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BACKGROUND Spinal cord injury (SCI) refers to the interruption of the tracts inside the spinal cord caused by various factors. The repair of damaged axons has always been a difficult point in clinical treatment and neuroscience research. The treatment of SCI with Buyang huanwu decoction (BYHWD), a well-known recipe for invigorating Qi (a vital force forming part of any living entity in traditional Chinese culture) and promoting blood circulation, shows a good effect. METHODS The rubrospinal tract (RST) transection model in rats was established in this study and rats were administrated with low (BL), medium (BM), or high (BH) doses of BYHWD. RESULTS Compared with the SCI group, BL, BM moderately, and BH significantly improved the motor function of forelimbs and increased the number of red nucleus neurons in SCI rats. As for the possible molecular mechanism, BL, BM moderately, and BH significantly increased mTOR whereas decreased Beclin-1 and LC3 in the red nucleus. CONCLUSION In conclusion, low, medium, and high doses of BYHWD could promote neural recovery in SCI rats through improving motor function and neuron survival in the red nucleus. The neuroprotective effects of BYHWD might be associated with affecting the mTOR signaling pathway and autophagy.

We sought to compare the clinical outcomes between culprit-only percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) versus multivessel PCI (MV-PCI) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) accompanied by chronic total occlusion (CTO) in the non-infarct-related artery(non-IRA).Studies that compared culprit-only PCI versus MV-PCI in patients with STEMI accompanied by CTO in the non-IRA were included. Random odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.Eight studies with 2,259 patients were included. The results suggested that in patients with STEMI accompanied by CTO in the non-IRA, culprit-only PCI was associated with higher risks of all-cause mortality (OR: 2.89; 95% CI: 2.09-4.00;For patients with STEMI accompanied by CTO in the non-IRA, staged MV-PCI may be better compared with culprit-only PCI due to potential reduced risks of all-cause mortality, cardiac death, stroke, MACE, and heart failure. Meanwhile, further randomized trials are warranted to confirm or refute our findings.

The construction of a water intake along the wharf shoreline can realise the intensive and comprehensive utilisation of the shoreline. However, since the water intake will increase the lateral flow at the wharf and also the hydrodynamic forces on ships, it will bring risks to ships mooring and leaving. The effects of the water intake on ships are studied using a physical model, numerical model and standard formulas. The results show that it leads to an increase of the hydrodynamic forces acting on the ship when the standard formulas are used to calculate the forces without considering the water level difference between the two sides of the ship. The results of the physical model are closer to the real situation. Measures that can effectively reduce the influence of the water intake on ships are proposed by increasing the distance between the wharf front and the front of the water intake as well as the depth of the water inlet windows.

Full-field optical angiography is critical for vascular disease research and clinical diagnosis. Existing methods struggle to improve the temporal and spatial resolutions simultaneously.Spatiotemporal absorption fluctuation imaging (ST-AFI) is proposed to achieve dynamic blood flow imaging with high spatial and temporal resolutions.ST-AFI is a dynamic optical angiography based on a low-coherence imaging system and U-Net. The system was used to acquire a series of dynamic red blood cell (RBC) signals and static background tissue signals, and U-Net is used to predict optical absorption properties and spatiotemporal fluctuation information. U-Net was generally used in two-dimensional blood flow segmentation as an image processing algorithm for biomedical imaging. In the proposed approach, the network simultaneously analyzes the spatial absorption coefficient differences and the temporal dynamic absorption fluctuation.The spatial resolution of ST-AFI is up to 4.33 μm, and the temporal resolution is up to 0.032 s. In vivo experiments on 2.5-day-old chicken embryos were conducted. The results demonstrate that intermittent RBCs flow in capillaries can be resolved, and the blood vessels without blood flow can be suppressed.Using ST-AFI to achieve convolutional neural network (CNN)-based dynamic angiography is a novel approach that may be useful for several clinical applications. Owing to their strong feature extraction ability, CNNs exhibit the potential to be expanded to other blood flow imaging methods for the prediction of the spatiotemporal optical properties with improved temporal and spatial resolutions.

Steam methane reforming (SMR) via thermal catalytic approach is one of the dominant sources of industrial hydrogen, however it proceeds with slow response and low specific productivity. Here we demonstrate a plasma catalytic SMR for distributed hydrogen production, for which warm plasma by gliding arc discharge initiates the reaction, followed by Ni-based catalyst in a heat-insulated reactor without extra heating. In terms of the plasma alone process, specific energy input (SEI), steam/CH4 ratio (S/C) and total inlet flow rate (Ft) contribute to the methane conversion. In parallel, SEI and S/C account for the decrease in C2Hx selectivity hence the increase in selectivity of CO and CO2, while with Ft all the selectivity is approximately constant. The reaction pathway represented by the selectivity can be influenced by SEI and S/C rather Ft. To utilize the heat and active species with the reaction in plasma zone, Ni/CeO2/Al2O3 catalyst bed is coupled. For the coupled process, the conversion approaches the thermodynamic equilibrium values, with the favorable dismissed C2Hx selectivity thus the complete selectivity to CO and CO2. The coupled process was maintained steady for six hours, and the methane conversion of 90% at total hydrogen (t-H2) production rate of 2.7 SLM is achieved under optimum conditions of SEI, S/C, Ft and gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 110 kJ/mol, 3, 3 SLM and 18,000 ml·g−1 h−1. Compared to 59% and 2.3 kW h/Nm3 of the plasma alone process, such a coupled process achieves the energy efficiency (of methane to t-H2) of 75% and the low energy cost of 1.5 kW h/Nm3. Consequently, our approach of plasma catalytic SMR features the merits of rapid response, compact system and high specific productivity, which can be anticipated for the emerging needs of distributed hydrogen generation.

Efficient hydrogen production from methanol steam reforming is carried out in a heat-insulated warm plasma-catalytic (WPC) reactor. Methanol steam reforming in warm plasma and warm plasma-catalytic cases is investigated. For warm plasma alone, methanol mainly converts via pyrolysis reaction and its conversion linearly increases with specific energy input (SEI). The arc channel temperature and electron density of warm plasma are respectively measured to be around 2500 K and 3 × 1014 cm−3, based on optical emission spectra. To take advantage of energy from plasma, Fe-Cu/γ-Al2O3 catalyst for methanol steam reforming and water gas shift is placed after the warm plasma. Compare with plasma alone, methanol conversion in WPC case is nearly double therefore the energy cost decreases from 1.71 kW h/Nm3 to 0.85 kW h/Nm3. Energy efficiency of 84% and H2 selectivity of 98% with methanol conversion of 94% are achieved in this warm plasma-catalytic reactor.

As a promising plasmonic photocatalyst under visible-light irradiation, Au/TiO2 nanocatalyst commonly suffers from risk of Au nanoparticles aggregation and relatively long activation period by using the conventional calcination activation method. We report here that a short-term O2 plasma treatment enables the Au/TiO2 catalyst to exhibit higher visible-light photocatalytic activity for formaldehyde (HCHO) oxidation compared with the calcination activated sample. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterization suggests that Au/TiO2 catalyst activated by O2 plasma achieves metallic Au content of 72.4% and surface oxygen species content of 29.8%, which not only lead to rapid reduction of cationic Au in HCHO oxidation but also facilitate the preliminary oxidation of HCHO to dioxymethylene and formate on catalyst surface. UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra, photoluminescence spectra and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectra measurements indicate that O2 plasma activated Au/TiO2 catalyst presents an enhanced visible-light absorption and surface charge transfer efficiency in HCHO oxidation, which accelerates the formation of superoxide (O2−) and OH radicals via hot electron transfer mechanism under visible-light irradiation, remarkably promoting formate oxidation to carbonate, carbonate decomposition and thus HCHO oxidation.

Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies are being deployed to increase energy reliability and environmental performance. On-board hydrogen production via thermocatalytic reforming of liquid fuels is not a new concept, but has not been realized previously due to mismatches in rates and sizes of the necessary reactors. Here we demonstrate an advanced on-board hydrogen production by warm plasma chain catalysis for fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) with high specific productivity and transient response. Methanol, air and steam reactants as two specific feeds are fed into the reactor without soot formation and catalyst sintering. Oxidative pyrolysis reaction (OPR) by plasma, steam reforming (SR), and pyrolysis at high temperature, and SR and water gas shift (WGS) at medium temperature over catalysts occur subsequently for the coupled process. The heat with OPR is efficiently utilized by the subsequent endothermic reactions. Hydrogen selectivity of 99% (59 vol%, 4.1 SLM) with methanol conversion of 92% is achieved. The CO concentration of 7 vol% approaches the thermodynamic equilibrium value of 6.65 vol%. A fascinating match of energy efficiency of 91% (of methanol to hydrogen) and the hydrogen atom utilization of 88% is stressed. It is attributed to the chain catalysis of (oxidative) pyrolysis and WGS in sequence (as well as SR), which is initiated by warm plasma. Such a coupled process can be scaled up and used for wide applications from FCEVs and hydrogen refueling stations.

Functionalized amorphous TiO2 (AmT) with high surface area and abundant surface hydroxyl groups could be a promising support for plasmonic Au/TiO2 nanocatalysts. To overcome the limitations of conventional heat treatment on plasmonic Au/AmT nanocatalysts, cold hydrogen (H2) plasma activation is employed and makes it possible to achieve superior visible-light (VL) photocatalytic activity and durability. Catalyst characterization results suggest that H2 plasma can activate Au/AmT nanocatalysts to form high levels of metallic Au with strong surface plasmon resonance, low charge transfer resistance, and a unique interface between Au nanoparticles and AmT support. Comparative study of Au/AmT and Au/P25 (Degussa TiO2) activated by different plasmas (H2 or O2) reveals that the excellent performance of H2 plasma in Au/AmT activation originates from strong interaction between surface hydroxyl groups and Au precursors. This work offers the potential for preparing VL photocatalytic Au/AmT films on flexible substrates for extensive applications in photocatalysis and solar cells.

Toward developing an efficient plasma-based technique for CO2 reduction with CH4, warm-plasma catalytic (WPC) reduction of CO2 with CH4 in a reactor using gliding arc discharge and Ni/CeO2/Al2O3 catalyst is reported. In the warm plasma (WP) case, besides dry reforming reaction, reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction also comparably contributes for CO2 reduction. Although the contribution of dry reforming reaction is significantly enhanced by the increase of CH4/CO2 ratio, it accounts for only 60% due to the limitation of maximum CH4/CO2 ratio by the serious carbon deposition at CH4/CO2 >1/2. In addition, the low CH4/CO2 ratio also results in the low CO2 conversion, H2/CO ratio and H2 selectivity. In the WPC case, extra CH4 was fed after plasma to increase the CH4/CO2 ratio to 1, dry reforming reaction becomes the major contributor of CO2 reduction. Under the conditions of specific energy input of 86 kJ/mol, total flow rate of 2.67 SLM, catalyst-bed temperature of 850 °C and gas hourly space velocity of 3200 h−1, CO2 conversion of 91% and CH4 conversion of 94% with H2/CO = 1 and nearly 100% H2 selectivity are achieved with a CO2 energy cost of 598 kJ/mol and an energy efficiency of 72%.

Evaluation of the degree of liver fibrosis is an important basis for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It is meaningful to make a preoperative evaluation with non-invasive methods. In the current study, 12 commonly used preoperative serological indicators from 161 HCC patients with different degree of liver fibrosis were collected retrospectively, and 8 of the indicators (ALB, PA, TBil, INR, AST, GGT, ALP, and PT) were ultimately used in matter-element analysis to create a formula. The relationship between those results and the histological sub-classification of the Laennec liver fibrosis scoring system was analyzed. The calculated value of R from this formula will indicate the differing degree of liver fibrosis in a patient: i) the value of 0.802 ≤ R < 1 indicates the early stage of liver cirrhosis, which corresponds to Laennec stages 0-3; ii) the value of 0.752 ≤ R < 0.802 indicates the mild stage of liver cirrhosis, which corresponds to Laennec stage 4A; iii) the value of 0.698 ≤ R < 0.752 indicates the moderate stage of liver cirrhosis, which corresponds to Laennec stage 4B; and iv) the value of 0.444 ≤ R < 0.698 indicates the severe stage of liver cirrhosis, which corresponds to Laennec stage 4C. The hope is that this formula for preoperative evaluation of the degree of liver fibrosis using non-invasive methods would be useful in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of patients with HCC in the future.

We propose a novel Power to Synthesis Gas (P2SG) approach, composed of two high-efficiency and renewable electricity-driven units, i.e., plasma catalytic reforming (PCR) and water electrolysis (WE), to produce high-quality syngas from CH4, CO2 and H2O. As WE technology is already commercial, we mainly focus on the PCR unit, consisting of gliding arc plasma and Ni-based catalyst, for oxidative dry reforming of methane. An energy efficiency of 78.9% and energy cost of 1.0 kWh/Nm(3) at a CH4 conversion of 99% and a CO2 conversion of 79% are obtained. Considering an energy efficiency of 80% for WE, the P2SG system yields an overall energy efficiency of 79.3% and energy cost of 1.8 kWh/Nm(3). High-quality syngas is produced without the need for post-treatment units, featuring the ideal stoichiometric number of 2, with concentration of 94.6 vol%, and a desired CO2 fraction of 1.9 vol% for methanol synthesis. The PCR unit has the advantage of fast response to adapting to fluctuation of renewable electricity, avoiding local hot spots in the catalyst bed and coking, in contrast to conventional catalytic processes. Moreover, pure O-2 from the WE unit is directly utilized by the PCR unit for oxidative dry reforming of methane, and thus, no air separation unit, like in conventional processes, is required. This work demonstrates the viability of the P2SG approach for large-scale energy storage of renewable electricity via electricity-to-fuel conversion.

Glioma is highly lethal because of its high malignancy. Ubiquitination, a type of ubiquitin-dependent protein modification, has been reported to play an oncogenic or tumor-suppressive role in glioma development, depending on the targets. Ring finger protein 139 (RNF139) is a membrane-bound E3 ubiquitin ligase serving as a tumor suppressor by ubiquitylation-dependently suppressing cell growth. Herein, we firstly confirmed the abnormal downregulation of RNF139 in glioma tissues and cell lines. In glioma cells, ectopic RNF139 overexpression could inhibit, whereas RNF139 knockdown could aggravate the aggressive behaviors of glioma cells, including hyperproliferation, migration, and invasion. Moreover, in two glioma cell lines, RNF139 overexpression inhibited, whereas RNF139 knockdown enhanced the phosphorylation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and AKT serine/threonine kinase 1 (AKT). In a word, we demonstrate the aberration in RNF139 expression in glioma tissue samples and cell lines. RNF139 serves as a tumor-suppressor in glioma by inhibiting glioma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion and promoting glioma cell apoptosis through regulating PI3K/AKT signaling.

Genome-wide association study (GWAS) has seen great strides in revealing initial insights into the genetic architecture of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Since GWAS signals often reside in non-coding regions, relatively few of the associations have implicated specific biological mechanisms. Here, we aimed to integrate the GWAS results with large-scale expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) in 13 brain tissues to identify candidate causal genes for PD. We conducted a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) for PD using the summary statistics of over 480,000 individuals from the most recent PD GWAS. We identified 18 genes significantly associated with PD after Bonferroni corrections. The most significant gene, LRRC37A2, was associated with PD in all 13 brain tissues, such as in the hypothalamus (P = 6.12 × 10−22) and nucleus accumbens basal ganglia (P = 5.62 × 10−21). We also identified eight conditionally independent genes, including four new genes at known PD loci: CD38, LRRC37A2, RNF40, and ZSWIM7. Through conditional analyses, we demonstrated that several of the GWAS significant signals on PD could be driven by genetically regulated gene expression. The most significant TWAS gene LRRC37A2 accounts for 0.855 of the GWAS signal at its loci, and ZSWIM7 accounts for all the GWAS signals at its loci. We further identified several phenotypes previously associated with PD by querying the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the final model of the identified genes in phenome databases. In conclusion, we prioritized genes that are likely to affect PD by using a TWAS approach and identified phenotypes associated with PD.

The prognostic role of programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been widely studied but the results are controversial. In this comprehensive meta-analysis, we elucidated the clinical value of PD-L1 in HCC. Relevant studies were systematically searched in the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and PubMed until June 27, 2019. Eligible studies were validated for the prognostic effect of PD-L1 on the overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and relapse-free survival (RFS) in HCC using a hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Twenty-three studies with 3529 patients were involved in this meta-analysis. The pooled results revealed that high membrane-bound PD-L1 (mPD-L1) expression was associated with poor OS (HR: 1.42; 95% CI: 1.12–1.80; P = 0.004) and had no significant correlation with RFS (HR: 1.14; 95% CI: 0.85–1.54; P = 0.39), and DFS (HR: 1.36; 95% CI: 0.81–2.28; P = 0.25). The results also indicated that high soluble PD-L1 (sPD-L1) levels were associated with worse OS (HR: 2.93; 95% CI: 2.20–3.91; P < 0.00001). In addition, high mPD-L1 expression was associated with high alpha-fetoprotein levels (AFP; OR = 1.46; 95% CI: 1.16–1.84; P = 0.001), hepatitis (OR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.54–0.98; P = 0.03), poor tumor differentiation (OR = 0.68; 95% CI: 0.55–0.84; P = 0.03), and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (OR = 3.39; 95% CI: 1.06–10.91; P = 0.04). The mPD-L1 expression had no significant correlation with age, number of tumors, gender, tumor size, liver cirrhosis, vascular invasion, tumor encapsulation, or TNM stage. The study revealed that high mPD-L1 expression in the tumor tissue and high sPD-L1 levels were associated with shorter OS in HCC. Moreover, overexpression of mPD-L1 was significantly associated with poor tumor differentiation, hepatitis, AFP elevation, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes.

The efficient removal of carbon monoxide (CO) from H2-rich stream via the water gas shift (WGS) reaction requires the catalysts that possess high activity at low temperatures to avoid the thermodynamic equilibrium limitation. We report that oxygen (O2) plasma activation enables an Au/TiO2 nanocatalyst to achieve superior activity in the WGS reaction at low temperatures. At 120 °C, O2 plasma activated Au/TiO2 nanocatalyst exhibits CO reaction rate of 0.51 mmol·mg−1·h−1, which is 5 times higher than the conventional activated counterpart. CO conversion over O2 plasma activated Au/TiO2 nanocatalyst only slightly decreases from 73% to 68% during a 4.5 h continuous WGS reaction at 150 °C. The catalyst characterizations indicate that O2 plasma activation could control average size of Au nanoparticles below 3.5 nm, create plenty of coordinatively unsaturated sites (on Au nanoparticles) and sufficient Auδ+-Oδ--Ti sites (at interfaces between Au and TiO2), and modulate the electronic structure of interfaces, which accelerates greatly the WGS reaction. Further, the enhancement mechanism of the WGS reaction over O2 plasma activated Au/TiO2 nanocatalyst was disclosed.

Objective We sought to assess the relative merits of different revascularization strategies in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and multivessel coronary artery disease complicated by cardiogenic shock or chronic total occlusion (CTO). Background Recent randomized trials and meta-analysis have suggested that multivessel percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is associated with better outcomes in patients with STEMI and multivessel coronary artery disease, however, patients complicated by cardiogenic shock or CTO were excluded. Methods Studies that compared multivessel PCI (immediate or staged) with culprit-only PCI in patients with STEMI and multivessel coronary artery disease complicated by cardiogenic shock or CTO were included. Random odd ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were conducted. Results Sixteen studies with 8695 patients complicated by cardiogenic shock and eight studies with 2259 patients complicated by CTO were included. In patients complicated by cardiogenic shock, a strategy of CO-PCI was associated with lower risk for short-term renal failure (OR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.61–0.93; I2 = 0.0%), with no significant difference in MACE, all-cause mortality, re-infarction, revascularization, cardiac death, heart failure, major bleeding, or stroke compared with an immediate MV-PCI strategy. In patients complicated by CTO, a strategy of CO-PCI was associated with higher risk for long-term MACE (OR: 2.06; 95% CI: 1.39–3.06; I2 = 54.0%), all-cause mortality (OR: 2.89; 95% CI: 2.09–4.00; I2 = 0.0%), cardiac death (OR: 3.12; 95% CI: 2.05–4.75; I2 = 16.8%), heart failure (OR: 1.99; 95% CI: 1.22–3.24; I2 = 0.0%), and stroke (OR: 2.80; 95% CI: 1.04–7.53; I2 = 0.0%) compared with a staged MV-PCI strategy, without any difference in re-infarction, revascularization, or major bleeding. Conclusions For patients with STEMI and multivessel coronary artery disease complicated by cardiogenic shock, an immediate multivessel PCI was not advocated due to a higher risk for short-term renal failure, whereas for patients complicated by CTO, a staged multivessel PCI was advocated due to reduced risks for long-term MACE, all-cause mortality, cardiac death, heart failure, and stroke.

To reduce energy costs, minimize secondary pollution from undecomposed ozone, and improve the efficiency of ozone use, a novel process of cycled storage-ozone catalytic oxidation (OZCO) was employed to remove formaldehyde (HCHO) at low concentrations in air. We applied Al2O3-supported manganese oxide (MnOx) catalysts to this process, and examined the HCHO adsorption capacity and OZCO performance over the MnOx catalysts. Owing to the high dispersion of MnOx and low oxidation state of manganese, the MnOx/Al2O3 catalysts with a manganese acetate precursor and 10%-Mn loading showed good performance in both storage and OZCO stages. The presence of H2O led to a decrease of the HCHO adsorption capacity owing to competitive adsorption between moisture and HCHO at the storage stage; however, high relative humidity (RH) favored complete conversion of stored HCHO to CO2 at the OZCO stage and contributed to an excellent carbon balance. Four low concentration HCHO storage-OZCO cycles with a long HCHO storage period and relatively short OZCO period were successfully performed over the selected MnOx/Al2O3 catalyst at room temperature and a RH of 50%, demonstrating that the proposed storage-OZCO process is an economical, reliable, and promising technique for indoor air purification.

Objective: To study the correlation of peripheral blood NK cell content with tumor marker content and proliferation molecule expression in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A total of 80 patients who were diagnosed with NSCLC in our hospital between June 2014 and October 2016 were selected as the NSCLC group of the research, and 96 healthy volunteers who received physical examination in our hospital during the same period were selected as the control group of the research. The peripheral blood NK cell content and serum tumor marker contents of two groups of subjects were determined, and the proliferation molecule expression levels in lung cancer focus tissue and focus tissue adjacent to carcinoma of NSCLC group were determined. Results: Peripheral blood NK cell content of NSCLC group was significantly lower than that of control group; serum CEA, CA125, Cyfra21-1 and HE4 contents were significantly higher than those of control group, and serum CEA, CA125, Cyfra21-1 and HE4 contents of NSCLC patients with high NK cell content were significantly lower than those of NSCLC patients with low NK cell content; c-myc, c-FLIP, Livin, Moesin and k-ras protein expression in lung cancer focus tissue were significantly higher than those in focus tissue adjacent to carcinoma, and c-myc, c-FLIP, Livin, Moesin and k-ras protein expression in lung cancer focus tissue with high NK cell content were significantly lower than those in lung cancer focus tissue with low NK cell content. Conclusion: Peripheral blood NK cell content significantly reduces in patients with NSCLC and is associated with the cancer cell proliferation activity.

Previously, the kinetic of UV photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) of formaldehyde in air over anatase TiO 2 films was reported [Chem. Eng. J. 279 (2015) 897–903]. In the present work, the kinetic of visible-light (VL, λ > 420 nm) PCO of HCHO over plasmonic Au/TiO 2 in a single-pass continuous-flow reactor is studied. The Au/TiO 2 activated by oxygen plasma (OP) sample is selected for the kinetic study by comparing with the sample activated by calcination. The effects of light intensity, humidity and HCHO initial concentration on induction period and HCHO conversion are investigated. Subsequently, the VL light intensity- and humidity-dependent rate constant of the first-order reaction, k ( I , H ) VL , is expressed quantitatively as a function of I and H and accordingly the inherent rate constant k VL and humidity impact factor f H are deduced. In low light-intensity ( I ) regime, the exponent n of I equals 1 and k VL = 0.05 cm 2 s −1 mW −1 . In medium and high I regimes, n equals 0.36 and 0, k VL equals 1 cm 2 s −1 mW −1 and 7 s −1 , respectively. The humidity impact factors equal 11.0, −15.4 and −0.1 and quantitatively express the strongly positive, strongly negative and slightly negative net effects on the VL PCO rate in the low, medium and high humidity regimes, respectively.

CO 2 selective reduction to CO with H 2 over a CeO 2 -supported nano-Au catalyst at atmospheric pressure was investigated. A high CO 2 conversion, approaching the thermodynamic equilibrium value, and nearly 100% CO selectivity were obtained. The surface formate intermediates generated during the reverse water-gas shift reaction at 400℃ were identified using in situ diffuse-reflectance infrared Fourier-transform spectroscopy. The formate consumption to give CO and H 2 O, determined using mass spectrometry, indicated that the reaction proceeded via an associative formate mechanism; this contributes to the high Au/CeO 2 catalytic activity at low temperatures.

As alternative photocatalysts, titania semiconductors have been extensively investigated for energy and environmental applications. However, amorphous titania is often considered not to be photoreactive catalyst. Here we demonstrate an amorphous titania thin film deposited at room temperature for a photocatalytic removal of formaldehyde from air, which features abundant hydroxyl groups and large surface area. Amorphous titania exhibited surprisingly higher apparent quantum yield of 60.4% than crystalline titania (the most active anatase). This exceptional activity is attributed to greatly reduced recombination of electron-hole pairs and abundant adsorption sites towards formaldehyde. The reduced recombination should result from rapid electron transfer along conduction band (>TiIIIOH) that allocates abundant terminal hydroxyl groups, and minimized transfer length from bulk to surface in small particles. The abundant adsorption sites are related to surface hydroxyl groups and large surface area. With the exceptional activity, amorphous titania nanofilm achieved at room temperature substantively enables photocatalysis on heat-susceptible substrates, while it is nearly impossible for crystalline films calcined at high temperature.

To seek an efficient activation of plasmonic Au/TiO2 photocatalysts, atmospheric-pressure cold plasmas of oxygen (OP) and argon (ArP) were employed to activate the Au/TiO2 coating samples on glass substrate and compared with the conventionally calcination. The activated samples were evaluated in a continuous-flow photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) reactor under visible light (λ > 420 nm) for CO removal from synthetic air and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV–vis spectroscopy, CO chemisorption and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). Although Au nanoparticles (NPs) of the three activation samples averaged at around 4 nm by TEM, the OP and ArP samples exhibited the highest and lowest PCO activity, respectively. An unusual feature of oxygen plasma activation is high content of surface oxygen, which favors superoxide (O2−) formation by accepting hot electron generated from absorption of visible light through local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of Au NPs. The OP sample has the lowest metallic Au content but its cationic Au can be rapidly reduced to form numerous low-coordinated metallic Au around the interface between Au NPs and TiO2 support in the induction period, which is another unusual feature of oxygen plasma activation.

Highly efficient warm plasma catalytic reforming of biogas in a compact and heat-insulated reactor using gliding arc discharge with a co-axial electrode configuration and Ni-based catalyst was reported. The effect of inlet flow rate at a special energy input ( SEI ) of 20 kJ/mol for the plasma alone was first investigated and the inlet flow rate was selected at 4 SLM. Then, it was found that the Ni-based catalyst could be auto-reduced by the outgoing gas from the warm plasma via comparing with the pre-reduced catalyst in the reforming reaction testing and characterizations of Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The effect of catalyst-bed position ( l ) was also examined. Feeding with the molar ratio of CH 4 :CO 2 :O 2 = 3:2:1.8, for the warm plasma with the auto-reduced Ni/CeO 2 /Al 2 O 3 catalyst located at l = 4 cm, dry-basis concentration of syngas rose substantially to 81% and energy efficiency improved dramatically to 86%. Syngas energy cost reduced significantly to 0.21 kW h/N m 3 , which is nearly a threefold reduction compared with the plasma alone. The stability of the warm plasma catalytic reforming was preliminarily evaluated over time-on-stream (TOS) of 13.5 h.

INTRODUCTION Invasion is usually recognized as the main reason for the high recurrence and death rates of gliomas. Therefore, properly understanding the molecular mechanisms of migration and invasion of human gliomas has become a focus and will be helpful for the treatment of gliomas. Syntenin has been demonstrated to be implicated in the migration, invasion and metastasis of many types of malignant tumors. Therefore, we investigated the expression of syntenin in human gliomas and its relationship with glioma migration. MATERIAL AND METHODS Immunohistochemistry, Western blot and real time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were performed to detect the expression of syntenin in human gliomas. Phosphorylated FAK in human gliomas was examined by western blot. RESULTS Scattered syntenin positive glioma cells were detected by immunohistochemistry in normal tissue. Syntenin expression in grade II, III and IV gliomas increased with the degree of tumor malignancy, and no syntenin expression was detected in grade I gliomas. The level of phosphorylated FAK at the tyrosine 397 site also elevated with the degree of tumor malignancy. There was a positive correlation between the syntenin level and the pathological grade of gliomas (r s = 0.896, p < 0.05). Phosphorylated FAK was also upregulated along with the stage of glioma progression and the increase of syntenin expression. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that the enhanced expression of syntenin and phosphorylated FAK may correlate with the increase of the malignancy of human gliomas. Syntenin may promote human glioma migration through interaction with FAK.

The scientific research units management information system requirements analysis is the basic work and key link of the information system construction. Defined the concept of requirement analysis, put forward the multi-view requirement tree theory. Constructed multi-view requirement tree composed of 4 perspectives, such as business requirements, functional requirements, user requirements and data requirements. Put forward the business requirements from the macro, meso and micro level, get the functional requirements from the comprehensive management, business cooperation, information service, put forward the user requirements from the decision-making departments, user departments and service departments, get the data requirements from basic data, original lead-in data, business work data and comprehensive analysis data, which laid the foundation for information system construction and demonstration.

In photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), even if using the same UV lamp, reaction rate constant of a photocatalyst denoted as k ( I , H ) Lamp is still affected by operation conditions of light intensity (I) and humidity. It is of great significance to find characteristic parameters of photocatalysts, which excludes the effect of above-mentioned operation conditions and enables direct comparisons of photocatalysts. For this purpose, PCO of formaldehyde in synthetic air in a continuous-flow reactor over transparent films of anatase TiO2 was investigated using three commercially available UV lamps, i.e. UVC, UVA black (UVA1) and UVA white (UVA2). Thereby, inherent rate constant ( k Lamp ) that is only related to the wavelength of UV lamp but independent of light intensity and humidity was found. It suggested that a sequence of k Lamp under the three UV lamps, k UVC >> k UVA 1 ∼ k UVA 2 , which, for instance, are 1.6, 0.33 and 0.26 cm2 s−1 mW−1 at low light intensity, respectively. Moreover, humidity impact factor (fH) is approximately 3, 0 and −0.4 in three regimes of low, medium and high humidity (LH, MH, and HH), respectively, which manifests positive, zero-sum and negative effects of humidity on the PCO reaction rate. The zero-sum effect of humidity in the MH regime was observed for the first time. Finally, a generalized and quantitative relationship to express k ( I , H ) Lamp as a function of I and humidity was built.

To seek an efficient route for syngas production from oxidative CO2 reforming of methane (OCRM) via post-plasma catalytic technique, three routes were compared using spark-shade plasma (input power = 106 W, with F1 of 1.36 SLM at CH4:O2:CO2 = 1:0.6:0.7) and Ni/CeO2/Al2O3 catalyst (catalyst temperature = 800 °C, with or without F2 of 0.52 SLM CH4). Compared with Route 1 (plasma only, F1 only), X O 2 , X CH 4 , C H 2 + CO and H2/CO ratio of Route 2 (plasma + catalyst, F1 only) increased to 100%, 99%, 76% and 1.2, respectively; but X CO 2 kept at about 35%, which was close to the thermodynamic-equilibrium values. In Route 3 (plasma + catalyst, F1 + F2), X CO 2 increased dramatically to 67%, C H 2 + CO and H2/CO ratio further increased to 86% and 1.5, respectively, though X CH 4 decreased to 77%. Both SCO and S H 2 arrived at nearly 100%. Assuming that the plasma could supply the heat energy for the subsequent catalytic reaction at 800 °C, syngas energy cost as low as 0.5 eV/molecule and energy efficiency as high as 91% were achieved.

Atmospheric-pressure O 2 plasma generated by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is applied to treat Au/TiO 2 catalysts synthesized via the deposition–precipitation method for CO oxidation. The plasma-treated sample (S-P) presents a higher activity than the calcined one (S-C). To elucidate the plasma treatment effect, XPS, TEM/HRTEM, sub-ambient pulse CO chemisorption and in situ DRIFTS techniques were used for catalyst characterization. In comparison with S-C, TEM/HRTEM reveals that the S-P catalyst has small particle size and narrow size distribution; XPS and DRIFTS analyses indicate plentiful surface hydroxyl groups on S-P sample. Pulse CO chemisorption and in situ DRIFTS of CO adsorption show that significant increase of low-coordinated Au species has been achieved by the plasma treatment. The improved activity of S-P is ascribed to large amount of low-coordinated Au species and interface active sites as well as abundant surface hydroxyl groups.

The kinetics of CO 2 reforming of CH 4 in kilohertz spark-discharge plasma was studied. At CH 4 /CO 2 ratio of 1, the effects of specific energy input ( SEI ), electrode gap ( d ), total pressure ( p ) and frequency of the applied voltage ( f ) on the reactant conversions and C-based and H-based selectivities were investigated. Thereby, the kinetic rate equation for CO 2 reforming of CH 4 in spark-discharge plasma was established. The dependence of the CH 4 and CO 2 conversions X CH 4 , X CO 2 on pd value (the product of p and d ) and SEI can be expressed as follows: X CH 4 1 - X CH 4 = k CH 4 · ( pd ) · SEI and X CO 2 1 - X CO 2 = k CO 2 · ( pd ) · SEI , where k CH 4 and k CO 2 are the rate constant of CH 4 and CO 2 conversion, respectively. Increasing f from 5 to 80 kHz, k CH 4 and k CO 2 increase from 0.78 and 0.53 mol·MJ −1 ·bar −1 ·mm −1 to 1.04 and 0.63 mol·MJ −1 ·bar −1 ·mm −1 , respectively. The reliability of the rate equation was verified by a comparison between the calculated value and the experimental data.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers with very poor prognosis, and the five-year survival rate of the patients is less than 5% after diagnosis. Kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) belong to a serine protease family with 15 members that play important roles in cellular physiological behavior and diseases. The high expression level of KLK7 in pancreatic cancer tissues is considered to be a marker for the poor prognosis of this disease. In this work, we set out to investigate whether KLK7 could be a target for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) were designed and constructed in lentivirus to knock down KLK7 in pancreatic cancer cell line PANC-1, and the real time cellular analysis (RTCA) was used to evaluate cell proliferation, migration and invasion abilities. Small molecules inhibiting KLK7 were discovered by computer-aided drug screening and used to inhibit PANC-1 cells. Our results confirmed that KLK7 is significantly up-regulated in pancreatic cancer tissue, and knocking down or inhibiting KLK7 efficiently inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells. This study suggested that KLK7 could be a potential chemotherapy target for treatment of pancreatic cancer, which would provide us a novel strategy for the treatment of this disease.

In our previous study, we have established the clinical significance of the SFLI (scoring formula of liver injury), the purpose of this study was to compare the SFLI system and the Child-Pugh grading system in the prediction of postoperative mortality in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).114 patients with HCC who underwent surgical treatment were enrolled. According to the requirement of the indicators for the Child-Pugh classification, various indices (including albumin [ALB], total bilirubin [TBIL], prothrombin time [PT], ascites, and hepatic encephalopathy) were considered in these patients before surgery, and then Child-Pugh grading was performed. Similarly, the serum biochemical markers including ALB, pre-albumin (PA), TBIL, serum creatining (SCR), international normalized ratio (INR), alanine transminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (ggr;-GT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), PT, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), and thrombine time (TT) were collected before surgery for SFLI analysis. The predicted postoperative mortality rates of these two scoring models and their diagnostic efficacy were analyzed and compared.According to the Child-Pugh grading system, in level A, B and C were 75, 35, and 4 cases respectively, and the corresponding mortality rates were 1.3% (1/75), 17.1% (6/35) and 75% (3/4). Meanwhile, according to the SLFI classification, the number of patients in the grade I, I+, II, and III were 36, 29, 28, and 21, respectively, and the corresponding mortality rates were 0, 0, 14.3% (4/28), and 28.6% (6/21), respectively. The patient mortality rate increased significantly with increasing grading (p0.01). These two classification methods were further compared using ROC analysis, in which the area under the curve (AUC) for the Child-Pugh method was 10.2% with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 17-18, and the AUC of SFLI was 88.2% with a 95% CI 80-96.The SFLI scoring system is very useful in the assessment of liver function and postoperative mortality, and its grading standard is much better than the traditional Child-Pugh classification in many aspects.

In recent years, more and more attention has been drawn to the indoor positioning algorithm based on fingerprint model. Although, such algorithm is irrelevant to the location of the signal source, it has the drawbacks of low accuracy and poor real-time capability. This paper proposes a fingerprint positioning algorithm based on multilevel manual definition. In the offline phase of the fingerprint positioning algorithm, source data in the fingerprint database is processed by average weighting method, and a high precision fingerprint database is established to improve matching accuracy. In the online phase, multilevel matching algorithm is employed to shorten matching time. Experiments based on ZigBee technology were conducted, and the results showed that the algorithm for establishing a fingerprint database can improve matching precision by 50% and shorten matching time by 50% compared to the mode of RSSI.

Ni-Mo 2 C(CP) and Ni-Mo 2 C(MM) catalysts were prepared through carbonization of NiMoO x precursors prepared by co-precipitation (CP) and mechanical mixing (MM), respectively. Different preparation methods lead to different chemical compositions, reduction properties, as well as carbonization process of NiMoO x precursors. It was found that Ni-Mo 2 C(CP) has better Ni dispersion than Ni-Mo 2 C(MM). With smaller Ni particles and higher CH 4 dissociation rate, Ni-Mo 2 C(CP) performs better than Ni-Mo 2 C(MM) in CH 4 /CO 2 reforming. It is deduced that nickel is better stabilized in NiMoO 4 than in NiO, and the sintering of metallic nickel during high-temperature carburization is less severe with NiMoO 4 (CP). Based on the results, we address for the first time the key roles of NiMoO 4 as a precursor for the formation of Ni-Mo 2 C effective for CH 4 /CO 2 reforming.

A novel plasma shade with large reactive space generated by rotating spark channels was used for the first time for oxidative reforming of simulated biogas (CH 4 :CO 2 :O 2 = 3:2:2) to produce high-concentration syngas (CO + H 2 ) with low energy cost. This unique plasma exhibited rapid- and slow-zones where the conversion of O 2 , CH 4 and CO 2 and dry-basis concentration of syngas ( C CO + H 2 dry ) changed at two significantly different paces with specific energy input ( SEI ). With increasing SEI , the conversion and C CO + H 2 dry first increased rapidly at SEI C CO + H 2 dry increased at a much slower pace at SEI > 84 kJ/mol. Moreover, V-shape profile of syngas energy cost ( EC CO + H 2 ) versus SEI was observed. Thereby, the optimal SEI was found at which the lowest EC CO + H 2 (1.0 eV/molecule) and a very high C CO + H 2 dry (73%) were simultaneously achieved. The good stability of the plasma reaction at the optimal SEI was verified over an 8-hour test.