Search

Aggregation‐Induced Emission (AIE) based nanomaterials are progressively gaining momentum owing to their evolvement into an interdisciplinary field ranging from biomass and biomolecule yield to image‐guided photodynamic therapy. This study focuses on a novel strategy to enhance growth, lipid accumulation, and in vivo fluorescence visualisation in green microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii using AIE nanoparticles to quantify radical changes. The absorption of AIE photosensitiser (PS), TTMN (C26H17N3S[M]+) was recorded from 420 to 570 nm with a peak at 500 nm, and the emission ranged from 550 to 800 nm with a peak at 650 nm. As a reactive oxygen species (ROS) molecule, H2O2 generation of TTMN in C. reinhardtii cells was detected with AIE nanoprobes TPE‐BO (C38H42B2O4). H2O2 accumulation increased with the increase of TTMN concentrations. The maximum growth (2.1×107 cell/mL) was observed at 10 μM TTMN‐exposed C. reinhardtii cells. Significant lipid accumulation was found in both 10 and 15 μM TTMN‐treated cells. For lipid visualisation, an AIE nanoprobe, 2‐DPAN (C24H18N2O) was used, and superior fluorescence was determined and compared with the traditional BODIPY dye. Cytotoxicity analysis of 10 μM TTMN on the HaCat cell line with 86.2 % cell viability revealed its high biocompatibility on living cells. This AIE‐based nanotechnology provides a novel approach for microalgae‐derived sustainable biomass and eco‐friendly biofuel production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combustion of traditional pyrotechnics will pose great risks to the environment and human health. Although sulfur‐free pyrotechnics prepared from metals or expired military gunpowder have been used to solve this problem, the high sensitivity of them has resulted in insufficient safety. Therefore, new eco‐friendly and safe pyrotechnics are urgently needed. In this study, we prepared novel metal‐free pyrotechnic compositions for fireworks based on 5‐amino tetrazole. The optimized formulations are proposed by calculation. Particle size effects on thermal stability and kinetics are tested. Then, the sensitivity tests, moisture absorption, and burst temperature test were analyzed and compared. The combustion heat and specific volume were also measured. The Py‐GCMS and PM2.5 were used to clarify the composition of gas products and confirm their environmental‐friendly performance. The findings revealed that the novel pyrotechnics has a small amount of combustion residue, greater safety performance, and less PM2.5 concentration. The novel pyrotechnics could generate 564.9 mL/g clean and non‐toxic gas composed of 93.2% N2, H2O, and CO2 without any NOx or SO2 vapor. The test results suggest that the new pyrotechnics can effectively increase gas production and reduce the content of CO and PM2.5. So, it has great potential in application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streptococcus suis is an important zoonotic pathogen, causing cytokine storms of Streptococcal toxic shock‐like syndrome amongst humans after a wound infection into the bloodstream. To overcome the challenges of fever and leukocyte recruitment, invasive S. suis must deploy multiple stress responses forming a network and utilize proteases to degrade short‐lived regulatory and misfolded proteins induced by adverse stresses, thereby adapting and evading host immune responses. In this study, we found that S. suis encodes multiple ATP‐dependent proteases, including single‐chain FtsH and double‐subunit Clp protease complexes ClpAP, ClpBP, ClpCP, and ClpXP, which were activated as the fever of infected mice in vivo. The expression of genes ftsH, clpA/B/C, and clpP, but not clpX, were significantly upregulated in S. suis in response to heat stress, while were not changed notably under the treatments with several other stresses, including oxidative, acidic, and cold stimulation. FtsH and ClpP were required for S. suis survival within host blood under heat stress in vitro and in vivo. Deletion of ftsH or clpP attenuated the tolerance of S. suis to heat, oxidative and acidic stresses, and significantly impaired the bacterial survival within macrophages. Further analysis identified that repressor CtsR directly binds and controls the clpA/B/C and clpP operons and is relieved by heat stress. In summary, the deployments of multiple ATP‐dependent proteases form a flexible heat stress response network that appears to allow S. suis to fine‐tune the degradation or refolding of the misfolded proteins to maintain cellular homeostasis and optimal survival during infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surgical site infections (SSI) are major post‐operative complications following surgery. Reducing SSI is a global urgency as they account for huge pecuniary, physiological, and emotional burdens for patients. Antibiotic resistance is the main challenge for surgeons dealing with SSIs. Aggregation‐induced emission photosensitisers (AIE PS) with their distinct optical characteristics, biocompatibility, low toxicity, and target specificity, hold the potential for the treatment of SSI. Herein, a synergetic strategy combining plasma polymerization and AIE PS is adopted to develop coatings that can eradicate SSI‐causing bacteria. These coatings can preferentially kill Gram‐negative and Gram‐positive bacteria over mammalian cells after triggered by light irradiation. The cell viability and immunostaining studies confirmed their biocompatibility on mammalian cells. The antibacterial mechanistic studies explored their ability to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), which is crucial for overcoming antibiotic resistance. Thus, this study opens an avenue toward antibacterial coatings to decrease the prevalence of SSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dissolution trapping is one of the crucial trapping mechanisms for geological carbon storage in deep saline aquifers. The injected supercritical CO2 (scCO2) flow and dissolution processes are coupled and interact with each other. Therefore, we performed direct numerical simulations in three‐dimensional micro‐CT images of sandstones using the volume of fluid and continuous species transfer method. We investigated the coupled scCO2 flow and dissolution processes at pore‐scale under different rock structures, capillary numbers, and rock wettability conditions. The dynamic evolution of the scCO2/brine phase distribution and scCO2 concentration distribution occurring during the injection period were presented and analyzed. Complicated coupling mechanisms between scCO2‐brine two‐phase flow and interphase mass transfer were also revealed. Our results showed that the scCO2 dissolution was highly dependent on the local distribution of scCO2 clusters. The rock with relatively high porosity and permeability would have more capacity for scCO2 injection resulting in a faster and greater dissolution of scCO2 in brine. The effect of capillary number on the scCO2 dissolution process was related to the range of capillary number. The effective upscaled (macro‐scale) mass transfer coefficient (kA) during scCO2 dissolution was evaluated, and the power‐law relationship between kA and Péclet number was obtained. Rock wettability was found to be another factor controlling the scCO2 dissolution process by affecting the scCO2‐brine interfacial area. Our pore‐scale study provides a deep understanding of the scCO2 dissolution trapping mechanism, which is important to enhance the prediction of sequestration risk and improve sequestration efficiency. Plain Language Summary: Storing carbon dioxide (CO2) underground reduces the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and helps to mitigate climate change. When CO2 is injected into underground formations, it can dissolve in the brine, helping to securely store it. In our study, we used numerical modeling on images of sandstone rocks to investigate how the CO2 flows in the rock and dissolves in the brine at the same time. In these simulations, we considered different rock structures, CO2 injection rates and rock "wetting" levels to study the effect on CO2 dissolution. Based on the simulation results, we concluded that the amount of dissolved CO2 depends on how it is distributed in the rock. Water‐wetted rocks with more pores and higher permeability allow for more CO2 dissolution. Additionally, the amount of CO2 dissolution depends on the CO2 injection rate. Understanding these results helps to predict how effectively CO2 can be stored in underground formations. This knowledge is crucial for assessing the success and safety of carbon storage projects, ultimately contributing to reducing climate change impacts. Key Points: Pore‐scale modeling of coupled CO2‐brine two‐phase flow and interphase mass transfer processes in 3D real rocksExamined the dynamic evolution of CO2/brine phase distribution and CO2 concentration distribution during the injection periodHydrophilic, high capillary number and rock with high porosity and permeability would provide more capacity of dissolution trapping [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a novel energetic material, 5‐Amino‐1H‐tetrazole (5AT) has a history of proposed applications in the fields of airbags, rocket engines, and new propellants. However, the application of 5AT is limited for its poor combustion stability. Identification of the thermal behaviour and pyrolysis mechanism of 5AT could provide guidance on the control of combustion behaviour, which can be effectively improved by adding oxidizers. In this paper, five kinds of oxidizers (Ammonium perchlorate (AP), Sodium perchlorate (NaClO4), Ammonium nitrate (AN), Manganese oxide (MnO2), and Chromic oxide (Cr2O3)) are mixed with 5AT for investigating the catalytic effects of multi‐type oxidizers on 5AT. Thermal behaviour is analysed by the TG‐DSC test and the thermal activation energy is evaluated by Kissinger and Ozawa methods. Moreover, TG‐FTIR and TG‐MS analyses are used to infer the pyrolysis gas products of 5AT/oxidant. The experimental results indicate that the 5AT‐AN has the lowest activation energy, and the degradation process was simplified into one step. The addition of AP, NaClO4, and MnO2 can promote the pyrolysis process of 5AT due to the redox reaction between melamine and the decomposition products of oxidizers, while the catalytic effect of Cr2O3 mainly occurs above 400 °C without the occurrence of oxidation. The catalytic mechanism of Cr2O3 mainly performs on the polyaddition and the ring‐opening reaction of N‐containing heterocycles. The findings of this work may offer valuable direction for understanding, designing, and using 5AT‐based propellants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epidemiological studies have confirmed salt sensitivity as a crucial risk factor for the development of hypertension. However, few studies have investigated the association between salt sensitivity of blood pressure (SSBP) and hypertension in Chinese Tibetan population. Therefore, we conducted a cross‐sectional study based on a Tibetan population to evaluate the association between SSBP and the risk of hypertension. Seven hundred and eighty‐four participants with hypertension and 645 participants without hypertension were included from five villages in Tibetan Autonomous Region of Gannan during 2013–2014. The assessment of salt sensitivity (SS) and non‐salt sensitivity (NSS) was performed according to mean arterial pressure (MAP) changes by the modified Sullivan's acute oral saline load and diuresis shrinkage test (MSAOSL‐DST). Logistic regression models and restricted cubic models were used to examine the association between SSBP and hypertension. There were 554 (70.5%) salt‐sensitive participants with hypertension and 412 (63.9%) salt‐sensitive participants without hypertension in this study. Compared with individuals with NSS, individuals with SS had a significantly increased risk of hypertension, and the multiple‐adjusted odds ratios were 2.582 with 95% confidence interval of 1.357–4.912. Furthermore, a significant linear trend was found between MAP changes and hypertension. Subgroup analyses showed significant and stronger associations between SSBP and the risk of hypertension in the older (age ≥ 55 years old), males and participants who took exercise less than 1 time per week. Our results suggest that SS is associated with an increased risk of hypertension in Tibetan population, indicating a need for clinicians dealing with SSBP to decrease the risk of hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between dynamic impact response and pore structure of metal fiber porous materials is a frontier interdisciplinary science issue in the fields of materials and mechanics. Dynamic impact (strain rate of 800 s−1) and quasi‐static compressive (strain rate of 10−3 s−1) behavior of stainless steel fiber porous materials (SSFPMs) are discussed and compared for different porosity levels and fiber diameters. Furthermore, the stress wave character during dynamic compression is also analyzed. Results indicate that the compressive properties and the plateau region of the stress–strain curve are affected significantly by porosity and strain rate; high strain rate or low porosity yields higher compressive strength, higher Young's modulus, and shorter plateau region. Moreover, SSFPMs with a porosity of 70% or less may be especially suitable for applying at the quasi‐static compression condition to absorb energy completely. Besides, the optimum porosity or the allowable peak stress at a certain condition can be determined according to the energy absorption diagram of SSFPMs. Additionally, the stress wave propagated inside SSFPMs comprises three waves, the incident, the reflected, and the transmitted ones, independent of porosity and fiber diameter, and the propagation behavior of the stress wave is mainly influenced by porosity, not fiber diameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ebola virus disease (EVD) is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever disease causing thousands of deaths. The large Ebola outbreak in 2014–2016 posed significant threats to global public health, requiring the development of multiple medical measures for disease control. Sudan virus (SUDV) and Zaire virus (EBOV) are responsible for severe disease and occasional deadly outbreaks in West Africa and Middle Africa. This study shows that bivalent bacterium-like particles (BLPs)-based vaccine, SUDV-EBOV BLPs (S/ZBLP + 2 + P), generated by mixing SUDV-BLPs and EBOV-BLPs at a 1 : 1 ratio, is immunogenic in mice. The SUDV-EBOV BLPs induced potent immune responses against SUDV and EBOV and elicited both T-helper 1 (Th1) and T-helper 2 (Th2) immune responses. The results indicated that SUDV-EBOV BLPs-based vaccine has the potential to be a promising candidate against SUDV and EBOV infections and provide a strategy to develop universal vaccines for EVD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most effective feature learning methods, Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF) has been widely used in many scientific fields, such as computer vision, data mining, and bioinformatics. However, NMF is an unsupervised method that cannot fully utilize the label information of data. Thus, its performance is limited in some recognition and classification problems. To remedy this shortcoming, this paper proposes a Semisupervised Discriminative NMF (SDNMF) method. First, we design a Soft‐Labeled NMF (SLNMF) model by introducing a soft‐label matrix‐based regression term into the original NMF, so that the relationship between the soft‐label matrix and low‐dimensional features can be constructed to improve the discriminative ability of low‐dimensional features. Second, to effectively estimate the soft‐label matrix, a Label Propagation (LP) model is adopted to fully explore the spatial distribution relationship between the labeled and unlabeled samples. Third, an Adaptive Graph Learning (AGL) model is proposed to exploit the geometric relationship of samples well, which could enhance the performance of LP. Finally, the above three models (i.e., SLNMF, LP, and AGL) are integrated into a unified framework for effective feature learning, which can not only effectively explore the structural relationship matrix between data, but also predict the labels for unknown samples. Moreover, an iterative optimization algorithm is presented to solve our objective function. The convergence and computational complexity analysis of the proposed SDNMF method are also provided. Extensive experiments are conducted on several standard data sets. Compared with related methods, the experimental results verify that the proposed SDNMF method achieves better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, end‐to‐end deep neural networks‐based glaucoma diagnosis approaches have been gaining much attention. However, the feature extractor and classier in these approaches are trained together, which is known as coadaptation. Therefore, the feature distribution in them should adapt to particular decision boundaries. To learn generic data representations and improve the generalization ability of the model, this paper designs a three‐stage framework for glaucoma diagnosis. In the first stage, preprocessing is utilized to extract the Region of Interesting around the Optic Disc to reduce the computational cost and nonobjective interference. In the second stage, Deep Sparse Autoencoder is designed to learn hybrid features between the deep features and the original features, which could improve the effectiveness of final high‐level feature expression. Meanwhile, L1 regularization is introduced and applied on the hybrid features to obtain deep features with high complementarity under small sample problem. In the third stage, the obtained generic feature representations are fed into different classifiers, in which Support Vector Machine classifier achieves the best diagnosis performance. The proposed approach is evaluated on two publicly available databases. Extensive experimental results indicate that our approach outperforms the state‐of‐the‐art approaches with the accuracy of 96.00%, 97.00% and Area Under Curve of 96.94%, 98.28% for REFUGE and Drishti‐GS1 databases, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: A novel axial eddy current damper by using rack and gear mechanism (RGA‐ECD) was proposed. A 500 kN RGA‐ECD prototype was manufactured and tested, and its nonlinear damping performance was systematically studied. First, the configuration of the RGA‐ECD was introduced in detail, and its axial force was theoretically derived. Second, an RGA‐ECD prototype with a target damping force of 500 kN at the velocity of 0.5 m/s was designed and manufactured, and a series of tests on the prototype were conducted. In the test, the maximum damping force of this prototype is 507 kN at the velocity of 0.509 m/s, which achieves the design goal. It appears that the tested results are in good agreement with the numerical results obtained from COMSOL Multiphysics when the loading velocity is less than 0.377 m/s. When the loading velocity is greater than 0.377 m/s, the maximum relative difference between the tested and numerical results is within 10.8%. The hysteresis curves of the prototype are relatively smooth, and the repeatability is also excellent, which indicates that the mechanical properties of the RGA‐ECD are considerably stable and reliable. Third, the effectiveness of the RGA‐ECD in mitigating seismic responses of base isolated structures was investigated by comparing it with fluid viscous damper. The results show that the RGA‐ECD can be adopted as an alternative to the fluid viscous damper for seismic vibration control, and there is a force‐limiting characteristic for the RGA‐ECD, which can prevent the damage of the damper and controlled structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sintered metal fiber felts (SMFFs) are kinds of the strongest auxetic materials to date, but there are significant differences in the reported auxeticities, due to the lack of investigation on the fabrication process. This study is performed to analyze the influence of fabrication process and structural features on the auxetic effect exhibited by SMFFs. The sequence of compression and sintering processes determines the volume density of the interfiber‐sintered joints and the resulting Poisson's ratio behavior under tension and compression. The SMFFs with a low volume density exhibit strong auxetic effect under tension and achiev a positive Poisson's ratio under compression because of the weak interfiber layer bonding. In contrast, the felts with a high density of interfiber joints reveal a relatively weak auxetic effect under both tension and compression. Moreover, an increase in the thickness and a decrease in the porosity reduce the auxetic effect. In addition, in situ X‐Ray tomography of the tensile testing is performed to elucidate the mechanism of the auxetic effect. To explain the observed Poisson's ratio behavior under tension and compression, periodical finite‐element modeling with real mesostructures is performed. Herein, a new insight into the relationship between the structure features and the Poisson's ratio behaviors is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection, which is unexpectedly associated with congenital defects, has prompted the development of safe and effective vaccines. The Gram‐positive enhancer matrix‐protein anchor (GEM‐PA) display system has emerged as a versatile and highly effective platform for delivering target proteins in vaccines. In this study, we developed a bacterium‐like particle vaccine, ZI‐△‐PA‐GEM, based on the GEM‐PA system. The fusion protein ZI‐△‐PA, which contains the prM‐E‐△TM protein of ZIKV (with a stem‐transmembrane region deletion) and the protein anchor PA3, was expressed. The fusion protein was successfully displayed on the GEM surface to form ZI‐△‐PA‐GEM. Moreover, the intramuscular immunization of BALB/c mice with ZI‐△‐PA‐GEM combined with ISA 201 VG and poly(I:C) adjuvants induced durable ZIKV‐specific IgG and protective neutralizing antibody responses. Potent B‐cell/DC activation was also stimulated early after immunization. Notable, splenocyte proliferation, the secretion of multiple cytokines, T/B‐cell activation and central memory T‐cell responses were elicited. These data indicate that ZI‐△‐PA‐GEM is a promising bacterium‐like particle vaccine candidate for ZIKV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some protozoa (Plasmodium falciparum, Toxoplasma gondii, etc) are used to treat cancer because they can improve tumour‐induced immunosuppression. This study aims to evaluate the antitumour effect of Eimeria stiedae oocyst soluble protein (ESSP). ESSP was extracted, and mice were injected with 5 × 105 CT26 cells in the right axilla, and then, 50 μg of ESSP was intraperitoneally injected for 5 continuous days. The effect of ESSP on tumour immunity was detected by flow cytometry 25 days after the CT26 inoculation. The results showed that ESSP can inhibit the growth of CT26 subcutaneous tumours; significantly increase the expression of MHC I, MHC II, CD80 and CD86 on the surface of splenic dendritic cells; and enhance the level of IL‐12 secretion. ESSP induced an increase in the number of NK cells in the mouse spleen, and the levels of IFN‐γ and CD107 were upregulated in the NK cells and CD8+ T cells. The number of metastatic nodules in the lung tumours in the mice was significantly reduced, and the number of tubes, area of the loops and total length of the tubes were significantly reduced. ESSP enhances the antitumour immune response and inhibits tumour growth, metastasis and angiogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pharmacokinetic properties of three formulations of vitacoxib were investigated in horses. To describe plasma concentrations and characterize the pharmacokinetics, 6 healthy adult Chinese Mongolian horses were administered a single dose of 0.1 mg/kg bodyweight intravenous (i.v.), oral paste, or oral tablet vitacoxib in a 3‐way, randomized, parallel design. Blood samples were collected prior to and at various times up to 72 hr postadministration. Plasma vitacoxib concentrations were quantified using UPLC‐MS/MS, and pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using noncompartmental analysis. No complications resulting from the vitacoxib administration were noted on subsequent administrations, and all procedures were tolerated well by the horses throughout the study. The elimination half‐life (T1/2λz) was 4.24 ± 1.98 hr (i.v.), 8.77 ± 0.91 hr (oral paste), and 8.12 ± 4.24 hr (oral tablet), respectively. Maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) was 28.61 ± 9.29 ng/ml (oral paste) and 19.64 ± 9.26 ng/ml (oral tablet), respectively. Area under the concentration‐versus‐time curve (AUClast) was 336 ± 229 ng hr/ml (i.v.), 221 ± 94 ng hr/ml (oral paste), and 203 ± 139 ng hr/ml, respectively. The results showed statistically significant differences between the 2 oral vitacoxib groups in Tmax value. T1/2λz (hr), AUClast (ng hr/ml), and MRT (hr) were significantly different between i.v. and oral groups. The longer half‐life observed following oral administration was consistent with the flip‐flop phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pharmacokinetics of carbetocin, which is used to control postpartum hemorrhage after giving birth, was studied in cows and gilts after a single intravenous (IV) or intramuscular (IM) injection. Blood samples from animals were assessed by oxytocin radioimmunoassay, and then the pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using a noncompartmental model. For gilts, there was no significant difference between half‐life (T1/2λZ), mean residue time (MRT), and maximum concentration (Cmax) between IM and IV administration. Conversely, the time to reach the Cmax (Tmax) and MRT were higher following administration of 350 μg/animal in cows via the IM administration compared with IV. The longest T1/2λZ was 0.85 hr, indicating carbetocin was absorbed and eliminated rapidly in both animal species after administration. The Tmax was similar between cows and gilts following IM administration. Moreover, the Cmax after IM injection was about half that of IV administration in both animals. The bioavailability was more than 80% in cows, suggesting administration via the IM route is efficient. This is in agreement with the longer T1/2λZ in cows after IM administration. However, the IV route is recommended for gilts due to a lower bioavailability (35%) and shorter T1/2λZ after IM administration compared with IV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the largest cause of dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD) has brought serious burdens to patients and their families, mostly in the financial, psychological, and emotional aspects. In order to assess the progression of AD and develop new treatment methods for the disease, it is essential to infer the trajectories of patients' cognitive performance over time to identify biomarkers that connect the patterns of brain atrophy and AD progression. In this article, a structured regularized regression approach termed group guided fused Laplacian sparse group Lasso (GFL-SGL) is proposed to infer disease progression by considering multiple prediction of the same cognitive scores at different time points (longitudinal analysis). The proposed GFL-SGL simultaneously exploits the interrelated structures within the MRI features and among the tasks with sparse group Lasso (SGL) norm and presents a novel group guided fused Laplacian (GFL) regularization. This combination effectively incorporates both the relatedness among multiple longitudinal time points with a general weighted (undirected) dependency graphs and useful inherent group structure in features. Furthermore, an alternating direction method of multipliers- (ADMM-) based algorithm is also derived to optimize the nonsmooth objective function of the proposed approach. Experiments on the dataset from Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) show that the proposed GFL-SGL outperformed some other state-of-the-art algorithms and effectively fused the multimodality data. The compact sets of cognition-relevant imaging biomarkers identified by our approach are consistent with the results of clinical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Altrenogest, a synthetic progestogen, is characterized by its estrus synchronization in mares, ewes, sows, and gilts. To investigate the pharmacokinetic profile and evaluate its accumulation in gilts, 18 oral doses of 20 mg altrenogest/gilt/day were given to eight healthy gilts at an interval of 24 hr. Plasma samples were collected, and altrenogest was determined by ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry. WinNonlin 6.4 software was used to calculate the pharmacokinetic parameters through noncompartmental model analysis. After the first administration (D 1), the pharmacokinetic parameters, including Tmax, Cmax, and the elimination half‐life (T1/2λz), were similar to those observed after the final administration (D 18). However, the mean residence time at D 1 was significantly lower than D 18. As a whole, the mean steady‐state plasma concentration (Css), degree fluctuation (DF), accumulation factor (Rac), and area under the plasma concentration–time curve in steady state (AUCss) were 22.69 ± 6.15 ng/ml, 270.64 ± 42.51%, 1.53 ± 0.23, and 544.63 ± 147.49 ng hr/ml, respectively. These results showed that after 18 consecutive days of oral administration of altrenogest, plasma concentrations of altrenogest had a certain degree of fluctuation, without significant accumulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to develop a nonlinear mixed‐effects model of vitacoxib disposition kinetics in dogs after intravenous (I.V.), oral (P.O.), and subcutaneous (S.C.) dosing. Data were pooled from four consecutive pharmacokinetic studies in which vitacoxib was administered in various dosing regimens to 14 healthy beagle dogs. Plasma concentration versus time data were fitted simultaneously using the stochastic approximation expectation maximization (SAEM) algorithm for nonlinear mixed‐effects as implemented in Monolix version 2018R2. Correlations between random effects and significance of covariates on population parameter estimates were evaluated using multiple samples from the posterior distribution of the random effects. A two‐compartment mamillary model with first‐order elimination and first‐order absorption after P.O. and S.C. administration, best described the available pharmacokinetic data. Final parameter estimates indicate that vitacoxib has a low‐to‐moderate systemic clearance (0.35 L hr−1 kg−1) associated with a low global extraction ratio, but a large volume of distribution (6.43 L/kg). The absolute bioavailability after P.O. and S.C. administration was estimated at 10.5% (fasted) and 54.6%, respectively. Food intake was found to increase vitacoxib oral bioavailability by a fivefold, while bodyweight (BW) had a significant impact on systemic clearance, thereby confirming the need for BW adjustment with vitacoxib dosing in dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to determine the pharmacokinetics and dose‐scaling model of vitacoxib in either fed or fasted cats following either oral or intravenous administration. The concentration of the drug was quantified by UPLC‐MS/MS on plasma samples. Relevant parameters were described using noncompartmental analysis (WinNonlin 6.4 software). Vitacoxib is relatively slowly absorbed and eliminated after oral administration (2 mg/kg body weight), with a Tmax of approximately 4.7 hr. The feeding state of the cat was a statistically significant covariate for both area under the concentration versus time curve (AUC) and mean absorption time (MATfed). The absolute bioavailability (F) of vitacoxib (2 mg/kg body weight) after oral administration (fed) was 72.5%, which is higher than that in fasted cats (F = 50.6%). Following intravenous administration (2 mg/kg body weight), Vd (ml/kg) was 1,264.34 ± 343.63 ml/kg and Cl (ml kg−1 hr−1) was 95.22 ± 23.53 ml kg−1 hr−1. Plasma concentrations scaled linearly with dose, with Cmax (ng/ml) of 352.30 ± 63.42, 750.26 ± 435.54, and 936.97 ± 231.27 ng/ml after doses of 1, 2, and 4 mg/kg body weight, respectively. No significant undesirable behavioral effects were noted throughout the duration of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes the pharmacokinetics of vitacoxib in healthy rabbits following administration of 10 mg/kg intravenous (i.v.) and 10 mg/kg oral. Twelve New Zealand white rabbits were randomly allocated to two equally sized treatment groups. Blood samples were collected at predetermined times from 0 to 36 hr after treatment. Plasma drug concentrations were determined using UPLC‐MS/MS. Pharmacokinetic analysis was completed using noncompartmental methods via WinNonlin™ 6.4 software. The mean concentration area under curve (AUClast) for vitacoxib was determined to be 11.0 ± 4.37 μg hr/ml for i.v. administration and 2.82 ± 0.98 μg hr/ml for oral administration. The elimination half‐life (T1/2λz) was 6.30 ± 2.44 and 6.30 ± 1.19 hr for the i.v. and oral route, respectively. The Cmax (maximum plasma concentration) and Tmax (time to reach the observed maximum (peak) concentration at steady‐state) following oral application were 189 ± 83.1 ng/ml and 6.58 ± 3.41 hr, respectively. Mean residence time (MRTlast) following i.v. injection was 6.91 ± 3.22 and 11.7 ± 2.12 hr after oral administration. The mean bioavailability of oral administration was calculated to be 25.6%. No adverse effects were observed in any rabbit. Further studies characterizing the pharmacodynamics of vitacoxib are required to develop a formulation of vitacoxib for rabbits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head is a relatively serious condition which seriously reduces patient quality of life. However, the pathogenesis of steroid-induced ONFH is still unclear. In recent years, more scholars have found that the pathogenesis of steroid-induced ONFH is related to susceptibility factors such as MMPs/TIMPs system. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between MMP2 and MMP10 gene polymorphisms and steroid-induced ONFH in Chinese Han population. Methods. Six SNPs in MMP2 and two SNPs in MMP10 were genotyped using Agena MassARRAY RS1000 system from 286 patients of steroid-induced ONFH and in 309 healthy controls. The association between MMP2 and MMP10 polymorphisms and steroid-induced ONFH risk were estimated by the Chi-squared test, genetic model analysis, haplotype analysis, and stratification analysis. The relative risk was estimated by odd ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Result. We found that the minor TG allele of rs470154 in MMP10 was associated with an increased risk of steroid-induced ONFH (OR = 1.45, 95% CI, 1.03 – 2.05, p = 0.032). In the genetic model analysis, we found that rs2241146 in MMP2 gene and rs470154 in MMP10 gene showed a statistically significant association with increased risk of steroid-induced ONFH. The six SNPs (rs470154, rs243866, rs243864, rs865094, rs11646643, and rs2241146) showed a statistically significant association with different clinical phenotypes. Conclusion. Our results verify that genetic polymorphisms of MMP2 and MMP10 contribute to steroid-induced ONFH susceptibility in the population of Chinese Han population, and our study provides new insights into the role that MMP2 and MMP10 plays in the mechanism of ONFH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a novel transformable land/air robot that is capable of terrestrial locomotion and aerial locomotion. What is unusual about the robot is that it can transform between the two modes of locomotion at will through the transformable mechanism, allowing the robot to overcome large obstacles in their mission environment. The wheel mechanism of the robot is shared by both terrestrial and aerial locomotion, instead of simply adding a quadrotor to a wheeled mobile robot. The objective of this paper is to design the robot and establish the kinematic and dynamic models for the transformable process. Herein, we focus on the design of the driving wheels and transformable mechanism. A series of experiments about the energy analysis and the transformation from aerial locomotion mode to terrestrial locomotion mode were performed with the physical prototype; the experiment results confirmed the validity of our design and the theoretical analysis that are helpful to optimize the key parameters in our design. Moreover, our work can provide a reference for the study of the flying car. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pharmacokinetic parameters of moxidectin (MXD) after intravenous and pour‐on (topical) administration were studied in sixteen pigs at a single dose of 1.25 and 2.5 mg/kg BW (body weight), respectively. Blood samples were collected at pretreatment time (0 hr) over 40 days. The plasma kinetics were analyzed by WinNonlin 6.3 software through a noncompartmental model. For intravenous administration (n = 8), the elimination half‐life (λZ), the apparent volume of distribution (Vz), and clearance (Cl) were 10.29 ± 1.90 days, 89.575 ± 29.856 L/kg, and 5.699 ± 2.374 L/kg, respectively. For pour‐on administration (n = 8), the maximum plasma drug concentration (Cmax), time to maximum plasma concentration (Tmax), and λZ were 7.49 ng/ml, 1.72, and 6.20 days, respectively. MXD had a considerably low absolute pour‐on bioavailability of 9.2%, but the mean residence time (MRT) for pour‐on administration 10.88 ± 1.75 days was longer than 8.99 ± 2.48 days for intravenous administration. These results showed that MXD was absorbed via skin rapidly and eliminated slowly. The obtained data might contribute to refine the dosage regime for topical MXD administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pharmacokinetic properties of vitacoxib have not been established completely; current dosage recommendations are based on clinical experiences. The primary objective of this study was to describe plasma concentrations and characterize the pharmacokinetics of vitacoxib formulation following oral administrations in horses. Also, the effect of the state of stomach contents on the absorption of vitacoxib was investigated in fed/fasted horses. Blood samples were collected prior to and at various times up to 72 hr post‐administration. Drug concentrations were measured using ultra high‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using Non‐Compartmental Analysis Model 200 in WinNonlin™ software. No complications resulting from the vitacoxib administration were noted. All procedures were tolerated well by the horses throughout the study. Cmax was 17.5 ± 9.36 ng/ml (fasted) and 9.47 ± 3.53 ng/ml (fed) following oral administrations. AUClast was 173.7 ± 137.9 ng hr/ml (fasted) and 113.2 ± 70.8 ng h/ml (fed). No significant differences in pharmacokinetic parameters were noted and the results from the pharmacokinetic analysis were similar between the studies, regardless of precision of dosage and fasted and fed conditions. The study extends previous studies describing the pharmacokinetics of vitacoxib following p.o. administration to the horses. Further studies investigating the pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics of vitacoxib are necessary to establish adequate therapeutic protocols (optimal dosage and frequency of administration) in horses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature selection has been regarded as an effective tool to help researchers understand the generating process of data. For mining the synthesis mechanism of microporous AlPOs, this paper proposes a novel feature selection method by joint l2,1 norm and Fisher discrimination constraints (JNFDC). In order to obtain more effective feature subset, the proposed method can be achieved in two steps. The first step is to rank the features according to sparse and discriminative constraints. The second step is to establish predictive model with the ranked features, and select the most significant features in the light of the contribution of improving the predictive accuracy. To the best of our knowledge, JNFDC is the first work which employs the sparse representation theory to explore the synthesis mechanism of six kinds of pore rings. Numerical simulations demonstrate that our proposed method can select significant features affecting the specified structural property and improve the predictive accuracy. Moreover, comparison results show that JNFDC can obtain better predictive performances than some other state-of-the-art feature selection methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic vector sensor (AVS) has been recently researched and developed for acoustic wave capturing and signal processing. Conventional array generally employs spatially displayed sensors for signal enhancement, source localisation, target tracking, etc. However, the large size usually limits its implementations on some portable devices. AVS which generally includes one omni‐directional sensor and three orthogonally co‐located directional sensors has been recently introduced. An AVS is able to provide the four‐dimensional information of sound field in space: the acoustic pressure and its three‐dimensional particle velocities. A compact assembled AVS could be as small as a match head and the weight can be <50 g. Benefits from these properties, AVS tends to be more attractive for exploitation and commercialisation than conventional sensor array. To have a well understanding of the research progress on AVS, an overview on its recent developments is first given in this study. Then, discussions of challenges on AVS and extensions on its possible future prospects are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was reported that DNA repair can confer cancer cell resistance to therapeutic treatments by activating antiapoptotic cellular defense. We hypothesized that genetic variants of DNA repair genes may be associated with lung cancer prognosis. Seventeen tagging single-nucleotide polymorphism (tag SNPs) selected from 12 DNA repair genes were genotyped in 280 advanced non-small-cell lung cancer ( NSCLC) patients by TaqMan assay. The associations of these SNPs and overall survival of advanced NSCLC patients were investigated. Advanced NSCLC patients carrying ERCC2 rs50872 CT+ TT genotypes had significantly longer median survival time ( MST) and decreased death risk than patients with rs50872 CC genotype [log-rank P = 0.031; adjusted HR(95% CI) = 0.73 (0.55-0.98), P = 0.033]. These effects were mainly seen among younger patients (≤65 years old) [ HR(95% CI) = 0.57 (0.37-0.87), P = 0.010], patients without surgery [ HR(95% CI) = 0.68 (0.47-0.98), P = 0.036] but with chemotherapy [ HR(95% CI) = 0.64 (0.46-0.91), P = 0.012] or radiotherapy [ HR(95% CI) = 0.58 (0.38-0.89), P = 0.013]. Meanwhile, compared to advanced NSCLC patients with rs25487 GG genotype, patients carrying XRCC1 rs25487 GA+ AA genotypes had significantly shorter MST ( MST = 11.7 vs. 16.7, log-rank P = 0.048). In addition, advanced NSCLC patients carrying the ERCC2 rs50872 CC in combination with XRCC1 rs25487 GA+ AA genotype had the shortest MST (11.2 month) and highest death risk [ HR(95% CI) = 1.70 (1.15-2.52), P = 0.008] when compared with those carrying rs50872 CT+ TT and rs25487 GG genotype ( MST = 22.0 month). The ERCC2 rs50872 T allele was associated with favorable but XRCC1 rs25487 A allele with bad survival for advanced NSCLC in Chinese population, which may offer novel biomarkers for predicting clinical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Conducting polymers are attractive for potential applications in flexible electronic industries because of their unique advantages. To simplify the process of electrode preparation, porous poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) film electrodes without binder and conductive additive were synthesized facilely for flexible supercapacitors via an in situ solution micro polymerization at the surface of a soft etched tunnel aluminum (ETA) template at room temperature. The template was directly used as the current collector of electrodes. The morphologies of the samples and the template were compared using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the polymer molecular structure and composition were analyzed with Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Symmetric supercapacitors were assembled with the PEDOT electrodes, Celgard 2300 separator, and 1.0 M LiPF6/EC+DMC+EMC (1 : 1 : 1 in volume) electrolyte. The electrochemical performance was evaluated using different techniques like galvanostatic charging/discharging tests, cyclic voltammetry (CV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results from different current densities and scanning rates show the supercapacitors have good rate performance. The specific capacitance, energy density, and coulombic efficiency of the PEDOT supercapacitor can reach 69.0 F g−1 (or 103.0 F m−2), 24.0 Wh kg−1, and ∼95% at a current density of 0.2 A g−1, respectively. Furthermore, the PEDOT electrodes exhibit relatively good cycle performance, and the capacitance retention ratio is ∼72% after 1500 cycles. The electrode process was discussed. The results are comparable to that of the reported PEDOT, which indicates the applicability of the novel simple method of solution microreaction at the surface of a soft metal template to directly prepare binder-free flexible electrodes. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42549. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphorylated chestnut starch was produced by a semidry process, in which chestnut starch and sodium dihydrogen phosphate dihydrate ( NaH2PO4·2H2O) were used as a raw material and an esterifying agent, respectively. Single-factor test and response surface analysis were performed in this study. The optimized synthesis of phosphorylated chestnut starch and its microstructure were studied. The optimum preparation conditions were listed as follows: NaH2PO4·2H2O concentration of 7%, reaction temperature of 146C, reaction time of 140 min and pH 6. The average experimental apparent viscosity under the optimum conditions was found to be 33.69 ± 0.33 Pa·s, with an increase of 208.99% higher than that of native chestnut starch. Fourier transform infrared spectrum analysis revealed that some of hydroxyl groups were replaced by phosphate groups during phosphorylation. Scanning electron microscopy showed that a part of the modified chestnut starch granules sagged and revealed damaged traces. X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the crystalline type of phosphorylated chestnut starch was type C. The crystalline area was slightly damaged and esterification mainly occurred in the amorphous area of starch molecules. Practical Applications Phosphorylated starch has much more transparent starch paste, better stability and higher water retention compared with the native starch, and phosphorylated starch can be widely used in various fields of the industrial production. However, there is little information on the preparation process and physicochemical properties of phosphorylated chestnut starch till now. In the present study, Box- Behnken design as well as canonical and ridge analyses were used to optimize these process parameters of phosphorylated chestnut starch, and its microstructure were studied. The results of this study showed that response surface methodology proved to be fairly accurate in predictive modeling and optimization of conditions for the synthesis of phosphorylated chestnut starch. Optimization of process could be considered as a sustainable alternative method to achieve simplified handling and improve the quantity of targeted products. We believe that starch industry can utilize the results of this study in their applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel integrated feature selection model is proposed to analyze the relationship between the synthesis factors and the specific resulting structure on the database of AlPO synthesis. Concretely, the proposed model can select the most significant synthesis factors affecting the formation of a (6,12)-ring-containing structure by combining multiple feature selection methods. Firstly, eight feature selection methods are employed to prerank the synthesis factors based on the predictive performance of support vector machine. Then, a weighted fusion mechanism is presented to rerank the results. Finally, sequential forward floating search method is utilized to select the most significant synthesis factors in view of the highest predictive performance. A large number of experimental results show that the proposed model is efficient and feasible. The predictive accuracy can reach 86.47 % with the selected 10 factors among 21 synthesis factors. The selection and ranking results also give a rational understanding for AlPO synthesis. More specifically, a proportional relationship among gel composition parameters is recommended based on the result of feature selection, which has important guiding significance for the rational design and synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abnormal neutrophil nucleus lobation (like left shift and right shift) helps to diagnose for some clinical conditions. Currently, quantification of it depends on the manual microscopic inspection of blood smears by clinicians. The quality of the manual inspection is extremely limited by the efficiency of clinicians and their medical background. This article proposed an automatic lobe counting method based on the graph representation of the nucleus region skeletons. Skeletons of the segmented nucleus regions are computed by augmented Fast Marching Method and transformed into plane graphs. Then the nucleus lobes are split based on the extracted graph properties including width distribution along the skeleton and graph structure decomposition. Experiments show that the proposed method could efficiently approaches the real lobe numbers in blood smears and reliably distinguish the stabs from the segmented neutrophils, thus it should be helpful in automatic neutrophil lobe number quantification and abnormal lobation diagnosis. © 2012 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic analyses of the formation water and natural gas geochemistry in the Central Uplift of the Tarim Basin (CUTB) show that gas invasion at the late stage is accompanied by an increase of the contents of H2S and CO2 in natural gas, by the forming of the high total dissolved solids formation water, by an increase of the content of HCO−3, relative to Cl−, by an increase of the 2nd family ions (Ca2+, Mg2+, Sr2+ and Ba2+) and by a decrease of the content of SO2−4, relative to Cl−. The above phenomena can be explained only by way of thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR). TSR often occurs in the transition zone of oil and water and is often described in the following reaction formula: σCH+CaSO4+H-2O→H2S+CO2+CaCO3. (1) Dissolved SO2−4 in the formation water is consumed in the above reaction, when H2S and CO2 are generated, resulting in a decrease of SO2−4 in the formation water and an increase of both H2S and CO2 in the natural gas. If formation water exists, the generated CO2 will go on reacting with the carbonate to form bicarbonate, which can be dissolved in the formation water, thus resulting in the enrichment of Ca2+ and HCO−3. The above reaction can be described by the following equation: CO2+H2O+CaCO3→Ca2++2HCO−3. The stratigraphic temperatures of the Cambrian and lower Ordovician in CUTB exceeded 120°C, which is the minimum for TSR to occur. At the same time, dolomitization, which might be a direct result of TSR, has been found in both the Cambrian and the lower Ordovician. The above evidence indicates that TSR is in an active reaction, providing a novel way to reevaluate the exploration potentials of natural gas in this district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alcohol‐induced osteonecrosis of femoral head (ONFH) is a complex disease and genetic factors are one of the causes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of RETN (resistin; OMIM: 605565) and LDLR (low density lipoprotein receptor; OMIM: 606945) polymorphisms on the risk of alcohol‐induced ONFH in Chinese Han population. Methods: A case–control study including 201 patients and 201 controls was designed. Seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in RETN gene and four SNPs in LDLR gene were genotyped using Agena MassARRAY platform. In allele model and genetic model, chi‐square test and logistic regression were used to study the associations between these SNPs and ONFH susceptibility. In addition, the relationships between these SNPs, clinical phenotypes, and blood lipid level with one‐way analysis of variance were analyzed. Results: In the allele model, rs7408174 and rs3745369 in RETN were associated with increased risk of alcohol‐induced ONFH, whereas rs34861192 and rs3219175 in RETN showed reduced risk of alcohol‐induced ONFH. In the genetic model, rs7408174 was associated with increased risk of alcohol‐induced ONFH in dominant model and log‐additive model. Rs3745369 showed an increased risk in codominant model, recessive model, and log‐additive model. Rs34861192 showed a decreased risk in codominant model, dominant model, and log‐additive model, and rs3219175 showed a decreased risk in dominant model and log‐additive model. The rs3745368 in RETN was associated with the clinical stage of the disease. Conclusion: These results suggest that RETN genetic polymorphisms are associated with the susceptibility of alcohol‐induced ONFH in Chinese Han population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is usually recognized to have a genetic factor, and in our study, we performed a case–control study to analyze the association between 14 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in OPG and the risk of knee OA in a Chinese Han population. Methods: Fourteen OPG SNPs were assayed using MassARRAY in 393 patients clinically and radiographically diagnosed with knee OA and in 500 controls. Allelic and genotypic frequencies were compared between the groups. Logistic regression adjusting for age and gender was used to estimate risk associations between specific genotypes and knee OA by computing odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Results: We found that the minor alleles of six SNPs in OPG were associated with an increased or decreased risk of knee OA in the allelic model analysis. In the genetic model analysis, we found that rs1905786, rs1032128, rs3134058, rs11573828, rs11573849, rs3134056, and rs1564861 were associated with an increased or decreased risk of knee OA before adjusted by sex and age. And after adjustment, three SNPs (rs1485286, rs1905786, and rs1032128) were identified to have a negative effect on knee OA. Conclusion: Our results verify that genetic variants of OPG contribute to knee OA susceptibility in the population of northern China. These genetic associations may identify individuals at a particularly high risk of developing knee OA. Osteoarthritis (OA) is usually recognized to have a genetic factor, and in our study, we performed a case–control study to analyze the association between 14 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in OPG and the risk of knee OA in a Chinese Han population. Our results verify that genetic variants of OPG contribute to knee OA susceptibility in the population of northern China. These genetic associations may identify individuals at a particularly high risk of developing knee OA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) refers to bony changes caused by osteocyte death under the effects of complicated factors, which is caused by genetic factors and certain risk factors. Our study aimed to explore whether IL1R1/IL1R2 polymorphisms influenced ONFH risk in the Chinese Han population. Methods: We selected 286 patients and 441 controls, with 11 single‐nucleotide polymorphisms in IL1R1 and IL1R2 gene were successfully genotyped, and evaluated the associations using the chi‐squared test, Fisher's exact test, T test, and genetic model analyses. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using unconditional logistic regression. Results: In the allele model, rs11674595 in IL1R2 was associated with increasing the risk of ONFH, the rs10490571 and rs3917225 in IL1R1 gene were associated with an increased risk of ONFH, respectively. In the genetic model, the rs11674595 in IL1R2 gene was associated with an increased risk of ONFH in the codominant model, dominant model, and log‐additive model, respectively. The rs10490571 and rs3917225 in IL1R1 gene conferred an increased risk of ONFH in the codominant model, dominant model, and log‐additive model, respectively. We found none of the haplotypes in the IL1R2 gene was significantly associated with theONFH risk. Conclusion: Our findings have demonstrated that the rs11674595 (IL1R2), rs10490571, and rs3917225 (IL1R1) were significantly associated with increasing the ONFH risk in the Chinese Han population. Our study aimed to explore whether IL1‐R1/IL1‐R2 polymorphisms influenced ONFH risk, the study indicated that the rs11674595 (IL‐1R2), rs10490571, and rs3917225 (IL‐1R1) were significantly associated with increased the risk of ONFH in the Chinese Han population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is a refractory disease which frequently occurs in young and middle‐aged people. Recent studies indicated that MMP‐14 played an important role in the development of chondrocytes, metabolism of osteoblasts as well as fate decision of hypertrophic chondrocytes. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between polymorphisms of MMP‐14 and steroid‐induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head in the Chinese population. Methods: We selected 7 SNPs (rs3751488, rs1003349, rs1042703, rs2236302, rs1042704, rs2236303, and rs2236304) on gene MMP‐14. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using the chi‐squared test, genetic model analysis, haplotype analysis, and stratification analysis. Results: We discovered that the genotype "G/G" of rs2236302 was associated with ONFH risk in the MMP‐14 in the codominant model (OR = 8.62, 95% CI = 1.07–69.46, p = 0.038) and recessive model (OR = 8.86, 95% CI = 1.10–71.31, p = 0.013). Conclusions: We have confirmed that the susceptive SNPs (rs2236302) of MMP‐14 from the MMPs/TIMPs system exhibit a significant association with increased risk of steroid‐induced ONFH in the population of northern China. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between polymorphisms of MMP‐14 and steroid‐induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head in the Chinese population. We have confirmed that the susceptive SNPs (rs2236302) of MMP‐14 from the MMPs/TIMPs system exhibit a significant association with increased risk of steroid‐induced ONFH in the population of northern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature selection is a key issue in the domain of machine learning and related fields. The results of feature selection can directly affect the classifier's classification accuracy and generalization performance. Recently, a statistical feature selection method named effective range based gene selection (ERGS) is proposed. However, ERGS only considers the overlapping area (OA) among effective ranges of each class for every feature; it fails to handle the problem of the inclusion relation of effective ranges. In order to overcome this limitation, a novel efficient statistical feature selection approach called improved feature selection based on effective range (IFSER) is proposed in this paper. In IFSER, an including area (IA) is introduced to characterize the inclusion relation of effective ranges. Moreover, the samples' proportion for each feature of every class in both OA and IA is also taken into consideration. Therefore, IFSER outperforms the original ERGS and some other state-of-the-art algorithms. Experiments on several well-known databases are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]