[A study on the dual use of e-cigarettes and cigarettes among adolescents in Shandong Province]

Objective: To understand the current status and its associated factors of dual use of e-cigarettes and cigarettes among adolescents in Shandong Province and explore the reasons for dual use behavior. Methods: A self-administered survey was conducted among 7 999 middle school students who were selected by stratified multi-stage cluster sample method. Data were weighted and analyzed by the SPSS 25.0 complex program. Results: In Shandong Province, the prevalence rates of attempting and current dual use of e-cigarettes and cigarettes among adolescents appeared as 7.7% and 1.3%, respectively. Male, friends smoking, and secondhand smoke exposure in the past 7 days were risk factors for dual use. Compared with cigarette smokers, dual users have no differences in cognition and behavior in quitting smoking (P>0.05). The main reason for dual users to smoke e-cigarettes was curiosity. Conclusions: Dual use of e-cigarettes and cigarettes is common among adolescents in Shandong Province, and its influencing factors are similar to traditional cigarettes. Dual use is not a transitional stage for smoking cessation. Dual users are more likely to continue smoking in the future, which should be paid attention and concern.

Achieving High Core Neuron Density in a Neuromorphic Chip Through Trade-off Among Area, Power Consumption, and Data Access Bandwidth

As a crucial component of neuromorphic chips, on-chip memory usually occupies most of the on-chip resources and limits the improvement of neuron density. The alternative of using off-chip memory may result in additional power consumption or even a bottleneck for off-chip data access. This article proposes an on- and off-chip co-design approach and a figure of merit (FOM) to achieve a trade-off between chip area, power consumption, and data access bandwidth. By evaluating the FOM of each design scheme, the scheme with the highest FOM (1.085× better than the baseline) is adopted to design a neuromorphic chip. Deep multiplexing and weight-sharing technologies are used to reduce on-chip resource overhead and data access pressure. A hybrid memory design method is proposed to optimize on- and off-chip memory distribution, which reduces on-chip storage pressure and total power consumption by 92.88% and 27.86%, respectively, while avoiding the explosion of off-chip access bandwidth. The co-designed neuromorphic chip with ten cores fabricated under standard 55 nm CMOS technology has an area of 4.4 mm 2 and a core neuron density of 4.92 K/mm 2, an improvement of 3.39  ∼ 30.56× compared with previous works. After deploying a full-connected and a convolution-based spiking neural network (SNN) for ECG signal recognition, the neuromorphic chip achieves 92% and 95% accuracy, respectively. This work provides a new path for developing high-density and large-scale neuromorphic chips.

[An analysis on senior pupil's tobacco use and exposure in Shandong province in 2012 and 2019]

Objective: To analyze the changes in tobacco use and exposure in primary school students in Shandong province in 2012 and 2019. Methods: A multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method was used in the survey. In 2012 and 2019, 5 861 and 4 021 students from 3 different cities of Shandong province were selected as the study population. The questionnaire was filled anonymously by the subjects. χ² test was conducted to compare the difference of groups. Results: In 2012 and 2019, the rate of attempting smoking among pupils under this study in Shandong province were 6.0％and 6.3%, respectively, while the current smoking rate were 1.2％and 2.3%, respectively. The sex ratio of male and female students attempting to smoke was 2.56∶1 in 2012 and 1.31∶1 in 2019. The sex ratio of current smoking rate was 2.43∶1 and 2.00∶1, respectively in 2012 and in 2019. The rate of tobacco exposure in the public places was 50.5％and 41.4%, respectively. The rate of tobacco exposure in family was 49.7% and 46.4%, respectively. Two rates of tobacco exposure decreased, but the reduction in family (3.3%) was far less than that in public places (9.1%). In 2019, the rate of tobacco exposure in family was higher than that in public places. Conclusions: The tobacco exposure rate declined in senior pupils in Shandong province. However, the situation is still grim for the current smoking rate, growth trend of girls tobacco use, and tobacco exposure in family.

[Survey on tobacco use and associated factors in population in Shandong province, 2016-2017]

Objective: To understand the status of tobacco use and related influencing factors in population in Shandong province. Methods: Stratified multi-stage cluster sampling was used to select respondents from 216 villages (communities) of 36 districts (counties) in Shandong province. Influencing factors on smoking were analyzed by logistic regression model. Results: The adequate sample size was 6 271 participants. After complex weighted, the current smoking prevalence was 23.93%,45.58% in males and 1.18% in females. The Public's smoking rates varied widely among different groups in the population. 45-64 age group had the highest smoking rate (25.07%). Smoking rates were substantially different in education levels, with the highest in junior high school (28.94%). The rate was higher in the rural area (24.98%) than that in the urban areas (23.08%). The average daily smoking rate was 20.23%. The average age of initiating smoking was 21.21 years. The average daily cigarette intake was 16.31 cigarettes. Among all the former and current smokers, the quitting rate was 20.79%. Multiple logistic regression model analysis showed that gender, age, occupation, region, and health knowledge score were correlated with smoking behavior. The current smoking rate of men was much higher than that of women (OR=49.625, 95%CI: 37.832-65.093). The current smoking rate in 45-64 age group was higher than that in the 15-24 age group (OR=1.830, 95%CI: 1.048-3.194). The current smoking rate of medical (OR=0.403, 95%CI: 0.187-0.866) and retired personnel (OR=0.648, 95%CI: 0.481-0.873) were lower than those engaging in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and the fishery ,respectively. The prevalence of residents living in the central part showed lower rate on current smoking than that in the eastern region (OR=0.724, 95%CI: 0.606-0.865). The current smoking prevalence of smoke hazard in 1-3 score group was higher than that in the group with 4-6 score (OR=1.432, 95%CI: 1.240-1.654). Conclusions: Smoking rate in adults in Shandong remained stable and at a high level. Comprehensive intervention measures such as tobacco control and health education should be carried out to reduce the smoking rate.

[Prevalence and associated factors regarding electronic cigarette smoking among adults in Shandong province]

Objective: To understand the awareness, current or past behavior on electronic cigarette smoking (ECS) and associated factors, among adults aged ≥15 years old in Shandong province. Relationship between ECS and cessation of smoking was also studied. Methods: Using the global standard questionnaire, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 6 401 adults selected by stratified multi-stage cluster sample method. Electronic data was collected by handheld computer. Data were weighted and analyzed by SPSS 19.0 complex program. Results: The prevalence rates of awareness, ever or current smoking of e-cigarettes appeared as 37.6%, 3.8% and 0.6% respectively. Data from logistic regression analysis showed that risk factors for ECS were living in urban area, at younger age, being current or former cigarettes smoker and with knowledge on the risks of smoking or being encouraged to stop smoking. Among the electronic cigarettes smokers, those who tried to quit smoking (30.1%) had a significantly higher rate than that of the non-smokers (19.5%) (P<0.05), however, the successful quitting rate was much lower than that in the non-ECS users (P<0.05). Conclusions: Rates on the awareness and uptake of electronic cigarettes are on the rise. It is necessary to strengthen and standardize the monitoring programs to provide evidence for setting up targeting intervention strategies.

[Study on the relationship between smoking behavior and health literacy among grade 4-6 primary students in Shandong province]

Objective: To investigate the associations between smoking and literacy on health among 4-6 grade primary school students. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted to research on health literacy and smoking among 4-6 grade pupils in Shandong province, through a multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method. Sociodemographic characteristics, health literacy level and smoking rate were collected from respondents. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association of smoking and health literacy. Results: A total of 9 240 questionnaires were distributed, with the rate of valid response as 99.7%. The current smoking rate of the students was 2.6%, on higher in boys (3.1%) than in girls (2.0%). 60.8% of 4-6 grade students were found to have adequate health literacy level. Levels of literacy health in both boy and girl school students appeared 56.7% and 64.9%, respectively. Results indicated that health literacy in smokers (14.4%) was lower than that in non-smokers (62.0%). Results from the binary logistic regression analysis showed that the independent influencing factors would include grade, father's education level, economic situation of the family, self-assessment on the school record and literacy on health (P<0.01). After controlling the other independent variables, the smoking rate was 8.62 (1/0.116) times in students with low literacy level on health, than those with high literacy level. Conclusions: Literacy on health was significantly associated with smoking in the 4-6 grade pupils of Shandong province.

Microcalorimetric studies of perchlorate on heat production by hepatocytes and mitochondria isolated from Carassius auratus

As a new threat to environment all through the world, perchlorate (ClO(4)(-)) was predominantly a thyrotoxin, and its toxic manifestations in non-thyroid were also documented. However, little is known about the effects of ClO(4)(-) on cell and organelle. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the effects of ClO(4)(-) on hepatocytes and mitochondria isolated from Carassius auratus from the direct viewpoint of energy by using the microcalorimetric method. The metabolic thermogenic curves of hepatocytes and mitochondria at 25°C were obtained. And the thermokinetic parameters, such as growth rate constant (k), inhibitory ratio (I), maximum thermal power (P(max)) and total thermal effect (Q(total)) have been calculated. The results indicated that the toxicity of ClO(4)(-) on hepatocytes was relevant to the concentration of ClO(4)(-). However, 10-100mgL(-1)ClO(4)(-) stimulated the metabolic activity of mitochondria and the toxicity of ClO(4)(-) on mitochondria only occurrenced when treated with higher concentration of ClO(4)(-). This study shown that mitochondria has a major impact on the metabolic thermogenic of hepatocytes, but not the only factor. Meanwhile, it demonstrated that microcalorimetry was a powerful tool for understanding biological processes and studying on the toxic action of environmental contaminants in cell or subcellular level.

Immunomodulatory drug FTY720 induces regulatory CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells in vitro

As a novel immunosuppressant, FTY720 (2-amino-2-(2-[4-octylphenyl] ethyl)-1, 3-propanediol hydrochloride) has been used to prevent the allograft rejection in organ transplantation. FTY720 can prolong markedly survival of the allograft by inducing apoptosis of reactive lymphocytes and by redirecting the homing of lymphocytes. However, as the archetype of a new class of immune modulators, the potential effect of FTY720 on the immune response needs to be elucidated further. In this study, FTY720 was added into the mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) consisting of murine splenocytes from BALB/c and C57BL/6, to observe its direct effect on the induction of CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells. It was demonstrated that the proportion of CD4(+)CD25(+) and CD4(+)CD25(+)forkhead box P3 (FoxP3)(+) T cells in MLR were increased significantly by FTY720 treatment, and the expression of FoxP3 mRNA in lymphocytes was also enhanced markedly by the drug. A synergetic effect was observed between FTY720 and co-stimulation blockades. Moreover, analysis of the function of FTY720-treated cells manifested an increased suppressive activity in an in vitro antigen-specific proliferation assay. In conclusion, FTY720 can increase the number and enhance the functional activity of CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells in MLR, and these FTY720-treated cells possess the activity to down-regulate the alloreactivity of lymphocytes, indicating its potential use for therapeutic purposes.

Induction of oxidative stress and apoptosis by pentachlorophenol in primary cultures of Carassius carassius hepatocytes

Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is a highly toxic contaminant of chlorophenols. Due to its slow and incomplete biodegradation, it can be found in surface, groundwater and in soils. To investigate the role of intracellular calcium and reactive oxygen species in apoptosis induced by PCP in cultured hepatocytes, the primary hepatocytes of Carassius carassius were incubated with different concentrations of PCP at 25 degrees C for 8 h in vitro. Apoptosis was detected by DNA laddering, caspase activation and flow cytometry. The results demonstrated that apoptosis was involved in the cytotoxic effect of PCP, and that PCP-induced apoptosis occurred in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, the induction of apoptosis by PCP was accompanied with Ca2+, Mg2+-ATPase activity decline, intracellular Ca2+ elevation, generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial membrane potential (DeltaPsi(m)) disruption and ATP depletion. Concomitantly, there were dose-dependent increases in lipid peroxidation production (MDA) and decreases in glutathione (GSH). These investigations suggest that PCP-induces apoptosis in the cultured hepatocytes by affecting multiple targets, and suggest that [Ca2+]i increase and ROS generation may be involved in apoptosis induction by PCP.

A process integration approach to industrial water conservation: a case study for a Chinese steel plant

A systematic approach to optimizing water network has traditionally been utilized to exam and plan water conservation in industrial processes. In the present case study, water-pinch technology was used to analyze and optimize the water network of a steel plant near China's Zhangjiakou city. A system design was developed and a limiting constraint (Cl(-) concentration) was identified based on investigations of water quality then the minimum freshwater and wastewater targets were determined without considering water losses. The analysis was then extended by calculating the additional input of freshwater required to balance the actual water losses. A nearest-neighbor algorithm (NNA) was used to distribute the freshwater and recycled water among each of the plant's operations. The results showed that with some reconstruction of the water network, the flow rates of freshwater and wastewater could be decreased by 57.5% and 81.9%, respectively.

Computer-based QSARs for predicting mixture toxicity of benzene and its derivatives

During the past decades, the Quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) have been proven to be reliable tools when little or no empirical data are available in medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, toxicology, and environmental sciences. However, only few studies that quantitatively predict mixtures toxicity have been reported. In this study, the QASR models for the binary mixtures toxicity of 12 benzene and its derivatives, including eight non-polar-narcotic compounds and four polar narcotic compounds were developed, without reference to exact toxicity mechanisms of single compounds. All parameters for the QSAR studies were defined on the basis of quantum mechanical calculations and these parameters were selected by the stepwise procedure. The results of this study provided a simple means of predicting the binary mixtures toxicity from the chemical structure.

A combination of anergic cells' adoptive transfer and rapamycin therapy prolongs cardiac allograft survival in mice

The in vivo immunoregulatory effect of anergic cells induced by blocking the costimulatory pathway was investigated in this study. Anergic cells were generated in vitro by mixed culture of murine splenic cells from BALB/c and C3H/HeJ under the blockade of anti-CD154 and anti-CD80 monoclonal antibodies, and the in vitro activity of anergic cells were observed. The 3.0 Gy gamma-irradiated BALB/c mice received cardic allografts from C3H/HeJ, and anergic cells were intravenously injected immediately after transplantation. Recipient mice injected with anergic cells also received rapamycin therapy (1 mg/kg/day) for 14 days. On day 7 after transplantation, the subsets of peripheral blood T lymphocytes, the pathology of grafts and the infiltration of lymphocytes in grafts were analysed. Untreated gamma-irradiated animals showed a graft median survival time (MST) of 9 days. Animals injected with anergic cells only or receiving rapamycin therapy alone showed MST of 11 and 17 days, respectively. MST of allograft in mice treated with control cells plus rapamycin therapy was 9 days. Animals injected with anergic cells plus rapamycin therapy, but receiving third-party allografts (C57BL/6J), showed an MST of 15 days. However, anergic cell injection plus rapamycin therapy prolonged allograft survival significantly (MST 28 days, P < 0.01). The rejection was mild and tissue architecture was preserved in recipient mice receiving anergic cell injection plus rapamycin therapy. Furthermore, anergic cells and rapamycin therapy decreased the percentage of peripheral blood CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (including CD25+, CD152+, CD154+ and CD28+ subsets) and greatly reduced the infiltrating lymphocytes in allografts (including CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ and CD25+ T cells). In conclusion, the treatment based on anergic cells' adoptive transfer plus rapamycin therapy demonstrated a significant prolongation of murine cardiac allograft survival in a donor antigen-specific manner. This therapeutic protocol alleviated allograft rejection to solid allograft in vivo.

Modification of the Wiener Index. 2

A novel topological index based on the Wiener Index is proposed as W = 1/2, summation(n/ij)=S*(ij) the element S*(ij) of the distance matrix is defined either as S*(ij)= square root (E(i)E(j)/R(ij) (atoms i and j are adjacent) or as S*(ij)=(j-i+1)square root (E(i)...xE /R(ij) (atoms i and j are not adjacent), where E(i) and E(j) represent the total energy of the valence electrons of vertexes i and j, respectively, R(ij) is the sum of the distance between the vertexes i and j in a molecular graph. The distance and the energy of the vertexes in a molecule are taken into account in this definition. Hence the application of the index W to multiple bond and heteroatom-containing organic systems and inorganic systems is possible. Good correlation coefficients are achieved not only in the standard formation enthalpy of methyl halides, halogen-silicon, but also in the retention index of gas chromatography of the hydrocarbons.

Studies on the energy release of rice mitochondria under different conditions by means of microcalorimetry

The thermodynamic and kinetic behaviors of energy release of mitochondria isolated from rice (Oryza sative L.) were studied by using a LKB 2277 Bioactivity Monitor under different conditions. The thermogenesis curves of energy release of the rice mitochondria (which had been kept at 0-3 degrees C for 15 h and 40 day before the determination) were determined respectively at 25 and 30 degrees C, and the difference in shape of the thermogenesis curves and thermodynamic and kinetic characteristics were compared. The thermodynamic and kinetic parameters of energy release of the mitochondria in the thermogenesis increasing stage have been calculated, and the experimental thermokinetic equations of the thermogenesis have been established. The results indicated that the lower the temperature, the slower the energy release of the rice mitochondria. Both the thermogenesis and the energy release rate of the rice mitochondria increased after the mitochondria was kept at lower temperature for 40 days. One can use the methods to characterize the ability of the rice mitochondria to release energy under different conditions.

Assay for Laccase activity by microcalorimetry: laccase was extracted from china lacquer of Rhus vernicifera

The reactions between Laccase (extracted from China lacquer of Rhus vernicifera) and various substrates (3,4-Dihydroxybenzaldehyde, Guaiacol, Pyrogallol, Gallic acid) have been studied using LKB-2107 batch microcalorimetry system. Based on calorimetry, a new method has been proposed. Laccase activity and the Michaelis constant K(m) have been determined simultaneously by this method. The method is simple, sample-saving, and valid for a wider range of substrate concentrations. Furthermore, it can be extended for assaying other enzymes catalyzing reactions using this method.

[Isolation and sequence analysis of a mitochondrial DNA fragment associated with CMS in Hong Lian type rice]

A CMS line specific mtDNA band TA1 was isolated by comparing the mtDNAs of CMS line and maintainer line using AFLP technique. The Northern blot analysis of the TA1 mtDNA fragment show that it transcripts only one RNA molecular each in CMS line, maintain line and the first filial generation, but the RNA moleculars are different among each other. By sequencing, the fragment is found to be 202 base pairs in length. It contains code ATG, ATT, AGA and AGG, two small repeated sequences 5'TGTAC3' and 5'ATTATTTT3' and one small inverted-repeated sequence 5'GGGAAACA3'. The results imply that the mtDNA fragment may be a coding region and may be relative to CMS of Hong Lian type rice.

Determination of the thermogenesis curves and studies of the thermodynamics and thermokinetics of seed germination

The thermogenesis curves of the germination of different rice and tree seeds were determined and studied by using a newly constructed microcalorimeter. The thermogenesis curves of the germination of the seeds demonstrate the existence of physiological triphasic patterns, which include imbibition, activation and growth stages in the germination process. The thermodynamics and thermokinetics of the main growth phase of the growth stage in the germination process have been studied. The growth heat effect (deltaH), the growth rate constant (k), the growth inhibitory factor (s) and deceleration rate constant (beta) have been determined and calculated, In addition, the experimental thermokinetic equations of the growth stage in the seed germination process have been established.