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ABSTRACT The maximum aggregate size exhibits a substantial influence on many important characteristics of hydraulic concrete. This paper is dedicated to study the effects of coarse aggregate size by a [...]

The prognosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in adults is inferior to that in children. Hence, ALL remains challenging to cure in the adult population. Aberrant genetic alterations have been observed in ALL, although the patterns of differential gene alterations in adult and pediatric ALL have not been comprehensively determined on a genome‐wide scale. We investigated the biologic differences in genomic profiles between adults (n= 64) and children (n= 54) with ALL and relationship between genomic heterogeneity and prognosis. The 2 populations showed similar common mutation types but an increased prevalence of genetic alterations in adult ALL. The median numbers of gene mutations were 17 (range: 1–53) and 4.5 (range: 1–19) per sample in adult and pediatric ALL, respectively (p< 0.001). An increased number of gene mutations and age were significantly correlated (R2= 0.5853, p< 0.001). We identified 122 and 53 driver genes in adult and pediatric ALL samples, respectively. IKZF1, IDH1, and TTNmutations were significantly enriched in adult patients with ALL. KRAS, ARID1A, and CREBBPmutations were significantly enriched in pediatric patients with ALL (p< 0.05). The incidence of relapse was 40.0% and 9.6% in adult and pediatric patients with ALL, respectively (p= 0.003). The overall survival and relapse‐free survival of adult patients with ALL were poorer than those of pediatric patients with ALL (p= 0.002 and p< 0.001, respectively). This genomic landscape enhances the understanding of the biologic differences in ALL between the 2 populations and provides insight for developing therapeutic approaches. Genomic landscape enhanced the understanding of the biological differences of ALL.

Interfaces of cementitious layers have widely existed in construction projects, and they are the weakest part of the whole building. In this article, laser scanning and ultrasonic pulse, splitting tensile, and semi-disc fracture tests were carried out to study the bonding performance of cementitious layers. Different performance metrics, such as splitting tensile bond strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity, and attenuation of first arrival, were used to evaluate the bonding characteristics of the concrete layers. The results revealed that the parameters of the interface curve decreased, and the mechanical properties of the interface became weaker with an increase of the interval time. The amplitude of the first wave was more sensitive to the presence of the interface than the ultrasonic pulse velocity. Finally, the relationships between the performance metrics were analyzed. The fracture toughness of model I and mode II was highly correlated with the parameters of the micromorphology of the layered concrete, and the correlation coefficient is not less than 0.9511. The fracture toughness of mode I was strongly related to the splitting tensile strength, with a correlation coefficient of not less than 0.9744. This study was useful for the future study of the mode I and I fracture performance, the morphology, and other physical properties of cementitious layers.

Smart cities aim to maximise the optimisation of urban functions, promote economic growth, and use smart technology and data analysis to improve the life quality of urban residents. The air quality index (AQI) is an important evaluation index of air pollution, describing the degree of air pollution and its impact on the health of human beings. Therefore, it is particularly important for smart cities to accurately predict AQI. The accuracy of AQI prediction remains a challenge for current methods. In this paper, an AQI prediction model based on CA-GRU is proposed, which includes convolutional neural networks (CNN), attention mechanism, and gated recurrent unit (GRU). In this model, the feature extraction of input data is realised through CNN, weights are assigned according to the states of old data with attention mechanism and the AQI is predicted with GRU. To prove the validity and accuracy of the CA-GRU prediction model, we take experiments using air quality data and weather data from 1st January 2017 at 00:00 to 30th September 2020 at 23:00 in Shijiazhuang City of China and compare this model with other models. Finally, mean absolute error (MAE), mean square error (MSE), explained variance score (EVS), and R2are used to evaluate the performance of the model in this experiment. The results shows that this model has the highest performance than the others, with the MAE of 6.099281, MSE of 90.781522, EVS of 0.972560, and R2of 0.972495.

Purpose:To compare the effectiveness and safety outcomes of drug-coated balloon angioplasty (DCBA) vs conventional balloon angioplasty (BA) for arteriovenous fistula (AVF) stenosis. Materials and Methods:A systematic review was conducted of PubMed and Embase databases from 1966 to May 2019 to identify English-language articles evaluating DCBA vs BA for the treatment of AVF stenosis. Data extracted from each study were synthesized to evaluate target lesion revascularization (TLR), technical success, and mortality for the 2 approaches. Meta-analyses were performed on these outcomes using random effects models to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed. Results:Twelve studies [6 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 6 cohort studies] comprising 979 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled results showed that AVFs treated with DCBA had significantly fewer TLRs at 6 months (OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.69, p=0.004) and 12 months (OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.97, p=0.04) than BA. The 2 approaches had similar technical success rates (OR 0.22, 95% CI 0.03 to 1.43, p=0.11). Additionally, the pooled OR of 12-month mortality was 0.71 (95% CI 0.20 to 2.51, p=0.60), indicating no significant difference between DCBA and BA. Subgroup analysis based on study design showed the superiority of DCBA to BA in cohort studies but not RCTs, which had high heterogeneity. Significant publication bias was found in the cohort studies. Conclusion:In de novo or recurrent AVF stenosis, DCBA appears to be an effective procedure associated with lower 6- and 12-month TLR compared with BA. However, larger and randomized controlled studies are warranted to draw definitive conclusions.

Chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) represents the severest manifestation of peripheral artery disease. Malnutrition is closely associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients with chronic diseases. The Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score is a tool to evaluate the systemic inflammation and nutritional status. This study aimed to investigate the association of baseline CONUT score with mortality in patients with CLTI following endovascular revascularization.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) is a tick-borne virus that causes the severe fever thrombocytopenia syndrome, which manifests as fever and haemorrhage, accompanied by severe neurological complications. To date, no specific antiviral drugs have been approved for this indication. Herein, we investigated whether vitamin D derivatives inhibit SFTSV both in vitroand in vivo. An in vitrostudy demonstrated that vitamin D derivatives significantly suppressed viral RNA replication, plaque formation, and protein expression in a dose-dependent manner. Subsequently, in vivostudies revealed that doxercalciferol and alfacalcidol were associated with increased survival and reduced viral RNA load in the blood. Time-of-addition assay suggested that vitamin D derivatives primarily acted during the post-entry phase of SFTSV infection. However, cytopathic effect protective activity was not observed in RIG-I immunodeficient cell line Huh7.5, and the administration of vitamin D derivatives did not improve the survival rates or reduce the blood viral loads in adult A129 mice. Further transcriptome exploration into the antiviral mechanism revealed that alfacalcidol stimulates host innate immunity to exert antiviral effects. To expand the application of vitamin D derivatives, in vitroand in vivodrug combination assays were performed, which highlighted the synergistic effects of vitamin D derivatives and T-705 on SFTSV. The combination of alfacalcidol and T-705 significantly enhanced the therapeutic effects in mice. This study highlights the potential of vitamin D derivatives against SFTSV and suggests that they may have synergistic effects with other compounds used in the treatment of SFTSV infection.

•SLC27A2 is involved in fatty acid metabolism in cancer.•High expression of SLC27A2 is associated with poor overall survival in ALL.•SLC27A2 enhances cell proliferation and alters the Akt pathway.•SLC27A2 knockdown in culture cells reduced the proportion of B cells.•SLC27A2 may be a biomarker and therapeutic target in acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Background

β-cyclodextrin and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin were combined with baicalein to improve its solubility in water. The physicochemical properties and pharmacokinetic characteristics of the two complexes and their therapeutic effects on dextran sulfate sodium-induced ulcerative colitis were studied in mice. Differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy showed that the two complexes were successfully prepared and significantly improved baicalein's solubility and dissolution. The t1/2, Cmax, and AUC0-∞values of the inclusion complexes were substantially better than those of the original drug in rats. Analysis of the tissue distribution of acute ulcerative colitis in mice showed that the peak concentrations of baicalein and its metabolite, baicalin, in the small intestines, liver, and colon were higher than that of the free drug. The therapeutic effect of the inclusion compound was significantly better than that of the original drug. This study provides a new reference for applying cyclodextrin inclusion complex in ulcerative colitis.

Kynurenine is a potential contributor to hypotension in animal and human sepsis. The present study was designed to examine whether the voltage-dependent K+channels encoded by the KCNQ gene family (Kv7 channels) mediate vasodilator effects of kynurenine and whether modulation of these channels ameliorates hypotension caused by this compound. Rat aortas and mesenteric arteries or human omental arteries without endothelium were used. Some rings were incubated with the selective Kv7 channel inhibitor linopirdine (10 μM). l-Kynurenine (10 μM–1 mM) induced concentration-dependent relaxation in rat aortas and mesenteric arteries as well as human omental arteries, whereas linopirdine abolished the relaxation. l-Kynurenine (1 mM) produced hyperpolarization of vascular smooth muscle, which was reversed by linopirdine (10 μM). Wistar rats received l-kynurenine (1 mM) iv and subsequent linopirdine (10 μM) iv under 3% sevoflurane inhalation. l-Kynurenine iv caused hypotension, whereas linopirdine iv partially reversed it. In conclusion, kynurenine dilates arteries from rats as well as humans via Kv7 channels in the vascular smooth muscle. In rats, this tryptophan metabolite causes hypotension, which is partly counteracted by Kv7 channel inhibition. These results suggest that modulation of Kv7 channels may be a novel strategy to treat hypotension induced by the kynurenine.

With the rapid development of machine learning, a possibility is provided for high-precision prediction of time-series. This paper proposes a new unit which is called New Gate Control Unit (NGCU) based on Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN). The proposal of NGCU is mainly used for prediction of time-series data. NGCU alleviates the problems of gradient disappearance and explosion of traditional RNN. Compared with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gate Recurrent Unit (GRU), NGCU improves not only the computational complexity of gating unit but also the sensitivity of model learning. To verify the accuracy, efficiency and feasibility of NGCU, this paper uses RNN, LSTM and GRU to conduct comparative experiments, and uses three different data of air quality, Hang Seng Index, and gold future price to prove the generalization of NGCU. Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Squared Error (MSE), Explained Variance Score (EVS), R2and training time are used to evaluate experimental results. Among the three different data prediction results, the R2of NGCU is 0.9736, 0.9872, and 0.9231, respectively. And NGCU's MAE, MSE, EVS are also the best. Compared with LSTM and GRU, NGCU has the least training time, which is 323.5261s, 53.3257s, and 43.4814s respectively.

Prognosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in adults is inferior than children. Hence, ALL is still a challenging disease to be cured in adults population. Aberrant genetic alterations has been observed previously in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), while the patterns of differential gene alteration have not much been comprehensively determined in the adult and pediatric ALL on a genome-wide scale. This study attempted to investigate the biological differences in genomic profiling between the adults and children with ALL, and the correlation between the genomic heterogeneity and prognosis.

Background