It is well known that nonlinear conjugate gradient methods are very effective for large-scale smooth optimization problems. However, their efficiency has not been widely investigated for large-scale nonsmooth problems, which are often found in practice. This paper proposes a modified Hestenes-Stiefel conjugate gradient algorithm for nonsmooth convex optimization problems. The search direction of the proposed method not only possesses the sufficient descent property but also belongs to a trust region. Under suitable conditions, the global convergence of the presented algorithm is established. The numerical results show that this method can successfully be used to solve large-scale nonsmooth problems with convex and nonconvex properties (with a maximum dimension of 60,000). Furthermore, we study the modified Hestenes-Stiefel method as a solution method for large-scale nonlinear equations and establish its global convergence. Finally, the numerical results for nonlinear equations are verified, with a maximum dimension of 100,000.

Endocan-MVD significantly correlates with the expression of VEGF and VEGFR2 and is a valuable prognostic factor for survival in human gastric cancer.

This study demonstrated that CTSG is a pronociceptive mediator in both animal model and human study. CTSG represents a new target for pain control and a potential marker to predict patients who are prone to develop chronic pain after surgery.

The quantitative explanation of the potential field data of three‐dimensional geological structures remains one of the most challenging issues in modern geophysical inversion. Obtaining a stable solution that can simultaneously resolve complicated geological structures is a critical inverse problem in the geophysics field. I have developed a new method for determining a three‐dimensional petrophysical property distribution, which produces a corresponding potential field anomaly. In contrast with the tradition inverse algorithm, my inversion method proposes a new model norm, which incorporates two important weighting functions. One is the L0 quasi norm (enforcing sparse constraints), and the other is depth‐weighting that counteracts the influence of source depth on the resulting potential field data of the solution. Sparseness constraints are imposed by using the L0 quasinorm on model parameters. To solve the representation problem, an L0 quasinorm minimisation model with different smooth approximations is proposed. Hence, the data space (N) method, which is much smaller than model space (M), combined with the gradient‐projected method, and the model space, combined with the modified Newton method for L0 quasinorm sparse constraints, leads to a computationally efficient method by using an N × N system versus an M × M one because N ≪ M. Tests on synthetic data and real datasets demonstrate the stability and validity of the L0 quasinorm spare norms inversion method. With the aim of obtaining the blocky results, the inversion method with the L0 quasinorm sparse constraints method performs better than the traditional L2 norm (standard Tikhonov regularisation). It can obtain the focus and sparse results easily. Then, the Bouguer anomaly survey data of the salt dome, offshore Louisiana, is considered as a real case study. The real inversion result shows that the inclusion the L0 quasinorm sparse constraints leads to a simpler and better resolved solution, and the density distribution is obtained in this area to reveal its geological structure. These results confirm the validity of the L0 quasinorm sparse constraints method and indicate its application for other potential field data inversions and the exploration of geological structures.

SET and MYND domain-containing protein 3 (SMYD3) is a kind of histone lysine methyltransferase, responsible for transcriptional activation as a member of an RNA polymerase complex. The ectopic expression of SMYD3 is proved to promote the progress of many kinds of cancers. In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), SMYD3 was demonstrated to promote the proliferation and metastasis of HCC cell lines, but the clinical significance of SMYD3 has not been elucidated. In the present study, we detected the expression of SMYD3 in 100 HCC tissues with immunohistochemistry and divided these tissue specimens into high-expression group and low-expression group according to the immunohistochemical score of SMYD3. Importantly, the intensity of SMYD3 immunoreactivity was significantly stronger in HCC tissues than that in adjacent normal tissues. Moreover, high expression levels of SMYD3 were significantly associated with larger tumor size (P = 0.043), suggesting that SMYD3 could promote the proliferation of HCC. Moreover, patients with positive hepatitis B virus infection had higher expression levels of SMYD3 (P = 0.013). With univariate and multivariate analysis, we explored the prognostic significance of SMYD3 in HCC. As a result, high expression levels of SMYD3 were significantly correlated to the poorer clinical outcome of HCC patients (P = 0.009) and were identified as an independent risk factor of HCC for predicting the unfavorable prognosis. In conclusion, overexpression of SMYD3 is an independent prognostic risk of unfavorable prognosis of HCC. We propose that the anti-SMYD3 therapy may be a potential approach to treat HCC.

Background The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between single-nucleotide polymorphisms and chronic postsurgical pain. Methods Using GoldenGate genotyping assays, we genotyped 638 polymorphisms within 54 pain-related genes in 1,152 surgical patients who were enrolled in our Persistent Pain after Surgery Study. Patients were contacted by phone to determine whether they had chronic postsurgical pain at 12 months. Polymorphisms identified were validated in a matched cohort of 103 patients with chronic postsurgical pain and 103 patients who were pain free. The functions of targeted polymorphisms were tested in an experimental plantar incisional nociception model using knock-in mice. Results At 12 months after surgery, 246 (21.4%) patients reported chronic postsurgical pain. Forty-two polymorphisms were found to be associated with chronic postsurgical pain, 19 decreased the risk of pain, and 23 increased the risk of pain. Patients carrying allele A of rs6265 polymorphism in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) had a lower risk of chronic postsurgical pain in the discovery and validation cohorts, with an adjusted odds ratio (95% CI) of 0.62 (0.43 to 0.90) and 0.57 (0.39 to 0.85), respectively. Age less than 65 yr, male sex, and prior history of pain syndrome were associated with an increased risk of pain. Genetic polymorphisms had higher population attributable risk (7.36 to 11.7%) compared with clinical risk factors (2.90 to 5.93%). Importantly, rs6265 is a substitution of valine by methionine at amino acid residue 66 (Val66Met) and was associated with less mechanical allodynia in BDNFMet/Met mice compared with BDNFVal/Val group after plantar incision. Conclusions This study demonstrated that genetic variant of BDNF rs6265G>A is associated with decreased risk of chronic postsurgical pain.

A method for simultaneously removing sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from coke oven flue gas using steel slag slurry was proposed. Due to the high removal efficiency of SO2, the effects of operation conditions on the removal of NOx were investigated emphatically. The results showed that the removal efficiency of NOx increased with an increase in steel slag slurry concentration, NOx oxidation ratio, steel slag slurry pH, and NOx and SO2 inlet concentrations and a decrease in reaction temperature. The removal efficiencies of SO2 and NOx could reach 100 and 83.4%, respectively, by optimizing the operation conditions. The mechanism of NOx removal using steel slag slurry was investigated. The results showed that (MgO)0.841·(MnO)0.159 (RO phase, a CaO–FeO–MnO–MgO solid solution) in steel slag was decomposed by H+ and produced Mg2+ and Mn2+. Furthermore, Mn2+ in steel slag slurry could promote the absorption of NO2 via redox reactions with the generation of solid Mn3O4 and MnO­(OH).

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