To investigate the prevention of OM-85 on bronchiectasis exacerbations (iPROBE) in Chinese patients: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis is characterized by the irreversible dilatation of the medium-sized bronchi as a result of airway injury from recurrent or chronic inflammation and lower respiratory tract infections. Bronchiectasis airways are commonly colonized with bacterial species. Infections of the airways play important role in bronchiectasis exacerbations. The non-specific prevention of recurrent airway infections by immunostimulating agents has gained growing interest. OM-85, consisting of extracts of eight kinds of bacteria important in respiratory infections, could support the respiratory tract resistance to the pathogens. OM-85 has been shown to be a benefit by decreasing the risk of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in several perspective clinical trials. Exacerbation of bronchiectasis substantially contributes to a more rapid decline in lung function, reduced quality of life, and healthcare costs. In this context, we plan to conduct a clinical trial to investigate the PReventive effect of OM-85 on Bronchiectasis Exacerbation in Chinese patients (iPROBE). Methods/Design This study is designed as a prospective, randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled multicenter trial. A total of 244 patients with bronchiectasis, who have had at least one exacerbation of bronchiectasis in the previous year, will be included. The subjects will randomly receive two courses of 7 mg of OM-85 or a matching placebo. The treatment dose of OM-85 will be one daily capsule taken orally for 10 days each month for 3 consecutive months at the beginning of the study, followed by 3 months of no drug. This schedule will repeat until the patient has been seen for one year. Discussion We will investigate whether long-term treatment with an oral immunostimulant (OM-85) could decrease exacerbations of bronchiectasis over a one-year period. We will also assess other relevant outcomes, including the rate of event-based exacerbation, lung function parameters, and total scores judged by the St George’s respiratory questionnaire, Leicester cough questionnaire, and inflammatory index. We hope that this study will provide new information on the preventive effects of OM-85 on bronchiectasis exacerbations and will address a knowledge gap for this understudied disease. Trial registration This study is registered at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov (identifier NCT01968421) on 19 October 2013

Survey of Research on Construction Method of Industry Internet Security Knowledge Graph

The industry Internet security knowledge graph plays an important role in enriching the semantic relationships of security concepts, improving the quality of the security knowledge base, and enhancing the ability to visualize and analyze the security situation. It has become the key to recognize, trace and protect against the attacks targeting new energy industry control systems. However, compared with the construction of the general domain knowledge graph, there are still many problems in each stage of the construction of the industry Internet security knowledge graph, which affect its practical application effect. This paper introduces the concept and significance of the industry Internet security knowledge graph and its difference from the general knowledge graph, summarizes the related work and role of the ontology construction of industry Internet security knowledge graph. Under the background of industry Internet security, it focuses on the related work of the three important components of knowledge graph construction, respectively named entity recognition, relationship extraction and reference resolution. For each component, it detailedly reports on the development history and research status of this component in the domain, and deeply analyses the domain challenges in this component, such as non-continuous entity recognition, candidate word extraction, the lack of domain-quality datasets and so on. It predicts the future research directions of this component, provides reference and enlightenment to further improve the quality and usefulness of industry Internet security knowledge graph, so as to deal with emerging threats and attacks more effectively

Resveratrol differentially modulates inflammatory responses of microglia and astrocytes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Inflammatory responses in the CNS mediated by activated glial cells play an important role in host-defense but are also involved in the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Resveratrol is a natural polyphenolic compound that has cardioprotective, anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties. We investigated the capacity of resveratrol to protect microglia and astrocyte from inflammatory insults and explored mechanisms underlying different inhibitory effects of resveratrol on microglia and astrocytes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A murine microglia cell line (N9), primary microglia, or astrocytes were stimulated by LPS with or without different concentrations of resveratrol. The expression and release of proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, MCP-1) and iNOS/NO by the cells were measured by PCR/real-time PCR and ELISA, respectively. The phosphorylation of the MAP kinase superfamily was analyzed by western blotting, and activation of NF-κB and AP-1 was measured by luciferase reporter assay and/or electrophoretic mobility shift assay.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that LPS stimulated the expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, MCP-1 and iNOS in murine microglia and astrocytes in which MAP kinases, NF-κB and AP-1 were differentially involved. Resveratrol inhibited LPS-induced expression and release of TNF-α, IL-6, MCP-1, and iNOS/NO in both cell types with more potency in microglia, and inhibited LPS-induced expression of IL-1β in microglia but not astrocytes. Resveratrol had no effect on LPS-stimulated phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and p38 in microglia and astrocytes, but slightly inhibited LPS-stimulated phosphorylation of JNK in astrocytes. Resveratrol inhibited LPS-induced NF-κB activation in both cell types, but inhibited AP-1 activation only in microglia.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results suggest that murine microglia and astrocytes produce proinflammatory cytokines and NO in response to LPS in a similar pattern with some differences in signaling molecules involved, and further suggest that resveratrol exerts anti-inflammatory effects in microglia and astrocytes by inhibiting different proinflammatory cytokines and key signaling molecules.</p

Reconstructive types effect the prognosis of patients with tumors in the central and nipple portion of breast cancer? An analysis based on SEER database

IntroductionThe impact of different types of reconstruction, including tissue reconstruction, implant reconstruction and combined reconstruction, on patient survival were not illustrated completely. We tried to investigate the impact of patient survival between different types of reconstruction.MethodsWe enrolled 6271 patients with tumors in the central and nipple portion of breast cancer from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Factors associated with survival were identified by Cox regression analyses. The mortality rates per 1,000 person-years were calculated and compared. Survival curves were produced by Kaplan-Meier analyses using log-rank tests and cox proportional hazards regression quantified the risk of survival.ResultsReconstructive types, region, insurance, race, marial status, grade, stage, ER status, PR status, HER-2 status and chemotherapy were significant prognostic factors associated with breast cancer-specific survival. The breast cancer mortality rates per 1,000 person-years for patients with tissue, implant and combined group were 26.01,21.54 and 19.83 which showed a downward trend. The HR of implant and combined reconstruction adjusted for demographic, pathological, and therapeutic data was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.67-1.00, p=0.052) and 0.73(95% CI:0.55-0.97, p=0.03) compared with tissue reconstruction.ConclusionBreast cancer-related mortality between implant reconstruction and autologous tissue reconstruction showed no significantly different, but the risk of BCSS of compound reconstruction was lower than tissue reconstruction

The pathological features of ganglioglioma with tanycytic ependymoma as the glial component

Objective To explore the pathological features of ganglioglioma with tanycytic ependymoma as the glial component. Methods One case of ganglioglioma was studied by paraffin slices, HE staining, immunohistochemistry markers and observed under microscopy. Results A 21 ⁃ year ⁃ old woman mainly presented with intermittent physical convulsion and dizziness. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated an occupying lesion in right parietal lobe. It was seen in the operation that the tumor was located in right parietal lobe. The tumor measuring about 4.50 cm × 4.00 cm × 4.00 cm was tenacious and grey⁃red in color. The blood supply was general. Most parts of the tumor boundary were clear. After removing the tumor, it was found that the operated cavity was communicated with lateral ventricle. Under microscope it was seen that the tumor was composed of tumorous glial cells and gangliocytes. The glial components were tanycytic ependymoma cells and glial cells arranged in a spreading bundle pattern. Perivascular pseudorosettes could be seen in the tumor. The distribution of gangliocytes was not uiform. Most gangliocytes were well⁃differentiated. Immunohistochemistry showed that tanycytic ependymoma cells were reactive with antibodies of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), vimentin (Vim) and epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), while gangliocytes were reactive with antibodies of neuronal nuclei (NeuN) and neurofilament protein (NF). Conclusion Ganglioglioma is a kind of rare tumor originated from neurepithelium. It is well⁃differentiated and retardation in growth. It is composed of tumorous glial cells and gangliocytes. The most tumorous glial components are astrocytes. Ganglioglioma with tanycytic ependymoma as the glial component is very rare. Grasping the tumor pathological features is useful in the diagnosis and treatment of this disease. DOI：10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2011.03.01

Atomistic insights on the nanoscale single grain scratching mechanism of silicon carbide ceramic based on molecular dynamics simulation

The precision and crack-free surface of brittle silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic was achieved in the nanoscale ductile grinding. However, the nanoscale scratching mechanism and the root causes of SiC ductile response, especially in the atomistic aspects, have not been fully understood yet. In this study, the SiC atomistic scale scratching mechanism was investigated by single diamond grain scratching simulation based on molecular dynamics. The results indicated that the ductile scratching process of SiC could be achieved in the nanoscale depth of cut through the phase transition to an amorphous structure with few hexagonal diamond structure. Furthermore, the silicon atoms in SiC could penetrate into diamond grain which may cause wear of diamond grain. It was further found out that the chip material in the front of grain flowed along the grain side surface to form the groove protrusion as the scratching speed increases. The higher scratching speed promoted more atoms to transfer into the amorphous structure and reduced the hexagonal diamond and dislocation atoms number, which resulted in higher temperature, smaller scratching force, smaller normal stress, and thinner subsurface damage thickness, due to larger speed impaction causing more bonds broken which makes the SiC more ductile

Cryo-EM analysis of the post-fusion structure of the SARS-CoV spike glycoprotein

The spike (S) protein of coronaviruses is responsible for receptor recognition and the fusion between the viral membrane and the of cell host membrane. Here the authors report a cryo-EM structure of SARS-CoV post-fusion S2 trimer, providing insights into the fusion mechanism that could be useful for therapeutic development against coronaviruses

Improved DBSCAN Spindle Bearing Condition Monitoring Method Based on Kurtosis and Sample Entropy

An improved density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (IDBSCAN) analysis approach based on kurtosis and sample entropy (SE) is presented for the identification of operational state in order to provide accurate monitoring of spindle operation condition. This is because of the low strength of the shock signal created by bearing of precision spindle of misalignment or imbalanced load, and the difficulties in extracting shock features. Wavelet noise reduction begins by dividing the recorded vibration data into equal lengths. Features like kurtosis and entropy in the frequency domain are used to generate feature vectors that indicate the bearing operation state. IDBSCAN cluster analysis is then utilized to establish the ideal neighborhood radius (Eps) and the minimum number of objects contained within the neighborhood radius (MinPts) of the vector set, which are combined to identify the bearing operating condition features. Finally, utilizing data from the University of Cincinnati, the approach was validated and assessed, attaining a condition detection accuracy of 99.2%. As a follow-up, the spindle’s vibration characteristics were studied utilizing an unbalanced bearing’s load bench. Bearing state recognition accuracy was 98.4%, 98.4%, and 96.7%, respectively, under mild, medium, and overload circumstances, according to the results of the experimental investigation. Moreover, it shows that conditions of bearings under various unbalanced loads can be precisely monitored using the proposed method without picking up on specific sorts of failures

Construction of a Full-Length cDNA Over-Expressing Library to Identify Valuable Genes from Populus tomentosa

Poplar wood is the main source of renewable biomass energy worldwide, and is also considered to be a model system for studying woody plants. The Full-length cDNA Over-eXpressing (FOX) gene hunting system is an effective method for generating gain-of-function mutants. Large numbers of novel genes have successfully been identified from many herbaceous plants according to the phenotype of gain-of-function mutants under normal or abiotic stress conditions using this system. However, the system has not been used for functional gene identification with high-throughput mutant screening in woody plants. In this study, we constructed a FOX library from the Chinese white poplar, Populus tomentosa. The poplar cDNA library was constructed into the plant expression vector pEarleyGate101 and further transformed into Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress). We collected 1749 T1 transgenic plants identified by PCR. Of these, 593 single PCR bands from different transgenic lines were randomly selected for sequencing, and 402 diverse sequences of poplar genes were isolated. Most of these genes were involved in photosynthesis, environmental adaptation, and ribosome biogenesis based on Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway annotation. We characterized in detail two mutant lines carrying PtoCPCa or PtoWRKY13 cDNA insertions. Phenotypic characterization showed that overexpression of these genes in A. thaliana affected trichome development or secondary cell wall (SCW) deposition, respectively. Together, the Populus-FOX-Arabidopsis library generated in our experiments will be helpful for efficient discovery of novel genes in poplar

BP-PID Control for Electro-hydraulic Proportional Position Servo System

The electro-hydraulic proportional position servo system is a kind of highly non-linear and time-varying system as well as parameter uncertainties. It is often difficult to achieve satisfactory control results with the traditional control methods. Considering that the adaptive neural network PID control method has the characteristics of online learning and adjustment PID control parameters adaptively, this paper puts forward to adopt BP-PID control method for the position servo control of electro-hydraulic proportional system. An online adaptive BP-PID controller is designed. The simulation model of the system is established based on Simulink platform. The step response and Sinusoidal tracking characteristics are researched for electro-hydraulic proportional position servo system by using traditional PID and BP-PID control algorithms through simulations and experiments. The results show that BP-PID has a strong ability of online learning and self-tuning PID parameters. Compared with the traditional PID control method, the BP-PID control has strong self-adaptability and robustness, and can significantly improve the step response speed and tracking control precision