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Yanrui Liang,1,* Weihong Guo,1,* Chuangji Li,1,* Guodong Shen,1,* Haoxian Tan,2 Peiwen Sun,2 Zhian Chen,1 Huilin Huang,1 Zhenhao Li,1 Zhenyuan Li,1 Yingxin Ren,1 Guoxin Li,1 Yanfeng Hu1 1Department of General Surgery & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Precision Medicine for Gastrointestinal Tumor, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2The First School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Guoxin Li; Yanfeng Hu, Department of General Surgery & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Precision Medicine for Gastrointestinal Tumor, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, No. 1838 North Guangzhou Ave, Baiyun District, Guangzhou, 510515, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-20-6164-1681 ; +86-20-6164-1682, Fax +86-20-6164-1681, Email yfenghu@qq.com; gzliguoxin@163.comPurpose: Lymphadenectomy with lymph node (LN) mapping is essential for surgical removal of solid tumors. Existing agents do not provide accurate multimodal mapping and antitumor therapy for metastatic LNs; therefore, we fabricated a polydopamine (PDA) nanoparticle (NP)-based tumor-targeted LN mapping agent capable of multimodal mapping and guided photothermal therapy (PTT) for metastatic LNs.Materials and Methods: PDA NPs modified with polyethylene glycol (PEG) were obtained by polymerization under alkaline conditions. The PEG-PDA NPs were loaded with the circular tripeptide Arg-Gly-Asp (cRGD) to achieve tumor-targeting capacity and with the fluorescent dye IR820 and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast Gd(NH2)2 for in situ detection. The resulting cRGD-PEG-PDA@IR820/Gd(NH2)2 (cRGD-PPIG) NPs were tested for their biosafety and metastatic LN mapping ability. They were drained specifically into LNs and selectively taken up by gastric MKN45 cells via αvβ 3 integrin-mediated endocytosis.Results: This phenomenon enabled MR/optical/near-infrared fluorescence multimodal metastatic LN mapping, guiding the creation of accurate and highly efficient PTT for gastric cancer metastatic LNs in mice.Conclusion: In summary, we fabricated tumor-targeted cRGD-PPIG NPs with MR/optical/near-infrared fluorescence multimodal metastatic LN mapping capacity for surgery and efficient PTT guidance post-surgery.Keywords: multimodal imaging, lymph node mapping, metastatic lymph node, photothermal therapy

Background: Hemodialysis patients have a high risk of severe/critical COVID-19 and related high mortality, but nirmatrelvir/ritonavir is not recommended for hemodialysis patients with COVID-19 infection because of lack of evidence of safety.Objectives: Our study aims to evaluate the minimum plasma concentration (Cmin) of nirmatrelvir and its safety of different doses of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir in hemodialysis patients with mild COVID-19.Method: This was a prospective, two step, nonrandomized, open-label study. Participants were treated with nirmatrelvir 150 mg or 300 mg once a day (another 75 mg or 150 mg supplied after hemodialysis) and ritonavir 100 mg twice daily for 5 days, respectively. The primary outcome was the safety of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir, including the Cmin of nirmatrelvir and the number of adverse events (AE). The secondary outcome was the time of viral elimination in hemodialysis patients.Results: Adverse events were happened in 3 and 7 participants in the step 1 and step 2 group, respectively (p = 0.025). Among them, 2 and 6 participants were identified as drug-related adverse events (p = 0.054). No SAE or liver function damage happened. The Cmin of nirmatrelvir in step 1 and step 2 group were 5,294.65 ± 2,370.59 ng/mL and 7,675.67 ± 2,745.22 ng/mL (p = 0.125). The Cmin of the control group was 2,274.10 ± 1,347.25 ng/mL (p = 0.001 compared to step 2 and p = 0.059 compared to step 1). Compared to hemodialysis patients without nirmatrelvir/ritonavir, there were no statistical differences in overall viral elimination time (p = 0.232).Conclusion: In our study, two doses of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir appeared to be excessive for hemodialysis patients. Although all of the patients tolerated 5-day administration, nearly half of the patients experienced drug-related adverse events. In addition, the medication group did not show a significant advantage in the time of viral elimination.

Background Several studies have reported the feasibility of urgent-start peritoneal dialysis (PD) as an alternative to hemodialysis (HD) using a central venous catheter (CVC). However, the cost-effectiveness of automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) as an urgent-start dialysis modality has not been directly evaluated, especially in China. Methods We prospectively enrolled patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who required urgent-start dialysis at a single center from March 2019 to November 2020. Patients were grouped according to their urgent-start dialysis modality (APD and HD). Urgent-start dialysis conducted until 14 days after PD catheter insertion. Then, PD was maintained. Each patient was followed until July 2021 or death or loss to follow-up. The primary outcome was the incidence of short-term dialysis-related complications. The secondary outcome was the cost and duration of the initial hospitalization. Technique survival, peritonitis-free or bacteriamia-free survival and patient survival were also compared. Results Sixty-eight patients were included in the study, of whom 36 (52.9%) patients were in APD group. Mean follow-up duration was 20.1 months. Compared with the HD group, the APD group had significantly fewer short-term dialysis-related complications. The cost of initial hospitalization was also significantly lower in APD patients. There was no significant difference between APD and HD patients with respect to duration of the initial hospitalization, technique survival rate, peritonitis-free or bacteriemia-free survival rate, and patient survival rate. Conclusion Among ESRD patients with an urgent need for dialysis, APD as urgent-start dialysis modality, compared with HD using a CVC, resulted in fewer short-term dialysis-related complications and lower cost.

Remote Access Trojan (RAT) attacks have become an extensively prevailing and serious threat to enterprise security. A forensic system targeting RAT attacks is needed to record and reconstruct fine-grained semantic behaviors of RATs. However, existing forensic systems suffer from various issues such as intrusive instrumentation, nontrivial recording overhead, and RAT behavior blindness. In this paper, we first conduct a large-scale study of a representative set of real-world RAT families active from 1999 to 2016. This is the first study to understand the landscape of RATs in the literature. Based on the study, we then propose RATScope, an instrumentation-free RAT forensic system targeting Windows platform. Specifically, RATScope offers an audit logging module to efficiently record system logs by leveraging Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), and provides a novel program behavior modeling technique to accurately reconstruct semantic behaviors of RATs. We implemented a prototype of RATScope and evaluated the recording overhead and the behavior identification accuracy. The results show that the audit logging module only incurred 3.7% runtime overhead on average. Our system can achieve around 90% true positive rate in the cross-family experiment, around 80% true positive rate in the two-year spanning temporal experiment, and near zero false positive rate.

Pyroptosis, a kind of programmed cell death involving inflammation, might be a powerful way to fight against tumors, for example, using immunotherapy. However, how to trigger pyroptosis in cancer cells is an important issue. Photothermal (PTT)/photodynamic (PDT) therapy is a crucial strategy for inducing cancer cell pyroptosis with noninvasiveness. In this work, a sericin derivative modified with poly(γ-benzyl-l-glutamate) (PBLG) could self-assemble and was stable in an aqueous environment. Furthermore, the sericin derivative was conjugated with the tumor-targeting agent VB12 and loaded with IR780. Finally, we successfully synthesized VB12-sericin-PBLG-IR780 nanomicelles. The as-designed nanomicelles showed appropriate particle sizes, spherical morphology, improved photothermal stability, and high photothermal conversion efficiency (∼40%), which generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) simultaneously. Through enhanced cellular uptake, VB12-sericin-PBLG-IR780 could deliver more IR780 into cancer cells. With near-infrared (NIR), the VB12-sericin-PBLG-IR780 could significantly inhibit the expression of ATP synthase, called ATP5MC3, followed by mitochondrial damage. The presence of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mitoROS) led to oxidative damage of mitochondrial DNA (mitoDNA), which further activates NLRP3/Caspase-1/gasdermin D (GSDMD)-dependent pyroptosis and could promote dendritic cell (DC) maturation by pyroptosis. Furthermore, our data showed that VB12-sericin-PBLG-IR780 could achieve a brilliant antitumor effect and could activate DC maturation, initiate T-cell recruiting, and prime adaptive antitumor efficiency. Overall, our well-prepared nanomicelles might offer a tumor-targeted approach for programmed cell pyroptosis and inducing antitumor immunity via photothermal PTT/PDT effect-induced mitoDNA oxidative damage.

In this study, a 5-degrees-of-freedom dynamic model of variable lead preloaded single nut ball screw is proposed. The proposed model considers the effect of excitation amplitude, deflection angle, the number of balls, and the preload into consideration. Moreover, to study the effect of working parameters on nonlinear dynamics, bifurcation diagram, 3-D frequency spectrum, phase diagram and Poincaré section with different system parameters are shown in discussion section. The numerical analysis indicates that the system can exhibits different motion states, and the continuous frequency component can be observed. Moreover, a series of experiments are conducted to estimate the dynamic parameters and validate the proposed dynamic model.

Three matrine-derived alkaloids, alopecuroidine A (1), alopecuroidine B (2a) and alopecuroidine C (2b) were isolated from the seeds of Sophora alopecuroides. Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analyses and X-ray diffraction. Three compounds possess an unprecedented rearranged fused 7/6/5/6 tetracyclic skeleton with a diazacycloheptane structure. Their plausible biosynthetic pathway was also proposed. The anti-proliferative activities of compounds 1 and 2a were examined by the MTT assay. Compound 1 inhibited the viability of human lung cancer A549 cells, having a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 7.58 ± 2.47 μmol/L at 72 h. The flow cytometric analysis suggested that 1 inhibited A549 cell growth by inducing apoptosis and cell-cycle arrest. Additionally, 1 induced the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, elevated intracellular reactive oxygen species, increased the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, stimulated cleaved-caspase-3 and P53 protein levels, and suppressed the pro-caspase-3 level. Thus, 1 appeared to induce A549 cells apoptosis through a mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathway.

Recent evidence suggests that automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) might be a feasible alternative to hemodialysis (HD) in urgent-start peritoneal dialysis.This prospective study enrolled end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients who had started APD as an urgent-start dialysis modality at a single center. Dialysis-related complications were recorded. Dialysis adequacy and electrolytes imbalance were compared between baseline, 14 and 42 days after catheter insertion. Technique survival and patient survival were also recorded.A total of 36 patients were included in the study. Mean follow-up duration was 22 months. During the follow-up, 11 PD patients (30.6%) developed dialysis-related complications. Only two patients (5.6%) required re-insertion and one patients (2.8%) transfer to HD. The 2-year technique survival rate and patient survival rate were 94.4% and 97.2%, respectively.In considering safety and dialysis adequacy, APD could be a feasible dialysis modality for urgent-start dialysis in ESRD patients, using a standard procedure.

Investigation of the dynamic characteristics of linear guideway is essential for enhancing structural performance of machine tools. However, few mechanical models are established for vibration analysis of linear guideway when it is subjected to complex external loads. In this paper, we presented a five degrees of freedom dynamic model for investigating nonlinear vibration behavior of linear guideway subjected to external periodic excitation. The idea of coordinate transformation is adopted for the easier derivations of piecewise restoring force function and equation of motion. The numerical simulation shows a wide variety of fascinating phenomena linked to vibration system with the effects from harmonic excitation frequency and amplitude, preload and mass of carriage. The multi-period, quasi-period and chaotic motions are observed by the characterization tools of bifurcation diagram and 3-D frequency spectrum. Moreover, the dynamic experiments are presented for verifying the proposed model. The analytical model developed here can be used for optimal design for high-precision linear guideway.

Since deterministic prediction errors of wind power cannot be avoided, probabilistic prediction can adequately describe the uncertainty of wind power and, thus, provide further guidance to dispatching authorities for decision making. Current probabilistic prediction methods for wind power are still incomplete in mining its physical variation process. Therefore, this study constructs a new framework for short-term wind power probabilistic forecasting considering the spatio-temporal dependence of errors by mining the spatio-temporal characteristics of historical wind power data and numerical weather forecasts at numerical weather prediction (NWP). First, the deterministic prediction results are obtained by an improved deep belief network (DBN); then, a multi-location NWP is introduced to propose a multi-level error scenario partitioning method considering the spatio-temporal dependence property. Finally, a new error sample set is formed by reconstructing the kernel density estimation method to adapt the model, and the short-term wind power probability prediction at different confidence levels is carried out. It is, thus, concluded that the effectiveness of the overall framework under the probabilistic prediction considering spatio-temporal dependence is verified in a wind farm in Jilin, China, and the prediction accuracy is effectively and significantly improved compared with the same confidence level, and the coverage of the evaluation index prediction interval is improved by 1.23, 0.72, and 0.80%, and the average bandwidth of the prediction interval is reduced by 2.14, 1.40, and 0.63%, which confirms the proposed effectiveness and feasibility of the method.

The thermal effect has a significant influence on the performance of angular contact ball bearings and thus affects the motion accuracy and stability of spindle-bearing system of computerized numerical control (CNC) lathe. In this paper, a comprehensive coupled CNC lathe spindle-bearing model considering the thermal effect is proposed to predict the dynamic characteristics of system. The spindle is modeled as Timoshenko’s beam by considering the centrifugal force and gyroscopic effects. The bearing is analyzed by a five degrees-of-freedom (DOF) quasi-static model considering the thermal effect in order to obtain the static deformations and thermal deformations of rolling bodies. The dynamic differential equation of system is established by the finite element method. Runge–Kutta integral method is used to solve the system equation numerically to study its nonlinear dynamic behaviors. The correctness of thermal model of CNC lathe spindle-bearing system is verified by testing the housing temperature. The simulation values of system response considering thermal effect or not are compared with the experimental results, which shows that the proposed model is feasible. Moreover, the effects of key parameters such as rotational speed, pulley eccentricity and bearing preload on the nonlinear characteristics of system are investigated. Single-periodic, multi-periodic, quasi-periodic and chaotic motions are observed by time history curve, 3-D frequency spectrum curve, phase diagram, Poincare section and bifurcation diagram under different operating conditions. The analytical model developed here can be also helpful to the design and optimization of CNC lathe spindle-bearing system.

Microarc oxidation (MAO) coatings were produced on the Al–Cu alloys at different oxidation times. Surface morphologies, phase composition and residual stress, and wear resistance were analysed by S...

Selective laser melting (SLM), as a revolutionary technology for metal manufacturing, attracts tremendous attention because it can produce complex components to benefit the customised production. H...

Carbon dots (CDs), a subject of academic research, have attracted intense attention due to their intrinsic merits of high stability, low cost, and low toxicity. However, the absence of highly efficient red-emitting CDs restricts their application in a variety of areas including lasers. In this work, red emissive CDs (R-CDs) with a quantum yield as high as 66.7% were prepared using 1,3-dihydroxynaphthalene as the initial source. It is found that the superior optical properties of R-CDs are attributed to the high oxidation degree and high ratio of hydroxyl functional groups on the surface of CDs. Red emissive random lasing at 612 nm was realized from a microcavity by using the R-CDs/epoxy composite as the gain medium at room temperature. Simultaneously, the transformation of random lasing to Fabry-Perot lasing in the same laser cavity at 250 °C was observed. This is on account of the declining optical gain which is insufficient to support random lasing in the microcavity at high temperatures. As a result, CD based Fabry-Perot lasing was achieved at a temperature as high as 250 °C for the first time.

Gastric cancer (GC) is a serious disease with high morbidity and mortality rates worldwide. Chemotherapy plays a key role in GC treatment, while inevitable drug resistance and systematic side effects hinder its clinical application. Fenton chemistry-based chemodynamic therapy (CDT) has been used as a strategy for cancer ferroptosis, and the CDT efficiency could be enhanced by photothermal therapy (PTT). With the trend of treatment and diagnosis integration, the combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and CDT/PTT exhibits enormous progress. Herein, we constructed a platform based on PEGylated manganese-containing polydopamine (PDA) nanoparticles, named as PEG-PDA@Mn (PP@Mn) NPs. The PP@Mn NPs were stable and globular. Furthermore, they demonstrated near-infrared (NIR)-triggered PTT and Fenton-like reaction-based CDT effects and T1-weighted MRI capabilities. According to

Chinese college students are the future of the vigorous development of the motherland, the expectation of the Chinese nation, the successors and builders of the domestic socialist modernization cause, and the main bearers and practitioners of the Chinese dream. The cultivation of college students’ own national cultural spirit is not only related to the overall development of individuals, but also closely related to the future prospects of our country and the survival and development of the entire ethnic minority. Therefore, the cultivation of the national cultural spirit of our college students in the perspective of the Chinese Dream can improve the majority of college students’ sense of identity with the Chinese national culture, adhere to the Marxist ideal, unswervingly take the correct confidence of the socialist line with Chinese characteristics, and actively participate in the grand practice of achieving the Chinese Dream, thus serving as the backbone of the implementation of the Chinese Dream.

There are abundant information on the network, such as weather information, book information and so on. Now the Web information has far exceeded human imagination. However, most deep web information resources are not available through simple click, and often need query interface. We use domain ontology to construct the interface schema extraction method, the approach extracts interface schema from the perspective of visual units and the internal codes. There are many data extraction methods. Among them, CAW (Context-Aware Wrapper) is representative and outstanding. Thus, we choose it as our state-of-art baseline algorithm. The extraction effect of this method is better than CAW in the experiment. Finally, the effectiveness of this method is verified.

We demonstrate a deep residual network with transfer learning strategy for automatic terahertz (THz) recognition of the hidden defects in fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites with small-scale training data. The recognition performance with high accuracy, precision, sensitivity and specificity indicate the effectiveness of the proposed method for automatically identifying different defects in THz nondestructive applications.

The durability of infection‐induced severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) immunity has crucial implications for reinfection and vaccine effectiveness. However, the relationship between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) severity and long‐term anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody level is poorly understood. Here, we measured the longevity of SARS‐CoV‐2‐specific IgG antibodies in survivors who had recovered from COVID‐19 1 year previously. In a cohort of 473 survivors with varying disease severity (asymptomatic, mild, moderate, or severe), we observed a positive correlation between virus‐specific IgG antibody titers and COVID‐19 severity. In particular, the highest virus‐specific IgG antibody titers were observed in patients with severe COVID‐19. By contrast, 74.4% of recovered asymptomatic carriers had negative anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 IgG test results, while many others had very low virus‐specific IgG antibody titers. Our results demonstrate that SARS‐CoV‐2‐specific IgG persistence and titer depend on COVID‐19 severity., Highlights IgG was measured in survivors who had recovered from COVID‐19 1 year previously. Anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 IgG persistence and titer depend on COVID‐19 severity. The highest virus‐specific IgG titers were observed in survivors with severe COVID‐19. Most asymptomatic carriers were negative for anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 IgG.

IntroductionAssociation of peritoneal protein clearance (Pcl) with outcomes in patients with peritoneal dialysis (PD) is uncertain. Thus, we aimed to investigate its impact on cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality in patients with PD and factors associated with Pcl.MethodsPrevalent patients with PD from January 2014 to April 2015 in the center of Renji Hospital were enrolled. At the time of enrollment, serum and dialysate samples were collected to detect biochemical parameters and Angiopoietin-2-Tie2 system cytokines. Mass transfer area coefficient of creatinine (MTACcr) and Pcl were calculated. Patients were dichotomized into two groups by the median Pcl level (68.5 ml/day) and were followed up prospectively until the end of the study (1 October 2018).ResultsA total of 318 patients with PD [51.2% men, mean age 56.7 ± 14.3 y, median PD duration 31.5 (12.1–57.2) months] were enrolled. Among them, 25.7% were comorbid with diabetes and 28.6% had a history of cardiovascular disease (CVD). After being followed up for up to 43.9 (24.2–50.3) months, 63 had developed cardiovascular events, and 81 patients were died. Among them, the high Pcl group had occurred 39 cardiovascular events and 51 deaths, and the low Pcl group had 24 cardiovascular events and 30 deaths. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that both the occurrence of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality were increased in patients with high Pcl. However, after adjusting for important confounders and serum Angiopoietin-2 (Angpt-2) level, Pcl was still an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.006 (1.000–1.012), p = 0.038] but not mortality. On multivariate regression analysis, serum albumin, MTACcr, and body mass index (BMI) were found to be independently associated with Pcl.ConclusionHigh Pcl is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events but not all-cause mortality. The prediction of cardiovascular events by Pcl was independent of serum Angpt-2.

Aim: To evaluate the association between galectin-3 and arterial stiffness among hemodialysis patients. Methods: We enrolled 311 patients (median age: 61 years) with a median hemodialysis time of 90 months and a mean galectin-3 concentration of 29.78 ng/ml. Ninety-six (30.7%) had arterial stiffness diagnosed by the pulse-wave velocity over 10 m/s. Results: Galectin-3 was significantly associated with dialysis vintage, calcium, phosphorus and low-density lipoprotein. After adjustment for multiple cardiovascular risk factors, galectin-3 was independently associated with the pulse-wave velocity (partial r = 0.130; p = 0.035). This effect was still significant after additional adjustment for mean arterial pressure and single-pool Kt/V (partial r = 0.139; p = 0.014). Conclusion: Galectin-3 is independently associated with arterial stiffness among hemodialysis patients.

Background Many studies have shown that compared with those who use other dialysis modalities, patients using home hemodialysis (HHD) have an increased rate of survival and better quality of life. It was noted in 2006 that there was opportunity for significant expansion of the use of HHD in many countries. China covers a vast area and has a large amount of end-stage renal failure patients. But in mainland China, all dialysis treatments are in-center, and the number of HHD patients is zero. In 2018, our hospital received the permission of the Shanghai government to carry out HHD. Case presentation We initiated four incident hemodialysis patients on an HHD regimen, one patient has been dialyzed in the home safely for 8 months. The biochemical parameters of the first patient remained stable on the regimen and he achieved standard Kt/V urea targets. Treatment-related adverse events were not reported during the follow-up. We combined HHD with intelligent "Internet Plus" real-time remote monitoring and introduced the Internet, especially visualization software, to replace traditional telephone and home visit methods. It is more intuitive and quicker to assist patients in performing home hemodialysis and improve the safety of treatment. Conclusions HHD can be performed by selected trained patients in mainland China. Combined with the internet, visualization software, and traditional telephone and home visits, it is intuitive and quick to assist patients in carrying out HHD and improve the safety of treatment. HHD broadens the choices for uremia patients in China.

Assisted PD is used as an alternative option for the growing group of frail, older ESKD patients unable to perform their own PD. This study was undertaken to investigate the outcomes of assisted PD in older patients by comparing assisted PD patients with self-care PD patients. This study included all patients aged 70 and above who started on PD in our hospital from 2009 to 2018. Patients were followed up until death, PD cessation or to the end of the study (December 31, 2019). Risk factors associated with mortality, peritonitis and technique failure were evaluated using both cause-specific hazards and subdistribution hazards models. 180 patients were enrolled, including 106 (58.9%) males with a median age of 77.5 (77.2–81.2) years. Among the 180 patients, 62 patients (34.4%) were assisted. Patients on assisted PD group were older, more likely to be female, more prevalent in DM and CVD, with a higher Charlson score than patients undergoing self-care PD (P all

Objectives: We designed this prospective observational study to clarify the associations between dialysate IL-6, a marker of ongoing peritoneal inflammation, Tie2, an important factor in angiogenesis in the peritoneum, and a high peritoneal solute transport rate (PSTR) in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD) and to investigate their outcome predictive roles. Methods: A total of 60 stable continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients from a single center in China were analyzed in this prospective study. We measured dialysate levels of IL-6 and Tie-2 using ELISAs. Our primary study endpoint was all-cause mortality with 10 years’ follow-up. Results: For the evaluation of PSTR, we used the Dialysis/Plasma creatinine (D/Pcr) ratio. We subdivided the patients into two groups for statistical evaluation: low and low average D/Pcr (0.05). Conclusion: Our results suggest that patients undergoing CAPD have a high peritoneal solute transport status with local peritoneal inflammation and angiogenesis. Increased D/Pcr is a relative risk factor for mortality and technique failure in patients undergoing CAPD. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.4.4328 How to cite this:Hang Y, Yan H, Zhang H, Li Z, Fang W. Associations between dialysate interleukin-6 and Tie-2 and peritoneal solute transport rate and outcomes for patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis: A prospective cohort study. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(4):1104-1110. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.4.4328 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Glomerulonephritis is the one of the major causes of the end‐stage kidney disease, whereas the pathological process of glomerulonephritis is still not completely understood. Single‐cell RNA sequencing (scRNA‐seq) emerges to be a powerful tool to evaluate the full heterogeneity of kidney diseases. To reveal cellular gene expression profiles of glomerulonephritis, we performed scRNA‐seq of 2 human kidney transplantation donor samples, 4 human glomerulonephritis samples, 1 human malignant hypertension (MH) sample and 1 human chronic interstitial nephritis (CIN) sample, all tissues were taken from the biopsy. After filtering the cells with 10% mitochondria (MT) genes, the resulting 14 932 cells can be divided into 20 cell clusters, consistently with the previous report, in disease samples dramatic immune cells infiltration was found, among which a proximal tubule (PT) subset characterized by wnt‐β catenin activation and a natural killer T (NKT) subset high expressing LTB were found. Furthermore, in the cluster of the podocyte, three glomerulonephritis related genes named FXYD5, CD74 and B2M were found. Compared with the mesangial of donor, the gene CLIC1 and RPS26 were up‐regulated in mesangial of IgA nephropathy(IgAN), whereas the gene JUNB was up‐regulated in podocyte of IgAN in comparison with that of donor. Meanwhile, some membranous nephropathy (MN) high expressed genes such as HLA‐DRB5, HLA‐DQA2, IFNG, CCL2 and NR4A2, which involve in highest enrichment pathway, display the cellular‐specific expression style, whereas monocyte marker of lupus nephritis (LN) named TNFSF13B was also found and interferon alpha/beta signalling pathway was enriched in B and NKT of LN comparing with donor. By scRNA‐seq, we first defined the podocyte markers of glomerulonephritis and specific markers in IgA, MN and LN were found at cellular level. Furthermore, the critical role of interferon alpha/beta signalling pathway was enriched in B and NKT of LN was declared.

Background: Cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases contribute substantially to the mortality of end-stage renal disease patients. We sought to combine pulse wave velocity (PWV) with galectin-3 to predict the mortality and cerebrovascular and cardiovascular events in hemodialysis patients. Methods and Results: End-stage renal disease patients who underwent stable hemodialysis were screened for inclusion. Patients with preexisting cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases were excluded. The primary endpoint was a composite of all-cause mortality and major adverse cerebrovascular and cardiovascular events. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to determine the optimal cutoffs to dichotomize PWV and galectin-3. The study population was then stratified into four groups based on these cutoffs. Both univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses were performed to estimate the hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval (CI) for clinical factors. Model performance was compared among models with or without PWV and galectin-3. A total of 284 patients were enrolled. During a median follow-up of 31 months, 57 patients (20.1%) reached the primary endpoint. The optimal cutoffs for PWV and galectin-3 were 7.9 m/s and 30.5 ng/ml, respectively. In the multivariable regression analysis, the high PWV–high galectin-3 group was associated with a 3-fold increased risk of all-cause mortality and major adverse cerebrovascular and cardiovascular events (hazard ratio = 3.19, 95% CI: 1.05–9.66, p = 0.04) compared with the low PWV–low galectin-3 group. The combination of PWV and galectin-3 was associated with improved model discrimination, calibration, and reclassification. Conclusions: The combination of PWV and galectin-3 can be used to predict mortality and cerebral and cardiovascular complications in hemodialysis patients.

Background Single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) have become a powerful tool in discovering a novel cell type and pinpointing cellular specific gene within tissues. However, in diseased kidneys, especially caused by glomerulonephritis, there have few study focusing on revealing gene expression changes at the cellular level. Methods To reveal cellular gene expression profiles of glomerulonephritis, we performed scRNA-seq of 2 human kidney transplantation donor samples, 4 human glomerulonephritis samples, 1 human malignant hypertension sample and 1 human chronic interstitial nephritis sample, all tissues were taken from biopsy. Results Upon disease occur, immune cells infiltrate which can be proved by our dataset. In the cluster of podocyte, two glomerulonephritis related genes named FXYD5 and CD74 were found, and interferon alpha/beta signalling pathway and antigen processing and presentation was enriched in podocyte of LN and IgAN comparing with other samples, thus inhibiting these signalling pathway may alleviate the symptom of these disease. Conclusions Cellular origin of kidney disease associated genes and the activated signaling pathways the genes involved in can be found by scRNA-seq.

Hazardous gases such as formaldehyde, benzene, toluene and xylene are harmful to human health. Utilizing sensors with extraordinary gas sensing performances to detect these gases is essential to air quality monitoring. According to indoor air quality standard of China (IAQS, GB/T 18883-2002), the detection limits for formaldehyde, benzene, toluene and xylene are 0.075 ppm, 0.034 ppm, 0.047 ppm, 0.042 ppm respectively. While the detection limits of current commercial metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors to these four gases are approximately 1 ppm or more, which does not meet the IAQS. In this research, a high-throughput screening platform for screening MOX gas sensing materials with high gas sensing performances was designed and established. Thirty-one metal ions modified sensing films based on SnO2 and an intrinsic SnO2 sensing film were parallel deposited. Their sensing performances were characterized with this platform. Ir-modified SnO2 and Ag-modified SnO2 with high sensing performances were selected out. The detection limits of these four gases were 20 ppb by temperature programmed cooling method. This platform and study contribute to improve the efficiency of material screening and realize the detection of low concentration hazardous gases.

As one of promising clean and low-emission energy, wind power is being rapidly developed in China. However, it faces serious problem of wind curtailment, particularly in northeast China, where combined heat and power (CHP) units cover a large proportion of the district heat supply. Due to the inherent strong coupling between the power and the heat load, the operational flexibility of CHP units is severely restricted in winter to meet the heat supply demand, which imparts considerable stress on the wind power connection to the grid. To promote the integration of wind power and enhance the flexibility of CHP units, this paper presented a method of heat and power load dispatching by exploring the energy storage ability of electric heating boilers and district heating systems. The optimization results indicate that the proposed method can integrate additional wind power into the grid and reduce the coal consumption of CHP units over the optimized period. Furthermore, the thermal inertia of a district heating system is found to contribute more to the reduction of coal consumption, whereas the electric heating boilers contribute to lower wind curtailment.

A highly efficient method was developed for preparing wheat gluten (WG) based wood adhesives with high performance using ethanol and isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) as main chemical additives. The performance of the resulting adhesives was evaluated by manufacturing artificial wood products (AWP). The effects of IPDI content on the water resistance, viscosity, solid content and modification mechanism of the adhesives and the optimal method to prepare artificial wood products were investigated. The results showed that ethanol could disperse the stacked protein structures and expose some internal groups of proteins, so that IPDI could be cross-linked with protein molecules to form a more compact three-dimensional reticulum protein structure, confirmed by both the increases of the decomposition temperature and the smoother and more uniform surface of the resulting adhesives. The structural changes enhanced the hydrophobicity of the modified adhesive samples and were beneficial to resist the invasion of water molecules, which improved the water resistance of the adhesives. When the IPDI concentration was 15 wt%, the dry and wet shear strength of the adhesive reached 2.61 MPa and 0.97 MPa with the best water resistance respectively, and the viscosity and solid content increased to 32.8 Pa·s and 34.41 %, respectively. It was found that the resulting adhesives had better performance and could be used as an environment-friendly plywood adhesive instead of petroleum-based adhesive, which was more conducive to the extension of the wheat industry chain to high value-added products.

Knowledge of pedodiversity is essential for the protection and management of soil resources. The analysis of regional pedodiversity is typically based on analysis units of different sizes. However, the effect of analysis unit size on regional pedodiversity studies remains unclear. In this paper, the effects of analysis unit size on the studies of spatial distribution characteristics of pedodiversity and its major driving factor in China were studied based on two levels of geomorphological regions. A combined method encompassing the moving window, soil richness, and Shannon index was used to analyze the spatial distribution pattern of pedodiversity in China. A geographical detector was used to determine a major driving factor of pedodiversity in each geomorphological region. The spatial distribution pattern of pedodiversity based on two levels of geomorphological regions both showed that pedodiversity was highest in southern China, followed by northern China, and lowest in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which indicated that analysis unit sizes had little effect on the study on spatial distribution pattern of pedodiversity. The major driving factor analysis of pedodiversity based on first-order geomorphological regions showed that the major driving factor in China, except for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, was parent material. However, the results based on second-order geomorphological regions showed that the major driving factors of pedodiversity, except for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, were parent material and topography in hilly regions, topography in mountainous regions, and parent material in regions occupied by alluvial landforms, aeolian landforms, or karst landforms. The driving factor analysis of pedodiversity based on the two levels of geomorphological regions suggested that the effect of the analysis unit sizes on the major driving factor study was significant. The results of this study are an important supplement for pedodiversity studies.

With the development of information technology, the border of the cyberspace gets much broader and thus also exposes increasingly more vulnerabilities to attackers. Traditional mitigation-based defence strategies are challenging to cope with the current complicated situation. Security practitioners urgently need better tools to describe and modelling attacks for defense. The provenance graph seems like an ideal method for threat modelling with powerful semantic expression ability and attacks historic correlation ability. In this paper, we firstly introduce the basic concepts about system-level provenance graph and present a typical system architecture for provenance graph-based threat detection and investigation. A comprehensive provenance graph-based threat detection system can be divided into three modules: data collection module, data management module, and threat detection modules. Each module contains several components and involves different research problems. We systematically taxonomize and compare the existing algorithms and designs involved in them. Based on these comparisons, we identify the strategy of technology selection for real-world deployment. We also provide insights and challenges about the existing work to guide future research in this area.