Cardiac fibrosis plays a critical role in the development of atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the pathogenesis of atrial fibrosis remains unclear. Recent studies suggest that exosomes mediated cellular crosstalk leads to diverse cardiovascular diseases. The aim of our study is to investigate the role of exosomal miR-210-3p derived from atrial myocytes in promoting the proliferation and differentiation of atrial fibroblasts and resulting in atrial fibrosis during AF. miRNAs sequencing analysis revealed that miR-210-3p expression significantly increased in exosomes of tachypacing atrial myocytes, and serum of AF patients. In vitro, miR-210-3p inhibitor reversed tachypacing-induced proliferation and collagen synthesis of atrial fibroblasts. miR-210-3p KO could reduce the inducibility of AF and ameliorate atrial fibrosis induced by Ang Ⅱ. mRNA sequencing and dual-luciferase reporter assay proved that glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 1-like (GPD1L) is the potential target gene of miR-210-3p. GPD1L regulated atrial fibrosis via PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in vivo and in vitro. Besides, si-GPD1L intensified atrial fibroblasts proliferation and these effects could be reversed by PI3K inhibitor (LY294002). We demonstrate that atrial myocytes derived exosomal miR-210-3p promoted the proliferation and collagen synthesis via inhibiting GPD1L in atrial fibroblasts. Preventing pathological crosstalk between atrial myocytes and fibroblasts may as a novel target to improve atrial fibrosis in AF.

Purpose: To evaluate the prognostic value of left ventricular global index and myocardial contraction fraction based on 2D echocardiography results in patients with coronary artery disease. Materials and methods: Patients with coronary artery disease, confirmed by coronary angiography and ventriculography, were included in the prospective clinical study. 30 patients without coronary artery disease were a control group, 35 patients had monovascular lesions or non-stenosing atherosclerosis, 66 had multivessel coronary artery disease. Left ventricular global index and myocardial contraction fraction were calculated using 2D echocardiography technique. Results: The groups were comparable in age, body mass index and comorbidities. The mean age of patients in group I was 60.53±1.77 years. In group II, the average age was the highest – 64.31±1.62 years, and in group III the participants were 63.0±1.14 years old. The data indicate the absence of a significant difference (p = 0.39) in the age structure of patients. The control group was dominated by women (70%), compared to groups II and III, where the proportion of women was 31.2% and 21.2%, respectively (p = 0.0001). The highest body mass index, classified as obesity class 1, was observed in the first group – 31.74 ± 1.09 kg/m 2. Group III had body mass index of 30.71 ± 0.62 kg/m 2, which also indicates obesity class 1. Group II had the lowest body mass index – 29.76 ± 0.77 kg/m 2, but the difference between the groups was insignificant (p = 0.432). Left Ventricular Global Index and Myocardial Contraction Fraction differed significantly among groups (р=0.003 and р=0.004 respectively). Myocardial Contraction Fraction was the highest in patients with multivessel disease – 35.0 (27.71; 42.0) %, and the lowest in the group with no vascular lesions – 42.29 (36.35; 52.21) %. Left Ventricular Global Index also was different among the groups. It was the lowest in group III – 24.91(19.22; 30.48) %, and the highest in group I – 30.85 (25.46; 37.13) %. Conclusions: myocardial contraction fraction and left ventricular global index are closely related to the degree of coronary artery involvement.

Purpose: the purpose of this study was to assess the role of knowledge, attitude, practice, and barriers of evidence-based practice in stay intent among Jordanian Nurses. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used. A sample of 310 nurses from five hospitals completed the study. Participants completed data about stay intent and knowledge, attitude, practice, and barriers of evidence-based practice. Data was analyzed using SPSS program version 24. Results: The regression analysis revealed that EBP attitudes, practices, knowledge, and barriers significantly predict stay intent, controlling for participants and workplace characteristics. Conclusion: Registered nurses’ intention to stay in the nursing profession could be influenced by the research utilization in nursing practice.

Arterioles with a curve shape are normally associated with a slow, blood flow, which led to a consequent emergence of thrombosis. In spite of the practical importance, there are not enough computational models that studied blood flow in very tiny diameters into one efficient framework. This study has addressed the dynamics of blood effects during porous medium and blood recirculation zones. Simulations of blood flow as a porous medium through an elbow artery have been investigated. The arteries have been treated as a porous medium. The blood is supplied with various geometries of arteries, which have different diameters. The outputs from numerical simulations have presented the details of blood flow patterns and the local distribution of blood flow along the artery. The effects of permeability, with respect to the variations in the Reynolds number (Re = 0.1,1 and 5) as well for changing porosity levels has been discussed. The effects due to different vessel diameters on the resultant distribution of velocity inside the vessel have been studied. Results are presented in the form of variations of velocity distributions and local variations of flow rates through the vessel dimensions. Simulations are compared with the available data and a good agreement is found. The study shows to be potentially useful to evaluate the role of porosity and flow conditions when the body is subjected to diseases.

Caffeine is used worldwide and has become the first-line treatment for apnea in pediatric intensive care units. Compared with other methylxanthines, caffeine has better therapeutic efficacy and fewer adverse reactions. Various studies have determined the clinical relevance and usefulness of caffeine. With the gradual development of precision medicine and the goal of improving the long-term prognosis of children, the optimal dose of caffeine has become a primary focus of clinical research. Recent clinical trials have shown that high-dose caffeine citrate has a better effect on apnea, can effectively increase the extubation rate, reduce the incidence of adverse reactions, prevent bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and reduce the occurrence of cerebral palsy and cognitive impairment. However, the preventive use of caffeine in preterm infants and the optimal maintenance dose remain controversial. Therefore, large-scale randomized controlled trials are needed to determine and establish standard protocols for using caffeine treatment, specifically in younger populations.

Soil microbial communities, being at the interface of plant-soil feedback systems, can play a pivotal role in facilitating ecosystem response to the drivers of global environmental change, including invasive alien species (IAS). Studies evaluating the effect of plant invasion on soil microbial communities along altitudinal gradients can provide novel insights regarding the spread and impact of IAS and elevational range shifts in response to ongoing climate warming in mountains. In this study, we used metagenomic tools to investigate the impact of invasive Leucanthemum vulgare on taxonomic composition, relative abundance, alpha and beta diversity of soil microbial (bacterial and fungal) community, physicochemical properties and their interaction between invaded and uninvaded plots selected across multiple sites along an altitudinal gradient in Kashmir Himalaya. We found that the invasion by L. vulgare shifted composition, relative abundance, alpha and beta diversity of soil microbiome significantly in invaded plots. The relative abundance of soil microbial communities interestingly showed an increasing trend along the altitudinal gradient. The soil physicochemical properties were significantly correlated with microbial community abundance with temperature, K, pH, EC and Fe being the dominant determinants. Also, we found a significant effect of soil physicochemical properties on the microbial community abundance along the altitudinal gradient. Our findings unravel the plant invasion-induced shifts in the underground soil microbiome and physicochemical properties, which improve our understanding of plant invasion impacts on belowground biotic and abiotic components and can contribute in guiding integrated management of invaded mountain landscapes globally.

We investigated a coarse phosphogypsum containing 49.63% SO3, 41.41% CaO, 10.68%, 4.47% SiO2, 1.28% P2O5, 0.11% F, 80.65% CaSO4·2H2O, and whiteness of 27.68. Phosphogypsum contains calcium sulfate dehydrate (CaSO4·2H2O) as the main mineral, with small amounts of brushite (CaPO3(OH)·2H2O), quartz (SiO2), muscovite (KAl2SiO10(OH)), and zoisite (Ca2Al3[SiO12]OH). Harmful elements such as silicon, phosphorus, and fluorine are mainly concentrated in the +0.15 mm and −0.025 mm faction, which can be pre-selected and removed by the grading method to further increase the CaSO4·2H2O content. The test results show that a gypsum concentrate with a CaSO4·2H2O purity of 98.94%, CaSO4·2H2O recovery of 80.02%, and whiteness of 37.05 was achieved using a direct flotation method, which included one roughing, one scavenging, and two cleaning operations, from −0.15 mm to +0.025 mm. The main mineral in the gypsum concentrate was gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O), and limited amounts of muscovite (KAl2SiO10(OH)) and zoisite (Ca2Al3[SiO12]OH) entered the gypsum concentrate.

Nucleation was the basis of the fabrication of two-dimensional materials in the bottom-up deposition methods. However, classical nucleation theory (CNT) was not suitable for the nucleation in supercritical fluid (SCF) because of the non-ideality of SCF. Herein, a dilute solution system composed of nonvolatile solute and supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) was established and the theory of pressure-induced supercritical phase nucleation (PI-SCPN) was proposed. A new defined solute-solvent correlation function was found to influence the nucleation driving force a lot in this particular process, especially when the supersaturation was small. Furthermore, the corresponding experiments were conducted by using MoO2(acac)2 as solute in scCO2 to verify PI-SCPN. The solubility of MoO2(acac)2 was accurately measured by static equilibrium method. The influence of supersaturation, temperature and pressure on the nucleation were found to be consistent with that predicted using the PI-SCPN. The nucleation rates were compared to the experimental values, showing good agreement.

High-viscosity melt has great potential for energy saving. A mathematical model was proposed on the heat transfer between the rotating roll and melt in a roll dry granulation system, and the relationship between the rotation angle and time was utilized to simplify the three-dimensional dynamic process to a one-dimensional static problem. Then, the influences of the roll material, dimension, rotational speed and the melt shedding angle on the system performance were investigated. Simulation results indicated that increasing the thermal conductivity or decreasing the wall thickness result in a higher cooling rate, but a more nonuniform heat flux distribution. Heat-resistant steel is a better choice than copper alloy. The optimum wall thickness is about 19 mm herein, and the rotational speed should be kept below 17 rpm. The overall exergy efficiency can be increased from 37% to 59%, when the melt shedding angle is changed from 120° to 28.8°.

ZIF-67-derived CoP as a single photocatalyst exhibited extremely excellent H2 evolution performance in Eosin Y sensitization system. Specifically, both Co3O4 and CoP polyhedron can be derived by ZIF-67 as a precursor in different atmosphere. Interestingly, ZIF-67-derived Co3O4 is a typical p-type semiconductor but CoP is an n-type semiconductor. Therefore, one-step construction of Co3O4@CoP p-n heterojunction was successfully implemented firstly in this work, that is, ZIF-67 polyhedron was transformed into Co3O4@CoP polyhedron that Co3O4 co-arranged with CoP species. More importantly, the ZIF-67-derived Co3O4@CoP p-n heterojunction photocatalyst exhibits more excellent photoctalytic water splitting properties than ZIF-67-derived CoP and Co3O4 as well as previous-best catalysts under identical conditions because of multi-action mechanism synergy. Additionally, the action mechanism about metal phosphides in H2 evolution reaction is revealed more thoroughly by the assistance of DFT and Zeta potential analysis

A comprehensive study of advanced oxidation was conducted over Co-Cu layered double hydroxide (LDH) catalysts, while the Co-Cu interaction mechanism as well as oxygen vacancies (Ov) on the production of hydroxyl radicals (•OH) were studied systemically using LRS, UV-Vis, XPS, EIS and kinetics. Cu replacing Co sites in octahedral environment in α-Co(OH)2 could promote the oxidation of Co2+ by depressing the formation of β-Co(OH)2. A Co4Cu1 LDH catalyst showed the highest sulfadiazine (SDZ) removal efficiency of 93.7% from waste waters. The reaction mechanism was assumed on the base of kinetics study of SDZ removal. The formation of Co-O-Cu oxo-bridge in MO6 surroundings can enhance the generation of ameliorated Ov, which improves the formation of surface hydroxyl for H2O2 adsorption by boosting electron-transfer rate under the Co-Cu interaction. This study paves a new way to the Fenton-Like catalysts R&D, especially, orientating to the creation of active sites by vacancy engineering.

In the present manuscript, the Benjamin-Bona-Mahony-Burgers (BBMB) equation will be handled numerically by Strang time-splitting technique based on quintic B-spline collocation method. In line with our purpose, after dividing the BBM-Burgers equation given with appropriate initial boundary conditions into two sub-equations containing the derivative in terms of time, the quintic B-spline based collocation finite element method (FEM) for spatial discretization and the suitable finite difference approaches for time discretization is applied to each sub-equation and hereby two different systems of algebraic equations are obtained. Four test problems are submited to test the efficiency and reliability of the presented method. The error norms $L_2$ and $L_\infty$ with invariants $I_1$,$I_2$ and $I_3$ are computed. To do a comparison with the other studies in the literature, the newly found approximate solutions are exhibited in both tabular and graphical formats. Also, stability analysis of numerical approach by the von Neumann method is researched.

This paper focuses on solving Η2 and Η∞ filtering problems for discrete-time switched affine systems. A newly proposed Lyapunov stability analysis method in which considered that the system will converge to limit cycles instead of equilibrium points or regions was used in solving such problems for the first time. In the stability analysis of a discrete-time affine filtering error system, an observer-based filter and its corresponding switching function can be obtained by solving the linear matrix inequalities. Furthermore, it is proved that the Η2 and Η∞ guaranteed cost is upper bounded, the upper boundaries are formulated by solving an optimization problem. Finally, two numerical examples are given to verify the theory.

Background and Purpose Squalene epoxidase (SQLE) is a key enzyme involved in cholesterol biosynthesis, but increasing evidence reveals that SQLE is abnormally expressed in some types of malignant tumors, and the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. Experimental Approach Bioinformatics analysis and RNA sequencing were applied to detect to differentially expressed genes in clinical HCC tumors. AnnexinV/PI, EdU assay, transwell, western blot, qRT-PCR, IHC staining, RNA sequencing, dual-luciferase reporters and HE staining were evaluated to investigate the pharmacological effects and possible mechanisms of SQLE in vitro and in vivo. Key Results We found that SQLE expression is specifically elevated in HCC tumors, correlating with poor clinical outcomes. SQLE promoted HCC growth, EMT, and metastasis both in vitro and in vivo. In contrast, silencing of SQLE expression prevented HCC development. Both RNA-seq and functional experiments revealed that the protumorigenic effect of SQLE on HCC is closely related to the activation of cellular TGF-β/SMAD signaling, but interestingly, the stimulatory effect of SQLE on TGF-β/SMAD signaling and HCC development is also critically dependent on STRAP. SQLE expression is well correlated with STRAP in HCC, and further, to amplify TGF-β/SMAD signaling, SQLE even transcriptionally increased STRAP expression mediated by the trans-acting factor AP-2α. Finally, as a chemical inhibitor of SQLE, NB-598 markedly inhibited HCC cell growth and tumor development in mouse models. Conclusions and Implications Taken together, SQLE serves as a novel oncogene in HCC development by activating TGF-β/SMAD signaling, and targeting SQLE could be useful in drug development and therapy for HCC.

Despite the great diversity in leaf structural and physiological traits, leaf structural traits appear to be coordinated with physiological function. It was observed that the petiole xylem structure is an important predictor of leaf gas exchange capacity, yet only a few studies have dealt directly with the question of how petiole xylem structure relates to leaf gas exchange. An understanding of the amount of variation that exists within a single species is also limited. In this study, we investigated the intraspecies coordination of leaf gas exchange and petiole xylem traits in two-year old seedlings of Ulmus leavis Pall. during optimal and drought conditions. It was found that all studied petiole xylem traits of the elm seedlings were positively correlated with each other. This shows that the development of petiole xylem structure is internally well-coordinated. Nevertheless, the lower correlation coefficients between some petiole xylem traits indicate that the coordination is also individually driven. Drought stress reduced all studied leaf gas exchange traits and significantly increased intraspecies variation. Drought stress also shifted the relationships between physiological traits. Moreover, there were more structure-function relationships under stress conditions. This indicates the importance of petiole xylem structure in dictating the water loss during drought stress. It could partly explain the inconsistencies between leaf structure-function relationships studied under optimal conditions. Although several structural-functional traits were related, the range correlation coefficients indicate that the internal coordination between structural-functional traits differs substantially between individual elm seedlings. These findings are very important in the context of expected climatic change, as some degree of phenotypic plasticity in structure-function relationships could ensure the survival of some individuals under different environmental conditions.

PES schemes have entertained much interest as a potentially effective market-based instrument for the provision of ecosystem services. After swift adoption, many have started to question the promises of PES and PES-like schemes in ecosystem service provision. Hence, there has been growing attention to evaluating the impact of PES schemes. This paper attempts to review the practice of PES scheme evaluation with particular emphasis on forest conservation in Ethiopia. To this end, I have reviewed articles assessing the potential impacts of coffee certification and participatory forest management (PFM). The review shows that despite the rush to implement PES programs in Ethiopia, specific PES regulations and vibrant property rights prerequisites are missing. While I admit the perverse implications of uncritical adoption of PES, it could be a potentially vital tool for forest conservation in Ethiopia, especially when integrated with other environmental governance instruments.

Objective: We describe physical and histological features, and the molecular impact of mutation ITGA2B in a non-consanguineous China family. In addition, we explore the fertility feasibility, pre-pregnancy guidance of GT patients ,and how to avoid live births with GT. Methods: We report two female patients, daughters of non-consanguineous parents. The platelet aggregation rate showed a low pattern. TRIO whole exome sequencing was requested. Results The patients received the LNG-IUS as treatment for HMB. The study identified two genetic variants on chr17:42457372 and chr17:42457057.

Objectives Through searching and summarizing the medication-related disputes and claims in Beijing, we found the factors that were most likely to cause disputes during the medication process. These provided a basis for further exploration of medication-related dispute prevention and control measures. Methods We took all medication-related dispute archives from the Beijing People’s Mediation Committee of Medical Disputes（BPMCMD）database from January 2013 to December 2019 as the research object, and used pre-designed forms for data extraction and entry. Results Medication-related disputes accounted for 2.43% of the total number of disputes, of which 158 disputes got the payment from hospitals. There were obviously more disputes between women than men. The most disputes occurred in outpatient clinics, followed by hospitalization and emergency treatment. Disputes were most likely to occur in pharmacy, respiratory medicine, pediatrics, neurology and orthopedics. Antibacterial drugs were the most common drugs that caused disputes, followed by herbal medicines or Chinese patent drugs, antineoplastic drugs, analgesic drugs, psycholeptics drugs and antithrombotic agents. Medication errors mainly concentrated in inappropriate drugs (within guidelines, but otherwise contraindicated); wrong drugs or strength dispensed; drug dose too high and no indications for drug. The main cause of disputes was adverse drug events. The total compensation for seven years was 15.19 million yuan. Conclusions We comprehensively displayed the dispute data from the patient, the doctor, the drug, and the compensation, etc. The research would help Beijing and other regions formulate the strategies to reduce medication errors, improve patient safety, and reduce medication-related dispute

Background: Catheter Ablation (CA) of Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) in patients with Non-Ischaemic Cardiomyopathy (NICM) is a well-known line of treatment to prevent recurrence of VT and ICD shocks.  Objective: To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of available trials regarding the outcomes of VT ablation in patients with NICM. Methods: A comprehensive database search of large four electronic databases, including PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, and Institute for Scientific Information network meta-analysis, identified ten studies enrolling 16370 patients for patients with NICM underwent CA for VT. The short-term outcomes assessed included procedural success, VT non-inducibility and procedural complications, whereas the long-term outcomes assessed included VT recurrence, repeat ablation procedures, heart transplantation, and death.  Results: A total of 10 observational studies reported outcomes in 16370 patients with NICM undergoing VT catheter ablation. Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM) was the most frequently reported etiology of NICM (60.2%) and the duration of follow up ranged from 12 to 49 months. The complete procedural success was moderately high; 57.3% (95% CI 0.493-0.652) with VT non-inducibility observed in 63.5% of the patients (95% CI 0.434-0.836), major complications up to 6% (95% CI 0.055-0.079) and in-hospital death up to 1.5% (95% CI (0.003-0.027). The long-term outcomes showed an estimate of 44.5% for VT recurrence (95% CI 0.331-0.558), 18.2% for death (95% CI 0.123-0.559) and 7% for heart transplantation (95% CI 0.030-0.110). Conclusion: The meta-analysis showed that VT catheter ablation in NICM is safe and effective approach for management of patients with NICM and VT with wide discrepancy in the reported short and long-term outcomes after VT ablation likely because of the heterogeneous VT substrates in each etiology and the different VT ablation strategies.

In this paper, a new model based on Eringen's nonlocal thermoelasticity is constructed to study wave propagation in a rotating two-temperature thermoelastic medium. Using suitable non-dimensional variables, the harmonic wave analysis is used to solve the problem. Comparisons are made with the results of three different theories predicted in the absence and presence of the gravity field, a nonlocal parameter as well as rotation. The present study is valuable for the analysis of thermoelastic problems involving gravity field, nonlocality, mechanical force, and elastic deformations.

 Otaria flavescens has been one of the most heavily exploited pinnipeds during the last 200 years with depletions of about 90% in some colonies. After the prohibition on sealing in South America, populations became stabilized except for the Uruguayan population, which showed a constant decrease. The underlying causes of its decline are unknown. This study used genome-wide SNPs to assess the variability and connectivity of some of the most overexploited sea lion colonies in the Atlantic Ocean. Our results revealed low allelic richness, nucleotide diversity and heterozygosity in the Uruguayan population and evidence of complete isolation from the Argentinean populations under study. In contrast, the Patagonian populations showed a high degree of connectivity, which could explain their recovery and high levels of current diversity. Our study highlights the critical situation of the Uruguayan sea lion population, emphasizing the need for maintaining the continuous conservation efforts in the region.  

Background. Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is the most common cause of acute lower respiratory infection (LRTI) in children. The main clinical manifestations are fever, cough, wheezing, and intercostal retractions. Its age-dependent clinical characteristics remain to be defined. Here, we investigated whether HRSV caused any age-related differences in clinical manifestations of LRTI. Methods. We enrolled 130 hospitalized children with LRTI caused by HRSV. These were stratified into four age groups. The main signs and symptoms and rates thereof were compared across the four age groups. Results. The incidence of pneumonia was the same in all four age groups. Patients in the 1–6 months old group experienced fever and the highest body temperature ≥ 38.5°C less frequently than patients in other age groups.The frequency of fever increased with age among the patients under 24 months old. Children over 12 months old experienced less wheezing, tachypnoea, hypoxia, and intercostal retractions than children in the 1–6 months old group. Conclusions. HRSV caused age-related differences in clinical manifestations of LRTI. Including fever may render HRSV cases more difficult to detect in young infants hospitalized with LRTI. The inclusion of wheezing, tachypnoea, and intercostal retractions in the diagnostic process in patients over 12 months old may lower the sensitivity to detect cases during the HRSV season.

Histiocyte-rich skeletal rhabdomyoblastic tumor (HR-RMT) is a rare recently described skeletal muscle neoplasm of uncertain malignant potential. We report an unusual tumor in the right arm of a 5-year-old boy, which is the first case of a pediatric HR-RMT. Immunohistochemically, most cells in the tumor were positive for CD163 and CD68 staining. The neoplastic cells themselves showed a skeletal muscle phenotype with diffuse expression of desmin and focal expression of myoD1. Mitotic activity was low (1/10 HPF) and no necrosis was observed.

Nyctinastic leaf movement of Fabaceae is driven by the tiny motor organ pulvinus located at the base of leaf or leaflet. Despite the increased understanding of the essential role of ELP1 orthologs in determining organ identity, key regulatory components and molecular mechanisms underlying this movement remain largely unclear. Here, we used WT pulvinus and the equivalent tissue in elp1 mutant to carry out transcriptome and proteome experiments, and the omics data indicated that there are multiple cell biological processes altered at gene expression and protein abundance level during the pulvinus development. In addition, comparative analysis of organ specific transcriptome from different leaf tissues provided clues to illuminate the origin of pulvinus and signaling pathways of leaf movement. Furthermore, mutants of clock gene MtPRR5 confirmed its function in the leaf movement, meanwhile auxin signal played in important role in pulvinus development. By the way, molecular and histochemical results confirmed lots of cell wall and photosynthesis related genes are involved in the pulvinus development. This study provides a comprehensive insight of the nyctinastic movement, further supplies a rich dataset to facilitate the identification of novel players involved in nyctinastic movement.