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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease associated with both innate and adaptive immune responses. The stimulator of interferon genes (STING) protein engages in sensing of cytosolic DNA to initiate dsDNA-driven immune responses. In vitro and in vivo anti-psoriasis effects of STING antagonist H-151 were explored. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH We analysed the gene expression profile of STING and related downstream targets in the skin samples of healthy people and psoriasis patients from the GEO database. Cellular inhibitory activity of H-151 on STING pathway was confirmed via qPCR and western blotting. The preventive effect of topical application of H-151 on imiquimod-induced psoriatic mice was examined through histological, immunohistochemical, immunofluorescent, flow cytometric analysis, ELISA Kits and other approaches. Preliminary mechanistic studies were also performed. KEY RESULTS Gene expressions of STING and its downstream target were up-regulated in lesional skin samples from psoriasis patients. Topical administration of H-151 attenuated the skin lesions in imiquimod-induced psoriatic mouse model, while the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-17, IL-23 and IL-6), infiltration of M1 macrophages and differentiation of Th17 cells were significantly suppressed by H-151 treatment. Mechanistically, H-151 inhibited STING/NF-κB signalling in both keratinocytes and immune cells. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS H-151 displayed anti-inflammatory activity in both keratinocytes and immune cells, and decreased the severity of psoriatic response in vivo. Inhibition of STING signalling pathway may represent a novel therapeutic approach to psoriasis and related complications.

Several immune checkpoint inhibitors targeting programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1)/programmed death 1 have successfully improved the prognosis of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) with approval in certain countries. However, whether the expression of PD-L1 is associated with the degree of benefit is unclear yet and a unified standard of antibody and cut-off value of PD-L1 detection is also lacking. The current meta-analysis then aimed to explore the association between PD-L1 expression and clinicopathological features as well as prognosis in ESCC. A systematic search on PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases was performed up to 30 March 2021. The correlation between PD-L1 expression and clinicopathological features, as well as prognosis in ESCC, was estimated with the random-effects model. A total of 5368 patients from 31 retrospective studies were enrolled. The overexpression of PD-L1 was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis (OR 1.342, 95% CI 0.995 to 1.809, p=0.050) and distant metastasis (OR 1.516, 95% CI 1.001 to 2.294, p=0.050). The pooled HR showed that PD-L1 overexpression was significantly correlated with poor overall survival (OS) of patients with ESCC (HR 1.306, 95% CI 1.108 to 1.539, p The overexpression of PD-L1 was correlated with lymph node and distant metastasis as well as poor survival of ESCC.

Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of noncoding RNAs and many miRNAs have been frequently reported to be potential biomarkers for drug-induced liver injury (DILI) in clinical patients. However, the usefulness of miRNAs as biomarkers for DILI in preclinical toxicological studies using non-human primates is controversial owing to the limited information. This study was initiated to determine the potential of circulating miR-122, miR-192, miR-885, miR-151, miR-378, miR-365, and miR-31 as a biomarker for carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)–induced liver injury in Macaca fascicularis. The ten Macaca fascicularis were orally given 15% CCl4 (10 mL/kg) to establish the DILI. The serum at 48 h after administration when a single hepatocyte showed histopathological necrosis and vacuolation was isolated and quantified for serum miRNAs by next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis. It was revealed that miR-122, miR-192, miR-885, miR-151, miR-378, miR-365, miR-31, and miR-802 were upregulated in the circulating serum at 48 h. The serum in different time points was collected to analyze the levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and the eight miRNAs. The concentration of ALT was detected by automatic biochemistry analyzer and the miRNA level was quantified by real-time reverse-transcription PCR. All quantitative PCR values were normalized to inter-control miR-39 and calculated with the comparative Ct method. The miR-802 was not detected at each time point in the following real-time PCR amplification because of unknown reasons and would not involve any other comparison analysis in the present study. Serum ALT increased significantly from 24 h after CCl4-induced liver injury and reached top value at 48 h. The increasing fold changes of miR-122 were more than 8-fold from 2 h after administration and that of miR-885 were over 5-fold from 6 h. The top fold change of miR-122 was approximate 813-fold at 24 h and miR-885 was approximately 89-fold at 48 h. The miR-192 increased over a 4-fold change from 2 h and the top fold change reached approximately 119-fold at 48 h in this study. The miR-378 increased significantly at 4 h after administration and the top fold change of miR-378 was lower than the maximum fold change of ALT. The miR-365, miR-151, and miR-31 showed no correlation with serum ALT. This study indicates that serum miR-122, miR-885, and miR-192 have a stronger potential as sensitive candidate biomarkers for predicting CCl4-induced liver injury in Macaca fascicularis. The miR-378 shows a similar diagnostic value to serum ALT. The miR-151, miR-365, and miR-31 have no diagnostic value to CCl4-induced liver injury in Macaca fascicularis.

Objective To compare the early rehabilitation effects of total hip arthroplasty (THA) with the direct anterior approach (DAA) versus the posterior approach (PA). Methods We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and Google databases from inception to June 2019 to select studies that compared the DAA and PA for THA. Only randomized controlled trials (RCT) were included. Two researchers independently screened studies for inclusion, extracted data, and assessed the methodological quality. A meta‐analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3 software provided by Cochrane Assisted Network. Results A total of 932 patients underwent THA. There were 467 cases in group DAA and 465 cases in group PA. There was a significant difference in the incidence of lateral femoral cutaneous nerve injury between DAA and PA groups (RR = 38.97, 95% CI: 7.89–192.57, P

Background & Aims Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is resistant to most therapeutics owing to dense fibrotic stroma orchestrated by cancer-associated pancreatic stellate cells (CAPaSC). CAPaSC also support cancer cell growth, metastasis, and resistance to apoptosis. Currently, there is no effective therapy for PDAC that specifically targets CAPaSC. We previously reported a rationally designed protein, ProAgio, that targets integrin αvβ3 at a novel site and induces apoptosis in integrin αvβ3-expressing cells. Because both CAPaSC and angiogenic endothelial cells express high levels of integrin αvβ3, we aimed to analyze the effects of ProAgio in PDAC tumor. Methods Expression of integrin αvβ3 was examined in both patient tissue and cultured cells. The effects of ProAgio on CAPaSC were analyzed using an apoptosis assay kit. The effects of ProAgio in PDAC tumor were studied in 3 murine tumor models: subcutaneous xenograft, genetic engineered (KrasG12D; p53R172H; Pdx1-Cre, GEM-KPC) mice, and an orthotopic KrasG12D; p53R172H; Pdx1-Cre (KPC) model. Results ProAgio induces apoptosis in CAPaSC. ProAgio treatment significantly prolonged survival of a genetically engineered mouse–KPC and orthotopic KPC mice alone or in combination with gemcitabine (Gem). ProAgio specifically induced apoptosis in CAPaSC, resorbed collagen, and opened collapsed tumor vessels without an increase in angiogenesis in PDAC tumor, enabling drug delivery into the tumor. ProAgio decreased intratumoral insulin-like growth factor 1 levels as a result of depletion of CAPaSC and consequently decreased cytidine deaminase, a Gem metabolism enzyme in cancer cells, and thereby reduced resistance to Gem-induced apoptosis. Conclusions Our study suggests that ProAgio is an effective PDAC treatment agent because it specifically depletes CAPaSC and eliminates tumor angiogenesis, thereby enhancing drug delivery and Gem efficacy in PDAC tumors., Graphical abstract

Poor nutrition is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases and nutritional deficiencies. Dietary interventions have been proposed to improve eating habits. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the efficacy of randomized clinical trials of nutritional interventions in food habits among older people. A systematic literature review using the MEDLINE, LILACS, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases was conducted, according to PRISMA guidelines. The keywords were: food and nutrition education OR educación alimentaria y nutricional OR educação alimentar e nutricional AND clinical trial OR ensayo clínico OR ensaio clínico AND elderly OR aged OR anciano OR idoso AND human OR seres humanos. The pooled standardized mean differences (SMD) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using a random-effects model. Heterogeneity among studies was assessed using I² tests. After screening based on the title and abstract, and a full-text assessment, 11 studies remained. Results of pooling eleven studies were as follows: SMD = 0.25 (95 % CI = 0.15 - 0.34; I² = 0,0%) for vegetable, SMD = 0.18 (95 % CI = 0.08 - 0.27; I² = 0,0%) for fruit and SMD = 0.27 (95 % CI = 0.18 - 0.36; I² = 58,3%) for fibre intake. Our results suggest that nutritional interventions were effective in increasing vegetable, fruit and fibre intake. However, these results should be analyzed carefully, due to the small number of studies included in the meta-analysis. Further studies should be encouraged due to the aging process.

Translocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO) is mainly distributed in the outer mitochondrial membrane of steroid-synthesizing cells in the central and peripheral nervous systems. It mediates cholesterol transportation across the phospholipid membrane, which is a prerequisite for neurosteroid synthesis. Though the ligand of TSPO has clinical value in the diagnosis and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, the pharmacological study of TSPO for anti-postpartum depression has not been reported. In this study, the classical method of reproductive hormone withdrawal was used to construct a rat model of postpartum depression (PPD). The effect of YL-IPA08, a new ligand compound of TSPO, on PPD was evaluated using multiple behavioral tests at progressive time points. Additionally, real-time quantitative PCR, Western-blotting and an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay were conducted to elucidate the potential molecular mechanism of such effect. We report that the levels of TSPO and neurosteroids in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex were significantly decreased in PPD rats compared to healthy controls. After 3 weeks of drug treatment, the levels of TSPO and neurosteroids in the hippocampus of PPD rats were increased, and anxiety and depressive like behaviors were alleviated. Meanwhile, compared with sertraline treatment, a positive control in this study, YL-IPA08 treatment had a shorter onset time. Our results suggest that the anxiolytic and anti-depressive activity of YL-IPA08 has significant value in the treatment of PPD and that TSPO may be a potential new target for the treatment of PPD.

Introduction To investigate the possible roles of selected single-nucleotide gene polymorphisms (SNPs) of the activin A receptor type 2A (ACVR2A) gene in the pathogenesis of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP). Methods In this study, the six SNPs of the ACVR2A gene were analyzed by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) combined with next-generation sequencing methods in 186 HDP patients and 380 healthy pregnant women. Multivariate logistic regression analysis combined with 10,000 permutation tests was used to analyze the potential relationship between ACVR2A gene polymorphisms and HDP, especially its subset pre-eclampsia. Results Our findings showed that the rs1424954, rs1014064, rs1128919, and rs3768687 differed significantly between HDP patients and control group (p = 0.035, p = 0.035, p = 0.024 and p = 0.035, respectively), which remained significant after 10,000 permutation tests. In addition, rs1424954, rs1014064, rs1128919, rs3768687, rs3764955, and rs13430086 were all statistically significant among the PE patients compared with the controls (p = 0.013, p = 0.016, p = 0.018, p = 0.019, p = 0.024 and p = 0.029, respectively). The significance still existed after 10,000 permutation tests. Discussion ACVR2A gene polymorphisms may play a role in the pathogenesis of HDP and its subset PE.

Remote techniques for measuring human vital signs have attracted great interests due to the benefits shown in medical monitoring and military applications. Compared with continuous-wave Doppler radar, frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar which can discriminate vital signs from different distances, shows potential for reducing the interferences from other targets and the environment. However, in the state-of-the-art algorithms, only one chirp per frame is utilized for FMCW-based vital sign monitoring. Moreover, the vital signal is extracted from only one range bin of the fast Fourier transform. Which does not make full utilization of the long system idle time, and loses the power distributed on other range bins. By exploiting the relationship between respiration and heartbeat vibrations, an adaptive identification embedded ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method for joint-range spectral estimation is proposed to measure the heart rate. First, A multi-chirp processing is presented for a 2-dimensional phase accumulation. Then the phase signals from a sequence of range bins are decomposed with a fast adaptive identification process. Finally, with the identified heartbeat components, we solve a multiple measurement vectors problem to estimate the heart rate. Experimental results showed that, at the detection range from 1 m~ 2.5 m, the proposed method can robustly distinguish the heartbeat from respiration and its harmonics and accurately estimate the heart rate with a root mean square error less than 6 bpm.

Chronic Liver Diseases (CLD) are characterized by abnormal accumulation of collagen fibrils, neo-angiogenesis, and sinusoidal remodeling. Collagen deposition along with intrahepatic angiogenesis and sinusoidal remodeling alters sinusoid structure resulting in portal hypertension, liver failure, and other complications. Efforts were made to develop treatments for CLDs. However, the success of such treatments is limited and unpredictable. We report a strategy for CLD treatment by induction of integrin αvβ3 mediated cell apoptosis using a rationally designed protein (ProAgio). ProAgio is designed to target integrin αvβ3 at a novel site. Integrin αvβ3 is highly expressed in activated Hepatic Stellate Cells (HSC), angiogenic endothelium, and capillarized Liver Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells (LSEC). ProAgio induces apoptosis of these disease causative cells. Tests with liver fibrosis mouse models demonstrate that ProAgio reverses liver fibrosis and relieves blood flow resistance by depleting activated HSC and capillarized LSEC. Our studies demonstrate an effective approach for CLD treatment., As activated hepatic stellate cells and liver sinusoidal endothelial cells express high levels of integrin α v β3, Turaga et al. present a strategy for treatment of chronic liver disease using their rationally designed protein (ProAgio) which targets integrin α v β3. They find that ProAgio –mediated apoptosis of these disease-associated cells reverses liver fibrosis and ameliorates intrahepatic vascular resistance in a mouse model

Introduction: The objective of this study was to assess the success of total knee arthroplasty with the use of extramedullary positioning osteotomy templates for limb alignment in contrast to traditional intramedullary positioning rods. Methods: Between September 2019 and February 2021, 70 participants underwent total knee arthroplasty with lower limb positioning using an extramedullary distal femur positioning template and intramedullary positioning rods. The participants were divided into two groups each to receive either of the two limb positioning techniques. The groups were divided randomly and were similar at the beginning of the study. Therefore, the participants were equally divided into 35 participants per group. Participants' indication for the procedure was severe osteomyelitis or rheumatoid arthritis, and they underwent distal femoral osteotomy. The force lines of the lower limb were identified by locating the center of the head of the femur. The patients were monitored for intraoperative bleeding, surgical trauma and surgical time. They were followed up during the first and second weeks post-operation to assess for knee joint movement graded using the HSS knee score and assessed for deviation. Participants were treated equally throughout the study and during the follow-up phase. Results: The participants did not have any statistically significant differences at the beginning of the study. The intramedullary group had a lesser average age but without any significant difference from the extramedullary group. In addition, their HSS knee scores, body mass index, knee joint range of motion, and the angle of deviation of the knee, hip, and ankle were of no statistical significance with a p-value of more than 0.05. The operation time for the extramedullary group was approximately 96.57 minutes with a margin of error of (+/-) 8.576 minutes. In contrast, the intramedullary group had an average time of 104.8 minutes and a margin of error of (+/-) 8.864. Intraoperative bleeding for the extramedullary group was less at approximately 89.97 ml, while it was 95.4ml in the intramedullary group. Postoperative drainage was also more in the intramedullary group as compared to the intramedullary group. The differences between both groups were statistically significant, with a p-value of less than 0.05. There was no significant difference in HKA angle deviation, coronal plane angle, and flexion angle of femoral prosthesis (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Extramedullary distal femoral osteotomy positioning templates proved superior to intramedullary positioning rods. The template demonstrated less surgical trauma hence the lower risk of deformity, less intraoperative bleeding, therefore, more safety and less risk for infection than the intramedullary positioning rods.

Automatic aircraft target recognition, including direction detection and fine-grained classification, is an important but challenging problem. Multi-directional densely arranged targets and the tiny differences between classes cause difficulties in recognition and direction prediction. To overcome the aforementioned problems, a rotated hybrid task cascade (RHTC) network is proposed. Specifically, RHTC cascades the segmentation branch and the bounding-box (bbox) branch to fuse the semantic feature in a coarse- to- fine manner. In addition, a new oriented bounding box regressor (OBBR) is proposed to predict the direction of target, and a new directionalloss function is added to further optimize the regressor. Moreover, we design fine masks in preprocessing to achieve improved recognition performance. The experimental results evaluated on the datasets collected from Google Earth show that RHTC can achieve the state-of-the-art performance on self-defined direction precision (DP) and mean average precision (mAP).

This article covers radar signal processing for sensing in the context of assisted living (AL). This is presented through three example applications: human activity recognition (HAR) for activities of daily living (ADL), respiratory disorders, and sleep stages (SSs) classification. The common challenge of classification is discussed within a framework of measurements/preprocessing, feature extraction, and classification algorithms for supervised learning. Then, the specific challenges of the three applications from a signal processing standpoint are detailed in their specific data processing and ad hoc classification strategies. Here, the focus is on recent trends in the field of activity recognition (multidomain, multimodal, and fusion), health-care applications based on vital signs (superresolution techniques), and comments related to outstanding challenges. Finally, this article explores challenges associated with the real-time implementation of signal processing/classification algorithms.

To explore the application value of color duplex sonography and enhanced computerized tomography (CT) inspection based on a nanocontrast agent in diagnosis and pathogenesis in giant cell arteritis (GCA), the GCA nude mouse model was constructed. In this study, 40 healthy male BalB/c nude mice aged 6-8 weeks were randomly divided into a control group (no model) and an experimental group (model), with 20 mice in each group, and the temporal artery tissue of GCA patients diagnosed as positive by temporal artery biopsy was implanted into nude mice to construct a GCA nude mouse model. Abdominal aortic biopsy and immunohistochemistry were used to verify the success of the GCA nude mouse model. All nude mice were subjected to color duplex sonography and enhanced CT examination based on a nanocontrast agent. At the same time, the basic indicators such as body weight, temperature, white blood cell (WBC), lymphocytes (LYM), hemoglobin (HGB), and platelet (PLT) were measured, and the protein expression levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) were detected by immunohistochemistry. The results showed that the temporal artery wall of the nude mice in the experimental group thickened and the lumen was significantly narrowed, indicating that the cell arteritis model of nude mice was successfully constructed; ultrasound examination showed that the right superficial temporal artery vascular cavity narrowed, the blood flow signal changed like a filling defect around the periphery, and there was a low echo halo. CT examination showed that the left superficial temporal artery narrowed, and the inner diameter of the narrow segment of blood vessels changed like a bead. The body weight of nude mice in the experimental group decreased significantly after the modeling was completed ( P < 0.05 ); after modeling, the body temperature of the nude mice in the experimental group increased significantly ( P < 0.05 ); LYM and HGB values of nude mice in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group ( P < 0.05 ); the content of IL-6, STAT3, IL-6, and STAT3 proteins in the arterial tissue of nude mice in the experimental group was lower than that of the control group ( P < 0.05 ), indicating that color duplex sonography and CT contrast agent technology can be used in the diagnosis and development mechanism research of GC.

The assessment of the hippocampus is indispensable for the supplementary diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. In response to the small size of the hippocampus and the difficulty of accurate segmentation, this paper proposes a 3DUnet-CBAM based hippocampal segmentation model. A 3DUnet convolutional network is used to avoid information loss between two-dimensional slices, and a CBAM attention mechanism is incorporated in the last layer of downsampling. The deep and superficial features of the hippocampus are effectively combined. The segmentation accuracy of the hippocampus is finally improved. Experimental results show that the model achieves 89.01%, 89.04% and 88.97% for dice, precision and recall under the validation set, respectively, which can better assist doctors in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease.

Model efficiency for object detection has become more and more important recently, especially when intelligent mobile devices get more and more popular. Current lightweight object detection model is either migrated from lightweight classification models, or pruned directly from complex object detection models. These pipelines can not match the performance requirements of edge devices. In this work, we propose a neural architecture search (NAS) method to build a detection model automatically that can perform well on edge devices. Specifically, the proposed method supports the search of not only multiscale feature network, but also backbone network. This enables us to search out a global optimal model. To this end, we've made a special design that the backbone and feature network can share the same search space. This method greatly reduces the search time while ensuring the search accuracy. It can find a good architecture in 14GPU days. Additionally, we add latency information into the main objective during performance estimation. Therefore, we can control between the speed and accuracy to better adapt to the edge environment. Experiments on the PASCAL VOC benchmark indicate that the searched architecture (named NAS-EOD) can get good accuracy even if training from scratch. When using a pre-training scheme, our model is superior to state-of-the-art small object detection models.

In view of the wide variety of equipment in the dispatch automation machine room and the dense arrangement of cabinets, a navigation technology suitable for the dispatch automation machine room is proposed on the intelligent companion tool cart. In this paper, three sensors of ultrasonic, infrared and lidar are designed to form an intelligent neural sensor, and the information received by the intelligent neural sensor is calculated to generate a vector map through a software algorithm. At the same time, a plane coordinate network is established. The grid coordinate unit accuracy is 0.1cm. At the same time, the concept of “virtual fence” was put forward to fix the workers at the working point, which increased the safety of work. Subsequently, an experimental test of positioning and navigation of the tool cart was carried out. The experimental results showed that the tool cart can accurately locate and generate a vector map with an accuracy error of less than 10cm. The navigation method has a good application effect and has a good promotion value.

Introduction We developed a neurocognitive assessment tool (NCAT) in consultation with mental health professionals working with children with AD/HD as a diagnostic aid and screening tool. This study examines the predictive utility of NCAT in the classification of children with AD/HD Inattentive presentation. Method Fifty three children with AD/HD Inattentive presentation and 161 typically-developing children completed an NCAT assessment. Discriminant function analyses examined group membership prediction for separate components of NCAT and for the components combined. Results The combined model correctly classified 93.4 % of participants, with 91.4 % sensitivity and 93.9 % specificity. Contributions to classification were from SNAP-IV, psychological needs satisfaction, self-regulation, executive function performance, and EEG. The combined model resulted in a 9.3 % increase in specificity and 5.9 % increase in sensitivity compared to SNAP-IV alone. Conclusions NCAT provides good discrimination between children with and without AD/HD of the Inattentive presentation, and further investigation including other subtypes and comorbidities is warranted.

Background: Breast cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer in adult Argentinian women. Argentina is a LMIC with a highly fragmented healthcare system that conflicts with access to healthcare stated by the country’s Universal Health Coverage plan. A tele-mammography network could improve access to breast cancer screening decreasing its mortality. Methods: A Cost-Utility Analysis was performed to explore the incremental benefit of annual tele-mammography screening for at-risk Argentinian women over 40 years old. A Markov model was developed to simulate annual mammography or tele-mammography screening in two hypothetical population-based cohorts of asymptomatic women. Parameter uncertainty was evaluated through deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Model structure uncertainty was also explored to test the robustness of the results. Findings: It was estimated that 31 out of 100 new cases of breast cancer would be detected by mammography and 39/100 by tele-mammography. The model returned an ICER of £26 051/QALY which is lower than the WHO-recommended threshold of £26 288/QALY for Argentina. Deterministic sensitivity analysis showed the ICER is most sensitive to the uptake and sensitivity of the screening tests. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed tele-mammography is cost-effective in 59% of simulations. Interpretation: Tele-mammography should be considered for adoption as it could improve access to expertise in underserved areas where adherence to screening protocols is poor. Disaggregated data by province is needed for a better-informed policy decision. Telemedicine could also be beneficial in ensuring the continuity of care when health systems are under stress like in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Funding: None. Declaration of Interests: None declared.

Purpose we studied the effect of Bacillus licheniformis preparation (ZCS) on CNST (central nervous system tumor) patients undergoing the gastrointestinal symptoms and inflammation induced by radiotherapy. Materials and Methods 160 CNST patients with craniospinal irradiation (CSI) treatment were divided into experiment and control group. The experiment group patients took one capsule per time of ZCS and three times a day until the end of radiotherapy, starting one day before radiotherapy. While the patients in control group were administrated placebo without any probiotics. Serum from one day before radiotherapy and the first day after radiotherapy were collected to measure the ET, CRP, TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6. Results More than 70% CNST pediatric patients suffered from different degrees of gastrointestinal symptoms after radiotherapy, including mouth ulcer, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea. And there was an obviously increased of serum ET, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and CRP after RT. Importantly, a markedly decreased of ET, CRP and inflammatory cytokines were detected in the experiment group comparing to the control group after radiotherapy, as well as the relief of the gastrointestinal symptoms. However, improvement of probiotics (or ZCS) of the survival rate of CNST children and the recurrence of tumor are not observed in this study. Conclusions Prophylactically administrated ZCS during radiotherapy for CNST patients can relieve RT-related gastrointestinal symptoms and inflammatory reaction.

To assess the immunogenicity of Peginterferon alpha-2 b(Pegberon) and its effect on the efficacy and safety in phase III clinical trial, by comparing it with the control drug Pegasys.770 patients were recruited in total. 509 were treated with Pegberon plus ribavirin and 261 were treated with Pegasys plus ribavirin. After treatment of 12 and 24 weeks, plasma samples were collected from individual patients for detecting the anti-therapeutic antibodies (ATA) and hepatitis C RNA(HCV RNA), to evaluate the production of antibodies and their adverse effect on the efficacy and safety of the treatments. With data obtained from the treatments with Pegberon or Pegasys, gross comparison analysis was performed.The incidence of treatment-induced neutralizing antibodies (NAb) of Pegberon group (0.7%, 3/454) was significantly lower than Pegasys group (5.0%,12/238)(p .001). Among all patients, the rates of sustained virological response 24 (SVR24) were significantly different between baseline ATA positive (60.7%,34/56) and baseline ATA negative patients (76.2%,544/714)(p = .010), between baseline NAb positive (36.0%,9/25) and baseline NAb negative patients (76.4%,569/745)(p .001) and between induced ATA positive (72.7%,40/55) and sustained ATA negative patients(84.0%,492/586)(p = .034). The incidence of potential immunogenicity-related adverse reactions (AR) showed no significant difference between Pegberon (55.6%,283/509) and Pegasys groups (53.6%,140/261)(p = .605) and the profiles of these AR were also similar between the two groups.The incidence of treatment-induced Nab in Pegasys group was significantly higher than the Pegberon group. Baseline ATA, induced ATA and baseline NAb all affected the efficacy. The profiles of potential immunogenicity-related AR were similar between two drug groups, indicating the immunogenicity had no significant adverse effect on safety.

On a review of the nuclear power plant accidents caused by marine organism intrusion and current strategies used by the NPPs, a complete set of marine-organism monitoring system for the water-intake of the nuclear power station was designed. The system integrates sonar and high-definition camera as the detecting equipment to have wide detection range of the marine organism. Integrated with automatic inspecting instruments and data transmission networks, the system can realize the automatic inspection with different depth, different directions and different time periods.

The instantaneous vital sign rates, which are related to physiological dynamics, are important indicators of human health condition. This paper presents a noncontact way to measure the human instantaneous vital signs using digital-intermediate frequency (IF) Doppler radar. The synchrosqueezing transform-based algorithm has been proposed to get a concentrated time-frequency (TF) distribution, so that the high-resolution instantaneous heartbeat and respiratory rates and the time-domain signals can be acquired. Moreover, the developed radar with customized radio frequency module employs the direct IF sampling technique to achieve high sensitivity to capture the tiny vital sign variations. Experiments with different human subjects and physiological conditions have been carried out. Compared with the landmark-based method and traditional TF algorithms, the results show that instantaneous vital signs can be acquired more accurately within 3 m at a −13 dBm transmit power by the proposed method. Therefore, the radar can be used for evaluating the physiological dynamics and assessing health condition.

The cooling ceiling+fresh air system can meet the special requirement of ship cabin for low space more easily due to the advantages of cabin in space saving, low noise, high comfort, and so on. The...

The explosive growth in data traffic presents new challenges to the new generation of wireless communication systems, such as computing capabilities, spectrum efficiency and security. In this paper, we use the network structure, which is adaptable for the big data traffic, to improve the security of wireless networks. Specifically, a big-data aided hybrid relay selection scheme is designed and analyzed to enhance physical layer security. First, considering the ideal situation that an eavesdropper’s CSI (Channel State Information) is known to the legal nodes, we propose an optimal hybrid relay selection scheme consisting of the optimal mode selection scheme and the optimal relay selection scheme. In this case, we analyze the upper bound of an eavesdropper’s capacity in FD (Full-Duplex) mode and the secrecy outage probabilities of the optimal HD (Half-Duplex), FD, and hybrid relay selection schemes. Through the analysis of data, it is clear that the mode selection is decided by the self-interference of the FD technique. However, the instantaneous CSI of an eavesdropper is difficult to obtain due to the passive characteristic of eavesdroppers in practice. Therefore, a more practical hybrid relay selection scheme with only the channel distribution information of an eavesdropper is further studied, where a weighting factor is employed to guarantee that the hybrid mode is no worse than either the FD mode or HD mode when the self-interference grows. Finally, the simulation results show the improved security of our proposed scheme.

Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) is the most frequent cause of primary renal disease, and clarifying the pathogenesis of IgAN is of great importance for its diagnosis and treatment. It is well known that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) can infect the urinary tract and result in the typical symptoms of cystitis. However, MTB can also affect the kidney more insidiously. Patients may present with glomerular disease, and sometimes with advanced renal failure. This study was to investigate the association between MTB infection and IgA nephropathy (IgAN), and the early diagnosis of MTB-mediated IgAN by means of early secreted antigenic target 6 (ESAT-6) detection in renal biopsies.One hundred and twenty patients were divided into 3 groups: a renal tuberculosis (RTB) group, a glomerulonephritis without MTB infection (GN-TBI) group and a glomerulonephritis with MTB infection (GN+TBI) group. Morning urine samples were collected for MTB culture. Immunohistochemistry for ESAT-6 expression in renal tissues was performed.The incidence rate of IgAN in the GN+TBI group was 66.7%, which was significantly higher than that of the GN-TBI group. In the GN+TBI group, the ESAT-6 expression was positively associated with IgAN incidence. There was a statistical association between the positive expression of ESAT-6 and the incidence of IgAN. The sensitivity and specificity of urine MTB culture in diagnosing renal MTB infection was 23.3% and 100% respectively, while the sensitivity and specificity of ESAT-6 detection was 100% and 91.1% respectively. Compared with urine MTB culture, the sensitivity of ESAT-6 detection was significantly increased.MTB infection might be associated with the occurrence of IgAN, and ESAT-6 detection in renal tissues may be helpful for the early diagnosis of MTB-mediated IgAN.

Objective To explore the feasibility of implanting a self-designed reusable double-cavity bone harvest chamber into Guizhou mini-pigs for observation of the osteogenic effect of human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (hBMP-2) gene-activated nano bone putty on bone in growth. Methods Eight healthy 12-month-old female Guizhou mini-pigs were used for the present experiment. In the first operation, empty double-cavity bone harvest chambers (n = 8) were implanted into the femoral metaphysis of the animals as a blank control group. In the second operation, the femoral metaphyses were implanted with the chambers filled by the nano bone putty+hBMP-2 plasmid in one cavity and nothing in the other cavity, respectively (experiment group, n = 8). The time interval between every operation was 3 months. The cavity materials were retrieved and replaced for assessment by gross observation, histological examination, and bone morphology metrology analysis to compare osteogenesis ability and alkaline phosphatase. Results Three months after surgery, the nano bone putty+hBMP-2 plasmid in one cavity of the chambers had hard gray and white tissues inside, while the cavities pre-installed with nothing were filled with soft brown tissues. Light microscopy showed new generated bone tissue around the filled material, but only fibrous tissues in the empty cavities. Osteogenesis ability and alkaline phosphatase of the nano bone putty+hBMP-2 plasmid group were significantly higher than those of the blank control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion The reusable double-cavity bone harvest chamber can be used to observe the osteogenic potential of the hBMP-2 gene-activated nano bone putty.

Aiming at the requirement of high-powered in optical sensing systems based on resonator, photonic crystal fiber is proposed to optimize the performance of fiber optic ring resonator (FORR). In this paper, the model of FORR is obtained after derivation, and the characteristics of FORR based on TIR-PCF, Air-core PBF and conventional fiber are analyzed, respectively. Results show that the finesse of FORR is almost the same as that of conventional fiber when the intensity loss of coupler is less than 0.1. In addition, when the fiber length is less than 20m, the sensitivity of all the three fibers is the same, and with the further increases of fiber length, the sensitivity of FORR based on Air-core PBF decreases quickly than the others.

Objective : This study aims to investigate the truth-telling status and the relevant factors of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients in Henan, China.Methods : A cross-sectional study from April to June 2015 using questionnaires was given to 301 family members of hospitalized ESCC patients based in three affiliated hospitals of Zhengzhou University (i.e., The First Hospital, The Second Hospital, and Tumor Hospital) and Anyang Tumor Hospital.Results : Among the 41.9% (126/301) hospitalized ESCC patients who knew of their true diagnoses, only 4.0% patients were informed by their corresponding responsible doctors, 39.7% by their family members, and 56.3% by themselves. Univariate analyses showed that disclosure of confirmed ESCC diagnosis to patients was correlated with gender, family history of cancer (FHC), education level, vocation, hospital administrative level, and attitudes of family members (P < 0.05). Furthermore, multivariate analysis indicated that attitude of family members was the most important and an independent factor for diagnosis disclosure. Those patients with a negative FHC, under-education, manual occupation, advanced stages, and hospitalized in municipal hospitals exhibited a low rate of truth telling.Conclusions : Truth telling for ESCC patients in Henan is not prevalent and may be improved through consultation with family members, particularly for patients with a negative FHC, poor education, manual occupation, and advanced stages.

In this letter, we propose a novel method for inshore ship detection via ship head classification and body boundary determination. Compared with some traditional ship head detection methods depending on accurate ship head segmentation, we generate novel ship head features in the transformed domain of polar coordinate, where the ship heads have an approximate trapezoid shape and can be more easily detected. Then, these features are used in the classification based on support vector machine to detect the ship head candidates, and give the important information of initial ship head direction. Next, the surrounding consistent line segments are utilized to refine the ship direction, and the ship boundary is determined based on the saliency of directional gradient information symmetrical about the ship body. Finally, the context information of sea areas is introduced to remove false alarms. Experimental results show that the proposed method can accurately and robustly detect the inshore ships in high-resolution optical remote sensing images.

Real-world recognition or classification tasks in computer vision are not apparent in controlled environments and often get involved in open set. Previous research work on real-world recognition problem is knowledge- and labor-intensive to pursue good performance for there are numbers of task domains. Auto Machine Learning (AutoML) approaches supply an easier way to apply advanced machine learning technologies, reduce the demand for experienced human experts and improve classification performance on close set. This paper proposes an automatic neural network search method for designing effective convolution neural network (CNN) models for open set recognition (OSR). Feature distribution information is explicitly incorporated into the main objective. So during the search process, the sampled models will enlarge interclass differences and reduce intra-class variations. We design a flexible search space based on classic CNN models to diversify neural architectures and also add some search principles to limit the size of the search space. Experimental results on CIFAR-10 and Dunhuang historical Chinese datasets show that our approach improves performances on both close and open set. Comparing with the other two OSR algorithms, our method also achieves the best performance.

The sensitivity and utility of liquid biopsy in clinical practice requires some improvement. The aim of the present study was to improve the detection of epidermal growth factor (EGFR) and cellular tumor antigen p53 (TP53) mutations in liquid biopsies from patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by combining plasma, sputum and urine samples under the same sequencing platform. Plasma, sputum and urine samples, and tumor tissues were obtained from 50 patients with NSCLC and were analyzed using next-generation sequencing. The sensitivity of EGFR-sensitive mutation detection was 84% in plasma, 63% in sputum, 28% in urine, and 91% when combining the three liquid samples (P

Over fifty percent of the people around the world is infected with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), which is the main cause of gastric diseases such as chronic gastritis and stomach cancer. H. pylori adhesin A (HpaA), which is a surface-located lipoprotein, is essential for bacterial colonization in the gastric mucosa. HpaA had been proposed to be a promising vaccine candidate against H. pylori infection. However, the effect of non-lipidated recombinant HpaA (rHpaA) to stimulate immune response was not very ideal, and the protective effect against H. pylori infection was also limited. Here, we hypothesized that low immunogenicity of rHpaA may attribute to lacking the immunostimulatory properties endowed by the lipid moiety. In this study, two novel lipopeptides, LP1 and LP2, which mimic the terminal structure of the native HpaA (nHpaA), were synthesized and TLR2 activation activity was confirmed in vitro. To investigate whether two novel lipopeptides could improve the protective effect of rHpaA against the infection of H. pylori, groups of mice were immunized either intramuscularly or intranasally with rHpaA together with LP1 or LP2. Compared with rHpaA alone, the bacterial colonization of the mice immunized with rHpaA plus LP2 via intranasal route was significantly decreased and the expression levels of serum IgG2a, IFN-γ, and IL-17 cytokines in spleen lymphocyte culture supernatant increased obviously, indicating that the enhanced protection of LP2 may be associated with elevated specific Th1 and Th17 responses. In conclusion, LP2 has been shown to improve the protective effect of rHpaA against H. pylori infection, which may be closely related to its ability in activating TLR2 by mimicking the terminal structure of nHpaA.

This paper gives an overview of trends in radar sensing for assisted living. It focuses on signal processing and classification, looking at conventional approaches, deep learning and fusion techniques. The last section shows examples of classification in human activity recognition and medical applications, e.g. breathing disorder and sleep stages recognition.

Fall detection is important for senior care. In order to classify fall and other fall-similar daily motions, a novel dynamic range-Doppler trajectory (DRDT) method based on a frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar system is proposed. Multi-domain features including temporal changes of range, Doppler, radar cross-section (RCS) and dispersion are extracted from echo signals for a subspace K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) machine learning classifier. Extensive experiments demonstrated its feasibility and an average accuracy of 95.5% was achieved in recognizing six typical fall-similar motions.

At present, the development speed of natural gas power generation in China lags far behind the world average level, and there are many problems in the gas electricity industry, including the high gas price of natural gas is difficult to dredge the electricity price, the online electricity quantity is difficult to guarantee, the natural gas supply has the bottleneck, the power plant lacks the bargaining right and so on, which seriously restricts the healthy and sustainable development of the natural power generation industry. On the basis of combing and investigating the existing problems of natural gas power generation in China, this paper expounds the orientation and goal of the development of China's natural gas power generation industry, and puts forward some concrete suggestions for promoting the development of China's natural gas power generation industry.

Ectodermal dysplasia (ED) contains a group more than 170 types of congenital disorders resulting from abnormal development of ectoderm-derived structures [1,2].