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With increasing ballistic threat levels, there is ever more demand on developing ceramic armor designs with improved performance. This paper presents finite element simulations that investigate the performance of silicon carbide ceramic with steel 4340 backing material and titanium alloy, graphite as buffer layers when subjected to normal and oblique impacts by a tungsten alloy long rod projectile (LRP). Depth of penetration from experimental measurements is compared with simulations to confirm the validity of constitutive, failure model parameters. Titanium alloy cover plate and graphite interface weak layer laterally spread the impact shock away from the SiC tile and reduces the amplification of the stress accumulation at the front surface of the SiC tile. The dwelling time increases before it penetrates into ceramic armor. Further, using AUTODYN® numerical simulations detailed parametric study is carried out to identify the minimum areal density armor for a given ballistic limit velocity. The equivalent protection factor for the bi-layer armor is a simple function of the cosine of the angle of impact.

Background:The dried bark of Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle(BAA),which is a traditional Chinese medicine,is widely used in Chinese folklore for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.Consequently, the objective of this study was to explore the therapeutic basis of BAA for the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC) based on Virtual Screening–Molecular Docking–Activity Evaluation technology. Methods:By searching the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) Database and Analysis Platform, 89 compounds from the chemical components of BAA were obtained. Then, after preliminarily screening the compounds based on Lipinski’s rule of five and other relevant conditions, the AutoDock Vina molecular docking software was used to evaluate the affinity of the compounds to UC-related target proteins and their binding modes by scoring function to identify the best candidate compounds.Additionally,Further verification of the compound's properties was achieved through in vitro experiments. Results: Twenty-two compounds obtained from the secondary screening were molecularly docked with UC-related target proteins (IL-1R, TLR, EGFR, TGFR, and Wnt) using AutoDock Vina. The free energy of the highest scoring compounds binding to the active cavity of human IL-1R, TLR, EGFR, TGFR, and Wnt proteins was −8.7, −8.0, −9.2, −7.7, and −8.5 kcal/mol, respectively. Potential compounds, dehydrocrebanine, ailanthone, and kaempferol, were obtained by scoring function and docking mode analysis. Furthermore, the potential compound ailanthone (1, 3, and 10 μM) was found to have no significant effect on cell proliferation, while ailanthone (10 μM) reduced the level of proinflammatory factors caused by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Conclusion:Among the active components of BAA, ailanthone plays a major role in its anti-inflammatory properties . The present study shows that ailanthone has advantages in cell proliferation and inhibition of inflammation, but further animal research is needed to confirm the pharmaceutical potential thereof in the future.

As one of the most challenging inflammatory diseases, the incidence of ulcerative colitis (UC) is increasing year by year, but the existing therapeutic drugs are not effective and lack of targeting. Nanomaterials are expected to become promising delivery system due to their good targeting effects. Here, we designed a nanomaterial sensitive to reactive oxygen species, which can be used to treat IBD, especially UC. It is a self-assembled polyether micelle that can be oxidized at the inflammation site where the concentration of reactive oxygen increases, and effectively release the encapsulated budesonide (Bud). Experiments have proved that for DSS-induced colitis, the synthetic drug-loaded nanoparticles have excellent therapeutic effects, can effectively repair intestinal barrier, and significantly improve the damaged colon tissue. At the same time, it has a beneficial regulatory effect on inflammatory factors. Molecular mechanism studies have shown that it achieves its therapeutic effects by activating the peroxisome proliferators-activated receptors-γ (PPAR-γ) pathway and inhibiting the nuclear factor (NF)-κB pathway. This study proves that oral nano-micelles have an important impact on improving the efficacy of UC treatment drugs and have far-reaching significance for the targeted treatment of gastrointestinal diseases.

Background: Zanthoxyli Bungeanum (ZB) has been reported have an effect on lung carcinoma (LC).However,the defined pharmacological mechanism of ZB on LC has not been expounded completely because of the complicated ingredients Objective: The aim of this work was to explore the active ingredients and mechanisms of ZB against LC by network pharmacology. Method: In this study, a systemic network pharmacology were used to explore the underlying mechanism of ZB, including pivotal components collection, target prediction, networks construction, Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses. At last, molecular docking was carried out to elucidate the involved pharmacological mechanisms. Results: Twenty-eight potential active compounds with 317 related targets and 598 LC-related targets were collected. Finally, 79 intersection targets were obtained used to GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. Based on component-target-pathway network, quercetin, β-sitosterol, and β-amyrin and 6 targets were selected, including RAC-alpha serine/thre-onine-protein kinase(AKT1),mitogen-active protein kinase1(MAPK1),Transcription factor p65(RELA), Caspase-9(CASP9), G1/S-specifi cyclin-D1 (CCND1) and PI3-kinase subunit gamma (PIK3CG),these six predicted targets were highly involved in the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway Conclusion: The active ingredients and mechanisms of ZB against LC were firstly investigated using network pharmacology. This work provides scientific evidence to support the clinical effect of ZB on LC, provides new signs of the anti-LC mechanism of ZB, and supply a guidance for further study.

Objective: To analyze the data of pre-hospital emergency treatment in zhengzhou from 2007 to 2016, and evaluate the current situation of pre-hospital trauma emergency treatment, in order to provide a scientific basis for effective use of first aid resources and enhance success rate of trauma emergency treatment. Methods: Retrospective analysis was conducted based on pre-hospital emergency resources of Zhengzhou Emergency Medical Rescue Center from 2007 to 2016. Results: The total number of pre-hospital emergency treatment cases was 9 305 687 from 2007 to 2016 in Zhengzhou, of which 418 882 were trauma cases. The top five causes of injury were traffic accident injury, cutting injury, beating injury, crushing injury and falling injury. The top five emergency treatments used were oxygen, hemostasis, dressing and fixation, fluid supplementation, analgesics and sputum aspiration. According to different directions of diagnosis, the pre-hospital emergency patients were divided into four groups: emergency treatment group, emergency observation group, admission to general ward group and admission to ICU group. There was no statistical difference in the ages among the four groups (P>0.05). There were significantly statistical differences in gender composition among the four groups, with more males than females (P0.05), but the mortality of the trauma, the average arrival time, and the mean treatment time were significantly different (P

Reducing the usage and residue of plastic mulch film, but not productivity, is crucial for the sustainable development of dryland farming. The re-used mulching of plastic film (directly cropping on the already used plastic film) was tested compared to no-mulch and new mulching (mulching new film each year), in the grain maize, forage maize, and faba bean cropping systems. The new mulch significantly increased topsoil temperature (18.4% above average), upper 2 m soil moisture (20.2%), crop yield (85.8%), above-ground biomass (63.4%), net revenue (68.4%), proportion of macroaggregates (> 0.25 mm) (35.7%), mean weight diameter (MWD) (78.4%), soil organic carbon (7.0%), and heavy fraction organic carbon (10.3%) in all three crop systems compared to no-mulch. Re-used mulch significantly increased topsoil temperature (11.4% above average), moisture (13.4%), and MWD after final crop harvest (19.1%) in all three crop systems; and significantly increased crop yield (61.8%) and above-ground biomass (50.3%) in the faba bean system. However, re-used mulch had no significant effect for the grain and forage maize systems compared to no-mulch. The 2-years re-used mulch (3-years continuously mulch) had significantly lower plastic film residue (57.1% below average) after final crop harvest in all three crop systems. Re-used mulch also produced significantly higher net revenue (13.2%) in the faba bean system compared to new mulch. In summary, cropping faba bean, under re-used mulch, instead of new mulch, significantly reduce the usage and residue of plastic film and resulted in similar high productivity, and may become a willingly adopted practice for farmers due to the higher net revenue. This work can serve as a reference for sustainable use of plastic film mulch and has potential applications to effectively reduce plastic film usage and residue in cropland and develop sustainable agriculture, especially for cultivating faba bean and other temperature-insensitive crops in developing countries.

To investigate the effect of Ruyi Jinhuang Plaster (RJP) on testosterone propionate-induced BPH in the rat model and its action mechanisms.Forty-eight SD male rats were randomly divided into six groups of equal number: normal control, BPH model control, finasteride, and high-, medium- and low-dose RJP. The BPH model was made in the latter five groups by hypodermic injection of testosterone propionate. From the first day of modeling, the rats of the normal control and BPH model control groups were treated with blank plasters and those of the high-, medium- and low-dose RJP groups with RJPs at 42.0, 21.0 and 10.5 cm2/kg applied to the dehaired area of the back, and those of the finasteride group by gavage of finasteride at 4.5 mg/kg, all once a day for 30 successive days. Then the prostates of the animals were harvested for observation of histopathological changes by HE staining, measurement of the areas of interstitial and epithelial cells and prostatic glandular cavity, and determination of the expressions of P38, JNK2, NF-кBP65 and STAT3 proteins in the prostate tissue by Western blot.Compared with the BPH model controls, the high-dose RJP group showed significantly decreased proliferation and area proportion of prostatic epithelial cells (P0.05), increased area proportion of the prostatic glandular cavity (P0.05), and reduced expressions of P38, p-P38, NF-кBP65, P-NF-кBP65, STAT3, P-STAT3 and JNK2 in the prostate tissue (P0.05); the medium-dose RJP group exhibited markedly down-regulated expressions of JNK2 and NF-кBP65 (P0.05) but an up-regulated level of p-JNK (P0.05); while the low-dose RJP group displayed a remarkably reduced expression of JNK2 (P0.05) but an elevated level of p-JNK (P0.05).RJP suppresses BPH in the model rat by down-regulating the expressions of P38, p-P38, NF-кBP65, P-NF-кBP65, STAT3, P-STAT3 and JNK2 or up-regulating that of p-JNK in the prostate tissue.

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is an important forage legume in farming and animal husbandry systems in semiarid areas. However, its forage yields in dryland farming areas are usually very low due to water shortages and low soil phosphorus (P) availability. This study assessed the effects of plastic film mulch and P fertilization on alfalfa forage yield and shoot P uptake in response to improved soil moisture and soil P availability in a dryland farming system of northwest China. A six-year field experiment, which commenced in 2011, was conducted at Yuzhong County, Gansu Province, China in randomized blocks of split-plot design with two mulch treatments—plastic film mulch with ridge and furrow (M) and no plastic film mulch with flat planting (NM)—as the main plots, and four P levels—0, 9.73, 19.3, 28.9 kg P ha−1—as split plots. Alfalfa forage yield and shoot P uptake and concentration increased linearly with increasing P level in the NM treatment. In the M treatment, shoot P concentration also increased linearly with increasing P level, but shoot P uptake and forage yield were well-fitted by a quadratic model with P level as the independent variable and a lower physiological P use efficiency at high P level. Alfalfa forage yield and water use efficiency increased with plastic film mulch. Soil water content in the upper 1 m of soil increased with plastic film mulch and was higher in the 2014 growing season and in April 2015 due to more rainfall. However, at 1–5 m soil depth, the soil water content decreased with plastic film mulch and P fertilization but increased at high P levels with plastic film mulch. Soil pH decreased with plastic film mulch and P fertilization, with a stronger effect from the latter, which is beneficial for improving soil P availability. Soil available P, mostly derived from inorganic P, increased with P fertilization and was lower in M than NM treatments due to alfalfa uptake and competition with soil microorganisms. We concluded that plastic film mulch and P fertilization, of about 16.1 or 17.5 kg P ha−1, was an appropriate combination to improve soil water condition and soil P availability for increased alfalfa forage yield or shoot P uptake in this semiarid region.

Focus on the problem that traditional aircraft design thought can’t meet the security and economy requirement of modern aircraft, studying the optimum design method based on damage tolerance for overall beam. For example with aircraft overall beam, constructed the optimization model based on support vector machine agent model with the lightest weight of the structure as the optimization objective, the minimum residual strength value as the constraint, section parameters as the design variables, through mathematical programming, get the optimization results under different residual strength requirement value, and calculate the crack growth life.

Focus on the hygrothermal environment problems of CF3031/CCF300 stiffened composite panel, the stiffened composite panel absorption were studied on in the 85%RH, 70°C hygrothermal environment, the moisture equilibrium content of the composites were calculated. The compressive test were carried on after hygrothermal aging, observed the change of the strain, and draw the conclusion of the flexural load and the breaking load, contrasted with the panel of before hygrothemal aging. The results show that the rate of remained flexural load was about 85% and the rate of remained breaking load was about 75% after hygrothemal aging.

To test and rate automobile braking ability rapidly, correctly with low cost, a road test system of automobile braking ability is constituted in LabVIEW based on MEMS after the deeply analysis of rating principle and national standard of it. Then the real car test is accomplished using this test system and the test result has been analyzed which prove the strategy of system building is feasible and has widespread application value and prospect in engineering.

Hyperglycemia is a typical pathogenic factor in a series of complications among patients with type II diabetes. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is the major polyphenol extracted from green tea and is reported to be an antioxidant. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of EGCG on insulin resistance in human HepG2 cells pretreated with high concentrations of glucose. The protein kinase B (AKT)/glycogen synthase kinase (GSK) pathways were analyzed using western blot analysis in HepG2 cells and primary mouse hepatocytes treated with high glucose and/or EGCG. Cellular glycogen content was determined using a glycogen assay kit. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was determined using dihydroethidium staining and flow cytometry. c‑JUN N‑terminal kinase (JNK)/insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1)/AKT/GSK signaling was explored using western blot analysis in HepG2 cells treated with high glucose and/or EGCG or N-acetyl-cysteine. High glucose significantly decreased the levels of phosphorylated AKT and GSK in HepG2 cells and mouse primary hepatocytes. Pretreatment with EGCG significantly restored the activation of AKT and GSK in HepG2 cells and primary hepatocytes exposed to high glucose. In HepG2 cells and primary hepatocytes, glycogen synthesis was improved by EGCG treatment in a dose‑dependent manner. High glucose significantly stimulated the production of ROS while EGCG protected high glucose‑induced ROS production. ROS is known to serve a major role in high glucose induced‑insulin resistance by increasing JNK and IRS1 serine phosphorylation. In the present study, EGCG was observed to enhance the insulin‑signaling pathway. EGCG ameliorated high glucose‑induced insulin resistance in the hepatocytes by potentially decreasing ROS‑induced JNK/IRS1/AKT/GSK signaling.

This paper researched on vehicles’ emissions in Nanjing based on IVE model and presented the method to quantify the main inputting parameters of IVE model. This research has collected the traffic of different types of roads in Nanjing. The light-duty vehicles, taxis, buses and trucks respectively accounted for 73.4%, 13.3%, 10.3% and 3.0% of the total traffic volume. According to vehicle driving condition data collected by GPS, the driving cycle of light-duty vehicles in Nanjing was defined. The on-road vehicles’ emission data were measured using the on-board vehicle emission analyzer made by ourselves. Then the correction factors of NOx in IVE model could be obtained using the testing emission data. The results of IVE model showed that the daily NOx emission of light-duty vehicles, taxis, buses and trucks in Nanjing city were 17.79t, 5.51t, 146.37t and 83.78t. Buses and trucks were the main emission sources of NOx, with the contribution of 57.75% and 33.06%.

This paper introduced the test system which can record and process the related condition parameter considering the needs of international vehicle emission (IVE) model. In order to improve its extendibility and versatility, gasoline vehicle fuel consumption measurement model based on carbon balance method was established. Theoretical model of calculating nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission and fuel consumption by carbon balance method is illustrated. And to measure the exhaust gas flow rate, a V-cone flow-meter and a gas analyzer which were modularized were designed, too.

Essential hypertension (EH) was a complex disease resulted from the interaction of cumulative effect of multiple genetic and environment factors. The relationship between the genetic polymorphisms in the transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1), the blood levels and EH have been investigated, but the conclusions were different. Therefore, we investigate the relationship between the tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs) (rs1800469, rs2241716, rs11466345, rs2241715, rs4803455) in TGF-beta1 gene, blood levels and EH in the Han nationality population in Xinjiang, to clarity the pattern of linkage disequilibrium (LD) and the feature of the structure of haplotype.Based on the case-control study,we selected 732 (365 EH patients,367 controls) Han Chinese population from the Boertonggu countryside of Shawan region in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China by random cluster sampling. After questionnaire and physical examination, we collected blood samples, and the blood levels of TGF-beta1 were quantified using sandwich ELISA. The polymorphisms of TGF-beta1 gene in the study groups were detected with SNaPshot system. The case-control study in a large group was carried out separately for each of the tSNP and followed up by haplotypes analyses to determine the relation between tSNPs of TGF-beta1 gene and EH in the Han population.(1) The frequencies of alleles A, G of rs11466345 of TGF-beta1 gene in EH group and control group were as follows: 69.7%, 30.3%, 74.4%, 25.6%, respectively. It was demonstrated that the G allele of the rs11466345 polymorphism occurred at a significantly higher frequency in EH patients than in healthy controls (30.3% vs. 25.6%, P0.05). The rs11466345G-allele carriers had a significantly increased risk of EH compared to rs11466345A-allele carrier (OR = 1.261; P0.05). The frequencies of genotypes and alleles of the other tSNPs of TGF-beta1 gene had no difference between EH patients and controls (P0.05). (2)Except the site of rs11466345, the other tSNPs were in strong LD, and no statistical differences were observed in haplotypes distribution in the followup study between case-control groups (P0.05). (3) There were no difference of TGF-beta1 levels between the different genotypes and alleles in tSNPs of TGF-beta1 gene (P0.05).(1) These results suggested that TGF-beta1 gene rs11466345 G allele was likely to be a genetic susceptibility factor for EH in the Xinjiang Han population, the other tSNPs perhaps had no association with EH of in the study groups. (2) Except rs11466345, the other tSNPs were in strong LD, and the haplotypes reconstructed by tSNPs might not be associated with EH in the Han nationality populations. (3) There was no association between the tSNP of TGF-beta1 gene and TGF-beta1 blood levels in the Xinjiang Han nationality population.

To investigate the association of the transforming growth factor- beta 1 (TGF- beta 1) gene polymorphisms and blood TGF- beta 1 level with essential hypertension (EH) in Kazakh Chinese.The polymorphisms of TGF- beta 1 gene in 354 Kazakh EH patients and 435 healthy controls were detected with polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and DNA sequencing. The blood level of TGF- beta 1 was quantified using specific sandwich ELISA.The frequencies of genotypes GG, GC and alleles G and C of +915G/C in Xinjiang Kazakh were 97.9%, 2.1% and 98.77%, 1.23%, respectively. No significantly difference was found between EH patients and controls (P0.05). The frequencies of genotypes TT, TC, CC and alleles T and C of +869T/C in controls was 25.97%, 46.67%, 27.36%, 49.3% and 50.7%, respectively, the CC genotype or C allele in EH patients had significantly higher frequencies than controls [41.60% vs. 27.36%, and 62.2% vs. 50.7%, respectively (P0.05)]. It was also shown that TGF- beta 1 +869 C allele carriers had significantly increased risk of EH compared with T allele carriers (OR=1.60, P=0.00). There was linkage disequilibrium (LD) between the two polymorphisms. The frequency of haplotype C-G in the EH group was significantly higher than that in controls (61.6% vs. 49.8%, P0.05). There were no differences in TGF- beta 1 level among different genotypes or alleles in both +869T/C and +915G/C loci (P0.05).The frequency of +915G/C variation of the TGF- beta 1 gene was very low in Kazakh and there was no homozygous variation. The +869 C allele was likely the genetic susceptibility factor for EH in the population. There was linkage disequilibrium in the polymorphisms of +869T/C and +915G/C. Haplotype C-G was the risk factor of EH.

Based on a case-control study, we investigated the relationship between +869T/C and +915G/C gene polymorphisms in transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1), protein levels and essential hypertension (EH) in the Kazakh and Han Chinese populations selected from the Boertonggu countryside of Shawan region in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China (n=1600). The polymorphisms of TGF-beta1 and the blood levels were detected using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism assays and sandwich ELISA, respectively.An association was found between +869C-allele with higher risk of EH in these two populations. We also found that the CG haplotype of the two polymorphisms was associated with EH in the Kazakh EH patients. The levels of TGF-beta(1) in the blood were positively correlated with diastolic blood pressure both in the Kazakh and Han EH patients. Levels of the TGF-beta1 protein in the Kazakh EH patients were significantly higher than those in the Han EH patients.These results suggest that the TGF-beta1 +869 C allele is potentially a genetic factor of EH in these two ethnicities, the CG haplotype can be a genetic marker of EH in the Kazakh Chinese and the high concentration of TGF-beta1 is possibly associated with EH, especially in the Kazakh population.

An analysis method was developed to determine the chemical speciation of Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn in radix scutellariae decoction using atomic absorption spectroscopy(AAS). The decoction can be divided into suspension and soluble species by 0.45 microm filter membrane and the soluble species can be separated into organism and inorganic species by LSA-10 macroporous resin. These elements in water-soluble test samples can be divided into alcohol-soluble and water-soluble by adopting n-octyl alcohol-water allocation system in man-made gastric acidity. Then, the concentration of these elements was determined by AAS, which provided more chemical speciation information about these elements instead of the total amount of them only in radix scutellariae. Deteotion limit of Cu, Zn and Mn by using the method was all 0.01 microg x mL(-1) and was 0.02 microg x mL(-1) for Fe. The RSD was in the range of 1.5%-3.6% (n=11) and the recovery rate of soluble species and inorganic species were in range of 96.7%-105.0%. The method has been successfully applied to determine the chemical speciation of Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn in radix scutellariae, which was very important for overall study of radix scutellariae.

The title compound, C20H25NO3S2, was obtained by the reaction of (S)-2-methyl-N-[(S)-1-phenyl-3-(phenylthio)but-3-enyl]propane-2-sulfinamide with 3-chloroperoxybenzoic acid (mCPBA) in dichloromethane solution. The absolute configuration was assigned by reference to the unchanging chiral centre in the synthetic procedure. The dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 73.3 (2)°. The molecular conformation is likely influenced in part by intramolecular C—H...O hydrogen bonds, while the crystal packing is stabilized by intermolecular N—H...O hydrogen bonds and C—H...π interactions.