Aim
To summarize the associations between weight stigma and physiological and psychological health for individuals who are overweight or obese.
Background
Weight stigma can be defined as individuals ...experiencing verbal or physical abuse secondary to being overweight or obese. Weight stigma has negative consequences for both physiological and psychological health.
Design
A quantitative systematic review.
Data sources
PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL and MEDLINE from 1 January 2008 ‐ 30 July 2016.
Review methods
A systematic review was conducted using the Cochrane Collaboration guidelines, the PRISMA statement guidelines and the quality assessment from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Inclusion criteria consisted of quantitative studies that examined the associations between weight stigma and physiological and psychological health outcomes in adults who were overweight or obese. Exclusion criteria consisted of qualitative studies, literature reviews, expert opinions, editorials and reports on weight stigma without health outcomes or with behavioural outcomes and intervention studies that reduced weight stigma. A quality appraisal of the selected studies was conducted.
Results
A total of 33 studies met the eligibility criteria. Weight stigma was positively associated with obesity, diabetes risk, cortisol level, oxidative stress level, C‐reactive protein level, eating disturbances, depression, anxiety, body image dissatisfaction and negatively associated with self‐esteem among overweight and obese adults.
Conclusion
Weight stigma is associated with adverse physiological and psychological outcomes. This conclusion highlights the need to increase public and professional awareness about the issue of weight stigma and the importance of the further development of assessment and prevention strategies of weight stigma.
A new method of analysis is presented in this paper for the determination of complex propagation constants in substrate integrated waveguides (SIWs). This method makes use of the concept of surface ...impedance to model the rows of conducting cylinders, and the proposed model is then solved by combining a method of moments and a transverse resonance procedure. The proposed method is further applied to extract results in terms of parametric curves and graphs which demonstrate fundamental and interesting wave guidance and leakage properties of this type of periodic waveguide. Useful design rules are extracted from this analysis, suggesting that appropriate design parameters and regions should be carefully selected for practical applications. In addition, comprehensive review and comparisons with published results are also presented to show the performance and accuracy of the proposed modeling technique. Practical measurements of fabricated samples with different levels of loss have confirmed the accuracy of this new method and validity of design rules.
Massive multiple-input multiple-output (M-MIMO) technology is considered to be a key enabling technology for future wireless communication systems. One of the challenges in effectively implementing ...an advanced precoding scheme to a large-scale array antenna is how to reduce the mutual coupling among antenna elements. In this paper, a new concept that is called array-antenna decoupling surface (ADS) for reducing the mutual coupling between antenna elements in a large-scale array antenna is proposed for the first time. An ADS is a thin surface that is composed of a plurality of electrical small metal patches and is placed in front of the array antenna. The partially diffracted waves from the ADS can be controlled to cancel the unwanted coupled waves. Two practical design examples are given to illustrate the design process and considerations, and to demonstrate the usefulness of ADS for the applications of phased array antennas and M-MIMO systems when commonly used precoding schemes are applied. The attractive features of ADS include its applicability to a large-scale array antenna; suitability for a wide range of antenna forms; wide decoupling bandwidth; and simplicity in implementation.
This paper presents a novel technique for decoupling of two closely spaced dual-band antennas using T-stub circuits. A decoupling circuit consists of three T-stub elements, each of which provides the ...required phases and impedances in dual frequency bands independently. A set of general design formulas is derived for determining the electric parameters of required T-stubs. To validate the new decoupling technique, a pair of dual-band inverted-F antennas working in the 2.45- and 5.8-GHz bands and another pair of dual-band monopole antennas working in the 2.4- and 5.2-GHz bands with and without the decoupling circuit are designed, prototyped, and measured. The measured S-parameters correlate with the theoretical designed data very well. With the decoupling circuit, significant improvement in antenna efficiency and data throughput demonstrates that the technique is useful for wireless terminals, where dual-band multiple-input and multiple-output antennas are used.
In this paper, a novel rational function approximation method, namely, model-based vector fitting (MVF), is proposed for accurate extraction of the characteristic functions of a coupled-resonator ...diplexer with a resonant type of junction from noise-contaminated measurement data. MVF inherits all the merits of the vector-fitting (VF) method and can also stipulate the order of the numerator of the model. Thus, MVF is suitable for the high-order diplexer system identification problem against measurement noise. With the extracted characteristic functions, a three-port transversal coupling matrix of a diplexer can be synthesized. A matrix orthogonal transformation strategy is also proposed to transform the obtained transversal matrix to a target coupling matrix configuration, whose entries have one-to-one relationship with the physical tuning elements. The whole model extraction procedure is analytical and robust, and can be used in a computer-aided tuning (CAT) program for coupled-resonator diplexers. A practical tuning example of a diplexer with a common resonator is given in detail to demonstrate the effectiveness and the practical value of the proposed method.
A new decoupling scheme called dual-band coupled resonator decoupling network (CRDN) is presented. By properly designing the coupling coefficients between two pairs of coupled resonators, the network ...can effectively reduce the mutual couplings between two coupled dual-band antennas in two bands simultaneously. The new scheme is proved by a practical microstrip version of the device for two dual-band antennas working at 2.4 and 5.2 GHz frequency bands. A compact planar dual-band CRDN consisting of a pair of dual-band open-loop square ring resonators is proposed. The measured scattering parameters of two coupled antennas with and without the dual-band CRDN in free space (FS) and with hand phantom demonstrate that the isolation between the two antennas in both the low and high bands can be improved from 8 to 10 dB, respectively, to below 20 dB while maintaining a good matching performance. The total efficiency and envelop correlation coefficient for the decoupled antennas show a significant improvement as compared to the coupled antenna case. The proposed dual-band CRDN scheme is easy to be implemented in an integrated device, and is very attractive for practical multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) applications.
Natural killer (NK) cells play a critical role in the innate antitumor immune response. Recently, NK cell dysfunction has been verified in various malignant tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma ...(HCC). However, the molecular biological mechanisms of NK cell dysfunction in human HCC are still obscure.
The expression of circular ubiquitin-like with PHD and ring finger domain 1 RNA (circUHRF1) in HCC tissues, exosomes, and cell lines was detected by qRT-PCR. Exosomes were isolated from the culture medium of HCC cells and plasma of HCC patients using an ultracentrifugation method and the ExoQuick Exosome Precipitation Solution kit and then characterized by transmission electronic microscopy, NanoSight and western blotting. The role of circUHRF1 in NK cell dysfunction was assessed by ELISA. In vivo circRNA precipitation, RNA immunoprecipitation, and luciferase reporter assays were performed to explore the molecular mechanisms of circUHRF1 in NK cells. In a retrospective study, the clinical characteristics and prognostic significance of circUHRF1 were determined in HCC tissues.
Here, we report that the expression of circUHRF1 is higher in human HCC tissues than in matched adjacent nontumor tissues. Increased levels of circUHRF1 indicate poor clinical prognosis and NK cell dysfunction in patients with HCC. In HCC patient plasma, circUHRF1 is predominantly secreted by HCC cells in an exosomal manner, and circUHRF1 inhibits NK cell-derived IFN-γ and TNF-α secretion. A high level of plasma exosomal circUHRF1 is associated with a decreased NK cell proportion and decreased NK cell tumor infiltration. Moreover, circUHRF1 inhibits NK cell function by upregulating the expression of TIM-3 via degradation of miR-449c-5p. Finally, we show that circUHRF1 may drive resistance to anti-PD1 immunotherapy in HCC patients.
Exosomal circUHRF1 is predominantly secreted by HCC cells and contributes to immunosuppression by inducing NK cell dysfunction in HCC. CircUHRF1 may drive resistance to anti-PD1 immunotherapy, providing a potential therapeutic strategy for patients with HCC.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The concept of a self-decoupled antenna array using the cancellation of two opposite couplings is proposed in this article. A pair of such antennas can be closely placed with inherent high isolation ...without using an extra decoupling structure between the antennas. A pertinent equivalent circuit model is presented to illustrate the physical mechanism of this new concept. It is found that the inductive and capacitive couplings between the antennas can be well canceled out with each other by properly adjusting the antenna dimensions. A demonstrating antenna array with a spacing of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">0.024\lambda _{0} </tex-math></inline-formula> at the working frequency of 3.5 GHz and its counterpart array are first studied. The measured results show that although the proposed antenna array occupies a slightly larger size than its counterpart array, it presents better performance compared with its counterpart antenna array in port isolation (from 10 to 20 dB), total efficiency (from 68% to 80%), and envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) (from 0.14 to 0.04) throughout the desired frequency band of 3.3-3.8 GHz. A 3-D self-decoupled antenna array is designed to show that the proposed antenna can be in a compact form factor. Another self-decoupled array and its counterpart working at 2.14 GHz (long-term evolution (LTE) band 1) are studied through multi-input multi-output (MIMO) over-the-air (OTA) test when the arrays are integrated with an LTE module, showing significant improvement on the data throughput.
This paper presents an LC low-pass π network to decouple a pair of coupled antennas working at low frequencies. Comparing with existing decoupling techniques, the proposed decoupling network provides ...a wideband but compact decoupling solution. Moreover, a generalized one-fit-all scheme is justified to implement the decoupling network with an antenna independent core network. By adjusting a few external components, the same core network can be applied to a collection of antenna pairs with different coupling levels and antenna form factors. Four design examples are given to demonstrate the unique features of the proposed network for low-frequency applications. In all cases, the decoupling network significantly improves the isolation between two antennas over a wide frequency band while the intrinsic matching bandwidth of the antennas is maintained.
Dysregulation of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) plays important roles in carcinogenesis and tumor progression, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Small nucleolar RNA host gene 3 (SNHG3) has ...been considered as an lncRNA to be associated with a poor prognosis in patients with HCC. Here, we reported that SNHG3 expression was significantly higher in the highly metastatic HCC (HCCLM3) cells compared with the lowly metastatic HCC cells (Hep3B and PLC/PRF/5). Furthermore, forced expression of SNHG3 promoted cell invasion, epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT), and sorafenib resistance in HCC. Moreover, SNHG3 overexpression induced HCC cells EMT via miR‐128/CD151 cascade activation. Clinically, our data revealed that increased SNHG3 expression is correlated with poor HCC survival outcomes and sorafenib response. These data suggest that SNHG3 may be a novel therapeutic target and a biomarker for predicting response to sorafenib treatment of HCC.
Here, our data revealed that increase in small nucleolar RNA host gene 3 (SNHG3) expression is correlated with poor hepatocellular carcinoma survival outcomes and sorafenib response. These data suggest that SNHG3 may be a novel therapeutic target and a biomarker for predicting response to sorafenib treatment of HCC.
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