miRNA-124 regulates palmitic acid-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition and cell migration in human retinal pigment epithelial cells by targeting LIN7C.

The present study revealed that palmitic acid (PA) treatment induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, which are involved in the progression of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). ARPE-19 cells were treated with PA followed by miRNA screening and EMT marker detection using qRT-PCR. Then, miR-124 mimic or inhibitor was transfected into ARPE-19 cells to explore the role of miR-124 on the EMT of ARPE-19 cells using transwell assay.

Agonism of GPR120 Prevented High Glucose-Induced Apoptosis of Retinal Endothelial Cells through Inhibiting NLRP3 Inflammasome.

Purpose: GPR120 has been reported to ameliorate inflammation in diabetes and diabetic complications. In this study, GW9508, the GPR120 agonist, was utilized in human retinal microvascular endothelial cells (HRMECs) exposed to high glucose (HG) to investigate the involvement of GPR120 in cellular viability and apoptosis as well as the association with the NLRP3 inflammasome.

Methods: The expression of GPR120 in HRMECs cultured under HG was firstly detected by Western blotting.

Amalgamation of Geometry Structure, Meteorological and Thermophysical Parameters for Intelligent Prediction of Temperature Fields in 3D Scenes.

Temperature field calculation is an important step in infrared image simulation. However, the existing solutions, such as heat conduction modelling and pre-generated lookup tables based on temperature calculation tools, are difficult to meet the requirements of high-performance simulation of infrared images based on three-dimensional scenes under multi-environmental conditions in terms of accuracy, timeliness, and flexibility. In recent years, machine learning-based temperature field prediction methods have been proposed, but these methods only consider the influence of meteorological parameters on the temperature value, while not considering the geometric structure and the thermophysical parameters of the object, which results in the low accuracy.

Evaluation of high-pitch dual-source CT angiography for evaluation of coronary and carotid-cerebrovascular arteries.

Objectives: To explore the feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of a combined one-step high-pitch dual-source computed tomography angiography (CTA) technique for evaluation of coronary and carotid-cerebrovascular arteries.

Materials And Methods: 85 symptomatic patients suspected of coronary artery and cerebrovascular disease referred for simultaneous coronary and carotid-cerebrovascular CTA were included. Additional invasive angiography of the coronary and cerebral arteries was performed within 30 days in 23 and 13 patients, respectively.

Intravenous Contrast Material Administration at High-pitch Dual-source CT Coronary Angiography: Bolus-tracking Technique with Shortened Time of Respiratory Instruction Versus Test Bolus Technique.

Objective To investigate the feasibility of acquiring the similar homogeneous enhancement using bolus-tracking techniques with shortened respiratory time in prospectively electrocardiogram-gated high-pitch spiral acquisition mode (Flash mode) coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) compared with test bolus technique. Methods One hundred and eighty-four consecutive patients with mean heart rate ≤65 beats per minute undergoing CCTA were prospectively included in this study. The patients were randomly divided into two groups.

Feasibility and Diagnostic Accuracy for Assessment of Coronary Artery Stenosis of Prospectively Electrocardiogram-gated High-pitch Spiral Acquisition Mode Dual-source CT Coronary Angiography in Patients with Relatively Higher Heart Rates: in Comparison with Catheter Coronary Angiography.

Objective To prospectively investigate the diagnostic accuracy for coronary artery stenosis of prospectively electrocardiogram-triggered spiral acquisition mode (high pitch mode) dual-source computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) in patients with relatively higher heart rates (HR) compared with catheter coronary angiography (CCA). Methods Forty-seven consecutive patients with relatively higher HR (>65 and <100 bpm) (20 male, 27 female; age 55±10 years) who both underwent dual-source CTCA and CCA were prospectively included in this study. All patients were performed CTCA using high pitch mode setting at 20%-30% of the R-R interval for the image acquisition.

Prospectively electrocardiogram-gated high-pitch spiral acquisition mode dual-source CT coronary angiography in patients with high heart rates: comparison with retrospective electrocardiogram-gated spiral acquisition mode.

Objective: To assess the image quality and effective radiation dose of prospectively electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated high-pitch spiral acquisition mode (flash mode) of dual-source CT (DSCT) coronary angiography (CTCA) in patients with high heart rates (HRs) as compared with retrospectively ECG-gated spiral acquisition mode.

Materials And Methods: Two hundred and sixty-eight consecutive patients (132 female, mean age: 55 ± 11 years) with mean HR > 65 beats per minute (bpm) were prospectively included in this study. The patients were divided into two groups.

Linear and nonlinear instabilities in rotating cylindrical Rayleigh-Bénard convection.

Linear and nonlinear convection in a rotating annular cylinder, under experimental boundary conditions, heated from below and rotating about a vertical axis are investigated. In addition to the usual physical parameters such as the Rayleigh and Taylor number, an important geometric parameter, the ratio of the inner to outer radius, enters into the problem. For intermediate ratios, linear stability analysis reveals that there exist two countertraveling convective waves which are nonlinearly significant: a retrograde wave located near the outer sidewall and a prograde wave adjacent to the inner sidewall.

Countertraveling waves in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection.

Linear and nonlinear counter-traveling waves in a fluid-filled annular cylinder with realistic no-slip boundary conditions uniformly heated from below and rotating about a vertical axis are investigated. When the gap of the annular cylinder is moderate, there exist two three-dimensional traveling waves driven by convective instabilities: a retrograde mode localized near the outer sidewall and a prograde mode adjacent to the inner sidewall with a different wave number, frequency and critical Rayleigh number. It is found that the retrogradely propagating mode is always more unstable and is marked by a larger azimuthal wave number.

Multiplicity of nonlinear thermal convection in a spherical shell.

Linear and weakly nonlinear thermal convection in a moderately thin spherical shell in the presence of a spherically symmetric gravity subject to a spherically symmetric boundary condition is systematically investigated through fully three-dimensional numerical simulations. The convection problem is self-adjoint and the linear convective stability is characterized by l, the degree of a spherical harmonics Yml (theta,phi). While the radial structure of the linear convection is determined by the stability analysis, there exists a (2l + 1)-fold degeneracy in the horizontal structure of the spherical convection.