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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The immune system plays an important role in driving the acute inflammatory response following myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion injury (MIRI). IL‐21 is a pleiotropic cytokine with multiple immunomodulatory effects, but its role in MIRI is not known. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: Myocardial injury, neutrophil infiltration and the expression of neutrophil chemokines KC (CXCL1) and MIP‐2 (CXCL2) were studied in a mouse model of MIRI. Effects of IL‐21 on the expression of KC and MIP‐2 in neonatal mouse cardiomyocytes (CMs) and cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) were determined by real‐time PCR and ELISA. The signalling mechanisms underlying these effects were explored by western blot analysis. KEY RESULTS: IL‐21 was elevated within the acute phase of murine MIRI. Neutralization of IL‐21 attenuated myocardial injury, as illustrated by reduced infarct size, decreased cardiac troponin T levels and improved cardiac function, whereas exogenous IL‐21 administration exerted opposite effects. IL‐21 increased the infiltration of neutrophils and increased the expression of KC and MIP‐2 in myocardial tissue following MIRI. Moreover, neutrophil depletion attenuated the IL‐21‐induced myocardial injury. Mechanistically, IL‐21 increased the production of KC and MIP‐2 in neonatal CMs and CFs, and enhanced neutrophil migration, as revealed by the migration assay. Furthermore, we demonstrated that this IL‐21‐mediated increase in chemokine expression involved the activation of Akt/NF‐κB signalling in CMs and p38 MAPK/NF‐κB signalling in CFs. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Our data provide novel evidence that IL‐21 plays a pathogenic role in MIRI, most likely by promoting cardiac neutrophil infiltration. Therefore, targeting IL‐21 may have therapeutic potential as a treatment for MIRI. LINKED ARTICLES: This article is part of a themed section on Spotlight on Small Molecules in Cardiovascular Diseases. To view the other articles in this section visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v175.8/issuetoc

Summary Background and objective The glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analog, ROSE-010, plays a critical role in alleviating abdominal pain in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS); however, the underling mechanism is unclear. In the present study, we determined the serum GLP-1 level in patients with constipation-predominant IBS (IBS-C). The relationship between GLP-1 and abdominal pain was investigated. In addition, the expression of the GLP-1 receptor in the colon was determined. Methods Rectosigmoid biopsies were gathered from 38 patients with IBS-C who met the Rome III criteria, and 22 healthy controls. Abdominal pain was quantified by a validated questionnaire. Serum GLP-1 was measured by ELISA and correlated with abdominal pain scores. The presence of the GLP-1 receptor in the colonic mucosa was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Results Serum GLP-1 was substantially decreased in patients with IBS-C. Decreased serum GLP-1 had a negative correlation with the abdominal pain scores. Biopsies from patients with IBS-C revealed a significant down-regulation of the GLP-1 receptor in colonic mucosa compared with control subjects. Conclusions Decreased serum GLP-1 correlates with abdominal pain in patients with IBS-C. Decreased expression of GLP-1 and GLP-1 receptor may be the basis for alleviation of abdominal pain in patients with IBS-C by ROSE-010.

In the publishing and printing applications, hidden data is embedded into images for copyright protection and ownership generally. In this paper, a reasonable data hiding method based on noise-balanced error diffusion (NBEDF) is proposed, which is applied in color halftone image. Color image is firstly separated into grayscale images from RGB color space to CMYK color space. Secondly, Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion operator is used, and halftone images will be obtained. Finally,through NBEDF, hidden data is embedded in the halftone image which contains the largest amount of information. The experimental results show that hidden information can be visible , when the corresponding decoded image overlays the color image with hidden information. The data hiding method proposed in this paper can be well applied on security printing.

This paper studied on the application mechanics and characteristics of the polyurethane-acrylate composite emulsion applying to the pre-coated adhesive film of paper and plastic laminating. The formula design and synthesis method of the polyurethane-acrylate composite emulsion was researched, and the physical properties of the copolymer emulsion was tested by infrared spectroscopy (IR), particle size analysis, gel permeation chromatography (GPC). According to mix the waterborne polyurethane acrylate emulsion to the waterborne rosin emulsion, the hot melt pre-coated adhesive was obtained. The experimental results based on the physical properties and image analysis of the pre-coated adhesive film of paper and plastic laminating showed that: the adhesive film coated by this hot melt adhesive had a high gloss and adhesive force, it improved the application performance of the pre-coated adhesive film of paper and plastic laminating in the printing and packaging industry.

In this experiment, the effects of hair fibers on friction and wear property, Rockwell hardness and impact strength of friction materials were examined. The results showed that friction coefficient increases and stabilizes and specific wear rates were decrease as the hair fibers were filled and, particularly, 1% of the hair fiber content had a significant effect in the friction material. As temperature was changed, the stability of the friction coefficient of friction materials can be improved, the Rockwell hardness decrease and the impact strengths increase by way of increasing the content of hair fibers. The worn surfaces of friction materials were examined by scanning electron microscopy and wear mechanisms were analyzed. So it’s a kind of quite good non-asbestos friction material.

Jute fibers reinforced friction materials were prepared by mold and heat treatment. The friction coefficients of 3wt.%,9wt.% and 12wt.% jute fibers reinforced friction materials were bigger than that of the materials without jute fibers in the heating condition. The friction coefficient of 6 wt.% jute fibers reinforced friction materials was bigger than that of the materials without jute fibers below 250°C. The friction coefficient of jute fibers reinforced friction materials deceased with the temperature decrease in the cooling condition. The friction coefficient of the materials with free-jute fibers raised from 350-250°C and reduced at the temperature lower than 250°C.Wear rates of the friction materials raised with temperature rise for jute fibers carbonization led to the matrix became loose. With jute fibers content rise worn surface of the reinforced materials became from smooth to rough. There were pits, grooves, abrasive particles, pulled out fibers and wear debris on the worn surfaces. Abrasive wear was the main wear mechanism.

A new series of test pieces with different geometrical configuration and geometry dimensions are designed to experimentally investigate on impingement-effusion cooling behavior in curve effusion wall of combustion chamber. The test results show that the discharge coefficient increased with the increasing blowing ratio. The effusion hole–hole spacing has an effect on the discharge coefficient and the discharge coefficient commonly decreased with the increment of effusion hole–hole spacing. The blowing ratio greatly effects cooling behavior. The bigger blowing ratio is favorable for improving cooling characters. At the curved effusion wall, to begin with, cooling effectiveness increased slowly and kept a steady value in subsequence. But, for the rear end of curved effusion wall, it decreased slowly. With decreasing of effusion hole angle and effusion hole–hole spacing, cooling effectiveness is enhanced. Meanwhile, blowing ratio, effusion angle and effusion hole–hole spacing take an evident effect on the discharge coefficient.

Ink-jet printing is a non-contact printing, drops are jetted on the substrates to form images through the nozzles at a certain speed. Dot is the smallest unit in printing; the qualities of printing are seriously affected by dot gain. Ink spreading and penetration are discussed in this paper, influences on dot gain in ink-jet printing are studied, the original Young's equation and Washburn formula are theoretically amended, more scientific and rational models and formulas are obtained in the actual process of ink-jet printing, which offers reference standard and theoretical basis to improve the quality of ink-jet printing.

The chemical composition of surface sizing agent BLD-02 was researched, as well as its synthesis method. BLD-02 was analyzed by infrared spectroscopy, and the main monomers were styrene, acrylate and acrylonitrile. In the process of synthesis, these monomers were prepared for copolymer latex by seed emulsion polymerization. Through a series of pre-trial, the results showed that when the contents of initiator and emulsifying agent were 0.3% and 3% (the percentage of total) respectively, the weight ratio of hard monomer to soft monomer was 2/3 and the reaction temperature was 75°C, the synthetic emulsion with higher viscosity, smaller particle size and well-dispersion was prepared. Results showed that the infrared spectrum and properties of the synthetic emulsion, to some extent, were as same as that of BLD-02.

Top-emitting white organic light-emitting diodes(TWOLEDs) have attracted intensive attention due to their great potential for high-resolution full color active matrix display and lighting applications.We have investigated optical and electrical characteristics of the TWOLED combining electroluminescence(EL) of blue material(ADN) with top color conversion layer(CCL) based on non-doped red material(NPAMLI).The TWOLED,with structure of Glass substrate/Al/Cs2CO3/Alq3/ADN/NPB/MoO3/Au/Alq3/NPAMLI,was fabricated by vacuum thermal evaporation.The 10 nm thick Au was used as top semitransparent anode,the 40 nm thick Alq3 was used as a capping layer to improve the light out-coupling,and the non-doped red material NPAMLI was used as the CCL.The NPAMLI CCL showed strong absorption from 450 nm to 550 nm,which matched well with the emission of the ADN.The EL spectra of the TWOLED additionally contained a red component from NPAMLI,which absorbed a part of the blue EL of the ADN,and converted this to its red fluorescence.Therefore,the TWOLED yielded a white light emission resulting from final mixture of color-converted red light and unabsorbed blue light.The TWOLED with a peak current(power) efficiency of 1.25 cd/A(0.71 lm/W),CIE coordinates of(0.330,0.292),and a color rendering index of around 87.5,has been obtained.

We have demonstrated efficient blue electrophosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes(PHOLEDs) with double light-emitting layers(D-BOLED),by doping both hole and electron transport layers with iridium(Ⅲ) bis[(4,6-di-fluorophenyl)-pyridinato-N,C2′] picolinate(FIrpic),simultaneously.The D-BOLED showed a peak efficiency of 23.4 cd/A,which was improved about 36.8% compared to the conventional blue PHOLEDs with a single light-emitting layer(S-BOLED),by doping either hole or electron transport layer with FIrpic.We have attributed this improvement mainly to that the D-BOLED can efficiently use the triplet excitons that were generated by carrier recombination at the interface of FIrpic∶TCTA/ FIrpic∶TPBI and diffused into FIrpic doped charge transport layers and subsequently decayed radiatively on FIrpic sites.Combining a DCJTB doped color conversion layer with the D-BOLED,we have achieved a WOLEDs with a peak efficiency of 10.7 cd/A and CIE coordinate of(0.33,0.33).

In this paper, allyl maleated rosin ester was synthesized by the esterification of maleic rosin and allyl alcohol with catalyst. And then a new waterborne paper-plastic composite adhesive was prepared through the semi-continuous emulsion polymerization method with allyl maleated rosin ester, butyl acrylate, vinyl acetate and acrylic acid as raw materials. The product of esterification was analyzed by IR spectra, and its acid value was determined too. Polymer was analyzed by DSC and IR spectra and its T-style peel strength was determined. The adsorption effect of adhesives to ink was also tested. The results showed that this paper-plastic composite adhesive had good adhesive properties: excellent compatibility with the ink, longer stability period, and low cost.

Four kinds of ink-jet papers with different surface characteristics are chosen in this paper, by the ink-jet proofing experiments, the influence of surface characteristics to dot gain is studied, and the law of dot gain with paper surface characteristics is discussed. During the experiment, surface properties including absorbency, gloss, roughness and whiteness are tested firstly; then, the standard wedge of GATF is printed on these papers in the same printing conditions; finally, the dot gain is tested by SpectroEye. After experimental data processing and analysis, dot gain curves of different ink-jet papers are concluded, the law of dot gain with ink-jet paper surface characteristics is summarized. The results show that dot gain is different in different paper, the evaluation of 3# is the best; dot gain is also different with different colors in the same paper, and it is serious in cyan but light in yellow; the biggest dot gain appears in different contrast with different colors, cyan appears near the 65% dot area. The result of this paper offers a certain theoretical reference and practical guidance to the selection, the research and development of ink-jet paper as well as the improvement of ink-jet qualities.

Single chain variable fragment antibodies (scFvs) have considerable potential in immunological detection of pesticides, veterinary and other residues. In this study, a large human synthetic phage displayed library was used to select scFvs against ivermectin (IVM) by subtractive panning. After four rounds of panning, seven monoclonal phage particles capable of binding with the IVM were obtained. One of the identified novel anti-IVM scFv, hsIVM8, was expressed in Escherichia coli HB2151 and purified with Ni metal ion affinity chromatography. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamine gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) indicated that the relative molecular mass of hsIVM8 was estimated at 28 kDa. The purified hsIVM8 was used to develop a competitive indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ci-ELISA) for IVM. The linear range of detection for standards in this ci-ELISA was approximately 0.1-5 microg/mL and 50% inhibition of control (IC(50)) was 4.11 microg/mL for IVM. These results showed promising applications of hsIVM8 for detecting IVM in agricultural and environmental matrices.

Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy and safety of WenYang HuoXue Washing Prescription (WYHX) in the treatment of upper limb edema after breast cancer surgery. Methods: Seventy-eight patients with upper extremity edema after operation of breast cancer with Yin Syndrome were given wet compress with prescription and nursing guidance. The symptom score of affected extremity was observed before and 14 days after treatment, and the total effective rate was evaluated. Results: Twenty-three cases were markedly effective, 41 cases were effective and 14 cases were Invalid. The total effective rate was 82.1%. There was no significant difference between the two groups according to stage I and stage II of edema (P > 0.05). Conclusion: WYHX can effectively improve the discomfort symptoms of upper limb edema and cold after breast cancer surgery, and is worthy of clinical application.

Liver regeneration is inhibited in small-for-size grafts, which plays a role in the failure of partial liver grafts after transplantation. The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays a critical role in liver development, regeneration and homeostasis. In this study, we investigated whether pharmacological activation of Wnt signaling improves liver regeneration after small-for-size liver transplantation.The livers of male Sprague-Dawley rats were reduced to approximately 50% and 30% of their original sizes and transplanted. A Wnt agonist (2-amino-4-[3,4-[methylenedioxy]benzylamino]-6-[3-methoxyphenyl] pyrimidine], 5 mg/kg bodyweight) or an equal volume of vehicle was administrated i.p. into the donor 1 h before the transplantation. Tissue and blood samples were collected at various times after transplantation, and a survival study was performed.Hepatic expression of active β-catenin and its downstream target gene Axin2 were decreased in 30% of liver grafts after transplantation while the Wnt agonist increased their expression similar to the 50% liver grafts. The Wnt agonist reversed inhibition of cyclin D1 expression and adenosine triphosphate production in the 30% liver grafts compared with the 50% grafts. The Wnt agonist also attenuated hepatocellular injury and increased the hepatocyte proliferation response, liver regeneration rate and survival after transplantation of the 30% liver graft.Activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in liver grafts by pharmacological pretreatment can accelerate regeneration in a partial liver transplant model.

Through carrying a variety of imaging sensors, the unmanned aerial vehicle began to show its flexibility and importance, image fusion technology becomes more and more indispensible. In this paper, the existing video fusion method and fusion performance evaluation method is analyzed, and an improved video fusion evaluation algorithm based on structure similarity was proposed. The simulation results were shown that the improved fusion performance evaluation method was better than the conventional method, and a method to solve the fusion performance evaluation problem was provided. Introduction Through carrying a variety of imaging sensors, the unmanned aerial vehicle’s ability of autonomous navigation, battlefield reconnaissance, combat visual assessment and tracking target search task were improved. Unmanned aerial vehicle not only can adapt to changes in the complex environment conditions, but also can obtain abundant scene space information. At present the unmanned aerial vehicle imaging sensor can get visible light and infrared video image, and the video images are widely used in the process of practical application. Because of the weather, light and other environmental conditions, the single image sensor were restricted and it was not suitable for all-weather work, meanwhile, the imaging principle of each sensor were different, and the characteristic information of the images were also different. Video Fusion Image fusion technology can integrate two complementary information of different kinds of images, and the obtained fusion images is by integration of their respective advantages, the single sensor in application environment, using range and the limitation of the target acquisition were overcome, at the same time the image spatial resolution and clarity can be improved, the image understanding and recognition were facilitated, the using efficiency of image data were effectively improved. Video is a set of continuous image sequence according to the time sequence actually, it is using the principle of human visual temporarily leave to make the eye with movement feeling by playing a series of images. It is a kind of the most abundant information, intuitive, vivid and concrete bearing information of the media; Video fusion technology is through the integration of multiple visual sensors at the same time or different time to get on the same specific scenarios of video information, so as to enrich video details and enhance cognitive effect. Video fusion technology is widely used in military activity with the rapid development of science and technology. Video fusion and image fusion are the same purpose, in order to obtain the same scene or target with more accurate, comprehensive and reliable description of video images [1]. International Conference on Applied Science and Engineering Innovation (ASEI 2015) © 2015. The authors Published by Atlantis Press 807 Improved Video Fusion Evaluation Algorithm The algorithm is mainly based on the structure similarity information of the image. Due to the human eye vision system’s sensitivity to the structure information of the image, and image structure information loss can well reflect the image distortion, so we can use the structure similarity information of the input images and fused image to evaluate the performance of image fusion algorithm. Structure similarity is defined by Wang [2,3], for image A and image B, the structure similarity is defined: 3 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 3 2 2 ( , ) [ ( , )] [ ( , )] [ ( , )] ( ) ( ) ( ) AB A B A B A B A B A B C C C SSIM A B l A B c A B s A B C C C                            (1) In which the l (A, B), c (A, B) and s (A, B) are brightness, contrast and correlation coefficient respectively, for, A  and B  are the average of the image A and image B respectively, A  and B  are the variances of the image A and image B respectively, A  B is the covariance of image A and image B,  ,  and can be adjusted according to the importance of each part, 1 C , 2 C and 3 C are constant, they are used to avoid the condition of zero denominator. Make 1       and 3 2 / 2 C C  , the Eq.1 come to: 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 ( , ) ( )( ) A B AB A B A B C C SSIM A B C C               (2) The video fusion performance evaluation methods based on structure similarity and human vision can evaluate video fusion performance from two aspects of information extraction of time and space and time consistency, and the evaluation results are more close to the subjective evaluation.Based on structure similarity of SSIM, the space fusion performance evaluation index were build, the time performance evaluation index were build according to the SSIM values of each frame difference image between fused video and input video; so the video fusion algorithm performance were evaluated comprehensive [2]. The specific implementation steps include four steps: First, to build a single frame space fusion performance evaluation factors according to the SSIM values between each frame image of the fused video and the input video. The building formula is [4]: , , , , , , , , 1 1 , , , , , 1 1 ( ( )( ( , | )) ( )( ( , | )) ( , , ) ( ( ) ( )) I J a i j t a f i j t b i j t b f i j t i j S t a b f I J a i j t b i j t i j w SSIM V V w w SSIM V V w Q V V V w w  

Aims Recently, interleukin (IL)-9 was found to be involved in the pathogenesis of many inflammatory diseases. Here, we tested whether IL-9 was related to atherosclerosis and investigated the underlying mechanisms. Methods and results IL-9R was expressed in mouse aortic endothelial cells (MAECs) and aortic tissues, and IL-9 levels were elevated in plasma and aortic arches in Apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE−/−) mice. ApoE−/− mice fed a western diet for 10 weeks were administered recombinant mouse IL-9 (rIL-9) or anti-IL-9 neutralizing monoclonal antibody (mAb). Mice treated with rIL-9 developed markedly larger plaques in both the aorta and aortic root. Immunohistochemical studies demonstrated increases in both vascular endothelial adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) expression and the infiltration of inflammatory cells, including T cells and macrophages, in plaques. However, treatment with the anti-IL-9 mAb caused the opposite effect. The administration of rIL-9 did not affect the splenic T cell or peripheral monocyte subsets. Meanwhile, IL-9 induced VCAM-1 expression in MAECs mainly via a STAT3-dependent pathway, consequently increasing monocyte–endothelial adhesion. Moreover, treatment with anti-VCAM-1 mAb partially abrogated the IL-9-induced increase in plaque area. In addition, CD4+IL-9+ T cells and IL-9 were increased in patients with acute coronary syndrome, and the levels of IL-9 in culture supernatants and soluble VCAM-1 (sVCAM-1) in plasma were significantly positively correlated in the enrolled patients. Conclusion Our results demonstrated that IL-9 exerted pro-atherosclerotic effects in ApoE−/− mice at least partially by inducing VCAM-1 expression, which mediated inflammatory cell infiltration into atherosclerotic lesions.

The aim of this study was to explore a law of energy deposition of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in various tissues and the expression of such a law. A focused ultrasound (US) tumor therapeutic system was used to apply a focused US beam to tissues both in vivo and in vitro . The formation of individual ellipsoid-shaped regions of coagulative necrosis has been observed. Results showed that the volume of the ellipsoid-shaped coagulative necrosis region was different from that of the acoustic focal region (AFR), both in vitro and in vivo . Acoustic intensities ranging from 7 × 10 3 W/cm 2 to 27.7 × 10 3 W/cm 2 and exposure times from 1 to 20 s gave volumes of ellipsoid-shaped coagulative necrosis of 0.2 to 2000 mm 3 . Although the HIFU doses applied were identical, the volumes of individual ellipsoid-shaped coagulative necrotic regions varied with the structures of tissues, their functional status and the irradiation depths. Individual ellipsoid-shaped regions of coagulative necrosis induced by HIFU can be added to produce coagulative necrosis of an entire tumor. We define the individual ellipsoid-shaped coagulative necrosis produced by the US energy deposition of a single exposure as the “biological focal region” (BFR) of HIFU. This serves as the basic unit for HIFU ablation of tumors, and is plotted as a function of AFR, acoustic intensity, exposure time, irradiation depth, the tissue structure and its functional status. (E-mail: wangzhibiao@netease.com)

To study the possibility of mismatch repair gene hMSH2 as a marker to predict the occurrence of gastric carcinoma. Immunohistochemical method was used to detect hMSH2 protein expressions of gastric carcinomas (carcinoma group) and their surrounding epithelia (surrounding epithelium group) in patients and the epithelia (normal epithelium group) in persons without carcinoma. The positive rates of hMSH2 protein expression in nucleus of carcinoma, surrounding epithelium and normal epithelium groups were 44.94% (71/158), 28.48% (45/158) and 11.76% (4/34), respectively (P=0.000); the positive rates of hMSH2 protein expression in plasma of the 3 groups were 37.97% (60/158), 27.85% (44/158) and 23.53% (8/34), respectively (P=0.084); the positive rates of hMSH2 protein expression in both nucleus and plasma of the 3 groups were 20.89% (33/158), 17.72% (28/158) and 2.94% (1/34), respectively (P=0.045). Although the difference of positive rates between carcinoma and surrounding epithelium groups was not significant (P=0.476), both of them were higher than that of normal epithelium group (P=0.018). Our findings show that the detection of hMSH2 protein expression in gastric epithelia may help to predict and diagnose gastric carcinoma.

An enhanced, xylose-utilizing strain of Rhizopus arrhizus was successfully developed via modification using media with increasing concentrations of xylose. Xylose, a relatively cheap monosugar that can be easily obtained from corncobs, rice straw, and vinasse, was the sole carbon source used for both the seed culture phase and the fermentation process. After modification, this newly improved strain showed tremendous industrial potential for fumaric acid production using xylose. The fumaric acid production increased to 28.48 g/L (parental strain was 13.23 g/L) at 8% initial xylose, a carbon:nitrogen ratio of 200, and a residence time of 7 days. The volumetric productivity was 169.52 mg/L (78.75 mg/L) per hour.

The text feature matrix of domain-ontology has the following three characteristics: high-dimension, sparse and independence of dimensions. Independence means that text implications of dimensions are different from each other. Many clustering algorithms take into account the characteristics of high-dimension and sparse, but ignore the impact of independence. And the artificial interference in parameters can often affect our clustering results. In this paper, we propose a new clustering algorithm by enriching connotation of similarity and minimizing the influence of subjective parameters. The experimental results verify the validity of our algorithm.

Excessive inflammation responses mediated by CD4+ T cells contributes to myocardial fibrosis in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) resulting from viral myocarditis. Recently, some scholars discovered that B cells harbored an abnormal pro-inflammatory capacity besides the production of autoantibodies. Thus, we aimed to explore whether and which type of B cells act on myocardial fibrosis in DCM. A total of 56 newly hospitalized DCM patients were studied, and among these, 17 patients accepted the gadolinium enhanced cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for myocardial fibrosis evaluations. B cell functions including the frequency and proliferation were significantly elevated in DCM patients. After screening the important cytokines including IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17, TNF-α and TGF-β produced in these B cells by flow cytometry, we found that only the TNF-α-secreting B cells were obviously increased. Furthermore, the TNF-α protein secretion and mRNA levels were also enhanced in LPS-stimulated B cell isolated from DCM patients. In addition, 10 patients (59 %) with increased TNF-α-secreting B cells showed late enhancement and boosted serum procollagen type III compared with the other 7 patients (41 %) whose enhancement could not be detected. Moreover, the frequencies of TNF-α-secreting B cells were negatively correlated with LVEF and positively correlated with LVEDD, NT-proBNP and procollagen type III in all of the DCM patients. Our study firstly suggested that TNF-α-secreting B cells were involved in myocardial fibrosis, which revealed the new pathogenic mechanism of B cells in DCM, and therapeutic targets against these cells might be valuable.

The duplex formation mediated by Hg(2+) in a properly designed ssDNA generates a stable hairpin structure, which greatly alters the translocation profile of the ssDNA through α-hemolysin nanopore. From the 2D-events contour plot, the presence of Hg(2+) can be confirmed in as little as 30 min at ∼7 nM or higher. The sensor is highly selective to Hg(2+), without interference from other metal ions. It can be fabricated from readily available materials, without the processes of synthesis, purification, probe-making, and so forth. This sensing strategy opens new possibilities for detecting many types of analytes which have specific interactions with DNA molecules.

To investigate the changes of proportion of CD4(+);CD25(+); regulatory T cells (Treg) in Splenocytes and concentration of serum TGF-β1 in diverse period after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion(tMCAO) in mice and correlation between Treg and TGF-β1, so as to elucidate their roles in the immunological injury of acute ischemic stroke.60 male Kunming mice were randomly divided into six groups, i.e. sham group (24 h, n=10) and five tMCAO groups(ischemia/reperfusion 12 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h and 5 d, n=10/group), amount to six groups. The models of tMCAO were established by modified monofilament method; Neurologic deficit score was performed at each time point after tMCAO, and then, to sacrifice mice and measure the volume of cerebral infarction by TTC staining; the expression of Foxp3 in spleen was observed by frozen section and immunofluorescence method; the proportions of Treg in splenocytes were analyzed by flow cytometry(FCM) and the concentrations of serum TGF-β1 were measured by ELISA.This study observed that there was obvious immunological injury and it was gradually worse. Similarly, TTC staining indicated that the volume of cerebral infarction gradually enlarged and peaked at 48 h following reperfusion, subsequently, exhibited slight decrease. Neurological function gradually improved after reperfusion. There were positive expressions of Foxp3 in the mice spleens and significant different in every groups. FCM indicated, compared with sham group, the percentage of Treg was decrease at 24 h after ischemia/reperfusion (P0.05), and recovered normal level at 72 h, and significantly increased at 5 d (P0.05). The level of serum TGF-β1 also showed the similar tendency, the concentration of serum TGF-β1 was lower at 24 h after ischemia/reperfusion than sham group, and recovered to sham's level at 48 h, and was significantly higher at 5 d than sham group (P0.05). Otherwise, there was a positive correlation between serum level of TGF-β1 and percentage of Treg.The levels of Treg and TGF-β 1 were decrease in the acute period after ischemia/reperfusion, and they were significant increase in the recovery progress, which closely associated with the change of the ischemia volume. Therefore, Imbalance of Treg and TGF-β1 is very likely to play an important role in the immunological injury of acute ischemic stroke.

Staged combustion technology is adopted in the trapped vortex combustor, a pilot combustor is used for flame stability and a main combustor is used for power. Low emissions combustion can be achieved by controlling mixing of oil and gas in pilot combustor and main combustor. Experimental research has been conducted to investigate the emissions of pilot stage of double vortex combustor. The combustor uses evaporating tubes as fuel injection device, and the aviation kerosene is chosen as the fuel of the combustor. The experimental results indicate that the emissions index of CO of pilot stage are between 8 and 137 g/Kg fuel, and the emissions index of NO x are between 1 and 2.4 g/Kg fuel. The influence of inlet temperature and inlet velocity on emissions has been studied in detail. The experimental results also indicate that the area increase of inlet hole in the cavity will help to reduce the emissions of CO and NO x .

International audience; In recent years, cohesive-zone models have been formulated and used to numerically simulate the fracture of solid materials. Cohesive-zone models presented in the literature involve a 'jump' in the displacement field describing crack onset within a predefined interface network corresponding to interfaces between elements of the finite element (FE) mesh. The introduction of a virtual displacement jump is convenient to numerically manage micro-crack or void initiation, growth and coalescence. Until now, the forms of interface laws were mainly chosen in connection with the overall responses of specimens when subjected to standard loadings. In this study, a cohesive-zone model identification method is proposed based on the local material behaviour derived from kinematical measurements obtained by digital image correlation (DIC). A series of tensile loadings were performed for several damageable elastic-plastic materials on standard tensile specimens. Kinematical data analysis enabled early detection and tracking of the zone where the crack occurs. The results of this study highlight the potential of DIC to quantify damage and show how damage assessments can be inserted in cohesive-zone model identification.

To explore the feasibility and efficacy of focused ultrasound for the treatment of vulvar dystrophy, including squamous hyperplasia (SH) and lichen sclerosus (LS).A total of 76 eligible patients with vulvar dystrophy (45 SH and 31 LS) were treated with focused ultrasound between 1999 and 2002. Before and after ultrasound therapy, both ultrasonography and biopsies of the lesions were performed to monitor and evaluate the changes of the lesion being treated. The positive expressions of CD34 (cluster of differentiation of endothelial cells), a marker of the epithelial cells of blood vessels and myelin basic protein (MBP), a marker of the oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells were tested using the streptavidin-peroxidase (SP) immunohistochemistry method before and after the ultrasound procedure to evaluate the effects of ultrasound treatment.In two years, follow-up, 49 of 76 cases (32 SH and 17 LS) were cured, 23 (11 SH and 12 LS) improved, and 4 (2 SH and 2 LS) persisted. The response rate was 94.7% (72/76). The positive expression of CD34 and MBP significantly increased at the treated region (P0.05). Grey-scale ultrasound imaging showed a localized hypoechoic region after the treatment, which recovered to normal appearance within 7 - 10 days.Vulvar dystrophy can be treated with focused ultrasound effectively and safely. This approach appears to be a new promising treatment method, although further studies are still needed.

Based on the well-known Pennes' bioheat equation, we analyzed theoretically the temperature rise in tissue during high intensity focused ultrasound(HIFU) irradiation, and measured the focal temperature rise induced by HIFU in the treatment of freshly excised cow liver with different acoustic intensity and exposure time. The results showed that a threshold exposure time always existed under a certain acoustic intensity. Temperature rise was slow when exposure time exceeded the threshold exposure time. The greater the acoustic intensity was, the earlier the threshold time appeared. The focal temperature rise and the relative cumulative thermal dose (RCTD) increased with the increase of acoustic intensity and exposure time. For a certain therapeutic dose, the effects of acoustic intensity on focal temperature rise were more distinct than the effects of exposure time on focal temperature rise. Therefore, the optimal HIFU therapeutic dose should meet the need, i.e. moderate acoustic intensity, and the exposure time be the threshold exposure time under this acoustic intensity.