Investigation on the Structural Behavior of Shear Walls with Steel Truss Coupling Beams under Seismic Loading

Based on existing experimental results, the finite element analyses were carried out on shear wall structures with steel truss coupling beams. This work studied the seismic behaviors and the working mechanism of the steel truss coupling beam at the ultimate state and put forward two parameters: the area ratio of web member to chord and the stiffness ratio of coupling beam to shear wall. The seismic optimum design method of the coupling beam was also proposed. Afterwards, a comparative analysis was implemented on the three-dimensional shear wall model with steel truss coupling beams designed by the proposed design method. The results show that the structures designed by the proposed method have excellent seismic behaviors, the steel truss coupling beams have enough stiffness to connect shear walls effectively, and its web members have appropriate cross sections to dissipate seismic energy

Investigation of folate-conjugated fluorescent silica nanoparticles for targeting delivery to folate receptor-positive tumors and their internalization mechanism

Multifunctionalized nanoparticles (NPs) are emerging as ideal tools for gene/drug delivery, bioimaging, labeling, or intracellular tracking in biomedical applications, and have attracted considerable attention owing to their unique advantages. In this study, fluorescent silica NPs were synthesized by a modified Stöber method using conjugates of 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPS) and maleimide-fluorescein isothiocyanate (maleimide-FITC). Mean diameters of the NPs were controlled between 212–2111 nm by regulating MPS concentration in the reaction mixture. Maleimide-FITC molecules were doped into NPs or conjugated to the surface of NPs through the chemical reaction of maleimide and thiol groups. The data showed that the former NPs are better than the latter by comparing their fluorescence intensity. Furthermore, folate molecules were linked to the FITC-doped silica NPs by using polyethylene glycol (PEG) (NH2-PEG-maleimide) as a spacer, thus forming folate receptor targeting fluorescent NPs, referred to as NPs(FITC)-PEG-Folate. The quantitative analysis of cellular internalization into different cancer cells showed that the delivery efficiency of KB cells (folate receptor-positive cells) is more than six-fold higher than that of A549 cells (folate receptor-negative cells). The delivery efficiency of KB cells decreased significantly after free folate addition to the cell culture medium because the folate receptors were occupied by the free folate. The NPs endocytosis mechanism was also investigated. It was shown that clathrin, an inhibitor of cell phagocytosis, markedly decreased the NPs uptake into KB cells, suggesting that it plays an important role in NPs cellular internalization. These results demonstrated that the novel particles of NPs(FITC)-PEG-Folate are promising for fluorescent imaging or targeting delivery to folate receptor-positive tumors

Generalized Linear Mixed Model Analysis of Urban-Rural Differences in Social and Behavioral Factors for Colorectal Cancer Screening

Objective: Screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) can reduce disease incidence, morbidity, and mortality. However, few studies have investigated the urban-rural differences in social and behavioral factors influencing CRC screening. The objective of the study was to investigate the potential factors across urban-rural groups on the usage of CRC screening. Methods: A total of 38,505 adults (aged ≥40 years) were selected from the 2009 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data - the latest CHIS data on CRC screening. The weighted generalized linear mixed-model (WGLIMM) was used to deal with this hierarchical structure data. Weighted simple and multiple mixed logistic regression analyses in SAS ver. 9.4 were used to obtain the odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: The overall prevalence of CRC screening was 48.1% while the prevalence in four residence groups - urban, second city, suburban, and town/rural, were 45.8%, 46.9%, 53.7% and 50.1%, respectively. The results of WGLIMM analysis showed that there was residence effect (p\u3c0.0001) and residence groups had significant interactions with gender, age group, education level, and employment status (p\u3c0.05). Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that age, race, marital status, education level, employment stats, binge drinking, and smoking status were associated with CRC screening (p\u3c0.05). Stratified by residence regions, age and poverty level showed associations with CRC screening in all four residence groups. Education level was positively associated with CRC screening in second city and suburban. Infrequent binge drinking was associated with CRC screening in urban and suburban; while current smoking was a protective factor in urban and town/rural groups. Conclusions: Mixed models are useful to deal with the clustered survey data. Social factors and behavioral factors (binge drinking and smoking) were associated with CRC screening and the associations were affected by living areas such as urban and rural regions