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Background For patients with a congenitally defective type of earlobe cleft, repair techniques similar to those utilized for earlobe lacerations are not suitable due to the presence of certain tissue defects. However, traditional earlobe reconstruction techniques imply the need to form complex flaps with adjacent normal tissues, which may lead to many complications. Objectives In this study, we developed a technique to repair the earlobe with residual lobular tissue based on the characteristics of congenitally defective earlobe clefts. Methods We designed a triangular random flap out of the remnant lobular tissue, rotated and embedded into the edge of the remnant earlobe to repair the earlobe. Results In the past 3 years, this technique was applied to 15 patients with congenitally defective earlobe clefts. With this technique, the new earlobe achieved the desired aesthetic results, such as smooth edges and fullness of form, without complicated and unnecessary incisions. It also solved the aesthetic problem of residual lobular tissue on the face. Conclusions Based on the characteristics of the congenitally defective type of earlobe cleft, we innovatively proposed the utilization of residual lobular tissues for earlobe repair, and the feasibility and multiple advantages of this technique have been demonstrated in practice. Level of Evidence: 4

Neuropathic pain (NP) is one of the most prevalent and troublesome symptoms of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), seriously affecting the patient's life. At present, effective treatment for NP induced by NMOSD does not exist. Pulsed radiofrequency (PRF), an emerging microinvasive therapy, alleviates pain and is widely used to treat various types of NP. This is the first report describing a patient with NMOSD-associated NP treated with PRF on the left cervical 6 nerve root.A 49-year-old female with NMOSD-associated severe NP in the left upper limb and left shoulder tried several medications, but none were effective. She was diagnosed with NP caused by NMOSD.To alleviate severe pain, we performed PRF on the left cervical nerve root under the guidance of ultrasound. This treatment was repeated 3 times.The patient's pain was significantly relieved, with a visual analog scale score decreasing from 7-8/10 to 2-3/10, which was maintained during the 3-month follow-up period, without complications.PRF might be effective for the management of intractable neuropathic pain caused by NMOSD.

In this article, a new three-level cascaded noninverting buck–boost converter (TL-CNIBB) is proposed, which has a superior adaptation for a wide-range voltage input of renewable energy access. Firstly, the operation principle is analyzed for TL-CNIBB and it is mainly divided into four modes, namely buck mode with the voltage ratio below or above 0.5, boost mode with the voltage ratio below or above 2. Due to multilevel and multimode features, several fundamental issues are required to be settled, such as a dead zone between buck mode and boost mode, capacitor voltage unbalance on both sides, and subharmonics at the edge of modes. For dead zone and capacitor voltage balance problems, a systematic control strategy is proposed, and four kinds of smooth transition technologies are proposed to deal with different cases. Furthermore, to avoid the chattering and subharmonics at the edge of modes, a modified hysteretic transition method is proposed. Finally, a prototype of TL-CNIBB system is constructed, and the experiments are carried out to verify the performance of the proposed system with high viability and flexibility.

The complexity and heterogeneity of urban land surfaces result in inconsistencies in near-surface winds, which in turn influence the diffusion and dispersion of air pollutants. In this study, we classified urban surface wind fields, quantified their steadiness, duration, and influence on air quality using hourly wind observations from 50 meteorological stations, as well as hourly PM

Purpose In prostate cancer, castration resistance is a factor that frequently leads to death in individuals with this disease. Recent studies have suggested that prostate cancer stem cells (PCSCs) are pivotal regulators in the establishment of castration resistance. The nanog homeobox (NANOG) and the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1/drosophila mothers against decapentaplegic protein (SMAD) signaling pathways are involved in several cancer stem cells but are not involved in PCSCs. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of NANOG on the proliferation of PCSCs regulated by the TGF-β1/SMAD signaling pathway. Methods In this study, we used flow cytometry to isolate CD44+/CD133+/NANOG+ PCSCs from DU145 prostate cancer cells. Then we used short hairpin RNA to silence NANOG and observed the biological behavior and the TGF-β1/SMAD signal of PCSCs. Results NANOG decreased PCSC proliferation, increased apoptosis, and blocked cell cycling at G0/G1. Furthermore, reduction in the TGF-β1, p15, and p-SMAD2 expression was observed. Conclusion These findings suggest that NANOG positively regulates the growth of PCSCs through the TGF-β1/SMAD signaling pathway.

With the increase economic growth and high energy consumption in Shenzhen, pollutant emission increases gradually which leads to air pollution and affect public health. In order to undertake effective measures for preventing and controlling air pollution, it is essential to understand the transmission characteristics of PM2.5 and identify the cause of air pollution in Shenzhen. Based on LIDAR data of Shenzhen, China, the transmission characteristics of PM2.5 across Shenzhen's borders in the winter of 2017 (from December 1, 2017 to February 28, 2018) were analyzed using a four-dimensional flux method. In addition, the sources of PM2.5 in Shenzhen from December 8 to 10, 2017 were analyzed. The results revealed that the East Asian winter monsoon was primarily responsible for the transmission of PM2.5 in Shenzhen, from north to south, and its surrounding areas, and high PM2.5 flux was primarily located at the altitude range of 500–1,500 m. During the monsoon transition period, the surface wind directions changed frequently, which resulted in varying transmission directions of PM2.5 fluxes across Shenzhen. During the period from December 8 to10, PM2.5 was continuously transported to the urban areas of Shenzhen via its northern border due to the influence of strong northerly wind. The PM2.5 fluxes were positive over Songgang station (in the northwestern corner of Shenzhen) and Xiapi station (in the northeastern corner of Shenzhen) from December 8 to 9. The analysis revealed that, the PM2.5 source contribution from regional transmission (representing other land areas within the model domain) reached approximately 50%, whereas the local source contribution was only approximately 10% in Shenzhen.

This paper proposes two fast calculation algorithms for the determination of the saddle-node bifurcation point of islanded microgrids, which use bisection search and parabolic approximation respectively. The Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is applied to obtain the least-squares solution in the infeasible region of power flow equations. The bisection search algorithm uses the least-squares solution to determine whether the current trial step reaches the power flow infeasible region, and finally approaches the saddle-node bifurcation point. The parabolic approximation algorithm performs a parabolic approximation to ‘the least-squares value’ – ‘load margin’ curve in the infeasible region, and the zero point of the curve is corresponding to the required saddle-node bifurcation point. The case analysis shows that the two algorithms proposed in this paper have the advantages of high accuracy, high computational efficiency, and strong robustness.

The fluctuation of voltage stability is considered in the distributed generation (DG) planning of this paper. Taking the mean value and standard deviation of the voltage stability index and the comprehensive investment cost of the distribution network as the goal, a model for optimal siting and sizing of DG is established. An improved multi-objective particle swarm algorithm is proposed to obtain optimal Parato solution set, in which adaptive inertia weight is used to improve convergence, cross mutation is used to avoid falling into local optima, and particle density is used to filter non-inferior solution sets. Taking the IEEE33 node system as an example, the location and capacity of wind turbines and photovoltaics are selected and the results prove the effectiveness of this method.

A continuous power flow (CPF) calculation method for the islanded microgrids with droop control is proposed in this paper. The starting point of CPF is solved by the modified factored load flow algorithm. The algorithm ensures the robustness of the starting point calculation with a two-step solution. The tangent prediction method and the Newton-Raphson method are used to determine the prediction and correction steps. Further, this paper proposes an adaptive step size control method based on frequency variation, which avoids the comparison among different nodal voltage magnitudes. In addition, node type switching is considered for handling the limit violations of PV nodes and droop nodes. The case analysis shows that the proposed CPF method has high efficiency and strong robustness.

In this paper, neural network, semi-supervised training, integrated learning, and other techniques are applied to the prediction and analysis of static voltage stability margin of island microgrid power systems and an online prediction method based on the Tri-Training-Lasso-BP network is proposed. The network consists of Tri-Training, the least absolute shrinkage and select operator (Lasso) algorithm and the backpropagation (BP) neural network. The analysis results on an 115-node example show that the proposed method can reduce the requirement of the data volume of the training set, take advantage of the massive data collected during the daily operation of the power system, improve the prediction accuracy of the network and reduce manual intervention. Finally, this paper uses statistical methods to make a comprehensive and objective description of the performance of the method.

Background MiRNAs play important roles in the development of ovarian cancer, activation of primitive follicles, follicular development, oocyte maturation and ovulation. In the present study, we investigated the specific role of miR-23a in cov434 cells. Results Downregulation of miR-23a was observed in serum of PCOS patients compared with the healthy control, suggesting the inhibitory effect of miR-23a in PCOS. MiR-23a was positively correlated with Body Mass Index (BMI) and negatively correlated with Luteinizing hormone (LH), Testostrone (T), Glucose (Glu) and Insulin (INS) of PCOS patients. MiR-23a mimic inhibited the proliferation and promoted apoptosis of human cov434 cells. In addition, flow cytometry assay confirmed that miR-23a blocked cell cycle on G0/G1 phase. MiR-23a inhibitor showed opposite results. Furthermore, double luciferase reporter assay proved that miR-23a could bind to the 3’UTR of FGD4 directly through sites predicted on Target Scan. FGD4 level was significantly suppressed by miR-23a mimic, but was significantly enhanced by miR-23a inhibitor. We further proved that miR-23a increased the expression of activated CDC42 (GTP bround) and p-PAK-1, suggesting that miR-23a induced cell cycle arrest through CDC42/PAK1 pathway. Conclusions In conclusion, our study reveals that miR-23a participates in the regulation of proliferation and apoptosis of cov434 cells through target FGD4, and may play a role in the pathophysiology of PCOS.

Background MiRNAs play important roles in the development of ovarian cancer, activation of primitive follicles, follicular development, oocyte maturation and ovulation. In the present study, we investigated the specific role of miR-23a in human granulosa cells. Results Downregulation of miR-23a was observed in in serum of PCOS patients compared with the healthy control, suggesting the inhibitory effect of miR-23a in PCOS. MiR-23a was positively correlated with Body Mass Index (BMI) and negatively correlated with Luteinizing hormone (LH), Testostrone (T), Glucose (Glu) and Insulin (INS) of PCOS patients. MiR-23a mimic inhibited the proliferation and promoted apoptosis of human granulosa cells. In addition, flow cytometry assay confirmed that miR-23a blocked cell cycle on G0/G1 phase. MiR-23a inhibitor showed opposite results. Furthermore, double luciferase reporter assay proved that miR-23a could bind to the 3’UTR of FGD4 directly through sites predicted on Target Scan. FGD4 level was significantly suppressed by miR-23a mimic, but was significantly enhanced by miR-23a inhibitor. We further proved that miR-23a increased the expression of activated CDC42 (GTP bround) and p-PAK-1, suggesting that miR-23a induced cell cycle arrest through CDC42/PAK1 pathway. Conclusions In conclusion, our study reveals that miR-23a participates in the regulation of proliferation and apoptosis of ovarian granulosa cells through target FGD4, and may play a role in the pathophysiology of PCOS.

Prostate cancer is one of most devastating disease with the poor prognosis in men. The efficacy of conventional therapies is far from satisfactory due to the insufficient chemotherapeutic delivery to the cancer cells which requires the extremely high or toxic dose to reach the therapeutic window. In this work, a charge reversal nanoplatform based on mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) with a core-shell structure is developed to programmatically overcome persistent obstacles in drug delivery to prostate cancer. MSN is served as a container to high-efficiently pack chemotherapeutic drug of triptolide. 2, 3-dimethylmaleic anhydride grafted poly-(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH-DA) is used as the out shell with a negative charge for pH-triggered charge reversal, which can facilitate the cellular uptake. Furthermore, PAH-DA shell can also act as pH-sensitive gatekeepers while will elegantly shed from MSN under acidic tumor microenvironment for controlling drug release. As expected, in vitro cell experiments demonstrated that the as-prepared nanoplatform (denoted as MSN-T@PAH-DA) could be efficiently uptaken by LNCaP prostate cancer cells and exhibited a better anti-cancer effect at pH 6.5 as compared to that at pH 7.4. After intravenous injection, MSN-T@PAH-DA had a relatively higher tumor accumulation than MSN-T@PAH-SA counterpart without charge conversion ability, and thus achieving enhanced tumor growth suppression in mouse model of prostate cancer. Therefore, the pH-response surface charge reversal capacity of PAH-DA shell could enable multitasking in controlling drug release, regulating tumor accumulation and cellular internalization, which provided a promising strategy for efficient prostate tumor treatment.

BACKGROUND The purpose of the study was to compare the incidence of urinary stones of She minority and Han nationality and analyze the composition of urinary stones. METHODS The study was performed in 381 cases with 181 She minority and 200 Han nationality. The composition of stones was mainly analyzed by infrared absorption spectrum. The incidence of urinary stones at different ages, different gender and different parts was compared between She minority and Han nationality. RESULTS The urinary stone incidence of males was about twice as high as in women in She minority and Han nationality, and the incidence reached its maximum between the ages of 41 and 60, but the incidence decreased after 60 years of age. The distribution characteristics of urethra stones between She minority and Han nationality showed a significant difference (p < 0.05). The differences of carbonate apatite and struvite in male and female were statistically significant between She minority and Han nationality (p < 0.05). The level of Ca2+ and HPO42- in serum showed significant difference between She minority and Han nationality (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS According to these results, we put forward corresponding preventive measures of urinary stones in She minority.