Surgical and nonsurgical methods produce similar results in the treatment of DRFS in the elderly, and minor objective functional differences did not result an impact on subjective function outcome and quality of life.

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Skin epidermal stem cells (EpSCs) play an important role in wound healing. Quercetin is a phytoestrogen reported to accelerate skin wound healing, but its effect on EpSCs is unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of quercetin on human EpSC proliferation and explored the underlying mechanisms. We found that quercetin at 0.1~1 μM significantly promoted EpSC proliferation and increased the number of cells in S phase. The pro-proliferative effect of quercetin on EpSCs was confirmed in cultured human skin tissue. Mechanistic studies showed that quercetin significantly upregulated the expressions of β-catenin, c-Myc, and cyclins A2 and E1. Inhibitor for β-catenin or c-Myc significantly inhibited quercetin-induced EpSC proliferation. The β-catenin inhibitor XAV-939 suppressed quercetin-induced expressions of β-catenin, c-Myc, and cyclins A2 and E1. The c-Myc inhibitor 10058-F4 inhibited the upregulation of c-Myc and cyclin A2 by quercetin. Pretreatment of EpSCs with estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist ICI182780, but not the G protein-coupled ER1 antagonist G15, reversed quercetin-induced cell proliferation and upregulation of β-catenin, c-Myc, and cyclin A2. Collectively, these results indicate that quercetin promotes EpSC proliferation through ER-mediated activation of β-catenin/c-Myc/cyclinA2 signaling pathway and ER-independent upregulation of cyclin E1 and that quercetin may accelerate skin wound healing through promoting EpSC proliferation. As EpSCs are used not only in clinic to treat skin wounds but also as seed cells in skin tissue engineering, quercetin is a useful reagent to expand EpSCs for basic research, skin wound treatment, and skin tissue engineering.

The tip speed ratio regulation based maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control for the wind energy conversion system (WECS) is studied in this paper. Challenges imposed by uncertain changes in wind velocity and unmodelled system dynamics are considered. A first order active disturbance rejection controller (ADRC) is designed to tackle this problem. Based on the platform of the high-power (2-MW) rigid-drive-train squirrel-cage induction generator-based wind energy conversion system (WECS), a simulation study is carried out by comparing with the performance of a well-tuned published PI (proportional–integral) speed controller, and the results show that the proposed first order ADRC controller exhibits better tracking performance and adaptability for uncertain wind velocity changes. There are only two controller parameters, namely, ωo and ωc, to tune, and control adaptability can be held without parameters resetting or extractable mechanical power reducing, proving the effectiveness of the proposed ADRC approach for the WECS MPPT problem.

Restoration of a wound is a common surgical procedure in clinic. Currently, the skin required for clinical use is taken from the patient's own body. However, it can be difficult to obtain enough skin sources for large‐sized wounds and thus surgeons have started using commercial skin substitutes. The current commercial skin, which includes epidermis substitute, dermis substitute, and bilateral skin substitute, has been popularized in clinic. However, the application is limited by the occurrence of ischemia necrosis after transplantation. Recent studies suggest the use of pre‐vascularized skin substitutes for wound healing is a promising area in the research field of skin tissue engineering. Pre‐vascularization can be induced by changes in cultivation periods, exertion of mechanical stimuli, or coculture with endothelial cells and various factors. However, few methods could control the formation of vascular branches in engineering tissue in a self‐assembly way. In this study, we use three‐dimensional (3D) printing technology to confirm that a mechanical force can control the growth of blood vessels in the direction of mechanical stimulation with no branches, and that Yes‐associated protein activity is involved in the regulatory progress. In vivo experiments verified that the blood vessels successfully function for blood circulation, and maintain the same direction. Results provide a theoretical basis for products of pre‐vascularized skin tissues and other organs created by 3D bioprinting.

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Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods have rapidly developed and have been applied to many areas for decision making in engineering. Apart from that, the process to select fault-diagnosis sensor for Fuel Cell Stack system in various options is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) issue. However, in light of the choosing of fault diagnosis sensors, there is no MCDM analysis, and Fuel Cell Stack companies also urgently need a solution. Therefore, in this paper, we will use MCDM methods to analysis the fault-diagnosis sensor selection problem for the first time. The main contribution of this paper is to proposed a fault-diagnosis sensor selection methodology, which combines the rank reversal resisted AHP and TOPSIS and supports Fuel Cell Stack companies to select the optimal fault-diagnosis sensors. Apart from that, through the analysis, among all sensor alternatives, the acquisition of the optimal solution can be regarded as solving the symmetric or asymmetric problem of the optimal solution, which just maps to the TOPSIS method. Therefore, after apply the proposed fault-diagnosis sensor selection methodology, the Fuel Cell Stack system fault-diagnosis process will be more efficient, economical, and safe.