Background
The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of epidemiologic and physician‐diagnosed pollen‐induced AR (PiAR) in the grasslands of northern China and to study the impact of the ...intensity and time of pollen exposure on PiAR prevalence.
Methods
A multistage, clustered and proportionately stratified random sampling with a field interviewer‐administered survey study was performed together with skin prick tests (SPT) and measurements of the daily pollen count.
Results
A total of 6043 subjects completed the study, with a proportion of 32.4% epidemiologic AR and 18.5% PiAR. The prevalence was higher in males than females (19.6% vs 17.4%, P = .024), but no difference between the two major residential and ethnic groups (Han and Mongolian) was observed. Subjects from urban areas showed higher prevalence of PiAR than rural areas (23.1% vs 14.0%, P < .001). Most PiAR patients were sensitized to two or more pollens (79.4%) with artemisia, chenopodium, and humulus scandens being the most common pollen types, which were similarly found as the top three sensitizing pollen allergens by SPT. There were significant regional differences in the prevalence of epidemiologic AR (from 18.6% to 52.9%) and PiAR (from 10.5% to 31.4%) among the six areas investigated. PiAR symptoms were positively associated with pollen counts, temperature, and precipitation (P < .05), but negatively with wind speed and pressure P < .05).
Conclusion
Pollen‐induced AR (PiAR) prevalence in the investigated region is extremely high due to high seasonal pollen exposure, which was influenced by local environmental and climate conditions.
Micro-structural evolution and grain refinement in ANSI 304 stainless steel subjected to multiple laser shock processing (LSP) impacts were investigated by means of cross-sectional optical microscopy ...and transmission electron microscopy observations. The plastic strain-induced grain refinement mechanism of the face-centered cubic (fcc) materials with very low stacking fault energy was identified. The micro-structure was obviously refined due to the ultra-high plastic strain induced by multiple LSP impacts. The minimum grain size in the top surface was about 50–200
nm. Multidirectional mechanical twin matrix (MT)–MT intersections led to grain subdivision at the top surface during multiple LSP impacts. Furthermore, a novel structure with submicron triangular blocks was found at the top surface subjected to three LSP impacts. The grain refinement process along the depth direction after multiple LSP impacts can be described as follows: (i) formation of planar dislocation arrays (PDAs) and stacking faults along multiple directions due to the pile up of dislocation lines; (ii) formation of submicron triangular blocks (or irregularly shaped blocks) by the intersection of MT–MT (or MT–PDA or PDA–PDA) along multiple directions; (iii) transformation of MTs into subgrain boundaries; (iv) evolution by continuous dynamic recrystallization of subgrain boundaries to refined grain boundaries. The experimental results and analyses indicate that a high strain with an ultra-high strain rate play a crucial role in the grain refinement process of fcc materials subjected to multiple LSP impacts.
Background
The prevalence of allergic rhinitis (AR) has increased worldwide in recent decades. This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of self‐reported AR and profiles of AR‐related ...comorbidities in the adult population of China over time.
Methods
This study surveyed residents of 18 major cities in mainland China. Telephone interviews were conducted with study participants after sampling target telephone numbers by random digit dialing. The questions asked during telephone interviews were based on those included in validated questionnaires and focused on topics regarding AR, nonallergic rhinitis (NAR), acute/chronic rhinosinusitis (ARS/CRS), asthma, and atopic dermatitis (AD).
Results
During 2011, a total of 47 216 telephone interviews were conducted, and the overall response rate was 77.5%. When compared with the AR prevalence in 11 cities surveyed in 2005, there was a significant increase in self‐reported adult AR in eight of those cities (P < 0.01). In 2011, the standardized prevalence of self‐reported adult AR in the 18 cities was 17.6%. The concentration of SO2 was positively correlated with the prevalence of AR (r = 0.504, P = 0.033). A multiple regression model showed that the absolute change in household yearly income was significantly associated with the change in the prevalence of AR (R2 = 0.68), after adjusting for PM10, SO2, NO2, temperature, and humidity. The overall prevalences of NAR, ARS, CRS, asthma, and AD in the general population were 16.4%, 5.4%, 2.1%, 5.8%, and 14%, respectively.
Conclusion
During a 6‐year period, there was a significant increase in the prevalence of self‐reported AR in the general Chinese adult population. The incidence of AR being accompanied by rhinosinusitis, asthma, or AD was significantly higher among individuals having self‐reported AR compared with the general population.
Complex-valued neural networks have many advantages over their real-valued counterparts. Conventional digital electronic computing platforms are incapable of executing truly complex-valued ...representations and operations. In contrast, optical computing platforms that encode information in both phase and magnitude can execute complex arithmetic by optical interference, offering significantly enhanced computational speed and energy efficiency. However, to date, most demonstrations of optical neural networks still only utilize conventional real-valued frameworks that are designed for digital computers, forfeiting many of the advantages of optical computing such as efficient complex-valued operations. In this article, we highlight an optical neural chip (ONC) that implements truly complex-valued neural networks. We benchmark the performance of our complex-valued ONC in four settings: simple Boolean tasks, species classification of an Iris dataset, classifying nonlinear datasets (Circle and Spiral), and handwriting recognition. Strong learning capabilities (i.e., high accuracy, fast convergence and the capability to construct nonlinear decision boundaries) are achieved by our complex-valued ONC compared to its real-valued counterpart.
Antiangiogenic therapy resistance occurs frequently in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The purpose of this study was to understand the mechanism of resistance to sunitinib, an ...antiangiogenic small molecule, and to exploit this mechanism therapeutically. We hypothesized that sunitinib-induced upregulation of the prometastatic MET and AXL receptors is associated with resistance to sunitinib and with more aggressive tumor behavior. In the present study, tissue microarrays containing sunitinib-treated and untreated RCC tissues were stained with MET and AXL antibodies. The low malignant RCC cell line 786-O was chronically treated with sunitinib and assayed for AXL, MET, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) protein expression and activation. Co-culture experiments were used to examine the effect of sunitinib pretreatment on endothelial cell growth. The effects of AXL and MET were evaluated in various cell-based models by short hairpin RNA or inhibition by cabozantinib, the multi-tyrosine kinases inhibitor that targets vascular endothelial growth factor receptor, MET and AXL. Xenograft mouse models tested the ability of cabozantinib to rescue sunitinib resistance. We demonstrated that increased AXL and MET expression was associated with inferior clinical outcome in patients. Chronic sunitinib treatment of RCC cell lines activated both AXL and MET, induced EMT-associated gene expression changes, including upregulation of Snail and β-catenin, and increased cell migration and invasion. Pretreatment with sunitinib enhanced angiogenesis in 786-0/human umbilical vein endothelial cell co-culture models. The suppression of AXL or MET expression and the inhibition of AXL and MET activation using cabozantinib both impaired chronic sunitinib treatment-induced prometastatic behavior in cell culture and rescued acquired resistance to sunitinib in xenograft models. In summary, chronic sunitinib treatment induces the activation of AXL and MET signaling and promotes prometastatic behavior and angiogenesis. The inhibition of AXL and MET activity may overcome resistance induced by prolonged sunitinib therapy in metastatic RCC.
The choice of general anaesthetics may affect postoperative cognitive outcomes. This study was designed to compare the potential impact of propofol-based vs sevoflurane-based general anaesthesia on ...the development of delayed neurocognitive recovery in older adults early after major cancer surgery.
Older adults (aged ≥65 and <90 yr) who were scheduled to undergo major cancer surgery (≥2 h) were randomised to receive either propofol- or sevoflurane-based general anaesthesia. Cognitive function was assessed before and 1 week after surgery with a battery of neuropsychological tests. Age- and education-matched non-surgical controls were recruited, and their cognitive functions were tested at comparable time intervals in order to adjust for learning effects from repeated tests. Delayed neurocognitive recovery was diagnosed according to the International Study of Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction 1 definition.
From April 1, 2015 to October 15, 2016, 392 patients were enrolled and randomised. Of these patients, 387 completed the intervention and 30-day follow-up, and 379 completed 1-week neuropsychological tests. Fifty-nine control subjects were enrolled and completed repeated neuropsychological tests. The incidence of delayed neurocognitive recovery at 1 week was significantly lower in the propofol group 14.8% (28/189) than in the sevoflurane group 23.2% (44/190); odds ratio=0.577; 95% confidence interval, 0.342–0.975; P=0.038. Safety outcomes did not differ between the two groups.
When compared with sevoflurane-based general anaesthesia, propofol-based general anaesthesia might decrease the incidence of delayed neurocognitive recovery in older adults after major cancer surgery.
NCT02662257; Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (identifier: ChiCTR-IPR-15006209).
One of the most promising approaches to reach a high gain in inertial confinement fusion is the fast ignition scheme. In this scheme, a relativistic electron beam is generated; this passes through ...the imploded plasma and deposits parts of its energy in the core. However, the large angular spread of the relativistic electron beam and the poorly controlled compression of the target affect realization of the fast ignition technique. Here, we demonstrate that indirectly driven (that is, driven by X-rays generated inside a gold hohlraum) implosions with a ‘high-foot’ and a short-coast time of less than 200 ps allow us to tightly compress the shell. Furthermore, we show the ability to optimize the symmetry of the imploding shell by changing the hohlraum length, successfully tuning a suitable tube-shaped shell to compensate for the large angular spread of the relativistic electron beam and to enhance the electron-to-core coupling efficiency via resistive magnetic fields. Benefiting from those experimental techniques, a significant enhancement in neutron yield was achieved in our indirectly driven fast ignition experiments. These results pave the way towards high-coupling fast ignition experiments with indirectly driven targets similar to those at the National Ignition Facility.Experiments realizing the indirect-drive fast ignition scheme for inertial confinement fusion are reported. Enabled by a tightly compressed target, an increase of neutron yield is observed.
In this work, we report the design of topological filter and all-optical logic gates based on two-dimensional photonic crystals with robust edge states. All major logic gates, including OR, AND, NOT, ...NOR, XOR, XNOR, and NAND, are suitably designed by using the linear interference approach. Moreover, numerical simulations show that our designed all-optical logic devices can always work well even if significant disorders exist. It is expected that such robust and compact logic devices have potential applications in future photonic integrated circuits.
Physical activity has been shown to suppress tumor initiation and progression. The neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) is closely related to movement and exhibits antitumor properties. However, whether ...the suppressive effects of physical activity on tumors was mediated by the nervous system via increased DA level remains unknowns. Here we show that regular moderate swimming (8 min/day, 9 weeks) raised DA levels in the prefrontal cortex, serum and tumor tissue, suppressed growth, reduced lung metastasis of transplanted liver cancer, and prolonged survival in a C57BL/6 mouse model, while overload swimming (16 and 32 min/day, 9 weeks) had the opposite effect. In nude mice that were orthotopically implanted with human liver cancer cell lines, DA treatment significantly suppressed growth and lung metastasis by acting on the D2 receptor (DR2). Furthermore, DR2 blockade attenuated the suppressive effect of moderate swimming on liver cancer. Both moderate swimming and DA treatment suppressed the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β1)-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition of transplanted liver cancer cells. At the molecular level, DR2 signaling inhibited extracellular signal-regulated kinase phosphorylation and expression of TGF-β1 in vitro. Together, these findings demonstrated a novel mechanism by which the moderate exercise suppressed liver cancer through boosting DR2 activity, while overload exercise had the opposite effect, highlighting the possible importance of the dopaminergic system in tumor growth and metastasis of liver cancer.
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