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Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a common cause of death worldwide and heart failure (HF) is the main complication. Although the increase in percutaneous coronary intervention and drug treatment can reduce in-hospital mortality after AMI, the incidence of HF after AMI and the resulting risk of death are still rising, which causes difficulties in the rehabilitation of AMI patients after reperfusion.In this prospective, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, placebo-controlled trial, we will assigned 673 eligible patients with AMI after reperfusion into 4 groups: receiving Nao-Xin-Tong capsule (NXT), Bu-Yang-Huan-Wu (BYHW) granule (BYHW), Yang-Yin-Tong-Nao granule (YYTN), or placebo. The course of treatment will be 3 months. The primary outcome is HF incidence within 180 days. Nao-Xin-Tong capsule, BYHW granule, and Yang-Yin-Tong-Nao granule are different traditional Chinese medicines used for tonifying Qi and activating blood (TQAB).Three months of TQAB combined with Western medicine may reduce the incidence of HF after reperfusion of AMI and improve patients' quality of life.This study will provide an important basis for the application of traditional Chinese medicine in patients with AMI after reperfusion and provide an evidence-based basis for the prevention and treatment strategy of HF after AMI.

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micro-morphology analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDX) component analysis were conducted on the fouling of continuous emission monitoring system (CEMS) sampling tube at the outlet of limestone-gypsum wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) of unit 1 in a 600 MW supercritical coal-fired power plant in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The results show that the main component of fouling was ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, which was generated by the reaction between phosphoric acid in the phosphoric acid titration device and the NH3 escaping from the selective catalyst reduction (SCR) denitrification system, and corresponding treatment measures were taken. It indicates that the average value of ammonia escape was reduced from 1.79 ppm to 1.54 ppm through the ammonia injection optimization test of the SCR denitrification system (at the load of 410 MW of the unit), which effectively reduced the generation of fouling. This research provides reference for improving the reliability of coal-fired unit operation after ultra-low emission transformation.

Objectives. We aimed to investigate the effects of Shen-Yuan-Dan (SYD), a Chinese medicine preparation, on periprocedural myocardial injury (PMI) and the number of peripheral blood endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in patients with unstable angina pectoris (UA) who underwent elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods. Patients were randomly divided into the experimental (group A) and control (group B) groups through the random number table method. In group A, patients concurrently received the conventional western treatment and SYD orally (4 capsules/time, 3 times/d, from 3 d before surgery to 7 d after surgery). In group B, patients received conventional Western medicine treatment. Both groups underwent coronary angiography, and patients undergoing PCI were eventually included in the study. The following patient data were collected: incidence of PMI, serum CK-MB content before PCI, 4 h, 24 h, and 7 d after PCI, number of CD45dim/-CD34+CD309+ peripheral venous EPCs, and number of CD184 coexpressed EPCs. The incidence of adverse reactions and 30-day major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) were also recorded. Results. Sixty-two patients were finally included in this study, with 32 and 30 in groups A and B, respectively. In group A, the number of peripheral blood EPCs and the number of CD184 coexpressed EPCs at 1 h before surgery were higher than those at 3 d before surgery (37.24 ± 25.20 vs. 22.78 ± 9.60/ml; P < 0.001 and 23.38 ± 15.30 vs. 13.54 ± 8.08/ml; P < 0.001 , resp.). The number of peripheral blood EPCs and number of CD184 coexpressed EPCs at 4 h after surgery were lower than those at 1 h before surgery (25.30 ± 11.90 vs. 37.24 ± 25.20/ml; P = 0.019 and 15.38 ± 8.78 vs. 23.38 ± 15.30/ml; P = 0.013 , resp.), but there was no difference at 24 h and at 7 d after surgery in comparison with that at 1 h before surgery ( P > 0.05 ). In group B, compared with that at 1 h before surgery, there existed a decline in the number of EPCs in peripheral blood and the number of CD184 coexpressed EPCs at 4 h after surgery, but without a statistical difference ( P > 0.05 ). Comparing both groups, it was found that the incidence of PMI in group A was lower (6.25% vs. 26.67%; P = 0.04 ), and the serum CK-MB content at 4 and 24 h after surgery was also lower than that in group B (17.33 ± 5.83 vs. 20.38 ± 4.32 U/l; P = 0.048 and 15.79 ± 5.32 vs. 19.10 ± 4.93 U/l; P = 0.030 , resp.). The number of EPCs in peripheral blood and the number of CD184 coexpressed EPCs in group A were higher than those in group B at 1 h before surgery (37.24 ± 25.20 vs. 22.36 ± 12.26/ml; P = 0.034 and 23.38 ± 15.30 vs. 13.12 ± 14.62/ml; P = 0.013 , resp.). In addition, there were no obvious adverse reactions and no 30-day MACEs in both groups during the trial. Conclusion. SYD can reduce PMI and promote the mobilization of EPCs in the perioperative period of elective PCI in patients with UA.

The architecture and tectonic evolution of the Hegenshan accretionary belt in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) remains debated. Here we present an integrated study of zircon U–Pb isotopic ages, whole rock major-trace elements, and Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic data from the Hegenshan volcanic-plutonic belt in central Inner Mongolia. Field observations and zircon U–Pb ages allow us to divide the intrusive complex into an early phase at 329–306 Ma and a late phase at 304 to 299 Ma. The intrusive bodies belong to two magma series: calc-alkaline rocks with I-type affinity and A-type granites. The early intrusions are composed of granodiorite, monzogranite and porphyritic granite, and the late calc-alkaline intrusions include gabbro though diorite to granodiorite. The calc-alkaline intrusive rocks exhibit a well-defined compositional trend from gabbro to granite, reflecting continuous fractional crystallization. These rocks show obvious enrichment in LILEs and LREEs and relative depletion of HFSEs, typical of subduction-related magma. They also exhibit isotopic characteristics of mantle-derived magmas such as low initial 87Sr/86Sr (0.7029–0.7053), positive ɛNd(t) values (0.06–4.76) and low radiogenic Pb isotopic compositions ((206Pb/204Pb)I = 17.907–19.198, (207Pb/204Pb)I = 15.474–15.555, (208Pb/204Pb)I = 37.408–38.893). The marked consistency in geochemical and isotopic compositions between the intrusive rocks and the coeval Baoligaomiao volcanic rocks define a Carboniferous continental arc. Together with available regional data, we infer that this east-west trending continental arc was generated by northward subduction of the Hegenshan ocean during Carboniferous. The late alkali-feldspar granites and the high-Si rhyolites of the Baoligaomiao volcanic succession show similar geochemical compositions with high SiO2 and variable total alkali contents, and low TiO2, MgO and CaO. These rocks are characterized by unusually low Sr and Ba, and high abundances of Zr, Th, Nb, HREEs and Y, comparable to the features of typical A2-type granites including their high ratios of FeOT/MgO, Ga/Al and Y/Nb. Our study suggests that the A-type granite was derived from a distinct magma source rather than through fractional crystallization of the coeval calc-alkaline magmas. Their Nd–Pb isotopic compositions are similar to those of calc-alkaline arc rocks and are compatible with partial melting of pre-existing juvenile basaltic crust in the continental arc. Notably, the widespread eruptions of A2-type rhyolitic magmas (305.3 Ma–303.4 Ma) following a short period of magmatic quiescence was temporally and spatially associated with bimodal magmatism with mantle-derived gabbro-diorites and A-type granites (304.3 Ma–299.03 Ma) in the pre-existing arc volcanic-plutonic belt (329 Ma–306 Ma). Such a marked change in the magma affinity likely indicates subducted slab break-off resulting in a change of the regional stress field to an extensional setting within the Carboniferous continental arc that runs E-W for few thousands of kilometers. Thus, the onset of the late magmatism (305–299 Ma) likely represents the maximum age for the cessation of the northward subduction in the Hegenshan ophiolite-arc-accretion belt.

Develop new method to deal with heavy metal pollution is one of important topics in environmental protection. In this work, we prepared novel N,S co-doped graphene quantum dots (N,S-GQDs) modified Bi2S3 microrods (N,S-GQDs/Bi2S3) via a facile one-step hydrothermal method. In hydrothermal process, the produced N,S-GQDs were synchronously doped into Bi2S3 crystals. The introduction of N,S-GQDs largely increases the specific surface area of the catalyst and accelerates the migration of photogenerated carriers. Moreover, N,S-GQDs doping significantly enhanced the light absorption of Bi2S3 crystals in the range of 200–800 nm. The photocatalytic performance of the prepared catalyst was evaluated by photocatalytic reduction removal of aqueous Cr(VI). The results showed that the performance of the composite N,S-GQDs/Bi2S3 microrods was significantly improved compared with bare Bi2S3. With optimum molar ratio of N,S-GQDs to Bi2S3, the reduction rate for Cr(VI) to Cr(III) over N,S-GQDs/Bi2S3 reaches 70.3% in 80 min. This work provides a simple route for constructing graphene quantum do-s doped metal sulfide semiconductor as a highly efficient photocatalyst for chromium reduction under light irradiation.

Metastasis is the main cause of increasing cancer morbidity and mortality. However, the underlying mechanism of cancer metastasis remains largely unknown. In the present study, we identified one circular RNA (circRNA) closely related to the metastasis of colorectal cancer (CRC), namely hsa_circ_0001178. CRC patients with high hsa_circ_0001178 were more prone to have metastatic clinical features, advanced TNM stage and adverse prognosis. Stable knockdown of hsa_circ_0001178 significantly weakened CRC cell migratory and invasive capabilities in vitro as well as lung and liver metastases in vivo. Mechanistic study revealed that hsa_circ_0001178 acted as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) for miR-382/587/616 to upregulate ZEB1 (a key trigger of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition), thereby promoting CRC metastatic dissemination. Of note, ZEB1 could also increase hsa_circ_0001178 expression via physically binding to hsa_circ_0001178 promoter region. Collectively, our data uncover the crucial role of hsa_circ_0001178 in CRC metastasis, and targeted therapy based on this positive feedback ceRNA axis may be a promising treatment for metastatic CRC patients.

Using melamine as raw material, metal-free g-C3N4 photocatalyst was synthesized by thermal polymerization method. After grinding the produced g-C3N4 and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C, Vc), the mixture was calcined at 300 °C to obtain rich O doped g-C3N4 (O-g-C3N4) materials. Some physical chemistry technologies, e.g. XRD, TG-DSC, FT-IR, Raman, XPS, SEM, TEM, BET, UV–vis DRS, PL, and photoelectrochemical test were used to characterize the catalyst. The results show that O-g-C3N4 possesses high O content (~10 wt%) and displays no obvious morphological change compared to g-C3N4. However, after O doping, its band gap energy was significantly reduced and its visible light absorption ability was largely boosted. In addition, the C O bond generated by O doping can act as a strong electron trap centers and effectively promote the separation of photo-generated electrons and holes pair. The prepared O-g-C3N4 displayed high performance for aqueous Cr(VI) removal. Under xenon lamp illumination for 150 min, over 90%Cr(VI) can be reduced over O-g-C3N4. Moreover, in Cr(VI) removal, O-g-C3N4 appeared high photocatalytic stability and high compatibility with common anions (SO42−, CO32−, Cl−) and cations (Ca2+, Na+, K+) in water.

The functionalities of spiking neurons can be applied to deal with biological stimuli and explain complicated intelligent behaviors of the brain. The wavelet transforms are widely used in image feature extraction and image compression. Based on the principles from the visual system and wavelet theory, spiking neural networks with the ON/OFF neuron pathways inspired from the human visual system are proposed to perform the fast wavelet transform and the reconstruction for visual images. By this way we try to simulate how the human brain uses the volition-controlled method to extract useful image information. Furthermore, we decompose each texture sample with the established networks and calculate the normalized energy of the obtained sub-images at different scales. These energy values are used as features for texture classification. The simulation results show that the spiking neural network can extract the main information of images so that the images can be accurately classified using the information.

Aspirin is widely used in the treatment and prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD). It plays an important role in anti-platelet aggregation by inhibiting the activity of cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1). On the other hand, the decrease of COX-1 activity inhibits the production of prostaglandin (PG) in gastric mucosa, which leads to the decrease of gastric mucosal blood flow and the weakening of mucous barrier. That makes the gastric mucosa more vulnerable to injury. We usually treat gastric mucous injury caused by long-term use of low-dose-aspirin (LDA) with drugs that inhibit gastric acid secretion. However, these drugs cannot improve gastric mucosal blood flow and the effect of gastric mucous barrier. And the long-term use of these drugs can lead to a variety of adverse reactions, such as dyspepsia, osteoporosis, nutritional deficiency and so on. This paper reviews the research progress of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the treatment of gastric mucosa injury caused by LDA. It was found that Panax quinquefolius ( Xiyangshen ) saponins, Astragaloside A, Dendrobium officinale ( Tiepishihu ) polysaccharide, Bletilla Striata ( Baiji ), Jinghua Weikang capsule, Danhong injection and other TCM components or preparations can increase the level of PG in gastric mucosa and increase the blood flow of gastric mucosa, so as to improve the effect of gastric mucous barrier. This provides a certain idea for the prevention and treatment of gastric mucosa injury caused by long-term application of LDA in patients with CHD.

Grain purity is of great interest to malting barley trader and beer producer. DNA typing method has been applied for this purpose, but typically, single grain was tested and the procedure was expensive, laborious, and time-consuming. This study first reported fast semi-quantification of cereal seed by DNA test of blended sample. It was helpful for rapid screening of large amount of samples. Particularly, RAPD and 2100 bio-analyzer were combined to determine the purity range of malting barley grain taking advantage of mathematical linear relationship between concentration of marker bands and grain purity. Statistical analysis of 11 independent assays resulted in quantitative parameters for each RAPD marker band. Test of 14 samples using the fast method showed an average of 11% deviation to rated value. Protein profiling method helped to distinguish cultivars which were of identical RAPD pattern. Quantification by protein profile was also explored.

In modern solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the spectral resolution is mainly dependent on the spatial homogeneity and temporal stability of the magnetic field. The spectral linewidths are usually proportional to the overall field homogeneity and the stability experienced by the sample. Many high-resolution NMR methods have been developed, but few are applicable in inhomogeneous and unstable fields. In this paper, a high-resolution three-pulse method based on intermolecular zero-quantum coherences (iZQCs) is proposed. Since this method is insensitive to field inhomogeneity and instability, spectral information such as the chemical shift can be retained in the resulting spectra. In comparison with the CPMG-HOMOGENIZED method, the new method provides almost pure solvent–solute iZQC signals.

Aims Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease with T cell-driven immunoinflammatory responses contributing to disease initiation and progression. We investigated the potential role of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in hyperhomocysteinaemia (HHcy)-accelerated atherosclerosis in apoE−/− mice. Methods and results apoE−/− mice were fed normal mouse chow supplemented with or without a high level of homocysteine (Hcy) (1.8 g/L) in drinking water for 2, 4, and 6 weeks. Atherosclerotic lesion area was slightly increased at 2 weeks and substantially elevated at 4 and 6 weeks in HHcy apoE−/− mice. Cotransfer of normal Tregs significantly attenuated atherosclerotic lesion size and infiltration of T cells and macrophages into plaque. Furthermore, Treg cotransfer reversed HHcy-accelerated proliferation of T cells, -increased pro-inflammatory, and -decreased anti-inflammatory cytokine secretion from activated splenic T cells. With a clinically relevant level of plasma Hcy, the proportion of Tregs and suppressive activity in splenic T cells were reduced in HHcy apoE−/− mice, which was associated with reduced mRNA and protein expression of Foxp3, a factor governing mouse Treg development and function. In addition, Hcy significantly attenuated the proportion and suppressive effects of Tregs in vitro . Conclusion HHcy suppresses the function of Tregs, which may be responsible for HHcy-accelerated atherosclerosis in apoE−/− mice.

Our previous study showed that homosysteine (Hcy) promotes proliferation of mouse splenic B lymphocytes. In this study, we investigated whether Hcy could stimulate the production of IgG antibodies. Hcy significantly increased the production of IgG antibodies from resting B lymphocytes. B lymphocytes from ApoE-knockout mice with hyperhomocysteinemia showed elevated IgG secretion at either the basal Hcy level or in response to lipopolysaccharide. Hcy promoted reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, and free radical scavengers, MnTMPyP decreased Hcy-induced IgG secretion. The inhibitor of NF-{kappa}B (MG132) also significantly reduced Hcy-induced IgG secretion. Furthermore, Hcy-induced formation of ROS, activation of NF-{kappa}B, and secretion of IgG could be inhibited by the liver-X-receptor (LXR) agonist TO 901317. Thus, our data provide strong evidence that HHcy induces IgG production from murine splenic B lymphocytes both in vitro and in vivo. The mechanism might be through the ROS-NF-{kappa}B pathway and can be attenuated by the activation of LXR.

Texture refers to the tactile impression, such as rough, silky, bumpy, and other texture terms. The Grey-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) algorithm is widely used in visual images for texture feature extraction, image structure characterization analysis and texture classification. The GLCM can not only give the statistics of pixel gray values occur in an image, but also give multiple characteristics of the images. Since the primate brain, which is constructed with spiking neurons, has excellent performance in terms of image feature extraction, the improved GLCM algorithm is used to train a spiking neural network and also to simulate the brain's ability about extract key information and utilize these extracted feature information to classify different texture image. Experimental results in this article show that this combination of the GLCM and spiking neural network can effectively extract image features, and the texture classification results is also to achieve satisfactory effect.

Aim: To investigate the changes in plasma level of the chemokine RANTES (regulated upon activation, normal T cells expressed and secreted) and the responsiveness of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RANTES secretion from monocytes in patients with hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy). Methods: The plasma levels of homocysteine (Hcy), folate, and RANTES were measured in 38 control patients with normal Hcy levels and 40 patients with HHcy and the mRNA synthesis of RANTES in isolated human monocytes was determined by RNase protection assays. Results: The plasma level of RANTES was elevated in HHcy patients compared with controls (median 5.3 vs 3.5 ng/mL, P Conclusion: Upregulated RANTES from monocytes in HHcy patients may be involved in the atherogenesis of HHcy-induced atherosclerosis.

The imbalance of Th1/Th2 subsets is an important pathogenic mechanism for insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) has been found to play important roles in the regulation of T lymphocytes. We hypothesize that exogenous CGRP administration during insulitis may modulate the balance of Th lymphocytes, thereby providing a therapeutic intervention for IDDM. We established CGRP gene transfer by naked plasmid injection into the skeletal muscles with electroporation enhancement. The effect of CGRP gene transfer on pathogenesis of IDDM was observedin autoimmune diabetic C57BL mice induced by multiple low-dose streptozotocin (MLDS) administration. The treatment significantly decreased morbidity of diabetes, ameliorated hyperglycemia and insulin deficiency, and inhibited lymphocyte infiltration into the islets, indicating the protection of beta cells against autoimmune destruction. CGRP gene transfer significantly inhibited T cell proliferation and secretion of the Th1 cytokine IFN-gamma, increased the level of the Th2 cytokine IL-10, but had no effect on IL-4 and TGF-beta1 secretion. CGRP gene transfer also decreased IL-12 and IFN-gamma levels in peritoneal effusion. Our results demonstrate that CGRP gene transfer selectively suppresses the pro-inflammatory Th1 subsets and promote anti-inflammatory Th2 subsets, resulting in amelioration of beta cell destruction and reduction of IDDM occurrence in mice with MLDS-induced diabetes.

The receptive field of neurons plays various roles in biological neural networks. In this paper a spiking neural network model is proposed using a mechanism inspired by the biological receptive field. The network is composed of multiple layers, and the neurons are connected by excitatory and inhibitory synapses. When a visual image presents to the network, location and radius of a circle on the visual image can be obtained from firing rates of the neurons from the corresponding layers. The simulation results show that the network can perform circle detection similar to Hough circle detection and calculations are conducted by a parallel mechanism in a biological manner. This model can be used to explain how a spiking neuron-based network to detect circle, and the high speed parallel mechanism in the model can be used in artificial intelligent systems.

Spiking neural networks (SNN) are effective model inspired by neural networks in the brain. However, when networks increase in size towards the biological scale, it is time-consuming to simulate the networks using CPU programming. To solve this problem, Graphic Processing Units (GPU) provide a method to speed up the simulation. It is proposed and proved as a pertinent solution for implementation of large scale of neural networks. This paper presents a GPU implementation of SNN for edge detection. The approach is then compared with an equivalent implementation on an Intel Xeon CPU. The results show that the GPU approach provide about 37 times faster than the CPU implementation.

Space operations will be the mainstream and necessity of future space activities. More and more orbital vehicles for space operations can not be described by the Kepler's laws due to man-control, and their orbits belong to the non-Keplerian orbits. The problem of non-Keplerian orbits is discussed in this paper. First, three examples of non-Keplerian orbits, the spiral climbing orbit, hanging orbit, and three-body orbit are analyzed. Then, the limitations of Keplerian theory are analyzed, while the special and general methods for studying non-Keplerian orbits are discussed. Finally, the main research areas of non-Keplerian orbits are suggested. The concept of non-Keplerian orbits put forward in this paper can help to understand and investigate the essence of motion of spacecrafts, and help to establish the basement of future space technology.

Recently, wavelet analysis has become a powerful tool and is widely used in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal processing. Wavelet transform can not only give the wavelet energy spectrum of NMR signals, but also give multiple characteristics of the signals, such as center frequency, maximum energy, and energy duration. Usually, wavelet transform is used in stable magnetic field NMR. In this paper, we survey its application in processing NMR signal from unstable magnetic field. The results show that in unstable magnetic field, the signal's crucial information can be obtained through the wavelet energy spectrum, such as the intensity, the chemical shift, the frequency fluctuation range, the energy, and the scale of the maximal energy, and so on. Based on these knowledge, the signal can be reconstructed using the reference deconvolution, with unstable field effect greatly suppressed.

Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) is an independent risk factor for atherosclerosis. We have previously shown that homocysteine can induce monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) secretion via reactive oxygen species (ROS) in human monocytes in vitro. In the present study, we investigated whether redox factor-1 (Ref-1) is involved in HHcy-accelerated atherosclerosis. We used a mild HHcy animal model, aortic roots and peritoneal macrophages were isolated for immunohistochemistry and Western blotting, from apoE-/- and C57BL/6J mice fed a high Hcy diet (1.8 g/L) for 4 or 12 weeks. Four-week HHcy apoE-/- mice showed more plaques and significantly increased immunostaining of Ref-1 and MCP-1 in foam cells, and HHcy mice showed enhanced Ref-1 expression in peritoneal macrophages. To explore the mediating mechanism, incubation with Hcy (100 microM) increased Ref-1 protein level and translocation in human monocytes in vitro. In addition, Hcy-induced NADPH oxidase activity mediated the upregulation of Ref-1. Furthermore, overexpressed Ref-1 upregulated NF-kappaB and MCP-1 promoter activity, and antisense Ref-1 reduced Hcy-induced NF-kappaB DNA-binding activity and MCP-1 secretion. These data indicate that Hcy-induced ROS upregulate the expression and translocation of Ref-1 via NADPH oxidase, and then Ref-1 increases NF-kappaB activity and MCP-1 secretion in human monocytes/macrophages, which may accelerate the development of atherosclerosis.