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Abstract The World Health Organization states that early diagnosis is essential to increasing the cure rate for breast cancer, which poses a danger to women’s health worldwide. However, the efficacy and cost limitations of conventional diagnostic techniques increase the possibility of misdiagnosis. In this work, we present a quantum hybrid classical convolutional neural network (QCCNN) based breast cancer diagnosis approach with the goal of utilizing quantum computing’s high-dimensional data processing power and parallelism to increase diagnosis efficiency and accuracy. When working with large-scale and complicated datasets, classical convolutional neural network (CNN) and other machine learning techniques generally demand a large amount of computational resources and time. Their restricted capacity for generalization makes it challenging to maintain consistent performance across multiple data sets. To address these issues, this paper adds a quantum convolutional layer to the classical convolutional neural network to take advantage of quantum computing to improve learning efficiency and processing speed. Simulation experiments on three breast cancer datasets, GBSG, SEER and WDBC, validate the robustness and generalization of QCCNN and significantly outperform CNN and logistic regression models in classification accuracy. This study not only provides a novel method for breast cancer diagnosis but also achieves a breakthrough in breast cancer diagnosis and promotes the development of medical diagnostic technology.

Abstract Objective Transcranial sonography (TCS) is a noninvasive neuroimaging technique, visualizing deep brain structures and the ventricular system. Although widely employed in diagnosing various movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease and dystonia, by detecting disease‐specific abnormalities, the specific characteristics of the TCS in cerebellar ataxia remain inconclusive. We aimed to assess the potential value of TCS in patients with cerebellar ataxias for disease diagnosis and severity assessment. Methods TCS on patients with genetic and acquired cerebellar ataxia, including 94 with spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) containing 10 asymptomatic carriers, 95 with cerebellar subtype of multiple system atrophy (MSA‐C), and 100 healthy controls (HC), was conducted. Assessments included third ventricle width, substantia nigra (SN) and lentiform nucleus (LN) echogenicity, along with comprehensive clinical evaluations and genetic testing. Results The study revealed significant TCS abnormalities in patients with cerebellar ataxia, such as enlarged third ventricle widths and elevated rates of hyperechogenic SN and LN. TCS showed high accuracy in distinguishing patients with SCA or MSA‐C from HC, with an AUC of 0.870 and 0.931, respectively. TCS abnormalities aided in identifying asymptomatic SCA carriers, effectively differentiating them from HC, with an AUC of 0.725. Furthermore, third ventricle width was significantly correlated with SARA and ICARS scores in patients with SCA3 and SCOPA‐AUT scores in patients with MSA‐C. The SN area and SARA or ICARS scores in patients with SCA3 were also positively correlated. Interpretation Our findings illustrate remarkable TCS abnormalities in patients with cerebellar ataxia, serving as potential biomarkers for clinical diagnosis and progression assessment.

The research on the thermal decomposition of propellant is critical to determining its safe storage life. The thermogravimetry (TG) testing of nitramine propellants plasticized by nitroglycerin (NG), glycidyl azide polymer (GAP), 2,2-dinitropropanol hexanoate (DNPH), and N-butyl-2-nitratoethylnitramine (BuNENA) was performed under non-isothermal circumstances. The thermal decomposition mechanism of propellant was then analyzed using the model-fitting method, and the storage life was predicted based on the mechanism. The results show that when heated to the same mass loss, the temperature of GAP-NC-RDX, BuNENA-NC-RDX, and DNPH-NC-RDX is higher than that of NG-NC-RDX. GAP-NC-RDX, BuNENA-NC-RDX, and DNPH-NC-RDX propellants have superior thermal stability to that of NG-NC-RDX. The kinetic mechanism functions and equations of the propellants were calculated, and multi-step reaction models of the thermal decomposition were built. The major thermal decomposition mechanism of nitramine propellants was discovered to be composite autocatalytic decomposition (Kamal-Sourour equation), which means that the reaction of reactants and the reaction catalyzed by products occur in tandem. The decomposition depth of propellants increases as the temperature rises during the same storage time. The storage lifetimes of GAP-NC-RDX, BuNENA-NC-RDX, DNPH-NC-RDX, and NG-NC-RDX propellants at 288 K are 28.71 years, 24.49 years, 18.34 years, and 16.33 years, respectively. The inclusion of GAP, DNPH, and BuNENA in the formulation improves the storage life of propellant more than NG. This study offers an attractive strategy for analyzing the decomposition mechanism of propellant with a multi-step decomposition reaction and forecasting its storage life.

The widespread occurrence of toxic arsenic in sulfidic and non-ferrous waste tailings hinders its disposal as cement paste backfill (CPB). Alkali activated slag (AAS) has recently begun to be practiced as an alternative to normal Portland cement (OPC). Nevertheless, technical information on arsenic immobilization and mechanical characteristics of arsenic-rich AAS-CPB is rather few. The impacts of activator nature, cure temperature and arsenic content on strength and arsenic immobilization of AAS-CPB explored. Despite AAS-CPB having greater strength, OPC-CPB consistently has a stronger (1.7–21.1% higher) ability to immobilize arsenic. The optimum silica modulus for maximal strength and arsenic immobilization capability depends on curing time. Strength at3 days is enhanced by higher activator doses, whereas strength at later ages (≥ 28 days) is decreased. At all curing ages, the lowest arsenic immobilization capacity is produced by medium activator concentration (0.35). Irrespective of cement type, strength increases as curing temperature rose, however OPC-CPB's strength is more responsive to temperature changes than AAS-CPB's. At room temperature (20°C), OPC-CPB has a higher (6.0–21.1% greater) arsenic immobilization efficiency (AIE) than AAS-CPB, but the opposite is true at lower (5°C) and higher (35°C) temperatures (i.e., 5.4–12.0% and 4.4–12.0% lower at 5 and 35°C respectively). Early on, the influence of arsenic content on strength is not immediately apparent, but it tends to become more obvious with longer curing times. As a role of cement type and elapsed time, high arsenic contents cause a rise or a decrease in AIE. Notably, there is no apparent connection between UCS and AIE. Electrical conductivity and moisture content can be steadily employed to portray the hydration progression of both arsenic-free and arsenic-containing CPB.

Energetic plasticizers are an essential component of propellants and have a significant impact on their performance, such as energy, combustion, and mechanics. Therefore, there is significant practical value in understanding how plasticizers affect the performance of propellants. In this work, the glass transition temperatures of several energetic plasticizers were compared. By adding energetic plasticizers with good compatibility with the propellant and a low glass transition temperature to the propellant, nitramine gun propellants containing different energetic plasticizers were prepared through a semi-solvent method. The compatibility, thermal behavior, phase structure, composition, mechanical properties, energy, and combustion performance of the nitramine gun propellants were characterized. The influence of plasticizers on the phase structure of the propellant and its mechanism on the combustion performance of the propellant were discussed. Energetic plasticizers GAPE, DNPH, and BuNENA have good compatibility and chemical stability with NC-RDX and display good plasticization. GAPE–NC–RDX, DNPH–NC–RDX, and BuNENA–NC–RDX propellants exhibit stable combustion performance at −40 °C, 20 °C, and 50 °C. Compared with the nitramine gun propellant plasticized with NG, the impact strength of the propellant plasticized with DNPH and BuNENA increased by 108.1 % and 17.2 % at −40 °C, respectively. This work offers a solution to improve the phase structure, mechanical properties, and combustion stability of heterogeneous gun propellants and provides a way to suppress the excessive burning rate and flame temperature of propellants.

In this study, a one-dimensional mathematical model based on rigid theory is developed to evaluate the maximum water filling flow rate and filling time of closed pipeline water supply systems during rapid-filling processes. Polynomial fitting is utilized for prediction, and numerical simulation results are analyzed to understand the variations in maximum water filling flow rate, filling time, and pressure with respect to opening valve time, air valve area, filling head, and segmented filling pipe length. The findings highlight the significant impact of the filling head on the maximum water filling flow rate, while the filling time is predominantly influenced by the gas discharge coefficient. Rapid changes occur only at the initial stage of rapid filling, reaching the maximum value with a very high acceleration (around t = 4 s). It is observed that pressure fluctuations in the gas–liquid two-phase flow inside the pipeline lead to velocity differences and periodic changes in gas pressure opposite to the filling head. When the gas discharge coefficient reaches approximately 0.3, pressure variation within the water supply system diminishes, and the time and flow rate required for pipeline filling become independent of the discharge coefficient. This study suggests the use of a segmented filling approach to ensure the effectiveness and stability of pipeline filling.

Communication signal reconstruction technology represents a critical area of research within communication countermeasures and signal processing. Considering traditional OFDM signal reconstruction methods’ intricacy and suboptimal reconstruction performance, a dual discriminator CGAN model incorporating LSTM and Transformer is proposed. When reconstructing OFDM signals using the traditional CNN network, it becomes challenging to extract intricate temporal information. Therefore, the BiLSTM network is incorporated into the first discriminator to capture timing details of the IQ (In-phase and Quadrature-phase) sequence and constellation map information of the AP (Amplitude and Phase) sequence. Subsequently, following the addition of fixed position coding, these data are fed into the core network constructed based on the Transformer Encoder for further learning. Simultaneously, to capture the correlation between the two IQ signals, the VIT (Vision in Transformer) concept is incorporated into the second discriminator. The IQ sequence is treated as a single-channel two-dimensional image and segmented into pixel blocks containing IQ sequence through Conv2d. Fixed position coding is added and sent to the Transformer core network for learning. The generator network transforms input noise data into a dimensional space aligned with the IQ signal and embedding vector dimensions. It appends identical position encoding information to the IQ sequence before sending it to the Transformer network. The experimental results demonstrate that, under commonly utilized OFDM modulation formats such as BPSK, QPSK, and 16QAM, the time series waveform, constellation diagram, and spectral diagram exhibit high-quality reconstruction. Our algorithm achieves improved signal quality while managing complexity compared to other reconstruction methods.

A mixed nitrate ester propellant composed of nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, triethylene glycol dinitrate, and dendrimer DP-2 was studied to explore the effects of DP-2 on the rheological properties of the propellant during the solventless extrusion process. The results showed that the apparent shear viscosity of the propellant decreased gradually with the increased mass fraction of the DP-2 from 0 wt% to 2 wt%. Additionally, it was evident that the inclusion of 0.5 wt% DP-2 leads to a notable decrease in both the apparent shear viscosity of the propellant and the torque of screw by over 50%. However, in contrast to the change in fluidity observed from 0 wt% to 0.5 wt%, the enhancement trend of propellant fluidity becomes less significant as the DP-2 content continues to increase. The effects of DP-2 on thermal properties, chemical stability, mechanical sensitivity, mechanical property, and combustion behavior of the propellant were comprehensively assessed. The results demonstrated that DP-2 exhibited promising potential as a flow modification additive for the manufacture of the propellant by solventless extrusion process.

Abstract Background Betel nut chewing plays a role in the pathogenesis of oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). As the major active ingredient of the betel nut, the effect of arecoline and its underlying mechanism to OSF and OSCC pathogenesis remain unclear. Methods Next-generation sequencing-based transcriptome and dRRBS analysis were performed on OSF and OSCC cells under low-dose arecoline exposure. Functional analyses were performed to compare the different roles of arecoline during OSF and OSCC pathogenesis, and key genes were identified. Results In this study, we identified that low-dose arecoline promoted cell proliferation of both NFs and OSCC cells via the acceleration of cell cycle progression, while high-dose arecoline was cytotoxic to both NFs and OSCC cells. We performed for the first time the transcriptome and methylome landscapes of NFs and OSCC cells under low-dose arecoline exposure. We found distinct transcriptome and methylome profiles mediated by low-dose arecoline in OSF and OSCC cells, as well as specific genes and signaling pathways associated with metabolic disorders induced by low-dose arecoline exposure. Additionally, low-dose arecoline displayed different functions at different stages, participating in the modulation of the extracellular matrix via Wnt signaling in NFs and epigenetic regulation in OSCC cells. After exposure to low-dose arecoline, the node roles of FMOD in NFs and histone gene clusters in OSCC cells were found. Meanwhile, some key methylated genes induced by arecoline were also identified, like PTPRM and FOXD3 in NFs, SALL3 and IRF8 in OSCC cells, indicating early molecular events mediated by arecoline during OSF and OSCC pathogenesis. Conclusions This study elucidated the contribution of low-dose arecoline to OSF and OSCC pathogenesis and identified key molecular events that could be targeted for further functional studies and their potential as biomarkers.

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are now widely used in both civilian and military applications; however, wireless charging underwater often faces difficulties such as disturbances from ocean currents and errors in device positioning, making proper alignment of the charging devices challenging. Misalignment between the primary and secondary coils can significantly impact the efficiency and power of the wireless charging system energy transfer. To address the issue of misalignment in wireless charging systems, this paper proposes a multiple transfer coil wireless power transfer (MTCWPT) system based on backpropagation (BP) neural network control combined with nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (NTSMC) to enhance further the system robustness and efficiency. To achieve WPT in the ocean, a coil shielding case structure was equipped. In displacement experiments, the proposed multi-transmitting coil system could achieve stable power transfer of 40 W and efficiency of over 78.5% within a displacement range of 8 cm. The system robustness was also validated. This paper presents a new AUV energy supply solution based on MTCWPT. The proposed MTCWPT system can significantly improve the navigation performance of AUVs.

Nitroguanidine (NQ) in solvent-based triple-base propellants (STP) has a propensity to peel off and detach from the matrix, leading to significant defects, such as interface debonding within the propellant’s microstructure. This ultimately results in reduced and unstable mechanical properties. To address this critical issue, an efficient and eco-friendly manufacturing process was employed to successfully produce solventless triple-base propellants (SLTPs) as a comparison to conventional STPs. SLTP samples exhibit a mutually supportive three-dimensional spatial structure, with NQ crystals within the propellant matrix more securely bonded to the interface. They also demonstrate higher relative density (1.68 g·cm−3), more stable molding dimensions (no contraction), and enhanced tensile strength (41.92 MPa). Quasi-static structural failure tests reveal that the standard deviation of compressive strength for SLTP samples in three axes is smaller, registering at 1.10. The dynamic structural damage performance analysis indicates that the failure of energetic composite materials is attributable to separation fracture damage after the appearance of cracks on the tensile surface at −40 and 25 °C. Furthermore, the structural failure of these materials occurs due to significant collapse failure after the compression surface bends inward at 50 °C. Consequently, the present study offers a reliable theoretical foundation and procedural strategy for enhancing the structural strength of triple-base propellants.

This paper addressed three major challenges in the customization of mixed propellant charges: optimal design, performance simulation, and manufacturing. Based on parametric modeling software Grasshopper, parametric models of propellants with highly complex geometries were endowed with combustion properties of multiple formulations, coupled with rapidly changing burning rate-pressure field during iterative combustion to achieve visual and integrated simulation of burning surface regression, form function, and combustion performance of mixed charges, providing convenient theoretical guidance for structural optimization design of customized strategies. Customized zones designed with complex geometries and multiple formulations co-constructed in one propellant were prepared by multi-material additive manufacturing techniques. Different customized zones of one or more propellants were superimposed in the design sequence to customize the combustion performance. Mixed charges for three cases of burning surface, burning rate, and joint control were discussed. The simulation results matched well with the experimental results, including the progressively random perforated combustion, variation of burning rate pressure exponent, and superimposed combustion of single and multiple charges with different customized zones. As an advanced engineering strategy urgently needed in chemical engineering, this work not only opens the door to matching performance simulation-driven design with MM-AM technologies but also serves as an efficient and common customization strategy from design to manufacture.

Abstract Background Understanding whether the type of primary caregiver and end-of-life (EOL) care location are associated with EOL medical expenditures is crucial to inform global debates on policies for efficient and effective EOL care. This study aims to assess trends in the type of primary caregiver and place of death stratified by rural‒urban status among the oldest-old population from 1998–2018 in China. A secondary objective is to determine the associations between rurality, the type of primary caregiver, place of death and EOL medical expenditures. Methods A total of 20,149 deaths of people aged 80 years or older were derived from the Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey (CLHLS). Cochran-Armitage tests and Cuzick’s tests were used to test trends in the type of primary caregiver and place of death over time, respectively. Tobit models were used to estimate the marginal associations of rurality, type of primary caregiver, and place of death with EOL medical expenditures because CLHLS sets 100,000 Chinese yuan (approximately US$15,286) as the upper limit of the outcome variable. Results Of the 20,149 oldest-old people, the median age at death was 97 years old, 12,490 (weighted, 58.6%, hereafter) were female, and 8,235 lived in urban areas. From 1998–2018, the prevalence of informal caregivers significantly increased from 94.3% to 96.2%, and home death significantly increased from 86.0% to 89.5%. The proportion of people receiving help from informal caregivers significantly increased in urban decedents (16.5%) but decreased in rural decedents (-4.0%), while home death rates significantly increased among both urban (15.3%) and rural (1.8%) decedents. In the adjusted models, rural decedents spent less than urban decedents did (marginal difference [95% CI]: $-229 [$-378, $-80]). Those who died in hospitals spent more than those who died at home ($798 [$518, $1077]). No difference in medical expenditures by type of primary caregiver was observed. Conclusions Over the past two decades, the increases in informal caregiver utilization and home deaths were unequal, leading to substantially higher EOL medical expenditures among urban decedents and deceased individuals who died at hospitals than among their counterparts who lived in rural areas and died at home.

Background Early recognition of persistent acute kidney injury (AKI) could optimize management and prevent deterioration of kidney function. The Doppler-based renal resistive index (RI) has shown promising results for predicting persistent AKI in preliminary studies. Here, we aimed to evaluate the performance of renal RI, clinical indicators, and their combinations to predict short-term kidney prognosis in septic shock patients.Method We performed a retrospective study based on data from a prospective study in a single-center general ICU between November 2017 and October 2018. Patients with septic shock were included. Clinical indicators were evaluated immediately at inclusion, and renal RI was measured within the first 12 h of ICU admission after hemodynamic stabilization. Persistent AKI was defined as AKI without recovery within 72 h. A multivariable logistic regression was used to select significant variables associated with persistent AKI. The discriminative power was evaluated by a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.Result Overall, 102 patients were included, 39 of whom had persistent AKI. Renal RI was higher in the persistent AKI patients than in those without persistent AKI: 0.70 ± 0.05 vs. 0.66 ± 0.05; p = 0.001. The performance of RI to predict persistent AKI was poor, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.699 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.600–0.786]. A clinical prediction model combining serum creatinine at inclusion and the nonrenal SOFA score showed a better prediction ability for nonrecovery, with an AUROC of 0.877 (95% CI 0.797–0.933, p = 0.0012). The addition of renal RI to this model did not improve the predictive performance.Conclusion The Doppler-based renal resistive index performed poorly in predicting persistent AKI and did not improve the clinical prediction provided by a combination of serum creatinine at inclusion and the nonrenal SOFA score in patients with septic shock.

The rapid development and extensive application of the Internet of Things (IoT) have brought new challenges and opportunities to the field of communication. By integrating quantum secure communication with the IoT, we can provide a higher level of security and privacy protection to counteract security threats in the IoT. In this paper, a hybrid quantum communication scheme using six-qubit entangled states as a channel is proposed for specific IoT application scenarios. This scheme achieves hierarchical control of communication protocols on a single quantum channel. In the proposed scheme, device A transmits data to device B through quantum teleportation, while device B issues control commands to device A through remote quantum state preparation technology. These two tasks are controlled by control nodes C and D, respectively. The transmission of information from device A to device B is a relatively less important task, which can be solely controlled by control node C. On the other hand, issuing control commands from device B to device A is a more crucial task requiring joint control from control nodes C and D. This paper describes the proposed scheme and conducts simulation experiments using IBM’s Qiskit Aer quantum computing simulator. The results demonstrate that the fidelity of the quantum teleportation protocol (QTP) and the remote state preparation protocol (RSP) reach an impressive value of 0.999, fully validating the scheme’s feasibility. Furthermore, the factors affecting the fidelity of the hybrid communication protocol in an IoT environment with specific quantum noise are analyzed. By combining the security of quantum communication with the application scenarios of the IoT, this paper presents a new possibility for IoT communication.

With the continuous development of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, the industry’s awareness of the security of the IoT is also increasing, and the adoption of quantum communication technology can significantly improve the communication security of various devices in the IoT. This paper proposes a scheme of controlled remote quantum state preparation and quantum teleportation based on multiple communication parties, and a nine-qubit entanglement channel is used to achieve secure communication of multiple devices in the IoT. The channel preparation, measurement operation, and unitary operation of the scheme were successfully simulated on the IBM Quantum platform, and the entanglement degree and reliability of the channel were verified through 8192 shots. The scheme’s application in the IoT was analyzed, and the steps and examples of the scheme in the secure communication of multiple devices in the IoT are discussed. By simulating two different attack modes, the effect of the attack on the communication scheme in the IoT was deduced, and the scheme’s high security and anti-interference ability was analyzed. Compared with other schemes from the two aspects of principle and transmission efficiency, it is highlighted that the advantages of the proposed scheme are that it overcomes the single fixed one-way or two-way transmission protocol form of quantum teleportation in the past and can realize quantum communication with multiple devices, ensuring both security and transmission efficiency.

AimThere is increasing evidence suggesting that vitamins may play important roles in the pathogenesis of multiple system atrophy (MSA). The purpose of this study was to detect the changes of serum vitamin levels and investigate their correlation with disease severity in MSA patients.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, 244 MSA patients, 200 Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and 244 age-gender matched healthy controls were recruited. Serum vitamin levels were measured, including vitamin A, B1, B2, B9 (folate), B12, C, D, and E. Relevant clinical scales were used to assess the disease severity of MSA patients.ResultsCompared with the healthy controls, decreased serum folate levels and increased serum vitamin A and C levels were detected in MSA patients. Similar differences were also observed in the gender-based subgroup analysis. There were no differences detected between MSA and PD patients. In MSA patients, significant correlation was found between vitamin A, folate, or vitamin C and relevant clinical scales or laboratory findings. In addition, ROC analysis showed potential diagnostic value of the combination of vitamin A, folate, and vitamin C in distinguishing MSA patients from healthy controls.ConclusionThere were significant changes in the blood vitamin spectrums of MSA patients, suggesting that dysregulation of vitamins homeostasis might play an important role in the pathogenesis of MSA.

Abstract Background Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) are one of the most common types of head and neck cancer, and it is urgent to find effective treatment for advanced patients. Exploring developing and progressing mechanisms of HNSCC could provide a theoretical basis to find new therapeutic targets. Methods In our research, we performed a whole-gene expression profile microarray analysis to identify differential expression genes between squamous cell carcinoma cells and ΔNp63 alpha (ΔNp63α) knockdown cells. As a result, an important gene Synaptotagmin VII (SYT7) was screened out. Results SYT7 knockdown affected the proliferation, apoptosis and cell cycle of squamous cell carcinoma cells. The rescue experiment in vitro with ΔNp63α and SYT7 double knockdown resulted in partial reversion of ΔNp63α-induced phenotypes. This was also confirmed by experiments in vivo. Conclusions Taken together, we found that ΔNp63α could inhibit the occurrence and progression of HNSCC throughout downregulating the expression of SYT7. Therefore, SYT7/ΔNp63α axis could be a potential therapeutic target for clinical treatment of HNSCC.

Abstract Background Hypoxia is a characteristic of solid tumors that can lead to tumor angiogenesis and early metastasis, and addressing hypoxia presents tremendous challenges. In this work, a nanomedicine based on oxygen-absorbing perfluorotributylamine (PFA) and the bioreductive prodrug tirapazamine (TPZ) was prepared by using a polydopamine (PDA)-coated UiO-66 metal organic framework (MOF) as the drug carrier. Results The results showed that TPZ/PFA@UiO-66@PDA nanoparticles significantly enhanced hypoxia, induced cell apoptosis in vitro through the oxygen-dependent HIF-1α pathway and decreased oxygen levels in vivo after intratumoral injection. In addition, our study demonstrated that TPZ/PFA@UiO-66@PDA nanoparticles can accumulate in the tumor region after tail vein injection and effectively inhibit tumor growth when combined with photothermal therapy (PTT). TPZ/PFA@UiO-66@PDA nanoparticles increased HIF-1α expression while did not promote the expression of CD31 in vivo during the experiment. Conclusions By using TPZ and PFA and the enhanced permeability and retention effect of nanoparticles, TPZ/PFA@UiO-66@PDA can target tumor tissues, enhance hypoxia in the tumor microenvironment, and activate TPZ. Combined with PTT, the growth of osteosarcoma xenografts can be effectively inhibited. Graphic abstract

Introduction: Sepsis can cause acute lung injury (ALI), one of the leading causes of death in critically ill patients. The underlying mechanisms of sepsis-induced acute lung injury include excessive inflammation, oxidative stress, cell apoptosis, pulmonary edema, and lung tissue dysfunction. Recent studies have shown that miRNA-21 (miR-21) plays a vital role in sepsis-induced acute kidney injury. Relatively few studies have focused on the protective effects of ALI. This study aimed to determine the potential role of miR-21 in sepsis-induced ALI. Methods: We performed quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in a septic mouse model induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) and found that miR-21 expression was upregulated. We then transfected the miR-21 precursor to upregulate miR-21 expression and miR-21 inhibitor to downregulate miR-21 expression. The sham group was exposed only to the cecum. ALI was induced by CLP, and the pre-miR-21+ALI and anti-miR-21+ALI groups were treated with miR-21 precursor or miR-21 inhibitor in the caudal vein before CLP. Pre-miR-21+ALI+PTEN inhibition (Pre-miR-21+ALI+PI) and anti-miR-21+ALI+PTEN inhibition (Anti-miR-21+ALI+PI) groups were treated with PTEN inhibition into the caudal vein after miR-21 transfection. Inflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress indicators, lung tissue cell apoptosis, oxygenation index (OI), lung wet/dry weight ratio, and lung pathological changes in the lung were observed in each group. Results: Compared with ALI mice, inflammatory response, oxidative stress indicators, lung tissue cell apoptosis, and the degree of lung injury were remarkably alleviated in Pre-miR-21+ALI mice and aggravated in Anti-miR-21+ALI mice. Western blot analysis showed that phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) protein expression was decreased in CLP-treated mics. PTEN protein expression was decreased in the Pre-miR-21+ALI group but increased in the Anti-miR-21+ALI group. Moreover, the effect of miR-21 on anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative stress, and anti-apoptosis enhanced after PTEN inhibition. Conclusion: This study revealed that miR-21 has a protective effect in sepsis-induced ALI by regulating PTEN in mice.

Abstract Background Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a common tumor worldwide with poor prognosis. The pathogenesis of human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive and HPV-negative HNSCCs differs. However, few studies have considered the HPV status when identifying biomarkers for HNSCC. Thus, the identification of biomarkers for HPV-positive and HPV-negative HNSCCs is urgently needed. Methods Three microarray datasets from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were analyzed, and the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained. Then, functional enrichment pathway analysis was performed and protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks were constructed. The expression of hub genes at both the mRNA and protein level was determined in Oncomine, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Human Protein Atlas (HPA). In addition, survival analysis of the patient stratified by HPV status and the expression levels of key genes were performed based on TCGA data. The role of AREG, STAG3, CAV1 and C19orf57 in cancer were analyzed through Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). The top ten small molecule drugs were identified and the therapeutic value of zonisamide, NVP-AUY922, PP-2 and fostamatinib was further evaluated in six HPV-negative HNSCC cell lines. Finally, the therapeutic value of NVP-AUY922 was tested in vivo based on three HPV-negative HNSCC models, and statistical analysis was performed. Results In total, 47 DEGs were obtained, 11 of which were identified as hub genes. Biological process analysis indicated that the hub genes were associated with the G1/S transition of the mitotic cell cycle. Survival analysis uncovered that the prognostic value of AREG, STAG3, C19orf57 and CAV1 differed between HPV-positive and HPV-negative patients. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) showed the role of AREG, STAG3 and CAV1 in dysregulated pathways of tumor. Ten small molecules were identified as potential drugs specifically for HPV-positive or HPV-negative patients; three—NVP-AUY922, fostamatinib and PP-2—greatly inhibited the proliferation of six HPV-negative HNSCC cell lines in vitro, and NVP-AUY922 inhibited three HPV-negative HNSCC xenografts in vivo. Conclusions In conclusion, AREG, STAG3, C19orf57 and CAV1 are key prognostic factors and potential therapeutic targets in HPV-negative HNSCC. NVP-AUY922, fostamatinib and PP-2 may be effective drugs for HPV-negative HNSCC.

The properties of gun propellants are important for the stability of weapon systems and have been extensively studied in the field of weapon research. In this work, an applied semi-solvent method was used to prepare a triple base gun propellant with nitrated bacterial cellulose (NBC)/nitrocellulose (NC) as the binder system. For the first time, the study found that the addition of NBC in the propellant system resulted in an distinct spatial 3D network structure. The morphology, composition, mechanical properties, energy, thermal behaviour, and combustion performance of the network structure were characterised. The formation mechanism of the spatial network structure and effect of the NBC addition on the propellant performance were discussed. This work verified the application of NBC in different plasticisers and indicated the effective improvement of the impact resistance and burning rate by the spatial network structure propellant with NBC, while retaining other properties.

Cash on delivery is one of the payment methods provided to customers by the enterprises. In this article, the links of cash on delivery transactions were decomposed and divided into detailed nodes. Based on the survey data, the qualitative and quantitative analysis on risks associated with the cash on delivery process were carried out using the social network model. The influential risk factors of cash on delivery were precisely narrowed in scope. Fuzzy Petri Net was then used in identifying the dynamic risk factors, analyzing the correlation between dynamic risk factors and subsequent nodes, and establishing risk matrix to analyze the relationship between risk index grade, risk size and risk level. Finally, the two methods were combined and a reasonable and effective risk evaluation index system was obtained. The presented work was expected to serve as reference for the e-commerce platforms to reduce the risks and improve the service quality in the cash on delivery transactions.

Dihydroxylammonium 5,5′-bistetrazole-1,1′-diolate (TKX-50) and nitrocellulose/nitroglycerine (NC/NG) possess good energy properties, which were widely used in propellants, explosives and pyrotechnics. They are easy to contact with each other during their application and storage. However, their thermal characteristics under continuous heat flow have not been reported yet. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to study the thermal properties of TKX-50/NC/NG (mixture of TKX-50 and NC/NG). In this paper, the thermal characteristics and pressure behaviors of TKX-50/NC/NG, TKX-50 and NC/NG were characterized by high pressure differential scanning calorimetry (HPDSC) and adiabatic scanning calorimetry (ASC). The results showed that TKX-50 and NC/NG can promote each other to decompose under continuous heat flow, especially the thermal decomposition which affected by gases generation and heat feedback was more violent in the confined space. The decomposition peak temperature of TKX-50/NC/NG shifted to low temperature when the heat loss was ignored and the removal of decomposition gas was suppressed. The possible decomposition mechanism of TKX-50/NC/NG was speculated. It was considered that the intermediate products of TKX-50 and NC/NG decomposition under thermal stimulation would react with each other, which promoted TKX-50/NC/NG decomposition in one step at lower temperature. Thus, TKX-50 has high reactivity and high potential risk after contact with NC/NG under continuous heat flow. TKX-50 is not suitable for application with NC/NG. This study provides a reference for the structural design of nitrogen rich explosives and further broadens the researchers’ understanding of the application of TKX-50.

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are widely used for ocean exploration; however, the way they are replenished becomes the biggest issue limiting their range and efficiency. A dual transmission coil wireless power transfer (DTCWPT) system based on parity–time (PT) symmetry is proposed in this paper to realize an autoadaptive constant power transmission. A shielded housing structure for coils is equipped to realize WPT in the ocean. In the offset experiments, the proposed dual transmitting coil structure was able to achieve a stable power transmission of 39 W within an offset range of 8.1 cm. It is obvious that the DTCWPT system based on PT symmetry could charge an AUV in the ocean with high robustness. This paper provides a novel solution based on DTCWPT for AUV energy supply. The proposed DTCWPT system could offer remarkable improvements in the navigation performance of AUVs.

The aim of this study was to determine the associations between perceived parental discrimination and youth participation in out-of-school sports. We analyzed a representative sample of US children and adolescents from the 2020 National Survey of Children’s Health (N = 30,656; 6–17 years old; 49.0% female). The dependent variable was a (No/Yes) response item asking parents about their child’s participation in out-of-school sports. Two binary response items asked parents if they perceived that their child was ever treated or judged unfairly because of their race/ethnicity and because of their sexual orientation/gender identity. Weighted multiple logistic regressions examined correlations between the discrimination variables and out-of-school sports controlling for demographics covariates including family income. After covariate adjustment, perceived parental discrimination because of race/ethnicity associated with 1.57 times higher odds of child participation in sports (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 1.57, 95%CI: 1.17–2.03, p = 0.002). Conversely, discrimination because of sexual orientation/gender identity correlated with 57% lower odds of child participation in sports (AOR (Adjusted Odds Ratio) = 0.43, 95%CI: 0.27–0.69, p < 0.001). After family income and other covariates were considered, perceived discrimination by parents because of their child’s race/ethnicity associated with higher probability of sports participation. Perceived discrimination by parents because of their child’s sexual orientation/gender identity associated with a lower probability of participating in sports.

As a power source for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), lithium-ion batteries play an important role in ensuring AUVs’ electric power propulsion performance. An accurate state of charge (SOC) estimation method is the key to achieving energy optimization for lithium-ion batteries. Due to the complicated ocean environments, traditional filtering methods cannot effectively estimate the SOC of lithium-ion batteries in an AUV. Based on the standard extended Kalman filter (EKF), an adaptive iterative extended Kalman filter (AIEKF) method for the SOC in an AUV is proposed to address the traditional filter’s problems, such as low accuracy and large errors. In this method, the adaptive update is introduced to deal with the uncertain noise from the lithium-ion battery. The iteration is used to improve the convergence speed and to reduce the computational burden. Compared with the EKF, iterative extended Kalman filter (IEKF) and adaptive extended Kalman filter (AEKF), the proposed AIEKF has a higher estimation accuracy and anti-interference capability, which is suitable for the AUV’s SOC estimation. In addition, based on the second-order equivalent circuit model of the lithium-ion battery, a forgetting factor recursive least squares (FFRLS) method is proposed to deal with the multi-variability problem. In the end, four different methods, including EKF, IEKF, AEKF, and the proposed AIEKF, are compared in computational time. The experiment results show that the proposed method has high accuracy and fast estimation speed, meaning that it has good application potential in AUVs.

Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in outdoor air is carcinogenic and associated with the development of lung cancer; however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. In the present study, the profiles of lncRNA, microRNA and mRNA expression profiles in human bronchial epithelia (HBE) following exposure to PM2.5, diesel exhaust particles (DEPs), or aluminum oxide nanoparticles (Al2O3 NPs) were explored by microarray to reveal the lncRNA-microRNA-mRNA network participating in the malignant transformation of HBE cells following long-term PM2.5 exposure. The results showed that lncRNA SOX2 overlapping transcript (SOX2-OT) was significantly induced in HBE cells exposed to PM2.5, DEPs, or Al2O3 NPs, acting as a sponge to microRNA-345-5p, which subsequently increased the expression levels of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). EGFR is a therapeutic target in non-small cell lung cancer. Here, we found that SOX2-OT is an upstream trigger of EGFR in HBE cells during long-term PM2.5 exposure. Importantly, SOX2-OT knockdown effectively reduced the colony formation and migration capacities of HBE cells, compared to the wild type control. Collectively, SOX2-OT/microRNA-345-5p/EGFR is a ceRNA mechanism underlying the malignant transformation of bronchial epithelia exposed to PM2.5, which improves our understanding of the association between ambient PM2.5 exposure and the development of lung cancer.

This paper is concerned with the problems of finite-time stochastic H∞ control for singular Itô Markovian jump systems with (x,v)-dependent noise and generally uncertain transition rates (GUTRs). Based on two equivalent sets, a new criterion, ensuring the considered systems with completely known TRs to be finite-time stochastically bounded with H∞ performance, is first established, which is less conservative than the existing one. Then, the obtained results are extended to the case of GUTRs. To overcome the nonlinear difficulty resulting in the Young inequality for designing a convex controller, an approach called the association of free variables and slack variables are used. The state feedback controller and observer-based controller are respectively designed such that the corresponding closed-loop systems with GUTRs are finite-time stochastically bounded while achieving H∞ performance. Finally, the numerical examples are addressed to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our obtained results.

In biological research, biology sequence alignment algorithm aims to find similarities between sequences. As the size of biological database increases exponentially, the complexity of sequence alignment process also increases rapidly, which results in a large amount of computational time. The Sunway TaihuLight is the world's first heterogeneous supercomputer with peak performance over 100 PFlops and provides a new hardware platform for database search. In this paper we present an efficient method of protein database search based on Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer. Furthermore, we also optimize protein database search on Sunway TaihuLight to give full play to the performance of the SW26010 processor. In our proposed approach, we design hybrid sequence alignment by combining the Smith-Waterman local alignment algorithm and the Needleman-Wunsch global alignment algorithm. The protein database search is paralleled by message passing interface (MPI) and accelerated thread library (Athread). Experiment results with the Swiss-Prot database show that our implementation can effectively leverage the SW26010 processor's special hardware architecture and achieve a speedup to 15.91 times on a single node. In addition, we expand the scale to 64 nodes to test the scalability of the parallel method on the Sunway TaihuLight system, and the results show that our parallel implementation of protein database search have a good expansibility and reliability.

Abstract Background This study aimed to describe the most recent prevalence estimates of adolescent body mass index (BMI) and physical fitness from thirteen regions in Shandong Province, China and to examine differences by social-economic status (SES). Methods The participants were 27,955 adolescents (mean age = 14.4 ± 1.8 years; 13,791 girls) enrolled from 91 public middle and high schools randomly selected from 13 administrative regions in Shandong Province. The Chinese National Student Physical Fitness Standard was employed to assess participants’ fitness once during the school semester. Fitness assessments included BMI, a 50-m sprint run, sit-and-reach, standing-broad jump, sit-ups, pull-ups, and a 1000 m/boy or 800 m/girl distance run. Participants’ fitness performance was categorized as excellent, good, pass, or no pass. Results The percent of Chinese adolescents categorized as “no pass” ranged from just 8.9% for BMI to 67.1% for boy pull-ups. The percent of Chinese adolescents categorized as “excellent” ranged from 5.0% for the girl sit-ups to 35.4% for the 50-m sprint run. Approximately 8.4% of the sample was categorized as excellent for BMI. SES significantly predicted both girl and boy continuous distance run scores (p

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a theory-based smartphone application, efitbuddy, on college students’ physical activity and motivation. A convenience sample of 106 college students (mean age = 20.4 ± 2.8 years; 77 females) were recruited from a university located in the Northeastern U.S. Participants installed the efitbuddy application on their smartphone, and used it every day over a 2-week time period. Physical activity was measured using a self-recall questionnaire and motivational variables were collected using established surveys. All measures were collected at baseline and at a 2-week post-test time-point. A 2 × 2 Doubly Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) test was employed to test time main effect and the sex × time interaction effect on each outcome measure, using age as covariate.Results of the study indicated that there was a statistically significant multivariate model (Wilks’ = 0.87, F (12, 542.7)= 2.49, p = 0.003). Statistically significant effects included a sex main effect (F (1, 205) = 4.98, p = 0.002) and the statistical significance of the age covariate (F (3, 205) = 3.73, p = 0.012). There were no significant time main effects (p = 0.594). To conclude, efitbuddy has limited effect on young adults’ physical activity and motivation over a 2-week intervention. Additional research with longer intervention periods should be conducted to explore potential effectiveness.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among physical activity, sleep duration, diet, and academic achievement in a sample of adolescents from the US state of Nevada. A two-stage cluster random sampling method was used to recruit Nevadan adolescents (N = 4625). The 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey was administered to students within public, private, and charter schools. Weighted multilevel generalized linear mixed effects models were employed to examine the relationships among physical activity, sleep duration, diet, and academic achievement. Additional analyses were run to examine the relationship between meeting multiple health behavior criteria with academic achievement. Data were collected in the US state of Nevada in 2015 and analyzed in the US state of Nevada in 2018. Adolescents who participated in at least of 60 min of physical activity per day had significantly higher odds of achieving mostly A's and B's (adjusted OR = 1.18; 95% C.I.: 1.02, 1.38; p = 0.029). Additionally, adolescents who consumed salad weekly (adjusted OR = 1.24; 95% C.I.: 1.06, 1.46; p = 0.007) and who consumed breakfast everyday (adjusted OR = 1.72; 95% C.I.: 1.48, 2.00; p

Background/Aims: The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway is essential for angiogenesis and embryonic development. DEP domain-containing mTOR-interacting protein (DEPTOR) is an mTOR binding protein that functions to inhibit the mTOR pathway In vitro experiments suggest that DEPTOR is crucial for vascular endothelial cell (EC) activation and angiogenic responses. However, knowledge of the effects of DEPTOR on angiogenesis in vivo is limited. This study aimed to determine the role of DEPTOR in tissue angiogenesis and to elucidate the molecular mechanisms. Methods: Cre/loxP conditional gene knockout strategy was used to delete the Deptor gene in mouse vascular ECs. The expression or distribution of cluster of differentiation 31 (CD31), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α) were detected by immunohistochemical staining or western blot. Tube formation assay was used to measure angiogenesis in vitro. Results: Deptor knockdown led to increased expression of CD31, VEGF and HIF-1α in heart, liver, kidney and aorta. After treatment with rapamycin, their expression was significantly down regulated. In vitro, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were transfected with DEPTOR-specific small interfering RNA (siRNA), which resulted in a significant increase in endothelial tube formation and migration rates. In contrast, DEPTOR overexpression markedly reduced the expression of CD31, VEGF and HIF-1α. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated that deletion of the Deptor gene in vascular ECs resulted in upregulated expression of CD31 and HIF-1α, and further stimulated the expression of VEGF which promoted angiogenesis, indicating that disruption of normal angiogenic pathways may occur through hyperactivation of the mTORC1/HIF-1α/VEGF signaling pathway.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

The purpose of this study was to examine the agreement in percent body fat estimates among 7 laboratory and field assessments against dual-emission x-ray absorptiometry using equivalence testing. Participants were 437 college students (mean age = 19.2±0.6 years). Dual-emission x-ray absorptiometry was used as the criterion with hydrostatic weighing, skinfold thickness, air displacement plethysmography, near infrared reactance, and three methods of bioelectrical impedance analysis examined as surrogate assessments. Relative agreement was examined using intraclass correlation coefficients. Group level agreement was examined using equivalence testing. Individual-level agreement was assessed using Mean Absolute Percent Error and Bland-Altman Plots. Single measure intraclass correlation coefficient scores ranged from 0.71-0.80. Hydrostatic weighing, skinfold thickness, air displacement plethysmography, and 4-electrode bioelectrical impedance analysis showed statistical equivalence with the criterion using a 10% Equivalence Interval with absolute mean differences ranging from 1.0%-4.9% body fat. Mean Absolute Percent Error ranged from 11.7% using skinfold thickness to 21.9% using Omron (hand-held) bioelectrical impedance analysis. Limits of Agreement were heteroscedastic across the range of mean scores compared to dual-emission x-ray absorptiometry, with greater mean differences observed at higher levels of percent body fat. Hydrostatic weighing, skinfold thickness, air displacement plethysmography, and 4-electrode bioelectrical impedance analysis showed strong evidence for statistical equivalence with dual-emission x-ray absorptiometry in a sample of college students.

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between sexual identity-behavior concordance and discordance with meeting recommendations for 24-hour movement behaviors in adolescents. Participants were US adolescents who reported a history of sexual partners from the 2015-2019 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (N = 19688; 49.3% female). A sexual identity-behavior variable indicated response agreement (concordance) and disagreement (discordance) between self-reported sexual identity and the sex of sexual partners. The 24-hour movement behaviors included meeting recommendations for physical activity, screen use, and school night sleep. Sex-specific and weighted multivariable logistic regression models were used to analyze associations between sexual identity-behavior concordance and discordance with meeting recommendations for 24-hour movement behaviors controlling for pertinent covariates. Discordant heterosexual males (OR = 0.47, p = 0.015), concordant gay males (OR = 0.31, p < 0.001), and bisexual males (OR = 0.39, p = 0.001) had lower odds of meeting physical activity recommendations compared to concordant heterosexual males. Bisexual males (OR = 0.44, p = 0.004) and bisexual females (OR = 0.73, p = 0.008) had lower odds of meeting screen use recommendations compared to concordant heterosexuals. Discordant heterosexual, concordant gay, and bisexual male adolescents were less likely to meet physical activity recommendations while there was a lower likelihood of meeting screen use recommendations in both male and female bisexual adolescents. Supplemental data for this article is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2021.2010157

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations of familial and child-related factors with reported child physical activity using a representative sample of US children and adolescents. Data were analyzed from the combined 2017–2018 National Survey of Children’s Health. Household addresses were randomly selected within each US state. One parent within each household answered health and wellness questions pertaining to one randomly selected child (n = 37,392; 48.8% female; 6–17 years old). Weighted logistic regression models examined the independent and joint associations between family-level and child-level factors with a child meeting the 60 min of physical activity per day guideline. After controlling for confounders, higher levels of family resilience (odds ratio (OR) = 2.17; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.35–3.49, p = 0.001), high event attendance (OR = 1.65; 95%CI: 1.18–2.31, p = 0.004), and high family income (OR = 1.84, 95%CI: 1.34–2.52, p < 0.001) significantly associated with higher odds of a child meeting the 60 min of physical activity per day guideline. Family generational status and adult education significantly modified the association between family resilience and child physical activity. Programs that develop family resilience and encourage parental attendance for their child’s events or activities may positively influence a child’s physical activity behaviors. Expanded or enhanced programming may be needed for lower income families.

The achievement of recommended levels (≥30 min/day) of school moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is paramount to decrease risk of chronic disease in children from low-income families. The purpose of this study was to examine the predictors and grade-level trends of school day MVPA achievement in low-income children. Data were collected during the Fall of 2014 on 1232 children (Mean age = 8.8 ± 1.6 years; 625 girls, 607 boys) recruited from three low-income schools from the state of Utah in the U.S. Children wore pedometers for one school week and a stratified random subsample (n = 533) also wore accelerometers to record sedentary time and MVPA. Generalized linear mixed models were employed to calculate odds ratios for achieving school MVPA standards (≥30 min/day) from various predictors and to determine odds of achievement across grade levels, accounting for school and classroom clustering. Odds of meeting MVPA standards were 3 times greater if a student achieved at least 6000 steps during the school day (p

In this article, two fluid conservation equations of gas–liquid two-phase transient flows are deduced with an improved mass transfer model between two phases and applied to liquid-column separation transients in pipelines. A new description of gas–liquid two-phase bubbly flow numerical calculation is structured with difference method of the Steger–Warming flux vector splitting method which is combined with NND scheme. Two experiments are chosen to validate the applicability and accuracy of the two-phase flow model: (1) Simpson’s valve closure water hammer experiment and (2) our select water hammer experiment: the power failure in the horizontal pipeline pump system experiment. Results show that a reasonable agreement is achieved by comparing to the experimental results. This method is stated to be capable of capturing shock waves and the interface mass exchange during transient process in bubble flow while suppressing calculation oscillation problem.

In this study, we conducted a simulation investigation of a hypothetical core barrel assembly drop accident based on the dynamic mesh model. The investigation included three separate circumstances: high-temperature dynamic water, high-temperature still water, and low-temperature still water. Results showed that dynamic parameters (e.g. velocity and resultant force) of the drop assembly in high-temperature dynamic water are smaller than those in still water due to the buffer effect of the flowing water. The velocity and hydraulic force in the dynamic water situation increased quickly at first and then remained stable throughout the remainder of the experiment; due to turbulence effect, the hydraulic force fluctuated slightly, first increased, then decreased, and then reached as stable a level in still water as that in dynamic water. The velocity of the drop assembly showed parabolic growth.

The purpose of this study was to establish health-related waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) cut-points associating with FITNESSGRAM’s body mass index (BMI) criterion-referenced standards in low-income children. A secondary aim was to examine the classification agreement between the derived WHtR cut-points and various cardiometabolic blood markers using current recommendations. Participants were 219 children from low-income schools (mean age = 10.5 ± 0.6 years). Waist circumference, height, weight, and cardiometabolic blood markers were collected in a fasting state before school hours. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to determine WHtR cut-points that associated with a child meeting FITNESSGRAM’s age- and sex-specific criterion-referenced standards for BMI. The derived WHtR cut-point was 0.50 (AUC = 0.89, p

Abstract A major question in transcription factor (TF) biology is why a TF binds to only a small fraction of motif eligible binding sites in the genome. Using the estrogen receptor‐α as a model system, we sought to explicitly define parameters that determine TF‐binding site selection. By examining 12 genetic and epigenetic parameters, we find that an energetically favorable estrogen response element (ERE) motif sequence, co‐occupancy by the TF FOXA1, the presence of the H3K4me1 mark and an open chromatin configuration in the pre‐ligand state provide specificity for ER binding. These factors can model estrogen‐induced ER binding with high accuracy (ROC‐AUC=0.95 and 0.88 using different genomic backgrounds). Moreover, when assessed in another estrogen‐responsive cell line, this model was highly predictive for ERα binding (ROC‐AUC=0.86). Variance in binding site selection between MCF‐7 and T47D resides in sites with suboptimal ERE motifs, but modulated by the chromatin configuration. These results suggest a definable interplay between sequence motifs and local chromatin in selecting TF binding.

The purpose of this study was to empirically test a comprehensive conceptual model linking gross motor skills, school day physical activity and health-related variables in a sample of sixth graders. Participants were a convenience sample of 84 sixth grade students (Mean age = 11.6 ± 0.6 years). Gross motor skills were assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development-3rd Edition (TGMD-3), school day physical activity was assessed using pedometers, health-related fitness was assessed using Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) laps, perceived competence assessed using a validated questionnaire and the health-related outcome was assessed using Body Mass Index (BMI). The relationship between school day step counts and TGMD-3 scores was mediated through both perceived competence and PACER laps (p = 0.015) and the direct path coefficient between TGMD-3 scores and BMI was statistically significant (b = −0.22 kg/m2, p < 0.001). Overall there was good model fit with all indices meeting acceptable criteria (χ2 = 3.7, p = 0.293; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.062, 90% Confidence Interval (C.I.): 0.00⁻0.23; Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.98; Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.96; Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) = 0.052). The comprehensive conceptual model explaining the inter-relationships among motor competence and health-related variables was empirically validated with the relationship between physical activity and gross motor skills mediated through both perceived competence and cardiorespiratory endurance in a sample of sixth graders.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one of the major forms of inflammatory bowel disease with unknown cause. A molecular marker, WAFL, has recently been found to be up-regulated in the inflamed colonic mucosa of UC patients. Towards understanding biological function of WAFL, we analyzed proteins interacting with WAFL in HEK-293 cells by immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry. Among four proteins found to specifically interact with WAFL, both KIAA0196 and KIAA1033 bind to α-appendage of the adaptor protein complex 2 (AP2), which acts as an interaction hub for accessory proteins in endocytosis mediated by clathrin-coated vesicle (CCV). The specific interaction between WAFL and KIAA0196 was also confirmed in human colorectal carcinoma HCT-116 cells by co-immunoprecipitation with specific antibodies. Meta-analyses of the databases of expressed genes suggest that the three genes are co-expressed in many tissues and cell types, and that their molecular function may be classified in the category of 'membrane traffic protein'. Therefore, these results suggest that WAFL may play an important role in endocytosis and subsequent membrane trafficking by interacting with AP2 through KIAA0196 and KIAA1033.

Study on adsorption kinetics and thermodynamics of methylene blue by AB-8 macroreticular resin was carried out through static experiments. The results showed that the adsorption rate for the solute appear to be the first order kinetics, the intraparticle diffusion is the main rate-controlling step. In the experimental temperature, thermodynamic studies indicated that methylene blue adsorption onto resin AB-8 conforms to Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm. Methylene blue adsorption quantity respectively 30 mg/L, 150 mg/L, and 300 mg/L . The adsorption enthalpy change is 40.3 kJ/moL , 39.2 kJ/moL , and 33.6 kJ/moL respectively. The uptake of salicylic acid on AB-8 macroreticular resin is a type of physical adsorption.