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Person re-identification problem is a valuable computer vision task, which aims at matching pedestrian images of different cameras in a non-overlapping surveillance network. Existing metric learning based methods address this problem by learning a robust distance function. These methods learn a mapping subspace by forcing the distance of the positive pair much smaller than the negative pair by a strict constraint. The metric model is over-fitting to the training dataset. Due to drastic appearance variations, the handcrafted features are weak of representation for person re-identification. To address these problems, we propose a joint distance measure based approach, which learns a Mahalanobis distance and a Euclidean distance with a novel feature jointly. The novel feature is represented with a dictionary representation based method which considers pedestrian images of different camera views with the same dictionary. The joint distance combine the Mahalanobis distance based on metric learning method with the Euclidean distance based on the novel feature to measure the similarity between matching pairs. Extensive experiments are conducted on the publicly available bench marking datasets VIPeR and CUHK01. The identification results show that the proposed method reaches a good performance than the comparison methods.

As the major source of energy for colonic mucosal cells and as an important regulator of gene expression, inflammation, differentiation, and apoptosis in host cells, microbiota-derived butyrate can enhance the intestinal mucosal immune barrier, modulate systemic immune response, and prevent infections. Maintaining a certain level of butyrate production in the gut can help balance intestinal microbiota, regulate host immune response, and promote the development and maintenance of the intestinal mucosal barrier. Butyrate-producing bacteria act as probiotics and play important roles in a variety of normal biological functions. Bacteriotherapeutic supplementation by using fecal microbiota transplantation to restore butyrate-producing commensal bacteria in the gut has been very successful in the treatment of recurrent and refractory Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection or C. difficile-negative nosocomial diarrhea. Administration of probiotics that include butyrate-producing bacteria may have a role in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases and in the prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis and late-onset sepsis in premature infants. Furthermore, modulating gut microbiota with dietary approaches may improve intestinal dysbiosis commonly seen in patients with obesity-associated metabolic disorders. Supplementation with a butyrate-producing bacterial stain might be used to increase energy expenditure, improve insulin sensitivity, and to help control obesity and metabolic syndrome.

Porcine respiratory disease complex (PRDC) is one of the most challenging health concerns for pig production worldwide. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of pathogens associated with PRDC, including porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and bacterial agents, such as Streptococcus suis, Haemophilus parasuis and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, in clinically healthy pigs in Eastern China. Molecular detection revealed positive single‐pathogen detection rates of 59.9%, 27.2%, 52.3%, 33.2% and 0.4% for PCV2, PRRSV, S. suis, H. parasuis and A. pleuropneumoniae, respectively. Co‐infection with more than one pathogen was frequently detected in these samples, with PCV2/S. suis, H. parasuis and PCV2/H. parasuis mixed infection rates of 35.4%, 33.2% and 21.6%, respectively, and PCV2/S. suis/H. parasuis and PRRSV/PCV2/S. suis co‐infection rates of 21.6% and 6.2%, respectively. These results suggest that mixed infections are prevalent among PRDC cases in swine, which may pose a greater threat to the health of herds compared with single‐pathogen infections., These results suggest that mixed infections are prevalent among PRDC cases in swine, which may pose a greater threat to the health of herds compared with single‐pathogen infections.

LiBin, Xu Xinyang.Application of Artificial Intelligence in Basketball Sport.Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2021;11(7):54-67. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2021.11.07.005 https://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/JEHS/article/view/JEHS.2021.11.07.005 https://zenodo.org/record/5083224 The journal has had 5 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. § 8. 2) and § 12. 1. 2) 22.02.2019. © The Authors 2021; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 07.06.2021. Revised: 16.06.2021. Accepted: 08.07.2021. Application of Artificial Intelligence in Basketball Sport Bin Li1, 2, Xinyang Xu2 1. Georgetown University Medical Center, 3900 Reservoir Road, N.W., Washington D.C. United States 20057 2. Washington Institute for Health Sciences, 4601 N Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, United States 22203 Bin Li ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1051-801X e-mail: bl444@georgetown.edu Xinyang Xu ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3651-421X e-mail: sup.rogerxu@gmail.com Abstract Basketball is among the most popular sports in the world, and its related industries have also produced huge economic benefits. In recent years, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in basketball has attracted a large amount of attention. We conducted a comprehensive review of the application research of AI in basketball through literature retrieval. Current research focuses on the AI analysis of basketball team and player performance, prediction of competition results, analysis and prediction of shooting, AI coaching system, intelligent training machine and arena, and sports injury prevention. Most studies have shown that AI technology can improve the training level of basketball players, help coaches formulate suitable game strategies, prevent sports injuries, and improve the enjoyment of games. At the same time, it is also found that the number and level of published papers are relatively limited. We believe that the application of AI in basketball is still in its infancy. We call on relevant industries to increase their research investment in this area, and promote the improvement of the level of basketball, making the game increasingly exciting as its worldwide popularity continues to increase. Keywords:basketball; artificial intelligence; wearable electronic devices

In this paper, the terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) combined with chemometric methods, is used to explore the rapid and undamaged detection of kudzu powder’s adulteration. The spectral data in the range of 0.1–7 THz is collected. The absorption coefficient of the 0.5–3.0 THz band is selected for analysis. The chemometric methods are adopted to build the analytical model of the spectrum’s absorption coefficient. In qualitative modelling, the partial least squares decision analysis (PLS-DA) analyses the absorption coefficient data. The result shows that the misjudgment rate is 57.6%. The least squares support vector machines decision analysis (LS-SVM-DA) basing on Linear (LIN), and radial basis function (RBF) as the kernel function is used to analyze the data, the results show that the misjudgment rate is all 13.3%. Finally, the successive projections algorithm (SPA) and the elimination of uninformative variables (UVE) are used to select the spectrum's absorption coefficient to optimize the model, the misjudgment rates of PLS-DA model basing on SPA and UVE are 33.3% and 23.3%, respectively. The LIN of LS-SVM-DA and the RBF of LS-SVM-DA basing on SPA are all 43.3%, the misjudgment rates of the LIN of LS-SVM-DA and the RBF of LS-SVM-DA basing on UVE are13.3% and 6.7%, respectively. The comparison found that the RBF of LS-SVM-DA basing on the UVE prediction model for the adulteration of kudzu powder is more accurate than the others. It can come true the judgment of adulteration of kudzu powder well. Studies have shown that THz-TDS combined with chemometric methods can provide a fast and accurate analytical way for qualitative analysis of kudzu powder's adulteration.

AIM: To assess the efficacy of intravitreal triamcinolone (IVTA) as an adjunct to the combination of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) for the management of diabetic macular edema (DME). METHODS: A total of 51 patients with visual disabilities causing by DME from two sites were retrospectively collected and assigned to two groups according to the therapeutic method: intravitreal conbercept (IVC) combined with focal laser (24 eyes) and IVC combined with focal laser and IVTA (27 eyes). Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), the required number of IVCs, central retinal thickness (CRT), the mean costs of treatment burden and safety were compared over 12mo. RESULTS: From baseline to month 1 through month 12, IVC combined with focal laser and IVTA improved the mean average change in BCVA superior to IVC combined with focal laser (+5.20 vs +2.71 letters). At month 12, 20.83% of the IVC combined with focal laser and 37.04% of IVC combined with focal laser and IVTA arms gained more than 10 BCVA letters. During the period, the mean CRT decreased significantly in the IVC combined with focal laser and IVTA arm (-245.9 μm) compared to the IVC combined with focal laser arm (-98.45 μm). The average of 6.45 and 1.25 conbercept injections performed in the IVC combined with focal laser and IVC combined with focal laser and IVTA arms, respectively. The mean cost of treatment burden for 12mo was $6247.44±4069.18 in the IVC combined with focal laser arm and $1679.19±542.73 in the IVC combined with focal laser and IVTA arm, with a statistically significant difference. Apart from occasional minor subconjunctival hemorrhage, no other significant ocular adverse events (AEs) were observed in either group during the12-month period. CONCLUSION: It is effective and cost-effective to treat DME by utilizing triamcinolone as an adjunct to the combination of anti-VEGF.

OBJECTIVE Our objective is to validate the effectiveness of the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) criteria in malnutrition diagnosis compared with Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) and assess the impact of malnutrition diagnosed using GLIM criteria on the clinical outcomes of patients with GC. METHODS We retrospectively analyzed the data of 895 patients who underwent radical gastrectomy at the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University. Nutrition assessment was performed on all patients according to the GLIM criteria and PG-SGA. The κ statistic was used to evaluate the agreement between two methods. Multivariate logistic regression and Cox regression based on single-factor analysis were used to predict postoperative complications and overall survival rates. RESULTS Based on the GLIM criteria, 38.3% of the patients were diagnosed as malnourished, including 21.7% Stage I (moderate malnutrition) and 16.6% Stage II (severe malnutrition). GLIM criteria had a moderate agreement with PG-SGA (κ = 0.548). Patients in the Stage II malnutrition group had a higher incidence of complications, a longer postoperative length of stay, and higher hospitalization costs. Logistic regression showed that Stage II malnutrition was an independent risk predictor of postoperative complications (odds ratio, 3.28; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.18-4.94). Furthermore, Cox regression analysis showed that both Stage I (hazard ratio [HR], 1.52; 95% CI, 1.11-2.07; P = .009) and Stage II (HR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.34-2.53; P < .001) malnutrition were independent risk predictors of overall survival. CONCLUSION Diagnosis of malnutrition according to the GLIM criteria is useful in predicting the adverse postoperative clinical outcomes of patients with gastric cancer.

Objective This study was performed to evaluate the function and satisfaction outcome of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA) with high‐flexion prostheses. Materials and methods Twenty‐two patients (35 knees) using high‐flexion prostheses (Zimmer, Warsaw, IN) were followed up for a period of 7–11 years from February 2007 to December 2009. Clinical and radiographic follow‐up was performed using Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), Short‐Form 36 scores (SF‐36), American Knee Society score (KSS), and Knee Society Total Knee Arthroplasty Roentgenographic Evaluation and Scoring System. Patient satisfaction assessments took place at the final follow‐up sessions using the Marsh Satisfaction Questionnaire. Results The average ROM improved from preoperative 68.43° ± 33.78° to 95.54° ± 7.03° at the final follow‐up. The HSS score and KSS score for pain improved from (46.49 ± 12.73) points to (85.46 ± 3.90) points and from 20.57 ± 5.91 points to 47.43 ± 3.51 points at the follow‐up evaluation, respectively. Physical Component Summary(PCS) and Physical Component Summary (MCS) scores were 45.38 and 52.56, respectively by the end of follow‐up. Deep venous thrombosis developed in one patient and one patient required surgical revision due to infection. There were no instances of prosthetic loosening. The satisfaction rate of patients was 95.5%. Conclusion Although this particular model of TKA did not yield high‐flexion angles (ie, 140°) required for kneeling, squatting, or rising from the floor, significant clinical and radiographic gains were evident in these patients with RA., The radiological results and satisfactory clinical pain relief of this study 7–11 years after operation support the use of high‐flexion prostheses in patients with RA. It does not have the postoperative high‐flexion advantage of ROM, which is used in patients with RA. The depression of RA patients may affect the excellent or good result rate and satisfaction rate of knee function and pain after TKA. In the treatment of RA patients, attention should also be paid to active psychological counseling and treatment.

s Background This study aimed to clarify the interrelationship and additive effects of contact force (CF), power and application time in both conventional and high-power short-duration (HPSD) settings. Methods Among 38 patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation who underwent first-time pulmonary vein isolation, 787 ablation points were collected at the beginning of the procedure at separate sites. Energy was applied for 60 s under power outputs of 25, 30 or 35 W (conventional group), or 10 s when using 50 W (HPSD group). An impedance drop (ID) of 10 Ω was regarded as a marker of adequate lesion formation. Results ID ≥ 10 Ω could not be achieved with CF < 5 g under any power setting. With CF ≥ 5 g, ID could be enhanced by increasing power output or prolonging ablation time. ID for 30 and 35 W was greater than for 25 W (p < 0.05). Ablation with 35 W resulted in greater ID than with 30 W only when CF of 10–20 g was applied for 20–40 s (p < 0.05). Under the same power output, ID increased with CF level at different time points. The higher the CF, the shorter the time needed to reach ID of 10 Ω and maximal ID. ID correlated well with ablation index under each power, except for lower ID values at 25 W. ID with 50 W for 10 s was equivalent to that with 25 W for 40 s, but lower than that with 30 W for 40 s or 35 W for 30 s. Conclusions CF of at least 5 g is required for adequate ablation effect. With CF ≥ 5g, CF, power output, and ablation time can compensate for each other. Time to reach maximal ablation effect can be shortened by increasing CF or power. The effect of HPSD ablation with 50 W for 10 s is equivalent to conventional ablation with 25 W for 40 s and 30–35 W for 20–30 s in terms of ID.

The life preservers aboard airplanes play a critical role in ensuring occupant safety in water-related accidents. However, several airlines off-load life preservers to save fuel and costs. In this study, a cost–benefit analysis was performed considering the Life Quality Index to examine the necessity of life preservers aboard aircraft. It was noted that the placement of life preservers aboard airplanes was reasonable and beneficial in the recent 15 years. Although life preservers are primarily required for extended overwater (EOW) operations, the distance from the shoreline for most of the water-related accidents was considerably smaller than that of an EOW operation, and most water-related accidents occurred close to an airport. In other words, air passengers were at risk of water-related accidents, regardless of whether the flight was classified as an EOW flight. Thus, life preservers must be made available for all the occupants on all passenger flights, regardless of the flight path.

Montelukast is a leukotriene receptor antagonist that is known to prevent allergic rhinitis and asthma. Blocking the Cysteinyl leukotriene receptor (CysLTR1), one of the primary receptors of leukotrienes, has been demonstrated to be efficacious in ameliorating experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS), through disrupting chemotaxis of infiltrating T cells. However, the role of CysLTR1 in the pathogenesis of MS is not well understood. Here, we show that MS patients had higher expression of CysLTR1 in the circulation and central nervous system (CNS). The majority of CD4(+) T cells expressed CysLTR1 in MS lesions. Among T‐cell subsets, Th17 cells had the highest expression of CysLTR1, and blocking CysLTR1 signalling abrogated their development in vitro. Inhibition of CysLTR1 by montelukast suppressed EAE development in both a prophylactic and therapeutic manner and inhibited myelin loss in EAE mice. Similarly, the in vivo results showed that montelukast inhibited Th17 response in EAE mice and that Th17 cells treated with montelukast had reduced encephalitogenic in adoptive EAE. Our findings strongly suggest that targeting Th17 response by inhibiting CysLTR1 signalling could be a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of MS and CNS inflammatory diseases.

Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a neuropeptide that has been found to reduce liver inflammation and protect liver from steatosis. We aimed to measure the level of plasma PACAP in patients with liver cirrhosis and to correlate its level with disease severity and laboratory parameters. 113 patients with clinically diagnosed liver cirrhosis and 110 healthy individuals were selected. Child–Pugh score was performed to evaluate disease severity. Liver biopsy was performed using the Knodell modified histology activity index (KmHAI). The L3 skeletal muscle index (L3SMI) was calculated to evaluate the nutrition status. Plasma PACAP concentrations were detected using ELISA. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of PACAP for detecting the severity of liver cirrhosis. Plasma PACAP levels were found to be significantly downregulated in patients with liver cirrhosis compared with healthy controls. The case group included 38 Child–Pugh A patients, 39 Child–Pugh B patients, and 36 Child–Pugh C patients. Cirrhosis patients with Child–Pugh C had significantly lower plasma PACAP levels compared with those with Child–Pugh B and A. Cirrhosis patients with Child–Pugh B demonstrated markedly decreased plasma PACAP concentrations compared with those with Child–Pugh A. ROC curve analysis indicated that low level of plasma PACAP may act as a potential indicator for disease progression of liver cirrhosis determined by Child–Pugh classification at both compensation stage (Child–Pugh A developed to Child–Pugh B) and decompensation stage (Child–Pugh B developed to Child–Pugh C).In addition, plasma PACAP levels were inversely associated with KmHAI and ALT as well as AST levels. In both male and female patients, plasma PACAP levels were positively related to L3SMI score. Decreased plasma PACAP levels are linked with disease severity in patients with liver cirrhosis. Reduced plasma PACAP may serve as a biomarker for detection and assessment of the severity of liver cirrhosis.

BACKGROUND Spinal metastases are common in patients with malignancies, but studies on those metastasized from unknown primaries are scarce due to the difficulty in treatment and the relatively poor prognosis. Knowledge of surgical complications, particularly perioperative mortality, in patients with spinal metastases from unidentified sources is still insufficient. CASE SUMMARY A 54-year-old man with chest-back pain was diagnosed with spinal metastasis in the seventh thoracic vertebra (T7). Radiographic examinations, as well as needle biopsy and immunohistochemical tests were performed to verify the characteristics of the lesion, resulting in an inconclusive diagnosis of poorly differentiated cancer from an unknown primary lesion. Therefore, spinal surgery was performed using the posterior approach to relieve symptoms and verify the diagnosis. Postoperative histologic examination indicated that this poorly differentiated metastatic cancer was possibly sarcomatoid carcinoma. As the patient experienced unexpectedly fast progression of the disease and died 16 d after surgery, the origin of this metastasis was undetermined. We discuss this case with respect to reported perioperative mortality in similar cases. CONCLUSION A comprehensive assessment prior to surgical decision-making is essential to reduce perioperative mortality risk in patients with spinal metastases from an unknown origin.

With the rapid development and evolution of wireless network technology, electronic health has shown great potential in continuously monitoring the health of patients. The wireless medical sensor network (WMSN) has played an important role in this field. In WMSN, medical sensors are placed on patients to collect relevant health data and transmitted to medical professionals in hospitals or at home through insecure channels. These health data need to be highly protected because they contain patient-related private information. Once the information is leaked or maliciously modified, it will cause the wrong diagnosis and endanger the health of patients. To protect information privacy and security from being stolen by illegal users, this article reviews the solutions of Farash et al. and further points out the existing vulnerabilities, such as privileged insider attack, user anonymity invalidation, and offline password guessing attack. In order to overcome these drawbacks, we use the Elliptic Curve Cryptography to propose an improved anonymous authentication protocol for a smart healthcare system. The security of our protocol is verified by Burrows-Abadi-Needham logic and Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) tools, and security features and efficiency analysis are performed with other related schemes. The results show that the improved protocol provides better security protection while ensuring computational and communication efficiency.

Fine-grained change operations can help software developers fix software bugs more accurately and efficiently. However, the current fine-grained change operations are only used in specific fixing process, such as fixing of If statement. In this paper, we conducted an empirical study to explore the fine-grained change operations for bug fixing. Based on the Mozilla bug data, we examined whether similar bugs are fixed with similar change operations. The results show that: First, for bug reports with similar descriptions or bug-fix commits with similar descriptions, their corresponding fine-grained change operations are not related; Second, in the case where the descriptions of both bug reports and bug-fix commits are similar, the fine-grained change operations in patch code are not related; Third, by classifying bug reports, we find that the change operations in the same bug report category are similar; Finally, by analyzing the fine-grained change operations for each bug, we present some combined patterns that are often used together.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the most common malignancies in children. Our aim was to identify a novel miRNA that can predict prognosis of childhood ALL patients and explore its potential mechanism.The miRNA expression profiles of childhood ALL were analyzed using GEO database and HiSeq instruments. The expression of miR-155 was examined by RT-PCR in 42 ALL patients. To investigate the role of miR-155 in ALL, four ALL cell lines (CEM-C1, Jurkat, MOLT-3 and MOLT-4) were transfected with miR-155 mimics, miR-155 inhibitors or corresponding controls. Dual-luciferase reporter system was applied to confirm the miR-155 target ZNF238. Moreover, proliferation and apoptosis were evaluated by MTT and flow cytometry.Dataset GSE56489 and GSE23024 demonstrated that miR-155 was up-regulated and ZNF238 was down-regulated at diagnosis status of ALL. High miR-155 expression was associated with poor outcome. Overexpressed miR-155 promoted ALL cell proliferation and inhibited apoptosis. Dual-luciferase reporter result showed that miR-155 directly regulated ZNF238. Silencing ZNF238 promoted cell proliferation in ALL cells.Our research indicating that miR-155 might possess potential value as a biomarker for predicting the prognosis of individuals. However, the role of ZNF238 in childhood ALL remain unknown. In the present study, we found the possible role of ZNF238 as a new tumor suppressor in ALL, which might be necessary for the antiproliferative functions of normal cells to counteract ALL formation.Our results propose that miR-155 is in association with poor prognosis of childhood ALL. Furthermore, miR-155 could promote cell proliferation targeting ZNF238.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes motor dysfunction and depression, which hinders the recovery of motor function. Body weight-supported treadmill training (BWSTT) should be considered an effective method for functional rehabilitation after SCI, as it is an efficacious intervention in healthcare with no side effects. Because exercise exerts different effects on motor function recovery and inhibiting depression after SCI, we aimed to determine the appropriate intensity of BWSTT. In this study, fixed durations, frequencies, and percentages of BWSTT with different speeds of BWSTT (7, 15, and 21 cm/s) were chosen to explore the appropriate intensity, which affected the recovery of motor function and antidepressant effects on SCI rats. Based on our results, BWSTT at 21 cm/s produced the best outcomes for motor function recovery and the spinal cord levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB). The antidepressant effects of BWSTT at 15 and 21 cm/s were confirmed based on the increasing sucrose preference, the time spent in the central area and social time, and reduced immobility time. BWSTT at 15 and 21 cm/s improved the modulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis by decreasing serum corticosterone levels and increasing hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor levels. In addition, higher levels of neurogenesis-related proteins were observed in the hippocampus of the group subjected to BWSTT at 21 cm/s than in the other groups. Thus, BWSTT at 21 cm/s is a potentially favorable treatment that synchronously improves motor function recovery and exerts an antidepressant effect.

With the rapid development of the Internet, there is a pressing requirement for data security protection in Internet. However, in some applications, resource constrained devices in Internet requires that the algorithm for data encryption have high reliability and availability, as well as extremely low latency, and strong robustness in harsh environment. In this work, we propose an efficient batch images encryption/decryption scheme based on DNA encoding and piecewise linear chaotic mapping system (PWLCM). Different from all existing methods, the proposed method can encrypt/decrypt any number of images with different sizes via only single encryption computation, and the computing cost is equivalent to that of encrypting a single image. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method has strong robustness to resist the interference of harsh environment, such as noise contamination, JPEG compression, and image content loss. We also investigate the computing cost, encryption effect and the security. Comparing with the state-of-the-art methods, the proposed method has high encryption efficiency, stronger robustness and security.

Osteonecrosis is a common human disease in orthopedics. It is difficult to treat, and half of patients may need artificial joint replacement, resulting in a considerable economic burden and a reduction in quality of life. Hormones are one of the major causes of osteonecrosis and high doses of corticosteroids are considered the most dangerous factor. Because of the complexity of treatment, we still need a better animal model that can be widely used in drug development and testing. Tree shrews are more closely related to primates than rodents. As such, we constructed a successful tree shrew model to establish and evaluate steroid-associated osteonecrosis (SAON). We found that low-dose lipopolysaccharide (LPS) combined with high-dose methylprednisolone (MPS) over 12 weeks could be used to establish a tree shrew model with femoral head necrosis. Serum biochemical and histological analyses showed that an ideal model was obtained. Thus, this work provides a useful animal model for the study of SAON and for the optimization of treatment methods.

Background Metabolic syndrome (MetS), a public health problem, is reportedly related to an increased risk of postoperative complications after surgery. However, whether MetS have an effect on complications after gastric cancer (GC) surgery are unknown. This study aimed to investigate the effects of preoperative MetS on complications after gastrectomy. Methods Altogether, 718 gastric cancer patients who planned to receive radical gastrectomy between June 2014 and December 2016 were enrolled, demographic and clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify potential risk factors for postoperative complications. A predictive model for postoperative complications was constructed in the form of a nomogram, and its clinical usefulness was assessed. Results Of the 628 patients ultimately included in the study (mean age 62.92 years, 450 men and 178 women), 84 were diagnosed with MetS preoperatively. Severe postoperative complications (Clavien‐Dindo grade ≥II) were significantly more common in patients with MetS (41.7% versus 23.7%, P, MetS was an independent risk factor for postoperative complications after gastrectomy. We developed an useful nomogram and rating model incorporating MetS, Billroth II anastomosis, age, and Charlson score.

OBJECTIVES Nutrition status is of great significance to the clinical outcome after major abdominal surgery. However, the effect of preoperative short-term parenteral nutrition (PN) support among gastric cancer (GC) patients remains unknown and was evaluated in the current study. METHODS We retrospectively analyzed 455 nutritionally at-risk GC patients after radical resection from 2010 to 2016. We matched patients with 3-7 days of PN support to those without PN support. χ2 And Mann-Whitney U tests were used to compare differences between the PN and control groups. RESULTS The propensity-matched sample included 368 GC patients (PN group, n = 184; control group, n = 184). The PN and control groups did not differ regarding postoperative complications (P = .528). The incidence of anastomotic leakage in the PN group was lower than in the control group (P = .011), whereas other complications were not found to differ between the groups. The hospitalization cost of the PN group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < .001), whereas other outcome indicators were similar. Subgroup analysis showed that short-term PN support may have an improved benefit for patients with serum albumin level

Background. Postsurgical gastroparesis syndrome (PGS) after subtotal gastrectomy imposes significant social and economic burdens. We aimed to investigate the relationship between preoperative blood glucose level and PGS and develop a nomogram for individualized prediction. Patients and Methods. We retrospectively analyzed 633 patients with gastric cancer who underwent subtotal gastrectomy. Preoperative blood glucose levels were evaluated via receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Chi-squared tests and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to develop a predictive model for PGS, presented as a nomogram, which was assessed for its clinical usefulness. Results. Thirty-eight of 633 patients were diagnosed with PGS. Based on the ROC curve analysis, the preoperative blood glucose cutoff value for PGS was 6.25 mmol/L. The predictors of PGS included preoperative hyperglycemia (odds ratio (OR) 2.3, P=0.03), body mass index (BMI; OR 0.21, P=0.14 for BMI<18.5 and OR 3.0, P=0.004 for BMI>24), and the anastomotic method (OR 7.3, P=0.001 for Billroth II and OR 5.9, P=0.15 for Roux-en-Y). The predictive model showed good discrimination ability, with a C-index of 0.710, and was clinically useful. Conclusions. Preoperative hyperglycemia effectively predicts PGS. We present a nomogram incorporating the preoperative blood glucose level, BMI, anastomotic method, and tumor size, for individualized prediction of PGS.

The CCCH-type zinc finger antiviral protein (ZAP) can recognize and induce the degradation of mRNAs and proteins of certain viruses, as well as exerting its antiviral activity by activating T cells. However, the mechanism of ZAP that mediates T cell activation during virus infection remains unclear. Here, we found a potential function of ZAP that relieves immunosuppression of T cell induced by avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J) via a novel signaling pathway that involves norbin-like protein (NLP), protein kinase C delta (PKC-δ), and nuclear factor of activated T cell (NFAT). Specifically, ZAP expression activated T cells by promoting the dephosphorylation and nuclear translocation of NFAT. Furthermore, knockdown of ZAP weakened the reactivity and antiviral response of T cells. Mechanistically, ZAP reduced PKC-δ activity by upregulating and reactivating NLP by competitively binding with viral protein. Knockdown of NLP decreased the dephosphorylation of PKC-δ by ZAP expression. Moreover, we show that knockdown of PKC-δ reduced the phosphorylation levels of NFAT and enhanced its nuclear translocation. Taken together, these data revealed that ZAP relieves immunosuppression caused by ALV-J and mediates T cell activation through the NLP–PKC-δ–NFAT pathway. IMPORTANCE The evolution of the host defense system is driven synchronously in the process of resisting virus invasion. Accordingly, host innate defense factors effectively work to suppress virus replication. However, it remains unclear whether the host innate defense factors are involved in antiviral immune responses against the invasion of immunosuppressive viruses. Here, we found that CCCH-type zinc finger antiviral protein (ZAP) effectively worked in resistance to immunosuppression caused by avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J), a classic immunosuppressive virus. Evidence showed that ZAP released the phosphatase activity of NLP inhibited by ALV-J and further activated NFAT by inactivating PKC-δ. This novel molecular mechanism, i.e., ZAP regulation of the antiviral immune response by mediating the NLP–PKC-δ–NFAT pathway, has greatly enriched the understanding of the functions of host innate defense factors and provided important scientific ideas and a theoretical basis for research on immunosuppressive viruses and antiviral immunity.

Background: Eczema is the most common allergic skin disorder in the world. The treatment of eczema with western medicine generally involves antihistamines, antibiotics, glucocorticoids, and immunomodulatory preparations, which are limited by common relapse events following drug withdrawal. Many traditional Chinese medicines have demonstrated significant effects on eczema; however, high-quality clinical studies are lacking.Objectives: We performed a multi-center, randomized, double-blind, clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a Chinese herbal medicine, Qinzhuliangxue (QZLX) granules, and its effect on recurrence of eczema.Methods: A total of 342 patients with eczema who met the inclusion criteria were recruited and randomly divided into a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment group, a Western medicine (WM) treatment group, and a TCM plus WM treatment group, according to random numbers generated using the central stratified zone group random method. The Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) score and the level of pruritus were set as the primary outcome measures, and the Dermatology Quality of Life Index (DLQI) score served as the secondary outcome measure. In this study, a two-sided p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The median EASI score and the pruritus level at baseline were not statistically significant. However, as the treatment period progressed, the EASI score (including the total score and scores for the head, upper limb, trunk, and lower limb) and pruritus level decreased significantly in all three treatment groups. Repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) demonstrated that the DLQI scores in the TCM, WM, and TCM+WM groups decreased significantly over time. Limitations: Basic experiments need to be increased.Conclusions: The Chinese herbal medicine QZLX granules significantly improved the EASI score and decreased the pruritus level in eczema patients, with good safety and no obvious adverse reactions.Trial RegistrationThe protocol for this study was registered with the Clinical Trials database (NCT02517957). Registered 1 May 2015, Xia Shi Surgical Treatment for Eczema Multi-center Clinical Research - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov

Background. The SOX gene family has been proven to display regulatory effects on numerous diseases, particularly in the malignant progression of neoplasms. However, the molecular functions and action mechanisms of SOX genes have not been clearly elucidated in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). We aimed to explore the expression status, prognostic values, clinical significances, and regulatory actions of SOX genes in ccRCC. Methods. RNA-sequence data and clinical information derived from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was used for this study. Dysregulated SOX genes between the normal group and ccRCC group were screened using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The Kaplan-Meier analysis and univariate Cox analysis methods were used to estimate the overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) differences between different groups. The independent prognostic factors were identified by the use of uni- and multivariate assays. Subsequently, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test or Kruskal-Wallis test and the chi-square test or Fisher exact probability methods were employed to explore the association between clinicopathological variables and SOX genes. Finally, CIBERSORT was applied to study the samples and examine the infiltration of immune cells between different groups. Results. Herein, 12 dysregulated SOX genes in ccRCC were screened. Among them, two independent prognostic SOX genes (SOX6 and SOX12) were identified. Further investigation results showed that SOX6 and SOX12 were distinctly associated with clinicopathological features. Furthermore, functional enrichment analysis revealed that SOX6 and SOX12 were enriched in essential biological processes and signaling pathways. Finally, we found that the SOX6 and SOX12 expression levels were correlated with tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs). Conclusion. The pooled analyses showed that SOX6 and SOX12 could serve as promising biomarkers and therapeutic targets of patients with ccRCC.

Background Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant central nervous system tumor of childhood. Management requires interdisciplinary care and is associated with unique challenges in developing regions. Here, we report the characteristics, clinical outcome and treatment barriers for Chinese children with MB based on a multi-institutional cohort from the Chinese Children’s Cancer Group (CCCG). Methods Retrospective cohort study among 12 Chinese pediatric oncology units from the CCCG Brain Tumor Workgroup on patients aged Results 221 patients (male:female = 138:83) were included, 175 (79%) were ≥3 years of age, and 46 (21%) Conclusions We reported the clinical profiles and outcome from the largest cohort of Chinese children with MB after multi-modal therapy. Strengths and limitations on the local provision of neuro-oncology service are identified.

Most types of spinal cord injury (SCI) observed in humans can be replicated in adult rat models, which are widely used for laboratory studies of SCI rehabilitation. To ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of an SCI rat model, the minimal time spent performing the laminectomy procedure and the damage caused to the body are of great importance. We describe and evaluate the effectiveness and advantages of a laminectomy auxiliary device (LAD) for removing the rat vertebral lamina without injuring the spinal cord. The incision size, success rate, operation duration, body weight, BBB score, step detection, latency and amplitude of transcranial electrical motor-evoked potentials (tceMEPs), and serum MDA and SOD levels were recorded in 8 normal rats, 8 rats treated with traditional laminectomy and 8 rats treated with LAD laminectomy. Compared with traditional laminectomy, in our LAD, the surgical incision was smaller (approximately 2.2 and 1.3 cm, respectively), the success rate was higher (88.89% and 100%, respectively) and the duration shorter (14.644±1.617 and 4.821±0.668 minutes, respectively). Compared with normal rats, those treated with either laminectomy using LAD or the traditional method showed slower body weight gain and temporarily increased oxidative stress levels. However, there were no significant differences between these two groups. Our results show that laminectomy using this LAD provides three main advantages in rats: a high success rate, time savings, small incisions and reduced trauma. We believe this LAD can be used as an effective assistant tool for rodent laminectomy.

The lens for monitoring the rubber conveyor belt is easy to adhere to a large number of water droplets, which seriously affects the image quality and then affects the effect of fault monitoring. In this paper, a new method for detecting and removing water droplets on rubber conveyor belts based on the attentive generative adversarial network is proposed to solve this problem. First, the water droplet image of the rubber conveyor belt is input into the generative network composed of a cyclic visual attentive network and an autoencoder with skip connections, and an image of removing water droplets and an attention map for detecting the position of the water droplet are generated. Then, the generated image of removing water droplets is evaluated by the attentive discriminant network to assess the local consistency of the water droplet recovery area. In order to better learn the water droplet regions and the surrounding structures during the training, the image morphology is added to the precise water droplet regions. A dewatered rubber conveyor belt image is generated by increasing the number of circular visual attention network layers and the number of skip connection layers of the autoencoder. Finally, a large number of comparative experiments prove the effectiveness of the water droplet image removal algorithm proposed in this paper, which outperforms of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Discriminative Sparse Coding (DSC), Layer Prior (LP), and Attention Generative Adversarial Network (ATTGAN).

Objective We sought to introduce a localization procedure (methylene blue-stained N-butyl cyanoacrylate and N-octyl cyanoacrylate glue) in localizing pulmonary small nodules and ground-glass opacities before thoracoscopic resection, and to evaluate its efficacy. Methods A total of 20 patients with pulmonary small nodules and/or ground-glass opacities, who underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery from August 1, 2017 to March 1 2018, were included in the study. Results A total of 24 lesions in 20 patients underwent blue-stained glue localization. The success rate of localization was 100%, with a mean dose of 0.04±0.01 mL blue dye and 1 mL glue used for each lesion. The average time for the whole localization procedure was 15.4±6.3 minutes. All lesions were intraoperatively localized by visual inspection in combination with palpation. The complications related to the localization procedure included mild pneumothorax occurring in 9 patients and minor pulmonary hematoma in 4 patients. No pain or distress was reported. Conclusions Blue-stained glue injection is technically feasible and safe to localize pulmonary small nodules and ground-glass opacities before thoracoscopic resection.

The main task of software testing is the generation of test data with high quality in restricted time. But for software with uncertainties, such as randomness, existing methods of generating test data often lose their effectiveness. For software with randomness, a test datum might cover the test target in one run, but obtains different results in the next run. Therefore, special testing methods must be exploited for this kind of software. In order to test software with randomness, we first propose a novel test adequacy criterion, and then build a mathematical model for generating test data according to the new criterion. Finally, we present a method of solving the optimization model using a set-based genetic algorithm. We apply the proposed method to test 12 programs, and compare with traditional genetic algorithm and the random method. From the experimental results we can see that, the proposed adequacy criterion is available for the software with randomness and the proposed algorithm can effectively generate test data.

Pan-sharpening is a significant task in remote sensing image processing, which merges a high-resolution panchromatic (PAN) image and a low-resolution multispectral (MS) image to create a high-resolution MS image. In this article, we propose a novel deep-learning-based MS image pan-sharpening method that combines a shallow–deep convolutional network (SDCN) and a spectral discrimination-based detail injection (SDDI) model. SDCN consists of a shallow network and a deep network, which can capture mid-level and high-level spatial features from PAN images. SDDI, inspired by the “Amelioration de la Resolution Spatial par Injection de Structures” concept, is developed to merge the spatial details extracted by SDCN into MS images with minimal spectral distortion. SDCN and SDDI are collaboratively learned for achieving high-spatial-resolution MS image and preserving more spectral information. Both the visual assessment and the quantitative assessment results on IKONOS and QuickBird datasets confirmed that the proposed method outperforms several state-of-the-art pan-sharpening methods.

Clayey silt reservoirs bearing natural gas hydrates (NGH) are considered to be the hydrate-bearing reservoirs that boast the highest reserves but tend to be the most difficult to exploit. They are proved to be exploitable by the first NGH production test conducted in the South China Sea in 2017. Based on the understanding of the first production test, the China Geological Survey determined the optimal target NGH reservoirs for production test and conducted a detailed assessment, numerical and experimental simulation, and onshore testing of the reservoirs. After that, it conducted the second offshore NGH production test in 1225 m deep Shenhu Area, South China Sea (also referred to as the second production test) from October 2019 to April 2020. During the second production test, a series of technical challenges of drilling horizontal wells in shallow soft strata in deep sea were met, including wellhead stability, directional drilling of a horizontal well, reservoir stimulation and sand control, and accurate depressurization. As a result, 30 days of continuous gas production was achieved, with a cumulative gas production of 86.14 ×104 m3. Thus, the average daily gas production is 2.87 ×104 m3, which is 5.57 times as much as that obtained in the first production test. Therefore, both the cumulative gas production and the daily gas production were highly improved compared to the first production test. As indicated by the monitoring results of the second production test, there was no anomaly in methane content in the seafloor, seawater, and atmosphere throughout the whole production test. This successful production test further indicates that safe and effective NGH exploitation is feasible in clayey silt NGH reservoirs. The industrialization of hydrates consists of five stages in general, namely theoretical research and simulation experiments, exploratory production test, experimental production test, productive production test, and commercial production. The second production test serves as an important step from the exploratory production test to experimental production test.

Background The association between methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T polymorphism (rs1801133) and childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is inconsistent. Objective To explore the relationship between MTHFR-C677T polymorphism and susceptibility to childhood ALL. Methods PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, and other databases were searched from the establishment of the database to November 2019, and all the case-control studies that met the inclusion criteria were collected. Stata 15.0 was used for meta-analysis, with calculation of the odds ratio (OR) of the relationship between MTHFR-C677T polymorphism and childhood ALL susceptibility. Ethnicity was analyzed by subgroup analysis. Results A total of 26 studies were included in this meta-analysis, including 4,682 children with ALL and 7144 controls. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the comparison of population of allele model, dominant gene model, recessive gene model, homozygous gene model, heterozygous gene model, and the comparison of Caucasian children. The results of the Asian child analysis suggested that the combined OR of the dominant gene model (CC + CT versus TT), homozygous model (CC versus TT) and heterozygous model (CT versus TT) was 1.32 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03-1.70), 1.37 (95% CI: 1.02-1.84), and 1.27 (95% CI: 1.01-1.59), respectively, with statistically significant differences. However, there was no significant difference between the allele model and recessive gene model among Asian children. Conclusion The MTHFR C677T polymorphism is related to ALL in children, especially in Asian children. CC + CT, CC, and CT genotypes can increase the risk of ALL, but no association has been found in Caucasian children.

Human pose estimation has attracted enormous interest in the field of human action recognition. When the human pose is complex (such as pose distortion, pose reversal, etc.) or there is background interference (multi-target, shadow, etc.), the keypoints obtained by existing methods of human pose estimation often have incorrect positioning, category, and connection. This paper proposes a novel human pose estimation network KACNet via the keypoint association constraints. The Channel-1 of KACNet is constrained by the distance loss function to obtain the position of keypoints, and the Channel-2 of KACNet is constrained by the association loss function to obtain the relationship of keypoints. Then, the position and relationship of keypoints are fused by the weighted loss function to obtain the keypoints with accurate location, classification, and connection. Experiments on a large number of public datasets and Internet data show that our method can effectively suppress background interference to improve the accuracy of complex human pose estimation. Compared with state-of-the-art human pose estimation methods, the proposed methods can accurately locate, classify, and connect the human body keypoints robustly.

First principles calculations are performed to predict phonon-limited carrier mobility for a novel graphene-like semiconductor with BC6N stoichiometry. First, the electron–phonon interaction matrix element (EPIME) from the standard Wannier and polar Wannier interpolation schemes is used to investigate mobility. After considering the polarization, carrier mobility is greatly reduced, so polar optical phonon (POP) scattering plays an important role. At 300 K, the electron mobility for the most stable BC6N–B is predicted to be μx = 4.51 × 102–8.37 × 102 and μy = 8.35 × 102–1.22 × 103 cm2 V−1 s−1, while the hole mobility is estimated to be μx = 4.79 × 102–8.65 × 102 and μy = 9.19 × 102–1.28 × 103 cm2 V−1 s−1. Then, the longitudinal acoustic phonon deformation potential theory (LAP-DPT) is adopted to calculate the mobility, which leads to an overestimation for carrier mobility in polar semiconductors. Furthermore, the semiempirical model based on the POP scattering is also used to investigate the mobility. It is confirmed that the intrinsic mobility for BC6N is mainly determined by the Frohlich interaction. The investigation provides a deep understanding of carrier transport properties. It is revealed that B and N co-doped graphene may become a promising material for application in nanoelectronic devices due to the excellent mechanical behavior, moderate direct band gap and high carrier mobility.