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The characteristics of the energy structure of rich coal, less oil and less gas, coupling with a high external dependence on oil and natural gas and the emphasis on the efficient and clean utilisation of coal, have brought opportunities for coal chemical industry. However, with the large-scale popularisation of coal gasification technology, the production and resulting storage of coal gasification slag continue to increase, which not only result in serious environmental pollution and a waste of terrestrial resources, but also seriously affect the sustainable development of coal chemical enterprises. Hence, the treatment of coal gasification slag is extremely important. In this paper, the production, composition, morphology, particle size structure and water holding characteristics of coal gasification slag are introduced, and the methods of carbon ash separation of gasification slag, both domestically and abroad, are summarised. In addition, the paper also summarises the research progress on gasification slag in building materials, ecological restoration, residual carbon utilisation and other high-value utilisation, and ultimately puts forward the idea of the comprehensive utilisation of gasification slag. For large-scale consumption to solve the environmental problems of enterprises and achieve high-value utilisation to increase the economic benefits of enterprises, it is urgent to zealously design a reasonable and comprehensive utilisation technologies with simple operational processes, strong adaptability and economic benefits.

Context The saline infusion test (SIT) is a common confirmatory test for primary aldosteronism (PA). According to the guideline, a postinfusion plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) of 5-10 ng/dL is considered indeterminate, and recommendations for diagnostic strategies are currently limited in this situation. Objective To explore whether an addition of the captopril challenge test (CCT) could improve the diagnostic accuracy in patients with indeterminate SIT. Methods A total of 280 hypertensive patients with high risk of PA completed this study. Subjects were defined as SIT indeterminate based on their PAC post-SIT. These patients then underwent the CCT where PACs post-CCT >11 ng/dL were considered positive. Using fludrocortisone suppression test (FST) as the reference standard, diagnostic parameters including area under the receiver-operator characteristic curves (AUC), sensitivity and specificity were calculated. Results There were 65 subjects (23.2%) diagnosed as PA indeterminate after SIT. With the addition of CCT, true-positive numbers increased from 134 to 147, and false-negative numbers decreased from 27 to 14. Compared to SIT alone, a combination of SIT and CCT showed a higher AUC (0.91 [0.87,0.94] vs 0.87 [0.83,0.91], P = .041) and an increased sensitivity for the diagnosis of PA (0.91 [0.86,0.95] vs 0.83 [0.76,0.89], P = .028), while the specificity remained similar. In the subgroup with indeterminate SIT results, using PAC post-CCT resulted in a 36% higher AUC than using PAC post-SIT alone for the diagnosis of PA. Conclusion For patients under investigation for possible PA who have indeterminate SIT results, an addition of CCT improves the diagnostic accuracy.

Neuropathic pain (NP) can occur after peripheral nerve injury (PNI), and it can be converted into a maladaptive, detrimental phenotype that causes a long-term state of pain hypersensitivity. In the last decade, the discovery that dysfunctional microglia evoke pain, called "microgliopathic pain," has challenged traditional neuronal views of "pain" and has been extensively explored. Recent studies have shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) can act as activators or inhibitors of spinal microglia in NP conditions. We first briefly review spinal microglial activation in NP. We then comprehensively describe miRNA expression changes and their potential mechanisms in the response of microglia to nerve injury. We summarize the roles of the following two representative miRNAs: miR-124, which reverses NP by keeping microglia quiescent, and miR-155, which promotes NP following microglial activation. Finally, we focused on the therapeutic potential of microglial miRNAs in NP. The findings we summarized may be essential tools for basic research and clinical treatment of NP.

Decreasing the soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition is critical to improve the quality of the soil and mitigate atmospheric CO2 emissions. To improve the ability to protect the SOC by optimizing tillage management, this study investigated the laboratory-based SOC mineralization (decomposition) and soil chemical properties under different tillage practices, including no tillage with straw mulch (NTS), rotary tillage with straw incorporated (RTS), moldboard plow tillage with straw incorporated (CTS) and moldboard plow tillage with straw removal (CT). Soil samples of six sampling dates from April 2017 to October 2018 were incubated at 25 °C and 70% water holding capacity for 60 d. Repeated Variance Analyses were conducted to compare the means of different treatments. The results showed that the average cumulative SOC mineralization (Cm) at the 0-5 cm soil depth was 7.09 g CO2 kg-1 soil under NTS, which was higher (P < 0.05) than that of the other treatments. However, the C mineralizability at both the 0-5 and 5-10 cm soil depths were lower (P < 0.05) under the NTS (0.16 and 0.15 g CO2 g-1 SOC) compared with the CTS and CT. Non-microbial CO2 emissions (CO2 emissions in sterilized soil) contributed to the lower C mineralizability under NTS, due to the lower mineralizability (0.041-0.089 g CO2 g-1 SOC) of sterilized soil under this treatment. Furthermore, some of the abiotic factors (e.g., C/N ratio and SOC content) significantly correlated with the Cm and C mineralizability. These factors might be critical for the ability to protect SOC under NTS. In summary, conservation tillage is an optimal management due to its protection on SOC, and part of this protection appeared to have been contributed by the soil abiotic factors, which were formed by long-term tillage management.

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) cytotherapy has emerged as a promising treatment strategy for refractory immune diseases; however, the influence of the pathologic conditions of donors on the immunomodulatory properties of BMSCs is still poorly understand. Here, we found that BMSCs that were derived from donors with osteoporosis were ineffective as cytotherapy for patients with experimental colitis and graft- vs.-host disease (GVHD). In vivo and in vitro assays revealed that the capacity of osteoporotic BMSCs to induce T-cell apoptosis declined as a result of decreased Fas and FasL protein. Additional analysis revealed that let-7a, a microRNA induced by TNF-α in osteoporosis, inhibited the expression of the Fas/FasL system via post-transcriptional regulation. By knocking down let-7a expression, we successfully recovered the immunosuppressive capacity of osteoporotic BMSCs and improved their therapy for experimental colitis and GVHD. Taken together, our study demonstrates that the immunomodulatory properties of BMSCs are suppressed in osteoporosis and illustrates the molecular mechanism that underlies this suppression. These findings might have important implications for the development of targeted strategies to improve BMSC cytotherapy.-Liao, L., Yu, Y., Shao, B., Su, X., Wang, H., Kuang, H., Jing, H., Shuai, Y., Yang, D., Jin, Y. Redundant let-7a suppresses the immunomodulatory properties of BMSCs by inhibiting the Fas/FasL system in osteoporosis.

Electronic health records contain patient's information that can be used for health analytics tasks such as disease detection, disease progression prediction, patient profiling, etc. Traditional machine learning or deep learning methods treat EHR entities as individual features, and no relationships between them are taken into consideration. We propose to evaluate the relationships between EHR features and map them into Procedures, Prescriptions, and Diagnoses (PPD) tensor data, which can be formatted as images. The mapped images are then fed into deep convolutional networks for local pattern and feature learning. We add this relationship-learning part as a boosting module on a commonly used classical machine learning model. Experiments were performed on a Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia dataset for treatment initiation prediction. Experimental results show that the proposed approach has better real world modeling performance than the baseline models in terms of prediction precision.

Renal fibrosis is an inevitable consequence of parenchymal scarring and is the common final pathway that mediates almost all progressive renal diseases. Adiponectin, a hormone produced by adipose tissue, possesses potent anti-insulin, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fibrotic properties. Reportedly, adiponectin serves as an important messenger that facilitates complex interactions between adipose tissue and other metabolically related organs. In recent years, a growing body of evidence supports adiponectin involvement in renal fibrosis. These studies provide a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanism of action of adiponectin in renal fibrosis and also offer a potential preventive and therapeutic target for renal fibrosis. In this review, the physiological role of adiponectin is briefly introduced, and then the mechanism of adiponectin-mediated renal fibrosis and the related signaling pathways are described. Finally, we summarize the findings regarding the clinical value of adiponectin in renal fibrotic diseases and prospected its application potential.

As a particularly important mediator of intercellular communication, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been proved to be extensively involved in various system diseases over the past two decades, including in renal diseases. As is well-known, renal fibrosis is the common pathological process of any ongoing renal disease or adaptive repair of kidney injury based on current knowledge. Although much work has been performed focusing on EVs in various renal diseases, the role of EVs in renal fibrosis has not been described in detail and summarized. In this review, we provide a brief overview of the definition, classification and biological process of EVs. Then, the potential mechanisms of EVs in renal fibrosis are illustrated. Lastly, recent advances in EVs and the implications of EVs for diagnosis and therapy in renal fibrosis disease are introduced. We look forward to a more comprehensive understanding of EVs in renal fibrosis, which could be a boon to patients with renal fibrosis disease.

Tillage regimes play an important role in soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation and atmospheric carbon mitigation. However, the mechanism of SOC decomposition induced by tillage regimes is not clearly understood, particularly related to SOC protection by soil iron (Fe) and aluminum (Al) oxides. Therefore, we assessed three types of soil Fe/Al oxides (Non-crystalline oxides, Feo/Alo; organic bound oxides, Fep/Alp; total free Fe/Al, Fed/Ald), and their relationship with SOC mineralization at the 0–50 cm soil depth after long-term tillage practices in a double rice cropping system in southern China. Four tillage practices were investigated: conservation tillage (no tillage + rice residue mulch, NTS), traditional tillage including rotary tillage (RTS), and plow tillage with or without rice residue incorporation (CTS and CT, respectively). The Feo and Fep/Alp had lower concentrations in deeper soil layers compared with the topsoil. At the 0–50 cm soil depth, the Feo content in the NTS treatment was 1.55 mg g−1, which was 7.5%, 9.3%, and 14.3% higher than that under RTS, CTS, and CT (P

Carbon (C) sequestration in agricultural systems is recommended as a beneficial measure for climate change mitigation and food security. Despite much research, the relationship between soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and sustainable crop productivity has not been identified for various agricultural ecosystems, especially in the paddy ecosystem where conservation tillage has been adopted. Thus, a long-term experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of tillage practices on SOC storage, yield, and their relationship in a double-cropped rice (Oryza sativa L.) paddy in Southern China from 2005 to 2018. Four tillage systems were investigated: no-till with residue retained on the soil surface (NTS), rotary tillage with residue retention (RTS), plow tillage with residue retention (CTS), and plow tillage with residue removed (CT). The SOC accumulation in the 0–20 cm layer in tillage systems included two stages: the rapid accumulation stage (2005–2007) and the slow fluctuation stage (2007–2018), with a tendency for C saturation. After reaching C saturation, the increase in SOC storage was not obvious, even with continued C input, and the SOC storage under different tillage systems was inconsistent. In general, SOC storage under NTS was the greatest. Interannual changes were not significant, while cumulative yield (2005–2018) was highest under CTS (162.13 t ha−1), followed by RTS (158.46 t ha−1), NTS (153.99 t ha−1), and CT (149.70 t ha−1). Tillage practices had no effect on the yield stability of late rice, but a significant difference in early rice was noticed between CTS and RTS. A non-linear relationship between rice yield and SOC storage was significant (P

In order to improve the recognition accuracy of parking space change, a new fusion model is proposed. The image-aware hash technique and image structure similarity algorithm are combined to construct a new parking space state combination discriminating index due to the accuracy of the recognition. Time is used to define the discriminating threshold of the parking space occupancy condition, so as to construct a vehicle position state discriminating fusion model. Based on the model, the parking lot recognition software was developed, and the parking space recognition of three environmental states, such as uniform illumination, uneven illumination and snowfall, was carried out and the validity of the model was verified.

The pathological physiology of end-stage renal disease is characterized by renal fibrosis, for which suitable therapeutics have not yet been developed. Early tubular damage in ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury induced acute kidney injury (AKI) is highly relevant to later fibrosis, but the mechanism remains unclear. Moreover, more and more evidence has proven that long non-coding ribonucleic acids (lncRNA) regulate gene expression associated with renal fibrosis. Therefore, we analyzed lncRNA profiles in the kidneys of mice using RNA sequencing during the pathogenesis of IR-induced renal fibrosis. Our results showed that expression levels of 43 lncRNAs and 141 lncRNAs were respectively significantly changed 7 days and 2 weeks after IR treatment. We predicted the functions of the differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs and target genes with Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses. Interaction networks of lncRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) and mRNA were constructed based on the correlation analysis of the DE genes. Based on these informations, we further verified lncRNA (Gm12840) play competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) mechanism with miR-677-5p to meidiate TGF-β1 induced fibroblast activation via Wnt-induced secreted protein-1 (WISP1)/ protein kinase B (Akt) signaling pathway. Our findings identify that lncRNAs are involved in IR-induced late fibrosis of kidney and may represent a systematic perspective on the important function of IR-induced renal fibrosis as well as new therapeutic targets. Funding Statement: This work was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (81860130), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong province (2016A030313376), Guangdong Province Science and Technology Planning Project (2017B020247035, 2014A020212612). Declaration of Interests: All authors declare that they have no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: All experiments using animals were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the First People hospital of Foshan and breed as approved by the Institutional Animal Care protocol.

Secondary sclerosing cholangitis (SSC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease characterized by fibrosis and stricture of the bile ducts. SSC in association with multiple factors such as spontaneous choledochoduodenal fistula and metastatic gallbladder cancer has rarely been reported. However, to the best of our knowledge, reports of SSC after percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD), especially in cases with diffuse calcification of the bile duct walls, have not been reported. We report a case of SSC from PTBD in a patient with gallbladder cancer after surgery. The patient underwent external percutaneous biliary drainage for malignant bile duct obstruction after cholecystectomy. Repeated exchanges were performed at the first and the sixth month after PTBD using an internal and external drainage catheter. Two months after the third catheter exchange, findings of laboratory and imaging examinations were suggestive of SSC. The liver function tests of the patient were suggestive of cholestasis. Multidetector computed tomography showed diffuse calcification of the bile duct walls. Cholangiography showed intrahepatic biliary stenosis or dilatation.

Neuropathic pain (NP) is ranked as one of the major forms of chronic pain and emerges as a direct consequence of a lesion or disease affecting the somatosensory nervous system. Despite great advances into the mechanisms of NP, clinical practice is still not satisfactory. Fortunately, progress in elucidating unique features and multiple molecular mechanisms of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in NP has emerged in the past 10 years, suggesting that novel therapeutic strategies for pain treatment may be proposed. In this review, we will concentrate on recent studies associated with lncRNAs in NP. First, we will describe the alterations of lncRNA expression after spinal cord injury (SCI) and peripheral nerve injury (PNI), and then we illustrate the role of some specific lncRNAs in detail, which may offer new insights into our understanding of the etiology and pathophysiology of NP. Finally, we put special emphasis on the altered expression of lncRNAs in the diverse biological process of NP. Recent advances we summarized above in the development of NP may facilitate translation of these findings from bench to bedside in the future.

Objective To determine the effects of a cleft deformity unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) and the subsequent surgical interventions on maxillary growth. Materials and methods This retrospective study evaluated the lateral cephalograms of 3 groups of individuals: 40 adult patients with ULCP who underwent surgery for both lip and palate; 40 adult patients with ULCP who underwent surgery for lip only; and 40 age- and gender-matched noncleft controls. Differences in jaw morphology among them were analyzed statistically. Results Adult UCLP patients in both groups showed maxillary hypoplasia in anteroposterior and vertical directions compared with noncleft control adults. Significant differences ( p ≤ 0.01) in the ANB (subspinale–nasion–supramentale angle), NA-FH (the angle formed between Frankfort horizontal plane and the plane from nasion to subspinale), MP-FH (the angle formed between mandibular plane and Frankfort horizontal plane), and GoMe/SN (the ratio between length of mandibular body and length of anterior cranial base) were found between the two UCLP patient groups. Although maxillary growth in the two UCLP groups was less than that in the noncleft control group, the anteroposterior growth in the UCLP patients with palatoplasty was even less than that in the UCLP patients with unoperated palate. Conclusions There may be an intrinsic deficiency of maxillary anteroposterior and vertical development in UCLP patients compared with the noncleft controls. Palatoplasty can further limit the anteroposterior growth of maxilla but has no detrimental effect on maxillary vertical development. The mandible is rotated clockwise after palatoplasty in UCLP patients.

Angiogenesis is disrupted in age-related and postmenopausal osteoporosis. However, the mechanisms of the disorder remain elusive. We confirmed in this study that, in accordance with the decrease of H-type vessels, the proangiogenic potential of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) declined during osteoporosis. Screening of the histone acetyltransferase family revealed that GCN5 decreased in BMSCs derived from osteoporotic femur. Further analysis identified that GCN5 plays important roles in regulating the proangiogenic potential of BMSCs. GCN5 promoted BMSC-mediated angiogenesis by enhancing H3K9ac levels on the promoter of

Aims: Osteoporosis is underdiagnosed because of the lack of a convenient diagnostic method. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) emerge as novel biomarkers for disease diagnosis. Here, we conducted a case-control study that included a total of 448 serum samples collected from 182 healthy participants, 132 osteopenia participants, and 134 osteoporosis patients. Methods: Circulating miRNAs dysregulated during osteoporosis were screened and analyzed in three randomly determined sub-cohorts: the discovery cohort identified 22 candidate miRNAs; the training cohort tested the candidate miRNAs and constructed Index 1, comprising five miRNAs by logistic regression, and Index 2, comprising four miRNAs, was developed by linear combination. Results: Both indices were tested in the validation cohort and showed statistically significant results in distinguishing osteoporosis patients from healthy and osteopenic patients. Moreover, Index 1 also showed improved performance over traditional bone turnover biomarkers type I pro-collagen (tPINP) and type I collagen (β-CTx). Conclusion: In conclusion, circulating miRNAs are potential biomarkers for osteoporosis. The diagnostic panel of circulating miRNAs could be a complementary method for dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in mass screening and routine examination to enhance the osteoporosis detection rate.

Objective To observe the effects of eye-acupuncture therapy and body-acupuncture therapy on the expression of brain-deprived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in rats with cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury (CIRI). Methods According to random number table, 48 SD rats were randomly divided into 6 groups, including normal control group (group A), sham operation group (group B), model group (group C), eye-acupuncture group (group D), non-acupoint of eye-acupuncture group (group E) and body-acupuncture group (group F), eight rats in each group. Artery infarction reperfusion model were prepared by using suture-occluded method. Liver region, upper energizer area, lower energizer area and kidney region were selected in the group D. Acupuncture was carried out at the point located at 3 mm from the acupoint areas in the group E. Qūchi ( LI 11), Zusānl ( ST 36) and other acupoints were selected in the group F. Zea Longa scoring method was utilized for scoring the neural functions of rats; real-time PCR was carried out to examine the expression level of BDNF mRNA in the brain 72 h after ischemia reperfusion; western blot was carried out to examine the expression level of BDNF protein in the brain 72 h after ischemia reperfusion. Results The symptoms of neurologic impairments in the rats of the group D were alleviated in comparison to those in the group C ( P P >0.05); Compared with the group C, the mRNA and protein expression levels of BDNF in the brain of rats in the group D and the group F both increased ( P P >0.05). Conclusion The functions of eye-acupuncture and body-acupuncture in improving cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury are similar, and the functional mechanisms for the two different therapies may be related to the up-regulation of BDNF expression in brain and thus promote the repairing of brain tissues.

Molecular medical research on aromatherapy has been steadily increasing for use as an adjuvant therapy in managing psychiatric disorders and to examine its therapeutic mechanisms. Most studies, as well as clinically applied experience, have indicated that various essential oils, such as lavender, lemon and bergamot can help to relieve stress, anxiety, depression and other mood disorders. Most notably, inhalation of essential oils can communicate signals to the olfactory system and stimulate the brain to exert neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin and dopamine) thereby further regulating mood. However, little research has been done on the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects, thus their mechanism of action remains ambiguous. Several hypotheses have been proposed regarding the therapeutic mechanism of depression. These have mainly centered on possible deficiencies in monoamines, neurotrophins, the neuroendocrine system, c-AMP, cation channels as well as neuroimmune interactions and epigenetics, however the precise mechanism or mechanisms related to depression have yet to be elucidated. In the current study, the effectiveness of aromatherapy for alleviating psychiatric disorders was examined using data collected from previously published studies and our unpublished data. A possible signaling pathway from olfactory system to the central nerve system and the associated key molecular elements of aromatherapy are also proposed.

The failure of gasoline engines seriously affects the safety of drivers and passengers. It is one of the main reasons for the recall of defective automobile products. In order to study the failure regularity of defective gasoline engine products and obtain the product failure mode, the data of the recall of automobile products caused by the defects of gasoline engine in the past five years were studied by using the Pareto Diagram. The research results show that the key factors for the sub-assembly of gasoline engine defects that lead to the recall of automotive products are fuel supply system, lubrication system and cooling system. The key factors of the failure mode are degradation or loss of function failure modes, blockage and leakage failure modes.

In this paper, we introduce a value chain approach, on the view of the value chain analytic in business management, to be the framework of a crisis response system serving for crisis management strategy in identifying risk sources, responding to unexpected events, and recovering from a shock. This system is not only a computer system but also a system of governmental emergency response mechanism and it is tremendous and complex. The system integrates and coordinates the correlative resources of emergency response units of the city. We consider the efficiency of the system. In addition, the run cost of the system also is taken into account. Based on this framework, the Qingdao’s practical situation is analyzed. As a result, a design proposal of the Qingdao’s crisis response system is put forward.

since the emergence of social software, it greatly enhances the internet user's interpersonal communication and social interaction, also affects people's learning and education. Through the content analysis of 438 academic papers published in educational Journals from 2003 to 2008, this article summarizes the characteristics, existing problems of the educational application of various social software, and give some suggestion of it's future development.

Traditional Chinese medical is an excellent method for ill treatment. It is the crystallization of ancestral wisdom, and traditional Chinese medical care is an important part of Chinese medical hospital treatment. It has its own unique nursing theory and specific methods of operation. It can be said that Chinese medicine is Chinese medicine treatment work for a life extension, has simple and convenient, cheap and effective features. A lot of nursing measures do not have to use too much mechanical equipment, which is safe and simple. Based on this, this article will focus on the analysis of clinical practice in the active implementation of traditional Chinese medicine care measures, with a view to the future practical work can play a reference role.