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Given that myc was known to be a cancer-causing gene in several cancers including kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC). We aimed to construct myc-regulated genes (MRGs)-based prognostic signature. We obtained the mRNA expression and clinical data of KIRC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and MRGs from the Molecular Signature Database (MSigDB). Then, a prognostic signature consisting of 8 MRGs (IRF9, UBE2C, YBX3, CDKN2B, CKAP2L, CYFIP2, FBLN5, and PDLIM7) was developed by differential expression analysis, cox regression analysis, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (lasso) analysis. Patients with KIRC were divided into high- and low-risk groups based on risk scores of MRGs-based signatures. Patients in the high-risk group showed inferior clinical characteristics and survival. In addition, the risk score was an independent prognostic factor for KIRC, and the risk score=based nomogram displayed satisfactory performance to predict the survival of KIRC. The MRGs-based signature is also correlated with immune cell infiltration and the mRNA expression of important immune checkpoints (IDO2, PDCD1, LAG3, FOXP3, and TIGIT). The tumor mutation burden (TMB) landscape between the high- and low-risk groups showed higher levels of TMB in the high-risk group than in the low-risk group and that higher levels of TMB predicted a poorer prognosis in KIRC. Furthermore, patients with KIRC in the high-risk group are more likely to experience immune escape. At last, we found patients with KIRC in the high-risk group were more sensitive to several chemotherapy drugs such as sunitinib, gefitinib, nilotinib, and rapamycin than patients with KIRC in the low-risk group. Our study successfully constructed and validated an MRGs-based signature that can predict clinical characteristics, prognosis, level of immune infiltration, and responsiveness to immunotherapy and chemotherapy drugs in patients with KIRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary inclusion of different levels of fermented macroalga, Enteromorpha prolifera, on the growth performance, digestive enzyme activities and serum non-specific immunity of red tilapia ( Oreochromis mossambicus × Oreochromis niloticus). Fish were fed the control diet or the five diets supplemented with fermented E. prolifera for 7 weeks (diets 1-5 containing 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 g kg−1 of fermented E. prolifera respectively). The results showed that the percentage weight gain and specific growth rate ( SGR) improved significantly in fish fed diets 3, 4 and 5, and regression analysis showed SGR reached the maximum in fish fed diet containing 37 g kg−1 fermented E. prolifera, while the feed conversion ratio reduced significantly in fish fed diets 2, 3, 4 and 5, and regression analysis showed it reached its minimum in fish fed diet containing 41 g kg−1 fermented E. prolifera. The pepsin, erepsin, gastric amylase, intestinal amylase, gastric lipase and intestinal lipase activities in fish fed diets 2, 3 and 4 were higher significantly than the control, with the exception of the pepsin activity in fish fed diet 4. The serum total superoxide dismutase, lysozyme, acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase activities enhanced significantly in fish fed diets 3 and 4. In conclusion, fermented E. prolifera had positive effects on the growth performance, digestive enzyme activities and serum non-specific immunity of red tilapia and the recommended dose of fermented E. prolifera is 37-41 g kg−1 in the diet of red tilapia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heart failure is a complex clinical syndrome in which ventricular filling or ejection capacity is impaired due to structural or functional diseases of the heart. In order to establish a stable heart failure model, we investigated cardiac parameters in rats with abdominal aortic contraction and normal rats, including the left ventricular posterior wall diameter (LVPWd), the interventricular septum thickness of end-diastolic (IVSd), the left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDd), the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and left ventricular fractional shortening (LVFS). Rats were randomly divided into experimental group (n = 20) and control group (n = 20). The experimental group underwent modified abdominal aortic constriction, while the control group only isolated the abdominal aorta without constriction. The results showed that the survival rate of rats in the experimental group was 85% after one week of operation, while the survival rate of rats in the control group was 100%. Five weeks after operation, the left ventricular posterior wall diameter (LVPWd) and the interventricular septum thickness of end-diastolic (IVSd) in the experimental group were all increased compared with those in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05); the left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDd) in the experimental group showed an increasing trend compared with the control group, but p > 0.05 ; compared with the control group, the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular fractional shortening (LVFS) in the experimental group showed downward trend, but p > 0.05. 10 weeks after operation, the LVPWd, IVSd, and LVEDd of the experimental group were increased compared with the control group, p < 0.05 , and the LVEF and LVFS of the experimental group were decreased compared with the control group, p < 0.05. Compared with the control group, the BNP of the experimental group increased significantly, p < 0.05. The heart weight index and left ventricular weight index of rats in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group, p < 0.05. HE staining showed that the myocardial cells in the experimental group increased in volume, disordered cell arrangement, widened gaps, increased nuclear hyperchromia, and uneven staining. This paper provides a theoretical basis for the study of heart failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an orbital angular momentum (OAM) metasurface antenna is proposed. Based on the idea of controlling the radiation and scattering simultaneously, the metasurface unit cells play two roles of radiating and scattering energy. For radiation, the metasurface unit cells are excited by two carefully designed phase shift networks (PSNs) at two orthogonal directions. Thus, OAM vortex waves with topological charge l = ±1 are generated at 7.48 GHz band. For scattering, the incident wave is deflected through the phase canceling scheme due to the anisotropy property of the metasurface unit cells. As a result, the in‐band radar cross section is reduced. A prototype of the antenna was fabricated and measured. The measurement results agreed well with the simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to understand the challenges that primary health care providers faced in the process of delivering mental healthcare and assess their attitudes towards patients with mental health problems. In-depth interviews were conducted among 42 primary health care providers in two counties of Guangxi province, China. All interviews were audio-recorded and analyzed thematically. Primary health care providers in both counties faced the same difficulties: lack of professional knowledge, fear of patients’ attack, more extra work, and less subsidies. However, most of primary health care providers (30/42) were still willing to do mental healthcare management. All the interviewees considered that communication skills with patients and their family members, proper attitude (without discrimination), and the professional knowledge of mental health are required. There are still several participants (15/42) who showed negative attitude toward mental disorders. Nearly all the respondents (39/42) emphasized the importance of increasing their income or subsidies by the government. This qualitative study provides insights into mental health services in rural communities of Guangxi and identified issues that could be considered in engaging primary health care providers in the management of mental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Varicocele is regarded as the main factor that contributes to male infertility. This study aimed to explore the effect of CAMK2D on spermatogonia in the testis of experimental varicocele rats. The experimental varicocele model was established in rats and treated using different ligation methods. mRNA expression profile analysis was performed on the left testicular tissue isolated from different groups, and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were analysed by bioinformatics methods and identified by qRT-PCR. The effect of CAMK2D, the screened DEG, on the proliferation of spermatogonia was evaluated by CCK-8 assay. The expression level of the c-kit was measured by the immunofluorescence assay and the expression levels of CAMKII, FOXO1, and β-catenin were detected by qRT-PCR and western blotting. Five DEGs (i.e., TMCC3, FLNB, CAMK2D, OPLAH, and EGR1) were screened using the comprehensive analysis of mRNA high-throughput sequencing data. TMCC3 and FLNB were significantly downregulated, and CAMK2D, OPLAH, and EGR1 were dramatically upregulated in the testicular tissue of varicocele rats. The target DEG CAMK2D was obtained through identification by using qRT-PCR. In vitro assays revealed that the proliferation of spermatogonia was significantly facilitated by the silencing of CAMK2D, which resulted in the downregulation of CAMKII, FOXO1, and β-catenin. In conclusion, silencing CAMK2D facilitated the proliferation of spermatogonia in the testis of experimental varicocele rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the effect of inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) combined with high‐frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) in the treatment of infants with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF) and pulmonary hypertension (PH) after congenital heart surgery. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 63 infants with AHRF and PH after congenital heart surgery in our cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) from January 2020 to March 2021. A total of 24 infants in the A group were treated with HFOV combined with iNO, and 39 infants in the B group were treated with HFOV. Relevant clinical data were collected. Results: Comparing the two groups, the improvement of the oxygenation index, PaO2 and PaO2/FiO2 was more obvious for patients in the A group than for those in the B group after intervention (p <.05). Reexamination on the third day after the initiation of HFOV treatment indicated that the systolic pulmonary artery pressure in the A group was significantly lower than that in the B group (p <.05). In addition, the duration of mechanical ventilation and the length of CICU stay in the A group were shorter than those in the B group (p <.05). However, complications between the two groups were not statistically significant. No important adverse effects arose. Conclusions: For infants with AHRF and PH after congenital heart surgery, iNO combined with HFOV is superior to HFOV alone to improve oxygenation, decrease pulmonary pressure, and shorten the duration of mechanical ventilation and the length of CICU stay, with no adverse effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effect of music therapy on infants who underwent mechanical ventilation after cardiac surgery.Methods: A prospective randomized controlled study was conducted in a provincial hospital in southeast China. The subjects were randomly divided into the music therapy (MT) group and the control group. Both groups were given standardized sedation treatment and routine nursing. Infants in the MT group received 60 min of MT three times a day. The sedation medication, Richmond sedation agitation scale (RASS) score, incidence of delirium, mechanical ventilation duration, length of cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) stay, restraint belt use time, and successful ventilation withdrawal rate were collected.Results: Infants in the control group had a higher total amount of on-demand midazolam (p = .039). Infants in the MT group had a significantly lower incidence of delirium, shorter mechanical ventilation duration, and restraint band use time (p = .047, p = .046, and p = .038, respectively). Although infants in the MT group had a higher success rate of ventilation withdrawal, lower RASS scores, and shorter ICU stay, the difference was not statistically significant (p = .427, p = .585, and p = .068, respectively).Conclusion: MT in the ICU can reduce the use of on-demand sedative drugs, shorten mechanical ventilation, and reduce the occurrence of delirium in infants who underwent mechanical ventilation after cardiac surgery. MT is a safe and reliable treatment and worthy of clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of the present study is to explore the effect of different feeding intervals on the feeding outcomes of infants who underwent ventricular septal defect (VSD) closure. Methods: This study is a prospective, randomized controlled trial conducted by a provincial hospital in China. According to different feeding intervals, 78 eligible participants were randomly divided into Group A (2‐h interval, n = 39) and Group B (3‐h interval, n = 39). The basic clinical data, total feeding time, incidence of feeding intolerance, and nurse job satisfaction scores of the two groups were collected. Results: The total feeding time in Group A was significantly longer than that in Group B (142.5 ± 15.4 vs. 132.0 ± 16.1 min/d, p =.020). The nurse job satisfaction scores in Group A were significantly lower than those in Group B (101.7 ± 9.8 vs. 108.8 ± 10.1, p =.005). There were no significant differences in the duration of mechanical ventilation (3.7 ± 1.1 vs. 3.9 ± 1.0 d, p =.272), length of ICU stay (4.5 ± 1.1 d vs. 4.7 ± 0.9 d, p =.451), or length of hospital stay (13.2 ± 1.4 vs. 13.3 ± 1.0 d, p =.642) between the two groups. Although the incidence of feeding intolerance in Group A was slightly lower than that in Group B, the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Feeding at an interval of 2 or 3 h has no significant effect on the feeding outcomes of infants, and feeding at intervals of 3 h can reduce nurses' workload and improve nursing job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a lot of studies that reported various kinds of treatments that had some effect on pain relief, but we still think of these treatments as adjuvant treatments. Our results showed that music video therapy can be used as an effective nonpharmaceutical intervention in the clinical to relieve the postoperative pain of children after cardiothoracic surgery.4 Postoperative pain is associated with many factors, and drug therapy remains the preferred strategy. [Extracted from the article]

Objective: To investigate the effect of WeChat follow‐up management of infants who underwent ventricular septal defect (VSD) repair on parents' disease knowledge and quality of life. Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n = 40) or a control group (n = 40). The intervention group was followed up with WeChat, while the control group was followed up using a traditional method. The disease knowledge, mental state, and quality of life of the two groups of parents were analyzed and compared. Results: During the 3‐month follow‐up period, the PedSQL (PedsQL family impact module) results showed that the overall score in the intervention group was significantly higher than that in the control group. The parents in the intervention group were better at managing "emotion control," "worry," and "family communication" than those in the control group. The results of the LKQCHD (Leuven congenital heart disease knowledge questionnaire) showed that the parents in the intervention group had a higher mastery of "basic knowledge and treatment of congenital heart disease," "related complications," and "postoperative rehabilitation" than those in the control group. Conclusion: Knowledge education and psychological counseling for parents of children who underwent VSD repair through WeChat follow‐up management can effectively improve parents' knowledge, relieve their anxiety and sadness, and improve their quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a singularity-free terminal sliding mode (SFTSM) control scheme based on the radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) is proposed for the quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (QUAVs) under the presence of inertia uncertainties and external disturbances. Firstly, a singularity-free terminal sliding mode surface (SFTSMS) is constructed to achieve the finite-time convergence without any piecewise continuous function. Then, the adaptive finite-time control is designed with an auxiliary function to avoid the singularity in the error-related inverse matrix. Moreover, the RBFNN and extended state observer (ESO) are introduced to estimate the unknown disturbances, respectively, such that prior knowledge on system model uncertainties is not required for designing attitude controllers. Finally, the attitude and angular velocity errors are finite-time uniformly ultimately bounded (FTUUB), and numerical simulations illustrated the satisfactory performance of the designed control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To observe the effect of music video (MV) therapy on early postoperative pain in preschool children after cardiothoracic surgery.Methods: 116 preschool children undergoing cardiothoracic surgery were randomly divided into the MV and control groups from June 2019 to March 2020. The related vital signs parameters, the Wong-Baker FACES pain rating scale, the FLACC scale, the number of postoperative PCA press and the cumulants of sufentanil use were recorded and analyzed.Results: There were no statistically significant differences in general characteristics and preintervention data between the two groups. However, there were significantly lower in the heart rate, mean arterial pressure, respiratory rate, the number of postoperative PCA press, and the dosage of sufentanil in the MV group than those in the control group after the intervention. The Wong-Baker FACES and FLACC scales in the MV group were significantly lower than those in the control group at the time point of immediately after the first intervention, 1 day, and 2 days after the intervention. The two pain scores showed a downward trend over time, and the corresponding scores in the MV group were better than those in the control group.Conclusion: MV therapy can be an effective nonpharmaceutical intervention in the clinical to relieve children's postoperative pain after cardiothoracic surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of remifentanil-based fast-track cardiac anesthesia (FTCA) combined with the postoperative serratus anterior plane block (SAPB) for transthoracic device closure of atrial septal defect (ASD) in pediatric patients.Methods: A total of 70 children who underwent transthoracic device closure of ASDs from January 2018 to June 2020 were divided into two groups according to different anesthesia strategies administered, namely group F (fast-track anesthesia, n = 38) and group R (routine anesthesia, n = 32), and relevant clinical data were collected and analyzed.Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in general preoperative data, intraoperative hemodynamics, and FLACC score 1 h after extubation (p > .05). FLACC score of Group F was significantly lower than that of group R at 4, 8, 12, and 24 h after extubation (p < .05). The number of postoperative PCA press and the dose of PCA infusion in group F were lower than those in group R (p < .05). The mechanical ventilation duration, the length of intensive care unit stay in group F were statistically significantly lower than those in group R (p < .05).Conclusion: Remifentanil-based FTCA combined with the postoperative SAPB for transthoracic device closure of ASD in pediatric patients could effectively reduce postoperative pain of the children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acne vulgaris is a common condition. Alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) peels have been previously recommended as an option for patients with intolerance to first‐line treatments especially when long‐term use. The safety and efficacy of AHA peels for acne have been established, but the factors influencing the ultimate effects are unknown. We recruited patients diagnosed with acne who were intolerant to or refused the first‐line treatments from July 2017 to December 2019 at our hospital and retrospectively collected the medical and demographic information of patients treated with a full course of AHA peels; data collected included age, sex, treatment history, compliance status, and efficacy after treatment. The efficacy score was defined by revised scales: 2 points indicated significant improvement, 1 point indicated mild improvement, and 0 point indicated no improvement. Additionally, only efficacy scores of 2 points were classified in the satisfactory group; the others were classified in the unmet effect group. Analyses were used to evaluate the potential influencing factor(s). A total of 141 patients (120 females, 21 male) were included in the final analysis. The patients in the satisfactory group were significantly older (higher proportion aged >28 years) (47.4% vs 29.5%, P =.046) and showed better compliance (88.7% vs 54.5%, P =.001) than the patients in the unmet effect group. Multiple analyses confirmed the effects of younger age (OR 2.70, 95% CI 1.15‐6.34, P = 022) and poor compliance (OR 2.74, 95% CI 1.74‐4.32, P =.001) on the unmet effect. Unsatisfactory compliance and age might decrease the effects of AHA peels on acne. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of the mobile Internet, mobile reading has transcended the limitation of time and space, becoming an indispensable part of people's living and learning. As the direct service object of mobile reading APP, users' subjective use experience is decisive in the success or failure. It is of great significance to identify the key influencing factors of user experience of mobile reading APP. It is conducive not only to improving users reading experience and increasing users stickiness but also to improving mobile reading service quality, which is essential to promote the healthy and sustainable development of mobile reading APP. From the perspective of user experience, content analysis and questionnaire survey are used to construct the index system of influencing factors of mobile reading APP user experience, which includes 6 dimensions of reliability, usefulness, thoughtfulness, interactivity, security, and compatibility, and 21 influencing factors. Based on the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method, introducing the triangular fuzzy number, the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (fuzzy-DEMATEL) model is established, extending the single value of the comparison matrix to a fuzzy interval and then giving the decision makers a proper judgment space. The key influencing factors of mobile reading APP user experience are identified by algorithm design. Ultimately, the 10 key influencing factors of mobile reading APP user experience are identified, which are information quality, content richness, value fit, copyright protection, timeliness, personalized service, reading function richness, interpersonal interaction, system performance, and privacy protection, and suggestions for improving the user experience of mobile reading APP are put forward to provide reference for mobile reading APP developers. The research results not only enrich and perfect the theoretical and practical research in the mobile reading field to a certain extent, providing a new research perspective for the field of mobile reading, but also effectively solve the defects of the traditional DEMATEL method that expert judgment is subjectively biased and difficult to express with an exact number directly. The research expands the application scope of DEMATEL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A joint theoretical and numerical study was carried out to investigate the fluid dynamical aspect of the motion of a vortex generated in a rotating tank with a sloping bottom. This study aims at understanding the evolution of strong cyclonic motions on a β-plane in the Northern Hemisphere. The strong cyclonic vortices were characterized by four nondimensional parameters which were derived through a scale analysis of the depth variations of fluid. By simplifying the model flow field and the prototype flow field, respectively, through the conservation of potential vorticity, two sets of dynamic similarity conditions are derived. This study proposed a sophisticated modified shallow water model (MSWM) to investigate the flow features of such strong vortices. A detailed numerical calculation adopted by multidimensional positive definite advection transport algorithm (MPDATA) was carried out to validate those effects considered in the MSWM model, including sloping bottom, parabolic free surface deformation, and viscous dissipation. Close agreements were found between the experimental and numerical results, including the streamlines patterns and the vortex trajectory. Comprehensive simulations for strong cyclonic vortices over different sloping bottoms were investigated to understand the impact of planetary β effect on vortex. The results calculated by MSWM demonstrate a variety of flow features of interactions between the primary vortex and induced secondary Rossby wave wakes that were essential and prominent in environmental geophysical flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimization of the depressurization pathways plays a crucial role in avoiding potential geohazards while increasing hydrate production efficiency. In this study, methane hydrate was formed in a flexible plastic vessel and then gas production processes were conducted at constant confining pressure and constant confining temperature. The CMG-STARS simulator was applied to match the experimental gas production behavior and to derive the hydrate intrinsic dissociation constant. Secondly, fluid production behavior, pressure-temperature (P ‐ T) responses, and hydrate saturation evolution behaviors under different depressurization pathways were analyzed. The results show that integrated gas-water ratio (IGWR) decreases linearly with the increase in depressurizing magnitude in each step, while it rises logarithmically with the increase in the number of steps. Under the same initial average hydrate saturation and the same total pressure-drop magnitude, a slow and multistage depressurization strategy would help to increase the IGWR and avoid severe temperature drop. The pore pressure rebounds logarithmically once the gas production is suspended, and would decrease to the regular level instantaneously once the shut-in operation is ended. We speculate that the shut-in operation could barely affect the IGWR and formation P ‐ T response in the long-term level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the analgesic and sedative effects of remifentanil‐based fast‐track cardiac anesthesia in children undergoing transthoracic device closure of ventricular septal defects (VSDs). Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 62 children who underwent transthoracic device closure of VSDs from May 2019 to August 2019. The patients were divided into two groups based on the anesthesia methods: group F was given remifentanil‐based fast‐track cardiac anesthesia, and Group C was given conventional anesthesia. Patient‐related clinical data, postoperative analgesia scores, and sedation scores were collected and analyzed. Results: There was no significant difference in intraoperative hemodynamic changes, bispectral index values, postoperative analgesia scores, sedation scores, or the incidence of adverse events between the two groups. Compared with Group C, the duration of mechanical ventilation and the length of intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital stay in group F were significantly lower. Conclusion: Remifentanil‐based fast‐track anesthesia can be safely applied in children undergoing transthoracic device closure of VSDs, with acceptable postoperative analgesia and sedation effects and shorter mechanical ventilation times and ICU and hospital stays compared with conventional anesthesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: We develop a unique self‐template method to synthesize hierarchical porous carbons (HPCs) by co‐activation of heavy component (HC) and dense medium component (DMC) separated from bituminous coal. HC and DMC are obtained by employing the mixture solvent (CS2/N‐methyl‐2‐pyrrolidone) and deionized water as extractant and back extractant to separate bituminous coal. The plentiful kaolinite [Al2(Si2O5) (OH)4] in the HC produce Natrolite (K) (K2Al2Si3O10•2H2O) during the activation process, which can serve as self‐template to prepare HPCs. Moreover, the addition of asphalt‐like DMC allows the templates to be better utilized. Effect of the remixture ratio of DMC/HC on HPCs' porous structures and electrochemical properties are studied in detail. The optimal sample (HPC‐0.4) displays an ultrahigh surface area (3851 m2 g−1), appropriate hierarchically system and excellent conductivity. When applied to supercapacitors, HPC‐0.4 delivers a large capacity of 436 F g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 in alkaline electrolyte, and maintains 212 F g−1 at 10 A g−1. This self‐template strategy paves a practical route to construct applicable porous carbons for supercapacitors from low‐cost high‐minerals coal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate physical parameters of the semiconductor devices are critical to the physics‐based circuit simulation, which solves the carrier transport equations to model the semiconductor devices. However, the conventional method extracts physical parameters from low‐frequency measurements such as the DC I‐V curve, which cannot work at high frequencies. To overcome this problem, we propose a physical parameter extraction method of the PIN diode working well from DC to microwave frequencies. Specifically, because the transit‐time effects are dependent on the working frequencies and input power levels, the operation modes of the PIN diode can be divided into three cases from DC to microwave frequencies; therefore, the proposed method extracts the parameters from three measured curves, including the DC I‐V curve, a small‐signal, and a large‐signal voltage waveform both at a microwave frequency. Experiments of a PIN diode SMP1330 circuit show that the error of the conventional method is about 45% at frequencies above 300 MHz, but the maximum error of the proposed method is only 9.5% from DC to 2 GHz. Moreover, the conventional method is unable to characterize the conductance modulation phenomenon, which leads to unexpected signal reflections in PIN limiter circuits and the missing of information in radio transceivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sign language is an important communication tool between the deaf and the external world. As the number of the Chinese deaf accounts for 15% of the world, it is highly urgent to develop a Chinese sign language recognition (CSLR) system. Recently, a novel phonology- and radical-coded CSL, taking advantages of a limited and constant number of coded gestures, has been preliminarily verified to be feasible for practical CSLR systems. The keynote of this version of CSL is that the same coded gesture performed in different orientations has different meanings. In this paper, we mainly propose a novel two-stage feature representation method to effectively characterize the CSL gestures. First, an orientation-sensitive feature is extracted regarding the distances between the palm center and the key points of the hand contour. Second, the extracted features are transformed by a dynamic time warping- (DTW-) based feature mapping approach for better representation. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed feature extraction and mapping approaches. The averaged classification accuracy of all the 39 types of CSL gestures acquired from 11 subjects exceeds 93% for all the adopted classifiers, achieving significant improvement compared to the scheme without DTW-distance-mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A coupled‐line band‐pass filter (BPF) with T‐shaped stub structure is presented. Five transmission poles within the passband and eight deep transmission zeros (TZs) from 0 to 2f0 (f0 denotes filter's center frequency) are realized through input impedance calculations. With the simple T‐shaped structure, the positions of six TZs can be appropriately adjusted to achieve high frequency selectivity and stopband rejection. For demonstration, a BPF prototype centered at 2.05 GHz is designed and fabricated, whose measured rejection levels are of over 45.5 dB at lower stopband and better than 19.5 dB at upper stopband. The simulation and measurement results are in good agreement, which validates the design idea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was to investigate the effects of garlic (Allium sativum) powder on feeding attraction activity, growth performance and digestive enzymes of juvenile Japanese seabass, Lateolabrax japonicus (initial weight: 29.82 ± 0.24 g). Six concentration gradients (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 g/kg diets) were formulated for luring and feeding experiment. The results showed a clear attractive trend of garlic powder for L. japonicus. A 28‐day feeding experiment indicated garlic could reduce the feed conversion ratio (FCR) (p <.05). The content of the body crude lipid was significantly increased at 10–15 g/kg diet (p <.05). Digestive enzyme activities including trypsin, amylase (AMS) and lipase (LPS) in the intestine were the highest at 10 g/kg diet (p <.05). Overall, garlic powder provides a promising and effective method for Japanese seabass healthy culture by improving fish growth and digestive ability. The results of this research suggested the additive suitable dosage of garlic powder was about 10 g/kg diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immunotherapy directed against cancer-specific neoantigens derived from non-silent mutants is a promising individualized strategy for cancer treatment. Neoantigens shared across patients could be used as a public resource for developing T cell-based therapy. To identify potential public neoantigens for therapy in gastric cancer (GC), 74 GC patients were enrolled in this study. Combined with the TCGA cohort and other published studies, whole exome sequencing data from 942 GC patients were used to detect somatic mutations and predict neoantigens shared by GC patients. The mutations pattern between our study and the TCGA cohort is comparable, and C > T is the most common substitution. The number of neoantigens was significantly higher in older patients (age ≥60) compared to younger patients (age <60), both in this study and the TCGA cohort. Recurrent neoantigens were found in eight genes (TP53, PIK3CA, PGM5, ERBB3, C6, TRIM49C, OR4C16, and KRAS) in this study. The neoantigen-associated mutations PIK3CA (p.H1047R) and TP53 (p.R175H) are common across several cancer types, indicating their potential usage. Overall, our study illustrates a comprehensive genomic landscape of GC and provides the recurrent neoantigens to facilitate further immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hybrid composite right/left handed (CRLH) structure based leaky‐wave antenna with continuous wide beam scanning is proposed in this article. Six series‐wound periodic units, combining spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) with CRLH, form the radiating portion of proposed antenna. The unit is connected to the ground with metal hole, which provides the equivalent parallel inductance, and the unit is separated from its adjacent unit at prescheduled intervals, which provides the equivalent series capacitance. Additionally, the unit operates at balanced state and the open stopband is obviously suppressed. Dispersion diagram is also used to analyze this continuous scanning. A prototype of proposed antenna is fabricated and measured. The main beam of the antenna scans continuously from −70° to +40° in the range from 5.2 to 8.8 GHz. The antenna radiation efficiency reaches a maximum of 92% in the working band. Measurement results agree quite well with the simulation, which indicate this leaky wave antenna can find potential applications in communication systems and radars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. With the increasing social and economic burdens of balance impairment after stroke, the treatment for balance impairment after stroke becomes a major public health problem worldwide. Kinesio taping (KT) as a part of clinical practice has been used widely in the treatment of balance impairment after stroke. However, the clinical effects of KT for balance function have not been confirmed. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects and safety of KT for balance impairment after stroke. Methods. We conducted a systematic review (SR) and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effects of KT for balance impairment after stroke. We searched the following databases: (1) English databases: EMBASE (via Ovid), MEDLINE (via Ovid), the Cochrane library, PubMed, and PEDro; (2) Chinese databases: China Biology Medicine (CBM), Wan Fang database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and VIP. Besides, hand searches of relevant references were also conducted. We systematically searched from the inception to December 2018, using the keywords (Kinesio, Kinesio Tape, tape, or Orthotic Tape) and (stroke, hemiplegia, or hemiplegic paralysis) and (balance or stability). The search strategies were adjusted for each database. The reference lists of included articles were reviewed for relevant trials. For missing data, we contacted the authors to get additional information. Results. 22 RCTs involved 1331 patients, among which 667 patients in the experimental group and 664 patients in the control group were included. Results of meta-analysis showed that, compared with conventional rehabilitation (CR), there was significant difference in Berg Balance Scale (BBS) (MD=4.46, 95%CI 1.72 to 7.19, P=0.001), Time Up and Go Test (TUGT) (MD=-4.62, 95%CI -5.48 to -3.79, P < 0.00001), functional ambulation category scale (FAC) (MD=0.53, 95%CI 0.38 to 0.68, P < 0.00001), Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA-L) (MD=4.20, 95%CI 3.17 to 5.24, P < 0.00001), and Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) (MD=-0.38, 95%CI -0.49 to -0.27, P < 0.00001). The results of subgroup analysis showed that there was no significant difference between KT and CR with ≤4 weeks treatment duration (< 4 weeks: MD=5.03, 95%CI -1.80 to 11.85, P=0.15; =4 weeks: MD=4.33, 95%CI -1.50 to 10.15, P=0.15), while there was significant difference with more than 4-week treatment duration (MD=4.77, 95%CI 2.58 to 6.97, P < 0.0001). Conclusions. Based on current evidence, KT was more effective than CR for balance function, lower limb function, and walking function in poststroke patients. Longer treatment duration may be associated with better effects. However, more well-conducted RCTs are required in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluated the effects of dietary vitamin E on growth, immunity and regulation of the hepatopancreas in male oriental river prawn, Macrobrachium nipponense. Shrimps were fed 0, 40, 80, 160, 320 or 640 mg vitamin E/kg for 60 days. The 80 mg/kg group had the highest weight gain rate, specific growth rate and lowest feed conversion rate while there were no significant differences in survival rate and hepatosomatic index. The highest crude fat and lowest crude protein content were observed in the 160 mg/kg group. In the hepatopancreas, lysozyme, acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase activities were highest in the 160 mg/kg group, while superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase activities decreased with increasing vitamin E levels. Malondialdehyde content initially decreased then increased with vitamin E levels, whereas the reverse was seen with total antioxidant capacity. Linoleic acid, DPA, DHA, total n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acid and total polyunsaturated fatty acid first increased then decreased, while EPA and total saturated fatty acid rose with vitamin E levels. Total n‐6 polyunsaturated fatty acid content declined while there were no significant differences in linolenic and total monounsaturated fatty acid content. Following a toxicity test with Aeromonas hydrophila, hepatopancreas ultrastructure revealed that appropriate vitamin E levels promote an increase in mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi bodies, but excess vitamin E can damage cell structure. These results provide evidence that 80–160 mg/kg dietary vitamin E has a positive impact on growth, immunity and regulation of the hepatopancreas in male shrimp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Displacement of the myotendinous junction (MTJ) obtained by ultrasound imaging is crucial to quantify the interactive length changes of muscles and tendons for understanding the mechanics and pathological conditions of the muscle-tendon unit during motion. However, the lack of a reliable automatic measurement method restricts its application in human motion analysis. This paper presents an automated measurement of MTJ displacement using prior knowledge on tendinous tissues and MTJ, precluding the influence of nontendinous components on the estimation of MTJ displacement. It is based on the perception of tendinous features from musculoskeletal ultrasound images using Radon transform and thresholding methods, with information about the symmetric measures obtained from phase congruency. The displacement of MTJ is achieved by tracking manually marked points on tendinous tissues with the Lucas-Kanade optical flow algorithm applied over the segmented MTJ region. The performance of this method was evaluated on ultrasound images of the gastrocnemius obtained from 10 healthy subjects (26.0±2.9 years of age). Waveform similarity between the manual and automatic measurements was assessed by calculating the overall similarity with the coefficient of multiple correlation (CMC). In vivo experiments demonstrated that MTJ tracking with the proposed method (CMC = 0.97±0.02) was more consistent with the manual measurements than existing optical flow tracking methods (CMC = 0.79±0.11). This study demonstrated that the proposed method was robust to the interference of nontendinous components, resulting in a more reliable measurement of MTJ displacement, which may facilitate further research and applications related to the architectural change of muscles and tendons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very high cycle fatigue behavior of nugget zone in AA 7075 friction stir welded joint was experimentally investigated using ultrasonic fatigue testing system (20 kHz) to clarify the crack initiation mechanism. It was found that the fatigue strength of nugget zone decreased continuously even beyond 107 cycles with no traditional fatigue limits. Fatigue cracks initiated from the welding defects located at the bottom side of the friction stir weld. Moreover, a special semicircular zone could be characterized around the crack initiation site, of which the stress intensity factor approximately equaled the threshold of fatigue crack propagation rate. Finally, a simplified model was proposed to estimate the fatigue life by correlating the welding defect size and applied stress. The predicted results are in good agreement with the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic neuropathic pain (DNP), one of the early symptoms of diabetic neuropathy, relates to metabolic disorders induced by high blood glucose, neurotrophic vascular ischemia and hypoxia, and autoimmune factors. This study was aimed at exploring the effects of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) BC168687 siRNA on DNP mediated by P2X7 receptor on SGCs in DRG of rats. The mechanical withdrawal threshold (MWT) and thermal withdrawal latency (TWL) of rats, the expression levels of P2X7 mRNA and protein in the DRG, and nitric oxide (NO) in the serum were, respectively, detected in our study. Our experimental results showed that the level of BC168687 mRNA in DNP group was markedly higher than that of control group; the MWT and TWL of DNP + BC168687 si group were significantly increased, and the expression levels of P2X7 in DRG and the concentrations of NO in serum of DNP + BC168687 si group were decreased compared to those of the DNP group. In conclusion, lncRNA BC168687 may participate in the pathogenesis of DNP mediated by P2X7 receptor, which will provide a novel way for the study of the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus complicated with neuropathic pain and its prevention and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an adaptive chaos synchronization control scheme for nonlinear permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) systems by using extended state observer (ESO). Frist of all, a chaotic PMSM system is built through an affine transformation and a time scale transformation of the mathematical PMSM model. Then, an adaptive sliding mode controller is developed based on the extended state observer to achieve the synchronization performance of two chaotic PMSM systems. Moreover, an adaptive parameter law of the control gain is designed to reduce the chattering problem existing in the traditional sliding mode control. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an altitude triggered lightning, the potential and charge distribution of the triggering wire, a floating conductor, is unknown and changeable during the triggering process, which makes it difficult to simulate an altitude triggered lightning in a numerical work. To solve this problem, a 3D altitude triggered lightning model is developed in this paper, which contains two parts, a Thundercloud Model which is time-dependent and nonhydrostatic and takes 27 kinds of microphysical processes into consideration and a Triggering Model in which a charge conservation equation is introduced to describe the floating conductor and to ensure the overall neutrality of the leader channel. Numerical results of the stepped leader initiation process are given, which are in good agreement with experiment observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fault tolerance is the key technology in wireless sensor networks which attracts many research interests. Aiming at the issue that the nodes' failures affect the network's stability and service quality, a vascular-network-based fault-tolerant routing algorithm is presented by nonuniform hierarchical clustering. According to the distribution characteristics of the vascular network and inspirations to the fault tolerance for wireless sensor networks, a mathematical model and network topology are, respectively, established. It applies the improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) to the nonuniform hierarchical clustering, and multipaths are established between the neighbor hierarchical nodes based on the best-worst ant system (BWAS). It introduces the normalized values of the pheromone generated by the ants as the selection probabilities of transmitting paths to establish the hierarchical routing. Theoretical analysis and simulations show that the algorithm has higher packet receiving rates, lower average transmission delay, and balanced energy consumption. It has the good performance in fault tolerance and stability of data transmitting, and it avoids the hot issue in energy consumption and achieves the network load balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A frequency‐selective rasorber (FSR) with two low insertion loss transmission bands is proposed. The FSR is composed of the resistive sheet layer at the top and bandpass FSS layer at the bottom, and separated by air spacer. Full‐wave simulation results show that the FSR realize two transmission bands at frequencies 8.5 GHz and 10.8 GHz with 0.45 dB and 0.77 dB insertion loss. Meanwhile, the band with |S11| < −10 dB is over 4.2‐8.8 GHz and 9.2‐17.4 GHz. Compared with the reported FSR with two transmission bands, the proposed FSR in this article achieves two transmission bands with lower insertion loss and wide absorption band at high frequencies. To validate the performance of the proposed FSR, the samples are fabricated and measured, reasonable agreement between simulated and measured results is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]