How to choose a design thinking method for teaching the design of localization: A two-dimension linguistic fuzzy model with two-tuples.

There are many different types of scientific design thinking methods, but it is necessary to evaluate the applicability of the methods to the components of the design teaching curriculum in universities. Therefore, this study assesses the applicability of design thinking in terms of "design practice" and "locality" based on the local design education philosophy and the characteristics of the students and courses. A two-dimensional linguistic fuzzy model with two-tuples was proposed, and the assessment values of 36 experts were statistically analysed using the Delphi, triangular fuzzy number, Euclidean distance, two-dimension linguistic label (2DLL), and two-dimensional linguistic weighted arithmetic aggregation (2DLWAA) methods. The results highlighted the 12 categories of design thinking methods that are most applicable to teaching and learning, indicating the basic views of university design faculty on the application of design thinking methods. Finally, the new design teaching methods have been validated and constructed through years of teaching practice, and have some reference value for teaching design courses in universities.

Compound collagen peptide powder improves skin photoaging by reducing oxidative stress and activating TGF-ß1/Smad pathway.

Fish collagen peptide (FCP) has been extensively investigated as a natural product that can combat photoaging; however, its efficacy is limited by its singular composition. Compound collagen peptide powder (CCPP) is a novel functional food formulation that exhibits photoprotective properties and comprises FCP and a blend of natural botanical ingredients. The objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of CCPP and its molecular mechanism. CCPP had a low molecular weight, facilitating its efficient absorption, and was abundant in amino acids, total polyphenols, and total flavonoids. The results of in vivo studies demonstrated that CCPP exhibited significant efficacy in reducing skin wrinkles, enhancing the contents of water and oil in the skin, and ameliorating histopathological alterations in mice. The results of in vitro studies demonstrated that CCPP effectively mitigated photoaging in human skin fibroblasts by attenuating oxidative stress and promoting extracellular matrix (ECM) synthesis. Moreover, we clearly demonstrated that the TGF ß1/Smad pathway was involved in the promotion of ECM synthesis and cell proliferation by CCPP in human skin fibroblasts. These findings suggest that, compared with single collagen, CCPP has a more comprehensive range of antiphotoaging properties.

Pien Tze Huang alleviates Concanavalin A-induced autoimmune hepatitis by regulating intestinal microbiota and memory regulatory T cells.

BACKGROUND: Traditional Chinese medicine has used the drug Pien Tze Huang (PTH), a classic prescription, to treat autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). However, the precise mode of action is still unknown. AIM: To investigate the mechanism of PTH in an AIH mouse model by determining the changes in gut microbiota structure and memory regulatory T (mTreg) cells functional levels. METHODS: Following induction of the AIH mouse model induced by Concanavalin A (Con A), prophylactic administration of PTH was given for 10 d. The levels of mTreg cells were measured by flow cytometry, and intestinal microbiota was analyzed by 16S rRNA analysis, while western blotting was used to identify activation of the toll-like receptor (TLR)2, TLR4/nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), and CXCL16/CXCR6 signaling pathways. RESULTS: In the liver of mice with AIH, PTH relieved the pathological damage and reduced the numbers of T helper type 17 cells and interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-2, IL-6, and IL-21 expression. Simultaneously, PTH stimulated the abundance of helpful bacteria, promoted activation of the TLR2 signal, which may enhance Treg/mTreg cells quantity to produce IL-10, and suppressed activation of the TLR4/NF-κB and CXCL16/CXCR6 signaling pathways. CONCLUSION: PTH regulates intestinal microbiota balance and restores mTreg cells to alleviate experimental AIH, which is closely related to the TLR/CXCL16/CXCR6/NF-κB signaling pathway.

Curcumin alleviated dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis by recovering memory Th/Tfh subset balance.

BACKGROUND: Restoration of immune homeostasis by targeting the balance between memory T helper (mTh) cells and memory follicular T helper (mTfh) cells is a potential therapeutic strategy against ulcerative colitis (UC). Because of its anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties, curcumin (Cur) is a promising drug for UC treatment. However, fewer studies have demonstrated whether Cur can modulate the mTh/mTfh subset balance in mice with colitis. AIM: To explore the potential mechanism underlying Cur-mediated alleviation of colitis induced by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) in mice by regulating the mTh and mTfh immune homeostasis. METHODS: Balb/c mice were administered 3% and 2% DSS to establish the UC model and treated with Cur (200 mg/kg/d) by gavage on days 11-17. On the 18th d, all mice were anesthetized and euthanized, and the colonic length, colonic weight, and colonic weight index were evaluated. Histomorphological changes in the mouse colon were observed through hematoxylin-eosin staining. Levels of Th/mTh and Tfh/mTfh cell subsets in the spleen were detected through flow cytometry. Western blotting was performed to detect SOCS-1, SOCS-3, STAT3, p-STAT3, JAK1, p-JAK1, and NF-κB p65 protein expression levels in colon tissues. RESULTS: Cur effectively mitigates DSS-induced colitis, facilitates the restoration of mouse weight and colonic length, and diminishes the colonic weight and colonic weight index. Simultaneously, it hinders ulcer development and inflammatory cell infiltration in the colonic mucous membrane. While the percentage of Th1, mTh1, Th7, mTh7, Th17, mTh17, Tfh1, mTfh1, Tfh7, mTfh7, Tfh17, and mTfh17 cells decreased after Cur treatment of the mice for 7 d, and the frequency of mTh10, Th10, mTfh10, and Tfh10 cells in the mouse spleen increased. Further studies revealed that Cur administration prominently decreased the SOCS-1, SOCS-3, STAT3, p-STAT3, JAK1, p-JAK1, and NF-κB p65 protein expression levels in the colon tissue. CONCLUSION: Cur regulated the mTh/mTfh cell homeostasis to reduce DSS-induced colonic pathological damage, potentially by suppressing the JAK1/STAT3/SOCS signaling pathway.

Oxymatrine ameliorated experimental colitis via mechanisms involving inflammatory DCs, gut microbiota and TLR/NF-κB pathway.

It is common knowledge that the crosstalk of gut microbiota (GM) and dendritic cells (DCs) are critical for the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). As a major bioactive constituent derived from the root of the Sophora flavescens, Oxymatrine (OMT) was used to treat IBD in China. However, it is still unknown whether OMT ameliorates IBD by regulating the crosstalk between DCs and GM. In the present study, after 10 days of OMT (100 mg/kg/day) treated mice with colitis induced by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS), the change rate of body weight, colon weight, colon weight index, colon length, DAI score and colonic pathological damage scores of colitis mice were significantly ameliorate, followed with fewer ulceration and inflammatory cell infiltration, the increased expression of IL-4 and IL-13, and the decreased expression of CCL-2, IL-33 and IFN-γ. The percents of inflammatory DCs (such as TNF-α+DCs, iNOS+DCs, CXCR5+DCs and E-cadherin+DCs) were markedly decreased, and the GM composition was regulated. Importantly, it is positive correlated between the efficacy of OMT on colitis, GM and inflammatory DCs. Meanwhile, Western blotting assay showed that OMT suppressed the activation of TLR4, Myd88, IRAK4, IRAK1, TRAF6, TAK1, TAB, MKK3, MKK6, P38, NF-κB in the TLR / NF-κB signaling pathway. In summary, OMT exhibits the protective effect against the DSS-induced experimental colitis, which was achieved by regulating the crosstalk of inflammatory DCs and GM, and inhibiting the TLR / NF-κB signaling pathway.

MSA-Net: Establishing Reliable Correspondences by Multiscale Attention Network.

In this paper, we propose a novel multi-scale attention based network (called MSA-Net) for feature matching problems. Current deep networks based feature matching methods suffer from limited effectiveness and robustness when applied to different scenarios, due to random distributions of outliers and insufficient information learning. To address this issue, we propose a multi-scale attention block to enhance the robustness to outliers, for improving the representational ability of the feature map. In addition, we also design a novel context channel refine block and a context spatial refine block to mine the information context with less parameters along channel and spatial dimensions, respectively. The proposed MSA-Net is able to effectively infer the probability of correspondences being inliers with less parameters. Extensive experiments on outlier removal and relative pose estimation have shown the performance improvements of our network over current state-of-the-art methods with less parameters on both outdoor and indoor datasets. Notably, our proposed network achieves an 11.7% improvement at error threshold 5° without RANSAC than the state-of-the-art method on relative pose estimation task when trained on YFCC100M dataset.

Interlinked Microcone Resistive Sensors Based on Self-Assembly Carbon Nanotubes Film for Monitoring of Signals.

Flexible pressure sensors still face difficulties achieving a constantly adaptable micronanostructure of substrate materials. Interlinked microcone resistive sensors were fabricated by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) nanocone array. PDMS nanocone array was achieved by the second transferring tapered polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) structure. In addition, self-assembly 2D carbon nanotubes (CNTs) networks as a conducting layer were prepared by a low-cost, dependable, and ultrafast Langmuir−Blodgett (LB) process. In addition, the self-assembled two-dimensional carbon nanotubes (CNTs) network as a conductive layer can change the internal resistance due to pressure. The results showed that the interlinked sensor with a nanocone structure can detect the external pressure by the change of resistivity and had a sensitive resistance change in the low pressure (<200 Pa), good stability through 2800 cycles, and a detection limit of 10 kPa. Based on these properties, the electric signals were tested, including swallowing throat, finger bending, finger pressing, and paper folding. The simulation model of the sensors with different structural parameters under external pressure was established. With the advantages of high sensitivity, stability, and wide detection range, this sensor shows great potential for monitoring human motion and can be used in wearable devices.

Venous thromboembolism in patients with severe lung cancer: a narrative review.

OBJECTIVE: At present, there are several guidelines for cancer complicated with VTE, but there is no specific recommendation for the treatment of lung cancer complicated with VTE. Whether is necessary to explore treatment and prevention of VTE in lung cancer. BACKGROUND: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common complication of severe lung cancer that can entail many adverse effects for patients. The incidence of VTE is higher in patients with lung cancer than in those with other kinds of solid tumors, and it is especially high among patients with lung adenocarcinoma, at advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stages, or with a history of central venous catheter (CVC) or chemotherapy. However, the clinical symptoms of VTE in patients with lung cancer are not typical and cannot be detected easily, and the clinical prevention rate is low. In the acute phase of VTE in lung cancer, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status score of patients typically ranges from 2 to 4 points, leaving end-stage maintenance therapy as the only treatment option. METHODS: Here, we analyze the existing literature and discuss the current status (including epidemiology, clinical manifestations, and risk factors), risk assessment tools, and the treatment and prevention of VTE in severe lung cancer. We focus particularly on the use of low-molecular-weight heparin and new oral anticoagulants (including in the management of thrombocytopenia after antitumor therapy) in lung cancer patients with VTE. CONCLUSIONS: Large-scale prospective multicenter studies on the treatment and prevention of VTE in lung cancer are necessary.

[Differential mRNA expression in C57BL/6 mice with bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis and its association with LncRNA co-expression network].

OBJECTIVE: To study the changes in mRNA and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) expression profiles in a mouse model of bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis and identify lung fibrosis-related mRNA for coding-noncoding coexpression (CNC) bioinformatics analysis of the differential lncRNAs. METHODS: Lung fibrosis was induced by intratracheal injection of bleomycin in 10 C57BL/6 mice and another 10 mice with intratracheal injection of saline served as the control group. Lung tissues were harvested from the mice at 14 days after the injections and lung fibrosis was assessed using Masson and HE staining. LncRNA chip technology was used to screen the differentially expressed mRNAs and lncRNAs in mice with lung fibrosis, and GO and KEGG pathway analyses of the differential mRNAs were performed using NCBI database and UCSC database to identify possible fibrosis-related mRNAs, which were validated by qRT-PCR to construct a coding and non-coding co- expression network with the differential lncRNAs. RESULTS: Compared with the control mice, the mice with intratracheal injection of bleomycin showed obvious lung fibrosis. The results of gene chip analysis showed that 127 mRNAs were upregulated and 184 mRNAs were down-regulated in the model group as compared with the control group. GO and pathway analysis suggested that the differentially expressed genes participated mainly in immune response, cell differentiation, and cytoskeletons; the involved signal pathways were associated mainly with cytokine and cytokine receptor interaction and chemokine signal transduction. Bioinformatics analysis identified a significant coexpression network between the fibrosisrelated mRNA and the differentially expressed lncRNA. CONCLUSIONS: In mice with lung fibrosis, the differential expressions of fibrosis-related mRNAs in the lung tissues are closely correlated with the co- expressions of a large number of differential lncRNAs, which points to a new direction for investigation of the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis.

Gefitinib Inhibits Bleomycin-Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis via Alleviating the Oxidative Damage in Mice.

Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a life-threatening interstitial lung disease. In this study, we tried to reveal the model of action between high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and the protective role of gefitinib in pulmonary fibrosis induced by the administration of bleomycin aerosol in mice. For the mechanism study, lung tissues were harvested two weeks after modeling to detect the coexpression of HMGB1 and α-SMA by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence staining. Protein-DNA interactions were analyzed using a pulldown assay to study the relationship between HMGB1 and α-SMA. For the gefitinib treatment study, the mice were divided into three groups: phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) control group, PBS-treated PF group, and gefitinib-treated PF group. Gavage of gefitinib or PBS (20 mg/kg/day) was performed after bleomycin treatment for two weeks until the mice were sacrificed. Lung and blood samples were collected to assess the histological changes, oxidative stress, and expression of NOXs, HMGB1, EGFR, MAPKs, AP-1, and NF-κB to determine the curative effect and related molecular mechanisms. The results revealed the high coexpression of α-SMA and HMGB1 in some interstitial cells in the fibrotic lung. The DNA-protein pulldown analysis proved that HMGB34367 acted as a novel transcriptional factor for the α-SMA promoter and participated in the eventual development of pulmonary fibrosis. Second, gefitinib could significantly decrease lung fibrotic changes and the level of MDA and recover the T-AOC level. Meanwhile, gefitinib could also reduce the NOX1/2/4, HMGB1, p-EGFR, p-ERK, p-JNK, p-P38, p-NF-κB, p-c-Jun, and p-c-Fos expression levels in fibrotic lungs. The present study suggested that gefitinib could alleviate lung fibrosis through the HMGB1/NOXs-ROS/EGFR-MAPKs-AP-1/NF-κB signal in bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis.

NEMO-Binding Domain Peptide Attenuates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Lung Injury by Inhibiting the NF-κB Signaling Pathway.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the protective effects and relevant mechanisms exerted by NEMO-binding domain peptide (NBD) against lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced acute lung injury (ALI) in mice. The ALI model was induced by intratracheally administered atomized LPS (5 mg/kg) to BABL/c mice. Half an hour before LPS administration, we treated the mice with increasing concentrations of intratracheally administered NBD or saline aerosol. Two hours after LPS administration, each group of mice was sacrificed. We observed that NBD pretreatment significantly attenuated LPS-induced lung histopathological injury in a dose-dependent manner. Western blotting established that NBD pretreatment obviously attenuated LPS-induced IκB-α and NF-κBp65 activation and NOX1, NOX2, and NOX4 overexpression. Furthermore, NBD pretreatment increased SOD and T-AOC activity and decreased MDA levels in lung tissue. In addition, NBD also inhibited TNF-α and IL-1ß secretion in BALF after LPS challenge. In conclusion, NBD protects against LPS-induced ALI in mice.