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BACKGROUND This study aimed to systematically evaluate the therapeutic effects of acupotomy combined with acupuncture and moxibustion on knee osteoarthritis (KOA), which was expected to provide a reference for clinical treatment of KOA using traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). METHODS The databases PubMed, Embase, Medline, Ovid, and Springer were searched to retrieve randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on KOA treatment by acupotomy combined with acupuncture and moxibustion. The search time was set as from the date the database was established to 31 December 2020. The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Intervention 5.0.2 was used to conduct bias risk assessment on the included literature, and Review Manager 5.3 software was used for meta-analysis. RESULTS A total of 10 RCTs were included in this study, including 1,073 participants. Meta-analysis results showed that compared with the control group, the clinical treatment efficiency of the experimental group was higher [mean difference (MD) =5.72; 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.39 to 9.64; Z=6.54; P

Oil shale semi-coke is a hazardous byproduct from the thermal processing of oil shale, with potential dangerous environmental impacts. Previous studies have found that adding various biomass matters to the retorting waste allows for easier combustion of the retorting waste, making for safer disposal of materials. Here, oil shale semi-coke from Huadian retorts were mixed with torrefied cornstalks of various degrees (250, 275, 300 °C) in order to assess the combustion behavior and effect of the mixture. Kinetic parameters of combustion were then calculated by using the Vyazovkin method. Based on TG-DTG-DSC curves, co-combustion of oil shale semi-coke and cornstalk increased with the greater degree of heat-treated cornstalk. From activation energy distribution curve, the interaction of torrefied cornstalk in the combustion process mainly occurred in the co-firing transition phase, and the activation energy of the 275 °C cornstalk was the least of the three samples and had the most obvious influence on the process.

Background Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) are important in the growth and metastasis of colon cancer. The objective of this study was to describe the potential role of lncRNA NEAT1 in the progression of colon cancer. Methods Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction was used for detecting NEAT1, miR‐185‐5p, and IGF2 in colon cancer cells and tissues. The potential diagnostic value of NEAT1 in colon cancer was analyzed with the receiver operating characteristic curve. Kaplan–Meier method was applied for evaluating the association between NEAT1 expression and the overall survival of osteosarcoma patients, whereas Transwell assay was introduced to examine the potential invasion and migration of colon cancer cells. In addition, the binding of NEAT1/IGF2 to miR‐185‐5p was confirmed by RNA pull‐down and RNA‐binding protein immunoprecipitation assays and dual‐luciferase reporter gene assay. Finally, rescue experiments were conducted to confirm the role of NEAT1/miR‐185‐5p/IGF2 axis in colon cancer. Results Colon cancer patients with low NEAT1 expression presented with longer overall survival than those with high expression. The migration and invasion of colon cancer cells were considerably promoted by overexpressed NEAT1. Both NEAT1 and IGF2 bound to miR‐185‐5p. Conclusion NEAT1 upregulate IGF2 expression through absorbing miR‐185‐5p to enhances the migration and invasion of colon cancer cells., Increasing evidence suggest that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) expression alterations have a vital impact in the process of biological process in cancer. However, the role of lncRNAs in colorectal cancer remains largely to be explored. Here we reported that NEAT1 upregulate IGF2 expression through absorbing miR‐185‐5p to enhances the migration and invasion of colon cancer cells.

Al, Pd co-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized using a solution combustion method and subsequent annealing process under various atmospheres, including air, nitrogen, and hydrogen, were characterized using x-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The gas-sensing properties of the sensors based on the NPs were also examined. The results indicated that the Al, Pd co-doped ZnO NPs, with an average crystallite size of 10 nm, exhibited enhanced gas-sensing performance compared with that of pure ZnO and Al-doped ZnO. The response of the Al, Pd co-doped ZnO NPs annealed in N2 to ethanol (49.22) was nearly 5.7 times higher than that to acetone (8.61) and approximately 20 – 27 times higher than that to benzene (2.38), carbon monoxide (2.23), and methane (1.78), which demonstrates their excellent selectivity to ethanol versus other gases. This high ethanol response can be attributed to the combined effects of the small size, Schottky barrier, lattice defects, and catalysis.

The combustion of mixtures of oil shale retorting solid waste and cornstalk particles in a circulating fluidized bed under different conditions was analyzed while investigating the effects of combustion chamber temperature distribution on slag and fly ash. The concentrations of O2, CO, and NOx in the flue gas at different locations within the combustion unit were also obtained. The results show that oil shale retorting solid waste mixed with cornstalk particles in the appropriate ratio can undergo completely stable and efficient combustion. With increasing cornstalk particle fractions, the combustion characteristics are improved, such that the furnace exit temperature is elevated, while the concentrations of O2 and CO are decreased and the combustible fraction of the bottom ash gradually drops below 2%. Although the N content of the cornstalks is greater than that of the retorting solid waste, increases in the proportion of cornstalk material in the fuel is not associated with increased emissions of NOx. ...

A capsule of Qili Jiegu, a traditional Chinese medicine with numerous biological activities, may exert a protective eff ;ect against postmenopausal bone loss. However, it remains unclear whether Qili Jiegu-containing serum regulates the osteogenic diff ;erentiation of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) in vitro. In this study, BMSCs were treated with medium and Qili Jiegu-containing serum over a 14-day period. We found that Qili Jiegu-containing serum promoted the BMSC proliferation and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities, as well as stimulated the expression of osteogenic markers and Wnt/β-catenin pathway-related genes, i.e., runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2), osteocalcin (OCN), β-catenin and Wnt4a, in BMSCs. Finally, we found that Qili Jiegu-containing serum activated the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. An addition of Dickkopf-related protein-1 (an inhibitor of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway) to the Qili Jiegu-containing serum could decrease the stimulatory osteogenic effect of Qili Jiegu-containing serum on BMSCs. Therefore, Qili Jiegu-containing serum could promote the osteogenic diff ;erentiation of BMSCs, and the potential mechanism may involve regulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling.

Artificial neural network method was used to forecast the wind speed, and two wind speed forecasting models were built based on BP and RBF neural network methods. 24 hours continuous wind speed forecast was conducted for a single wind turbine in wind farm. The results show that the models built are reasonable and have high prediction accuracy. By comparing the two kinds of wind speed forecasting models, BP neural network forecasting model has higher prediction accuracy than RBF neural network forecasting model in wind speed, but it demands much more training time.

Emerging studies have showed that long-chain non-coding RNA DMTF1v4 might participate in the process of multidrug resistance phenotype of gastric cancer. However, its expression and function in colorectal cancer (CRC) is still unknown. In this study, we discovered that DMTF1v4 was generally 5.15 ± 1.67 times upregulated in CRC tissues compared to the adjacent normal tissues. Moreover, the expression level of DMTF1v4 was closely related to the distant metastasis of tumor, but it was not related to age, sex, tumor location, tumor staging, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, and differentiation level. Survival analysis showed that the overall survival rate of patients with high expression of DMTF1v4 was 45.0% in cancer tissues, which was significantly lower than 82.5% of DMTF1v4 low expression patients (χ2 = 11.562, P < 0.01). The results of univariate COX regression analysis showed that DMTF1v4, TNM (tumor, node, metastasis) staging, distant metastasis, and tumor differentiation were closely related to the prognosis of patients ( P < 0.05). Multivariate COX regression analysis showed that DMTF1v4 and distant metastasis could be independent prognostic factors for CRC patients. In conclusion, this study revealed that DMTF1v4 might promote the development of CRC, which can be used as an independent factor to judge the prognosis of CRC.

Multi-component doped photopolymer with phenanthrenequinone photosensitizers is prepared and its photosensivity characteristic is investigated experimentally. SiO2 nanoparticles and ZnMA organometallic components are dispersed into the P(MMA-co-MAA) matrix to enhance the photosensitivity of sample. Experimental results indicate the photopolymerization time constants under consecutive exposure and the time constants of dark enhancement under darkness are evidently reduced at least one order of magnitude.

The rice husk from China has been non-isothermally pyrolysed on thermogravimetric analyzer(TGA). The analyses were performed at different heating rates (20, 40, 60, 80, 100°C/min) up to 900°C with nitrogen as purge gas. The weight loss curve showed that the main pyrolysis of rice husk took place in the range of 200~500°C. On the basis of experiment data, a pyrolysis kinetic model was proposed. The kinetic parameters of activation energy(E) and frequency factor(A) were obtained by the Direct Arrhenius Plot Method. There was no clear relationship between activation energy and heating rate.

In order to improve the lubricating performance of the headface sliding bearing, a new kind of the bionic headface sliding bearing, which has defined lubricating dimple pattern, has been designed based on the phyllotactic theory, and fabricated with UV lithography method and electrolytic technology. A electrolytic experiment of the dimple has been done and analyzed about the influence of the electrolytic time to the electrolytic depth against the different phyllotactic parameters. The analytical results indicate that the phyllotactic parameters influence the lubricating dimple arrangement configuration, so as to improve lubricating performance of the bearing. The increasing diameter of the dimple and the decreasing phyllotactic parameter c can increase the density of the lubricating dimple. Electrolytic experimental results show that the reasonable electrolytic fabricating can reduce the faults of defined lubricating dimple arrangement on the bearing surface.

In this work, a series of combustion experiments for oil shale semi-coke , rice straws as well as their mixture were conducted by the thermogravimetric analyzer at different heating rates (10, 20 and 50 K/min) under atmospheric pressure. Combustion characteristic curves and combustion characteristic parameters were acquired. The results showed that the combustion process of blends can be broadly separated into three stages: combustion of the volatile matter, combustion of fixed carbon and combustion of difficult decomposition substance. The point of ignition and burnout shifted to higher temperature with increasing the heating rates. Furthermore, kinetics parameters were analyzed in the second stage. The result showed feasibility of using the reaction model to solve the kinetic parameters of biomass combustion. Finally, the obtained DTG curves were separated by Gaussian Fitting method. The result showed that the derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) curve displays an overlapping peak consisted of three sub-peaks at 645–900K under heating rate of 20K/min.

Co-combustion experiment of oil shale semi-coke and corn stalk at different blend ratios was performed using thermogravimetric analyzer. The influence of different blend ratios has been studied. The combustion characteristics are obtained under the heating rates of 20oC/min and the experimental temperature range of 40-850oC. The combustion process of the blends is divided into three stages: low-temperature stage, transition stage and high-temperature stage. With the increasing of corn stalk in the blends, the reaction of combustion mainly shifts from high-temperature stage to low-temperature stage, and there is no obvious change for the ignition temperature, but the burn out temperature comes down. The combustion kinetics parameters of the blends were analyzed using Flynn-Wall-Ozawa model. The result shows that the activation energy of the volatile matter stage increases and the activation energy of semi-coke combustion stage decreases. The combustion characteristics of the oil shale semi-coke get improved significantly with the mixture of corn stalk.

A model for the combustion of oil shale in the 65t/h circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler was developed, consisting of oil shale combustion, steam-water and ash circulation system, calculating the O2 and RO2 content of flue gas emission under three kinds of oil shale combustion in 65t/h CFB boiler. The calculated results indicate that the simulation values are consistent with the experimental values. Effect of boiler load on the temperature of furnace, flue gas emission, inlet and outlet flue gas of economizer was discussed based on the model. Boiler load on the increase results in a increase in temperature of furnace, flue gas emission, inlet and outlet flue gas of economizer. The main performance parameters of 65t/h oil shale CFB boiler system were discussed and preliminarily predicted by the model.

Daqing oil shale semi-coke combustion experiment has been performed through the Spouted bed experimental device for obtaining the temperature distribution, temperature and carbon content of separation materials. This paper presented the experimental study that the effect of three factors, containing screening particle size, wind speed and feeding flux, on the temperature variation of spouted bed and separation materials, and the carbon content in separation materials under different operating conditions. The experimental results show that the screening particle size and wind speed had great influence on the temperature of separation materials, while the carbon content is inversely proportional to the temperature of separation materials. This research further understands the combustion characteristic of Daqing oil shale semi-coke in spouted bed, establishing the foundation for the solid heat carrier retort in rotating retorting.

To measure optical parameters of biological tissues, support vector machine was adopted. The diffuse reflected light on the surface of the biological tissue corresponding to optical characteristic parameters of human tissue were obtained by Monte Carlo simulation. The nonlinear relationship model had been established between the diffuse reflected light and the optical parameters. The optical parameters were obtained by the support vector machine and the diffuse reflected light. That were compared with the given values of the same sample, and they were coherent basically. It was shown that support vector machine used to measure optical parameters had a high accuracy.

Gas-solid flow behavior of the bottom zone of a 65t/h High-low bed CFB was simulated using the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package Fluent. The Eulerian-Eulerian model (EEM) based on the kinetic theory of granular flow (KTGF) was adopted. This approach treated each phase as continuous separately. The link between the gas and solid phases was through drag model and turbulence model. While the turbulence was simulated by the standard k-ε and mixture multiphase model, the Gidaspow drag model was used to model the interphase interaction. Four phases were set to achieve size distribution in the EEM. Gas and solid flow profiles are obtained for solid velocity, solid volume fraction, pressure, and size distribution. The results show that EEM can predict preferably the internal circulation process of the dense zone high-low bed CFB.

The combustion experiments of oil shale semi-coke and corn stalk mixtures were conducted using thermogravimetric analyzer. The results show that the advance ignition and burnout can be achieved when semi-coke is mixed with corn stalk. The influence of different blend ratios has been studied, and the combustion characteristics were obtained. Comprehensive combustion characteristics get improved with the increase of corn stalk proportion in the mixture. The interaction of mixture in the combustion process occurs mainly in 400-600oC. It can be explained that the combustion of fixed carbon in corn stalk is delayed. What is more, TG curves were simulated by Johnson-Mehl-Avrami equation. The result shows the feasibility of using Weibull distribution to simulate the TG curves of co-combustion.

Huadian oil shale and its spent char were selected to explore the adsorption properties of oil shale and oil shale char. A bench-scale adsorption system was established for capturing hydrogen sulfide in this test. What’s more, the nitrogen adsorption isotherms test was made in automatic and rapid specific surface-area-analyzer of American’s Gemini2380, which found the adsorption curve and desorption loop of the modified oil shale and oil shale char. Meanwhile, the experiment calculated and analyzed the specific surface area and pore size distribution of samples with BJH theory. The result shows that the adsorption capacity of oil shale char is greater than oil shale. The rougher the pore structure of the adsorbent samples the greater the pore volume, the larger the specific surface area, the better the adsorption effect of H2S.

The nanocomposite membranes were prepared by mixing 2.5 wt% of TiO2 nanoparticles in casting solution. In order to determine the nanocomposite membrane property, a long-term operation of membrane bioreactor (MBR) was carried out and membrane flux were measured though the filtration tests. Results showed that TiO2 addition significantly improved the permeability of membrane and decreased the cake resistance compared with the sulfonated polyethersulfone (SPES) membrane in MBR.

In order to enhance the sealing quality and assemble efficiency of hydraulic supports, the evaluation system for the sealability of the hydraulic support and jack’s seals was established through the testing and experimenting technology in respects, such as seals’ dimensions, reasonable amounts of compression, sealability, life, resistance to pressure, etc. Through life detecting test of the seal, found the longest life seal ring under the same conditions, and through the reciprocating test of the hydraulic support, found the most appropriate amount of interference between the groove and the seal ring, thus, to decrease the leakage and extend the life span of the hydraulic support.

To construct the recombinant adenoviral vector which can efficiently inhibit mature miR-21 expression and explore its effects and the underlying mechanisms on hepatoma cell line HepG2.Based on miRNA-sponge technology, we synthesized 8 duplicated fragments, fully complementary with the miR-21 sequence and cloned them into a shuttle vector pAdTrack-CMV. The constructed plasmid was sequenced and linearized for homologous recombination with pAdEasy-1 vector in BJ5183 bacteria, then transfected into 293A cells. The recombinant adenovirus was used to challenge HepG2 cells. Mature miR-21 level was detected by real-time PCR. Apoptosis and proliferation of the HepG2 cells were detected by Hochest 33258 staining, Western blotting and MTT assay.The restriction enzyme digestion, DNA sequencing and detection of GFP expression demonstrated that recombinant adenoviral vector was constructed successfully. The recombinant adenovirus inhibited the expression of miR-21 in HepG2 cells, and also depressed the proliferation of HepG2 cells and promoted the apoptosis.The recombinant adenoviral vector we successfully constructed could efficiently reduce the expression of miR-21 in HepG2 cells and depress the proliferation of HepG2 cells.

A frequency-timing synchronization scheme for the downlink of filtered multitone modulation (FMT) based Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) system is presented. To achieve high-rate data transmission and better transmission quality, TETRA2 has been proposed in recent years. However, there are serious issues with the new wide-band TETRA system in frequency-timing synchronization. TETRA mainly specifies 2 sequences for downlink synchronization, i.e. downlink sync sequence set (DSS) and frequency correction set (FrCS). Researching the cross-correlation properties of these sequences and the existing data-aided synchronization algorithm for FMT, we propose an efficient method to estimate the frequency-offset and timing-offset for TETRA2 and analyze its performance in AWGN.

An environment model called danger degree map is built in order to provide abundant environment information for service robot. As the indoor environment is partly unknown, we use layered path planning methods in the paper. A modified particle swarm optimization (PSO) is introduced to get an initial static optimized path. Dynamic layer can get multi-pattern information of dynamic obstacles, and create dynamic danger degree map of the environment. Then a modified A* algorithm is used to avoid dynamic obstacles based on dynamic danger degree map. Finally, the head-for-goal strategy is designed in order to help the service robot arrive at the destination with lowest cost. The method proposed in the paper is simple and can meet the real-time requirement of robot navigation. The dynamic path is not only safe enough but also short comparatively. Experiments demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.