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Robotic compliant manipulation is a very challenging but urgent research spot in the domain of robotics. One difficulty lies in the lack of a unified representation for encoding and learning of compliant profiles. This article aims to introduce a novel learning and control framework to address this problem: 1) we provide a parametric representation that enables a compliant skill to be encoded in a parametric space and allows a robot to learn compliant manipulation skills based on motion and force information collected from human demonstrations; and 2) the updating laws of the compliant profiles, including impedance and force profiles, are derived from a biomimetic control strategy based on the human motor learning principles. Our approach enables the simultaneous adaptation of impedance and feedforward force online during robot’s reproduction of the demonstrated tasks to deal with task dynamics and external interferences. The proposed approach is verified based on both simulation and real-world task scenarios.

Fast and accurate plant counting tools affect revolution in modern agriculture. Agricultural practitioners, however, expect the output of the tools to be not only accurate but also explainable. Such explainability often refers to the ability to infer which instance is counted. One intuitive way is to generate a bounding box for each instance. Nevertheless, compared with counting by detection, plant counts can be inferred more directly in the local count framework, while one thing reproaching this paradigm is its poor explainability of output visualization. In particular, we find that the poor explainability becomes a bottleneck limiting the counting performance. To address this, we explore the idea of guided upsampling and background suppression where a novel upsampling operator is proposed to allow count redistribution, and segmentation decoders with different fusion strategies are investigated to suppress background, respectively. By integrating them into our previous counting model TasselNetV2, we introduce TasselNetV3 series: TasselNetV3-Lite and TasselNetV3-Seg. We validate the TasselNetV3 series on three public plant counting data sets and a new unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV)-based data set, covering maize tassels counting, wheat ears counting, and rice plants counting. Extensive results show that guided upsampling and background suppression not only improve counting performance but also enable explainable visualization. Aside from state-of-the-art performance, we have several interesting observations: 1) a limited-receptive-field counter in most cases outperforms a large-receptive-field one; 2) it is sufficient to generate empirical segmentation masks from dotted annotations; 3) middle fusion is a good choice to integrate foreground-background a priori knowledge; and 4) decoupling the learning of counting and segmentation matters.

It is widely acknowledged that drivers should remain in the control loop before automated vehicles completely meet real-world operational conditions. This paper presents an ``indirect shared control'' framework for steer-by-wire vehicles, which allows the control authority to be continuously shared between the driver and automation through an weighted-input-summation method. A ``best-response'' driver steering model based on model predictive control (MPC) for indirect shared control is proposed. Unlike any conventional driver model for manual driving, this model assumes that drivers can learn and incorporate the controller strategy into their internal model for predictive path following. The analytic solution to the driver model is provided to enable off-line simulations. A driving-simulator experiment was conducted to demonstrate the advantages of the indirect shared control system in a highway lane-keeping task. The result showed that the proposed indirect shared control method was effective to improve the subjects' lane-keeping performance and reduce steering control effort. The proposed driver steering model was also validated by the experiment data, which produced a smaller prediction error than the conventional MPC driver model.

Background Studies on the anti-wrinkle effects of retinol have been widely reported, but there are few reports on the infraorbital dark circles reducing effects. Objective To evaluate the efficiency and tolerance of one novel formulation containing supramolecular retinol plus acmella oleracea extract in Chinese urban eye skin. Methods Thirty-three women with dark circles and visible fine wrinkles around the eyes, aged 20-45 years, were enrolled and instructed to use the formula for 6 weeks. Instrumental measures and subject assessment were obtained at baseline and at 3-week intervals. Results After 6 weeks, Mexameter MX18 results demonstrated a statistically significant 13.8% decrease in MI (melanin index) value, and Colorimeter CL400 results demonstrated a statistically significant 0.5% increase in L* (lightness) value, which proved the efficacy of reducing dark circles. Primos-Lite data showed that the wrinkles parameters of Ra, the wrinkle area %, and number of the wrinkles under the eyes and crow's feet revealed significant reduction to varying degrees. Cutometer results showed that R2 value increased significantly by 13.0%, indicating the benefits of firmer skin. In addition, subject assessment revealed that at the end of 6 weeks, the eye skin was noticeably improved. Conclusions By clinical evaluation and subject assessment, the novel formulation containing supramolecular retinol plus acmella oleracea extract can effectively diminish the collective signs of stressed urban eye skin for Chinese female in terms of dark circles, fine wrinkles, and sagging skin with good tolerance.

Purpose This study aims to solve the problem of temperature cross sensitivity of fiber Bragg grating in structural health monitoring, proposing a novel acceleration sensor based on strain chirp effect which is insensitive to temperature. Design/methodology/approach A kind of M-shaped double cantilever beam structure is developed. The fiber grating is pasted in the gradient strain region of the beam, and the chirp effect is produced under the action of non-uniform stress, and then the change of acceleration is converted into the change of reflection bandwidth to demodulate and eliminate the temperature interference. Through theoretical analysis, simulation and experimental verification with rectangular beam sensor. Findings The results show that the sinusoidal curvature beam sensor is insensitive to the change of temperature and is more likely to produce chirp effect. The sensitivity is about 317 pm/g, and the natural frequency is 56 Hz. Originality/value This paper fulfils an insensitive to temperature changes sensor which has effectively solved the temperature cross-sensitivity problem in building structure health monitoring.

Robot-assisted reduction of pelvic fracture, the bone traction needles need to be inserted into the iliac bone of the affected pelvis, and the clamping instrument of the robot is connected to the bone traction needle. The biomechanical characteristics of the pelvic musculoskeletal tissues are different with the different spatial position and orientation of the bone traction needle. In this paper, a new PA-MTM model considering the pinnate angle of skeletal muscle is proposed to analyze the muscle force of skeletal muscle. According to the planned reduction path, reduction force during the reduction process is calculated. Based on the pelvic CT scan data and the muscle distribution of the pelvis, the musculoskeletal model of the fractured pelvis is reconstructed. Then, the finite element model of the pelvic musculoskeletal tissue with bone traction needle is established. The maximum reduction force is applied on the bone traction needles, and the stress distribution of the pelvic musculoskeletal tissue with the needles in different spatial position and orientation is comparatively studied. The results show that the suitable force point on bone traction needle is S1 point. When the bone traction needle is inserted into the iliac crest and the anterior inferior iliac spine, the pelvis is in a good stress state.

In this paper, we propose a hybrid framework using visual and force sensing for human-robot co-carrying tasks. Visual sensing is utilized to obtain human motion and an observer is designed for estimating control input of human, which generates robot's desired motion towards human's intended motion. An adaptive impedance-based control strategy is proposed for trajectory tracking with neural networks (NNs) used to compensate for uncertainties in robot's dynamics. Motion synchronization is achieved and this approach yields a stable and efficient interaction behavior between human and robot, decreases human control effort and avoids interference to human during the interaction. The proposed framework is validated by a co-carrying task in simulations and experiments.

Stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide; nevertheless, its pathological mechanism still remains unclear. Besides, there is an urgent need to find new effective treatment strategies for patients with stroke. Hypothermia therapy is widely used in clinical as a neuroprotective strategy practice. However, the exact mechanism is not fully understood. In this study, we examined the effects of hypothermia on glial glutamate transport-1 (GLT-1) and the extracellular glutamate concentration ([Glu]e) in cerebral ischemia-reperfusion insult rats. Our results revealed that cerebral brain ischemia-reperfusion caused the decrease of GLT-1 and Bcl-2, the increase of Bax and [Glu]e, and caused neuron loss. On the contrary, head mild hypothermia (HMH) for 2 hours alleviated the abovementioned effects and exerted neuroprotection. In the hypothermia group, pretreatment with dihydrokainate, a functional antagonist of GLT-1 by lateral ventricle injection partly reversed the abovementioned effect of HMH. Our results suggest that HMH could exert a neuroprotective role by maintaining GLT-1 and reducing the excitotoxicity of [Glu]e during ischemia-reperfusion insult in rats.

This paper considers the principle-agent conflict problem in a continuous-time delegated asset management model when the investor and the fund manager are all risk-averse with risk sensitivity coefficients γ f and γ m , respectively. Suppose that the investor entrusts his money to the fund manager. The return of the investment is determined by the manager’s effort level and incentive strategy, but the benefit belongs to the investor. In order to encourage the manager to work hard, the investor will determine the manager’s salary according to the terminal income. This is a stochastic differential game problem, and the distribution of income between the manager and the investor is a key point to be solved in the custody model. The uncertain form of the incentive strategy implies that the problem is different from the classical stochastic optimal control problem. In this paper, we first express the investor’s incentive strategy in term of two auxiliary processes and turn this problem into a classical one. Then, we employ the dynamic programming principle to solve the problem.

T cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) are small circularized DNA elements produced during rearrangement of T cell receptor (TCR) genes. Because TRECs are fairly stable, do not replicate during mitosis, and are not diluted during division of naïve T cells (Dion et al. [1]), they are suitable for assessing the number of newly formed T cells (Ping and Denise [2]). In this study, we detected TRECs in 521 healthy Chinese children aged 0-18 years in different clinical settings. The TRECs decrease with aging and show lower levels in preterm and low birth weight (BW) babies compared to those in full-term infants, while the preterm babies can also show comparable levels of TRECs when they have a gestation age (GA)-matched BW. We found a strong correlation between TRECs and peripheral CD4 naïve T cell numbers, which was age-related. We also analyzed the TRECs in different PIDs. Since T cell defects vary in PIDs, TREC levels change inconsistently. For example, in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS), combining the level of TREC with lymphocyte subsets can help to distinguish subtypes of disease.Conclusion: We established the reference value range for TRECs by evaluating children below 18 years old in China, which could be used to screen for PIDs during early life. What is Known: • The TREC levels are decreased with age, and there is a positive correlation between TRECs and the numbers of naïve T cells. What is New: • This is the largest study to determine TREC reference levels in healthy Chinese pediatric, we provide solid data showing a correlation between CD4 naïve T cell counts and TREC levels according to age. We point out the GA matched BW is need to be considered during the SCID newborn screening. We are the first group showed that TREC levels can help clinician distinguish different WAS phenotype.

Purpose. Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) is widely used. However, no study evaluated TEAS on systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) of patients after percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). The study was to evaluate TEAS on SIRS of patients after PCNL. Methods. 67 patients were enrolled and divided into group TEAS and group sham TEAS. Data were collected from 60 participants finally. In the study, TEAS or sham TEAS on bilateral Shenshu (BL23), Yinlingquan (SP9), Hegu (LI4), and Neiguan (PC6) was performed continuously throughout the procedure. The primary outcome included the incidence of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) within 48 h after surgery. The secondary outcomes included the serum levels of inflammatory cytokines, hemodynamics changes, complications, and hospital stay after surgery. The serum levels of tumor necrosis factor- (TNF-) α and interleukin- (IL-) 6, mean arterial pressure (MAP), and heart rate (HR) at 30 min before anesthesia (T0), the time after surgery (T1), 24 h postoperation (T2), and 48 h postoperation (T3) were recorded. The consumption of analgesic during surgery was also recorded, as well as the complications and duration of hospital stay after PCNL. Results. The incidence of SIRS in group TEAS was lower than group sham TEAS (30% vs. 6.67%, p = 0.023 ). Compared with the sham TEAS group, both levels of TNF-α and IL-6 at T1, T2, and T3 were lower in the TEAS group ( p < 0.05 ). The levels of MAP and HR in sham TEAS at T1, T2, and T3 were markedly higher than that in the TEAS group ( p < 0.05 ). The total consumption of propofol and remifentanil during surgery in group TEAS was lower than that in the sham TEAS group. The incidence of hypotension, hypertension, emergence agitation, and postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) was also lower in group TEAS after PCNL ( p < 0.05 ). Conclusions. TEAS could effectively reduce the incidence of SIRS and inflammatory cytokines for patients who underwent PCNL. In addition, TEAS helped to maintain the hemodynamic stability and cut down the consumption of analgesics during PCNL, reducing the complications after PCNL.

Research on the roles of the bacteria in tumor development and progression is a rapidly emerging field. Increasing evidence links bacteria with the modification of the tumor immune microenvironment, which greatly influences the antitumor response. In view of the individual immune effects of various bacteria in various tumors, developing personalized bacteria-modulating therapy may be a key to successful antitumor treatment. This review emphasizes the critical role of the bacteria in immune regulation, including both the tumor bacteria and gut bacteria. Aiming at tumor-related bacteria, we focus on various precise modulation strategies and discuss their impact and potential for tumor suppression. Finally, engineered bacteria with tumor-targeting ability could achieve precise delivery of various payloads into tumors, acting as a precision tool. Therefore, a precise tumor-related bacteria therapy may be a promising approach to suppress the development of tumors, as well as an adjuvant therapy to improve the antitumor efficacy of other approaches. KEY POINTS: • The mini-review updates the knowledge on complex effect of bacteria in TME. • Insight into the interaction and adjustment of bacteria in gut for TME. • Prospects and limitations of bacteria-related personalized therapy in the clinical anticancer therapy.

Objective Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) after anesthesia and surgery (AS) is a common complication in the elderly population. A cholinergic-dependent signal, the alpha7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7-nAChR), has been suggested to regulate cognitive processes in a variety of neurologic diseases. In the current study, we determined whether electroacupuncture (EA) pretreatment ameliorates AS-induced POCD in aged rats, as well as the underlying mechanism. Methods Male Sprague-Dawley rats (20 months old) were randomly assigned to the following 5 groups (n=12): vehicle; POCD (tibial fracture surgery); EA plus POCD; EA plus POCD and alpha-bungarotoxin (α-BGT); and POCD plus α-BGT groups. Alpha-bungarotoxin (1 μg/kg), a selective antagonist of α7-nAChR, was administrated via intraperitoneal injection before EA. Thirty days post-AS, the Morris water maze and a novel objective recognition test were used to evaluate cognitive function. Neuronal amount, apoptosis, microglial activation, percentage of high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1)- and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB)-positive microglia, and levels of HMGB-1 downstream factors, including NF-κB, interleukin-6 (IL-6), and IL-1β, were detected by Nissl staining, immunofluorescence, and Western blot assays. Results EA pretreatment significantly increased crossing platform times and elevated the time with a novel object, restored the quantity of neurons, decreased TUNEL-positive neurons, alleviated activation of microglia, downregulated expression of HMGB1 and NF-κB in the microglia, and reduced levels of phosphor-NF-κB, IL-6, and IL-1β 35 days after AS, while α-BGT partially reversed these changes. Conclusion EA pretreatment improved AS-induced POCD in aged rats, and the underlying mechanism may be associated with inhibition of HMGB1–NF-κB via an α7-nAChR signal in the microglia., Graphical Abstract

Abstract Macrolide antibiotics are one of the most commonly used broad-spectrum antibiotics. They have an inhibitory effect on a variety of respiratory pathogens; besides, they have non-anti-infective effects, including anti-inflammatory, regulating airway secretion, immune regulation, and other effects. A growing number of studies have shown that the non-anti-infective effects of macrolides have important and potential value in the treatment of pediatric chronic airway diseases; the therapy was described as “long-term, low-dose usage”; unfortunately, there is no guideline or consensus that applies to children. To better carry out the mechanism and clinical research of non-anti-infective effect and promote its rational use in children, the authors summarize the evidence of the usage of long-term, low-dose macrolide antibiotic therapy (LLMAT) in the treatment of chronic airway diseases in children and the progress in recent years. Impact This review summarizes the evidence (mostly in recent 5 years) of the usage of long-term, low-dose macrolide antibiotic therapy in the treatment of chronic airway diseases. The recent studies and guidelines support and enrich the point that long-term, low-dose macrolide antibiotic therapy has potential benefit for children with severe asthma, CF, non-CF bronchiectasis, and BO, which provides clinical references and is of clinical interest. Long-term, low-dose macrolide antibiotic therapy has good safety, and no serious events have been reported; however, potential cardiac side effects and macrolide resistance should be clinically noted.

Daytime passive radiative cooling is a promising electricity-free pathway for cooling terrestrial buildings. Current research interest in this cooling strategy mainly lies in tailoring the optical spectra of materials for strong thermal emission and high solar reflection. However, environmental heat gain poses a crucial challenge to building cooling at subambient temperatures. Herein, we devise a scalable thermal insulating cooler (TIC) consisting of hierarchically hollow microfibers as the building envelope that simultaneously achieves passive daytime radiative cooling and thermal insulation to reduce environmental heat gain. The TIC demonstrates efficient solar reflection (94%) and long-wave infrared emission (94%), yielding a temperature drop of about 9 °C under sunlight of 900 W/m2. Notably, the thermal conductivity of the TIC is lower than that of air, thus preventing heat flow from external environments to indoor space in the summer, an additional benefit that does not sacrifice the radiative cooling performance. A building energy simulation shows that 48.5% of cooling energy could be saved if the TIC is widely deployed in China.

Objective To determine whether revision laparoscopic Kasai portoenterostomy (RLKPE) is a viable treatment option for patients with biliary atresia (BA) who had undergone initially successful laparoscopic Kasai portoenterostomy (ILKPE). Methods The medical records of 312 patients with nonsyndromic BA who had undergone ILKPE between May 2009 and May 2017 were retrospectively reviewed. The patients were divided into three groups according to their outcomes after ILKPE: group A: 25 patients who had undergone RLKPE; group B: 203 patients who had undergone ILKPE and required no further surgical intervention; group C: 84 patients with failed ILKPE who had either died or required liver transplantation for survival. The 3-year and 5-year survival with native liver (SNL) rates were compared between groups A and B and between groups A and C. Among the 25 patients in group A, the perioperative data of RLKPE were compared with those of ILKPE. Results Of the 312 patients who had undergone ILKPE, 228 reached the normal bilirubin concentration range within 6 months postoperatively. Among them, 25 patients with a sudden cessation of bile flow had undergone RLKPE. Adequate biliary drainage, as evidenced by normalized conjugated bilirubin levels, was achieved in 80% of patients who had undergone RLKPE. The perioperative variables, including the operative time, blood loss, rate of conversion to open surgery and complications of RLKPE, were not significantly different between RLKPE and ILKPE. The 3-year and 5-year SNL rates in patients after RLKPE were 64.0% and 52.0%, respectively, which were not significantly different from the corresponding rates of 86.2% and 73.9%, respectively, in patients after unrevised ILKPE (P > 0.05). Conclusion Our data demonstrated that RPLKE is a viable and effective treatment option in patients with sudden cessation of bile drainage after ILKPE. RPLKE can delay the need for liver transplantation, yielding encouraging medium-term patient outcomes.

Meningococcal meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitidis is a reportable infectious disease in China, due to the high incidence of meningitis in the era before the availability of vaccines. The disease incidence was markedly reduced after meningococcal vaccination was introduced in the 1980s. Currently, there are polysaccharide, conjugate, and combined vaccine formulations against meningococcal meningitis in the Chinese market, almost all of which are produced by domestic manufacturers. It is necessary to further enhance national meningococcal surveillance to improve the level of prevention and control of meningococcus. However, the immune efficacy and persistence of immunity of vaccines should be monitored. More importantly, additional investments should be made to develop serogroup B meningococcal vaccines.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of various sports interventions on adolescents’ physical fitness. One hundred twenty adolescents were recruited from a college (60 males and 60 females) and were randomly divided into four equal groups. The experimental groups (Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3) each received 1.5 hours of medium-intensity sport interventions three times a week. The only difference among them was that Group 1 did tennis, Group 2 did basketball, and Group 3 did gymnastics. Group 4, on the other hand, served as a control group, receiving no intervention. Subjects in each of the four groups were tested before and after the intervention using the National Physical Fitness Standards for Students (2014 Revision) items. The test results were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA. The independent variable was the sport natures, whereas the dependent variable was the difference between pre and post-intervention measurements. It was found that 1) the experimental groups outperformed the control group on all test indicators; 2) The basketball group improved significantly more than the tennis and gymnastics groups in terms of spirometry performance; 3) The gymnastics group improved significantly more than the tennis and basketball groups in terms of sitting forward bend; 4) The tennis group improved significantly more than the basketball and gymnastics groups in one-minute sit-up performance. To conclude, this study found that after-school training could promote adolescents’ physical fitness. In detail, tennis training can significantly improve one-minute sit-up performance. Basketball training can significantly improve vital capacity. Gymnastic training can significantly enhance the sitting forward bend performance.

Metal halide perovskites are emerging semiconducting materials with a wide range of applications, including photovoltaics, thin-film transistors, and light-emitting diodes. A key advantage of perovskites over more established semiconductor technologies is solution processability, which reduces processing costs and enables rapid production by roll-to-roll printing. However, metal halide perovskites suffer from poor thermomechanical and chemical stability that must be overcome for successful commercialization of perovskite-based technologies. These instabilities have been shown to stem from defect states present at perovskite interfaces, and particularly grain boundaries, that result in destructive trap states. This review focuses on one successful strategy—organic additive engineering—that has been demonstrated to inhibit the formation of defect sites in perovskite films. This review begins by discussing defects present at grain boundaries—e.g., undercoordinated bonds, vacancies, and antisites—that develop during crystallization, and how these defects lead to reduced device performance via non-radiative recombination and hysteresis, as well as poor chemical and thermal stability. The bulk of this review is dedicated to additive engineering strategies to enhance performance and stability in 3D, quasi-2D, and 2D perovskites. Lewis acid–base interactions between the additives and perovskite constituents are highlighted, with additives ranging from small molecules and solvents to polymers. Special attention is paid to Lewis base additives containing amino and/or carbonyl functional groups, and a short discussion on semiconducting additives for improved charge transport is also included. This review concludes by identifying several areas of further discovery in organic additives for metal halide perovskites.

Given normal training samples, anomaly detection in videos can be regarded as a challenging problem of identifying unexpected events. The state-of-the-art approaches generally resort to the autoencoder model by using a single encoder to capture the motion and content patterns jointly. Nevertheless, due to the lack of accurate labels of normal and abnormal samples, how to detect anomalies is decided by the subjective understanding of models. It infers that different models will prefer to mine different patterns according to the characteristics of models. We call this problem as a pattern bias problem. To alleviate this problem, a novel Multi-Encoder Single-Decoder network, termed as MESDnet, is proposed in the spirit of encoding motion and content cues individually with multiple encoders. MESDnet is of end-to-end learning ability and real-time running speed. Particularly, the differences between adjacent frames and the raw frames are used as the motion and content sources, respectively. Then, a decoder takes charge of detecting anomalies in the way of observing reconstructing error towards the video frames by using the multi-stream encoded motion and content features simultaneously. The experiments on the CUHK Avenue dataset, the UCSD Pedestrian dataset, and the ShanghaiTech Campus dataset verify the effectiveness of MESDnet.

Most cluster identification studies regarding consumer electricity load is faced with problems of erroneous clustering method similarity, low clustering quality and poor identification accuracy. To solve these problems, this paper utilizes the elbow method, k- Means ++, entropy weight method and a graph convolutional neural network to provide a means for cluster identification based on electrical appliance power data collected via smart sockets. In this article, elbow and entropy weight methods were used to achieve the adaptive clustering algorithm. To obtain the electrical appliance load curves, Euclidean and dynamic time warping (DTW) distances were integrated and the similarity measurement method was used to improve the k-means ++ algorithm, which was then applied to data collected via smart socket clustering. Next, clustering results were input into the graph convolutional neural network (GCN) for identification purposes and appliance type information was obtained. Finally, experiments were conducted using electrical load data from 20 commercial users. The method used was a combination of the k-means algorithm and long short-term memory network (LSTM). The results show that under optimal K value conditions (as determined by the elbow score), the methods used in this paper have improved clustering quality and recognition accuracy, when compared to LSTM.

The tumor microenvironment (TME) significantly influences cancer evolution and therapeutic efficacy. Targeting biofunctional molecules to the TME has long been appreciated as a means of raising local drug concentrations and reducing systemic toxicities. The booming nanotechnology field has realized the importance of cathepsin B to derive a variety of intelligent enzyme-responsive nanosized drug delivery systems (nanoDDS) to improve treatment responses and clinical outcomes. In this tutorial review, after introducing the molecular structure and physiological/pathological functions of cathepsin B, the outstanding achievements of cathepsin B-responsive nanoplatforms in the precise diagnosis, targeted therapy, and synergistic theranostics of malignant tumors are systematically described. Finally, the challenges of enzyme-substrate incompatibility, low diagnostic sensitivity, mass production and biocompatibility of multifunctional nanoDDS are considered in order to successfully promote them to clinical applications

Skin is the largest organ of the human body. Skin wound is one of the most common forms of wound. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have been used to aid skin wound healing via their paracrine factors. Because the secretome of MSCs can be greatly enriched and amplified by treatment with IFN‐γ and TNF‐α (IT), we here tested whether supernatant derived from MSCs pretreated with IT, designated as S‐MSCs‐IT, possesses improved wound healing effect by using a murine model of cutaneous excision, S‐MSCs‐IT was found to be more potent in promoting angiogenesis, constricting collagen deposition and accelerating wound closure than control supernatant (S‐MSCs) during the healing of skin wound. VEGFC, but not VEGFA, was greatly upregulated by IT and was found to be a key factor in mediating the improved wound healing effect of S‐MSCs‐IT. Our results indicate that the beneficial paracrine effect of MSCs on wound healing can be enhanced by pretreatment with inflammatory cytokines. IT treatment may represent a new strategy for optimizing the therapeutic effect of MSCs on skin injuries., TNF‐α and IFN‐γ stimulation upregulates the expression of VEGFC in mesenchymal stromal cells, which acts on endothelial cells and promotes angiogenesis, thus accelerating skin wound healing.

How to enable robotic compliant manipulation has become a critical problem in the robotics field. Inspired by a biomimetic adaptive control strategy, this work presents a novel representation model named human-like compliant movement primitives (Hl-CMPs) which could allow a robot to learn human-like compliant behaviours. The state-of-the-art approaches can hardly learn complete compliant profiles for a specific task. Comparatively, our model can encode task-specific parametric movement trajectories, correspondingly associated with dynamic trajectories including both impedance and feedforward force profiles. The compliant profiles are learned based on a biomimetic control strategy derived from the human motor learning in the muscle space, enabling the robot to simultaneously learn the impedance and the force while executing the movement trajectories obtained from human demonstration. Furthermore, both the kinematic and the dynamic profiles are learned in the parametric space, thus enabling the representation of a skill using corresponding parameters (i.e, task-specific parameters).

Livestock production is often a source of multiple pollutants in rivers. However, current assessments of water pollution seldomly take a multi-pollutant perspective, while this is essential for improving water quality. This study quantifies inputs of multiple pollutants to rivers from livestock production worldwide, by animal types and spatially explicit. We focus on nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and Cryptosporidium (pathogen). We developed the MARINA-Global-L (Model to Assess River Inputs of pollutaNts to seAs for Livetsock) model for 10,226 sub-basins and eleven livestock species. Global inputs to land from livestock are around 94 Tg N, 19 Tg P, and 2.9 × 1021 oocysts from Cryptosporidium in 2010. Over 57% of these amounts are from grazed animals. Asia, South America, and Africa account for over 68% of these amounts on land. The inputs to rivers are around 22 Tg Total Dissolved Nitrogen (TDN), 1.8 Tg Total Dissolved P (TDP), and 1.3 × 1021 oocysts in 2010. Cattle, pigs, and chickens are responsible for 74-88% of these pollutants in rivers. One-fourth of the global sub-basins can be considered pollution hotspots and contribute 71-95% to the TDN, TDP, and oocysts in rivers. Our study could contribute to effective manure management for individual livestock species in sub-basins to reduce multiple pollutants in rivers.

Nitrogen (N) management is essential for food security. The North China Plain is an important food producing region, but also a hotspot of N losses to the environment. This results in water, soil, and air pollution. In this study, we aim to quantify the relative contribution of different crops and animals to N losses, by taking the Quzhou County as a typical example in the North China Plain. We developed and applied a new version of the NUtrient flows in Food Chains, Environment, and Resource use (NUFER) model. Our model is based on updated information for N losses in Quzhou. Our results show that N losses to the environment from crop and animal production in Quzhou were approximately 9 kton in 2017. These high N losses can be explained by the low N use efficiency in food production because of poor N management. For crop production, wheat, maize, and vegetables contributed 80% to N losses. Ammonia emissions and N leaching have dominant shares in these N losses. Pigs and laying hens were responsible for 74% of N losses from animal production. Ammonia emissions to air and direct discharges of manure to water were the main contributors to these N losses. Effective reduction of N losses requires improving the nutrient management in crop (wheat, maize, vegetables) and animal (pigs, laying hens) production. Our work could support the Agricultural Green Development in the North China Plain.

BACKGROUND: Accurate evaluation of left ventricular (LV) systolic function is the premise for diagnosing and treating chronic heart failure. This study aimed to explore the incremental value of echocardiographic myocardial work in evaluating the LV systolic dysfunction in patients with chronic heart failure. METHODS: A total of 206 participants were enrolled, including 155 patients with chronic heart failure and 51 healthy controls (HC). The chronic heart failure patients were divided into three groups according to LV ejection fraction (LVEF): Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF group, 54 cases, LVEF ≥50%), heart failure with mid-range ejection fraction (HFmrEF group, 50 cases, 40%≤ LVEF

In this paper, a CNN-based learning scheme is proposed to enable a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to avoid obstacles automatically in unknown and unstructured environments. In order to reduce the decision delay and to improve the robustness for the UAV, a two-stage end-to-end obstacle avoidance architecture is designed, where a forward-facing monocular camera is used only. In the first stage, a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based model is adopted as the prediction mechanism. Utilizing three effective operations, namely depthwise convolution, group convolution and channel split, the model predicts the steering angle and the collision probability simultaneously. In the second stage, the control mechanism maps the steering angle to an instruction that changes the yaw angle of the UAV. Consequently, when the UAV encounters an obstacle, it can avoid collision by steering automatically. Meanwhile, the collision probability is mapped as a forward speed to maintain the flight or stop going forward. The presented automatic obstacle avoidance scheme of quadrotor UAV is verified by several indoor/outdoor tests, where the feasibility and efficacy have been demonstrated clearly. The novelties of the method lie in its low sensor requirement, light-weight network structure, strong learning ability and environmental adaptability.

Objective Breast cancer has become the most common malignancy among women worldwide; therefore, novel diagnostic and prognostic markers and therapeutic targets are urgently required. NF-κB signaling plays a pivotal role in enhancing breast cancer malignant phenotypes, especially cancer invasion and metastasis, which is the main cause of death in cancer patients. TNIP2, an important inhibitor of the NF-κB pathway, is known to involve a negative feedback loop of the NF-κB signaling cascade and to regulate tumor aggressiveness in various cancer types. However, the mRNA level of TNIP2 is barely altered in breast cancer; thus, the mechanism that regulates TNIP2 in breast cancer still needs to be elucidated. Methods We analyzed the expression and prognosis of miR-423 in a TCGA BRCA miRNA cohort and in clinical specimens. We detected the invasive capacity through a Matrigel-coated Transwell penetration assay, a three-dimensional (3D) spheroid invasion assay and a wound healing assay. Then, we applied luciferase assays, real-time PCR assays and Western blotting to further study the mechanism. Results In this study, analysis of the TCGA BRCA miRNA cohort and clinical specimens demonstrated that miR-423 was upregulated in human breast cancers and was positively correlated with clinical stage, poor overall survival and metastasis classification. Moreover, the invasiveness of breast cancer cells was enhanced by ectopic expression of miR-423 and inhibited by miR-423 downregulation. Mechanistically, upregulation of miR-423 led to activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway and elevated expression of snail and twist, while repression of miR-423 inhibited this pathway. Furthermore, the results indicated that TNIP2 is a target gene of miR-423, and suppression of TNIP2 resulted in increased invasiveness in miR-423-silenced cells. Conclusion Our results suggest that miR-423 is a crucial factor that enhances breast cancer cell invasion through the NF-κB signaling pathway and shed light on miR-423 as a promising prognostic and therapeutic marker for metastatic breast cancer.

Parathyroid carcinoma (PC) is an uncommon endocrine tumor. At first presentation, the diagnosis of PC by morphologic analysis is challenging. Indeed, approximatively 50% of metastatic PCs were categorized as benign at the time of first resections. However, single brain metastasis rarely occurs in PC patients and could represent a further obstacle for PC diagnosis in the absence of other symptoms. The present report describes the clinicopathological features of a case of PC intracranial metastases in a 60-year-old woman, who presented space-brain occupying symptoms as a first manifestation. To the best of our knowledge, only ten cases with brain metastasis were reported in the literature.

As renewable energy expands rapidly in installed capacity and in built-over area, constructors and researchers are shifting their sights from the lands to the seas. Offshore wind power (OWP), or offshore wind farm, is a typical source of the renewable energy constructed on the offshore islands or in the oceans. Since the installed capacity of OWP has become booming since 2000, its relevant researches also grow substantially. The objective of this paper is to quantify the research works of OWP and to analyze their focuses, main producers and high impact literature using bibliometric method, where the OWP-related core literature in recent 40 years are sorted out and a visualized analysis closely concerned terms, contributors on national/regional basis, and highly cited articles. The results show that researchers have been largely followed on the grid-connection operations, the frameworks and the ambient environment change of offshore wind power. Moreover, the UK has taken the leading position on the study of OWP at present.

In order to machine complex box and shell structures, the cutter with large ratio of length to diameter is usually used, whereas the low rigidity of the cutter hinders the increase of the stable machining parameters. This article develops one kind of damping cutter to improve the stable processing condition in this milling operation. The influences of modal characteristic of the cutter on chatter stability are investigated, where it is proven that increasing the dynamic stiffness can efficiently extend the stable zone. On this basis, two damping cutters are designed by inlaying the strips and damping core into the toolholder body. The influences of geometrical parameters and material property of the damping cutters on modal characteristics are theoretically analyzed, and the optimal geometrical dimensions are determined using the finite element simulation. Then, the two damping cutters are fabricated. After modal tests and milling machining experiments, the measured results validate the effectiveness of the developed damping cutters in terms of improvement of the stability frontier.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common gastrointestinal tract cancer worldwide and is associated with high morbidity andmortality. The development of nanosized drug delivery systems has provided a new direction in CRC treatment. Among thesesystems, magnetic nanoparticle (MNP)-based multifunctional platforms provide a novel strategy for magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)-related cancer theranostics. At the beginning of this original review, the carcinogenesis and treatment status of CRC aresummarized. Then, diversified preparation and functionalization methods of MNPs are systematically analyzed, followed by MRIinvolvedtheranostic strategies. The latest progress in MRI-mediated multimode diagnosis and image-guided targeted therapy inCRC management is the main focus. Finally, the major challenges in promoting MRI-induced precise theranostics of CRC in clinicalpractice are discussed. Cite this article as: Li Y, Xin J, Sun Y, Han T, Zhang H, An F. Magnetic resonanceimaging-guided and targeted theranostics of colorectal cancer. Cancer BiolMed. 2020; 17: 307-327. doi: 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2020.0072

Rationale and Objectives To demonstrate the improved enhancement degree and uniformity in coronary CT angiography (CCTA) on a 16 cm wide-coverage CT with a new bolus tracking method enabled by free-breathing, in comparison with the conventional breath-holding method. Materials and Methods A total of 200 patients with suspected coronary heart disease were randomly divided into two groups for CCTA: Group A (n = 100, free-breathing) started CCTA with 2.2 seconds delay after the attenuation in aorta reached 250 HU; Group B (n = 100, breath-holding), used the standard protocol of 80 HU threshold and 8.4 seconds delay. Both groups used the contrast dose rate of 25 mgI/kg/s. CT value and standard deviation in aortic sinus (AS), right coronary artery, left anterior descending, left circumflex, and pericardial fat were measured. Contrast-to-noise ratio for vessels was calculated. Two experienced Radiologists independently reviewed image quality using a 5-point scale (1: nondiagnostic—5: excellent). Results There was no difference in contrast dose, radiation dose, heart rate, and qualitative image quality between the two groups (all p > 0.05). However, Group A had higher mean enhancement in vessels (404 ± 66 HU) than Group B (321 ± 69 HU), and lower coefficients of variation of CT value in aortic sinus, right coronary artery, left anterior descending, and left circumflex (16.3%, 17.7%, 19.2%, and 20.5% vs 21.5%, 22.3%, 23.6%, and 22.9%, respectively), (all p Conclusion A new bolus tracking method enabled by free-breathing in CCTA on a 16 cm wide-coverage CT system increases the enhancement degree and uniformity in coronary arteries, compared with the conventional breath-holding method.

Lead (Pb) in lipstick products has become an increasing concern, which can cause safety problems to human body directly with diet. To investigate the Pb exposure and potential health risk level of typical popular lip cosmetics in Chinese e-commerce market, Python crawler was introduced to identify and select 34 typical popular lip cosmetics, including 12 lipsticks, 13 lip glosses, and 9 lip balms. And then this study used ICP-MS to determine the content of Pb. Furthermore, the ingestion health risk assessment method issued by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Monte Carlo simulation algorithm were applied to assess the probabilistic health risks of adults exposure. Finally, taking the possible exposure of children contacting with lip products, the health risk assessment of children blood Pb was carried out. The results showed that the concentration of Pb in lip products ranged from 0 to 0.5237 mg/kg, which was far lower than the limit set by various countries. The probabilistic non-carcinogenic risks and carcinogenic risks were 4.93 ×10−7~2.82 ×10−3 and 1.68 ×10−12~9.59 ×10−9, respectively, which were in an acceptable level. The results of blood Pb assessment suggested that the Pb content of lip cosmetics had no obvious influence on blood Pb concentration of children, and background Pb exposure is the main factor affecting children's blood Pb level (BLL). Overall, the samples of lip products are selected by Python crawler in this study, which are more objective and representative. This study focuses on deeper study of Pb, especially for the health risk assessment of blood Pb in children exposed to lip products. These results perhaps could provide useful information for the safety cosmetics usage for people in China and even the global world.

The assessment of tourist destination images should not only be the arrangement of multiple influencing factors. This study explores the complex causal relationship for tourist destination images based on a configuration perspective to enhance the overall tourism image using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method. The configurational paths for promoting tourism image can be categorized into two types and nine configurations in Shandong Province. Therefore, this study recommends augmenting the tourism image of the entire region with the logical thinking of “segmentation–integration” and “enhancing strengths–supplementing weakness” and finally realizing a sustainable tourist destination image.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a multi-system neurodegenerative disorder. Patients with PD often suffer chronic pain. In the present study, we investigated motor, sensory and emotional changes in three different PD mice models. We found that 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-treatment caused significant changes in all measurements. Mechanical hypersensitivity of PD model induced by MPTP peaked at 3 days and persisted for at least 14 days. Using Fos transgenic mice, we found that neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) were activated after MPTP treatment. Inhibiting ACC by bilateral microinjection of muscimol significantly reduced mechanical hypersensitivity and anxiety-like responses. By contrast, MPTP induced motor deficit was not affected, indicating ACC activity is mostly responsible for sensory and emotional changes. We also investigated excitatory synaptic transmission and plasticity using brain slices of MPTP treated animals. While L-LTP was blocked or significantly reduced. E-LTP was not significantly affected in slices of MPTP treated animals. LTD induced by repetitive stimulation was not affected. Furthermore, we found that paired-pulse facilitation and spontaneous release of glutamate were also altered in MPTP treated animals, suggesting presynaptic enhancement of excitatory transmission in PD. Our results suggest that ACC synaptic transmission is enhanced in the animal model of PD, and cortical excitation may play important roles in PD related pain and anxiety.

Due to powerful data representation ability, deep learning has dramatically improved the state-of-the-art in many practical applications. However, the utility highly depends on fine-tuning of hyper-parameters, including learning rate, batch size, and network initialization. Although many first-order adaptive methods (e.g., Adam, Adagrad) have been proposed to adjust learning rate based on gradients, they are susceptible to the initial learning rate and network architecture. Therefore, the main challenge of using deep learning in practice is how to reduce the cost of tuning hyper-parameters. To address this, we propose a heuristic zeroth-order learning rate method, Adacomp, which adaptively adjusts the learning rate based only on values of the loss function. The main idea is that Adacomp penalizes large learning rates to ensure the convergence and compensates small learning rates to accelerate the training process. Therefore, Adacomp is robust to the initial learning rate. Extensive experiments, including comparison to six typically adaptive methods (Momentum, Adagrad, RMSprop, Adadelta, Adam, and Adamax) on several benchmark datasets for image classification tasks (MNIST, KMNIST, Fashion-MNIST, CIFAR-10, and CIFAR-100), were conducted. Experimental results show that Adacomp is not only robust to the initial learning rate but also to the network architecture, network initialization, and batch size.

Assessing and predicting the evolution of habitat quality based on land use change under the process of urbanization is important for establishing a comprehensive ecological planning system and addressing the major challenges of global sustainable development. Here, two different prediction models were used to simulate the land use changes in 2025 based on the land use distribution data of Nanchang city in three periods and integrated into the habitat quality assessment model to specifically evaluate the trends and characteristics of future habitat quality changes, explore the impact of landscape pattern evolution on habitat, and analyze the differences and advantages of the two prediction models. The results show that the overall habitat quality in Nanchang declined significantly during the period 1995–2015. Habitat degradation near cities and in various watersheds is relatively significant. During the period 2015–2025, the landscape pattern and habitat quality of Nanchang will continue to maintain the trend of changes observed between 1995 and 2015, i.e., increasing construction land and decreasing habitat quality, with high pressure on ecological restoration. This study also identified that CA-Markov simulates the quantity of land use better, while FLUS simulates the spatial pattern of land use better. Overall, this study provides a reference for exploring the complex dynamic evolution mechanism of habitats.

Pre-metastatic niche formation is critical for the colonization of disseminated cancer cells in distant organs. Here we find that lung mesenchymal stromal cells (LMSCs) at pre-metastatic stage possess potent metastasis-promoting activity. RNA-seq reveals an upregulation of complement 3 (C3) in those LMSCs. C3 is found to promote neutrophil recruitment and the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), which facilitate cancer cell metastasis to the lungs. C3 expression in LMSCs is induced and sustained by Th2 cytokines in a STAT6-dependent manner. LMSCs-driven lung metastasis is abolished in Th1-skewing Stat6-deficient mice. Blockade of IL-4 by antibody also attenuates LMSCs-driven cancer metastasis to the lungs. Consistently, metastasis is greatly enhanced in Th2-skewing T-bet-deficient mice or in nude mice adoptively transferred with T-bet-deficient T cells. Increased C3 levels are also detected in breast cancer patients. Our results suggest that targeting the Th2-STAT6-C3-NETs cascade may reduce breast cancer metastasis to the lungs., The formation of the pre-metastatic niche enables the colonisation of disseminated cancer cells in distant organs. Here, the authors show that Th2 cytokines induce Complement 3 production in lung mesenchymal stromal cells, which recruits neutrophils and promotes the formation neutrophil extracellular traps, facilitating breast cancer cell metastasis to the lungs.

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a common risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. The aims of this study were to evaluate the changes in the left ventricular myocardial work in T2DM patients using the left ventricular pressure-strain loop (PSL) technique, and to explore the risk factors for the left ventricular myocardial work impairment.Methods: Fifty patients with T2DM and 50 normal controls (NCs) were included in the study. In addition to conventional echocardiography and two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography, the left ventricular myocardial work parameters were measured using PSL technology.Results: The absolute value for global longitudinal strain (GLS), global work index (GWI) and, global constructive work (GCW) were significantly decreased in the T2DM group (P < 0.05), while the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was not significantly different between the T2DM and NC groups. Multivariable linear regression analysis showed that hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was independently related to GWI (β = −0.452, P < 0.05), while HbA1c and the diabetes duration were independently related to GCW (β = −0.393, P < 0.05 and β = −0.298, P < 0.05, respectively).Conclusions: Changes in the left ventricular myocardial systolic function in T2DM patients were identified using PSL technology. HbA1c was shown to be an independent risk factor affecting GWI, while HbA1c and diabetes duration were demonstrated to be independent risk factors affecting GCW.

Objective Iron and steel industry workers are exposed to high levels of inhalable dust particles that contain various elements, including metals, and cause occupational lung diseases. We aim to assess the relationship between occupational dust exposure, systemic inflammation, and spirometric decline in a cohort of Chinese iron and steel workers. Methods We studied 7513 workers who participated in a Health Surveillance program at Wugang Institute for Occupational Health between 2008 and 2017. Time-weighted exposure intensity (TWEI) of dust was quantified based on self-reported dust exposure history, the experience of occupational hygienists, and historical data of dust exposure for workers with certain job titles. A linear mixed-effects model was used for association analyses. Results The average annual change of lung function was − 50.78 ml/year in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and − 34.36 ml/year in forced vital capacity (FVC) in males, and − 39.06 ml/year in FEV1 and − 26.66 ml/year in FVC in females. Higher TWEI prior to baseline was associated with lower longitudinal measurements of FEV1 and FVC but not with their decline rates. Higher WBC and its differential at baseline were associated with lower longitudinal measurements and a more rapid decline of FEV1 and FVC in a dose-dependent monotonically increasing manner. Moreover, the increase of WBC and its differential post-baseline was also associated with a more rapid decline of FEV1 and FVC. Conclusions Our findings support the important role of systemic inflammation in affecting the temporal change of lung function in iron and steel industry workers.

Background Cardiac damage is the leading cause of death in uremic patients. This study aimed to evaluate the application of non-invasive myocardial work index (NIMWI) by echocardiography in assessing the left ventricular (LV) systolic function in uremic patients. Methods Twenty-six uremic patients and 27 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study. Except for the conventional echocardiographic parameters, the LV myocardial work (MW) parameters including GWI (myocardial global work index), GCW (global constructive work), GWW (global wasted work), and GWE (global work efficiency) were calculated in study participants. Differences in MW parameters between the uremic and normal groups were compared by independent-sample t-test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed for MW parameters to detect abnormal LV systolic function in uremic patients. Results Compared with the normal group, GWW was significantly increased and GWE decreased in the uremic group (P Conclusions NIMWI may be applied to assess the global MW of uremic patients. The presence of reduced GWE can help identify impaired left ventricular myocardial function in uremic patients with preserved LV ejection fraction with a high sensitivity and specificity.

Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the postoperative analgesia effect of ultrasound-guided single popliteal sciatic nerve block for calcaneal fracture. Methods A total of 120 patients scheduled for unilateral open reduction and internal fixation of calcaneal fracture were enrolled in this prospective randomized study. Patients in group B received ultrasound-guided single popliteal sciatic nerve block after operation, but Patients in group A did not. All patients received patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) after operation. The time to initiation of PCIA, the time of first pressing the analgesia pump, duration of analgesia pump use and the total number of times the patient pressed the analgesia pump were recorded. The time of rescue analgesia and the adverse reactions were recorded. Pain magnitude of the patients immediately after discharge from operating room (T1), and at 4th (T2), 8th (T3), 12th (T4), 16th (T5), 24th (T6) and 48th (T7) h after the operation were assessed with visual analog scale (VAS). In addition, patient, surgeon and nurse satisfaction were recorded. Results The VAS scores at T2 ~ T5, the time of rescue analgesia and the adverse reactions, the total number of times the patient pressed the analgesia pump were significantly declined in group B (p p Conclusion Ultrasound-guided single popliteal sciatic nerve block is an effective postoperative analgesia strategy for calcaneal fracture. Trial registration ChiCTR, ChiCTR2100042340. Registered 19 January 2021, URL of trial registry record: http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=66526.

Objectives: To analyze the association between global myocardial work indices evaluated by non-invasive left ventricular (LV) pressure-strain loop (PSL) and LV myocardial fibrosis in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).Methods: A total of 57 patients with DCM were included in this prospective study. Global work index (GWI), global constructive work (GCW), global wasted work (GWW), global work efficiency (GWE) and global longitudinal strain (GLS) were measured using LVPSL. LV volumes and LV ejection fraction (LVEF) were evaluated using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI), LV myocardial fibrosis was estimated at CMRI by qualitative assessment of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE). According to the CMRI, the studied population was divided into two groups, namely: patients without LGE (LGE-) and patients with LGE (LGE+).Results: The LGE+ group presented with increased age, LV end systolic volume (LVESV) index and reduced GWI, GCW, GWE, GLS, CMRI-derived LVEF (LVEFCMRI), the differences between the two groups were statistically significant (P < 0.05). After correcting for age and LVESV index, LVEFCMRI, GLS, GWI, GCW, and GWE retained independent associations with LV myocardial fibrosis. According to receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis, LVEFCMRI, and GCW showed larger AUC and higher accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity than GLS, the accuracy of predicting LV myocardial fibrosis ranged from high to low as: LVEFCMRI, GCW, GWE, GWI, and GLS.Conclusions: LVEFCMRI, GWI, GCW, GWE, and GLS remained significant predictors of LV myocardial fibrosis. LVEFCMRI, and GCW appeared to better predict LV myocardial fibrosis compared with GLS.

Diabetic vascular complications (DVC) including macrovascular and microvascular lesions, have a significant impact on public health, and lead to increased patient mortality. Disordered intercellular cascades play a vital role in diabetic systemic vasculopathy. Exosomes participate in the abnormal signal transduction of local vascular cells and mediate the transmission of metabolic disorder signal molecules in distant organs and cells through the blood circulation. They can store different signaling molecules in the membrane structure and release them into the blood, urine, and tears. In recent years, the carrier value and therapeutic effect of exosomes derived from stem cells have garnered attention. Exosomes are not only a promising biomarker but also a potential target and tool for the treatment of DVC. This review explored changes in the production process of exosomes in the diabetic microenvironment and exosomes’ early warning role in DVC from different systems and their pathological processes. On the basis of these findings, we discussed the future direction of exosomes in the treatment of DVC, and the current limitations of exosomes in DVC research.

The losses and damage caused by landslides are countless in the world every year. However, the existing approaches of landslide susceptibility mapping cannot fully meet the requirement of landslide prevention, and further excavation and innovation are also needed. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to develop a novel deep learning model namely landslide net (LSNet) to assess the landslide susceptibility in Hanyin County, China, meanwhile, support vector machine model (SVM) and kernel logistic regression model (KLR) were employed as reference model. The inventory map was generated based on 259 landslides, the training dataset and validation dataset were respectively prepared using 70% landslides and the remaining 30% landslides. The variance inflation factor (VIF) was applied to optimize each landslide predisposing factor. Three benchmark indices were used to evaluate the result of susceptibility mapping and area under receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROC) was used to compare the models. Result demonstrated that although the processing speed of LSNet model is the slowest, it still significantly outperformed its corresponding benchmark models with validation dataset, and has the highest accuracy (0.950), precision (0.951), F1 (0.951) and AUROC (0.941), which reflected excellent predictive ability in some degree. The achievements obtained in this study can improve the rapid response capability of landslide prevention for Hanyin County.