Application of pediatric ocular trauma score in pediatric open globe injuries

AIM:To evaluate the predictive value of pediatric penetrating ocular trauma score(POTS)on the visual outcome in children with open globe injury.METHODS:A retrospective study in 90 children(60 males and 30 females)aged 1-15 y(average,7.48±2.86 y)with penetrating ocular trauma was performed.Each patient’s POTS was calculated.The effects of POTS on final visual acuity(FVA)were examined.Correlation between factors affecting POTS and the FVA was established.RESULTS:All patients presented with single-eye trauma.The follow-up time was 3-21 mo(average,10.23±3.54 mo).Among the 90 cases of penetrating wounds,71 eyes(78.89%)were injured in Zone I(wound involvement limited to the cornea,including the corneoscleral limbus),17 eyes(18.89%)were injured in Zone II(wound involving the sclera and no more posterior than 5 mm from the corneoscleral limbus),and 2 eyes(2.22%)were injured in Zone III(wound involvement posterior to the anterior 5 mm of the sclera).Analysis of POTS and FVA showed important correlation between them(r=0.414,P=0.000).Initial visual acuity(P=0.00),age(P=0.02),injury location(P=0.002),traumatic cataract(P=0.00),vitreous hemorrhage(P=0.027),retinal detachment(P=0.003),and endophthalmitis(P=0.03)were found to be statistically significant factors for the FVA outcome.CONCLUSION:Ocular trauma presents serious consequences and poor prognosis in children.The POTS may be a reliable prognostic tool in children with open globe injury.

Assessment value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound parameters for the nature of breast tumor and their relationship with the malignant biological behavior of tumor

Objective: To discuss the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound parameters for assessing the nature of breast tumor and their relationship with the malignant biological behavior of tumor. Methods: A total of 176 patients with breast tumor who received surgical treatment in the hospital between January 2015 and January 2017 were divided into breast adenoma group (n=110) and breast cancer group (n=66) according to pathological results. The differences in breast contrast-enhanced ultrasound parameter levels as well as the expression of proliferation, invasion and autophagy genes in tumor tissues were compared between the two groups of patients. Pearson test was used to evaluate the correlation between contrast-enhanced ultrasound parameters and malignant molecule expression in lesion tissue of patients with breast cancer. Results: PI and AUC levels in breast cancer group were greatly higher than those in breast adenoma group;proliferation genes CXCL1 and Notch1 mRNA expression in tumor tissue were higher than those of breast adenoma group whereas HPK1 mRNA expression was lower than that of breast adenoma group;invasion genes Gab2, NUAK1 and FOXF1 mRNA expression in tumor tissue were higher than those of breast adenoma group whereas NDRG1 mRNA expression was lower than that of breast adenoma group;autophagy genes ATG2B, ATG4D and ATG9B mRNA expression in tumor tissue were lower than those of breast adenoma group. Pearson test showed that the contrast-enhanced ultrasound parameters PI and AUC levels in patients with breast cancer were directly correlated with the expression of proliferation, invasion and autophagy molecules in the lesion tissue. Conclusion: The contrast-enhanced ultrasound parameter levels in patients with breast cancer are different from those in patients with benign tumors, and the specific parameter levels are directly correlated with the tumor malignancy and can be used as the reliable means for early disease screening and malignancy assessment.

Value of transient ultrasonic elastography for evaluating the liver fibrosis and liver function in patients with drug-induced liver injury

Objective: To study the value of transient ultrasonic elastography for evaluating the liver fibrosis and liver function in patients with drug-induced liver injury. Methods: A total of 68 patients with drug-induced liver injury who were treated in our hospital between January 2016 and May 2017 were selected as drug-induced liver injury group, and 50 healthy volunteers who received physical examination in our hospital during the same period were selected as normal control group. The liver transient ultrasonic elastography parameter Stiffness levels as well as serum liver fibrosis index and liver function index contents of two groups of subjects were detected. Pearson test was used to evaluate the correlation of Stiffness levels with liver fibrosis and liver function damage degree in patients with drug-induced liver injury. Results:Stiffness level in drug-induced liver injury group was higher than that in normal control group;serum liver fibrosis indexes HA, LN, CⅣ, PⅢNP and CG contents were higher than those of normal control group;serum liver function indexes ALT, AST, ALP, STB and γ-GT contents were higher than those of normal control group. Conclusion: Transient ultrasonic elastography parameter Stiffness levels increase in patients with drug-induced liver injury, and the specific levels are consistent with the liver fibrosis and liver function damage degree, and can be used as the objective means to evaluate the disease severity.

High-performance anode materials for Na-ion batteries

Na-ion batteries are considered a promising alternative to Li-ion batteries for large-scale energy storage systems due to their low cost and the natural abundance of Na resource. Great effort is making worldwide to develop high-performance electrode materials for Na-ion batteries,which is critical for Na-ion batteries. This review provides a comprehensive overview of anode materials for Na-ion batteries based on Na-storage mechanism： insertion-based materials, alloy-based materials, conversion-based materials and organic composites. And we summarize the Nastorage mechanism of those anode materials and discuss their failure mechanism. Furthermore, the problems and challenges associated with those anodes are pointed out,and feasible strategies are proposed for designing highperformance anode materials. According to the current state of research, the search for suitable anode materials for Na-ion batteries is still challenging although substantial progress has been achieved. Nevertheless, we believe that high-performance Na-ion batteries would be promising for practical applications in large-scale energy storage systems in the near future.

Kinetic study on co-combustion of pulverized anthracite and bituminite for blast furnace injection

Combustion behavior of single pulverized coals(PCs)and co-combustion characteristics of anthracite(AT)and bituminite(BT)blends with 20 wt.%volatile were studied by thermogravimetric experiments.The results indicated that reaction characteristics of PCs were closely related to their functional group structure and consequently,the pyrolysis of PCs with highly active functional groups initiated at lower temperatures.It was also noticed that the discrepancy of functional group structures between AT and BT might impair their interaction during combustion.The early exhaust of BT at low temperatures would possibly lead to an independent combustion of volatile and residual carbon and eventually the inefficient combustion of their blend.However,the mixing of AT and BT with similar functional group structures was more likely to achieve blends with superior combustion property.Simultaneously,non-isothermal kinetic analysis mani-fested that the combustion of blends followed random pore model(RPM),and therefore,the parameters calculated by RPM were more accurate to describe their combustion behavior.The kinetic calculation results showed that the activation energy required for decomposition of blends in early combustion stage was much lower owing to the excellent activity of volatile,while residual carbon with stable aromatic hydrocarbon demanded more energy to initiate its combustion.

Speech enhancement with a GSC-like structure employing sparse coding

Speech communication is often influenced by various types of interfering signals. To improve the quality of the desired signal, a generalized sidelobe canceller(GSC), which uses a reference signal to estimate the interfering signal, is attracting attention of researchers. However, the interference suppression of GSC is limited since a little residual desired signal leaks into the reference signal. To overcome this problem, we use sparse coding to suppress the residual desired signal while preserving the reference signal. Sparse coding with the learned dictionary is usually used to reconstruct the desired signal. As the training samples of a desired signal for dictionary learning are not observable in the real environment, the reconstructed desired signal may contain a lot of residual interfering signal. In contrast,the training samples of the interfering signal during the absence of the desired signal for interferer dictionary learning can be achieved through voice activity detection(VAD). Since the reference signal of an interfering signal is coherent to the interferer dictionary, it can be well restructured by sparse coding, while the residual desired signal will be removed. The performance of GSC will be improved since the estimate of the interfering signal with the proposed reference signal is more accurate than ever. Simulation and experiments on a real acoustic environment show that our proposed method is effective in suppressing interfering signals.