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To observe the clinical effect of the cannula under laparoscopy, percutaneous puncture cannula, and conventional surgery cannula for peritoneal dialysis.From May 3, 2015 to February 14, 2020, 87 patients with end-stage renal disease needing peritoneal dialysis in Ningbo Zhenhai People's Hospital were enrolled. These patients were divided into three groups including cannula under laparoscopy (23 cases), percutaneous puncture cannula (29 cases), and conventional surgery cannula (35 cases). The baseline characteristics, perioperative conditions (surgical time, post-surgical hospitalization time), the incidence of recent complications (abdominal hemorrhage, direct abdominal hemorrhage, incision pain, leakage, catheter shift, peritonitis), and long-term complications (catheter shift, peritonitis, hernia, thoracic and abdominal fistula, abdominal tube obstruction) among the three groups were compared.Compared with the group of conventional surgery cannula, the operation time in the group of cannula under laparoscopy and the group of percutaneous puncture cannula were significantly shorter (minutes: 32.5±12.3, 28.9±11.8 vs. 61.3±15.4, both P0.05), the in-hospital stay in the group of cannula under laparoscopy and the group of percutaneous puncture cannula were reduced (days: 9.8±3.4, 9.2±2.6 vs. 10.7±3.2), but there was no statistical significance among the three groups (P0.05). The incidence of abdominal bleeding, rectus abdominis bleeding, and incision pain in the group of cannula under laparoscopy and the group of percutaneous puncture cannula were significantly lower than those in the group of conventional surgery cannula [incidence of abdominal bleeding: 4.3% (1/23), 3.4% (1/29) vs. 22.9% (8/35), incidence of rectus abdominis bleeding: 4.3% (1/23), 3.4% (1/29) vs. 22.9% (8/35), incidence of incision pain: 8.7% (2/23), 10.3% (3/29) vs. 42.9% (15/35), all P0.01]. The difference between the group of cannula under laparoscopy and the group of percutaneous puncture cannula had no statistical significance. Compared with the group of conventional surgery cannula and the group of percutaneous puncture cannula, the incidence of catheter displacement in the group of cannula under laparoscopy was significantly reduced [4.3% (1/23) vs. 27.6% (8/29), 31.4% (11/35), both P0.05]. Compared with the group of conventional surgery cannula and the group of percutaneous puncture cannula, the incidence of catheter displacement in long-term complications in the group of cannula under laparoscopy was significantly reduced [4.3% (1/23) vs. 24.1% (7/29), 31.4% (11/35), both P0.05], however, the difference of that between the group of conventional surgery cannula and the group of percutaneous puncture cannula was not statistically significant. The incidence of hernia in the group of cannula under laparoscopy was significantly higher than that in the group of percutaneous puncture cannula or in the group of conventional surgery cannula [21.7% (5/23) vs. 3.4% (1/29), 2.8% (1/35), both P0.05], and all of that were umbilical hernia, however, the difference of that between the group of percutaneous puncture cannula and the group of conventional surgery cannula was not statistically significant.Compared with the traditional conventional surgical cannula placement methods, percutaneous puncture has the advantages of simple operation, short operation time, small trauma, but still cannot reduce the incidence of drift tube; laparoscopic peritoneal dialysis tube has the advantages of short operation time, small trauma and low catheter displacement rate, but increases the risk of umbilical hernia.

Background/Aim This study aimed to investigate the clinical significance of changes in vitamin D [25(OH)D] levels and vitamin D receptor (VDR) mRNA expression in colorectal adenoma development. Methods Plasma concentrations of 25(OH)D and mRNA expression of VDR in tissues were determined by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and real‐time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‐qPCR), respectively. In addition, the concentration of plasma 25(OH)D and levels of VDR mRNA in tissues were compared among healthy individuals and adenoma and adenocarcinoma patients. Results Vitamin D receptor expression in colorectal adenocarcinoma tissues was significantly lower than that in para‐cancerous tissues that were >5 cm away from malignant tumor sites (p, The levels of 25(OH)D and VDR mRNA expression might be associated with the development of colorectal adenoma and the progression to adenocarcinoma.

Background Osteoarthritis (OA), mainly caused by severe joint degeneration, is often accompanied by joint pain and dysfunction syndrome. Inflammatory mediators and apoptosis play key roles in the evolution of OA. It is reported that daphnoretin has significant antiviral and anti-tumor values. The present study aims at investigating the role of daphnoretin in OA. Methods The OA mouse model was constructed by performing the destabilization of the medial meniscus through surgery, and the OA cell model was induced in ATDC5 chondrocytes with IL-1β (10 ng/mL) in vitro. Chondrocyte viability and apoptosis were measured by 3-(4,5)-dimethylthiahiazo (-z-y1)-3,5-di-phenytetrazoliumromide (MTT), Caspase-3 activity, and flow cytometry. The levels of COX-2, iNOS, TNF-α, IL-6, Bax, Bcl2, cleaved-Caspase3, endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) proteins (GRP78, CHOP, ATF6, and Caspase-12), and NLRP3-ASC-Caspase1 inflammasome were determined by quantitative real-time PCR or western blot. The concentrations of TNF-α, IL-6, and PGE2 were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The content of nitrates was detected by the Griess method. In vivo, morphologic differences in knee joint sections and the thickness of the subchondral bone density plate in mice were observed by hematoxylin–eosin (H&E) staining and safranin O-fast green staining. Results Daphnoretin effectively choked IL-1β-induced chondrocyte apoptosis and facilitated cell viability. Daphnoretin dose-dependently abated ERS, inflammatory mediators, and the activation of NLRP3 inflammasomes in IL-1β-induced chondrocytes. What’s more, in vivo experiments confirmed that daphnoretin alleviated OA progression in a murine OA model by mitigating inflammation and ERS. Conclusion Daphnoretin alleviated IL-1β-induced chondrocyte apoptosis by hindering ERS and NLRP3 inflammasome. Graphical abstract

The comprehensive material painting originated from the west in the 20th century, and then it was introduced into China and developed to a certain extent. Because the integrated material painting breaks the inherent framework of traditional painting, it can enable modern painters to create their own unique works, but also can stimulate the creative ability and passion of the painters. And to enrich the art form of painting, magnify the beauty of materials. This opens up a new space for the development of painting art, and makes the whole painting with vitality and vitality. Therefore, it is highly required to attach this importance to the study of aesthetic feeling and artistic expression of comprehensive materials in the application of painting art. This paper presents the essential VR model to construct the novel framework. The data mining is combined for the comprehensive evaluation.

Accurate 3D passive tracking of an underwater uncooperative target is of great significance to make use of the sea resources as well as to ensure the safety of our maritime areas. In this paper, a 3D passive underwater uncooperative target tracking problem for a time-varying non-Gaussian environment is studied. Aiming to overcome the low observability drawback inherent in the passive target tracking problem, a distributed passive underwater buoys observing system is considered and the optimal topology of the distributed measurement system is designed based on the nonlinear system observability analysis theory and the Cramer–Rao lower bound (CRLB) analysis method. Then, considering the unknown underwater environment will lead to time-varying non-Gaussian disturbances for both the target’s dynamics and the measurements, the robust optimal nonlinear estimator, namely the adaptive particle filter (APF), is proposed. Based on the Bayesian posterior probability and Monte Carlo techniques, the proposed algorithm utilizes the real-time optimal estimation technique to calculate the complex noise online and tackle the underwater uncooperative target tracking problem. Finally, the proposed algorithm is tested by simulated data and comprehensive comparisons along with detailed discussions that are made to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed APF.

The bearing-only tracking of an underwater uncooperative target can protect maritime territories and allows for the utilization of sea resources. Considering the influences of an unknown underwater environment, this work aimed to estimate 2-D locations and velocities of an underwater target with uncertain underwater disturbances. In this paper, an adaptive two-step bearing-only underwater uncooperative target tracking filter (ATSF) for uncertain underwater disturbances is proposed. Considering the nonlinearities of the target’s kinematics and the bearing-only measurements, in addition to the uncertain noise caused by an unknown underwater environment, the proposed ATSF consists of two major components, namely, an online noise estimator and a robust extended two-step filter. First, using a modified Sage-Husa online noise estimator, the uncertain process and measurement noise are estimated at each tracking step. Then, by adopting an extended state and by using a robust negative matrix-correcting method in conjunction with a regularized Newton-Gauss iteration scheme, the current state of the underwater uncooperative target is estimated. Finally, the proposed ATSF was tested via simulations of a 2-D underwater uncooperative target tracking scenario. The Monte Carlo simulation results demonstrated the reliability and accuracy of the proposed ATSF in bearing-only underwater uncooperative tracking missions.

Cement-based composites filled with carbon black (CB) and porous glass pellets(GPs) were prepared, and the electromagnetic wave absorption properties (EMAPs) were investigated with the arch method in 1.7–18 GHz. Results indicate that introducing of GPs into cement-based materials enhances the EMAPs significantly. The larger the particle size is, the lower the impedance of the composite is. The number of absorption peaks increases, the reflectivity curve becomes flat, and the EMAPs increase first and then decrease. The GPs with the size of 0.25–1.0 mm contribute most to the EMAPs with the same content. Graded GPs produce high mechanical strength, and the synergistic effect of particles with different sizes on the enhancement of EMAPs is not obvious. The optimal content of GPs and composite thickness are 50 vol% and 20–30 mm, respectively. The composite reaches the lowest average reflectivity at − 9.67 dB, and the bandwidth below − 10 dB is 7.47 GHz when CB is 1.5 g/L, the thickness is 20 mm and the filling ratio is 50 vol%.

This study models vertical properties of wind-induced ambient noise and compares the noise properties with field measurements. The Perkins-Kuperman model was used to calculate vertical coherence of low frequency ambient noise. Ambient noise measurements were made in the South China Sea 88 m deep using a vertical array with 32 hydrophones. Estimated vertical coherence was compared with theoretical prediction from the Perkins-Kuperman model under the assumption of negligible shipping noise. The measured coherences agreed reasonably with the model prediction, particularly in the low frequency range, coherence results show that the noise field was asymmetrical in the vertical direction. The estimated vertical directionality was close to the simulated results. However, deviations remained that could be due to receiver array distortion. Directionality pattern was asymmetric, with much more energy present at upward-looking than downward-looking angles, mainly due to combined effects of downward refracting sound speed profile and high loss sea bottom.

Unlike the normal anadromous lifestyle, Chinese native Dolly Varden char (Salvelinus malma) is locked in land and lives in fresh water lifetime. To explore the effect of freshwater adaption on its immune system, we constructed a pooled cDNA library of hepatopancreas and spleen of Chinese freshwater Dolly Varden char (S. malma). A total of 27,829 unigenes were generated from 31,233 high-quality transcripts and 17,670 complete open reading frames (ORF) were identified. Totally 25,809 unigenes were successfully annotated and it classified more native than adaptive immunity-associated genes, and more genes involved in toll-like receptor signal pathway than those in complement and coagulation cascades (51 vs 3), implying the relative more important role of toll-like receptors than the complement system under bacterial injection for the freshwater Dolly Varden char. These huge different numbers of TLR and complement system identified in freshwater Dolly Varden char probably caused by distinct evolution pressure patterns between fish TLR and complement system, representative by TLR3 and TLR5 as well as C4 and C6, respectively, which were under purifying and positively selecting pressure, respectively. Further seawater adaptation experiment and the comparison study with our library will no doubt be helpful to elucidate the effect of freshwater adaption of Chinese native Dolly Varden char on its immune system.

Failure of the power device can have a very large impact on the entire power circuit. IGBT as the main power device, ensuring its reliability becomes more and more important. In different environments, there will be large differences in the failure rate of IGBTs. Therefore, studying the failure mechanism of IGBT is of great significance to ensure the reliability of IGBT. Firstly, the IGBT dynamic model is constructed and the model is improved to correct the power consumption error. Then the IGBT finite element model is used to analyze the electro-thermal-force of different material layers, at the same time, the distribution of stress and temperature between different materials are analyzed. Finally, the JavaScript script is used to generate random defects of the solder layer, and the effects of different defects of the solder layer on the weakest part of the IGBT are studied, including voids, cracks, and solder layer falling off. The results of the analysis show that after the IGBT defects reach a certain level, the solder layer voids, the solder layer fall off, and the solder layer cracks have a great influence on the IGBT junction temperature and stress. Among them, shedding and cracks have a greater influence on the stress of the solder layer.

Underwater target recognition is currently one of the hottest topics in computational intelligence research. However, underwater target recognition tasks based on deep learning techniques are difficult to conduct due to the shortage of acoustic echo signal samples, which results in poor training performance for existing deep learning models. Generative adversarial networks (GANs) have been widely used in data enhancement and image generation, providing a novel strategy for dealing with challenges in the research field mentioned above. To address the insufficiency of echo signal data for underwater high-speed vehicles, this paper proposes an underwater echo signal data enhancement method that uses an improved GAN based on convolution units for small sample sizes. First, we take pool test data as the training sample input and carry out data standardization, data interception, and copy-related processing work. Secondly, this paper proposes an improved generative adversarial network underwater (IGAN-UW) model to generate underwater echo signals. Finally, a CNN model combines the generated data with the original data to conduct classification training for underwater targets. Experimental results show that the IGAN-UW model is suitable for the generation of highly realistic original echo signals in cases with small sample sizes, providing a new approach to the active detection and recognition of underwater targets.

Rapid and effective access to the spatiotemporal patterns and evolutionary trends of the regional eco-environment is key to regional environment protection and planning. Based on the Google Earth Engine platform, we use 165 Landsat images from the summer and autumn seasons (May–November) of 2000, 2010, and 2018 as data sources to calculate the RSEI, which represents the quality of the eco-environment, and then analyze the factors influencing the spatial heterogeneity of the eco-environment and the relationship between eco-environment and land-use changes based on RSEI. The results showed the following: (1) From 2000 to 2018, the overall ecological environment quality of the Taihu Lake Basin showed a stage of rapid decline (2000–2010) and a stage of slow decline (2010–2018). (2) The factors were ranked in order of their explanatory power for the spatial heterogeneity of the RSEI: land-use (0.594) > population density (0.418) > slope (0.309) > elevation (0.308) > GDP (0.304) > temperature (0.233) > precipitation (0.208). An interactive effect was found for each factor of the RSEI, which is mainly represented by a mutual enhancement. (3) From 2000 to 2010, the rapid urban expansion was the main reason for the deterioration of ecological quality. From 2010 to 2018, urban expansion slowed down, and the trend of ecological quality deterioration was effectively curbed. Therefore, promoting the intensive use of land and reducing construction land expansion are key to ensuring sustainable regional socio-economic development.

In this study, glue-pressed engineered honeycomb bamboo (GPEHB) was prepared, and the dependence of the compressive properties of the produced GPEHB on the load–slenderness ratio, longitudi...

The convex sparse penalty based compressive beamforming technique can achieve robust high resolution in direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation tasks, but it often leads to an insufficient sparsity-inducing problem due to its convex loose approximation to ideal l 0 nonconvex penalty. On the contrary, the nonconvex sparse penalty can tightly approximate l 0 penalty to effectively enhance DOA estimation accuracy, but it incurs an initialization sensitivity problem due to its multiple local minimas. Leveraging their individual advantages, a minimax-concave penalty (MCP) regularized DOA estimation algorithm is proposed to achieve a maximally sparse level while maintaining the convex property of the overall objective function. Moreover, an accelerated block gradient descent-ascent algorithm with convergence guarantee is developed to rapidly achieve its one optimal point. Simulation results demonstrate that MCP penalty improves DOA estimation accuracy compared with popular sparse compressive beamforming techniques in strong noise scenarios and weak source confirmation. Ocean experimental results also validate that it retains more stable DOA estimation accuracy and incurs less artificial interferences.

Metallic oxides are promising electrochemically active materials which can supply large energy density and capacitance, while always suffer from weak electrical conductivity and structural stability. Herein, a green and low-tortuosity wood-derived anisotropic carbon is developed to stabilize CuO and improve its conductivity. The low tortuosity and large surface area of anisotropic carbon is capable to act as an electrolyte storage to supply fast transport channels for the ionic migration, which is verified by the kinetic analysis. As expected, the composite electrode has superior electrochemical performances with a large specific capacitance of 694.8 F g−1 at the current density of 0.5 A g−1 (131.5% and 344.2% higher than that of the individual CuO (300.1 F g−1) and the individual carbon (156.4 F g−1)) and high cycling stability. As the current density dramatically increases 100 times to 50 A g−1, the composite electrode still retains 46.7% of the original capacitance, reflecting its outstanding rate capability. More importantly, the composite acts as an advanced cathode material to assemble hybrid supercapacitors, possessing a high cell voltage of 1.5 V and good cycling stability (91.2% capacitance retention after 5000 cycles) and high energy density (13.6 W h kg−1 at 350.3 W kg−1).

In order to cut down the usage amount of binder, mix it more evenly with the biomass raw materials and improve the quality of pellets in the densification process, this study explored the feasibility of promoting the densification of biomass by using a high-pressure spraying method to add liquid binder. In the study, a high-pressure sprayer was used to spray saturated brown sugar water into sawdust for densification tests. A three-factor orthogonal experiment was designed to analyze the physical characteristics of the pellets under different variables. Through analysis of range and multiple linear regression, the effect curve was drawn to analyze the impact of the high-pressure spraying method on densification. The results showed that under low compaction pressure of 14.9 MPa, the raw materials with adding 6% saturated brown sugar water can be densified into pellets, while the raw materials without binder cannot. Moreover, compared with the method of adding binder by stirring, the high-pressure spraying method obtained the pellets with fewer cracks on the surface and increased the relaxation density of pellets by 8.65%. Under high compaction pressure (75, 100, 124 and 149 MPa), the high-pressure spraying method has a significant effect on increasing the relaxation density, not only on the compressive strength.

Jiaojiao Hu,1,* Runkun Wang,2,* Yi Liu,3 Jianbo Zhou,4 Ka Shen,4 Yun Dai1 1Department of Oncology, Suizhou Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Suizhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Oncology, The First People’s Hospital of Guangshui, Guangshui, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Suizhou Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Suizhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of General Surgery, Suizhou Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Suizhou, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yun DaiDepartment of Oncology, Suizhou Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, No. 60 Longmen Street, Suizhou, 441300, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-13908666102Email gxzrxl@163.comBackground: Baicalein has a significant anti-cancerous function in the treatment of cervical cancer (CC). Its functional mechanism regarding circular RNA (circRNA) hippocampus abundant transcript 1 (circHIAT1) and microRNA-19a-3p (miR-19a-3p) was explored in this research.Methods: CC cell viability and colony formation were determined using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and colony formation assay. Cell cycle progression and apoptosis were analyzed via flow cytometry. Protein markers of cell cycle, apoptosis and protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin (AKT/mTOR) pathway were detected by Western blot. CircHIAT1 and miR-19a-3p levels were assayed through the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The interaction between circHIAT1 and miR-19a-3p was validated by dual-luciferase reporter and RNA pull-down assays. In vivo experiment was performed by xenograft model.Results: CC cell growth and cell cycle progression were repressed while apoptosis was enhanced by baicalein. MiR-19a-3p was downregulated in baicalein-treated CC cells and miR-19a-3p overexpression lightened the baicalein-induced CC progression inhibition. Moreover, circHIAT1 was found to be a sponge of miR-19a-3p in CC cells. Baicalein-induced cell growth inhibition, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis promotion were neutralized by knockdown of circHIAT1 via targeting miR-19a-3p. Baicalein acted on the circHIAT1/miR-19a-3p to inactivate AKT/mTOR pathway. Baicalein also reduced CC tumor growth in vivo via regulating the levels of circHIAT1 and miR-19a-3p.Conclusion: These findings demonstrated that the inhibitory function of baicalein in CC progression was dependent on the repression of AKT/mTOR pathway by upregulating circHIAT1 to sponge miR-19a-3p, showing a specific mechanism for baicalein in CC.Keywords: baicalein, cervical cancer, circHIAT1, miR-19a-3p, AKT/mTOR

On the basis of overall mechanical structure of existing lower limb exoskeleton robot, a key ankle joint protecting component of ankle joint mechanism is improved and designed. According to person's steps, the dimension and the model of the protecting component are specified by using SolidWorks, and the person's two kinds of gestures are determined. The concept of forces' balance in the plane is derived from a principle of zero moment point balance. The correctness of forces' balance in the plane is verified in the force analysis of an ankle joint. It puts forward the necessity of security design after wearing the component. The finite element analysis and mesh refinement of the component is finished by using ANSYS. Calculating and contrasting through the simulation analysis and check-theories, the test data were obtained by using static analysis method with a constant force, and adopting the transient analysis method with an instantaneous moment. The design and material of the component are demonstrated safety, which provided a mechanics research reference for other joints' key components.

Quinoa black stem is a new disease that affects the stems of quinoa plants and is more likely to develop under cool conditions (15 to 25°C, RH = 55 ± 2%). The typical symptoms include the formation of black necrotic lesions on the stem, which can completely wrap around the stem, causing lodging and blanking (development of 'empty' and sterile grain on the panicle). Furthermore, the pycnidia form small round protrusions on the surface of the lesions. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that representative isolates LMHS-3 and LMHS-5 were closely related to

OBJECTIVE To investigated the association between weight change patterns across adulthood and incident gout. METHODS Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we categorized individuals into four weight-change groups based on their recalled weight during young adulthood and midlife. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% CI relating weight change patterns to incident gout over 10-year follow-up were calculated. The hypothetical population attributable fraction (PAF) for the weight change patterns was calculated. RESULTS Among our sample of adults who were 40–74 years old at their midlife weight measure (n = 11079), 320 developed to gout. Compared with participants who remained stable non-obese during adulthood, the highest risks were found for gaining weight (HR 1.65; 1.19–2.29) participants. And stable obese pattern had a marginal significance of the elevated risk of incident gout conditions (HR 1.84; 0.98–2.78). No significant associations were found between losing weight change patterns and the risk of gout during the study period. If participants who gained weight had become non-obese during the 10-year follow-up, an estimated 3.2%(95% CI: 0-6.3) of observed gout cases could have been averted. Also, if the population had maintained a normal BMI, 32.9%(95% CI: 18.2–44.9) of cases could have been prevented during the ten years. CONCLUSIONS Gaining weight over adulthood was associated with increased risks of gout. These findings highlight that maintaining non-obese weight and weight loss across adulthood is essential for the prevention and treatment of gout in adult life.

Cantharidin (CTD) is the main bioactive component of Cantharides, which is called Banmao in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Norcantharidin (NCTD) is a structural modifier of CTD. To compare with CTD, NCTD has lighter side effects and stronger bioactivity in anti-cancer through inhibiting cell proliferation, causing apoptosis and autophagy, overwhelming migration and metastasis, affecting immunity as well as lymphangiogenesis. Examples of these effects include suppressing Protein Phosphatase 2A and modulating Wnt/beta catenin signal, with Caspase family proteins, AMPK pathway and c-Met/EGFR pathway involving respectively. Moreover, NCTD has the effects of immune enhancement, anti-platelet aggregation and inhibition of renal interstitial fibrosis with distinct signaling pathways. The immunological effects induced by NCTD are related to the regulation of macrophage polarization and LPS-mediated immune response. The antiplatelet activity that NCTD induced is relevant to the inhibition of platelet signaling and the downregulation of α2 integrin. Furthermore, some of novel derivatives designed and synthesized artificially show stronger biological activities (e.g., anticancer effect, enzyme inhibition effect, antioxidant effect) and lower toxicity than NCTD itself. Plenty of literatures have reported various pharmacological effects of NCTD, particularly the anticancer effect, which has been widely concerned in clinical application and laboratory research. In this review, the pharmaceutical activities and derivatives of NCTD are discussed, which can be reference for further study.

Background Paclitaxel is an effective chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of cancer patients. Accumulating evidence suggests that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play critical roles in the occurrence and development of human cancers. However, there are few studies on interactions between paclitaxel and circRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Materials and Methods Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and colony formation assay were conducted to determine cell proliferation. Cell apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometry. The expression levels of circRNA baculoviral IAP repeat-containing 6 (circ-BIRC6), microRNA-877-5p (miR-877-5p), and tyrosine 3-monooxygenase/tryptophan 5-monooxygenase activation protein, zeta (YWHAZ) were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The mice xenograft model was established to investigate the roles of circ-BIRC6 and paclitaxel in vivo. The interaction between miR-877-5p and circ-BIRC6 or YWHAZ was predicted by bioinformatics analysis and verified by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Western blot assay was applied for measuring the protein expression of YWHAZ. Results Paclitaxel suppressed HCC tumorigenesis through decreasing cell proliferation and accelerating apoptosis. Circ-BIRC6 and YWHAZ were upregulated, and miR-877-5p was downregulated in HCC tissues and cells. Paclitaxel treatment inhibited the expression of circ-BIRC6 and YWHAZ while promoted the expression of miR-877-5p. Circ-BIRC6 overexpression or miR-877-5p interference reversed the inhibitory effect of paclitaxel on HCC tumorigenesis. Moreover, miR-877-5p could specially bind to YWHAZ, and its knockdown abated the suppressive effect of circ-BIRC6 depletion on HCC tumorigenesis. Additionally, YWHAZ was identified as a direct target of miR-877-5p. Besides, circ-BIRC6 functioned as a molecular sponge of miR-877-5p to regulate YWHAZ expression. Conclusion Paclitaxel limited HCC tumorigenesis via modulating circ-BIRC6/miR-877-5p/YWHAZ axis, providing a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of HCC.

The highly crystallized molecular structure of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) makes the polymer with poor performance in mechanical strength and water resistance. To modify the molecular structure of PVA and to diminish the complicated procedures and environmental impacts, ferric ions (in ion composite form) have been used to set the interactions with the molecule chains of PVA. The crystallinity, chemical groups change, and mechanical performance of the polymer has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscope (FTIR), and the bonding/membrane tensile strength test. The crystallinity of PVA is reduced from 41.6% to 7.7% with the addition of 2.0% of ferric ions. The tensile strength of the modified PVA membrane is increased by 240%. Moreover, with tougher structure and improved fluidity, the strength of ferric ions modified PVA bonded wood samples is increased by 157%. The modification of PVA with ion composite may have vast applications in many fields, such as paper industry, wood adhesives, functional materials, and polymer structure design.

Aim Evidence of the lungs being a target organ of diabetes-related pathophysiology is increasing, and decreased pulmonary function increases the risk of diabetes after adjusting for demographic and metabolic factors. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluates the bidirectional relationship between diabetes and pulmonary function. Methods MEDLINE, Embase, The Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases were searched, and all studies describing this bidirectional relationship were identified. Two reviewers independently extracted study characteristics and assessed the risk of bias. Results A total of 93 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled weighted mean difference (WMD) between diabetes patients and non-diabetic participants for forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were −5.65% and −5.91%, respectively, of predicted values. Diabetes-related microvascular complications and poor glycaemic control were associated with poorer pulmonary function in those with diabetes. In addition, diabetes was associated with a restrictive spirometry pattern (RSP) in both cross-sectional studies [odds ratio (OR): 2.88, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.18–3.81, I2 = 0.0%] and prospective cohort studies [hazard ratio (HR): 1.57, 95% CI: 1.04–2.36]. In five longitudinal studies, the conclusions were inconsistent as to whether or not diabetes accelerates pulmonary function decline. However, every 10% decrease in baseline predicted FVC value was associated with a 13% higher risk of incident diabetes (HR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.09–1.17, I2 = 0.0%). Conclusion There is a bidirectional relationship between diabetes and pulmonary function. However, further investigations into whether dynamic changes in glycaemic levels before and shortly after diabetes onset mediate the deleterious effects on pulmonary function, or vice versa, are now required.

This paper investigates possible impacts of religious diversity on regional development in China. We developed the religious fragmentation and polarization indices as measurements for the religious diversity by using the religious site data from the 2004 economic Census data in China. The results from the panel data regressions within national coverage suggest that the religious diversity has positive and significant impacts on regional development in general. The results from the panel data regressions within regional coverage also suggest that religious fragmentation has a positive and significant association with the economic development in the eastern region of China while religious polarization has a positive and significant association with the economic development in the central and western regions of China.

A function that closely resembles the two-point time-domain Green's function (TDGF) representing the time delays associated with multipath between the two sensors can be recovered by correlating the noise field measured by two sensors. Here, a technique for extracting the TDGF from ambient ocean noise using acoustic vector sensors is presented. Experimental results suggest that the averaging time to extract TDGF is greatly reduced if sound pressure sensors (hydrophones) are replaced by acoustic vector sensors. The direct arrival and bottom bounce arrival were extracted successfully with only 1 min of vertical velocity data, while the bottom bounce arrival was not extracted with even 10 min of sound pressure data.

The ocean ambient noise is one of interference fields of underwater acoustic channel. The design and use of any sonar system are bound to be affected by ocean ambient noise, so to research the spatial correlation characteristics of noise field is of positive significance to improving the performance of sonar system. Only wind-generated noise is considered in most existing ambient noise models. In this case, the noise field is isotropic in horizontal direction. However, due to those influencing factors, like rainfall, ships and windstorm, etc. for a real ocean environment, noise field becomes anisotropic horizontally and the spatial structure of ambient field also changes correspondingly. This paper presents a spatial correlation of the acoustic vector field of anisotropic field by introducing Von Mises probability distribution to describe horizontal directivity. Closed-form expressions are derived which relate the cross-correlation among the sound pressure and three orthogonal components of vibration velocity, besides, the influence of the non-uniformity of noise field on the correlation characteristics of noise vector field was analysed. The model presented in this paper can provide theoretical guidance for the design and application of vector sensors array. Furthermore, the achievement could be applied to front extraction, Green’s function extraction, inversion for ocean bottom parameters, and so on.

Lending was of importance in finance of Song Dynasty, and the government constituted strict laws and regulations to control the risk. Those measures had made great contribution to the sustainable financial market by maximizing the strengths of lending and lessening the loss of individuals and instability of society caused by bad loans. Nevertheless, there were many problems in the policy implementation that the officials violated the law and discipline. Thus, coordination should be made between soft constraint and hard constraint, which needs conditions to support (mainly the advance in scientific technology).

Biocompatible polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-styrylpyridinium (SbQ)/β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) composite nanofibers were obtained by electrospinning in this study. PVA-SbQ was used as the foundation polymer as well as crosslinking agent, β-CD was incorporated to achieve expected properties such as improved mechanical properties and thermal stability. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra confirmed the existence of β-CD, and the morphologies and average fiber diameters of the electrospun composite nanofibers were also analyzed by SEM. X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) of PVA-SbQ/β-CD composite nanofibers revealed that the inclusion of β-CD in the nanofibers affected the ordered phase of PVA. Besides, the thermal analyses revealed the improvement in the thermal properties for PVA-SbQ/β-CD composite nanofibers. It was found that the crosslinked composite nanofibers showed a clear higher tensile strength (TS) as well as a greater elongation at break (EB). Eventually, antifungal drug griseofulvin (GSV) has been loaded into the composite nanofibers by formation of its inclusion complex with β-CD in aqueous solution, ultraviolet light (UV-Vis) spectral analysis showed that the drug-loading nanofibers had certain sustained release effect.

Line loss is an important characteristic parameter of operation reliability and economy of distribution network and a key index of smart grid management and customer-side lean operation of power supply enterprises. However, line loss is affected by multiple influence factors, and there is no mature method to analyze the abnormal line loss quickly and then analyze and locate the fault, which objectively leads to the limited power supply reliability and long abnormal maintenance time of distribution network. This paper presents an investigating method and managing strategy of abnormal line loss in distribution network based on load characteristics, which is able to realize reason analysis and location judge of abnormal line loss with methods like hierarchical diversion and correlation analysis. The method and strategy had been proved to be able to improve working efficiency and quality, save manpower and material resources.

With the expansion of the scale of intelligent power distribution network and the complexity of power grid structure, the amount of data in power system increases rapidly, and the power equipment are faced with new challenges. Based on the principle of big data and data mining analysis, this paper proposes a method based on random matrix theory and clustering algorithm to evaluate the running state of electric energy meter. Specifically, time series data of various indicators is characterized by real-time separation window technology. Based on the random matrix theory, the random matrix based analysis model is constructed to calculate and analyze the statistical timing characteristics in real time. The proposed method has good robustness, reliability and timeliness, which provides a new idea for the application research of power grid detection technology.

Diabetic retinopathy is the most common eye complication of diabetes and one of the major causes of human blindness. The main causes of visual impairment are diabetic macular edema and proliferative diabetic retinopathy. From the perspective of endocrinologists, for patients with diabetic retinopathy, systemic treatments, including the control of blood glucose and blood lipids, are equally important as local treatment for the treatment of lesions that have occurred and prevention of visual impairment from occurring. Patients who need early intervention in diabetic retinopathy patients should be retained in the endocrinology department, and high-risk patients should be referred to the ophthalmology department, particularly those who need to be diagnosed and screened for severe non-proliferative retinopathy. This is a key issue to be solved. Through integration of the latest advances in epidemiological studies and clinical experiences, regular diabetic retinopathy screening, and intervention against risk factors, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of diabetic retinopathy. This chapter can help us understand how endocrinology and ophthalmology should work together to achieve the goal that the patients who need early intervention (not yet with diabetic retinopathy) stay in the endocrinology department for control of blood sugar, while high-risk patients (with diabetic retinopathy that may impact visual acuity) are referred to the ophthalmology department. Let’s work together to improve the quality of life of patients by preventing or reducing the occurrence of visual impairment.

In this work we successfully integrated the split-gate SuperFlash® ESF1 cell into our 130nm BCD (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) platform for automotive applications. The platform enhances the modularity of flash macro in addition to logic devices, high performance power devices up to 85V as well as complimentary analog devices such as a BJT, MIM and Poly Resistor. Besides maintaining BCD device performance, the embedded flash operating temperature range from - 40°C to 170°C, programmability, chip erase & read access time well meet the specifications. Endurance cycling of up to 20k cycles and data retention of over 20 years well satisfy AECQ-100 Automotive Grade 0 requirements.

The surface roughness of bamboo milling is one of the important indexes to evaluate the surface quality of bamboo milling. This article outlines the application of response surface methodology to optimize diamond cutting tools for bamboo cutting. In the experiment, different cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut were used as cutting parameters, and the surface roughness was used to evaluate the surface quality of bamboo cutting. The results of the experiment were evaluated by variance analysis, graphical method and numerical method. The response surface method and expected value function are used to determine the mathematical model of bamboo surface roughness and the cutting parameter combination corresponding to the best cutting process. The result shows that the influence of feed speed on the surface roughness of the bamboo chord surface (Ra1) and the bamboo end surface roughness (Ra2) is more obvious, and the cutting parameters have little effect on the bamboo diameter surface roughness (Ra3). The cutting technology with the best surface quality is determined by optimization analysis. The established mathematical model can effectively predict the response within the range of cutting parameters, and the optimized combination of cutting parameters can obtain better surface quality of bamboo milling. The best bamboo surface roughness after optimization can be obtained at higher cutting speed, low feed speed and lower cutting depth is Ra1 = 1.5832 μm, Ra2 = 6.3626 μm, Ra3 = 2.2438 μm.

Porous carbon nanofibers (PCNFs)@Tin oxide (SnOx) nanocomposites are synthesized by co-electrospinning using renewable alkali lignin-polyaniline (PAN) solution as the core and Sn precursors-polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) solution as the shell, followed by heat treatment. By changing the preheating temperature during heat treatment, PCNFs@SnOx nanocomposites with different nanostructures are obtained. The nanocomposites as electrodes of supercapacitors exhibit remarkable performance. The relationship between the microstructures and electrochemical properties of nanocomposites is explored. The experimental results show that increasing the preheating temperature to 300 °C, micropores and mesopores coexist in this nanocomposite. The prepared nanocomposite as the electrode possesses a high specific capacitance of 229 F g−1 at 0.2 A g−1. The superior electrochemical performance is presumably attributed to the large specific surface areas of PCNFs and pseudocapacitance of SnOx modifications. These encouraging results show great potential in synthesizing renewable biomass-based PCNFs@ SnOx nanocomposites with different structures.

In order to solve the problem of applying super-tonnage prestressing force to the gate pier in the process of dam reinforcement, this paper presents a comparative study on the three groups of test specimens of prestressed counterbore self-locking anchor rod and unbonded prestressed anchor cable. T show: (a)both methods satisfy the needs of applying prestress, the experiment conducted on the gate pier that is to be renovated has tested the prestress loss of two schemes and the concrete stress in both free section and anchor section after applying the prestress. The results and counterbore self-locking anchor rod boasts shorter anchorage section and better applicability. (b) the anchorage sections of two schemes generate additional tensile stress, and the maximum additional tensile stress in the anchor rod features 54% less than that of anchor cable, smaller range of additional tensile stress and more reasonable stress state of concrete than that of anchor cable.

In this work, we developed an optical colorimetric sensor array for the discrimination of Chinese teas. The sensor array was carefully designed based on tea polyphenol induced indicators displacement assay (IDA), using phenylboronic acids with different substituents as the receptors to polyphenols. The accurate identification for polyphenols with different species or concentrations proved the potential of the sensor array. The sensor array successfully distinguished tea samples within different categories, grades and origins, coupling with PLS-DA. This work offered an efficient and rapid method to distinguish teas and tea-related products. Besides, the assay is supposed to be suitable for the identification of other polyphenol-related natural products.

Aiming at the target locating and grabbing problem for a five-degree-of-freedom intelligent robot prosthesis worn by the disabled, an algorithm is proposed. Firstly, the laser rangefinder and attitude sensor installed at the head of the wearer are used to simulate the motion of the human eye to realize the position of the target in the prosthesis workspace. Secondly, the laser ranging information is obtained by the 3D attitude sensor installed at the wearer’s shoulder to obtain the position coordinates of the target relative to the prosthesis shoulder, so as to obtain the position coordinates of the target in the prosthesis workspace. Finally, the PSO-RBF neural network is used to train the samples to obtain the nonlinear mapping relationship between the position coordinates and the joint angle, thus predicting the joint angle and grabbing the target. The simulation and experimental results show that this method can locate the target accurately and calculate the angle of each joint of the prosthesis in real-time, so as to complete the action of target grabbing.

In this work, the chloride binding capacity and chloride penetration resistance of alkali-activated fly ash and metakaolin geopolymers synthesized with various alkali cation types (i.e., sodium or potassium) and aluminosilicate composition (i.e., combination of metakaolin and low-calcium pulverized fly ash) are studied. The chloride binding isotherms are measured using a modified equilibrium method and the effect of chloride exposure on the mineralogical alteration of geopolymers is studied by means of X-ray diffraction. The results show that the type of alkali cation considerably affects the chloride binding behaviors of metakaolin-fly ash geopolymers, regardless of aluminosilicate composition. In comparison to the potassium-based activator, sodium activator results in higher strength development, stronger chloride binding capacity, and better resistance to chloride penetration. The metakaolin-fly ash geopolymers immobilize chloride ions through both chemisorptions via the formation of chloride-bearing zeolites (e.g., Cl-chabazite) as well as physical adsorption. The dominant role of physical adsorption in binding mechanism suggests that a high proportion of hydroxyl group in the structure of sodium (or potassium)-aluminosilicate-hydrate (i.e., (N, K)-A-S-H) is exchangeable with chloride ions.