Search

To improve the resilience of railway stations, a typical station was selected as the research object, and an isolation design was introduced. Twenty-four groups of near-fault pulse-like ground motions were selected. The seismic resilience of the no-isolation railway stations (NIRS) and the isolation railway stations (IRS) were compared to provide a numerical result of the improvement in resilience. The results show that in the station isolation design, the station's functional requirements and structural characteristics should be considered and the appropriate placement of isolation bearings is under the waiting room. Under the action of a rare earthquake, the repair cost, repair time, rate of harm and death of the IRS were decreased by 8.04 million, 18.30 days, 6.93×10−3 and 1.21×10−3, respectively, when compared to the NIRS. The IRS received a seismic resilience grade of three-stars and the NIRS only one-star, indicating that rational isolation design improves the seismic resilience of stations. Thus, for the design of stations close to earthquake faults, it is suggested to utilize appropriate isolation techniques to improve their seismic resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The establishment of apicobasal polarity in epithelial cells is of critical importance in morphogenesis of mammary gland and other secretive gland tissues. The demise of the polarity is a critical step in early stages of tumorigenesis such as in breast ductal carcinoma in situ. The underlying molecular mechanism thus warrants in-depth investigations. Results: Protein kinase C isoform ζ (PKCζ), which is highly expressed in breast cancer cells, accumulates in the nuclei of human mammary epithelial cells overexpressing human rhomboid family-1 (RHBDF1), an endoplasmic reticulum membrane protein. Nuclear translocation of PKCζ results in the failure of the formation of the cytosolic apicobasal polarity complex Par, of which PKCζ is an essential component. Additionally, enhanced nuclear translocation of PKCζ is accompanied by an inhibition of the expression of cell tight junction and adherens junction proteins and an increase of cell mobility. Mechanistically, RHBDF1 is able to interact with importin β1 and PKCζ and promote PKCζ phosphorylation. Consistently, treatment of RHBDF1-overexpressing cells with an inhibitor of PKCζ phosphorylation leads to restoration of apicobasal polarity and cell-cell junctions, as well as suppressed cell mobility. Conclusions: RHBDF1-facilitated nuclear translocation of PKCζ is critically responsible for the dismantlement of epithelial cell apicobasal polarity, and thus may serve as a target in the development of therapeutic approaches against early stages of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus (PHEV) is the only known porcine neurotropic coronavirus, which is prevalent worldwide at present. It is of great significance to understand the genetic and evolutionary characteristics of PHEV in order to perform effective measures for prevention and control of this disease. In this study, a total of 6,986 tissue samples and nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from different regions of Guangxi province in southern China during 2021-2024, and were tested for PHEV using a quadruplex RT-qPCR. The positivity rate of PHEV was 2.81% (196/6,986), of which tissue samples and nasopharyngeal swabs had 2.05% (87/4,246) and 3.98% (109/2,740) positivity rates, respectively. Fifty PHEV positive samples were selected for PCR amplification and gene sequencing. Sequence analysis revealed that the nucleotide homology and amino acid similarities of S, M, and N genes were 94.3%-99.3% and 92.3%-99.2%, 95.0%-99.7% and 94.7%-100.0%, 94.0%-99.5% and 93.5%-99.3%, respectively, indicating M and N genes were more conservative than S gene. Phylogenetic trees based on these three genes revealed that PHEV strains from different countries could be divided into two groups G1 and G2, and the PHEV strains from Guangxi province obtained in this study distributed in subgroups G1c and G2b. Bayesian analysis revealed that the population size of PHEV has been in a relatively stable state since its discovery until it expanded sharply around 2015, and still on the slow rise thereafter. S gene sequences analysis indicated that PHEV strains existed variation of mutation, and recombination. The results indicated that the prevalent PHEV strains in Guangxi province had complex evolutionary trajectories and high genetic diversity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the genetic and evolutionary characteristics of PHEV in southern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Metabolism score for visceral fat (METS-VF): an innovative and powerful predictor of stroke" published in the Archives of Medical Science discusses the significance of cardiovascular diseases, particularly among middle-aged and older individuals. The study introduces METS-VF, a new visceral fat prediction index, and explores its association with cardiovascular events. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, the study aims to establish a prospective cohort to examine the relationship between METS-VF and cardiovascular diseases, highlighting the importance of reducing visceral fat and triglyceride levels to prevent these diseases. [Extracted from the article]

Oil shale, the most important unconventional oil and gas reservoir resource, is characterized by large geological reserves, difficult development technology, and great development potential. Although it cannot be exploited in a large area due to cost issues, with the development and utilization of conventional oil and gas reservoir resources, it is the main direction of future oil exploitation. Based on the classification of in situ conversion technologies of oil shale electric heating into in situ conversion process technology, ElectrofracTM technology, geothermal fuel cell heating technology, high-voltage power frequency electric heating technology, and other electric heating technology, this paper summarizes the research progress on existing electric heating technologies to provide a reference for the engineering research and development of oil shale electric heating in situ mining technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the engineering of oil shale, in situ extraction technology using electric heating involves heating the oil shale reservoir with an electric heater at high temperatures to convert the solid kerogen in oil shale into liquid hydrocarbons. These liquid hydrocarbons are then extracted from underground using traditional oil and gas drilling and production techniques. This paper discusses the pyrolysis mechanism, pore evolution, mineral transformation, and classification of electric heating technology for oil shale. It also summarizes research progress aimed at improving in situ extraction technology for oil shale, providing valuable insights for further research and development in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional waste incineration generates a large amount of exhaust gas, resulting in adverse environmental impacts. Therefore, we developed an organic and intelligent photochemical processing system that utilizes high-energy lasers for incineration, thereby reducing the production of exhaust gas. A large-scale laser machine was set up, incorporating low-cost 2D Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology for system sensing, which performs angle range and threshold filtering, as well as multispectral laser allocation, integrated with the laser ablation machine system. After testing, the error was <5 mm (<8%), achieving precise object scanning and ranging and solving the problem of manual laser positioning. Experimental results showed that CO2 lasers can effectively process organic materials and medical waste of different sizes. This innovative research will have profound implications for the future development of environmental protection and incineration technologies. In the future, it has widespread application prospects in areas such as pet waste disposal and medical waste treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to compare the aging behavior of water-based coatings and solvent-based coatings in sulfuric acid environments and to discuss the related mechanism. Design/methodology/approach: A sulfuric acid solution with a concentration of 5 Wt.% was selected for immersion test at 23°C. The failure behavior of the coating was studied by combining the transformation rules of the macroscopic morphology and basic properties with the results of electrochemical impedance spectrum analysis. Findings: The results showed that the surface smoothness of the water-based coating was lower than that of the solvent-based coating. The glossiness, thickness and hardness of the water-based coating exhibited more significant changes. The electrochemical test also indicated that the water-based coating was infiltrated by a large number of corrosive media, which may have induced corrosion under the coating. In contrast, the solvent-based coating showed good shielding properties, but the adhesion was seriously affected by the corrosive medium. Originality/value: This work clarified the difference of failure behavior and mechanism between water-based coatings and solvent-based coatings in acidic environment and provided a theoretical basis for the selection and mechanism research of anticorrosive coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The given document is a list of references to scientific articles and studies on various topics related to cancer, genetics, and pharmacology. The articles cover subjects such as the role of prostaglandin E2 in colon cancer treatment, genetic insights from isolated populations, the pathogenesis of basal cell carcinoma, the incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancer, the use of genome-wide association studies for drug repurposing, and the associations between plasma proteins and various diseases. [Extracted from the article]

Epoxy-cyanate ester blends have attracted significant attention due to their unique synergistic properties and versatility in high-performance applications. However, achieving precise control over the phase-separated structures in these blends remains a challenge. In this work, we present a strategy for the preparation of epoxy-cyanate ester blends with high-performance through staged curing-induced phase separation. By incorporating a thermally latent catalyst, 4-ethyl-2-methylimidazole tetraphenylborate, into the epoxyanhydride-cyanate system, the reactivity differences of multiple curing reactions within the blend were precisely controlled, thereby inducing the formation of well-defined nanophase-separated structures. The polymer systems prepared exhibit high mechanical properties and heat resistance, primarily due to the interpenetrating networks created by the epoxy-anhydride-cyanate ester and the formation of nanodomains induced by the staged curing process. Furthermore, epoxy-cyanate ester blends demonstrate outstanding hygrothermal resistance due to the low polarity of the crosslinked network structure. This work provides new insights into regulating the microstructure of the thermosetting blends and expands the potential applications of these materials in fields requiring long-term durability and reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a 30-amino acid peptide hormone that is mainly expressed in the intestine and hypothalamus. In recent years, basic and clinical studies have shown that GLP-1 is closely related to lipid metabolism, and it can participate in lipid metabolism by inhibiting fat synthesis, promoting fat differentiation, enhancing cholesterol metabolism, and promoting adipose browning. GLP-1 plays a key role in the occurrence and development of metabolic diseases such as obesity, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and atherosclerosis by regulating lipid metabolism. It is expected to become a new target for the treatment of metabolic disorders. The effects of GLP-1 and dual agonists on lipid metabolism also provide a more complete treatment plan for metabolic diseases. This article reviews the recent research progress of GLP-1 in lipid metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious and lethal viral disease that causes severe hemorrhagic fever in pigs. It keeps spreading around the world, posing a severe socioeconomic risk and endangering biodiversity and domestic food security. ASF first outbroke in China in 2018, and has spread to most provinces nationwide. Genotypes I and II ASF virus (ASFV) as the etiological pathogens have been found in China. In this study, three pairs of specific primers and probes targeting the ASFV B646L gene, F1055L gene, and E183L gene were designed to detect universal, genotype I, and genotype II strains, respectively. A triplex crystal digital PCR (cdPCR) was established on the basis of optimizing various reaction conditions. The assay demonstrated remarkably sensitive with low limits of detection (LODs) of 5.120, 4.218, 4.588 copies/reaction for B646L, F1055L, and E183L gene, respectively; excellent repeatability with 1.24--2.01% intra-assay coefficients of variation (CVs) and 1.32--2.53% inter-assay CVs; good specificity for only detection of genotypes I and II ASFV, without cross-reactivity with PCV2, PRV, SIV, PRRSV, PEDV, FMDV, and CSFV. The triplex cdPCR was used to test 1,275 clinical samples from Guangxi province of China, and the positivity rates were 5.05, 3.22, and 1.02% for genotype I, genotype II, and co-infection of genotypes I and II, respectively. These 1,275 clinical samples were also detected using a reported reference triplex real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR), and the agreements of detection results between these two methods were more than 98.98%. In conclusion, the developed triplex cdPCR could be used as a rapid, sensitive, and accurate method to detect and differentiate genotypes I and II strains of ASFV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive malignancy, and CCL18, a marker of M2 macrophage activation, is often associated with tumor immune suppression. However, the role of CCL18 and its signaling pathway in HCC is still limited. Our study focuses on investigating the prognostic impact of CCL18 and its signaling pathway in HCC patients and biological functions in vitro. Methods: HCC-related RNA-seq data were obtained from TCGA, ICGC, and GEO. The 6 hub genes with the highest correlation to prognosis were identified using univariate Cox and LASSO regression analysis. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to assess their independent prognostic potential and a nomogram was constructed. In vitro experiments, including CCK8, EdU, RT-qPCR, western blot, and transwell assays, were conducted to investigate the biological effects of exogenous CCL18 and 6 hub genes. A core network of highly expressed proteins in the high-risk group of tumors was constructed. Immune cell infiltration was evaluated using the ESTIMATE and CIBERSORT packages. Finally, potential treatments were explored using the OncoPredict package and CAMP database. Results: We identified 6 survival-related genes (BMI1, CCR3, CDC25C, CFL1, LDHA, RAC1) within the CCL18 signaling pathway in HCC patients. A nomogram was constructed using the TCGA_LIHC cohort to predict patient survival probability. Exogenous CCL18, as well as overexpression of BMI1, CCR3, CDC25C, CFL1, LDHA, and RAC1, can promote proliferation, migration, invasion, stemness, and increased expression of PD-L1 protein in LM3 and MHCC-97H cell lines. In the high-risk group of patients from the TCGA_LIHC cohort, immune suppression was observed, with a strong correlation to 21 immune-related genes and suppressive immune cells. Conclusion: Exogenous CCL18 promotes LM3 and MHCC-97H cells proliferation, migration, invasion, stemness, and immune evasion. The high expression of BMI1, CCR3, CDC25C, CFL1, LDHA, and RAC1 can serve as a biomarkers for immune evasion in HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulmonary Mucormycosis is a fatal infectious disease with high mortality rate. The occurrence of Mucormycosis is commonly related to the fungal virulence and the host's immunological defenses against pathogens. Mucormycosis infection and granulation tissue formation occurred in the upper airway was rarely reported. This patient was a 60-year-old male with diabetes mellitus, who was admitted to hospital due to progressive cough, sputum and dyspnea. Highresolution computed tomography (HRCT) and bronchoscopy revealed extensive tracheal mucosal necrosis, granulation tissue proliferation, and severe airway stenosis. The mucosal necrotic tissue was induced by the infection of Rhizopus Oryzae, confirmed by metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in tissue biopsy. This patient was treated with the placement of a covered stent and local instillation of amphotericin B via bronchoscope. The tracheal mucosal necrosis was markedly alleviated, the symptoms of cough, shortness of breath, as well as exercise tolerance were significantly improved. The placement of airway stent and transbronchial microtube drip of amphotericin B could conduce to rapidly relieve the severe airway obstruction due to Mucormycosis infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The principle and application of oil shale in-situ mining technology are reviewed. Oil shale is rich in resources and is an important supplement to petroleum and natural gas as a source of energy. Currently, ground retorting technology is the primary way to produce shale oil because of its elaborated processing method and equipment. However, this technology has several disadvantages such as low thermal efficiency, high environmental pollution and inability to exploit deeply buried oil shale. A novel method called oil shale in-situ mining technology is efficient and environmentally friendly. This technology can exploit deep oil shale while reducing pollution and greenhouse effect. Based on the data collected, this paper summarizes the development of global underground in-situ oil shale mining technology, introduces four heating transfer principles and mathematical models of conduction heating, convection heating, radiation heating and combustion heating, clarifies the process flow, as well as presents advantages and disadvantages of different technologies. It provides a reference for the research of oil shale in-situ mining technology, and also looks into the technology's prospects for industrialization, integrating with greenization, information and intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sodium glucose-cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have been reported to reduce cardiovascular events and heart failure in people with and without diabetes. These medications have been shown to counter regenerative cell exhaustion in the context of prevalent diabetes. This study sought to determine if empagliflozin attenuates regenerative cell exhaustion in people without diabetes. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were collected at the baseline and 6-mo visits from individuals randomized to receive empagliflozin (10 mg/day) or placebo who were participating in the EMPA-HEART 2 CardioLink-7 trial. Precursor cell phenotypes were characterized by flow cytometry for cell-surface markers combined with high aldehyde dehydrogenase activity to identify precursor cell subsets with progenitor (ALDHhi) versus mature effector (ALDHlow) cell attributes. Samples from individuals assigned to empagliflozin (n = 25) and placebo (n = 21) were analyzed. At baseline, overall frequencies of primitive progenitor cells (ALDHhiSSClow), monocyte (ALDHhiSSCmid), and granulocyte (ALDHhiSSChi) precursor cells in both groups were similar. At 6 mo, participants randomized to empagliflozin demonstrated increased ALDHhiSSClowCD133+CD34+ proangiogenic cells (P = 0.048), elevated ALDHhiSSCmidCD163+ regenerative monocyte precursors (P = 0.012), and decreased ALDHhiSSCmidCD86+ CD163- proinflammatory monocyte (P = 0.011) polarization compared with placebo. Empagliflozin promoted the recovery of multiple circulating provascular cell subsets in people without diabetes suggesting that the cardiovascular benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors may be attributed in part to the attenuation of vascular regenerative cell exhaustion that is independent of diabetes status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of drug discovery is to identify new drugs, and the solubility of drug molecules is an important physicochemical property in medicinal chemistry, that plays a crucial role in drug discovery. In solubility prediction, high-precision computational methods can significantly reduce the experimental costs and time associated with drug development. Therefore, artificial intelligence technologies have been widely used for solubility prediction. This study utilized the attention layer in mechanism in the deep learning model to consider the atomic-level features of the molecules, and used gated recurrent neural networks to aggregate vectors between layers. It also utilized molecular fragment technology to divide the complete molecule into pairs of fragments, extracted characteristics from each fragment pair, and finally fused the characteristics to predict the solubility of drug molecules. We compared and evaluated our method with five existing models using two performance evaluation indicators, demonstrating that our method has better performance and greater robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces a new wearable fiber-optic sensor glove. The glove utilizes a flexible material, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and a silicone tube to encapsulate fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). It is employed to enable the self-perception of hand posture, gesture recognition, and the prediction of grasping objects. The investigation employs the Support Vector Machine (SVM) approach for predicting grasping objects. The proposed fiber-optic sensor glove can concurrently monitor the motion of 14 hand joints comprising 5 metacarpophalangeal joints (MCP), 5 proximal interphalangeal joints (PIP), and 4 distal interphalangeal joints (DIP). To expand the measurement range of the sensors, a sinusoidal layout incorporates the FBG array into the glove. The experimental results indicate that the wearable sensing glove can track finger flexion within a range of 0° to 100°, with a modest minimum measurement error (Error) of 0.176° and a minimum standard deviation (SD) of 0.685°. Notably, the glove accurately detects hand gestures in real-time and even forecasts grasping actions. The fiber-optic smart glove technology proposed herein holds promising potential for industrial applications, including object grasping, 3D displays via virtual reality, and human–computer interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Honeyword (or decoy password) based authentication, first introduced by Juels and Rivest in 2013, has emerged as a security mechanism that can provide security against server-side threats on the password-files. From the theoretical perspective, this security mechanism reduces attackers' efficiency to a great extent as it detects the threat on a password-file so that the system administrator can be notified almost immediately as an attacker tries to take advantage of the compromised file. This paper aims to present a comprehensive survey of the relevant research and technological developments in honeyword-based authentication techniques. We cover twenty-three techniques related to honeyword, reported under different research articles since 2013. This survey paper helps the readers to (i) understand how honeyword based security mechanism works in practice, (ii) get a comparative view on the existing honeyword based techniques, and (iii) identify the existing gaps that have yet to be filled and the emergent research opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of transdermal drug delivery therapy for schizophrenia with anxiety symptoms. Methods: A total of 80 schizophrenic patients (34 males and 56 females) with comorbid anxiety disorders were randomly assigned to the treatment group (n = 40) and the control group (n = 40) with 6 weeks of follow-up. The patients in the treatment group received the standard antipsychotic drug treatment along with transdermal drug delivery therapy. The evaluation of the patients included the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD-17), and treatment emergent symptom scale (TESS) at baseline, 3 weeks, and 6 weeks after transdermal drug delivery therapy. The Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) was assessed at baseline and after 6 weeks of treatment. Results: After 3 and 6 weeks of treatment, the HAMA scale scores in the treatment group were lower than those in the control group (p < 0.001). However, there were no significant differences in the HAMD-17 scale scores, PANSS total scores, and subscale scores between the two groups (p > 0.05). Additionally, no significant differences in adverse effects were observed between the two groups during the intervention period (p > 0.05). After 6 weeks of penetration therapy, there was a low negative correlation between total disease duration and the change in HAMA scale score (pretreatment-posttreatment) in the treatment group. Conclusion: Combined traditional Chinese medicine directed penetration therapy can improve the anxiety symptoms of patients with schizophrenia and has a safe profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with device detected atrial high-rate episodes (AHRE) have an increased risk of MACE. The R2CHA2DS2-VASc, CHADS2, R2CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc score have been investigated for predicting major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in different groups of patients. We aimed to evaluate the R2CHA2DS2-VASc score in combination with AHRE ≥ 6 min for predicting MACE in patients with dual-chamber PPM but no prior atrial fibrillation (AF). We retrospectively enrolled 376 consecutive patients undergoing dual-chamber PPM implantation and no prior AF. The primary endpoint was subsequent MACE. For all patients in the cohort, CHADS2, R2CHADS2, CHA2DS2-VASc, R2CHA2DS2-VASc scores and AHRE ≥ or < 6 min were determined. AHRE was recorded as a heart rate > 175 bpm (Medtronic) or > 200 bpm (Biotronik) lasting ≥ 30 s. Multivariate Cox regression analysis with time-dependent covariates was used to determine the independent predictors of MACE. ROC-AUC analysis was performed for CHADS2, R2CHADS2, CHA2DS2-VASc, and R2CHA2DS2-VASc scores and then adding AHRE ≥ 6 min to the four scores. The median age was 77 years, and 107 patients (28.5%) developed AHRE ≥ 6 min. After a median follow-up of 32 months, 46 (12.2%) MACE occurred. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that R2CHA2DS2-VASc score (HR, 1.485; 95% CI, 1.212–1.818; p < 0.001) and AHRE ≥ 6 min (HR, 2.125; 95% CI, 1.162–3.887; p = 0.014) were independent predictors for MACE. The optimal R2CHA2DS2-VASc score cutoff value was 4.5 (set at ≥ 5), with the highest Youden index (AUC, 0.770; 95% CI, 0.709–0.831; p < 0.001). ROC-AUC analysis of the four risk scores separately combined with AHRE ≥ 6 min all showed better discriminatory power than the four scores alone (All Z-statistic p < 0.05). In patients with PPM who develop AHRE ≥ 6 min, it is crucial to perform risk assessment with either four scores to further stratify risk for MACE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new constituents: 1,5R-dihydroxy-3,8S-dimethoxy-5,6,7,8-tetrahydroxanthone (1), (3S,4R,16S,17R)-3,16,23-trihydroxyoleana-11,13(18)-dien-28-aldehyde-3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (2), and new natural product (S)-gentiandiol (3), along with 41 known compounds were isolated from Tujia ethnomedicine Shuihuanglian, namely, the whole plant of Swertia punicea. Structures of all these compounds were established through extensive spectroscopic techniques, namely 1D, 2D-NMR spectroscopy, HRESIMS analysis, and the absolute configuration of the new compounds was discerned by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. Antioxidative effects of these compounds were evaluated by using the DPPH radical scavenging method, compounds 7, 9 and 14 showed antioxidant activities with IC50 values of 68.9, 50.8 and 48.2 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study explored the effectiveness and safety of low-volume polyethylene glycol electrolyte lavage solution (PEG-ELS) combined with ascorbic acid tablets (PEG-ELS/Asc) in bowel preparation for a colonoscopy. Methods: A total of 240 hospitalized patients who underwent a colonoscopy in Wenzhou People's Hospital, Wenzhou Third Clinical College of Wenzhou Medical University from July 2020 to June 2022 were randomly divided into two groups, with 120 patients each. All of the participants were given a lowresidue or residue-free diet one day before the examination and fasted after dinner (completed before 18:00) the day before the examination. The 2-L PEGELS/Asc group took 2-L PEG-ELS plus 10 g ascorbic acid tablets once orally, while the 3-L PEG-ELS group took 3-L PEG orally on several occasions. The primary endpoint was the achievement of preparation adequacy and an overall colon cleansing score of =6, both assessed by blinded investigators using the Boston Bowel Preparation Scale (BBPS). The bowel cleansing effect, polyp detection rate, adverse reaction rate, oral drug tolerance rate, renal function, and electrolyte level changes were also compared between the two patient groups. Results: There were no significant differences in the success rate of bowel preparation, the detection rate of polyps, or the adverse reaction rate between the two groups (P > 0.05). The tolerance rate of bowel preparation in the 2-L PEG-ELS/Asc group was significantly higher than that in the 3-L PEG-ELS group (93.3% vs. 80.23%) (P < 0.05). The levels of creatinine, serum potassium, serum sodium, and serum chlorine of the two groups before and after bowel preparation were within the normal range. In addition, the intestinal cleaning effect of the two preparation schemes for the hospitalized patients with diabetes and constipation is worse than that of those without these conditions (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The effectiveness and safety of using 2-L PEG-ELS/Asc in bowel preparation for a colonoscopy in hospitalized patients were not inferior to using 3-L PEG-ELS. For patients with diabetes and constipation, the cleansing effect of the two bowel preparation options was not very satisfactory, and further clinical research is needed in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: T cell exhaustion (TEX) heterogeneity leads to unfavorable immunotherapeutic responses in patients with cancer. Classification of TEX molecular phenotypes is pivotal to overcoming TEX and improving immunotherapies in the clinical setting. Cuproptosis is a novel form of programmed cell death associated with tumor progression. However, the relation between cuproptosis-related genes (CuRGs) and the different TEX phenotypes has not been investigated in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Methods: Unsupervised hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm were performed to determine CuRGs-related molecular subtypes and scores for patients with LUAD. The tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) landscape in these molecular subtypes and scores was estimated using ESTIMATE and ssGSEA algorithms. Furthermore, TEX characteristics and phenotypes were evaluated in distinct molecular subtypes and scores through GSVA and Spearman correlation analysis. Finally, TIDE scores, immunophenoscore, pRRophetic, GSE78220, and IMvigor210 datasets were employed to appraise the distinguishing capacity of CuRGscore in immunotherapy and pharmacotherapy effectiveness. Results: We identified three CuRGclusters, three geneClusters, and CuRGscore based on 1012 LUAD transcriptional profiles from five datasets. Compared with other molecular subtypes, CuRGcluster B, geneCluster C, and low-CuRGscore group with good prognosis presented fewer TEX characteristics, including immunosuppressive cells infiltration and TEX-associated gene signatures, signal pathways, checkpoint genes, transcription and inflammatory factors. These molecular subtypes were also responsive in distinguishing TEX phenotype in the terminal, GZMK+, and OXPHOS-TEX subtypes, but not the TCF7+ TEX subtype. Notably, copper importer and exporter, SLC31A1 and ATP7B, were remarkably associated with four TEX phenotypes and nine checkpoint genes such as PDCD1, CTLA4, HAVCR2, TIGIT, LAG3, IDO1, SIGLEC7, CD274, PDCD1LG2, indicating that cuproptosis was involved in the development of TEX and immunosuppressive environment in patients with LUAD. Moreover, CuRGscore was significantly related to the TIDE score, immunophenoscore, and terminal TEX score (Spearman R = 0.62, p < 0.001) to effectively predict immunotherapy and drug sensitivity in both training and external validation cohorts. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated the extensive effect of cuproptosis on TEX. CuRGs-related molecular subtypes and scores could illuminate the heterogeneity of TEX phenotype as reliable tools in predicting prognosis and directing more effective immunotherapeutic and chemotherapeutic strategies for patients with LUAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subgenus Cerasus, one of the most important groups in the genus Prunus sensu lato, comprises over 100 species; however, the taxonomic classification and phylogenetic relationships of Cerasus remain controversial. Therefore, it is necessary to reconstruct the phylogenetic tree for known Cerasus species. Here, we report the chloroplast (cp) genome sequences of 11 Cerasus species to provide insight into evolution of the plastome. The cp genomes of the 11 Cerasus species (157,571-158,830 bp) displayed a typical quadripartite circular structure. The plastomes contain 115 unique genes, including 80 protein-coding genes, four ribosomal RNAs, and 31 transfer RNAs. Twenty genes were found to be duplicated in inverted repeats as well as at the boundary. The conserved noncoding sequences showed significant divergence compared with the coding regions. We found 12 genes and 14 intergenic regions with higher nucleotide diversity and more polymorphic sites, including matK, rps16, rbcL, rps16-trnQ, petN-psbM, and trnL-trnF. During cp plastome evolution, the codon profile has been strongly biased toward the use of A/T at the third base, and leucine and isoleucine codons appear the most frequently. We identified strong purifying selection on the rpoA, cemA, atpA, and petB genes; whereas ccsA, rps19, matK, rpoC2, ycf2 and ndhI showed a signature of possible positive selection during the course of Cerasus evolution. In addition, we further analyzed the phylogenetic relationships of these species with 57 other congenic related species. Through reconstructing the Cerasus phylogeny tree, we found that true cherry is similar to the flora of China forming a distinct group, from which P. mahaleb was separated as an independent subclade. Microcerasus was genetically closer to Amygdalus, Armeniaca, and Prunus (sensu stricto) than to members of true cherry, whereas P. japonica and P. tomentosa were most closely related to P. triloba and P. pedunculata. However, P. tianshanica formed a clade with P. cerasus, P. fruticosa, P. cerasus × P. canescens 'Gisela 6', and P. avium as a true cherry group. These results provide new insights into the plastome evolution of Cerasus, along with potential molecular markers and candidate DNA barcodes for further phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses of Cerasus species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The tumor microenvironment (TME) of pancreatic cancer is complex. which forms forms a microenvironment with high immunosuppression, ischemia and hypoxia, which promotes tumor proliferation and migration, inhibit the antitumor immune response. NOX4 plays an important role in tumormicroenvironment and has a significant relationship with the occurrence, development and drug resistance of tumor. Methods: Firstly, NOX4 expression in pancreatic cancer tissues under different pathological conditions was detected by applying immunohistochemical staining of tissue microarray (TMA). Transcriptome RNA sequencing data and clinical data of 182 pancreatic cancer samples were downloaded and collated from the UCSC xena database. 986 NOX4-related lncRNAs were filtered by Spearman correlation analysis. prognosis-related NOX4-related lncRNAs and NRlncSig Score were finally obtained by univariate and multivariate Cox regression with Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (Lasso) analysis in pancreatic cancer patients. we plotted Kaplan -Meier and time-dependent ROC curves (ROC) to assess the validity in predicting the prognosis of pancreatic cancer. The ssGSEA analysis was applied to explore the immune microenvironment of pancreatic cancer patients as well as to discuss the immune cells and immune status separately. Results: We found that a mature tumor marker, NOX4, play different roles in different clinical subgroups by immunohistochemical analysis and clinical data. Finally, 2 NOX4-related lncRNAs were determined by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) analysis, univariate Cox analysis and multivariate COX analysis. The ROC curve and DCA curve showed that NRS Score had better predictive ability than independent prognosis-related lncRNA and other clinicopathologic indicators. We obtained the relative abundance of 28 infiltrating immune cells by ssGSEA analysis and found a significant positive correlation between the abundance of anti-tumor immune cells and tumorpromoting immune cells in the risk-classified microenvironment. No matter NRS Score or AC092667.2, RP11-349A8.3 was significantly correlated with immune infiltrating cells. Meanwhile, the IC50 of conventional chemotherapeutic agents in high-score group were significantly lower than those in low-score group. Conclusion: As a mature tumor marker, NOX4-related lncRNAs provide new research strategies for prognostic evaluation, molecular mechanism and clinical treatment of pancreatic cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternaria alternata is a necrotrophic fungal pathogen with a broad host range that causes widespread and devastating disease in sweet cherry (Prunus avium). We selected a resistant cultivar (RC) and a susceptible cultivar (SC) of cherry and used a combined physiological, transcriptomic, and metabolomic approach to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the plant’s resistance to A. alternata, of which little is known. We found that A. alternata infection stimulated the outbreak of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cherry. The responses of the antioxidant enzymes and chitinase to disease were observed earlier in the RC than in the SC. Moreover, cell wall defense ability was stronger in the RC. Differential genes and metabolites involved in defense responses and secondary metabolism were primarily enriched in the biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids, tropane, piperidine and pyridine alkaloids, flavonoids, amino acids, and α-linolenic acid. Reprogramming the phenylpropanoid pathway and the α-linolenic acid metabolic pathway led to lignin accumulation and early induction of jasmonic acid signaling, respectively, in the RC, which consequently enhanced antifungal and ROS scavenging activity. The RC contained a high level of coumarin, and in vitro tests showed that coumarin significantly inhibited A. alternata growth and development and had antifungal effect on cherry leaves. In addition, differentially expressed genes encoding transcription factors from the MYB, NAC, WRKY, ERF, and bHLH families were highly expressed, they could be the key responsive factor in the response of cherry to infection by A. alternata. Overall, this study provides molecular clues and a multifaceted understanding of the specific response of cherry to A. alternata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First principles calculations and scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy (SKPFM) were used to investigate the effect of elements migration of α-AlFeMnSi phase on micro-galvanic corrosion behavior of Al—Zn—Mg alloy. The simulation results showed that the average work function difference between the α-AlFeMnSi phase and Al matrix decreased from 0.232 to 0.065 eV due to the synchronous migration of elements Fe—Mn—Si. Specifically, as the elements Fe—Si migration during the extrusion process, the average Volta potential difference detected by SKPFM between the α-AlFeMnSi phase and Al matrix dropped down to 432.383 mV from 648.370 mV. Thus, the elements migration reduced the micro-galvanic corrosion sensitivity of Al—Zn—Mg alloy. To reach the calculated low micro-galvanic tendency between α-AlFeMnSi phase and Al matrix, the diffusion of Mn should be promoted during extruding process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet the current and future demand for energy, unconventional energy has gradually attracted the attention of scholars around the world. Oil shale has become one of the most important members of the unconventional energy family because of its rich resource reserves and considerable comprehensive utilization value. The traditional mining method can only mine the shallow oil shale resources, and there are problems such as high cost and low efficiency. For this reason, the researchers have proposed electromagnetic heating technology, which is used to thermally crack oil shale underground by electromagnetic heating. It has the advantages of high oil production rate and low environmental pollution. This paper reviewed the electromagnetic heating technology, electromagnetic heating device and oil shale cracking research to provide a reference for future oil shale mining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cells. Under physiological conditions, mitochondrial fission and fusion maintain a dynamic equilibrium in the cytoplasm, which is referred to as mitochondrial dynamics. As an important approach to regulating mitochondrial function and quantity, the role of mitochondrial dynamics has been demonstrated in the pathogenesis of various disease models, including brain damage, neurodegeneration, and stress. As the vital organ of the peripheral auditory system, the cochlea consumes a significant amount of energy, and the maintenance of mitochondrial homeostasis is essential for the cochlear auditory capacity. OPA1 functions as both a necessary gene regulating mitochondrial fusion and a pathogenic gene responsible for auditory neuropathy, suggesting that an imbalance in mitochondrial dynamics may play a critical role in hearing loss, but relevant studies are few. In this review, we summarize recent evidence regarding the role of mitochondrial dynamics in the pathogenesis of noiseinduced hearing loss (NIHL), drug-induced hearing loss, hereditary hearing loss, and age-related hearing loss. The impacts of impaired mitochondrial dynamics on hearing loss are discussed, and the potential of mitochondrial dynamics for the prevention and treatment of hearing loss is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies showed that lipid metabolism reprogramming contributes to tumorigenicity and malignancy by interfering energy production, membrane formation, and signal transduction in cancers. HNSCCs are highly reliant on aerobic glycolysis and glutamine metabolism. However, the mechanisms underlying lipid metabolism reprogramming in HNSCCs remains obscure. The present review summarizes and discusses the “vital” cellular signaling roles of the lipid metabolism reprogramming in HNSCCs. We also address the differences between HNSCCs regions caused by anatomical heterogeneity. We enumerate these recent findings into our current understanding of lipid metabolism reprogramming in HNSCCs and introduce the new and exciting therapeutic implications of targeting the lipid metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION This study aims to estimate the impact of smoking-attributable mortality of selected cancers, in the period 2010-2019 in Tianjin, China. METHODS A case-control study was conducted to assess the smoking-attributed major causes of cancer deaths. Unmatched multiple logistic regression was used to calculate mortality risk ratios. RESULTS Smoking-attributable cancer deaths were 23709 (28.87%) among adult males and 8648 (13.37%) among adult females in the period 2010-2019 in Tianjin, China. Lung cancer remains the largest cause of smoking-attributable deaths; among men, the death rates were 49.06% of lung cancers, 27.55% of mouth, pharynx, larynx, or esophagus cancers, 13.56% of kidney and other urinary cancers, and 10.11% of liver cancers; among women the corresponding death rates were 31.56% of lung cancers and 10.59% of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, or esophagus cancer, 10.56% of bladder cancers. Smoking-attributed cancer deaths in men increased from 1817 in 2010 to 2695 in 2019; for women, the number remained stable at just over 800 per year during the past decade. CONCLUSIONS At least one in three cancer deaths in men and one in six in women would be potentially preventable through appropriate control of tobacco smoking in Tianjin, China. Effective control programs against tobacco smoking should be further implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase in life expectancy in the global population, aging societies have emerged in many countries, including China. As a common sensory defect in the elderly population, the prevalence of age-related hearing loss and its influence on society are increasing yearly. Metabolic syndrome is currently one of the main health problems in the world. Many studies have demonstrated that metabolic syndrome and its components are correlated with a variety of age-related diseases of the peripheral sensory system, including age-related hearing loss. Both age-related hearing loss and metabolic syndrome are high-prevalence chronic diseases, and many people suffer from both at the same time. In recent years, more and more studies have found that mitochondrial dysfunction occurs in both metabolic syndrome and age-related hearing loss. Therefore, to better understand the impact of metabolic syndrome on age-related hearing loss from the perspective of mitochondrial dysfunction, we reviewed the literature related to the relationship between age-related hearing loss and metabolic syndrome and their components to discern the possible role of mitochondria in both conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning is an artificial intelligence technique in which models express geometric transformations over multiple levels. This method has shown great promise in various fields, including drug development. The availability of public structure databases prompted the researchers to use generative artificial intelligence models to narrow down their search of the chemical space, a novel approach to chemogenomics and de novo drug development. In this study, we developed a strategy that combined an accelerated LSTM_Chem (long short-term memory for de novo compounds generation), dense fully convolutional neural network (DFCNN), and docking to generate a large number of de novo small molecular chemical compounds for given targets. To demonstrate its efficacy and applicability, six important targets that account for various human disorders were used as test examples. Moreover, using the M protease as a proof-of-concept example, we find that iteratively training with previously selected candidates can significantly increase the chance of obtaining novel compounds with higher and higher predicted binding affinities. In addition, we also check the potential benefit of obtaining reliable final de novo compounds with the help of MD simulation and metadynamics simulation. The generation of de novo compounds and the discovery of binders against various targets proposed here would be a practical and effective approach. Assessing the efficacy of these top de novo compounds with biochemical studies is promising to promote related drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have promoted a variety of applications in computer vision and natural language processing, among others, due to its generative model's compelling ability to generate realistic examples plausibly drawn from an existing distribution of samples. GAN not only provides impressive performance on data generation-based tasks but also stimulates fertilization for privacy and security oriented research because of its game theoretic optimization strategy. Unfortunately, there are no comprehensive surveys on GAN in privacy and security, which motivates this survey to summarize systematically. The existing works are classified into proper categories based on privacy and security functions, and this survey conducts a comprehensive analysis of their advantages and drawbacks. Considering that GAN in privacy and security is still at a very initial stage and has imposed unique challenges that are yet to be well addressed, this article also sheds light on some potential privacy and security applications with GAN and elaborates on some future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effects of acupuncture on brain function in patients with schizophrenia in remission. Methods: A total of 101 patients with schizophrenia in remission were selected in this study. The patients were randomly divided into the control group (n = 51) and the treatment group (n = 50). Patients in the control group were treated with antipsychotics, while patients in the treatment group were treated with acupuncture on the basis of antipsychotics treatment in the control group. Clinical therapeutic effect of the two groups was observed and compared. Moreover, 10 patients were randomly selected from each of the two groups to collect data of the resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after treatment to judge the effect of brain function. Results: The scores of CGI scale of the patients in the two groups decreased after treatment compared with those before treatment, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Compared with the control group after treatment, the scores of CGI scale of patients in the treatment group after treatment significantly decreased, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). According to the analysis of low-frequency amplitude (ALEF) in the fMRI results, the significant effect of acupuncture mainly reflected in the left occipital parietal lobe. According to the analysis of local consistency (ReHo), the significantly improved area of patient in the treatment group was the left occipital lingual gyrus. Conclusion: Acupuncture can improve the clinical therapeutic effect of patients with schizophrenia in remission, and it has relative stimulating effect on the spontaneous neuronal activity of patients. Moreover, it can provide an adjuvant therapeutic option for patients with schizophrenia. In addition, it can promote the clinical development of integrated Traditional Chinese and Western medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Large volume radiological text data have been accumulated since the incorporation of electronic health record (EHR) systems in clinical practice. We aimed to determine whether deep natural language processing algorithms could aid radiologists in improving thyroid cancer diagnosis. Methods: Sonographic EHR data were obtained from the EHR database. Pathological reports were used as the gold standard for diagnosing thyroid cancer. We developed thyroid cancer diagnosis based on natural language processing (THCaDxNLP) to interpret unstructured sonographic text reports for thyroid cancer diagnosis. We used the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) as the primary metric to measure the performance of the THCaDxNLP. We compared the performance of thyroid ultrasound radiologists aided with THCaDxNLP vs. those without THCaDxNLP using 5 independent test sets. Results: We obtained a total number of 788,129 sonographic radiological reports. The number of thyroid sonographic data points was 132,277, 18,400 of which were thyroid cancer patients. Among the 5 test sets, the numbers of patients per set were 439, 186, 82, 343, and 171. THCaDxNLP achieved high performance in identifying thyroid cancer patients (the AUROC ranged from 0.857-0.932). Thyroid ultrasound radiologists aided with THCaDxNLP achieved significantly higher performances than those without THCaDxNLP in terms of accuracy (93.8% vs. 87.2%; one-sided t-test, adjusted P = 0.003), precision (92.5% vs. 86.0%; P = 0.018), and F1 metric (94.2% vs. 86.4%; P = 0.007). Conclusions: THCaDxNLP achieved a high AUROC for the identification of thyroid cancer, and improved the accuracy, sensitivity, and precision of thyroid ultrasound radiologists. This warrants further investigation of THCaDxNLP in prospective clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current era, anyone can freely access the Internet thanks to the development of information and communication technology. The cloud is attracting attention due to its ability to meet continuous user demands for resources. Additionally, Cloud is effective for systems with large data flow such as the Internet of Things (IoT) systems and Smart Cities. Nonetheless, the use of traditional networking technology in the cloud causes network traffic overload and network security problems. Therefore, the cloud requires efficient networking technology to solve the existing challenges. In this paper, we propose one-time password-based software-defined cloud architecture for secure dynamic routing to mitigating the above-mention issues. The proposed cloud architecture provides a secure data path through dynamic routing using One-Time Internet Protocol (OTIP) algorithm between each layer. On the network side, we use software-defined technology to provide efficient network management and data security. We introduce a software-defined cloud architecture that applies OTIP algorithms for secure dynamic routing.We conduct a comparative analysis between general IP communication and proposed OTIP communication architecture. It evaluates the performance of OTIP algorithms. Finally, we examine the proposed software-defined cloud architecture, including how to apply OTIP in secure dynamic routing according to the results of the comparative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]