anchoring system, which makes this device indicated in PAR patients. We aim to introduce the clinical experience of J valve in the treatment of PAR in high risk patients. Methods A total of 53 severe PAR patients (STS score 6,3±1.8, mean age, 76.4±5.2 years) who underwent TAVI using J valve™ in our Hospital from June 2017 to December 2018 were retrospectively enrolled. All patients underwent echocardiography and contrast-enhanced computed tomography to evaluate their baseline and follow-up characteristics. The 30 days outcomes were reported according to the Valve Academic Research Consortium-2 (VARC) definitions. Results All patients underwent transapical TAVI, and J valve was in implanted successfully in 51 patients (96,2%). J valve was dislodged in two patients, one patient was successful implanted with another J valve and the dislodged valve placed in descending aorta. The other patient was converted to urgent surgery for aortic valve replacement. One patient was converted to surgery due to severe aortic regurgitation after J-valve placement. The 30 days mortality was 9.2% (n=5), 1 patient died of acute heart failure and 2 patients died of infection. During the hospitalization, none of the patients had stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) and periprocedural myocardial infarction (MI). There were 5 (n=14.3%) patients presenting with bleeding complications (BARC 4 definition of major bleeding). 1 (2.9%). Pacemaker implantation was performed in 2 (5.7%) patients. Paravalvular regurgitation was none or trace in 90.7% (n=49), mild to moderate in 5.6% (n=3), and moderate to severe 1.8% (n=1) after the procedure. Mean intensive care unit stay was 29.30±15.30 h. Working illustration of J valve Conclusion TAVI by J valve™ can be an alternative option for high risk patients with PAR, but more evidences are still needed to further prove its safety and feasibility.

Syntactic relations are broadly used in many NLP tasks. For event detection, syntactic relation representations based on dependency tree can better capture the interrelations between candidate trigger words and related entities than sentence representations. But, existing studies only use first-order syntactic relations (i.e., the arcs) in dependency trees to identify trigger words. For this reason, this paper proposes a new method for event detection, which uses a dependency tree based graph convolution network with aggregative attention to explicitly model and aggregate multi-order syntactic representations in sentences. Experimental comparison with state-of-the-art baselines shows the superiority of the proposed method.

Background: Targetable drug delivery is an important method for the treatment of liver tumors. For the quantitative analysis of drug diffusion, the establishment of a method for information collection and characterization of extracellular space is developed by imaging analysis of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences. In this paper, we smoothed out interferential part in scanned digital MRI images. Materials and Methods: Making full use of priors of low rank, nonlocal self-similarity, and regularized sparsity-promoting entropy, a block-matching regularized entropy minimization algorithm is proposed. Sparsity-promoting entropy function produces much sparser representation of grouped nonlocal similar blocks of image by solving a nonconvex minimization problem. Moreover, an alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm is proposed to iteratively solve the problem above. Results and Conclusions: Experiments on simulated and real images reveal that the proposed method obtains better image restorations compared with some state-of-the-art methods, where most information is recovered and few artifacts are produced.

Context Thyroid hormone acts as a fundamental regulator in cardiovascular homeostasis in pathophysiological conditions. Objective This study aims to determine whether thyroid hormone could be an independent predictor of adverse events in patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). Design, Patients, and Outcome Measures The original cohort consisted of 965 consecutive patients with HOCM who were admitted to Fuwai Hospital from October 2009 to December 2014, and 756 patients completed thyroid function evaluations. Patients were divided into three groups according to free triiodothyronine (FT3) levels: tertile 1 ( Results In correlation analysis, FT3 showed significantly positive correlation with left ventricular ejection fraction (r = 0.109, P = 0.003). After a median follow-up of 44 months, a total of 45 (6.0%) endpoints (all-cause mortality or cardiac transplantation) occurred with rates of 13.4%, 3.6%, and 1.2% in tertiles 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Univariate Cox analysis established FT3 as a predictor of endpoint [hazard ratio (HR), 0.111; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.065, 0.189; P < 0.001]. After adjustment for traditional risk factors, the prognostic value of FT3 level was still significant (HR, 0.216; 95% CI, 0.083, 0.559; P = 0.002). Compared with patients in tertile 3, those in tertile 1 were at a much higher risk of endpoint (HR, 4.918; 95% CI, 1.076, 22.485; P = 0.040). Conclusions FT3 correlated with cardiac function and could serve as an independent predictor of all-cause mortality and cardiac transplantation in patients with HOCM. These results suggest that monitoring thyroid function in HOCM patients is necessary.

High resolution in space and time is becoming the new trend of thermographic inspection of equipments, therefore, the development of a fast and precise processing and data store technique of high resolution thermal image should be well studied. This article will propose a novel global compression algorithm, which will provide an effective way to improve the precision and processing speed of thermal image data. This new algorithm is based on the decay of the temperature of thermograph and the feature of thermal image morphology. Firstly, it will sort the data in space according to K-means method. Then it will employ classic fitting calculation to fit all the typical temperature decay curves. At last, it will use the fitting parameters of the curves as the parameters for compression and reconstruction of thermal image sequence to achieve the method for which the thermal image sequence can be compressed in space and time simultaneously. To validate the proposed new algorithm, the authors used two embedded defective specimens made of different materials to do the experiment. The results show that the proposed infrared thermal image sequence compression processing algorithm is an effective solution with high speed and high precision. Compared to the conventional method, the global compression algorithm is not only noise resistant but also can improve the computing speed in hundreds of times.

The oxidative stress caused by endothelial injury is involved in intimal hyperplasia (IH) in vein grafts. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can home to injured intima and promote endothelial repair. However, MSC apoptosis is increased accompanied by decreased functional activity under oxidative stress. Thus, we investigate whether tumour necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) can promote the survival and activity of MSCs under oxidative stress to reduce IH more effectively, and establish what role the NF‐κB pathway plays in this. In this study, we preconditioned MSCs with TNF‐α (TNF ‐α‐PCMSCs) for 24 hrs and measured the activation of the IKK/NF‐κB pathway. EdU and transwell assays were performed to assess proliferation and migration of TNF ‐α‐PCMSCs. Apoptosis and migration of TNF ‐α‐ PCMSCs were evaluated in conditions of oxidative stress by analysis of the expression of Bcl‐2 and CXCR4 proteins. TNF ‐α‐ PCMSCs were transplanted into a vein graft model, so that cell homing could be tracked, and endothelial apoptosis and IH of vein grafts were measured. The results demonstrated that TNF‐α promotes proliferation and migration of MSCs. Furthermore, survival and migration of TNF ‐α‐ PCMSCs under oxidative stress were both enhanced. A greater number of MSCs migrated to the intima of vein grafts after preconditioning with TNF‐α, and the formation of neointima was significantly reduced. These effects could be partially abolished by IKK XII (NF‐κB inhibitor). All these results indicate that preconditioning with TNF‐α can promote survival and migration of MSCs under oxidative stress via the NF‐κB pathway and thus attenuate IH of vein grafts.

Rational control over the uniform morphology and size of hexagonal NaYF4 has been achieved via a facile hydrothermal route. The evolution of particle morphology from peg-top-like to hexagonal microprisms with protruding centers and the long tubelike morphology with concave wedge and finally to solely microrods been demonstrated by increasing the F−/Ln3+ molar ratio, all other parameters being equal. Rationally controlling the shape of hexagonal NaYF4 is of great importance due to their strongly shape-dependent optical properties. Moreover, the systematic study on the photoluminescence of 20%Yb3+, 1%Er3+-doped β-NaYF4 with different shapes shows that the upconversion (UC) properties of these products are strongly dependent on the combined roles of morphologies, crystallinity, and particle sizes. In particular, the microrods evince a better PL signal as compared with others.