This paper presented a novel complex network with one-way ANOVA F-test feature selection to diagnose early-stage Parkinson’s disease (PD) on quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM). Experimental ...results on QSM images of 30 early-stage PD patients and 27 healthy controls (HC) proved that the F-test feature selection scheme was effective and achieved good classification results. The accuracy, AUC, sensitivity and specificity of our method were 0.96, 0.97, 0.99 and 0.95, respectively, which were improved by 15%, 4%, 29% and 2%, respectively by comparison with the commonly used region of interest (ROI) based method. Meanwhile, according to the feature importance, the potential brain regions affected by PD were arranged orderly. The affected regions were distributed as follows: 61% of them are located in right hemisphere and 39% in the left hemisphere. Particularly, frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe and occipital lobe accounted for 24%, 20%, 5% and 14%, respectively, and striatum and the dorsal thalamus accounted for 16%. It concludes that the complex network with one-way ANOVA F-test feature selection can greatly improve the diagnostic performance of early-stage PD based on QSM, as well as provide a new way to study the effect of PD on brain in the future.
Searching for eco-friendly and earth-abundant materials to supersede traditional high-cost bismuth telluride for fabricating wearable devices is of great significance in thermoelectrics. In this ...work, promising flexible Cu2Se based thin films with high thermoelectric performance is successfully fabricated via a facile co-sputtering method. Experimental results indicate that excess Cu in Cu2Se films leads to the decrease of carrier concentration by suppressing the formation of Cu vacancies and donating electrons, benefiting to achieve high Seebeck coefficient. Moreover, Cu-excess Cu2Se films have highly (0l0) preferred orientation and extra high carrier mobility, maintaining the decent electrical conductivity in the whole measurement temperature range. Combined with the low thermal conductivity, a maximum ZT of 0.42 is obtained at 275 °C from the Cu-excess Cu2Se due to the simultaneous optimization both of electrical and heat transport. Subsequently, a flexible thermoelectric device assembled with high performance Cu2Se films exhibits a maximum power density of 4.28 Wm-2 at a temperature difference of 50 °C, which thermal stability is greatly improved after introducing a molybdenum buffer layer into electrode layer. Therefore, this work demonstrates that rational microstructure manipulations and connection technology improvement can achieve high performance in the flexible thermoelectric device, which possess potential in wearable applications.
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•Flexible Cu2Se based thin films with desired (0l0)-preferred orientation were successfully achieved by optimized growth temperature and composition.•Excess Cu in flexible Cu2Se films contribute to improve electrical and thermal transport properties simultaneously.•A Mo buffer layer introduced into electrode layer enhanced the thermal stability of Cu2Se based flexible thermoelectric device.
Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) has been regarded as a gold standard for early diagnosis and prognosis monitoring of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in clinical practice. Owing to its low concentration ...in blood, accurate determination of cTnI often requires high sensitivity. However, current established point-of-care (POC) assays are insufficient to meet clinically analytical requirements due to their low sensitivity.
To this end, we established a highly sensitive and reliable POC lateral flow strip based on lanthanide-doped nanoparticles (NPs) for cTnI determination in human blood samples. The capture of cTnI on the lateral flow strip was performed in a sandwich assay, where Eu
-doped vanadate nanoparticles (GdVO
:30% Eu NPs) were used as luminescent probes to allow quantification.
Our platform realized the analytical sensitivity enhancement with limit-of-detection (LOD) as low as 17 pg mL
for cTnI detection, which was lower than the commercial counterpart; meanwhile, it displayed high specificity, excellent reproducibility and outstanding accuracy for analyzing clinical serum samples.
Overall, this strategy provided an ultrasensitive, cost-effective and user-friendly platform for on-site cTnI detection, demonstrating the prospect of lanthanide-doped NPs-based POC diagnosis of disease-related biomarkers.
A disruption database characterizing the current quench of disruptions with ITER-like tungsten divertor has been developed on EAST. It provides a large number of plasma parameters describing the ...predisruptive plasma, current quench time, eddy current, and mitigation by massive impurity injection, which shows that the current quench time strongly depends on magnetic energy and post-disruption electron temperature. Further, the energy balance and magnetic energy dissipation during the current quench phase has been well analysed. Magnetic energy is also demonstrated to be dissipated mainly by ohmic reheating and inductive coupling, and both of the two channels have great effects on current quench time. Also, massive gas injection is an efficient method to speed up the current quench and increase the fraction of impurity radiation.
To assess the performance of a wearable multi-sensor system (SensEcho) in comparison to polysomnography (PSG) in measuring sleep stages and searching for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
Participants ...underwent overnight simultaneous monitoring using SensEcho and PSG in a sleep laboratory. SensEcho analyzed the recordings spontaneously, and PSG was assessed as per standard guidelines. The degree of snoring was evaluated according to the guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of OSA hypopnea syndrome (2011 revision). The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was used to assess general daytime sleepiness.
This study included 103 Han Chinese, 91 of whom (age 39.02 ± 13.84 years, body mass index 27.28 ± 5.12 kg/m2, 61.54% male) completed the assessments. The measures of total sleep time (P = 0.198); total wake time (P = 0.182); shallow sleep (P = 0.297), deep sleep (P = 0.422), rapid eye movement sleep (P = 0.570), and awake (P = 0.336) proportions were similar between SensEcho and PSG. Using an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) cutoff of ≥ 5 events/h, the SensEcho had 82.69% sensitivity and 89.74% specificity. Almost the same results were obtained at an AHI threshold of ≥ 15 events/h. Although the specificity increased to 94.67%, it decreased to 43.75% at an AHI cutoff of ≥ 30 events/h.
This study demonstrated that SensEcho can be used to evaluate sleep status and screen for OSA. Nevertheless, improving the accuracy of its assessment of severe OSA and further testing its effectiveness in community and home environments is necessary.
Acute liver injury (ALI) leads to inflammatory response and tissue damage. Inflammatory activation of infiltrative macrophages plays a critical role in liver histology destruction and dysfunction. ...Hydroxytyrosol (3,4-dihydroxyphenil-ethanol, HT), one of the polyphenols extracted from extra virgin olive oil, currently acts as a treatment for neuroinflammatory responses, but its effect on ALI is elusive. The present study aims to examine the mechanism of HT in macrophages inflammation and evaluate treatment effect of HT on ALI.
In vitro, the expressions of type M1/M2 macrophages biomarkers (CD11c/CD206) and cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, IL-4) following lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation and HT administration were detected using immunofluorescence, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Mechanically, HT was used to treat cells and phosphorylation level of extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) protein in cells was analyzed using Western blotting. In murine acute liver injury, inflammatory cytokines and liver injury degree were exhibited by qRT-PCR, IHC and HE staining. Furthermore, hepatic function was exhibited via hepatic metabolic enzymes (ALT/AST) and total bilirubin (TBil) in serum.
It was demonstrated that HT treatment attenuated M1 macrophages and increased M2 macrophages after LPS stimulation. Furthermore, the pro-inflammatory cytokine level was descended, while an-inflammatory cytokine was increased via HT suppressing ERK pathway in macrophages. In vivo, HT reduced inflammatory level and mitigated hepatic histological injury, thus ameliorating liver function after acute liver injury.
HT exerts a hepatoprotective and anti-inflammation effect on acute liver injury, which restrains inflammation by inhibiting ERK pathway and regulating macrophages polarization. Moreover, HT prevents liver tissues from inflammatory injury. Therefore, HT serves as a potential implication to treat ALI through modulating inflammation of macrophages.
A detailed systematic aerosol source apportionment study was performed with two intensive sampling campaigns in the spring dust storm seasons of 2001 and 2002 in Beijing, China. The concentrations of ...23 elements and 15 ions and the total mass in 115 total suspended particulate (TSP) samples were measured. Combining enrichment factors, elemental signatures, back trajectory analysis, bilinear positive matrix factorization (PMF2) analysis with the meteorological pattern, the mixing of mineral aerosol with pollution aerosol and their apportionments in different dust episodes were elucidated. Ca/Al was proved to be a good signature to trace different dust origin areas. Soil dust, road dust, secondary, industrial/coal combustion, salts, phosphates, nitrites, and oil combustion were identified by PMF to be the eight main sources. Soil dust (from outside) increased sharply when cold front intruded Beijing in dust events (∼80–95% of total dust), which neutralized local acidic aerosol. Road dust (from local by re-suspension) contributed 15–30% of the total TSP. Intruded dusts brought lots of sulfate (from soil containing high-S or from pollutants introduced on the pathway) but little nitrate. The secondary sulfate/nitrate and the total pollutants contributed 25% and 40–50%, respectively, of the TSP in those dust episodes, which were transported in lower layer and mixed strongly with local re-suspended pollution aerosols. Sulfur/Nitrogen oxidation ratios in dust storms and in non-dust storms were <2% and 10–40%, respectively, and had a little jumps just after dust peaks, which indicated that dust provided a good basic surface for the heterogeneous reactions.
A novel species of Botrytis from Sedum sarmentosum was described based on morphology and analyses of DNA sequences of nuc rDNA ITS regions and three nuclear genes (G3PDH, HSP60, RPB2). Meanwhile ...pathogenicity in 32 plant species, response to temperature for growth and conidial germination for the species were determined. The Botrytis species was named Botrytis pyriformis sp. nov. It was characterized by formation of grayish mycelia, brownish conidia and melanized sclerotia on PDA. The conidia are pear-shaped, melanized and covered with abundant villiform appendages on the conidial surface. Comparison of the ITS sequences confirmed its placement in the genus Botrytis. Phylogenetic analysis based on DNA sequences of G3PDH, HSP60 and RPB2 genes indicated that B. pyriformis and other 30 Botrytis species form a monophyletic clade, which was further divided into three subclades. Subclade I comprised B. pyriformis alone, whereas subclades II and III comprised six and 24 Botrytis species, respectively. Botrytis pyriformis could not infect 32 plant species including S. sarmentosum, possibly due to deficiency in formation of infection cushions. This study presents a formal description and illustrations for B. pyriformis and provides experimental evidence, indicating that B. pyriformis might be a saprophytic species.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the strategy of haploidentical (HID) stem cell combined with a small doses of umbilical cord blood (UCB) from a third-party donor transplantation (haplo-cord ...transplant) for treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), by comparing with identical-sibling donor (ISD) transplantation. Eighty-five patients were included between January 2012 and December 2015, with a median 40 years old. Forty-eight patients received haplo-cord transplant and 37 patients received ISD transplant. Haplograft engraftment succeeded in all haplo-cord patients. For haplo-cord and ISD transplantation, adjusted cumulative incidences of grades 2-4 acute GvHD at 100 days were 27 and 11% (P=0.059); adjusted cumulative incidences of chronic GvHD at 2 years were 22 and 34% (P=0.215). The 2-year adjusted probabilities of overall survival were 64 and 70% (P=0.518), and of relapse-free survival were 56 and 66% (P=0.306). The 2-year adjusted cumulative incidences of relapse were 12 and 14% (P=0.743), and of non-relapse mortality were 33 and 23% (P=0.291). In conclusion, haplo-cord-HSCT achieves outcomes similar to those of ISD-HSCT for MDS and the haplo-cord-HSCT may potentially improve the outcome of HID- and UCB-HSCT alone. Thus, the haplo-cord transplantation may be a better valid alternative for MDS when an ISD is not available.
The influences of boron addition on the phase formation, Curie temperature and magnetic entropy change of the NaZn
13-type La(Fe
0.9Si
0.1)
13 compound have been investigated. Eight boron containing ...La(Fe
0.9Si
0.1)
13B
x
samples were prepared with
x=0, 0.03, 0.06, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.6, respectively. Experimental results show that a small amount of B addition in La(Fe
0.9Si
0.1)
13 forms the solid solution NaZn
13-type structure phase by substituting B for Si or doping B into interstitial position of the lattice, preserves its giant magnetocaloric effects due to their first-order structural/magnetic transition, as well as increase its Curie temperature
T
c slightly. The maximum magnetic entropy changes in the magnetic field change of 0–1.6
T are around 20
J
kg
–1
K
–1 for the samples with Boron addition less than 0.3, while improving the Curie temperatures by 2
K.
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