Effect of the combination of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and pharmacological thrombolysis on hemodialysis patients

Purpose: To examine the efficacy of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), combined withpharmacologic thrombolysis (PT) on thrombosis of autologous arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs),inflammatory factors, and β2 microglobulin (β2-MG) levels in hemodialysis patients.Methods: Seventy-eight patients with AVF thrombosis allocated randomly into a control group (CG) received PTA, and a study group (SG) received PTA combined with PT (n = 39 in each). The patency, vascular condition, inflammatory factors, viz, interleukin-6 (IL-6), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP)), β2-MG levels, vascular-related factors (VEGF-A and MCP-1), complications, and quality of life were determined.Results: At three and six months after surgery, t SG exhibited a higher vascular patency than CG (p <0.05). Serum levels of IL-6, hs-CRP, β2-MG, VEGF-A, and MCP-1 of t SG were lower than those of CG(p < 0.05). The SG showed higher cross-sectional area, inner diameter at the site of fistula, and better quality of life scores than CG (p < 0.05).Conclusion: The combination of PTA and PT enhances efficacy, increases vascular patency, reduces inflammatory response, lowers the level of β2-MG, and improves quality of life in patients with AVFs without increasing complications. Thus, the combination treatment has potentials for the management of hemodialysis patients

Financial Literacy, Portfolio Choice, and Financial Well-Being

This study examined potential effects of financial literacy on household portfolio choice and investment return, an indicator of financial wellbeing. Using data from the 2014 Chinese Survey of Consumer Finance, financial literacy was measured and further categorized into basic financial literacy and advanced financial literacy. This study tested the hypothesis that financial literacy affects household choice between stock and mutual fund. The results indicated that households with higher financial literacy, especially those with higher level of advanced financial literacy tended to delegate at least part of their portfolio to experts and invest in mutual fund. However, households who were overconfident about their financial literacy tended to invest by themselves and were more likely to hold only stocks in their portfolios. The findings also indicated that households with higher financial literacy had a better chance of receiving a positive investment return, suggesting that higher financial literacy may result in a better financial outcome

Atmospheric turbulence and land - atmosphere energy transfer characteristics in the surface layer of the Northern slope of Mt. Qomolangma area : abstract

Based on the turbulent data collected at Quzong site, on the northern slope of Mt. Qomolangma, from April 2005 to March 2006, macro-scale turbulent statistical characteristics and land-atmosphere energy transfer before and after the onset of southwest monsoon were acquired by the eddy correlation method. It was found that Monin-Obukhov similarity theory is applicable for Mt. Qomolangma area. The relationship between normalized wind speed standard deviation and atmospheric stability, variances of normalized temperature and humidity standard deviation with atmospheric stability were simulated in the study. It was also found that energy balance components (net radiation flux, sensible heat flux, latent heat flux and soil heat flux) and surface heating filed had evident diurnal and seasonal changes. Especially under the influence of southwest monsoon, the sensible heat flux and latent heat flux in Quzong area have evident opposite changing trends. The variation characteristics of other surface parameters (surface reflectance and Bowen ratio) is very clear before and after the breakout of southwest monsoon

Long-term variations in actual evapotranspiration over the Tibetan Plateau

Actual terrestrial evapotranspiration (ET$_{a}$) is a key parameter controlling land–atmosphere interaction processes and water cycle. However, spatial distribution and temporal changes in ET$_{a}$ over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) remain very uncertain. Here we estimate the multiyear (2001–2018) monthly ET$_{a}$ and its spatial distribution on the TP by a combination of meteorological data and satellite products. Validation against data from six eddy-covariance monitoring sites yielded root-mean-square errors ranging from 9.3 to 14.5 mm per month and correlation coefficients exceeding 0.9. The domain mean of annual ET$_{a}$ on the TP decreased slightly (−1.45 mm yr$^{-1}$, p90° E) but decreased significantly at a rate of −5.52 mm yr$^{-1}$ (p<0.05) in the western sector of the TP (long <90° E). In addition, the decreases in annual ET$_{a}$ were pronounced in the spring and summer seasons, while almost no trends were detected in the autumn and winter seasons. The mean annual ET$_{a}$ during 2001–2018 and over the whole TP was 496±23 mm. Thus, the total evapotranspiration from the terrestrial surface of the TP was 1238.3±57.6 km3 yr$^{-1}$. The estimated ET$_{a}$ product presented in this study is useful for an improved understanding of changes in energy and water cycle on the TP. The dataset is freely available at the Science Data Bank (https://doi.org/10.11922/sciencedb.t00000.00010; Han et al., 2020b) and at the National Tibetan Plateau Data Center (https://doi.org/10.11888/Hydro.tpdc.270995, Han et al., 2020a)

Mode conversion enables optical pulling force in photonic crystal waveguides

We propose a robust scheme to achieve optical pulling force using the guiding modes supported in a hollow core double-mode photonic crystal waveguide instead of the structured optical beams in free space investigated earlier. The waveguide under consideration supports both the 0th order mode with a larger forward momentum and the 1st order mode with a smaller forward momentum. When the 1st order mode is launched, the scattering by the object inside the waveguide results in the conversion from the 1st order mode to the 0th order mode, thus creating the optical pulling force according to the conservation of linear momentum. We present the quantitative agreement between the results derived from the mode conversion analysis and those from rigorous simulation using the finite-difference in the time-domain numerical method. Importantly, the optical pulling scheme presented here is robust and broadband with naturally occurred lateral equilibriums and has a long manipulation range. Flexibilities of the current configuration make it valuable for the optical force tailoring and optical manipulation operation, especially in microfluidic channel systems

Monitoring Water and Energy Cycles at Climate Scale in the Third Pole Environment (CLIMATE-TPE)

A better understanding of the water and energy cycles at climate scale in the Third Pole Environment is essential for assessing and understanding the causes of changes in the cryosphere and hydrosphere in relation to changes of plateau atmosphere in the Asian monsoon system and for predicting the possible changes in water resources in South and East Asia. This paper reports the following results: (1) A platform of in situ observation stations is briefly described for quantifying the interactions in hydrosphere-pedosphere-atmosphere-cryosphere-biosphere over the Tibetan Plateau. (2) A multiyear in situ L-Band microwave radiometry of land surface processes is used to develop a new microwave radiative transfer modeling system. This new system improves the modeling of brightness temperature in both horizontal and vertical polarization. (3) A multiyear (2001–2018) monthly terrestrial actual evapotranspiration and its spatial distribution on the Tibetan Plateau is generated using the surface energy balance system (SEBS) forced by a combination of meteorological and satellite data. (4) A comparison of four large scale soil moisture products to in situ measurements is presented. (5) The trajectory of water vapor transport in the canyon area of Southeast Tibet in different seasons is analyzed, and (6) the vertical water vapor exchange between the upper troposphere and the lower stratosphere in different seasons is presented

Five-Frame Variable Phase-Shifting Method for Full-Range Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

In order to achieve a better complex conjugate artifacts (CCA) suppression, we propose a five-frame variable phase-shifting (FVP) method for spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). The traditional five-frame invariant phase-shifting (FIP) method employs five phase shifts correlate with the center wavelength. However, due to the effects of polychromatic errors, the FIP method cannot get excellent CCA suppression. In the present work, we employ FVP method using variable phase shifts which is dependent on all the wavelengths and therefore, theoretically, the system would have no effects of polychromatic errors. This is the reason why the FVP method would achieve better CCA suppression than the FIP method. Comparative studies between FIP and FVP methods are investigated in the work. Subsequently, we develop a homemade SD-OCT system involving a homemade spectrometer, by which the anterior segment of a rat&rsquo;s eyeball is measured. The experimental results demonstrate that the quality of OCT images is significantly improved by using FVP method with an increase by a factor of 1.7 on the CCA suppression of SD-OCT. FVP provides a new strategy for complex conjugate artifacts suppression for spectral domain optical coherence tomography