Effects of 530 nm monochromatic light on basic fibroblast growth factor and transforming growth factor-β1 expression in Müller cells

AIMTo expose rat retinal Müller cells to 530 nm monochromatic light and investigate the influence of varying light illumination times on basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) expression.METHODSThree groups of rat retinal Müller cells cultured in vitro under a 530 nm monochromatic light were divided into 6, 12 and 24h experimental groups, while cells incubated under dark conditions served as the control group. The bFGF and TGF-β1 mRNA expression, protein levels and fluorescence intensity of the Müller cells were analyzed.RESULTSThe bFGF mRNA expression and protein levels were significantly upregulated in Müller cells in all three experimental groups compared with the control group (P<0.05), while that of TGF-β1 was downregulated (P<0.05). Also, bFGF expression was positively correlated, but TGF-β1 expression was negatively correlated with illumination time. The largest changes for both cytokines were seen in the 24h group. The changes in bFGF and TGF-β1 fluorescence intensity were highest in the 24h group, and significant differences were observed among the experimental groups (P<0.05).CONCLUSIONThe expressions of bFGF and TGF-β1 changed in a time-dependent manner in Müller cells exposed to 530 nm monochromatic light with 250 lx illumination intensity. Müller cells might play a role in the development of myopia by increasing bFGF expression or decreasing TGF-β1 expression. Changes in cytokine expression in retinal Müller cells may affect monochromatic light-induced myopia.

Decision framework of group consensus with hesitant fuzzy linguistic preference relations

Group decision making typically requires eliciting and coordinating the preferences of group members.In this study,the authors develop an overall framework of group consensus in context of hesitant fuzzy linguistic preference relations(HFLPRs).A new notion of distance measure between two HFLPRs is defined,based on which a consensual framework consists of two mechanisms,the automatic consensus reaching and the interactive consensus reaching is presented.Accordingly,they,respectively,design two algorithms to implement these mechanisms.Finally,a group decision problem of green supplier selection is provided to exemplify and verify both of the proposed methods,and a comparative analysis with some related approaches is performed.

An Emergency Decision Making Method Based on Prospect Theory for Different Emergency Situations

Emergency decision making(EDM) is an effective way to deal with emergency situations because of its prominent role in alleviating the losses of properties and lives caused by emergency events. It has drawn increasing attention from both governments and academia, and become an important research topic in recent years. Studies show that decision makers are usually guided by bounded rationality under risk and uncertainty conditions. Their psychological behavior plays an important role in the decision making process, and EDM problems are usually characterized by high risk and uncertainty. Thus, decision makers' psychological behavior has been considered in existing EDM approaches based on prospect theory. An emergency event might evolve into different situations due to its dynamic evolution, which is one of the distinctive features of emergency events. This important issue has been discussed in existing EDM approaches, in which different emergency situations are dealt with by devising different solutions. However, existing EDM approaches do not consider decision makers' psychological behavior together with the different emergency situations and the different solutions. Motivated by such limitation, this study proposed a novel approach based on prospect theory considering emergency situations, which considers not only decision makers' psychological behavior, but also different emergency situations in the EDM process. Two examples and related comparison are provided to illustrate the feasibility and validity of this approach.