Levetiracetam plus Oxcarbazepine Combination Treatment Downregulates Serum Multidrug Resistance Protein 1 Levels and Upregulates Neuropeptide Y Levels in Children with Epilepsy

The aim of the present study was to investigate the usefulness of multidrug resistance protein 1 (MDR1) and neuropeptide Y (NPY) levels in predicting the efficacy of levetiracetam (LEV) plus oxcarbazepine (OXC) treatment administered to children with epilepsy and to determine their prognosis. Overall, 193 children with epilepsy admitted to the hospital were enrolled and randomly divided into two groups according to different treatment methods: group A (n = 106, treated with LEV plus OXC combination) and group B (n = 87, treated with OXC only). After treatment, compared with group B, group A exhibited a remarkably higher total effective rate and a significantly lower total adverse reaction rate. Areas under the curve for MDR1 and NPY for predicting ineffective treatment were 0.867 and 0.834, whereas those for predicting epilepsy recurrence were 0.916 and 0.829, respectively. Electroencephalography abnormalities, intracranial hemorrhage, neonatal convulsion, premature delivery, and MDR1 and NPY levels were independent risk factors for poor prognosis in children with epilepsy. Serum MDR1 and NPY levels exhibited a high predictive value for early epilepsy diagnosis, treatment efficacy assessment, and prognostication in children with epilepsy treated with LEV plus OXC combination

Hydraulic characteristics of orifice plate

957-962In some hydropower projects, the height of the dams exceed the level of 300 m. Orifice plate energy dissipater, as a kind of effective energy dissipater with characteristics of economic value, has been welcomed more and more by hydraulics researchers. The energy loss coefficient relating directly to the energy dissipation ratio is an important index for this energy dissipater design. In the present paper, this coefficient and relative parameters, such as contraction ratio of the orifice plate diameter and the flood discharge tunnel diameter, ratio of the orifice plate thickness to the tunnel diameter, and Reynolds number of the flow through orifice, were analyzed by theoretical considerations and their relationship expressions obtained by experiment. It could be concluded that the energy loss coefficient was mainly dominated by the contraction ratio of the orifice plate. The less the contraction ratio of the orifice plate is the larger is this coefficient. The research results demonstrate that the effects of Reynolds number could be neglected on this coefficient when Reynolds number is larger than 105 and that the orifice plate’s thickness has slight impact on the energy loss coefficient

Preconditioned Primal-Dual Gradient Methods for Nonconvex Composite and Finite-Sum Optimization

In this paper, we first introduce a preconditioned primal-dual gradient algorithm based on conjugate duality theory. This algorithm is designed to solve composite optimization problem whose objective function consists of two summands: a continuously differentiable nonconvex function and the composition of a nonsmooth nonconvex function with a linear operator. In contrast to existing nonconvex primal-dual algorithms, our proposed algorithm, through the utilization of conjugate duality, does not require the calculation of proximal mapping of nonconvex functions. Under mild conditions, we prove that any cluster point of the generated sequence is a critical point of the composite optimization problem. In the context of Kurdyka-\L{}ojasiewicz property, we establish global convergence and convergence rates for the iterates. Secondly, for nonconvex finite-sum optimization, we propose a stochastic algorithm that combines the preconditioned primal-dual gradient algorithm with a class of variance reduced stochastic gradient estimators. Almost sure global convergence and expected convergence rates are derived relying on the Kurdyka-\L{}ojasiewicz inequality. Finally, some preliminary numerical results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms

Dynamical convergence analysis for nonconvex linearized proximal ADMM algorithms

The convergence analysis of optimization algorithms using continuous-time dynamical systems has received much attention in recent years. In this paper, we investigate applications of these systems to analyze the convergence of linearized proximal ADMM algorithms for nonconvex composite optimization, whose objective function is the sum of a continuously differentiable function and a composition of a possibly nonconvex function with a linear operator. We first derive a first-order differential inclusion for the linearized proximal ADMM algorithm, LP-ADMM. Both the global convergence and the convergence rates of the generated trajectory are established with the use of Kurdyka-\L{}ojasiewicz (KL) property. Then, a stochastic variant, LP-SADMM, is delved into an investigation for finite-sum nonconvex composite problems. Under mild conditions, we obtain the stochastic differential equation corresponding to LP-SADMM, and demonstrate the almost sure global convergence of the generated trajectory by leveraging the KL property. Based on the almost sure convergence of trajectory, we construct a stochastic process that converges almost surely to an approximate critical point of objective function, and derive the expected convergence rates associated with this stochastic process. Moreover, we propose an accelerated LP-SADMM that incorporates Nesterov's acceleration technique. The continuous-time dynamical system of this algorithm is modeled as a second-order stochastic differential equation. Within the context of KL property, we explore the related almost sure convergence and expected convergence rates

A Research on Tourism E-Business of Shanxi

E-business has become a new growth point of current economic development in the world. The natural adaptability between tourism and E-business gives birth to tourism E-business. The tourism resources in Shanxi are unique, yet its tourism development level and the abundant resources are not harmonious. To transform its resource advantage into economic advantage, developing tourism E-business is very urgent and necessary. In this article, through quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis methods, we find out the problems existing in the development of tourism E-business in Shanxi, and put forward corresponding development measures, especially the mobile E-tourism based on 3G technology, which is a new pattern and will become the development direction of Shanxi’s tourism E-business in the future. The research aims at providing practical references for the tourism management departments and enterprises in Shanxi to enhance its competitiveness and promote its sustainable development