(1) Fshβ and Lhβ showed stronger signals and higher transcript levels from 590 to 1050 dph than at earlier stages, implying their active involvement during primary oocyte development. (2) Fshβ and ...Lhβ at lower levels were detected during the phases of ovarian differentiation and oogonial proliferation. (3) E
concentrations increased significantly at 174, 333, and 1435 dph, while T concentrations exhibited significant increases at 174 and 333 dph. These findings suggest potential correlations between serum E
concentrations and the phases of oogonial proliferation and pre-vitellogenesis.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory disease that causes high rates of disability and mortality worldwide because of severe progressive and irreversible symptoms. ...During the period of COPD initiation and progression, the immune system triggers the activation of various immune cells, including Regulatory T cells (Tregs), dendritic cells (DCs) and Th17 cells, and also the release of many different cytokines and chemokines, such as IL-17A and TGF-β. In recent years, studies have focused on the role of IL-17A in chronic inflammation process, which was found to play a highly critical role in facilitating COPD. Specially, IL-17A and its downstream regulators are potential therapeutic targets for COPD. We mainly focused on the possibility of IL-17A signaling pathways that involved in the progression of COPD; for instance, how IL-17A promotes airway remodeling in COPD? How IL-17A facilitates neutrophil inflammation in COPD? How IL-17A induces the expression of TSLP to promote the progression of COPD? Whether the mature DCs and Tregs participate in this process and how they cooperate with IL-17A to accelerate the development of COPD? And above associated studies could benefit clinical application of therapeutic targets of the disease. Moreover, four novel efficient therapies targeting IL-17A and other molecules for COPD are also concluded, such as Bufei Yishen formula (BYF), a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and curcumin, a natural polyphenol extracted from the root of
Curcuma longa
.
A current-based power distribution is presented for the applications of high-frequency ac power distribution system (PDS). Comparing with the traditional voltage-based counterpart, the current-based ...system can be applied into some specific applications, such as high-voltage gate-driving system, contactless power transmission, etc. A modified resonant topology based on LCL-T tank is proposed to implement high-frequency current source. The effective magnitude control and high conversion efficiency are both achieved. First, the proposed topology is examined with circuit principle, operational cycle analysis, and soft-switching description. Second, the phase-shifted control scheme is explored to calculate the equivalent resonant capacitor of LCL-T resonant tank, as well as the relations between current gain ratio and phase-shifted angle control are discussed in depth. Finally, the simulation model and experiment prototype are implemented with rated peak current of 2 A, rated output frequency of 30 kHz, and rated output power of 50 W. The experimental results in accordance with simulation prove that the constant current characteristics are maintained with high conversion efficiency. Hence, the proposed circuit topology and control scheme are a feasible realization of current source that is used to feed high-frequency PDS.
Ultrafine Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers have an outstanding potential in various applications, especially in absorbing fields. In this manuscript, an electrostatic-field-assisted centrifugal ...spinning system was designed to improve the production efficiency of ultrafine PVA fibers from PVA aqueous solution for NH3 adsorption. It was established that the fiber production efficiency using this self-designed system could be about 1000 times higher over traditional electrospinning system. The produced PVA fibers establish high morphology homogeneity. The impact of processing variables of the constructed spinning system including rotation speed, needle size, liquid feeding rate, and voltage on fiber morphology and diameter was systematically investigated by SEM studies. To acquire homogeneous ultrafine PVA fiber membranes, the orthogonal experiment was also conducted to optimize the spinning process parameters. The impact weight of different studied parameters on the spinning performance was thus provided. The experimental results showed that the morphology of micro/nano-fibers can be well controlled by adjusting the spinning process parameters. Ultrafine PVA fibers with the diameter of 2.55 μm were successfully obtained applying the parameters, including rotation speed (6500 rpm), needle size (0.51 mm), feeding rate (3000 mL h−1), and voltage (20 kV). Furthermore, the obtained ultrafine PVA fiber mat was demonstrated to be capable of selectively adsorbing NH3 gas relative to CO2, thus making it promising for NH3 storage and other environmental purification applications.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Functional data analysis (FDA) in which each data sample is a function rather than a vector or a matrix has attracted a lot of attention in the statistics community in recent years. However, most of ...the existing functional data regression works focus on linear models; and there is a lack of research on general nonlinear functional regression models that can fit nonlinear relationships between functional data, especially when the input and output of the models are both functions. Furthermore, in the fuzzy system research domain, there is no fuzzy system approach to FDA so far as we are aware of. To fill in these dual gaps, this article develops the first fuzzy system approach to FDA by proposing a functional fuzzy regression model known as functional fuzzy system (FFS) and its learning method from data. FFS is a general nonlinear functional regression model, which has inputs and outputs are functions in infinite dimensional spaces. Furthermore, constructed with a collection of the "If-Then" fuzzy rules, on the one hand, FFS has a flexible structure, and can model the functional data without model structure assumptions; On the other hand, the fuzzy rule base enables FFS to be an interpretable model. An identification method for FFS is proposed for minimizing the mean squared prediction errors. The proposed FFS is compared with many existing state-of-the-art functional regression models upon benchmark examples using both artificial and real datasets, and shows that FFS is an effective model and can obtain preferable results.
Objective
To our knowledge, the impact of area-level socioeconomic status (SES) has not yet been described in primary central nervous system lymphomas (PCNSLs). Current study sought to explore the ...association of socioeconomic deprivation, measured using the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), with PCNSL outcomes.
Methods
The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database was used to identify PCNSL patients diagnosed between 2006 and 2015 for our analyses. The impact of ADI on overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were investigated. Survival analyses were conducted using Kaplan-Meier method with log-rank tests. The Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) analysis and multivariate cox proportional hazards regression analysis were employed to make covariate adjustments. Multiple mediation analysis (MMA) was performed to estimate the mediating effects.
Results
A total of 3159 PCNSL patients classified into low and high ADI subgroups according to the median ADI score were studied. The Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that low ADI was significantly associated with higher OS rates (HR 1.15, 95%CI 1.06-1.26, P<0.01) and CSS rates (HR 1.15, 95%CI 1.05-1.27, P<0.01). Similar results were observed in analyses adjusted
via
IPW and multivariate cox methods. Subgroup analyses revealed that ADI could remain a prognostic indictor among different subsets. MMA revealed that several factors including chemotherapy and HIV status making up about 40% of the overall effect, mediated PCNSL survival disparities related to the ADI. Finally, multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that ADI as well as several other factors were independently related to receipt of chemotherapy.
Conclusions
Our study highlights the role of area-level SES in prognosis of PCNSLs. And several factors including chemotherapy and HIV status of PCNSL patents contributed to the CSS disparities between ADI subgroups were uncovered by MMA. Such relationships would highlight the importance of policies development to enhance healthcare delivery and promote awareness of HIV prevention and treatment in low-resource neighborhoods.
Background Whether mesohepatectomy should be performed for large hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) located in the central part of the liver is controversial, and the safety and long-term survival after ...this operation remain to be investigated. Methods Between January 2002 and December 2012, 696 patients with HCC located in the central part of the liver who received liver resection in our hospital were included in this study. These patients were divided into three groups: 158 patients with large HCC (tumor size >5.0 cm) and 192 patients with small HCC (tumor size ≤5.0 cm) who received mesohepatectomy were classified as the mesohepatectomy for large HCC (MHG-L) group and the mesohepatectomy for small HCC (MHG-S) groups, respectively, and 346 patients with large HCC who received hemihepatectomy or less were classified as the non-mesohepatectomy for large HCC (NMHG-L) group. The operative indications, techniques, and outcomes of the three groups were analyzed retrospectively. Results There were no substantial differences among the three groups in in-hospital mortality or postoperative complication rates. The overall survival and disease-free survival were not different between the MHG-L group and the NMHG-L group or between the MHG-L group and the MHG-S group. Univariable and multivariable analyses of the MHG-L mesohepatectomy group indicated that cirrhosis, tumor number, and vascular invasion were independent risk factors of poor long-term survival of mesohepatectomy. In the MHG-L and NMHG-L groups, solitary large hepatocellular carcinoma had better long-term survival than nodular large hepatocellular carcinoma. Conclusion Mesohepatectomy is safe and efficacious for BCLC B/C patients who have centrally located large HCC, especially for solitary tumors, with good survival outcomes.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Aiming to evaluate the high-temperature performance of asphalt binders and asphalt mixtures and to investigate the reliability of the standard technical indexes to evaluate the performance of the ...asphalt, six typically used asphalt types were employed in this study. The standard high-temperature rheological test, the multiple stress creep recovery (MSCR) test, and the zero-shear viscosity (ZSV) test were employed to characterize the high-temperature performance and non-Newtonian fluid properties of the asphalt. Meanwhile, the high-temperature performance of the asphalt mixture was evaluated through the rutting tests based on the mixture design of AC-13. In general, the modified asphalt performed better than the unmodified asphalt according to the high-temperature rheological properties tests. The ranking of the six kinds of asphalt was confirmed to be different in various laboratory tests. The test results of the asphalt binders showed that the Tafpack Super- (TPS-) modified asphalt performed best in the MSCR and ZSV tests, while the low-grade asphalt PEN20 had the best technical indexes in the dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) test. Besides, the relation between the asphalt and the asphalt mixture was analyzed by gray relational analysis (GRA) method. The present rutting indicator G∗/sin δ and G∗/1−sin δ⋅ tan δ−1 for evaluating the asphalt mixtures’ high-temperature performance might no longer be suitable. The Cross/Williamson model was the most suitable for calculating and fitting the ZSV, which could be used as the key indicator of the high-temperature performance evaluation of the asphalt. This work lays a foundation for the further study of the high-temperature performance evaluation of asphalt binders.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
To evaluate the macular microstructure repair and explore the factors related to those changes and visual improvement after vitrectomy for idiopathic macular hole (IMH). Totally 19 eyes of 18 IMH ...patients who underwent macular hole (MH) surgery were evaluated with best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) images. All 19 eyes closed at 6mo postoperatively. BCVA was observed gradually improved (
<0.001), with subretinal fluid (SRF) gradually absorbed (
=0.021) and the rate of external limiting membrane (ELM) defects gradually decreased (
=0.011) with follow-up time. Poorer postoperative logMAR BCVA correlated with larger MH minimum diameter (
<0.001), larger MH basal diameter (
=0.008), longer symptom duration (
=0.002) and poorer preoperative logMAR BCVA (
=0.010). More improvement in BCVA correlated only with poorer preoperative in logMAR BCVA (
=0.002). The earlier reconstruction of ELM was associated with smaller MH basal diameter (
=0.022) and shorter symptom duration (
=0.008). In conclusion, smaller basal diameter of MH and shorter symptom duration were key factors in earlier reconstruction of ELM.
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