Association between vitamin D and systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose: To undertake a systematic and a meta-analysis in order to determine whether vitamin D is relevant to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in children and adolescents. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Medline, and Cochrane Library were systematically searched from January 1, 1979 to December 30, 2018. Cross-sectional studies were conducted to compare vitamin D, systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index (SLEDAI), parathormone (PTH), and calcium between children and adolescents with SLE and healthy children and adolescents. The primary outcomes were the vitamin D level and SLEDAI, whereas the secondary outcomes were vitamin D level, vitamin D deficiency level, PTH, and calcium. Results: A total of 98 articles were obtained, among which 7 studies met the inclusion criteria. The results indicate that serum vitamin D level in SLE group was lower than that in the healthy group. Patients with SLE were more vulnerable to vitamin D deficiency than the healthy group. However, correlation analysis indicate that vitamin D level was poorly correlated with SLEDAI (r = -0.04). Subgroup analysis of latitude and economic status was conducted. However, no correlation was indicated. PTH level was higher (p = 0.45), but calcium level was lower in patients with SLE than in healthy controls (p = 0.003). The correlation study indicated a poorly negative correlation between vitamin D and calcium (r = -0.09, p = 0.90), and negative correlation between vitamin D and PTH (r = - 0.44, p = 0.26). Conclusion: The results of this meta-analysis suggest that serum vitamin D level does not exhibit any correlation with SLEDAI

Brake Strategy Analysis for Industrial Normal-closed Brake Based on Rotational Inertia Test and Simulation

Industrial brakes pose the dilemma of weighing brake capability against brake impact since the brake torque cannot be adjusted. On the one hand, the brake torque may be insufficient to stop the movement within a limited distance or parking position. On the other hand, the brake torque may be so high it can damage the transmission chain. In this study, the traditional brake strategy and the field oriented control (FOC) brake strategy were compared through simulation and a rotational inertia test. The influence of the rated brake torque and the open-closed ratio were obtained. Based on the test and simulation results, a semi-empirical formula that defines the relationship between relative brake capability and open-closed ratio was developed. Additional simulations were performed to analyze the performance of the brake in a flexible transmission chain. As an industrial application example, the benefits and the cost of a 'smart brake' based on the FOC brake strategy were analyzed. The results indicate that the equivalent brake torque with the FOC brake strategy is a function of the real-time controllable input and open-closed ratio, which can be conducted during the braking procedure. This can be an efficient way to solve the above problems

CloudHealth: A Model-Driven Approach to Watch the Health of Cloud Services

Cloud systems are complex and large systems where services provided by different operators must coexist and eventually cooperate. In such a complex environment, controlling the health of both the whole environment and the individual services is extremely important to timely and effectively react to misbehaviours, unexpected events, and failures. Although there are solutions to monitor cloud systems at different granularity levels, how to relate the many KPIs that can be collected about the health of the system and how health information can be properly reported to operators are open questions. This paper reports the early results we achieved in the challenge of monitoring the health of cloud systems. In particular we present CloudHealth, a model-based health monitoring approach that can be used by operators to watch specific quality attributes. The CloudHealth Monitoring Model describes how to operationalize high level monitoring goals by dividing them into subgoals, deriving metrics for the subgoals, and using probes to collect the metrics. We use the CloudHealth Monitoring Model to control the probes that must be deployed on the target system, the KPIs that are dynamically collected, and the visualization of the data in dashboards.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Data Science in Finance: Challenges and Opportunities

Data science has become increasingly popular due to emerging technologies, including generative AI, big data, deep learning, etc. It can provide insights from data that are hard to determine from a human perspective. Data science in finance helps to provide more personal and safer experiences for customers and develop cutting-edge solutions for a company. This paper surveys the challenges and opportunities in applying data science to finance. It provides a state-of-the-art review of financial technologies, algorithmic trading, and fraud detection. Also, the paper identifies two research topics. One is how to use generative AI in algorithmic trading. The other is how to apply it to fraud detection. Last but not least, the paper discusses the challenges posed by generative AI, such as the ethical considerations, potential biases, and data security

Soft Actuators and Robotic Devices for Rehabilitation and Assistance

Soft actuators and robotic devices have been increasingly applied to the field of rehabilitation and assistance, where safe human and machine interaction is of particular importance. Compared with their widely used rigid counterparts, soft actuators and robotic devices can provide a range of significant advantages; these include safe interaction, a range of complex motions, ease of fabrication and resilience to a variety of environments. In recent decades, significant effort has been invested in the development of soft rehabilitation and assistive devices for improving a range of medical treatments and quality of life. This review provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art in soft actuators and robotic devices for rehabilitation and assistance, in particular systems that achieve actuation by pneumatic and hydraulic fluid-power, electrical motors, chemical reactions and soft active materials such as dielectric elastomers, shape memory alloys, magnetoactive elastomers, liquid crystal elastomers and piezoelectric materials. Current research on soft rehabilitation and assistive devices is in its infancy, and new device designs and control strategies for improved performance and safe human-machine interaction are identified as particularly untapped areas of research. Finally, insights into future research directions are outlined

Soft Actuators and Robotic Devices for Rehabilitation and Assistance

Soft actuators and robotic devices have been increasingly applied to the field of rehabilitation and assistance, where safe human and machine interaction is of particular importance. Compared with their widely used rigid counterparts, soft actuators and robotic devices can provide a range of significant advantages; these include safe interaction, a range of complex motions, ease of fabrication and resilience to a variety of environments. In recent decades, significant effort has been invested in the development of soft rehabilitation and assistive devices for improving a range of medical treatments and quality of life. This review provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art in soft actuators and robotic devices for rehabilitation and assistance, in particular systems that achieve actuation by pneumatic and hydraulic fluid-power, electrical motors, chemical reactions and soft active materials such as dielectric elastomers, shape memory alloys, magnetoactive elastomers, liquid crystal elastomers and piezoelectric materials. Current research on soft rehabilitation and assistive devices is in its infancy, and new device designs and control strategies for improved performance and safe human-machine interaction are identified as particularly untapped areas of research. Finally, insights into future research directions are outlined

Hemoglobin to red cell distribution width ratio as a prognostic marker for ischemic stroke after mechanical thrombectomy

BackgroundThe hemoglobin to red cell distribution width ratio (HRR) has been experimentally associated with the prognosis of acute ischemic stroke (AIS). However, its relationship with mechanical thrombectomy (MT) for AIS remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between HRR at admission, follow-up HRR, and clinical outcomes in patients undergoing MT.MethodsAcute ischemic stroke patients undergoing MT were consecutively enrolled from January 2017 to December 2022. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory information were collected. HRR was measured by dividing hemoglobin (Hb) by red cell distribution width (RDW) at admission and after 24 h of MT. Clinical outcomes after 3 months were evaluated using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). The primary outcome was poor prognosis (mRS > 2) at 3 months, while the secondary outcome was death within 3 months.ResultsA total of 310 patients were analyzed, of whom 216 patients (69.7%) had poor prognosis, and 92 patients (29.6%) died. Patients with a poor prognosis and death had significantly lower HRR levels at admission and after 24 h. HRR at admission was not associated with clinical outcomes according to multivariable logistic regression analysis. However, HRR after 24 h was significantly associated with poor prognosis (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 0.646, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.520–0.803, p < 0.001) and death (adjusted OR: 0.615, 95% CI: 0.508–0.744, p < 0.001). Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated the predictive ability of HRR after 24 h, with areas under the curves of 0.790 for poor prognosis and 0.771 for death.ConclusionRapidly measurable HRR levels are an independent marker of outcome after MT in AIS patients. This may provide a reliable auxiliary outcome measure for clinical routine and interventional therapy

Reduced EGFR signaling enhances cartilage destruction in a mouse osteoarthritis model

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease and a major cause of pain and disability in older adults. We have previously identified epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling as an important regulator of cartilage matrix degradation during epiphyseal cartilage development. To study its function in OA progression, we performed surgical destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM) to induce OA in two mouse models with reduced EGFR activity, one with genetic modification (Egfr Wa5/+ mice) and the other one with pharmacological inhibition (gefitinib treatment). Histological analyses and scoring at 3 months post-surgery revealed increased cartilage destruction and accelerated OA progression in both mouse models. TUNEL staining demonstrated that EGFR signaling protects chondrocytes from OA-induced apoptosis, which was further confirmed in primary chondrocyte culture. Immunohistochemistry showed increased aggrecan degradation in these mouse models, which coincides with elevated amounts of ADAMTS5 and matrix metalloproteinase 13 (MMP13), the principle proteinases responsible for aggrecan degradation, in the articular cartilage after DMM surgery. Furthermore, hypoxia-inducible factor 2α (HIF2α), a critical catabolic transcription factor stimulating MMP13 expression during OA, was also upregulated in mice with reduced EGFR signaling. Taken together, our findings demonstrate a primarily protective role of EGFR during OA progression by regulating chondrocyte survival and cartilage degradation

The critical role of the epidermal growth factor receptor in endochondral ossification

Loss of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activity in mice alters growth plate development, impairs endochondral ossification, and retards growth. However, the detailed mechanism by which EGFR regulates endochondral bone formation is unknown. Here, we show that administration of an EGFR-specific small-molecule inhibitor, gefitinib, into 1-month-old rats for 7 days produced profound defects in long bone growth plate cartilage characterized by epiphyseal growth plate thickening and massive accumulation of hypertrophic chondrocytes. Immunostaining demonstrated that growth plate chondrocytes express EGFR, but endothelial cells and osteoclasts show little to no expression. Gefitinib did not alter chondrocyte proliferation or differentiation and vascular invasion into the hypertrophic cartilage. However, osteoclast recruitment and differentiation at the chondro-osseous junction were attenuated owing to decreased RANKL expression in the growth plate. Moreover, gefitinib treatment inhibited the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-9, -13, and -14), increased the amount of collagen fibrils, and decreased degraded extracellular matrix products in the growth plate. In vitro, the EGFR ligand transforming growth factor α (TGF-α) strongly stimulated RANKL and MMPs expression and suppressed osteoprotegerin (OPG) expression in primary chondrocytes. In addition, a mouse model of cartilage-specific EGFR inactivation exhibited a similar phenotype of hypertrophic cartilage enlargement. Together our data demonstrate that EGFR signaling supports osteoclastogenesis at the chondro-osseous junction and promotes chondrogenic expression of MMPs in the growth plate. Therefore, we conclude that EGFR signaling plays an essential role in the remodeling of growth plate cartilage extracellular matrix into bone during endochondral ossification. © 2011 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research

Nanoindentation Modulus of Murine Cartilage: A Sensitive Indicator of the Initiation and Progression of Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis

Objective This study aims to demonstrate that cartilage nanoindentation modulus is a highly sensitive indicator of the onset and spatiotemporal progression of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) in murine models. Design Destabilization of medial meniscus (DMM) surgery was performed on the right knees of 12-week old male, wild-type C57BL/6 mice, with Sham control on contralateral left knees. Atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based nanoindentation was applied to quantify the nanoindentation modulus, Eind, of femoral condyle cartilage at 3 days to 12 weeks after surgery. The modulus changes were compared against the timeline of histological OA signs. Meanwhile, at 8 weeks after surgery, changes in meniscus, synovium and subchondral bone were evaluated to reveal the spatial progression of PTOA. Results The modulus of medial condyle cartilage was significantly reduced at 1 week after DMM, preceding the histological OA signs, which only become detectable at 4 – 8 weeks after. This reduction is likely due to concomitantly elevated proteolytic activities, as blocking enzymatic activities in mice can attenuate this modulus reduction. In later OA, lateral condyle cartilage and medial meniscus also started to be weakened, illustrating the whole-organ nature of PTOA. Conclusions This study underscores the high sensitivity of nanoindentation in examining the initiation, attenuation and progression of PTOA in murine model. Meanwhile, modulus changes highlight concomitant changes in lateral cartilage and meniscus during the advancement of OA