A Neoclassic Growth Model of Leisure Time and China\u27s Economic Growth

The Purpose of this study was to assess the effect of leisure time on China’s long-run economic growth. Two compensation effects of leisure were introduced into the economic growth model to assess if leisure choice-set affect economic growth in the long-run. A time series data of 23 years (1981-2003) was used in the study. A neoclassic growth model was used to analyze the data. The result found a weak negative relationship between leisure time and China’s long-run economic growth

Association between oxidative balance score and prostate specific antigen among older US adults

ObjectiveOxidative Balance Score (OBS) is an index affecting the oxidative stress of dietary and lifestyle factors. We aimed to explore the association of OBS with prostate specific antigen (PSA) among older males.MethodsA total of 5,136 samples were collected in this study to investigate the relationship between OBS and PSA from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Logistic regression models and restricted cubic spline were used to assess the associations between OBS and PSA.ResultsCompared with the Q1 group, the odds ratios for the association between OBS and PSA were 1.005 (1.003, 1.009), 1.003 (1.001, 1.006), and 1.001 (0.978, 1.022) for Q2, Q3, and Q4, respectively. In the age-specific analyses, the association was significant among individuals aged 65 years old and over: the odds ratios for the association between OBS and PSA were 1.019 (1.005, 1.028), 1.028 (1.018, 1.039), and 1.038 (1.022, 1.049) for Q2, Q3, and Q4, respectively. But it was not significant among individuals aged less than 65 years old: the odds ratios for the association between OBS and PSA were 1.016 (0.995, 1.026), 1.015 (0.985, 1.022), and 0.988 (0.978, 1.016) for Q2, Q3, and Q4, respectively. The restricted cubic splines also indicated a nonlinear relationship between OBS and PSA among individuals aged 65 years old and over (Poverall = 0.006, Pnonlinear = 0.021).ConclusionOur findings provide evidence that OBS is positively associated with higher levels of PSA among older adults. Further large-scale prospective cohort studies are needed to verify our findings

Chemical synthesis and characterization of zinc borohydride

AbstractMetal borohydrides have received increasing research interests on account of their high hydrogen storage capacities. In this paper, zinc borohydride Zn(BH4)2 was synthesized using NaBH4 and ZnCl2 in THF under room temperature for 72h, and the crystallographic constitution of the synthesized products were analyzed by XRD. The results showed that the major phase of the products was NaCl, alternatively, NaBH4 or ZnCl2 disappeared. This concluded the formation of Zn(BH4)2. Moreover, both experiment phenomena and fired products further confirmed the synthesis of Zn(BH4)2, which a XRD pattern of Zinc borohydride was obtained

VLBI Technology Development at SHAO

VLBI technology development made significant progress at SHAO in the last few years. The development status of the Chinese DBBC, the software and FPGA-based correlators, and the new VLBI antenna, as well as VLBI applications are summarized in this paper

Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Biliary Drainage Using a Fully Covered Metallic Stent after Failed Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography

Background and Study Aims. Endoscopic ultrasound- (EUS-) guided biliary drainage (EUS-BD) is an alternative treatment for biliary obstruction after failed endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). In this study, we present the outcomes of inpatients with obstructive jaundice treated with EUS-BD using a fully covered metallic stent after failed ERCP. Patients and Methods. A total of 21 patients with biliary obstruction due to malignant tumors and prior unsuccessful ERCP underwent EUS via an intra- or extrahepatic approach with fully covered metallic stent between March 2014 and October 2015. A single endoscopist performed all procedures. Results. Seven patients underwent hepatogastrostomy (HGS) and 14 underwent choledochoduodenostomy (CDS). The technical and clinical success rates were both 100%. There was no difference in efficacy between HGS and CDS. Adverse events occurred in three patients, including two in the HGS group (1 bile leakage and 1 sepsis) and one in the CDS group (sepsis). Four patients died as a result of their primary tumors during a median follow-up period of 13 months (range: 3–21 months). No patient presented with stent migration. Conclusion. EUS-BD using a fully covered metallic stent appears to be a safe and effective method for the treatment of obstructive jaundice

Dmbg-Net: Dilated multiresidual boundary guidance network for COVID-19 infection segmentation

Accurate segmentation of infected regions in lung computed tomography (CT) images is essential for the detection and diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, lung lesion segmentation has some challenges, such as obscure boundaries, low contrast and scattered infection areas. In this paper, the dilated multiresidual boundary guidance network (Dmbg-Net) is proposed for COVID-19 infection segmentation in CT images of the lungs. This method focuses on semantic relationship modelling and boundary detail guidance. First, to effectively minimize the loss of significant features, a dilated residual block is substituted for a convolutional operation, and dilated convolutions are employed to expand the receptive field of the convolution kernel. Second, an edge-attention guidance preservation block is designed to incorporate boundary guidance of low-level features into feature integration, which is conducive to extracting the boundaries of the region of interest. Third, the various depths of features are used to generate the final prediction, and the utilization of a progressive multi-scale supervision strategy facilitates enhanced representations and highly accurate saliency maps. The proposed method is used to analyze COVID-19 datasets, and the experimental results reveal that the proposed method has a Dice similarity coefficient of 85.6% and a sensitivity of 84.2%. Extensive experimental results and ablation studies have shown the effectiveness of Dmbg-Net. Therefore, the proposed method has a potential application in the detection, labeling and segmentation of other lesion areas

EUS assisted transmural cholecystogastrostomy fistula creation as a bridge for endoscopic internal gallbladder therapy using a novel fully covered metal stent

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) has become the “gold standard” for treating symptomatic gallstones. Innovative methods, such as a scarless therapeutic procedure through a natural orifice are being introduced, and include transgastric or transcolonic endoscopic cholecystectomy. However, before clinical implementation, instruments still need modification, and a more convenient treatment is still needed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of endoscopic internal gallbladder therapy such as cholecystolithotomy in an animal survival model. METHODS: Four pigs underwent endoscopic-ultrasound (EUS)-guided cholecystogastrostomy and the placement of a novel covered mental stent. Four weeks later the stents were removed and an endoscope was advanced into the gallbladder via the fistula, and cholecystolithotomy was performed. Two weeks later the pigs were sacrificed, and the healing of the fistulas was assessed. RESULTS: EUS-guided cholecystogastrostomy with mental stent deployment was successfully performed in all the animals. Four weeks after the procedure, the fistulas had formed and all the stents were removed. Endoscopic cholecystolithotomy was performed through each fistula. All the animals survived until they were sacrificed 2 weeks later. The fistulas were found to be completely healed. CONCLUSIONS: This study reports the first endoscopic transmural cholecystolithotomy after placement of a novel mental stent in an animal survival model

The Progress of CDAS

The Chinese Data Acquisition System (CDAS) based on FPGA techniques has been developed in China for the purpose of replacing the traditional analog baseband converter. CDAS is a high speed data acquisition and processing system with 1024 Msps sample rate for 512M bandwidth input and up to 16 channels (both USB and LSB) output with VSI interface compatible. The instrument is a flexible environment which can be updated easily. In this paper, the construction, the performance, the experiment results, and the future plans of CDAS will be reported

A C-X-C Chemokine Receptor Type 2–Dominated Cross-talk between Tumor Cells and Macrophages Drives Gastric Cancer Metastasis

Purpose: C-X-C chemokine receptor type 2 (CXCR2) is a key regulator that drives immune suppression and inflammation in tumor microenvironment. CXCR2-targeted therapy has shown promising results in several solid tumors. However, the underlying mechanism of CXCR2-mediated cross-talk between gastric cancer cells and macrophages still remains unclear. Experimental Design: The expression of CXCR2 and its ligands in 155 human gastric cancer tissues was analyzed via immunohistochemistry, and the correlations with clinical characteristics were evaluated. A coculture system was established, and functional assays, including ELISA, transwell, cell viability assay, and qPCR, were performed to determine the role of the CXCR2 signaling axis in promoting gastric cancer growth and metastasis. A xenograft gastric cancer model and a lymph node metastasis model were established to study the function of CXCR2 in vivo. Results: CXCR2 expression is associated with the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer (P = 0.002). Of all the CXCR2 ligands, CXCL1 and CXCL5 can significantly promote migration of gastric cancer cells. Macrophages are the major sources of CXCL1 and CXCL5 in the gastric cancer microenvironment, and promote migration of gastric cancer cells through activating a CXCR2/STAT3 feed-forward loop. Gastric cancer cells secrete TNF-α to induce release of CXCL1 and CXCL5 from macrophages. Inhibiting CXCR2 pathway of gastric cancer cells can suppress migration and metastasis of gastric cancer in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions: Our study suggested a previously uncharacterized mechanism through which gastric cancer cells interact with macrophages to promote tumor growth and metastasis, suggesting that CXCR2 may serve as a promising therapeutic target to treat gastric cancer