Search

Objective To determine whether facial growth at five years is different for children with a left versus right sided cleft lip and palate. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Seven UK regional cleft centres. Patients Patients born between 2000-2014 with a complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP). Main Outcomes Measure 5-Year-Old's Index scores. Results 378 children were included. 256 (68%) had a left sided UCLP and 122 (32%) had a right sided UCLP. 5-Year-Old's index scores ranged from 1 (good) to 5 (poor). There was a higher proportion of patients getting good scores (1 and 2) in left UCLP (43%) compared to right UCLP (37%) but there was weak evidence for a difference (Adjusted summary odds ratio 1.27, 95% CI 0.87 to 1.87; P = .22). Conclusions Whilst maxillary growth may be different for left versus right sided UCLP, definitive analysis requires older growth indices and arch forms.

Rong-Yun Mai,1,* Ting-Li Lu,1,* Ri-Jin Lu,1 Can Zeng,1 Fang Lian,2 Le-Qun Li,1 Guo-Bin Wu,1 Jia-Zhou Ye1 1Department of Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Surgery, Guangxi Medical University Cancer Hospital, Nanning, 530021, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Physiology, Basic Medical College, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jia-Zhou Ye; Guo-Bin Wu, Department of Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Surgery, Guangxi Medical University Cancer Hospital, 71 He Di Road, Nanning, 530021, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-771-5310045, Fax +86-771-5312000, Email yejiazhou@gxmu.edu.cn; wuguobin@gxmu.edu.cnBackground: Systemic inflammatory response is a hallmark of cancer and plays a significant role in the development and progression of various malignant tumors. This research aimed to estimate the prognostic function of the C-reactive protein-albumin ratio (CAR) in patients undergoing hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and compare it with other inflammation-based prognostic scores, including the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-lymphocyte ratio, monocyte-lymphocyte ratio, systemic immune inflammation index, prognostic index, Glasgow prognostic score, and modified Glasgow prognostic score.Methods: Retrospective analysis was conducted on data from 1039 HCC cases who underwent curative liver resection. The prognostic performance of CAR was compared with other scores using the area under the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (t-ROC) curve. Multivariable Cox regression analyses were performed to confirm independent predictors for disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS).Results: The area under the t-ROC curve for CAR in the evaluation of DFS and OS was significantly greater than that of other scores and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). Patients were stratified based on the optimal cut-off value of CAR, and the da

Introduction The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is rising in the UK and is associated with maternal and neonatal complications. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance advises first-line management with healthy eating and physical activity which is only moderately effective for achieving glycaemic targets. Approximately 30% of women require medication with metformin and/or insulin. There is currently no strong evidence base for any particular dietary regimen to improve outcomes in GDM. Intermittent low-energy diets (ILEDs) are associated with improved glycaemic control and reduced insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes and could be a viable option in the management of GDM. This study aims to test the safety, feasibility and acceptability of an ILED intervention among women with GDM compared with best National Health Service (NHS) care. Method and analysis We aim to recruit 48 women with GDM diagnosed between 24 and 30 weeks gestation from antenatal clinics at Wythenshawe and St Mary’s hospitals, Manchester Foundation Trust, over 13 months starting in November 2022. Participants will be randomised (1:1) to ILED (2 low-energy diet days/week of 1000 kcal and 5 days/week of the best NHS care healthy diet and physical activity advice) or best NHS care 7 days/week until delivery of their baby. Primary outcomes include uptake and retention of participants to the trial and adherence to both dietary interventions. Safety outcomes will include birth weight, gestational age at delivery, neonatal hypoglycaemic episodes requiring intervention, neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia, admission to special care baby unit or neonatal intensive care unit, stillbirths, the percentage of women with hypoglycaemic episodes requiring third-party assistance, and significant maternal ketonaemia (defined as ≥1.0 mmol/L). Secondary outcomes will assess the fidelity of delivery of the interventions, and qualitative analysis of participant and healthcare professionals

We reformulate and reframe a series of increasingly complex parametric statistical topics into a framework of response-vs.-covariate (Re-Co) dynamics that is described without any explicit functional structures. Then we resolve these topics' data analysis tasks by discovering major factors underlying such Re-Co dynamics by only making use of data's categorical nature. The major factor selection protocol at the heart of Categorical Exploratory Data Analysis (CEDA) paradigm is illustrated and carried out by employing Shannon's conditional entropy (CE) and mutual information (I[Re;Co]) as the two key Information Theoretical measurements. Through the process of evaluating these two entropy-based measurements and resolving statistical tasks, we acquire several computational guidelines for carrying out the major factor selection protocol in a do-and-learn fashion. Specifically, practical guidelines are established for evaluating CE and I[Re;Co] in accordance with the criterion called [C1:confirmable]. Following the [C1:confirmable] criterion, we make no attempts on acquiring consistent estimations of these theoretical information measurements. All evaluations are carried out on a contingency table platform, upon which the practical guidelines also provide ways of lessening the effects of the curse of dimensionality. We explicitly carry out six examples of Re-Co dynamics, within each of which, several widely extended scenarios are also explored and discussed.

Without assuming any functional or distributional structure, we select collections of major factors embedded within response-versus-covariate (Re-Co) dynamics via selection criteria [C1: confirmable] and [C2: irrepaceable], which are based on information theoretic measurements. The two criteria are constructed based on the computing paradigm called Categorical Exploratory Data Analysis (CEDA) and linked to Wiener-Granger causality. All the information theoretical measurements, including conditional mutual information and entropy, are evaluated through the contingency table platform, which primarily rests on the categorical nature within all involved features of any data types: quantitative or qualitative. Our selection task identifies one chief collection, together with several secondary collections of major factors of various orders underlying the targeted Re-Co dynamics. Each selected collection is checked with algorithmically computed reliability against the finite sample phenomenon, and so is each members major factor individually. The developments of our selection protocol are illustrated in detail through two experimental examples: a simple one and a complex one. We then apply this protocol on two data sets pertaining to two somewhat related but distinct pitching dynamics of two pitch types: slider and fastball. In particular, we refer to a specific Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher and we consider data of multiple seasons.

Hao Yang,1,* Qing Xia,2,* Yan Shen,2 Ting-Li Chen,3 Jing Wang,3 Ya-Yun Lu2 1Department of Stomatology, Huadong Sanatorium, Wuxi, 214065, People’s Republic of China; 2Health Examination Center, Huadong Sanatorium, Wuxi, 214065, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Ophthalmology, Huadong Sanatorium, Wuxi, 214065, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Ya-Yun LuHealth Examination Center, Huadong Sanatorium, Wuxi, 214065, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 13763384379, Email luyy28@163.comBackground: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) is recognized as the most common autoimmune thyroid disease, often accompanied by the diffuse enlargement of thyroid with abundant blood flow and elevated level of thyroid autoantibodies. As obesity had a positive association with the risk of HT. Thus, this retrospective study was established to further explore the gender relationship between metabolic obesity phenotypes and the risk of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT).Materials and Methods: Data for 3697 subjects aged ≥ 18 years were randomly collected from a Health check-up database from April to December 2019. Obesity was defined by general obesity (GO; body mass index [BMI] ≥ 28 kg/m2) and abdominal obesity (AO; waist circumstance, male ≥ 90 cm, female ≥ 85 cm). Metabolic unhealthy was defined as having at least one metabolic syndrome component and a homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance ≥ 2.5. Obesity phenotypes were divided into three groups: GO, AO, compound obesity (GO+AO). After adjustment for potential confounding factors, multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the association between metabolic obesity phenotypes and risk of HT by sex and explore the correlation between different obesity patterns and HT risk by metabolic health status.Results: The incidence of HT was 23.5% and significantly higher among females than males with different metabolic phenotypes (26.2

For a large ensemble of complex systems, a Many-System Problem (MSP) studies how heterogeneity constrains and hides structural mechanisms, and how to uncover and reveal hidden major factors from homogeneous parts. All member systems in an MSP share common governing principles of dynamics, but differ in idiosyncratic characteristics. A typical dynamic is found underlying response features with respect to covariate features of quantitative or qualitative data types. Neither all-system-as-one-whole nor individual system-specific functional structures are assumed in such response-vs-covariate (Re-Co) dynamics. We developed a computational protocol for identifying various collections of major factors of various orders underlying Re-Co dynamics. We first demonstrate the immanent effects of heterogeneity among member systems, which constrain compositions of major factors and even hide essential ones. Secondly, we show that fuller collections of major factors are discovered by breaking heterogeneity into many homogeneous parts. This process further realizes Andersons More is Different phenomenon. We employ the categorical nature of all features and develop a Categorical Exploratory Data Analysis (CEDA)-based major factor selection protocol. Information theoretical measurements-conditional mutual information and entropy-are heavily used in two selection criteria: C1-confirmable and C2-irreplaceable. All conditional entropies are evaluated through contingency tables with algorithmically computed reliability against the finite sample phenomenon. We study one artificially designed MSP and then two real collectives of Major League Baseball (MLB) pitching dynamics with 62 slider pitchers and 199 fastball pitchers, respectively. Finally, our MSP data analyzing techniques are applied to resolve a scientific issue related to the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale.

Nan-Fu Chiu,1,2 Ming-Jung Tai,1 Devi Taufiq Nurrohman,1,3 Ting-Li Lin,1 Ying-Hao Wang,1 Chen-Yu Chen4,5 1Laboratory of Nano-Photonics and Biosensors, Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei City, Taiwan; 2Department of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei City, Taiwan; 3Department of Electronics Engineering, State Polytechnic of Cilacap, Cilacap, Indonesia; 4Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei City, Taiwan; 5Department of Medicine, Mackay Medical College, Taipei City, TaiwanCorrespondence: Nan-Fu ChiuLaboratory of Nano-Photonics and Biosensors, Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Taiwan Normal University, No. 88, Sec. 4, Ting-Chou Road, Taipei City, 11677, TaiwanTel +886-2-77496722Fax +886-2-86631954Email nfchiu@ntnu.edu.twChen-Yu ChenDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mackay Memorial Hospital, No. 92, Sec. 2, Zhongshan N. Road, Taipei City, 10449, TaiwanTel +886-2-25433535Fax +886-2-25433642Email f122481@mmh.org.twBackground: Due to educational, social and economic reasons, more and more women are delaying childbirth. However, advanced maternal age is associated with several adverse pregnancy outcomes, and in particular a high risk of Down’s syndrome (DS). Hence, it is increasingly important to be able to detect fetal Down’s syndrome (FDS).Methods: We developed an effective, highly sensitive, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor with biochemically amplified responses using carboxyl-molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) film. The use of carboxylic acid as a surface modifier of MoS2 promoted dispersion and formed specific three-dimensional coordination sites. The carboxylic acid immobilized unmodified antibodies in a way that enhanced the bioaffinity of MoS2 and preserved biorecognition properties of the SPR sensor surface. Complete antigen pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A2 (PAPP-A2) conjugated with the carboxyl-MoS2-modified g

Organic semiconducting polymers exhibited promising photocatalytic behavior for hydrogen (H-2) evolution, especially when prepared in the form of polymer dots (Pdots). However, the Pdot structures were formed using common nonconjugated amphiphilic polymers, which have a negative effect on charge transfer between photocatalysts and reactants and are unable to participate in the photocatalytic reaction. This study presents a new strategy for constructing binary Pdot photocatalysts by replacing the nonconjugated amphiphilic polymer typically employed in the preparation of polymer nanoparticles (Pdots) with a low-molecular-weight conjugated polyelectrolyte. The as-prepared polyelectrolyte/hydrophobic polymer-based binary Pdots truly enhance the electron transfer between the Pt cocatalyst and the polymer photocatalyst with good water dispersibility. Moreover, unlike the nonconjugated amphiphilic polymer, the photophysics and mechanism of this photocatalytic system through time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) and transient absorption (TA) measurements confirmed the Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the polyelectrolyte as a donor and the hydrophobic polymer as an acceptor. As a result, the designated binary Pdot photocatalysts significantly enhanced the hydrogen evolution rate (HER) of 43 900 mu mol g(-1) h(-1) (63.5 mu mol h(-1), at 420 nm) for PTTPA/PFTBTA Pdots under visible-light irradiation.

Background Gangliosides are a class of sphingolipids that are present in the cell membranes of vertebrates. Gangliosides influence a broad range of cellular processes through effects on signal transduction, being found abundantly in the brain, and having a role in neurodevelopment. Objective We aimed to assess the effects of maternal daily consumption of ganglioside-enriched milk vs non-enriched milk and a non-supplemented group of pregnant women on maternal ganglioside levels and pregnancy outcomes. Design Double-blind parallel randomized controlled trial. Methods 1,500 women aged 20-40 years were recruited in Chongqing (China) between 11 and 14 weeks of a singleton pregnancy, and randomized into three groups: Control-received standard powdered milk formulation (>= 4 mg gangliosides/day); Complex milk lipid-enhanced (CML-E) group-same formulation enriched with complex milk lipids (>= 8 mg gangliosides/day) from milk fat globule membrane; Reference-received no milk. Serum ganglioside levels were measured in a randomly selected subsample of 250 women per group. Results CML-E milk was associated with marginally greater total gangliosides levels in maternal serum compared to Control (13.02 vs 12.69 mu g/ml; p = 0.034) but not to Reference group. CML-E milk did not affect cord blood ganglioside levels. Among the 1500 women, CML-E milk consumption was associated with a lower rate of gestational diabetes mellitus than control milk [relative risk 0.80 (95% CI 0.64, 0.99)], but which was not different to the Reference group. CML-E milk supplementation had no other effects on maternal or newborn health. Conclusions Maternal supplementation with milk fat globule membrane, as a source of gangliosides, was not associated with any adverse health outcomes, and did not increase serum gangliosides compared with the non-supplemented reference group.

We develop Categorical Exploratory Data Analysis (CEDA) with mimicking to explore and exhibit the complexity of information content that is contained within any data matrix: categorical, discrete, or continuous. Such complexity is shown through visible and explainable serial multiscale structural dependency with heterogeneity. CEDA is developed upon all features' categorical nature via histogram and it is guided by all features' associative patterns (order-2 dependence) in a mutual conditional entropy matrix. Higher-order structural dependency of k(≥3) features is exhibited through block patterns within heatmaps that are constructed by permuting contingency-kD-lattices of counts. By growing k, the resultant heatmap series contains global and large scales of structural dependency that constitute the data matrix's information content. When involving continuous features, the principal component analysis (PCA) extracts fine-scale information content from each block in the final heatmap. Our mimicking protocol coherently simulates this heatmap series by preserving global-to-fine scales structural dependency. Upon every step of mimicking process, each accepted simulated heatmap is subject to constraints with respect to all of the reliable observed categorical patterns. For reliability and robustness in sciences, CEDA with mimicking enhances data visualization by revealing deterministic and stochastic structures within each scale-specific structural dependency. For inferences in Machine Learning (ML) and Statistics, it clarifies, upon which scales, which covariate feature-groups have major-vs.-minor predictive powers on response features. For the social justice of Artificial Intelligence (AI) products, it checks whether a data matrix incompletely prescribes the targeted system.

Given the photocatalytic properties of semiconducting polymers and carbon quantum dots (CQDs), we report a new structure for a metal-free photocatalytic system with a promising efficiency for hydrogen production through the combination of an organic semiconducting polymer (PFTBTA) and N-doped carbon quantum dots (NCQDs) covered by PS-PEGCOOH to produce heterostructured photocatalysts in the form of polymer dots (Pdots). This design could provide strong interactions between the two materials owing to the space confinement effect in nanometer-sized Pdots. Small particle size NCQDs are easy to insert inside the Pdot, which leads to an increase in the stability of the Pdot structure and enhances the hydrogen evolution rate by approximately 5-fold over that of pure PFTBTA Pdots. The photophysics and the mechanism behind the catalytic activity of our design are investigated by transient absorption measurement, demonstrating the role of NCQDs to enhance the charge separation and the photocatalytic efficiency of the PFTBTA Pdot.

Kai Dong,* Zhuang-Zhuang Zhao,* Jian Kang, Lei-Ruo Lin, Wen-Ting Chen, Jin-Xi Liu, Xiang-Long Wu, Ting-Li Lu Key Laboratory for Space Bioscience and Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Ting-Li LuKey Laboratory for Space Bioscience and Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86-29-88460332Email lutinglixinxin@nwpu.edu.cnBackground: Combined chemotherapy is often affected by the different physicochemical properties of chemotherapeutic drugs, which should be improved by the reasonable design of co-loaded preparations.Purpose: A kind of simple but practical graphene oxide (GO) wrapped mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) modified with hyaluronic acid (MSN@GO-HA) were developed for the co-delivery of cinnamaldehyde (CA) and doxorubicin (DOX), in order to enhance their combined treatment on tumor cells and reduce their application defects.Methods: The MSNCA@GODOX-HA was constructed by MSNCA (loading CA via physical diffusion) and GODOX-HA (modified with HA and loading DOX via π–π stacking) through the electrostatic adsorption, followed by the physicochemical characterization, serum stability and in vitro release study. Cytotoxicity on different cells was detected, followed by the tumor cell uptake tests. The intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) changes, mitochondrial functions and activities of caspase-3/-9 in MCF-7 cells were also evaluated, respectively.Results: The MSNCA@GODOX-HA nanoparticles kept stable in FBS solution and achieved pH-responsive release behavior, which was beneficial to increase the accumulation of CA and DOX in tumor cells to enhance the treatment. MSNCA@GODOX-HA exerted higher cytotoxicity to MCF-7 human breast cancer cells than H9c2 cardiac my

According to the topological design theory and method of parallel mechanism (PM) based on position and orientation characteristic (POC) equations, this paper studied a 3-DOF translational PM that has three advantages, i.e., (i) it consists of three fixed actuated prismatic joints, (ii) the PM has analytic solutions to the direct and inverse kinematic problems, and (iii) the PM is of partial motion decoupling property. Firstly, the main topological characteristics, such as the POC, degree of freedom and coupling degree were calculated for kinematic modeling. Thanks to these properties, the direct and inverse kinematic problems can be readily solved. Further, the conditions of the singular configurations of the PM were analyzed which corresponds to its partial motion decoupling property., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1907.08432

Infant adiposity may be related to later metabolic health. Maternal metabolite profiling reflects both genetic and environmental influences and allows elucidation of metabolic pathways associated with infant adiposity. In this multi-ethnic Asian cohort, we aimed to (i) identify maternal plasma metabolites associated with infant adiposity and other birth outcomes and (ii) investigate the maternal characteristics associated with those metabolites. In 940 mother-offspring pairs, we performed gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and identified 134 metabolites in maternal fasting plasma at 26-28 weeks of gestation. At birth, neonatal triceps and subscapular skinfold thicknesses were measured by trained research personnel, while weight and length measures were abstracted from delivery records. Gestational age was estimated from first-trimester dating ultrasound. Associations were assessed by multivariable linear regression, with p-values corrected using the Benjamini-Hochberg approach. At a false discovery rate of 5%, we observed associations between 28 metabolites and neonatal sum of skinfold thicknesses (13 amino acid-related, 4 non-esterified fatty acids, 6 xenobiotics, and 5 unknown compounds). Few associations were observed with gestational duration, birth weight, or birth length. Maternal ethnicity, pre-pregnancy BMI, and diet quality during pregnancy had the strongest associations with the specific metabolome related to infant adiposity. Further studies are warranted to replicate our findings and to understand the underlying mechanisms.

Nan-Fu Chiu,1 Ming-Jung Tai,1 Hwai-Ping Wu,1 Ting-Li Lin,1 Chen-Yu Chen2,31Laboratory of Nano-photonics and Biosensors, Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 11677, Taiwan; 2Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei City 10449, Taiwan; 3Department of Medicine, Mackay Medical College, Taipei 25245, TaiwanCorrespondence: Nan-Fu ChiuLaboratory of Nano-photonics and Biosensors, Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Taiwan Normal University, No. 88, Sec. 4, Ting-Chou Road, Taipei 11677, TaiwanTel +886 27 734 6722Fax +886 28 663 1954Email nfchiu@ntnu.edu.twBackground: Graphene-like material such as functionalized carboxyl-graphene oxide (carboxyl-GO) can be intelligently tuned to achieve particular properties for biological and chemical sensing applications.Methods: In this study, we propose a method to improve interference of non-specific proteins for use in human plasma assays. The highly specific interactions between molecules are an advantage of carboxyl-GO-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) immunoassays, and this can be applied to spiked plasma samples with pregnancy-associated plasma protein A2 (PAPPA2).Results: The experiment results showed that carboxyl-GO could be used to modulate the plasmon resonance energy, work function and conductivity properties. In addition, carboxyl groups could be used to enhance the conduction of electrons between carboxyl-GO and Au electrodes due to the excellent conductivity and electron transfer rate. The carboxyl-GO-based SPR chip exhibited high sensitivity based on the electric field amplification effects of the composite dielectric material. Therefore, the surface electric field could be enhanced by electron transfer, thereby greatly improving the sensitivity of the sensing system. Enhanced electric field intensity was generated around the carboxyl-GO of 63.58 V/m, and the measured work function was 4.95 eV. The results showed that the ca

Improving genetic resistance is a preferred method to manage Verticillium wilt of cotton and other hosts. Identifying host resistance is difficult because of the dearth of resistance genes against this pathogen. Previously, a novel candidate gene involved in Verticillium wilt resistance was identified by a genome-wide association study using a panel of Gossypium hirsutum accessions. In this study, we cloned the candidate resistance gene from cotton that encodes a protein sharing homology with the TIR-NBS-LRR receptor-like defence protein DSC1 in Arabidopsis thaliana (hereafter named GhDSC1). GhDSC1 expressed at higher levels in response to Verticillium wilt and jasmonic acid (JA) treatment in resistant cotton cultivars as compared to susceptible cultivars and its product was localized to nucleus. The transfer of GhDSC1 to Arabidopsis conferred Verticillium resistance in an A. thaliana dsc1 mutant. This resistance response was associated with reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and increased expression of JA-signalling-related genes. Furthermore, the expression of GhDSC1 in response to Verticillium wilt and JA signalling in A. thaliana displayed expression patterns similar to GhCAMTA3 in cotton under identical conditions, suggesting a coordinated DSC1 and CAMTA3 response in A. thaliana to Verticillium wilt. Analyses of GhDSC1 sequence polymorphism revealed a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) difference between resistant and susceptible cotton accessions, within the P-loop motif encoded by GhDSC1. This SNP difference causes ineffective activation of defence response in susceptible cultivars. These results demonstrated that GhDSC1 confers Verticillium resistance in the model plant system of A. thaliana, and therefore represents a suitable candidate for the genetic engineering of Verticillium wilt resistance in cotton.

According to the topological design theory and method of parallel mechanism (PM) based on position and orientation characteristic (POC) equations, this paper design a novel 3-translation (3T) PM that has three advantages, i.e., 1) it consists on three actuated prismatic joints, 2) the PM has analytical direct position solutions, and 3) the PM is of partial motion decoupling property. Firstly, the main topological characteristics such as the POC, degree of freedom and coupling degree are calculated for kinematics modelling. Due to the special constraint feature of the 3-translation, the analytical direct position solutions of the PM can be directly obtained without needing to use one-dimensional search method. Further, the conditions of the singular configuration of the PM, as well as the singularity location inside the workspace are analyzed according to the inverse kinematics., Comment: International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, Aug 2019, Anaheim, United States

Current design provisions for web crippling resistance for stainless steel cold-formed sections in EN1993-1-4 follow the ones proposed in EN 1993-1-3 for carbon steel. Several researches in last years demonstrate that this proposals could be unsafe due to the particular non-linear behavior of stainless steel. The objective is to evaluate the proposals publish in the last years, compare the collected experimental and numerical results when applying different proposals and define a new expression for stainless steel.

The selection of bioengineering platform strains and engineering strategies to improve the stress resistance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae remains a pressing need in bio-based chemical production. Thus, a systematic effort to exploit genotypic and phenotypic diversity to boost yeast's industrial value is still urgently needed. We analyzed 5,400 growth curves obtained from 36 S. cerevisiae strains and comprehensively profiled their resistances against 13 industrially relevant stresses. We observed that bioethanol and brewing strains exhibit higher resistance against acidic conditions; however, plant isolates tend to have a wider range of resistance, which may be associated with their metabolome and fluxome signatures in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and fatty acid metabolism. By deep genomic sequencing, we found that industrial strains have more genomic duplications especially affecting transcription factors, showing that they result from disparate evolutionary paths in comparison with the environmental strains, which have more indels, gene deletions, and strain-specific genes. Genome-wide association studies coupled with protein-protein interaction networks uncovered novel genetic determinants of stress resistances. These resistance-related engineering targets and strain rankings provide a valuable source for engineering significantly improved industrial platform strains.

INTRODUCTION: Non-communicable diseases (NCD) now represent the major burden of adverse health in most countries. It is clear that much of the risk of such conditions begins very early in life, potentially in utero. Given their complex aetiology, an understanding of the origins of NCD requires an in-depth analysis of the interplay between genetic variation and environment, preferably over time. For decades, twin studies have played a key role in understanding such traits. Their strength lies in the ability to disentangle genetic and environmental factors that contribute to a phenotype. This is done by comparing genetically identical monozygotic (MZ) with dizygotic twins, who share on average 50% of genetic variation, or by comparing MZ twins within a pair. This study aims to determine the relative contributions of genes and environment to early-onset intermediate phenotypes related to later adult onset disease (such as growth and neurodevelopment) and to identify specific biomarkers and time points for emergence of phenotypes from infancy, largely independent of underlying genetic factors. METHODS/DESIGN: The Chongqing Longitudinal Twin Study (LoTiS) will recruit 300 women pregnant with twins, enriched for MZ pregnancies, with follow-up to 3 years of age. Data collection will be undertaken at key time points in gestation (×3), at delivery and postnatally (×9). Maternal and infant biospecimens including blood, urine, hair, nails and buccal swabs along with measures such as fetal scans and body measurements will be collected. Additional information from questionnaires and medical records includes pregnancy, diet, sociodemographics, maternal stress, and infant growth and neurodevelopment. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of Chongqing Medical University (record no: 201530) and has been registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (registry no: ChiCTR-OOC-16008203). Results of

A clinical prediction model (CPM) is a tool for predicting healthcare outcomes, usually within a specific population and context. A common approach is to develop a new CPM for each population and context, however, this wastes potentially useful historical information. A better approach is to update or incorporate the existing CPMs already developed for use in similar contexts or populations. In addition, CPMs commonly become miscalibrated over time, and need replacing or updating. In this paper we review a range of approaches for re-using and updating CPMs; these fall in three main categories: simple coefficient updating; combining multiple previous CPMs in a meta-model; and dynamic updating of models. We evaluated the performance (discrimination and calibration) of the different strategies using data on mortality following cardiac surgery in the UK: We found that no single strategy performed sufficiently well to be used to the exclusion of the others. In conclusion, useful tools exist for updating existing CPMs to a new population or context, and these should be implemented rather than developing a new CPM from scratch, using a breadth of complementary statistical methods.

The nano-architectured Ca(OCH3)2/AC catalyst was prepared through hydrothermal process. In this work, the controlled structural growth and morphology of nano-architectured Ca(OCH3)2/AC catalyst were reported and their conversion activity from non-edible oil source (crude jatropha oil) to biodiesel production was also evaluated in this study. Remarkable difference in catalytic activity for biodiesel production among these samples was observed. It shows that the catalytic properties of the hydrothermal synthesized catalyst was improved by exposing the catalytic active OCH3 predominantly on the surface of catalyst. The 0.4-OMe/AC catalyst with methanol/oil molar ratio of 12:1, agitation speed of 600 rpm and 3 wt% of catalyst provided maximum biodiesel yield of 98.65% at 60 °C for 1 h reaction time. The catalyst exhibited outstanding stability where negligible Ca2+ leaching was detected and the recovered catalyst was reused in 8 successive cycles without significant loss in activity. Therefore, this kind of bimodal porosity catalyst is said to exhibit very high activity, stability, and recyclability, which entailed potential saving and affordable biodiesel production possibilities.

The hair metabolome has been recognized as a valuable source of information in pregnancy research, as it provides stable metabolite information that could assist with studying biomarkers or metabolic mechanisms of pregnancy and its complications. We tested the hypothesis that hair segments could be used to reflect a metabolite profile containing information from both endogenous and exogenous compounds accumulated during the nine months of pregnancy. Segments of hair samples corresponding to the trimesters were collected from 175 pregnant women in New Zealand. The hair samples were analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. In healthy pregnancies, 56 hair metabolites were significantly different between the first and second trimesters, while 62 metabolites were different between the first and third trimesters (p < 0.05). Additionally, three metabolites in the second trimester hair samples were significantly different between healthy controls and women who delivered small-for-gestational-age infants (p < 0.05), and ten metabolites in third trimester hair were significantly different between healthy controls and women with gestational diabetes mellitus (p < 0.01). The findings from this pilot study provide improved insight into the changes of the hair metabolome during pregnancy, as well as highlight the potential of the maternal hair metabolome to differentiate pregnancy complications from healthy pregnancies.

The investigation of the clocking effect mainly concentrates on turbines and compressors, but seldom in centrifugal pumps. In this paper, using numerical simulation and experiment, the influence of the clocking effect on the hydraulic performance of centrifugal pump with guide vane is studied. Numerical simulations with SST k-w turbulence model were applied to obtain the inner flow field of the test pump. The numerical simulations coincide with the test result, which indicates the accurate of the utilized numerical approach. The results show the clocking positions have an important effect on hydraulic performance of the centrifugal pump with guide vane. The pump demonstrates the higher efficiency and head as the tongue locate between two guide vanes. The hydraulic performance of the volute is a major factor impacting the performance of the centrifugal pump with different clocking positions. However, the clocking position has almost no effect on the performances of the impeller and diffuser. When the guide vane is close to the volute tongue, flow field of volute is more non-uniform, and the energy loss in volute appears to be larger. The results and the method of this paper can provide theoretical reference for the design and installation of guide vane in centrifugal pump.

Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a common maternal liver disease; development can result in devastating consequences, including sudden fetal death and stillbirth. Currently, recognition of ICP only occurs following onset of clinical symptoms. Investigate the maternal hair metabolome for predictive biomarkers of ICP. The maternal hair metabolome (gestational age of sampling between 17 and 41 weeks) of 38 Chinese women with ICP and 46 pregnant controls was analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Of 105 metabolites detected in hair, none were significantly associated with ICP. Hair samples represent accumulative environmental exposure over time. Samples collected at the onset of ICP did not reveal any metabolic shifts, suggesting rapid development of the disease., Funding Agencies|GRAVIDA: the National Centre for Growth and Development (New Zealand)

In this paper a new asymmetric 3-translational (3T) parallel manipulator, i.e., RPa(3R) 2R+RPa, with zero coupling degree and decoupled motion is firstly proposed according to topology design theory of parallel mechanism (PM) based on position and orientation characteristics (POC) equations. The main topological characteristics such as POC, degree of freedom and coupling degree are calculated. Then, the analytical formula for the direct and inverse kinematic are directly derived since coupling degree of the PM is zero. The study of singular configurations is simple because of the independence of the kinematic chains.

Background Well-designed clinical prediction models (CPMs) often out-perform clinicians at estimating probabilities of clinical outcomes, though their adoption by family physicians is variable. How family physicians interact with CPMs is poorly understood, therefore a better understanding and framing within a context-sensitive theoretical framework may improve CPM development and implementation. The aim of this study was to investigate why family physicians do or do not use CPMs, interpreting these findings within a theoretical framework to provide recommendations for the development and implementation of future CPMs. Methods Mixed methods study in North West England that comprised an online survey and focus groups. Results One hundred thirty eight respondents completed the survey, which found the main perceived advantages to using CPMs were that they guided appropriate treatment (weighted rank [r] = 299; maximum r = 414 throughout), justified treatment decisions (r = 217), and incorporated a large body of evidence (r = 156). The most commonly reported barriers to using CPMs were lack of time (r = 163), irrelevance to some patients (r = 161), and poor integration with electronic health records (r = 147). Eighteen clinicians participated in two focus groups (i.e. nine in each), which revealed 13 interdependent themes affecting CPM use under three overarching domains: clinician factors, CPM factors and contextual factors. Themes were interdependent, indicating the tensions family physicians experience in providing evidence-based care for individual patients. Conclusions The survey and focus groups showed that CPMs were valued when they supported clinical decision making and were robust. Barriers to their use related to their being time-consuming, difficult to use and not always adding value. Therefore, to be successful, CPMs should offer a relative advantage to current working, be easy to implement, be supported by training, policy and guidelines, and fit within the o

As the fuzzy data management has become one of the main research topics and directions, the question of how to obtain the useful information by means of keyword query from fuzzy XML documents is becoming a subject of an increasing needed investigation. Considering the keyword query methods on crisp XML documents, smallest lowest common ancestor (SLCA) semantics is one of the most widely accepted semantics. When users propose the keyword query on fuzzy XML documents with the SLCA semantics, the query results are always incomplate, with low precision, and with no possibilities values returned. Most of keyword query semantics on XML documents only consider query results matching all keywords, yet users may also be interested in the query results matching partial keywords. To overcome these limitations, in this paper, we investigate how to obtain more comprehensive and meaningful results of keyword querying on fuzzy XML documents. We propose a semantics of object-oriented keyword querying on fuzzy XML documents. First, we introduce the concept of "object tree", analyze different types of matching result object trees and find the "minimum result object trees" which contain all keywords and "result object trees" which contain partial keywords. Then an object-oriented keyword query algorithm ROstack is proposed to obtain the root nodes of these matching result object trees, together with their possibilities. At last, experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed algorithm.

ARKIVOC: vol. 2015, no. 5, (issn) 1551-7012, (dlps) 5550190.p008.950, This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License. Please contact mpub-help@umich.edu to use this work in a way not covered by the license.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women worldwide, with mortality primarily associated with metastasis. In recent years, microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as a new class of master regulatory molecules with the potential to influence carcinoma progression. They are a class of small RNA molecules that regulate gene transcript stability and processing by binding to discreet motifs in the 3’ and 5’ untranslated regions of mRNAs. They regulate important mechanisms in development, including epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET), which have also been associated with cancer metastasis. miRNA profiling of control and EMT-induced PMC42-ET, PMC42-LA and MDA-MB-468 cultured human cell lines using microarray and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) was undertaken. Several miRNAs were reproducibly up- or downregulated between the untreated cells, and in response to epidermal growth factor. Variations in miRNA expression were also assessed bioinformatically using publically available data from >50 human breast cancer cell lines. Whilst a number of these have already been implicated in cancer, other novel miRNAs consistently associated with EMT/MET were also identified. The expression levels of >20 miRNAs were experimentally validated and stable miRNA manipulations (overexpression and knockdown) in cell lines with low endogenous expression were achieved by lentiviral transduction. Recent evidence has demonstrated a crucial role for the miR-200 family in carcinoma progression, tumourigenesis and metastasis in various cancers including breast cancer. miR-200 regulation of EMT and MET was identified in our microarray and NGS datasets and was characterised in the two EMT models commonly used in our laboratory – the PMC42 and MDA-MB-468 human breast cancer cell lines. In vitro functional changes upon miR-200 manipulation showed a strong correlation between high miR-200 levels and the epithelial phenotype. In vivo changes mirr

Fructose-1,6-diphosphate (FDP), a glycolytic metabolite, has been reported to protect susceptible organs during hypoxia or ischemia. However, there is paucity of human data on its pharmacokinetics after being exogenously administered. In the current study, the preliminary pharmacokinetics of FDP given orally to humans was investigated, and no typical peak was observed in the serum drug-time curve. Then, the pharmacokinetic studies were performed following multiple doses of of FDP in rats, and the Caco-2 monolayer model was used to study the absorption of FDP in vitro. The results suggested that plasma FDP concentration was significantly increased after oral multiple doses of 180 mg kg-1 but not 90 mg kg-1 of FDP, and FDP was partly depleted during the absorption, which was supposed to be consumed by the intestinal epithelium cells. Thus, we conclude that a high dose of FDP should be orally administered in order to get an effective plasma level.

We report the first successful application of an N-TiO2–Ag nanocomposite as an efficient photoanode for highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). The N-TiO2–Ag nanocomposites with different Ag contents were prepared using a simple chemical reduction method and characterized using various suitable techniques. The DSSC assembled with the N-TiO2–Ag-modified photoanode demonstrated an enhanced solar-to-electrical energy conversion efficiency of 8.15% compared to the photoanode of a DSSC composed of unmodified TiO2 (2.19%) under full sunlight illumination (100 mW cm−2, AM 1.5 G). This superior DSSC performance was due to the reduced band gap energy and retarded charge recombination that resulted from the introduction of plasmonic Ag nanoparticles on the surface of N-TiO2. The influence of the Ag content on the overall efficiency was also investigated, and the optimum Ag content for N-TiO2 was found to be 10 wt%. The enhanced solar energy conversion efficiency demonstrated by the N-TiO2–Ag nanocomposite makes it a promising alternative to conventional photoanode-based DSSCs.

The main goal of this thesis is to gain a greater understanding of Chopin performance and interpretation, particularly in relation to tempo and rubato. This thesis is a comparative study between pianists who are associated with the Chopin tradition, primarily the Polish pianists of the early twentieth century, along with French pianists who are connected to Chopin via pedagogical lineage, and several modern pianists playing on period instruments. Through a detailed analysis of tempo and rubato in selected recordings, this thesis will explore the notions of tradition and individuality in Chopin playing, based on principles of pianism and pedagogy that emerge in Chopin’s writings, his composition, and his students’ accounts. Many pianists and teachers assume that a tradition in playing Chopin exists but the basis for this notion is often not made clear. Certain pianists are considered part of the Chopin tradition because of their indirect pedagogical connection to Chopin. I will investigate claims about tradition in Chopin playing in relation to tempo and rubato and highlight similarities and differences in the playing of pianists of the same or different nationality, pedagogical line or era. I will reveal how the literature on Chopin’s principles regarding tempo and rubato relates to any common or unique traits found in selected recordings. The selected recordings for this study are those made before 1962 by students of Mikuli, Mathias and Descombes, by pianists who are considered to be part of the Polish Chopin tradition, and by modern pianists who play on period instruments. I address issues such as tempo markings, and the use of certain types of rubato such as ritardando and hand displacement. Discovering the choices in the use of tempo and rubato in the performances of eminent pianists who are considered to be part of the Chopin tradition may help pianists to interpret and perform Chopin’s works, and piano teachers to teach Chopin works more effectively.

In phase III cancer clinical trials, overall survival is commonly used as the definitive endpoint. In phase II clinical trials, however, more immediate endpoints such as incidence of complete or partial response within 1 or 2 months or progression-free survival (PFS) are generally used. Because of the limited ability to detect change in overall survival with response, the inherent variability of PFS and the long wait for progression to be observed, more informative and immediate alternatives to overall survival are desirable in exploratory phase II trials. In this paper, we show how comparative trials can be designed and analysed using change in tumour size as the primary endpoint. The test developed is based on the framework of score statistics and will formally incorporate the information of whether patients survive until the time at which change in tumour size is assessed. Using an example in non-small cell lung cancer, we show that the sample size requirements for a trial based on change in tumour size are favourable compared with alternative randomized trials and demonstrate that these conclusions are robust to our assumptions.

The mean-shift algorithm is a popular algorithm in computer vision and image processing. It can also be cast as a minimum gamma-divergence estimation. In this paper we focus on the "blurring" mean shift algorithm, which is one version of the mean-shift process that successively blurs the dataset. The analysis of the blurring mean-shift is relatively more complicated compared to the nonblurring version, yet the algorithm convergence and the estimation consistency have not been well studied in the literature. In this paper we prove both the convergence and the consistency of the blurring mean-shift. We also perform simulation studies to compare the efficiency of the blurring and the nonblurring versions of the mean-shift algorithms. Our results show that the blurring mean-shift has more efficiency., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1201.1979

Earthquake early warning systems have been developed to help minimize the loss of life and other damages resulting from catastrophic earthquakes. In the past several decades, these systems have evolved to function using a variety of methodologies. This study introduces an onsite system developed from a correlation between the precursor measurement (Pd3) and the peak ground acceleration (PGV) from 780 historical earthquake events recorded in Taiwan, Japan and South California. The study analyzes and integrates the uncertainty of the onsite system, establishing the statistical relationship between the PGV forecast, the Pd3 precursor, and the exceedance probability (PE). A method is presented for forecasting the PGV by scaling the Pd3. Furthermore, this study also suggests a decision-making model to determine whether or not the early warning notification should be issued, based on factors such as the uncertainty of the early warning system, the magnitude of the precursor, and warning recipient characteristics. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Salmonella is the second most commonly reported human foodborne pathogen in England and Wales, and antimicrobial-resistant strains of Salmonella are an increasing problem in both human and veterinary medicine. In this work we used a generalized linear spatial model to estimate the spatial and temporal patterns of antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella Typhimurium in England and Wales. Of the antimicrobials considered we found a common peak in the probability that an S. Typhimurium incident will show resistance to a given antimicrobial in late spring and in mid to late autumn; however, for one of the antimicrobials (streptomycin) there was a sharp drop, over the last 18 months of the period of investigation, in the probability of resistance. We also found a higher probability of resistance in North Wales which is consistent across the antimicrobials considered. This information contributes to our understanding of the epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella.