[en] In order to get high signal-to-noise ratio, silicon avalanche photodiode (APD) is used to measure Thomson scattered spectrum. A charge-sensitive preamplifier has been developed for minimizing the noise contribution from detector electronics. Many measures are taken, including a new design electronic amplification circuit and a series of anti-interference technique. Therefore the Thomson scattering diagnostic system is successful to measure the plasma electron temperature on HT-7 tokamak. (authors)

[en] This paper implements the parameter identification of ship roll motion based on vibration tests and the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. By applying sinusoidal moment excitations from a shaker, we successfully simulate the quasi-roll motion behavior of the ship model in the air. We conduct two vibration tests, including a constant-amplitude angular displacement test and a constant-amplitude angular velocity test, to identify the restoring moment and the damping moment coefficients of the quasi-roll motion. In addition, we perform the approximate equivalence of the fluid around the ship through the CFD method and the fluid-solid coupling technique. Thus, we obtain the hydrodynamic coefficients, such as the added mass moment of inertia and the equivalent damping, to accomplish the parameter identification of the ship’s real roll motion. Finally, the accuracy of the identified parameters is verified by means of numerical simulations based on the Runge–Kutta method. (paper)

[en] A multipulse Nd:YAG (Neodym-yttrium aluminium garnet) laser Thomson scattering diagnostic system developed was recently applied on HT-7 tokamak to obtain more accurate electron temperatures. A CAMAC-based real-time computer system for laser control, data acquisition, analysis and calibration was investigated in detail. Furthermore, the reliability and accuracy of this diagnostic system were demonstrated by comparing the results with those of a soft-X ray diagnostic system.

[en] Objective: To investigate the alteration of baseline brain activity levels in first-episode depressive disorder patients by the amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (fALFF) based on the resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). The correlations between the scores of HAMD-17 and the abnormal brain regions of ALFF and fALFF were analyzed. Methods: Seventeen first-episode depressive patients (depression group: 5 males and 12 females, aged 19-54 years old) and 17 normal volunteers (control group: 8 males and 9 females, aged 20-58 years old) were enrolled. Demographic data and HAMD-17 scores of the two groups were collected and analyzed by retrospective analysis, and rs-fMRI scanning was performed on the two groups. Based on the MATLAB R2017a platform, ALFF and fALFF methods were used to analyze the resting state scanning data. The ALFF and fALFF values of the two groups were compared by using DPABI v4.3 statistical software. The brain regions with statistically significant differences between the two groups were extracted by REST 1.8 software. SPSS 19.0 was used to analyze the demographic data. Two independent samples t-test was used for continuous variables with normal distributions. Pearson correlation analysis was performed between these brain regions and HAMD-17 scores. Results: Compared with the control group, the depressive disorder patients of depression group had decreased ALFF in the right anterior cingulate (0.51 ± 0.11 vs. 0.76 ± 0.12) and right anterior cingulate and paracingulate gyrus (0.56 ± 0.08 vs. 0.77 ± 0.16), the difference was statistically significant (t = -7.08, -4.56, both P < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the disorder patients of depressive group showed decreased fALFF in the right anterior cingulate (0.96 ± 0.06 vs. 1.04 ± 0.05), and increased fALFF in left lingual gyrus (1.11 ± 0.09 vs. 0.99 ± 0.08), the difference was statistically significant (t = -5.64, 4.61, both P < 0.05). A negative correlation among ALFF values was found in the right anterior cingulate cortex and HAMD-17 score in first-episode depression patients (r = -0.640, P = 0.006), whereas no correlation was found among ALFF values in the right anterior cingulate cortex, fALFF in the right anterior cingulate and left lingual gyrus, and HAMD-17 scores. Conclusions: The values of ALFF and fALFF in the right anterior cingulate gyrus and left lingual gyrus may change in first-episode depression patients under resting state. The spontaneous abnormal brain nerve activity in these brain regions may be related to HAMD-17 scores. (authors)

[en] Emerging evidence shows that long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) is implicated in numerous kinds of malignant cancers, including ovarian cancer. In this study, we focused on the expression and function of long noncoding RNA lung cancer associated transcript 1 (LUCAT1) in ovarian cancer progression. We indicated that LUCAT1 expression was significantly upregulated in ovarian cancer tissues. Moreover, LUCAT1 expression was positively associated with tumor metastasis and clinical stage. Elevated expression of LUCAT1 decreased the survival rate of patients with ovarian cancer. In addition, we revealed that repression of LUCAT1 significantly suppressed the proliferation, migration and invasion, whereas promoted apoptotic rate. Through online predictive tools and functional experiments, we demonstrated that LUCAT1 and HOXA13 were targets of miR-612. We showed that LUCAT1 and miR-612 suppressed each other in a reciprocal way. Moreover, LUCAT1 promoted HOXA13 expression through inhibition of miR-612, eventually leading to ovarian cancer development. In conclusion, our findings revealed a novel molecular mechanism that LUCAT1/miR-612/HOXA13 pathway modulates ovarian cancer progression.

[en] Highlights: • Dietary intake of environmental level of cadmium exerted cumulative hepatotoxicity. • Cadmium aggravated CCl₄-induced fibrosis and HSCs activation. • Cadmium elevated inflammation and immune cell infiltration in liver. • Cadmium promoted abnormal angiogenesis and hepatocarcinogenesis. • Cadmium accelerated full disease cycle from liver injury to cancer development. Cadmium (Cd) is an environmental heavy metal with long biological half-time and adverse health effects. The long-term toxicity of Cd at low levels remains to be elucidated. Here, we investigated the impact of dietary Cd intake at environmental doses in the full disease cycle from liver injury, fibrosis, inflammation to cancer progression in mouse models and in vitro. We found that chronic low-dose Cd exposure promoted the hepatotoxicity and hepato-pathogenesis in normal and CCl₄ mouse models. Cd enhanced liver injury and accelerated liver fibrosis, a key risk factor for cirrhosis and liver cancer, featured as up-regulation of fibrosis-related markers (TGF-β1, collagen-1, and TIMP1) and activation of hepatic stellate cells. Consistently, Cd increased the inflammation and the infiltration of macrophages and dendritic cells in liver. At late stage, the angiogenetic factors, VEGF and CD34, were elevated, indicating abnormal angiogenesis. At the end of treatment, Cd promoted CCl₄-induced liver cancer formation, including incidence, tumor number and size. These effects were more pronounced in male mice than that in females. The promoting-effects of Cd on fibrosis and angiogenesis were further validated in hepatic stellate cells and liver sinusoidal endothelial cells. PPAR and ERBB signaling pathways were identified as the potential pathways to promote the toxicity of chronic Cd exposure. These findings provide a better understanding about the long-term influence of environmental Cd spanning the entire precancerous lesions-to-cancer formation cycle.