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Changes in the functional connections between the cerebral cortex and muscles can evaluate motor function in stroke rehabilitation. To quantify changes in functional connections between the cerebral cortex and muscles, we combined corticomuscular coupling and graph theory to propose dynamic time warped (DTW) distances for electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) signals as well as two new symmetry metrics. EEG and EMG data from 18 stroke patients and 16 healthy individuals, as well as Brunnstrom scores from stroke patients, were recorded in this paper. First, calculate DTW-EEG, DTW-EMG, BNDSI and CMCSI. Then, the random forest algorithm was used to calculate the feature importance of these biological indicators. Finally, based on the results of feature importance, different features were combined and validated for classification. The results showed that the feature importance was from high to low as CMCSI/BNDSI/DTW-EEG/DTW-EMG, while the feature combination with the highest accuracy was CMCSI+BNDSI+DTW-EEG. Compared to previous studies, combining the CMCSI+BNDSI+DTW-EEG features of EEG and EMG achieved better results in the prediction of motor function rehabilitation at different levels of stroke. Our work implies that the establishment of a symmetry index based on graph theory and cortical muscle coupling has great potential in predicting stroke recovery and promises to have an impact on clinical research applications.

Functional corticomuscular coupling (FCMC) between the cerebral motor cortex and muscle activity reflects multi-layer and nonlinear interactions in the sensorimotor system. Considering the inherent multiscale characteristics of physiological signals, we proposed multiscale transfer spectral entropy (MSTSE) and introduced the unidirectionally coupled Hénon maps model to verify the effectiveness of MSTSE. We recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) and surface electromyography (sEMG) in steady-state grip tasks of 29 healthy participants and 27 patients. Then, we used MSTSE to analyze the FCMC base on EEG of the bilateral motor areas and the sEMG of the flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS). The results show that MSTSE is superior to transfer spectral entropy (TSE) method in restraining the spurious coupling and detecting the coupling more accurately. The coupling strength was higher in the β1, β2, and γ2 bands, among which, it was highest in the β1 band, and reached its maximum at the 22-30 scale. On the directional characteristics of FCMC, the coupling strength of EEG→sEMG is superior to the opposite direction in most cases. In addition, the coupling strength of the stroke-affected side was lower than that of healthy controls' right hand in the β1 and β2 bands and the stroke-unaffected side in the β1 band. The coupling strength of the stroke-affected side was higher than that of the stroke-unaffected side and the right hand of healthy controls in the sEMG→EEG direction of γ2 band. This study provides a new perspective and lays a foundation for analyzing FCMC and motor dysfunction.

Five compounds including a new compound (1) were isolated from mycelia of a mushroom-forming fungus Agaricus blazei. Compound 2 was isolated from nature for the first time. Their structures were determined by the interpretation of spectroscopic data. In the bioassay examining growth inhibitory activity against phytopathogenic bacteria Clavibacter michiganensis, Burkholderia glumae, and Peptobacterium carotovorum, all the compounds showed inhibition effects on C. michiganensis. Compounds 3 and 4 also showed weak inhibitory activity against growth of B. glumae.

The shiitake mushroom is the most commonly cultivated edible mushroom in the world, and is rich in protein. This study aims to obtain the peptides with α-glucosidase inhibition activity from shiitake mushroom protein hydrolysate. The conditions of enzymatic hydrolysis of shiitake mushroom protein were optimized by response surface test. The results showed that the optimal conditions were as follows: the E/S was 3390 U/g, the solid–liquid ratio was 1:20, the hydrolysis temperature and time were 46 °C and 3.4 h, respectively, and the pH was 7. The active peptides were separated by gel filtration and identified by LC-MS/MS analysis and virtual screening. The results indicated that fourteen peptides were identified by LC-MS/MS. Among them, four new peptides (EGEPKLP, KDDLRSP, TPELKL, and LDYGKL) with the higher docking score were selected and chemically synthesized to verify their inhibition activity. The IC50 values of EGEPKLP, KDDLRSP, TPELKL, and LDYGKL for α-glucosidase inhibition activity ranged from 452 ± 36 μmol/L to 696 ± 39 μmol/L. The molecular docking results showed that the hydrogen bond and arene–cation bond were the two major interactions between four peptides and 2QMJ. The hydrogen bonds were crucial to the inhibition activity of α-glucosidase. The results indicate the potential of using the peptides from shiitake mushroom protein as functional food with α-glucosidase inhibition activity.

In order to properly cover different scenarios, radiation patterns of antennas should be accordingly designed. However, most antennas are unable to provide either broadside beams or designable conical beams, which are the typically used radiation patterns for radio coverage, based on one single-structure format through adjusting parameters before fabrication. In this paper, a planar circular polarized (CP) annular leaky-wave antenna (LWA) is proposed, which is realized on an annular substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW). A broadside beam or a conical beam could be easily obtained through fabricating the LWA with different structural parameters. The operating frequency is 5.75 GHz. The LWA allows only the −1st spatial harmonic to radiate, while the fundamental wave and other spatial harmonics are suppressed in slow wave mode. In order to validate the design effectiveness, two examples for broadside beam and conical beam radiation are fabricated and measured. The measurement results show good agreement with the simulation results. The broadside beam LWA shows a gain of 9.75 dBic and the conical beam LWA with a beam angle of 13° has a gain of 7.93 dBic. The proposed LWA presents promising radiation performance and is a good candidate for wireless communication applications.

Natural killer (NK) cells play key roles in eliminating pathogen-infected cells. Verbena officinalis (V. officinalis) has been used as a medical plant in traditional and modern medicine for its anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory activities, but its effects on immune responses remain largely elusive. This study aimed to investigate the potential of V. officinalis extract (VO extract) to regulate inflammation and NK cell functions. We examined the effects of VO extract on lung injury in a mouse model of influenza virus infection. We also investigated the impact of five bioactive components of VO extract on NK killing functions using primary human NK cells. Our results showed that oral administration of VO extract reduced lung injury, promoted the maturation and activation of NK cells in the lung, and decreased the levels of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α and IL-1β) in the serum. Among five bioactive components of VO extract, Verbenalin significantly enhanced NK killing efficiency in vitro, as determined by real-time killing assays based on plate-reader or high-content live-cell imaging in 3D using primary human NK cells. Further investigation showed that treatment of Verbenalin accelerated the killing process by reducing the contact time of NK cells with their target cells without affecting NK cell proliferation, expression of cytotoxic proteins, or lytic granule degranulation. Together, our findings suggest that VO extract has a satisfactory anti-inflammatory effect against viral infection in vivo, and regulates the activation, maturation, and killing functions of NK cells. Verbenalin from V. officinalis enhances NK killing efficiency, suggesting its potential as a promising therapeutic to fight viral infection.

In order to properly cover different scenarios, radiation patterns of antennas should be accordingly adjusted before fabrication. However, most antennas are unable to provide both broadside beam and designable conical beam which are usually-used radiation patterns for radio coverage. In this paper, a planar Circular Polarized (CP) annular Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA) with conical beam is proposed, which is realized on annular Substrate-Integrated Waveguide (SIW). Broadside beam or conical beam could be easily obtained by fabricating the LWA with modified structural parameters. The central operating band is 5.8 GHz. The LWA allows only the -1th spatial harmonic to radiate, while the fundamental wave and other spatial harmonics are suppressed in slow wave mode. In order to validate the design effectiveness, two examples for broadside beam and conical beam radiation are fabricated and measured. The measurement results show good agreement with the simulation results. The proposed LWA presents a promising radiation performance and is a good candidate for wireless communication applications.

Previous studies have shown the great potential of using plasma-activated water (PAW) on improving agriculture seed germination, however, information on the influence of PAW on crop plantlet juice remains scanty. In this research, the effect of PAW generated by atmosphere pressure Ar–O2 plasma jet for 1–5 min on wheat seed germination, seedling growth and nutritional properties of wheat plantlet juice was investigated. Results revealed that all PAWs could enhance wheat seed germination and seedling growth in 7 days by improving the germination rate, germination index, fresh weight, dry weight and vigour index, and especially that PAW activated for 3 min (PAW-3) showed the best overall performance. In addition, the application of PAWs enhanced the nutritional properties of wheat plantlet juice from those grown for 14 days by improving total soluble solids, protein content, photosynthetic pigments, total phenolic content, antioxidant activity, enzyme activity, free amino acids and minerals content, and the best enhancement was also observed in PAW-3. It was concluded that PAWs would be an effective technique to enhance the growth and nutritional properties of crop sprouts, which could be served as functional foods in many forms.

To explore prognostic factors of complete recovery of oculomotor nerve palsy (ONP) induced by posterior communicating artery aneurysm (PcomAA).PcomAA patients aged 18-60 years combined with ONP who underwent surgical clipping or endovascular embolization at our institution between January 2014 and January 2020 were enrolled. Characteristics included maximum diameter of aneurysm, width of aneurysm, subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), duration of ONP, age, sex, ONP type, treatment method were compared. Based on the recovery of ONP, patients were separated into two groups: complete recovery group, partial and no recovery group. Analyzing by univariate and multivariate logistic regressions to identify the independent prognostics for complete ONP recovery. We established a score based on these prognostics. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) were conducted to under the performance of the predictors and score.Finally, ONP type (OR 6.457 95% CI 1.664-25.052, p = 0.007), treatment method (OR 5.051, 95% CI 1.332-19.158, p = 0.017), and interval to treatment ≤2 weeks (OR 25.601 95% CI 6.222-105.340, p 0.001) were independent predictors of complete ONP recovery. The score had an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.870. We defined that the score higher than 5 points as easier to achieve complete ONP recovery, and the AUC value of this definition was 0.821.For ONP induced by PcomAA in patients aged 18-60 years, the best prognostic factor for complete ONP recovery was timely treatment. The ONP type and treatment methods were correlated with complete ONP recovery.

A millimeter-wave high-gain dual-polarized antenna array with an enhanced bandwidth is presented. An innovative air-filled differential feeding cavity loaded with a short-ended cross-shaped waveguide is investigated to serve as the feed network and the mode splitter simultaneously of the 2 × 2 dual-polarized sub-arrays. Wideband characteristics and a compact planar size that are desirable for the wideband array design are achieved. Moreover, a wideband dual-polarized waveguide-fed magneto-electric (ME) dipole antenna with a lightweight self-support geometry and wideband H-plane parallel feed networks with modified dual-layered configurations are proposed, which are convenient to connect with the differential feeding cavity directly. With the use of a commercial metallic three-dimensional (3D) printing facility, the proposed radiating elements, feeding cavities, and feed networks can be combined successfully in a whole piece with a lightweight geometry. The printed 8 × 8 array prototype operating in the Ka-band confirms a wide bandwidth of about 30%, a gain of up to 28.5 dBi, and stable unidirectional radiation patterns for the two polarizations. Benefitted from the advantages of the promising wideband dual-polarized radiations and convenience of fabrication, the proposed antenna array would be attractive for millimeter-wave polarization diversity applications.

Arguably the most representative application of artificial intelligence, autonomous driving systems usually rely on computer vision techniques to detect the situations of the external environment. Object detection underpins the ability of scene understanding in such systems. However, existing object detection algorithms often behave as a black box, so when a model fails, no information is available on When, Where and How the failure happened. In this paper, we propose a visual analytics approach to help model developers interpret the model failures. The system includes the micro- and macro-interpreting modules to address the interpretability problem of object detection in autonomous driving. The micro-interpreting module extracts and visualizes the features of a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm with density maps, while the macro-interpreting module provides spatial-temporal information of an autonomous driving vehicle and its environment. With the situation awareness of the spatial, temporal and neural network information, our system facilitates the understanding of the results of object detection algorithms, and helps the model developers better understand, tune and develop the models. We use real-world autonomous driving data to perform case studies by involving domain experts in computer vision and autonomous driving to evaluate our system. The results from our interviews with them show the effectiveness of our approach.

The growth and health statuses of calves during the early stages of development have a significant effect on milk production during their first lactation period. Using appropriate milk replacers helps meet the long-term targets of dairy farmers. This study aimed to examine the effects of milk, milk replacer, and milk replacer plus ethoxyquin on growth performance, antioxidant status, immune function, and the gut microbiota of Holstein dairy calves. A total of 36 neonatal dairy calves were randomly divided into three groups and fed different diets: one group was fed milk, another group was fed milk replacer, and the third group was given milk replacer plus ethoxyquin. The supplementation with ethoxyquin was started on day 35 of the feeding period. The calves were weaned on day 45, and the experiment was conducted until day 49. The blood and fecal samples were collected at the end of the animal experiment. The results showed that milk replacers induced poor growth performance (body weight and average daily gain). However, milk replacer plus ethoxyquin aided in growth performance, enhanced the starter intake and blood antioxidative ability, and elevated the concentration of fecal valeric acid. Moreover, fecal fermentation and 16S rRNA analyses showed that milk replacer plus ethoxyquin altered the microbial composition (reducing Alistipes and Ruminococcaceae and increasing Bacteroides and Alloprevotella). Pearson's correlation assays showed that alterations in fecal microbiota strongly correlated with average daily gain and antioxidative ability. The results indicated the potential of milk replacer plus ethoxyquin in modulating the growth of dairy calves and in enhancing their ability to combat stress.

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a large double-stranded DNA virus that primarily infects porcine macrophages. The ASFV genome encodes a large number of immunosuppressive proteins.

Pigs are the most suitable model to study various therapeutic strategies and drugs for human beings, while knowledge about tissue- and cell type-specific transcriptomes and heterogeneity is poorly available. Here, we focused on the intestinal immunity of pigs. Through single-cell sequencing (scRNA-seq) and flow cytometry analysis of the types of immune cells in the jejunum of pigs, we found that innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) existed in the lamina propria lymphocytes (LPLs) of the jejunum. Then, through flow sorting of Live/Dead (L/D)−Lineage(LIN)−CD45+cells and scRNA-seq, we found that ILCs in the porcine jejunum were mainly ILC3s, with a small number of ILC1s, ILC2s and NK cells. Through a gene expression map, we found that ILCs coexpressed IL-7Rα, ID2 and other genes and differentially expressed RORC, GATA3 and other genes but did not express the CD3 gene. According to their gene expression profiles, ILC3s can be divided into four subgroups, and genes such as CXCL8, CXCL2, IL-22, IL-17 and NCR2 are differentially expressed. To further detect and identify ILC3s, we prepared RORC monoclonal antibodies and verified the classification of ILCs in the porcine jejunum subgroup and the expression of related hallmark genes at the protein level by flow cytometry. For systematically characterizing of ILCs in the porcin intestines, we combined our pigs ILCs dataset with publicly available humans and mice ILCs data and identified that the humans and pigs ILCs shared more common features than that of mice in gene signatures and cell states. Our results for the first time showed in detail the gene expression of porcine jejunal ILCs, the subtype classification of ILCs and the markers of various ILCs, which provides a basis for in-depth exploration of porcine intestinal mucosal immunity.Abstract FigureGraphical abstract

Objective A polarized macrophage response plays a critical role in the pathophysiological process of myocardial infarction (MI). Several studies have shown a pro-inflammatory role for monomeric C-reactive protein (mCRP) in cardiovascular disease. However, the mechanism of how mCRP regulates macrophage phenotype switching remains unknown. In the present study, the effect of mCRP on macrophage polarization and its pathological function in myocardial repair after myocardial infarction was investigated. Methods MI was induced by permanent ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery in ICR mice. Adult mice were injected with mCRP (2.5 mg/kg) with or without SP600125 (15 mg/kg, JNK inhibitor) 45 min before MI. The cardiac function, scar size as well as cardiac fibrosis, infiltration of inflammatory cells, and the level of proteins in the JNK signaling pathway in infarcted myocardium were assessed. In addition, the phenotypic characterization of macrophages was further measured by ELISA, flow cytometry and quantitative RT-PCR in cultured THP-1 cells or peritoneal macrophages. Results Cardiac function deterioration, ventricular dilatation and fibrosis were exacerbated in mice pretreatment with mCRP following MI. Meanwhile, an increased accumulation of infiltrated inflammatory cells in infarcted myocardium was observed in the mCRP group. Moreover, activation of the JNK signaling pathway was markedly elevated in mCRP treated animals post-MI. In contrast, pharmacological inhibition of JNK phosphorylation activity by SP600125 muted the detrimental effects of mCRP in MI mice. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo co-culture experiments showed that mCRP shifted macrophage polarization towards pro-inflammatory phenotypes, and this polarization could be abolished by sp600125. Conclusion Taken together, our results imply that mCRP impairs myocardial repair after myocardial infarction by polarizing the macrophages into the pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype via the JNK-dependent pathway., Graphical Abstract

A three-dimensional (3-D) substrate integration method by using both the planar dimensions and the vertical dimensions in multilayered substrates for millimeter-wave devices and circuits design is presented in this article. The vertical substrate-integrated groove gap waveguide (SIGGW) is studied first, whose multilayered geometry without metal contact between stacked substrates and wide operating band supporting the single quasi-TE10 mode with stable propagation features enables it to be a promising vertical waveguide structure with ease of realization. By simultaneously utilizing the vertical and planar SIGGWs, a fully 3-D substrate-integrated orthomode transducer (OMT) consisting of E-plane power dividers, U-shaped connections, and a turnstile junction that are difficult to fulfill in previous works is successfully implemented in the Ka-band. Its compact geometry and significantly performance improvement demonstrate the merits of the proposed method. After that, the OMT is used for feeding a dual-polarized pyramidal horn antenna also with a 3-D substrate-integrated configuration. The overall multilayered antenna module with experimentally confirmed wide bandwidths, high isolations, and stable radiation patterns can still be fabricated conveniently by employing the standard single-layered printed circuit board (PCB) facilities. Taking the advantages of the flexible design freedom and satisfying operating characteristics, the presented design method and devices are valuable to advanced millimeter-wave applications.