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Reading self-beliefs, comprising self-concept and self-efficacy, play a pivotal role in shaping students' learning engagement and learning outcomes. However, existing literature on the self-beliefs of school-entry students primarily originates from Western contexts, and the exploration of differences in self-beliefs, engagement in learning, and their impact on reading performance among L1 and L2 learners remains uncharted territory. This dearth of knowledge leaves us questioning whether self-concept and self-efficacy function uniquely in shaping the reading development of L1 and L2 children. Research Findings: By conducting multigroup SEM analysis, this study found no significant differences in self-efficacy or self-concept between L1 and L2 Chinese first-grade students. However, it did reveal distinct patterns in their impact: In L1 students, self-efficacy and self-concept predict learning engagement, with self-concept having a stronger influence on reading performance. Conversely, for L2 students, self-efficacy primarily affects their learning engagement, which indirectly impacts reading performance. Practice or Policy: This study enhances our understanding of different roles of self-beliefs in L1 and L2 learning and offers pedagogical insights for language teaching in countries with both ethnic minority and local populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death. However, the prognostic value of the tumor shrinkage rate (TSR) after chemotherapy for SCLC is still unknown. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of 235 patients with SCLC. The TSR cutoff was determined based on receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis. The associations of TSR with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed using univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models. Survival curves were obtained by the Kaplan–Meier method and compared using the log-rank test. Recurrence patterns after first-line treatment were summarized in a pie chart. A nomogram was constructed to validate the predictive role of the TSR in SCLC. Results: The TSR cutoff was identified to be − 6.6%. Median PFS and OS were longer in the group with a TSR < –6.6% than in the group with a TSR ≥ − 6.6%. PFS and OS were also longer in patients with extensive SCLC when the TSR was < − 6.6% than when it was > − 6.6%. Brain metastasis-free survival was better in the group with a TSR < − 6.6%. There was a significant positive correlation between TSR and PFS. Furthermore, univariate and multivariate regression analyses showed that the TSR, patient age, and previous radiotherapy were independent prognostic factors for OS while TSR and M stage were independent prognostic factors for PFS. Conclusions: The TSR may prove to be a good indicator of OS and PFS in patients receiving chemotherapy-based first-line treatment for SCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The initiation of osteogenesis primarily occurs as mesenchymal stem cells undergo differentiation into osteoblasts. This differentiation process plays a crucial role in bone formation and homeostasis and is regulated by two intricate processes: cell signal transduction and transcriptional gene expression. Various essential cell signaling pathways, including Wnt, BMP, TGF-β, Hedgehog, PTH, FGF, Ephrin, Notch, Hippo, and Piezo1/2, play a critical role in facilitating osteoblast differentiation, bone formation, and bone homeostasis. Key transcriptional factors in this differentiation process include Runx2, Cbfβ, Runx1, Osterix, ATF4, SATB2, and TAZ/YAP. Furthermore, a diverse array of epigenetic factors also plays critical roles in osteoblast differentiation, bone formation, and homeostasis at the transcriptional level. This review provides an overview of the latest developments and current comprehension concerning the pathways of cell signaling, regulation of hormones, and transcriptional regulation of genes involved in the commitment and differentiation of osteoblast lineage, as well as in bone formation and maintenance of homeostasis. The paper also reviews epigenetic regulation of osteoblast differentiation via mechanisms, such as histone and DNA modifications. Additionally, we summarize the latest developments in osteoblast biology spurred by recent advancements in various modern technologies and bioinformatics. By synthesizing these insights into a comprehensive understanding of osteoblast differentiation, this review provides further clarification of the mechanisms underlying osteoblast lineage commitment, differentiation, and bone formation, and highlights potential new therapeutic applications for the treatment of bone diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lymph node characteristics markedly affect nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) prognosis. Matted node (MN), an important characteristic for lymph node, lacks explored MRI‐based prognostic implications. Purpose: Investigate MRI‐determined MNs' prognostic value in NPC, including 5‐year overall survival (OS), distant metastasis‐free survival (DMFS), local recurrence‐free survival (LRFS), progression‐free survival (PFS), and its role in induction chemotherapy (IC). Study Type: Retrospective cohort survival study. Population: Seven hundred ninety‐two patients with non‐metastatic NPC (female: 27.3%, >45‐year old: 50.1%) confirmed by biopsy. Field Strength/Sequence: 5‐T/3.0‐T, T1‐, T2‐ and post‐contrast T1‐weighted fast spin echo sequences acquired. Assessment: MNs were defined as ≥3 nodes abutting with intervening fat plane replaced by extracapsular nodal spread (ENS). Patients were observed every 3 months for 2 years and every 6 months for 5 years using MRI. Follow‐up extended from treatment initiation to death or final follow‐up. MNs were evaluated by three radiologists with inter‐reader reliability calculated. A 1:1 matched‐pair method compared survival differences between MN‐positive patients with or without IC. Primary endpoints (OS, DMFS, LRFS, PFS) were calculated from therapy initiation to respective event. Statistical Tests: Kappa values assessed inter‐reader reliability. Correlation between MN, ENS, and LNN was studied through Spearman's correlation coefficient. Clinical characteristics were calculated via Fisher's exact, Chi‐squared, and Student's t‐test. Kaplan–Meier curves and log‐rank tests analyzed all time‐to‐event data. Confounding factors were included in Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models to identify independent prognostic factors. P‐values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: MNs incidence was 24.6%. MNs independently associated with decreased 5‐year OS, DMFS, and PFS; not LRFS (P = 0.252). MN‐positive patients gained significant survival benefit from IC in 5‐year OS (88.4% vs. 66.0%) and PFS (76.4% vs. 53.5%), but not DMFS (83.1% vs. 69.9%, P = 0.145) or LRFS (89.9% vs. 77.8%, P = 0.140). Data Conclusion: MNs may independently stratify NPC risk and offer survival benefit from IC. Evidence Level: 3 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-entropy oxides (HEOs) are considered promising electrode materials as they have great potential to provide much higher energy density and cyclability than their conventional electrode counterparts such as graphite. In the present work, nanostructured HEOs were fabricated on the surface of conductive carbon black using laser beam irradiation, which generally implements the rapid bottom-up carbothermal process. Furthermore, electrochemical performances of Co-free and Co-incorporated HEO nanoparticles in comparison with bulk-HEO counterparts were investigated. In particular, the Co-free (LiFeNiMnCuZn)3O4 nanoparticle electrode showed the best capability presenting both the highest cycling value of 866 mA h g−1 (100% capacity retention) after 800 cycles at 0.5 A g−1 and rate performances of 585 at 2.0 A g−1 and 436 mA h g−1 at 5.0 A g−1 without decay. The long cycling performance of Co-free HEOs could be derived from the reversible spinel structure, according to the in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) results, as well as the strong thermal stability of high-entropy mixing phases, as indicated by a large positive decomposition enthalpy according to density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Additionally, the assembled full cell (LiFeNiMnCuZn)3O4‖LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 delivered a power density of 670 W h kg−1 with a high discharge voltage around 3.7 V based on the 0.1C discharge profile. As manifested by the DFT calculations, the low anode voltage of HEOs measured here is due to the electron-sufficient Zn, which favors the Ni2+/Ni3+ redox couple. This work is expected to provide a guideline for the development of advanced high-entropy nanostructured electrode materials for efficient batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural image matting focuses on accurately estimating the opacity of the foreground object in an arbitrary background. Recently, deep learning-based approaches made significant progress in the matting task benefit from their powerful learning ability for semantic features. However, artifacts, blurry structures, and miscalculated pixels still often appear in some difficult regions with background interference and complex details. To address the above issues, we propose a cross-layer contextual information propagation mechanism (CCIP) that can explicitly model the long-range correlations between global and unknown regions. Specifically, we first calculate region affinity at high-level features with rich structure and semantic information; then reconstruct the adjacent low-level features by propagating information from the global region to the unknown region under the guidance of the affinity matrix; finally, transfer the reconstructed information to the corresponding decoder stage to further improve the feature distinctiveness. In addition, we design a simple and effective supervision strategy in a deep-to-shallow manner to gradually optimize the edges and details of the foreground object. We conducted extensive experiments on the common dataset Composition-1k, the alphamatting.com benchmark, and some real-world images. Compared with previous methods, the proposed method achieves competitive performance on the Composition-1k dataset (30.3 on SAD, 6.8 on MSE, 13.3 on Grad, and 26.7 on Con) and alphamatting.com benchmark (17 on average SAD rank and 16.8 on average Grad rank), while simultaneously yielding high-quality matting results on real-world images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) might be associated with maternal spontaneous fetal loss, while evidence among Chinese population is limited. This study aims to explore the associations of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among women and their spouses with the risk of spontaneous abortion and stillbirth. Method: Data were from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2014 survey. ACEs were categorized into intra-familial ACEs and extra-familial ACEs. The associations of maternal and paternal ACEs with women's history of spontaneous abortion and stillbirth were investigated by logistic regression. Results: 7,742 women were included with 9.05% and 2.47% experiencing at least one spontaneous abortion or stillbirth, respectively. Women exposed to 2, 3, and ≥ 4 ACEs were at significantly higher odds of spontaneous abortion, with adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of 1.52 (95% [CI, Confidence Interval] 1.10–2.10), 1.50 (95% CI 1.07–2.09) and 1.68 (95% CI 1.21–2.32), respectively. A significant association between ≥ 4 maternal intra-familial ACEs and stillbirth (OR 2.23, 95% CI 1.12–4.42) was also revealed. Furthermore, paternal exposures to 3 and ≥ 4 overall ACEs were significantly associated with their wives' history of spontaneous abortion, with adjusted ORs of 1.81 (95% CI 1.01–3.26) and 1.83 (95% CI 1.03–3.25), respectively. Conclusion: Both maternal and paternal ACEs were associated with spontaneous abortion, and potential mediators might need to be considered to further explore impacts of maternal and paternal ACEs on maternal reproductive health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The TGF-β1/Smad3-signaling pathway and gender differences were investigated in alcoholic liver fibrosis. Mice were divided into female normal, female model, male normal, and male model groups. Liver injury and fibrosis were assessed using histopathology and serology. Western blotting was performed to analyze the expression of relevant factors. HSC-T6 cells were divided into estradiol + saline, estradiol + ethanol, testosterone + saline, and testosterone + ethanol groups, and similar assessments were conducted in vitro. Compared with the female model group, the male model group exhibited significantly increased GPT, GOT, TNF-α, IL-6, and testosterone levels, fibrosis rate, and TGF-β1, Smad3, and PCNA expression, and significantly decreased estradiol levels and Caspase-3 expression. The apoptosis rate was higher in the estradiol + ethanol group than in the testosterone + ethanol group, although the testosterone + ethanol group exhibited significantly increased TNF-α, IL-6, Collagen-I, α-SMA, TGF-β1, Smad3, and PCNA expression, and significantly decreased Caspase-3 expression. Alcoholic liver fibrosis showed significant gender differences associated with the TGF-β1/Smad3-signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by relapsed eczema and serious pruritus. High-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) is a nuclear-binding protein and serves as an alarmin to promote inflammatory responses. Methods: In this study, we established an AD mouse model by topical use of MC903 on ears and then used a specific HMGB1-binding peptide cIY8 and a HMGB1 inhibitor of glycyrrhizin to investigate HMGB1 on fibroblast activation in the pathogenesis of AD-like symptoms. Results: Topical use of cIY8 and oral use of glycyrrhizin significantly improved the MC903-induced AD-like symptoms and pathological changes of the ears and scratching behavior in an AD mouse model; cIY8 treatment inhibited the higher mRNAs of IL-1α, IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, and IL-31 in the ears. In human fibroblasts, HMGB1 caused nuclear translocation of NF-kB, and the nuclear translocation could be inhibited by pre-treatment of HMGB1 with cIY8, suggesting that NF-κB signaling pathway participates in the HMGB1-induced inflammation of AD in fibroblasts and that cIY8 effectively impedes the function of HMGB1. Glycyrrhizin inhibited the Ca2+ signaling induced by ionomycin in mouse primary fibroblasts. The fibroblast-related proteins of α-SMA, Hsp47, and vimentin and the pruritus-related proteins of IL-33 and periostin were increased in the ears of the AD mouse model, the ratio of EdU incorporation became higher in mouse fibroblasts treated with MC903, and the higher proliferation and inflammatory responses of the fibroblasts could be reversed by glycyrrhizin treatment. Conclusions: Fibroblast activation by HMGB1 is one of the critical processes in the development of inflammation and pruritus in the AD mouse model. The specific HMGB1-binding peptide cIY8 and the HMGB1 inhibitor glycyrrhizin inactivate skin fibroblasts to alleviate the inflammation and pruritus in the AD mouse model. Peptide cIY8 may be topically used to treat AD patients in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preservatives are essential components in cosmetic products, but their safety issues have attracted widespread attention. There is an urgent need for safe and effective alternatives. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are part of the innate immune system and have potent antimicrobial properties. Using machine learning-assisted rational design, we obtained a novel antibacterial peptide, IK-16-1, with significant antibacterial activity and maintaining safety based on β-defensins. IK-16-1 has broad-spectrum antimicrobial properties against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans, and has no haemolytic activity. The use of IK-16-1 holds promise in the cosmetics industry, since it can serve as a preservative synergist to reduce the amount of other preservatives in cosmetics. This study verified the feasibility of combining computational design with artificial intelligence prediction to design AMPs, achieving rapid screening and reducing development costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SrFe12–2xNixZrxO19 (x = 0–0.9) ferrites were successfully synthesized through hydrothermal method using metal chloride as start materials. It exhibits very good hexagonal crystals with doping content x < 0.3, but deviate from hexagonal flakes with increasing doping, accompanied by some debris. XRD confirm that the impurity phase decrease with the increase of doping amount even though the sample annealed at 950 °C. After annealing at 1150 °C, It exhibits the absence of secondary phases of SrCO3. It was found the obvious preferred orientation and becomes more significant with the increase of doping amount. In addition, the deconvoluted XPS of Sr 3d and Zr 3d indicated the complexed coordination with high doping amount x > 0.5. Magnetic properties further validated the ions migration and multielectron transitions. The highest saturation magnetization value observed is 55.66 emu/g for the x = 0.3 sample. With dopant increasing, the coercivity decreases steadily from 840 to 190 Oe. Thus, the materials with high Ms and low Hc values could be suitable used in longitudinal magnetic recording media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated heterogeneity in language skills of children with autism and their relationship with different autistic social subtypes. Data from 90 autistic and 30 typically developing children were analyzed. Results showed that autistic social subtypes varied in language skill problems (aloof > passive > active-but-odd). There was a negative association between aloof dimension scores and language performance but positive for the active-but-odd dimension and no association in the passive one. Moreover, aloof dimension score was the main contributor to language performance. A receiver operating characteristic analysis suggested language vocabulary as an additional component in differentiating autistic social subtypes. These findings demonstrate that variations in language skills in autistic children provide additional information for discriminating their social subtype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mercury (Hg) is a global persistent contaminant. Modeling studies are useful means of synthesizing a current understanding of the Hg cycle. Previous studies mainly use coarse-resolution models, which makes it impossible to analyze the role of turbulence in the Hg cycle and inaccurately describes the transport of kinetic energy. Furthermore, all of them are coupled with offline biogeochemistry, and therefore they cannot respond to short-term variability in oceanic Hg concentration. In our approach, we utilize a high-resolution ocean model (MITgcm-ECCO2, referred to as "high-resolution-MITgcm") coupled with the concurrent simulation of biogeochemistry processes from the Darwin Project (referred to as "online"). This integration enables us to comprehensively simulate the global biogeochemical cycle of Hg with a horizontal resolution of 1/5 ∘. The finer portrayal of surface Hg concentrations in estuarine and coastal areas, strong western boundary flow and upwelling areas, and concentration diffusion as vortex shapes demonstrate the effects of turbulence that are neglected in previous models. Ecological events such as algal blooms can cause a sudden enhancement of phytoplankton biomass and chlorophyll concentrations, which can also result in a dramatic change in particle-bound Hg (HgaqP) sinking flux simultaneously in our simulation. In the global estuary region, including riverine Hg input in the high-resolution model allows us to reveal the outward spread of Hg in an eddy shape driven by fine-scale ocean currents. With faster current velocities and diffusion rates, our model captures the transport and mixing of Hg from river discharge in a more accurate and detailed way and improves our understanding of Hg cycle in the ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the impact of network externalities on the green strategies of enterprises at each node of the supply chain. The existing related research mainly addresses the influence of factors such as government regulation, consumer behavior characteristics, and node enterprise behavior on green supply chain decision making. While these studies provide excellent ideas, the impact of network externalities on both green manufacturing and green marketing strategies is often disregarded. This paper uses evolutionary game theory to construct a utility function based on network externalities and consumer green preferences. The Stackelberg game is used to analyze the revenue function of supply chain members under different strategies, showing that under different strategies, network externalities and consumer green preferences have different effects on revenue in the supply chain. To understand the influence of network externalities on green supply chain strategy choices, the evolutionary game model is used. This model allows analyzing the evolutionary stable strategies of manufacturers' green manufacturing and retailers' green marketing. The mechanism underlying the influence of network externalities and consumer green preferences on green supply chain decision making is demonstrated. This helps to explain the green strategy decisions of upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic-vibration-based structural damage identification (SDI) represents the main target for structural health monitoring (SHM). It is significant to consider the unavoidable uncertainties arising from both the structure and measuring noise. On the other hand, nonuniform measurement conditions often appear in actual SHM applications, which consist of two parts, i.e., spatial nonuniform characteristics for noises are induced by various intensities of input noise in every single sampling channel and multisensor stays in a damaged state. This paper proposes a new method for the SDI considering uncertainties in nonuniform measurement conditions integrating convolutional neural network (CNN). Herein, the great ability of feature extraction from the measurement associated with the convolutional network is used to handle the input data, and the mapping connection between the selected features and damage states is established. Time histories of structural responses, such as acceleration, are applied for damage identification. The application and accuracy of the CNN, which is trained with input uncertain parameters contaminated by stochastic noises, are verified by the finite element numerical and experimental results. Both uncertain parameters and measurement conditions are considered in the verification. The responses obtained from the numerical and experimental approach show that the proposed neural network model can identify the structural damage with high accuracy. The great robustness of the proposed method is examined by studying the influence of uncertainties, even considering the nonuniform measurement condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite carbon materials normally exhibiting good absorption toward microwave radiation, there is still the need to develop facile strategies for further exploring the carbon matrix to achieve stronger and broadened absorbing performance. Here, we report a one-step air-controlled annealing approach to fabricate holey carbon sheets with significantly strengthened microwave-absorbing properties. The obtained metal-free product is barely synthesized from prawn crackers without any additive reagent addition. Both electric field simulations and experiments verify the improved absorbing capability achieved on the derived holey carbon absorbent. The performance measurements demonstrate that its reflection loss reaches −64.1 dB at a thickness of 1.45 mm, and the corresponding absorption bandwidth approaches 5.36 GHz at 1.65 mm, almost covering the whole Ku band from 12.64 to 18.00 GHz. These results overperform most biomass-derived absorbents. Benefiting from this air-modulated nanoscale holey structure, it endows the carbon matrix with higher surface areas associated with richer oxygen functional groups, which facilitates more incident microwaves to be consumed and regulates the dielectric loss of the final product. Meanwhile, the inherited Si components from raw prawn crackers supply more polarization centers, thereby enhancing the absorbing properties. We expect that these can represent a feasible addition to the family of sustainable carbon-based microwave absorbents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrared (IR) observations from geostationary satellites have been widely used in estimating the precipitation with high spatiotemporal resolutions. Currently, it is acknowledged that single-channel IR observations are capable to extract the properties of cloud tops, while are insufficient for deeper vertical information. However, based on developments of multispectral IR imagers onboard geostationary satellites, distinguishing different precipitation regions with different vertical structures becomes possible, which has not been fully explored yet. Therefore, combining FengYun-4A/advanced geosynchronous radiation imager (FY-4A/AGRI) and global precipitation measurement/dual-frequency precipitation radar (GPM/DPR), we innovatively proposed frontal precipitation cloud index (FPCI) and saturated precipitation cloud index (SPCI) for IR signals by exploiting the characteristic responses of channel combinations to different precipitation systems. It is proven that multispectral IR observations are capable of responding to certain precipitation systems with different vertical structures. Meanwhile, IR imagers onboard geostationary satellites have significant advantages on tracking developing processes of precipitation systems with high spatiotemporal resolutions than microwave detectors onboard low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites. In addition, this study is beneficial for impelling IR precipitation estimation to consider more radiation-based physical theory, especially for FY-4A official precipitation product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dentin regeneration is the preferred method used to preserve dental pulp vitality after pulp exposure due to caries. Red light-emitting diode irradiation (LEDI), which is based on photobiomodulation (PBM), has been used to promote hard-tissue regeneration. However, the underlying mechanism still needs elucidation. This study aimed to explore the mechanism involved in red LEDI affecting dentin regeneration. Alizarin red S (ARS) staining revealed that red LEDI induced mineralization of human dental pulp cells (HDPCs) in vitro. We further distinguished the cell proliferation (0–6 d), differentiation (6–12 d), and mineralization (12–18 d) of HDPCs in vitro and treated cells either with or without red LEDI in each stage. The results showed that red LEDI treatment in the mineralization stage, but not the proliferation or differentiation stages, increased mineralized nodule formation around HDPCs. Western blot also indicated that red LEDI treatment in the mineralization stage, but not the proliferation or differentiation stages, upregulated the expression of dentin matrix marker proteins (dentin sialophosphoprotein, DSPP; dentin matrix protein 1, DMP1; osteopontin, OPN) and an intracellular secretory vesicle marker protein (lysosomal-associated membrane protein 1, LAMP1). Therefore, the red LEDI might enhance the matrix vesicle secretion of HDPCs. On the molecular level, red LEDI enhanced mineralization by activating the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways (ERK and P38). ERK and P38 inhibition reduced mineralized nodule formation and the expression of relevant marker proteins. In summary, red LEDI enhanced the mineralization of HDPCs by functioning to produce a positive effect in the mineralization stage in vitro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteoblasts must acquire a considerable capacity for folding unfolded and misfolded proteins (MPs) to produce large amounts of extracellular matrix proteins and maintain bone homeostasis. MP accumulation contributes to cellular apoptosis and bone disorders. Photobiomodulation therapy has been used to treat bone diseases, but the effects of decreasing MPs with photobiomodulation remain unclear. In this study, we explored the efficacy of 625 nm light-emitting diode irradiation (LEDI) to reduce MPs in tunicamycin (TM) induced-MC3T3-E1 cells. Binding immunoglobulin protein (BiP), an adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-dependent chaperone, is used to evaluate the capacity of folding MPs. The results revealed that pretreatment with 625 nm LEDI (Pre-IR) induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, leading to the increased chaperone BiP through the inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1)/X-box binding protein 1s (XBP-1s) pathway, and then restoration of collagen type I (COL-I) and osteopontin (OPN) expression relieving cell apoptosis. Furthermore, the translocation of BiP into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) lumen might be followed by a high level of ATP production. Taken together, these results suggest that Pre-IR could be beneficial to prevent MP accumulation through ROS and ATP in TM-induced MC3T3-E1cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human skeletal development is continuous and staged, and different stages have various morphological characteristics. Therefore, bone age assessment (BAA) can accurately reflect the individual's growth and development level and maturity. Clinical BAA is time consuming, highly subjective, and lacks consistency. Deep learning has made considerable progress in BAA in recent years by effectively extracting deep features. Most studies use neural networks to extract global information from input images. However, clinical radiologists are highly concerned about the ossification degree in some specific regions of the hand bones. This paper proposes a two-stage convolutional transformer network to improve the accuracy of BAA. Combined with object detection and transformer, the first stage mimics the bone age reading process of the pediatrician, extracts the hand bone region of interest (ROI) in real time using YOLOv5, and proposes hand bone posture alignment. In addition, the previous information encoding of biological sex is integrated into the feature map to replace the position token in the transformer. The second stage extracts features within the ROI by window attention, interacts between different ROIs by shifting the window attention to extract hidden feature information, and penalizes the evaluation results using a hybrid loss function to ensure its stability and accuracy. The proposed method is evaluated on the data from the Pediatric Bone Age Challenge organized by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The experimental results show that the proposed method achieves a mean absolute error (MAE) of 6.22 and 4.585 months on the validation and testing sets, respectively, and the cumulative accuracy within 6 and 12 months reach 71% and 96%, respectively, which is comparable to the state of the art, markedly reducing the clinical workload and realizing rapid, automatic, and high-precision assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies on L2 motivation have established a significant association between ideal self, learning engagement, and academic achievement, but few have examined the internal relationships between these variables in the L2 writing domain. In addition, students' linguistic competence, a fundamental element of writing achievement, remains underrepresented in most research on L2 integrated writing (IW). Considering that learner motivation and engagement may vary across different tasks, this study invited 589 Chinese secondary school students to complete tasks of story continuation (as an IW task) and linguistic competence, as well as a questionnaire relating to ideal writing self and engagement. Structural equation modeling results showed that: (a) linguistic competence was a significant direct predictor not only of students' writing achievement but also of their ideal L2 writing selves; (b) despite the significant contribution of ideal L2 writing selves to the three kinds of learning engagement, only behavioral engagement was a distinctive and unique mediator that materialized students' inner psychological drive towards writing performance. The pedagogical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonylphenol (NP) is widely used in the chemical industry; it accumulates in organisms through environmental contamination and causes learning memory impairment. Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) has been found to have a positive effect on the treatment of central nervous-related diseases. This study aimed to investigate the protective effect of NMN on NP-induced learning memory-related impairment in vitro and to further identify the underlying mechanisms. The results showed that NP induced oxidative stress and impaired the cholinergic system, 5-HT system in PC-12 cells. NMN alleviated NP-induced learning and memory impairment at the molecular level through alleviating oxidative stress and protective effects on the 5-HT system and cholinergic system. The 50 μM NP group significantly reduced the NAD+ content, and the relative expression of SIRT1, PGC-1α, Nrf2, MAOA, BDNF, and p-TrkB were significantly downregulated. Co-treatment of NMN with NP significantly reduced oxidative stress, improved the homeostasis of 5-HT and cholinergic system, enhanced the intracellular NAD+ content, and significantly upregulated the expression of SIRT1 pathway proteins. SIRT1 inhibitors reduced the expression of SIRT1 pathway-related proteins, which implied the impairment of learning and memory by NP and the protective effect of NMN might be achieved through the SIRT1-mediated PGC-1α/MAOA/BDNF signaling pathway. Overall, this study not only help us to understand the toxic mechanism of NP on learning memory impairment in vitro, but also have important reference significance to further explore the health care value of NMN and promote the development of related functional foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral surgery, such as tooth extractions and dental implantations, can cause inflammation in the surrounding tissue, especially in bones. Anti-inflammatory drugs are crucial for pain relief and wound healing. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and light-emitting diode irradiation (LEDI) at 625 nm have been used as therapies to reduce inflammation, which ultimately promotes wound healing. The mechanism of these two methods, however, is different, which possibly makes the combined use of the two approaches effective. Therefore, the efficacy of 625 nm LEDI, NSAIDs, or a combination of both on anti-inflammatory and wound healing effects were analyzed in MC3T3-E1. In this study, piroxicam, ibuprofen, indomethacin, and celecoxib were selected as the NSAIDs. The effect of LEDI at 625 nm was investigated by cell viability, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) release, and the expression of inflammation-related proteins and cell migration-related proteins were evaluated. Additionally, alkaline phosphatase staining with activity, cell migration assay and BrdU cell proliferation assays were performed. Both LEDI and NSAIDs reduced cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and PGE2. Additionally, LEDI promoted cell migration, proliferation, and bone formation as well, but not by NSAIDs. Thus, a combination of LEDI and NSAIDs can benefits the cells in inflammation, which provides upturn strategies for bone healing after tooth extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yangtze River Delta is the most populous and economically active region in China. Studying the reduction in CO2 emissions in this region is of great significance in achieving the goal of "peak carbon and carbon neutrality" in China. In this study, the Tapio decoupling and extended STIRPAT models were used to study the differences in provincial CO2 emissions characteristics and influencing factors in the Yangtze River Delta from 2001 to 2019. The results show that the growth rate of CO2 emissions was slower than that of economic development, which means that CO2 emissions and economic growth were in a state of weak decoupling. As found by ridge regression, the same factor has different impacts on CO2 emissions among provinces. The differences in these influencing factors were mainly caused by the imbalance of development in the Yangtze River Delta. Nine development scenarios were set out to predict the future trend of CO2 emissions based on economic development and carbon emissions technology using the extended STIRPAT model. It was found that low-carbon-emissions technology is conducive to controlling CO2 emissions in the Yangtze River Delta. In that case, the CO2 emissions would peak in 2029 at 1895.78~1908.25 Mt. Compared with the low-carbon-emissions scenarios, both the medium- and high-carbon-emissions scenarios are not conducive to achieving a carbon peak, with a 2~5-year delay in peak time and increasing emissions by 3.69~7.68%. In order to reduce the Yangtze River Delta's CO2 emissions and pass the peak emissions as soon as possible, it is essential to not only optimize the energy structure, upgrade industries and promote the coordinated development of low-carbon technologies, but also promote emissions reduction in the transportation and construction fields and advocate for a low-carbon lifestyle among the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: STEAP3 is a metal reductase located on the plasma membrane close to the nucleus and vesicles. Despite numerous studies indicating the involvement of STEAP3 in tumor advancement, the prognostic value of STEAP3 in glioma and the related mechanisms have not been fully investigated. METHODS: Initially, we examined the correlation between STEAP3 expression and the survival rate in various glioma datasets. To assess the prognostic capability of STEAP3 for one-year, three-year, and five-year survival, we created receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and nomograms. Additionally, an investigation was carried out to examine the mechanisms that contribute to the involvement of STEAP3 in gliomas, including immune and enrichment analysis. To confirm the expression of STEAP3 in LGG and GBM, tumor tissue samples were gathered, and cell experiments were conducted to explore the impacts of STEAP3. The function of STEAP3 in the tumor immune microenvironment was assessed using the M2 macrophage infiltration assay. RESULTS: We found that STEAP3 expressed differently in group with different age, tumor grade IDH and 1p19q status. The analysis of survival illustrated that glioma patients with high level of STEAP3 experienced shorter survival durations, especially for IDH-mutant astrocytoma. Cox analysis demonstrated that STEAP3 had potential to act as an independent prognostic factor for glioma. The predictive value of STEAP3 for glioma prognosis was demonstrated by ROC curves and nomogram. Immune analysis showed that STEAP3 may lead to a suppressive immune microenvironment through the control of immunosuppressive cell infiltration and Cancer-Immunity Cycle. Combining enrichment analysis and cell experiments, we discovered that STEAP3 can promote glioma progression through regulation of PI3K-AKT pathway and M2 macrophage infiltration. CONCLUSION: STEAP3 plays significant roles in the advancement of glioma by regulating immune microenvironment and PI3K-AKT pathway. It has the potential to serve as a therapy target for glioma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the dynamics of the wind–vehicle–bridge (WVB) system in the multi-body dynamics framework, which avoids the large computation cost of programming the motion equation of complex vehicle models and improves the calculation efficiency, an advanced hybrid method is proposed to optimize the WVB system coupling vibration analysis model. The dummy body coupling (DBC) method is integrated to build the connection between the MBS and the FE model, which cannot change the mechanical characteristics of the MBS vehicle model and the bridge FE model. The proposed method makes full use of the high efficiency of the established structure modeling, the powerful wheel–rail analysis function, and vehicle modeling in the multi-body dynamics framework. The complex bridge is modeled by a number of elements to reflect the actual dynamic characteristics of structure, which cannot satisfy the requirement of calculation in the multi-body dynamics framework. Thus, to avoid forming the wheel–rail relationship function, the bridge modeling as a finite element model would be transferred into multi-body dynamics coupling model of the WVB system as a flexible body. The verification of the relationship among the sub-systems of the multi-body model of the WVB system is investigated by analysis of the wind–vehicle, wind–bridge, and vehicle–bridge sub-systems. Finally, a dynamic analysis of the WVB system based on the proposed method is carried out for a double-track railway continuous bridge, in which the effects of different vehicle speeds and the incoming wind directions are studied. The simulation of the WVB system by the hybrid method has a high computational efficiency and strong practicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Namjag Barwa syntaxis is in the eastern Himalayan syntaxis area with the most intensive neotectonic activity. There are many late Quaternary active fault belts and strong seismicities. The tectonic stability of these active fault belts, such as the Jiali, Dongjiu-Milin, and Motuo fault belts, may influence the project's construction. In-situ stress is a critical parameter for estimating regional tectonic stability. Currently, there is a lack of abundant in-situ stress results about the Namjag Barwa syntaxis. It is challenging to assess geological safety risks for major projects. Based on focal mechanism solutions, the paper reveals the orientation of the maximum principal stress surrounding the Namjag Barwa syntaxis using the stress tensor inversion method. According to the critical condition of fault instability, the magnitudes of principal stresses around the Namjag Barwa syntaxis are also estimated by combining the inversion of the stress shape ratio and the frictional coefficient. The results indicate that the maximum principal stress direction in the Namjag Barwa syntaxis area is NE-NNE. The maximum and minimum horizontal principal stresses increase linearly with depth at a gradient of 0.032 ~ 0.0355 MPa/m and 0.0227 ~ 0.0236 MPa/m, respectively. Heterogeneous features of the in-situ stress field still exist. Generally, the results estimated in this study are in good concordance with the in-situ stress measurements. They can provide reliable insitu stress parameters for evaluating the tectonic stability in the Namcha Barwa region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on domain adaptation in a semantic segmentation task. Traditional methods regard the source domain and the target domain as a whole, and the image matching is determined by random seeds, leading to a low degree of consistency matching between domains and interfering with the reduction in the domain gap. Therefore, we designed a two-step, three-level cascaded domain consistency matching strategy—co-occurrence-based consistency matching (COCM)—in which the two steps are: Step 1, in which we design a matching strategy from the perspective of category existence and filter the sub-image set with the highest degree of matching from the image of the whole source domain, and Step 2, in which, from the perspective of spatial existence, we propose a method of measuring the PIOU score to quantitatively evaluate the spatial matching of co-occurring categories in the sub-image set and select the best-matching source image. The three levels mean that in order to improve the importance of low-frequency categories in the matching process, we divide the categories into three levels according to the frequency of co-occurrences between domains; these three levels are the head, middle, and tail levels, and priority is given to matching tail categories. The proposed COCM maximizes the category-level consistency between the domains and has been proven to be effective in reducing the domain gap while being lightweight. The experimental results on general datasets can be compared with those of state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multimodal Electroencephalography techniques were used to determine whether the name of famous people undergoes self-relevant processing due to a shared surname with participants. During a three-stimulus oddball task, brain activity was recorded when participants suddenly saw their own names (self-name [SN]), a famous name with the same surname (FNS), or a famous name with a different surname (FND). While familiarity ratings were kept similar across the three kinds of name, behavioral analysis showed a higher rating on self-relevance for SN than for FNS, which, in turn, received a higher rating than FND. P2 amplitudes demonstrated a similar enhancement in response to SN and FNS compared to FND while P3 amplitudes and power of theta band (3.5–6 Hz) oscillation were more pronounced in response to SN than to FNS, which in turn elicited larger P3 and theta activities than FND. These findings, excluding the influence of familiarity, revealed that famous people sharing same surname with us could elicit a reliable self-relevant effect, despite lack of real social connection. This self-relevant processing may be embodied by the P3 amplitude and theta band neural oscillation in EEG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non‐invasive, transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (taVNS) via the ear is used therapeutically in epilepsy, pain, and depression, and may also have beneficial effects on social cognition. However, the underlying mechanisms of taVNS are unclear and evidence regarding its role in social cognition improvement is limited. To investigate the impact of taVNS on social cognition we have studied its effects on gaze toward emotional faces in combination with eye‐tracking and on the release of the neuropeptide oxytocin which plays a key role in influencing social cognition and motivation. A total of 54 subjects were enrolled (49 were included in the final analysis) in a sham‐controlled, participant‐blind, crossover experiment, consisting of two treatment sessions 1 week apart. In one session participants received 30‐min taVNS (tragus), and in the other, they received 30‐min sham (earlobe) stimulation with the treatment order counterbalanced. The proportion of time spent viewing the faces and facial features (eyes, nose, and mouth) was measured together with resting pupil size. Additionally, saliva samples were taken for the measurement of oxytocin concentrations by enzyme‐linked immunoassay. Saliva oxytocin concentrations increased significantly after taVNS compared to sham stimulation, while resting pupil size did not. In addition, taVNS increased time spent viewing the nose region irrespective of face emotion, and this was positively correlated with increased saliva oxytocin concentrations. Our findings suggest that taVNS biases visual attention toward socially salient facial features across different emotions and this is associated with its effects on increasing endogenous oxytocin release. Our findings elucidate the mechanism underlying the effects of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) on social cognition. We found that taVNS increased visual attention toward socially salient facial features across different emotions and this is associated with its effects on increasing endogenous oxytocin release, suggesting that taVNS may be a promising therapeutic treatment for disorders with social dysfunctions (i.e., autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of biochar can affect soil properties and retention of fertilizer nitrogen, but its effects and mechanism on the retention capacity of different forms of nitrogen in soils are still uncertain. In this study, an indoor soil column leaching experiment was conducted using vegetable soil samples with 3% rice husk biochar by mass prepared at 450 °C by pyrolysis and 150 mg N/kg 15N-labeled urea. Adding biochar increased the soil pH, thus alleviating soil acidification caused by fertilizer nitrogen application. It also increased the content of soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and available phosphorus while decreasing that of NH4+-N and NOX−-N(NO3−-Nand NO2−-N) in soils. NOX−-N was the predominant form in the leachate of all treatments, accounting for 63.15–87.90% of the total N loss. Compared to the urea-alone application (the N treatment), incorporating biochar and urea (the RBN treatment) significantly reduced total N and NOX−-N loss by 19.99% and 25.95%, respectively, while showing slight effects on NH4+-N loss. The 15N results show that fertilizer N retention in soil increased by 13.67%, while inorganic 15N leaching decreased by 25.97% after the biochar addition, compared to that in the N treatment. The RBN treatment increased fertilizer N losses in other ways (e.g., organic N leaching, ammonia and NOx volatilization) by 21.72%. Effects of biochar application on other N losses need to be further investigated. Biochar application can reduce the leaching of inorganic 15N and improve fertilizer N retention in the soil. Thus, the potential risk of fertilizer N on the quality of water bodies can be reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Prognoses for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) between categories T2 and T3 in the Eighth American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system were overlapped. We explored the value of skull base invasion (SBI) subclassification in prognostic stratification and use of induction chemotherapy (IC) to optimize T2/T3 categorization for NPC patients. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 1752 NPC patients from two hospitals. Eight skull base bone structures were evaluated. Survival differences were compared between slight SBI (T3 patients with pterygoid process and/or base of the sphenoid bone invasion only) and severe SBI (T3 patients with other SBIs) with or without IC using random matched-pair analysis. We calculated the prognosis and Harrel concordance index (C-index) for the revised T category and compared IC outcomes for the revised tumor stages. Results: Compared to severe SBI, slight SBI showed better 5-year overall survival (OS) (81.5% vs. 92.3%, p = 0.001) and progression-free survival (PFS) (71.5% vs. 83.0%, p = 0.002). Additional IC therapy did not significantly improve OS and PFS in slight SBI. The proposed T category separated OS, PFS, and locoregional recurrence-free survival in T2 and T3 categories with statistical significance. An improved C-index for OS prediction was observed in the proposed T category with combined confounding factors, compared to the AJCC T staging system (0.725 vs. 0.713, p = 0.046). The survival benefits of IC were more obvious in the advanced stage. Conclusions: NPC patients with slight SBI were recommended to downstage to T2 category. The adjustment for T category enabled better prognostic stratification and guidance for IC use. Key Points: • For nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients in T3 category, slight skull base invasion was a significant positive predictor for OS and PFS. • NPC patients with slight SBI might not gain significant survival benefits from induction chemotherapy. • Downstaging slight SBI NPC patients to T2 category would make a more accurate risk stratification, improve the predicting performance in OS, and have a better guidance in the use of IC for patients in advanced stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prevalence of infectious diseases remains one of the major challenges faced by the Chinese health sector. Policymakers have a tremendous interest in investigating the spatiotemporal epidemiology of infectious diseases. We aimed to review the small-scale (city level, county level, or below) spatiotemporal epidemiology of notifiable infectious diseases in China through a systematic review, thus summarizing the evidence to facilitate more effective prevention and control of the diseases.Methods: We searched four English language databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science) and three Chinese databases (CNKI, WanFang, and SinoMed), for studies published between January 1, 2004 (the year in which China's Internet-based disease reporting system was established) and December 31, 2021. Eligible works were small-scale spatial or spatiotemporal studies focusing on at least one notifiable infectious disease, with the entire territory of mainland China as the study area. Two independent reviewers completed the review process based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.Results: A total of 18,195 articles were identified, with 71 eligible for inclusion, focusing on 22 diseases. Thirty-one studies (43.66%) were analyzed using city-level data, 34 (47.89%) were analyzed using county-level data, and six (8.45%) used community or individual data. Approximately four-fifths (80.28%) of the studies visualized incidence using rate maps. Of these, 76.06% employed various spatial clustering methods to explore the spatial variations in the burden, with Moran's I statistic being the most common. Of the studies, 40.85% explored risk factors, in which the geographically weighted regression model was the most commonly used method. Climate, socioeconomic factors, and population density were the three most considered factors.Conclusions: Small-scale spatiotemporal epidemiology has been applied in studies on notifiable infectious diseases in China, involving spatiotemporal distribution and risk factors. Health authorities should improve prevention strategies and clarify the direction of future work in the field of infectious disease research in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: There are currently no approved drug interventions for social behavior dysfunction in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous trials investigating effects of daily intranasal oxytocin treatment have reported inconsistent results and have not combined it with positive social interaction. However, in two preclinical studies we established that treatment every other day rather than daily is more efficacious in maintaining neural and behavioral effects by reducing receptor desensitization. Objective: We aimed to establish whether a 6-week intranasal oxytocin compared with placebo treatment, followed by a period of positive social interaction, would produce reliable symptom improvements in children with ASD. Methods: A pilot double-blind, randomized, crossover design trial was completed including 41 children with ASD aged 3–8 years. Primary outcomes were the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2) and social responsivity scale-2 (SRS-2). Secondary measures included cognitive, autism- and caregiver-related questionnaires, and social attention assessed using eye-tracking. Results: Significant improvements were found for oxytocin relative to placebo in primary outcome measures (total ADOS-2 and SRS-2 scores, ps < 0.001) and in behavioral adaptability and repetitive behavior secondary measures. Altered SRS-2 scores were associated with increased saliva oxytocin concentrations. Additionally, oxytocin significantly increased time spent viewing dynamic social compared to geometric stimuli and the eyes of angry, happy, and neutral expression faces. There were no adverse side effects of oxytocin treatment. Conclusions: Overall, results demonstrate that a 6-week intranasal oxytocin treatment administered every other day and followed by positive social interactions can improve clinical, eye tracking, and questionnaire-based assessments of symptoms in young autistic children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tangshan region is one of the most seismically active areas in the North China, and the 1976 M 7.8 earthquake occurred on 28 July near the Tangshan fault zone. The Matouying enhanced geothermal system (EGS) field is located ∼90 km away from the city of Tangshan. Since late 2020, preliminary hydraulic stimulation tests have been conducted at depths of ∼3965 –4000 m. Fluid injection into geothermal reservoir facilitates a heat exchanger system. However, fluid injection may also induce earthquakes. In anticipation of the EGS operation at the Matouying uplift, it is essential to assess how the fault slip potential of the nearby active and quiescent faults will change in the presence of fluid injection. In this study, we first characterize the ambient stress field in the Tangshan region by performing stress tensor inversions using 98 focal-mechanism data (ML≥2.5). Then, we estimate the principal stress magnitudes near the Matouying EGS field by analyzing in situ stress measurements at shallow depths (∼600 –1000 m). According to these data, we perform a quantitative risk assessment using the Mohr–Coulomb framework in order to evaluate how the main active faults might respond to hypothetical injected-related pore pressure increases due to the upcoming EGS production. Our results mainly show that most earthquakes in the Tangshan seismic region have occurred on the faults that have relatively high fault slip potential in the present ambient stress field. At well distances of less than 15 km, the probabilistic fault slip potential on most of the boundary faults increases with continuing fluid injection over time, especially on the faults with well distances of ∼6 –10 km. The probabilistic fault slip potential (fsp) increases linearly with the fluid injection rate. However, the fsp values decrease exponentially with increased unit permeability. The case study of the Matouying EGS field has important implications for deep geothermal exploitation in China, especially for Gonghe EGS (in Qinghai Province) and Xiong'an New Area (in Hebei Province) geothermal reservoirs that are close to the Quaternary active faults. Ongoing injection operations in the regions should be conducted with these understandings in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CD3+CD56+ natural killer T (NKT)-like cells have an immune function of T cells and NK cells, which play an important role in antitumor and antiviral immune responses. This study aims to establish a CD3+CD56+ NKT-like cell model by simulating the memory NK effect induced by cytokines IL-12, IL-15, and IL-18 (IL-12/15/18) and explore the formation mechanism. Our study found that the IL-12/15/18 preactivated CD3+CD56+ NKT-like cells exhibited enhanced IFN-γ production in response to restimulation with IL-12/15/18 for 6h on day 7. The intrinsic potential of these trained cells was significantly improved, showing an increase in IFN-γ, TNF-α, and cell proliferation potential. The IFN-γ release, granzyme B level, and proliferation ability significantly increased when stimulated by NK-cell-sensitive K562 tumor cells. Among these cytokines, the combination of IL-12/15/18 was particularly effective. After the preactivation of IL-12/15/18, some cell surface proteins related to function and differentiation, such as CD11b, CD62 L, NKp46, NKG2A, and CD127, showed an evident and consistent change trend. The CDK4/6 inhibitor can effectively weaken this effect, and the expression of cyclin D1, Rb protein phosphorylation, and E2F-1 decreased significantly. Our work revealed that cytokine IL-12/15/18 can induce CD3+CD56+ NKT-like cells to obtain enhanced training immunity, which was a memory-like phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No consensus has yet been reached on the associations of lipid variability (LV) with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and all-cause mortality. We aimed to quantify the associations of different types and metrics of LV with CVDs and all-cause mortality. PubMed, Medline, and Embase databases were searched for eligible cohort studies published until 14 December 2021. Lipids included total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglycerides (TG). Metrics of variability included standard deviation (SD), coefficient of variation (CV), and variation independent of the mean (VIM). The primary outcomes were CVDs and all-cause mortality. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to generate a summary of the relative risks (SRRs). Sources of heterogeneity were explored by subgroup analysis and meta-regression. A total of 11 articles based on seven cohorts were included. Participants in the top quartile of TC variability had an increased risk of CVDs (vs. bottom quartile: TC-CV: SRR 1.29, 95% CI 1.15-1.45; TC-SD: 1.28, 1.15–1.43; TC-VIM: 1.26, 1.13–1.41, respectively) and all-cause mortality (vs. bottom quartile: TC-CV: 1.28, 1.15–1.42; TC-SD: 1.32, 1.22–1.44; TC-VIM: 1.32, 1.25–1.40, respectively). Participants in the top quartile of HDL-C variability had an increased risk of CVDs (vs. bottom quartile: HDL-C-CV: 1.11, 1.07–1.15; HDL-C-SD: 1.18, 1.02–1.38; HDL-C-VIM: 1.18, 1.09–1.27, respectively) and all-cause mortality (vs. bottom quartile: HDL-C-CV: 1.29, 1.27–1.31; HDL-C-SD: 1.24, 1.09–1.41; HDL-C-VIM: 1.25, 1.22–1.27, respectively). LDL-C variability was also associated with an increased risk of CVDs (for top vs. bottom quartile; LDL-C-SD: 1.09, 1.02–1.17; LDL-C-VIM: 1.16, 1.02–1.32, respectively) and all-cause mortality (for top vs. bottom quartile; LDL-C-CV: 1.19, 1.04–1.36; LDL-C-SD: 1.17, 1.09–1.26, respectively). The relationships of TG variability with the risk of CVDs and all-cause mortality were inconclusive across different metrics. The effects of SRR became stronger when analyses were restricted to studies that adjusted for lipid-lowering medication and unadjusted for mean lipid levels. These findings indicate that the measurement and surveillance of lipid variability might have important clinical implications for risk assessment of CVDs and all-cause mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research of semantic segmentation based on unsupervised domain adaptation greatly alleviates the high-cost bottleneck of manual annotation in deep learning. Inevitably domain gap limits the ability of target domain to learn knowledge from source domain. Previous domain alignment strategies aim to explore maximum domain-invariant space to enlarge knowledge that target domain learns. They based on the assumption that images are symmetrical in categories covering all predefined categories. However, in practical training, there is class asymmetry in image samples inter domains. This will lead to outlier categories and negative transfer, because it lacks the guidance of the corresponding category of the source domain. To tackle this issue, we propose a partial domain adaptive method on semantic segmentation to guide target model to learn category-level knowledge selectively. PAM (Partial Adaptive Map) module is introduced to motivate the target model to obtain more knowledge from non-outliers and less knowledge from outliers to avoid negative transfer. We further analyze the effectiveness of this method from the perspective of JS divergence. Our method has achieved significant improvement without additional discriminators. Experiments on general datasets GTA5 and SYNTHIA can compare with SOTA methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The buffeting analysis of an uncertain long-span bridge deck was carried out in this paper. Due to the effect of strong spatial correlation of wind excitation, it should be assumed as partially coherent multiple excitations. The following includes a theoretical formula for the buffeting analysis of a long-span bridge deck with uncertain parameters, which was achieved mainly by a combination of the stochastic pseudo excitation method (SPEM) and response surface method (RSM). The SPEM-RSM was firstly applied to deal with the complicated spectral density function matrix of wind excitation. The buffeting response of the bridge deck was then calculated and verified by the results from the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). The efficiency and applicability of the hybrid method for strong spatial correlation was proved. After the comparison, the effect of uncertain structural parameters and wind speed on the buffeting performance of the bridge deck were computed. The results showed that the whole uncertainties essentially affected the buffeting response of the deck. The uncertain wind speed played the most significant role in the vertical and lateral motion of the deck. The joint influences between structural uncertainties and uncertain wind speed further affect the random characteristics of the responses. Finally, the effects of different wind speed and wind angle of attack on the aerodynamic performance of the bridge are examined. The variance of the responses increased with the development of wind speed. The effect of different attack angles on the buffeting responses was significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: CA-125 is a clinical biomarker with predictive effect on the prognosis of different cancers. Numerous clinical trials have been conducted to investigate the possibility of using the pretreatment level of CA-125 to predict the prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). However, its value in predicting prognosis remains controversial. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to assess the predictive value of pretreatment CA-125 levels for prognosis in EOC patients. Methods: We searched the EMBASE, Cochrane library, PubMed and Web of Science databases for studies published up to 3 December 2021, according to specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. The clinical studies that were included investigated the relationship between pretreatment CA-125 levels and ovarian cancer prognosis. Combined hazard ratios (HR) of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) reported in the studies were compared and analyzed using fixed-effects/random-effects models. Sensitivity analysis was used to assess study stability, while Egger's and Begg's tests were used to assess publication bias. Results: This meta-analysis included 23 studies published in 2004 - 2021 with a total of 10,594 EOC patients. Comprehensive analysis demonstrated that the serum level of CA-125 before treatment was significantly correlated with overall survival (OS: HR=1.62, 95%CI=1.270-2.060, p<0.001) and progression-free survival (PFS: HR=1.59, PFS: HR=1.59, 95%CI=1.44~1.76, p<0.001). After comparing data from different FIGO stages and treatments, we discovered that a high pre-treatment serum CA-125 level was associated with a low survival rate. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, a higher pre-treatment serum CA-125 level is associated with poor survival outcomes, which can be utilized to predict the prognosis of EOC patients. Pre-treatment serum CA-125 level might provide reliable basis for predicting the risk of EOC disease progression. This study is registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD42022300545). Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display%5frecord.php?RecordID=300545 , identifier [CRD42022300545]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate and near-real-time rain information at fine scales is critical for forecasting local weather and floods. Traditional classical infrared (IR) cloud-top brightness temperature data alone do not contain sufficient precipitation-related information, and the introduction of visible (VIS) observations limits their applications to daytime. Methods for the efficient and comprehensive utilization of multichannel IR observations for accurately retrieving all-day near-real-time rain rates with consistent high quality warrant further exploration. In this study, we propose an all-day near-real-time quantitative precipitation estimation framework based on multispectral analysis (MSA) from the Advanced Geosynchronous Radiation Imager (AGRI) onboard Chinese FY-4 series satellites; the proposed framework is called FY4QPE- MSA. Multiple IR bands are comprehensively and efficiently considered by adopting the principal component analysis technique to reduce the dimensionality to a few independent features while preserving most of the variations. The main conclusions include, but are not limited to, the following aspects: 1) the MSA from IR channels provides valuable information that facilitates the more accurate delineations of the precipitation occurrences; 2) FY4AQPE -MSA outperforms FY4AQPE- Offical [ $\sim 20$ % gain in the Pearson correlation coefficient (CC), $\sim 25$ % gain in the root mean square error (RMSE), and $\sim 15$ % gain in the critical success index (CSI)], FY4AQPE-Single ($\sim 10$ % gain in CC, $\sim 15$ % gain in RMSE, and $\sim 15$ % gain in CSI), and Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using artificial neural network-cloud classification system (PERSIANN-CCS) ($\sim 30$ % gain in CC, $\sim 20$ % gain in RMSE, and $\sim 25$ % gain in CSI); and 3) compared with the international IR-based baseline precipitation product, i.e., PERSIANN-CCS, FY4AQPE-MSA demonstrates no spatial gaps over the Tibetan Plateau. In addition, the results of this study suggest that the proposed general framework is promising and applicable for Chinese FY-4 series satellites in generating all-day near-real-time rain-rate information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel series of β-carboline-fused imidazolium derivatives (3a–3v) were designed and synthesized based on the structures of fascaplysin and our reported novel compound HMD-272 (9-(3-phenylpropyl)-2-benzyl-β-carbolinium bromide). Evaluation of the cytotoxicity of 3a–3v was conducted using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay in lung carcinoma (A549), gastric carcinoma (BGC-823), murine colon carcinoma (CT-26), liver carcinoma (Bel-7402), and breast carcinoma (MCF-7) cell lines. The results demonstrated that the majority of the target compounds showed excellent activity against one or more cancer cell lines, and the compounds 3i, 3j, 3m, 3p, 3u, and 3v exhibited the highest cytotoxic activities (IC50 < 10 μM) against the tested tumor cell lines. Preliminary investigations on the mechanisms of action revealed that compound 3v could dramatically inhibit EA.HY926 cell tube formation in a dose-dependent manner. Further investigation of the preliminary mechanism of action demonstrated that compound 3v had clear angiogenesis inhibitory effects in the chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay. Moreover, a molecular docking study was performed in order to understand the binding pattern of compound 3v into the VEGFR2 active site. Docking results attributed the potent VEGFR2 inhibitory effect of the compound to its binding to the key amino acids in the active site (i.e., Ile892, Leu889, and Asp1046), as well as its hydrophobic interaction with the receptor hydrophobic pocket. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]