Optimal surface profile design of deployable mesh reflectors via a force density strategy

Based on a force density method coupled with optimal design of node positions, a novel approach for optimal surface profile design of mesh reflectors is presented. Uniform tension is achieved by iterations on coefficients of force density. The positions of net nodes are recalculated in each iteration so that the faceting RMS error of the reflector surface is minimized. Applications of both prime focus and offset configurations are demonstrated. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach

Investigation of the Lipid-Lowering Effect of Vitamin C Through GSK-3β/β-Catenin Signaling in Zebrafish

Vitamin C (VC) is an essential nutrient for most fish species because of the absence of L-gulonolactone oxidase in the bodies of fish. VC plays a significant role in maintaining the physiological functions and in improving the growth performance, immunity, and survival of fish. In this study, zebrafish (Danio rerio) were treated with 8.2, 509.6, and 1007.5 mg/kg VC diets for 2 weeks, and the muscle samples were collected for gene expression analysis and biochemical index analysis. The results indicated that 509.6 and 1007.5 mg/kg VC diets inhibited glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) expression and induced the expression of β-catenin in the muscle of zebrafish. The mRNA expression of CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein α (C/EBPα) and fatty acid synthase (FAS), FAS activity, and the content of glycerol and triglyceride (TG) were decreased in the muscle by 509.6 and 1007.5 mg/kg VC diets. In addition, GSK-3β RNA interference was observed in zebrafish fed with 8.2 and 1007.5 mg/kg VC diets. It was found that GSK-3β RNA interference induced the mRNA expression of β-catenin but decreased the mRNA expression of C/EBPα and FAS, FAS activity, as well as the content of glycerol and TG in the muscle of zebrafish. In ZF4 cells, the mRNA expression of GSK-3β, C/EBPα, and FAS was decreased, but β-catenin expression was increased by 0.1 and 0.5 mmol/L VC treatments in vitro. The glycerol and TG content, and FAS activity in ZF4 cells were decreased by 0.1 and 0.5 mmol/L VC treatments. Moreover, the result of western blot indicated that the protein expression level of GSK-3β was significantly decreased and that of β-catenin was significantly increased in ZF4 cells treated with 0.1 and 0.5 mmol/L VC. The results from in vivo and in vitro studies corroborated that VC exerted the lipid-lowering effect through GSK-3β/β-catenin signaling in zebrafish

Patterns of attentional bias in antenatal depression: an eye-tracking study

IntroductionOne of the most common mental disorders in the perinatal period is depression, which is associated with impaired emotional functioning due to alterations in different cognitive aspects including thought and facial emotion recognition. These functional impairment may affect emerging maternal sensitivity and have lasting consequences for the dyadic relationship. The current study aimed to investigate the impact of depressive symptoms on the attention bias of infant stimuli during pregnancy.MethodsEighty-six pregnant women completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and an eye-tracking task comprising infant-related emotion images. All participants showed biased attention to infant-related images.ResultsFirst, compared to healthy pregnant women, pregnant women with depression symptoms initially directed their attention to infant-related stimuli more quickly (F (1, 84) = 6.175, p = 0.015, η2 = 0.068). Second, the two groups of pregnant women paid attention to the positive infant stimuli faster than the neutral infant stimuli, and the first fixation latency bias score was significantly smaller than that of the infant-related negative stimulus (p = 0.007). Third, compared with the neutral stimulus, the non-depression group showed a longer first gaze duration to the negative stimulus of infants (p = 0.019), while the depressive symptoms group did not show this difference.ConclusionWe speculate that structural and functional changes in affective motivation and cognitive-attention brain areas may induce these attentional bias patterns. These results provide suggestions for the implementation of clinical intervention programs to correct the attention bias of antenatal depressed women

Actively implementing an evidence-based feeding guideline for critically ill patients (NEED): a multicenter, cluster-randomized, controlled trial

Background: Previous cluster-randomized controlled trials evaluating the impact of implementing evidence-based guidelines for nutrition therapy in critical illness do not consistently demonstrate patient benefits. A large-scale, sufficiently powered study is therefore warranted to ascertain the effects of guideline implementation on patient-centered outcomes. Methods: We conducted a multicenter, cluster-randomized, parallel-controlled trial in intensive care units (ICUs) across China. We developed an evidence-based feeding guideline. ICUs randomly allocated to the guideline group formed a local "intervention team", which actively implemented the guideline using standardized educational materials, a graphical feeding protocol, and live online education outreach meetings conducted by members of the study management committee. ICUs assigned to the control group remained unaware of the guideline content. All ICUs enrolled patients who were expected to stay in the ICU longer than seven days. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality within 28 days of enrollment. Results: Forty-eight ICUs were randomized to the guideline group and 49 to the control group. From March 2018 to July 2019, the guideline ICUs enrolled 1399 patients, and the control ICUs enrolled 1373 patients. Implementation of the guideline resulted in significantly earlier EN initiation (1.20 vs. 1.55 mean days to initiation of EN; difference − 0.40 [95% CI − 0.71 to − 0.09]; P = 0.01) and delayed PN initiation (1.29 vs. 0.80 mean days to start of PN; difference 1.06 [95% CI 0.44 to 1.67]; P = 0.001). There was no significant difference in 28-day mortality (14.2% vs. 15.2%; difference − 1.6% [95% CI − 4.3% to 1.2%]; P = 0.42) between groups. Conclusions: In this large-scale, multicenter trial, active implementation of an evidence-based feeding guideline reduced the time to commencement of EN and overall PN use but did not translate to a reduction in mortality from critical illness. Trial registration: ISRCTN, ISRCTN12233792. Registered November 20th, 2017

Actively implementing an evidence-based feeding guideline for critically ill patients (NEED): a multicenter, cluster-randomized, controlled trial.

BackgroundPrevious cluster-randomized controlled trials evaluating the impact of implementing evidence-based guidelines for nutrition therapy in critical illness do not consistently demonstrate patient benefits. A large-scale, sufficiently powered study is therefore warranted to ascertain the effects of guideline implementation on patient-centered outcomes.MethodsWe conducted a multicenter, cluster-randomized, parallel-controlled trial in intensive care units (ICUs) across China. We developed an evidence-based feeding guideline. ICUs randomly allocated to the guideline group formed a local "intervention team", which actively implemented the guideline using standardized educational materials, a graphical feeding protocol, and live online education outreach meetings conducted by members of the study management committee. ICUs assigned to the control group remained unaware of the guideline content. All ICUs enrolled patients who were expected to stay in the ICU longer than seven days. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality within 28 days of enrollment.ResultsForty-eight ICUs were randomized to the guideline group and 49 to the control group. From March 2018 to July 2019, the guideline ICUs enrolled 1399 patients, and the control ICUs enrolled 1373 patients. Implementation of the guideline resulted in significantly earlier EN initiation (1.20 vs. 1.55 mean days to initiation of EN; difference - 0.40 [95% CI - 0.71 to - 0.09]; P = 0.01) and delayed PN initiation (1.29 vs. 0.80 mean days to start of PN; difference 1.06 [95% CI 0.44 to 1.67]; P = 0.001). There was no significant difference in 28-day mortality (14.2% vs. 15.2%; difference - 1.6% [95% CI - 4.3% to 1.2%]; P = 0.42) between groups.ConclusionsIn this large-scale, multicenter trial, active implementation of an evidence-based feeding guideline reduced the time to commencement of EN and overall PN use but did not translate to a reduction in mortality from critical illness.Trial registrationISRCTN, ISRCTN12233792 . Registered November 20th, 2017

Actively implementing an evidence-based feeding guideline for critically ill patients (NEED): a multicenter, cluster-randomized, controlled trial (vol 26, 46, 2022)

BackgroundPrevious cluster-randomized controlled trials evaluating the impact of implementing evidence-based guidelines for nutrition therapy in critical illness do not consistently demonstrate patient benefits. A large-scale, sufficiently powered study is therefore warranted to ascertain the effects of guideline implementation on patient-centered outcomes.MethodsWe conducted a multicenter, cluster-randomized, parallel-controlled trial in intensive care units (ICUs) across China. We developed an evidence-based feeding guideline. ICUs randomly allocated to the guideline group formed a local "intervention team", which actively implemented the guideline using standardized educational materials, a graphical feeding protocol, and live online education outreach meetings conducted by members of the study management committee. ICUs assigned to the control group remained unaware of the guideline content. All ICUs enrolled patients who were expected to stay in the ICU longer than seven days. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality within 28 days of enrollment.ResultsForty-eight ICUs were randomized to the guideline group and 49 to the control group. From March 2018 to July 2019, the guideline ICUs enrolled 1399 patients, and the control ICUs enrolled 1373 patients. Implementation of the guideline resulted in significantly earlier EN initiation (1.20 vs. 1.55 mean days to initiation of EN; difference - 0.40 [95% CI - 0.71 to - 0.09]; P = 0.01) and delayed PN initiation (1.29 vs. 0.80 mean days to start of PN; difference 1.06 [95% CI 0.44 to 1.67]; P = 0.001). There was no significant difference in 28-day mortality (14.2% vs. 15.2%; difference - 1.6% [95% CI - 4.3% to 1.2%]; P = 0.42) between groups.ConclusionsIn this large-scale, multicenter trial, active implementation of an evidence-based feeding guideline reduced the time to commencement of EN and overall PN use but did not translate to a reduction in mortality from critical illness.Trial registrationISRCTN, ISRCTN12233792 . Registered November 20th, 2017

A Journey into the City. Migrant Workers' Relation with the Urban Space and Struggle for Existence in Xu Zechen's Early Jingpiao Fiction

In contemporary China, rural-urban migrants constitute a new urban subject with entirely new identity-related issues. This study aims at demonstrating how literature can be a valid field in investigating such evolving subjectivities, through an analysis of Xu Zechen’s early novellas depicting migrants’ vicissitudes in Beijing. Combining a close reading of the texts and a review of the main social problems characterising rural-urban migration in China, this paper focuses on the representation of the identity crisis within the migrant self in Xu’s stories, taking into account the network of meanings employed by the writer to signify the objective and subjective tension between the city and the countryside

Effect of Dietary Manganese on the Growth Performance, Lipid Metabolism, and Antioxidant Capacity in the Post-Larval Coho Salmon (<i>Oncorhynchus kisutch</i>)

In this study, post-larval coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch (initial weight 0.37 ± 0.03 g) were fed with 6 experimental diets with increasing manganese (Mn) content (2.4, 8.5, 14.8, 19.8, 24.6, and 33.7 mg kg−1) for 12 weeks. Our results indicated that the feed conversion rate (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR), condition factor (CF), crude protein, moisture, crude lipid, ash, whole-body Mn, and vertebral Mn were affected by the elevation of Mn content in the diet. The activities of hepatic GSH-PX, Mn-SOD, and CAT were enhanced with increasing Mn content in the diet and reached the highest value at 19.8 mg kg−1 Mn. However, the level of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), superoxide anion (O2·−), and malondialdehyde (MDA) was reduced with increasing Mn content in the diet. In addition, the activity of hepatic lipase (HL) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) was increased with the elevation of dietary Mn content and reached a peak value at 14.8 mg kg−1 Mn. The activity of fatty acid synthetase (FAS) and the content of nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) were increased following the elevation of Mn content from 2.4 to 19.8 mg kg−1 in the diet. The results indicated that the appropriate dietary Mn supplementation improved the feeding efficiency, lipid metabolism, and antioxidant capacity of coho salmon. The dietary Mn requirement for post-larval coho salmon was 17.35 mg kg−1 and 19.75 mg kg−1 based on the SGR and FCR, respectively. An optimal dietary level of Mn enhances hepatic lipid metabolism, and the signaling pathway of PI3K/AKT/mTOR may be involved in regulating the activity of enzymes related to lipid metabolism

RECONSTRUCTION OF 3D DIGITAL IMAGE OF WEEPING FORSYTHIA POLLEN

Abstract: Confocal microscopy, which is a major advance upon normal light microscopy, has been used in a number of scientific fields. By confocal microscopy techniques, cells and tissues can be visualized deeply, and three-dimensional images created. Compared with conventional microscopes, confocal microscope improves the resolution of images by eliminating out-of-focus light. Moreover, confocal microscope has a higher level of sensitivity due to highly sensitive light detectors and the ability to accumulate images captured over time. In present studies, a series of Weeping Forsythia pollen digital images (35 images in total) were acquired with confocal microscope, and the three-dimensional digital image of the pollen reconstructed with confocal microscope. Our results indicate that it&apos;s a very easy job to analysis threedimensional digital image of the pollen with confocal microscope and the probe Acridine orange (AO)

Fast Screening of Biomembrane-Permeable Compounds in Herbal Medicines Using Bubble-Generating Magnetic Liposomes Coupled with LC–MS

A novel strategy based on the use of bionic membrane camouflaged magnetic particles and LC–MS was developed to quickly screen the biomembrane-permeable compounds in herbal medicines. The bionic membrane was constructed by bubble-generating magnetic liposomes loaded with NH4HCO3 (BMLs). The lipid bilayer structure of the liposomes enabled BMLs to capture biomembrane-permeable compounds from a herbal extract. The BMLs carrying the compounds were then separated from the extract by a magnetic field. Upon heat treatment, NH4HCO3 rapidly decomposed to form CO2 bubbles within the liposomal bilayer, and the captured compounds were released from BMLs and analyzed by LC–MS. Jinlingzi San (JLZS), which contains various natural ingredients, was chosen to assess the feasibility of the proposed method. As a result, nine potential permeable compounds captured by BMLs were identified for the first time. Moreover, an in vivo animal study found that most of the compounds screened out by the proposed method were absorbed into the blood. The study provides a powerful tool for rapid and simultaneous prediction of multiple biomembrane-permeable components