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Left ventricular (LV) dilatation, a prominent risk factor for heart failure (HF), precedes functional deterioration and is used to stratify patients at risk for arrhythmias and cardiac mortality. Aberrant DNA methylation contributes to maladaptive cardiac remodeling and HF progression following pressure overload and ischemic cardiac insults. However, no study has examined cardiac DNA methylation upon exposure to volume overload (VO) despite being relatively common among HF patients. We carried out global methylome analysis of LV harvested at a decompensated HF stage following exposure to VO induced by aortocaval shunt. VO resulted in pathological cardiac remodeling, characterized by massive LV dilatation and contractile dysfunction at 16 weeks after shunt. Although methylated DNA was not markedly altered globally, 25 differentially methylated promoter regions (DMRs) were identified in shunt vs. sham hearts (20 hypermethylated and 5 hypomethylated regions). The validated hypermethylated loci in Junctophilin-2 (Jph2), Signal peptidase complex subunit 3 (Spcs3), Vesicle-associated membrane protein-associated protein B (Vapb), and Inositol polyphosphate multikinase (Ipmk) were associated with the respective downregulated expression and were consistently observed in dilated LV early after shunt at 1 week after shunt, before functional deterioration starts to manifest. These hypermethylated loci were also detected peripherally in the blood of the shunt mice. Altogether, we have identified conserved DMRs that could be novel epigenetic biomarkers in dilated LV upon VO exposure.

Targeted observation is an appealing procedure for improving model predictions. However, studies on oceanic targeted observations have been largely based on modeling efforts, and there is a need for field validating operations. Here, we report the results of a field targeted observation that is designed based on the sensitive areas identified by the Conditional Nonlinear Optimal Perturbation approach to improve the 7th day thermal structure prediction in the Yellow Sea. By introducing the technique of cycle data assimilation and the new concept of time-varying sensitive areas, an observing strategy is designed and validated by a set of Observing System Simulation Experiments. Then, the impact of targeted observations was investigated by a choreographed field campaign in the summer of 2019. The results of the in-field Observing System Experiments show that, compared to conventional local data assimilation, conducting targeted observations in the sensitive areas can yield more benefit at the verification time. Furthermore, dynamic analysis demonstrates that the refinement of vertical thermal structures is mainly caused by the changes in the upstream horizontal temperature advection driven by the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass circulation. This study highlights the effectiveness of targeted observations on reducing the forecast uncertainty in the ocean.

The sensitive area of targeted observations for short-term (7 d) prediction of vertical thermal structure (VTS) in summer in the Yellow Sea was investigated. We applied the Conditional Nonlinear Optimal Perturbation (CNOP) method and an adjoint-free algorithm with the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). We used vertical integration of CNOP-type temperature errors to locate the sensitive areas, where reduction of initial errors is expected to yield the greatest improvement in VTS prediction for the selected verification area. The identified sensitive areas were northeast-southwest orientated northeast to the verification area, which were possibly related to the southwestward background currents. Then, we performed a series of sensitivity experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the identified sensitive areas. Results show that initial errors in the identified sensitive areas had the greatest negative effect on VTS prediction in the verification area compared to errors in other areas (e.g., the verification area and areas to its east and northeast). Moreover, removal of initial errors through deploying simulated observations in the identified sensitive areas led to more refined prediction than correction of initial conditions in the verification area itself. Our results suggest that implementation of targeted observation in the CNOP-based sensitive areas is an effective method to improve short-term prediction of VTS in summer in the Yellow Sea.

Recently, NEK1 (NIMA-related kinase 1) mutations were identified as a cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but the relationship between them remains unclear owing to the small sample size and low mutation rate. We made a meta-analysis to make clear the relationship. Eight case-control studies involving 8603 cases and 18,695 controls were enrolled. Results demonstrated that the frequency of NEK1 mutations was 3.1% (95% CI 2.5–3.8%) in ALS patients, including the frequencies of loss of function (LoF) and missense mutations, which were 0.9% (95% CI 0.6–1.1%) and 2.3% (95% CI 1.7–2.8%) in ALS patients, respectively. NEK1 mutations (OR 2.14; 95% CI 1.81–2.52; p

Targeted observation is an appealing procedure for improving model predictions through the assimilation of additional collected measurements. However, studies on targeted observations in the oceani...

With the continuous improvement of building energy-saving requirements, traditional insulation materials cannot meet current needs. New building insulation materials have become the focus of many researchers. The geopolymer was used as a matrix and combined with waste polystyrene foam (EPS) to form a geopolymerpolystyrene composite. The composite material is used to improve the thermal insulation performance of the cement exterior wall. XRD and morphological analysis of Qingdao kaolin were carried out by XRD and SEM. The optimum calcination temperature and time were determined to be 570 °C and 8 h, respectively. The geopolymer was subjected to hydration experiments based on the preparation of geopolymers from kaolin. The hydrated geopolymer was subjected to XRD analysis and morphology analysis. To obtain the best bonding performance of the geopolymer/polystyrene composite, polystyrene loading experiments were carried out. The resulting geopolymer-polystyrene composite was tested for thermal insulation properties with cement based on the optimum oligomer/polystyrene content ratio. Through the experiment, the following conclusions are obtained: When the ratio of cement to composite material does not exceed 8.7 and the solid solute density of hydrate formation is less than 280 kg/m3, the cement/geopolymer-polystyrene composite material satisfies the requirements of building exterior wall insulation materials. The increase of water cement ratio will reduce the strength of composite insulation materials. The increase of the content of cellulose, alkali water or air entraining agent can enhance the performance of the composite insulation material.

Focusing on the rapid prediction of acoustic field uncertainty in environment with temporal and spatial sound speed perturbation, evolvement of sound speed structure over time is predicted based on the ocean-acoustic coupled model to obtain the uncertainty distribution of the vertical structure of sound speed. Further, a method combining the arbitrary polynomial chaos expansion with the empirical orthogonal function is proposed to reduce the dimensionality of uncertain parameters and to obtain the uncertainty distribution of the acoustic field. Simulations have shown that the computational complexity can be reduced by 2 orders of magnitude compared to the conventional polynomial chaos expansion while ensures the same precision. Moreover, the computational complexity is not influenced by the complexity of the sound speed profile. The acoustic field and uncertainty predicted in uncertain environment by proposed method also have been tested with the experimental data.

Focusing on the transfer and evolvement of initial perturbation from temperature of ocean to the underwater acoustic propagation,comparing with the remote sensing data,optimizing Ocean-Acoustic Coupled Model, the reliability of this model is verified. On this basis,global and regional error development experiments are carried out by adding perturbation on the initial temperature of a controlled test. The results show that after 5 days evolution of the initial temperature field,the global perturbation of the propagation loss is saturated, and the perturbation structure is basically consistent with the law of the dynamic ocean.For the target area in Kuroshio region, the initial perturbation in the upstream region is the fastest. This conclusion can provide the basis for the adaptive observation of ocean acoustics.

Targeted observation is an appealing procedure to improve oceanic model predictions by taking additional assimilation of collected measurements. However, studies on targeted observation in the oceanic field have been largely based on modeling efforts, and there is a need for field validating observations. Here, we report the preparatory work of a field campaign, which is designed based on the identified sensitive area by the Conditional Nonlinear Optimal Perturbation (CNOP) approach, to improve the short-range summer thermal structures prediction in the Yellow Sea (YS). We firstly simulated the hindcasting (2016-2018) temperature structures in the summertime, and found that the locations of the sensitive areas are generally consistent in space for each hindcast year. Then, we introduced the technique of multiple-assimilation and the definition of time-varying sensitive area, and designed observing strategies for the YS summer campaign. Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) were conducted prior to address the plan on field campaign in the Yellow Sea in August 2019. Results show that, reducing the initial errors in the sensitive area can lead to more improvement on thermal structures prediction than that in other area.

The sensitive area of targeted observation for the short-term prediction of the vertical thermal structure in the summer Yellow Sea is investigated by utilizing the Conditional Nonlinear Optimal Perturbation (CNOP) method and a adjoint-free algorithm with the Regional Ocean Modeling System. We use a vertical integration scheme of temperature to locate the sensitive area, in which reducing the initial errors are expected to yield great improvements in vertical thermal structure prediction of the verification area. We perform a series of sensitivity experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the identified sensitive area. Our results show that, initially adding random perturbations in the sensitive area have the greatest negative effects on the prediction than in other areas (eg. the verification area, regions east and northeast of the verification area). Moreover, Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) indicate that, eliminating the initial errors in the sensitive area can lead to a more refined prediction than in other selected areas (including the verification area itself). Our study suggests that implementing targeted observation is a feasible way to improve the short-term prediction of the vertical thermal structure in the summer Yellow Sea.

Background: The new emerging application of decompression combined with fusion comes with a concern of cost performance, however, it is a lack of big data support. We aimed to evaluate the necessity or not of the addition of fusion for decompression in patients with lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis. Methods: Potential studies were selected from PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, and gray relevant studies were manually searched. We set the searching time spanning from the creating date of electronic engines to August 2020. STATA version 11.0 was exerted to process the pooled data. Results: Six RCTs were included in this study. A total of 650 patients were divided into 275 in the decompression group and 375 in the fusion group. No statistic differences were found in the visual analog scales (VAS) score for low back pain (weighted mean difference [WMD], –0.045; 95% confidence interval [CI], –1.259–1.169; P = .942) and leg pain (WMD, 0.075; 95% CI, –1.201–1.35; P = .908), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) score (WMD, 1.489; 95% CI, –7.232–10.211; P = .738), European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) score (WMD, 0.03; 95% CI, –0.05–0.12; P = .43), Odom classification (OR, 0.353; 95% CI 0.113–1.099; P = .072), postoperative complications (OR, 0.437; 95% CI, 0.065–2.949; P = .395), secondary operation (OR, 2.541; 95% CI 0.897–7.198; P = .079), and postoperative degenerative spondylolisthesis (OR = 8.59, P = .27). Subgroup analysis of VAS score on low back pain (OR = 0.77, 95% CI, 0.36–1.65; P = .50) was demonstrated as no significant difference as well. Conclusion: The overall efficacy of the decompression combined with fusion is not revealed to be superior to decompression alone. At the same time, more evidence-based performance is needed to supplement this opinion.