Search

Peri-operative hemorrhagic shock and resuscitation (HSR), a severe traumatic stress, is closely associated with post-operative anxiety, depression, and cognitive dysfunction, subsequently causing a serious burden on families and society. Following the co-release of corticotropin-releasing factor and catecholamine, traumatic stress activates dopaminergic neurons, increasing the addictive behavior and neurocognitive impairment risks. This study investigates the association between cognitive dysfunction and dopaminergic neurons in the mPFC under HSR conditions. This study established an HSR model by bleeding and re-transfusion in the mice. After HSR exposure, a dopamine D1 receptor antagonist, SKF-83566, was administered intraperitoneally for three consecutive days. Novel object recognition (NOR), conditioned fearing (FC), and conditioned place preference (CPP) were used to assess cognitive changes 16 days after HSR exposure. Local field potential (LFP) in the mPFC was also investigated during the novel object exploration. Compared with the mice exposed to sham, there was a significant decrease in the object recognition index, a reduction in context- and tone-related freezing time, an increase in CPP values, a downregulation of β-power but upregulation of γ-power in the mPFC in the mice exposed to HSR. Moreover, the mice exposed to HSR showed significantly upregulated TH-positive cell number, cleaved caspase-1- and TH-positive cells, and interleukin (IL)-1β/18 expression in the mPFC compared with sham; SKF-83566 could partially reverse these alternations. The HSR caused excessive dopaminergic signaling and cognitive dysfunction in the mPFC, a condition that might be ameliorated using a dopamine D1 receptor inhibitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Rodomanov and Nesterov proposed a class of greedy quasi-Newton methods and established the first explicit local superlinear convergence result for Quasi-Newton type methods. In this paper, we study a variant of Powell-Symmetric-Broyden (PSB) updates based on the greedy strategy. Firstly, we give explicit condition-number-free superlinear convergence rates of proposed greedy PSB methods. Secondly, we prove the global convergence of greedy PSB methods by applying the trust-region framework. One advantage of this result is that the initial Hessian approximation can be chosen arbitrarily. Thirdly, we analyze the behaviour of the randomized PSB method, that selects the direction randomly from any spherical symmetry distribution. Finally, preliminary numerical experiments illustrate the efficiency of proposed PSB methods compared with the standard SR1 method and PSB method. Our results are given under the assumption that the objective function is a strongly convex function, and its gradient and Hessian are Lipschitz continuous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the nonlinear dynamic stability of three-dimensional graphene foam (3D-GrF)-reinforced polymeric composite (RPC) cylindrical shells under the periodic axial loading. Three types of foam distribution are considered and the effective Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio and mass density of 3D-GrFRPC shells are obtained by using the mixing rule. Hamilton's principle is implemented to derive the differential equations of motion on the basis of Donnell's shell theory and von Kàrmàn geometric nonlinearity. In the framework of the Galerkin method and Airy stress function, the nonlinear transverse vibration differential equation is transformed to the Mathieu–Hill equation. Moreover, the explicit expressions of steady-state vibration amplitude of 3D-GrFRPC shells are obtained via Bolotin's method. Finally, the effects of foam coefficient, foam distribution, dynamic load factor, static load factor and shell geometry parameters on the nonlinear dynamic stability of 3D-GrFRPC cylindrical shells are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tight gas exploration plays an important part in China's unconventional energy strategy. The tight gas reservoirs in the Jurassic Shaximiao Formation in the Qiulin and Jinhua Gas Fields of central Sichuan Basin are characterized by shallow burial depths and large reserves. The evolution of the fluid phases is a key element in understanding the accumulation of hydrocarbons in tight gas reservoirs. This study investigates the fluid accumulation mechanisms and the indicators of reservoir properties preservation and degradation in a tight gas reservoir. Based on petrographic observations and micro-Raman spectroscopy, pure CH4 inclusions, pure CO2 inclusions, hybrid CH4–CO2 gas inclusions, and N2-rich gas inclusions were studied in quartz grains. The pressure–volume–temperature–composition properties (PVT-x) of the CH4 and CO2 bearing inclusions were determined using quantitative Raman analysis and thermodynamic models, while the density of pure CO2 inclusions was calculated based on the separation of Fermi diad. Two stages of CO2 fluid accumulation were observed: primary CO2 inclusions, characterized by higher densities (0.874–1.020 g/cm3) and higher homogenization temperatures (> 210 °C) and secondary CO2 inclusions, characterized by lower densities (0.514–0.715 g/cm3) and lower homogenization temperatures: ~ 180–200 °C). CO2 inclusions with abnormally high homogenization temperatures are thought to be the result of deep hydrothermal fluid activity. The pore fluid pressure (44.0–58.5 MPa) calculated from the Raman shift of C–H symmetric stretching (v1) band of methane inclusions is key to understanding the development of overpressure. PT entrapment conditions and simulation of burial history can be used to constrain the timing of paleo-fluid emplacement. Methane accumulated in the late Cretaceous (~ 75–65 Ma), close to the maximum burial depth during the early stages of the Himalayan tectonic event while maximum overpressure occurred at ~ 70 Ma, just before uplift. Later, hydrocarbon gas migrated through the faults and gradually displaced the early emplaced CO2 in the reservoirs accompanied by a continuous decrease in overpressure during and after the Himalayan event, which has led to a decrease in the reservoir sealing capabilities. The continuous release of overpressure to present-day conditions indicates that the tectonic movement after the Himalayan period has led to a decline in reservoir conditions and sealing properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) are implicated in cerebral ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury process. In this study, after extraction and identification of human umbilical cord MSCs (HMCs)-derived EVs, I/R rat models were established and treated with HMC-EVs to measure pathological damage, apoptosis and inflammation in brain tissues. The differentially expressed microRNAs (miRs) in HMC-EVs and I/R rat tissues were screened. The downstream gene and pathways of miR-24 were analyzed. The gain- and loss-of function of miR-24 in HMC-EVs was performed in I/R rat models and hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) cell models. SH-SY5Y cells were subjected to hypoxia and biological behaviors were detected by MTT assay, colony formation experiment, EdU staining and Transwell assays, and cells were incubated with the inhibitors of downstream pathways. As expected, infarct size, brain tissue apoptosis and inflammation were decreased after HMC-EVs treatment. miR-24 overexpression in HMC-EVs reduced I/R injury, while miR-24 knockdown in HMC-EVs impaired the protective roles of HMC-EVs in I/R injury. HMC-EVs-carried miR-24 could target AQP4 to activate the P38 MAPK/ERK1/2/P13K/AKT pathway, and thus promoted the proliferation and migration of SH-SY5Y cells after H/R injury, which were reversed by LY294002 and PD98095. Taken together, HMC-EVs-carried miR-24 played protective roles in I/R injury, possibly by targeting AQP4 and activating the P38 MAPK/ERK1/2/P13K/AKT pathway. This study may offer novel perspective for I/R injury treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The change rules associated with hot deformation of FGH96 alloy were investigated by isothermal two-pass hot deformation tests in the temperature range 1050–1125°C and at strain rates ranging from 0.001 to 0.1 s−1 on a Gleeble 3500 thermo-simulation machine. The results showed that the softening degree of the alloy between passes decreases with increasing temperature and decreasing strain rates. The critical strain of the first-pass is greater than that of the second-pass. The true stress-true strain curves showed that single-peak dynamic recrystallization, multi- peak dynamic recrystallization, and dynamic response occur when the strain rate is 0.1, 0.01, and 0.001 s−1, respectively. The alloy contains three different grain structures after hot deformation: partially recrystallized tissue, completely fine recrystallized tissue, coarse-grained grains. The small-angle grain boundaries increase with increasing temperature. Increasing strain rates cause the small-angle grain boundaries to first increase and then decrease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of long, non-coding RNAs molecules that shape a covalently closed continuous loop which have no 5′-3′ polarity and contain no polyA tail. CircRNAs also possess relatively jarless framework and are highly tissue-specific expressed in the eukaryotic transcriptome. Emerging evidences have discovered that thousands of endogenous circRNAs are present in mammalian cells and they mediate gene expression at the transcriptional or post-transcriptional level by binding to microRNAs or other molecules and then inhibit their function. Similarly, increasing evidence indicates that circRNAs may play a role in the development of several types of diseases, including atherosclerotic vascular disease risk, neurological disorders, prion diseases, osteoarthritis and diabetes. Furthermore, circRNAs exhibit aberrant expression in multiform types of cancer, including colorectal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. And based on the function of circRNAs in cancer, we believe that circRNAs may serve as diagnostic or tumor promising biomarkers. Moreover, it will provide a new therapeutic target for the treatment of cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRs) are short and highly conserved non-coding RNAs molecules consisting of 18-25 nucleotides that regulate gene expression at post-transcriptional level by direct binding to complementary binding sites within the 3′untranslated region (3′UTR) of target mRNAs. New evidences have demonstrated that miRNAs play an important role in diverse physiological processes, including regulating cell growth, apoptosis, metastasis, drug resistance, and invasion. In chromosomes 11 and 22 of the miR-130 family, paralogous miRNA sequences, miR-130a and miR-130b are situated, respectively. MiR-130a has participated in different pathogenesis, including hepatocellular carcinoma, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, glioblastoma, prostate carcinoma, leukemia, etc. Most important of all, more and more evidences indicate that miR-130a is associated with drug resistance and acts as an intermediate in PI3 K/Akt/PTEN/mTOR, Wnt/β-catenin and NF-kB/PTEN drug resistance signaling pathways. Drug resistance has emerged as a major obstacle to successful treatment of cancer nowadays and in this review, we will reveal the function of miR-130a in cancer, especially in drug resistance. Therefore, it will provide a new therapeutic target for the treatment of cancer, especially in chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AlO/TiO/FeO/YbO composite powder was synthesized via the sol-gel method. The structure, morphology, and radar-absorption properties of the composite powder were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis and RF impedance analysis. The results show that two types of particles exist in the composite powder. One is irregular flakes (100-200 nm) and the other is spherical AlO particles (smaller than 80 nm). Electromagnetic wave attenuation is mostly achieved by dielectric loss. The maximum value of the dissipation factor reaches 0.76 (at 15.68 GHz) in the frequency range of 2-18 GHz. The electromagnetic absorption of waves covers 2-18 GHz with the matching thicknesses of 1.5-4.5 mm. The absorption peak shifts to the lower-frequency area with increasing matching thickness. The effective absorption band covers the frequency range of 2.16-9.76 GHz, and the maximum absorption peak reaches −20.18 dB with a matching thickness of 3.5 mm at a frequency of 3.52 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ag@Pt core-shell nanoparticles (Ag@Pt NPs) were prepared by a co-reduction method. Pt nanocapsules with diameters of less than 10 nm were obtained by an electrochemical method. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) scanning was used to cavitate the Ag@Pt NPs, and the morphology, structure, and cavitation conditions were studied. The results indicate that the effective cavitation conditions to obtain Pt nanoparticles from Ag@Pt NPs are a scanning voltage of 0 to 0.8 V and continuous CV scanning over 2 h. This cavitation method is also applicable for the syntheses of Ir, Ru, and Ru-Pt nanocapsules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Address-resolution protocol (ARP) is an important protocol of data link layers that aims to obtain the corresponding relationship between Internet Protocol (IP) and Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. Traditional ARPs (address-resolution and neighbor-discovery protocols) do not consider the existence of malicious nodes, which reveals destination addresses in the resolution process. Thus, these traditional protocols allow malicious nodes to easily carry out attacks, such as man-in-the-middle attack and denial-of-service attack. To overcome these weaknesses, we propose an anonymous-address-resolution (AS-AR) protocol. AS-AR does not publicize the destination address in the address-resolution process and hides the IP and MAC addresses of the source node. The malicious node cannot obtain the addresses of the destination and the node which initiates the address resolution; thus, it cannot attack. Analyses and experiments show that AS-AR has a higher security level than existing security methods, such as secure-neighbor discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GLI2 is a key mediator of the sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling pathway and plays an important role in neural tube development during vertebrate embryogenesis; however, the role of gli2 in human folate-related neural tube defects remains unclear. In this study, we compared methylation status and polymorphisms of gli2 between spina bifida patients and a control group to explore the underlying mechanisms related to folate deficiency in spina bifida. No single nucleotide polymorphism was found to be significantly different between the two groups, although gli2 methylation levels were significantly increased in spina bifida samples, accompanied by aberrant GLI2 expression. Moreover, a prominent negative correlation was found between the folate level in brain tissue and the gli2 methylation status ( r = −0.41, P = 0.014), and gli2 hypermethylation increased the risk of spina bifida with an odds ratio of 12.45 (95 % confidence interval: 2.71-57.22, P = 0.001). In addition, we established a cell model to illustrate the effect of gli2 expression and the accessibility of chromatin affected by methylation. High gli2 and gli1 mRNA expression was detected in 5-Aza-treated cells, while gli2 hypermethylation resulted in chromatin inaccessibility and a reduced association with nuclear proteins containing transcriptional factors. More meaningful to the pathway, the effect gene of the Shh pathway, gli1, was found to have a reduced level of expression along with a decreased expression of gli2 in our cell model. Aberrant high methylation resulted in the low expression of gli2 in spina bifida, which was affected by the change in chromatin status and the capacity of transcription factor binding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi-dimensional time-domain computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach is extended to calculate the acoustic attenuation performance of water-filled piping silencers. Transmission loss predictions from the time-domain CFD approach and the frequency-domain finite element method (FEM) agree well with each other for the dual expansion chamber silencer, straight-through and cross-flow perforated tube silencers without flow. Then, the time-domain CFD approach is used to investigate the effect of flow on the acoustic attenuation characteristics of perforated tube silencers. The numerical predictions demonstrate that the mean flow increases the transmission loss, especially at higher frequencies, and shifts the transmission loss curve to lower frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, Cu-based materials were prepared by non-aqueous gel casting. The influence of different size particles on the rheological properties in gel system and the microstructure of green bodies and sintered bodies were studied. The results show that with the increase in particle size, the apparent viscosity in gel system decreased, the inhomogeneity of green body increased, and the flexural strength of green body and the relative density of sintered body reduced. The higher flexural strength (39.93 MPa) of green body was attained from the sample with 29-μm Cu powder, which can completely meet the needs of machining. Graphical Abstract: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal decomposition kinetics and mechanism of the high-energetic material 5,7-diamino-4,6-dinitrobenzenfuroxan (CL-14) were determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), rapid scanning Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and simultaneous thermogravimetric and DSC analyses, coupled with FT-IR and mass spectroscopy. To evaluate the thermal safety of 5,7-diamino-4,6-dinitrobenzenfuroxan (CL-14), its specific heat capacity ( C) was measured by DSC, and thermal conductivity ( λ) was estimated. Kinetic parameters and heat of exothermic decomposition reaction of CL-14 were obtained by analysis of DSC curves. Kinetic parameters used to evaluate the thermal safety of CL-14, such as self-accelerating decomposition temperature ( T), critical temperature of thermal explosion ( T) and impact sensitivity ( H), were obtained. Results showed that for CL-14, T = 282.0 °C and T = 307.9 °C, whereas H = 39.79 cm, revealing that CL-14 had better thermal safety and heat resistance than HMX, RDX and GNTO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of carboxylic acid collector, benzohydroxamic acid (BHA), sodium hexametaphosphate (SHAP), sodium silicate, and oxalic acid on scheelite flotation were studied through flotation tests, quantum chemical calculation, and flotation solution computational chemistry. In terms of the calculation results, the relationship between chemical reactions occurring on the scheelite surface and molecular structures of the reagents were analyzed. The results show that BHA and carboxylic acid collectors interact with scheelite in different forms and the recovery of scheelite using sodium oleate as collector declines successively from SHAP, sodium silicate, to oxalic acid. Moreover, it is found that the performance of depressant in scheelite flotation is directly related to the group electronegativity, indicating that the latter is a dominant factor that determines the former. These findings will be helpful to the academic research communities of scheelite flotation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplantation could repair injury tissue, but no study confirms whether MSCs can promote the proliferation of endogenous lung stem cells to repair alveolar epithelial cells of mice with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study was designed to investigate the effect of MSCs on the proliferation of endogenous lung stem cells in COPD mice to confirm the repair mechanism of MSCs. The mice were divided into control group, COPD group, and COPD+MSCs group. The following indexes were detected: HE staining of lung tissue, the mean linear intercept (MLI) and alveolar destructive index (DI), the total cell number in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), pulmonary function, alveolar wall apoptosis index (AI) and proliferation index (PI), the number of CD45/CD31/Sca-1 cells by flow cytometry (FCM), and the number of bronchoalveolar stem cells (BASCs) in bronchoalveolar duct junction (BADJ) by immunofluorescence. As compared with control group, the number of inflammatory cells in lung tissue was increased, alveolar septa was destroyed and the emphysema-like changes were seen, and the changes of lung function were in line with COPD in COPD group; AI of alveolar wall was significantly increased and PI significantly decreased in COPD group. There was no significant difference in the number of CD45/CD31/Sca-1 cells and BASCs between control group and COPD group. As compared with COPD group, the number of inflammatory cells in BALF was decreased, the number of CD45/CD31/Sca-1 cells and BASCs was increased, AI of alveolar wall was decreased and PI was increased, and emphysema-like changes were relieved in COPD+MSCs group. These findings suggested that MSCs transplantation can relieve lung injury by promoting proliferation of endogenous lung stem cells in the cigarette smoke-induced COPD mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corn cob is a naturally renewable material with developed micropore and hydrophobic characteristics, which enables it to show good oil adsorption capacity. In order to improve oil adsorption capacity, corn cob was modified with lauric acid and ethanediol. The structure of raw and modified corn cob was investigated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and ZeTa potential analyzer. The effects of pH level, adsorption time, adsorbent dosage, and initial oil concentration on oil absorbency of corn cob were studied. The results indicate that the modification significantly improved the lipophilicity of corn cob, making the modified corn cob with much better adsorption capacity on oil absorbency. Compared with raw corn cob, the maximum saturated adsorption capacity of modified corn cob is 16.52 mg/g at pH 5, and the increasing percentage is found to be 141%, which indicates that the modification causes a better adsorption capacity for oil removal. In addition, due to high oil adsorption capacity, affordable price and low secondary pollution, the modified corn cob could be considered promising alternative for the traditional oil adsorbent to clean up the emulsified oily water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a cholesterol-induced metabolic disease, cholesterolosis of the gallbladder is often resected clinically, which could lead to many complications. The histopathology of cholesterolosis is due to excessive lipid droplet accumulation in epithelial and subcutaneous tissues. The main components of lipid droplets are cholesterol esters (CEs). Removal of CEs from gallbladder epithelial cells (GBECs) is very important for maintaining intracellular cholesterol homeostasis and for treating cholesterol-related diseases. In this study, pioglitazone was used to reduce intracellular CEs. To further elucidate the mechanism, cholesterolosis GBECs were treated with pioglitazone, 22-(R)-hydroxycholesterol (a liver X receptor α (LXRα) agonist), or peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) siRNA. Western blotting for PPARγ, LXRα, ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1), and neutral cholesteryl ester hydrolase 1 (NCEH1) was performed. At length, cholesterol efflux to apoA-I was measured, and oil red O staining was used to visualize lipid droplet variations in cells. In conclusion, we observed that pioglitazone increased ABCA1 expression in an LXR-dependent manner and NCEH1 expression in an LXRα-independent manner, which mobilized CE hydrolysis and cholesterol efflux to reduce lipid droplet content in cholesterolosis GBECs. Our data provide a plausible alternative to human gallbladder cholesterolosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airway remodeling is an important pathological feature of asthma and the basis of severe asthma. Proliferation of airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) is a major contributor to airway remodeling. As an important Ca channel, transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) plays the key role in the cell pathological and physiological processes. This study investigated the expression and activity of TRPV1 channel, and further clarified the effect of TRPV1 channel on the ASMCs proliferation and apoptosis in order to provide the scientific basis to treat asthmatic airway remodeling in clinical practice. Immunofluorescence staining and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to detect the expression of TRPV1 in rat ASMCs. Intracellular Ca was detected using the single cell confocal fluorescence microscopy measurement loaded with Fluo-4/AM. The cell cycles were observed by flow cytometry. MTT assay and Hoechst 33258 staining were used to detect the proliferation and apoptosis of ASMCs in rats respectively. The data showed that: (1) TRPV1 channel was present in rat ASMCs. (2) TRPV1 channel agonist, capsaicin, increased the Ca influx in a concentration-dependent manner (EC=284.3±58 nmol/L). TRPV1 channel antagonist, capsazepine, inhibited Ca influx in rat ASMCs. (3) Capsaicin significantly increased the percentage of S+GM ASMCs and the absorbance of MTT assay. Capsazepine had the opposite effect. (4) Capsaicin significantly inhibited the apoptosis, whereas capsazepine had the opposite effect. These results suggest that TRPV1 is present and mediates Ca influx in rat ASMCs. TRPV1 activity stimulates proliferation of ASMCs in rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to overcome the difficulty of extracting gold from gold-bearing sulfide ore by cyanide process, flotation was adopted based on mineralogical analysis. Mineralogy shows that gold particles are of superfine structure and mainly enclosed by sulfide ores. Primary gold-bearing sulfide ore is fine-grained pyrite and arsenopyrite. The paper describes the effects of ratios and dosage of activators and collectors on the recovery and grade of gold concentrate. A proper flotation flowsheet was then proposed based on experimental condition and closed-circuit test. The gold concentrate with the gold grade of 25.14 g·ton and the recovery of 86.94 % is obtained after one rougher, three cleaners, and four scavengers from fine grinding flotation process. Furthermore, the mechanisms of combined activators and combined collectors were studied by thermodynamic calculation, and structure-activity relationship of flotation reagent was also explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel self-configuration single particle optimizer (SCSPO) for DNA sequence compression. Particularly, SCSPO searches an optimal compression codebook of all unique repeat patterns and then DNA sequences are compressed by replacing the duplicate fragments with the indexes of the corresponding matched code vectors in the codebook. Featured with a crucial self-configuration process, SCSPO optimizes the codebook with no predefined parameter settings required. Experimental results on benchmark numerical functions and real-world DNA sequences demonstrate that SCSPO is capable of attaining better fitness value than many other PSO variants and the proposed DNA sequence compression algorithm based on SCSPO attains encouraging compression performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bronchial asthma is a common chronic airway inflammatory disease. Asthma is associated with high mortality, especially in the elderly patients. Repeated exacerbations cause disease progression. Therefore, identifying the onset of acute elderly asthma as soon as possible and giving the effective treatment is crucial to improve the prognosis. This study was to investigate the significance of fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) combined with serum procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in the evaluation of elderly asthma. A total of 120 elderly patients with an acute attack of asthma from July, 2010 to May, 2012 were studied. On presentation, FeNO, serum PCT and CRP concentrations were measured and sputum culture was also performed. The elderly patients were re-evaluated when they had returned to their stable clinical state. The elderly patients were classified into two groups: positive bacterial culture group (A) and negative bacterial culture group (B). The results showed that: (1) In patients with an acute exacerbation of asthma, 48 (40%) patients had positive sputum bacterial culture and 72 (60%) had negative sputum bacterial culture. (2) The levels of FeNO in patients with acute exacerbation of asthma were significantly higher than in those with no acute exacerbation state (63.8±24.6 vs. 19±6.5 ppb, P<0.05). There was no significant difference in FeNO between group A and group B ( P>0.05). (3) The levels of PCT and CRP in group A patients with an acute exacerbation of asthma were significantly higher ( P<0.05) than in group B (for PCT: 27.46±9.32 vs. 7.85±3.52 ng/mL; for CRP: 51.25±11.46 vs. 17.11±5.87 mg/L, respectively). When they had returned to stable clinical state, the levels of PCT and CRP in group A were decreased significantly ( P<0.05), and those in group B had no significant change ( P>0.05) when compared with the exacerbation group. There were no significant differences in the levels of PCT and CRP between the two groups in non-acute exacerbation state ( P>0.05). These results suggest that the increase in FeNO indicates the acute exacerbation of asthma, and the elevation of serum PCT and CRP levels may be associated with bacterial infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The compatibility of poly(3-nitromethyl-3-methyloxetane) (PNIMMO) with some energetic materials are studied by using pressure DSC method in detail. Cyclotetramethylenetetranitroamine (HMX), cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX), nitrocellulose (NC), nitroglycerine (NG), N-nitrodihydroxyethylaminedinitrate (DINA), and aluminum powder (Al) are used as common energetic materials, and 3,4-dinitrofurzanfuroxan (DNTF), 1,3,3-trinitroazetidine (TNAZ), hexanitrohexazaisowurtzitane (CL-20), 4,6-dinitro-5,7-diaminobenzenfuroxan (CL-14), 1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethylene (DADNE), and 4-amino-5-nitro-1,2,3-triazole (ANTZ) are used as new energetic materials. The results show that the binary systems of PNIMMO with HMX, RDX, NC, NG, DINA, Al, CL-14 and DADNE are compatible, with TNAZ, CL-20 and ANTZ are slightly sensitive, and with DNTF is sensitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MyoD and myogenin (Myog) recognize sets of distinct but overlapping target genes and play different roles in skeletal muscle differentiation. MyoD is sufficient for near-full expression of early targets, while Myog can only partially enhance expression of MyoD-initiated late muscle genes. However, the way in which Myog enhances the expression of MyoD-initiated late muscle genes remains unclear. Here, we examine the effects of Myog on chromatin remodeling at late muscle gene promoters and their activation within chromatin environment. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay showed that Myog selectively bound to the regulatory sequences of late muscle genes. Overexpression of Myog was found to overcome sodium butyrateinhibited chromatin at late muscle genes in differentiating C2C12 myoblasts, shifting the transcriptional activation of these genes to an earlier time period. Furthermore, overexpression of Myog led to increased hyperacetylation of core histone H4 in differentiating C2C12 myoblasts but not NIH3T3 fibroblasts, and hyperacetylated H4 was associated directly with the late muscle genes in differentiating C2C12, indicating that Myog can induce chromatin remodeling in the presence of MyoD. In addition, co-immunoprecipitation (CoIP) revealed that Myog was associated with the nuclear protein Brd4 in differentiating C2C12 myoblasts. Together, these results suggest that Myog enhances the expression of MyoD-initiated late muscle genes through MyoD-dependent ability of Myog to induce chromatin remodeling, in which Myog-Brd4 interaction may be involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extremely low power clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit that covers a large input speed range is reported in this paper. The CDR recovers accurately-synchronized clock and data directly from the pulse position modulated (PPM) input, and the bit information embedded in time domain is converted into a voltage through charging integration on linear capacitors. The threshold voltage required for data recovery is accurately generated from the input bit period to produce the best noise margin for both bit 1 and bit 0. Furthermore, the current that is used for charge integration is dynamically set by a feedback loop to expand the input speed range. The prototype CDR circuit was implemented using a standard CMOS 0.25 μm technology. Results show that the designed prototype can cover a large input speed range from 0.5 to 500 kbit/s, while only consumes 11-75 μW of power, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a chaos-based multi-objective immune algorithm (CMIA) with a fine-grained selection mechanism based on the clonal selection principle. Taking advantage of the ergodic and stochastic properties of chaotic sequence, a novel mutation operator, named as chaos-based mutation (CM) operator, is proposed. Moreover, the information of diversity estimation is also adopted in the CM operator for nondominated solutions to adjust mutation steps adaptively, which encourages searching less-crowded regions with relative large step sizes. When comparing with polynomial mutation operator that is used in many state-of-the-art multi-objective optimization evolutionary algorithms, simulations show that it is effective to enhance the search performance. On the other hand, in order to increase the population diversity, a fine-grained selection mechanism is proposed in this paper, which seems to be remarkably effective in two-objective benchmark functions. When comparing with two state-of-the-art multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (NSGA-II and SPEA-2) and a new multi-objective immune algorithm (NNIA), simulation results of CMIA indicate the effectiveness of the fine-grained selection mechanism and the remarkable performance in finding the true Pareto-optimal front, especially on some benchmark functions with many local Pareto-optimal fronts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the relationship between the proliferation of sensitized human airway smooth muscle cells (HASMCs) and the expression of extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK) and the effect of Shenmai Injection (参麦注射液, SMI) on HASMCs. The HASMCs cultured in vitro were divided into three groups: (1) control group; (2) sensitized group: containing 10% asthmatic serum; (3) SMI group: further divided into three different concentration subgroups interferred with 10 μL/mL, 50 μL/mL, and 100 μL/mL SMI, respectively. The proliferation of HASMCs was detected using MTT method, the expression of proliferating cell nucleus antigen (PCNA) in HASMCs was detected using immunocytochemical staining, and the expression of phosphoration-ERK1/2 (p-ERK1/2) protein was detected using Western-blot. After passive sensitization,: the optical density value (A A490 value) of HASMCs was significantly increased from 0.366±0.086 to 0.839± 0.168 ( P<0.05). In addition, the expression of PCNA was significantly increased from 28.7%±5.9% in the control group to 69.8%±7.5% in the sensitized group ( P<0.05). At the same time, the expression of p-ERK1/2 in passively sensitized HASMCs was significantly increased compared with the control group (all P<0.05). After application of 10 μL/mL, 50 μL/mL, and 100 μL/mL SMI to the cultured media of passively sensitized group, the A570 value was significantly decreased from 0.839±0.168 to 0.612±0.100, 0.412±0.092, and 0.339±0.077, respectively ( P<0.05). Moreover, the expression of PCNA was significantly decreased from 69.8%±7.5% to 57.8%±6.2%, 40.7%±5.4%, and 26.1%±5.2%, respectively. At the same time, the expression of p-ERK1/2 in each SMI group was significantly decreased compared with the sensitized group (all P<0.05). ERK signal transduction pathway may be involved in the airway remodeling in asthma. The expression of ERK can be inhibited by SMI in a dose-dependent manner, thus preventing the proliferation of HASMCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermal behavior of copper(II) 4-nitroimidazolate (CuNI) under static and dynamic states are studied by means of high-pressure DSC (PDSC) and TG with the different heating rates and the combination technique of in situ thermolysis cell with rapid-scan Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (thermolysis/RSFTIR). The results show that the apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor of the major exothermic decomposition reaction of CuNI obtained by Kissinger’s method are 233.2 kJ mol−1 and 1017.95 s−1, respectively. The critical temperature of the thermal explosion and the adiabatic time-to-explosion of CuNI are 601.97 K and 4.4∼4.6 s, respectively. The decomposition of CuNI begins with the split of the C-NO2 and C-H bonds, and the decomposition process of CuNI under dynamic states occurs less readily than those under static states because the dynamic nitrogen removes the strong oxidative decomposition product (NO2). The above-mentioned information on thermal behavior is quite useful for analyzing and evaluating the stability and thermal charge rule of CuNI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]