The R-curve behavior and thermal shock resistance for Al2O3 + ZrO2 laminated nanoceramics.

The properties of thermal shock resistances of Al2O3 + ZrO2 monolayer and laminated ceramics are determined by the indentation method. The relationships between the R-curve, the thermal shock resistance properties and the mechanism of strengthening and toughening are also studied in this paper. The Al2O3 + ZrO2 laminated ceramics have an R-curve feature and a decrease in the sensitivity of the strength to the size of surface cracks.

Occurrence of nosocomial methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as a marker for transmission in a surgical intensive care unit in China.

In 2008, an intensive care unit (ICU) in a large Chinese hospital was moved from a 6-bed old ward to a 20-bed new ward. After the move, the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in patients and environmental sites decreased significantly, but the number of ICU-acquired cases per imported MRSA case increased from 1.4 to 4.

Vocal emotion of humanoid robots: a study from brain mechanism.

Driven by rapid ongoing advances in humanoid robot, increasing attention has been shifted into the issue of emotion intelligence of AI robots to facilitate the communication between man-machines and human beings, especially for the vocal emotion in interactive system of future humanoid robots. This paper explored the brain mechanism of vocal emotion by studying previous researches and developed an experiment to observe the brain response by fMRI, to analyze vocal emotion of human beings. Findings in this paper provided a new approach to design and evaluate the vocal emotion of humanoid robots based on brain mechanism of human beings.

Id1 and NF-κB promote the generation of CD133+ and BMI-1+ keratinocytes and the growth of xenograft tumors in mice.

Id1 and NF-κB are highly expressed in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Whether they have a synergistic role in the carcinogenesis of OSCC is unclear. The current study was designed to demonstrate the synergy of both Id1 and NF-κB in the underlying disease mechanisms of OSCC using in vitro and in vivo animal models.

3' Untranslated regions mediate transcriptional interference between convergent genes both locally and ectopically in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Paired sense and antisense (S/AS) genes located in cis represent a structural feature common to the genomes of both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and produce partially complementary transcripts. We used published genome and transcriptome sequence data and found that over 20% of genes (645 pairs) in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome are arranged in convergent pairs with overlapping 3'-UTRs. Using published microarray transcriptome data from the standard laboratory strain of S.

Mathematical modeling for selecting center locations for medical and health supplies reserve in Hainan Province.

Objective: To explore how to choose the center locations to build the medical and health supplies reserve among many island towns.

Methods: The center locations were selected from 18 towns Hainan Province, it's maximum service range (distance) was required to reach the minimum, or to minimize.

Results: Three scenarios were considered, the center locations included only one town, two towns, three towns.

HIV-1 triggers WAVE2 phosphorylation in primary CD4 T cells and macrophages, mediating Arp2/3-dependent nuclear migration.

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) initiates receptor signaling and early actin dynamics during viral entry. This process is required for viral infection of primary targets such as resting CD4 T cells. WAVE2 is a component of a multiprotein complex linking receptor signaling to dynamic remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton.

[Preliminary study of breast cancer magnetic resonance targeting diagnosis basing on magnetic nanoparticles in vitro].

Objective: To develop a magnetic nanoparticles based magnetic resonance (MR) probe targeting CD40 mutant in the imaging of breast cancer cells in vitro.

Methods: For preparing an immunologically competent probe, monoclonal antibody was conjugated with ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) particles basing on chemical cross-linking method.Its bioactivity was analyzed with flow cytometry, confocal microscopy and Prussian blue staining.

BPLT+: a Bayesian-based personalized recommendation model for health care.

In this paper, we propose an Advanced Bayesian-based Personalized Laboratory Tests recommendation (BPLT(+)) model. Given a patient, we estimate whether a new laboratory test should belong to a "taken" or "not-taken" class. We use the bayesian method to build a weighting function for a laboratory test and the given patient.

Fuzzy reasoning of accident provenance in pervasive healthcare monitoring systems.

In pervasive healthcare monitoring environments, data provenance, as one metadata, can help people analyze the reasons for medical accidents that are generated by complex events. This reasoning processing often encounters inaccurate time and irreversible reasoning problems. How to solve the uncertain process and fuzzy transformation time presents many challenges to the study of data provenance.

Functional regeneration of irradiated salivary glands with human amniotic epithelial cells transplantation.

This study aimed to investigate the functional restoration of radiation-damaged salivary gland with human amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs) transplantation by intra-glandular injection. hAECs were isolated from the amnion tissues. After primary culture, the phenotype of hAECs of the second passage was identified by flow cytometry (FCM) and immunocytochemical staining.

[Treatment of osteomyelitis and soft tissue defects at distal region of leg and foot by pedicled peroneus brevis muscle flaps and reverse island flaps with sural nerve and blood supplying vessels].

Objective: To observe the clinical effect of distally pedicled peroneus brevis muscle flaps and reverse island flaps with sural nerve and blood supplying vessels on repairing osteomyelitis and soft tissue defects at distal region of leg and foot.

Methods: Twelve patients with osteomyelitis and soft tissue defects at distal region of leg and foot hospitalized from March 2008 to December 2010. Among them, 7 patients suffered from acute or chronic osteomyelitis and soft tissue defects at the distal end of tibia, 1 patient suffered from chronic osteomyelitis and chronic ulcer in the posterior aspect of achilles tendon, 4 patients suffered from acute or chronic osteomyelitis, soft tissue defects, and exposure of internal fixator in the lateral aspect of calcaneus.

Effect of a combination of local flap and sequential compression-distraction osteogenesis in the reconstruction of post-traumatic tibial bone and soft tissue defects.

Background: Treatment of extensive post-traumatic composite bone and soft tissue defects remains a complicated therapeutic problem and a challenge for surgeons. We investigated the application of local flaps and Ilizarov osteogenesis in the reestablishment of severe combined defects of tibial bone and soft tissue.

Methods: Sixteen patients with bone and soft tissue defects were included.

Trends in the prevalence of hospitalization attributable to hypertensive diseases among United States adults aged 35 and older from 1980 to 2007.

We aimed to examine the trend in the prevalence of hospitalization attributable to hypertensive disease and its subtypes among United States adults aged ≥35 years from 1980 to 2007. Data (n = 4,598,488,000 hospitalized cases) from the National Hospital Discharge Surveys were used to examine the trends of hospitalized patients with first (the reason for admission) and patients with any second to seventh (a co-morbid condition when admission) diagnosis of hypertensive disease (International Classification of Disease, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification: 401 to 405) by gender and geographic region. Age-adjusted rates of disease were calculated using the United States 2000 standard population.

Comparison of dimensional reduction methods for detecting and visualizing novel patterns in human and marine microbiome.

Using metagenomics to detect the global structure of microbial community remains a significant challenge. The structure of a microbial community and its functions are complicated because of not only the complex interactions among microbes but also their interactions with confounding environmental factors. Recently dimension reduction methods have been employed extensively to investigate the complex structure embedded in metagenomic profiles which summarize the abundance of functional or taxonomic categorizations in metagenomic studies.

Combined rectus abdominis muscle/paraumbilical flap and lower abdominal flap for the treatment of type III circumferential electrical burns of the wrist.

Background: Type III circumferential electrical burns of the wrist are one of the most severe electrical injuries, involving rather extensive necrosis, progressive blood circulatory embarrassment and a high amputation rate. This injury poses a challenge for vascular reconstruction and wound coverage. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the combined rectus abdominis muscle/paraumbilical flap and lower abdominal flap for the treatment of type III circumferential electrical burns of the wrist.

Regulation of the angiogenesis of acquired middle ear cholesteatomas by inhibitor of DNA binding transcription factor.

Importance: The aggressive growth of cholesteatoma in the middle ear involves the angiogenesis of the cholesteatomal perimatrix. However, which transcription factor is involved in this process remains unclear.

Objective: To identify a transcription factor that supports the aggressive growth of cholesteatoma by controlling the angiogenesis of cholesteatoma in the middle ear milieu.

Assessment of localisation to auditory stimulation in post-comatose states: use the patient's own name.

Background: At present, there is no consensus on how to clinically assess localisation to sound in patients recovering from coma. We here studied auditory localisation using the patient's own name as compared to a meaningless sound (i.e.

The application of distally pedicled peroneus brevis muscle flaps and retrograde neurocutaneous accompanying artery flaps for treatment of bony and soft-tissue 3-dimensional defects of the lower leg and foot.

To investigate the clinical effect of distally pedicled peroneus brevis muscle flaps and retrograde neurocutaneous flaps on treatment of bone and soft-tissue 3-dimensional defects of the lower leg and foot, the authors retrospectively studied all the patients admitted in their center in 3 consecutive years with bone and soft-tissue defects from March 2008 to February 2011; 21 patients suffering from traumatic and osteomyelitis were treated with peroneus brevis muscle flaps, for obliterating the hole-shaped bony defects after osteomyelitis debridement, and neurocutaneous flaps, for repairing associated soft-tissue defects. After thorough debridement, the average size of soft-tissue defects was 2 cm × 2 cm to 13 cm × 9 cm and that of bony defects was 2 cm × 2 cm × 2 cm to 6 cm × 3 cm × 3 cm. Neurocutaneous flaps completely survived in 20 cases, and the wounds healed at stage I; 1 case developed necrosis in the distal part of the peroneus brevis muscle flap and sural nerve flap, and the wound healed with a saphenous nerve flap.

Numerical simulation for the upper airway flow characteristics of Chinese patients with OSAHS using CFD models.

OSAHS is a common disease with many factors related to the etiology. Airflow plays an important role in the pathogenesis of OSAHS. Previous research has not yielded a sufficient understanding of the relationship between airflow in upper airway and the pathophysiology of OSAHS.

Polygenic molecular architecture underlying non-sexual cell aggregation in budding yeast.

Cell aggregation in unicellular organisms, induced by either cell non-sexual adhesion to yield flocs and biofilm, or pheromone-driving sexual conjugation is of great significance in cellular stress response, medicine, and brewing industries. Most current literatures have focused on one form of cell aggregation termed flocculation and its major molecular determinants, the flocculation (FLO) family genes. Here, we implemented a map-based approach for dissecting the molecular basis of non-sexual cell aggregation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

[Repair of deep burn wound of neck with supraclavicular island flap].

Objective: To observe the therapeutic effect of supraclavicular island flap in repairing deep burn wound of neck.

Methods: Six patients with deep burn of neck hospitalized from January 2009 to June 2011 were enrolled in the study. Their total burn area ranged from 6% to 22% TBSA, of which full-thickness area ranged from 3% to 22% TBSA.

Short-term hyperthermia promotes the sensitivity of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells to paclitaxel.

As a physical adjuvant approach in the treatment of solid tumors, regional hyperthermia plays a synergistic role in enhancing the efficacy of simultaneous chemotherapy. Paclitaxel (PTX) is an anti-mitotic taxane drug that is widely used in chemotherapy for the treatment of various human malignancies such as lung, ovarian, breast, and head and neck cancers. Since the possibility that hyperthermia can enhance the anti-tumor effects of PTX has not yet been investigated, the present study was designed to evaluate the effects of short-term hyperthermia on PTX-induced antitumor activity in the human breast cancer line MCF-7.

A bronchofiberoscopy-associated outbreak of multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in an intensive care unit in Beijing, China.

Background: Bronchofiberscopy, a widely used procedure for the diagnosis of various pulmonary diseases within intensive care units, has a history of association with nosocomial infections. Between September and November 2009, an outbreak caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MDR-Ab) was observed in the intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital in Beijing, China. This study is aimed to describe the course and control of this outbreak and investigate the related risk factors.