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In this retrospective study, we have explored the anatomical factors that lead to the development of radiation necrosis (RN) in the setting of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for melanoma brain metastases (MBM). Between 2014 and 2018, 137 patients underwent SRS for 311 MBM. Lesions were assessed according to anatomical zones: zone 1—peripheral grey-white matter junction and cortical mantle, zone 2—deep white matter, including tumours located at base of sulci, zone 3—tumours adjacent to ependymal lining or in deep locations such as brainstem, basal ganglia and thalamus. Other anatomical factors including lobes, medial-peripheral, supra or infratentorial locations were also recorded. In all, 12.4% (n = 17) of patients and 6.1% (n = 20) of lesions developed RN, actuarial incidence of RN at 12 and 24 months was 10% and 14.2% respectively. Zone 2 lesions recorded the highest rate of development of RN (n = 7/19; 36%), zone 3 (N = 4/24; 16%) and zone 1 (n = 9/268; 3%). Five of 17 patients developed symptomatic RN and 7/17 patients underwent surgery for RN. This study raises awareness of the increased likelihood of deep lesions particularly in white matter structures to develop RN after SRS. Further studies including larger cohorts would be useful in identifying statistical differences in the rate of development of RN in different anatomical zones.

Objective This study is a retrospective evaluation of patients with L4-5 highly down-migrated lumbar disc herniation (LDH) operated with interlaminar endoscopic lumbar discectomy (IELD) versus transforaminal endoscopic lumbar discectomy (TELD). Methods From January 2015 to December 2018, 77 patients with L4-5 highly down-migrated LDH were divided into 2 groups according to different surgical approaches. There were 40 patients who underwent IELD, and 37 patients who underwent TELD. The operation time, hospital stay, Oswestry Disability Index, clinical outcome according with modified MacNab criteria, Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores, and complications were compared between the IELD and TELD groups. Results Seventy-seven patients were included, 40 and 37 patients underwent IELD and TELD, respectively. The IELD and TELD groups both achieved a significant improvement in Oswestry Disability Index, back and leg VAS scores, and clinical outcome postoperation. Mean operating and x-ray times during operation were significantly shorter in the IELD group than in the TELD group (41.8 vs. 50.3, 1.8 vs. 13.7). There were 3 patients who experienced recurrence in the IELD group and 2 in the TELD group. In the TELD group, there were 3 patients who required revision surgery due to incompletely removed disc fragment. All patients in the IELD group were treated successfully. There was no other complication in these cases. Conclusions Both IELD and TELD could be a good alternative option for highly down-migrated LDH in L4-L5. IELD may have advantages in operation time and x-ray times during operation compared with TELD.

This article proposes a wearable assistive system based on artificial intelligence (AI) edge computing techniques to help visually impaired consumers safely use marked crosswalks, or zebra crossings. The proposed wearable assistive system consists of a pair of smart sunglasses, a waist-mounted intelligent device, and an intelligent walking cane (stick). A deep learning technique is adopted for zebra crossing image recognition in real time. Visually impaired consumers need to wear the proposed smart sunglasses and waist-mounted intelligent device and hold the proposed intelligent walking cane when they approach a zebra crossing. When a visually impaired pedestrian reaches a zebra crossing, they will immediately receive a message about the current situation at the crossing and the traffic light signal. Experimental results show that the accuracy of real-time zebra crossing recognition of the proposed system can reach up to 90%.

Research at the nexus of maritime management and operational performance suggests that lean management may benefit from sociotechnical systems theory (STS) in terms of long-term business performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which lean management practices can improve operational performance. This study aims to assess the relationships between lean policy, lean practices, operational performance, and business performance in the context of container shipping. The examined data are acquired from 212 respondents in Taiwan, and a structural equation model is employed to evaluate the hypotheses. The results show that lean policy and practice positively impact both lean social practices and lean technical practices. Lean social practices and lean technical practices are positively related to operational performance. Operational performance is associated with business performance. In particular, lean policy has a direct relationship with operational performance. Based on lean policy is easily able to directly improve its lean social practices and lean technical practices, proving lean policy can strongly push organizations towards further enhanced performance. Although it will be ups and downs along the way in terms of business performance, improving long-term business value and cost advantage is very importance. Thus, this article contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the effect of lean practices and discusses practical implications for container shipping companies.

As the population worldwide continues to age and the percentage of elderly people continues to increase, falls have been become the second leading cause of death from accidental or unintentional injuries. Although many imaging sensing devices have been used to detect falls for elderly people, most involve using the Internet to transfer images taken by a camera to a large back-end server, which performs the necessary calculations; however, algorithm limitations and computational complexity may cause bottlenecks in image outflow, and the image transfer can result in privacy problems. To address these problems, in this paper, an artificial intelligence (AI) fall detection method is proposed that operates using an edge computing architecture, called the pose estimation-based fall detection methodology (PEFDM), which is based on a human body posture recognition technique. The proposed PEFDM can effectively reduce the computational load, runs smoothly on mainstream edge computing systems and possesses artificial intelligence computing capabilities. By using edge computing, the privacy and upload bandwidth issues caused by image outflow can be eliminated. Experiments with real humans show that the PEFDM can detect falls for elderly people with a recognition accuracy of up to 98.1%.

The purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to compare the 24-month success rates of indirect pulp treatment (IPT) and iRoot BP Plus pulpotomy of primary molars with extremely deep caries. Generally healthy children aged 3–7 years requiring general anesthesia for treating primary molars with extremely deep caries or reversible pulpitis were recruited. Patients with systemic disease, mental health problems, or manifestations of irreversible pulpitis were excluded. In total, 175 molars were randomized and blinded for either IPT (n = 87) or iRoot BP Plus pulpotomy (n = 88). All teeth were restored with stainless steel crowns and evaluated after 6, 12, 18, and 24 months by two blinded calibrated investigators. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to compare the survival rates between the groups. The correlations between success rate and patient characteristics were explored with the Cox proportional hazards model. A total of 168 primary molars in 67 patients (average age: 3.83 years) were evaluated. The cumulative survival probability at 24 months was not significantly different between the IPT (93.8%) and pulpotomy (97.7%) groups (P = 0.238). IPT treatment success was significantly associated with age (odds ratio = 2.347; 95% CI: 1.068–5.156; P = 0.034) and preoperative sensitivity (odds ratio = 9.742; 95% CI: 1.079–87.970; P = 0.043). The 24-month success rates of IPT and iRoot BP Plus pulpotomy performed in primary molars with extremely deep caries were not significantly different. Increasing age and preoperative sensitivity were found to be associated with the cumulative survival probability in IPT-treated primary molars with extremely deep caries. Primary teeth with extremely deep carious lesions without signs of irreversible pulpitis can be treated successfully by either indirect pulp capping or iRoot BP Plus pulpotomy. ChiCTR2000032462

Background: Histopathological diagnosis remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of cancer, including colorectal cancer, but it is infeasible when tumor tissue is not available. With the recognition of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), the expression of lncRNAs in serum or tissue samples has been reported as a diagnosis method for some cancers, however, the diagnostic value of lncRNAs for colorectal cancer remains unclear. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted. Eligible studies were identified through a comprehensive literature search in PubMed, PubMed Central, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library (up to May 05, 2020) according to the selection criteria. Meta-DiSc, Review Manager and STATA were used to analyze the association between lncRNAs expression and the diagnosis of colorectal cancer. Results: Fifteen studies that analyzed the expression of 15 lncRNAs in 1434 CRC patients were included. The summary area under the curve (AUC) of lncRNA for the diagnosis efficacy between patients with and without CRC was estimated to be 0.8629, corresponding to a weighted sensitivity of 0.75 (95% CI: 0.72 - 0.77), specificity of 0.80 (95%CI: 0.78 - 0.82). Subgroup analysis illustrated that the AUC of blood-based detection of lncRNA showed 0.8820, pooled DOR: 18.57, while tissue-based analysis showed 0.8203, pooled DOR: 10.47. Blood-based tests were then divided into two categories, plasma-based and serum-based lncRNA testing. Results revealed that the AUC of serum-based detection was 0.9077, pooled DOR: 26.64, and plasma-based detection was 0.5000, pooled DOR: 11.80. Conclusions: This meta-analysis indicates that the aberrantly expressed lncRNAs might serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers for CRC patients and blood-based lncRNA analysis is of higher diagnostic accuracy than tissue-based testing. Moreover, serum-based lncRNA testing achieved higher diagnostic efficacy than plasma-based analysis.

Obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) may cause pulmonary diseases, and periostin plays an important role on the development of pulmonary diseases. In addition, periostin and pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α can regulate each other in vivo. This study aimed to observe the changes of serum periostin and TNF-α levels in patients with OSAHS compared with healthy volunteers and to investigate their correlation. A convenience sample of 67 patients with OSAHS in our hospital from December 2018 to December 2019 was selected and categorized into mild, moderate, and severe groups according to apnea-hypopnea index by polysomnography. In addition, 21 healthy volunteers were selected as the control group. Serum levels of periostin and TNF-α were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results were analyzed using the SPSS software. Both serum periostin and TNF-α levels in all the three OSAHS groups were higher than those of the control group and increased with severity of OSAHS. The severe group had significantly higher serum periostin and TNF-α levels than the mild and moderate groups (p

Transparent ceramics with good electrical performance have recently drawn broad interest as promising multifunctional materials. Here, we report that a superior transmittance (T = 75 % at 2000 nm) and good piezoelectricity (d33 ∼ 150 pC/N) can be simultaneously realized in 0.93K0.5Na0.5NbO3-0.07SrZrO3 (KNN-SZ) ceramics by Li2O regulation. The effect of Li2O regulation has two parts: first, the presence of Li2O facilitates the grain growth of KNN-SZ, considering that it melts at a relatively low temperature as a proper sintering aid; second, the introduced Li+ causes local lattice distortion, resulting in the coexistence of orthogonal and tetragonal (O–T) phases. The enlarged grains reduce the light scattering by grain boundaries for a higher optical transmittance; meanwhile, large grains stand as a prerequisite for the macroscopic domain structure favoured for decent piezoelectricity, which could also be partly caused by the coexistence of O–T phases. We believe that these findings might make KNN-based ceramics a preferable candidate for optoelectronic devices.

Cancer is a common and complex disease with various genetic and environmental risks. Chemotherapy and targeted therapy are one of the main therapeutic approaches for the treatment of advanced cancer patients. However, prolonged patient treatment often provokes drug resistance phenomena that render the therapeutic treatment highly ineffective. Therefore, the development of novel and effective treatment strategies to overcome drug resistance is urgent for cancer therapy. A variety of factors contribute to drug resistance, including tumor cell heterogeneity, drug efflux, drug inactivation, changes in tumor microenvironment, DNA damage repair disorders, epigenetic alterations in cancer cells and so on. However, how to circumvent drug resistance to improve anticancer efficacy remains to be determined. Currently, the most important approach for overcoming drug resistance is drug combination therapeutic regimen, however, it is easy to induce new drug resistance or even multi-drug resistance (MDR) which is defined as the resistance of cancer cells to multiple anticancer drugs with different structures and mechanisms of action. Whereas, the “multi-components and multi-targets” manifestations of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) make them an attractive direction for developing new adjuvant therapeutics to reverse drug resistance. In recent years, several compounds derived from TCM have been reported to augment sensitivity or overcome resistance of anticancer therapeutic drugs, including elemene, bufalin, curcumin, magnolol, honokiol, resveratrol, quercetin, and so on. Thus, the combination of TCM and conventional anticancer drugs will hopefully provide a novel strategy for enhancing the effects of anticancer strategies and overcoming their resistance in the treatment of cancer patients. In the current paper, we review the molecular mechanisms of drug resistance and the therapeutic strategies. We also discuss the current basic research and clinical studies in overcoming drug resistance from Traditional Chinese Medicine. Finally, we focus the integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine as a promising new therapeutic approach to enhance the effects of anticancer strategies or overcome their resistance in the treatment of cancer patients.

Background Clinical studies have suggested nebulized budesonide (NB) as an alternative to systemic corticosteroids for patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). However, the optimal budesonide dose for AECOPD remains unclear. Objectives To compare the efficacy and safety of different doses of NB in the management of AECOPD. Patients and methods A total of 321 AECOPD patients with moderate-to-severe exacerbation were randomly divided into three groups and treated with NB. The low dose group (L) was given 4 mg/day (n=95, 1 mg Q6h), while high-dose group 1 (H1, n=111, 2 mg Q6h) and high-dose group 2 (H2, n=115, 4 mg Q12h) were given 8 mg/day. Patients also received routine treatment including oxygen therapy, expectorant, nebulization bronchodilators, antibiotics, and fluid rehydration. The COPD assessment test (CAT), lung function, and artery blood gas were evaluated before and after 3 hrs and 5 days of treatment. In addition, hospital stay, frequency of acute exacerbations within 3 months of discharge, and adverse events during treatment were compared. Results H1 and H2 showed improved spirograms and CAT score faster than L. In H2, forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1%) at 3 hrs and FEV1%, forced expiratory flow after 50% of the forced vital capacity has been exhaled (FEF50%), mean forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% of forced vital capacity (FEF25-75%) and CAT score at 5 days were significantly improved compared to L. FEV1% improved most in H2, moderately in H1, and least in L, with significant differences between groups at 5 days. No differences between groups were observed in adverse effects, hospital stay, and frequency of exacerbations within 3 months of discharge. Conclusion Compared to the conventional dose (4 mg/day), a high dose (8 mg/day) of NB improved pulmonary function and symptoms more effectively in the early treatment of AECOPD, especially when given as 4 mg twice daily.

Background There are many studies on neoadjuvant immunotherapy for locally advanced non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Expert consensus recommends neoadjuvant immunotherapy for patients with resectable stage IB–IIIA NSCLC. However, there are few clinical studies or cases to verify this. Methods Data were collected from all NSCLC patients who underwent surgical resection after neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy admitted to the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University and Xuzhou Central Hospital between September 2020 and April 2021. Data collected included patient information, relevant examination results, intraoperative parameters, postoperative complications, pathological changes, and 90‐day mortality. Results In total, 25 patients achieved R0 resection. Eleven (44%) patients completed surgery by thoracotomy, and three (12%) procedures were changed from minimally invasive procedures due to dense adhesions of hilar lymph nodes, which rendered it difficult to dissect the blood vessels. Thirteen (52%) patients achieved a major pathological response (MPR) with eight (32%) of these patients having a pathological complete response (pCR). Twenty‐two (88%) patients showed radiological regression, and three (12%) patients had stable disease. The median drainage time was 8.50 (3–27) days. Thirteen (52%) postoperative complications were observed, but none were above grade 3. Conclusions In this study, neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy was found to reduce tumor volume, cause pathological downstaging, and raise the surgical resection rate of patients with locally advanced NSCLC, and achieve a 100% R0 resection rate. There was an acceptable rate of postoperative complications. Thus, neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy is safe and practical., Four typical contrast‐enhanced computed tomography (CECT) scans in patients before and after neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy. Neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy was found to reduce tumor volume, cause pathological downstaging, and raise the surgical resection rate of patients with locally advanced NSCLC.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the major cause of liver cancer-associated morality. Metformin, used for treating type 2 diabetes, has antitumor activity and reduces the risk of some diabetes-related tumors, such as liver and breast cancer. However, the mechanisms underlying metformin's effects in HCC remain unclear. To identify genes associated with metformin treatment in HCC, we conducted transcriptomic and proteomic analyses in HCC cells treated with or without metformin. We identified 41 differentially expressed genes upon metformin treatment. Among them, Ataxin 7 Like 3B (ATXN7L3B), which is a negative regulator of the Spt-Ada-Gcn5 acetyltransferase (SAGA) deubiquitinase (DUB) module and has relatively unknown functions in cancer, attracted our attention. We observed that metformin reduced ATXN7L3B level in HCC cells. ATXN7L3B expression was significantly negatively correlated with survival in liver cancer patients. We also demonstrated that ATXN7L3B promoted HCC stemness. Metformin treatment decreased ATXN7L3B-induced tumor-initiating ability in a HCC mouse model, implying that metformin may inhibit cancer stemness by downregulating ATXN7L3B. Our study supports the antitumor activity of metformin and its potential as an anticancer drug for HCC treatment.

BACKGROUND Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), a life-threatening complication occurring in stimulated ovarian cycles, arises from treatment with gonadotropin for inducing follicular maturation. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to compare the risk factors between patients with severe OHSS and those without OHSS after in vitro fertilization by intracytoplasmatic sperm injection/embryo transfer (IVF-ICSI/ET). Identifying the associated risk factors may provide guidance for clinicians on how to prevent OHSS. MATERIAL AND METHODS The retrospective study involved patients who had completed IVF-ICSI/ET cycles. The difference in markers for predicting the occurrence of OHSS between groups was compared. The potential protective and risk factors, as well as the predictive markers, were identified. RESULTS Patients with OHSS were younger (p = 0.015), had higher basal antral follicle counts (AFC) (p < 0.001) and lower total dosages of gonadotropin (Gn) (p = 0.011). On the day of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) administration, significantly higher total numbers of follicles (p < 0.001), serum estradiol (E2) (p < 0.001) and progestrone (Pg) (p = 0.001) levels, numbers of oocytes (p < 0.001) and metaphase II (MII) oocytes (p < 0.001) were also observed in the OHSS group when compared to the non-OHSS group. A univariate regression analysis revealed that age (OR = 0.898, 95% CI = 0.822-0.981) and total dosage of Gn (OR = 0.999, 95% CI = 0.999-1.000) were protective factors, whereas AFC (OR = 1.090, 95% CI = 1.051-1.131) and, on the day of hCG injection, the number of follicles (OR = 1.185, 95% CI = 1.027-1.230), serum E2 (OR = 1.000, 95% CI = 1.000-1.000) and Pg (OR = 2.773, 95% CI = 0.510-3.370) levels, the number of oocytes (OR = 1.254, 95% CI = 0.894-1.472) and MII oocytes (OR = 1.238, 95% CI = 0.747-1.217) were risk factors for OHSS. However, a multivariate regression analysis showed that the total number of follicles (OR = 1.124, 95% CI = 1.027-1.230) was the only predictive factor for the occurrence of OHSS. CONCLUSIONS The study demonstrated that the follicle count measured on the day of hCG administration was the only predictive factor for the occurrence of OHSS. This provides basic guidance to clinicians on the prevention of the complication when using assisted reproductive technologies (ART).

A novel trench shielded planar gate IGBT (TSPG-IGBT) with self-biased pMOS is proposed in this paper. It features a P-layer beneath the trench of the TSPG-IGBT to form a self-biased pMOS, which provides an additional path for the hole current and clamps the potential of the nMOS’s intrinsic drain for lower saturation current. In the off-state, with the increasing potential of the N-cs (N-doped carrier store layer), the self-biased pMOS turns on and the potential of the P-layer will be clamped by the hole channel. Then, the reverse voltage is sustained by the P-layer/N-drift junction and the potential of the N-cs is shielded by the clamped P-layer region. Therefore, the N-cs can be heavily doped to reduce the on-state voltage ( ${V} _{\mathrm{ on}}$ ) without decreasing the breakdown voltage. Compared with the conventional TSPG-IGBT, the ${V} _{\mathrm{ on}}$ of the proposed TSPG-IGBT is reduced by 0.3 V at the current density of 200 A/cm2 with the same turn-off loss. Besides, the saturation current density of the proposed one is decreased by 24%.

It may be very difficult to receive the signals from satellite positioning systems due to the existing obstacles in indoor environment. Arising from the popularity of smart phones, Wi-Fi based indoor positioning technology has the advantages with convenient deployment and low hardware cost. In this study, we focused on indoor positioning using Wi-Fi fingerprint data that were collected in shopping malls. Due to the volatility of Wi-Fi signals and the high-dimensional sparseness of fingerprint data, we proposed a feature extraction algorithm, called joint multi-task stacked denoising auto-encoder (JMT-SDAE), aiming at reducing the dimensionality of the original fingerprint data and improving the indoor positioning performance in shopping malls. Furthermore, the features extracted by JMT-SDAE and gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) were merged to construct a hybrid model, named as JMT-SDAE+GBDT. The experimental results based on 13 location datasets showed that the proposed feature fusion model had better positioning accuracy when compared with other existing positioners, and thus confirmed the effectiveness of our proposed feature extraction algorithm through multi-task learning.

Today, with the arrival of an aging society, the average age of the population is rising. It is known that the physiology of a person degrades with age. There are approximately 285 million visually impaired people in the world, of whom 140 million are elderly people over the age of 50, and 110 million of these visually impaired elderly people suffer from multiple chronic diseases. In the case of multiple medication usage, these 110 million vulnerable people will be more likely to take the wrong medicines or forget to take their medication. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a wearable smart-glasses-based drug pill recognition system using deep learning, named MedGlasses, for visually impaired people to improve their medication-use safety. The proposed MedGlasses system consists of a pair of wearable smart glasses, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based intelligent drug pill recognition box, a mobile device app, and a cloud-based information management platform. Experimental results show that a recognition accuracy of up to 95.1% can be achieved. Therefore, the proposed MedGlasses system can effectively mitigate the problem of drug interactions caused by taking incorrect drugs, thereby reducing the cost of medical treatment and providing visually impaired chronic patients with a safe medication environment.

Many people suffer from scalp hair problems such as dandruff, folliculitis, hair loss, and oily hair due to poor daily habits, imbalanced nutritional intake, high stress, and toxic substances in their environment. To treat these scalp problems, dedicated services such as scalp hair physiotherapy have emerged in recent years. This article proposes a deep learning-based intelligent scalp inspection and diagnosis system, named ScalpEye, as an efficient inspection and diagnosis system for scalp hair physiotherapy as part of scalp healthcare. The proposed ScalpEye system consists of a portable scalp hair imaging microscope, a mobile device app, a cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) training server, and a cloud-based management platform. The ScalpEye system can detect and diagnose four common scalp hair symptoms (dandruff, folliculitis, hair loss, and oily hair). In this study, we tested several popular object detection models and adopted a Faster R-CNN with the Inception ResNet_v2_Atrous model in the ScalpEye system for image recognition when inspecting and diagnosing scalp hair symptoms. The experimental results show that the ScalpEye system can diagnose four common scalp hair symptoms with an average precision (AP) ranging from 97.41% to 99.09%.

Purpose: To investigate the correlation between the expression of PD-L1, SOCS3 and immune-related biomarkers CD276, CD4, CD8 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and further determine the relationship with clinicopathologic characteristics and the prognostic value of their co-expression in HCC patients. Methods: We assessed the expression of PD-L1, CD276, SOCS3, CD4 and CD8 by immunohistochemistry in tumor tissue from 74 HCC patients who underwent curative hepatectomy. Results: High expression of PD-L1 was significantly associated with high Edmondson grade (p0.05). High expression of CD8 was respectively significantly associated with worse overall survival (OS) (p=0.002). There was no significantly difference between CD4 and CD8 high-expression and overall survival (OS) (p=0.100). Both high expression of PD-L1 (p=0.003) and low expression of SOCS3 (p=0.015) was significantly associated with worse overall survival (OS). But CD276 only had a trendency (p=0.166). Additionally, multivariate Cox regression models implied that PD-L1, SOCS3, as well as both CD4 and CD8 was an independent prognostic factor for OS (p

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is known as a first-line chemotherapeutic agent against colorectal cancer (CRC), but drug resistance occurs frequently and significantly limits its clinical success. Our previous study showed that the protocadherin 17 (PCDH17) gene was frequently methylated and functioned as a tumor suppressor in CRC. However, the relationship between PCDH17 and 5-FU resistance in CRC remains unclear. Here, we revealed that PCDH17 was more highly expressed in 5-FU-sensitive CRC tissues than in 5-FU-resistant CRC tissues, and high expression of PCDH17 was correlated with high BECN1 expression. Moreover, this expression profile contributed to superior prognosis and increased survival in CRC patients. Restoring PCDH17 expression augmented the 5-FU sensitivity of CRC in vitro and in vivo by promoting apoptosis and autophagic cell death. Furthermore, autophagy played a dominant role in PCDH17-induced cell death, as an autophagy inhibitor blocked cell death to a greater extent than the pancaspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK. PCDH17 inhibition by siRNA decreased the autophagy response and 5-FU sensitivity. Mechanistically, we showed that c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) activation was a key determinant in PCDH17-induced autophagy. The compound SP600125, an inhibitor of JNK, suppressed autophagy and 5-FU-induced cell death in PCDH17-reexpressing CRC cells. Taken together, our findings suggest for the first time that PCDH17 increases the sensitivity of CRC to 5-FU treatment by inducing apoptosis and JNK-dependent autophagic cell death. PCDH17 may be a potential prognostic marker for predicting 5-FU sensitivity in CRC patients.

Background:Fatty infiltration, inflammation, and apoptosis are common degenerative changes in patients with chronic rotator cuff tears that can lead to muscle atrophy and can even result in massive irreparable rotator cuff tears. Some data have demonstrated the proregenerative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic properties of stem cell–derived exosomes in some orthopaedic disorders, but their effect on torn rotator cuff muscles has never been investigated.Purpose:To study the effect of exosomes isolated from human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs-Exos) on muscle degeneration, regeneration, and biomechanical properties in a rat model of a massive rotator cuff tear (MRCT).Study Design:Controlled laboratory study.Methods:A bilateral supraspinatus and infraspinatus tenotomy was performed on rats to create an MRCT model. Forty-two rats were randomly assigned to 3 groups: the sham surgery group, the saline group (lesions treated with a saline injection), and the ASCs-Exos group (lesions treated with an ASCs-Exos injection). Wet muscle weight, fatty infiltration, inflammation, vascularization, regeneration, and biomechanical properties were evaluated at 8 and 16 weeks after surgery.Results:The results revealed that the ASCs-Exos treatment could prevent the atrophy, fatty infiltration, inflammation, and vascularization of muscles in the MRCT model ( P < .001). Additionally, the myofiber regeneration and biomechanical properties of ASCs-Exos-treated rotator cuffs were significantly elevated compared with those in the saline-treated group ( P < .001).Conclusion:This study demonstrates that ASCs-Exos can effectively decrease atrophy and degeneration and improve muscle regeneration and biomechanical properties in torn rotator cuff muscles.Clinical Relevance:ASCs-Exos can be used as a new cell-free approach to prevent the muscle degeneration associated with torn rotator cuffs and may be helpful to repair torn rotator cuffs. Nevertheless, further work needs to be done in a large animal model owing to the inherent regenerative potential possessed by rodents.

The farnesoid X receptor (FXR) regulates inflammation and immune responses in a subset of immune-mediated diseases. We previously reported that FXR expression promotes tumor cell proliferation in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Here we study the relevance of FXR to the immune microenvironment of NSCLC. We found an inverse correlation between FXR and PD-L1 expression in a cohort of 408 NSCLC specimens; from this, we identified a subgroup of FXRhighPD-L1low patients. We showed that FXR downregulates PD-L1 via transrepression and other mechanisms in NSCLC. Cocultured with FXRhighPD-L1low NSCLC cell lines, effector function and proliferation of CD8+ T cell in vitro are repressed. We also detected downregulation of PD-L1 in FXR-overexpressing Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) mouse syngeneic models, indicating an FXRhighPD-L1low subtype in which FXR suppresses tumor-infiltrating immune cells. Anti–PD-1 therapy was effective against FXRhighPD-L1low mouse LLC tumors. Altogether, our findings demonstrate an immunosuppressive role for FXR in the FXRhighPD-L1low NSCLC subtype and provide translational insights into therapeutic response in PD-L1low NSCLC patients treated with anti–PD-1. We recommend FXRhighPD-L1low as a biomarker to predict responsiveness to anti–PD-1 immunotherapy.

Background Angiogenesis, as an endogenous repair mechanism, plays crucial roles in wound healing and tissue regeneration. However, this process is impaired in the elderly due to aging-related vascular endothelial dysfunction. This study was aimed to explore the pro-angiogenic effects of exosomes from human embryonic stem cells (ESC-Exos) in aged mice of pressure-induced ulcer model and the underlying mechanism. Methods Pressure ulcer wounds were created on the back of d-galactose-induced aging mice. ESC-Exos were locally applied onto the wound beds, with PBS as control. The effects of ESC-Exos on wound healing were analyzed by measuring wound closure rates, histological and immunofluorescence analyses. Then, the anti-aging effect of ESC-Exos on vascular endothelial cells was tested in an in vitro d-galactose-induced HUVEC senescence model. Results ESC-Exos could accelerate wound closure and enhance angiogenesis, and the senescence of vascular endothelial cells was significantly ameliorated after ESC-Exos treatment. In vitro, ESC-Exos could rejuvenate the senescence of endothelial cells and recover compromised proliferation, migratory capacity, and tube formation. This recovery was Nrf2-activation-dependent, since cotreatment with Nrf2 inhibitor Brusatol could abolish the rejuvenative effects of ESC-Exos. Further study revealed that miR-200a was highly enriched in ESC-Exos and played a crucial role in ESC-Exos-mediated rejuvenation through downregulating Keap1, which negatively regulates Nrf2 expression. Conclusions ESC-Exos ameliorate endothelial senescence by activating Nrf2 and recover aging-related angiogenic dysfunction, thereby accelerating wound healing in aged mice. ESC-Exos might be a natural nano-biomaterial for aging-related diseases therapy. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13287-019-1253-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background Systemic inflammation has a critical role in the pathogenesis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Interleukin (IL)‐35 and IL‐37 have been identified as novel immune‐modulating cytokines with anti‐inflammatory activities in numerous types of inflammatory disease. The present study aimed to examine the serum levels of IL‐35 and IL‐37 in patients with OSA, and to investigate their associations with the severity of OSA. Methods A total of 97 patients, including 67 cases of OSA and 30 age‐ and gender‐matched healthy control subjects, were enrolled in the present study. All subjects were evaluated by overnight polysomnography. Serum IL‐35, IL‐37, and pro‐inflammatory cytokine IL‐1β levels were examined by ELISA. Results Compared with those in the control subjects, serum IL‐35, IL‐37, and IL‐1β levels were significantly elevated in patients with mild, moderate, or severe OSA. Furthermore, a severity‐dependent increase in serum IL‐35 and IL‐37 levels was observed in patients with OSA. IL‐35 and IL‐37 levels were positively correlated with the apnea‐hypopnea index (r = 0.742 and 0.578, respectively; both p, Recently, Interleukin (IL)‐35 and IL‐37 have recently been identified as novel immune‐modulating cytokines with anti‐inflammatory activities in numerous types of inflammatory diseases. However, the potential role of IL‐35 and IL‐37 in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) remains unknown. We report that serum IL‐35 and IL‐37 levels were significantly increased in patients with OSA and associated with the severity of OSA, implying that IL‐35 and IL‐37 may have a protective role in OSA by counteracting inflammatory responses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study analyzing the changes in serum IL‐35 and IL‐37 level and its correlation with the severity of OSA. ​

‘Overlap syndrome’ refers to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) combined with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and has poorer outcomes than either condition alone. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence and possible predictors of overlap syndrome and its association with clinical outcomes in patients with COPD. We conducted a cross-sectional study in 842 patients with COPD. We assessed the modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale (mMRC), Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS), COPD assessment test (CAT), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), and STOP-Bang questionnaire (SBQ) and performed spirometry and full overnight polysomnography in all patients. An apnea–hypopnea index (AHI) ≥ 5 events per hour was considered to indicate OSA. Participants were divided into a COPDOSA group with AHI ≥ 15 events per hour and a COPD group with AHI p > 0.05). Body mass index (BMI), neck circumference, CAT score, CCI, ESS, HADS, and SBQ scores, forced expiratory volume (FEV)1, FEV1%, FEV1/forced vital capacity ratio, and prevalence of hypertension, coronary heart disease, and diabetes were all significantly higher and the prevalence of severe COPD was significantly lower in the COPDOSA group compared with the COPD group (p < 0.05). BMI, neck circumference, ESS, CAT, CCI, HADS, hypertension, and diabetes were independent risk factors for OSA in COPD patients (p < 0.05). SBQ could be used for OSA screening in patients with COPD. Patients with severe COPD (FEV1% p = 0.048). Conclusions Patients with overlap syndrome had a poorer quality of life, more daytime sleepiness, and a higher prevalence of hypertension and diabetes than patients with COPD alone. BMI, neck circumference, ESS, CAT, CCI, HADS, hypertension, and diabetes were independent risk factors for OSA in patients with COPD. The risk of OSA was lower in patients with severe, compared with mild or moderate COPD.

According to the hospital's old adult wards' clinical needs, we propose a deep learning edge computing-based two-stage early bed-exit warning and bedside fall notification system for aged patients with a high risk of falls. The proposed system can effectively help the hospital reduce bed fall incidence and increase bed-exit and bedside fall notification rates. As a result, the rate of injury from falling bed-exit can be reduced.

This paper proposes a fall risk prediction system, which adopts two cameras and an AI server to obtain the images of the 3D human skeleton torso activities. We use the Hidden Markov model (HMM) for the movement changes of the joint points of the human skeleton torso in 3D space to evaluate the probability of falling of subjects. The experimental results show that the proposed system can efficiently predict the risk of falling for consumers with unbalanced gait.

This paper proposes a deep learning-based intelligent anti-collision system, which can avoid an accident caused by the improper opening of the car door. The proposed system consists of an intelligent rearview mirror, an on-board diagnostics-II (OBD-II) bridge, and an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) platform. The proposed system can recognize the rear approaching motorcycles and prevent the car from opening the car door improperly to avoid a collision accident between a motorcycle and the car door.

A deep learning-based intelligent scalp diagnosis system will be demonstrated. This live demonstration system is composed of a scalp detector, a mobile device app, an AI computing server, and a cloud-based service platform. During the live demonstration, this system can inference five scalp symptoms based on deep-learning technology for helping the treatment of hair salon or therapy services to achieve the purpose of scalp healthcare.

This paper proposes a wearable devices-based home sports recording system, which is composed of wearable devices, a mobile device app, and a cloud-based management platform. The proposed system can analyze five regular sports behaviors (walking, jogging (running), hula hoops, sit-ups, and push-up) taken by the sportsperson during a day. These five regular sports behaviors can be converted into calorie consumption so that the sportsmen can further understand how much exercise they need to reach the target of calories burned in a day.

This paper proposes an intelligent maintenance and repair informing system for solar power generation equipment, which the machine-learning techniques adopted to improve the time for manually judging the abnormal operation of the equipment. Thereby the maintenance efficiency of the equipment can be enhanced to reduce solar power generation losses. Based on the current environmental sensing data and power generation data of equipment, the proposed system infers whether the status of the solar power generation of each equipment is abnormal and its possible causes. Moreover, the maintenance and repair informing procedures can be processed and decided within 15 minutes.

Purpose To evaluate the relationship between the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) status and histone lysine‐specific demethylase 6A (KDM6A) on the prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods About 594 patients with CRC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were enrolled in this retrospective study. Subsequently, a series of different classification tests for MMR status, cancer types, and target gene expression was conducted. Results After filtering out the KDMs group of genes, we selected KDM6A as the target gene. A significant difference in the performance of KDM6A in tumor and normal tissues were confirmed. Our results showed a lower KDM6A expression, lower KDM6A exon expression, and higher KDM6A DNA methylation than their corresponding normal tissues in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD). Notably, the main MMR genes were highly expressed in tumor tissues than normal tissues both in COAD and rectum adenocarcinoma (READ). Moreover, proficient DNA mismatch repair (pMMR) was found to be an important poor prognostic factor in COAD (p = 0.0064) and the low KDM6A expression was an important factor for poor prognosis in READ (p = 0.0217). Based on these results, we consequently relate MMR status with KDM6A expression in predicting the prognosis of patients with CRC. Moreover, patients with pMMR exhibited a low KDM6A expression in COAD (p = 0.0250). Samples were divided into two groups based on the KDM6A expression. Interestingly, the group with low KDM6A expression showed no difference between pMMR and deficient DNA mismatch repair (dMMR) in prognosis, whereas the group with high KDM6A expression was closely related to MMR status in OS (p = 0.0082). Besides, COAD patients with high KDM6A expression and pMMR status had poor OS (p = 0.0082). Conclusions The KDM6A/MMR classification‐based subtypes of low KDM6A expression/READ, high KDM6A expression/pMMR, and COAD/pMMR were associated with poor prognosis. This classification can be a novel prognostic approach in CRC., The KDM6A/MMR classification based subtypes of low KDM6A expression/READ, high KDM6A expression/pMMR, and COAD/pMMR were associated with poor prognosis. This classification could more accurately stratify CRC patients as per the prognostic performance.

Background and objective: Long-term aspirin use for the primary prevention of cancer remains controversial, and variations in the effect of aspirin use on cancer outcomes by aspirin dose, follow-up duration, or study population have never been systematically evaluated. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of aspirin on primary cancer prevention and to determine whether the effect differed according to aspirin dose, follow-up duration, or study population. Materials and methods: Seven electronic databases were searched from inception to September 30, 2019. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that compared aspirin use versus no aspirin use in participants without pre-existing cancer and reported cancer outcomes were selected. Data were screened and extracted by different investigators. Analyses were performed using Review Manager 5.3 and Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 2.0. Total cancer incidence was defined as the primary clinical endpoint. Total cancer mortality, all-cause mortality, major bleeding, and total bleeding events were the secondary outcomes. Subgroup analyses were conducted based on aspirin dose, follow-up duration, and study populations. Results: Twenty-nine RCTs that randomized 200,679 participants were included. Compared with no aspirin, aspirin use was not associated with significant reductions in total cancer incidence (RR = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.97 to 1.04, P = 0.72), total cancer mortality (RR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.93 to 1.07, P = 0.90), or all-cause mortality (RR = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.94 to 1.02, P =0.31); however, aspirin use was associated with a 44% increase in the risk of major bleeding (RR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.32 to 1.57, P < 0.00001) and a 52% increase in the risk of total bleeding events (RR = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.33 to 1.74, P < 0.00001). Subgroup analyses demonstrated consistent results. Conclusions: Long-term aspirin use in individuals without pre-existing cancer was not associated with a significant reduction in total cancer incidence, cancer mortality, or all-cause mortality; however, aspirin use was associated with a significant increase in the risk of bleeding. Therefore, aspirin is not an appropriate choice for the primary cancer prevention.

BACKGROUND: Emerging evidence has suggested that dysbiosis of the lung microbiota may be associated with the development of lung diseases. However, the interplay between the lung microbiome and lung cancer remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to evaluate and compare differences in taxonomic and derived functional profiles in the lung microbiota between lung cancer and benign pulmonary diseases. METHODS: Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samples were collected from 32 patients with lung cancer and 22 patients with benign pulmonary diseases, and further analyzed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. The obtained sequence data were deeply analyzed by bioinformatics methods. RESULTS: A significant differentiation trend was observed between the lung cancer and control groups based on principal coordinate analysis (PCoA), while richness and evenness in the lung microbiome of lung cancer patients generally resembled those of patients with benign pulmonary diseases. Phylum TM7 and six genera (c:TM7-3, Capnocytophaga, Sediminibacterium, Gemmiger, Blautia and Oscillospira) were enriched in the lung cancer group compared with the control group (adjust P

Objective: Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide and the second most common cancer cause of death worldwide. 5-fluorouracil remains a widely used chemotherapeutic drug in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer, but chemotherapy drugs are prone to drug resistance, p53 deletion or mutation is an important reason for the resistance of colorectal cancer cells to 5-fluorouracil. β-elemene has been proved to have the potential of reverse chemotherapy drug resistance, but the mechanism is unknown. This study aimed to investigate the effect of β-elemene to 5-fluorouracil in drug-resistant p53-deficient colorectal cancer cells HCT116p53-/-, and determine the possible molecular mechanism of β-elemene to reverse 5-fluorouracil resistance. Methods: The effect of β-elemene on HCT116p53-/- cell activity was detected by Cell counting Kit-8. Cell proliferation was detected by monoclonal plate. The apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry and western blot. The autophagy was detected by western blot, immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscope. Determine the role of Cyclin-related protein Cyclin D3 in β-elemene reversing the resistance of HCT116p53-/- to 5-fluorouracil was detected by overexpression of Cyclin D3. The effect of β-elemene on the tumorigenic ability of p53-deficient colorectal cancer cells was detected establishing HCT116p53-/- all line xenograft model. Results: For p53 wildtype colorectal cancer cells, β-elemene could augment the sensitivity of 5-fluorouracil, for p53-deficient colorectal cancer cells, β-elemene significantly inhibited cell proliferation in a concentration-dependent manner, and reverse the resistance of HCT116p53-/- to 5-fluorouracil by inducing pro-death autophagy and Cyclin D3-dependent cycle arrest. Conclusion: β-elemene enhances the sensitivity of p53 wild-type cells to 5-fluorouracil, β-elemene can reverse the resistance of HCT116p53-/- to 5-fluorouracil by inducing pro-death autophagy and Cyclin D3-dependent cycle arrest in p53-deficient colorectal cancer，which will provide a new method for the treatment of p53 deletion colorectal cancer patients.

This study focuses on investigating the role of interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β) in functional regeneration following nerve injury in mice. A microarray‐based mRNA profiling study was used to analyze the expression level of IL‐1β in peripheral nerve regeneration. Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot were applied to assess the IL‐1β expressions of C57BL/6J‐crush and C57BL/6J‐crush+IL‐1β mice at different post‐injury time‐points after the standard sciatic nerve crush injury. The outcomes of nerve regeneration were evaluated by behavioral tests. IL‐1β was found to be up‐regulated in peripheral nerve regeneration and significantly raised on the 3rd day and returned to normal levels on the 14th day after nerve injury. Compared with C57BL/6J‐crush+IL‐1β mice, the nerve regeneration of C57BL/6J‐crush mice was worse after nerve crush injury. IL‐1β increased mechanical sensitivity and stimulated amplitude. IL‐1β could benefit the recovery of sciatic nerve crush injury by facilitating nerve regeneration.

Most individuals involved in traffic accidents receive assistance from drivers, passengers, or other people. However, when a traffic accident occurs in a sparsely populated area or the driver is the only person in the vehicle and the crash results in loss of consciousness, no one will be available to send a distress message to the proper authorities within the golden window for medical treatment. Considering these issues, a method for detecting high-speed head-on and single-vehicle collisions, analyzing the situation, and raising an alarm is needed. To address such issues, this paper proposes a deep learning-based Internet of Vehicles (IoV) system called DeepCrash, which includes an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) telematics platform with a vehicle self-collision detection sensor and a front camera, a cloud-based deep learning server, and a cloud-based management platform. When a head-on or single-vehicle collision is detected, accident detection information is uploaded to the cloud-based database server for self-collision vehicle accident recognition, and a related emergency notification is provided. The experimental results show that the accuracy of traffic collision detection can reach 96% and that the average response time for emergency-related announcements is approximately 7 s.

This paper proposes a mobile device-based hairy scalp diagnosis system, which adopts deep learning techniques. The proposed system is composed of a mobile device, a cloud-based AI training server, and a cloud-based database. Moreover, the proposed system can detect and diagnose four common hairy scalp symptoms: dandruff, folliculitis, hair loss, and oily hair. As a result, the experimental results showed that the recognition accuracy of the proposed system could achieve up to 95.59%.

This paper proposes a drowsiness-fatigue-detection system based on wearable smart glasses to increase road safety. The proposed system is composed of a pair of wearable smart glasses, an in-vehicle infotainment telematics platform, an on-board diagnostics-II-based automotive diagnostic bridge, an active vehicle rear light alert mechanism, and a cloud-based management platform. A dedicated miniature bandpass infrared (IR) light sensor is also proposed and implemented for the low-cost, lightweight, wearable smart glasses, which can provide a higher signal-to-noise ratio than a general commercial IR light sensor, minimize the ambient environmental light image, and efficiently increase the accuracy of detection. The proposed system can detect the status of the vehicle driver with respect to drowsiness or fatigue conditions in real time. When drowsiness or fatigue is detected, the active vehicle real light alert mechanism will automatically be flickered to alert following vehicles. The related information will also be concurrently transmitted to a cloud-based management platform. As a result, the proposed system can lead to increased road safety.

Background Human BarH-like homeobox 2 (Barx2), a homeodomain factor of the Bar family, plays a critical role in cell adhesion and cytoskeleton remodeling, and has been reported in an increasing array of tumor types except non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). The purpose of the current study was to characterize the expression of Barx2 and assess the clinical significance of Barx2 in NSCLC. Methods Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis were used to examine mRNA and protein expression, respectively. The relationships between Barx2 expression and clinicopathological variables were analyzed. Cell Counting Kit-8 and plate colony formation assay were used to detect cell proliferation. Transwell assay was used to examine cell migration ability. Glucose uptake, lactate, adenosine triphosphate, and lactate dehydrogenase assays were used to detect aerobic glycolysis. Results Barx2 is downregulated in NSCLC tissues compared with para-carcinoma. Furthermore, Barx2 expression shows a negative correlation with advanced TNM stage and a high level of Ki-67. Survival analysis reveals that Barx2 level is an independent prognostic factor for NSCLC patients. The Barx2 (low) Ki-67 (high) group had the worst prognosis. Furthermore, the data indicate that downregulation of Barx2 expression promotes cell proliferation, migration, and aerobic glycolysis, including increased lactate dehydrogenase activity, glucose utilization, lactate production, and decreased intracellular adenosine triphospahte level. Furthermore, Barx2 acts as a negative regulator of the canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Reactivation of Wnt/β-catenin pathway by LiCl can reverse the inhibiting effect of Barx2. Conclusions These findings reveal that Barx2 serving as a tumor suppressor gene could decrease cell proliferation, migration, and aerobic glycolysis through inhibiting the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, and predicts a good prognosis in NSCLC.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic progressive fibrotic lung disease with high morbidity and mortality. Recently, TGR5 has been identified as a critical regulatory factor involved in inflammation and cancer. However, its function in pulmonary fibrosis remains unclear. Here, we first reported that TGR5 was overexpressed in the hyperplastic alveolar epithelial cells overlying fibroblastic foci in lung tissues of IPF patients, while mesenchymal cells in areas of fibrosis also had scattered TGR5 staining. In vitro study, TGR5 knockdown effectively inhibited TGF-β1-induced alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) activation and fibroblasts proliferation, motility and differentiation. Mechanically, TGR5 promoted EMT process in lung fibrogenesis by the Smad2/3 and Akt/Erk signaling pathways, which could be potently blocked by TGF β receptor I inhibitor LY2157299 or Akt inhibitor MK2206. Furthermore, the TGR5 expression was elevated in animal models of bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Our data further revealed that the degree of lung fibrosis was significantly alleviated in TGR5 knockout mice, which was accompanied by prominent decreases in TGF-β1 expression, repression of EMT process and releasing of inflammatory and fibrogenic cytokines. Collectively, this study demonstrated that TGR5 exerted a profibrogenic role in pulmonary fibrosis, thus opening up a novel therapeutic opportunity for pulmonary fibrosis. Funding Statement: This study was supported by Grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81874314, 81903633 and 81600044). Declaration of Interests: All authors reviewed the manuscript and all declare no conflict of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: All medical research was approved by the ethics committees of Ren Ji Hospital.

In this paper, we propose a 3D limb trajectory tracking system, named BodyTracker, which is based on deep learning techniques for assisting rehabilitation. The proposed BodyTracker is composed of two limbs recognition camera and a deep learning training server. As a result, the proposed system can provide medical personnel with an effective way to assess the effectiveness of rehabilitation for stroke patients.

This paper proposes an intelligent liquid waste barrels monitoring system, named iCAP system, which is based on the Internet of things (IoT) technologies for detecting abnormal opening and dumping of the liquid waste barrels. The proposed system is composed of an inbound/outbound areas management system, intelligent screw caps (named iCAP), and an online cloud-based platform. The inbound/outbound areas management system can provide inbound/outbound areas status management for the liquid waste barrels during transportation. If the intelligent screw cap mounted on the liquid barrel is unscrewed or closed during outdoor transportation, the related messages of such a situation will be uploaded to the proposed online could platform via the SigFox low power wide area networks (LPWAN) wireless communication technology to provide an effectively management and monitoring of liquid waste container transportation. As a result, the proposed system can avoid the problem of environmental pollution, which is caused by illegal waste dumping in the waste treatment process.

This paper proposes a wireless communication scheme, named AudioNet, which is based on the audio frequency (AF) domain modulation/demodulation techniques for wireless personal area networks (WPAN). The proposed AudioNet includes a transmitter and a receiver. The frequency modulation scheme of the transmitter adopts frequency-shift keying (FSK). The Goertzel's algorithm is used to implement the FSK demodulation in the receiver. As a result, the experimental results showed that the proposed AudioNet can be transmitted the text string messages over audio at 32bps.

This paper proposes an in-vehicle safety aided system, which adopts DC power-line communication (DC PLC) as a main transmission channel. The proposed system is composed of a voice-to-text (VTT) module, two embedded computer modules, two DC PLC transceiver modules, a text and video message display module, and a distance measurement module. Moreover, the proposed system is successfully installed and tested in a real vehicle. The experimental results showed that the proposed system can have a data of distance to the adjacent rear vehicle, and display front view video with alerting messages for drivers of rear vehicles. As a result, the proposed system can be applied to alert the drivers of rear vehicles to achieve the purpose of road safety.