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Introduction: Depression is a common mental health problem among older adults and a leading cause of disability worldwide. Health status and social participation has been found significantly associated with depression in older adults. However, the role of social participation in the relationship between health status and depression remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the relationship between health status and depressive symptoms in older adults and the moderating effect of social participation in the relationship., Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study with data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) in 2013. Older adults aged 65 years or older were included in the study. Multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship between health status and depressive symptoms and assess the moderating effect of social participation., Results: Of the 2,731 participants, higher depressive symptoms were observed among older women, older adults who were single, living alone and having lower satisfaction on financial status. Regression analyses showed that activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) disability were positively associated with higher depressive symptoms. Perceived health status, cognitive functions and social participation were found negatively associated with depressive symptoms. A significant moderating effect of social participation between perceived health status and depressive symptoms was observed in this study., Discussion: The findings highlight the role of social participation in moderating the effect of perceived health status on depressive symptoms and suggest that promoting social participation among older adults may be helpful for reducing depressive symptoms., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2025 Ow, Wei and Li.)

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the impact of serum C-peptide levels in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes (T2DM) on the 10-year risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD)., Patients and Methods: A total of 1923 patients with newly diagnosed T2DM were selected and categorized into four groups based on the interquartile range of fasting C-peptide (FCP) levels: Q1 group (FCP≤0.568 ng/mL), Q2 group (0.568 < FCP≤0.751 ng/mL), Q3 group (0.751 < FCP≤0.980 ng/mL), and Q4 group (FCP > 0.980 ng/mL). Clinical data were collected, and the China-PAR model was employed to evaluate the risk score of ASCVD within 10 years. Additionally, the correlation between FCP levels and the risk of ASCVD was analyzed., Results: As the quartiles of FCP increased, the 10-year ASCVD risk exhibited a gradual increase. The risk score in the FCP > 0.980 ng/mL group was significantly higher than that in the other groups, with noted differences related to gender and weight. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that, even after adjusting for confounding factors such as gender, age, body mass index (BMI), and glycosylated hemoglobin, FCP levels remained a positive predictor of the 10-year ASCVD risk., Conclusion: High FCP levels are identified as a risk factor for ASCVD within 10 years in patients with newly diagnosed T2DM., Competing Interests: The author(s) report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2025 Zha et al.)

Acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are serious respiratory disorders caused by a variety of intrapulmonary and extrapulmonary factors. Their incidence is increasing year by year, with high morbidity and mortality rates and lack of effective treatment. Inflammation plays a crucial role in ALI development, with sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1) being a pivotal enzyme influencing sphingolipid metabolism and participating in inflammatory responses. However, the specific impact and the signaling pathway underlying SphK1 in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI/ARDS are poorly understood. This investigation aimed to explore the influence of SphK1 on inflammation and delve into the mechanistic aspects of inflammation in RAW 264.7 cells during LPS-induced ALI, which is of great importance in providing new targets and strategies for ALI/ARDS treatment., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant motor difficulties that affect daily life. Current assessment methods primarily focus on behavioral analysis, lacking in neuroscientific metrics for a comprehensive evaluation. This study introduced an electroencephalography-based motor imagery brain-computer interface classification system for evaluating children with DCD. A key of this system was the implementation of entropy-based data screening, which markedly enhanced classification performance. Notably, using mu band power in a support vector machine achieved an accuracy rate of 79.0%. These findings pave the way for developing a tool that could assist professionals in identifying children potentially affected by DCD.

Understanding the temporal dynamics of emotion poses a significant challenge due to the lack of methods to measure them objectively. In this study, we propose a novel approach to tracking intensity (EI) based on electroencephalogram (EEG) during continuous exposure to affective stimulation. We design selective sampling strategies to validate the association between the prediction outcome of an EEG-based emotion recognition model and the prominence of emotion-related EEG patterns, evidenced by the improvement in the classification task of discriminating arousal and valence by 2.01% and 1.71%, respectively. This study constitutes a breakthrough in the objective evaluation of the temporal dynamics of emotions, proposing a promising avenue to refine EEG-based emotion recognition models through intensity-selective sampling. Furthermore, our findings can contribute to future affective studies by providing a reliable and objective measurement method to profile emotion dynamics.

Steady-state visual-evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) offer a non-invasive means of communication through high-speed speller systems. However, their efficiency is highly dependent on individual training data acquired during time-consuming calibration sessions. To address the challenge of data insufficiency in SSVEP-based BCIs, we introduce SSVEP-DAN, the first dedicated neural network model designed to align SSVEP data across different domains, encompassing various sessions, subjects, or devices. Our experimental results demonstrate the ability of SSVEP-DAN to transform existing source SSVEP data into supplementary calibration data. This results in a significant improvement in SSVEP decoding accuracy while reducing the calibration time. We envision SSVEP-DAN playing a crucial role in future applications of high-performance SSVEP-based BCIs. The source code for this work is available at: https://github.com/CECNL/SSVEP-DAN.

In this paper, a twelve-antenna system is designed for 5G smartphones with metal frames. The system is compact and operates on dual bands within the sub-6 GHz frequency range using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. Two sets of six-antenna units are included in the system, arranged in a diagonal mirror-image configuration, and positioned at the center of the circuit board's longer edges. The profile height of each of the six-antenna units is only 3 mm, and the overall array dimensions are 105 × 3 × 3.1 mm 3 . A single antenna unit is 15 × 3 × 3.1 mm 3 (0.173 λ × 0.035 λ × 0.036 λ, where λ equals the free-space wavelength of 3450 MHz). The arrangement of the antennas in the six-antenna units is parallel, with a 3 mm separation between adjacent antennas. The antenna structure comprises of an inverted L-shaped feed branch and two inverted L-shaped short-circuit branches integrated into part of the metal frame. The proposed array can form multiple resonance paths, achieving dual-band operation at 3300-3600 MHz and 4800-5000 MHz. The measured isolation of this twelve-antenna system within the operating frequency band is over 10 dB, and the measured antenna efficiency is greater than 36%. Therefore, the system is suitable for use in smartphones with high screen-to-body ratios and metal frames.

The recent development of closed-loop EEG phase-triggered transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has advanced potential applications of adaptive neuromodulation based on the current brain state. Closed-loop TMS involves instantaneous acquisition of the EEG rhythm, timing prediction of the target phase, and triggering of TMS. However, the accuracy of EEG phase prediction algorithms is largely influenced by the system's transport delay, and their relationship is rarely considered in related work. This paper proposes a delay analysis that considers the delay of the closed-loop EEG phase-triggered TMS system as a primary factor in the validation of phase prediction algorithms. An in-silico validation using real EEG data was performed to compare the performance of commonly used algorithms. The experimental results indicate a significant influence of the total delay on the algorithm performance, and the performance ranking among algorithms varies at different levels of delay. We conclude that the delay analysis framework should be widely adopted in the design and validation of phase prediction algorithms for closed-loop EEG phase-triggered TMS systems.

Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a neuroimaging technique that has grown vigorously in recent years. With noticeable attention, machine learning methods have also been applied to fNIRS. However, the current approach lacks interpretability of the results. In recent years, the utilization and investigation of fNIRS have experienced significant growth and are now being utilized in clinical research. However, the collection of clinical fNIRS data is limited in sample size. Therefore, our aim is to utilize the collected fNIRS data from all channels and achieve interpretable analysis results with minimal human manipulation, channel selection or feature extraction. We developed an fNIRS-based interpretable model and used class-specific gradient information to visualize the biomarkers captured by the model via locating the important region. The accuracy of our model's classification was 6% higher than that of the conventional SVM method under within-subject classification. The model focuses on signals from the left brain in the classification of right-hand finger tapping task, while in the task of classifying left-handed movements, the model relies on signals from the right brain. These results were consistent with current understanding of physiology.Clinical Relevance- The machine learning-based fNIRS model has the potential to be used for the diagnosis and prediction of therapeutic efficacy in clinical settings.

It has been well known that the influxing meteoric water can hydrothermally lower oxygen and hydrogen isotopes of rocks and/or minerals during continental magmatic or metamorphic processes in certain appropriate cases. Its opposite, however, is not implicitly true and needs independent testing. In terms of a novel procedure recently proposed for dealing with thermodynamic re-equilibration of oxygen isotopes between constituent minerals and water from fossil hydrothermal systems, the initial oxygen isotopes of water ([Formula: see text]) are theoretically inverted from the early Cretaceous post-collisional granitoids and Triassic gneissic country rock across the Dabie orogen in central-eastern China. Despite ancient meteoric waters with low [Formula: see text] value down to - 11.01 ± 0.43‰ (one standard deviation, 1SD), oxygen isotopes of hydrothermally altered rock-forming minerals from a granitoid were unexpectedly but concurrently lowered by an evolved magmatic water with mildly high [Formula: see text] value of 2.81 ± 0.05‰ at 375 °C with a water/rock (W/R) c ratio of 1.78 ± 0.20 for the closed system. The lifetime of fossil hydrothermal systems studied herein is kinetically constrained to no more than 1.2 million years (Myr) via surface-reaction oxygen exchange in the late-stage of continental magmatism or metamorphism. Thereby, caution should be paid when lowered oxygen isotopes of hydrothermally altered rocks and/or minerals were intuitively and/or empirically inferred from the external infiltration of the purely meteoric water with a low [Formula: see text] value alone., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

White Spot Disease (WSD), caused by white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), is an acute and highly lethal viral disease of shrimp. Currently, there are no commercially available drugs to control WSD. It is urgent and necessary to find anti-WSSV drugs. Natural compounds are an important source of antiviral drug discovery. In this study, the anti-WSSV activity of natural compound geniposide (GP) was investigated in crayfish Procambarus clarkii. Results showed that GP had a concentration-dependent inhibitory effect on WSSV replication in crayfish at 24 h, and highest inhibition was more than 98%. In addition, GP significantly inhibited the expression of WSSV immediate-early gene ie1, early gene DNApol, late gene VP28. The mortality of WSSV-infected crayfish in control groups was 100%, while it reduced by 70.0% when treated with 50 mg/kg GP. Co-incubation, pre-treatment and post-treatment experiments showed that GP could prevent and treat WSSV infection in crayfish by significantly inhibiting WSSV multiplication. Mechanistically, the syntheses of WSSV structural proteins VP19, VP24, VP26 and VP28 were significantly inhibited by GP in S2 cells. Furthermore, GP could also suppress WSSV replication by blocking the expression of antiviral immunity-related factor STAT to reduce ie1 transcription. Moreover, GP possessed anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative activity in crayfish. Overall, GP has the potential to be developed as a preventive or therapeutic agent against WSSV infection., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

An organocatalyzed, formal (3+3) cycloaddition reaction is described for the practical synthesis of substituted pyridines. Starting from readily available enamines and enal/ynal/enone substrates, the protocol affords tri- or tetrasubstituted pyridine scaffolds bearing various functional groups. This method was demonstrated on a 50 g scale, enabling the synthesis of 2-isopropyl-4-methylpyridin-3-amine, a raw material used for the manufacture of sotorasib. Mechanistic analysis using two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry revealed the transformation proceeds through the reversible formation of a stable reaction off-cycle species that precedes pyridine formation. In situ reaction progress kinetic analysis and control NMR studies were employed to better understand the role of FeCl 3 and pyrrolidine hydrochloride in promoting the reaction.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is an urgent respiratory disease without effective treatment. Mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF)has been demonstrated to play a suppressive role in some inflammatory conditions. However, the effect of MANF on ALI has not yet been reported. In this study, we collected bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from the patients with or without pulmonary inflammation, and used lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to induce mice ALI model. Mono-macrophage-specific MANF knockout (MKO) mice were constructed and recombinant human MANF protein was used to ALI mice. We found that the endogenous MANF protein in both human BALF and mice lung tissues was increased in inflammatory conditions. MANF level in the macrophages of inflammatory lung was higher than that in normal controls in both human and mice. MANF deficiency in macrophages induced lung inflammation and aggravated LPS-induced lung injury. MANF lowered LPS-induced lung injury, inhibited macrophage polarization to M1 functional type. Meanwhile, MANF inhibited-LPS induced activation of NF-κB signal pathway by down regulating phosphorylated p65in lung tissue and macrophages. These results indicate that MANF acts as a suppressor in ALI via negatively regulating NF-κB activation and macrophages polarization, which may be a novel potential target and shed light on ALI therapy., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights reserved.)

Streptococcus agalactiae, also known as Group B Streptococcus (GBS), can infect humans, terrestrial animals and fish. The emergence of bacterial resistance of S. agalactiae to antibiotics leads to an urgent need of exploration of new antimicrobial agents. In the study, the antibacterial activity of natural component plumbagin (PLB) against S. agalactiae was investigated in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of PLB against S. agalactiae was 8 mg/L. The growth curve assay revealed that PLB could inhibit the growth of S. agalactiae. In addition, the time-killing curve showed that S. agalactiae was killed almost completely by 2-fold MIC of PLB within 12 h. Transmission electron microscopy results showed obvious severe morphological destruction and abnormal cells of S. agalactiae after treated with PLB. The pathogenicity of S. agalactiae to zebrafish was significantly decreased after preincubation with PLB for 2 h in vitro, further indicating the bactericidal activity of PLB. Interestingly, PLB could kill S. agalactiae without inducing resistance development. Furthermore, pretreatment and post-treatment assays suggested that PLB also exhibited the antibacterial activity against S. agalactiae infection in vivo by effectively reducing the bacterial load and improving the survival rate of S. agalactiae-infected zebrafish. In summary, PLB had potent antibacterial activity against S. agalactiae in vitro and in vivo, and it could be an excellent antimicrobial candidate to prevent and control S. agalactiae infection., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objectives: Previous studies of the associations between white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) were still conflicting; therefore, our study aimed to conduct a systematic review of all of the available research on this topic and a meta-analysis of the association between WMH and CKD among observational studies., Setting and Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis., Outcome Measures: Severity of WMH., Methods and Participants: All relevant studies in public databases were examined until 15 November 2020. Two independent reviewers assessed all the included studies using the Cross-Sectional/Prevalence Study Quality (CSSQ) scale, and then literature review and meta-analyses were undertaken., Results: We pooled the odds ratio (OR) for the presence of WMH, periventricular hyperintensities (PVH), and deep subcortical white matter hyperintensities (DWMH) of patients with CKD vs. non-CKD patients by subgroup analysis, and the results obtained were WMH OR 2.07, 95% CI [1.58, 2.70], PVH OR 2.41, 95% CI [1.90, 3.05], and DWMH OR 2.11, 95% CI [1.60, 2.80], respectively. The main outcome showed that patients with CKD were more likely to have WMH in the brain compared to the normal controls. Another meta-analysis showed a statistically significant decline in renal function in patients with moderate to severe WMH compared with those with no to mild WMH., Conclusions: The findings indicated that patients with CKD were more likely to experience WMH than demographically matched controls. On the other hand, patients with moderate to severe WMH in the brain had poor renal function more frequently than those with no to mild WMH., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Wei, Yan, Yu, Wang, Zhang, Jiang, Dai, Li and Chen.)

Introduction: The aim of this prospective study is to evaluate the effects of combining topical airway anaesthesia with intravenous induction on haemodynamic variables during the induction period in patients undergoing cardiac surgery., Methods and Analysis: This randomised, double-blind, controlled, parallel-group, superiority study from 1 March 2021 to 31 December 2021 will include 96 participants scheduled for cardiac surgery. Participants will be screened into three blocks (ASA II, ASA III, ASA IV) according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade and then randomly allocated into two groups within the block in a 1:1 ratio. Concealment of allocation will be maintained using opaque, sealed envelopes generated by a nurse according to a computer-generated randomisation schedule. In addition to general intravenous anaesthetics, participants will receive supraglottic and subglottic topical anaesthesia. Changes in arterial blood pressure and heart rate in both groups will be recorded by an independent investigator at the start of anaesthesia induction until the skin incision. If vasopressors are used during this period, the frequency, dosage and types of vasopressors will be recorded. The incidence and severity of participants' postoperative hoarseness and sore throat will also be assessed., Ethics and Dissemination: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Qianfoshan Hospital of Shandong Province (registration number: YXLL-KY-2021(003)). The results will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and in conferences or congresses., Trial Registration Number: NCT04744480., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the efficacy analysis and hemodynamic changes of hematological system diseases after peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) chemotherapy., Patients and Methods: From March 2017 to March 2020, patients with hematological diseases who received chemotherapy in our hospital were selected. The experimental group consisted of 80 patients with PICC, and the control group consisted of 70 patients with routine intravenous injection. The indwelling time, prevalence rate of adverse reactions, hemodynamic indicators before and after chemotherapy and compliance of patients in the two groups were compared., Results: The longest time and average time of indwelling catheter in experimental group were significantly higher than those in control group (p<0.05). The total prevalence rate of adverse reactions in experimental group (3.75%) was significantly lower than that in control group (20%) (p<0.05). The compliance of patients with PICC in experimental group was significantly better than that of patients with superficial intravenous injection in control group. There was no significant difference in hemodynamic indicators between experimental group and control group before and after chemotherapy (p>0.05). There was significant difference in high-shear whole blood indicators, low-shear whole blood viscosity and high-shear whole blood viscosity after chemotherapy (p<0.05), while there was no significant difference in changes of other hemodynamic indicators (p>0.05) or in hemorheological indicators between the two groups after chemotherapy (p>0.05)., Conclusions: The total prevalence of adverse reactions in hematological diseases by PICC infusion is lower than that by superficial vein infusion, and the catheter has no significant influence on hemodynamic indicators in patients. Therefore, PICC catheter is worthy of application and promotion in hematological diseases.

Recently, the advances in passive brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) based on electroencephalogram (EEG) have shed light on real-world neuromonitoring technologies. However, human variability in the EEG activities hinders the development of practical applications of EEG-based BCI. To tackle this problem, many transfer-learning techniques perform supervised calibration. This kind of calibration approach requires task-relevant data, which is impractical in real-life scenarios such as drowsiness during driving. This study presents a transfer-learning framework for EEG decoding based on the low-dimensional representations of subjects learned from the pre-trial EEG. Tensor decomposition was applied to the pre-trial EEG of subjects to extract the underlying characteristics in subject, spatial, and spectral domains. Then, the proposed framework assessed the characteristics to obtain the low-dimensional subject representations such that the subjects with similar brain dynamics can be identified. This method can leverage the existing data from other users, and a small number of data from a rapid, non-task, unsupervised calibration from a new user to build an accurate BCI. Our results demonstrated that, in terms of prediction accuracy, the proposed low-dimensional subject representation-based transfer learning (LDSR-TL) framework outperformed the random selection, and the Riemannian manifold approach in cognitive-state tracking, while requiring fewer training data. The results can greatly improve the practicability, and usability of EEG-based BCI in the real world.

Background: China has a high prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV), but most chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients do not receive standardized antiviral therapy. There are few relevant reports addressing the outcomes of the large number of CHB patients who do not receive antiviral therapy., Aim: To observe the outcomes of long-term follow-up of patients with CHB without antiviral treatment., Methods: This study included 362 patients with CHB and 96 with hepatitis B cirrhosis without antiviral treatment and with only liver protection and anti-inflammatory treatment from 1993 to 1998. The median follow-up times were 10 and 7 years, respectively. A total of 203 CHB and 129 hepatitis B cirrhosis patients receiving antiviral therapy were selected as the control groups. The median follow-up times were 8 and 7 years, respectively. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to analyze the cumulative incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and the Cox regression model was used to analyze the risk factors for HCC., Results: Among the patients in the non-antiviral group, 16.9% had spontaneous decreases in HBV DNA to undetectable levels, and 32.8% showed hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion. In the antiviral group, 87.2% of patients had undetectable HBV DNA, and 52% showed HBeAg seroconversion. Among CHB and hepatitis B cirrhosis patients, the cumulative incidence rates of HCC were 14.9% and 53.1%, respectively, in the non-antiviral group and were 10.7% and 31.9%, respectively, in the antiviral group. There was no difference between the two groups regarding the CHB patients ( P = 0.842), but there was a difference between the groups regarding the hepatitis B cirrhosis patients ( P = 0.026). The cumulative incidence rates of HCC were 1.6% and 22.3% ( P = 0.022) in the groups with and without spontaneous HBeAg seroconversion, respectively. The incidence rates of HCC among patients with and without spontaneous declines in HBV DNA to undetectable levels were 1.6% and 19.1%, respectively ( P = 0.051). There was no difference in the cumulative incidence of HCC between the two groups regarding the patients with drug-resistant CHB ( P = 0.119), but there was a significant difference between the two groups regarding the patients with cirrhosis ( P = 0.004). The Cox regression model was used for regression of the corrected REACH-B score, which showed that alanine aminotransferase > 400 U/L, history of diabetes, and family history of liver cancer were risk factors for HCC among men aged > 40 years ( P < 0.05). Multifactorial analysis showed that a family history of HCC among men was a risk factor for HCC., Conclusion: Antiviral therapy and non-antiviral therapy with liver protection and anti-inflammatory therapy can reduce the risk of HCC. Antiviral therapy may mask the spontaneous serological response of some patients during CHB. Therefore, the effect of early antiviral therapy on reducing the incidence of HCC cannot be overestimated., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors and study participants declare no potential conflicting interests related to this paper., (©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective . This study aims to establish a generalized transfer-learning framework for boosting the performance of steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) by leveraging cross-domain data transferring. Approach . We enhanced the state-of-the-art template-based SSVEP decoding through incorporating a least-squares transformation (LST)-based transfer learning to leverage calibration data across multiple domains (sessions, subjects, and electroencephalogram montages). Main results . Study results verified the efficacy of LST in obviating the variability of SSVEPs when transferring existing data across domains. Furthermore, the LST-based method achieved significantly higher SSVEP-decoding accuracy than the standard task-related component analysis (TRCA)-based method and the non-LST naive transfer-learning method. Significance . This study demonstrated the capability of the LST-based transfer learning to leverage existing data across subjects and/or devices with an in-depth investigation of its rationale and behavior in various circumstances. The proposed framework significantly improved the SSVEP decoding accuracy over the standard TRCA approach when calibration data are limited. Its performance in calibration reduction could facilitate plug-and-play SSVEP-based BCIs and further practical applications., (© 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

Background: No guideline recommends antiviral therapy for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive chronic hepatitis B patients with persistently normal alanine aminotransferase levels and a high hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA viral load., Aim: To evaluate the feasibility and safety of a Chinese herbal formula as a therapeutic option for chronic HBV infection., Methods: In total, 395 patients (30-65 years old) with confirmed HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B infection and persistently normal alanine aminotransferase were randomized to receive either Chinese herbal formula or placebo for 96 wk. Endpoints to evaluate therapeutic efficacy included: (1) HBV DNA levels decreased to less than 4 log10 IU/mL at weeks 48 and 96; and (2) HBeAg clearance and seroconversion rates at weeks 48 and 96., Results: HBV DNA levels ≤ 4 log10 IU/mL were 10.05% at week 48 and 18.59% at week 96 in the treatment group. The HBeAg clearance and conversion rates were 8.54% and 8.04% at week 48 and 16.08% and 14.57% at week 96, respectively. However, HBV DNA levels ≤ 4 log10 IU/mL were 2.55% and 2.55% at weeks 48 and 96, respectively, and the HBeAg clearance rates were 3.06% and 5.61% at weeks 48 and 96, respectively, in the control group. The quantitative hepatitis B surface antigen and HBeAg levels at baseline and changes during the treatment period as well as the alanine aminotransferase elevation at weeks 12 and 24 were strong predictors of HBeAg clearance., Conclusion: High rates of HBV DNA reduction, HBeAg clearance and seroconversion could be achieved with Chinese herbal formula treatments, and the treatments were relatively safe for HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B-infected patients with persistently normal alanine aminotransferase. The ability of the compound to modulate host immune function probably contributed to this effect., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no potential conflicting interests related to this paper., (©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is a refractory and poor prognosis tumor Present study aimed to investigate the underlying biological functions and pathways involved in the development of ATC and to identify potential hub genes and candidate biomarkers of ATC., Materials and Methods: Bioinformatics analyses were performed to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between ATC tissue samples and adjacent normal tissue samples. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks of the DEGs were constructed using Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes online tool and Cytoscape software and divided into sub-networks using the Molecular Complex Detection (MCODE) plug-in. DEGs in each module was analyzed by enrichment analysis of the KEGG Orthology Based Annotation System (KOBAS) web software version 3.0. Eventually, the hub genes from bioinformatics analysis were verified by qRT-PCR assay in different ATC cell lines., Results: Thirty hub genes were selected and three modules were built by the Cytoscape software from the PPI network. Seven genes (CDK1, CCNB2, BUB1B, CDC20, RRM2, CHEK1 and CDC45) were screened from thirty hub genes. Enrichment analysis showed that these hub genes were primarily accumulated in 'cell cycle', 'p53 signaling pathway', 'viral carcinogenesis', 'pyrimidine metabolism' and 'ubiquitin mediated proteolysis'. The results of qRT-PCR indicated that seven hub genes were unregulated in three ATC cell lines compared with normal thyroid gland cell., Conclusions: These findings suggest that CDK1, CCNB2, BUB1B, CDC20, RRM2, CHEK1 and CDC45 may serve as novel diagnosis biomarkers and potential therapeutic target for ATC., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: This paper proposes a novel device-to-device transfer-learning algorithm for reducing the calibration cost in a steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) speller by leveraging electroencephalographic (EEG) data previously acquired by different EEG systems., Methods: The transferring is done by projecting the scalp-channel EEG signals onto a shared latent domain across devices. Three spatial filtering techniques, including channel averaging, canonical correlation analysis (CCA), and task-related component analysis (TRCA), were employed to extract the shared responses from different devices. The transferred data were integrated into a template-matching-based algorithm to detect SSVEPs. To evaluate its transferability, this paper conducted two sessions of simulated online BCI experiments with ten subjects using 40 visual stimuli modulated by joint frequency-phase coding method. In each session, two different EEG devices were used: first, the Quick-30 system (Cognionics, Inc.) with dry electrodes, and second, the ActiveTwo system (BioSemi, Inc.) with wet electrodes., Results: The proposed method with CCA- and TRCA-based spatial filters achieved significantly higher classification accuracy compared with the calibration-free standard CCA-based method., Conclusion: This paper validated the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method in implementing calibration-free SSVEP-based BCIs., Significance: The proposed method has great potentials to enhance practicability and usability of real-world SSVEP-based BCI applications by leveraging user-specific data recorded in previous sessions even with different EEG systems and montages.

Background: Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) encompasses a group of autosomal recessive disorders with high morbidity and mortality. Variants in the gene encoding tight junction protein-2 (TJP2) have been linked to PFIC type 4 (PFIC4), which predominantly presents in childhood. However, there are only limited data from adults with TJP2-related PFIC4. We report a family with an autosomal recessive disorder with a novel variant in the TJP2 gene in adults with very variable expression of PFIC4., Case Summary: The index patient presented at 19 years old with liver cirrhosis and variceal bleeding and was treated with endoscopic banding and beta-blockers. In 2018, he developed primary liver cancer that was treated with radiofrequency ablation followed by liver transplantation in 2019. Genetic testing revealed a novel homozygous TJP2 variant causing PFIC4 (TJP2([NM&#95;004817.3]:c.[3334C>T]; [3334C>T])). The consanguineous family consists of the father and mother (both heterozygous) and their 12 children, of which five carry the variant in a homozygous state; however, these five siblings have highly variable expression of PFIC4. Two homozygous brothers had cirrhosis and portal hypertension at diagnosis at the ages of 19 and 36. Two other homozygous brothers, age 23 and 19, and the homozygous sister, age 21, have elevated liver enzymes but presently no cirrhosis, which may suggest an age-dependent penetrance. In addition, five sisters had severe and mild intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy and carry the TJP2 variant in a homozygous and heterozygous state, respectively., Conclusion: This novel TJP2 variant is associated with PFIC4 causing severe liver disease with cirrhosis and primary liver cancer in adolescents/adults., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: All other authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: This paper aims to provide some experimental basis for unveiling the role of PDRG1 (P53 And DNA Damage-Regulated Gene 1) gene silencing in the growth and development of gastric cancer., Methods: PDRG1 levels in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines were measured by Western blotting. Then, gastric cancer BGC-823 cells, divided into Control, PDRG1 siRNA, NC siRNA and PDRG1 siRNA + KU55933 (ATM inhibitor) groups, were used to conduct a series of in vitro experiments including MTT, Flow cytometry, Wound-healing and Transwell assays. Expression of PDRG1 and ATM/p53 pathway-related proteins were determined by Western blot. Eventually, experiment in vivo was carried out to verify the control of PDRG1 on gastric cancer cells after establishing the tumor xenograft model in nude mice., Results: PDRG1 was significantly elevated in gastric cancer tissues and was associated with lower cell differentiation degree, more severe lymph node metastasis and higher tumor stage of gastric cancer patients. The growth of BGC-823 cells were significantly retarded and the cell apoptosis was increased in the PDRG1 siRNA group; besides, cell cycle was arrested in G2/M phase, and the expressions of p-ATM, p53, p21, p-cdc2 and cleaved caspase-3 were up-regulated with the reduced PDRG1. However, KU55933 could reverse the anti-tumor effect of PDRG1 siRNA on BGC-823 cells. The in-vivo experiment confirmed PDRG1 siRNA can inhibit tumor xenograft growth in nude mice., Conclusion: Specific PDRG1 gene silencing may inhibit the growth and metastasis of gastric cancer cells through the activation of ATM/p53 pathway., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

Asthma is characterized by chronic airway inflammation, which is the underlying cause of airway remodeling featured by goblet cell hyperplasia, subepithelial fibrosis, and proliferation of smooth muscle. Sevoflurane has been used to treat life-threatening asthma and our previous study shows that sevoflurane inhibits acute lung inflammation in ovalbumin (OVA)-induced allergic mice. However, the effect of sevoflurane on airway remodeling in the context of chronic airway inflammation and the underlying mechanism are still unknown. Here, female C57BL/6 mice were used to establish chronic airway inflammation model. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), periodic acid-Schiff (PAS), and Sirius red (SR) staining were used to evaluate airway remodeling. Protein levels of α-SMA, VEGF, and TGF-β1 in lung tissues were detected by western blotting analyses and immunohistochemistry staining. Results showed that inhalation of sevoflurane inhibited chronic airway inflammation including inflammatory cell infiltration and pro-inflammatory cytokine production in BALF of the OVA-challenged mice. Meanwhile, sevoflurane suppressed airway thickening, goblet cell hyperplasia, smooth muscle hyperplasia, collagen deposition, and fiber hyperplasia in the lung tissues of the mice with airway remodeling. Most notably, sevoflurane inhibited the OVA-induced expressions of VEGF and TGF-β1. These results suggested that sevoflurane effectively inhibits airway remodeling in mouse model of chronic airway inflammation, which may be due to the downregulation of VEGF and TGF-β1in lung tissues. Therefore, our results indicate a potential role of sevoflurane in inhibiting airway remodeling besides its known suppression effect on airway inflammation, and support the use of sevoflurane in treating severe asthma in ICU.

ε-polylysine (ε-PL) has potent antibacterial effects and is often used in the food industry. However, no studies have clarified the antibacterial effects of ε-PL during storage of boar semen. In this study, boar semen samples were diluted with BTS buffer supplemented with different concentrations (0, 0.04, 0.08, 0.16, 0.32, 0.64, and 1.28 g/L) of ε-PL and different combinations of ε-PL plus gentamicin during liquid storage at 17 °C for 5 days. Bacterial concentrations, bacterial community compositions, sperm quality parameters, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) were evaluated in order to analyze the antibacterial effects of these parameters during boar semen preservation. The results indicated that the optimum concentration of ε-PL was 0.16 g/L, which significantly improved sperm quality parameters, including sperm motility, plasma membrane integrity, mitochondrial membrane potential, and acrosome integrity, and changed bacterial proliferation and composition (P < 0.05). Moreover, compared with the control group, IVF parameters in the treatment groups also significantly improved (P < 0.05), although there were no significant differences among treatment groups. Interestingly, the antibacterial effect of 0.16 g/L ε-PL in combination with 0.125 g/L gentamycin was similar to that of 0.25 g/L gentamicin alone. In conclusion, our results showed that 0.16 g/L ε-PL is promising for the replacement of gentamicin to improve sperm quality parameters, sperm capacitation, and IVF by reducing bacterial concentrations and disrupting bacterial community composition., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Unusual Pd deactivation and inhibition pathways were observed in a C-N coupling system. Irreversible catalyst deactivation involved C-H insertion of Pd into BippyPhos leading to an off-cycle palladaphosphacyclobutene. Product inhibition led to deactivated Pd but released ligand in the process, allowing it to react with additional Pd precursor to re-enter the catalytic cycle. In situ recycling of the ligand allowed for an input L/Pd ratio of ≪1 with no impact on reaction kinetics.

Differentiation from preadipocytes into mature adipocytes is a complex biological process in which miRNAs play an important role. Previous studies showed that miR-214-3p facilitates adipocyte differentiation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) in vitro. The detailed function and molecular mechanism of miR-214-3p in adipocyte development is unclear. In this study, the 3T3-L1 cell line was used to analyze the function of miR-214-3p in vitro. Using 5-Ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) staining and the CCK-8 assay, we observed that transfection with the miR-214-3p agomir visibly promoted proliferation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes by up-regulating the expression of cell cycle-related genes. Interestingly, overexpression of miR-214-3p promoted 3T3-L1 preadipocyte differentiation and up-regulated the expression of key genes for lipogenesis: PPARγ, FABP4, and Adiponectin. Conversely, inhibition of miR-214-3p repressed 3T3-L1 preadipocyte proliferation and differentiation, and down-regulated the expression of cell cycle-related genes and adipogenic markers. Furthermore, we proved that miR-214-3p regulates 3T3-L1 preadipocyte differentiation by directly targeting the 3'-untranslated regions (3'UTR) of Ctnnb1, which is an important transcriptional regulatory factor of the Wnt/β-Catenin pathway. Taken together, the data indicate that miR-214-3p may positively regulate preadipocyte proliferation and enhance differentiation through the Wnt/β-Catenin signaling pathway.

To investigate the suppressive effects of xanthatin on glioma growth in a nude mouse xenograft model and rat orthotopic implantation model using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to dynamically monitor the antitumour growth and antiangiogenesis effects of xanthatin. The nude mouse xenograft tumour model and rat orthotopic implantation model were established to observe the antitumour effects of xanthatin in vivo. In the rat orthotopic implanted tumour model, MRI scanning was used to dynamically monitor the antitumour growth effect and evaluate the antiangiogenesis effect of xanthatin. We found that xanthatin at a dose of 0.4 mg/10 g dramatically decreased the growth of xenograft tumours in nude mice. The antiangiogenesis effect of xanthatin C6 glioma was evaluated by dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI via comparison of the volume transfer constant (K trans ) value, a parameter that reflects vessel permeability. We found that xanthatin at the doses of 8 and 16 mg/kg significantly decreased the K trans value, which suggests that xanthatin has antiangiogenesis effects. These data demonstrate the suppressive effects of xanthatin on C6 glioma occur via antiangiogenesis. Meanwhile, this study also provides evidence for the application of quantitative parameters of DCE-MRI for dynamically evaluating the growth and angiogenesis of intracranial tumours and for experimental and clinical research., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Objective: As one of the most popular designs used in genetic research, family-based design has been well recognized for its advantages, such as robustness against population stratification and admixture. With vast amounts of genetic data collected from family-based studies, there is a great interest in studying the role of genetic markers from the aspect of risk prediction. This study aims to develop a new statistical approach for family-based risk prediction analysis with an improved prediction accuracy compared with existing methods based on family history., Methods: In this study, we propose an ensemble-based likelihood ratio (ELR) approach, Fam-ELR, for family-based genomic risk prediction. Fam-ELR incorporates a clustered receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve method to consider correlations among family samples, and uses a computationally efficient tree-assembling procedure for variable selection and model building., Results: Through simulations, Fam-ELR shows its robustness in various underlying disease models and pedigree structures, and attains better performance than two existing family-based risk prediction methods. In a real-data application to a family-based genome-wide dataset of conduct disorder, Fam-ELR demonstrates its ability to integrate potential risk predictors and interactions into the model for improved accuracy, especially on a genome-wide level., Conclusions: By comparing existing approaches, such as genetic risk-score approach, Fam-ELR has the capacity of incorporating genetic variants with small or moderate marginal effects and their interactions into an improved risk prediction model. Therefore, it is a robust and useful approach for high-dimensional family-based risk prediction, especially on complex disease with unknown or less known disease etiology.

Background: The aim of this study is to reveal the clinical and histopathological features of HBsAg-positive and HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B infected patients with high level of HBV DNA, from 17 hospitals and medical centres in China, with alanine aminotransferase levels within the lower region of normal range versus those with levels within the upper region of normal range and to investigate the clinical risk factors for the requirement of treatment through the examination of liver biopsy., Methods: Liver biopsy was performed on high level of HBV DNA of 455 patients with HBsAg-positive and HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B infection and persistently normal alanine aminotransferase level. Liver necroinflammation and fibrosis were graded per the Knodell histological activity index and Ishak's fibrosis score, respectively. Univariate analysis of the clinical parameters versus necroinflammation and fibrosis was carried out., Results: Of the subjects in this multicentre-based study, 5.49% and 10.11% had significant necroinflammation with Knodell histological activity index ≥ 9 and hepatic fibrosis stages with Ishak scores ≥ 3, respectively. The subjects were stratified into three age groups (30-39, 40-49 and ≥ 50 years), and our data clearly suggested that age, particularly in the age group over 50, was an independent predictor of liver necroinflammation and fibrosis. Lower HBV-DNA viral levels were found in patients with Knodell histological activity index ≥ 9 or advanced fibrosis (Ishak scores ≥ 3)., Conclusion: Our results showed that histological changes in liver tissues were observed in a significant proportion of patients with persistently normal alanine aminotransferase level. According to the data evaluation results, liver biopsy is advisable for HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B infected patients aged older than 40 and high HBV-DNA viral load in China., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Inter- and intra-subject variability pose a major challenge to decoding human brain activity in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) based on non-invasive electroencephalogram (EEG). Conventionally, a time-consuming and laborious training procedure is performed on each new user to collect sufficient individualized data, hindering the applications of BCIs on monitoring brain states (e.g. drowsiness) in real-world settings. This study proposes applying hierarchical clustering to assess the inter- and intra-subject variability within a large-scale dataset of EEG collected in a simulated driving task, and validates the feasibility of transferring EEG-based drowsiness-detection models across subjects. A subject-transfer framework is thus developed for detecting drowsiness based on a large-scale model pool from other subjects and a small amount of alert baseline calibration data from a new user. The model pool ensures the availability of positive model transferring, whereas the alert baseline data serve as a selector of decoding models in the pool. Compared with the conventional within-subject approach, the proposed framework remarkably reduced the required calibration time for a new user by 90% (18.00 min-1.72 ± 0.36 min) without compromising performance (p = 0.0910) when sufficient existing data are available. These findings suggest a practical pathway toward plug-and-play drowsiness detection and can ignite numerous real-world BCI applications., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Matrine is an alkaloid extracted from a Chinese herb Sophora flavescens Ait, and has been used clinically for breast cancer with marked therapeutic efficacy in China. However, the mechanism has not been well known. Thus, the present study was to explore whether Matrine reverses multidrug resistance for breast cancer cells through the regulation of PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay was used to detect the inhibitory action; Annexin V to detect apoptosis; fluorospectrophotometry to examine intracellular adriamycin (ADR) accumulation; and Western blot to label the proteins of P-glycoprotein (P-gp), MRP1, PTEN, p-AKT, Bcl-2, Bax, and Caspase-3. Matrine (0-2.5 mg/mL) inhibited MCF-7/ADR cell growth and induced apoptosis (P < 0.01). A total of 0.2 mg/mL Matrine could increase the intracellular concentration of ADR; the accumulation in MCF-7/ADR cells increased 3.56 times. Compared with control group, 0.6, 1.2 mg/mL Matrine reduced protein expressions of P-gp, MRP1, p-AKT, Bcl-2, but increased PTEN, Bax, and cleaved caspase-3 gradually, and unchanged caspase-3. Matrine was more likely to reduce the expression of P-gp, MRP1, and p-AKT at the same inhibition radio of Matrine, (0.6 mg/mL) and MK2206 (0.05 μmol/L). Matrine inhibited MCF-7/ADR cell growth, induced apoptosis, and reversed multidrug resistance for breast cancer cells through the regulation of downstream apoptosis factors of PI3K/AKT signaling pathway by decreasing cell phosphorylation of AKT level., (© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

An efficient, concise enantioselective total synthesis of the potent antitumor antibiotic (+)-duocarmycin SA is described. The invented route is based on a disconnection strategy that was devised to facilitate rapid and efficient synthesis of key core compounds to enable preclinical structure-activity relationship investigations. The key tricycle core was constructed with a highly enantioselective indole hydrogenation to set the stereocenter and a subsequent hitherto unexplored vicarious, nucleophilic-substitution/cyclization sequence to effectively forge a final indole ring. Additionally, the development of a stable sulfonamide protecting group capable of mild chemoselective cleavage greatly enhanced sequence yield and throughput. An understanding of key reaction parameters ensured a robust, reproducible sequence easily executable on decagram scales to this highly promising class of compounds.

Drowsy driving is one of the major causes that lead to fatal accidents worldwide. For the past two decades, many studies have explored the feasibility and practicality of drowsiness detection using electroencephalogram (EEG)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. However, on the pathway of transitioning laboratory-oriented BCI into real-world environments, one chief challenge is to obtain high-quality EEG with convenience and long-term wearing comfort. Recently, acquiring EEG from non-hair-bearing (NHB) scalp areas has been proposed as an alternative solution to avoid many of the technical limitations resulted from the interference of hair between electrodes and the skin. Furthermore, our pilot study has shown that informative drowsiness-related EEG features are accessible from the NHB areas. This study extends the previous work to quantitatively evaluate the performance of drowsiness detection using cross-session validation with widely studied machine-learning classifiers. The offline results showed no significant difference between the accuracy of drowsiness detection using the NHB EEG and the whole-scalp EEG across all subjects ( ). The findings of this study demonstrate the efficacy and practicality of the NHB EEG for drowsiness detection and could catalyze explorations and developments of many other real-world BCI applications.

Objective: To explore the diagnosis,treatment,surgical approach and prognosis of parapharyngeal space tumors. Method: The clinical data of 188 patients with parapharyngeal space tumor who were treated from January 2007 to December 2016 were analyzed retrospectively.All patients underwent imaging examination before operation.Surgical approach was as follows:transcervical approach applied in 159 cases,endoscopic-assisted transnasal approach in 9 cases,transcervical-transmandibular approach in 8 cases,transcervical-transparotid approach in 8 cases,transoral approach in 7 cases,and infratemporal fossa approach in 4 case. Result: Of the 188 cases,the tumor was benign in nature in 168 cases(89%)and malignant in 20 cases(11%).Complications occurred in 28(15%)patients,with the most common symptom being hoarseness.168 cases of benign tumors were followed up for 10 months to 10 years,and 3 cases were lost and 4 cases had recurrence.All cases underwent re-operation.Patients with malignant tumors received combined treatment after surgery,and 3 cases were lost to follow-up,1 case died of recurrence 9 months after surgery,the rest survived. Conclusion: Surgery is the preferred method for treating parapharyngeal space tumors and postoperative recurrence rate is pretty low.Endoscopy provides a new surgical management method,helping to reduce postoperative complications and recurrence rate.

The contamination profiles of sixteen perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were examined in coral reef fish samples collected from the South China Sea (SCS) where no information about this topic was available in the literature. The results revealed that six PFAS were found in coral reef fish samples from the SCS. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was the most predominant PFAS contaminant detected in most of the samples, with the highest concentration value of 27.05 ng/g wet weight (ww) observed in Cephalopholis urodelus. Perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnDA) and Perfluorotridecanoic acid (PFTrDA) were the second and third dominant PFAS, respectively. Mean PFOS concentrations in muscle of seven coral reef fish varied from 0.29 ng/g ww in Lethrinus olivaceus to 10.78 ng/g ww in Cephalopholis urodelus. No significant linear relationship was observed between PFOS levels and coral reef fish traits (length, weight) collected in this region. Average daily intake of PFOS for the seven coral reef fishes ranged from 0.79 ng/kg/d for Lethrinus olivaceus to 29.53 ng/kg/d for Cephalopholis urodelus. The hazard ratio (HR) values for human consumption of PFOS-contaminated coral reef fishes ranged from 0.04 to 1.48, with Cephalopholis urodelus having the highest HR value of 1.18 (higher than 1) among the species, indicating frequent consumption of Cephalopholis urodelus might pose potential health risk to local population. The present work have provided the first hand data of PFAS in coral reef fishes in the SCS and indirectly demonstrated the existence of low level PFAS pollution in the SCS in China., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The aim of this study was to validate the reliability of the Chinese version of Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III (ACE-III) for detecting dementia. Furthermore, the present study compares the diagnostic accuracy of ACE-III with that of mini-mental state examination (MMSE)., Methods: One hundred seventy-seven patients with dementia and 180 healthy controls were included in the study., Results: The reliability of ACE-III was very good (α-coefficient = 0.888). There was a significant negative correlation between Clinical Dementia Rating Scale score and total ACE-III score. Further, there was a positive correlation between MMSE score and total ACE-III score. Age exerted a significant effect on total ACE-III score, memory score, and language score. In the present study, the cutoff score of 83 showed a sensitivity of 91.1% and a specificity of 83.1%., Conclusions: The present findings support that the Chinese version of ACE-III is a reliable assessment tool for dementia. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., (Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

The fruits of Psoralea corylifolia, known as Psoraleae Fructus (Buguzhi in Chinese), are traditionally used for the treatment of spermatorrhea, nephritis, asthma, pollakiuria, and various inflammatory diseases. Three previously undescribed isoflavone derivatives, 7-O-methylcorylifol A, 7-O-isoprenylcorylifol A, and 7-O-isoprenylneobavaisoflavone, have been isolated from the fruits of P. corylifolia, together with 9 known compounds. The structures of these compounds were determined through spectroscopic and MS analyses. Among the isolated compounds, 7-O-methylcorylifol A and psoralen exhibited potent inhibition (IC 50 values ≤ 10.89 μM) of superoxide anion generation by human neutrophils in response to N-formyl-L-methionyl-L-leucyl-L-phenylalanine/cytochalasin B (fMLP/CB). 7-O-Isoprenylcorylifol A, 7-O-isoprenylneobavaisoflavone, and 12,13-dihydro-12,13-epoxybakuchiol inhibited fMLP/CB-induced elastase release with IC 50 values ≤ 14.30 μM. In addition, 7-O-isoprenylcorylifol A, bakuchiol, 12,13-dihydro-12,13-epoxybakuchiol, and psoralidin showed potent inhibition with IC 50 values ≤ 36.65 μM, against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide (NO) generation., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Since water is only composed of oxygen and hydrogen, δ 18 O and δ 2 H values are thus utilized to trace the origin of water(s) and quantify the water-rock interactions. While Triassic high pressure (HP) and ultrahigh pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks across the Dabie-Sulu orogen in central-eastern China have been well documented, postcollisional magmatism driven hydrothermal systems are little known. Here we show that two sources of externally derived water interactions were revealed by oxygen isotopes for the gneissic country rocks intruded by the early Cretaceous postcollisional granitoids. Inverse modellings indicate that the degree of disequilibrium (doD) of meteoric water interactions was more evident than that of magmatic one (-65 ± 1 o vs. -20 ± 2°); the partial reequilibration between quartz and alkali feldspar oxygen isotopes with magmatic water was achieved at 340 °C with a water/rock (W/R) ratio of about 1.2 for an open-hydrothermal system; two-stage meteoric water interactions were unraveled with reequilibration temperatures less than 300 °C and W/R ratios around 0.4. The lifetime of fossil magmatic hydrothermal system overprinted on the low zircon δ 18 O orthogneissic country rocks was estimated to maintain up to 50 thousand years (Kyr) through oxygen exchange modellings. Four-stage isotopic evolutions were proposed for the magmatic water interacted gneiss.

Steady state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) has gained a lot of attention due to its robustness and high information transfer rate (ITR). However, transitioning well-controlled laboratory-oriented BCI demonstrations to real-world applications poses severe challenges for this exciting field. For instance, conducting BCI experiments usually requires skilled technicians to abrade the area of skin underneath each electrode and apply an electrolytic gel or paste to acquire high-quality SSVEPs from hair-covered areas. Our previous proof-of-concept study has proposed an alternative approach that employed electroencephalographic signals collected from easily accessible non-hair-bearing areas including neck, behind the ears, and face to realize an SSVEP-based BCI. The study results showed that, with proper electrode placements and advanced signal-processing algorithms, the SSVEPs measured from non-hair-bearing areas in off-line SSVEP experiments could achieve comparable SNR to that obtained from the hair-bearing occipital areas. This study extended the previous work to systematically investigate the costs and benefits of non-hair SSVEPs. Furthermore, this study developed and evaluated an online BCI system based solely on non-hair EEG signals. A 12-target identification task was employed to quantitatively assess the performance of the online SSVEP-based BCI system. All subjects successfully completed the tasks using non-hair SSVEPs with 84.08 ± 15.60% averaged accuracy and 30.21 ± 10.61 bits/min averaged ITR. The empirical results of this study demonstrated the practicality of implementing an SSVEP-based BCI based on signals from non-hair-bearing areas, significantly improving the feasibility and practicality of real-world BCIs.

Two new sesquiterpenoids-13-hydroxycurzerenone ( 1 ) and 1-oxocurzerenone ( 2 )-have been isolated from the rhizomes of Curcuma zedoaria , together with 13 known compounds ( 3 - 15 ). The structures of two new compounds were determined through spectroscopic and MS analyses. Among the isolated compounds, 13-hydroxycurzerenone ( 1 ), 1-oxocurzerenone ( 2 ), curzerenone ( 3 ), germacrone ( 4 ), curcolone ( 5 ), procurcumenol ( 6 ), ermanin ( 7 ), curcumin ( 8 ), and a mixture of stigmast-4-en-3,6-dione ( 12 ) and stigmasta-4,22-dien-3,6-dione ( 13 ) exhibited inhibition (with inhibition % in the range of 21.28%-67.58%) against collagen-induced platelet aggregation at 100 μM. Compounds 1 , 5 , 7 , 8 , and the mixture of 12 and 13 inhibited arachidonic acid (AA)-induced platelet aggregation at 100 μM with inhibition % in the range of 23.44%-95.36%.

Recent advances in mobile electroencephalogram (EEG) acquisition based on dry electrodes have started moving Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) applications from well-controlled laboratory settings to real-world environments. However, the application mechanisms and high impedance of dry electrodes over the hair-covered areas remain challenging for everyday use of BCI. In addition, whole-scalp recordings are not always necessary or applicable due to various practical constrains. Therefore, alternative montages for EEG recordings to meet the everyday needs are in-demand. Inspired by our previous work on measuring non-hair-bearing steady state visual evoked potentials for BCI applications, this study explores the feasibility and efficacy of detecting cognitive lapses of participants based on EEG signals collected from the non-hair-bearing areas. Study results suggest that informative EEG features associated with lapses could be assessed from non-hair-bearing areas with comparable accuracy obtained from the whole-scalp EEG. The design principles, validation processes and promising findings reported in this study may enable and/or facilitate numerous BCI applications in real-world environments.

An amphotericin B-containing (AmB) solid lipid nanoparticulate drug delivery system intended for oral administration, comprised of bee's wax and theobroma oil as lipid components was formulated with the aim to ascertain the location of AmB within the lipid matrix: (a) a homogenous matrix; (b) a drug-enriched shell; or (c) a drug enriched core. Both the drug-loaded and drug-free nanoparticles were spherical with AmB contributing to an increase in both the z -average diameter (169 ± 1 to 222 ± 2 nm) and zeta potential (40.8 ± 0.9 to 50.3 ± 1.0 mV) of the nanoparticles. A maximum encapsulation efficiency of 21.4% ± 3.0%, corresponding to 10.7 ± 0.4 mg encapsulated AmB within the lipid matrix was observed. Surface analysis and electron microscopic imaging indicated that AmB was dispersed uniformly within the lipid matrix (option (a) above) and, therefore, this is the most suitable of the three models with regard to modeling the propensity for uptake by epithelia and release of AmB in lymph.