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This article investigates legitimate eavesdropping and secure communication in a multicarrier interference network, where a suspicious link coexists with an unsuspicious link, in the presence of a full-duplex monitor. It is assumed that the unsuspicious users (UUs) are under illegal eavesdropping threat from the suspicious users (SUs), and the monitor can send jamming signals to interfere with the SUs. The UUs are required to cooperate with the monitor for reducing the secrecy outage probability of the UUs to be lower than that without the monitor’s jamming. Under this secrecy outage constraint along with the transmit power constraints, the problem for maximizing the successful eavesdropping probability of the monitor by jointly allocating the transmit powers of the monitor and the UUs is investigated. The problem is solved with the Lagrange duality method by proving the time-sharing property holds, where two algorithms are proposed for obtaining the dual function based on the block coordinate descent method and the successive convex approximation method. Simulation results verify that the proposed algorithms are superior to the noncooperative strategy and the passive eavesdropping strategy, and achieve high successful eavesdropping probability and low secrecy outage probability simultaneously.

Travel vlogging is gaining popularity and studying the practice of travel vlogging can provide insights into tourist behaviour, communication, and management. The notion of practice was adopted as the theoretical base and the analytical framework. A qualitative approach was employed, including interviews with 12 strategically sampled vlogger tourists and analysis of their vlog productions. The findings suggested that travel vlogging is a practice bundle constructed by four sequential practices; designing, filming, editing, and posting. Through a collaborative relationship, the four practices achieve the shared meanings of self-concept expressions, a sense of documentation and ritual, and pleasures in vlogging. Moreover, travel vlogging affects tourist experiences; it creates a self-other divide, mediates the experiences of the 'self', and moderates the experiences of the 'others'. Such impacts vary across the dimensions of travel stages, materiality, and engagement. Theoretically, the study offers fresh insights into the practice of vlogging and the creation of travel vlog content; pragmatically, understandings and implications for quality experiences of vlogger tourists are addressed.

Trauma hemorrhage (TH) and subsequent sepsis are well known to frequently result in severe organ damage. Although macrophage-activating lipopeptide-2 (MALP-2) has been described to exert beneficial effects on organ damage, and further clinical course after both isolated trauma and sepsis, little is known about the impact of MALP-2 in a clinically realistic two-hit scenario of TH and subsequent sepsis. As the liver represents a key organ for the posttraumatic immune response and development of complications, the effects of MALP-2 on the posttraumatic hepatic immunologic response and tissue damage were investigated in a murine “two-hit” model. In C57BL/6 mice, blood pressure-controlled (35 ± 5 mm Hg) TH was induced. Cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) was performed 48 h after TH. Mice were divided into two control groups (control 1, TH and laparotomy without CLP; control 2, TH and CLP) and three experimental groups (TH + CLP) treated with MALP-2 at different timepoints (ETH, end of TH; ECLP, end of CLP; 6CLP, 6 h after CLP). The observation time lasted for 168 h after induction of TH. Kupffer cells (KC) were isolated and cultured, and MPO activity was analyzed. Cell culture supernatants were taken for cytokine analysis (TNF-α, IL-6, MCP-1, GM-CSF, IL-10). Histological analysis was performed using the Hepatic Injury Severity Scoring (HISS). Statistical evaluation was carried out using SPSS (version 24.0.0; IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). MPO activity of control 1 group was lowest compared with all the other groups (p

Recently, wireless powered cooperative cognitive radio networks (CRNs), which combine the technologies of radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting and CR, have drawn great attention. In such networks, energy cooperation between the cognitive users (CUs) and the wireless powered primary users (PUs) can be performed, where the CUs can charge the PUs wirelessly in exchange for the spectrum access. Specifically, energy cooperation and information transmission is executed in two phases, where the CUs transmit their data signals and the PUs harvest energy from these signals in the first phase, and the PUs transmit their data using the harvested energy in the second phase. In particular, we consider two multiple access schemes for the CUs, namely non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and time-division multiple access (TDMA). For both NOMA and TDMA, the PU sum-rate maximization problems under the minimum CU sum-rate constraint are first simplified by exploring particular problem structure, then are transformed to convex problems, and finally are solved optimally. The PU sum-rates of the two schemes are compared theoretically as well as numerically. It is revealed that the circuit power consumption at the CUs, the required minimum CU sum-rate, and the PU energy harvesting sensitivity and saturation thresholds play key roles in the PU performance comparison of the two schemes.

In this letter, we investigate the secrecy outage performance of a cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network, where a base station (BS) communicates with multiple cell-centre users and a cell-edge user in the presence of an eavesdropper. It is assumed that there is no direct link between the BS and the cell-edge user, and thus one of the cell-centre users is selected to act as a relay for the cell-edge user. Particularly, the selected cell-centre user adopts the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) for decoding information and harvesting energy for forwarding. The closed-form approximate expression for the system secrecy outage probability is derived under the max-min user selection (MMUS) strategy. The theoretical results are verified by simulations, and it is shown that the MMUS strategy outperforms various benchmark strategies.

In this paper, spectrum sharing incentive for legitimate wireless information surveillance at the physical layer is investigated. The concept behind this is that authorized government agencies want to eavesdrop the communication between a suspicious source-destination pair, and stimulate the help of another source-destination pair (referred to as secondary users) looking for transmission opportunities. We thus propose to let the secondary receiver act as a monitor to eavesdrop the suspicious communication and let the secondary transmitter act as a friendly jammer to improve the eavesdropping performance, such that they are granted to share the spectrum of the suspicious users, as a reward. To guarantee the eavesdropping performance, the successful eavesdropping probability is required to be larger than that with passive eavesdropping. The problems of jointly optimizing the transmit power of the secondary transmitter and the successive interference cancellation (SIC) decoding order at the secondary receiver to maximize the average secondary transmission rate and minimize the secondary transmission outage probability are investigated. Two scenarios are considered for the availability of the channel state information (CSI). The first scenario assumes perfect CSI, and the optimal strategies for the transmit power control and the SIC decoding ordering are derived. The second scenario assumes partial CSI, where the instantaneous CSI of the secondary transmission link and the statistical CSI of the links related to the suspicious communication are available, and the optimal strategies for maximizing an approximate average secondary transmission rate and minimizing an approximate secondary transmission outage probability are proposed. Extensive simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed strategies.

To evaluate the recovery of early urinary continence in patients with prostate cancer using a suprapubic catheter during Retzius-sparing robotic-assistant laparoscopic prostatectomy. From January 2018 to January 2019, 223 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer who underwent Retzius-sparing robotic-assistant laparoscopic prostatectomy in Diakonie Klinikum Stuttgart were involved in our study. From January 2018 to June 2018, patients (112 cases) only had an indwelling urinary catheter during Retzius-sparing robotic-assistant laparoscopic prostatectomy, while from July 2018 to January 2019, patients (111 cases) were offered an extra suprapubic catheter during operation. The recovery of early urinary continence of patients was mainly investigated one month later. The overall early urinary continence rate was 81.61%. Patients with suprapubic catheter had better urinary control results, compared to patients with only indwelling urinary catheter (87.39% vs 75.89%, p = 0.027). In addition, International Prostate Symptom Score and irritative subscore in patients with good urinary control were significantly lower than that in patients with urinary incontinence. Suprapubic catheter insertion (OR 0.395; 95% CI 0.190–0.821) and advanced pathological tumor stage (T3a–T4) (OR 2.061; 95% CI 1.008–4.217) were two independent influencing factors for early urinary continence recovery in patients who underwent Retzius-sparing robotic-assistant laparoscopic prostatectomy through multivariate logistic regression analysis. Suprapubic catheter insertion may be helpful for early urinary continence recovery in patients with Retzius-sparing Robotic-assistant laparoscopic prostatectomy. Advanced pathological tumor stage (T3a–T4) before Retzius-sparing robotic-assistant laparoscopic prostatectomy might be associated with poor urinary control.

In this letter, we investigate the outage performance of a joint transmission coordinated multipoint cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (JT-CoMP-CNOMA) network. It is assumed that there is no direct links between the base stations and the cell-edge user, and thus the cell-centre users act as relays for the cell-edge user. The cell-centre users are assumed to be energy-constrained and adopt the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) for decoding information and harvesting energy for forwarding. The closed-form approximate expressions for the outage probabilities of the users are derived. The theoretical results are verified by conducting Monte-Carlo simulations. It is shown that significant performance gain for the cell-edge user is achieved by JT-CoMP-CNOMA compared to the conventional CNOMA and the CoMP-CNOMA with opportunistic scheduling.

Pulmonary complications after severe trauma and sepsis remain to be the main cause for adverse outcome. MALP-2 has been described to exert beneficial effects on organ damage and the further course after isolated trauma and sepsis. However, the impact of MALP-2 on a clinically realistic two-hit scenario of trauma and subsequent sepsis remains unknown. We, therefore, investigated if the systemic inflammatory response and pulmonary immune response and damage are beneficially modulated by MALP-2 in a murine two-hit model. Blood pressure-controlled trauma-hemorrhage (TH) and cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) were induced in C57/BL6 mice. Mice were divided into 2 control groups (control 1: TH without CLP; control 2: TH and CLP) and 3 experimental groups treated with MALP-2 at different time points (ETH, end of TH; ECLP, end of CLP; and 6CLP 6 h after CLP). Survival rates were assessed over the observation period of 168 h after the induction of TH. Concentrations of plasma inflammatory cytokines and chemokines (TNF-α, IL-6, MIP-1α, IFN-γ, and IL-10) were assessed, and bacterial clearance of the lungs was determined. Furthermore, pulmonary MPO activity assay to evaluate the infiltration of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) and histological evaluation were performed. Survival rates were evaluated. Compared with control group 1, the level of TNF-α in the ECLP group showed a significant increase (ECLP, 2.27 pg./ml ± 1.39 vs. control 1: 0.16 pg./ml ± 0.11, p = 0.021). In contrast, levels of IFN-γ were significantly reduced in groups ETH and 6CLP compared with control group 1 (control 1: 8.92 pg./ml ± 4.38 vs. ETH: 1.77 pg./ml ± 4.34, p = 0.026 resp. vs. 6CLP: 1.83 pg./ml ± 4.49, p = 0.014). While systemic concentrations of inflammatory mediators were not affected by MALP-2 treatment, the lung tissue presented with significant alterations. Reduced MPO activity was lowest in group ECLP (ECLP 11,196.77 ± 547.81 vs. ETH 12,773.94 ± 1011.76; p = 0.023 resp. vs. 6CLP 13,155.19 ± 423.99, p = 0.016) in experimental groups. Also, histological damage after MALP-2 application was lowest in ECLP animals (ECLP 0.50 ± 0.08 vs. ETH 0.71 ± 0.05, p = 0.034 resp. vs. 6CLP 0.64 ± 0.08, p = 0.021). Furthermore, MALP-2 treatment was associated with a trend towards improved survival in the ECLP group (ECLP 83.3% vs. ETH 66.7 and 6CLP 58.3%, p > 0.05). Based on our results, MALP-2 might have beneficial effects on the clinical course after hemorrhage and sepsis by reducing pulmonary damage and PMN infiltration. This might also affect survival. According to our data, MALP-2 should be given at the earliest possible time point after the onset of sepsis. However, the optimal dosage and confirmation of our results in larger cohorts need to be the focus of further research.

OBJECTIVES: To examine pain and spirituality, demographic/clinical factors associated with pain and spirituality, the contribution of spirituality to experiences pain over time, and how pain and spirituality relate to engagement with a caregiver-delivered intervention. SAMPLE & SETTING: Women with advanced breast cancer (n=256) enrolled in a home-based randomized controlled trial of foot reflexology. METHODS & VARIABLES: Secondary analyses were conducted with baseline and post-intervention data (including reflexology and control groups). Stepwise model building, linear mixed effects modeling and negative binomial regression were employed. Measures: Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-pain intensity; Long-Term Quality of Life- Spiritual/Philosophical subscale; demographic/clinical variables. RESULTS: Mean pain was 3.6/10 and spirituality was 3.2/4.0 at baseline. Participants who were younger (p

Extra-domain B of fibronectin (EDB-FN) is an alternatively spliced form of fibronectin with high expression in the extracellular matrix of neovascularized tissues and malignant cancer cells. In this study, we evaluated the practicality of using EDB-FN as a biomarker and therapeutic target for malignant gliomas (MGs), representative intractable diseases involving brain tumors. Methods: The microarray- and sequence-based patient transcriptomic database 'Oncopression' and tissue microarray of MG patient tissue samples were analyzed. EDB-FN data were extracted and evaluated from 23,344 patient samples of 17 types of cancer to assess its effectiveness and selectivity as a molecular target. To strengthen the results of the patient data analysis, the utility of EDB-FN as a molecular marker and target for MG was verified using active EDB-FN-targeting ultrasmall lipidic micellar nanoparticles (~12 nm), which had a high drug-loading capacity and were efficiently internalized by MG cells in vitro and in vivo. Results: Brain tumors had a 1.42-fold cancer-to-normal ratio (p < 0.0001), the second highest among 17 cancers after head and neck cancer. Patient tissue microarray analysis showed that the EDB-FN high-expression group had a 5.5-fold higher risk of progression than the EDB-FN low-expression group (p < 0.03). By labeling docetaxel-containing ultrasmall micelles with a bipodal aptide targeting EDB-FN (termed APTEDB-DSPE-DTX), we generated micelles that could specifically bind to MG cells, leading to superior antitumor efficacy of EDB-FN-targeting nanoparticles compared to nontargeting controls. Conclusions: Taken together, these results show that EDB-FN can be an effective drug delivery target and biomarker for MG.

This letter investigates legitimate surveillance of suspicious communication with a battery-aided full-duplex wireless powered monitor. The suspicious communication consists of multiple time slots, and the aim of the monitor is to maximize the number of slots that can be successfully wiretapped. To enhance the surveillance performance, the monitor can send jamming signals using the energy stored in the battery. It is assumed that the power splitting is used by the monitor for simultaneous energy harvesting and information decoding, and the harvested energy is accumulated in the battery for usage in future slots. The power splitting ratio and the jamming transmit power are optimized with the energy causality constraint under both the offline and online settings of the channel power gains. It is shown that all the proposed algorithms outperform the benchmark algorithm, and the proposed low-complexity suboptimal offline algorithm and the online algorithm are close to optimal.

In this correspondence, legitimate surveillance of a downlink suspicious non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network with multiple groups of suspicious users (SUs), in the presence of a full-duplex monitor equipped with a successive interference cancellation (SIC) decoder, is investigated. Proactive eavesdropping is adopted, i.e., the monitor simultaneously eavesdrops the suspicious communications, and sends jamming signals. The problem of maximizing the number of successfully eavesdropped SUs by jointly optimizing the jamming power allocation and the decoding order at the monitor is investigated considering both imperfect full-duplex self-interference cancellation, and imperfect SIC. By exploring the particular problem structure, a heuristic iterative algorithm is proposed, where the optimal decoding at the monitor is proved to be equal to that at the SUs. Extensive simulations confirm that the proposed algorithm achieves performance very close to the optimal one but with significantly lower complexity, and outperforms various benchmark algorithms.

Information on tourists’ spatio-temporal behavior is useful for destination marketing and management. GPS data collection, GIS and statistical analyses of survey data from a zoo in Beijing are repo...

The tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) is now considered as an important factor during gastric cancer (GC) development. This study identified a novel immune-related risk model for predicting prognosis and assessing the immune status of GC patients. Transcriptomic data were obtained from the TCGA database. The differential expressed immune-related genes (IRGs) were identified through the ImmPort portal. Enrichment analysis was performed to explore the potential molecular mechanism of these IRGs. By the Cox regression analysis, we constructed the immune prognostic model. Then, the association between the model and the immune microenvironment was estimated. The model was validated in the GSE84433 dataset. Totally, we identified 222 differentially expressed IRGs. These IRGs were closely correlated with immune response and immune signaling pathways. Through the Cox regression analysis, we developed the immune prognostic model based on the expression of seven IRGs (CXCL3, NOX4, PROC, FAM19A4, RNASE2, IGHD2-15, CGB5). Patients were stratified into two groups according to immune-related risk scores. Survival analysis indicated that the prognosis of high-risk patients was poorer than low-risk patients. Moreover, the immune-related risk score was an independent prognostic biomarker. More importantly, we found that the infiltration level of immunosuppressive cells and the expression of inhibitory immune checkpoints were higher in high-risk patients. The immune microenvironment tended to be a suppressive status in patients with high-risk scores. This study demonstrated that our model had predictive value for prognosis and the TIME in GC. It might be a robust tool to improve personalized patient management.

China faces the greatest challenge from stroke in the world. The death rate for cerebrovascular diseases in China was 149.49 per 100 000, accounting for 1.57 million deaths in 2018. It ranked third among the leading causes of death behind malignant tumours and heart disease. The age-standardised prevalence and incidence of stroke in 2013 were 1114.8 per 100 000 population and 246.8 per 100 000 person-years, respectively. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017, the years of life lost (YLLs) per 100 000 population for stroke increased by 14.6%; YLLs due to stroke rose from third highest among all causes in 1990 to the highest in 2017. The absolute numbers and rates per 100 000 population for all-age disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for stroke increased substantially between 1990 and 2017, and stroke was the leading cause of all-age DALYs in 2017. The main contributors to cerebrovascular diseases include behavioural risk factors (smoking and alcohol use) and pre-existing conditions (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia and atrial fibrillation (AF)). The most prevalent risk factors among stroke survivors were hypertension (63.0%-84.2%) and smoking (31.7%-47.6%). The least prevalent was AF (2.7%-7.4%). The prevalences for major risk factors for stroke are high and most have increased over time. Based on the latest national epidemiological data, 26.6% of adults aged ≥15 years (307.6 million adults) smoked tobacco products. For those aged ≥18 years, age-adjusted prevalence of hypertension was 25.2%; adjusted prevalence of hypercholesterolaemia was 5.8%; and the standardised prevalence of diabetes was 10.9%. For those aged ≥40 years, the standardised prevalence of AF was 2.31%. Data from the Hospital Quality Monitoring System showed that 3 010 204 inpatients with stroke were admitted to 1853 tertiary care hospitals during 2018. Of those, 2 466 785 (81.9%) were ischaemic strokes (ISs); 447 609 (14.9%) were intracerebral haemorrhages (ICHs); and 95 810 (3.2%) were subarachnoid haemorrhages (SAHs). The average age of patients admitted was 66 years old, and nearly 60% were male. A total of 1555 (0.1%), 2774 (0.6%) and 1347 (1.4%) paediatric strokes (age

Background and aims Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) can effectively reduce cravings in methamphetamine use disorder (MUD). However, a considerable group still fails to respond. Cognitive and emotional disturbance, as well as impulsive features, are widespread in patients with MUD and might mediate the treatment response of rTMS. The purpose of this study is to figure out whether these variables can help predicting patients' responses to rTMS treatment. Methods Ninety-seven patients with severe MUD and thirty-one gender- and age-matched healthy subjects were included. Patients were randomized to receive 20 sessions of real or sham rTMS. Intermittent theta burst protocols (iTBS) or sham iTBS were applied every weekday over the DLPFC for 20 daily sessions. Both groups received regular treatment. Craving induced by drug-related cue was measured before and after stimulation. Cognition was evaluated by using the CogState Battery. Baseline characteristics were collected through the Addiction Severity Index, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, General Anxiety Disorder Scale-7, and Barrett Impulsivity Scale-11. Results Results showed that patients with MUD have worse spatial working memory, problem-solving ability, as well as depression and anxiety symptoms compared with healthy controls. Cognition and emotion differed between responders (craving decrease ≥60%) and non-responders in real rTMS group but not in the sham group. Better cognitive and emotional functions means that patients have higher possibility for better response to real rTMS treatment. Conclusions This study suggests that cognitive, emotional and impulsive features could be used to predict the prospective treatment responses of rTMS in patients with MUD.

There are two major research issues with regard to detoxification; one is pathological testing of drug users and the other is rehabilitation methods and techniques. Over the years, domestic and foreign researchers have done a lot of work on pathological changes in the brain and rehabilitation techniques for drug users. This article discusses the research status of these two aspects. At present, the evaluation of brain function in drug addicts is still dominated by a single electroencephalography (EEG), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), or magnetic resonance imaging scan. The multimodal physiological data acquisition method based on EEG–NIRS technique is relatively advantageous for actual physiological data acquisition. The traditional drug rehabilitation method is based on medication and psychological counseling. In recent years, psychological correction (e.g., emotional ventilation, intelligent physical and mental decompression, virtual reality technique and drug addiction suppression system, sports training, and rehabilitation) and physical therapy (transcranial magnetic stimulation) have gradually spread. These rehabilitations focus on comprehensive treatment from the psychological and physical aspects. In recent years, new intervention ideas such as brain–computer interface technique have been continuously proposed. In this review, we have introduced multimodal brain function detection and rehabilitation intervention, which have theoretical and practical significance in drug rehabilitation research.

Methamphetamine is the most commonly used illicit drug in China. We previously demonstrated that 10 Hz rTMS over the DLPFC reduces craving in methamphetamine users. Here, we applied intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS), a new form of rTMS, in a large sample at four clinical centers. 126 participants (age 31.64 ± 6.33; 106 men) with severe methamphetamine use disorder according to DSM-5 were randomized to receive either iTBS or sham over the DLPFC for four weeks (20 daily sessions, 900 pulses per day). Cue-induced craving and cognitive function were assessed before and after rTMS intervention. Relapse was followed up by urine test after discharge from the rehabilitation center. iTBS significantly reduced craving and improved cognition and sleep quality. This study suggests that rTMS may be a useful and safe treatment option for methamphetamine use disorder, warranting future large scale trials.

With the expansion of the scale of the Internet of Things, the transmission distance and speed of wireless networks need to be improved. Due to the limitation of power and energy of sensor nodes, data transmission is basically carried out by multi-hop relay. Collaborative beamforming is a technology that uses multiple sensor nodes to form a virtual antenna array to transmit high-gain and directional beams, which greatly enhances the transmission range. Compared with the muilt-hop network, collaborative beamforming can reduce the numbers of hop or even transmit data to the target node at one time, thus reducing the time required for routing and forwarding. This means that collaborative beamforming can transmit data more quickly and improve data throughput. In this paper, a brief introduction of cooperative beamforming is given. Then we propose an algorithm based on Collaborative beamforming. Simulation results show that the Collaborative beamforming wireless sensor networks can achieve better throughput compared with multi-hop networks.

This article investigates physical layer security of a downlink multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) Internet of Things (IoT) system with an access point communicating with multiple legitimate IoT devices in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers. For coordinating multiuser communication, the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and time division multiple access (TDMA) are considered. The IoT devices are assumed to support simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) and can use the harvested energy to jam the eavesdroppers based on full-duplex. The resource allocation problems of maximizing the sum secrecy rate for the OFDMA and TDMA systems are investigated. We first consider the scenario that perfect channel state information (CSI) is available and derive suboptimal algorithms based on alternating optimization. Then we consider the scenario that CSI is imperfect and propose heuristic algorithms. The secrecy performances of the OFDMA and TDMA systems with jamming from the SWIPT IoT devices are compared using extensive simulations. It is shown that the secrecy performance of the OFDMA system is superior over the TDMA system. It is also shown that the algorithm with imperfect CSI is inferior over the algorithm with perfect CSI, but it can outperform the benchmark algorithm with perfect CSI and without jamming.

AIM: To preliminarily test proteomics in aqueous humor in patients with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by using the proteomic technology. METHODS: Aqueous humor samples were collected from patients with or without dry AMD, who underwent cataract surgery. The aqueous samples were analyzed with isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) combined with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) technology. The differential expressed proteins were analyzed with gene ontology (GO) enrichment, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis. The data were partly validated by ELISA and Western blot. False discovery rate (FDR) was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 244 proteins were detected, in which 38 proteins were up-regulated and 51 were down-regulated significantly in patients with dry AMD compared with that in control groups (FDR value

Purpose. To compare the functional and anatomical outcomes of one dose and three loading doses followed by the pro re nata (PRN) regimen in Chinese neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD) (including polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV)) patients. Methods. In this multicenter, prospective, open-label, controlled, 12-month study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02810808), patients were randomized (1 : 1) to 1 dose + PRN (PRN group) or 3 loading doses + PRN (LD group) using intravitreal ranibizumab treatment. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central retinal thickness (CRT) were evaluated. The main outcome was the change in BCVA. The noninferiority limit was 5 letters. Results. Forty-five patients in the PRN group and 49 patients in the LD group finished 12-month follow-up. Each group included 4 PCV patients. The mean change in BCVA from baseline was 7.8 letters in the PRN group, compared with 10.9 letters in the LD group (P=0.344). There were no significant differences between two groups in the mean change of CRT (−159.3 μm vs. −120.5 μm) at month 12. The mean number of injections during the 12-month follow-up was 6.0 in the PRN group and 6.8 in the LD group. The proportion of patients who gained an improvement in visual acuity by 15 or more letters was 28.9% in the PRN group and 44.9% in the LD group (P=0.066). Conclusion. One dose + PRN showed noninferior visual gains than 3 loading doses + PRN regimen using ranibizumab in Chinese nvAMD and PCV patients. Number of injections in the PRN group was similar as that in the LD group but remained a potential risk of vision instability during one-year follow-up using OCT-guided retreatment criteria. This trial is registered with NCT02810808.

Most studies on drug addiction degree are made based on statistical scales, addicts' account, and subjective judgement of rehabilitation doctors. No objective, quantified evaluation has been made. This paper uses devises the synchronous bimodal signal collection and experimentation paradigm with electroencephalogram (EEG) and forehead high-density near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) device. The drug addicts are classified into mild, moderate and severe groups with reference to the suggestions of researchers and medical experts. Data of 45 drug addicts (mild: 15; moderate: 15; and severe: 15) is collected, and then used to design an addiction degree testing algorithm based on decision fusion. The algorithm is used to classify mild, moderate and severe addiction. This paper pioneers to use two types of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to abstract the EEG and NIR data of drug addicts, and introduces batch normalization to CNN, thus accelerating training process, reducing parameter sensitivity, and enhancing system robustness. The characteristics output by two CNNs are transformed into dimensions. Two new characteristics are assigned with a weight of 50% each. The data is used for decision fusion. In the networks, 27 subjects are used as training sets, 9 as validation sets, and 9 as testing sets. The 3-class accuracy remains to be 63.15%, preliminarily justifying this method as an effective approach to measure drug addiction degree. And the method is ready to use, objective, and offers results in real time.

BackgroundPrevious studies have identified the treatment effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on cravings of patients with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD). However, the mechanism underlying the treatment effect remains largely unknown. A potential candidate mechanism could be that rTMS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) modulates the attention bias to methamphetamine-related cues. The purpose of this study is therefore to determine the modulation of rTMS on methamphetamine-related attention bias and the corresponding electrophysiological changes.MethodsForty-nine patients with severe MUD were included for analysis. The subjects were randomized to receive the active intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) or sham iTBS targeting DLPFC for 20 sessions. Participants performed the Addiction Stroop Task before and after the treatment while being recorded by a 64-channel electroencephalogram. Baseline characteristics were collected through the Addiction Severity Index.ResultsPost-treatment evaluations showed a reduced error rate in discriminating the color of methamphetamine words in the active iTBS group compared with the sham iTBS group. Following rTMS treatment, we found the significant time-by-group effect for the N1 amplitude (methamphetamine words > neutral words) and P3 latency (methamphetamine words > neutral words). The change of N1 amplitude was positively correlated with cravings in the active group. Moreover, reduced power of neural oscillation in the beta band, manifesting at frontal central areas, was also found in the active group.ConclusionThis study suggests that attention bias and the beta oscillation during the attentional processing of methamphetamine words in patients with MUD could be modulated by iTBS applied to left DLPFC.

Background: Chronic prostatitis is hard to be identified in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients in clinical works. This study aimed to diagnose chronic prostatitis in BPH patients by noninvasive methods.Methods: The research was carried out on the BPH patients who received transurethral resection of prostate at Xinhua hospital from January 2014 to Jul 2015. Before operation, patients were asked for medical history and required to receive physical examination, serum sample collection including PSA, sex hormones, inflammatory cytokines, metabolic panel and transrectal ultrasonography. According to histological results, the patients were divided into 2 group of BPH with/without prostatitis. Logistic regression was used to find the risk factors of chronic prostatitis.Results: As a result, 181 men with an average age of 72.15±8.41 years were enrolled in this study, including 116 patients with prostatitis and 65 patients without prostatitis. The storage sub-score (9.24±1.55 vs 8.52±1.63, p=0.009), PSA (8.23±7.69 vs 4.92±3.84, p=0.005) and IL-2R (531.96±200.75 vs 434.11±153.54, p=0.001) were significantly higher in patients with prostatitis than those without prostatitis. Based on logistic regression analysis, the above three parameters were also the risk factors of BPH with prostatitis. The diagnostic model was calculated as: 0.317* storage sub-score+0.092* PSA+0.003* IL-2R-4.296. The AUC was 0.725. Conclusions: Histological prostatitis in BPH patients can be diagnosed by the combination of serum IL-2R, PSA and storage sub-score. Identification of chronic prostatitis among patients with BPH is beneficial for medical decisions, which can more efficiently alleviate urinary symptoms and reduce the risk of disease progression.

Objectives Our study aimed to investigate the correlation of prostatic morphological parameters and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) clinical progression in aging Chinese men. Methods In this retrospective study, a total of 1038 patients were reviewed. Prostatic morphology was measured by transrectal ultrasound (TRUS). Detailed medical history of all candidates was recorded and analyzed after being classified by specific prostatic measurements. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the correlation between variables. Results The cumulative incidence of BPH clinical progression was 63.68% (661/1038) in the study population. Prostate volume (PV), transitional zone volume (TZV), transitional zone index (TZI), and intravesical prostatic protrusion (IPP) were all positively associated with BPH progression (all p 60 ml, TZV > 15 ml, TZI > 0.5, or IPP > 5 mm had a significantly higher possibility of overall BPH clinical progression (adjusted odds ratio (OR): 2.485, 1.678, 1.886, and 1.924, respectively; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.559-3.960, 1.131-2.489, 1.379-2.579, and 1.357-2.728, correspondingly). Conclusion Prostatic morphological parameters are significantly associated with BPH clinical progression. Patients with larger prostatic morphological parameters are more easily prone to clinical progress. As a result, reasonable managements should be timely considered for those patients before clinical progression occurs.

To understand the recreational uses of national parks, a field investigation was employed at Giant Panda National Park, Sichuan. Through a mixed-methods approach and visual portrayal of the...

In this letter, we consider a multiuser mobile-edge computing (MEC) system with latency constraint. In order to meet the latency requirement and save energy consumption, each user can partially offload the task to the MEC server for edge computing. Data compression is applied to compress the offloaded data before transmission to reduce the data size. The problem of jointly optimizing computation offloading, data compression and resource allocation to minimize energy consumption under the latency constraint and finite MEC computation capacity is considered. We transform the non-convex problem into a convex one and apply convex optimization to solve it. The simulation results demonstrate that our proposed scheme significantly outperforms the benchmark schemes.

This paper considers a multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based wireless powered communication networks (WPCNs) with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT). In particular, both uplink and downlink communications are considered by dividing the time for transmission into downlink and uplink communication phases. In the downlink, SWIPT is adopted at the users with nonlinear energy harvesting model, and in the uplink, users use the harvested energy to perform uplink data transmission. We propose a suboptimal resource allocation scheme to maximize the weighted downlink and uplink sum rate by optimizing the time, subcarrier and power allocation. It is shown that the proposed scheme can well balance between the downlink rate and the uplink rate.

This paper considers a downlink multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiple (OFDM) system with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT), where the users decode information and harvest energy using the same received downlink signals. In particular, both power splitting (PS) and time switching (TS) SWIPT modes are considered for coordinating information transferring and energy harvesting. For multiuser information transmission, OFDM access (OFDMA) and time division multiple access (TDMA) are adopted for PS-SWIPT and TS-SWIPT, respectively. The outage performance of such a multiuser OFDM system with SWIPT is investigated. Particularly, we optimize the subcarrier allocation, power allocation and PS ratio for PS-SWIPT, and the power allocation and time allocation for TS-SWIPT, aiming at minimizing the fraction of outage over all users under the minimum harvest energy constraint along with the peak and total transmit power constraints. Suboptimal heuristic algorithms are obtained based on the Lagrange duality method. The outage performances of PS-SWIPT and TS-SWIPT are compared under various system parameter settings. We show that the outage performance of TS-SWIPT is better than that of the PS-SWIPT, except when the minimum required harvested energy is large, the total transmit power limit is small, or the number of users is small.

To enhance public safety, it is necessary to legitimately eavesdrop communication between suspicious users, such as terrorists and criminals. In this paper, we investigate legitimate eavesdropping in a wireless-powered suspicious communication network (WPSCN) with a wireless-powered suspicious transmitter and a suspicious receiver, who is legitimately eavesdropped by a legitimate monitor with the help from a wireless-powered friendly jammer. The “harvest-then-transmit” protocol is adopted by the suspicious communication to coordinate wireless energy transfer and information transfer. Both the suspicious receiver and the legitimate monitor can act as power sources for the suspicious transmitter and the jammer. The legitimate monitor can control the suspicious communication rate by broadcasting power signals, while the jammer can harvest energy and then interfere with the suspicious communication in collaboration with the legitimate monitor. Four different metrics are adopted to evaluate the eavesdropping performance based on different application requirements, and they are the successful eavesdropping probability, the average eavesdropping rate, the relative eavesdropping rate, and the eavesdropping energy efficiency. For each performance metric, we derive the optimal transmit power of the monitor for energy transfer and the optimal jamming transmit power of the jammer to maximize the performance metric under the peak transmit power constraint at the monitor and the energy causality constraint at the jammer. Some important insights are derived from these optimal power control policies. The simulations are conducted to verify the proposed optimal power control for legitimate eavesdropping in the WPSCN. It is shown that the proposed optimal power control policies greatly outperform other benchmark schemes.

Clinical interventions in aging Volume 13, 1639-1645 (2018). doi:10.2147/CIA.S174196, Published by DOVE Medical Press, Albany, Auckland

Intracellular delivery of therapeutic proteins remains a challenge for the success of protein-mediated disease treatment. We herein develop a robust nanoplatform made with a TME-pH responsive Meo-PEG-b-PPMEMA polymer and a cationic lipid-like compound G0-C14 for in vivo delivery of cytotoxic saporin and breast cancer therapy. This nanoplatform could respond to a TME pH to rapidly release saporin/G0-C14 complexes, which could significantly improve the uptake of cytosolic saporin by tumor cells and subsequent endosomal escape, thereby leading to an effective inhibition of tumor growth.

To evaluate the effect of resveratrol in rats with chronic prostatitis, 24 rats were randomly divided into the negative control, vehicle-treated and resveratrol groups. The rats in the vehicle-treated group and the resveratrol group were injected subcutaneously with 17-β-oestradiol (0.25 mg/kg) daily for 6 weeks while the rats in the control group were injected with equivalent normal saline. From the 45th day, the rats in the resveratrol group were given resveratrol (10 mg/kg) by gavage per day while the rest rats were given normal saline. After 55 days, all the rats were sacrificed and the prostatic tissue was removed. Morphological changes were examined by light microscope after H&E staining. The expressions of IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α were determined through ELISA and immunohistochemical staining. As a result, significant inflammatory cell infiltration and fibroblastic hyperplasia were observed in prostatic stroma in the vehicle-treated group compared with the negative control group, as well as the high expression of IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α. After resveratrol treatment, inflammatory cell infiltration and fibroblastic hyperplasia were shown prominently reduced. Meanwhile, the expression of IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α was significantly suppressed. For conclusion, resveratrol could attenuate the prostatic inflammation and downregulate the expression of IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α in rat with oestradiol-induced chronic prostatitis.

BACKGROUND: While acute urinary retention (AUR) is a severe complication of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), it can also indicate the progression of this common disease in aging men. This study aimed at exploring the possible relationship between serum interleukin 6 (sIL-6) and AUR in BPH patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted based on 256 elderly men with BPH in China. The association between the sIL-6 level and the occurrence of AUR was evaluated by univariate and multivariable logistic regressions. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was utilized to determine the discriminant validity of the sIL-6 level and the optimal cut-off value. RESULTS: The concentration of sIL-6 was significantly elevated in the AUR group (P

Aims: Retinal microvasculature shares prominent similarities with the brain vasculature. We aimed to assess the association between retinal microvasculature and subtypes of ischemic stroke.Method: We consecutively enrolled ischemic stroke patients within 7 days of onset, who met the criteria of subtype of atherothrombosis (AT), small artery disease (SAD), or cardioembolism (CE) according to a modified version of the Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment (NEW-TOAST). Digital fundus photographs were taken within 72 h of hospital admission using a digital camera (Topcon TRC-50DX), and fundus photographs were semi-automatically measured by software (Canvus 14 and NeuroLucida) for retinal vasculature parameters.Results: A total of 141 patients were enrolled, including 72 with AT, 54 with SAD, and 15 with CE. AT subtype patients had the widest mean venular diameter within 0.5–1.0 disk diameter (MVD0.5−1.0DD) followed by SAD and CE subtypes (86.37 ± 13.49 vs. 83.55 ± 11.54 vs. 77.90 ± 8.50, respectively, P = 0.047); CE subtype patients had the highest mean arteriovenous ratio within 0.5–1.0 disk diameter (MAVR0.5−1.0DD) followed by the AT and SAD subtype groups (0.97 ± 0.03 vs. 0.89 ± 0.99 vs. 0.89 ± 0.11, respectively, P = 0.010); SAD subtype patients were found with the highest mean venular tortuosity within 0.0–2.0 disk diameter (MVT0.0−2.0DD) followed by the AT and CE subtypes (1.0294 ± 0.0081 vs. 1.0259 ± 0.0084 vs. 1.0243 ± 0.0066, respectively, P = 0.024). After adjusting for clinic characteristics, MVD0.5−1.0DD was significantly different among AT, SAD, and CE subtypes (P = 0.033). By receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, MVD0.5−1.0DD predicted the AT subtype (area 0.690, 95% confidence interval, 0.566–0.815), with a cutoff value of 82.23 μm (sensitivity 61.1%, specificity 73.3%).Conclusion: Retinal MVD0.5−1.0DD (>82.23 μm) might be associated with the AT stroke subtype; however, we need large-scale prospective studies in future to explore the underlying mechanism and causal explanation for this finding.

Background: Mind-body exercises (MBE) are sequences of low to medium-intensity activities that benefit healthy performers physically and mentally. In contrast to the unmodified application of traditional tai chi, qi gong, or yoga in the healthy population, MBEs are typically tailored for individuals with substance abuse disorder (SUD). Despite numerous applications in practice, the detailed effects of tailor-made MBEs for SUD are unclear.Objectives: This study aimed to analyze and compare changes in the physical fitness and quality of life of individuals with SUD that underwent conventional or tailor-made MBEs.Methods: A total of 100 subjects obtained from the Shanghai Mandatory Detoxification and Rehabilitation Center with SUD were randomly assigned into two groups. The subjects in the experimental group (n = 50) practiced tailored MBE for 60 min a day, five times a week, for 3 months. The subjects (n = 50) in the control group were treated with conventional rehabilitation exercises with the same intervention protocol. The outcomes of fitness and quality of life for drug addiction were measured at the beginning and after 3 and 6 months by a questionnaire (QOL-DA). A two-way repeated measure analysis of variance was applied to compare the difference of treatments in the two groups.Results: Statistically significant differences for the experimental group were found in systolic (p < 0.01, η2 = 0.124) and diastolic blood pressure (p < 0.01, η2 = 0.097), pulse (p < 0.01, η2 = 0.086), vital capacity (p < 0.05, η2 = 0.036), flexibility (p < 0.01, η2 = 0.143), and aerobic endurance (p < 0.01, η2 = 0.165). Results of the QOL-DA showed statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in total score (p < 0.01, η2 = 0.158) with greater effects on the former.Conclusions: This study provided evidence that tailored MBE could lead to remarkable effects with regard to blood pressure, vital capacity, flexibility, and aerobic endurance in comparison with conventional rehabilitation methods.Clinical Trial Registration: ChiCTR-IPR-14005343.

(1) Background: The high use of antibiotics has made the issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) increasingly serious, which poses a substantial threat to the health of animals and humans. However, there remains a certain gap in the AMR system and risk assessment models between China and the advanced world level. Therefore, this paper aims to provide advanced means for the monitoring of antibiotic use and AMR data, and take piglets as an example to evaluate the risk and highlight the seriousness of AMR in China. (2) Methods: Based on the principal component analysis method, a drug resistance index model of anti-E. coli drugs was established to evaluate the antibiotic risk status in China. Additionally, based on the second-order Monte Carlo methods, a disease risk assessment model for piglets was established to predict the probability of E. coli disease within 30 days of taking florfenicol. Finally, a browser/server architecture-based visualization database system for animal-derived pathogens was developed. (3) Results: The risk of E. coli in the main area was assessed and Hohhot was the highest risk area in China. Compared with the true disease risk probability of 4.1%, the result of the disease risk assessment model is 7.174%, and the absolute error was 3.074%. Conclusions: Taking E. coli as an example, this paper provides an innovative method for rapid and accurate risk assessment of drug resistance. Additionally, the established system and assessment models have potential value for the monitoring and evaluating AMR, highlight the seriousness of antimicrobial resistance, advocate the prudent use of antibiotics, and ensure the safety of animal-derived foods and human health.

Defect inspection plays an essential role in ensuring quality of industrial products. The most widely used human visual inspection method has some drawbacks such as high cost and low efficiency, which bring an eager demand for the application of automatic defect inspection algorithm in actual production. However, few industrial production lines use automatic detection devices due to the gap between data collected in the actual production environment and ready-made datasets. Lace is one of the industrial products which completely depends on manual defect inspection. The complex and fine texture of lace makes it difficult to extract regular patterns using the existing image-based defect inspection methods. In this paper, we propose to collect lace videos in the weaving stage and design a deep-learning-based anomaly detection framework to detect lace defects. The framework contains three stages, namely video pre-processing stage, pixel reconstruction stage and pixel classification stage. In the offline phase, only defect-free lace videos are needed to train the pixel reconstruction model and calculate the detection threshold by our adaptive thresholding method. In the online phase, the proposed framework reconstructs lace videos and performs defect inspection using reconstruction error and the pre-set threshold. As far as we know, this paper the first to detect fabric defects by videos. Experimental results on artificial defect videos demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

Stem cell therapy is a promising strategy for the treatment of ischemic diseases such as critical limb ischemia (CLI). The major obstacle is the poor survival rate and low efficiency of the implanted stem cells. Biomimetic scaffolds such as injectable hydrogels have shown the ability to promote cell retention and survival. However, the local ischemic microenvironment especially the high level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) usually induces cell loss and dysfunction, thereby leading to unsatisfactory therapeutic outcomes. Herein, we developed a new injectable hybrid hydrogel composed of natural type I collagen and melanin nanoparticles (MeNPs) for the delivery of Gremlin1 (Grem1)-overexpressed mesenchymal stem cells (Grem1-MSCs) and CLI therapy. After local injection of this cell delivery system into the ischemic limbs of mice, the thermal-triggered in situ gelation of collagen could maintain Grem1-MSCs at the injection site and MeNPs entrapped in the hydrogel framework could modulate the ischemic microenvironment via scavenging ROS to promote the survival of implanted stem cells. With this improved cell retention and survival, Grem1-MSCs could constantly secrete high concentration of Grem1, a newly discovered proangiogenic factor that can promote angiogenesis by activating the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-AKT signaling pathway, thereby leading to improved blood perfusion in the ischemic limbs and superior limb salvage. The strategy developed herein offers a promising therapeutic option for the effective cell-based treatment of ischemic diseases.