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Abstract Background High-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection is an important factor for the development of cervical cancer. HPV18 is the second most common HR-HPV after HPV16. Methods In this study, MEGA11 software was used to analyze the variation and phylogenetic tree of HPV18 E6-E7 and L1 genes. The selective pressure to E6, E7 and L1 genes was estimated using pamlX. In addition, the B cell epitopes of L1 amino acid sequences and T cell epitopes of E6-E7 amino acid sequences in HPV18 were predicted by ABCpred server and IEDB website, respectively. Results A total of 9 single nucleotide variants were found in E6-E7 sequences, of which 2 were nonsynonymous variants and 7 were synonymous variants. Twenty single nucleotide variants were identified in L1 sequence, including 11 nonsynonymous variants and 9 synonymous variants. Phylogenetic analysis showed that E6-E7 and L1 sequences were all distributed in A lineage. In HPV18 E6, E7 and L1 sequences, no positively selected site was found. The nonconservative substitution R545C in L1 affected hypothetical B cell epitope. Two nonconservative substitutions, S82A in E6, and R53Q in E7, impacted multiple hypothetical T cell epitopes. Conclusion The sequence variation data of HPV18 may lay a foundation for the virus diagnosis, further study of cervical cancer and vaccine design in central China.

Background Regular rehabilitation during or after cancer treatment can bring numerous benefits to colorectal cancer survivors. However, there is a lack of convenient and mobile rehabilitation support systems tailored specifically for this group. The metaverse, as a virtual reality environment, offers an innovative platform for implementing rehabilitation. Hence, our study aims to develop a metaverse-based multimodal rehabilitation program and assess its effects on enhancing outcome measures such as quality of life in colorectal cancer patients. Methods and analysis This study was designed as a randomized, single-blind controlled trial design featuring two arms: a rehabilitation group and a conventional care group. Sixty colorectal cancer survivors who have undergone curative surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy will be recruited for this study. The intervention will take place within the metaverse over a 4-week period. Assessments will be conducted at baseline and after 4 weeks. The intervention is grounded in the behavior change wheel framework and encompasses dietary intervention, exercise intervention, psychological support, and behavior management. Through the implementation of diverse strategies such as training, education, and motivation, our objective is to enhance patients’ capacity, opportunities, and motivation, ultimately fostering healthy behaviors. Outcome measures will encompass quality of life, fear of recurrence, and lifestyle. Results The analysis includes statistical description and inference. Quantitative data will be summarized using mean ± standard deviation for normally distributed data and medians with percentiles for non-normally distributed data. Categorical data will be presented as frequencies and percentages. Statistical tests will detect significant differences between pre- and post-intervention periods. Subgroup analysis will explore CRC stage, age, and gender in relation to outcome measures to identify factors affecting intervention efficacy. Conclusions The findings from this research will offer valuable insights and practical implications for the implementation of remote interventions and family-based interventions in the context of colorectal cancer survivorship. Trial Registration NCT05956990 (Registered 21 July 2023)

Objective Percutaneous CT‐guided radiofrequency ablation (CT‐RFA) is a widely accepted procedure for treatment of osteoid osteomas. However, the application of CT‐RFA was restricted as a result of some drawbacks, such as radiation exposure, and inconvenience in general anesthesia. The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intra‐operative TiRobot‐assisted percutaneous RFA of osteoid osteomas. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 21 medical files of patients who were treated with percutaneous RFA of osteoid osteomas guided by the TiRobot system in our institution between March 2021 and April 2022. The three‐dimensional images obtained by a 3D C‐arm intra‐operatively were sent to the TiRobot system. The puncture point and trajectory were designed. Then the guide pin was positioned to the lesion with the assistance of TiRobot and the biopsy sheath was inserted into the lesion through the guide pin. The tumor was biopsied for pathological examination. Then the RFA needle was inserted into the nidus through the biopsy sheath for thermal ablation. Data were extracted on the associated complications, the reduction in pain at 1 month and 1 year postoperatively assessed by the visual analogue scale (VAS). A paired t‐test was used to compare the pre‐operative and post‐operative VAS scores. Results The patients included 17 males and four females with a mean age of 19.5 ± 10.4 years (range 3–45 years). Lesions were located on the femur in nine cases, on the tibia in nine cases, on the humerus in one case, on the calcaneus in one case, and on the acetabulum in one case. TiRobot‐assisted percutaneous RFA was successfully performed on all 21 patients. There was no intra‐operative or post‐operative complications observed. Pathological diagnosis of osteoid osteoma was obtained in 11 patients, but the other 10 cases were not pathologically diagnosed. The mean follow‐up time was 18.8 months (range: 12–26 months).Post‐operative VAS scores were reduced significantly in all cases. The mean VAS score decreased from 6.5 pre‐operatively to 0.5 at 1 month post‐operatively and to 0.1 at 1 year post‐operatively. Conclusion As a reliable technique for localizing and resection of nidus, TiRobot‐assisted percutaneous RFA is a safe and effective option for the treatment of osteoid osteomas.

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked unprecedented transformations in the lives of adolescents, with reshaping their routines, social dynamics, educational experiences, and overall well-being. Our study delves into the influence of various factors on adolescents’ quality of life (QOL) among the COVID-19 pandemic in Shandong Province, China. Methods Employing a cross-sectional research approach combined with multivariable analysis, we scrutinize the association of demographic factors (age, gender, education level, ethnic groups, urban area, and family economic status) and health-related behaviors (sleep duration, and self-reported health status) with QOL in 9953 students. Results During the pandemic, the average QOL for adolescents in Shandong Province was 133. Our analysis revealed that sleep duration and age had statistically significant associations with total QOL, with the OR values of 1.43 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03 to 1.83) and 0.44 (95% CI: 0.19 to 0.70), respectively. Notably, we observed that adolescents from economically disadvantaged families, or those with poorer self-reported health status, were more likely to report lower QOL scores. Conclusions Overall, our study highlights the potential association of sleep duration, age, family economic status, and self-reported health with the QOL of adolescents in Shandong Province during the pandemic. During similar public health crises, policymakers, educators, and healthcare providers can actively work through resource allocation and effective intervention measures towards alleviating financial burdens, improving health conditions, and ultimately enhancing the total QOL for adolescents.

Energy transition towards clean, efficient energy supply has been a common sense of the government and public in China. However, lacking reasonable planning will lead to undisciplined development, resource waste, and excessive investment. In this context, this paper investigates potential pathways of Beijing energy transition towards a high-level low-carbon, clean and efficient energy system in 2035 with an extended energysocpe model. Firstly, based on available data, future energy demands are predicted by a newly proposed hybrid forecasting method, which combines the traditional regression model, grey model, and support vector machine model with an entropy-based weighted factor. Secondly, the superstructure-based optimization model is employed to investigate the system configuration and operation strategy of the future Beijing energy system. Finally, the uncertainty impact of electricity price, natural gas price, hydrogen price, and the capital expenditures of electrolyzer and steam methane reforming for hydrogen applications are studied. The forecasting results show that all walks of life will witness a continuously increasing energy demand in multiple sectors of Beijing towards 2035. The planning results suggest that the imported electricity and natural gas will dominate the energy supply of Beijing in 2035 with a contribution of 86% of the energy resources consumption of 384 TWh. Moreover, the energy system presents a high end-use electrification level of 65% and high penetration of efficient technologies, which supply 119 TWh via combined heat and power, 26 TWh via heat pump and 95 TWh via district heating network. The energy use of various sectors of energy resources, technologies and end-use are closely related. Hydrogen will have an increased penetration in the private mobility sector, but the locally generated hydrogen is mainly from steam methane reforming technology.

Abstract Understanding symmetry-breaking states of materials is a major challenge in the modern physical sciences. Quantum atmosphere proposed recently sheds light on the hidden world of these symmetry broken patterns. Yet, no experiment has been performed to demonstrate its potential. In our experiment, we prepare time-reversal-symmetry conserved and broken quantum atmosphere of a single nuclear spin and successfully observe their symmetry properties. Our work proves in principle that finding symmetry patterns from quantum atmosphere is conceptually viable. It also opens up entirely new possibilities in the potential application of quantum sensing in material diagnosis.

Plant growth regulators have been used in the cultivation of medicinal plants to increase yield, but the existing regulators decreased the content of active constituents which benefit human health. Therefore, it is necessary to find a new growth regulator to achieve the win-win goal of increasing yield and improving active constituents’ accumulation. The potential of replacing chlorocholine chloride with a new humic acid-based growth regulator was evaluated by measuring the yield and active constituents’ accumulation of Codonopsis pilosula. Three treatments including water (CK), chlorocholine chloride (T1) and humic acid regulator (T2) were applied by foliar spraying. Among them, both chlorocholine chloride and humic acid regulator belong to biostimulant. The result showed that the root yield in T1 and T2 were significantly increased by 59.1% and 54.9% compared with CK, respectively, and there was no significant difference between T1 and T2. Compared with CK, the yields of lobetyolin, syringin and atractylenolide III of Codonopsis pilosula were significantly decreased by 6.3%, 7.3% and 13.0% in T1, but were significantly increased by 22.8%, 14.8% and 32.0% in T2, respectively. Redundancy analyses showed that photosynthetic rate, sucrose phosphoric acid synthetase and phosphomannomutase had higher degree of explanation for yield and quality. Linear regression results indicated that photosynthetic rate and phosphomannomutase were the main factors to affect yield and active constituents yields, respectively. In addition, the output-input ratios based on the yields of polysaccharides, lobetyolin, syringin and atractylenolide III of Codonopsis pilosula in T2 was significantly increased by 6.5%, 15.2%, 8.7% and 31.2% respectively as compared with T1. Overall, compared with water treatment, both chlorocholine chloride and humic acid regulator treatments can increase the root yield of Codonopsis pilosula. Compared with chlorocholine chloride, humic acid regulator can improve the yield of active constituents and economic benefits of Codonopsis pilosula. This study indicated that reasonable selection of plant growth regulators is of great significance for achieving a win-win goal of increasing the root yield and active constituents of medicinal plants.

Abstract Background Persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection is an important factor in the development of cervical cancer, and human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) is the most common HR-HPV type worldwide. The oncogenic potential of HPV-16 is closely related to viral sequence variation. Methods In order to clarify the variant characteristics of HPV-16 E6 and E7 genes in central China, E6 and E7 sequences of 205 HPV‐16 positive samples were amplified by polymerase chain reaction. PCR products of E6 and E7 genes were further sequenced and subjected to variation analysis, phylogenetic analysis, selective pressure analysis and B-cell epitope prediction. Results Twenty-six single nucleotide variants were observed in E6 sequence, including 21 non-synonymous and 5 synonymous variants. Twelve single nucleotide variants were identified in E7 sequence, including 6 non-synonymous and 6 synonymous variants. Four new variants were found. Furthermore, nucleotide variation A647G (N29S) in E7 was significantly related to the higher risk of HSIL and cervical cancer. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the E6 and E7 sequences were all distributed in A lineage. No positively selected site was found in HPV-16 E6 and E7 sequences. Non-conservative substitutions in E6, H31Y, D32N, D32E, I34M, L35V, E36Q, L45P, N65S and K75T, affected multiple B-cell epitopes. However, the variation of E7 gene had little impact on the corresponding B-cell epitopes (score

Abstract The Viridiplantae comprise two main clades, the Chlorophyta (including a diverse array of marine and freshwater green algae) and the Streptophyta (consisting of the freshwater charophytes and the land plants). Lineages sister to core Chlorophyta, informally refer to as prasinophytes, form a grade of mainly planktonic green algae. Recently, one of these lineages, Prasinodermophyta, which is previously grouped with prasinophytes, has been identified as the sister lineage to both Chlorophyta and Streptophyta. Resolving the deep relationships among green plants is crucial for understanding the historical impact of green algal diversity on marine ecology and geochemistry, but has been proven difficult given the ancient timing of the diversification events. Through extensive taxon and gene sampling, we conduct large-scale phylogenomic analyses to resolve deep relationships and reveal the Prasinodermophyta as the lineage sister to Chlorophyta, raising questions about the necessity of classifying the Prasinodermophyta as a distinct phylum. We unveil that incomplete lineage sorting is the main cause of discordance regarding the placement of Prasinodermophyta. Molecular dating analyses suggest that crown-group green plants and crown-group Prasinodermophyta date back to the Paleoproterozoic-Mesoproterozoic. Our study establishes a plausible link between oxygen levels in the Paleoproterozoic-Mesoproterozoic and the origin of Viridiplantae.

Root rot is one of the main reasons for yield losses of red kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) production. Pre-inoculation with Trichoderma harzianum can effectively lower the incidence of red kidney bean root rot. In this study, four treatments including CK (control), Fu13 (Fusarium oxysporum), T891 (T. harzianum) and T891 + Fu13 (T. harzianum + F. oxysporum) were arranged in a pot experiment to investigate how T891 affected the incidence and severity of root rot, plant growth, and changes of defense enzyme activity in red kidney bean plants. Community composition and diversity of the rhizosphere microbiota was evaluated through high-throughput sequencing, and co-occurrence network was analyzed. The results showed that when compared to the Fu13 treatment, pre-inoculation with T891 reduced the incidence and severity of red kidney bean root rot by 40.62 and 68.03% (p

With the arrival of 5G, latency-sensitive applications are becoming increasingly diverse. Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) technology has the characteristics of high bandwidth, low latency and low energy consumption, and has attracted much attention among researchers. To improve the Quality of Service (QoS), this study focuses on computation offloading in MEC. We consider the QoS from the perspective of computational cost, dimensional disaster, user privacy and catastrophic forgetting of new users. The QoS model is established based on the delay and energy consumption and is based on DDQN and a Federated Learning (FL) adaptive task offloading algorithm in MEC. The proposed algorithm combines the QoS model and deep reinforcement learning algorithm to obtain an optimal offloading policy according to the local link and node state information in the channel coherence time to address the problem of time-varying transmission channels and reduce the computing energy consumption and task processing delay. To solve the problems of privacy and catastrophic forgetting, we use FL to make distributed use of multiple users’ data to obtain the decision model, protect data privacy and improve the model universality. In the process of FL iteration, the communication delay of individual devices is too large, which affects the overall delay cost. Therefore, we adopt a communication delay optimization algorithm based on the unary outlier detection mechanism to reduce the communication delay of FL. The simulation results indicate that compared with existing schemes, the proposed method significantly reduces the computation cost on a device and improves the QoS when handling complex tasks.

As a potential crop in saline-alkali land, the growth of switchgrass could also be threatened by salt stress. Promoting the growth of switchgrass under salt stress by humic acid has great significance in the utilization of saline-alkali land. In this study, a pot experiment was arranged to investigate the responses of photosynthetic and physicochemical characteristics of switchgrass to HA under salt stress. Results showed that humic acid increased the photosynthetic function of switchgrass and enhanced plant height by 41.1% and dry weight by 26.9% under salt stress. Correlation analysis showed that the membrane aquaporin gene PvPIP1, malondialdehyde, ascorbate peroxidase, abscisic acid, polyamine, and jasmonic acid were important factors affecting the photosynthetic function of switchgrass in this study. Meanwhile, HA reduced the content of malondialdehyde, indicating the alleviation of the membrane damage caused by salt stress. On the other hand, HA upregulated the relative expression of the PvPIP1 gene and activated ascorbate peroxidase, abscisic acid, polyamine, and jasmonic acid in switchgrass to resist salt stress. These improved the membrane stability and promoted the photosynthetic activity of switchgrass to enhance the plant’s tolerance against salt stress and growth. Results from this study are helpful to the efficient growing of switchgrass and the sustainable development of saline-alkali land.

Humic acid (HA) has been used as an important component in biostimulant formulations to enhance plant tolerance to salt stress, but the mechanisms underlying are not fully understood. This study was to investigate the physiological and molecular mechanisms of HA’s impact on salt stress tolerance in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). The two types of HA were extracted from weathered coal samples collected from Wutai County (WTH) and Jingle County (JLH) of Shanxi Province, China. The grass seedlings subjected to salt stress (250 mM NaCl) were treated with HA solutions containing 0.01% WTH (W/V) or 0.05% JLH (W/V), respectively. The HA treatments improved leaf photosynthetic rate (Pn), transpiration rate (Tr), and stomatal conductance (Gs) and reduced leaf oxidative injury (lower malondialdehyde content) and Pro and intercellular CO2 concentrations in salt-stressed perennial ryegrass. The HA treatments also reversed the decline in antioxidative enzymes ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and improved growth and anti-senescence hormones indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and brassinosteroid (BR). The HA treatments reduced the relative expression of P5CS and its downstream products proline (Pro) and the stress defense hormones abscisic acid (ABA), salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA), and polyamines (PA). The results of this study indicate that the application of HAs may improve salt stress tolerance by regulating P5CS gene expression related to osmotic adjustment and increasing the activity of antioxidant enzymes and anti-senescence hormones in perennial ryegrass.

Abstract Background Toll-like receptors (TLRs) may be involved in the natural history of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. In our study, we aimed to investigate the association of TLR4 (rs10116253, rs1927911, rs10759931) and TLR9 (rs187084, rs352140) gene polymorphisms with cervical persistent high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) infection, as well as multiple HR-HPV infections. Methods A total of 269 study subjects were enrolled and grouped by retrospectively analyzing the HR-HPV testing results and other clinical data of 2647 gynecological outpatients from Jingzhou Hospital Affiliated to Yangtze University. We conducted a case–control study to compare the role of TLR4/TLR9 gene polymorphisms between HR-HPV transient and persistent infections, as well as between HR-HPV single and multiple infections. HR-HPV genotypes were detected using Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR–RFLP) was used to determine TLR4 and TLR9 gene polymorphisms. Analyses of the different outcome variables (HR-HPV infection status and time for HR-HPV clearance) with respect to TLR4/TLR9 polymorphisms were carried out. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association of TLR4/TLR9 genotypes and alleles with HR-HPV infection status. The Kaplan–Meier method with the log-rank test was used to analyze the relationship between TLR4/TLR9 genotypes and the time for HR-HPV clearance. Results The mutant genotypes of TLR9 rs187084 and rs352140 were associated with persistent (rs187084: CT and CT+CC; rs352140: CT and CT+TT) and multiple (rs187084: CT and CT+CC; rs352140: CT+TT) (all P

The underlying mechanisms of how obesity increases asthma prevalence and severity are not well understood. Here, the authors show that antagonizing cholecystokinin and its receptor, CCKAR, in the lung attenuates obesity-associated airway hyperresponsiveness in mice.

Abstract Background Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is the most common complication during pregnancy, occurring under the combined action of environmental and genetic factors. Genetic variants of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) have been reported to affect insulin secretion and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes. This study aimed to explore the role of GLP-1R polymorphisms in GDM and glucose metabolism. Methods A two-center nested case‒control study was designed, including 200 pregnant women with GDM and 200 pregnant women without GDM genotyped for five tag SNPs of GLP-1R using Sanger sequencing. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the relationship between GLP-1R polymorphisms and GDM risk. Glucose and insulin concentrations were measured based upon the 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Beta cell function of different genotypes was estimated with the 60 min insulinogenic index (IGI60) and OGTT-derived disposition index (DI). Results Mutant genotype AG + GG of tag SNP rs6458093 nominally increased GDM risk (p = 0.049), especially among subjects younger than 35 years (p = 0.024) and with BMI no less than 24 (p = 0.041), after adjusting for confounders. Meanwhile, compared with subjects with wild genotype AA, subjects with genotype AG + GG of rs6458093 also showed nominally significantly lower IGI60 (p = 0.032) and DI (p = 0.029), as well as significantly higher 75 g OGTT-based 1 h glucose load plasma glucose levels (p = 0.045). Moreover, the mutant heterozygous genotype GA of tag SNP rs3765467 nominally decreased GDM risk among subjects older than 35 years (p = 0.037) but showed no association with insulin secretion and glucose homeostasis. Conclusions Tag SNP rs6458093 of GLP-1R was nominally associated with increased GDM risk and affected beta cell function and postprandial glucose metabolism, while tag SNP rs3765467 of GLP-1R was nominally associated with decreased GDM risk, providing evidence for molecular markers and etiological study of GDM.

The development of neuroprotective agents has important clinical significance. Bavachin is a flavonoid compound in Psoralea corylifolia, which has multiple biological activities, however its neuroprotective effect and molecular mechanism remain unclear. We found that bavachin inhibited neuroinflammation and also exerted significant antioxidative stress effects. Furthermore, we found that bavachin exerted neuronal protective and anti-apoptotic effects. Further studies showed that bavachin increased Bcl-2 expression, while inhibited Bax expression, and also inhibited the decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential. As for the mechanism, the results displayed that bavachin upregulated Sirt1 and Nrf2 expression in vitro and in vivo, and inhibited the phosphorylation level of p65 in vivo. Taken as a conclusion, this study first provided evidence that bavachin inhibited neuronal damage caused by neuroinflammation and oxidative stress through the activation of Sirt1/Nrf2 pathway and inhibition of NF-κB pathway, and bavachin might be a potential candidate for treating neurodegenerative diseases.

Objectives: The ecofriendly and sustainable concept of bamboo- and wheat straw-made tableware has gained attention in recent years. However, it is necessary to note that these kinds of tableware are composed of melamine (MEL)–formaldehyde resin with the addition of bamboo fibers or wheat straw. This study aims to explore the potential migration of MEL and its derivatives from the tableware and conduct a risk assessment. Methods: The study involved 46 bowls or cups purchased from Internet markets or retail shops in China, whose raw materials included MEL, bamboo, and wheat straw. There were four pieces of glass- or ceramic-made tableware used as the control group. Migration testing was performed according to the test conditions selected from the European Union Reference Laboratory for Food Contact Materials. Considering the realistic worst-case scenario, we measured the concentrations of MEL and its derivatives in food simulants using ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and estimated the exposure risks for adults and 1-year-old infants. Results: MEL and its derivatives could migrate from MEL-, bamboo-, and wheat straw-made tableware with varying concentrations. The total migration was ranked as follows: bamboo-made tableware > MEL-made tableware > wheat straw-made tableware > glass- or ceramic-made tableware (p < 0.001). The primary contributor to the total concentration for MEL- and bamboo-made tableware was MEL, whereas cyanuric acid (CYA) was the main contributor for wheat straw-made tableware. Based on the total concentration of MEL and its derivatives and the strictest TDI value, the proportions of the calculated hazard quotient ≥1 for MEL-, bamboo-, and wheat straw-made tableware in adults were 53.50%, 92.30%, and 1.90%; and the proportions in 1-year-old infants increased to 86.00%, 100.00%, and 7.40%. Conclusion: The utilization of MEL-, bamboo-, and wheat straw-made tableware could be regarded as a significant source of human exposure to MEL and its derivatives. It is advisable for both adults and infants to refrain from using tableware manufactured with MEL and bamboo fiber, as it may increase the susceptibility to MEL-related diseases.

Background: Reconstruction after a total sacrectomy is a challenge due to the special anatomical and biomechanical factors. Conventional techniques of spinal-pelvic reconstruction do not reconstruct satisfactorily. We describe a novel three-dimensional-printed patient-specific sacral implant in spinopelvic reconstruction after total en bloc sacrectomy.Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study including 12 patients with primary malignant sacral tumors, including 5 men and 7 women with a mean age of 58.25 years (range 20–66 years), undergoing total en bloc sacrectomy with 3D printed implant reconstruction from 2016 to 2021. There were 7 cases of chordoma, 3 cases of osteosarcoma, 1 case of chondrosarcoma and 1 case of undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma. We use CAD technology to determine surgical resection boundaries, design cutting guides, and individualized prostheses, and perform surgical simulations before surgery. The implant design was biomechanically evaluated by finite element analysis. Operative data, oncological and functional outcomes, complications, and implant osseointegration status of 12 consecutive patients were reviewed.Results: The implants were implanted successfully in 12 cases without death or severe complications during the perioperative period. Resection margins were wide in 11 patients and marginal in one patient. The average blood loss was 3875 mL (range, 2000–5,000 mL). The average surgical time was 520 min (range, 380–735 min). The mean follow-up was 38.5 months. Nine patients were alive with no evidence of disease, two patients died due to pulmonary metastases, and one patient survived with disease due to local recurrence. Overall survival was 83.33% at 24 months. The Mean VAS was 1.5 (range, 0–2). The mean MSTS score was 21 (range, 17–24). Wound complications occurred in 2 cases. A deep infection occurred in one patient and the implant was removed. No implant mechanical failure was identified. Satisfactory osseointegration was found in all patients, with a mean fusion time of 5 months (range 3–6 months).Conclusion: The 3D-printed custom sacral prosthesis has been effective in reconstructing spinal-pelvic stability after total en bloc sacrectomy with satisfactory clinical outcomes, excellent osseointegration, and excellent durability.

Background: There are a limited but increasing number of case reports and series describing the use of 3D-printed prostheses in bone tumor surgery.Methods: We describe a new approach to performing nerve-preserving hemisacrectomy in patients with sacral giant cell tumors with reconstruction using a novel 3D-printed patient-specific modular prosthesis. The series included four female and two male patients with a mean age of 34 years (range, 28–42 years). Surgical data, imaging assessments, tumor and functional status, implant status, and complications were retrospectively analyzed in six consecutive patients.Results: In all cases, the tumor was removed by sagittal hemisacrectomy, and the prosthesis was successfully implanted. The mean follow-up time was 25 months (range, 15–32 months). All patients in this report achieved successful surgical outcomes and symptomatic relief without significant complications. Clinical and radiological follow-up showed good results in all cases. The mean MSTS score was 27.2 (range, 26–28). The average VAS was 1 (range, 0–2). No structural failures or deep infections were detected in this study at the time of follow-up. All patients had good neurological function. Two cases had superficial wound complications. Bone fusion was good with a mean fusion time of 3.5 months (range, 3–5 months).Conclusion: These cases describe the successful use of custom 3D-printed prostheses for reconstruction after sagittal nerve-sparing hemisacrectomy with excellent clinical outcomes, osseointegration, and durability.

Abstract Background Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are rare malignancies and the treatment options are limited. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of apatinib, an angiogenesis inhibitor, in advanced TETs. Methods This was an open-label, single-arm, phase II trial at three centers in China. Patients with TET who had progressed after failure of at least one line of platinum-based chemotherapy were enrolled. Patients received apatinib 500 mg orally per day. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR). Secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), disease control rate (DCR), and safety. Results From June 29, 2017, to April 18, 2019, 25 patients were enrolled. At data cut off (September 30, 2021), one patient achieved complete response, nine achieved partial response, and 11 achieved stable disease, with an ORR of 40% (95% CI 21–61%) and DCR of 84% (95% CI 64–95%). The median PFS was 9.0 (95% CI 5.4–12.6) months. The median OS was 24.0 (95% CI 8.2–39.8) months. All patients reported treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs). Grade 3 TRAEs occurred 26 times in 15 patients. No grade 4 or 5 toxicities occurred. Conclusions This is the first trial of apatinib for the treatment of TETs. Apatinib showed promising antitumor activity and the toxicities were tolerable and manageable.

Abstract Background Cervical cancer is a common malignant tumor in women, with a high mortality rate, has great harm to women’s health. Long-term and persistent infection of high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) is the main reason of the occurrence and development of cervical cancer. Methods The infection rate of HPV-58 is higher in the Jingzhou area. In this study, 172 complete HPV-58 E6-E7 sequences were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the amplified products were sequenced, and the gene variations of HPV-58 E6-E7 were analyzed. A Neighbor-Joining phylogenetic tree was constructed by MEGA 11. The secondary structure of E6 and E7 protein was investigated. PAML X was used to analyze the selective pressure. The B cell epitopes of E6 and E7 proteins in HPV-58 were predicted by ABCpred server. Results In E6 sequences, 10 single nucleotide variants were observed, including 7 synonymous and 3 non-synonymous variants. In E7 sequences, 12 single nucleotide variants were found, including 3 synonymous variants and 9 non-synonymous variants. There are 5 novel variants. The phylogenetic analysis showed that all the E6-E7 sequences were distributed in A lineage. No positively selected site was found in E6 sequence, but G63 in E7 sequences was identified as positively selected site. Some amino acid substitutions affected multiple B cell epitopes. Conclusion Various E6 and E7 mutational data may prove useful for development of better diagnostic and vaccines for the region of Jingzhou, Hubei province of central China.

Background & Aims: Among individuals with Child-Pugh B cirrhosis and acute variceal bleeding (AVB), the Baveno VII workshop recommended pre-emptive TIPS in those with a Child-Pugh score of 8-9 and active bleeding at initial endoscopy (Child B8-9 + AB criteria). Nevertheless, whether this criterion is superior to the CLIF-Consortium acute decompensation score (CLIF-C ADs) remains unclear. Methods: Data on 1,021 consecutive individuals with Child-Pugh B cirrhosis and AVB from 13 university hospitals in China who were treated with pre-emptive TIPS (n = 297) or drug plus endoscopic treatment (n = 724) between 2010 to 2019 were retrospectively analysed. A competing risk regression model was used to compare the outcomes between the two groups after adjusting for confounders. The concordance-statistic for benefit (c-for-benefit) was used to evaluate a models’ ability to predict treatment benefit (risk difference between treatment groups). Results: Pre-emptive TIPS was associated with reduced mortality compared to drug plus endoscopic treatment (adjusted hazard ratio 0.62, 95% CI 0.44 to 0.88). A higher baseline CLIF-C AD score was associated with greater survival benefit (i.e., larger absolute mortality risk reduction). After adjusting for confounders, a survival benefit was observed in individuals with CLIF-C ADs ≥48 or Child-Pugh B8-9 with active bleeding, but not in those with CILF-C ADs

Long-term continuous cotton cropping results in a significant decrease in soil quality and soil organic carbon, threatening cotton yield. The application of organic amendments is considered an effective management practice for the sustainability of soil productivity and often increases yield. However, the sustainable improvement in the cotton yield, stability, and soil fertility over time resulting from organic amendments with cotton straw and organic manure still need to be confirmed with research, especially under a continuous cotton cropping system. This study evaluated the effect of 12 years of consecutive application of cotton straw and organic manure on continuous cotton yield, soil quality, and soil organic carbon. Four treatments, i.e., chemical N and P fertilizers (NP, control), NP plus cotton straw (NPS), NP plus manure (NPM), and NP plus cotton straw and manure (NPSM), were carried out. The results indicated that the addition of cotton straw and organic manure improved the temporal stability and sustainability of cotton yield. The combination of cotton straw and organic manure resulted in the greatest improvement, increasing the average annual cotton yield by 32.28% compared with the control (NP). A correlation analysis revealed that cotton yield was closely related to soil quality and soil organic carbon. The application of cotton straw and organic manure increased cotton yield by enhancing soil fertility, especially the quantity and quality of soil organic carbon, which improved the supply and cycling of soil nutrients and benefited the stability and sustainability of the cotton yield. Reusing cotton straw and organic manure could improve the sustainable productivity of cotton soil and provide additional environmental value as well as having great potential for cleaner and sustainable cotton production.

Introduction and objectives: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks third on the list of the leading cause for cancer death globally. The treatment of HCC patients is unsatisfactory. However, the traditional Chinese medicine Chebulae Fructus has potential efficacy in the treatment of HCC. Materials and methods: We mined the active ingredients of Chebulae Fructus and its main targets from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database. HCC-related datasets were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in HCC were obtained by differential expression analysis. Top10 small molecule compounds capable of reversing HCC pathology were screened by the Connectivity Map database based on DEGs. Ellipticine, an extract of Chebulae Fructus, had the potential to reverse HCC pathology. Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) networks of DEGs in HCC were constructed using STRING. Eighteen potential targets of Chebulae Fructus for the treatment of HCC were obtained by taking intersection of DEGs in HCC with targets corresponding to the active constituents of Chebulae Fructus. In addition, MTT assay was also employed to examine the effect of ellipticine on HCC cell viability. Results: It has been shown that ellipticine and ellagic acid have antitumor activity. Random Walk with Restart analysis of PPI networks was performed using potential targets as seeds, and the genes with the top 50 affinity coefficients were selected to construct a drug-active constituent-gene interaction network. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses of key genes involved in the treatment of HCC with Chebulae Fructus demonstrated that these genes were mainly enriched in signaling pathways related to tumor metabolism such as cAMP signaling pathway and Ras signaling pathway. Finally, it was verified by MTT assay that proliferation of HCC cells could be remarkably hindered. Conclusions: We excavated ellipticine, a key active constituent of Chebulae Fructus, by network pharmacology, and elucidated the signaling pathways involved in Chebulae Fructus, providing a theoretical basis for the use of Chebulae Fructus for HCC clinical application.

Abstract Background Concurrent chemo-radiotherapy remains the standard treatment in unresectable stage III non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Several studies have shown a potential value of concurrent epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) with thoracic radiotherapy in EGFR-mutated population, but a high risk of radiation pneumonitis raised a major concern. This study intends to explore the safety and efficacy of concurrent almonertinib, a new third-generation EGFR-TKI, with radiotherapy in locally advanced EGFR-mutated NSCLC patients. Methods Locally advanced NSCLC patients harboring sensitive EGFR mutation will be included in this study. A radiotherapy plan will be made for each patient before treatment, and the lung V20 will be calculated. Patients with lung V20 ≥ 28% were enrolled in induction group (arm A), which almonertinib was given for 2 months followed by concurrent radiotherapy; patients with lung V20

Integrated energy systems (IESs) represent a promising energy supply model within the energy internet. However, multi-energy flow coupling in the optimal configuration of IES results in a series of simplifications in the preliminary planning, affecting the cost, efficiency, and environmental performance of IES. A novel optimal planning method that considers the part-load characteristics and spatio-temporal synergistic effects of IES components is proposed to enable a rational design of the structure and size of IES. An extended energy hub model is introduced based on the “node of energy hub” concept by decomposing the IES into different types of energy equipment. Subsequently, a planning method is applied as a two-level optimization framework—the upper level is used to identify the type and size of the component, while the bottom level is used to optimize the operation strategy based on a typical day analysis method. The planning problem is solved using a two-stage evolutionary algorithm, combing the multiple-mutations adaptive genetic algorithm with an interior point optimization solver, to minimize the lifetime cost of the IES. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed planning method is demonstrated using a case study. The life cycle costs of the IES with and without consideration of the part-load characteristics of the components were $4.26 million and $4.15 million, respectively, in the case study. Moreover, ignoring the variation in component characteristics in the design stage resulted in an additional 11.57% expenditure due to an energy efficiency reduction under the off-design conditions.

Because the traditional steam sootblowing technology has a dead corner, it needs a lot of high quality steam, and the safety of the steam is affected by the scouring of the heating surface. Therefore, in recent years, many new power plants tend to adopt built-in array acoustic sootblower in the low-temperature flue to purge the low-temperature reheater, low-temperature superheater and economizer. Combined with the application of acoustic sootblower in a 660 MW power plant, the economic evaluation was studied. The sootblowing economy was evaluated by two indexes:boiler efficiency at boiler side and steam turbine thermal efficiency at turbine side. The boiler anti-balance method was used to calculate the boiler efficiency variation when the exhaust gas temperature changed 1℃ under a certain load. The increase of boiler efficiency was calculated by the decrease of flue gas temperature after sootblowing, and the decrease of coal consumption was further calculated. By using the calculation method of heat carrying out system by working medium in the equivalent enthalpy drop method, the influence of sootblowing steam on the heat consumption of steam turbine was obtained, and the increase of coal consumption was further calculated. The economic gain of acoustic sootblower was obtained by considering the economic evaluation of boiler side and steam turbine side. The results show that compared with the conventional steam sootblower, the annual cost saving of the built-in array acoustic sootblower is more than 1 million yuan. In addition, it will have better energy-saving effect for units with poor economic performance for many years.

A series of Sm3+ ions doped Sr3Al2O6 phosphors was successfully synthesized via hydrothermal method. The crystal structure, morphology and luminescent properties of samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and photoluminescence spectra. All the samples took on cubic structure with Pa-3 space group. The Sr3Al2O6:Sm3+ phosphors could be excited by 405 nm and emit orange-red light peaked at 565, 609 and 660 nm. The effect of hydrothermal reaction time on the morphology and luminescent properties of phosphor was investigated. The influence of molar fraction of Sm3+ ions on the emission intensity of samples was studied and it has been found that the optimal dosage is 0.01. The calculated results by the first principle indicated that the Sm3+ ions will easily occupy the symmetric center site (Sr1). The results indicated that the luminescent intensity of Sr3Al2O6:Sm3+ phosphors could be modulated by reaction conditions of hydrothermal method.

The development of electrical engineering and electronic, communications, smart power grid, and ultra-high voltage transmission technologies have driven the energy system revolution to the next generation: the energy internet. Progressive penetration of intermittent renewable energy sources into the energy system has led to unprecedented challenges to the currently wide use of coal-fired power generation technologies. Here, the applications and prospects of advanced coal-fired power generation technologies are analyzed. These technologies can be summarized into three categories: (1) large-scale and higher parameters coal-fired power generation technologies, including 620/650/700 °C ultra-supercritical thermal power and double reheat ultra-supercritical coal-fired power generation technologies; (2) system innovation and specific, high- efficiency thermal cycles, which consist of renewable energy-aided coal-fired power generation technologies, a supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle for coal-fired power plants, large-scale air-cooling coal-fired power plant technologies, and innovative layouts for waste heat utilization and enhanced energy cascade utilization; (3) coal-fired power generation combined with poly-generation technologies, which are represented by integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) and integrated gasification fuel cell (IGFC) technologies. Concerning the existing coal-fired power units, which are responsible for peak shaving, possible strategies for enhancing flexibility and operational stability are discussed. Furthermore, future trends for coal-fired power plants coupled with cyber-physical system (CPS) technologies are introduced. The development of advanced, coal-fired power generation technologies demonstrates the progress of science and is suitable for the sustainable development of human society. Keywords: Energy Internet, Coal-fired Power Generation, Flexibility, Cyber-physical system, Smart power plant

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is recognized as key part of evaluating the soil environment, and the soil respiration rate is an effective indicator of CO2 emission. To explore the influence and coupling mechanism of irrigation on the soil respiration of millet farmland in the Northern Shanxi Province in China, conventional rainfed (CK) and supplementary irrigation (W1) at the late jointing stage were conducted. The soil respiration rate and carbon emission flux in millet farmland under different treatments were observed. The relationship between soil respiration rate and soil physical–chemical properties and the crop growth index was further analyzed. The result showed that the soil respiration rate and carbon emission flux of W1 were higher than those of CK treatment. The comparison of the linear regression correlation between soil respiration rate and soil physical–chemical properties revealed that the major regulating factors of the soil respiration rate were soil moisture (10.6%), soil temperature, and finally soil organic matter content. There are uncertainties regarding the soil moisture content variation range in soil respiration. Moreover, supplementary irrigation promoted the growth indexes, yield, and irrigation water use efficiency in millet farmland. Further research with less irrigation treatment is necessary for exploring an optimization model of water use efficiency and low carbon dioxide emissions in millet fields, which would be helpful to realize agricultural water utilization and a “carbon peak” in the sense of farmland.

In recent years, in order to increase the coal recovery rate, the large mining height fully mechanized top-coal caving mining has been widely used because it has the advantages of both fully mechanized mining method and large mining height mining method. When this mining technology is used to exploit thick coal seam under upper goaf, the movement characteristics of the overlying strata and the bearing structure formed by the broken rock are complicated, which results in the abnormal pressure during mining, such as severe coal slabs and hydraulic supports being crushed. The key to solve these problems is to study the movement law and the structural evolution characteristics of the overlying strata during large mining height fully mechanized top-coal caving mining, and the movement characteristics of the overlying strata are all determined by the layer-position of the key stratum. UDEC models with different layer-position of the key stratum are established to investigate the influence of the key stratum position on the support working resistance during large mining height top-coal caving mining. Through comprehensive research, the source of support resistance comes from under different geological conditions was analyzed, and the formula for estimating the maximum support working resistance was deduced. In addition, in order to release the severe pressure during large mining height fully mechanized top-coal caving mining, it is recommended to use hydraulic fracturing method to weaken the key stratum in situ.

The potential dynamic risk of the mined underground space with hard overlying strata is one of the main concerns for coal operators. This paper presents a comprehensive study on treating the hard overlying strata upon the coal seam through the presplit blasting technique. The properties of the overlying strata were firstly investigated and evaluated via the laboratory tests and theoretical analysis. With the consideration of the geological and mining condition of the research area, the critical parameters of the presplit blasting technique (e.g., unsaturation coefficient, borehole spacing, and the slit width) were consequently determined via the numerical simulation with the application of LS-DYNA. Then, the field practice in accordance with the determined parameters was carried out in Yuwu coal mine. The effectiveness of the presplit blasting technique was well verified when the microstructures of the surrounding rock were investigated. The success presented in this paper does not only demonstrate the feasibility of using the presplit blasting technique in treating the hard strata of underground mines but also provide a guideline in determining the critical parameters by the numerical simulation and theoretical analysis from the design aspect.

The occurrence and development of gastric adenocarcinoma (gADC) is closely related to the interaction between tumor cells and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Our objective was to characterize the repertoire of immune cells in the TME of gADC. To analyze the transcriptomic, immune, and spatial information of TME in gADC, we constructed single-cell RNA sequencing, 10 × Genomics V(D)J analysis, multiple immunofluorescence techniques, and OSCmap analysis of 49,765 single cells in seven samples from four gADC patients. Our integrative analysis of B cells demonstrated that a large number of mucosal associated lymphoid tissue (MALT)-B cells were detected in the gADC tissues, which have mature tertiary lymphatic structures (mTLSs), and almost no MALT-B cells in peripheral blood sample. Moreover, MALT-B cells are a class of IgA+ plasma cells, which are characterized with high expression of complement pathway activation-related genes. Next, natural killer T (NKT) cells mainly exist in gADC tissues accompanied by mTLSs. This study also classified monocytes/macrophages and epithelial cells into benign and malignant types. Interestingly, CSOmap (q

Background: Host-derived inflammatory responses contribute to the morbidity and mortality of severe influenza, suggesting that immunomodulatory therapy may improve outcomes. The normally circulating protein, human plasma gelsolin, is available in recombinant form (rhu-pGSN) and has beneficial effects in a variety of pre-clinical models of inflammation and injury. Methods: We evaluated delayed therapy with subcutaneous rhu-pGSN initiated 3 to 6 days after intra-nasal viral challenge in a mouse model of influenza A/PR/8/34. Results: Rhu-pGSN administered starting on day 3 or day 6 increased survival (12-day survival: 62 % vs 39 %, pGSN vs vehicle; p < 0.00001, summary of 18 trials), reduced morbidity, and decreased pro-inflammatory gene expression. Conclusions: Rhu-pGSN improves outcomes in a highly lethal influenza model when given after a clinically relevant delay.

Abstract Background Multidrug resistance remains a major obstacle to successful treatment for patients with gastric cancer (GC). Recently, glycosylation has been demonstrated to play a vital role in the acquisition of multidrug resistance. As a potent inhibitor of glycosylation, tunicamycin (Tu) has shown marked antitumor activities in various cancers. In the present study, we attempted to determine the exact effect of Tu on the chemoresistance of GC. Methods The cytotoxic effects of drugs on GC cells were evaluated by cell viability assays, and apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. PCR, western blot analysis, immunofluorescence staining and canonical inhibitors were employed to identify the underlying mechanisms of the specific effects of Tu on multidrug-resistant (MDR) GC cells. Results For the first time, we found that MDR GC cells were more sensitive to Tu-induced cell death than the parental cells and that the increased sensitivity might correlate with basal endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. In addition, Tu dramatically increased chemotherapy-induced apoptosis by evoking ER stress in GC cells, particularly MDR cells. Further study indicated that these effects were highly dependent on glycosylation inhibition by Tu, rather than its role as a canonical ER stress inducer. Besides, autophagy was markedly triggered by Tu, and blocking autophagy enhanced the combined effects of Tu and chemotherapy on MDR GC cells. Conclusions Our results suggest that tumor-targeted glycosylation inhibition may be a feasible strategy to reverse chemoresistance in GC patients.

Objective(s): Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a chronic myeloproliferative disorder characterized by the accumulation of myeloid cells with a chromosomal translocation known as the Philadelphia chromosome. In this study, we investigated the roles of miR-570 in CML development. Materials and Methods: Expression of miR-570 in CML samples and cell lines was determined by qRT-PCR. Glucose uptake and ATP concentration detection assays were used to analyze cell glucose metabolism. MTT and western blot assays were performed for cell proliferation and apoptosis, respectively. The targets of miR-570 were predicted by bioinformatics and confirmed using luciferase activity, qRT-PCR and western blot assays. Results: The expression levels of miR-570 were significantly reduced in CML clinical samples and cells. Overexpression of miR-570 inhibited cell proliferation, promoted apoptosis, and suppressed glucose metabolism in CML cells. Insulin receptor substrates (IRS) 1 and IRS2 were identified as direct targets of miR-570. IRS1 or IRS2 were knocked down in K562 cells.Loss of IRS1/2 expression led to suppressed cell proliferation, elevated apoptosis, and decreased glucose metabolism in CML cells, which is consistent with their roles as miR-570 targets. Conclusion: MiR-570 directly targeted IRS1 and IRS2 in CML, suppressing cell proliferation and glucose metabolism. MiR-570 may provide a strategy for CML therapy.

Background: Host-derived inflammatory responses contribute to the morbidity and mortality of severe influenza, suggesting that immunomodulatory therapy may improve outcomes. The normally circulating protein, human plasma gelsolin, is available in recombinant form (rhu-pGSN) and has beneficial effects in a variety of pre-clinical models of inflammation and injury. Methods: We evaluated delayed therapy with subcutaneous rhu-pGSN initiated 3 to 6 days after intra-nasal viral challenge in a mouse model of influenza A/PR/8/34. Results: Rhu-pGSN administered starting on day 3 or day 6 increased survival (12-day survival: 62 % vs 39 %, pGSN vs vehicle; p < 0.00001, summary of 18 trials), reduced morbidity, and decreased pro-inflammatory gene expression. Conclusions: Rhu-pGSN improves outcomes in a highly lethal influenza model when given after a clinically relevant delay.

Modern rice cultivation relies heavily upon inorganic nitrogen fertilization. Effective fertilizer management is key to sustainable agricultural development. Field and pot trials were conducted in 2014–2016, including a 15N-labeled urea pot experiment (2014) to investigate mechanism by which optimized nitrogen fertilizer application (OFA) increases nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUE). Results showed that the applied nitrogen recovery efficiencies with OFA were 71.71%, 110.17%, and 51.38% higher than those obtained with traditional nitrogen fertilizer application (TFA) in 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively. These improvements are attributed mainly to the high recovery efficiency rates derived from spikelet-developing and spikelet-promoting fertilizer applications at the jointing stage and 15–20 d after jointing. Under OFA, the amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied at the early stages was half that used in TFA, which not only promoted the absorption of soil nitrogen, but also reduced nitrogen loss to the environment, as the NUE of basal and tillering fertilizer was only about 22%. Nitrogen applied during the panicle differentiation stage increased the expression of ATM1;1, a NH4+ transporter in roots. This effect significantly improved the uptake of nitrogen derived from fertilizer from jointing to heading stage. Up-regulation of the expression and activity of GS and GOGAT at the panicle differentiation and grain-filling stages promoted nitrogen translocation from vegetative organs to reproductive organs. The uptake of nitrogen derived from fertilizer increased from 22.51% in TFA to 35.58% in OFA. Nevertheless, rice absorbs most of the nitrogen it requires from the soil. The OFA treatment could effectively utilize the environmental compensation effect, promote the absorption and transport of nitrogen, and ultimately lead to improvement in NUE. Future research should aim to understand the soil nitrogen supply capacity in order to apply nitrogenous fertilizer in such a way that it sustains the nitrogen balance.

In this paper, a thermo-optic tuning optical waveguide sensor system based on a cascaded double micro-ring resonator is investigated. The system consists of a micro-ring resonator with the microheater as a reference ring and a micro-ring resonator with removing the upper cladding layers as a sensing ring, combined with a microfluidic control. The refractive index change of the sample is measured by the electric power change of the microheater. The experimental results show that the sensitivity of the thermo-optic tuning is 34.231 W/RIU (refractive index units), and the measurement range is 4.325 × 10−3 RIU, almost eight times larger than that of the cascaded double micro-ring resonator without thermo-optic tuning for the intensity interrogation.

In order to take full advantage of Grifola frondosa resources, the protein (GFP) was extracted from G. frondosa fruiting body and digested using six different proteases (papain, neutrase, alcalase, trypsin, pepsin, and Protamex) to produce the antioxidative hydrolysates. The trypsin hydrolysate prepared at 1.5 h possessed the strongest antioxidant potential among different hydrolysates, which was separated into four major fractions by ultrafiltration membranes with different molecular weight cut-off (MWCO), that are GFHT-1 (Mw > 10 kDa), GFHT-2 (Mw = 5-10 kDa), GFHT-3 (Mw = 3-5 kDa), and GFHT-4 (Mw < 3 kDa). In succession, the in vitro antioxidant activities of the four fractions were further evaluated, including the scavenging effect on DPPH, ferrous ion chelating effect, reducing power, and ability to inhibit the autoxidation of linoleic acid. The results demonstrated that all fractions are effective antioxidants and comparably GFHT-4 has the highest antioxidant activity. Then GFHT-4 was separated to two major peptide fractions by gel filtration chromatography, and the two fractions were located at 2,385 Da (F-1) and 1,138 Da (F-2), respectively.

Brassinosteroids (BR) regulate plant tolerance to salt stress but the mechanisms underlying are not fully understood. This study was to investigate physiological mechanisms of 24-epibrassinolide (EBR)'s impact on salt stress tolerance in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) The grass seedlings were treated with EBR at 0, 10, and 100 nM, and subjected to salt stress (250 mM NaCl). The grass irrigated with regular water without EBR served as the control. Salt stress increased leaf electrolyte leakage (EL), malondialdehyde (MDA), and reduced photosynthetic rate (Pn). Exogenous EBR reduced EL and MDA, increased Pn, chlorophyll content, and stomatal conductance (gs). The EBR applications also alleviated decline of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity when compared to salt treatment alone. Salt stress increased leaf abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberellin A4 (GA4) content but reduced indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), zeatin riboside (ZR), isopentenyl adenosine (iPA), and salicylic acid (SA). Exogenous EBR at 10 nm and 100 nM increased ABA, and iPA content under salt stress. The EBR treatment at 100 nM also increased leaf IAA, ZR, JA, and SA. In addition, EBR treatments increased leaf proline and ions (K+, Mg2+, and Ca2+) content, and reduced Na+/K+ in leaf tissues. The results of this study suggest that EBR treatment may improve salt stress tolerance by increasing the level of selected hormones and antioxidant enzyme (SOD and CAT) activity, promoting accumulation of proline and ions (K+, Ca2+, and Mg2+) in perennial ryegrass.

Background. To investigate whether PPIs BID is superior to QD for treatment of GERD in a short time. Methods. We searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, EMBASE, Ovid, EBSCO, and Web of Science databases (from 1998 to May 2016) to select RCTs, which compared the efficacy of PPIs BID versus QD for GERD. The primary outcomes were symptom relief or esophageal mucosal healing at weeks 4 and 8. The M-H method with fixed-effect or random-effect model was used to calculate RR and 95% CIs. Results. Seven RCTs were enrolled. The esophageal healing rates were higher in PPIs BID group (P=0.01), and rabeprazole 20 mg BID can achieve better mucosal healing than 20 mg QD after 8 weeks (P

Background: Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) is a standard treatment option for the management of portal hypertension in liver cirrhosis. Since the introduction of covered stents, shunt patency has been greatly improved. However, it remains uncertain about whether covered stents could improve survival. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials has been performed to compare the outcomes of covered versus bare stents for TIPS. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched to identify the relevant randomized controlled trials. Overall survival, shunt patency, and hepatic encephalopathy were the major endpoints. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Heterogeneity was calculated. Cochrane risk of bias tool was employed. Results: Overall, 119 papers were identified. Among them, four randomized controlled trials were eligible. Viatorr covered stents alone, Fluency covered stents alone, and Viatorr plus Fluency covered stents were employed in one, two, and one randomized controlled trials, respectively. Risk of bias was relatively low. Meta-analyses demonstrated that the covered-stents group had significantly higher probabilities of overall survival (HR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.50–0.90, p = 0.008) and shunt patency (HR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.29–0.62, p

As an important research subject, district heating with combined heat and power (CHP) has significant potential for energy conservation. This paper utilised a 200 MW air-cooled unit as an actual case and presented a design scheme and energy consumption analysis of three typical CHP modes, including the low vacuum mode (LVM), the extraction condensing mode (ECM), and the absorbing heat pump mode (AHPM). The advantages and disadvantages of each mode (including their practical problems) were analysed, and suggestions for the best mode were proposed. The energy consumption of the three heating modes changed with the heating load. When the heating load was increased, the net power of the entire system decreased to different degrees. In this paper, the energy conservation effect of the LVM was the most ideal, followed by the ECM and the AHPM. Besides, the LVM and AHPM were able to supply larger heat loads than the ECM, which was limited by the minimum cooling flow of the low pressure cylinder. Furthermore, in order to get a more general conclusion, a similar case with an air-cooled 300 MW unit is studied, showing that the fuel consumption levels of ECM and AHPM have changed.

The distributed renewable energy system, integrating various renewable energy resources, is a significant energy supply technology within energy internet. It is an effective way to meet increasingly growing demand for energy conservation and environmental damage reduction in energy generation and energy utilization. In this paper, the life cycle assessment (LCA) method and fuzzy rough sets (FRS) theory are combined to build an environmental evaluation model for a distributed renewable energy system. The ReCiPe2016 method is selected to calculate the environmental effect scores of the distributed energy system, and the FRS is utilized to identify the crucial activities and exchanges during its life cycle from cradle to grave. The generalized evaluation method is applied to a real-world case study, a typical distributed energy system located in Yanqing District, Beijing, China, which is composed of wind power, small-scale hydropower, photovoltaic, centralized solar thermal power plant and a biogas power plant. The results show that the environmental effect of per kWh power derived from the distributed renewable energy system is 2.06 × 10−3 species disappeared per year, 9.88 × 10−3 disability-adjusted life years, and 1.75 × 10−3 USD loss on fossil resources extraction, and further in the uncertainty analysis, it is found that the environmental load can be reduced effectively and efficiently by improving life span and annual utilization hour of power generation technologies and technology upgrade for wind turbine and photovoltaic plants. The results show that the proposed evaluation method could fast evaluate the environmental effects of a distributed energy system while the uncertainty analysis with FRS successfully and effectively identifies the key element and link among its life span.

In this paper, the exergoeconomic analysis was conducted to an existing ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant in China to understand the cost-formation process, to evaluate the economic performance of each component and to find possible solutions for more cost-effective designs. The total revenue requirement (TRR) and the specific exergy costing (SPECO) methods were applied for economic analysis and exergy costing, respectively. Quantitative balances of exergy and exergetic costs as well as necessary auxiliary equations for both individual component and the overall system were established. The results show that the exergoeconomic factors of the furnace and heat exchangers at low temperature levels, including air preheater and low-pressure feedwater preheaters, are rather small; while those of other components are relatively large. Moving more heat absorption into furnace to use the effective radiation heat transfer, increasing the air preheating temperature and adding more low pressure feedwater preheaters can be promising solutions for future design.

Acute portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is rarely encountered by clinicians. The most common manifestation of acute PVT is sudden onset of abdominal pain. A computed tomography scan without contrast often shows a high-density material in the portal vein. After injection of contrast agents, absence of luminal enhancement and enlargement of the obstructed portal vein are shown. In this case report, we demonstrated a rare computed tomography finding in which the diameter of the main portal vein was enormously distended to 3-fold that of the aorta in a patient with recent PVT. Despite thrombolysis and anticoagulation were immediately given, portal venous recanalization was not achieved in the patient. After 5 years, variceal bleeding and ascites occurred and liver function had persistently deteriorated. Finally, he died of progressive liver failure. Considering this case, we suggest that an early decision for invasive interventional treatment might be necessary to both increase the rate of portal venous recanalization and improve prognosis, as anticoagulation and thrombolysis therapy failed to recanalize recent PVT.

To reach optimal/better conceptual designs of energy systems, key design variables should be optimized/adapted with system layouts, which may contribute significantly to system improvement. Layout improvement can be proposed by combining system analysis with engineers’ judgments; however, optimal flowsheet synthesis is not trivial and can be best addressed by mathematical programming. In addition, multiple objectives are always involved for decision makers. Therefore, this paper reviews progressively the methodologies of system evaluation, optimization, and synthesis for the conceptual design of energy systems, and highlights the applications to thermal power plants, which are still supposed to play a significant role in the near future. For system evaluation, both conventional and advanced exergy-based analysis methods, including (advanced) exergoeconomics are deeply discussed and compared methodologically with recent developments. The advanced analysis is highlighted for further revealing the source, avoidability, and interactions among exergy destruction or cost of different components. For optimization and layout synthesis, after a general description of typical optimization problems and the solving methods, the superstructure-based and -free concepts are introduced and intensively compared by emphasizing the automatic generation and identification of structural alternatives. The theoretical basis of the most commonly-used multi-objective techniques and recent developments are given to offer high-quality Pareto front for decision makers, with an emphasis on evolutionary algorithms. Finally, the selected analysis and synthesis methods for layout improvement are compared and future perspectives are concluded with the emphasis on considering additional constraints for real-world designs and retrofits, possible methodology development for evaluation and synthesis, and the importance of good modeling practice.

Optimal operation of energy systems plays an important role to enhance their lifetime security and efficiency. The determination of optimal operating strategies requires intelligent utilization of massive data accumulated during operation or prediction. The investigation of these data solely without combining physical models may run the risk that the established relationships between inputs and outputs, the models which reproduce the behavior of the considered system/component in a wide range of boundary conditions, are invalid for certain boundary conditions, which never occur in the database employed. Therefore, combining big data with physical models via cyber physical systems (CPS) is of great importance to derive highly-reliable and -accurate models and becomes more and more popular in practical applications. In this paper, we focus on the description of a systematic method to apply CPS to the performance analysis and decision making of thermal power plants. We proposed a general procedure of CPS with both offline and online phases for its application to thermal power plants and discussed the corresponding methods employed to support each sub-procedure. As an example, a data-driven model of turbine island of an existing air-cooling based thermal power plant is established with the proposed procedure and demonstrates its practicality, validity and flexibility. To establish such model, the historical operating data are employed in the cyber layer for modeling and linking each physical component. The decision-making procedure of optimal frequency of air-cooling condenser is also illustrated to show its applicability of online use. It is concluded that the cyber physical system with the data mining technique is effective and promising to facilitate the real-time analysis and control of thermal power plants.