Search

Background:. Non-communicable chronic diseases have become the leading causes of disease burden worldwide. The trends and burden of “metabolic associated fatty liver disease” (MAFLD) are unknown. We aimed to investigate the cardiovascular and renal burdens in adults with MAFLD and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods:. Nationally representative data were analyzed including data from 19,617 non-pregnant adults aged ≥20 years from the cross-sectional US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey periods, 1999 to 2002, 2003 to 2006, 2007 to 2010, and 2011 to 2016. MAFLD was defined by the presence of hepatic steatosis plus general overweight/obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, or evidence of metabolic dysregulation. Results:. The prevalence of MAFLD increased from 28.4% (95% confidence interval 26.3–30.6) in 1999 to 2002 to 35.8% (33.8–37.9) in 2011 to 2016. In 2011 to 2016, among adults with MAFLD, 49.0% (45.8–52.2) had hypertension, 57.8% (55.2–60.4) had dyslipidemia, 26.4% (23.9–28.9) had diabetes mellitus, 88.7% (87.0–80.1) had central obesity, and 18.5% (16.3–20.8) were current smokers. The 10-year cardiovascular risk ranged from 10.5% to 13.1%; 19.7% (17.6–21.9) had chronic kidney diseases (CKDs). Through the four periods, adults with MAFLD showed an increase in obesity; increase in treatment to lower blood pressure (BP), lipids, and hemoglobin A1c; and increase in goal achievements for BP and lipids but not in goal achievement for glycemic control in diabetes mellitus. Patients showed a decreasing 10-year cardiovascular risk over time but no change in the prevalence of CKDs, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Generally, although participants with NAFLD and those with MAFLD had a comparable prevalence of cardiovascular disease and CKD, the prevalence of MAFLD was significantly higher than that of NAFLD. Conclusions:. From 1999 to 2016, cardiovascular and renal risks and diseases have become highly prevalent in adults with MAFLD. The absolute cardiorenal burden may be greater for MAFLD than for NAFLD. These data call for early identification and risk stratification of MAFLD and close collaboration between endocrinologists and hepatologists.

Magnetic absorber in optical frequency can be fulfilled through metamaterials designing. Therein, magnetic resonance in metal-dielectric-metal metasurfaces can be manipulated conveniently, and studying the parameters impacts is the primary for applications. In this work, through changing the grating width and the thickness of silica, the magnetic resonance modes have been studied, the conditions of the phase change zone from magnetic resonance (MR) to Fabry-Perot (FP) are given out in Ag−SiO2−Ag grating magnetic metasurfaces. The results indicate that the MR mode in metal-dielectric-metal configuration is mainly decided on the dielectric duty factor other than the sole behaviors of the thickness of dielectric and size of nanostructures. The physical mechanism is elucidated through simulated electromagnetic field distributions using finite difference time domain (FDTD) solution, and numerical analysis of effective refraction index of Ag−SiO2−Ag magnetic metasurfaces. This study may prompt development of metamaterials in basic research in condensed physics and in optical devices applications.

Information technological advances have significantly increased large volumes of corporate datasets, which have also created a wide range of business opportunities related to big data and cloud com...

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a common and disabling condition characterized by attacks of pain around the joints, and it is a typical disease that develops chronic pain. Previous studies have proved that 5-HT1, 5-HT2, and 5-HT3 receptors in the spinal cord are involved in electroacupuncture (EA) analgesia. The 5-HT7 receptor plays antinociceptive role in the spinal cord. However, it is unclear whether the 5-HT7 receptor is involved in EA analgesia. The 5-HT7 receptor is a stimulatory G-protein (Gs)-coupled receptor that activates adenylyl cyclase (AC) to stimulate cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) formation, which in turn activates protein kinase A (PKA). In the present study, we found that EA significantly increased the tactile threshold and the expression of the 5-HT7 receptor in the dorsal spinal cord. Intrathecal injection of 5-HT7 receptor agonist AS-19 mimicked the analgesic effect of EA, while a selective 5-HT7 receptor antagonist reversed this effect. Moreover, intrathecal injection of AC and PKA antagonists prior to EA intervention prevented its anti-allodynic effect. In addition, GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline administered (intrathecal, i.t.) prior to EA intervention blocked the EA effect on pain hypersensitivity. Our data suggest that the spinal 5-HT7 receptor activates GABAergic neurons through the Gs–cAMP–PKA pathway and participates in EA-mediated inhibition of chronic pain in a mouse model of KOA.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) located in dorsal root ganglion has been found as a new target for chronic pain treatment. However, it is not clear whether the change of EGFR expression in the dorsal root ganglion contributes to neuropathic pain development. In this study, we used a chronic compression of unilateral lumbar dorsal root ganglions (CCD)-induced rat neuropathic pain model and found that CCD caused the upregulation of both phosphorylated EGFR and total EGFR expression in compressed lumbar 4/5 (L4/L5) dorsal root ganglions by western blotting and immunohistochemistry methods. Either inhibition of EGFR activation by EGFR inhibitor or knockdown of EGFR expression by EGFR small interference RNA (siRNA) relieved CCD-induced pain hypersensitivities to mechanical, thermal, and cold stimuli in rats. Moreover, EGFR knockdown reversed CCD-induced the increase of intracellular mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) expression as well as the activation of the satellite glial cells in the ipsilateral compressed L4/L5 dorsal root ganglions. These findings suggest that not only activated EGFR but also total EGFR contribute to CCD-induced neuropathic pain by enhancing intracellular mTOR signaling.

Magnetic photonic crystal slab with nanovoids buried in Ni films were fabricated using nanosphere lithography combined with electrochemical deposition. One featured structure was dominated the spectra of polar surface magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) of samples with different voids depth. For the shallow ones, surface lattice resonance (SLR) was revealed through angle resolved spectra analysis, where the location of degeneracy points corresponded to that of the featured structure in MOKE signal. For the deeper ones, localized plasmons and degeneracy points were all demonstrated in angle resolved reflection spectra, where localized plasmons dominated the resonant MOKE signal, and the degeneracy points blue-shifted compared with that of shallow ones. Changing the lattice of samples, similar phenomena were presented. The physical mechanism of SLR could be attributed to the diffraction of surface plasmons by the reciprocity vector, and the localized plasmons were attributed to the Mie scattering. The featured structure in polar MOKE spectra demonstrated high sensitivity, which might pave the way to on-chip MO devices.

Since the human resource-intensive traditional medical care practices often lack consideration of natural human reasoning, they follow procedural knowledge as the knowledge base, and therefore, they lack precision of knowledge description. In order to reduce dependency upon human resources and quickly and accurately discern a patient's health condition, we have constructed a fuzzy blood pressure verification system, which consists of an intelligent mobile device integrated with fuzzy comparison and a fuzzy analytic hierarchical process. This personalized and humane blood pressure verification system can provide assistance for the health and safety of the elderly. In stage one, the system development involves computation of the hierarchical levels of patient's various physiological data using the fuzzy analytic hierarchical process (FAHP). In stage two, a fuzzy blood pressure verification system was constructed using the fuzzy analytic hierarchical process and high-level fuzzy Petri nets. Plotting functionality was added for the convenience of observing the blood pressure trends in patient records in the database system. Upon detection of an abnormal physiological signal from a patient, the intelligent mobile system can generate an alarm, thereby facilitating real-time home care. The proposed system immediately generates an alarm upon detection of abnormal vital signs, building a personal blood pressure system based on HLFPN.A fuzzy blood pressure system using an Android system on the HMI-6410S integrated biomedical-electronic platform by DMATEK has been constructed.Bluetooth communication technology and the measuring equipment with various sensors enable the proposed system to be applied to real-time tele-home care.The proposed system also assists the patients in being aware of their daily physiological changes, helping them keep tracking and self-managing their health conditions, and preventing any further illness.

Background: Neovascular glaucoma (NVG) is a refractory glaucoma. The management of NVG is very difficult, and it is more difficult when combined with vitreous hemorrhage. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of ranibizumab plus combined surgery for NVG with vitreous hemorrhage. Methods: A total of 26 eyes of 26 NVG patients with vitreous hemorrhage were recruited in this study. The patients aged from 36 to 63 years with a mean age of 51.97 ± 7.60 years. The mean intraocular pressure (IOP) was 46.38 ± 5.75 mmHg (1 mmHg = 0.133 kPa) while being treated with the maximum medical therapy. The mean best-corrected visual acuities converted to logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR BCVA) was 2.62 ± 0.43. All the patients underwent intravitreal injection of 0.5 mg (0.05 ml) ranibizumab combined with pars plana vitrectomy (PPV), pars plana lensectomy (PPL) with a preserved anterior capsule, panretinal photocoagulation (PRP), and trabeculectomy (intravitreal ranibizumab [IVR] + PPV + PPL + PRP + trabeculectomy). The IOP and logMAR BCVA were the main outcome measures in this study. Results: The follow-up period was 12 months. The mean postoperative IOPs were 26.38 ± 3.75 mmHg, 21.36 ± 3.32 mmHg, 18.57 ± 3.21 mmHg, and 16.68 ± 2.96 mmHg, respectively at 7 days, 1 month, 3 months, and 12 months after PPV + PPL + PRP + trabeculectomy. At the last follow-up, the mean IOP was significantly lower than the preoperative one ( t = 6.612, P = 0.001). At 7 days, 1 month, 3 months, and 12 months after PPV + PPL + PRP + trabeculectomy, the mean logMAR BCVA were 1.30 ± 0.36, 1.29 ± 0.37, 1.29 ± 0.39, and 1.26 ± 0.29, respectively. At the last follow-up, the mean logMAR BCVA was significantly improved, and the difference was statistically significant compared with preoperative one ( t = 6.133, P = 0.002). The logMAR BCVA improved in 22 eyes (84.62%), and remained stable in 4 eyes (15.38%). The neovascularization in the iris and the angle regressed significantly in all patients 7 days after ranibizumab injection. No serious complications occurred during 12 months of the study. Conclusions: IVR + PPV + PPL + PRP + trabeculectomy can control IOP well and improve BCVA without severe complication for NVG patients with vitreous hemorrhage.

In this paper, a novel data hiding scheme, 3D unseen visible watermarking (UVW) based on a depth no-synthesis-error (D-NOSE) model is proposed. The proposed method has the ability to detect and discover which region of a depth image is suitable for watermark embedding and calculate optimal variance in pixel values for watermarking. The watermark is embedded into the suitable region by modifying the depth map with optimal variation pixel values to ensure that the watermarked cover can be perceived the same as the original one with no synthesis error under normal rendering conditions. In the proposed UVW scheme, hidden information can be extracted successfully by the human visual system (HVS) when changing the rendering conditions. Experimental results prove that the proposed scheme has strong robustness and imperceptibility while depth distortions follow the thresholds derived from D-NOSE model. Practical applications and limitations of the proposed 3D UVW for auxiliary information delivery are also discussed in this paper.

In this paper a simulation of the properties of surface plasmons on gold nanoplatelets with various cross-sections inscribed in a circle and an investigation of their field distributions to assign multiple SPRs are described. The manipulated propagation can be obtained through the evolution of edges and corners. Furthermore, the particle morphology and the associated spectral positions alone do not uniquely reflect the important details of the local field distribution or the resonance modes. The plasmon modes were investigated and found to be mainly excited along the edges and in the side and sloped side surfaces. The strong field distributions can generally be found around the corners and how the plasmons transmit through the corners to adjacent edges was also investigated. Besides the plasmons excited along the edges as were found for the triangular nanoplatelets, plasmons were excited in the interior region of the triangular surfaces and were also investigated. Despite this in the infrared region, plasmon modes were found to be along the edges for the hexagonal nanoplatelets. Also, it can be seen that the change of nanoplatelet thickness can support different plasmon modes ranging from dipolar resonance mode to quadrupole resonance mode. The thickness far below the skin depth can display complex plasmon modes along the edges and on the side and sloping side surfaces as well as the strong coupling between the top and bottom surfaces. The observed plasmon resonance modes in this simulation reflect the interference of all these contributions including the plasmons along the edges and on the side surfaces. This is an essential step towards a thorough understanding of plasmon modes and the effect of edge and corner evolution in polygonous nanoplatelets.

Background On 5 March 2015, Taiwan Centers for Disease Control was notified of more than 200 students with gastroenteritis at a senior high school during excursion to Kenting. We conducted an outbreak investigation to identify the causative agent and possible vehicle of the pathogen. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study by using a structured questionnaire to interview all students for consumed food items during their stay at the resort. Students were defined as a gastroenteritis case while having vomiting or diarrhea after the breakfast on 4 March. We inspected the environment to identify possible contamination route. We collected stool or vomitus samples from ill students, food handlers and environmental specimens for bacterial culture for common enteropathogens, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for norovirus and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for rotavirus. Norovirus PCR-positive products were then sequenced and genotyped. Results Of 267 students enrolled, 144 (54%) met our case definition. Regression analysis revealed elevated risk associated with iced tea, which was made from tea powder mixed with hot water and self-made ice (risk ratio 1.54, 95% confidence interval 1.22–1.98). Ice used for beverages, water before and after water filter of the ice machine and 16 stool and vomitus samples from ill students were tested positive for norovirus; Multiple genotypes were identified including GI.2, GI.4 and GII.17. GII.17 was the predominant genotype and phylogenetic analyses showed that noroviruses identified in ice, water and human samples were clustered into the same genotypes. Environmental investigation revealed the ice was made by inadequate-filtered and un-boiled water. Conclusions We identified the ice made by norovirus-contaminated un-boiled water caused the outbreak and the predominant genotype was GII.17. Adequately filtered or boiled water should be strongly recommended for making ice to avoid possible contamination.

The electric field tends to become distributed within a conductor due to skin effect such that the field density is largest near the surface of the conductor and decreases with greater depths in the conductor. The electric field mainly distributes at the skin of the conductor, between the outer surface and a level called the skin depth. For a plasmonic nanosystem smaller than the skin depth, oscillations of the metal electrons will be driven by the optical electric field penetrating the entire system. This effect will induce confinement of optical energy inside the whole systems and influence the performance of surface plasmon. A theoretical model that a gold core is embedded within Ag nanoshell is constructed to simulate hybridization of surface plasmon and energy confinement in Au/Ag core/shell nanostructures based on the skin depth. Indeed, nanoshells in the core/shell system greatly influence the surface plasmon resonance, and the shell frequency is tuned efficiently through hybridization of surface plasmon. The plasmon resonances in core/shell particles can be understood in terms of hybridization between the plasmon modes of the surfaces and interfaces supported by cavity of the metallic shells. The hybridized plasmons induced by interaction of these plasmon modes can result in energy alteration over a wide range in wavelength. Combining with extinction spectra and field distributions, it can be seen that skin depth plays an important role in energy confinement and hybridization of surface plasmom.

During the process of being used, engineering structures will undergo material aging and structural damage with time passing by under the combined influence of internal factors including load, environment and structural material[1], and accumulation of such damages will cause decrease of bearing capacity, durability and reliability. Among various factors influencing the reliability of in-service structures, ultimate bearing capacity plays the decisive role in safety. In this paper, the fourth-order moment of limit state function is inferred through calculation of failure probability of in-service structures, and thus safety and durability of in-service structures can be ensured.

Gold nanorod has been shown to exhibit two distinct plasmon resonances in extinction spectra, a transverse mode and a longitudinal mode, which can be tuned by changing the aspect ratio of length and width. What will happen when a nanorod with a constant aspect ratio compounds with semispheres? A theoretical model that combines gold nanorod and semispheres constructing a dumbbell-shaped nanorod is performed in this paper. We report a detailed theoretical investigation on how the nanostructures with a cavity based on gold nanorods can tune the optical properties and enhance localized field. The results show that the topography of the nanorods provides other degrees of freedom to tune the optical properties. Indeed, when the direction of incident light is along the x-axis, the resonance frequency and spectral width of longitudinal modes can be tuned in a wide wavelength range by varying the radius of semisphere-suspended heads. The resonance modes in the infrared zone can be significantly tuned up to 800 nm by varying the radius of semispheres. Also, the field distribution of the dumbbell-shaped nanorod can be significantly changed by plasmon excitement of semisphere-suspended heads. Field amplification up to four orders of magnitude can be obtained, which can provide a new path to tune the optical response of the nanorod and will have wide applications in localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)-based biosensing and intracellular imaging and photothermal therapy.

We report a detailed theoretical investigation on how the nanostructures with headcaps based on gold nanorods can tune the optical properties and enhanced localized fields. The results show that the mushroom-shaped nanorods have great tunability in the NIR region and much stronger induced E-fields at visible and NIR wavelengths, and field amplification up to four orders of magnitude can be obtained, which will have great potential in photoinduced therapy and open a path to tune the optical response of nanorods instead of just changing the aspect ratio.

According to the relay protection rules, 110kV bus and 220kV bus and above, should be installed special bus protection. This paper do a separate research on bus coupler charging protection from the aspects of bus protection principle and logic of action. It was pointed out that the necessity of blocking differential protection in the process of coupling charging and the new problem of blocking differential protection. This paper puts forward improved bus charging protection after research the processing methods of different relay protection manufacturers, and it improves the reliability of bus coupler charging protection

Structure damage identification is a hot research area internationally in recent years. Two damage identification methods based on sensitivity analysis are concluded. A three-tier steel frame structure model is established through utilizing ANSYS10.0, the software of finite element analysis. Through modal analysis of finite element, the frequency and formation before and after damage are obtained. The position of damage of the model is fixed by applying two damage indexes. It is indicated from the results that these two methods are effective for damage identification of the space structure of steel frame.

Take full advantage of the PMU's accurate mass measurement data is the effective method to improve the calculation accuracy of power system state estimation. This essay puts forward the state estimation method of power system based on the Taylor series method. It analysis of power system operating conditions based on the real-time measurement of Wide area measurement system, divides the state time, establishes the equation of state of the measurement data by curve fitting method in the period of state time, creates a new state estimation calculation method by Taylor series method, constructs a new voltage characteristic curve calculation method, determines the system state and achieve the continuity of power systems steady-state analysis. The method put forward in this essay has been verified through IEEE-30 Node System, and the efficiency of it has been fully proved by the example results.

Here we provide a simulation based on discrete dipole approximation method of the properties of surface plasmons on triangular gold nanoprisms and investigate their electric-field distribution to identify different multiple surface plasmon resonances. Near-field maps of triangle gold nanoprisms are established. Symmetric field distribution has been obtained perpendicular to the orientation of direction of incident light. We examine how their propagation can be manipulated and discuss some of the parameters that influence optical response of noble metals. Reduction of prism thickness leads to hybridization/mixing between two horizontal triangular surfaces and possibly overall enhancement of absorption cross-section of nanoparticle and shows excellent ability to adjust the resonance peaks. Field distribution mainly distributes in the triangular surface or along the edges. At platelet corners, electric field is weak, and the trend that plasmons are partially transmitted to neighboring edges is displayed. The...

Economical RGB-D cameras such as Kinect can produce both RGB and depth (RGB-D) images in real-time. The accuracy of various RGB-D related applications suffers from depth image noise. This paper proposes a solution to the problem by estimating depth edges that correspond to the object boundaries and using them as priors in the hole filling process. This method exhibits quantitative and qualitative improvements over the current state-of-the-art methods.

The method Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) is used to calculate the extinction spectra and field distribution of three types of dimers. In the paper we provide a systematic analysis of the optical response of different nanoscopic dimer structures with relatively small gap distances. A description is given about how the energy and excitation cross sections of dimer plasmons depend on nanoparticle separation. Resonance peaks of dimers show red-shift compared with single nanoparticle. Dimers formed by different single particle display distinct optical response. Interaction junctions in dimers can serve as hot spots for field enhancement. Field distribution in gaps made of two flat planes is nearly continuous. Changing gaps between two particles in dimers can tune the resonance wavelength effectively as well as different particle ensembles. Existence of sharp corners can attract and change field distribution. It is not effective volume but the effective cross-section that dominates the extinction efficiency.

AIM: To investigate the effects of posterior scleral reinforcement (PSR) in the treatment of pathological myopia. METHODS: The study included 52 eyes in 43 patients with pathological myopia who underwent PSR (PSR group), and 52 eyes in 36 age- and myopia-matched patients who did not undergo such treatment as control group. Axial length, refraction error, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and macular scans by optical coherence tomography (OCT) were recorded at baseline, 6mo, 1, 3 and 5y after the surgery, and the complications were noted. RESULTS: There were no statistical differences in axial length, refractive error, or BCVA between the PSR group and the control group at baseline. At the end of the follow-up, the mean axial length was 29.79±1.26 mm in the PSR group, which was significantly shorter than that in the control group (30.78±1.30 mm) (P＜0.01), and the mean refractive error was -16.86±2.53 D in the PSR group, which was significantly lower than that in the control group (-19.18±2.12 D) (P＜0.01). A statistically significant difference in BCVA was found between the PSR group (0.51 ±0.25 logMAR) and the control group (0.62 ±0.26 logMAR) at the postoperative 5-year follow-up (P＜0.01). There were no serious complications during the 5-year follow-up period. CONCLUSION: PSR can prevent axial elongation and myopia progression in eyes with pathological myopia.

Broad-spectrum tunable photoluminescent nanomaterials are developed based on macrocyclic amphiphiles serving as a novel modular light-harvesting platform with discrete addressability of luminophores in a noncovalent way. By simply varying the donor/acceptor ratio, a broad spectrum of energy transfer outputs is achieved, pointing toward a proof-of-principle application as fluorescent inks for security printing.

AIM: To investigate the effects of posterior scleral reinforcement (PSR) combined with vitrectomy for myopic foveoschisis. METHODS: Thirty-nine highly myopic eyes of 39 patients with myopic foveoschisis underwent PSR combined with vitrectomy. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), refraction error, and the foveal thickness by optical coherence tomography (OCT) were recorded before and after the surgery, and complications were noted. RESULTS: The follow-up period was 12mo, and the main focus was on the results of the 12-month follow-up visit. The mean preoperative BCVA was 0.96±0.43 logMAR. At the final follow-up visit, the mean BCVA was 0.46±0.28 logMAR, which significantly improved compared with the preoperative one (P=0.003). The BCVA improved in 33 eyes (84.62%), and unchanged in 6 eyes (15.38%). At the end of follow-up, the mean refractive error was -15.13±2.55 D, and the improvement was significantly compared with the preoperative one (-17.53±4.51 D) (P=0.002). Twelve months after surgery, OCT showed complete resolution of the myopic foveoschisis and a reat¬tachment of the fovea in 37 eyes (94.87%) and partial resolution in the remained two eyes (5.13%). The foveal thickness was obviously reduced at 12-month follow-up visit (196.45±36.35 μm) compared with the preoperative one (389.32±75.56 μm) (P=0.002). There were no serious complications during the 12mo follow-up period. CONCLUSION: PSR combined with vitrectomy is a safe and effective procedure for myopic foveoschisis with both visual and anatomic improvement.

For the purpose of understanding the students' learning achievement, the most direct way is to implement a test. Due to the rapid development of information technology, all kinds of combination of information technology with the adaptive test have been incessantly noted by many scholars. In general, the computerized adaptive test includes the item response theory that tests the students' learning ability of subjects. However, the results based only on the dichotomy of correct answers and wrong answers are not so comprehensive judgments. Situations of correct answers and wrong answers should be different in their degrees; for example, completely correct, partially correct, completely wrong, and partially wrong. But the partially correct or partially wrong is vague and difficult to define. Thus it is appropriate to use fuzzy theory to solve the vagueness problem. Therefore, this study presents a novel learning evaluation model which applies high-level fuzzy Petri net (HLFPN) and infers via a fuzzy reasoning method the different answering performances generated by different examinee's abilities corresponding to the test items in different degrees of difficulty. Finally, we synthesize the answering performance of every test item and make a reasonable evaluation.

In this paper, we intend to verify a web-based system on problem-based learning (PBL). To consider the design flow of the web-based PBL system, it is essential to avoid the potential hazard introduced by a logically incorrect system design. In order to eliminate the potential hazard, we define a new class of Petri net, namely, an Activity Flow (AF) net, which is suitable to be converted from a UML (Unified Modeling Language) activity diagram. Through the siphon-based deadlock detection of the AF net, we can find whether there is a process hazard in the UML activity diagram or not. This is helpful to implement the PBL system and to ensure the correct activities and the right control flow. In addition, we attempt to enhance the quality of the system verification by using a questionnaire. Thus we can interpret the user's level of satisfaction with the designed PBL system. These two verification approaches bring us to achieve an adequately positive response to the web-based PBL system.

In neuroscience and psychology, visual imagery is the subjective experience of seeing in the absence of visual stimulation. Someone may experience touch or sound as a result of visual imagery. In this paper, a new visual image aid which can provide a different way to visualize the image for visually impaired users is proposed. It is done by applying the depth image to an Image-To-Sound Mapping (ITSM) system. The proposed algorithm utilizes a sparse Census transform (SCT) and color segmentation to obtain an illuminationinvariant depth image. The depth image is applied to the ITSM system and then a clear and simple sound output is obtained for constructing a mental image. Moreover, the reliable three-dimensional (3D) data of close objects are extracted and interpreted as a semantic speech output. Experimental results show that visually impaired users can perceive the image easily and without training by adding verbal description to the visually image aid. In good and poor illuminated environments, the performance is 82% and 80% respectively. The performance of our proposed systems was not influenced by various lighting. All subjects also commented that the systems would be potentially useful1.

A low noise duplex bush chains with split rollers was developed through changing roller structure to reduce noise of bush roller chains. The split rollers could absorb more impact energy, mitigate meshing impact and reduce chain drive noise. The noise generated by different types of duplex bush roller chains was carried out to test in same speed, low noise characteristics of duplex sleeve chains with split rollers was verified. By analysis of testing data, noise level of duplex sleeve chains with split rollers compared with that of the other duplex bush roller chains was reduced by the average 3 ~ 8dB, and low 10 ~ 13dB than that of 16A simplex sleeve roller chains. The chains made chain drive significantly improve in the working environment, with steady transmission, strong bearing, low noise, and a significant noise reduction was achieved.

Transient performance analysis is essential for the successful design of a spacecraft thermal management system. This paper presents three dynamic models for analyzing system-level transient responses of a loop heat pipe (LHP)-micro-electromechanical-system (MEMS) thermal management system consisting of a LHP and a variable emittance radiator employing MEMS technologies. The recommended hybrid mathematical model, which is deduced from the fundamental 3-node and 4-node thermal networks, provides an efficient closed-form equation enabling direct calculation of the fluid mass flowrate in the LHP from the nodal temperatures of the thermal management system, and a set of state equations that independently compute the temperature responses of the cooled object, LHP evaporator, LHP condenser, and MEMS radiator. The temperature transients of a 50 W LHP-MEMS thermal management system, as well as the hydraulic responses inside the employed LHP, were numerically investigated and discussed in detail.

To assess the effect and adverse reaction of total glucosides of paeony capsule (TGPC) in combining with citirizine for the treatment of chronic urticaria. A total of 120 patients were assigned to two groups by lottery, 65 in the treated group and 55 in the control group. They all were orally treated with citirizine tablet 10 mg per day, but to the treated group, additional 0.2 g TGPC was given three times per day, the therapeutic course for both groups was 4 weeks. The effectiveness of treatment was observed, and the changes of total symptom score, serum levels of interleukin-4 (IL-4), and immunoglobulin E (IgE) were measured before and after treatment. Moreover, a follow-up was carried out one month after ending the treatment. The dropped cases were two in the treated group and seven in the control group; so, the study was accomplished on 63 patients in the treated group and 48 patients in the control group. The total effective rate was assessed at 73.02% (46/63) in the treated group, which was significantly higher than 47.92% (23/48) in the control group (P

Objective To explore the effect of in-home fortification of complementary feeding on intellectual development of Chinese children aged below 24 months. Methods One thousand and four hundred seventy eight children aged 4-12 months were recruited and divided into study groups (formula 1 group and formula 2 group) and control group. In two study groups, in addition to the usual complementary food, children were fed with a sachet of fortified food supplement each day. Protein and micronutrients were provided in formula 1 group. Formula 2 group had the same energy intake as the formula 1 group . In addition to measurement of physical growth and detection of hemoglobin level, Development Quotient (DQ) or Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was assessed. Results The DQ of children aged below 24 months was 97.2, 95.5, and 93.8 in formula 1 group, formula 2 group and control group, respectively, and the differences were statistically significant (P

Background Reconstruction of defects involving the knee and proximal one third of the lower leg presents a challenging problem in plastic surgery. Aim To evaluate the reversed anterolateral thigh adipofascial flap for covering such defects. Methods Between September 2006 and May 2007, one man and four women with defects around the knee and upper calf underwent reconstruction with reversed anterolateral thigh adipofascial flaps. The patients’ average age was 45 years (25–72 years). The size of the transferred flap ranged from 6 cm × 8 cm to 12 cm × 13 cm. Results Four flaps with overlying skin grafts healed uneventfully; one skin graft showed minor necrosis due to haematoma, but the adipofascial flap survived well. Postoperatively the appearance of the reconstructive flap was acceptable. Conclusions The reversed anterolateral thigh adipofascial flap is an effective option for covering defects of the knee and proximal calf.

The calibration of piezoelectric acoustic emission sensors mainly includes two methods, reciprocity method and surface pulse method. The former uses the principle of electro-acoustic reciprocity of piezoelectric sensors, and the latter needs a reference capacitance or laser system for displacement or velocity measurement. Prior studies have indicated that the two methods had some consistency, but some scholars still questioned the reciprocity calibration of piezoelectric acoustic emission sensors. In this paper the equivalent and real reciprocity coefficient were calculated and compared to test their consistency. Experimental system was established to test and verify the results. The test results showed that the reciprocity and surface pulse method had good agreement.

In this paper, a novel data hiding scheme, 3D unseen visible watermarking (UVW) based on depth no-synthesis-error (D-NOSE) model is proposed. The proposed method has the ability to detect which region of a depth map is suitable for watermark embedding and calculate optimal variation of pixel values for watermarking. The watermark is embedded into the suitable region by modifying the depth map with optimal variation pixel values to ensure that the watermarked cover can be perceived the same as the original one under normal rendering conditions. In the proposed 3D UVW scheme, hidden information can be extracted successfully by the human visual system (HVS) when changing the rendering conditions. Experimental results prove that the proposed scheme has the robustness and imperceptibility while depth distortions follow the thresholds derived from this paper.

The study objectives were to determine; (1) whether activated T cells could be generated from peripheral blood of patients immunized with their own cancer cells, (2) whether adoptive transfer of the activated T cells to patients had toxic effects and (3) whether the infused cells produced clinical responses. Study patients had recurrent, surgically accessible grade III/IV astrocytomas. The patients were tapered off steroids after total surgical resection and immunized with autologous cancer cells plus Bacillus, Calmette and Guerin (BCG). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were activated with anti-CD3, expanded with interleukin-2 (IL-2) and reinfused to patients. The number of activated T cells that was given back to patients varied between 10(10) and 10(11). Side effects that were observed following immunization and adoptive cell transfer included mainly transient flu-like symptoms. One patient's tumor partially regressed, but there was no effect on survival. Two other patients' tumors regressed, and the patients are apparently disease-free more than 5 and 4 years later. The other six patients' tumors were apparently unaffected by the treatment. Patient age, tumor grade and CD4/CD8 composition of infused cells were positively correlated with clinical responses. Cellular immunotherapy is feasible and is associated with minimal toxicity. Additional appropriately controlled studies will be required to determine whether cellular immunotherapy could be used as a treatment for central nervous system malignancy. Additional studies also will be required to determine the underlying immunological mechanisms.

Illumination and color invariance are important problems in computer vision (CV). The Census transform (CT) can resist change of illumination intensity and is widely used for many applications in CV and consumer electronics. However, only grayscale images can be processed in the CT algorithm. In this paper, a new color Census transform (CCT) based on a color invariance model for stereo matching is proposed because color images are with more significant features and most source images are color. To evaluate the proposed method, its resulting disparity maps and computation time are compared with grayscale modified CT (MCT). Experimental results show that the computation time of the proposed method is little more than the grayscale MCT. But the proposed method is able to significantly improve structure features of disparity maps, compared to the grayscale MCT. Further, the CCT is not to be affected by shadows, highlights, and variations in illumination.

Objective To examine the effect of different reduced caloric intake on mice transplanted with S180 ascitic tumor. Methods The institute for cancer research (ICR) mice were randomly divided into control group, 3.0 standard feed (SF) group, 2.0 SF group and 1.3 SF group. The mice in control group were fed enough (about 5 g/d) dietary intake, while the amounts of dietary intake in the latter three groups were scaled down in the proportion of 65%, which were 3.0 g, 2.0 g and 1.3 g standard feed respectively. Meanwhile the essential vitamins were added to the latter three groups to keep the amount of intake the same as that of the control's. Results For most of the mice, the caloric intake obviously prolonged the mean survival days and improved the life quality was 7.14 kcal/d, and the fasting blood glucose level was 2-3 mmol/L. Conclusion Properly reduced caloric intake and keeping lower blood glucose level is beneficial to prolonging the survival time of mice transplanted with S180 ascitic cancer.

The nutritional status of children under 5 years of age has a definite impact on subsequent health outcomes, particularly child mortality. Prevailing information on global health indicates that among the 556 million children under 5 in the low-income countries, 178 million (i.e., 32 %) are stunted, 121 million (20 %) are underweight, and 55 million (10 %) are wasted [1].

Mathematical model and control strategy are essential for active thermal control of nano-satellites. This paper presents a 5-nodal thermal network for transient performance calculation of heat-pipe thermal system which governs the temperature environment inside the nano-satellites. Two predictive control algorithms including implicit generalized predictive self-tuning control (IGPSC) and dynamic matrix control (DMC) were presented and discussed for the close-loop control of nano-satellite's heat-pipe thermal system, their control effects were numerically investigated and compared under different thermal disturbances. The numerical investigation results suggest that both IGPSC and DMC methods are effective for the nano-satellite's active thermal control. However, the control effects under DMC are better than that under IGPSC for excellent temperature tracking ability, fast responses and small overshoots.

Summary Background Thoracodorsal artery perforator (TAP) flaps without latissimus dorsi muscle – have been used for reconstruction of the extremities, head and neck as free style flaps, and as pedicled flaps for reconstruction of the chest wall and axillary wounds. This retrospective study aimed to analyse the clinical applications and relevant anatomic findings of TAP flaps. Methods From April 2007 to August 2011, 67 free or pedicled TAP flaps were transferred in 67 patients for reconstruction of wounds of the extremities, chest wall and axilla. Eight were used as free flaps for reconstruction of extremities, and 59 used as pedicled flaps for reconstruction of axillary or chest wounds. Patient ages ranged from 7 to 55 years (26.04 ± 12.83). Perforator arteries were detected and identified with a hand-held Doppler. The size of flaps ranged from 6 by 9 to 14 by 18 cm ((8.66 ± 2.05) by (12.62 ± 2.03)). Flaps were designed with the perforator artery included, with all flaps based on one or two perforator arteries. Results All of the flaps survived. There were no problems with vascular spasm or occlusion. Significant venous congestion was not observed in any of the cases. Two cases developed minor wound dehiscence but healed with conservative therapy. None of the donor sites developed seromas. Conclusions The thoracodorsal artery flap without associated latissimus dorsi muscle can provide a thin, large and reliable flap with robust blood supply. The TAP flap can significantly reduce donor site morbidity.

As the change of people consumption habits and improvement of information, electronic commerce is to be one of the most popular ways in business. To promote the growth of the industry in the future are the major factors of the rapid development of the Internet in China, the consumption of the huge potential and regional advantages, etc. The network shopping with traditional shopping incomparable advantages of convenient by more and more consumer accepted and approved, after DuoNian development, a group of early network shopping the user has to network shopping for center formed a new way of life. The online payment is a form of electronic payment, it is through the third party to provide with Banks to pay the interface between the immediate payment. In view of present e-commerce transactions online payment meet safety risk, analyzed, and put forward the corresponding solution countermeasures and measures.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to compare affect and behavior of 3 groups of nonanemic 4-year-old children: children with iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) in infancy whose anemia was not corrected before 24 months (chronic IDA) (n = 27); children with IDA in infancy whose anemia was corrected before 24 months (corrected IDA) (n = 70); and children who were nonanemic in infancy and at 24 months (n = 64). METHOD: Mother and child dyads were invited to a local clinic room. Children's social referencing, wariness, frustration-tolerance behavior, and affect were observed during a set of situations encountered in the laboratory, including free play, stranger approach, novel toy, and delay of gratification. The whole procedure was videotaped. The children's affective and behavioral displays were coded by using a time-sampling (5-second segments) code scheme. Iron status of children was determined on the basis of hemoglobin concentration measured with the cyanomethemoglobin method in blood samples obtained by fingerstick in infancy and at the ages of 24 months and 4 years. RESULTS: Children who had chronic IDA in infancy displayed less positive affect, less frustration tolerance, more passive behavior, and more physical self-soothing in the stranger approach and delay of gratification. In contrast, the behavior and affect of children whose anemia was corrected before the age of 24 months were comparable to those of children who were nonanemic throughout infancy. CONCLUSION: The results point to the potential benefits of preventing iron deficiency in infancy and treating it before it becomes chronic or severe.

A new approach is presented in this paper for expending a rational fraction which is ratio of polynomials to linear combination of simpler terms of the same type. It is very useful to determine analytic solutions of linear time-invariant systems with higher-order multiple poles. Compared to traditional method, this approach is simple and efficient for both manual computation and computer programming calculation. One example is given to illustrate the approach.