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Objective An understanding of the leading causes of death in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) would be helpful to inform doctors, patients, and healthcare providers on disease management. This study aimed to comprehensively study the leading causes of death in these survivors. Methods We investigated the trends of risk factors for major causes of death in patients with HNSCC. Causes of death in HNSCC were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registries. We characterized trends in the 5-year cumulative mortality as well as risk factors associated with the ten leading causes of death. Results Among 48 297 deaths identified, the ten leading causes were as follows: HNSCC, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cerebrovascular disease, pneumonia & influenza, accidents & adverse effects, esophagus cancer, chronic liver diseases, and septicemia. Non-HNSCC deaths surpassed HNSCC deaths 4 years after cancer diagnosis. There was a significant decline in the 5-year cumulative mortality from HNSCC, heart disease, lung cancer, COPD, cerebrovascular disease, and esophagus cancer. The risks of mortality from the ten leading causes varied with patient characteristics. Conclusion Our findings provide a useful picture of mortality patterns in HNSCC survivors, which might help when planning personalized HNSCC care.

Background Phosphatidylserine (PS) is essential for inflammation-associated thrombogenesis, but the exact effect of PS on the prothrombotic state in periodontitis is uncertain. This study aimed to determine the PS-related procoagulant state in patients with periodontitis. Methods A total of 138 patients with periodontitis were examined compared with 42 healthy controls. PS-exposing cells and microvesicles in blood samples were detected by confocal microscopy and flow cytometry. The clotting time assay and prothrombinase complex formation assay were used to measure the procoagulant activity of microvesicles, blood cells and endothelial cells. Periodontal clinical parameters and laboratory characteristics of patients with severe periodontitis were recorded and analyzed at baseline and 6 months after non-surgical periodontal therapy. Results Total PS-positive (PS+ ) microvesicles and the percentage of PS+ blood cells increased in patients with severe periodontitis compared with patients with moderate/mild periodontitis or healthy controls. Endothelial cells cultured in serum from patients with severe periodontitis expressed more PS compared with those cultured in serum from healthy controls. Specifically, PS exposure on blood cells and endothelial cells significantly decreased after inhibiting the effect of inflammatory cytokines. The elevated levels of PS+ cells and microvesicles in severe periodontitis shortened clotting time and led to increased prothrombinase complex formation. Non-surgical periodontal therapy significantly attenuated the release of microvesicles and the PS exposure of blood cells in severe periodontitis. Conclusions The prothrombotic state of patients with periodontitis is mediated by PS+ cells and microvesicles stimulated by elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines.

Veterans are increasingly eligible for non-VA care through the Veteran Health Administration (VA) Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks Act while maintaining care in the VA. Continuity of care is challenging when delivered across multiple systems resulting in avoidable complications. The Community Hospital Transitions Program (CHTP) intervention was developed to address challenges veterans face post non-VA hospitalization. Propensity score-matched analysis was used to compare outcomes between 334 intervention and matched control patients who were discharged from non-VA hospitals. Veterans in CHTP were more likely than matched controls to receive a follow-up appointment within 14 days (mean: 0.43 vs 0.34, P < .05) and 30 days (mean: 0.62 vs 0.50, P < .05). There were no significant differences in 30-day readmissions or 30-day emergency department visits. CHTP veterans received timely follow-up care post discharge in VA facilities. Providing quality care to dual-use veterans is dependent on coordinated transitional care.

Early postoperative injection of botulinum toxin type A (BTxA) can reduce surgical scar hypertrophy. BTxA injection at different time points is associated with different levels of efficacy, but the efficacy of different doses of BTxA for scar management has not investigated. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of different doses of BTxA administered early after surgery on scar improvement through a split-scar experiment. The study included 22 patients who underwent surgery between September 2019 and October 2020. High- and low-dose BTxA was randomly administered into each half of the surgical wound closure immediately after surgery. One half of the incision was injected with a low dose (4 U) of BTxA, and the other half was injected with a high dose (8 U). The scars were then evaluated at postoperative 6 months using the modified Stony Brook Scar Evaluation Scale (mSBSES), and patient satisfaction was evaluated using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The occurrence of complications or adverse events was also recorded. Twenty patients completed the study and were analyzed. Compared with the low-dose sides, the high-dose sides had significantly better mSBSES scores and significantly higher VAS scores (p

To assess the survival benefits associated with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) according to the primary site.A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted for randomized phase III trials comparing treatment with or without EGFR inhibitors in locoregionally advanced, recurrent, or metastatic HNSCC. The primary and secondary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), respectively. Data were pooled using a random-effects model.Seven trials with a total of 3391 patients were included. The addition of EGFR inhibitors improved OS in patients with oral cavity-oropharyngeal carcinoma (hazard ratio [HR] 0.77, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.67-0.87, P 0.001) but not in patients with hypopharyngeal-laryngeal carcinoma (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.82-1.08, P = 0.398). A significant interaction was found in favor of oral cavity-oropharyngeal carcinoma (P = 0.029). The addition of EGFR inhibitors increased PFS in both patients with oral cavity-oropharyngeal carcinoma (HR 0.67, 95% CI 0.52-0.85, P = 0.001) and patients with hypopharyngeal-laryngeal carcinoma (HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.69-0.94, P = 0.005). A trend towards significant interaction was found in favor of oral cavity-oropharyngeal carcinoma (P = 0.161). Comparable results were observed in the pre-specified subgroup analyses. Meta-regression analyses suggested that the primary site appeared to be a predictor of survival benefits in HNSCC patients who received treatment with EGFR inhibitors over those who did not.Our meta-analysis suggests that the survival benefits of EGFR inhibitors might depend on primary sites in HNSCC. Further studies are needed to confirm this finding.

The safety and reliable operation of power grid is directly related to the ability of power transformer to withstand short-circuit, therefore, it is a problem to be solved to improve the ability of large power transformer windings to withstand short-circuit. Taking a three-phase five-limb power transformer as an example, the transient electromagnetic field, short-circuit electrodynamics force of windings and mechanical strength of coils are analyzed in depth. Firstly, the three-dimensional finite element model of the prototype is established, and the magnetic flux density distribution of the three-dimensional transient electromagnetic field of transformer under short-circuit operation and the axial and radial static force magnitude of the winding are calculated by using the field-circuit coupling method, and the distribution law can be obtained. At the same time, the mechanical strength of power transformer winding in its height direction is discussed, and the modal vibration mathematical model of transformer low-voltage winding in Z-axis direction is established. The displacement change and resonance frequency of the winding wire cake in the axial direction caused by short-circuit are calculated, and the short-circuit electrodynamics force of the winding is also checked. The research in this paper provides a theoretical basis for strengthening the design of short-circuit withstanding capacity of windings, and has a certain theoretical and engineering application value.

When the wearer of Wearable Human-Machine Interaction System (WHMIS) is talking a strenuous walk, the Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) installed on the extremities are likely to be beyond the range of design specification of the IMU sensors. This overrange leads to poor navigation performances of the system. To overcome the problem, this paper proposes a deep learning-based method to realize robust autonomous navigation. Specifically, the Faster Region-Convolutional Neural Network (R-CNN) is built to recognize the gait types of the wearer. For each gait type, the inertial data of the wearer’s thigh and the foot are collected at the same frequency as the training samples, and then used to construct a correspondent Gated Recurrent Unit-Support Vector Regression (GRU-SVR) deep hybrid neural network model for virtual IMU simulation. Then, the virtual foot-mounted IMU will be constructed in real-time by the physical thigh-mounted IMU based on the neural network models mentioned above. Once the over-range of the physical foot-mounted IMU is detected, the virtual foot inertial information will be used to reconstruct the WHMIS navigation system. Experimental results show that the proposed navigation method has the ability of fault tolerance in complex gaits, and the 3D positioning performance of the reconstructed navigation system is approximately equivalent to that of the fault-free WHMIS navigation system.

Natural gas exploration in the Middle Triassic Leikoupo Formation (T2l) in the Sichuan Basin of China has achieved a remarkable breakthrough in recent years and thus attracts wide attention. However, there is no consensus on the gas source. The genetic identification and gas–source correlation based on the geochemical characteristics of natural gas indicate that the natural gas in the Leikoupo Formation is mainly from the underlying Upper Permian Longtan/Wujiaping Formation (P3l/P3w) source rocks (Moxi). Nevertheless, it has assistance (Zhongba) or hydrocarbon supply condition (Chuanxi) brought by the source rocks in the 1st Member of the Upper Triassic Xujiahe Formation (T3x), or mainly from the T3x source rocks with a specific contribution by the T2l source rocks (Yuanba and Longgang). The T2l gas pools display three types of source-reservoir assemblages, and they suggest different exploration directions. The P3l source rocks serve as main source rocks that can constitute the lower-generation and upper-accumulation pattern. The positive structures around the deep faults connecting the P3l and T2l are the most favorable areas to explore large-scale T2l gas pools. The source rocks at the bottom of T3x and the reservoirs at the top of the T2l can constitute the side-generation and side-accumulation pattern, which is favorably developed in the residual karst hills or the local tectonic high position of the karst slope. The T2l can constitute self-generation and self-accumulation pattern, which assists in the formation of gas pools.

Background Management of patients with diabetic foot ulcer is often burdensome, complex, and arduous. In addition, it can be challenging for clinicians and researchers to understand the surgical management of diabetic foot ulcer from the existing studies because of the extensive literature on this topic. Methods Bibliometric analysis was conducted using CiteSpace, and data were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Results A total of 1,475 publications were retrieved. The “United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS, USA)” and “National Institutes of Health (NIH, USA)” were the most important funders. The most active authors were Armstrong DG and Lipsky BA. The most active institutions were the University of Washington and University of Arizona. Developed countries in the USA and England contributed the most to the literature, and the publications were clustered into 15 topics. The emerging topic trend was the cluster label for “diabetic foot osteomyelitis” and “multidisciplinary setting”. Conclusions This study provides researchers and clinicians with important information on the cooperation of authors, institutions, and countries, intellectual structure, knowledge flow, and emerging topic trend, to help them with their subject cognition, study visits, study abroad, research direction selection, and grant applications.

Background To block transmission of measles, the China Ministry of Health endorsed the “2006–2012 National Measles Elimination Action Plan (NMEAP)” on November 11, 2006, while no published studies used mathematical models to assess the impact of this action. Also, the problem of residuals autocorrelation due to auto-correlated infectious disease data is often ignored in practice. Methods Based on monthly counts of measles in 31 Chinese provinces during 2004–2016, a spatiotemporal auto-correlated mixed model was developed to assess the intervention effects over 10 years after the NMEAP, after controlling for seasonality and time-varying socioeconomic and meteorological factors. The first-order autoregression dynamic relationship was used to adjust the bias of conditional covariance in Quasi-likelihood function due to temporal autocorrelation and the spatial autoregressive term was used to capture the neighbor effects of adjacent provinces. Results There were a similar seasonal pattern and spatial differences of measles incidence among provinces, yet the spatiotemporal pattern was diminished after the intervention. The introduction of the NMEAP was associated with a reduction of 51.03% [excess risk (ER%) = −51.03%, 95% CI: −62.32% to −36.37%] in measles morbidity on average during the 10-year intervention period. The intervention effect varied with time. The significant effect was observed 15 months after the intervention onset, and then gradually increased to a stable level, but was weakened slightly after 2012. The effect of birth rate and meteorological factors on measles morbidity reduced after the NMEAP. Conclusions There was clear evidence that prominent progress towards a goal of measles elimination had been achieved after the intervention, while the resurgence after 2012 indicated the goal for measles elimination by 2012 had not been reached.

Considering the problem that the process quality state is difficult to analyze and monitor under manufacturing big data, this paper proposed a data cloud model similarity-based quality fluctuation monitoring method in data-driven production process. Firstly, the randomness of state fluctuation is characterized by entropy and hyperentropy features. Then, the cloud pool drive model between quality fluctuation monitoring parameters is built. On this basis, cloud model similarity degree from the perspective of maximum fluctuation border is defined and calculated to realize the process state analysis and monitoring. Finally, the experiment is conducted to verify the adaptability and performance of the cloud model similarity-based quality control approach, and the results indicate that the proposed approach is a feasible and acceptable method to solve the process fluctuation monitoring and quality stability analysis in the production process.

This paper focuses on the design strategy of roof gardens, analyzes the relationship between aerial greening from the overall shape of urban space, and discusses the greening spots effect of “stepping stones” in urban greenways. Taking the green corrider between the green space of the Yangtze River wetland and the green space of the Laoshan Mountain as a sample, the roof garden is analyzed as the impact of the stepping stones of the birds on the urban space shape control and height control. Afterwards, it researches the modular technology which can be adapted to building various types of roof gardens.

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) has become one of the major challenges of drug safety all over the word. So far, about 1,100 commonly used drugs including the medications used regularly, herbal and/or dietary supplements, have been reported to induce liver injury. Moreover, DILI is the main cause of the interruption of new drugs development and drugs withdrawn from the pharmaceutical market. Acute DILI may evolve into chronic DILI or even worse, commonly lead to life-threatening acute liver failure in Western countries. It is generally considered to have a close relationship to genetic factors, environmental risk factors, and host immunity, through the drug itself or its metabolites, leading to a series of cellular events, such as haptenization and immune response activation. Despite many researches on DILI, the specific biomarkers about it are not applicable to clinical diagnosis, which still relies on the exclusion of other causes of liver disease in clinical practice as before. Additionally, circumstantial evidence has suggested that DILI is mediated by the immune system. Here, we review the underlying mechanisms of the immune response to DILI and provide guidance for the future development of biomarkers for the early detection, prediction, and diagnosis of DILI.

BackgroundDiabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease worldwide. Epidemiological evidence of the association between urinary sodium excretion and the presence of DKD in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has not yet been well established.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional study of 1545 patients with T2DM over aged 20 years old from January 2018 to December 2020. Urinary sodium excretion was measured by 24-hour urine samples in inpatients and morning fasting urine samples in outpatients. The associations between urinary sodium excretion and the risks of DKD were examined using stepwise regression analysis, logistic regression analysis and multivariable-adjusted restricted cubic splines (RCS).ResultsRegression analysis showed that urinary sodium was independently associated with urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR) level (P = 0.006) and the risks of DKD (P = 0.042). In multivariable-adjusted RCS analysis, urinary sodium excretion was significantly associated with UACR in all patients (P = 0.008), and exhibited a J-shaped relationship. Logistic regression analysis showed that increased urinary sodium excretion was significantly associated with increased risks of DKD [OR (95% CI); 1.56 (1.07-2.27); P = 0.020]. However, the relationships between urinary sodium excretion and the risks of DKD and albuminuria showed no significance, after further adjustment for HOMA-IR and ba-PWV (brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity) (Both P > 0.05).ConclusionsHigher urinary sodium excretion level was associated with increased risks of DKD among patients with T2DM, dependent of vascular sclerosis and insulin resistance.

Liuweiwuling Tablet (LWWL) is a licensed Chinese patent medicine (approval number: Z20060238) included in the national health insurance for anti-inflammation of chronic HBV infection, whereas its anti-HBV effect remains clarification. The study aimed to clarify its antiviral effect and related mechanisms. HepG2.2.15 cells (wild-type HBV-replicating cells) and HepG2. A64 cells (entecavir-resistant HBV-replicating cells) were used for in vitro test. Hydrodynamic injection-mediated HBV-replicating mouse model was used for in vivo test. Active compounds and related mechanisms for antiviral effect of LWWL were analyzed using network pharmacology and transcriptomics. The inhibition rates of LWWL (0.8 mg/ml) on HBV DNA, HBsAg, and pgRNA were 57.06, 38.55, and 62.49% in HepG2.2.15 cells, and 51.57, 17.57, and 53.88% in HepG2. A64 cells, respectively. LWWL (2 g kg−1 d−1 for 4 weeks)-treated mice had 1.16 log10 IU/mL decrease of serum HBV DNA, and more than 50% decrease of serum HBsAg/HBeAg and hepatic HBsAg/HBcAg. Compared to tenofovir control, LWWL was less effective in suppressing HBV DNA but more effective in suppressing HBV antigens. Thirteen differentially-expressed genes were found in relation to HBV-host interaction and some of them were enriched in interferon (IFN)-β pathway in LWWL-treated HepG2.2.15 cells. CD3+CD4+ T-cell frequency and serum IFN-γ were significantly increased in LWWL-treated mice compared to LWWL-untreated mice. Among 26 compounds with potential anti-HBV effects that were predicted by network pharmacology, four compounds (quercetin, luteolin, wogonin, and kaempferol) were experimentally confirmed to have antiviral potency. In conclusion, LWWL had potent inhibitory effect on both wild-type and entecavir-resistant HBV, which might be associated with increasing IFN-β and IFN-γ production.

The rebound of online public opinion is an important driving force in inducing a secondary crisis in the case of public emergencies. Effective risk-information communication is an important means to manage online public opinion regarding emergencies. This paper employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to discover which conditions are combined and may result in the rebound of online public opinion. Five conditions were selected: the type of public emergency, messengers, message attributes, audience, and information feedback. The study used a sample of 25 major public emergencies that occurred between 2015 and 2020 in China. The type of public emergency, audience, and information feedback emerged as critical influencing factors. Message attributes promote the rebound of online public opinion regarding public health emergencies, while messengers play a traction role in the rebound of online public opinion on other types of public emergencies. This study extends risk-information communication theory from the perspective of the type of emergency, explores the causes of rebounded online public opinion regarding public emergencies, and provides policies and suggestions for risk-information communication and online public-opinion governance during emergencies.

The gut microbiota plays a pivotal role in the onset and development of diabetes and its complications. Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a gut microbiota-dependent metabolite of certain nutrients, is associated with type 2 diabetes and its complications. Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is one of the most serious microvascular complications. However, whether TMAO accelerates the development of DKD remains unclear. We tested the hypothesis that TMAO accelerates the development of DKD. A high-fat diet/low-dose streptozotocin-induced diabetes rat model was established, with or without TMAO in the rats’ drinking water. Compared to the normal rats, the DKD rats showed significantly higher plasma TMAO levels at the end of the study. TMAO treatment not only exacerbated the kidney dysfunction of the DKD rats, but also renal fibrosis. Furthermore, TMAO treatment activated the nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich-containing family, pyrin domain-containing-3 (NLRP3) inflammasome and resulted in the release of interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18 to accelerate renal inflammation. These results suggested that TMAO aggravated renal inflammation and fibrosis in the DKD rats, which provides a new perspective to understand the pathogenesis of DKD and a potential novel target for preventing the progression of DKD.

Background & Aims: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) remains a rare malignancy, ranking the leading lethal primary liver cancer worldwide. However, biological functions of integrator complex subunit 8 (INTS8) remain unknown in ICC. Thus, this research aimed to explore the potential role of INTS8, as well as develop a novel diagnosed or therapeutic target in ICC. Methods: Differently expressed genes in two GEO datasets were obtained by RRA package in R software. The “maftools” package was implemented to visualize the cholangiocarcinoma (CHOL) mutation data in TCGA database. The expression of INTS8 was detected by preforming quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry in cell lines and human samples, respectively. The association between subtypes of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TICs) and INTS8 expression in CHOL was performed by using CIBERSORT tools. We evaluated a correlation between INTS8 expression and mismatch repair genes (MMRs) and DNA methyltransferases in pan-cancer analyses. Finally, the pan-cancer prognostic signatures of INTS8 were identified by univariate analyses. Results: We obtained the mutation landscape of a RRA gene set in CHOL. The expression of INTS8 was actually upregulated in ICC cell lines and human ICC samples. Furthermore, INTS8 expression is tightly associated with distinct landscape of TICs, the MMRs, and DNA methyltransferases in CHOL. In addition, the high INTS8 expression group presented a significantly poor outcomes, including overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS) and disease-free interval (DFI) (P < 0.05) in multi-cancers. Conclusions: INTS8 contributes to the tumorigenesis and progression of ICC. Our study highlights the significant roles of INTS8 in ICC and pan-cancers, providing a valuable molecular target for cancer research.

The dengue fever epidemic in Guangzhou may have been affected by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The number of dengue cases dropped drastically in 2020, and there have been only 2 local cases, suggesting that dengue has not become endemic in Guangzhou.

Background. Anaesthesia can alter neuronal excitability and vascular reactivity and ultimately lead to neurovascular coupling. Precise control of the skeletal muscle relaxant doses is the key in reducing anaesthetic damage. Methods. A total of 102 patients with the normal functioning preoperative facial nerve who required parotid tumour resection were included in this study. Facial nerve monitoring was conducted intraoperatively. The surgeon stimulated the facial nerve at different myorelaxation intervals at TOF% (T4/T1) and T1% (T1/T0) and recorded the responses and the amplitude of electromyogram (EMG). Body movements (BM) or patient-ventilator asynchrony (PVA) was recorded intraoperatively. Results. In parotid tumour resection, T1% should be maintained at a range of 30 to 60% while TOF% should be maintained at a range of 20 to 30%. Analysis of the decision tree model for facial nerve monitoring suggests a partial muscle relaxation level of 30 % < T 1 % ≤ 50 % and TOF ≤ 60 % . A nomogram prediction model, while incorporating factors such as sex, age, BMI, TOF%, and T1%, was constructed to predict the risk of BM/PVA during surgery, showing good predictive performance. Conclusions. This study revealed an adequate level of neuromuscular blockade in intraoperative parotid tumour resection while conducting facial nerve monitoring. A visual nomogram prediction model was constructed to guide anaesthetists in improving the anaesthetic plan.

Improving the separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and the conductivity of electrons to photoanode substrates are critical to achieve high-performance photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Here, a SnS2 /H-TiO2 /Ti heterojunction photoanode was fabricated with SnS2 nanosheets vertically grown on hydrogen-treated TiO2 (H-TiO2 ) nanotube arrays on a Ti substrate. It showed a significantly enhanced photocurrent of 4.0 mA cm-2 at 1.4 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode) under AM 1.5 G illumination, 70 times higher than that of SnS2 /TiO2 /Ti. Kelvin probe force microscopy measurements indicated that photogenerated electrons could be easily transported through the SnS2 /H-TiO2 interface but not through the SnS2 /TiO2 interface. Through hydrogen treatment, defects were created in H-TiO2 nanotubes to convert type I junctions to type II with SnS2 nanosheets. As a result, a high efficiency of electron-hole separation at the SnS2 /H-TiO2 interface and a high electron conductivity in H-TiO2 nanotubes were achieved and improved PEC performance. These findings show an effective route towards high-performance photoelectrodes for water splitting.

Myocardial infarction (MI) is the most prevalent disease with severe mortality, and hypoxia-induced cardiac injury and cardiomyocyte apoptosis are the significant and harmful consequences of this disease. The cross talk between hypoxia signaling and glycolysis energy flux plays a critical role in modulating MI-related heart disorder. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here, we aimed to explore the effect of a key glycolytic enzyme of 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2, 6-bisphosphatase 2 (PFKFB2) on cardiac dysfunction and apoptosis in response to hypoxia. Our data demonstrated that the mRNA and protein expression of PFKFB2 were significantly elevated in the MI mice. The MI treatment promoted the activation of PFKFB2 in vivo, as presented by the remarkably increased phosphorylation levels of PFKFB2. PFKFB2 depletion enhanced MI-induced cardiac dysfunction and cardiomyocyte apoptosis in the MI mouse model. Moreover, hypoxia treatment dramatically upregulated the expression and activation of PFKFB2 in a time-dependent manner in cardiomyocytes. Hypoxia-stimulated PFKFB2 relieved hypoxia-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis in vitro. PFKFB2 activated the fructose-2, 6-bisphosphate (Fru-2, 6-p2) /PFK/anaerobic adenosine triphosphate (ATP) glycolysis energy flux in response to hypoxia in cardiomyocytes. Mechanically, hypoxia-activated PFKFB2 by stimulating the hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) /ATK signaling. Thus, we conclude that HIF-1/AKT axis-activated PFKFB2 alleviates cardiac dysfunction and cardiomyocyte apoptosis in response to hypoxia. Our finding presents a new insight into the mechanism by which HIF-1/AKT/PFKFB2 signaling modulates MI-related heart disorder under the hypoxia condition, providing potential therapeutic targets and strategy for hypoxia-related myocardial injury.

Cancer is an important threat to public health because of its high morbidity and mortality. In recent decades, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have ushered a new therapeutic era in clinical oncology. The rapid development of immune checkpoint therapy is due to its inspiring clinical efficacy in a group of cancer types. Metformin, an effective agent for the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), has shown beneficial effects on cancer prevention and cancer treatment. Emerging studies have suggested that metformin in combination with ICI treatment could improve the anticancer effects of ICIs. Hence, we conducted a review to summarize the effects of metformin on ICI therapy. We also review the pleiotropic mechanisms of metformin combined with ICIs in cancer therapy, including its direct and indirect effects on the host immune system.

Wenhui Liu,1,2 Yiping Liu,1,2 Fang Ma,3 Bao Sun,1,2 Ying Wang,1,2 Jianquan Luo,1,2 Mouze Liu,1,2 Zhiying Luo1,2 1Department of Pharmacy, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Clinical Pharmacy, Central South University, Changsha, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Oncology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Zhiying Luo No. 139, People’s Middle Street, Furong District, Changsha City, Hunan Province 40013, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 13787034276Fax +86 0731 85294099Email lzhy199089@csu.edu.cnBackground: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have transformed the treatment landscape for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (aNSCLC), but immune-related adverse events (irAEs) have been evidenced curtailed the clinical use of them.Purpose: The aim of this study was to research the influences of inflammation-related peripheral blood markers, including neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) levels, on anti-PD-1 inhibitor-induced irAEs.Patients and Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted of patients treated with PD-1 inhibitors for stage III–IV NSCLC at a single center from 2017 to 2020 were included. Clinical characteristics, peripheral blood markers at the baseline and before subsequent treatment cycles were collected. NLR and PLR were calculated by division of neutrophil and platelet by lymphocyte measured in peripheral blood. The development of irAEs was evaluated and monitored from the therapy start based on CTCAE V4.03.Results: A total of 150 patients were included. Fifty-seven patients had occurred at least one irAEs during follow-up, and mainly grade 1– 2 (73.68%). Pruritus, rash and thyroiditis were the most commonly irAEs. Low NLR, PLR and neutrophil at baseline were significantly associated with the development of severe irAEs (P-values were 0.023, 0.0016 and 0.009). The levels of neutrophil, NLR and PLR also significantly decreased when occurred irAEs compared with baseline (P-values were 0.0069, 0.017 and 1.18E-5, respectively).Conclusion: The levels of NLR, PLR and neutrophil were associated with the increased risk of severe irAEs when baseline levels were low. NLR, PLR, and neutrophil are simple and available biomarkers that can be used to help predict severe adverse effects in NSCLC patients treated with anti-PD-1 inhibitors.Keywords: immune checkpoint inhibitors, NSCLC, irAE, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is a chronic disease with potentially severe complications, and β-cell deficiency underlies this disease. Despite active research, no therapy to date has been able to induce β-cell regeneration in humans. Here, we discovered the β-cell regenerative effects of glucagon receptor antibodies (anti-GcgR). Treatment with anti-GcgR in mouse models of β-cell deficiency leads to reversal of hyperglycemia, increased plasma insulin and C-peptide levels, and restored β-cell mass. We demonstrate that both β-cell proliferation and α- to β-cell transdifferentiation contribute to anti-GcgR-induced β-cell regeneration. Interestingly, anti-GcgR-induced α-cell hyperplasia can be uncoupled from β-cell regeneration with treatment cessation and antibody elimination from the body. Importantly, we are able to show that anti-GcgR induced α- to β-cell transdifferentiation is also observed in non-human primates. Furthermore, anti-GcgR and anti-CD3 combination therapy reverses diabetes and increases β-cell mass in the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse model of T1D. Taken together, our novel findings suggest that the combination of anti-GcgR with an immune modulator may be an effective therapy for T1D.

With the advancement of information technology, cultural globalization has become an unstoppable trend. Against this background, Chinese and Western paintings have also produced a lot of interaction and resonance in the collision and friction. Therefore, a group of painters dedicated to the development of the integration of Chinese and Western paintings appeared on the road of oil painting in China. The idea of Chinese and Western integration is particularly prominent in the paintings of these painters, especially landscape oil paintings. Therefore, Chinese landscape oil painting has developed in China for the integration of Chinese and Western paintings. The features are very clear. This article aims to study the collision and fusion of Eastern and Western paintings in the context of globalization. First of all, it starts with Chinese landscape oil painting, and analyzes the basis of the development process of the collision and fusion of Eastern and Western paintings, the characteristics of Eastern and Western landscape oil paintings, and the fusion of Eastern and Western paintings. Above, in order to further understand the factors that cause Eastern and Western painting, this article conducted a questionnaire survey among students majoring in fine arts in two colleges and universities in this province. The results of the survey showed that the two colleges and universities believed that the factors that caused the difference between Eastern and Western paintings were 19.33% and 13.27% of the students; the landscape painting styles were 12.56% and 14.88%; national character is 25.74% and 28.49%; religion and philosophy are 16.85% and 15.26%; aesthetic concept is 25.52% and 28.1%.

China has been a multi-ethnic country since ancient times. Ethnic minority theme Chinese painting refers to Chinese painting works with the characteristics of Chinese ethnic minorities, which records the history and culture of ethnic minorities like literature. By using the traditional pen and ink method of Chinese painting and combined with the current era background, it creates a national theme painting with certain significance and value. In terms of the content and spirit of painting, Chinese ethnic minority painting mainly focuses on two aspects: one is the ethnic characteristics of ethnic minorities, that is, local customs and customs. The second is to use the painting method of Chinese painting to reflect the humanistic spirit of the great Chinese nation and the great banner of national unity. This paper aims at the current situation and development of modern minority art. Taking modern minority culture as the background, this study analyzes the impact of cultural development on the current situation of minority art, and guides practice through questionnaire survey. The results show that among ethnic minority users, 792 girls only pay attention to art courses, while 385 students study art online courses; 691 boys only focus on art courses, while 110 students study art courses. It shows that the proportion of female students of minority art users who only pay attention to and learn online classes is higher than that of male students. The popularity of the Internet has promoted the development of minority art and made more people understand the current situation of the development of modern minority art.

Plant classification and recognition research is the basic research work of botany research and agricultural production. It is of great significance to identify and distinguish plant species and explore the relationship between plants. In recent years, most of the research methods focus on feature extraction and feature engineering related aspects. In this paper, a plant leaf recognition method based on fine-grained image classification is proposed, which can better find the regional block information of different species of plant leaves. In this study, the hierarchical and progressive training strategy is adopted, the method of cutting and generating jigsaw is used to force the model to find information of different granularity levels. The experiment proves that the model trained by the fine-grained classification method can better solve the problems of large intra-class spacing and small inter-class spacing of plant slices.

Prefabricated building has become one of the most significant research directions in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry and has attracted a large number of scholars and practitioners in recent years. However, few studies have conducted a systematic review on the development of prefabricated building research around the world. In this study, the scientometric method is used to analyze the literature on prefabricated buildings in the past ten years through analysis of co-authors, co-words, and co-citation. From the Web of Science (WOS) core collection database, a total of 1224 articles were collected for statistics and analysis. The analysis results indicated that Bruno Dal Lago obtained the maximum number of co-citations, and the most significant country/region and research institution in prefabricated building research were China and Tongji University, respectively. It was also found that engineering, civil engineering, and construction and building technology were the top three subject categories that prefabricated building research belonged to. Among all the keywords of the collected articles, citation bursts were received by “cladding panel,” “precast concrete,” and “project.” Moreover, there were 11 co-citation clusters identified from the articles, and their themes included precast structures, waste management, progressive collapse, delay, precast facades, carbon reduction, laser scanning, and prefabricated residential building. This paper is expected to provide researchers and practitioners in this field a detailed and in-depth understanding of the trend and status of global research on prefabricated buildings.

Introduction: Public reporting of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) outcomes such as readmission and mortality may cause harm by adversely affecting patient selection for PCI. Little is known about the relationship between these outcomes and elective PCI appropriateness - a validated metric of PCI quality. Methods: We identified all patients in the national Veterans Administration healthcare system who underwent elective PCI for stable coronary disease between 2013 and 2015. We defined PCI appropriateness using 2012 criteria. The primary outcome was 90-day all-cause hospitalization or mortality. We used hierarchical Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for patient- and facility-level covariates to compare outcomes across PCI appropriateness categories, and a joint survival/logistic model to compare facility-level variation in inappropriate PCI and 90-day outcomes. Results: Among 2,561 patients (mean age 66 years, 99% men) undergoing PCI across 59 sites, 29.6% were classified as appropriate, 10.4% as inappropriate, and 60% as uncertain. The proportion of patients who were readmitted or died were 15.6%, 16.4%, and 15.3% among patients who received appropriate, inappropriate, and uncertain PCI respectively. There were no significant differences in 90-day outcomes between the groups (hazard ratio for appropriate compared to inappropriate PCI 0.82 [CI 0.57 to 1.17; p=0.28]). The site level covariance between inappropriate PCI and 90-day outcomes was -0.033 (95% CI -0.117 to 0.047), indicating no site-level correlation between appropriateness and 90-day outcomes (Figure). Conclusion: We found no association between elective PCI appropriateness and 90-day outcomes among a national cohort of Veterans. Including appropriateness in public reports may 1) characterize PCI quality more fully and 2) potentially mitigate the harms of reporting outcomes by empowering providers to perform appropriate PCI in higher-risk patients.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of electric stimulation (ES) for diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) treatment. METHODS The authors searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases for randomized clinical trials published through March 2019 that compared the efficacy of ES and standard wound care (SWC) versus SWC alone for DFU treatment. The outcomes were pooled using a random-effects model. RESULTS Of the 145 randomized clinical trials initially identified, seven studies (with a total of 274 patients) met the inclusion criteria. The percentage decrease in ulcer area at 4 weeks was significantly greater in patients treated with ES and SWC than SWC alone (standardized mean difference, 1.09; 95% confidence interval, 0.62-1.57; P < .001). The ulcer healing rate at 12 weeks was also significantly faster in the ES group (risk difference, 0.19; 95% confidence interval, 0.06-0.32; P = .005). Subgroup analysis showed comparable efficacies with different waveforms (monophasic vs biphasic). CONCLUSIONS Electrical stimulation appears to be an effective adjunctive therapy for accelerating DFU healing.

Background: Tsukushi (TSK) is a secreted hepatokine recently identified as playing an important role in modulating glucose and lipid metabolism, and systemic energy homeostasis. However, information is not available regarding the association between circulating TSK and hyperthyroidism in humans.Methods: We measured serum TSK levels in 180 patients with hyperthyroidism and 82 healthy controls recruited from the clinic. Of them, 46 hyperthyroid patients received thionamide treatment for 3 months.Results: Hyperthyroid patients had higher levels of circulating TSK than healthy controls [186.67 (133.63–280.59) ng/ml vs. 97.27 (77.87–146.96) ng/ml, P < 0.001]. Subjects with higher level of serum free triiodothyronine (T3) and free thyroxine (T4) had higher levels of circulating TSK. In addition, serum TSK levels markedly declined with the improvement of thyroid function after thionamide treatment. In multivariable linear regression analyses, circulating TSK concentrations were significantly associated with serum free T3, free T4, thyroid stimulating hormone, thyrotropin receptor antibody, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol), and basal metabolic rate (all P < 0.01), adjusting for age, gender, smoking, and body mass index (BMI). Importantly, circulating TSK was significantly associated with risks of hyperthyroidism in multivariable logistic regression analyses, adjusting for age, gender, smoking, BMI, fasting glucose, LDL-cholesterol, and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) [OR (95% CI), 1.012(1.005–1.019), P = 0.001].Conclusion: These findings indicate that circulating TSK concentrations are independently associated with hyperthyroidism, suggesting that circulating TSK may be a predictive factor of hyperthyroidism and can be used for therapeutic monitoring.

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) requires polarization control to guarantee the high-contrast illumination pattern. However, this modulated polarization will induce artifacts in SIM when imaging fluorescent dipoles. Here we proposed the polarization weighted recombination of frequency components to reconstruct SIM data with suppressed artifacts and better resolving power. Both the simulation results and experimental data demonstrate that our algorithm can obtain isotropic resolution on dipoles and resolve a clearer structure in high-density sections compared to the conventional algorithm. Our work reinforces the SIM theory and paves the avenue for the application of SIM on a polarized specimen.

The Apelin (APLN)/apelin receptor (APLNR) signaling pathway is a newly identified regulator in various cardiovascular diseases, which is considered as a candidate pathway for the occurrence of coronary heart disease (CHD), depression, and anxiety. The goal of this study was to investigate the association between APLN/APLNR gene polymorphisms and the risk of depression and anxiety in CHD patients. To this end, a case-control study involving 269 CHD patients and 184 healthy control individuals was conducted. The 269 patients with CHD including 122 patients with and 147 patients without depression, and 56 patients with and 213 patients without anxiety Four single nucleotide polymorphisms were selected and successfully genotyped using Sanger sequencing. The APLN rs2235310T allele and APLNR rs9943582C allele were found to be associated with an increased risk of CHD after multiple test correction (P-adjust < 0.05). The patients with CHD who carried the rs9943582C allele had a higher risk of depression, after adjusting for alcohol drinking habits, insomnia, hypertension, and stroke history, with the Bonferroni correction (P-adjust = 0.018). The APLNR rs2282623 T allele was associated with an increased risk of anxiety in CHD patients after adjusting for related disease complications, with the Bonferroni correction (P-adjust = 0.022). We reported for the first time that the APLN rs2235310 and APLNR rs2282623 polymorphisms are associated with the risks of psychiatric disorders in CHD patients and may serve as novel biomarkers for therapy.

As a high-tech, high-precision and fully automatic stereo scanning technology, the 3D laser scanning is widely applied in topographic survey, cultural relics protection and digital city construction, while the research and application of 3D laser scanning in the digital construction of hydropower industry is just starting. In this paper, the 3D laser scanning technology is used to obtain the cloud data of the switch station of Xin'anjiang hydropower station. Combined with the autonomous modeling software 3Dmax, the point cloud contour model is imported into 3Dmax to establish the 3D digital model of Xin'anjiang switch station. The 3D digital model established by this method is not only of high precision, but also of high restoration of site environment by texture mapping. Therefore, the reversed modeling method in this paper can provide reference for the 3D digital reversed modeling of similar hydropower projects.

Background. This study aimed at evaluating the association between the speed of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) activation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and late skin and subcutaneous fibrosis in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) after radiotherapy. Methods. The speed of NF-κB activation was represented by the nuclear p65 expression ratio before and after irradiation. The optimal time point to measure the ratio was determined by Western blot in the PBMCs from healthy outpatients ranging from 0 to 12 hours after ex vivo irradiation. We recruited patients with HNSCC who had received ratiotherapy and who were under regular follow-up care. We assessed the association between the risk of developing ≥grade 2 late fibrosis and the nuclear p65 expression ratio in the PBMCs after ex vivo irradiation in these patients. Results. The maximum nuclear p65 ratio was observed at 1 hour after ex vivo irradiation in the PBMCs from the healthy outpatients. The speed of NF-κB activation was then represented by the nuclear p65 ratio in the PBMCs before and 1 hour after ex vivo irradiation. A total of 200 patients with HNSCC were recruited, 32.50% (n=65) of which presented with ≥grade 2 late fibrosis. There was a significant association between the speed of NF-κB activation in the PBMCs and an increased risk of developing ≥grade 2 late fibrosis in these patients (P=0.004). Subgroup analysis suggested that this finding was independent of the known clinical characteristics. Conclusions. The speed of NF-κB activation might be a potential predictor of late toxicity in cancer patients after radiotherapy. Prospective studies are needed for validation.

Background With the pandemic dissemination of COVID‐19, attitude and sentiment surrounding facial rejuvenation have evolved rapidly. Aims The purpose of this study was to understanding the impact of pandemic on the attitude of people towards facial skin rejuvenation. Methods Twitter data related to facial rejuvenation were collected from January 1, 2020, to April 30, 2020. Sentiment analysis, frequency analysis, and word cloud were performed to analyze the data. Statistical analysis included two‐tailed t‐tests and chi‐square tests. Results In the post‐declaration, the number of tweets about facial rejuvenation increased significantly, and the search volume in Google Trends decreased. Negative public emotions increased, but positive emotions still dominate. The words frequency of “discounts” and “purchase” decreased. The dominant words in word cloud were “Botox”, “facelift”, “hyaluronic” and “skin”. Conclusion The public has a positive attitude toward facial rejuvenation during the pandemic. In particular, minimally invasive procedures dominate the mainstream, such as “Botox”, “Hyaluronic acid” and “PRP”. The practitioners could understand the change of the public interest in facial rejuvenation in time and decide what to focus on.

To provide the general information on corneal transplantation (CT) in China, China Cornea Society designed a questionnaire on CT from 2014 to 2018 and entrusted it to 31 committee members for implementation of the survey nationwide. This article presents the results of the survey and compares the indicators used in the survey and those in the annual statistical report released by the Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA). The number of corneal transplantations completed by the 64 hospitals from 2014 to 2018 was respectively 5377, 6394, 7595, 8270 and 8980, totally 36,616 (22,959 male and 13,657 female). The five largest hospitals by the number of corneal transplantations completed 15,994 surgeries in total, accounting for 43.68% of all the surgeries performed in the 64 hospitals. The most common indication for corneal transplantations was corneal leukoma (7683, 20.98%), followed by bacterial keratitis (4209, 11.49%), corneal dystrophies (4189, 11.44%), keratoconus (3578, 9.77%) and corneal perforation (2839, 7.75%). The main surgical techniques were penetrating keratoplasty (PK) (19,896, 54.34%), anterior lamellar keratoplasty (ALK) (13,869, 37.88%). The proportion of PK decreased from 57.97% in 2014 to 52.88% in 2018 while the proportion of ALK increased from 36.04% in 2014 to 37.92% in 2018. The geographical distribution of keratoplasties performed in China is unbalanced. PK and ALK were the main techniques of CT and corneal leukoma, bacterial keratitis and corneal dystrophies were the main indications for CT in China.

Accurate assessment of hypoglycemia risk is critical for treatment selection in individuals with diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) - patients for whom hypoglycemia is particularly harmful. We developed and validated a hypoglycemia prediction model in diabetes patients with and without CVD using data routinely available in electronic health records (EHR) and compared performance to a published prediction model. We studied 128,893 US Veterans with diabetes and angiographic assessment of CVD from 2005 to 2018. We used a random 2/3 of the sample for model development and the remaining 1/3 for validation. The primary outcome was severe hypoglycemia based on a previously validated algorithm that uses diagnosis codes and glucose measurements. We evaluated 33 potential predictors, including demographics, diabetes-related variables, comorbidities, and CVD risk factors. We sequentially used two machine learning algorithms for model development. First, we used multivariable adaptive regression splines, which can accommodate interactions and non-linearities for continuous variables, to select predictors. Second, we used adaptive elastic net, which can accommodate time-to-event outcomes, to fit a model with the selected variables. We tested model discrimination using the area under the ROC curve (AUC) and calibration by plotting predicted versus observed event rates in the independent validation cohort. The best-fitting prediction model included 18 predictors; a history of hypoglycemia was the strongest predictor (Table). In external validation, AUC was 0.729 for 2-year events, and the slope of the calibration curve was 1.05, exceeding performance of the published model in this patient population for both discrimination and calibration (Table). Conclusions: Applying supervised machine learning to EHR data may provide an efficient approach to tailoring prediction of preventable clinical outcomes, e.g., hypoglycemia, for high risk patients receiving care in an integrated healthcare system.

Background: Platinum-based agents, including cisplatin, carboplatin, and oxaliplatin, are indispensable for the treatment of lung cancer. The development of toxicity frequently necessitates dose reduction or discontinuation of therapy, despite the clinical response. Pharmacogenomics studies were reviewed to identify the possible genetic variants that underlie individual susceptibility to platinum-related toxicities. Method: We conducted a systematic search in PubMed and Embase for pharmacogenomics reports that focused on commonly reported platinum-induced toxicities, such as gastrointestinal (GI), hematological, neurological, and other toxicities, in patients diagnosed with lung cancer. Meta-analyses were conducted to determine the association between genetic polymorphisms and platinum-induced toxicity by checking the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) using random or fixed-effects models as appropriate. Results: Twenty eligible studies that met the inclusion criteria with sufficient data were extracted and presented comprehensively. A total of 16 polymorphisms from 11 genes were included in the meta-analysis. MTHFR rs1801131 and MDM2 rs1690924 were significantly correlated with platinum-induced GI toxicity (P = 0.04 and P = 0.02, respectively). Patients with the MTHFR rs1801131AA and MDM2 rs1690924TC/CC genotype tended to have a higher risk of GI toxicity than patients with other genotypes did (OR = 1.73, 95% CI = 0.86–2.18; and OR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.29–0.88, respectively). Compared to carriers of the MTHFR rs1801133CC genotype, carriers of the CT/TT genotype had a significantly increased risk of hematological toxicity (P = 0.01, OR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.12–2.52). Conclusion: In the future, physicians should pay careful attention to MTHFR and MDM2 for personalized chemotherapy treatment among patients with lung cancer.

We present a technique to detect and classify different spatiotemporal dynamic events within thick (5mm) and rapidly decorrelating (10-4s) scattering media using a SPAD array and an unsupervised deep embedding algorithm.

We develop a highly parallelized DCS system using a 32 × 32 single-photon avalanche diode array, and demonstrate its sensitivity improvement in a DMD-based phantom study and an in vivo forehead blood flow experiment.

Fourteen gases and their associated oils were collected at the surface from production wells in the Shahejie Formation, Dongying Formation, and Archean in six zones around the Qingshui Sub-sag of the Liaohe Depression, Bohai Bay Basin. The molecular compositions and carbon and hydrogen isotopic compositions of natural gas were measured. The origin, migration, accumulation, and secondary alteration of natural gas were studied based on the lateral and vertical comparison of natural gas geochemical characteristics. The natural gases include humic-type (δ13C2 > −29.0‰, δ13C1 > −43.0‰), sapropelic-type (δ13C2 −43.0‰), and secondary microbial (δ13C1 of −48.5‰, C1/(C2+C3) of 46.3, δ13CO2 of −1.5‰) gases. The humic-type and sapropelic-type gases were derived from the source rocks in the third and fourth members of the Shahejie Formation, respectively. The humic-type gases dominate. The biodegradation level of natural gas in the study area varies, and biodegraded gases are characterized by high Δ13C(C3–C2), low C3/C2, and low C3/iC4 and are associated with biodegraded oils. The vertical migration of natural gas in the west and east of the Qingshui Sub-sag is limited. There are good additional exploration prospects for humic-type gas, derived from high-maturity source rocks of the third member of the Shahejie Formation in the deep layers (depth >4.5 km) of the Qingshui Sub-sag. Secondary microbial gas is a potential exploration target in the shallow layers (depth

In this study, frontal chromatography experiments have been conducted with hydrocarbon gases (methane and ethane) on selected stationary phases (quartz, 3 A, 5 A and 13X molecular sieves, activated carbon, coal and shale) to study compositional and carbon isotope fractionation during adsorption process. The results show that the diffusion process cannot leads to obvious isotopic fractionation with ∼1.5 per mil in a relatively short distance. However, carbon isotopic fractionation varies in different adsorption matrix. Gas molecules transporting in a relatively short distance can cause the isotopically light molecules weakly enriched in the front part of the alkane gases flows. The pore size distribution acts as the leading factor influencing the isotopic fractionation during hydrocarbon gases adsorption. In adsorption matrix with relatively low pore radius (activated carbon and 5 A molecular sieve and coal), the isotopically light molecules can occupy the adsorption site preferentially and almost cannot be replaced due to the high adsorption energy. Hence, isotopically heavy molecules flow out of the system preferentially. To contrast, in adsorption matrix with relatively high pore radius (13X molecular sieve and shale), the isotopically light molecules can occupy the adsorption site and desorb preferentially. Hence, isotopically light molecules flow out of the system preferentially after repeated adsorption and desorption. In addition, physical selectivity on isotoplogues of gaseous alkanes by pore network also can be happened in natural shale gas system. The Niutitang shale mainly contributed by micropore. Whereas, Wufeng-Longmaxi shale mainly contributed by mesopore. In general, Initial adsorbed gases (residual gas) in natural shale samples from Niutitang shale was of more negative isotopic compositon in CH4 and C2H6 compared to Wufeng-Longmaxi shale.

Conventional two-dimensional structured illumination microscopy (SIM) requires 9 raw images to reconstruct a super-resolved image. In order to increase the frame rate of 2DSIM, attempts are being made to reduce the number of raw SIM images. However, all the proposed SIM reconstruction algorithms (SIM-RA) capable of reconstructing super-resolution (SR) image with a reduced number of raw SIM images operate in the spatial domain. Here, we present a frequency domain SIM-RA based on ordinary least squares technique, which enables reconstruction of SR image using 4 raw SIM images. Unlike the spatial domain RA, which produces the SR image through iterative convergence, the presented RA provides a single step solution. It also reveals the fundamental limitation of least number of raw images required for resolution doubling in SIM.

Biphasic waveform defibrillators permit effective defibrillation of ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF) at lower energies. Little data is available on trends in th...

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) primarily affects children younger than 5 years of age. Recently, HFMD has ranked as the top notifiable infectious disease in China. In December 2015, China approved two novel inactivated enterovirus 71 vaccines (EV71 vaccines) for HFMD. Parents’ acceptance is often essential for vaccination program success. The goal of this study was to identify willingness and influential factors to vaccinate among parents of kindergarteners in Guangzhou, China. A cross-sectional survey of face-to-face interviews was conducted from March to July 2016. Fifty-five kindergartens were randomly selected from 11 districts of Guangzhou. An anonymous self-designed questionnaire was used to investigate awareness, knowledge and attitude towards HFMD and EV71 vaccines. A total of 868 parents participated in the survey. Mean(±standard deviation) knowledge score of HFMD was 6.32(±1.70). Approximately 32.03% of parents had heard of the EV71 vaccines with 22.58% receiving information before this study. Nearly 44.24% of parents showed willingness to vaccinate their children. Previously receiving EV71 vaccine-related information [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.48, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04–2.11], no fear of adverse effects (aOR = 4.25, 95%CI: 2.77–6.53), perceived susceptibility of children to HFMD (aOR = 2.15, 95%CI: 1.42–3.25) and children not previously diagnosed with HFMD (aOR = 1.56, 95%CI: 1.07–2.27) were positively associated with EV71 vaccination acceptability. However, parental education background (aOR = 0.54, 95%CI: 0.37–0.80) was negatively correlated with vaccination acceptability. Our study provides baseline information for future vaccination campaigns to help improve the EV71 vaccine uptake rate. Special efforts are urgently needed to improve the awareness and knowledge of EV71 vaccines in China.