Hierarchical Piezoelectric Composites for Noninvasive Continuous Cardiovascular Monitoring.

Continuous monitoring of blood pressure (BP) and multiparametric analysis of cardiac functions are crucial for the early diagnosis and therapy of cardiovascular diseases. However, existing monitoring approaches often suffer from bulky and intrusive apparatus, cumbersome testing procedures, and challenging data processing, hampering their applications in continuous monitoring. Here, a heterogeneously hierarchical piezoelectric composite is introduced for wearable continuous BP and cardiac function monitoring, overcoming the rigidity of ceramic and the insensitivity of polymer. By optimizing the hierarchical structure and components of the composite, the developed piezoelectric sensor delivers impressive performances, ensuring continuous and accurate monitoring of BP at Grade A level. Furthermore, the hemodynamic parameters are extracted from the detected signals, such as local pulse wave velocity, cardiac output, and stroke volume, all of which are in alignment with clinical results. Finally, the all-day tracking of cardiac function parameters validates the reliability and stability of the developed sensor, highlighting its potential for personalized healthcare systems, particularly in early diagnosis and timely intervention of cardiovascular disease.

NBR1-p62-Nrf2 mediates the anti-pulmonary fibrosis effects of protodioscin.

BACKGROUND: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a persistent disease of the lung interstitium for which there is no efficacious pharmacological therapy. Protodioscin, a steroidal saponin, possesses diverse pharmacological properties; however, its function in pulmonary fibrosis is yet to be established. Hence, in this investigation, it was attempted to figure out the anti-pulmonary fibrosis influences of protodioscin and its pharmacological properties related to oxidative stress. METHODS: A mouse lung fibrosis model was generated using tracheal injections of bleomycin, followed by intraperitoneal injection of different concentrations of protodioscin, and the levels of oxidative stress and fibrosis were detected in the lungs. Multiple fibroblasts were treated with TGF-ß to induce their transition to myofibroblasts. It was attempted to quantify myofibroblast markers' expression levels and reactive oxygen species levels as well as Nrf2 activation after co-incubation of TGF-ß with fibroblasts and different concentrations of protodioscin. The influence of protodioscin on the expression and phosphorylation of p62, which is associated with Nrf2 activation, were detected, and p62 related genes were predicted by STRING database. The effects of Nrf2 inhibitor or silencing of the Nrf2, p62 and NBR1 genes, respectively, on the activation of Nrf2 by protodioscin were examined. The associations between p62, NBR1, and Keap1 in the activation of Nrf2 by protodioscin was demonstrated using a co-IP assay. Nrf2 inhibitor were used when protodioscin was treated in mice with pulmonary fibrosis and lung tissue fibrosis and oxidative stress levels were detected. RESULTS: In vivo, protodioscin decreased the levels of fibrosis markers and oxidative stress markers and activated Nrf2 in mice with pulmonary fibrosis, and these effects were inhibited by Nrf2 inhibitor. In vitro, protodioscin decreased the levels of myofibroblast markers and oxidative stress markers during myofibroblast transition and promoted Nrf2 downstream gene expression, with reversal of these effects after Nrf2, p62 and NBR1 genes were silenced or Nrf2 inhibitors were used, respectively. Protodioscin promoted the binding of NBR1 to p62 and Keap1, thereby reducing Keap1-Nrf2 binding. CONCLUSION: The NBR1-p62-Nrf2 axis is targeted by protodioscin to reduce oxidative stress and inhibit pulmonary fibrosis.

CPT1A as a potential therapeutic target for lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury in mice.

Acute lung injury (ALI) remains a high mortality rate with dramatic lung inflammation and alveolar epithelial cell death. Although fatty acid ß-oxidation (FAO) impairment has been implicated in the pathogenesis of ALI, whether Carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A (CPT1A), the rate-limiting enzyme for FAO, plays roles in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI remains unclear. Accordingly, we focused on exploring the effect of CPT1A in the context of ALI and the underlying mechanisms. We found that overexpression of CPT1A (AAV-CPT1A) effectively alleviated lung injury by reduction of lung wet-to-dry ratio, inflammatory cell infiltration, and protein levels in the BALF of ALI mice. Meanwhile, AAV-CPT1A significantly lessened histopathological changes and several cytokines' secretions. In contrast, blocking CPT1A with etomoxir augmented inflammatory responses and lung injury in ALI mice. Furthermore, we found that overexpression of CPT1A with lentivirus reduced the apoptosis rates of alveolar epithelial cells and the expression of apoptosis-related proteins induced by LPS in MLE12 cells, while etomoxir increased the apoptosis of MLE12 cells. Overexpression of CPT1A prevented the drop in bioenergetics, palmitate oxidation, and ATP levels. In conclusion, the results rendered CPT1A worthy of further development into a pharmaceutical drug for the treatment of ALI.

Vertical-MXene based micro-supercapacitors with thickness-independent capacitance.

MXenes have shown great potential as an emerging two-dimensional (2D) material for micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) due to their high conductivity, rich surface chemistry, and high capacity. However, MXene sheets inherently tend to lay flat on the substrate during film formation to assemble into compact stacked structures, which hinders ion accessibility and prolongs ion transport paths, leading to highly dependent electrochemical properties on the thickness of the film. Here, we demonstrate a vertically aligned Ti3C2Tx MXene based micro-supercapacitor with an excellent electrochemical performance by a liquid nitrogen-assisted freeze-drying method. The vertical arrangement of the 2D MXene sheets allows for directional ion transport, enabling the vertical-MXene based MSCs to exhibit thickness-independent electrochemical properties even in thick films. In addition, the MSCs displayed a high areal capacitance of 87 mF cm-2 at 10 mV s-1 along with an excellent stability of ∼87.4% after 10 000 charge-discharge cycles. Furthermore, the vertical-MXene approach proposed here is scalable and can be extended to other systems involving directional transport.

Multichannel Gradient Piezoelectric Transducer Assisted with Deep Learning for Broadband Acoustic Sensing.

As an important part of human-machine interfaces, piezoelectric voice recognition has received extensive attention due to its unique self-powered nature. However, conventional voice recognition devices exhibit a limited response frequency band due to the intrinsic hardness and brittleness of piezoelectric ceramics or the flexibility of piezoelectric fibers. Here, we propose a cochlear-inspired multichannel piezoelectric acoustic sensor (MAS) based on gradient PVDF piezoelectric nanofibers for broadband voice recognition by a programmable electrospinning technique. Compared with the common electrospun PVDF membrane-based acoustic sensor, the developed MAS demonstrates the greatly 300%-broadened frequency band and the substantially 334.6%-enhanced piezoelectric output. More importantly, this MAS can serve as a high-fidelity auditory platform for music recording and human voice recognition, in which the classification accuracy rate can reach up to 100% in coordination with deep learning. The programmable bionic gradient piezoelectric nanofiber may provide a universal strategy for the development of intelligent bioelectronics.

Insight into Interfacial Polarization for Enhancing Piezoelectricity in Ferroelectric Nanocomposites.

The interfacial effect is widely used to optimize the properties of ferroelectric nanocomposites, however, there is still a lack of direct evidence to understand its underlying mechanisms limited by the nano size and complex structures. Here, taking piezoelectricity, for example, the mechanism of interfacial polarization in barium titanate/poly(vinylidene fluoride-ran-trifluoroethylene) (BTO/P(VDF-TrFE)) nanocomposite is revealed at multiple scales by combining Kelvin probe force microscope (KPFM) with theoretical stimulation. The results prove that the mismatch of permittivity between matrix and filler leads to the accumulation of charges, which in turn induces local polarization in the interfacial region, and thus can promote piezoelectricity independently. Furthermore, the strategy of interfacial polarization to enhance piezoelectricity is extended and validated in other two similar nanocomposites. This work uncovers the mechanism of interfacial polarization and paves newfangled insights to boost performances in ferroelectric nanocomposites.

Carrier concentration-dependent interface engineering for high-performance zinc oxide piezoelectric device.

Piezoelectric semiconductor zinc oxide (ZnO) shows promising applications in many fields, however, its excellent piezoelectric performance is limited by the intrinsic screening effect. Forming p-n junction through interface engineering is an effective strategy to enhance its piezoelectric output, but the unclear regulation mechanism is a bottleneck in developing high-performance devices. In this work, the enhancement mechanism of interface engineering on the piezoelectric performance of ZnO nanorods (NRs) based devices is revealed from the perspective of carrier concentration. Both the theoretical and experimental results show that the piezoelectric output is significantly correlated with the carrier concentration, which is mainly attributed to the suppression of screening effect and the modulation of the device capacitance. After a reasonable matching design of carrier concentration, the piezoelectric potential of the ZnO NRs-based device is greatly enhanced by about 12 times. Apparently, these findings provide a fresh insight to further understand the enhancement mechanism of interface engineering on the electrical output of piezoelectric semiconductor devices, and provide effective support for the design of p-n junction piezoelectric devices.

Prevalence and risk factors for congenital heart defects among children in the Multi-Ethnic Yunnan Region of China.

Background: To determine the congenital heart defect (CHD) prevalence and identify the associated risk factors in children within the multi-ethnic Yunnan Region of China. Methods: This is a prospective matched case-control screening study. Screening for CHD in children residing within 28 county districts of Yunnan Province during the period of January 2001 to December 2016 was conducted. A total of 2,421 and CHD cohort and 24,210 control cohort were derived from a total population of 400,855 children (under 18 years of age). Results: A total of 2,421 children were diagnosed with CHD, yielding a CHD prevalence of 6.04 cases per 1,000 children. The prevalence of CHD by sex was 6.54 per 1,000 females versus 5.59 per 1,000 males. The ethnic groups displaying the highest CHD prevalence were the Lisu (15.51 per 1,000), Achang (13.18 per 1,000), Jingpo (12.32 per 1,000), Naxi (9.68 per 1,000), and Tibetan (8.57 per 1,000), respectively. The most common CHD was atrial septal defect, amounting to 1.94 instances per 1,000 children. We identified a number of child-associated parameters that significantly correlated with greater CHD risk, such as lower mass at birth, shorter duration of gestation, and younger age at the time of screening. We also identified a number of maternal and familial risk factors. Conclusions: This ultrasonic color Doppler imaging study revealed a relatively commonplace prevalence of CHD. Moreover, the prevalence of CHD in Yunnan Region significantly varied with sex and ethnic status. Certain child-associated, maternal, and familial risk factors may contribute to CHD risk.

Understanding the Enhancement Mechanism of ZnO Nanorod-based Piezoelectric Devices through Surface Engineering.

ZnO is a typical piezoelectric semiconductor, and enhancing the piezoelectric output of ZnO-based devices is essential for their efficient applications. Surface engineering is an effective strategy to improve the piezoelectric output of ZnO-based devices, but its unclear regulation mechanism leads to a lack of reasonable guidance for device design. In this work, the regulation effect of the barrier layer in ZnO-based piezoelectric devices is systematically investigated from the carrier perspective through surface engineering, resulting in a significant improvement (nearly 10-fold) in the output performance of piezoelectric devices. The regulation mechanism of the ZnO-Cu2O p-n heterojunction devices on piezoelectric output is revealed in terms of built-in electric field, depletion layer width, and junction capacitance. These findings facilitate further insight into the enhancement mechanism of the piezoelectric output of ZnO-based devices and provide reasonable ideas for efficient device design.

Kindlin-2 protects pancreatic ß cells through inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation in diabetic mice.

Diabetes mellitus has been a major public health problem worldwide, characterized by insulin resistance and dysfunction of ß-cells. A previous study showed that Kindlin-2 loss in ß-cells dramatically reduces insulin secretion and decreases ß-cell mass, resulting in severe diabetes-like phenotypes. It suggests that Kindlin-2 in ß-cells play an important role in regulating glucose homeostasis. However, the effect of Kindlin-2 on the function of ß-cells under chronic hyperglycemia in diabetes has not been explored. Here we report that Kindlin-2 overexpression ameliorates diabetes and improves insulin secretion in mice induced by streptozocin. In contrast, Kindlin-2 insufficiency exacerbates diabetes and promotes ß-cells dysfunction and inflammation in ß-cells induced by a high-fat diet (HFD). In vitro, Kindlin-2 overexpression prevented high-glucose (HG)-induced dysfunction in ß-cells. Kindlin-2 overexpression also decreased the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and NLRP3 inflammasome expression in ß-cells exposed to HG. Furthermore, the loss of Kindlin-2 aggravates the expression of inflammatory cytokines and NLRP3 induced by HG in ß-cells. Collectively, we demonstrate that Kindlin-2 protects against diabetes by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation.

Endothelial cyclin I reduces vulnerability to angiotensin II-induced vascular remodeling and abdominal aortic aneurysm risk.

BACKGROUND: Retinoblastoma protein (Rb) supports vasoprotective E2F Transcription Factor 1 (E2f1)/Dihydrofolate Reductase (Dhfr) pathway activity in endothelial cells. Cyclin I (Ccni) promotes Cyclin-Dependent Kinase-5 (Cdk5)-mediated Rb phosphorylation. Therefore, we hypothesized that endothelial Ccni may regulate cardiovascular homeostasis, vessel remodeling, and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) formation. METHODS: Aortic CCNI mRNA expression was analyzed in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) GSE57691 cohort consisting of AAA patients (n = 39) and healthy controls (n = 10). We employed wild-type (WT) mice and endothelial Ccni knockout (Ccnifl/flTie2-Cre) mice to conduct in vivo and ex vivo experimentation using an Angiotensin (Ang) II hypertension model and a CaCl2 AAA model. Mice were assessed for Rb/E2f1/Dhfr signaling, biopterin (i.e., biopterin [B], dihydrobiopterin [BH2], and tetrahydrobiopterin [BH4]) production, cardiovascular homeostasis, vessel remodeling, and AAA formation. RESULTS: Aortic CCNI mRNA expression was downregulated in AAA patients. Both Ang II- and CaCl2-induced WT mice showed aortic Ccni upregulation coupled with vasculoprotective upregulation of Rb/E2f1/Dhfr signaling and biopterins. Endothelial Ccni knockout downregulated medial Rb/E2f1/Dhfr signaling and biopterins in Ang II-induced hypertensive mice, which exacerbated eNos uncoupling and H2O2 production. Endothelial Ccni knockout impaired in vivo hemodynamic responses and endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in ex vivo mesenteric arteries in response to Ang II. Endothelial Ccni knockout exacerbated mesenteric artery remodeling and AAA risk in response to Ang II and CaCl2. CONCLUSIONS: Endothelial Ccni acts as a critical negative regulator of eNos uncoupling-mediated ROS generation and thereby reduces vulnerability to hypertension-induced vascular remodeling and AAA development in mice.

RYR2 mutation in non-small cell lung cancer prolongs survival via down-regulation of DKK1 and up-regulation of GS1-115G20.1: A weighted gene Co-expression network analysis and risk prognostic models.

RYR2 mutation is clinically frequent in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with its function being elusive. We downloaded lung squamous cell carcinoma and lung adenocarcinoma samples from the TCGA database, split the samples into RYR2 mutant group (n = 337) and RYR2 wild group (n = 634), and established Kaplan-Meier curves. The results showed that RYR2 mutant group lived longer than the wild group (p = 0.027). Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) yielded prognosis-related genes. Five mRNAs and 10 lncRNAs were selected to build survival prognostic models with other clinical features. The AUCs of 2 models are 0.622 and 0.565 for predicting survival at 3 years. Among these genes, the AUCs of DKK1 and GS1-115G20.1 expression levels were 0.607 and 0.560, respectively, which predicted the 3-year survival rate of NSCLC sufferers. GSEA identified an association of high DKK1 expression with TP53, MTOR, and VEGF expression. Several target miRNAs interacting with GS1-115G20.1 were observed to show the relationship with the phenotype, treatment, and survival of NSCLC. NSCLC patients with RYR2 mutation may obtain better prognosis by down-regulating DKK1 and up-regulating GS1-115G20.1.

Comparison of the median effective concentration (EC50) and effect of sevoflurane with or without remifentanil in cesarean section with supreme laryngeal mask under narcotrend monitoring: a randomized trial.

BACKGROUND: Remifentanil combined with sevoflurane is a standard protocol for obstetric general anesthesia (GA). METHODS: In this study, we performed a randomized clinical trial to evaluate whether remifentanil has an effect on the median effective concentration (EC50) of sevoflurane and compare anesthetic outcomes of them in cesarean section with Supreme™ laryngeal mask airway (SLMA) under narcotrend monitoring. Ninety parturients with singleton births undergoing elective cesarean delivery (CD) with initial inhaled 1.0 minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) sevoflurane for anesthesia maintenance were assigned to three groups randomly and evenly: Group A (0.05 µg·kg-1·min-1 remifentanil combined with sevoflurane), Group B (0.1 µg·kg-1·min-1 remifentanil combined with sevoflurane), and Group C (normal saline combined with sevoflurane). Narcotrend was used to monitor the depth of anesthesia during the operation, with the level of anesthesia depth controlled within the D-E stage. The EC50 of sevoflurane was determined by Dixon's sequential method. The Narcotrend index, amount of bleeding, neonatal Apgar score, and corresponding treatment measures in the three groups were recorded. RESULTS: The results showed that the estimated EC50 of sevoflurane for obstetric GA was 0.80 MAC (95% CI: 0.63-0.95 MAC) in group A, 0.82 MAC (95% CI: 0.63-0.96 MAC) in group B, and 0.80 MAC (95% CI: 0.63-0.95 MAC) in group C. There was no statistically significant difference in the estimated EC50 of sevoflurane, time to wakefulness, Apgar score, amount of intraoperative bleeding, and postoperative bleeding within 24 hours between the three groups (all P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The addition of remifentanil at 0.05-0.1 µg·kg-1·min-1 did not change the EC50 of sevoflurane and anesthetic quality. The concentration of inhaled anesthetics can be minimized with Narcotrend monitoring. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2000034512.

Prediction of gold stage in patients hospitalized with COPD exacerbations using blood neutrophils and demographic parameters as risk factors.

BACKGROUND: Patients hospitalized with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations are unable to complete the pulmonary function test reliably due to their poor health conditions. Creating an easy-to-use instrument to identify the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stage will offer valuable information that assists clinicians to choose appropriate clinical care to decrease the mortality in these patients. The objective of this study was to develop a prediction model to identify the GOLD stage in the hospitalized exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (ECOPD) patients. METHODS: This prospective study involved 155 patients hospitalized for ECOPD. All participants completed lung function tests and the collection of blood neutrophils and demographic parameters. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted based on the data of 155 patients, and was used to analyze the disease severity predictive capability of blood neutrophils and demographic parameters. A support vector regression (SVR) based GOLD stage prediction model was built using the training data set (75%), whose accuracy was then verified by the testing data set (25%). RESULTS: The percentage of blood neutrophils (denoted as NEU%) combined with the demographic parameters was associated with a higher risk to severe episode of ECOPD. The area under the ROC curve was 0.84. The SVR model managed to predict the GOLD stage with an accuracy of 90.24%. The root-mean-square error (RMSE) of the forced expiratory volume in one second as the percentage of the predicted value (denoted as FEV1%pred) was 8.84%. CONCLUSIONS: The NEU% and demographic parameters are associated with the pulmonary function of the hospitalized ECOPD patients. The established prediction model could assist clinicians in diagnosing GOLD stage and planning appropriate clinical care.

Programmed Cell Death Ligand 1-Transfected Mouse Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells as Targeted Therapy for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Programmed cell death 1 ligand (PD-L1) and its receptor (PD-1) are key molecules for immunoregulation and immunotherapy. PD-L1 binding PD-1 is an effective way to regulate T or B cell immunity in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In our study, we overexpressed PD-L1 by constructing a recombinant of PD-L1-lentiviral vector, which was subsequently used to transfect mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MBMMSCs) and significantly suppressed the development of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in DBA/1j mice. In addition, PD-L1-transfected MBMMSCs (PD-L1-MBMMSCs) ameliorated joint damage, reduced proinflammatory cytokine expression, and inhibited T and B cell activation. Furthermore, PD-L1-MBMMSCs decreased the number of dendritic cells and increased the numbers of regulatory T cells and regulatory B cells in joints of CIA mice. In conclusion, our results provided a potential therapeutic strategy for RA treatment with PD-L1-MBMMSC-targeted therapy.

Hierarchically Microstructure-Bioinspired Flexible Piezoresistive Bioelectronics.

The naturally microstructure-bioinspired piezoresistive sensor for human-machine interaction and human health monitoring represents an attractive opportunity for wearable bioelectronics. However, due to the trade-off between sensitivity and linear detection range, obtaining piezoresistive sensors with both a wide pressure monitoring range and a high sensitivity is still a great challenge. Herein, we design a hierarchically microstructure-bioinspired flexible piezoresistive sensor consisting of a hierarchical polyaniline/polyvinylidene fluoride nanofiber (HPPNF) film sandwiched between two interlocking electrodes with microdome structure. Ascribed to the substantially enlarged 3D deformation rates, these bioelectronics exhibit an ultrahigh sensitivity of 53 kPa-1, a pressure detection range from 58.4 to 960 Pa, a fast response time of 38 ms, and excellent cycle stability over 50 000 cycles. Furthermore, this conformally skin-adhered sensor successfully demonstrates the monitoring of human physiological signals and movement states, such as wrist pulse, throat activity, spinal posture, and gait recognition. Evidently, this hierarchically microstructure-bioinspired and amplified sensitivity piezoresistive sensor provides a promising strategy for the rapid development of next-generation wearable bioelectronics.

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase inhibitory new meroterpenes from the seeds of Psoralea corylifolia, and their structure-activity relationship study.

Five new meroterpenes, 12α-Psoracorylifol F (1), 7ß,8α-hydroxy-12ß-Psoracorylifol F (2), 8-ketone-Cyclobakuchiol C (3), 7α,8ß-hydroxy-12ß-Cyclobakuchiol C (4) and 8α-hydroxy-Cyclobakuchiol C (5) together with six known compounds (6-11) were isolated from seeds of Psoralea corylifolia, and their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic and physicochemical analyses. All the isolates were evaluated for in vitro inhibitory activity against DGAT1/2. Among them, compounds 1-6 were found to exhibit selective inhibitory activity on DGAT1 with IC50 values ranging from 61.5 ± 1.1 to 89.1 ± 1.2 µM.

Understanding the Percolation Effect in Triboelectric Nanogenerator with Conductive Intermediate Layer.

Introducing the conductive intermediate layer into a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has been proved as an efficient way to enhance the surface charge density that is attributed to the enhancement of the dielectric permittivity. However, far too little attention has been paid to the companion percolation, another key element to affect the output. Here, the TENG with MXene-embedded polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composite film is fabricated, and the dependence of the output capability on the MXene loading is investigated experimentally and theoretically. Specifically, the surface charge density mainly depends on the dielectric permittivity at lower MXene loadings, and in contrast, the percolation becomes the degrading factor with the further increase of the conductive loadings. At the balance between the dielectric and percolation properties, the surface charge density of the MXene-modified TENG obtained 350% enhancement compared to that with the pure PVDF. This work shed new light on understanding the dielectric and percolation effect in TENG, which renders a universal strategy for the high-performance triboelectronics.

Prediction models for pulmonary function during acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

OBJECTIVE: The pulmonary function test is an effort-dependent test; however, during acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD), patients are unable to effectively cooperate due to poor health. The present study aimed to establish prediction models that only require demographic and inflammatory parameters to predict pulmonary function indexes: forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC). APPROACH: The goal was to establish prediction models based on multi-output support vector regression. A total of 143 subjects received a peripheral blood examination and pulmonary function test. The demographic and inflammatory parameters were used as input features, and FEV1 and FVC were used as the target features in prediction models. Three models (mixed model, severe model and nonsevere model) were established with FEV1 < 1 l as the threshold of severe episodes of AECOPD. The values of FEV1 and FVC from the pulmonary function tests were compared with the prediction models to validate the performances of the developed prediction models. MAIN RESULTS: The severe and nonsevere models' prediction performances were better than that of the mixed model. The mean squared errors were lower than 0.05 l2, and the decision coefficients (R 2) were higher than 0.40. The two-tailed t-test results showed that for both severe and nonsevere models, the absolute percentage errors of FEV1 and FVC were within 10%. SIGNIFICANCE: Our study shows the feasibility of predicting the pulmonary function indexes FEV1 and FVC with demographic and inflammatory parameters when the pulmonary function test fails to be implemented, which is beneficial for the treatment of AECOPD.

Two new sesquiterpenes from the stems of Tripterygium wilfordii.

Two new ß-dihydroagarofuran-type sesquiterpenes 1ß,2α,6α,8ß,15- pentaacetoxy- 9α-benzoyloxy- ß-dihydroagarofuran (1) and 1ß,2ß,6α,15-tetraacetoxy-9ß-benzoyloxy- ß-dihydroagarofuran (2), together with five known abietane diterpenoids (3-7) were isolated from ethyl acetate extract of stems of Tripterygium wilfordii. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of detailed spectroscopic and physico-chemical analyses. All the isolates were evaluated for in vitro inhibitory activity against A549, HOS and MCF-7. Among them, compounds 4 and 5 exhibited manifest inhibition on A549, HOS and MCF-7 cancer cell lines.