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There is a mysterious twofold change in Du Châtelet's position on Newtonian attraction: from acceptance thereof as an explanatory principle in Essai sur l'optique (ca. 1738–39), to rejection in the 1740 Institutions , and returning to acceptance again in her Commentary (1756) to Newton's Principia. In this article, I suggest that we turn to the 1742 Institutions for answers. There, Du Châtelet introduces physical explanation and maintains that we can appeal to certain physical qualities (such as attraction) for explanatory force. Using this case study, I argue that the scholarship will benefit greatly from turning to the 1742 edition going forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to introduce q‐Post–Widder operators based on a new parameter and study their approximation properties. The moments and central moments are investigated. And some local approximation properties of these operators by means of modulus of continuity and Peetre's K‐functional are presented. Furthermore, the rate of convergence for these operators is obtained. Weighted approximation and the quantitative q‐Voronovskaja type theorem are discussed. Finally, numerical illustrative examples have been given to show the convergence of these newly defined operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymer dielectrics with a high energy density and an available energy storage capacity have been playing an important role in advanced electronics and power systems. Nevertheless, the use of polymer dielectrics in harsh environments is limited by their low energy density at high temperatures. Herein, zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) nanoparticles were decorated with amino group utilizing 4,4-methylenebis (phenyl isocyanate) (AMEO) and successfully incorporated into polyetherimide (PEI) matrix. The dielectric properties, breakdown strength, and energy storage performances of PEI/ZrO2-AMEO nanocomposites were investigated from 25 °C to 150 °C. It is found that the combination of moderate bandgap ZrO2 with modest dielectric constant and polar groups at interface with deep trap can offer an available strategy to simultaneously increase the dielectric constant and breakdown strength of polymer dielectrics. As a result, the composites containing ZrO2-AMEO exhibit excellent energy storage performance at elevated temperatures. Specially, the PEI-based composites with 3 vol% ZrO2-AMEO display a maximum discharged energy density (Ud) of 3.1 J/cm3 at 150 °C, presenting 90% higher than that of neat PEI. This study may help to better develop the polymer-based dielectric composite applied at elevated temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orbit angular momentum (OAM) has been considered a new dimension for improving channel capacity in recent years. In this paper, a millimeter-wave broadband multi-mode waveguide traveling-wave antenna with OAM is proposed by innovatively utilizing the transmitted electromagnetic waves (EMWs) characteristic of substrate-integrated gap waveguides (SIGWs) to introduce phase delay, resulting in coupling to the radiate units with a phase jump. Nine "L"-shaped slot radiate elements are cut in a circular order at a certain angle on the SIGW to generate spin angular momentum (SAM) and OAM. To generate more OAM modes and match the antenna, four "Π"-shaped slot radiate units with a 90° relationship to each other are designed in this circular array. The simulation results show that the antenna operates at 28 GHz, with a −10 dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) = 35.7%, ranging from 25.50 to 35.85 GHz and a VSWR ≤ 1.5 dB from 28.60 to 32.0 GHz and 28.60 to 32.0 GHz. The antenna radiates a linear polarization (LP) mode with a gain of 9.3 dBi at 34.0~37.2 GHz, a l = 2 SAM–OAM (i.e., circular polarization OAM (CP–OAM)) mode with 8.04 dBi at 25.90~28.08 GHz, a l = 1 and l = 2 hybrid OAM mode with 5.7 dBi at 28.08~29.67 GHz, a SAM (i.e., left/right hand circular polarization (L/RHCP) mode with 4.6 dBi at 29.67~30.41 GHz, and a LP mode at 30.41~35.85 GHz. In addition, the waveguide transmits energy with a bandwidth ranging from 26.10 to 38.46 GHz. Within the in-band, only a quasi-TEM mode is transmitted with an energy transmission loss | S 21 | ≤ 2 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been shown to improve gut dysbiosis in dogs; however, it has not completely been understood in police dogs. This study aimed to investigate the effects of FMT on performance and gut microflora in Kunming police dogs. Twenty Wolf Cyan dogs were randomly assigned to receive physiological saline or fecal suspension at low, medium, or high doses through oral gavage for 14 days. Growth performance, police performance, serum biochemical profiling, and gut microflora were determined 2-week post-FMT. Dogs after FMT treatment were also subjected to an hour road transportation and then were evaluated for serum stress indicators. Overall, FMT enhanced the growth performance and alleviated diarrhea rate in Kunming dogs with the greatest effects occurring in the low dose FMT (KML) group. The improvement of FMT on police performance was also determined. These above alterations were accompanied by changed serum biochemical parameters as indicated by elevated total protein and albumin and reduced total cholesterol and glycerol. Furthermore, the serum stress indicators after road transportation in dog post-FMT significantly decreased. Increased bacterial diversity and modified bacterial composition were found in the feces of dogs receiving FMT. The fecal samples from FMT dogs were characterized by higher abundances of the genera Lactobacillus, Prevotella, and Fusobacterium and lower concentrations of Cetobacterium, Allobaculum, Bifidobacterium, and Streptococcus. The present study supports a potential benefit of FMT on police performance in Kunming dogs. Key points: • FMT improves the growth performance and reduces diarrhea rates in Kunming police dogs. • FMT alleviates the serum stress profiles after road transportation in Kunming police dogs. • FMT modifies the gut microbiota composition of Kunming police dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the ergodic semilinear stochastic partial differential equation driven by additive noise and the long-time behavior of its full discretization realized by a spectral Galerkin method in spatial direction and an Euler scheme in the temporal direction, which admits a unique invariant probability measure. Under the condition that the nonlinearity is once differentiable, the optimal convergence orders of the numerical invariant measures are obtained based on the time-independent weak error, but not relying on the associated Kolmogorov equation. More precisely, the obtained convergence orders are O (λ N − γ) in space and O (τ γ) in time, where γ ∈ (0 , 1 ] from the assumption ∥ A γ − 1 2 Q 1 2 ∥ L 2 is used to characterize the spatial correlation of the noise process. Finally, numerical examples confirm the theoretical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider an explicit fully‐discrete approximation of the Cahn–Hilliard–Cook (CHC) equation with additive noise, performed by a standard finite element method in space and a kind of nonlinearity‐tamed Euler scheme in time. The main result in this paper establishes strong convergence rates of the proposed scheme. The key ingredient in the proof of our main result is to employ uniform moment bounds for the numerical approximations. To the best of our knowledge, the main contribution of this work is the first result in the literature which establishes strong convergence for an explicit fully‐discrete finite element approximation of the CHC equation. Finally, numerical results are finally reported to confirm the previous theoretical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been shown to improve gut dysbiosis in dogs; however, it has not completely been understood in police dogs. This study aimed to investigate the effects of FMT on performance and gut microflora in Kunming police dogs. Twenty Wolf Cyan dogs were randomly assigned to receive physiological saline or fecal suspension at low, medium, or high doses through oral gavage for 14 days. Growth performance, police performance, serum biochemical profiling, and gut microflora were determined 2-week post-FMT. Dogs after FMT treatment were also subjected to an hour road transportation and then were evaluated for serum stress indicators. Overall, FMT enhanced the growth performance and alleviated diarrhea rate in Kunming dogs with the greatest effects occurring in the low dose FMT (KML) group. The improvement of FMT on police performance was also determined. These above alterations were accompanied by changed serum biochemical parameters as indicated by elevated total protein and albumin and reduced total cholesterol and glycerol. Furthermore, the serum stress indicators after road transportation in dog post-FMT significantly decreased. Increased bacterial diversity and modified bacterial composition were found in the feces of dogs receiving FMT. The fecal samples from FMT dogs were characterized by higher abundances of the genera Lactobacillus, Prevotella, and Fusobacterium and lower concentrations of Cetobacterium, Allobaculum, Bifidobacterium, and Streptococcus. The present study supports a potential benefit of FMT on police performance in Kunming dogs. Key points: • FMT improves the growth performance and reduces diarrhea rates in Kunming police dogs. • FMT alleviates the serum stress profiles after road transportation in Kunming police dogs. • FMT modifies the gut microbiota composition of Kunming police dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brain networks extracted by independent component analysis (ICA) from magnitude‐only fMRI data are usually denoised using various amplitude‐based thresholds. By contrast, spatial source phase (SSP) or the phase information of ICA brain networks extracted from complex‐valued fMRI data, has provided a simple yet effective way to perform the denoising using a fixed phase change. In this work, we extend the approach to magnitude‐only fMRI data to avoid testing various amplitude thresholds for denoising magnitude maps extracted by ICA, as most studies do not save the complex‐valued data. The main idea is to generate a mathematical SSP map for a magnitude map using a mapping framework, and the mapping framework is built using complex‐valued fMRI data with a known SSP map. Here we leverage the fact that the phase map derived from phase fMRI data has similar phase information to the SSP map. After verifying the use of the magnitude data of complex‐valued fMRI, this framework is generalized to work with magnitude‐only data, allowing use of our approach even without the availability of the corresponding phase fMRI datasets. We test the proposed method using both simulated and experimental fMRI data including complex‐valued data from University of New Mexico and magnitude‐only data from Human Connectome Project. The results provide evidence that the mathematical SSP denoising with a fixed phase change is effective for denoising spatial maps from magnitude‐only fMRI data in terms of retaining more BOLD‐related activity and fewer unwanted voxels, compared with amplitude‐based thresholding. The proposed method provides a unified and efficient SSP approach to denoise ICA brain networks in fMRI data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The definitions of yu 宇 and zhou 宙 in the "Gengsang Chu 庚桑楚" chapter of the Zhuangzi have been cited as the earliest definitions of space and time in the Chinese philosophical tradition. However, careful analysis of chosen modern translations reveals that the definitions entail rather obscure relationships between the Dao and space and time. I argue that the obscurity is not inherent in the text, but arises from the practice of rendering yu and zhou as the conceptual counterparts of space and time or related concepts. Instead, I propose that we leave the terms untranslated. This practice would not only forestall interpretive difficulties concerning the Dao's relations to space and time, but it would also preserve the Zhuangzist yu and zhou as two distinctive, ontic notions that indicate the Dao's indeterminate modes of existence, a unique feature of the Zhuangzi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-valued mutual information (MI) has been used in spatial functional network connectivity (FNC) to measure high-order and nonlinear dependence between spatial maps extracted from magnitude-only functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, real-valued MI cannot fully capture the group differences in spatial FNC from complex-valued fMRI data with magnitude and phase dependence. We propose a complete complex-valued MI method according to the chain rule of MI. We fully exploit the dependence among magnitudes and phases of two complex-valued signals using second and fourth-order joint entropies, and propose to use a Gaussian copula transformation with a lower bound property to avoid inaccurate estimation of joint probability density function when computing the joint entropies. The proposed method achieves more accurate MI estimates than the two histogram-based (normal and symbolic approaches) and kernel density estimation methods for simulated signals, and enhances group differences in spatial functional network connectivity for experimental complex-valued fMRI data. Compared with the simplified complex-valued MI and real-valued MI, the proposed method yields higher MI estimation accuracy, leading to 17.4 % and 145.5 % wider MI ranges, and more significant connectivity differences between healthy controls and schizophrenia patients. A unique connection between executive control network (EC) and right frontal parietal areas, and three additional connections mainly related to EC are detected than the simplified complex-valued MI. With capability in quantifying MI fully and accurately, the proposed complex-valued MI is promising in providing qualified FNC biomarkers for identifying mental disorders such as schizophrenia. • Proposed complex-valued mutual information (cMI) exploits magnitude-phase dependence. • Gaussian copula transformation are exploited to improve cMI derived from chain rule. • cMI achieves more accurate MI estimates than simplified cMI and real-valued methods. • Application to spatial FNC of complex-valued fMRI data detects additional connections. • Proposed cMI is promising in providing FNC biomarkers for identifying schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is a key inflammatory factor in atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. In Chinese patients with coronary heart disease (CHD), the changes in hs-CRP levels after a daily meal and the effect of statins on those were never explored. A total of 300 inpatients with CHD were included in this study. Hs-CRP levels were measured in the fasting and non-fasting states at 2 h and 4 h after a daily breakfast. All inpatients were divided into two groups according to fasting hs-CRP ≤ 3 mg/L or not. Group with fasting hs-CRP ≤ 3 mg/L had a significantly higher percentage of patients with statins using ≥ 1 month (m) before admission than that with fasting hs-CRP > 3 mg/L (51.4% vs. 23.9%, P < 0.05). Hs-CRP levels increased significantly in the non-fasting state in two groups (P < 0.05). About 32% of patients with non-fasting hs-CRP > 3 mg/L came from those with fasting hs-CRP ≤ 3 mg/L. In conclusion, hs-CRP levels increased significantly in CHD patients after a daily meal. It suggested that the non-fasting hs-CRP level could be a better parameter to evaluate the inflammation state of CHD patients rather than fasting hs-CRP level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The development of risk prediction models for breast cancer lymphedema is increasing, but few studies focus on the quality of the model and its application. Therefore, this study aimed to systematically review and critically evaluate prediction models developed to predict breast cancer-related lymphedema. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, MEDLINE, CNKI, Wang Fang DATA, Vip Database, and SinoMed were searched for studies published from 1 January 2000 to 1 June 2021. And it will be re-run before the final analysis. Two independent investigators will undertake the literature search and screening, and discrepancies will be resolved by another investigator. The Prediction model Risk Of Bias Assessment Tool will be used to assess the prediction models' risk of bias and applicability. Results: Seventeen studies were included in the systematic review, including 7 counties, of which 6 were prospective studies, only 7 models were validation studies, and 4 models were externally validated. The area under the curve of 17 models was 0.680~0.908. All studies had a high risk of bias, primarily due to the participants, outcome, and analysis. The most common predictors included body mass index, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and axillary lymph node dissection. Conclusions: The predictive factors' strength, external validation, and clinical application of the breast cancer lymphedema risk prediction model still need further research. Healthcare workers should choose prediction models in clinical practice judiciously. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42021258832 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species of Aspleniaceae, Hymenasplenium tholiformis sp. nov., is described from Medog County in southeastern Xizang, China. The new species is morphologically similar to H. apogamum and H. szechuanense, but the former has ascending pinnae, pinna apex obtuse to rounded, pinna-marginal teeth entire, and veins terminating just below marginal teeth. Phylogenetic analysis based on five plastid markers confirmed that this new species represents a diverging lineage in the H. excisum subclade of Hymenasplenium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diets rich in polyphenols are known to be beneficial for cardiovascular health. Gallic acid (GA) is a plant-derived triphenolic chemical with multiple cardio-protective properties, such as antiobesity, anti-inflammation, and antioxidation. However, whether GA could protect against atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases is still not defined. Here, we investigated the effects of low-dose GA administration on diet-induced metabolic disorders and atherosclerosis in the atherosclerosis-prone apolipoprotein E (Apoe) knockout mice fed on a high-fat Western-type diet (WTD) for 8 weeks. Our data showed that GA administration by oral gavage at a daily dosage of 20 mg/kg body weight did not significantly ameliorate WTD-induced hyperlipidemia, hepatosteatosis, adipogenesis, or insulin resistance; furthermore, GA administration did not significantly ameliorate WTD-induced atherosclerosis. In conclusion, our data demonstrate that low-dose GA administration does not elicit significant health effect on diet-induced metabolic disorders or atherosclerosis in the Apoe knockout mice. Whether GA could be beneficial for atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases therefore needs further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tucker decomposition can provide an intuitive summary to understand brain function by decomposing multi-subject fMRI data into a core tensor and multiple factor matrices, and was mostly used to extract functional connectivity patterns across time/subjects using orthogonality constraints. However, these algorithms are unsuitable for extracting common spatial and temporal patterns across subjects due to distinct characteristics such as high-level noise. Motivated by a successful application of Tucker decomposition to image denoising and the intrinsic sparsity of spatial activations in fMRI, we propose a low-rank Tucker-2 model with spatial sparsity constraint to analyze multi-subject fMRI data. More precisely, we propose to impose a sparsity constraint on spatial maps by using an $ \ell _{p} $ norm (${0}< {p}\le {1}$), in addition to adding low-rank constraints on factor matrices via the Frobenius norm. We solve the constrained Tucker-2 model using alternating direction method of multipliers, and propose to update both sparsity and low-rank constrained spatial maps using half quadratic splitting. Moreover, we extract new spatial and temporal features in addition to subject-specific intensities from the core tensor, and use these features to classify multiple subjects. The results from both simulated and experimental fMRI data verify the improvement of the proposed method, compared with four related algorithms including robust Kronecker component analysis, Tucker decomposition with orthogonality constraints, canonical polyadic decomposition, and block term decomposition in extracting common spatial and temporal components across subjects. The spatial and temporal features extracted from the core tensor show promise for characterizing subjects within the same group of patients or healthy controls as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice blast disease caused by infection with Magnaporthe oryzae , a hemibiotrophic fungal pathogen, significantly reduces the yield production. However, the rice defense mechanism against blast disease remains elusive. To identify the genes involved in the regulation of rice defense to blast disease, dissociation (Ds) transposon tagging mutant lines were analyzed in terms of their response to M. oryzae isolate Guy11. Among them, CBL-interacting protein kinase 3 1 (CIPK 31) mutants were more susceptible than wild-type plants to blast. The CIPK31 transcript was found to be insensitive to Guy11 infection, and the CIPK31-GFP was localized to the cytosol and nucleus. Overexpression of CIPK31 promoted rice defense to blast. Further analysis indicated that CIPK31 interacts with Calcineurin B-like 2 (CBL2) and CBL6 at the plasma membrane, and cbl2 mutants are more susceptible to blast compared with wild-type plants, suggesting that calcium signaling might partially through the CBL2-CIPK31 signaling regulate rice defense. Yeast two-hybrid results showed that AKT1-like (AKT1L), a potential potassium (K+) channel protein, interacted with CIPK31, and the K+ level was significantly lower in the cipk31 mutants than in the wild-type control. In addition, exogenous potassium application increased rice resistance to blast, suggesting that CIPK31 might interact with AKT1L to increase K+ uptake, thereby promoting resistance to blast. Taken together, the results presented here demonstrate that CBL2-CIPK31-AKT1L is a new signaling pathway that regulates rice defense to blast disease. • CIPK31 positively regulates rice resistance to blast. • CBL2 interacts with CIPK31 and positively regulates blast resistance in rice. • CIPK31 interacts with AKT1L to control cellular K+ level. • Exogenous application of K+ enhances rice resistance to blast. • CBL2-CIPK31-AKT1L is a new signaling pathway that regulates rice defense to blast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistent pressure overload commonly leads to pathological cardiac hypertrophy and remodeling, ultimately leading to heart failure (HF). Cardiac remodeling is associated with the involvement of immune cells and the inflammatory response in pathogenesis. The macrophage-1 antigen (Mac-1) is specifically expressed on leukocytes and regulates their migration and polarization. Nonetheless, the involvement of Mac-1 in cardiac remodeling and HF caused by pressure overload has not been determined. The Mac-1-knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice were subjected to transverse aortic constriction (TAC) for 6 weeks. Echocardiography and pressure–volume loop assessments were used to evaluate cardiac function, and cardiac remodeling and macrophage infiltration and polarization were estimated by histopathology and molecular techniques. The findings of our study demonstrated that Mac-1 expression was markedly increased in hearts subjected to TAC treatment. Moreover, compared with WT mice, Mac-1-KO mice exhibited dramatically ameliorated TAC-induced cardiac dysfunction, hypertrophy, fibrosis, oxidative stress and apoptosis. The potential positive impacts may be linked to the inhibition of macrophage infiltration and M1 polarization via reductions in NF-kB and STAT1 expression and upregulation of STAT6. In conclusion, this research reveals a new function of Mac-1 deficiency in reducing pathological cardiac remodeling and HF caused by pressure overload. Additionally, inhibiting Mac-1 could be a potential treatment option for patients with HF in a clinical setting. [Display omitted] • Mac-1 is significantly upregulated in the heart of mice after TAC operation. • Mac-1 promotes macrophages toward to the M1 phenotype via activating NF-kB/STAT1 and inhibiting STAT6. • Ablation of Mac-1 prevents TAC-induced cardiac remodeling and dysfunction. • Selectively inhibition of Mac-1 may represent a promising therapeutic option for cardiac remodeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic spatial functional network connectivity (dsFNC) has shown advantages in detecting functional alterations impacted by mental disorders using magnitude-only fMRI data. However, complete fMRI data are complex-valued with unique and useful phase information. We propose dsFNC of spatial source phase (SSP) maps, derived from complex-valued fMRI data (named SSP-dsFNC), to capture the dynamics elicited by the phase. We compute mutual information for connectivity quantification, employ statistical analysis and Markov chains to assess dynamics, ultimately classifying schizophrenia patients (SZs) and healthy controls (HCs) based on connectivity variance and Markov chain state transitions across windows. SSP-dsFNC yielded greater dynamics and more significant HC-SZ differences, due to the use of complete brain information from complex-valued fMRI data. Compared with magnitude-dsFNC, SSP-dsFNC detected additional and meaningful connections across windows (e.g., for right frontal parietal) and achieved 14.6% higher accuracy for classifying HCs and SZs. This work provides new evidence about how SSP-dsFNC could be impacted by schizophrenia, and this information could be used to identify potential imaging biomarkers for psychotic diagnosis. • Dynamic spatial FNC of spatial source phase maps (SSP-dsFNC) is proposed. • Statistical analysis and Markov chains are employed to assess dynamics of SSP-dsFNC. • SSP-dsFNC yields greater dynamics than magnitude-dsFNC due to the use of the phase. • SSP-dsFNC shows more significant group differences than magnitude-dsFNC. • Schizophrenia patients exhibit more dynamic state changes than healthy controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prolonged pressure overload triggers cardiac hypertrophy and frequently leads to heart failure (HF). Vascular endothelial growth factor‐C (VEGF‐C) and its receptor VEGFR‐3 are components of the central pathway for lymphatic vessel growth (also known as lymphangiogenesis), which has crucial functions in the maintenance of tissue fluid balance and myocardial function after ischemic injury. However, the roles of this pathway in the development of cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction during pressure overload remain largely unknown. Eight‐ to 10‐week‐old male wild‐type (WT) mice, VEGFR‐3 knockdown (VEGFR‐3f/−) mice, and their WT littermates (VEGFR‐3f/f) were subjected to pressure overload induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC) for 1–6 weeks. We found that cardiac lymphangiogenesis and the protein expression of VEGF‐C and VEGFR‐3 were upregulated in the early stage of cardiac hypertrophy but were markedly reduced in failing hearts. Moreover, TAC for 6 weeks significantly reduced cardiac lymphangiogenesis by inhibiting activation of VEGFR‐3‐mediated signals (AKT/ERK1/2, calcineurin A/NFATc1/FOXc2, and CX43), leading to increased cardiac edema, hypertrophy, fibrosis, apoptosis, inflammation, and dysfunction. These effects were further aggravated in VEGFR‐3f/− mice and were dose‐dependently attenuated by delivery of recombinant VEGF‐C156S in WT mice. VEGF‐C156s administration also reversed pre‐established cardiac dysfunction induced by sustained pressure overload. Thus, these results demonstrate, for the first time, that activation of the VEGF‐C‐VEGFR‐3 axis exerts a protective effect during the transition from cardiac hypertrophy to HF and highlight selective stimulation of cardiac lymphangiogenesis as a potential new therapeutic approach for hypertrophic heart diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic non-healing wounds induced by oxidative stress and inflammation can activate inflammatory cells and produce large amounts of inflammatory mediators, which fail to maintain homeostasis in the skin and delay the wound-healing process. To tackle this issue, heparin-loaded hierarchical composite scaffolds comprised of electrospun fibers and electrosprayed microspheres were prepared to act as an effective anti-inflammatory wound dressing. Microspheres with different electrosprayed densities were deposited into the surface of the electrospun fibers for the improvement of surface topographical cues and cellular activities. The results indicated that the electrospun fibers followed by electrosprayed for 3 min to fabricate the composite fiber/microsphere scaffolds contributed to the best performance in terms of promoting cellular activities, with no obvious cytotoxicity, good adhesion morphology, and the fastest cell migration rate. In addition, a suitable amount of heparin was added to the composite scaffolds to alleviate inflammation. The significant adsorption efficiency of heparin-loaded composite scaffolds on inflammatory mediator MCP-1 indicates a favorable anti-inflammation effect in vitro. Furthermore, the heparin-loaded hierarchical scaffolds accelerated the pace of inflammatory wound healing in vivo when compared to commercial 3 M Tegaderm and non-heparin-loaded scaffolds. Our work provided a facile strategy for fabricating heparin-loaded hierarchical fiber/microsphere scaffolds to modulate cellular activities via topographical cues and accelerating the inflammatory wound healing process by electrostatic interactions between heparin and MCP-1. These findings suggested that the heparin-loaded hierarchical scaffold was expected to be a promising dressing for inflammatory wound healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic causing global health problem. We provide estimates of the daily trend in the size of the epidemic in Wuhan based on detailed information of 10 940 confirmed cases outside Hubei province. Methods: In this modelling study, we first estimate the epidemic size in Wuhan from 10 January to 5 April 2020 with a newly proposed model, based on the confirmed cases outside Hubei province that left Wuhan by 23 January 2020 retrieved from official websites of provincial and municipal health commissions. Since some confirmed cases have no information on whether they visited Wuhan before, we adjust for these missing values. We then calculate the reporting rate in Wuhan from 20 January to 5 April 2020. Finally, we estimate the date when the first infected case occurred in Wuhan. Results: We estimate the number of cases that should be reported in Wuhan by 10 January 2020, as 3229 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3139–3321) and 51 273 (95% CI: 49 844–52 734) by 5 April 2020. The reporting rate has grown rapidly from 1.5% (95% CI: 1.5–1.6%) on 20 January 2020, to 39.1% (95% CI: 38.0–40.2%) on 11 February 2020, and increased to 71.4% (95% CI: 69.4–73.4%) on 13 February 2020, and reaches 97.6% (95% CI: 94.8–100.3%) on 5 April 2020. The date of first infection is estimated as 30 November 2019. Conclusions: In the early stage of COVID-19 outbreak, the testing capacity of Wuhan was insufficient. Clinical diagnosis could be a good complement to the method of confirmation at that time. The reporting rate is very close to 100% now and there are very few cases since 17 March 2020, which might suggest that Wuhan is able to accommodate all patients and the epidemic has been controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canonical polyadic decomposition (CPD) of multi-subject complex-valued fMRI data can be used to provide spatially and temporally shared components among groups with both magnitude and phase information. However, the CPD model is not well formulated due to the large subject variability in the spatial and temporal modalities, as well as the high noise level in complex-valued fMRI data. Considering that the shift-invariant CPD can model temporal variability across subjects, we propose to further impose a phase sparsity constraint on the shared spatial maps to denoise the complex-valued components and to model the inter-subject spatial variability as well. More precisely, subject-specific time delays are first estimated for the complex-valued shared time courses in the framework of real-valued shift-invariant CPD. Source phase sparsity is then imposed on the complex-valued shared spatial maps. A smoothed l0 norm is specifically used to reduce voxels with large phase values after phase de-ambiguity based on the small phase characteristic of BOLD-related voxels. The results from both the simulated and experimental fMRI data demonstrate improvements of the proposed method over three complex-valued algorithms, namely, tensor-based spatial ICA, shift-invariant CPD and CPD without spatiotemporal constraints. When comparing with a real-valued algorithm combining shift-invariant CPD and ICA, the proposed method detects 178.7% more contiguous task-related activations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To address the molecular mechanism of the anti-inflammation effects of schisandrin B (Sch B) in atherosclerosis, we examined injured HMEC-1, HBMEC, and HUVEC-12 cells induced by high glucose (HG). Methods: Western blot was performed to detect the levels of the proteins Hsp27, Noxa, TLR5, p-IκBα, and p-p65 in HG-induced cells, while ELISA was used to analyze the inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-6, MCP-1, and IL-1β in cells with Hsp27 or Noxa stable expression. Results: Overexpression of Hsp27 upregulated the inflammatory cytokines and the release of IκBα, promoted transportation of p65 into the nucleus, and lastly, affected the inflammation process, while Sch B counteracted the upregulation. In addition, the effect of Noxa overexpression, which is different from Hsp27 overexpression, was consistent with that of Sch B treatment. Conclusions: Sch B may inhibit the inflammatory cascade and alleviate the injury to HMEC-1, HBMEC, and HUEVC-12 cells caused by HG by regulating the Noxa/Hsp27/NF-κB signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LDL-C level can be measured by direct methods (LDL-C M) or calculated by Friedewald formula (LDL-C C). The aim of this study was to investigate the difference between LDL-C M and LDL-C C after a daily breakfast in Chinese patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Three hundred and three inpatients, including 203 CHD patients (CHD group) and 100 non-CHD controls (CON group), were enrolled in this study. Serum levels of blood lipid parameters, including LDL-C C and LDL-C M , at 0, 2 and 4 h (h) were monitored after a daily breakfast in all subjects. LDL-C M was significantly higher than LDL-C C in fasting state in each group and at 4 h postprandially in CHD group (P <.05). Postprandial LDL-C M and LDL-C C significantly decreased in each group (P <.05). Postprandial decline in LDL-C M was significantly greater than that of LDL-C C (P <.05). For CHD patients taking statins for ≥1 month before admission, non-fasting percent attainment of LDL-C M or LDL-C C was significantly higher than its fasting value, especially at 4 h (P <.05). The percent deviation of LDL-C M from 1.8 mmol/L at 4 h was significantly different from its fasting value. However, there was no significant difference in percent deviation of LDL-C C from 1.8 mmol/L between fasting and non-fasting states. It indicated that the clinical monitoring of non-fasting LDL-C level in CHD patients could be relatively complex, and the judgement may depend not only on the method to acquire LDL-C level, but also on the evaluation method. • A significant difference between LDL-C C and LDL-C M in Chinese patients with CHD. • The decrement in LDL-C M was lager than that in LDL-C C in non-fasting state. • Percent attainment of LDL-C C and LDL-CM <1.8 mmol/L was higher in non-fasting state. • No significant difference between fasting and non-fasting percent deviation of LDL-C C from 1.8 mmol/L. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial source phase, the phase information of spatial maps extracted from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data by data‐driven methods such as independent component analysis (ICA), has rarely been studied. While the observed phase has been shown to convey unique brain information, the role of spatial source phase in representing the intrinsic activity of the brain is yet not clear. This study explores the spatial source phase for identifying spatial differences between patients with schizophrenia (SZs) and healthy controls (HCs) using complex‐valued resting‐state fMRI data from 82 individuals. ICA is first applied to preprocess fMRI data, and post‐ICA phase de‐ambiguity and denoising are then performed. The ability of spatial source phase to characterize spatial differences is examined by the homogeneity of variance test (voxel‐wise F‐test) with false discovery rate correction. Resampling techniques are performed to ensure that the observations are significant and reliable. We focus on two components of interest widely used in analyzing SZs, including the default mode network (DMN) and auditory cortex. Results show that the spatial source phase exhibits more significant variance changes and higher sensitivity to the spatial differences between SZs and HCs in the anterior areas of DMN and the left auditory cortex, compared to the magnitude of spatial activations. Our findings show that the spatial source phase can potentially serve as a new brain imaging biomarker and provide a novel perspective on differences in SZs compared to HCs, consistent with but extending previous work showing increased variability in patient data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Double coupled canonical polyadic decomposition (DC-CPD) decomposes multiple tensors with coupling in the first two modes, into minimal number of rank-1 tensors that also admit the double coupling structure. It has a particular interest in joint blind source separation (J-BSS) applications. In a preceding paper, we proposed an algebraic algorithm for underdetermined DC-CPD, of which the factor matrices in the first two modes of each tensor may have more columns than rows. It uses a pairwise coupled rank-1 detection mapping to transform a possibly underdetermined DC-CPD into an overdetermined DC-CPD, which can be solved algebraically via generalized eigenvalue decomposition (GEVD). In this paper, we generalize the pairwise or second-order coupled rank-1 detection mapping to an arbitrary order K ≥ 2. Based on this generalized coupled rank-1 detection mapping, we propose a broad framework for the algebraic computation of DC-CPD, which consists of a series of algorithms with more relaxed working assumptions, each corresponding to a fixed order K ≥ 2. Deterministic and generic uniqueness conditions are provided. We will show through analysis and numerical results that our new uniqueness conditions for DC-CPD are more relaxed than the existing results for DC-CPD and CPD. We will further show, through simulation results, the performance of the proposed algebraic DC-CPD framework in approximate DC-CPD and a J-BSS application, in comparison with existing DC-CPD and CPD algorithms. Highlights • Double coupled CPD (DC-CPD) is an important mathematical tool for joint BSS. • We provide a broad framework for the algebraic computation of DC-CPD. • We present new uniqueness conditions that are more relaxed than existing results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fenvalerate (FEN), a mainstream pyrethroid pesticide, was initially recommended as a low-toxicity agent for controlling agricultural and domestic pests. Despite the widespread use of FEN worldwide, little data are available on FEN-induced hepatic lesions and molecular mechanisms. In the present study, we first performed an occupational cross-sectional study on FEN factory workers and found that the levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and total antioxidant capacity increased, whereas malondialdehyde decreased in laborers in the working areas where the levels of airborne FEN were much higher compared with the office area. The results were then confirmed by animal experiments that abnormal hepatic histology, increased ALT level, and compromised hepatic oxidative capability were observed in rats exposed to a high concentration of FEN. Furthermore, the bioinformatics analysis of gene microarray in rat liver tissue showed that FEN significantly changed the expressions of genes related to the regulation of intracellular calcium ion homeostasis and the calcium signal pathway. Finally, the functional experiments in Buffalo rat liver (BRL) cells demonstrated that FEN first activated ERK MAPK, followed by IKK and NF-κB, which triggered the transcription of genes responsible for accelerating an overload of intracellular calcium ions, prompted reactive oxygen species generation in the mitochondria, and finally, induced hepatic cellular apoptosis. The calcium signaling pathway and in particular, an overload of intracellular calcium play a critical role in this pathophysiological process via the ERK/IKK/NF-κB pathway. Our study furthers the understanding of the mechanism of FEN-induced hepatic injuries and may have implications in the prevention and control of liver diseases induced by environmental pesticides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural production is highly dependent on weather conditions such as temperature, light, water and heat. The huge loss caused by extreme disaster weather makes the global insurance and reinsurance market overwhelmed, and seriously affects the enthusiasm of agricultural investment and the development of agricultural economy. With unique topography and vast territory, China is vulnerable to complex and diverse climate disasters. In recent years, the annual average economic loss caused by extreme weather disasters has reached about 200-300 billion yuan, among which floods caused by extreme heavy rainfall are the main agricultural disasters in China. In order to enhance the "farmer - insurance company - government" interest association to resist the risk of flood disaster caused by extreme heavy rainfall, financial hedging derivatives of weather disaster risk have gradually become a new hedging tool besides traditional insurance and reinsurance. This paper takes Shenyang, the main grain producing area in northeast China, as the sample of the study area, and uses the SARIMA model to obtain the distribution characteristics of seasonal rainfall time series. Different seasonal rainfall index option products (call option and put option contracts) are designed respectively, and the final option pricing is obtained by Monte Carlo stochastic simulation. The seasonal rainfall call option and put option contracts have opened up a new hedging model of agricultural extreme weather catastrophe outside the insurance and reinsurance market, which has enriched the varieties of weather financial derivatives market in China, reduced the severe impact of extreme weather disasters on agriculture, and enhanced the ability of agricultural stakeholders to resist the risk of extreme weather disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint blind source separation (J-BSS) is an emerging data-driven technique for multi-set data-fusion. In this paper, J-BSS is addressed from a tensorial perspective. We show how, by using second-order multi-set statistics in J-BSS, a specific double coupled canonical polyadic decomposition (DC-CPD) problem can be formulated. We propose an algebraic DC-CPD algorithm based on a coupled rank-1 detection mapping. This algorithm converts a possibly underdetermined DC-CPD to a set of overdetermined CPDs. The latter can be solved algebraically via a generalized eigenvalue decomposition based scheme. Therefore, this algorithm is deterministic and returns the exact solution in the noiseless case. In the noisy case, it can be used to effectively initialize optimization based DC-CPD algorithms. In addition, we obtain the deterministic and generic uniqueness conditions for DC-CPD, which are shown to be more relaxed than their CPD counterpart. We also introduce optimization based DC-CPD methods, including alternating least squares, and structured data fusion based methods. Experiment results are given to illustrate the superiority of DC-CPD over standard CPD based BSS methods and several existing J-BSS methods, with regards to uniqueness and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Component splitting at higher model orders is a widely accepted finding for independent component analysis (ICA) of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. However, our recent study found that intact components occurred with subcomponents at higher model orders. New method This study investigated model order effects on ICA of resting-state complex-valued fMRI data from 82 subjects, which included 40 healthy controls (HCs) and 42 schizophrenia patients. In addition, we explored underlying causes for distinct component splitting between complex-valued data and magnitude-only data by examining model order effects on ICA of phase fMRI data. A best run selection method was proposed to combine subject averaging and a one-sample t -test. We selected the default mode network (DMN)-, visual-, and sensorimotor-related components from the best run of ICA at varying model orders from 10 to 140. Results Results show that component integration occurred in complex-valued and phase analyses, whereas component splitting emerged in magnitude-only analysis with increasing model order. Incorporation of phase data appears to play a complementary role in preserving integrity of brain networks. Comparison with existing method(s) When compared with magnitude-only analysis, the intact DMN component obtained in complex-valued analysis at higher model orders exhibited highly significant subject-level differences between HCs and patients with schizophrenia. We detected significantly higher activity and variation in anterior areas for HCs and in posterior areas for patients with schizophrenia. Conclusions These results demonstrate the potential of complex-valued fMRI data to contribute generally and specifically to brain network analysis in identification of schizophrenia-related changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plastron is a nutritive and superior functional food. Due to its limited supply yet enormous demands, some functional foods supposed to contain plastron may be forged with other substitutes. This paper reports a novel and simple method for determination of the authenticity of plastron-derived functional foods based on comparison of the amino acid (AA) profiles of plastron and its possible substitutes. By applying micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC), 18 common AAs along with another 2 special AAs — hydroxyproline (Hyp) and hydroxylysine (Hyl) were detected in all plastron samples. Since chicken, egg, fish, milk, pork, nail and hair lacked of Hyp and Hyl, plastron could be easily distinguished. For those containing collagen, a statistical analysis technique — principal component analysis (PCA) was adopted and plastron was successfully distinguished. When applied the proposed method to authenticate turtle shell glue in the market, fake products were commonly found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to standardize health, safety and environment (HSE) training matrices for effectively identifying training requirements and enhancing job competency of grassroots posts in petroleum and petrochemical enterprises. After an investigation into HSE training performance in petroleum and petrochemical enterprises, HSE training matrices templates for 239 grassroots posts involving 22 primary petroleum and petrochemical disciplines were developed based on the technical requirements of HSE training matrices templates and the studies of template development processes and technical methods at grassroots level. Applications of these templates in 12 companies demonstrate their effectiveness in improving HSE training and management for grassroots posts, strengthening risk control and promoting the application of HSE system and tools in grassroots units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal techniques (differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the vacuum stability test (VST)), according to STANAG 4147, and non-thermal techniques (Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry and X-ray diffractometry (XRD)) were used to examine compatibility issues for 2,4,6,8,10,12-hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (CL-20) with a selection of insensitive explosives, including nitroguanidine (NQ), 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), 2,6-diamino-3,5-dinitropyridine-1-oxide (ANPyO), 2,4,6-triamino-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene (TATB), 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO) and 2,6-diamino-3,5-dinitropyrazine-1-oxide (LLM-105). DSC measurements showed that ANPyO, TATB, NTO and LLM-105 were compatible with CL-20. The compatibility of CL-20/NQ, CL-20/TNT, CL-20/ANPyO, CL-20/TATB, CL-20/NTO and CL-20/LLM-105 mixtures was further explored using the VST, which revealed that all the selected insensitive explosives were compatible with CL-20. Possible chemical interactions were suspected for CL-20/TATB from the FTIR results and for CL-20/NTO from XRD analysis. In summary, ANPyO and LLM-105 demonstrated the optimal compatibility with CL-20. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This project evaluated the compatibility of 2,6-diamino-3,5-dinitropyrazine-1-oxide (LLM-105) with some common high explosives, for the development of LLM-105-based composite explosives or propellants. Both thermal techniques [differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and vacuum stability test (VST)], and supplementary nonthermal techniques [Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD)] were used to evaluate the possible interactions between LLM-105 and selected high explosives including cyclotetramethylenetetranitroamine (HMX), 3,4-dinitrofurazanfuroxan (DNTF) and hexanitrohexazaisowurtzitane (CL-20). DSC results suggested that LLM-105/HMX and LLM-105/DNTF mixtures had a degree of incompatibility. The results of VST trials revealed that HMX and CL-20 were compatible with LLM-105. Both supplementary FTIR and XRD results confirmed the DSC results of LLM-105/HMX and LLM-105/DNTF. Analyses with all used methods have demonstrated the incompatibility for LLM-105/DNTF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, [Fe(III)–salen]Cl (complex 1 ) was synthesized and its interaction with bovine serum albumin (BSA) was investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy. The estimated distance between BSA and 1 indicated that energy transfer from the excited state of BSA to 1 was achieved with high efficiency. BSA sensors based on fluorescent off–on ( 1 - Na 2 H 2 EDTA) and on–off (OH − –H + ) were examined and the results confirmed that BSA could operate as molecular logic gate upon interaction with 1 , Na 2 H 2 EDTA, and OH − as chemical inputs. Multiple logic gates including NOR, NOT, and IMP were constructed through consecutive association of 1 with BSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single cell analysis provides a new framework for understanding biology and disease, however, an absolute quantification of single cell gene expression still faces many challenges. Microfluidic digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR) provides a unique method to absolutely quantify the single cell gene expression, but only limited devices are developed to analyze a single cell with detection variation. This paper describes a self-priming compartmentalization (SPC) microfluidic digital polymerase chain reaction chip being capable of performing single molecule amplification from single cell. The chip can be used to detect four single cells simultaneously with 85% of sample digitization. With the optimized protocol for the SPC chip, we first tested the ability, precision, and sensitivity of our SPC digital PCR chip by assessing β-actin DNA gene expression in 1, 10, 100, and 1000 cells. And the reproducibility of the SPC chip is evaluated by testing 18S rRNA of single cells with 1.6%-4.6% of coefficient of variation. At last, by detecting the lung cancer related genes, PLAU gene expression of A549 cells at the single cell level, the single cell heterogeneity was demonstrated. So, with the power-free, valve-free SPC chip, the gene copy number of single cells can be quantified absolutely with higher sensitivity, reduced labor time, and reagent. We expect that this chip will enable new studies for biology and disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present was to evaluate the effects of DNA methylation and histone acetylation on 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD)-induced cleft palate in fetal mice. Pregnant mice (n=10) were randomly divided into two groups: i) TCDD group, mice were treated with 28 µg/kg TCDD on gestation day (GD) 10 by oral gavage; ii) control group, mice were treated with an equal volume of corn oil. On GD 16.5, the fetal mice were evaluated for the presence of a cleft palate. An additional 36 pregnant mice were divided into the control and TCDD groups, and palate samples were collected on GD 13.5, GD 14.5 and GD 15.5, respectively. Transforming growth factor-β3 (TGF-β3) mRNA expression, TGF-β3 promoter methylation, histone acetyltransferase (HAT) activity and histone H3 (H3) acetylation in the palates were evaluated in the two groups. The incidence of a cleft palate in the TCDD group was 93.55%, and no cases of cleft palate were identi- fied in the control group. On GD 13.5 and GD 14.5, TGF-β3 mRNA expression, HAT activity and acetylated H3 levels were significantly increased in the TCDD group compared with the control. Methylated bands were not observed in the TCDD or control groups. In conclusion, at the critical period of palate fusion (GD 13.5-14.5), TCDD significantly increased TGF-β3 gene expression, HAT activity and H3 acetylation. Therefore, histone acetylation may be involved in TCDD-induced cleft palate formation in fetal mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A one-pot synthesis of new oxindole-fused polycyclic scaffolds is reported. The process involves a three-component [3+2] cycloaddition followed by cyclization through an intramolecular Michael addition. The reaction gives easy access to oxindole-fused spirotetrahydrofurochromans in moderate to good yields with high regio- and diastereoselectivity. These compounds could be useful for for drug discovery. Further modification was achieved by reduction of the nitro group, and intramolecular amide formation to give the corresponding lactams. The resulting heterocyclic products show good inhibitory activity against the enzyme PTP1B in vitro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present article, we introduce the Stancu type q-Phillips operators and study some of their approximation properties. By obtaining the first few moments of these operators, we investigate their local and weighted approximation properties and statistical convergence. Also we give convergence theorems and then obtain a Voronovskaja type result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gossypol, a polyphenolic compound isolated from cottonseeds, has been reported to possess many pharmacological activities, but whether it can influence inflammasome activation remains unclear. In this study, we found that in mouse macrophages, gossypol induced cell death characterized by rapid membrane rupture and robust release of HMGB1 and pro-caspase-11 comparable to ATP treatment, suggesting an induction of pyroptotic cell death. Unlike ATP, gossypol induced much low levels of mature interleukin-1β (IL-1β) secretion from mouse peritoneal macrophages primed with LPS, although it caused pro-IL-1β release similar to that of ATP. Consistent with this, activated caspase-1 responsible for pro-IL-1β maturation was undetectable in gossypol-treated peritoneal macrophages. Besides, RAW 264.7 cells lacking ASC expression and caspase-1 activation also underwent pyroptotic cell death upon gossypol treatment. In further support of pyroptosis induction, both pan-caspase inhibitor and caspase-1 subfamily inhibitor, but not caspase-3 inhibitor, could sharply suppress gossypol-induced cell death. Other canonical pyroptotic inhibitors, including potassium chloride and N-acetyl- l -cysteine, could suppress ATP-induced pyroptosis but failed to inhibit or even enhanced gossypol-induced cell death, whereas nonspecific pore-formation inhibitor glycine could attenuate this process, suggesting involvement of a non-canonical pathway. Of note, gossypol treatment eliminated thioglycollate-induced macrophages in the peritoneal cavity with recruitment of other leukocytes. Moreover, gossypol administration markedly decreased the survival of mice in a bacterial sepsis model. Collectively, these results suggested that gossypol induced pyroptosis in mouse macrophages via a non-canonical inflammasome pathway, which raises a concern for its in vivo cytotoxicity to macrophages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possibility that exposure to general anesthetics during early life results in long-term impairment of neural function attracted considerable interest over the past decade. Extensive laboratory data suggest that administration of these drugs during critical stages of central nervous system development can lead to cell death, impaired neurogenesis, and synaptic growth as well as cognitive deficits. These observations are corroborated by several recent human epidemiological studies arguing that such cognitive impairment might also occur in humans. Despite the potential public health importance of this issue, several important questions remain open. Amongst them, how the duration of anesthesia exposure impact on outcome is as yet not fully elucidated. To gain insight into this question, here we focused on the short- and long-term impact of a 30-min-long exposure to clinically relevant concentrations of sevoflurane in rat pups at 2 functionally distinct stages of the brain growth spurt. We show that this treatment paradigm induced developmental stage-dependent and brain region-specific acute but not lasting changes in dendritic spine densities. Electrophysiological recordings in hippocampal brain slices from adult animals exposed to anesthesia in the early postnatal period revealed larger paired-pulse facilitation but no changes in the long-term potentiation paradigm when compared with nonanesthetized controls. 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine pulse and pulse-chase experiments demonstrated that neither proliferation nor differentiation and survival of hippocampal progenitors were affected by sevoflurane exposure. In addition, behavioral testing of short- and long-term memory showed no differences between control and sevoflurane-exposed animals. Overall, these results suggest that brief sevoflurane exposure during critical periods of early postnatal development, although it does not seem to exert major long-term effects on brain circuitry development, can induce subtle changes in synaptic plasticity and spine density of which the physiological significance remains to be determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Canonical polyadic decomposition (CPD) may face a local optimal problem when analyzing multi-subject fMRI data with inter-subject variability. Beckmann and Smith proposed a tensor PICA approach that incorporated an independence constraint to the spatial modality by combining CPD with ICA, and alleviated the problem of inter-subject spatial map (SM) variability. New method This study extends tensor PICA to incorporate additional inter-subject time course (TC) variability and to connect CPD and ICA in a new way. Assuming multiple subjects share common TCs but with different time delays, we accommodate subject-dependent TC delays into the CP model based on the idea of shift-invariant CP (SCP). We use ICA as an initialization step to provide the aggregating mixing matrix for shift-invariant CPD to estimate shared TCs with subject-dependent delays and intensities. We then estimate shared SMs using a least-squares fit post shift-invariant CPD. Results Using simulated fMRI data as well as actual fMRI data we demonstrate that the proposed approach improves the estimates of the shared SMs and TCs, and the subject-dependent TC delays and intensities. The default mode component illustrates larger TC delays than the task-related component. Comparison with existing method(s) The proposed approach shows improvements over tensor PICA in particular when TC delays are large, and also outperforms SCP with SM orthogonality constraint and SCP with ICA-based SM initialization. Conclusions TCs with subject-dependent delays conform to the true situation of multi-subject fMRI data. The proposed approach is suitable for decomposing multi-subject fMRI data with large inter-subject temporal and spatial variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The SiCw was surface modified via wrapping AEMO and PUA. • The composites containing modified SiCw exhibit high dielectric constant and low loss. • The AMEO modified SiCw can suppress the dielectric loss at high temperature. • The mechanical strength and thermal conductivity of composites are improved. In this work, 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (AMEO)/polyurea (PUA)-modified silicon carbide whiskers (SiCw) were firstly fabricated and then incorporated into polyetherimide (PEI) to prepare the dielectric composites toward high temperature application. The results show that the introduction of amino/urea polar groups can effectively promote dielectric constant and suppress the dielectric loss of composites at room and high temperatures owing to the strong interfacial adhesion and deep trap effect of polar groups. Specifically, the variations of dielectric properties are also greatly dependent upon the surface functionalization of SiCw. SiCw-PUA endows the composites with relatively better comprehensive dielectric performances (dielectric constant of 18.3 and dielectric loss of 0.020) at room temperature while SiCw-AMEO has more apparent role in maintaining the dielectric performances (dielectric constant of 17.0 and dielectric loss of 0.029) at high temperature of 150 ℃. Furthermore, the composites also exhibit high thermal conductivity with the maximum thermal conductivities of 1.41 and 1.37 W m−1 K−1 for the SiCw-AMEO/PEI and SiCw-PUA/PEI at filler loading of 15 wt%, respectively. The excellent reinforcement effect of the surface functionalized SiCw also endows the composites with more application probability. This work on functionalization of SiCw could be applicable for integration of dielectric, thermally conductive and mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background ICA of complex-valued fMRI data is challenging because of the ambiguous and noisy nature of the phase. A typical solution is to remove noisy regions from fMRI data prior to ICA. However, it may be more optimal to carry out ICA of full complex-valued fMRI data, since any filtering or voxel-based processing may disrupt information that can be useful to ICA. New method We enable ICA of the full complex-valued fMRI data by utilizing phase information of estimated spatial maps (SMs). The SM phases are first adjusted to properly represent spatial phase changes of all voxels based on estimated time courses (TCs), and then these are used to segment the voxels into BOLD-related and unwanted voxels based on a criterion of TC real-part power maximization. Single-subject and group phase masks are finally constructed to remove the unwanted voxels from the individual and group SM estimates. Results Our method efficiently estimated not only the task-related component but also the non-task-related component DMN. Comparison with existing method(s) Our method extracted 139–331% more contiguous and reasonable activations than magnitude-only infomax for the task-related component and DMN at | Z | > 2.5, and detected more BOLD-related voxels, but eliminated more unwanted voxels than ICA of complex-valued fMRI data with pre-ICA de-noising. Our TC-based phase de-ambiguity exhibited higher accuracy and robustness than the SM-based method. Conclusions The TC-based phase de-ambiguity is essential to prepare the SM phases. The SM phases provide a new post-ICA index for reliably identifying and suppressing the unwanted voxels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electroencephalography (EEG) is one fundamental tool for functional brain imaging. EEG signals tend to be represented by a vector or a matrix to facilitate data processing and analysis with generally understood methodologies like time-series analysis, spectral analysis and matrix decomposition. Indeed, EEG signals are often naturally born with more than two modes of time and space, and they can be denoted by a multi-way array called as tensor. This review summarizes the current progress of tensor decomposition of EEG signals with three aspects. The first is about the existing modes and tensors of EEG signals. Second, two fundamental tensor decomposition models, canonical polyadic decomposition (CPD, it is also called parallel factor analysis-PARAFAC) and Tucker decomposition, are introduced and compared. Moreover, the applications of the two models for EEG signals are addressed. Particularly, the determination of the number of components for each mode is discussed. Finally, the N-way partial least square and higher-order partial least square are described for a potential trend to process and analyze brain signals of two modalities simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anunprecedented C–H functionalization of aryldiazo compoundswithout a preinstallation of directing group has been realized undermild conditions, which differs from former reports in its use of diazocompounds as coupling partners in directed C–H activations.This novel transformation has been realized by a rhodium self-relaycatalysis, a tandem process of the in situ formation of a directinggroup and sequential C–H bond activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two novel complexes [Cu(L) 2 (Ac) 2 ]·3H 2 O ( 1 ) ( L = N-2-methyl benzimidazole demethylcantharate imide, C 16 H 15 N 3 O 3 , Ac = acetate, C 2 H 3 O 2 ) and [Cu(bimz) 2 (DCA)] ( 2 ) (bimz = benzimidazole, C 7 H 6 N 2 ; DCA = demethylcantharate, C 8 H 8 O 5 ) were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, infrared spectra and X-ray diffraction techniques. Cu(II) ion was four-coordinated in complex 1 , Cu(II) ion was five-coordinated in complex 2 . A large amount of intermolecular hydrogen-bonding and π–π stacking interactions were observed in these complex structures. The DNA-binding properties of these complexes were investigated using electronic absorption spectra, fluorescence spectra, viscosity measurements and agarose gel electrophoresis. The interactions between the complexes and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were investigated by fluorescence spectra. The antiproliferative activities of the complexes against human hepatoma cells (SMMC7721) were tested in vitro . And the results showed that these complexes could bind to DNA in moderate intensity via partial intercalation, and complexes 1 and 2 could cleave plasmid DNA through hydroxyl radical mechanism. Title complexes could effectively quench the fluorescence of BSA through static quenching. Meanwhile, title complexes had stronger antiproliferative effect compared to L and Na 2 (DCA) within the tested concentration range. And complex 1 possessed more antiproliferative active than complex 2 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the electronic device advancing to miniaturization, higher integration and flexibility, flexible polymer composites with high thermal conductivity are desirable for efficient removal of accumulated heat to maintain normal operation of electronics. In this work, a polydimethylsiloxane/boron nitride nanosheets (PDMS/BNNS) foam scaffold was prepared by the sugar-templated method, and the corresponding PDMS/BNNS composites were manufactured with vacuum-assisted PDMS impregnation and curing. The PDMS/BNNS composites exhibit a three-dimensional (3D) BNNS interconnected network with curved BNNS pathways due to the intensive compression during hot-pressing curing, providing thermally conductive network and corresponding prestrains for deformable application. The PDMS/BNNS composites finally can achieve a high thermal conductivity of 7.55 W m−1 K−1 in the in-plane direction and 1.12 W m−1 K−1 in the through-plane direction with 25 vol% BNNS, which represent 153% and 78% increases over the composites prepared by randomly mixing method, respectively. In addition, the composite still maintains superior heat dissipation property under repeated stretching and bending conditions, which indicates a broad and bright application for thermal management in flexible electronic devices. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• SSPNet was proposed for schizophrenia classification with interpretability modules. • Phase (SSP) maps were used as 3D-CNN inputs to denoise complex-valued fMRI data. • Saliency maps were generated to provide insight into the relevant brain regions. • Grad-CAM was used to localize decision-making regions within SSP maps. • SSPNet significantly improved classification compared to CNN using magnitude maps. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have shown promising results in classifying individuals with mental disorders such as schizophrenia using resting-state fMRI data. However, complex-valued fMRI data is rarely used since additional phase data introduces high-level noise though it is potentially useful information for the context of classification. As such, we propose to use spatial source phase (SSP) maps derived from complex-valued fMRI data as the CNN input. The SSP maps are not only less noisy, but also more sensitive to spatial activation changes caused by mental disorders than magnitude maps. We build a 3D-CNN framework with two convolutional layers (named SSPNet) to fully explore the 3D structure and voxel-level relationships from the SSP maps. Two interpretability modules, consisting of saliency map generation and gradient-weighted class activation mapping (Grad-CAM), are incorporated into the well-trained SSPNet to provide additional information helpful for understanding the output. Experimental results from classifying schizophrenia patients (SZs) and healthy controls (HCs) show that the proposed SSPNet significantly improved accuracy and AUC compared to CNN using magnitude maps extracted from either magnitude-only (by 23.4 and 23.6% for DMN) or complex-valued fMRI data (by 10.6 and 5.8% for DMN). SSPNet captured more prominent HC-SZ differences in saliency maps, and Grad-CAM localized all contributing brain regions with opposite strengths for HCs and SZs within SSP maps. These results indicate the potential of SSPNet as a sensitive tool that may be useful for the development of brain-based biomarkers of mental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]