Simultaneous Thermal Enhancement of Upconversion and Downshifting Luminescence by Negative Thermal Expansion in Nonhygroscopic ZrSc(WO4)2PO4:Yb/Er Phosphors.

Thermal quenching (TQ) is still a critical challenge for lanthanide (Ln3+)-doped luminescent materials. Herein, we report the novel negative thermal expansion nonhygroscopic phosphor ZrSc(WO4)2PO4:Yb3+/Er3+. Upon excitation with a 980 nm laser, a simultaneous thermal enhancement is realized on upconversion (UC) and downshifting (DS) emissions from room temperature to 573 K. In situ temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence dynamics are used to reveal the luminescence mechanism in detail. The coexistence of the high energy transfer efficiency and the promoted radiative transition probability can be responsible for the thermally enhanced luminescence. On the basis of the luminescence intensity ratio of thermally coupled energy levels 2H11/2 and 4S3/2 at different temperatures, the relative and absolute sensitivities of the targeted samples reach 1.10% K-1 and 1.21% K-1, respectively, and the low-temperature uncertainty is approximately 0.1-0.4 K on the whole temperature with a high repeatability (98%). Our findings highlight a general approach for designing a hygro-stable, thermostable, and highly efficient Ln3+-doped phosphor with UC and DS luminescence.

Discovery of Indole-Piperazine Hybrid Structures as Potent Selective Class I Histone Deacetylases Inhibitors.

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are important targets in cancer treatment, and the development of selective and broad-spectrum HDACs inhibitors (HDACis) is urgent. In this research, a series of aroylpiperazine hybrid derivatives were designed and synthesized. Among these, indole-piperazine hybrids 6a (IC50 = 205 nM) and 6b (IC50 = 280 nM) showed submicromolar activity against HDAC1. Moreover, 6a showed a preferable affinity toward class I HDACs, especially for HDAC1-3. In vitro, 6a exhibited better antiproliferative activities against K562 and HCT116 cell lines than chidamide.

Inflammatory markers in postoperative cognitive dysfunction for patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a poorly understood disorder, very common even after total hip arthroplasty (THA). It is widely considered that inflammation response play a role in the pathogenesis of POCD. AIMS: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether inflammation cytokine concentrations could serve as biomarkers for POCD in patients undergoing THA. METHODS: A systematic search of databases was conducted to retrieve publications measuring circulating inflammatory markers of patients with and without POCD after THA. Inflammatory markers identified in more than two studies were pooled. The standardized mean difference (SMD) and the 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated for each outcome. Fail-safe N statistics was calculated to estimate possible publication bias. RESULTS: The pooled incidence rate of POCD after THA by combining 11 cohort studies was 31%. A total of five inflammatory markers, CRP, S-100B, IL-1ß, IL-6 and TNF-α, were assessed. Significantly higher pre-operative CRP (P = 0.012) and S-100B (P < 0.0001) as well as post-operative CPR (P = 0.005) and IL-6 (P < 0.0001) at 6 h were found in POCD compared with non-POCD patients undergoing THA. Fail-safe N statistics revealed that these results are robust. DISCUSSION: The current evidence suggests that some of the inflammatory markers, including CRP, S-100B, and IL-6, were correlated with the occurrence of POCD after THA. CONCLUSION: Monitor of inflammatory markers might help early diagnosis of POCD after THA and development of preventive strategies.

Transformer Based Binocular Disparity Prediction with Occlusion Predict and Novel Full Connection Layers.

The depth estimation algorithm based on the convolutional neural network has many limitations and defects by constructing matching cost volume to calculate the disparity: using a limited disparity range, the authentic disparity beyond the predetermined range can not be acquired; Besides, the matching process lacks constraints on occlusion and matching uniqueness; Also, as a local feature extractor, a convolutional neural network lacks the ability of global context information perception. Aiming at the problems in the matching method of constructing matching cost volume, we propose a disparity prediction algorithm based on Transformer, which specifically comprises the Swin-SPP module for feature extraction based on Swin Transformer, Transformer disparity matching network based on self-attention and cross-attention mechanism, and occlusion prediction sub-network. In addition, we propose a double skip connection fully connected layer to solve the problems of gradient vanishing and explosion during the training process for the Transformer model, thus further enhancing inference accuracy. The proposed model in this paper achieved an EPE (Absolute error) of 0.57 and 0.61, and a 3PE (Percentage error greater than 3 px) of 1.74% and 1.56% on KITTI 2012 and KITTI 2015 datasets, respectively, with an inference time of 0.46 s and parameters as low as only 2.6 M, showing great advantages compared with other algorithms in various evaluation metrics.

PassTCN-PPLL: A Password Guessing Model Based on Probability Label Learning and Temporal Convolutional Neural Network.

The frequent incidents of password leakage have increased people's attention and research on password security. Password guessing is an essential part of password cracking and password security research. The progression of deep learning technology provides a promising way to improve the efficiency of password guessing. However, the mainstream models proposed for password guessing, such as RNN (or other variants, such as LSTM, GRU), GAN and VAE still face some problems, such as the low efficiency and high repetition rate of the generated passwords. In this paper, we propose a password-guessing model based on the temporal convolutional neural network (PassTCN). To further improve the performance of the generated passwords, we propose a novel password probability label-learning method, which reconstructs labels based on the password probability distribution of the training set and deduplicates the training set when training. Experiments on the RockYou dataset showed that, when generating 108 passwords, the coverage rate of PassTCN with password probability label learning (PassTCN-PPLL) reached 12.6%, which is 87.2%, 72.6% and 42.9% higher than PassGAN (a password-guessing model based on GAN), VAEPass (a password-guessing model based on VAE) and FLA (a password-guessing model based on LSTM), respectively. The repetition rate of our model is 25.9%, which is 45.1%, 31.7% and 17.4% lower than that of PassGAN, VAEPass and FLA, respectively. The results confirm that our approach not only improves the coverage rate but also reduces the repetition rate.

CircARL8B Contributes to the Development of Breast Cancer Via Regulating miR-653-5p/HMGA2 Axis.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) act as essential regulators in breast cancer (BC) progression. In this paper, we aimed to investigate the functions of circARL8B in BC. The levels of circARL8B, ADP Ribosylation Factor Like GTPase 8B (ARL8B), miR-653-5p and high-mobility group AT-hook 2 (HMGA2) mRNA were examined by qRT-PCR. The stability of circARL8B was determined by RNase R assay and Actinomycin D assay. Cell viability and metastasis were evaluated by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and transwell assay, respectively. The levels of cellular phospholipids and triglycerides were measured using relevant kits. Protein levels were measured by western blot analysis. The association between miR-653-5p and circARL8B or HMGA2 was verified by dual-luciferase reporter assay. A murine xenograft model was established to explore the function of circARL8B in vivo. CircARL8B was increased in BC tissues and cells. CircARL8B silencing inhibited cell viability, migration, invasion and fatty acid metabolism in BC cells in vitro and blocked tumor growth in vivo. MiR-653-5p was identified as the target of circARL8B and miR-653-5p was negatively modulated by circARL8B. The suppressive role of circARL8B silencing in BC cell progression was abolished by miR-653-5p downregulation. Moreover, HMGA2 was the target gene of miR-653-5p. HMGA2 overexpression abrogated the effect of miR-653-5p on BC cell development. In addition, circARL8B knockdown might block PGE2/PI3K/AKT/GSK-3ß/Wnt/ß-catenin pathway. Silencing of circARL8B inhibited cell viability, migration, invasion and fatty acid metabolism via miR-653-5p/HMGA2 axis in BC.

Long noncoding RNA HOTAIR promotes breast cancer development by targeting ZEB1 via sponging miR-601.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer (BC) is a common malignancy worldwide. It has been reported that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) is abnormally expressed in BC. However, the role of HOTAIR in the malignancy of BC is worth further discussion. This study aims to clarify the function and molecular mechanism of HOTAIR in BC. METHODS: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was employed to determine the expression of HOTAIR, microRNA (miR)-601 and zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1). Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and transwell assay were used to detect the proliferation, migration and invasion of cells. Further, the protein levels of AKT, phosphorylated-AKT (p-AKT), ZEB1 and Ki-67 were confirmed by western blot (WB) assay. Moreover, dual-luciferase reporter assay was applied to examine the targeting relationship between HOTAIR and miR-601 or miR-601 and ZEB1. In addition, animal experiments were conducted to verify the effect of HOTAIR on BC tumor growth in vivo. RESULTS: HOTAIR was upregulated in BC tissues and cells, and its knockdown suppressed the proliferation, migration, invasion and the activity of AKT signaling pathway of BC cells. HOTAIR could serve as a sponge of miR-601. Further experiments revealed that miR-601 inhibitor could reverse the inhibition effect of HOTAIR silencing on the progression of BC. Meanwhile, ZEB1 was a target of miR-601, and its overexpression could invert the suppression effect of miR-601 overexpression on the progression of BC. Additionally, ZEB1 expression was regulated by HOTAIR and miR-601. Furthermore, interference of HOTAIR could attenuate BC tumor growth in vivo. CONCLUSION: In short, this study demonstrated that HOTAIR promoted the proliferation, migration, invasion of BC through regulating the miR-601/ZEB1 axis, which provided a theoretical basis for the research on lncRNA-directed therapeutics in BC.

Discovery of 1,3-Disubstituted 2,5-Diketopiperazine Derivatives as Potent Class I HDACs Inhibitors.

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) as attractive targets in many diseases therapies has been studied extensively, and its application in cancer research is the most important. Here, we developed a series of derivatives containing natural 2,5-diketopiperazine (DKP) skeleton. Several compounds exhibited distinct HDAC1 inhibitory activities, in particular 2a (IC50 = 405 nM). The selectivity profile for representative 2a indicated that this series of compounds had a preference for HDAC1-3. Additionally, 2a showed the best growth inhibitory activities against K562 and HL-60 tumor cell line with IC50 values of 4.23 and 4.16 µM, respectively. This work may lay the foundation for developing DKP-based HDAC inhibitors as a potential anticancer agent.

Spectra and diode-pumped continuous-wave 1.55†µm laser of Er:Yb:Ca3NbGa3Si2O14 crystal.

The polarized spectra associated with 1.55 µm lasing in an Er:Yb:Ca3NbGa3Si2O14 crystal were investigated at room temperature. The crystal had a large absorption cross section of 3.60 × 10-20 cm2 at 978 nm, long fluorescence lifetime of 5.81 ms for the 4I13/2 multiplet of Er3+, and broad emission band at 1.55 µm with full width at half-maximum of 60 nm. End-pumped by a 975 nm diode laser, a 1555 nm continuous-wave microlaser with a maximum output power of 0.4 W and a slope efficiency of 10.6% was demonstrated in a c-cut, 2.5-mm-thick crystal. Combining with natures of the long fluorescence lifetime and the broad emission band, the Er:Yb:Ca3NbGa3Si2O14 crystal with a good thermal performance may be a promising gain medium for high-energy pulse and broadly tunable lasers around 1.55 µm.

Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel Benzoylimidazole Derivatives as Raf and Histone Deacetylases Dual Inhibitors.

In recent studies, combinations of histone deacetylases (HDACs) inhibitor with kinase inhibitor showed additive and synergistic effects. BRafV600E as an attractive target in many diseases treatments has been studied extensively. Herein, we present a novel design approach though incorporating the pharmacophores of BRafV600E inhibitor and HDACs inhibitor in one molecule. Several synthesized compounds exhibited distinct BRafV600E and HDAC1 inhibitory activities. The representative dual Raf/HDAC inhibitor, 7a, showed better antiproliferative activities against A549 and SK-Mel-2 in cellular assay than SAHA and sorafenib, with IC50 values of 9.11 µM and 5.40 µM, respectively. This work may lay the foundation for the further development of dual Raf/HDAC inhibitors as potential anticancer agents.

Research on RSS Data Optimization and DFL Localization for Non-Empty Environments.

Device-free localization (DFL) is a new technique which can estimate the target location through analyzing the shadowing effect on surrounding radio frequency (RF) links. In a relatively complex environment, the influences of random disturbance and the multipath effect are more serious. There are kinds of noises and disturbances in the received signal strength (RSS) data of RF links and the data itself can even be distorted, which will seriously affect the DFL accuracy. Most of the common filtering methods adopted in DFL field are not targeted and the filtering effects are unstable. This paper researches the characteristics of RSS data with random disturbances and proposes two-dimensional double correlation (TDDC) distributed wavelet filtering. It can filter out the random disturbances and noise while preserving the RSS fluctuations which are helpful for the DFL, thus improving the quality of RSS data and localization accuracy. Furthermore, RSS variation rules for the links are different in complex environments and hence, it is difficult for the collected training samples to cover all possible patterns. Therefore, a single machine learning model with poor generalization ability finds it difficult to achieve ideal localization results. In this paper, the Adaboost.M2 ensemble learning model based on the Gini decision tree (GDTE) is proposed to improve the generalization ability for unknown patterns. Extensive experiments performed in two different drawing rooms demonstrate that the TDDC distributed wavelet filtering and the GDTE localization model have obvious advantages compared with other methods. The localization accuracy rates of 87% and 95% can be achieved respectively in the two environments.

Simultaneously tuning the luminescent color and realizing an optical temperature sensor by negative thermal expansion in Sc2(WO4)3:Tb/Eu phosphors.

At present, many researchers are focusing on trivalent lanthanide (Ln3+)-doped thermally enhanced upconversion luminescent (UCL) materials with negative thermal expansion (NTE) properties. However, selective anti-thermal quenching downshifting emissions of the activator and thermal quenching of the sensitizer in a phosphor with NTE properties are not implemented. Herein, Tb3+/Eu3+ co-doped Sc2(WO4)3 phosphors synthesized by the solid-state method are explored in selectively enhanced red emission (Eu3+:5D0 → 7F2) due to the energy-transfer efficiency from Tb3+ to Eu3+ and the promoted radiative transition probability. The selective thermally quenched green emission (Tb3+:5D4 → 7F5) is owing to the change of energy transfer from Tb3+ to Eu3+ as the temperature increased. Moreover, under ultraviolet 365 nm excitation, the thermally stimulated color emission tuned from yellow to red with the increase in temperature. Based on the radically different thermal response downshifting the luminescence of the activator and sensitizer, the luminescence intensity ratio (LIR) of non-thermally coupled levels (NTCLs) for 5D0 (Eu3+) and 5D4 (Tb3+) is adopted for optical temperature sensing. The optimal relative sensitivity of temperature sensing in the Sc2(WO4)3:25%Tb3+/3%Eu3+ sample could reach 2.94% K-1 at 347 K. All these indicate that this Sc2(WO4)3:Tb3+/Eu3+ material is a promising candidate for high-sensitivity optical temperature sensing.

Sm3+ as effective deactivator for enhanced ∼3 µm laser emission in Er,Sm:SrLaAlO4 crystal.

A promising mid-infrared (MIR) laser crystal with Er, Sm co-doped SrLaAlO4 (Er,Sm:SLA) crystal was successfully grown using the Czochralski (CZ) method. It was the first time that co-doped Sm3+ ion as deactivator for Er3+ activated âˆ¼ 3.0 µm laser. The crystal structure, absorption spectra, emission spectra, and energy level lifetime were discussed in detail. The band structure and density of states were calculated by the density functional theory. The spectral parameters were calculated using Judd-Ofelt (J-O) theory and the deactivate effect of Sm3+ was systematically studied. The introduction of Sm3+ ions enhance the 2.7 µm mid infrared emission intensity by three times, and decrease the lifetime of 4I13/2 energy level of Er3+ ion from 4.35 ms to 0.98 ms. The lifetime ratio of upper and lower levels for 2.7 µm emission was calculated to be 0.63, which is 2.6 times of Er:SLA crystal and comparable to some commercial crystals. All the results indicate that the Sm3+ ion is an effective deactivator for âˆ¼3 µm laser emission. The long upper level lifetime, as well as the large lifetime ratio, the broadening spectra characteristics and the appropriate emission cross-section show the Er,Sm:SLA crystal a good gain material for ultrafast and tunable lasers at âˆ¼3.0 µm.

Dysregulation of MicroRNA-152-3p is Associated with the Pathogenesis of Pulpitis by Modulating SMAD5.

PURPOSE: To research the role of microRNA (miR)-152 in the pathogenesis of pulpitis using a cell model based on human dental pulp cells (HDPCs) treated with lipopolysaccharides (LPS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The biological activity of HDPCs infected by LPS was measured using a cell counting kit (CCK-8), Transwell test, flow cytometry, and fluorescent quantitative PCR. The concentration of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) was evaluated using an assay kit, the levels of interleukin (IL)-1ß and IL-6 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the targeting relationship between SMAD5 and miR-152 was measured by the double-luciferase report test. The expression of cell cycle-related CyclinD1 and BAX was assessed by PCR. By plotting a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the diagnostic value of miR-152 was shown. RESULTS: The level of miR-152 in HDPCs induced by LPS decreased, while the level of SMAD5 increased. After overexpressing miR-152 in LPS-induced HDPCs, the viability was elevated, the apoptosis rate decreased, CyclinD1 was elevated, BAX diminished, the inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and IL-1ß) were inhibited, the activity of SOD increased, and the MDA content decreased. miR-152 targeted regulation of SMAD5, and SMAD5 modulated the effects of miR-152 on cell viability, apoptosis, inflammation, and the oxidative response of HDPCs. Reduced miR-152 expression was verified in patients with pulpitis, which could be a biomarker for pulpitis. CONCLUSION: miR-152 was found to be a biomarker correlated with the pathogenesis of pulpitis and the biological behaviour of HDPCs.

Site regulation and luminescence properties of Eu3+, Eu2+ in (La, Mg):SrAl12O19 matrix.

The partially and equivalent substitution of La + Mg â†’ Sr + Al in SrAl12O19 lattice is an effective strategy to provide trivalent sites, reduce the site occupation splitting of Al and stabilize the entire lattice. When excited by 397 nm, the Eu3+ activated La, Mg:SrAl12O19 (ASL) phosphor shows intense linear emission through the 5D0→7F4 transition at 707 nm when compared with SrAl12O19:Eu3+. Especially, the Eu, Mg co-doped Sr1-xLaxMgxAl12-xO19 with certain amount of x = 1/3 exhibits the significant intense photoluminescence, which was demonstrated through a lattice evolutional model. Eu2+ in the host with 1/3 ratio of (La, Mg) substitution shows broad blue emission and as short fluorescence lifetime as 248 ns. The temperature-depended fluorescence quenching behavior confirms the essence of strong electric-phonon coupling originated from distorted and polarized crystal field around Eu2+/Sr2+ site. Basing on site regulation of SrAl12O19 matrix, our study provides a reference for exploration on efficient rare earth ions activated luminescent laser or scintillation materials.

Diagnostic accuracy of quantitative fetal fibronectin to predict spontaneous preterm birth: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Use of quantitative fetal fibronectin (fFN) testing to predict spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) is gaining attention owing to its absolute measurement of fFN concentration and increased positive predictive value compared with qualitative testing. OBJECTIVE: To assess the predictive values of quantitative fFN for sPTB in different predefined thresholds using systematic review and meta-analysis. SEARCH STRATEGY: Five major databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane library) were searched for eligible studies. SELECTION CRITERIA: Observational studies of the diagnostic accuracy of different quantitative fFN thresholds on delivery outcomes were included. DATA COLLECTION AND EXTRACTION: Articles were reviewed independently by two authors and data were extracted. Sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio, and summary receiver operating characteristic curves were extracted and calculated. MAIN RESULTS: Fifteen studies were included. To detect sPTB at less than 34 weeks of gestation, pooled sensitivities for thresholds of 10, 50, 200, and 500 ng/ml were 0.78, 0.56, 0.33, and 0.11, respectively. Pooled specificities were 0.63, 0.84, 0.96, and 0.99, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results of the meta-analysis, the threshold of 10 ng/ml fFN may be a new choice for the prediction of sPTB. The improved diagnostic accuracy of quantitative testing over qualitative testing can provide additional discriminatory information for clinical practice.

High efficient and broadband ∼3.5 µm emission of Er3+:YAG crystal.

The YAG single crystals doped with 10 at.%, 20 at.% and 50 at.% Er3+ were successfully grown by the micro-pulling down method and spectroscopic properties of the crystals were investigated. The main interest was focus on the relation between the Er3+ concentration and ∼3.5 µm emission of Er3+:YAG crystals. Room temperature absorption spectra were analyzed by the Judd-Ofelt theory. The stimulated emission cross-sections were calculated by the Füchtbauer-Ladenburg equation. The fluorescence intensities and peak emission cross-sections of the crystals at ∼3.5 µm are slightly decreasing with the increase of Er3+ concentration. The trend of the emission properties in NIR and visible region with the Er3+ concentration was also discussed and compared. The results indicate that the highly doped Er3+ concentration is beneficial to realize the ∼3.5 µm laser output.

[Study of clinical effect on treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in acute aggravated stage with Tanreqing injection and cell factor level].

OBJECTIVE: To make a study of the clinical effect on the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in acute aggravated stage with Tanreqing Injection and the changes of the cell factor level. METHOD: Eighty-seven cases of COPD patients in acute aggravated stage were chosen and divided into two groups at random. Forty-four cases in treatment group were given intravenous drip of Tanreqing (20 mL) with 5% G/NS (500 mL) once a day. Forty-three cases in control group were given intravenous drip Yanhuning injection (0.4 g) with 5% G/NS (500 mL) once a day. The courses of the treatment were both two weeks and the changes of TL-10, TNF-alpha and MPO were observed separately before and after the treatment. RESULT: The total effective rate in the treatment group was 94.31% while the control group 83.75%, which had significant difference (P<0.05). IL-10 level in both groups was comparatively lower than the healthy (P<0.01), while TNF-alpha and MPO was higher than the healthy (P<0.01). After the treatment, the TNF-alpha and MPO level in the treatment group decreased more greatly than those in the control groups (P<0.01) but the IL-10 increased a lot more than those in the control group and there existed remarkable difference (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: The treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in acute aggravated stage with Tanreqing Injection can have noticeable effect, and can prohibit the release of above cell factors. It is also safe in clinical use without obvious side effects and has played an important role in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in acute aggravated stage.

Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction Induced by Different Surgical Methods and Its Risk Factors.

The aim of the present study was to compare the effect of different surgical methods on postoperative cognitive function in patients undergoing abdominal surgery, determine the risk factors of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) by logistic regression, and investigate these risk factors through different surgical methods. A total of 70 patients undergoing selective abdominal surgery were selected into this study. The age of these patients ranged within 32 to 85 years. The cognitive function of these patients was assessed by the mini-mental state examination at one day before the operation, and at the first and seventh day after the operation. The temperature of the tympanic membrane, PETCO2 values, visual analogue scale scores, educational level, and operation time were recorded. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze related factors of POCD. The incidence rate of perioperative hypothermia in groups O and L were 31.2 and 10.5 per cent, respectively; and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The difference in visual analogue scale scores at the first and seventh day after the operation between these two groups were statistically significant (P < 0.01). The incidence of POCD in group O was significantly higher than that in group L at the first and seventh day after the operation (P < 0.05). According to logistic regression results, it was found that age, perioperative hypothermia, and postoperative pain were risk factors of POCD. The difference in POCD for the patients undergoing abdominal surgery through different surgical methods was statistically significant, and this was closely correlated to perioperative hypothermia and postoperative pain.