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A novel Catellani-type conversion is reported using aryl-thianthreniums (aryl-TTs) instead of aryl halides. Three classes of ortho-dual C–H functionalization involving alkylation, amination, and deuterated methylation and five types of ipso-operation including alkenylation, cyanation, methylation, hydrogenation, and alkynylation all proceed well in this procedure. In this conversion, aryl-TTs exhibit satisfactory reactivity and feature the advantage that the leaving TT unit can be recovered. More strikingly, this finding represents a new chemistry conversion of aryl-TTs, wherein contiguous tri-functionalization in a single chemical manipulation is realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, a novel Pd-catalyzed denitrogenation/vinylation of benzotriazinones using vinylene carbonate as the vinylation reagent is reported. This transformation demonstrates an unprecedented skeletal editing approach, effectively converting N＝N to C＝C fragments in situ and synthesizing a collection of isoquinolinones with broad-spectrum functional group tolerance. Moreover, the quite concise reaction system and late-stage modification of bioactive molecules comprehensively underscore the practical potential of this protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Objective Design Data Sources Methods Results Conclusion Fall prevention is crucial for older adults. Enhanced fall risk perception can encourage older adults to participate in fall prevention programs. However, there is still no unified definition of the concept of fall risk perception.To explore the concept of fall risk perception in older adults.A concept analysis.The literature was searched using online databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, CINAHL Complete, PsycINFO, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WangFang and SinoMed. Searches were also conducted in Chinese and English dictionaries. The literature dates from the establishment of the database to April 2023.The methods of Walker and Avant were used to identify antecedents, attributes and consequences of the concept of “fall risk perception” in older adults.Eighteen publications were included eventually. The attributes were identified as: (1) dynamic change, with features of continuum and stage; (2) whether falls are taken seriously; (3) a self‐assessment of the fall probability, which is driven by individual independence; and (4) involves multiple complex emotional responses. The antecedents were identified as: (1) demographic and disease factors; (2) psychological factors and (3) environmental factors. The consequences were identified as: (1) risk‐taking behaviour; (2) risk compensation behaviour; (3) risk transfer behaviour; and (4) emotions.A theoretical definition of fall risk perception was identified. A conceptual model was developed to demonstrate the theoretical relationships between antecedents, attributes and consequences. This is helpful for the development of relevant theories and the formulation of fall prevention measures based on fall risk perception as the intervention target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A typical data-driven stochastic program seeks the best decision that minimizes the sum of a deterministic cost function and an expected recourse function under a given distribution. Recently, much success has been witnessed in the development of distributionally robust optimization (DRO), which considers the worst-case expected recourse function under the least favorable probability distribution from a distributional family. However, in the presence of endogenous outliers such that their corresponding recourse function values are very large or even infinite, the commonly used DRO framework alone tends to overemphasize these endogenous outliers and cause undesirable or even infeasible decisions. On the contrary, distributionally favorable optimization (DFO), concerning the best-case expected recourse function under the most favorable distribution from the distributional family, can serve as a proper measure of the stochastic recourse function and mitigate the effect of endogenous outliers. We show that DFO recovers many robust statistics, suggesting that the DFO framework might be appropriate for the stochastic recourse function in the presence of endogenous outliers. A notion of decision outlier robustness is proposed for selecting a DFO framework for data-driven optimization with outliers. We also provide a unified way to integrate DRO with DFO, where DRO addresses the out-of-sample performance, and DFO properly handles the stochastic recourse function under endogenous outliers. We further extend the proposed DFO framework to solve two-stage stochastic programs without relatively complete recourse. The numerical study demonstrates that the framework is promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teaching principle of "music teaching" is implemented to facilitate children's learning through play and behaviour. During classroom instruction, teachers should appropriately incorporate sports competitions to foster students' interest in sports, ensure their active participation, and facilitate the development of their athletic abilities. During the primary school stage, students experience rapid development in their physical and mental attributes. The author administered oral and written English assessments to randomly selected classes from Grade 3 to Grade 6 at South Road Primary School, which is affiliated with A University. The author selected students who scored below 60 for the attention QPT test in each grade. From this group, we selected 10 students with low, average, and high attention levels. This resulted in a total of 30 students in each grade forming the control class. We compared the QPT scores between the 30 individuals in the experimental group and the 30 individuals in the control group. The experimental class and the control class exhibited a notable disparity in academic performance across grades 3 to 6. The implementation of experimental teaching resulted in significant improvements in the attention QPT scores of both the upper and lower grades in the experimental class. The study demonstrates that sustained adherence to teaching children English through sports games can effectively enhance their attention levels. Furthermore, implementing sports game teaching aligns with children's psychological characteristics and significantly enhances their performance in English learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, a novel organic transformation involving rhodium-catalyzed divergent dehydroxylation/alkenylation of hydroxyisoindolinone with vinylene carbonate is reported, and a series of architecturally rigid and widely used spirolactams are obtained with excellent functional group tolerance and high selectivity. Remarkably, the promising vinylene carbonate reagent presents a distinct chemical reactivity as a vinyl-oxygen cyclic synthon and first transfers the C–H bond to spiroheterocycle scaffolds. Moreover, another chemoselectivity, direct dehydrogenative coupling with vinylene carbonate, is also presented. This protocol is compatible with green chemistry and only releases H2O and CO2 as byproducts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical investigation on the fungal strain Aspergillus sp. TE-65L, which was previously isolated from cultivated tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), led to the production of four steroids including a new ergosterol-type steroid, namely aspergosterol A (1). Their chemical structures were established by detailed spectroscopic analysis of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data. Compound 1 was found to possess antiphytopathogenic activities against Alternaria alternate, Botrytis cinerea, and Fusarium oxysporum, with MIC values of 4, 8, and 16 μg/mL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Somatic embryogenesis (SE) is a key regeneration pathway in various biotechnology approaches to crop improvement, especially for economically important perennial woody crops like citrus. However, maintenance of SE capability has long been a challenge and becomes a bottleneck in biotechnology-facilitated plant improvement. In the embryogenic callus (EC) of citrus, we identified 2 csi-miR171c-targeted SCARECROW-LIKE genes CsSCL2 and CsSCL3 (CsSCL2/3), which exert positive feedback regulation on csi-miR171c expression. Suppression of CsSCL2 expression by RNA interference (RNAi) enhanced SE in citrus callus. A thioredoxin superfamily protein CsClot was identified as an interactive protein of CsSCL2/3. Overexpression of CsClot disturbed reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis in EC and enhanced SE. Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-Seq) and RNA-Seq identified 660 genes directly suppressed by CsSCL2 that were enriched in biological processes including development-related processes, auxin signaling pathway, and cell wall organization. CsSCL2/3 bound to the promoters of regeneration-related genes, such as WUSCHEL-RELATED HOMEOBOX 2 (CsWOX2), CsWOX13, and Lateral Organ Boundaries Domain 40 (LBD40), and repressed their expression. Overall, CsSCL2/3 modulate ROS homeostasis through the interactive protein CsClot and directly suppress the expression of regeneration-related genes, thus regulating SE in citrus. We uncovered a regulatory pathway of miR171c-targeted CsSCL2/3 in SE, which shed light on the mechanism of SE and regeneration capability maintenance in citrus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patient: Male, 31-year-old Final Diagnosis: Lupus nephritis Symptoms: Edema Clinical Procedure: -- Specialty: Nephrology Objective: Unusual clinical course Background: Lupus nephritis (LN) is the most common and serious complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Minimal change disease (MCD) and primary membranous nephropathy (PMN) are the 2 most common causes of primary nephrotic syndrome. Our purpose in publishing this case report is to introduce an unusual clinical course and initial renal biopsy revealed MCD and then PMN in second renal biopsy. Subsequently, a third renal biopsy resulted in a final diagnosis of LN. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such report. Case Report: The 31-year-old male patient was initially diagnosed with MCD after the first renal biopsy in 2004. He improved with initial management and had a complete remission for 9 years. After 9 years, the patient again presented with heavy proteinuria without systemic lupus erythematous finding and he was diagnosed with MN following the second renal biopsy. Seven years later, he again developed proteinuria alone with concurrent systemic symptoms of systemic lupus erythematosus, and a third biopsy was performed, leading to final diagnosis as LN. He was well managed with the methylprednisolone and cyclophosphamide (CTX) regimen, which improved renal function and spared the patient from continuous hemodialysis. Conclusions: In rare case, MCD may represent an early phase of lupus nephritis, which may subsequently develop into severe lupus nephritis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study was to understand the longitudinal trajectory of suicidal ideation (SI) among Chinese medical students and the role of childhood trauma (CT). Methods: Using a whole-group sampling method, we assessed SI in 2192 (male = 834, female = 1358) medical students on three occasions over a period of one year. The Suicidal Ideation Self-Assessment Scale (SISAS) and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) were used to assess SI and CT. The growth mixture modeling (GMM) was used to classify the developmental trajectory of SI. Results: A greater number of medical students were experiencing suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The trajectory of SI among medical students was divided into two groups: a low risk, slowly rising group and a high risk, continuous group. The low risk, slowly rising group had a significant time effect (B = 1.57, p < 0.001) and showed a slowly increasing trend. Emotional neglect (EN), physical neglect (PN), emotional abuse (EA) and physical abuse (PA) all had significant positive predictive effects for the high risk, continuous group (B = 0.18–0.65, P < 0.01). Conclusion: The trajectory of SI among medical students can be divided into a low risk, slowly rising group and a high risk, continuous group; the more EN, PN, EA and PA experienced during childhood, the more likely medical students are to develop a high risk, continuous state of SI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experimental protocol was developed to predict the service period of polyethylene pipes under high loads. This paper presents the results of field test of chimney demolition loading to polyethylene pipeline, and compared with the numerical simulation. Combined with the practical engineering situation, the ground impact load first propagates to the explosion-facing side of the pipeline, and the effect was found to decrease as the applied stress decreased, however, under high impact load, ring strain tends to be greater than axial strain. The test data such as vibration velocity and frequency are processed to determine the damage characteristics needed to protect the pipeline from damage. Finally, the safety assessment of pipeline under impact load was determined by yield criterion [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Caregiver (CG)'s depression is common and its prevalence is rising. The relationship of CG depression with care recipients (CR)'s subsequent cognitive impairment remains unclear. This study examines the association of CG depressive symptoms trajectories with 6-year cognitive impairment risk among care recipients (CR) who are older adults with functional limitations. Methods: Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data cohorts from 2010 to 2016. The sample included 810 community-dwelling older adults aged ≥75 years, dementia free at baseline, with their primary caregiver dyads. CG's depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. The main outcomes were incident mild, moderate, and severe cognitive impairment of CRs measured using Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire. Group-based trajectory modeling identified three CG depressive symptom trajectory groups. Competing risks regression analysis modeled the hazards as a function of CG depressive symptom trajectories. Results: Of 810 CRs, 3% developed severe cognitive impairment, 21% had moderate cognitive impairment, and 37% had mild cognitive impairment. Only CG's "Increasing" trajectory group predicted increased risk of CR's mild and moderate cognitive impairment relative to "persistently low" group (subhazard ratio [SHR] = 1.52, 95% confidence interval [CI], p < 0.05; SHR = 1.87, 95% CI, p < 0.05, respectively). Conclusions and Implications: Finding highlight the intricate and non-linear association between CG depressive trajectory and CR cognitive impairment. This evidence can be used to enlighten policymakers and health providers about the need for risk stratification screening for CG mental health and early treatment for CG depression to prevent or delay CR's cognitive impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of lower respiratory tract infection worldwide. Until now, there are no licenced vaccines or effective antiviral drugs against RSV infections. In our previous work, we found 2-((1H-indol-3-yl)thio/sulfinyl)-N-pheny acetamide derivatives (4-49C and 1-HB-63) being a novel inhibitor against RSV in vitro. Here, we explored the underlying mechanism of 2-((1H-indol-3-yl)thio/sulfinyl)-N-pheny acetamide derivatives to inhibit RSV replication in vitro and disclosed that 4- 49C worked as the inhibitor of membrane fusion and 1-HB-63 functioned at the stage of RSV genome replication/transcription. Yet, both of them could not inhibit RSV infection of BALB/c mice by using RSV-Luc, in vivo imaging and RT-qPCR analyses, for which it may be due to the fast metabolism in vivo. Our work suggests that further structural modification and optimisation of 2-((1H-indol-3-yl) thio/sulfinyl)-N-pheny acetamide derivative are needed to obtain drug candidates with effective anti-RSV activities in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose -- Identification of pathogens causing fracture-device-related infection (FDRI) is always a challenge as the positive rate of standard tissue sampling culture (TSC) remains unsatisfactory. This study evaluates the efficiency of implant surface culture (ISC) as an adjunct to standard TSC for identification of FDRI-associated microorganisms. Patients and methods -- Between November 2020 and March 2022, patients diagnosed with FDRI defined by the International Fracture-Related Infection (FRI) Consensus Group, and indicated for implant removal, underwent both methods for bacteria detection. The test order of ISC and TSC was randomly selected for each patient included, as a withinperson randomized design. For ISC, the recovered implants were gently covered with tryptic soy agar after rinsing with normal saline twice, and then incubated at 37 5% CO2 for up to 14 days. For TSC, 5 specimens were sampled and sent to the Clinical Laboratory of Southern Medical University Nanfang Hospital, Guangzhou, for culture and identification. Results -- 42 consecutive patients were included, with a mean age of 46 years. The most frequent infection site and implant type were the tibia (21 cases) and plates with screws (30 cases), respectively. Altogether 21 patients were found with positive outcomes by both methods, and the identi- fied pathogens were consistent. ISC found an additional 15 patients showing positive results, which were negative by TSC. Furthermore, the mean culture time of ISC was shorter than that of TSC (1.5 days vs. 3.2 days). Interpretation -- ISC may be a useful adjunct to TSC for detection of bacteria causing FDRI, with a relatively higher positive rate and a shorter culture time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many real-world structured prediction problems need machine learning to capture data distribution and constraint reasoning to ensure structure validity. Nevertheless, constrained structured prediction is still limited in real-world applications because of the lack of tools to bridge constraint satisfaction and machine learning. In this paper, we propose COnstraint REasoning embedded Structured Prediction (Core-Sp), a scalable constraint reasoning and machine learning integrated approach for learning over structured domains. We propose to embed decision diagrams, a popular constraint reasoning tool, as a fullydi fferentiable module into deep neural networks for structured prediction. We also propose an iterative search algorithm to automate the searching process of the best Core-Sp structure. We evaluate Core-Sp on three applications: vehicle dispatching service planning, if-then program synthesis, and text2SQL generation. The proposed Core-Sp module demonstrates superior performance over state-of-the-art approaches in all three applications. The structures generated with Core-Sp satisfy 100% of the constraints when using exact decision diagrams. In addition, Core-Sp boosts learning performance by reducing the modeling space via constraint satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patient participation, an international requirement according to the World Health Organization and other international bodies, is a must in nursing care. It involves patient engagement in making their own treatment decisions, participating in the development and evaluation of services and taking part in policy development. Patient participation on the individual, organizational and policy development levels has been discussed. Facilitators of and barriers to active patient participation, as well as ways to enhance it, were also included in this review. Poor communication, a paternalistic approach, time constraints, lack of encouragement and lack of information-sharing are some of the challenges associated with poor patient participation in nursing care. Facilitators of patient participation include empowering patients, involving them in making decisions and policy making, understanding their perspective about their role in their care and empowerment through leadership. Patient participation in nursing care has numerous benefits including effective healthcare services, improved patient safety, enhanced quality of care, fewer medication errors, more medication adherence and assessment of the care services received. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Family caregivers are important to older adults' health, but few studies have examined how caregivers' mental health is associated with older adults' cognitive function. This study examined the trajectories of cognitive function of older adults and whether caregivers' depressive symptoms shape the pattern of cognitive function trajectories. Methods: This 6-year longitudinal sample consisted 1188 older adults aged =75 years with deficits in activities of daily living (ADL) and their family caregivers in Shanghai, China (Rounds 1-3). Cognitive function trajectories were identified based on an enhanced group-based trajectory modeling that accounted for nonrandom attrition. Multinomial logistic regression tested the association between caregivers' depressive symptoms and older adults' cognitive function trajectory. Results: Three trajectory groups were identified: a "newly onset" group (50.4%) had an increased risk of being cognitive impaired during the 6-year period; a "never" group (46.2%) remained cognitive active; and a "chronic" group was largely persistently cognitive impaired (3.4%). Caregivers' depressive symptoms increased the relative risk of having the "onset" or "chronic" versus "never" trajectory. Among the four dimensions of depressive symptoms, only somatic complaints were associated with a higher risk of the "newly onset" trajectory in 6 years. Conclusion: The progression of cognitive function among older adults with deficits in ADL followed three distinct trajectories during a 6-year period. Addressing the mental health of caregivers may prevent or delay progression of cognitive impairment among older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cardiac hypertrophy is an independent risk factor for heart failure, a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. The calcineurin/NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T cells) pathway and the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase)/Erk (extracellular signal-regulated kinase) pathway contribute to the pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy as an interdependent network of signaling cascades. How these pathways interact remains unclear and few direct targets responsible for the prohypertrophic role of NFAT have been described.Methods: By engineering cardiomyocyte-specific ETS2 (a member of the E26 transformation-specific sequence [ETS] domain family) knockout mice, we investigated the role of ETS2 in cardiac hypertrophy. Primary cardiomyocytes were used to evaluate ETS2 function in cell growth.Results: ETS2 is phosphorylated and activated by Erk1/2 on hypertrophic stimulation in both mouse (n=3) and human heart samples (n=8 to 19). Conditional deletion of ETS2 in mouse cardiomyocytes protects against pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy (n=6 to 11). Silencing of ETS2 in the hearts of calcineurin transgenic mice significantly attenuates hypertrophic growth and contractile dysfunction (n=8). As a transcription factor, ETS2 is capable of binding to the promoters of hypertrophic marker genes, such as ANP, BNP, and Rcan1.4 (n=4). We report that ETS2 forms a complex with NFAT to stimulate transcriptional activity through increased NFAT binding to the promoters of at least 2 hypertrophy-stimulated genes: Rcan1.4 and microRNA-223 (=n4 to 6). Suppression of microRNA-223 in cardiomyocytes inhibits calcineurin-mediated cardiac hypertrophy (n=6), revealing microRNA-223 as a novel prohypertrophic target of the calcineurin/NFAT and Erk1/2-ETS2 pathways.Conclusions: Our findings point to a critical role for ETS2 in calcineurin/NFAT pathway-driven cardiac hypertrophy and unveil a previously unknown molecular connection between the Erk1/2 activation of ETS2 and expression of NFAT/ETS2 target genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computing a flow system a number of times with different samples of flow parameters is a common practice in many uncertainty quantification applications, which can be prohibitively expensive for complex nonlinear flow problems. This report presents two second order, stabilized, scalar auxiliary variable (SAV) ensemble algorithms for fast computation of the Navier--Stokes flow ensembles: Stab-SAV-CN and Stab-SAV-BDF2. The proposed ensemble algorithms are based on the ensemble timestepping idea which makes use of a quantity called the ensemble mean to construct a common coefficient matrix for all realizations at the same time step after spatial discretization, in which case efficient block solvers, e.g., block GMRES, can be used to significantly reduce both storage and computational time. The adoption of a recently developed SAV approach that treats the nonlinear term explicitly results in a constant shared coefficient matrix among all realizations at different time steps, which further cuts down the computational cost, yielding an extremely efficient ensemble algorithm for simulating nonlinear flow ensembles with provable long time stability without any time step conditions. The SAV approach for the Navier--Stokes equations for a single realization was proved to be unconditionally stable in [L. Lin, Z. Yang, and S. Dong, J. Comput. Phys., 388 (2019), pp 1-22; X. Li and J. Shen, SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 58 (2020), pp. 2465-2491]. However we found the SAV approach has very low accuracy that compromises its stability in our initial numerical investigations for several commonly tested benchmark flow problems. In this report, we propose to use the stabilization in Stab-SAV-BDF2 to address this issue. We prove that both of our ensemble algorithms are long time stable under one parameter fluctuation condition, without any time step constraints. For a single realization, both algorithms are unconditionally stable and have better accuracy than the SAV methods studied in [L. Lin, Z. Yang, and S. Dong, J. Comput. Phys., 388 (2019), pp 1-22; X. Li and J. Shen, SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 58 (2020), pp. 2465-2491] for our test problems. Extensive numerical experiments are performed to show the efficiency of the proposed ensemble algorithms and the effectiveness of the stabilization for increasing accuracy and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is now a serious problem in China and elsewhere, makes a significant impact on human life. Air quality prediction is one of the research fields in environmental protection, which helps people to plan their lives reasonably and avoid pollution exposure. Considering that the atmospheric pollutants and meteorological data are ultimate time-series data, this paper proposed a prediction model based on LSTM which has low implementation complexity and an open cost of production. We selected atmospheric pollutants (SO2, PM10, O3, etc.), as well as meteorological parameters (temperature, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, etc.) as input of training model, these factors from the first few hours are used to forecast PM2.5 concentration in the next few hours. We evaluated our model on a large dataset of air pollution records and grid meteorological data in Qingdao. The results show that the proposed Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network generally has the marginal error compared with baselines, which indicates that the proposed LSTM network approach for PM2.5 forecast is effective and robust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A zinc-catalyzed C–H alkenylation of quinoline N-oxides with ynones has been developed to rapidly assemble a broad collection of valuable quinoline-enol organic architectures. Uncommonly, this novel reaction involves C–H functionalization, and N–O, C–C and C≡C bond cleavage in one operation, and leads exclusively to the formation of an enol rather than a keto product. Application of the enols generated was highlighted by further derivative transformation and preparation of a series of "BODIPY" analogues with high quantum yields (up to 86%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aims to investigate the clinical and pathological characteristics, treatment approaches, and prognosis of gallbladder neuroendocrine carcinoma (GB-NEC). Methods: Retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 37 patients with GB-NEC admitted to Shanxi Cancer Hospital from January 2010 to June 2023. The study included an examination of their general information, treatment regimens, and overall prognosis. Results: Twelve cases, either due to distant metastasis or other reasons, did not undergo surgical treatment and received palliative chemotherapy (Group 1). Two cases underwent simple cholecystectomy (Group 2); four patients underwent palliative tumor resection surgery (Group 3), and nineteen patients underwent radical resection surgery (Group 4). Among the 37 GB-NEC patients, the average pre-surgery CA19-9 level was 113.29 ± 138.45 U/mL, and the median overall survival time was 19 months (range 7.89–30.11 months). Of these, 28 cases (75.7%) received systemic treatment, 25 cases (67.6%) underwent surgical intervention, and 16 cases (64.0%) received postoperative adjuvant treatment, including combined radiochemotherapy or chemotherapy alone. The median overall survival time was 4 months (0.61–7.40 months) for Group 1 (n = 12), 8 months for Group 2 (n = 2), 21 months (14.67–43.33 months) for Group 3 (n = 4), and 19 months (range 7.89–30.11 months) for Group 4 (n = 19). A significant difference in median overall survival time was observed between Group 1 and Group 4 (P = 0.004). Conclusion: Surgery remains the primary treatment for GB-NEC, with radical resection potentially offering greater benefits to patient survival compared to other therapeutic options. Postoperative adjuvant therapy has the potential to extend patient survival, although the overall prognosis remains challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research was to reasonably assess the damage to people and station structures caused by terrorist attack explosion at metro stations, taking the Liyuan station of Wuhan metro which adopts double-deck island platform as an typical example. The TNT explosion process inside the metro station was calculated and analyzed using the dynamic finite element numerical simulation software LS-DYNA. First, the peak overpressure curve and the positive pressure time curve of the shock wave of explosive under the condition of confined space in the metro station were obtained. Then, through the comparison and analysis of the theoretical formulas of explosive shock wave propagation characteristics, the accuracy and reliability of numerical calculation methods and model parameters were verified. At last, combining with the overpressure criterion of shock wave in explosive air, the distribution characteristics of the casualties in the metro station under the explosion shock wave are analyzed, and the dynamic response and damage effect of the pillar structure of the metro station under the explosion shock wave are studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose and analyze an efficient, unconditionally stable, second order convergent, artificial compressibility Crank{Nicolson leap-frog (CNLFAC) method for numerically solving the Stokes{Darcy equations. The method decouples the fully coupled Stokes{Darcy system into two smaller subphysics problems, which reduces the size of the linear systems to be solved, at each time step, and allows parallel computing of the two subphysics problems. It also decouples the computation of the velocity and pressure in the free ow region. The pressure only needs to be updated at each time step without solving a Poisson equation, avoiding pressure errors in boundary layers due to imposing artificial boundary conditions. We prove that the method is unconditionally long time stable and second order convergent. We also propose an unconditionally stable ensemble algorithm based on the CNLFAC method. The ensemble algorithm results in a common coeffcient matrix for all realizations and consequently allows the use of effcient direct or iterative solvers to reduce the computational cost. Numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the second order convergence and unconditional stability of the CNLFAC method. Moreover, the CNLFAC ensemble algorithm is demonstrated to reduce the computational time of a Crank{Nicolson leap-frog nonensemble algorithm by 95% in our tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) is a cold plasma source that promises various innovative applications. The influence of Penning effect on the formation, propagation, and other physical properties of the plasma bullets in APPJ remains a debatable topic. By using a 10 cm wide active electrode and a frequency of applied voltage down to 0.5 Hz, the Penning effect caused by preceding discharges can be excluded. It was found that the Penning effect originating in a preceding discharge helps build a conductive channel in the gas flow and provide seed electrons, thus the discharge can be maintained at a low voltage which in turn leads to a smaller propagation speed for the plasma bullet. Photographs from an intensified charge coupled device reveal that the annular structure of the plasma plume for He is irrelevant to the Penning ionization process arising from preceding discharges. By adding NH3 into Ar to introduce Penning effect, the originally filamentous discharge of Ar can display a rather extensive plasma plume in ambient as He. These results are helpful for the understanding of the behaviors of non-equilibrium APPJs generated under distinct conditions and for the design of plasma jet features, especially the spatial distribution and propagation speed, which are essential for application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of urbanization, the construction of the subway has been greatly developed. Meanwhile, the public concern of terrorist attacks on subway stations keeps driving the related research. In this paper, the representative subway station of Wuhan Metro Line 8, Mafangshan station, which is now under construction, is taken as a case, the dynamic finite element numerical simulation software ANSYS/LS-DYNA is employed to establish finite element model. The propagation law transmitting through the station structure and the dynamic response of the station under different TNT charges are analyzed. It is indicated that the propagation of shock wave is complicated due to the semi-closed environment of the station as well as the reflection and transmission of the stress wave in the structure. Specifically, in the station structure, the displacement of the platform plate was the largest, under the explosive action of different TNT charge, the displacement of platform plate is 13.6 mm (5 kg), 22. 8mm (10 kg), 35.2 mm (20 kg), 45.6 cm (30 kg), 68.8 cm (40 kg), respectively. The middle part of the pillar was the largest displacement on the pillar. Based on the dynamic stress response analysis of the station pillar, it shows that the maximum value of the stress value in the pillar is located at the junction of the pillar and the plate. Under the explosive action of 40 kg TNT charge, the maximum tensile stress of the junction of the pillar and the plate reached 45.1 MPa. Therefore, more attention should be paid to anti-explosion measures herein. Besides, through the analysis of the tensile stress value at the bottom of the pillar under different charge quantity, the TNT charge quantity for the crack at the bottom of the pillar is determined to be 6.77 kg by the formula fitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To determine the prevalence of and factors associated with dispensing antibiotics without a prescription in online and community pharmacies in China. Methods We conducted a nationwide cross-sectional study of online and community pharmacies in 27 cities and counties in nine provinces in China (selected by multistage sampling) from July 2017 to December 2018. We assessed sale of antibiotics without a prescription and quality of pharmacy services through simulated clients who asked to buy specific antibiotics. We compared the prevalence of sales between online and community pharmacies, and between location and features of community pharmacies. Findings Of 220 online and 675 community pharmacies, 174 (79.1%) and 586 (86.8%) sold antibiotics without a valid prescription, respectively. About half of the online pharmacies had a notice on their website about the illegality of selling prescription-only medicines without a prescription while none of the community pharmacists had. More online pharmacies without this notice dispensed antibiotics without a valid prescription (P < 0.001). Antibiotics' sale without a prescription was significantly less prevalent in provincial capital cities (71.6%; 161/225) than prefectural-level cities (95.1%; 214/225) and counties (93.8%; 211/225; P < 0.001). Most pharmacy staff did not ask for important information from clients before dispensing the antibiotic or provide them with necessary information about the antibiotic. Conclusion Given the high proportion of sales of prescription-only medicines without a prescription, there is a need to strengthen enforcement of regulations, improve public education on antibiotics, train pharmacy staff and consolidate public involvement in antibiotic stewardship in retail pharmacies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recent years, air pollution is a very serious problem in China and elsewhere, and it is a factor that significantly affects the quality of human health. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is considered to be the culprit of haze weather. Therefore, research affects the quality of human life on PM2.5 forecasting has received increasing attention. Knowing this information in advance is very important to protect humans from health problems. This paper proposes a new prediction method, using the predicted value of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model as input data, increasing the atmospheric inversion factor as an additional input factor and constructing a municipal atmospheric pollutant response model through a random forest algorithm. we use 3-fold cross-validation (CV) to evaluate model performance. The result of the experiment shows, compared with the traditional atmospheric simulation method, this method has practical application significance. The simulation results have improved timeliness and accuracy. It provides a simple and effective method for PM2.5 prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanical properties of the rock in the cold regions are often affected by freeze-thaw cycles and loads. It is of great theoretical significance and engineering value to establish a uniaxial compression damage constitutive model of the rock under freeze-thaw cycles that can reflect the relationship between macroscopic and mesoscopic structural damage. In this paper, macroscopic and mesoscopic methods are combined with statistical methods to quantitatively analyze the damage degree of rock under freeze-thaw cycles and loads. Combined with the fractal features of the macroscopic image of the section, a fractal damage constitutive model considering the residual strength of rock is established. In addition, the model is subsequently verified by the experiment. The experiment shows that the mechanical properties of rocks subjected to freeze-thaw cycles and loads are determined by freeze-thaw damage variables, load damage variables, and their coupling effects. As the number of freeze-thaw cycles increases, the uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus of rocks decrease, and peak strain increases. By using the fractal dimension of the compression fracture surface as a bridge considering the residual strength of the rock, the constitutive model can better reflect the compaction stage, elastic deformation stage and plastic deformation stage of the uniaxial compression process of the freeze-thaw rocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interplay of discharge and gas flow in the atmospheric pressure plasma jets generated with three different discharge modes [N. Jiang, A. L. Ji, and Z. X. Cao, J. Appl. Phys. 106, 013308 (2009); N. Jiang, A. L. Ji, and Z. X. Cao, J. Appl. Phys. 108, 033302 (2010)] has been investigated by simultaneous photographing of both plasma plumes and gas flows in the ambient, with the former being visualized by using an optical schlieren system. Gas flow gains a forward momentum from discharge except for the case of overflow jets at smaller applied voltages. Larger applied voltage implies an elongated plasma jet only for single-electrode mode; for dielectric barrier discharge jet the plume length maximizes at a properly applied voltage. These findings can help understand the underlying processes, and are useful particularly for the economic operation of tiny helium plasma jets and jet arrays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a proper combination of applied voltage and the width of ground electrode, atmospheric pressure plasma jets extending beyond the ground electrode, whether it sits on the downstream or the upstream side, can be equally obtained with a dielectric barrier discharge setup, which can be ascribed to the overflow of deposited charges [J. Appl. Phys. 106, 013308 (2009)]. Here, we show that, by using narrower ground electrodes, such an overflow jet can be successfully launched at a much reduced voltage (down to below 10 kV). Moreover, by using transparent and triadic ground electrodes, development of charge overflow beneath the ground electrode was temporally and spatially resolved. Temporal evolution of discharge currents measured on the severed ground electrode helps establish the propagation dynamics of discharges along the dielectric surface beneath ground electrode, and also reinforces the conception that the streamer’s head is in connection to the active electrode via a conducting channel. A small propagation velocity of 3.3×103 m/s was measured for the “overflow” jet inside the dielectric tube. The availability of such overflow jets is enormously advantageous concerning their application to living bodies, to which the high voltage at active electrode is lethally dangerous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental electron energy-loss spectroscopy of O K edge in CaAl2O4 has been studied in this work. The near edge fine structure of the O K edge has been interpreted with the aid of theoretical calculations in the ground-state approximation. It reveals that the features near the threshold are associated with the coordination of Ca polyhedra. Time-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy of O K edge further confirms that the selective elimination of high-order coordinated Ca by electron irradiation results in a threshold shift of the O K edge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An electrostatic field-adapted molecular fractionation with conjugated caps (EFA-MFCC) approach is implemented for treating macromolecules with several charge centers. The molecular fragmentation is performed in an “electrostatic field,” which is described by putting point charges on charge centers, directly affecting the Hamiltonians of both fragments and conjugated caps. So the present method does not need truncation during the calculation of electrostatic interactions. Our test calculations on a series of charged model systems and biological macromolecules using the HF and B3LYP methods have demonstrated that this approach is capable of describing the electronic structure with accuracy comparable to other fragment-based methods. The EFA-MFCC approach is an alternative way for predicting the total energies of charged macromolecules with acyclic, loop, and intersectional loop structures and interaction energies between two molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of high-energy (100 keV) electron irradiation have been observed in a heavy-metal fluoride glass using in situ time-resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscope. Formation of F2 has been observed. The irradiation-induced changes of configuration and composition are discussed based on the evolution of the near-edge fine structures of F K edge. We suggest that the high sensitivity to electron irradiation is due to the existence of nonbridging F in heavy-metal fluoride glasses so that is there is a tendency of the electron irradiation to eliminate nonbridging F in the irradiated region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the binding energy and annihilation rate of positronium hydride (PsH) using the diffusion quantum Monte Carlo method. Background information of PsH; Importance of three-body clusters in electron-positron systems; Distance of annihilating particles at the time of annihilation.

The magnetic domain is a promising solution for realizing the next-generation information storage, for example, racetrack memory (RM). However, domain nucleation and domain wall (DW) motion are limited by the magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) as the write and read heads. Moreover, the size of a single domain limits the further increase in storage density. In this paper, we report a cross structure for efficient magnetic domain manipulations. With the help of voltage control magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) effect and antiferromagnetic/ferromagnetic (AFM/FM) couplings, a fast, low-power, and highly reliable nucleation can be achieved. We also miniaturize the domain size by applying a voltage on the nanowire, increasing the storage density. An optimized RM device is then proposed combining the data detection via the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE). The proposed device facilitates the development of high-speed, low power consumption, and high-density RM applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the buried gas pipelines are not easily field monitored, its status under the influence of tunnel blasting vibration is often difficult to obtain. In order to assess the safety of an upper buried gas pipeline under blasting vibration in the Beijing subway line 16, we established the 3D numerical model of the real field engineering to calculate and analyze the distribution of peak particle velocity (PPV) on the surface soil, proved its reliability by using the field monitoring data and discussed the dynamic response of the pipeline. Based on the analysis, we further assessed the safety of pipeline subjected to tunnel blasting vibration and concluded that the pipeline is only subjected to limited effect of tunnel blasting vibration and thus is safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Keyes' two continua model is a useful concept in which mental health and mental illness exist on two separate axes. Based on this model, this study examined the prevalence and correlates of three mental health categories among older adults in China. Methods: Cross-sectional data were derived from Wave 1 of the Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health. Participants were categorized into complete mental health (CMH), complete mental illness (CMI), and moderate mental health (MMH) groups. Multinomial logistic regressions were used. Results: The prevalence of CMH, CMI, and MMH in China was 18%, 16%, and 66%, respectively. Being female, unmarried, younger, and feeling unhealthy were more likely to result in placement in the CMI category. Employment, education, and cognitive function were identified as important protective factors of CMH. Age, income, urban or rural residence, and physical function difficulty were associated with all three categories. Discussion: We demonstrated the utility of the two continua model in identifying mental health needs in Chinese contexts. The findings suggest that future policy reforms and clinical interventions should establish a more comprehensive mental health category as a screening tool nationwide. The promotion of social engagement could play an important role in treating mental illness and improving positive mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding of the geodynamic evolution of the Tethyan realm cannot be complete without paleogeographical reconstructions of the North Qiangtang Block (NQB) that occupies a central position in Tibet. However, the reliability of such a reconstruction for the Paleozoic still requires substantial improvement. In this paper, we present paleomagnetic results obtained from the Middle Permian limestones and Upper Permian volcanic rocks in the Tanggula area, aiming to provide precise constraints on the NQB kinematics during the geodynamic evolution of the Tethys realm. Combined with other available paleomagnetic data from the NQB, our results suggest that the block was stably located at ~24°S for a long time before the Middle Permian, started to drift rapidly northward in the Middle Permian, and reached ~8.4°S in the Late Permian. The NQB continued drifting rapidly northward during the Triassic until merging with the southern margin of Eurasia in the Late Triassic. We reviewed new and available paleomagnetic and geological data and proposed a revised model for the tectonic evolution of the eastern Tethys realm. The NQB likely belonged to a ribbon-like separate continental archipelago in the middle of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean during the early--late Paleozoic. The Cimmerian continent, including the South Qiangtang Block (SQB), rifted away from the northern margin of Gondwana and drifted northward to ~22°S in the Middle Permian. The continent approached or partially collided with the NQB, resulting in the rapid northward movement of the NQB and the formation of the Longmuco--Shuanghu suture between the NQB and SQB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving long-persistent phosphorescence in polymers is a challenge even at low temperatures. In this work, long-persistent phosphorescence (>1 s) is observed in nonconjugated polyurethane derivatives at 77 K, which is among the longest reported phosphorescent lifetimes for an organic polymer. The mechanism for this unusual behavior has been shown by steady-state photophysical characterization and time-resolved emission spectra to arise from the formation of intra- and/or intermolecular carbonyl clusters at low temperature. The lifetime of long-persistent phosphorescence is increased by the introduction of an aromatic monomer into the nonconjugated polyurethane chains. This is attributed to intra- and/or intermolecular n-p* transitions from electron-rich carbonyl groups to the conjugated aromatic units, thereby enhancing the intersystem crossing rate. Coating an ultraviolet InGaAsN light-emitting diode with a polyurethane derivative as the emitter gives cryogenic afterglow with long-persistent phosphorescence that is observed for up to 7 s with the naked eye. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work focused on the manipulator system containing uncertainties, and proposes an immersion and invariance (I&I) control strategy, in order to avoid the damage on the mechanical and the operation object caused by parameter uncer- tainty. A stable target system with lower dimension than the manipulator system was chosen to design the control law and estimation laws of uncertain parameters. Then finding an invariant and attractive manifold in state space with internal dy- namics a copy of the desired closed-loop dynamics. Finally, design a control law that can steer the state of the system sufficiently close to the manifold. The immersion and invariance adaptive control does not rely on certainty equivalence. The whole uncertain parameter estimations are the sum of two terms. One is obtained by an iterative law like the traditional adaptive backstepping method. On the other hand, a nonlinear function is introduced. The role of this additional term makes the param- eter estimations more flexible and effective. Lyapunov function is not necessary for the process of designing adaptive controllers. So immersion and invariance can effec- tively avoid the 'computing expansion' of backstepping method. Compared with the traditional adaptive methods, simulation results show that the proposed immersion and invariance adaptive controller can improve the system performance, including dynamic response, stability and accuracy of parameter estimations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: A recent study indicated that Lectin‐type oxidized LDL receptor‐1 (LOX‐1) was a distinct surface marker for human polymorphisms myeloid‐derived suppressor cells (PMN‐MDSC). The present study was aimed to investigate the existence LOX‐1 PMN‐MDSC in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. One hundred and twenty‐seven HCC patients, 10 patients with mild active chronic hepatitis B, 10 liver cirrhosis due to hepatitis B, 10 liver dysplastic node with hepatitis B and 50 health control were included. LOX‐1+ CD15+ PMN‐MDSC were significantly elevated in HCC patients compared with healthy control and patients with benign diseases. LOX‐1+ CD15+ PMN‐MDSC in circulation were positively associated with those in HCC tissues. LOX‐1+ CD15+ PMN‐MDSCs significantly reduced proliferation and IFN‐γ production of T cells with a dosage dependent manner with LOX‐1− CD15+ PMNs reached negative results. The suppression on T cell proliferation and IFN‐γ production was reversed by ROS inhibitor and Arginase inhibitor. ROS level and activity of arginase of LOX‐1 +CD15+ PMN were higher in LOX‐1+ CD15+ PMN‐MDSCs than LOX‐1− CD15+ PMNs, as well as the expression of the NADPH oxidase NOX2 and arginase I. RNA sequence revealed that LOX‐1+ CD15+ PMN‐MDSCs displayed significantly higher expression of spliced X‐box ‐binding protein 1 (sXBP1), an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress marker. ER stress inducer induced LOX‐1 expression and suppressive function for CD15+ PMN from health donor. For HCC patients, LOX‐1+ CD15+ PMN‐MDSCs were positively related to overall survival. Above all, LOX‐1+ CD15+ PMN‐MDSC were elevated in HCC patients and suppressed T cell proliferation through ROS/Arg I pathway induced by ER stress. They presented positive association with the prognosis of HCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to enhance biogas production in the anaerobic digestion of duckweed, and duckweed with excess sludge as single and mixed substrates, the effects of hot alkali pretreatment and variation of the ratio of substrate to inoculum were investigated. The results showed that the delayed stage of anaerobic gas generation could be shortened when the two substrates were mixed during methane production, to give a cumulative gas yield of 2963 mL, which was 11% higher than the calculated value for the complementary substrate. The methane content was 57%, which was 13% higher than that from the duckweed group and 9% higher than from the excess sludge group. Furthermore, the methane yield was improved by 8% after the duckweed was pretreated with hot alkali. When the substrate to inoculum ratio was 1:1, the maximum biogas production of 3309 mL was achieved, with a methane yield of 1883 mL which, respectively, increases of 151 mL and 304 mL compared with the worst group (1:2.5). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of an efficient delivery system is critical for the successful treatment of cardiovascular diseases using non-viral gene therapies. Cytoplasmic and nuclear membrane barriers reduce delivery efficiency by impeding the transfection of foreign genes. Thus, a gene delivery system capable of transporting exogenous genes may improve gene therapy. The present study used a novel strategy involving ultrasound-targeted microbubbles and peptide nucleic acid (PNA)-binding nuclear localization signals (NLS). Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) and PNA-binding NLS were used to improve the cytoplasmic and nuclear importation of the plasmid, respectively. Experiments were performed using antibody-targeted microbubbles (AT-MCB) that specifically recognize the SV40T antigen receptor expressed on the membranes of 293T cells, resulting in the localization of ultrasound microbubbles to 293T cell membranes. Furthermore, PNA containing NLS was inserted into the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-N3 plasmid DNA (NLS-PNA-DNA), which increased nuclear localization. The nuclear import and gene expression efficiency of the AT-MCB with PNA-binding NLS were compared with AT-MCB alone or a PNA-binding NLS. The effect of the AT-MCB containing PNA-binding NLS on transfection was investigated. The ultrasound and AT-MCB delivery significantly enhanced the cytoplasmic intake of exogenous genes and maintained high cell viability. The nuclear import and gene expression of combined microbubble- and PNA-transfected cells were significantly greater compared with cells that were transfected with AT-MCB or DNA with only PNA-binding NLS. The quantity of EGFP-N3 plasmids in the nuclei was increased by >5.0-fold compared with control microbubbles (CMCB) and NLS-free plasmids. The gene expression was ~1.7-fold greater compared with NLS-free plasmids and 1.3-fold greater compared with control microbubbles. In conclusion, UTMD combined with AT-MCB and a PNA-binding NLS plasmid significantly improved transfection efficiency by increasing cytoplasmic and nuclear DNA import. This method is a promising strategy for the noninvasive and effective delivery of target genes or drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of inertia coupling terms among substructures was proposed. Based on the branch mode method, the superstructures and foundation soil of one soil-adjacent structure system were divided into different branches. The branch mode method was effectively introduced to real-time dynamic substructure testing (RTDST) by decomposing and transforming the motion equation of the entire system. It was also applied for the interaction coupling terms to exchange data between the physical and numerical substructures. This method decreased the degree-of-freedom of the linear substructure effectively and considered the effects of foundation translation and rotation on the upper structures. One system composed of two adjacent four-story steel structures (S1 and S2, respectively) and foundation soil was presented in this study. S1 was applied on a shaking table as the physical substructure, whereas the foundation soil and S2 were set as two numerical substructures and simulated in a computer. The seismic response of the entire coupling system was analyzed by real-time data exchange among substructures. Test results agree with numerical solutions. The RTDST based on the branch mode method is a feasible and reliable method for the investigation of soil-adjacent structure interaction (SASI) problems, and provides a new way to consider SASI problems in the RTDST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extrusion is widely used to construct models in 3D cadasters. However, the basic extrusion approach only supports relatively simple conditions, and a 3D cadastral data model that supports extruded 3D models that are associated with their corresponding footprints is not available. In this paper, we present a new extrusion approach based on non-overlapping footprints (EABNOF) that supports relatively complex 3D situations. In EABNOF, overlaps between overlapping footprints of the input data are removed, which also involves splitting extrusion intervals and handling the associated cadastral objects of footprints. The newly generated non-overlapping footprints are extruded to generate primitives. To construct geometric models and topologies for cadastral objects, three judgment criteria are proposed to identify and remove redundancies from these primitives, and then primitives of the same 3D spatial unit or topological feature are merged. Considering the feasibility of using EABNOF for current cadastral data, we design a data model that associates 3D cadastral data with the footprints of 2D cadasters. We examine two types of structures on Pozi Street to verify EABNOF: a building complex and property objects. The results demonstrate that EABNOF can construct geometric models and topologies in 3D cadasters. EABNOF is based on the footprints of 2D cadastral data, and thus is particularly suited to areas with 2D cadastral data to establish 3D cadasters with low costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the high species diversity and the lack of a modern revision, the phylogenetic relationships within the tribe Boarmiini remain largely unexplored. In this study, we reconstruct the first molecular phylogeny of the Palaearctic and Oriental members of Boarmiini, and infer the relationships among tribes within the 'boarmiine' lineage. One mitochondrial (COI) and four nuclear (EF-1α, CAD, RpS5, GAPDH) genes for 56 genera and 96 species of Boarmiini mostly from the Palaearctic and Oriental regions were included in the study. Analyses of Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood recovered largely congruent results. The monophyly of Boarmiini is supported by our results. Seven clades and seven subclades within Boarmiini were found. The molecular results coupled with morphological studies suggested the synonymisation of Zanclopera Warren, 1894, syn. nov. with Krananda Moore, 1868. The following new combinations are proposed: Krananda straminearia (Leech, 1897) (comb. nov.), Krananda falcata (Warren, 1894) (comb. nov.), and Krananda fulva (Yazaki, 1994) (comb. nov.).Our results also supported the monophyly of the 'boarmiine' lineage. Boarmiini were recovered as sister to the remaining taxa within the 'boarmiine' lineage, and Macariini were recovered as sister to Abraxini, Eutoeini and Cassymini. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Deletions in Xq21 cause various congenital defects in males including choroideremia, deafness and mental retardation, depending on their size and gene content. Until now only a limited number of patients with Xq21 deletions has been reported. Case presentation: Here we describe a 17-year-old male with choroideremia, deafness, and mental retardation syndrome. Using SNP arrays, an 8.05 Mb deletion in Xq21 was identified inherited from the apparently healthy mother. The deleted region harbors 12 OMIM genes, of which POU3F4, CHM, and ZNF711 might have contributed to the patient’s phenotype including hearing loss, poor vision, and intellectual disability. Moreover, the patient’s mother exhibits a normal phenotype while carrying the same deletion, which is often observed in previous studies on female carriers in families with this syndrome. Conclusions: Our study confirms the causative effect between the Xq21 deletion in males and choroideremia, deafness and mental retardation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumor in children and is responsible for ∼15% of pediatric cancer deaths. CtBP2 is a member of the CtBP family of proteins that functions as a transcription regulator and has been demonstrated to interact with the C-terminus of the adenoviral E1A oncoprotein. In this study, the expression of CtBP2 in the human neuroblastoma cell line SHSY5Y was down-regulated using lentiviral-mediated RNA interference. Down-regulation of CtBP2 inhibited the expression of c-myc, MMP2, and MMP9 proteins. Moreover, low expression of CtBP2 resulted in inhibited cell growth, proliferation, migration, and invasion, and the cell cycle was arrested at G2/M-phase. These results indicate that CtBP2 may be a potential target to suppress tumorigenesis in neuroblastoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]