Clinical analysis: 13 cases of pregnancy complicated with Takayasu arteritis

Objectives: To investigate the clinical features, disposition, and effect of pregnancy complicated with Takayasu arteritis (P-TA) on maternal and fetal outcomes. Material and methods: The clinical data (diagnosis and treatment, peri-pregnancy monitoring, and pregnancy outcomes) of patients with P-TA treated in our hospital between September 2007 and April 2016 were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Among the 13 P-TA cases, seven were diagnosed before pregnancy, and six were diagnosed during pregnancy; six cases were diagnosed as the generalized type, and seven cases were diagnosed as the cephalic-brachial type; six cases were in the stable stage, and seven cases were in the active stage. All the cases in the active stage underwent glucocorticoid therapy. Four cases developed complications, including cardiac dysfunction combined with preeclampsia in two cases, preeclampsia in one case, and stroke in one case. Eleven patients successfully delivered (nine cases of full-term delivery and two cases of premature delivery); one patient had late miscarriage; one patient had missed abortion. All the parturients survived and delivered 11 neonates (nine full-term neonates and two premature neonates) and one low-birth-weight neonate; no neonatal asphyxia or death occurred. Conclusions: Patients with P-TA can have better maternal and child outcomes through timely diagnosis and treatment, dynamic monitoring, or timely pregnancy termination

Dynamic estimating the karst tunnel water inrush based on monitoring data during excavation

The tunnel water gushing has long been a difficult hydrogeological problem, especially in karst areas. It affects the entire process of tunnel construction, operation and maintenance. In view of the complex disaster-causing mechanism and difficult quantitative predictions of water inrush, several theoretical methods are adopted to realize dynamic assessment of water inrush in the progressive process of tunnel construction. According to a survey conducted in the Zoumaling tunnel near Chongqing, China, 62% of its total length, e.g., 1525 m is associated with karst（including a fault fracture zone). On the basis of collecting real-time monitoring data about water inrush in the excavated section of the Zoumaling tunnel, a fuzzy data analysis method has been used to analyze the content of seven common ions in the inflow water, which makes it possible to classify the groundwater types and to establish the hydrogeological model of the tunnel site. In order to forecast the possibility and quantity of water inrush, it is essential to accurately model the groundwater system spatially. The preliminary forecasting result about untapped section reveals a small possibility of a sudden water inflow disaster and 35,000 m3/d water inflow, which is close to the ultimately measured quantity of water. This study provides a theoretical reference for the prediction of water inrush during tunnel construction, and the main characteristic of this study is reflected in the real-time prediction of tunnel water inrush according to actual tunnel inflow of excavated sections. This approach can be applied in similar situations for the prediction of tunnel water inrush in other karst regions.Key words: karst region, tunnel water inrush; dynamic estimate; fuzzy cluster analysis.Pričakovana dinamika vdora vode v predore na podlagi meritev med njihovo gradnjoPojav vdiranja vode v predore je že dolgo časa poznana težava, še posebej na kraških območjih. Pojavlja se med celotno gradnjo predorov, njihovo uporabo in vzdrževanjem. Za proučevanje potencialnega pojava nesreč in težavnega napovedovanja količine vdora vode je bilo preizkušenih več različnih teoretičnih metod. Te omogočajo oceno dinamike vdora vode med celotnim procesom gradnje predorov. Pri predoru Zoumaling v bližini mesta Chongqing (Kitajska) približno 62 % dolžine predora (1525 m) poteka na območju krasa in čez prelomna območja. Na podlagi v realnem času zbranih podatkov o vdorih vode v izkopanih odsekih predora Zoumaling se je naredila analiza mehkih množic. Ta je bila uporabljena za analizo sedmih v vodi najbolj značilnih ionov in je omogočila razvrstitev podzemne vode v različne skupine, s tem pa izdelavo hidrogeološkega modela neposredne okolice predora. Za analizo verjetnosti vdora vode in njene možne količine je izdelava natančnega modela vodonosnika zelo pomembna. Prvi rezultati, ki se nanašajo na en še nedokončan odsek, kažejo na majhno možnost nenadnega vdora vode. Največja možna dnevna količina vdora je ocenjena na 35.000 m3, kar je blizu najvišje izmerjene dnevne količine dotoka. Pričujoča raziskava vzpostavlja teoretično podlago za napoved vdora vode v času gradnje predora, glavna posebnost pa je napoved vdora v realnem času na podlagi izmerjenega dotoka v že izkopanih odsekih predora. Predstavljen postopek in napovedi, ki jih omogoča, se lahko uporabijo v podobnih primerih tudi na drugih kraških območjih.Ključne besede: kraško območje, vdor vode v predore, pričakovana dinamika, analiza mehkih množic.

NiCo2O4/C Nanocomposite as a highly reversible anode material for lithium-ion batteries

A NiCo2O4/C nanocomposite has been synthesized by a hydrothermal method followed by a calcination. X-ray powder diffraction and transmission electron microscopy measurements demonstrated the composite was composed of crystalline NiCo2O4 and amorphous carbon, and NiCo2O4 and carbon particles amalgamated together with good affinity. The electrochemical results showed as high as 914.5 mAh/g reversible capacity could be achieved at 40 mA/g current density in the potential range of 0.01-3.0 V. The initial coulombic efficiency of the composite was 79.2%, and the capacity retention was 78.3% up to 50 cycles. The superior electrochemical performance indicated that the NiCo2O4/C nanocomposite might be a promising alternative to conventional graphite-based anode materials for lithium-ion batteries

Atypical chemokine receptors predict lymph node metastasis and prognosis in patients with cervical squamous cell cancer

AbstractObjectiveAtypical chemokine receptors (ACRs), including CCX-CKR, DARC, and D6, have been reported to be involved in cancer invasion and metastasis. The objective of this study was to investigate the prognostic importance of ACRs in patients with cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC).MethodsThe expression of three ACRs was investigated by immunohistochemical (IHC) examination in a total of 317 cervical specimens including 40 normal cervical tissues, 50 cases of carcinoma in situ of cervix (CIS), and 227 cases of CSCC by immunohistochemistry.ResultsThe expression rate of DARC and CCX-CKR in CSCC, CIS, and normal cervix increased gradually (p<0.01). D6 expression is decreased in CSCC compared to either in CIS or in normal cervix (p<0.05). In addition, the expression of CCL2 and CCL19 was inversely associated with ACR expression (p<0.05), while that of LCA was positively correlated with ACR expression (p<0.05). Moreover, DARC expression, CCX-CKR expression, and ACR coexpression were negatively correlated with lymph node metastasis (P<0.01). D6 expression and ACR coexpression were negatively related to tumor size (p=0.018) and recurrence (p=0.028). In multivariate Cox regression analysis, CCX-CKR expression was a positive indicator for overall survival (p=0.008), and D6 expression was an independent predictor of both overall and recurrence-free survival (p=0.041) in CSCC.ConclusionsOur results suggest that the loss of ACRs may play important roles in the tumorigenesis and migration of cervical cancer. ACR expression may be considered as prognostic markers in patients with CSCC

An Expression Tree Decoding Strategy for Mathematical Equation Generation

Generating mathematical equations from natural language requires an accurate understanding of the relations among math expressions. Existing approaches can be broadly categorized into token-level and expression-level generation. The former treats equations as a mathematical language, sequentially generating math tokens. Expression-level methods generate each expression one by one. However, each expression represents a solving step, and there naturally exist parallel or dependent relations between these steps, which are ignored by current sequential methods. Therefore, we integrate tree structure into the expression-level generation and advocate an expression tree decoding strategy. To generate a tree with expression as its node, we employ a layer-wise parallel decoding strategy: we decode multiple independent expressions (leaf nodes) in parallel at each layer and repeat parallel decoding layer by layer to sequentially generate these parent node expressions that depend on others. Besides, a bipartite matching algorithm is adopted to align multiple predictions with annotations for each layer. Experiments show our method outperforms other baselines, especially for these equations with complex structures.Comment: Accepted to EMNLP-2023, camera-ready versio

The radiation protection role of heparin-SOD conjugate in irradiated mice

Heparin-SOD conjugate (Hep-SOD) was prepared by modifying Cu,Zn-SOD with heparin. An acute radiation-induced mouse injury model was constructed to study the radiation protection effects of Hep-SOD conjugate. Fifty-six mice were randomly divided into seven groups: (I) normal control group; (II) irradiated control group; (III) positive control group (amifostine group, 300 mg/kg); (IV) SOD group (35000 U/kg); (V) high dosage of Hep-SOD group (70000 U/kg); (VI) medium dosage of Hep-SOD group (35000 U/kg); (VII) low dosage of Hep-SOD group (17500 U/kg). Drugs were intraperitoneally injected into each mouse 1 h before radiation except for the normal control group. All the irradiated groups were irradiated with 6 Gy. Organ indices, haematopoietic function indices, peripheral blood cells, liver function test, oxidative stress state and pathological observation were detected to study the effects of Hep-SOD on irradiated mice. Results showed that bone marrow suppression of irradiated mice could be reduced when treated by Hep-SOD before radiation. Oxidative stress detection and pathological observation of the liver and intestine showed that the damage caused by radiation was relieved when mice were treated with Hep-SOD before radiation. This study shows a new direction to prevent organisms from the damage caused by radiation

PTHrP/PTHR1 and TGF-β Levels Are Inversely Associated in Liver Regeneration

Background. Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β provides growth control in liver regeneration. We have recently demonstrated that TGF-β induced parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) expression and secretion, and PTHrP mediated TGF-β-induced apoptosis in liver cells. However, whether PTHrP signaling pathway is altered during liver regeneration is unknown. Therefore we used a murine hepatectomy model in this study and tested the hypothesis that both PTHrP and TGF-β signaling pathways are upregulated during liver regeneration.    Methods. Swiss Webster mice received 70% hepatectomy or sham operation and euthanized at different time points post-surgery for analyses. Liver regeneration was determined by liver/body weight and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) staining. mRNA levels of TGF-β1, TGF-β receptors, PTHrP, and PTHrP receptor 1 (PTHR1) were measured by real-time quantitative PCR. Protein levels of TGF-β1 were measured by ELISA and PTHrP and PTHR1 were measured by Western blotting.      Results. After 70% hepatectomy, the liver regeneration began at 24 hours and was restored to 82% of original liver mass at day 7. TGF-β1 and its receptor levels increased at 24 and 48 hours after hepatectomy, while PTHrP levels decreased at 12 hours and PTHR1 levels decreased at 12, 24 and 48 hours after hepatectomy. The levels of these molecules returned to similar levels as that in sham animals thereafter.    Conclusion. We demonstrated that an upregulation of the TGF-β and its receptors were associated with a down-regulation of PTHrP/PTHR1 expression during liver regeneration, which may contribute to hepatocyte proliferation and regeneration after hepatectomy

Neural Chinese Word Segmentation with Lexicon and Unlabeled Data via Posterior Regularization

Existing methods for CWS usually rely on a large number of labeled sentences to train word segmentation models, which are expensive and time-consuming to annotate. Luckily, the unlabeled data is usually easy to collect and many high-quality Chinese lexicons are off-the-shelf, both of which can provide useful information for CWS. In this paper, we propose a neural approach for Chinese word segmentation which can exploit both lexicon and unlabeled data. Our approach is based on a variant of posterior regularization algorithm, and the unlabeled data and lexicon are incorporated into model training as indirect supervision by regularizing the prediction space of CWS models. Extensive experiments on multiple benchmark datasets in both in-domain and cross-domain scenarios validate the effectiveness of our approach.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures, accepted by the 2019 World Wide Web Conference (WWW '19