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Abstract Background and Aim The biological functions and clinical implications of lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase 1 (LPCAT1) remain unclarified in gastric cancer (GC). The aim of the current study was to explore the possible clinicopathological significance of LPCAT1 and its perspective mechanism in GC tissues. Materials and Methods The protein expression and mRNA levels of LPCAT1 were detected from in‐house immunohistochemistry and public high‐throughput RNA arrays and RNA sequencing. To have a comprehensive understanding of the clinical value of LPCAT1 in GC, all enrolled data were integrated to calculate the expression difference and standard mean difference (SMD). The biological mechanism of LPCAT1 in GC was confirmed by computational biology and in vitro experiments. Migration and invasion assays were also conducted to confirm the effect of LPCAT1 in GC. Results Both protein and mRNA expression levels of LPCAT1 in GC were remarkably higher than those in noncancerous controls. Comprehensively, the SMD of LPCAT1 mRNA was 1.11 (95% CI = 0.86–1.36) in GC, and the summarized AUC was 0.85 based on 15 datasets containing 1727 cases of GC and 940 cases of non‐GC controls. Moreover, LPCAT1 could accelerate the invasion and migration of GC by boosting the neutrophil degranulation pathway and disturbing the immune microenvironment. Conclusion An increased level of LPCAT1 may promote the progression of GC.

Abstract Compared with AC systems, HVDC systems are more flexible and potentially contribute to enhancing system resilience. Currently, three types of HVDC technologies, LCC‐HVDC (Line‐commutated Current‐sourced Converters, LCC), VSC‐HVDC (Voltage Sourced Converter, VSC), and MMC‐HVDC (Modular‐Multilevel‐Converter, MMC), are applied in practical projects. All types of HVDC systems can be applied to stabilize the system frequency of AC power systems and facilitate system recovery after extreme natural events. The operation characteristics, methods, and control strategies of different HVDC technologies for facilitating system operation are reviewed herein; it is indicated that HVDC technology is an effective solution for enhancing system resilience. Renewable resources, energy storage systems, and demand response devices can be coordinated well with HVDC systems. The frequency and voltage regulation ability of power systems and the black start ability can be enhanced by introducing HVDC systems into power systems. Several isolated AC power systems can be connected to HVDC systems. These AC systems can interact with other AC systems through HVDC systems by conforming to their operational characteristics and constraints. The resilience of these AC systems can be enhanced by these interactions. Additionally, related operation methods and control strategies will also be reviewed.

Abstract Objective No relapse risk prediction tool is currently available to guide treatment selection for multiple sclerosis (MS). Leveraging electronic health record (EHR) data readily available at the point of care, we developed a clinical tool for predicting MS relapse risk. Methods Using data from a clinic‐based research registry and linked EHR system between 2006 and 2016, we developed models predicting relapse events from the registry in a training set (n = 1435) and tested the model performance in an independent validation set of MS patients (n = 186). This iterative process identified prior 1‐year relapse history as a key predictor of future relapse but ascertaining relapse history through the labor‐intensive chart review is impractical. We pursued two‐stage algorithm development: (1) L1‐regularized logistic regression (LASSO) to phenotype past 1‐year relapse status from contemporaneous EHR data, (2) LASSO to predict future 1‐year relapse risk using imputed prior 1‐year relapse status and other algorithm‐selected features. Results The final model, comprising age, disease duration, and imputed prior 1‐year relapse history, achieved a predictive AUC and F score of 0.707 and 0.307, respectively. The performance was significantly better than the baseline model (age, sex, race/ethnicity, and disease duration) and noninferior to a model containing actual prior 1‐year relapse history. The predicted risk probability declined with disease duration and age. Conclusion Our novel machine‐learning algorithm predicts 1‐year MS relapse with accuracy comparable to other clinical prediction tools and has applicability at the point of care. This EHR‐based two‐stage approach of outcome prediction may have application to neurological disease beyond MS.

Previous reports have shown that miR‐30d‐5p functions as a tumor suppressor in prostate cancer and gallbladder carcinoma, but its role in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remains elusive. This study was designed to explore the functional role of miR‐30d‐5p in proliferation and autophagy of RCC. Our results show that miR‐30d‐5p is significantly down‐regulated in RCC tissues compared with normal tissues. miR‐30d‐5p overexpression suppressed cell proliferation, cell‐cycle G1/S transition and autophagy, but promoted apoptosis in RCC cell lines (786‐O and ACHN). Intriguingly, autophagy‐related gene 5 (ATG5) was directly targeted by miR‐30d‐5p, as shown using luciferase reporter assay and biotin‐avidin pull‐down assay. Moreover, overexpression of ATG5 attenuated the inhibitory effect of miR‐30d‐5p on proliferation and autophagy in 786‐O cells. These results suggest that miR‐30d‐5p suppresses proliferation and autophagy in RCC cells by targeting ATG5, and this pathway may be a suitable basis for the design of novel cancer therapeutics.

Abstract The awareness capability of output power for renewable resources is essential for enhancing the resilience of power systems. Photovoltaic (PV) forecasting technology is an essential technology for increasing the operation efficiency and controllable resources for power systems after extreme natural events. Conventional Markov chain (MC) methods often ignore the time characteristics and the actual distribution of the PV output power sequence when making PV forecasts. This article proposes improved MC methods of equal quantity and clustering‐based division methods. The methods can consider the interval distributions of the PV output power time series and select an hour as the time interval. As a sequence, the predicted power at the next moment can be closer to the expectation of the output power distributions. Such a method is combined with a similar day algorithm to calculate the forecast result. Case studies were conducted with one‐year operation data from a 25‐MW PV station. The results indicate that the proposed methods can effectively improve the accuracy of prediction results compared with traditional methods.

Introduction. Thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) is the most common orbital immunological disease in adults. T cells play an important role in the pathogenesis of TAO. However, our knowledge of the circulating T cell subsets in TAO is limited. Objective. To investigate the circulating T cell subsets in TAO and the correlations between them and the activity of TAO. Methods. Thirty-eight TAO patients (19 active and 19 nonactive) were enrolled. The absolute number and percentage of total lymphocytes, CD3+T cells, CD4+T cells, CD8+ T cells, CD3+CD4-CD8-T cells (DNT cells), and CD3+CD4+CD8+ T cells (DPT cells) in peripheral blood were measured by flow cytometer. Results. TAO patients were divided into the active group and the nonactive group by the clinical activity score (CAS). The mean CAS was 4 ± 1.11 in the active group and 1.47 ± 0.61 in the nonactive group. No statistical differences were found in gender, age, and the levels of FT3, FT4, TSH, and TRAb between the two groups. The percentage of DNT cells was lower in the active group than in the non-active group, and it was negatively correlated with CAS (r = −0.349, P=0.032), but not the absolute number. The CD4/CD8 ratio, the absolute number and percentage of CD3+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, and DPT cells did not differ between the two groups. ConclusionIn the present study, we found the percentage of DNT cells was significantly lesser in the active TAO than in the nonactive TAO, and it was negatively correlated with the activity of the TAO. It suggests that DNT cells may involve in the immunopathogenesis of TAO and can serve as a clinical biomarker of the disease activity.

To improve the linearisation of the variable flow-regulate system under the open-loop control, a proportional solenoid valve with high-linearity performance was developed to meet that requirement of the high-precision and open-loop control. The design of the proportional solenoid valve evolves the optimisation of a magnetic circuit structure, the construction of a balanced pressure structure and the compensation of a feedforward control device. As for the solenoid, it is very challenging to meet the requirement of 95% linearity. A feedforward control device with the Bouc–Wen model and a quadratic inverse function model is a good solution to address the hysteresis problem and achieve better performance. The optimisation of a simple magnetic circuit with low sensitivity to the moving armature and a balance chamber for removing the pressure difference are both preconditions to make the compensation. The feedforward control device is the next step to eliminate the hysteresis problem and non-linear characteristics of the solenoid by solving model coefficients measured in the test. After the improvement in these aspects, the proportional solenoid valve can meet the demand of digital proportional flow control with >98% linearity and excellent repeatability, through the validation of both no-load and high-load performance tests.

Abstract Environment has a potential effect on the animal symbiotic microbiome. Here, to study the potential relationship of the symbiotic microbiomes of wild amphibians with altitude, we collected the gut and skin samples from frogs (nine species) and the environmental samples (water and soil samples) from the Leshan Mountains (altitude: 360–410 m) and Gongga Mountains (altitude: 3340–3989 m) on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Bufo gargarizans (Bg) samples were collected from both the Leshan and Gongga mountain regions (Bg was the only species sampled on both mountains). The DNA extracted from each sample was performed high‐throughput sequencing (MiSeq) of bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplicons. High relative abundance of Caulobacteraceae and Sphingomonadaceae was found in skin samples from both Bg and the other high‐altitude amphibians (nine species combined). High relative abundance of Coxiellaceae and Mycoplasmataceae was found in gut samples from both Bg and the other high‐altitude amphibians. Furthermore, the alpha and beta diversities of skin and gut samples from Bg and the other amphibian species (nine species combined) were similar. In terms of the symbiotic microbial community, the low‐altitude samples were less diverse and more similar to each other than the high‐altitude samples were. We speculated that extreme high‐altitude environments and host phylogeny may affect the amphibian microbiome. Despite the distinct microbial community differences between the skin and gut microbiomes, some functions were similar in the Bg and combined high‐altitude samples. The Bg and high‐altitude skin samples had higher oxidative stress tolerance and biofilm formation than the low‐altitude skin samples. However, the opposite results were observed for the Bg and high‐altitude gut samples. Further study is required to determine whether these characteristics favor high‐altitude amphibian adaptation to extreme environments.

In the last two decades, swarm intelligence optimization algorithms have been widely studied and applied to multiobjective optimization problems. In multiobjective optimization, reproduction operations and the balance of convergence and diversity are two crucial issues. Imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) and sine cosine algorithm (SCA) are two potential algorithms for handling single-objective optimization problems, but the research of them in multiobjective optimization is scarce. In this paper, a fusion multiobjective empire split algorithm (FMOESA) is proposed. First, an initialization operation based on opposition-based learning strategy is hired to generate a good initial population. A new reproduction of offspring is introduced, which combines ICA and SCA. Besides, a novel power evaluation mechanism is proposed to identify individual performance, which takes into account both convergence and diversity of population. Experimental studies on several benchmark problems show that FMOESA is competitive compared with the state-of-the-art algorithms. Given both good performance and nice properties, the proposed algorithm could be an alternative tool when dealing with multiobjective optimization problems.

As a promising alternative to traditional search techniques, hashing‐based approximate nearest neighbour search provides an applicable solution for big data. Most existing efforts are devoted to finding better projections to preserve the neighbouring structure of original data points in Hamming space, but ignore the quantisation procedure which may lead to the breakdown of the neighbouring structure maintained in the projection stage. To address this issue, the authors propose a novel multi‐bit quantisation (MBQ) method using a Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) term and a regularisation term. The authors' method utilises the neighbouring relationship and the distribution information of original data points instead of the projection dimension usually used in the previous MBQ methods to adaptively learn optimal quantisation thresholds, and allocates multiple bits per projection dimension in terms of the learned thresholds. Experiments on two typical image data sets demonstrate that the proposed method effectively preserves the similarity between data points in the original feature space and outperforms state‐of‐the‐art quantisation methods.

We evaluated the effect and mechanism of yam polysaccharide on the proliferation of the prostatic cancer cell line and tumor-bearing mice. The effect of nanoyam polysaccharide on prostatic cancer cell line PC-3 was measured using the scratch adhesion test and flow cytometry. The growth effect induced by nanoyam polysaccharide was detected with the CCK-8 test. The levels of caspase-3 protein were determined with Western blot. In our data, nanoyam polysaccharide presented inhibitory effect on the proliferation of PC-3. The scratch adhesion test showed that the rate of wound healing in the intervention group was significantly lower than that in the control group (p

Background Infants with critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) are more likely to be small for gestational age (GA). It is unclear how this affects mortality. The authors investigated the effect of birth weight Z score on 1‐year mortality separately in preterm (GA

The paper demonstrates an improvement of the simulation and computational methods for research on the system magnetic field and driving performance of the large gap magnetic drive system, which is used to drive the axial flow blood pump. The operational principle and structure of large gap magnetic drive system are narrated. Ansoft is adopted to simulate a three-dimensional driving torque to improve accuracy of computation. Experiments and theoretical study show that the use of Z10-T25 oriented silicon steel sheets as the electromagnetic core material can remarkably improve the system driving performance as well as optimize the volume and weight of the electromagnets. So the electromagnet made with oriented silicon steel sheets is conducive to improving the driving performance.

BackgroundEndothelial cells (ECs) form blood vessels through angiogenesis that is regulated by coordination of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), Notch, transforming growth factor β, and other signals, but the detailed molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Methods and ResultsSmall RNA sequencing initially identified miR‐342‐5p as a novel downstream molecule of Notch signaling in ECs. Reporter assay, quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analysis indicated that miR‐342‐5p targeted endoglin and modulated transforming growth factor β signaling by repressing SMAD1/5 phosphorylation in ECs. Transfection of miR‐342‐5p inhibited EC proliferation and lumen formation and reduced angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo, as assayed by using a fibrin beads–based sprouting assay, mouse aortic ring culture, and intravitreal injection of miR‐342‐5p agomir in P3 pups. Moreover, miR‐342‐5p promoted the migration of ECs, accompanied by reduced endothelial markers and increased mesenchymal markers, indicative of increased endothelial–mesenchymal transition. Transfection of endoglin at least partially reversed endothelial–mesenchymal transition induced by miR‐342‐5p. The expression of miR‐342‐5p was upregulated by transforming growth factor β, and inhibition of miR‐342‐5p attenuated the inhibitory effects of transforming growth factor β on lumen formation and sprouting by ECs. In addition, VEGF repressed miR‐342‐5p expression, and transfection of miR‐342‐5p repressed VEGFR2 and VEGFR3 expression and VEGF‐triggered Akt phosphorylation in ECs. miR‐342‐5p repressed angiogenesis in a laser‐induced choroidal neovascularization model in mice, highlighting its clinical potential. ConclusionsmiR‐342‐5p acts as a multifunctional angiogenic repressor mediating the effects and interaction among angiogenic pathways.

Based on the rational strategic consumers, we construct a dynamic game to build a two-period dynamic pricing model for two brands of substitutes which are sold by duopoly. The solution concept of the dynamic game is Nash equilibrium. In our model, consumers have been clearly segmented into several consumption classes, according to their expected value of the products. The two competing firms enter a pricing game and finally reach the state of Nash equilibrium. In addition, decision-making process with only myopic consumers existing in the market is analyzed. To make the paper more practical and realistic, the condition, in which the myopic and strategic consumers both exist in the market, is also considered and studied. In order to help the readers understand better and make it intuitively more clearly, a numerical example is given to describe the influence of the main parameters to the optimal prices. The result indicates that, to maintain the firms’ respective optimal profits, the prices of the products should be adjusted appropriately with the changes of product differentiation coefficient.

Evaluating the merits of the wheat seed is an important significance for wheat breeding. We studied analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for seeds grading by digital image processing techniques in the paper. Firstly, preprocess the collected wheat seed images; extract some parameters, such as area, plumpness, rectangular, and elongation of the seed, and then build the level model. Experiments showed the model is right, and level accuracy rate is more than 95%.

Network production systems are widely observed in the current real life, and the performance management of network production systems has been widely studied. The previous literatures have contributed to the performance evaluation to parallel, serial, and converging systems. However, few literatures have considered the recycling systems. The current paper proposes a method on how to forecast the actual and frontier production abilities of recycling systems. Based on the forecasting results, the paper uses a DEA (data envelopment analysis) based method to appraise the operational efficiency of recycling systems. We choose the water utilization and recycling system as a background for our research. According to the proposed method, Chinese provincial water utilization and recycling systems are examined and analyzed. The results show that the reuse level of water in China is still very low.

The effect of La on Al/NaBH4 hydrolysis was elaborated in the present paper. Hydrogen generation amount increases but hydrogen generation rate decreases with La content increasing. There is an optimized composition that Al-15 wt% La-5 wt% NiCl2/NaBH4 mixture (Al-15 wt% La-5 wt% NiCl2/NaBH4 weight ratio, 1 : 3) has 126 mL g−1 min−1 maximum hydrogen generation rate and 1764 mL g−1 hydrogen generation amount within 60 min. The efficiency is 88%. Combined with NiCl2, La has great effect on NaBH4 hydrolysis but has little effect on Al hydrolysis. Increasing La content is helpful to decrease the particle size of Al-La-NiCl2 in the milling process, which induces that the hydrolysis byproduct Ni2B is highly distributed into Al(OH)3 and the catalytic reactivity of Ni2B/Al(OH)3 is increased therefore. But hydrolysis byproduct La(OH)3 deposits on Al surface and leads to some side effect. The Al-La-NiCl2/NaBH4 mixture has good stability in low temperature and its hydrolytic performance can be improved with increasing global temperature. Therefore, the mixture has good safety and can be applied as on board hydrogen generation material.

The accurate diagnosis of acute graft-versus-host disease following liver transplantation (LTx-aGVHD) has been hampered. Chimerism appears in the majority of recipients after LT and its significance in the diagnosis of LTx-aGVHD has not been clearly established. To demonstrate the significance of chimerism on the diagnosis of LTx-aGVHD, we compared the change of chimerism in syngeneic LT recipients, semiallogeneic LT recipients, and LTx-aGVHD induced recipients. Chimerism in PBMCs following sex-mismatched LT was identified by real-time PCR based on a rat Y-chromosome-specific primer. All recipients in semiallogeneic group grew in a normal pattern. However, when 4×108 donor splenocytes were transferred simultaneously during LT, the morbidity of lethal aGVHD was 100%. The chimerism appeared slightly higher in the semiallogeneic group than in the syngeneic LT group, but the difference was not significant. However, when the recipients developed lethal aGVHD after LT, chimerism in the PBMCs increased progressively, and even at an early time, a significant increase in chimerism was observed. In conclusion, high level chimerism correlated well with LTx-aGVHD, and detection of chimerism soon after transplantation may be of value in the diagnosis of LTx-aGVHD prior to the onset of symptoms.