Fibrinogen B ß promoter polymorphism may not be associated with pulmonary embolism.

OBJECTIVE: A prospective experiment was designed to explore all possible SNPs in the promoter region of fibrinogen B ß (FGB) and reveal the influence of these SNPs on susceptibility of pulmonary embolism. METHODS: In this 2-year randomized prospective study, we had totally recruited 203 volunteers. 58 PE patients (58 out of 145 VTE patients) and 114 healthy people were taken as case and control objects, respectively. FGB promoter was detected by gene sequencing. RESULTS: There were 6 SNPs in FGB promoter, which were ß-1420G/A, ß-993C/T, ß-854G/A, ß-455G/A, ß-249C/T, and ß-148C/T. Genotype frequencies of individual SNPs between the cases and controls were not statistically significant, all p > .05. After excluding subjects of COVID-19 infection within 6 months, the statistical results (35 PE patients vs 66 healthy people) were consistent. CONCLUSION: The susceptibility to pulmonary embolism may not be affected by any SNP in the FGB promoter region.

Hierarchical finite-time cooperative control for teleoperation of networked disturbed mobile manipulators.

This paper investigates the teleoperation problem of networked disturbed mobile manipulators (NDMMs), in which the human operator remotely controls multiple slave mobile manipulators through a master manipulator. Each individual of the slave ones consisted of a nonholonomic mobile platform and a holonomic constrained manipulator that is mounted on the nonholonomic mobile platform. The cooperative control objective of the considered teleoperation problem includes: (1) synchronizing the states of the slave manipulators to the human-controlled master one; (2) forcing the mobile platforms of the slave ones to form a user-defined formation; (3) controlling the geometric center of all the platforms to track a reference trajectory. We present a hierarchical finite-time cooperative control (HFTCC) framework to achieve the cooperative control goal in a finite time. The presented framework includes the distributed estimator, the weight regulator and the adaptive local controller, where the estimator generates the estimated states of the desired formation and trajectory, the regulator selects the slave robot that the master one needs to track, as well as the presented adaptive local controller guarantees the finite-time convergence of the controlled states with model uncertainties and disturbances. Additionally, for improving the telepresence, a novel super twisting observer is presented to reconstruct the interaction force between the salve mobile manipulators and the remote operating environment on the master (i.e., the human) side. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control framework is demonstrated by several simulation results.

Trirelaxor Ferroelectric Material with Giant Dielectric Permittivity over a Wide Temperature Range.

Advanced ferroelectrics with a combination of large dielectric response and good temperature stability are crucial for many technologically important electronic devices and electrical storage/power equipment. However, the two key factors usually do not go hand in hand, and achieving high permittivity is normally at the expense of sacrificing temperature stability. This trade-off relation is eased but not fundamentally remedied using relaxor-type materials which are known to have a diffuse permittivity peak at their relaxor transition temperatures. Here, we report an anomalous trirelaxor phenomenon in a barium titanate system and show that it can lead to a giant dielectric permittivity (εr ≈ 18 000) over a wide temperature range (Tspan ≈ 34K), which successfully overcomes a long-standing permittivity-stability trade-off. Moreover, the enhancement in the dielectric properties also yields a desired temperature-insensitive electrocaloric performance for the trirelaxor ferroelectrics. Microstructure characterization and phase-field simulations reveal a mixture of tetragonal, orthorhombic, and rhombohedral polar nanoregions over a broad temperature window in trirelaxor ferroelectrics, which is responsible for this combination of giant dielectric permittivity and good temperature stability. This finding provides an effective approach in designing advanced ferroelectrics with high performance and thermal stability.

Donor-acceptor interaction-driven self-assembly of amphiphilic rod-coil molecules into supramolecular nanoassemblies.

Rigid-flexible amphiphilic molecules consisting of an aromatic segment based on pyrene and biphenyl units and hydrophilic polyethylene oxide chains self-assemble into lamellar, hexagonal columnar, and two-dimensional columnar nanostructures in the bulk state. In aqueous solution, these molecules self-assemble into nanofibers, spherical micelles, and multilayer nanotubes, depending on the chain or rod length of the molecules. Notably, ordered nanostructures of supramolecular polymers, such as single-layer curving fragments, nanofibers, and nanosheets, were constructed through charge-transfer interactions between the nanoobjects and an electron-acceptor molecule, 2,4,5,7-tetranitrofluorenone. These experimental results reveal that diverse supramolecular morphologies can be controlled by tuning rod-coil molecular interactions or charge-transfer interactions between the donor and acceptor molecules.

Desirability or feasibility: self-other decision-making differences.

Making decisions for the self and providing advice to others are common in daily life. The current research examines the differences in weight that people attach to desirability and feasibility when deciding for themselves versus others. Based on construal level theory, we propose that in a decision-making process, individuals who decide for others tend to focus more on desirability than on feasibility compared with those who decide for themselves. Across five experiments, the predicted self-other differences were observed in preference in the decision stage (Experiments 1a and 1b), information seeking in the predecision stage (Experiment 2), and information recall in the postdecision stage (Experiments 3a and 3b). These findings show that decision behaviors are determined by the decision target (i.e., for whom such decisions are made).

Influence of extreme weather and meteorological anomalies on outbreaks of influenza A (H1N1).

Biological experiments and epidemiological evidence indicate that variations in environment have important effect on the occurrence and transmission of epidemic influenza. It is therefore important to understand the characteristic patterns of transmission for prevention of disease and reduction of disease burden. Based on case records, we analyzed the environmental characteristics including climate variables in Changsha, and then constructed a meteorological anomaly susceptive-infective-removal (SIR) model on the basis of the results of influenza A (H1N1) transmission. The results showed that the outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) in Changsha showed significant correlation with meteorological conditions; the spread of influenza was sensitive to meteorological anomalies, and that the outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) in Changsha was influenced by a combination of absolute humidity anomalous weather conditions, contact rates of the influenza patients and changes in population movements. These findings will provide helpful information regarding prevention strategies under different conditions, a fresh understanding of the emergence and re-emergence of influenza outbreaks, and a new perspective on the transmission dynamics of influenza.

Cellular uptake and cytotoxicity of octahedral rhenium cluster complexes.

Cellular uptake behavior of a novel class of octahedral rhenium cluster compounds, hexahydroxo complexes K(4)[{Re(6)S(8)}(OH)(6)].8H(2)O (1) and K(4)[{Re(6)Se(8)}(OH)(6)].8H(2)O (2), was evaluated in human cervical adenocarcinoma HeLa cells. Confocal microscopy and flow cytometry studies demonstrated that rhenium cluster 1 was not internalized into cell, while rhenium cluster 2 was. Conjugation of a polymer to rhenium cluster 1, namely the derivative K(4)[{Re(6)S(8)}(OH)(5)L] (3) (L is amphiphilic diblock copolymer MPEG550-CH(2)CONH-GlyPheLeuGlyPheLeu-COO(-)), considerably enhanced cellular uptake in a concentration-dependent manner and was predominantly localized in the cytoplasm and nucleus upon incubation time. The uptake of rhenium cluster 2 was mediated by energy-dependent endocytosis, whereas rhenium cluster 3 was directly ingested into cells by cell-fusion-like mechanism. According to the cytotoxicity evaluation test, both rhenium clusters 2 and 3 did not exhibit acute cytotoxic effects up to 50 microM, at the practical concentration level of biological applications. It is, therefore, expected that the rhenium cluster complexes can be promising potential candidates as diagnostic agents for medical treatment.