Locked Temporary Vascular Shunt for Wartime Vascular Injuries

IntroductionTo reduce the ischaemia time of injured limbs in wartime, temporary vascular shunts (TVS) are commonly used. However, TVS are stabilized at the ends of the injured vessels using manual suture ties, the risk of dislodgement is high, and tightening manual suture ties is too time consuming.Technical summaryLocked temporary vascular shunts (LTVS) were designed, and each was composed of a silicone tube with a threaded outer surface and smooth inner surface in addition to two nylon buckle switches. The buckle switches were used to stabilize the silicone tube of the LTVS with respect to the vessel walls. This job was performed with two manual suture ties with the current TVS. The mean bursting pressure value of the veins shunted with the LTVS was 114.3% higher than that of the veins shunted with the TVS (0.045 ± 0.008 MPa vs. 0.021 ± 0.012 MPa; p = .00). Although the mean shunting time of the LTVS was reduced by 60.4% compared with that of the TVS (138.89 ± 18.22 seconds vs. 350.48 ± 52.20 seconds; p = .00), there was no significant difference in the patency times between the two types of devices (8.20 ± 9.01 hour vs. 8.40 ± 8.85 hour; p = .98).ConclusionThe LTVS, which was designed to treat wartime vascular injuries, might be safer and more efficient than the current TVS

Molecular cloning and characterization of two genes - PHKG2 and IRAK4 from black-boned sheep (Ovis aries)

The complete coding sequences of two sheep genes-PHKG2 and IRAK4 were amplified using the rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) method based on three sheep expressed sequence tags whose translated amino acids contain the mitochondrial carrier domain. The sequence analyses of these two genes revealed that the sheep PHKG2 gene encodes a protein of 406 amino acids which has high homology with the phosphorylase kinase, gamma 2 protein of five species: Cattle (99%), human (96%), mouse (92%), rat (91%) and chicken (63%). The sheep IRAK4 gene encodes a protein of 456 amino acids which has high homology with the interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 protein of six species: Cattle (94%), pig (88%), human (87%), mouse (79%), rat (79%) and chicken (54%). The tissue transcription profile analyses indicated that the Black-boned sheep PHKG2 and IRAK4 genes are generally but differentially expressed in the detected tissues including spleen, muscle, skin, kidney, lung, liver, heart, fat and small intestine. These data serve as a foundation for further insight into these two genes.Key words: Black-boned sheep, PHKG2 and IRAK4, tissue transcription profile

Reliable Cost Prediction and Control for Intelligent Manufacture: A Key Performance Indicator Perspective

Data Availability Statement: Not applicable. Acknowledgments: We would like to thank Primal Electro for providing the industrial data.Intelligent manufacturing is facing significant challenges in adapting to the ever-changing equipment, instrumentation, process and economics. Such a trend together with the pressure to reliably control and contain production costs means that frequent adjusting decisions are required to adapt to incessant volatility imposed on manufacturing systems. Under this circumstance, cost-effective and quality-guaranteed manufacturing strategies would be the most logical route to reducing production costs. In this paper, a novel dynamical cost prediction and control (CPC) model is proposed to support collective decision-making in intelligent manufacturing, where the model output is the real-time prediction of possible manufacturing costs, while the inputs are generic manufacturing key performance indicators covering inventory, product quality, production efficiency, resource utilisation and environmental impact. This proposed CPC model distinguishes itself from existing ones for its capability to translate manufacturing data (at both the physical level and operation management level) into financial metrics that contribute to forming a common language between engineering, financial and administrative departments of an enterprise. The case study about the assembly line of optoelectronic devices demonstrates that, although different enterprise departments have different priorities, our CPC model helps them to achieve certain consensus on intended production that finally creates satisfactory profitability for the company at controlled manufacturing costs.Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province of China under Grant 23NSFSC1427; National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants U2330206, U2230206, 62173068l European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant 820677 (IQONIC)

4.5 years multi-wavelength observations of Mrk 421 during the ARGO-YBJ and Fermi common operation time

We report on the extensive multi-wavelength observations of the blazar Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) covering radio to gamma-rays, during the 4.5 year period of ARGO-YBJ and Fermi common operation time, from August 2008 to February 2013. In particular, thanks to the ARGO-YBJ and Fermi data, the whole energy range from 100 MeV to 10 TeV is covered without any gap. In the observation period, Mrk 421 showed both low and high activity states at all wavebands. The correlations among flux variations in different wavebands were analyzed. Seven large flares, including five X-ray flares and two GeV gamma-ray flares with variable durations (3-58 days), and one X-ray outburst phase were identified and used to investigate the variation of the spectral energy distribution with respect to a relative quiescent phase. During the outburst phase and the seven flaring episodes, the peak energy in X-rays is observed to increase from sub-keV to few keV. The TeV gamma-ray flux increases up to 0.9-7.2 times the flux of the Crab Nebula. The behavior of GeV gamma-rays is found to vary depending on the flare, a feature that leads us to classify flares into three groups according to the GeV flux variation. Finally, the one-zone synchrotron self-Compton model was adopted to describe the emission spectra. Two out of three groups can be satisfactorily described using injected electrons with a power-law spectral index around 2.2, as expected from relativistic diffuse shock acceleration, whereas the remaining group requires a harder injected spectrum. The underlying physical mechanisms responsible for different groups may be related to the acceleration process or to the environment properties.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, Accepted for publication in ApJ

The Knee of the Cosmic Hydrogen and Helium Spectrum below 1 PeV Measured by ARGO-YBJ and a Cherenkov Telescope of LHAASO

The measurement of cosmic ray energy spectra, in particular for individual species, is an essential approach in finding their origin. Locating the "knees" of the spectra is an important part of the approach and has yet to be achieved. Here we report a measurement of the mixed Hydrogen and Helium spectrum using the combination of the ARGO-YBJ experiment and of a prototype Cherenkov telescope for the LHAASO experiment. A knee feature at 640+/-87 TeV, with a clear steepening of the spectrum, is observed. This gives fundamental inputs to galactic cosmic ray acceleration models