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Endovascular treatment's (EVT) safety and efficacy have been proven in treating acute ischemic stroke (AIS) due to large vessel occlusion (LVO). However, limited data exist in different stroke subtypes. We aimed to investigate the differences in efficacy and safety of EVT for acute LVO according to different stroke subtypes.A total of 1635 AIS patients with LVO undergoing EVT from a prospective cohort of the Endovascular Treatment Key Technique and Emergency Work Flow Improvement of Acute Ischemic Stroke (ANGEL-ACT) registry were classified into three types according to the Trial of ORG 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment (TOAST) criteria. We compared the primary outcome: 90-day modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score, the secondary outcomes: 90-day mRS (0-1, 0-2, and 0-3), successful recanalization (mTICI 2b/3), and complete recanalization (mTICI 3), and the safety outcomes: death within 90 days, parenchymal hemorrhage (PH), and symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (SICH) among the three subtypes of stroke patients. Then, multivariable logistic regression models adjusting for potential baseline-confounding variables to determine the associations between stroke subtypes and safety and efficacy endpoints were performed. Finally, we performed subgroup analyses to explore discrepancies in the relationships.EVT of cardioembolic LVO (CE-LVO) had a higher rate of mTICI 3 (71.7% vs. 65.9% and 63.2%; P = 0.024) and a higher rate of PH (13.8% vs. 5.4% and 6.7%; P 0.001) when compared to other stroke subtypes. Even multivariable analysis demonstrated that CE-LVO was associated with mTICI 3 [adjusted odds ratio (OR), 1.50 (95% CI 1.04-2.17)] and PH [adjusted OR, 1.97 (95% CI 1.09-3.55)]. However, the 90-day mRS distribution and 90-day mRS (0-1, 0-2, and 0-3) did not differ among the stroke subtypes, and nor did the SICH (P 0.05).Functional outcomes were similar among different stroke subtypes. Despite a higher rate of complete recanalization, there is an increased risk of parenchymal hemorrhage in CE-LVO.Clinical trial registration number: NCT03370939.

BackgroundEarly neurological deterioration (END) may occur in some patients with acute large vessel occlusion (LVO) undergoing endovascular treatment (EVT). Despite several clear causes of END, such as symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage, failure of recanalization, and intraprocedure complications, a particular END, termed unexplained END (ENDunexplained), exists. We aimed to investigate the incidence, independent predictors, and clinical impact of ENDunexplained after EVT in patients with acute LVO.MethodsSubjects were selected from the ANGEL-ACT registry. ENDunexplained was defined as ≥4-point increase in the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score between baseline and 24 hours after EVT, without the causes listed above. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the independent predictors of ENDunexplained, as well as the association between ENDunexplained and 90-day outcomes assessed by modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score.ResultsAmong the 1557 enrolled patients, the incidence of ENDunexplained was 4.3% (67/1557). Admission NIHSS ≤8 (OR=6.88, 95% CI 3.86 to 12.26, p5 (OR=2.82, 95% CI 1.61 to 4.94, p3 (OR=2.11, 95% CI 1.14 to 3.89, p=0.018) were associated independently with a high risk of ENDunexplained. Furthermore, patients with ENDunexplained were associated with a shift toward worse 90-day outcomes (mRS 5 vs 3, common OR=5.24, 95% CI 3.22 to 8.52, pConclusionsENDunexplained associated with poor 90day outcomes occurred in 4.3% of patients with acute LVO undergoing EVT. Several independent predictors of ENDunexplained were identified in this study, which should be considered in daily practice to improve acute LVO management.Clinical trial Registrationhttp://wwwclinicaltrialsgovNCT03370939.

Various liver diseases caused by liver damage seriously affect people’s health. The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects and the mechanisms of carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (Cpt1a) on oxidative stress and inflammation in liver injury. It was found that the expression of Cpt1a mRNA was upregulated in a model of liver injury in mice. Thus, overexpression of Cpt1a increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and reduced superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-px) levels in an in vitro model of liver injury. It was also shown that overexpression of Cpt1a suppressed the nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) signaling pathway. In summary, these data indicate that Cpt1a promotes ROS-induced oxidative stress in liver injury via the Nrf2/HO-1 and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome signaling pathway.

Objectives Beginning in June 2017, numerous dengue virus (DENV) infections occurred in the Jining City of Shandong Province, formerly a dengue-free region in East China. We sought to describe the clinical and epidemiological features of this outbreak. Methods We reviewed the clinical records and epidemiological data regarding a case series of patients diagnosed with DENV in Jining City, from June 30 to September 14, 2017. Diagnosis was confirmed by molecular method, culture, or rapid diagnostic tests. Sequencing of the DENV envelope gene or the whole viral genome was performed for 11 patients. Additionally, neutralizing antibodies against DENV was measured among patients and residents from their same villages. Results Data from 150 patients were evaluated in this outbreak. None were diagnosed with dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome. The patients’ ages ranged between 2–88 years (median 51 years, [IQR=37.5–64.3]), and 100 (66.7%) were female. Epidemiological analyses implicated a man who had visited Saudi Arabia as the likely source of the outbreak. Phylogenetic studies identified DENV serotype 1. Most of the patients demonstrated increases of neutralizing antibody titers one year after infection compared with titers three months after infection. The residents living in dengue-affected villages had a significant higher seroprevalence of 21.2% (95%CI 16.9-25.5) than residents (3.2%, 95%CI-0.36-6.7) living in a non-dengue-affected village. Conclusions This report documents the first dengue outbreak in Shandong Province, China, in more than 60 years. It underscores the need for medical providers to record patients’ travel histories and to consider dengue in their differential diagnoses.

Summary The advancement of serial cryoFIB/SEM offers an opportunity to study large volumes of near-native, fully hydrated frozen cells and tissues at voxel sizes of 10 nm and below. We explored this capability for pathologic characterization of vitrified human patient cells by developing and optimizing a serial cryoFIB/SEM volume imaging workflow. We demonstrate profound disruption of subcellular architecture in primary fibroblasts from a Leigh syndrome patient harboring a disease-causing mutation in USMG5 protein responsible for impaired mitochondrial energy production., Graphical Abstract, Highlights • Developed and optimized a serial cryoFIB/SEM volume imaging workflow • Visualized the 3D structure of an entire cell under native conditions • Revealed a disruption of cellular structures in primary LS patient fibroblasts • Demonstrated the potential for clinical phenotyping of pathogenic tissues, Serial cryoFIB/SEM offers new opportunities for structural analysis of cells and tissues under near-native conditions. Zhu et al. developed and optimized a serial cryoFIB/SEM volume imaging workflow for visualization of entire vitreous cells in 3D, and demonstrated its potential for clinical and pathological applications with primary Leigh syndrome patient cells.

This paper proposes an economic analysis method for distributed energy storage applications in distribution networks, and constructs a visual simulation platform. Firstly, the influence of photovoltaic / wind power fluctuation on load peak-valley difference in distribution network under different permeability is analyzed, and the technical and economic characteristics of different distributed energy storage systems are compared. Secondly, in order to facilitate the analysis and display the analysis results, a visual simulation platform is constructed based on MATLAB / Simulink software. The simulation results of IEEE 33-Bus System show that the method described in this paper can effectively analyze the economy of load peak-shaving and valley-filling by different energy storage configuration methods, and the visualization platform can clearly and intuitively show the results of the above analysis method.

Accompanied by energy structure transformation and the depletion of fossil fuels, large-scale distributed power sources and electric vehicles are accessed to distribution network that result in the load peak-valley gap increasing. Energy storage system (ESS) possessed the characteristics such as quick response, precise control and energy bidirectional flow. Therefore, the configuration of ESS in grid is a feasible measure to reduce the difference between peak load and valley load. This paper presents a superior control strategy that uses distributed energy storage to smooth load fluctuation of grid. Set the time scale to one day, constraints such as energy storage capacity, power and state of charge are taken into account, and the calculation examples are designed based on the proposed the evaluation index compares the effect of optimized control strategy given in this paper with the current common constant power strategy, which proves the feasibility and effect of the presented method.

Objectives: This study was conducted to discover the causes of Coxsackievirus B4 (CVB4) -induced hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) outbreaks and its evolutionary characteristics.Methods: In this study, we sequenced isolates obtained during the outbreak for comparative analyses with previously sequenced strains. Phylogenetic analysis and evolutionary dynamics were performed to illustrate the genetic characteristics of CVB4 in China and worldwide.Results: The nucleotide sequence of CVB4 isolated during the outbreak in 2011 was more similar to that of CVB4 isolated in Shandong Province, China in 2010 (95.7–99.4%) than to other CVB4 isolated in China (90.9–98.8%). A phylogenetic analysis showed that CVB4 originated from a common ancestor in Shandong. CVB4 strains isolated worldwide could be classified into genotypes A–E according to the VP1 region. All CVB4 strains in China belonged to genotype E. The global population diversity of CVB4 fluctuated substantially over time, and CVB4 isolated from China accounted for a significant increase in diversity of CVB4. The average nucleotide substitution rate in VP1 of Chinese CVB4 (5.20 × 10-3 substitutions/site/year) was slightly higher than that of global CVB4 (4.82 × 10-3 substitutions/site/year). Conclusions: These findings explain both the 2011 outbreak and a global increase in CVB4 diversity. In addition to improving our understanding of a major outbreak, these findings provide a basis for the development of surveillance strategies.

The user data mining was introduced into the model construction process, and the user behavior was decomposed by analyzing various influencing factors through the factorization machine (FM) learning method. In the recommendation screening stage, the collaborative filtering recommendation is combined to screen the recommendation candidate set. The idea of user-based collaborative filtering (CF) is used for reference to obtain music works favored by similar users. On the other hand, we learn from item-based CF, which ensures that the candidate set covers user preference. Firstly, the user’s interest value is predicted by using dynamic interest model. Then, the common problems such as cold start and hot items processing are fully considered. The frequent pattern growth algorithm is compared with the association rule algorithm based on the collaborative filtering recommendation algorithm and the content-based recommendation algorithm, which proves the superiority of the algorithm and its role in solving the recommendation problem after applying the recommendation. The music data in the database data conversion effectively improve the efficiency and accuracy of mining. According to the implementation of the algorithm described in this article, the accuracy of the music recommendation results used to recommend user satisfaction is proved. And the recommended music is indeed feasible and practical.

We demonstrate herein an all-optical switch based on stimuli-responsive and photochromic-free metal-organic framework (HKUST-1). Ultrafast near-infrared laser pulses stimulate a reversible 0.4 eV blue shift of the absorption band with up to 200 s-1 rate due to dehydration and concomitant shrinking of the structure-forming [Cu2 C4 O8 ] cages of HKUST-1. Such light-induced switching enables the remote modulation of intensities of photoluminescence of single crystals of HKUST-1 as well visible radiation passing through the crystal by 2 order of magnitude. This opens up the possibility of utilyzing stimuli-responsive MOFs for all-optical data processing devices.

Dye sensitization is becoming a new dimension to highly improve the upconversion luminescence (UCL) of lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs). However, there is still a lack of general understanding of the dye–UCNPs interactions, especially the confused large mismatch between the inputs and outputs. By taking dye-sensitized NaYF4:Yb/Er@NaYF4:Nd UCNPs as a model system, we not only revealed the in-depth energy-dissipative process for dye-sensitized UCL but also confirmed the first ever experimental observation of the energy back transfer (EBT) in the dye-sensitized UCL. Furthermore, this energy-dissipative EBT restricted the optimal ratio of dyes to UCNP. By unearthing all of the energy loss behind the EBT, energy transfer, and energy migration processes, this paper sheds light on the further design of effective dye-sensitized nanosystems for UCL or even downconversion luminescence.

This study aimed to investigate the serological characteristics of Ebola virus (EBOV) infection during the late phase of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. In total, 877 blood samples from 694 suspected Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases assessed from March to December 2015, were analyzed via real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for viral RNA and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Luminex to detect antibodies against EBOV. Viral load and EBOV-specific IgM/IgG titers displayed a declining trend during March to December 2015. Viral RNA load decreased rapidly at earlier stages after disease onset, while EBOV-specific IgM and IgG still persisted in 58.1% (18/31) and 93.5% (29/31) of the confirmed EVD patients and in 3.8% (25/663) and 17.8% (118/663) of the RNA-negative suspected patients in the later phase, respectively. Dynamic analysis of longitudinally collected samples from eight EVD patients revealed typically reversed trends of declining viral load and increasing IgM and/or IgG titers in response to the EBOV infection. The present results indicate that certain populations of Sierra Leone developed immunity to an EBOV infection in the late phase of the outbreak, providing novel insights into the risk assessment of EBOV infections among human populations.

College students are having a difficult time in hunting a job upon graduation. The mobile Internet helps to promote the employment of college graduates. In an environment of mobile Internet, this paper clarifies the current state of Entrepreneurship Education (EE) for college students, and discusses the effectiveness of EE in the context of a mobile Internet environment. The results show that: mobile Internet enriches the substance of EE courses in colleges, improves the environment of EE, facilitates the provision of EE for college students, makes the EE model fairer, and promotes the reform of the model. In addition, the EE platform built for college students can be broken down into three layers: a data access layer, a business logic layer, and a user interface layer.

In the past decade, hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) has posed a serious threat to childhood health in China; however, no epidemiological data from large HFMD epidemics have been described since 2013. In the present study, we described the epidemiological patterns of HFMD in Shandong province during 2009–2016 from a large number of symptomatic cases (n = 839,483), including >370,000 HFMD cases since 2013. Our results revealed that HFMD activity has remained at a high level and continued to cause annual epidemics in Shandong province from 2013 onwards. Although the incidence rate was significantly higher in urban areas than in rural areas, no significantly higher case-severity and case-fatality rates were found in urban areas. Furthermore, the seventeen cities of Shandong province could be classified into three distinct epidemiological groups according to the different peak times from southwest (inland) to northeast (coastal) regions. Notably, a replacement of the predominant HFMD circulating agent was seen and non-EVA71/Coxsackievirus A16 enteroviruses became dominant in 2013 and 2015, causing approximately 30% of the severe cases. Our study sheds light on the latest epidemiological characteristics of HFMD in Shandong province and should prove helpful for the prevention and control of the disease in Shandong and elsewhere.

This study is to summarize the concurrent keratoconus (KC) and granular corneal dystrophy (GCD) phenotype and identify the underlying genetic cause in a 23-year-old male patient. A detailed family history and clinical data from the patient and his parents were collected by ophthalmologic examination. The candidate genes were captured and sequenced by targeted next-generation sequencing, and the results were confirmed by Sanger sequencing. The proband was clinically diagnosed as a case of concurrent KC and GCD, which is a very rare presentation. His father and grandmother were diagnosed as GCD in both eyes. There was no character of KC in his father’s and grandmother’s eyes. A heterozygous TGFBI mutation in exon 4 (c.370G > A) was identified in the proband, which was predicted to generate a missense mutation (p.R124H). The mutation also existed in his father and grandmother. A heterozygous KRT12 mutation in exon 8 (c.1456-1457ins GTA) was identified in the proband, which was predicted to generate an insert mutation and created a premature termination codon. The mutation did not exist in his father and grandmother. The two mutations did not exist in his mother and 200 unrelated normal controls. KC can co-exist with GCD. The missense mutation (c.370G > A) in the TGFBI gene and insert mutation (c.1456-1457ins GAT) in the KRT12 gene were identified in a 23-year-old male patient with concurrent KC and GCD.

A bipolar junction transistor (BJT)-based CMOS temperature sensor exploiting the piecewise BJT process spread compensation property of the base recombination current is proposed to reduce the process variations of the base-emitter voltage ( V be ). The weighted combinations of different on-chip resistors are explored to minimise their associated process spread. Fabricated in standard 0.18-μm CMOS, the chip prototype occupies an active area of 0.036 mm 2 and draws 3 μA from a 1.2 V supply, with a measured maximum inter-/intra-die variation in V be of

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality around the world. This malignancy has a 5-year survival rate of 21%, because most of the patients are diagnosed in the middle or late stage of the disease when local metastasis and tumor invasion have already progressed. Therefore, the investigation of the pathogenesis of lung cancer is an issue of crucial importance. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) seem to be involved in the evolution and development of lung cancer. MicroRNA-608 is likely to be downregulated in lung cancer tissues. Regarding this, the current study involved the determination of the fundamental mechanism of microRNA-608 in the development of lung cancer. Based on the results of quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), the expression level of microRNA-608 was downregulated in 40 lung cancer tissues, compared to that in the adjacent normal tissues. The results of dual-luciferase reporter assay revealed that bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4) was the direct target of microRNA-608. Accordingly, the lung cancer tissues had an elevated expression level of BRD4, in contrast to the adjacent normal tissues. The results of Cell Counting Kit 8 assay demonstrated that the high expression of microRNA-608 notably restrained lung cancer cell proliferation. The scratch wound and transwell assays showed that the upregulation of microRNA-608 suppressed the migration and invasion of lung cancer cells. Finally, the western blot assay showed that in the microRNA-608 mimics group, the expression levels of BRD4, p-JAK2, p-STATA3, CD44, and MMP9 were significantly decreased, compared with those in the negative control miRNA mimics group. Our results indicate that high expression of microRNA-608 inhibits the proliferation, migration, and invasion of lung cancer cells by targeting BRD4 via the JAK2/STAT3 pathway.

Background The 2014–2016 Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa was the largest outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in history. Clarifying the influence of other prevalent diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) will help improve treatment and supportive care of patients with EVD. Case presentation We examined HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody prevalence among suspected EVD cases from the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Biological Safety Laboratory during the epidemic in Sierra Leone. HIV and HCV antibodies were tested in 678 EVD-negative samples by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. A high HIV prevalence (17.6%) and low HCV prevalence (0.22%) were observed among the suspected cases. Notably, we found decreased HIV positive rates among the suspected cases over the course of the epidemic. This suggests a potentially beneficial effect of an improved public health system after assistance from the World Health Organization and other international aid organizations. Conclusions This EVD epidemic had a considerable impact on the public health system and influenced the prevalence of HIV found among suspected cases in Sierra Leone, but also provided an opportunity to establish a better surveillance network for infectious diseases. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40249-019-0525-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

To better understand the relationship between flow, mixing and reactions in the process of preparing PP/TiO2, a 3D numerical simulation in a co-rotating twin screw extruder (TSE) was firstly employed using commercial CFD code, ANSYS Polyflow. The effects of rotating speed of screws, stagger angle of knead blocks, inlet flow rate and initial temperature of barrel on the mixing and reaction process in the TSE were investigated. The results reveal that the studied operational and geometric parameters, which determine mixing efficiency, residence time distribution, and temperature of the flows in the TSE, affect the local species concentration, reaction time and reaction rate, and hence have great influences on the conversion rate. The results show that increasing the rotating speed and inlet flow rate can decrease the time for sufficient mixing, which is not conducive to intensive reaction, and increasing the stagger angle has the opposite effect. Moreover, the conversion rate greatly affected by the initial temperature of barrel.

Hybrid white LEDs were constructed by leveraging a combination of CdSe/ZnS core/shell QDs and YAG: Ce³⁺ phosphors. The CdSe/ZnS core/shell QDs were synthesized by a two-step process in which CdSe QDs were first prepared via a hot-injection method, followed by ZnS coating through a facile single-molecular precursor approach. The resultant red-emitting CdSe/ZnS QDs showed decent fluorescent quantum yielding (36%). The resultant hybrid white LEDs--that based on CdSe/ZnS QDs and solid-state-reaction-processed YAG: Ce³⁺ phosphors--showed good luminescence properties, including bright warm light, a high color rendering index of 91.3, a low color temperature of 4965 K and a luminous efficiency of 44.22 lm/W. Moreover, increased luminous intensity has been observed in the presence of increased forward current without luminescence saturation, promising an ideal approach to construct warm-white LEDs with excellent color rendering properties.

The current study aimed to analyze the clinical characteristics of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) and to explore the risk factors of critical patients. From 2016 to 2018, we collected the hospitalized diagnosed cases with SFTS in Jinan infectious disease hospital of Shandong University and analyzed by the descriptive epidemiological method. According to the prognosis, they were divided into general group and severe group. The epidemiological characteristics, clinical features, and laboratory indexes of these 2 groups of patients were compared and analyzed at the first visit. The risk factors related to the severity of the disease were analyzed by univariate Logistic regression. In total, 189 cases of SFTS were treated during the period and 33 deaths occurred in the severe group, with the fatality rate of 17.46%. The patients’ age (χ2 = 8.864, P

In this paper, a piecewise bipolar junction transistor (BJT) process spread compensation scheme is presented. By exploiting the strong correlation between the BJT saturation current and the piecewise base recombination current, the process spread and proportional-to-absolute-temperature (PTAT) drift of the base-emitter voltage (Vbe) can be reduced over a wide temperature range. Fabricated in standard 0.18-μm CMOS, the chip prototype achieves a measured Vbe standard deviation (STD) of 1.1 mV (1.8 mV) from −30 to 60 °C (−30 to 120 °C) over 12 samples, corresponding to a 2.9X (1.8X) improvement when compared to the measured Vbe STD of 3.24 mV at 25 °C from 15 standalone BJT samples with constant external bias current using the same process.

In this letter, Mn 2+ -doped CdS quantum dots were successfully synthesized with stearic acid as the stabilizer by a nucleation-doping method. Generally, Mn 2+ -doped emission was at ~585 nm, which was well-established due to 6 A 1 – 4 T 1 transition of Mn 2+ ions. Interestingly, a high-luminescence Mn 2+ -doped emission at ~563 nm was observed in the Mn 2+ -doped CdS nanocrystals. This large blue shift explained that Mn 2+ ions were deeply doped in nanoparticle cores in our doping method, leading to less splitting of Mn 2+ energy level. The results of transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction also demonstrated the small particle size (~4.2 nm), monodispersity and high crystallinity. The quantum yield of the as-prepared nanocrystals was calculated ~41%.

BACKGROUND:Hand, foot, and mouth disease has become very common in mainland of China in recent years, and enterovirus A71 and coxsackievirus A16 are its major etiologic factors. Here we investigated the seroprevalence of enterovirus A71 and coxsackievirus A16 based on a large group of healthy individuals in Shandong province, China. METHODS:A total of 1378 healthy individuals were tested for serum neutralizing antibodies against enterovirus A71 and coxsackievirus A16 using a micro neutralization test. RESULTS:The overall seroprevalence of enterovirus A71 neutralizing antibodies was 74.75%. It increased significantly from 48.84% in children aged 0-1 years old to 88.64% in those aged 20-29 years (p < 0.01) and decreased to 85.71% in adults > 40 years old with a significant gender-specific difference (p < 0.01). The overall coxsackievirus A16 antibody prevalence was 71.77%. It increased significantly from 39.53% in children aged 0-1 years to 80.68% in those aged 10-19 years (p < 0.01) and decreased to 75.63% in adults >40 years without a gender-specific difference. Nearly 50% of the children

Background: The aim of this work was to evaluate the narrow anterior chamber angle (ACA) in Chinese patients by anterior segment optical coherence tomography (As-OCT). Methods: Eighty right eyes of 80 consecutive patients with a shallow peripheral anterior chamber but no peripheral anterior synechia were enrolled in this study. The ACA was observed by noncompression gonioscopy and classified according to the Shaffer grading system. The iridotrabecular contact (ITC) and trabecular-iris angle (T-I angle) were assessed by As-OCT examination. Results: Gonioscopic grade 0 and ITC were observed more frequently in the superior quadrant than the other quadrants (p < 0.02). The T-I angle was significantly smaller superiorly and inferiorly than nasally and temporally (p < 0.01). The frequency of the ITC and T-I angle significantly declined when the gonioscopic grade was from 0 to 2 (p < 0.01). Logistic analysis showed that the axial length and refraction were related to the presence of ITC in more than two quadrants (p < 0.03). Conclusions: ITC was common in eyes with a shallow peripheral anterior chamber (superiorly, gonioscopic grade 0). Sites with wider gonioscopic grading tended to have a larger T-I angle. Axial length and refraction significantly impacted on the frequency of ITC.

Experimental investigations were conducted to evaluate the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) suppression for slender riser (length to diameter ratio L/D=1750) using multiple control rods. The uniform current was obtained by towing the riser model running in a wave basin, giving the Reynolds numbers ranging from 2400 to 7600. Four control rods with diameter d=0.25D were placed parallel to the riser model with uniform angle interval of 90°. Different spacing ratios δ/D=0.187, 0.375 and 0.562 and coverage rates Lc/L=80%, 60%, 40% and 20% were considered, where δ is the spacing distance, Lc is the covered length. The strain responses in both cross-flow (CF) and in-line (IL) directions were measured by 56 Fiber Bragg Grating sensors. The experimental results show that the multiple control rods perform well in mitigating the VIV. In general the smaller spacing ratio and the larger coverage rates give rise to the better VIV suppression for the CF response, while the IL response is not sensitive to the δ/D and Lc/L. The optimal parameters are suggested to be δ/D≤0.375 and Lc/L≈60%. The monitored end tension of the riser model was observed to increase slightly due to the presence of control rods.

Purpose.To evaluate the changes of keratocytes and dendritic cells in the central clear graft by laser scanning in vivo confocal microscopy after penetrating keratoplasty (PK).Methods.Thirty adult subjects receiving PK at Shandong Eye Institute and with clear grafts and no sign of immune rejection after surgery were recruited into this study, and 10 healthy adults were controls. The keratocytes and dendritic cells in the central graft were evaluated by laser scanning confocal microscopy, as well as epithelium cells, keratocytes, corneal endothelium cells, and corneal nerves (especially subepithelial plexus nerves).Results.Median density of subepithelial plexus nerves, keratocyte density in each layer of the stroma, and density of corneal endothelium cells were all lower in clear grafts than in controls. The dendritic cells of five (16.7%) patients were active in Bowman’s membrane and stromal membrane of the graft after PK.Conclusions.Activated dendritic cells and Langerhans cells could be detected in some of the clear grafts, which indicated that the subclinical stress of immune reaction took part in the chronic injury of the clear graft after PK, even when there was no clinical rejection episode.

Background/Aims: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) appears to be a disease with increasing incidence in Western countries and may develop into acquired blindness. Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) is the most frequent cause for AMD, and is commonly induced by regional inflammation. Past studies have highlighted vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) as a major trigger for CNV. However, studies on the associated angiogenic factors other than VEGF-A are lacking. Methods: Here, we used a well-established laser burn (LB)-induced experimental CNV mouse model to study the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of CNV after ocular injury. We analyzed vessel density by lectin labeling. We isolated macrophages, endothelial cells and other cell types by flow cytometry, and analyzed levels of different angiogenic factors in these populations. We used antisera against VEGF-A (aVEGF) and/or antisera against placental growth factor (PLGF; aPLGF) to antagonize CNV. We used an antibody-driven toxin to selectively eliminate macrophages to evaluate the role of macrophages in CNV. We also examined expression of PLGF in macrophage subtypes. Results: The choroidal vessel density increased significantly 7 days after LB. LB increased significantly the levels of VEGF-A and PLGF in mouse eyes. Treatment with aVEGF significantly blunted increases in vessel density by LB. Treatment with aPLGF alone did not significantly reduce increases in vessel density. However, aPLGF significantly increased the inhibitory effects of aVEGF on vessel density increases. While VEGF-A was produced by endothelial cells, macrophages and other types at similar levels, PLGF seemed to be predominantly produced by macrophages. Selective macrophage depletion significantly reduced CNV. M2, but M1 macrophages produced high levels of PLGF. Conclusions: Together, our data suggest a previously unappreciated role of PLGF in coordination with VEGF-A to regulate CNV during ocular injury. Our study highlights macrophages and their production of PLGF as novel targets for CNV therapy.

This study examines the reflection of oblique incident waves by breakwaters that consist of a double-layered perforated wall and an impermeable back wall. The fluid domain is divided into three sub-domains and an eigenfunction expansion method is applied in each of the domains. In the eigen-expansion of the velocity potential, evanescent waves are also included. Numerical results of the present model are compared with experimental data. The major factors that affect the reflection coefficient are examined.

CMOS device miniaturization and the rapidly growing demand for mobile or power-aware systems have resulted in an urgent need to lower down power supply voltage (Vdd). However, soft fails at low Vdd in SRAM Array become a major yield limiter due to process variation and VT mismatch. This paper describes an advanced characterization flow on soft fails with the combination of applying fail-specified functional memory patterns, circuit analysis and advanced PFA techniques. The flow was successfully applied in soft fail characterization for sub-28nm SRAM yield improvement.

Background The first case of human infection with avian influenza A (H7N9) virus was identified in March, 2013 and the new H7N9 virus infected 134 patients and killed 45 people in China as of September 30, 2013. Family clusters with confirmed or suspected the new H7N9 virus infection were previously reported, but the family cluster of H7N9 virus infection in Shandong Province was first reported. Case presentation A 36-year-old man was admitted to Zaozhuang City Hospital with progressive respiratory distress and suspicion of impending acute respiratory distress syndrome on April 21. The chest radiography revealed bilateral ground-glass opacities and pulmonary lesions. The second case, the first case’s 4 year old son, was admitted to the same hospital on April 28 with fever and multiple patchy shadows in the bilateral lungs. Both of the two cases were confirmed to infect with H7N9 virus by the results of real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase-chain reaction (rRT-PCR), virus isolation and serum antibody titer. At the same time, one environment samples was detected positive for H7N9 virus in the living poultry market in Zaozhuang. The homologous analysis of the full genome sequence indicated that both viruses from the patients were almost genetically identical. The field epidemiology investigation showed that the two cases had no recognized exposure to poultry, but had the exposure to the environment. The second case had substantial unprotected close exposure to his ill father and developed symptoms seven days after his last contact with his father. After surgery, the index case and his son were discharged on May 16 and May 6, respectively. 11 close contacts of both patients were identified and tested negative both the throat swabs and the serum antibody. Conclusion The infection of the index case probably resulted from contact with environmentally contaminated material. For the son, the probable infection source was from the index case during unprotected exposure, but the possibility from the environment or other sources could not be completely ruled out.

Product-like functional SRAM test chips have been widely used to capture systematic yield loss mechanisms during yield learning. Especially in early technology development, the top failing modes contributing to bit loss count are global patterns in the SRAM bitmap, which are highly suspected to be caused by defects in the peripheral control circuits. This paper describes a fault isolation flow on for global patterns which combines bitmap analysis, SRAM functional test debugging, circuit layout tracing analysis and physical failure analysis.

PURPOSE: To evaluate histological changes in the corneal stroma in pseudophakic bullous keratopathy. METHODS: Twenty-eight patients (28 eyes) with pseudophakic bullous keratopathy underwent therapeutic penetrating keratoplasty at Shandong Eye Institute between January 2006 and November 2011. The patients were divided into two groups according to the duration of bullous keratopathy (1.0 year group), and three buttons from enucleated eyes with choroidal melanoma served as a control. In vivo confocal microscopy examination, hematoxylin-eosin, Masson's trichrome stain and Van Gieson staining were used for microscopic examination. The histological evaluation and scoring of the buttons for morphological changes, including the degree of stromal scars, neovascularization and inflammatory cells within the corneal buttons, were compared. To study the underlying mechanism, connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and TGF-β immunohistochemistry were performed. RESULTS: Confocal microscopy examination and histological evaluation and scoring of the buttons showed that compared with the 1.0 year group (P1.0 year group. CONCLUSIONS: During the progression of pseudophakic bullous keratopathy, stromal scars occurred more often in the patients that had a longer duration of disease. Cytokines such as CTGF and TGF-β1 may play a role in this pathological process and deserve further investigation.

This paper presents a novel algorithm of discrete cosine transform (DCT) for digital theatre system (DTS) and windows media audio (WMA) decoding based on the type IV discrete cosine transform (DCT-IV). By virtue of the format conversion, the DTS and WMA decoding shares the same DCT-IV kernel, thus increasing the efficiency. The computation of DCT-IV is based on fast Fourier transform (FFT) and the coefficients are calculated in recursive algorithm. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with other reported algorithms. Both the efficiency of multiplication computation and the simplicity of hardware implementation are largely improved. (4 pages)

Experimental investigations on a passive control method for suppressing VIV of long flexible riser are presented in this work. A riser model with L/D (slenderness ratio) of 1750 was horizontally installed on a carriage and uniform current was simulated by towing the riser using the carriage in a wave tank, which leads to the Reynolds numbers ranging from 103 to 104 . Four slender control rods with diameter d = 0.25D were placed parallel to the riser at uniform angle (i.e. at 90° intervals around the riser circumference). Different pitch distances l/D = 0.813, 1 and 1.188 were considered in this work, where l is the center-to-center distance between control rod and riser model. Strain along the riser and tension were measured by Fiber Bragg Grating and tensionmeter, respectively. The experimental results indicate that the response characteristics of a riser model with multiple control rods are quite distinct from that of a bare riser. Multiple control rods can suppress VIV response significantly, and their performance is mainly dependent on the pitch distance. It is found that the spatial maximum standard deviation of strain decreases about 84% due to the existence of control rods. The optimal pitch distance is found to be l/D ≤ 1. Moreover, spectrum analysis shows that the dominate frequency increases linearly with the increasing of flow velocity, for both the bare riser and the riser with control rods, while the frequency band of the suppressed riser becomes broader compared with the bare riser. It is also observed that the tension of the riser is slightly increased due to the presence of four rods, but not sensitive to the pitch distance.Copyright © 2010 by ASME

Composition-controllable ternary CdSe(x)S(1-x) quantum dots (QDs) with multiple emission colors were obtained via a hot-injection-like method at a relatively low injection temperature (230 ° C) in octadecene. Then highly fluorescent CdSe(x)S(1-x)/ZnS core/shell (CS) QDs were synthesized by a facile single-molecular precursor approach. The fluorescent quantum yield of the resulting green (λ(em) = 523 nm), yellow (λ(em) = 565 nm) and red (λ(em) = 621 nm) emission of CS QDs in toluene reached up to 85%, 55% and 39%, respectively. Moreover, a QDs white light-emitting diode (QDs-WLED) was fabricated by hybridizing green-, yellow- and red-emitting CdSe(x)S(1-x)/ZnS CS QDs/epoxy composites on a blue InGaN chip. The resulting four-band RYGB QDs-WLED showed good performance with CIE-1931 coordinates of (0.4137, 0.3955), an R(a) of 81, and a T(c) of 3360 K at 30 mA, which indicated the combination of multiple-color QDs with high fluorescence QYs in LEDs as a promising approach to obtain warm WLEDs with good color rendering.

Fifteen single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were validated and characterized in the sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus). By assembling 5728 expressed sequence tags (EST), 4197 putative SNP were obtained from 330 contigs. Among 46 randomly selected putative SNPs, 15 were polymorphic. The minor allele frequency ranged from 0.209 to 0.500, and the observed and expected heterozygosities varied from 0.063 to 0.906 and from 0.062 to 0.508, respectively. These SNPs will enrich currently available genetic makers of A. japonicus. The sea cucumber A. japonicus (Selenka 1867) is an economically important aquaculture species in China. With the rapid expansion and intensification, sea cucumber farming has resulted in some problems such as wide spread of diseases and influence of escaped or released individuals from aquaculture facilities on natural resources. Molecular markers are powerful tools for conservation and management of natural resources, and for marker-assisted selection in captive populations. In recent years, SNP have rapidly become the markers of choice for many applications in genetics and genomics (Collins et al. 2004). SNP have also been characterized and used in several aquacultured species, such as oyster (Zhang and Guo 2010), hard clam (Li et al. 2009), and Atlantic salmon (Hayes et al. 2007). However, in A. japonicus, only 13 SNP have thus far been developed and characterized (Sun et al. 2010). Here we report 15 polymorphic SNP to enrich the list of currently available genetic makers of A. japonicus.