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To investigate microvascular alterations in the Glisson system of biliary atresia (BA) patients after Kasai portoenterostomy (KP) using three-dimensional (3D) virtual histopathology based on X-ray phase-contrast CT (PCCT).Liver explants from BA patients were imaged using PCCT, and 32 subjects were included and divided into two groups: KP (n = 16) and non-KP (n = 16). Combined with histological analysis and 3D visualization technology, 3D virtual histopathological assessment of the biliary, arterial, and portal venous systems was performed. According to loop volume ratio, 3D spatial density, relative surface area, tortuosity, and other parameters, pathological changes of microvasculature in the Glisson system were investigated.In the non-KP group, bile ducts mostly manifested as radial multifurcated hyperplasia and twisted into loops. In the KP group, the bile duct hyperplasia was less, and the loop volume ratio of bile ducts decreased by 13.89%. Simultaneously, the arterial and portal venous systems presented adaptive alterations in response to degrees of bile duct hyperplasia. Compared with the non-KP group, the 3D spatial density of arteries in the KP group decreased by 3.53%, and the relative surface area decreased from 0.088 ± 0.035 to 0.039 ± 0.015 (p.01). Deformed portal branches gradually recovered after KP, with a 2.93% increase in 3D spatial density and a decrease in tortuosity from 1.17 ± 0.06 to 1.14 ± 0.04 (p.01) compared to the non-KP group.3D virtual histopathology via PCCT clearly reveals the microvascular structures in the Glisson system of BA patients and provides key insights into the morphological mechanism of microvascular adaptation induced by biliary tract dredging after KP in BA disease.• 3D virtual histopathology via X-ray phase-contrast computed tomography clearly presented the morphological structures and pathological changes of microvasculature in the Glisson system of biliary atresia patients. • The morphological alterations of microvasculature in the Glisson system followed the competitive occupancy mechanism in the process of biliary atresia.

The synthesis of high-value-added C1-deuterated aldehydes would improve the availability of deuterated lead compounds for deuterium-labeled drug discovery. Herein, we develop a metal-free synthesis of C1-deuterated aldehydes with D

Background: Colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis (CRPC) is a primary cause of death in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. In the past, computed tomography (CT) has been the primary method used to ev...

Dual-phenotype hepatocellular carcinoma (DPHCC) is highly aggressive and difficult to distinguish from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).To develop and validate clinical and radiomics models based on contrast-enhanced MRI for the preoperative diagnosis of DPHCC.Retrospective.A total of 87 patients with DPHCC and 92 patients with non-DPHCC randomly divided into a training cohort (n = 125: 64 non-DPHCC; 61 DPHCC) and a validation cohort (n = 54: 28 non-DPHCC; 26 DPHCC).A 3.0 T; dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI with time-resolved T1-weighted imaging sequence.In the clinical model, the maximum tumor diameter and hepatitis B virus (HBV) were independent risk factors of DPHCC. In the radiomics model, a total of 1781 radiomics features were extracted from tumor volumes of interest (VOIs) in the arterial phase (AP) and portal venous phase (PP) images. For feature reduction and selection, Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) and recursive feature elimination (RFE) were used. Clinical, AP, PP, and combined radiomics models were established using machine learning algorithms (support vector machine [SVM], logistic regression [LR], and logistic regression-least absolute shrinkage and selection operator [LR-LASSO]) and their discriminatory efficacy assessed and compared.The independent sample t test, Mann-Whitney U test, Chi-square test, regression analysis, receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, the Delong test. A P value 0.05 was considered statistically significant.In the validation cohort, the combined radiomics model (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.908, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.831-0.985) showed the highest diagnostic performance. The AUCs of the PP (AUC = 0.879, 95% CI: 0.779-0.979) and combined radiomics models were significantly higher than that of clinical model (AUC = 0.685, 95% CI: 0.526-0.844). There were no significant differences in AUC between AP or PP radiomics model and combined radiomics model (P = 0.286, 0.180 and 0.543).MRI radiomics models may be useful for discriminating DPHCC from non-DPHCC before surgery.4 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 2.

BACKGROUND Cardiogenic embolism caused by patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a common etiology of cryptogenic stroke (CS), particularly in young and middle-aged patients. Studies about right-to-left shunt (RLS) detection using contrast-enhanced transcranial Doppler (c-TCD) are numerous. According to the time phase and number of microbubbles detected on c-TCD, RLS can be classified and graded. We hypothesized that the characteristics of an infarction lesion on diffusion-weighted imaging differs when combining the type and grade of RLS on c-TCD in patients with PFO-related CS. AIM To explore the characteristics of infarction lesions on diffusion-weighted imaging when combining the RLS type and grade determined by c-TCD. METHODS We retrospectively evaluated CS patients from August 2015 to December 2019 at a tertiary hospital. In total, 111 PFO-related CS patients were divided according to whether RLS was permanent (microbubbles detected both at resting state and after the Valsalva maneuver) or latent (microbubbles detected only after the Valsalva maneuver) on c-TCD. Each group was subdivided into small, mild and large RLS according to the grade of shunt on c-TCD. A normal control group was composed of 33 patients who suffered from simple dizziness. Intragroup and intergroup differences were analyzed in terms of clinical, laboratory and diffusion-weighted imaging lesion characteristics. The correlation between RLS grade evaluated by c-TCD and size of PFO determined by transesophageal echocardiography were also analyzed. RESULTS In 111 patients with PFO-related CS, 68 had permanent RLS and 43 had latent RLS. Clinical characteristics and laboratory tests were not significantly different among the permanent RLS, latent RLS and normal control groups. The proportion of patients with multiple territory lesions in the permanent RLS group (50%) was larger than that in the latent RLS group (27.91%; P = 0.021). Posterior circulation was more likely to be affected in the latent RLS group than in the permanent RLS group (30.23% vs 8.82%, P = 0.004). Permanent-large and latent-large RLS were both more likely to be related to multiple (Ptrend = 0.017 and 0.009, respectively), small (Ptrend = 0.035 and 0.006, respectively) and cortical (Ptrend = 0.031 and 0.033, respectively) lesions. The grade of RLS evaluated by c-TCD was correlated to the size of PFO determined by transesophageal echocardiography (r = 0.758, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Distribution of the infarct suggested the possible type of RLS. Multiple, small and cortical infarcts suggest large RLS induced by a large PFO.

As the critical sensors and decoders of calcium signal, calcium-dependent protein kinase (CDPK) has become the focus of current research, especially in plants. However, few resources are available on the properties and functions of CDPK gene family in Triticum aestivum (TaCDPK). Here, a total of 79 CDPK genes were identified in the wheat genome. These TaCDPKs could be classified into four subgroups on phylogenesis, while they may be classified into two subgroups based on their tissue and organ-spatiotemporal expression profiles or three subgroups according to their induced expression patterns. The analysis on the signal network relationships and interactions of TaCDPKs and NADPH (reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidases, NOXs), the key producers for reactive oxygen species (ROS), showed that there are complicated cross-talks between these two family proteins. Further experiments demonstrate that, two members of TaCDPKs, TaCDPK2/4, can interact with TaNOX7, an important member of wheat NOXs, and enhanced the TaNOX7-mediated ROS production. All the results suggest that TaCDPKs are highly expressed in wheat with distinct tissue or organ-specificity and stress-inducible diversity, and play vital roles in plant development and response to biotic and abiotic stresses by directly interacting with TaNOXs for ROS production.

Background For individualized clinical treatment of patients,The differentiation between brain glial cell hyperplasia and low-grade glioma is of significant importance. Objective Based on Multiparametric MRI images,combining with clinical risk factors,we construct a radiomics-clinical model and nomogram for the differentiation of brain glial cell hyperplasia from low-grade glioma. Methods We retrospectively included patients with brain glial cell hyperplasia and low-grade glioma who underwent surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from March 2016 to March 2022.A total of 41 patients of brain glial cell hyperplasia and 87 patients of low-grade glioma were included in this study,then divide them into training group and validation group randomly with a ratio of 7: 3.We extracted radiomics features from T1-weighted imaging(T1WI),T2-weighted imaging(T2WI), diffusion-weighted imaging(DWI), contrast-enhanced T1-weighted imaging (T1-enhanced),then built LASSO, SVM and RF model,and we selected a model with higher efficiency to calculate the Rad-score (radiomics score) of every patient. To obtain the independent risk factors,we screened the Rad-score and clinical risk factors by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis in turn, then we constructed radiomics-clinical model, and evaluated their performance. Results Of the included 128 cases ,brain glial cell hyperplasia and low-grade gliomas were randomly divided into 10 groups, and 7 of them were used as training group and 3 as validation group. The radiomics-clinical model were constructed with two independent risk factors——mass effect and Rad-score,which AUCs of the training group and validation group were 0.847 and 0.858. The diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of the validation group were 0.821,0.750,0.852. Conclusion Combining with radiomics constructed by multiparametric MRI images and clinical features,the radiomics-clinical model and nomogram which were constructed to differentiate between brain glial cell hyperplasia and low-grade glioma had a good performance.

Background The radiosensitivity of colon cancer cells can be regulated by noncoding RNAs. Objectives In this study, the lncRNA antisense non-coding RNA in the INK4 locus (ANRIL) was selected to analyze its regulatory role in chitooligosaccharides (COS)-related radiosensitivity in colon cancer cells. Material and methods The ANRIL expression in colon cancer cell lines was examined using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), based on which we selected the cell line that presented the highest expression of ANRIL for radiosensitivity research. The cells were exposed to X-rays (0 Gy, 2 Gy, 4 Gy, and 6 Gy) and evaluated for changes in ANRIL and miR-181a-5p expression using RT-qPCR. Cell viability was evaluated using the CCK8 method, while apoptosis was detected with flow cytometry assays. Dual luciferase assays validated the binding between ANRIL and miR-181a-5p. The cell survival rates after differential COS treatments (0 mg/mL, 1.0 mg/mL, 2.0 mg/mL, 3.0 mg/mL, 4.0 mg/mL, and 5.0 mg/mL) were rated using CCK8 assay. The cells with the strongest dosage of COS (5.0 mg/mL) were selected to further investigate the role of ANRIL/miR-181a-5p in modulating the radiosensitivity observed with CCK-8 and flow cytometry assays. Results The ANRIL was highly expressed in colon cancer cells lines, especially in the SW480 cell line. Irradiation significantly decreased cell viability and ANRIL expression in a dose-dependent manner. The overexpression of ANRIL reduced the cell apoptosis rate after irradiation. MiR-181a-5p directly bound to ANRIL and was upregulated by irradiation in a dose-dependent manner. The suppression of miR-181a-5p decreased cell apoptosis. The COS treatment notably downregulated cell survival and promoted apoptosis in cells exposed to irradiation. The overexpression of ANRIL partially reversed COS-induced apoptosis and the inhibition rate; the upregulation of miR-181a-5p could counteract the impact of ANRIL regulation in cells. Conclusions The ANRIL negatively regulated radiosensitivity induced by COS in colon cancer cells by sponging miR-181a-5p.

A new formula for the concentration profile of nonuniform sediment is derived using the diffusion differential equation with equilibrium bed concentration. The interaction coefficient for nonuniform sediment particles as a function of both relative diameter and geometric standard deviation of nonuniform sediment is taken into account in the settling velocity. The diffusion coefficient is obtained from the logarithmic velocity profile. This new formula possesses several advantages as follows: (1) avoids theoretical defect of the Rouse formula, which states that the sediment concentration is infinite at the bottom and zero at the water surface. (2) suitable for an arbitrary fraction of nonuniform sediment, and (3) easy to apply with a simple form. The formula yields less difference among concentration profiles for various particles than that for uniform sediment and reveals the law for fractional concentration distribution of nonuniform sediment. The calculated concentration agrees well with the measured data from the Yangtze River.

This study aims to develop and validate an artificial intelligence (AI)-aided Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADSThe deidentified MRI data of 1540 biopsy-naïve patients were collected from four centres. PI-RADSIn the independent test set, UNet-Seg identified 87.2% (628/720) of target lesions, with a Dice score of 44.9% (range, 22.8-60.2%) in segmenting lesion contours. In the ablation experiment, the model trained with the data from three centres was superior (kappa coefficient, 0.716 vs. 0.531) to that trained with single-centre data. In the internal and external tests, the triple-centre PI-RADSOur closed-loop PI-RADS

To explore the characteristics of ADC value changes in DWI of newly diagnosed symptomatic MM patients and its correlation with R-ISS stage.The data of 148 newly diagnosed symptomatic MM patients treated by whole-body DWI scan at The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from June 2016 to June 2019 were selected and retrospectively analyzed and 30 cases of age-matched healthy people were selected as controls. The differences of ADC values between the patients in normal control group, DWIThe plasma cell percentage of the patients in DWIDWI全身DWI在多发性骨髓瘤骨病评估中的作用.探讨初诊症状性多发性骨髓瘤（MM）患者DWI检查的ADC值变化特征及其与R-ISS分期的相关性.回顾性分析2016年6月至2019年6月于苏州大学附属第一医院接受全身DWI检查的初诊症状性MM患者148例的资料，另选取年龄匹配的健康人30例作为对照，比较正常对照、DWIDWIMM患者DWI

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis is critical for both physiological processes and stress responses of plants. NADPH oxidases (NOXs) are the key producers of ROS in plants. However, their functions in ROS homeostasis and plant growth regulation in wheat (Triticum aestivum) are little investigated. Here, we cloned and characterized a NOX isoform TaNOX7 in wheat. Overexpression of TaNOX7 in rice led to enhanced root length, ROS production, drought tolerance as well as bigger panicles and higher yield but shorter growth period duration. Further results indicate that TaCDPK13, a member of calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs), can directly interact with TaNOX7 and enhance ROS production in plants. These results demonstrate that TaNOX7 plays crucial roles in wheat development, fertility, and drought tolerance via interaction with TaCDPK13, which may act as an upstream regulator of TaNOX7 to regulate ROS production in wheat.

Primary pulmonary enteric adenocarcinoma (PEAC) is a rare invasive adenocarcinoma clinically similar to metastatic colorectal adenocarcinoma (MCRC). Although many studies have addressed the differential diagnosis of PEAC, few have described the treatment of PEAC, especially using immunotherapy. This report describes a 61-year-old man who presented initially with pain in the ribs. Pathological analysis of biopsy samples shows malignant tumors of the right pleura, and next-generation sequencing of 26 genes showed a KRAS gene mutation. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) found no evidence of gastrointestinal malignancy. Due to multiple metastases, the patient could not undergo radical surgery. The patient was treated with a combination chemotherapy regimen of paclitaxel plus carboplatin, along with sindilizumab immunotherapy, but, after one cycle of treatment, the tumor showed a hyperprogressive state. The patient is still being monitored regularly. These findings indicate that chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy may be ineffective in the treatment of primary PEAC with positive driver genes.

The era of big data in healthcare is here, and this era will significantly improve medicine and especially oncology. However, traditional machine learning algorithms need to be promoted to solve such large-scale realworld problems due to a large amount of data that needs to be analyzed and the difficulty in solving problems with nonconvex nonlinear settings. We aim to minimize the composite of a smooth nonlinear function and a block-separable nonconvex function on a large number of block variables with inequality constraints. We propose a novel parallel first-order optimization method, called asynchronous block coordinate descent with time perturbation (ATP), which adopts a time perturbation technique that escapes from saddle points and sub-optimal local points. The details of the proposed method are presented with analyses of convergence and iteration complexity properties. Experiments conducted on real-world machine learning problems validate the efficacy of our proposed method. The experimental results demonstrate that time perturbation enables ATP to escape from saddle points and sub-optimal points, providing a promising way to handle nonconvex optimization problems with inequality constraints employing asynchronous block coordinate descent. The asynchronous parallel implementation on shared memory multi-core platforms indicates that the proposed algorithm, ATP, has strong scalability.

As a specialized intraparenchymal vascular conduit, hepatic sinusoids play a key role in liver microcirculation. This study aimed to explore the three-dimensional (3D) morphological changes of cirrhotic sinusoids by serial histological sections.Cirrhosis was induced by tail vein injection of albumin in Wistar rats with a positive antibody. A total of 356 serial histological sections were prepared from liver tissue blocks of normal and cirrhotic rats. The optical microscope images were registered and reconstructed, and 3D reconstructions of the fine structures of fibrous tissues and sinusoids were subsequently visualized.The fibrosis area of the cirrhotic sample was 6-16 times that of the normal sample (P0.001). Cirrhosis led to obvious changes in the distribution and morphology of sinusoids, which were mainly manifested as dilation, increased quantity and disordered distribution. Compared with normal liver, cirrhotic liver has a significantly increased volume ratio, number and volume of sinusoids (1.63-, 0.53-, and 1.75-fold, respectively, P0.001). Furthermore, the samples were further divided into three zones according to the oxygen supply, and there were significant differences in the morphology of the sinusoids in the normal and cirrhotic samples (P0.05). In particular, morphological parameters of the cirrhotic sinusoids near the portal area were obviously greater than those in the normal liver (P0.05).3D morphological structures of hepatic sinusoids were reconstructed, and the adaptive microstructure changes of cirrhotic sinusoids were accurately measured, which has an important implications for the study of hepatic microcirculation and pathological changes of cirrhosis.

Background: A pretreatment risk stratification of prostate cancer (PCa) is important for determining appropriate treatment option and prognostic prediction. Although numerous quantifiable approaches can provide fundamental insights in PCa, a clinical tool should leverage the integration of all data representations to enables detailed assessment. We developed a generalizable machine learning platform, designated PI-Risk, which incorporates clinicians’ prior identifications with deep transferrable imaging feature representations into predictive models for PCa Gleason grade. Methods: A retrospective study included 1442 biopsy-naïve patients from two tertiary care medical centers between January 2014 and December 2019. Model performance was typically evaluated against a “ground truth” with imaging-histopathologic annotations using receiver operating characteristic (ROC). Detection rates such as true positive, true negative, false positive and false negative rate were reported using a confusion matrix analysis. The Cox model’s performance was evaluated based on Harrell’s concordance index (C-index), calibration curves and Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. Results: In multinomial regression analyzing model, predicted IntraT-Rad G0 (odds ratio [OR], 3.01; 95% confidence intervals [CIs], 2.74–3.34, p < 0.001) and PI-RADS score 2 (OR, 2.88; 95% CIs, 2.47–3.17, p = 0.002) were two independent predictors of G0 stage. Predicted IntraT-Rad G1 (OR, 2.42; 95% CIs, 2.13–2.86, p < 0.001) and PSA 4-10 ng/ml (OR, 1.29; 95% CIs, 1.06–1.43, p = 0.037) were two independent predictors of G1 stage. PSA 10-20 ng/ml (OR, 1.52; 95% CIs, 1.32–1.67, p = 0.005), Predicted PeriT-DLR-SqueezeNet G1 (OR, 1.31; 95% CIs, 1.14–1.52, p = 0.009) and Predicted IntraT-Rad G3 (OR, 1.29; 95% CIs, 1.07–1.44, p = 0.011) were three independent predictors of G2 stage. PI-RADS score 5 (OR, 1.84; 95% CIs, 1.74–2.31, p < 0.001) were the independent predictor of G3 stage. PI-RADS score 5 (OR, 2.84; 95% CIs, 2.62–3.17, p < 0.001) and PSA > 100 ng/ml (OR, 1.69; 95% CIs, 1.36–1.83, p = 0.007) were two independent predictors of G4 stage. And the multivariate Cox analysis model shows that, among the 5 pretreatment risk factors (age, PSA, PCa location, PI-RADS score and PI-Risk score), PSA ≥ 20 ng/ml (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.20-2.08; p = 0.001) and PI-Risk ≥ G3 (OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.12-1.88; p = 0.005) were the independent predictors of BCR.Conclusions: We concluded that the PI-Risk can offer a noninvasive alternative tool to stratify PCa aggressiveness. This enables a step towards PCa risk stratification.

NADPH oxidases (NOXs), mostly known as respiratory burst oxidase homologs (RBOHs), are the key producers of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plants. A lot of literature has addressed ROS signaling in plant development regulation and stress responses as well as on the enzyme’s structure, evolution, function, regulation and associated mechanisms, manifesting the role of NOXs/RBOHs as the vital performers and center hubs during plant growth and signaling. This review focuses on recent advances of NOXs/RBOHs on cell growth, hormone interaction, calcium signaling, abiotic stress responses, and immunity. Several primary particles, including Ca2+, CDPKs, BIK1, ROPs/RACs, CERK, FER, ANX, SnRK and SIK1-mediated regulatory mechanisms, are fully summarized to illustrate the signaling behavior of NOXs/RBOHs and their sophisticated and dexterous crosstalks. Diverse expression and activation regulation models endow NOXs/RBOHs powerful and versatile functions in plants to maintain innate immune homeostasis and development integrity. NOXs/RBOHs and their related regulatory items are the ideal targets for crop improvement in both yield and quality during agricultural practices.

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) results from the neoplastic transformation of hematopoietic stem cells harboring the t(9;22)(q34;q11) translocation that is the genetic hallmark of CML. This rearrang...

Tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) is significantly more malignant than other type of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). In this study, we aimed to identify specific global gene expression signatures of TSCC to investigate the more invasive behavior of the deeply infiltrating cancer. Using RNA-seq technology, we detected gene expression of 20 TSCCs, 20 matched paratumor tissues, and 10 healthy normal mucosa tissues. Enrichment analysis of gene ontology (GO) and pathway was conducted using online tools DAVID for the dysregulated genes. Additionally, we performed the quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) to validate the findings of RNA-Seq in 10 samples of TSCC, matched paratumor, and normal mucosa, respectively. We detected 252 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between TSCC and matched paratumor tissue, including 117 up-regulated and 135 down-regulated genes. For comparison between TSCC and normal mucosa, 234 DEGS were identified, consisting of 67 up-regulated and 167 down-regulated genes. For both two comparisons, GO categories of muscle contraction (GO: 0006936), epidermis development (GO: 0008544), epithelial cell differentiation (GO: 0030855), and keratinization (GO: 0031424) were commonly enriched. Altered gene expression affected some cancer-related pathways, such as tight junction. The qRT-PCR validation showed that gene expression patterns of FOLR1, NKX3-1, TFF3, PIGR, NEFL, MMP13, and HMGA2 were fully in concordance with RNA-Seq results. Findings in this study demonstrated the genetic and molecular alterations associated with TSCC, providing new clues for understanding the molecular mechanisms of TSCC pathogenesis.

Herein, we have developed visible-light photoredox-catalyzed decarboxylating carboxylic acids for alkylation of heteroarenes under mild conditions. The transformation occurred smoothly without the requirement of stoichiometric oxidants in the presence of 0.3 equiv of base, which benefited from the release of hydrogen (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Various substrates and functional groups were tolerated. Primary mechanistic studies suggest that an oxidative quenching pathway and a reductive quenching pathway are both possible in the catalytic cycle.

Calcium (Ca2+) signaling and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) signaling are two basic signal regulation pathways in organisms, playing crucial roles in signal transduction, energy metabolism, stress tolerance, and various developmental processes. Notably, calmodulins (CaMs) and NAD kinases (NADKs) are important hubs for connecting these two types of signaling networks, where CaMs are the unique activators of NADKs. NADK is a key enzyme for NADP (including NADP+ and NADPH) biosynthesis by phosphorylating NAD (including NAD+ and NADH) and therefore, maintains the balance between NAD pool and NADP pool through an allosteric regulation mode. In addition, the two respective derivatives from NAD+ (substrate of NADK) and NADP+ (product of NADK), cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR) and nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP), have been considered to be the important messengers for intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis which could finally influence the combination between CaM and NADK, forming a feedback regulation mechanism. In this review article, we briefly summarized the major research advances related to the feedback regulation pathway, which is activated by the interaction of CaM and NADK during plant development and signaling. The theories and fact will lay a solid foundation for further studies related to CaM and NADK and their regulatory mechanisms as well as the NADK-mediated NAD signaling behavior in plant development and response to stress.

Objective To prospectively evaluate the inter- and intraobserver agreement of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements in free breathing, breath-hold, and respiratory triggered diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) of lung cancer. Methods Twenty-two patients with lung cancer (tumor size >2cm) underwent DWIs (3.0T) in three imaging methods. Lesion ADCs were measured twice by both of the two independent observers and compared. Results No statistical significance was found among methods, though respiratory-triggered DWI tended to have higher ADCs than breath-hold DWI. Great inter- and intraobserver agreement was shown. Conclusion ADCs had good inter- and intraobserver agreement in all three DWI methods.

Purpose To assess the ability of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for evaluating T stage and correlation with histological T stage of rectal cancer. Method The diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of T 2 WI and DWI combined with T 2 WI for T stage were evaluated. Mean tumor apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) was compared with histological T stage. Result There were no significant differences in the diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity no matter what kind of T stage was concerned. The difference between ADC values and histological T stage were significantly different. Conclusion DWI was useful for evaluating T stage of rectal cancer. The ADC may predict the histological grade.

In this study, we investigated the effects of high ambient temperature on lipid metabolism in finishing pigs. Sixteen pigs ((79.6±1.2) kg) were randomly assigned to two groups: (1) ambient temperature of 30°C with ad libitum access to feed (HT; n=8) and (2) ambient temperature of 22°C and fed the average amount consumed by eight pigs in HT group on the previous day (PF; n=8). After 21 days of constant exposure to different environmental conditions, all the pigs were euthanized, and blood and tissue samples were obtained. High ambient temperature increased the proportion of backfat (P=0.04, +21.6%) and flare fat (P

Following the publication of the above article, the authors have realized that certain intended corrections were not carried over to the published version of the article. First, the description of the results of Figs. 5 and 6 did not match the figures; Edu and Transwell invasion assays were intended to have been excluded from the manuscript during the proofreading stage, although these data were presented in the description of the results for Figs. 5 and 6. Consequently, the text for the "circRNA_001275 promotes cell proliferation" subsection of the Results section towards the end of p. 153 should have read as follows: "MTT assay was used to detect the effects of circRNA_001275 on cell proliferation. The results showed that cell viability was significantly increased in the circRNA_001275 OE group, and significantly decreased in the si circRNA_001275 group (both P0.05, Fig. 5A and B), compared with the corresponding control groups." Furthermore, the text in the subsequent subsection ("circRNA_001275 inhibits cell apoptosis") should have read as follows: "Hoechst 33258 staining was used to detect the effects of circRNA_001275 on apoptosis. The apoptosis rate was significantly decreased in the circRNA_001275 OE group, and significantly increased in the si circRNA_001275 group (both P0.05; Fig. 6), compared with the corresponding control group. Secondly, Fig. 5B was omitted from Fig. 5 in the published article; and thirdly, a higher‑resolution version of Fig. 6 was submitted during the revision stages, although the version of this figure that was deemed to have been too low in quality was the one that appeared in the final proofs. The corrected / updated versions of Figs. 5 and 6 are shown opposite. The Editor of International Journal of Oncology regrets that certain of these errors were introduced into the article during the production stages, and apologizes both to the authors and to the readership. [the original article was published in International Journal of Oncology 57: 151‑160, 2020; DOI: 10.3892/ijo.2020.5050].

BACKGROUND Watson for Oncology (WFO) is a artificial intelligence clinical decision-support systems with evidence-based treatment options for oncologists. WFO has been gradually used in China, but limited reports on whether WFO is suitable for Chinese patients. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the concordance of treatment options between WFO and real clinical practice at the Second Xiangya Hospital Cancer Center for Cervical cancer patients retrospectively. METHODS We retrospectively enrolled 300 cases of cervical cancer patients who were hospitalized at the Second Xiangya Hospital Cancer Center from May 2017 to August 2018. WFO provide treatment options for 246 supported cases. Real clinical practice were defined as concordant if treatment options were designated “recommended” or “for consideration” by WFO. Concordance of treatment option between WFO and real clinical practice was analysed statistically. RESULTS Treatment concordance between WFO and real clinical practice occurred in 72.8% (179/246) of cervical cancer cases.Logistic regression analysis showed that rural registration residence [0.64(0.427-0.946), P=0.025], advanced age [0.08(0.03-0.28), P=0.032], poor ECOG performance status [0.29(0.083-1.058), P=0.048], stages II-IV disease ([2.08 (1.002-4.325), P=0.046], [2.09(1.001-4.381), P=0.047], [0.19(0.038-0.91), P=0.025], respectively) have remarkable impact on consistency.Pathological type, differentiation degree, lymphatic and distant metastasis were not found to affect concordance.The main reasons attributed to the 27.2% (67/246) of the discordant cases were the substitution of nedaplatin for cisplatin,reimbursement plan of bevacizumab, surgical preference,and absence of neoadjuvant/adjuvant chemotherapy and PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies recommendations. CONCLUSIONS WFO recommendations were in 72.8% of concordant with real clinical practice for cervical cancer patients in China. However, several localization and individual factors limit its wider application. So,WFO could be an essential tool but it cannot currently replace oncologists.To be rapidly and fully apply to cervical cancer patients in China, accelerate localization and improvement were needed for WFO.

Purpose Biomechanical properties can be used as biomarkers to diagnose tumors, monitor tumor development, and evaluate treatment efficacy. The purpose of this preliminary study is to characterize the biomechanical environment of two typical liver tumors, hemangiomas (HEMs) and hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs), and to investigate the potential of using strain metrics as biomarkers for tumor diagnosis, based on a limited clinical dataset. Methods Magnetic resonance (MR) tagging was used to quantify the motion and deformation of the two types of liver tumors. Displacements of the tumors arising from a heartbeat were measured over one cardiac cycle. Local biomechanical conditions of the tumors were characterized by estimating two principal strains (e1 and e2 ) and an octahedral shear strain (esoct ) of the tumor and its peripheral region. Biomechanical conditions of the tumors were compared with those of the arbitrarily selected regions from healthy volunteers. Results We observed that the HCCs had significantly smaller strain values compared to their peripheral tissues. However, the HEMs did not have significantly different strains from those of the peripheral tissues, and were similar to healthy liver regions. The sensitivity of using e1 , e2 , and esoct to diagnose HCC were all 1, while the sensitivity of using e1 , e2 , and esoct to diagnose HEM were 0.67, 0.17, and 0.67, respectively. Conclusions Lagrangian strain metrics provide insight into the biomechanical conditions of certain liver tumors in the human body and may provide another perspective for tumor characterization and diagnosis.

As the key producers of reactive oxygen species (ROS), NADPH oxidases (NOXs), also known as respiratory burst oxidase homologs (RBOHs), play crucial roles in various biological processes in plants with considerable evolutionary selection and functional diversity in the entire terrestrial plant kingdom. However, only limited resources are available on the phylogenesis and functions of this gene family in wheat. Here, a total of 46 NOX family genes were identified in the wheat genome, and these NOXs could be classified into three subgroups: typical TaNOXs, TaNOX-likes, and ferric reduction oxidases (TaFROs). Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the typical TaNOXs might originate from TaFROs during evolution, and the TaFROs located on Chr 2 might be the most ancient forms of TaNOXs. TaNOXs are highly expressed in wheat with distinct tissue or organ-specificity and stress-inducible diversity. A large-scale expression and/or coexpression analysis demonstrated that TaNOXs can be divided into four functional groups with different expression patterns under a broad range of environmental stresses. Different TaNOXs are coexpressed with different sets of other genes, which widely participate in several important intracellular processes such as cell wall biosynthesis, defence response, and signal transduction, suggesting their vital but diversity of roles in plant growth regulation and stress responses of wheat.

Background NAD kinases (NADKs) are the only known enzymes that directly phosphorylate NAD(H) to generate NADP(H) in different subcellular compartments. They participate in multiple life activities, such as modulating the NADP/NAD ratio, maintaining the intracellular redox balance and responding to environmental stresses. However, the functions of individual NADK in plants are still under investigation. Here, a rice NADK, namely, OsNADK1, was identified, and its functions in plant growth regulation and stress tolerance were analysed by employing a series of transgenic plant lines. Results OsNADK1 is a cytosol-localized NADK in rice. It was expressed in all rice tissues examined, and its transcriptional expression could be stimulated by a number of environmental stress treatments. Compared with wild-type (WT) rice, the mutant plant osnadk1 in which OsNADK1 was knocked out was a dwarf at the heading stage and had decreased NADP(H)/NAD(H), ascorbic acid (ASA)/dehydroascorbate (DHA) and reduced glutathione (GSH)/oxidized glutathione (GSSG) ratios, which led to increased oxidation states in the rice cells and sensitivity to drought. Moreover, certain stress-related genes showed differential expression patterns in osnadk1 under both normal growth and drought-stress conditions compared with WT. Among these genes, OsDREB1B and several WRKY family transcription factors, e.g., OsWRKY21 and OsWRKY42, showed correlated co-expression patterns with OsNADK1 in osnadk1 and the plants overexpressing or underexpressing OsNADK1, implying roles for these transcription factors in OsNADK1-mediated processes. In addition, overexpression of OsNADK1 enhanced the drought tolerance of rice plants, whereas loss of function of the gene reduced the tolerance. Furthermore, the proline content was dramatically increased in the leaves of the OsNADK1-overexpressing lines under drought conditions. Conclusions Altogether, the results suggest that an OsNADK1-mediated intracellular redox balance is involved in the tolerance of rice plants to drought.

An electromagnetic actuator was designed for magnetic resonance elastography (MRE). The actuator is unique in that it is simple, portable, and capable of brain, abdomen, and phantom imagings. A custom-built control unit was used for controlling the vibration frequency and synchronizing the trigger signals. An actuation unit was built and mounted on the specifically designed clamp and holders for different imaging applications. MRE experiments with respect to gel phantoms, brain, and liver showed that the actuator could produce stable and consistent mechanical waves. Estimated shear modulus using local frequency estimate method demonstrated that the measurement results were in line with that from MRE studies using different actuation systems. The relatively easy setup procedure and simple design indicated that the actuator system had the potential to be applied in many different clinical studies.

Background The ischemia penumbra area is not easy to be detected accurately using noninvasive imaging methods. Objective We aim to assess the diagnostic value of susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) for ischemic penumbra in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods A retrospective analysis was carried out in 47 patients with ischemic stroke involving the middle cerebral artery. Mean transit time (MTT), time to peak, relative cerebral blood flow, and relative cerebral blood volume maps were created after image processing. Results No significant difference was found in the mismatch between the SWI and diffusion-weighted imaging (SWI-DWI) or in the MTT-DWI mismatch scores (P= 0.056, Kappa = 0.864). Conclusions SWI provides information comparable to PWI and, thus, could serve as a reliable magnetic resonance technique for assessing ischemic penumbrae.

Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy and side effects of rectally administered prolonged-release oxycodone hydrochloride tablets on cancer pain. Methods: Seventy-six patients with moderate-severe cancer pain admitted to April 2010-April 2016 were randomly chosen and equally divided into an experimental group and control group. All patients were each treated with prolonged-release oxycodone hydrochloride tablets. The experimental group patients were administered rectally and the control group were administered orally. Clinical efficacy and side effects were observed for both groups. Results: There was no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) in the pain scores of the two groups after administration of prolonged-release oxycodone hydrochloride tablets after 1h, 3h, 1 day, 3 days and 1 week. Gastrointestinal reaction incidence rates for the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group with the difference being statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Rectal administration had the same analgesic effects as oral administration, but had fewer side effects and more clinical value.

Rail transportation experimental system is the urgent need of modern railway signal professional teaching equipment in the university. This equipment can deepen students' understanding of theoretical knowledge and improve their ability of practical operation. In this paper, the hardware design of rail power supply circuit in the testing system was completed. Using ICL8038 as a signal generator of the power output board, the design met the functional requirements in practical test.

This paper discussed the working principle of the LLL night vision(low-light level night vision)device and researched into the LLL night vision objective opjective optical system.An LLL night vision objective optical system with good image quality is finally got,which comes after debugging with the optical design software ZEMAX according to the theoretical calculation of the objective lens parameters specific to night vision system.

Rail transportation experimental system is the urgent need of modern railway signal professional colleges and universities teaching equipment. This equipment can deepen students' understanding of theoretical knowledge and improve their ability of practical operation. In this article the design schemes of track circuit for high-frequency test system are simulated. Through the result of simulation the design meet the functional requirement.

On the foundation of analyzing in an all-round way to the current application situations and development trends with image acquisition and treatment technology on domestic and international, the paper designed one system that aim at the problems including high-speed rate of analog-to-digital conversion, heavy amount data and complicated arithmetic and so on that existing in high-speed image acquisition board and realize the high-speed acquisition and processing of image. The key part of the system is DSP and programmable arrays device FPGA, The main circuit including the standard video signal separation circuit, A/D converter circuit, phase locking multiple frequency circuits and the DSP, such as power supply circuit, etc. The circuit is simple, dependability, and have certain common ability.

Sun, Z.-l.; Gao, Y.; Xu, D.; Hu, C.-h.; Fang, H.-w., and Xu, Y.-p., 2019. A new formula for the transport capacity of nonuniform suspended sediment in estuaries. Journal of Coastal Researc...

Purpose Ultrasound (US) imaging has been widely used in breast tumor diagnosis and treatment intervention. Automatic delineation of the tumor is a crucial first step, especially for the computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) and US-guided breast procedure. However, the intrinsic properties of US images such as low contrast and blurry boundaries pose challenges to the automatic segmentation of the breast tumor. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose a segmentation algorithm that can contour the breast tumor in US images. Methods To utilize the neighbor information of each pixel, a Hausdorff distance based fuzzy c-means (FCM) method was adopted. The size of the neighbor region was adaptively updated by comparing the mutual information between them. The objective function of the clustering process was updated by a combination of Euclid distance and the adaptively calculated Hausdorff distance. Segmentation results were evaluated by comparing with three experts’ manual segmentations. The results were also compared with a kernel-induced distance based FCM with spatial constraints, the method without adaptive region selection, and conventional FCM. Results Results from segmenting 30 patient images showed the adaptive method had a value of sensitivity, specificity, Jaccard similarity, and Dice coefficient of 93.60±5.33%, 97.83±2.17%, 86.38±5.80%, and 92.58±3.68%, respectively. The region-based metrics of average symmetric surface distance (ASSD), root mean square symmetric distance (RMSD), and maximum symmetric surface distance (MSSD) were 0.03±0.04 mm, 0.04±0.03 mm, and 1.18±1.01 mm, respectively. All the metrics except sensitivity were better than that of the non-adaptive algorithm and the conventional FCM. Only 3 region-based metrics were better than that of the kernel-induced distance based FCM with spatial constraints. Conclusion Inclusion of the pixel neighbor information adaptively in segmenting US images improved the segmentation performance. The results demonstrate the potential application of the method in breast tumor CAD and other US-guided procedures. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Based on the previous test, SHCC (Strain Hardening Cementitious Composite) with the best fluidity was got through flow test, the different stress-strain full curves of SHCC were obtained by uniaxial tensile test on three dumbbell-shape specimens of SHCC with each group according to different diameter sand and different ages; and crack development was observed during test. The experimental results show that: The finer the sand sizes, the better the strain-hardening performance and more microcrack of SHCC that can be obtained; obvious strain-hardening characteristics of the specimens at different ages are all occured and the ultimate tensile strain can reach or even more than 3%. The crack spacing of various specimens are different, that is to say, there is difference in cracking characteristics among specimens at different ages. The experimental and analytical conclusion can provide a lot of theoretical bases for the research on performances of SHCC.

This paper studies relations between bankfull discharge, lateral cross section variation and the incoming flow and sediment condition in the Lower Yellow River using measured data from 1950 to 2003. Since 1950 the bankfull discharge has obviously decreased and the ratio of channel width to flow depth has increased. The critical annual average incoming sediment coefficient (defined as the ratio of sediment concentration to discharge) and discharge at the Huayuankou station are approximately 0.012 and 1,850 m3 s−1, respectively, for no accumulative deposition occurring in the reach from Huayuankou to Lijin. On this basis, a mathematical model is used to study the scale of the main channel in the Lower Yellow River and its corresponding bankfull discharge under possible incoming flow and sediment conditions in the near future. The main factors influencing the scale of the main channel are analyzed, and measures to shape and maintain a medium-sized channel are discussed. The results show the effect of various water and sediment combinations released from the Xiaolangdi Reservoir on the shaping of the main channel and suggest that under recent incoming flow and sediment conditions, it is possible to shape and maintain a medium-sized channel with a bankfull discharge of approximate 4,000 m3 s−1.

The paper analyses the affecting factors of river health points that river channel health is the key and foundation of river health. It proposes the index system for the Lower Yellow River's channel health and sets the appropriate evaluation criteria and indicator weight. It evaluates the Lower Yellow River's channel health using fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method and gets the conclusion that the Lower Yellow River's channel health has deteriorated in 50 years and has not improved until the beginning of this century. Finally, the paper points that river health is closely related to flow-sediment processes and the coordination of flow-sediment relationship is the key to maintaining the health of the Lower Yellow River.

Based on the current situation of the Lower Yellow River channel, this paper analyses the factors affecting river health, points out that river channel health is the foundation and key to river health. It evaluates the Yellow River's downstream channel health using fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method and gets the conclusion that the Yellow River's downstream channel health has deteriorated in 50 years and has improved in the beginning of this century. This paper analyses and points out that the reservoir to regulate natural flow-sediment process is the primary means that the human impact on river health. The regulation of reservoir has duality that "excessive" regulation will seriously damage river health and "moderate" regulation can better maintain and restore river health. Coordination of flow-sediment relationship is the key to maintaining the health of the Lower Yellow River.

Strain Hardening Cementitious Composites (SHCC) varied with mixture proportion was preparated with normal engineering materials in our area, tensile performance of dumbbell specimens under uniaxial tensile load was experimentally investigated in this paper, and tensile stress versus strain curves as well as crack development of SHCC with different mixture proportion were obtained. The results showed that all specimens had strain-hardening and multiple-cracking characteristics obviously, among them, ultimate tensile strain of No.A and C series could exceed 3%. SHCC with excellent stable tensile performance was preparated based on normal river sand but not quartz sand, which can reduce project cost and promote the application and development of SHCC in practical engineering.

By using a low-cost and facile hydrothermal method, a peculiar claw-like ZnO nanorod array is successfully synthesized. The hydrothermal growth is done in an aqueous solution with equimolar zinc acetate (ZAc, Zn(CH3COO)2·2H2O) and hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA, C6H12N4). The obtained ZnO nanorod array is characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results indicate that the nanorods are high-quality monocrystals. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum is performed to investigate the optical properties of this product.

A considerable number of cells expressing typical immature neuronal markers including doublecortin (DCX+) are present around layer II in the cerebral cortex of young and adult guinea pigs and other larger mammals, and their origin and biological implication await further characterization. We show here in young adult guinea pigs that these DCX+ cells are accompanied by in situ cell division around the superficial cortical layers mostly in layer I, but they co-express proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and an early neuronal fate determining factor, PAX6. A small number of these DCX+ cells also colocalize with BrdU following administration of this mitotic indicator. Cranial X-ray irradiation causes a decline of DCX+ cells around layer II, and novel environmental exploration induces c-Fos expression among these cells in several neocortical areas. Together, these data are compatible with a notion that DCX+ cortical neurons around layer II might derive from proliferable neuronal precursors around layer I in young adult guinea pig cerebrum, and that these cells might be modulated by experience under physiological conditions.