Search

Fulminant myocarditis is an acute diffuse inflammatory disease of myocardium. It is characterized by acute onset, rapid progress and high risk of death. Its pathogenesis involves excessive immune activation of the innate immune system and formation of inflammatory storm. According to China's practical experience, the adoption of the "life support-based comprehensive treatment regimen" (with mechanical circulation support and immunomodulation therapy as the core) can significantly improve the survival rate and long-term prognosis. Special emphasis is placed on very early identification,very early diagnosis,very early prediction and very early treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garbage recycling and automatic sorting are efficient ways to address the paradox of rising municipal waste. Although traditional image classification methods can solve the rubbish image classification problem, they ignore the spatial relationship between features, which can easily lead to misclassification of the same object. In this paper, we propose the ResMsCapsule network, which is a trash picture categorization model based on the capsule network. By combining the residual network and multi-scale module, the ResMsCapsule network can improve the performance of the basic capsule network greatly. Extensive experiments using the publicly available dataset TrashNet show that the ResMsCapsule method has a simpler network structure and higher garbage classification accuracy. The classification accuracy of the ResMsCapsule network is 91.41%, and the number of parameters is only 40% of that of ResNet18, which is better than other image classification algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a novel approach to surface strain measurement for cylindrical rock specimens subjected to uniaxial compression using distributed fibre optic sensing technology. The capability and accuracy of this approach in measuring the full-field strain distribution of a rock specimen have been verified by a series of uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) tests on cylindrical specimens of aluminium alloy, sandstone, and granite. By analysing the experimental results, this new approach also has the potential of being utilized to detect the potential failure locations and sequence through strain localization zone variations and estimation of the development of crack opening displacement and rock fracturing characteristics during the loading and unloading process. Detailed installation procedures are provided for this study for assistance in the use of this new approach. The boundary issue of fibre measurements is identified, and solved by extending the bonding length of the measuring fibre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reaction mechanism and evolved gases of larch bark were investigated using thermogravimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry analysis at 10-50 K min−1. Larch bark pyrolysis starts at approximately 450 K. One peak and one shoulder at low heating rate were observed. This shoulder turns into another peak at higher heating rate. The average value of the final residue is approximately 24%. The average activation energy was estimated as 184.72 kJ mol−1 by the Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method and 201.24 kJ mol−1 by the Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose method, and both have a discrepancy of 8.9%. The sixth or seventh reaction model is responsible for larch bark pyrolysis. The pyrolysis of larch bark produces H2O, CO2, CH4, CO, C=O and others, most of which are released in the temperature range of 500-800 K, except that CO2 has an additional peak value at around 1200 K. In addition, cellulose is the main component in larch bark, and its quantity is larger than that of hemicellulose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fe-based alloy coatings containing TiB-TiN-(h-BN) were synthesized in situ on Q235 steel substrates by a plasma cladding process using the powders of Fe901 alloy, Ti, and h-BN as raw materials. The effects of Ti/h-BN mass ratio on interfacial bonds between the coating and substrate along with the microstructures and microhardnesses of the coatings were investigated. The results show that the Ti/h-BN mass ratio is a vital factor in the formation of the coatings. Free h-BN can be introduced into the coatings by adding an excess amount of h-BN into the precursor. Decreases in the Ti/h-BN mass ratio improve the microstructural uniformity and compactness and enhance the interfacial bonds of the coatings. At a Ti/h-BN mass ratio of 10/20, the coating is free of cracks and micropores, and mainly consists of Fe-Cr, FeB, TiB, TiN, TiN, TiB, FeN, FeB, FeB, and h-BN phases. Its average microhardness in the zone between 0.1-2.8 mm from the coating surface is about Hv 551.5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fabrication of an alumina-metal composite coating onto a carbon steel substrate by using a self-propagating high-temperature synthesis technique was demonstrated. The effects of the type and thickness of the pre-coated layer on the binding structure and surface quality of the coating were systematically investigated. The macrostructure, phase composition, and bonding interface between the coating and the substrate were investigated by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS). The diffraction patterns indicated that the coating essentially consisted of α-AlO, Fe(Cr), and FeO·AlO. With an increase in the thickness of the pre-coated working layer, the coating became more smooth and compact. The transition layer played an important role in enhancing the binding between the coating and the substrate. When the pre-coated working layer was 10 mm and the pre-coated transition layer was 1 mm, a compact structure and metallurgical bonding with the substrate were obtained. Thermal shock test results indicated that the ceramic coating exhibited good thermal shock resistance when the sample was rapidly quenched from 800°C to room temperature by plunging into water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydration layer plays a key role in the controlled drug release of gel-forming matrix tablets. For poorly water-soluble drugs, matrix erosion is considered as the rate limiting step for drug release. However, few investigations have reported on the quantification of the relative importance of swelling and erosion in the release of poorly soluble drugs, and three-dimensional (3D) structures of the hydration layer are poorly understood. Here, we employed synchrotron radiation X-ray computed microtomography with 9-μm resolution to investigate the hydration dynamics and to quantify the relative importance of swelling and erosion on felodipine release by a statistical model. The 3D structures of the hydration layer were revealed by the reconstructed 3D rendering of tablets. Twenty-three structural parameters related to the volume, the surface area (SA), and the specific surface area (SSA) for the hydration layer and the tablet core were calculated. Three dominating parameters, including SA and SSA of the hydration layer ( SA and SSA) and SA of the glassy core ( SA), were identified to establish the statistical model. The significance order of independent variables was SA > SSA > SA, which quantitatively indicated that the release of felodipine was dominated by a combination of erosion and swelling. The 3D reconstruction and structural parameter calculation methods in our study, which are not available from conventional methods, are efficient tools to quantify the relative importance of swelling and erosion in the controlled release of poorly soluble drugs from a structural point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AlO-metal composite coatings with different reactants and diluents were fabricated on mild steel plate with nonpressure combustion synthesis process. The coatings were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive spectrometry, respectively. Thermal shock tests were carried out to determine the bond strength of the coating with the steel substrate. The results indicate that the coating is composed of α-AlO, α-(Fe-Cr) and AlSiO as the main phases. It is found that the coating with the diluents of AlO-SiO and transition layer of AlO-Cr presents the highest hardness of 2270 HV0.2 and the lowest porosity of 3.93 %. Owing to a metallurgical bond of the coating-to-substrate, the coating exhibits a good thermal shock resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the rapid development of nanomaterials and nanotechnology, it is still desirable to develop novel nanoparticle-based techniques which are cost-effective, timesaving, and environment-friendly, and with ease of operation and procedural simplicity, for assay of target analytes. In the work discussed in this paper, the dye fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) was conjugated to 1,6-hexanediamine (HDA)-capped iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (FITC-HDA FeO MNPs), and the product was characterized. HDA ligands on the surface of FeO MNPs can bind 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) to form TNT anions by acid-base pairing interaction. Formation of TNT anions, and captured TNT substantially affect the emission of FITC on the surface of the FeO MNPs, resulting in quenching of the fluorescence at 519 nm. A novel FITC-HDA FeO MNPs-based probe featuring chemosensing and magnetic separation has therefore been constructed. i.e. FITC-HDA FeO MNPs had a highly selective fluorescence response and enabled magnetic separation of TNT from other nitroaromatic compounds by quenching of the emission of FITC and capture of TNT in aqueous solution. Very good linearity was observed for TNT concentrations in the range 0.05-1.5 μmol L, with a detection limit of 37.2 nmol L and RSD of 4.7 % ( n = 7). Approximately 12 % of the total amount of TNT was captured. The proposed methods are well-suited to trace detection and capture of TNT in aqueous solution. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cDNA ( SsCAX1) encoding a tonoplast-localised Ca/H exchanger was isolated from a C halophyte Suaeda salsa (L.). To clarify the role of SsCAX1 in plant salt tolerance, Arabidopsis plants expressing SsCAX1 were treated with NaCl. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants displayed decreased salt tolerance. Although Na content was close to wild-type plants, transgenic plants accumulated more Ca and retained less K in leaves than the wild-type plants in salinity. Furthermore, transgenic lines held higher leaf membrane leakage than wild-type lines under NaCl treatment. In addition, transgenic plants showed a 23% increase in vacuolar H-ATPase activity compared with wild-type plants in normal condition. But the leaf V-H-ATPase activity had subtle changes in transgenic plants, while significantly increased in wild-type plants under saline condition. These results suggested that regulated expression of Ca/H antiport was critical for maintenance of cation homeostasis and activity of V-H-ATPase under saline condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have isolated the cDNA of Ca/H antiporter which was designated as Suaeda salsa cation exchanger 1 (SsCAX1) from the C halophyte S. salsa L. To ascertain the location of SsCAX1 in the cell, a peptide-specific antibody to SsCAX1 was prepared, and Western blotting analysis showed that it reacted only with a 48.8-kDa protein from S. salsa vacuolar membrane. Furthermore, SsCAX1 could resume yeast vacuolar Ca transport mutants growth in high Ca concentration (200 mM) culture medium. Northern blotting analysis showed that SsCAX1 expression was mainly found in the leaves and stems and slightly in the roots of S. salsa seedlings. Moreover, SsCAX1 expression levels and the protein amounts were significantly upregulated by CaCl and NaCl treatment, respectively. In addition, the upregulation of the expression levels of V-H-ATPase subunit c coordinated with the expression levels of the Ca/H antiporter under salinity. These results suggested that SsCAX1 from halophyte S. salsa might be a Ca transporter at tonoplast and plays a key role in maintaining cytosolic Ca homeostasis under saline condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess the effects of propofol treatments at different time points on acute lung injury and on the expression of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 and the downstream target of TGF-β1, Smad 2, in the lung tissues in the endotoxic rats. Seventy-six Wistar rats were randomly assigned to five groups: control group (saline only), endotoxemic group [lipopolysaccharide (LPS) 8 mg kg−1, i.v.], and three propofol-treated groups. For the propofol-treated groups, propofol (5 mg kg−1, i.v. bolus) was administered either 1 h before LPS, simultaneously with LPS, and 1 h after LPS, and all were followed by infusion of 10 mg kg−1 h−1 of propofol for 5 h after LPS. Lung tissues were sampled to measure myeloperoxidase activity and expression of TGF-β1 and Smad2 and to assess pulmonary microvascular permeability and histopathological changes. The hemodynamics, arterial blood gases, 5 h survival rate, pulmonary microvascular permeability, and acute lung injury scores were significantly better, and expression of TGF-β1 and Smad2 and myeloperoxidase activity in lung tissues was significantly lower in the pretreatment and simultaneous treatment groups compared to the endotoxemic group. However, there were no significant differences in all observed variables between the endotoxemic and postreatment groups. Except for TGF-β1 expression in lung tissues, the other observed variables were also not significantly different between the pretreatment and simultaneous treatment groups. In the endotoxic rat model, pretreatment and simultaneous treatment with propofol provided protection against acute lung injury by inhibiting the TGF-β1-Smad2 dependent pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PNAS-4, a novel pro-apoptotic gene activated during the early response to DNA damage, can inhibit proliferation via apoptosis when overexpressed in some tumor cells. The objectives of this study were to determine whether PNAS-4 could enhance apoptosis induced by cisplatin besides its induction of apoptosis, and to evaluate the usefulness of combined treatment with mouse PNAS-4 ( mPNAS-4) gene therapy and low-dose cisplatin chemotherapy in the inhibition of tumor growth in colon carcinoma (CT26) and Lewis lung carcinoma (LL/2) murine models. In this study, the in vitro growth-inhibitory and pro-apoptotic effects of PNAS-4 and/or cisplatin on CT26, LL/2, and SKOV3 cancer cells were assessed by MTT assay, flow cytometric analysis, DNA fragmentation, and morphological analysis, respectively. The in vivo antitumor activity of combined treatment with mPNAS-4 gene therapy and low-dose cisplatin were evaluated in the inhibition of tumor growth in colon carcinoma (CT26) and Lewis lung carcinoma (LL/2) murine models. Tumor volume and survival time were observed. Induction of apoptosis was also assessed in tumor tissues. In vitro, PNAS-4 inhibited proliferation of colon carcinoma (CT26), Lewis lung carcinoma (LL/2) and human ovarian cancer (SKOV3) cell lines via apoptosis, and significantly enhanced the apoptosis of CT26, LL/2, and SKOV3 cells induced by cisplatin. In vivo systemic administration of expression plasmid encoding mPNAS-4 (pcDNA3.1-mPS) and cisplatin, significantly decreased tumor growth through increased tumor cell apoptosis compared to treatment with mPNAS-4 or cisplatin alone. Our data suggests that the combined treatment with mPNAS-4 plus cisplatin may augment the induction of apoptosis in tumor cells in vitro and in vivo, and that the augmented antitumor activity in vivo may result from the increased induction of apoptosis. The present study may provide a novel way to augment the antitumor efficacy of cytotoxic chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the time series of GPS station coordinate in the intemational Earth reference frame (ITRF), we evaluate annual micro-behavior of strain field in Chinese mainland with the triangle method. The results show that the annual micro-behavior of strain field is divided into two parts by the north-south earthquake belt in the research region. The prevailing direction of compressive principal strain field is nearly consistent in the western region. From west to east, the direction varies from NS to NE. It is in accordance with the direction of the modern compressive principal strain field. This suggests that geologic deformation in western region was mainly caused by that India tectonic plate pushes the research region northward and the Siberia plate pushes it southward relatively. It is an inheritance of new tectonic motion. The prevailing direction of the compressive principal strain field does not exist in the eastern region. The annual biggest shear strain is different greatly in every grid-cell. The values varies from 4.13×10−8 to 7.0×10−10. By and large the annual biggest shear strain in the western region is bigger than that in the eastern region. And so is the variation between any two consecutive biggest annual shear strains in the same grid-cell. The annual surface dilatation show that in most grid-cells of the research region the surface dilatation is in compressibility, and the variation between any two consecutive annual surface dilatation in the same grid-cell is small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, observation data in 25 GPS reference stations of China have been analyzed by calculating GPS position coordinate time-series with GIPSY. Result shows there is an obvious trend variation in such time-series. The trend variations of time series along the longitude and latitude coordinate reflect the motion of each position in the global-plate, in which the trend variation in the vertical direction reveals some large-scale construction information or reflects the local movement around the positions. The analysis also shows that such time-series have a variation cycle of nearly 1.02 a, but the reason still remains to be further studied. At the end of this paper, response of the time-series of M S=8.1 Kunlunshan earthquake was analyzed, and the seismogenic process of M S=8.1 Kunlunshan earthquake, according to the time proceeding and the feature of anomaly, was divided into 3 phases—changes in blocks with forces, strain accumulation, quick accumulation and slow release of energy. At the initial stage of seismogenic process of M S=8.1 earthquake and at the imminent earthquake, coseismic process as well as during the post earthquake recovery, anomaly in vertical direction is always in a majority. The anomalous movement in vertical direction at the initial stage resulted in a blocking between faults, while at the middle stage of seismogenic process, the differential movement between blocks are in a majority, which is the major reason causing energy accumulating at the blocking stage of faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "Early Administration of Propofol Protects Against Endotoxin-Induced Acute Lung Injury in Rats by Inhibiting the TGF-β1-Smad2 Dependent Pathway" is presented.