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Polygenic risk scores (PRS) are promising for identifying common variant‐related inheritance for psychiatric conditions but their integration into clinical practice depends on their clinical utility and psychiatrists' understanding of PRS. Our online survey explored these issues with 276 professionals working in psychiatric genetics (RR: 19%). Overall, participants demonstrated knowledge of how to interpret PRS results. Their performance on knowledge‐based questions was positively correlated with participants' self‐reported familiarity with PRS (r= 0.21, p= 0.0006) although differences were not statistically significant (Wald Chi‐square = 3.29, df = 1, p= 0.07). However, only 48.9% of all participants answered all knowledge questions correctly. Many participants (56.5%), especially researchers (42%), indicated having at least occasional conversations about the role of genetics in psychiatric conditions with patients and/or family members. Most participants (62.7%) indicated that PRS are not yet sufficiently robust for assessment of susceptibility to schizophrenia; most significant obstacles were low predictive power and lack of population diversity in available PRS (selected, respectively, by 53.6% and 29.3% of participants). Nevertheless, 89.8% of participants were optimistic about the use of PRS in the next 10 years, suggesting a belief that current shortcomings could be addressed. Our findings inform about the perceptions of psychiatric professionals regarding PRS and the application of PRS in psychiatry.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate a method of building a biomedical knowledge graph (KG). Design/methodology/approach: This research first constructs a COVID-19 KG on the COVID-19 Open Research Data Set, covering information over six categories (i.e. disease, drug, gene, species, therapy and symptom). The construction used open-source tools to extract entities, relations and triples. Then, the COVID-19 KG is evaluated on three data-quality dimensions: correctness, relatedness and comprehensiveness, using a semiautomatic approach. Finally, this study assesses the application of the KG by building a question answering (Q&A) system. Five queries regarding COVID-19 genomes, symptoms, transmissions and therapeutics were submitted to the system and the results were analyzed. Findings: With current extraction tools, the quality of the KG is moderate and difficult to improve, unless more efforts are made to improve the tools for entity extraction, relation extraction and others. This study finds that comprehensiveness and relatedness positively correlate with the data size. Furthermore, the results indicate the performances of the Q&A systems built on the larger-scale KGs are better than the smaller ones for most queries, proving the importance of relatedness and comprehensiveness to ensure the usefulness of the KG. Originality/value: The KG construction process, data-quality-based and application-based evaluations discussed in this paper provide valuable references for KG researchers and practitioners to build high-quality domain-specific knowledge discovery systems.

Localized cutaneous neurofibromas (cNFs) are benign tumors that arise in the dermis of patients affected by neurofibromatosis type 1 syndrome. cNFs are benign lesions: they do not undergo malignant transformation or metastasize. Nevertheless, they can cover a significant proportion of the body, with some individuals developing hundreds to thousands of lesions. cNFs can cause pain, itching, and disfigurement resulting in substantial socio-emotional repercussions. Currently, surgery and laser desiccation are the sole treatment options but may result in scarring and potential regrowth from incomplete removal. To identify effective systemic therapies, we introduce an approach to establish and screen cNF organoids. We optimized conditions to support the ex vivogrowth of genomically diverse cNFs. Patient-derived cNF organoids closely recapitulate cellular and molecular features of parental tumors as measured by immunohistopathology, methylation, RNA sequencing, and flow cytometry. Our cNF organoid platform enables rapid screening of hundreds of compounds in a patient- and tumor-specific manner.

Selenium (Se) nanoparticles (SeNPs) express greater bioavailability, biocompatibility, and less toxicity than Se in ion form. SeNPs can be synthesized using different methods, including physics, chemistry, electrochemical plasma, and green synthesis using bacteria or plant extracts. In this study, the SeNPs were synthesized using a combination of Smilax glabra(SG) root extract as a reducing and stabilizing agent combined with electrochemical plasma (PLS), and their biological activities were examined for the first time. The obtained results showed that the SeNPs (SG+PLS) were successfully fabricated in a spherical shape with a size in the range of < 100 nm and maximal specific absorption spectrum at 310 nm. The SeNPs showed a free radical scavenging effect up to 94 % at a concentration of 125 µg/mL. Moreover, it expressed higher O2-radical scavenging activity compared to the SeNPs (SG) and SeNPs (PLS) alone at the test concentrations of 12.5, 25, and 125 µg/mL. The SeNPs also exhibited better antibacterial activity against E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicansthan those of SeNPs (SG) and SeNPs (PLS). Thus, one-step synthesized SeNPs (SG+PLS) with augmented biological activities had potential applications in foods and cosmetics.

Intracellular sensing of stress and danger signals initiates inflammatory innate immune responses by triggering inflammasome assembly, caspase-1 activation and pyroptotic cell death as well as the release of interleukin 1β (IL-1β), IL-18 and danger signals. NLRP3 broadly senses infectious patterns and sterile danger signals, resulting in the tightly coordinated and regulated assembly of the NLRP3 inflammasome, but the precise mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here, we identified NLRP11 as an essential component of the NLRP3 inflammasome in human macrophages. NLRP11 interacted with NLRP3 and ASC, and deletion of NLRP11 specifically prevented NLRP3 inflammasome activation by preventing inflammasome assembly, NLRP3 and ASC polymerization, caspase-1 activation, pyroptosis and cytokine release but did not affect other inflammasomes. Restored expression of NLRP11, but not NLRP11 lacking the PYRIN domain (PYD), restored inflammasome activation. NLRP11 was also necessary for inflammasome responses driven by NLRP3 mutations that cause cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS). Because NLRP11 is not expressed in mice, our observations emphasize the specific complexity of inflammasome regulation in humans.

The participation of women in Vietnam's social sciences and humanities research has increased during the last several decades. However, they still face various challenges, such as the 'glass ceiling', social stereotypes, low recognition, and underrepresentation. The open‐access (OA) movement, being advocated for connecting science and community and improving scientists' visibility, offers a viable platform to increase participation of female researchers. This research investigated participation of Vietnamese women in 3,122 Social Sciences & Humanities publications during 2008–2019. Results show a rapid increase in female authors during the period, rising from 47.27% to 71.43% of articles having one or more Vietnamese female author. However, the number of women as first authors remained lower than men, with only 397 publications having a female first author. Bayesian analysis showed that although the number of coauthors was positively associated with the likelihood to publish in an OA journal, there was a negative association between Vietnamese female author participation and the likelihood to publish OA, a finding that matched the effect of female contribution from other countries. These findings hint at the gender inequality induced by cultural and socio‐economic factors, and we postulate that the influence of financial and other inequalities may limit the ability of women to take full advantage of OA publication to further their careers. Participation of female researchers in Vietnam has grown considerably in the past decade, with 71% of OA articles having one or more female authors.Vietnamese men still dominate the first author position in all OA articles, with the exception of articles in hybrid journals where women are on a par with men.Over 60% of OA articles by both male and female authors are published by just 10 publishers.There is a positive association between the number of authors and the likelihood of OA publication—but a negative association with the ratio of female authors.

Understanding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (PIBD) is important. We describe a single-center cohort of COVID-19 PIBD patients where seroconversion against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was examined. Immunosuppressed PIBD patients at Texas Children's Hospital who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by nasopharyngeal reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction were included in the study. The clinical course of IBD, concurrent medications, COVID-19 related symptoms, SARS-CoV-2 testing date, and SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody testing date and result were examined. Of 14 SARS-CoV-2 positive PIBD patients, 12 were tested for qualitative anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG (seven with transient COVID-19 symptoms, five asymptomatic). All symptomatic (7/7) and 60% of asymptomatic (3/5) patients seroconverted. No patients required hospitalization attributed to COVID-19. High rates of COVID-19 seroconversion occurred in immunosuppressed and symptomatic PIBD patients. More research to evaluate the significance of COVID-19 seroconversion is needed.

Chronic viral hepatitis is a significant public health concern in the Western Pacific, including in Vietnam and the Philippines. To accelerate progress toward meeting the 2030 elimination goals, the World Health Organization (WHO) encourages countries to adopt an integrated, people-centered health sector response to hepatitis, grounded in Primary Health Care (PHC). A review of the academic and grey literature, along with policy documents, was conducted to describe the national health system and PHC response to hepatitis B and C in Vietnam and the Philippines. Information was analyzed against the four strategic levers of the WHO Operational Framework for PHC to identify challenges and opportunities. The findings suggest that both countries have relatively robust policy frameworks, with some room for improvement. Vietnam may have stronger political commitment and funding than the Philippines, while the Philippines appears to be stronger in community engagement. Both countries share challenges and opportunities for learning to actualize viral hepatitis elimination utilizing a PHC approach.

The first confirmed case of African swine fever (ASF) in Vietnam was officially reported in February 2019. To date, the ASF virus (ASFV) has been detected in all 63 cities/provinces in Vietnam. In order to get a better understanding of the potential role of the EP402R gene in a grouping of ASFV serotypes, thirty ASFV sequences of EP402R genes (accession numbers: MN711757-86) from North Central Coast of Vietnam and 68 well-known references of serotype groups from previous studies were further analyzed. Interestingly, we found that a short fragment of 90 nucleotides was very typical for 8 serological groups of ASFVs. A primer set was designed to amplicon the short fragment of 90 nucleotides using the Primer3 program to establish a simplified method for the serotyping of ASFV. Our results indicated that phylogenetic analysis of the short fragment (90 nucleotides) of the EP402R gene is a very specific and useful method for ASFV serotyping when compared to the previous method using a long fragment (816 nucleotides) of this gene and well-known serotype references based on haemadsorption inhibition (HAI) assay.

Inhibitory capabilities of six old drugs selected from the DrugBank database including Losartan, Triazavirin, TMC‐310911, Verapamil, Clevudine and Elbasvir, which are promising for the treatment of an infectious disease caused by SARS‐CoV‐2, were examined on the host receptor Angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and the main protease (PDB6LU7) of SARS‐CoV‐2 using molecular docking simulation. Results reveal that both proteins ACE2 and PDB6LU7 are in strong inhibition by the drugs and the inhibitory effectiveness is in the order: Clevudine > Triazavirin > TMC‐310911 > Elbasvir > Losartan > Verapamil. In particular, the inhibitability highly correlates with the average docking score energy of inhibitory complexes, and drug‐protein active interactions. Regarding inhibitory ligands, their polarizability, molecular size, and dispersion coefficient logP are also significant indicators for inhibition potential. The drugs are suggested as valuable resources for selecting potential pharmaceuticals to prevent SARS‐CoV‐2 invasion into human body given theoretical demonstration of molecular docking simulation.

Background People living with HIV who were diagnosed before highly active antiretroviral therapy became available in 1996 and who survived at least 15 years after HIV diagnosis, termed long-term survivors (LTS), form a particularly vulnerable population. We study social, clinical and mental factors of LTS in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study, with a particular focus on people who inject drugs (PWID).Methods We quantified differences between PWID LTS, and men who have sex with men (MSM) and heterosexual (HET) LTS. Using phylogenetic methods, we distinguished between heterosexual LTS who most likely shared a social network with PWID at the time of infection, termed clusteredHET, and those who did not, termed HET not clustered (HETnc). The analysis was performed using data collected at least 15 years post diagnosis.Results Overall, 1,663 of 5,686 (29.2%) PWID were LTS. We found significant differences between PWID LTS and MSM/HETnc LTS regarding self-reported depression (59.4% versus 43.3%; odds ratio [OR]=1.8; P<0.001), incarceration (30.6% versus 7.0%; OR=6.9; P<0.001) and full work ability (25.4% versus 59.0%; OR=0.27; P<0.001). ClusteredHET were less vulnerable with respect to these variables than PWID LTS but more at risk compared with MSM/HETnc LTS, indicating that clusteredHET are closer to PWID with regard to social and mental aspects compared with all MSM/HETnc.Conclusions Even more than 15 years post HIV diagnosis, special care for HIV-positive PWID is needed, with emphasis on mental health and social integration of PWID LTS.

IntroductionThis study aimed to evaluate the impact of the helmet law on the changes in potential years of life lost (PYLL) due to traffic mortality and to examine modification effects of socioeconomic factors on the impacts in Vietnam.MethodsWe applied an interrupted time series design using the Bayesian framework to estimate the impact of the law at the provincial level. Then, we used random effects meta-analysis to estimate the impact of the law at the country level and to examine the modification effects of socioeconomic factors.ResultsThe results indicate that the impacts varied among the provinces. These impacts could be classified by four main groups comprising positive impact, and positive impact without sustainability, possible positive impact, negative or inconsistent impact. For the country-level impact, the results reveal a significantly consistent change in monthly PYLLs at the level of 18 per 100 000 persons, and the post-trend was stable without significant change. The results of meta-regression show that 1 unit increase in the population density (persons/km2), migration rate (%) and income (×1000 dong) are non-significantly associated with increases of PYLLs at 1.3, 27 and 27 per 100 000 person-months, respectively, whereas 1% increase in literacy associated with a decrease of PYLL at 44 per 100 000 person-months.DiscussionFurther studies should be warranted to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the law implementation, including its acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, feasibility, cost-effectiveness and sustainability.

To enable Industry 4.0 successfully, there is a need to build a resilient automation system that can quickly recover after having been attacked or robustly sustain continued operations while being threatened, enable an automated monitoring evolution via various sensor channels in real time, and use advanced machine learning and data analytics to formulate strategies to mitigate and eliminate faults, threats, and malicious attacks. It is envisioned that if we can develop an intelligent model that (a) represents a meaningful, realistic environment and complex entity containing manufacturing Internet of Things interdependent and independent properties that are stepping-stones of the cyber kill chain or precursors of the onset of cyberattacks; (b) can learn and predict potential errors and formulate offense/defense strategies and healing solutions; (c) can enable cognitive ability and human-in-the-loop analytics in real time; and (d) can facilitate system behavior changes to disrupt the attack cascade, then the hosting system can learn how to neutralize threats and attacks and self-repair infected or damaged links autonomously. In this article, our preliminary work presents a visual analytics framework and technique for situational awareness, including autonomously monitoring, diagnosing, and prognosticating the state of cyber-physical systems. Our approach, presented in this article, relies on visual characterizations of multivariate time series and real-time predictive analytics to highlight potential faults, threats, and malicious attacks. To validate the usefulness of our approach, we demonstrate the developed technique using various aviation datasets obtained from the Prognostics Center of Excellence at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames.

International migration has become more popular recently in the globalization context. The recorded number of international migration cases is much fewer than the actual number in the last few decades. Migration is considered to have various consequences in both origin and destination countries. Understanding determinants of migration is necessary for long-term sustainable development policies. This study examines a causal relationship between health environment and migration flows by exploiting a panel country level data set on health indicators and net migration from 1940 to 1987. An increase in life expectancy at birth has led to a decrease in net migration in the whole sample countries as well as in non-poor countries. By using global mortality rate constructed based on information on the reduction in mortality following the epidemiological transition in 1940s as instrumental variable, 2SLS methodology allows controlling for endogeneity problem. The results are robust even applying various additional tests. Overall, health environment has a negative effect on migration flows.

The final values of alternatives usually are fuzzy numbers in most decision making problems under uncertain environment. These fuzzy numbers need to be defuzzified by a ranking method to assist in decision making. Chen proposed ranking fuzzy numbers with maximizing set and minimizing set as an improvement on Jain’s maximizing set method. Liou and Wang indicated that ranking of any two fuzzy numbers by Chen’s method may be altered when xmax, xminand kare changed. To solve this problem, Liou and Wang proposed ranking fuzzy numbers with integral value. However, the problem of Chen’s method remains. This work proposes relative maximizing and minimizing sets to improve upon Chen’s method. Comparative examples are provided to demonstrate advantages of the proposed ranking method, and an experiment is conducted to show its robustness. The proposed ranking method is applied to a fuzzy multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) model to present its applicability. Ranking procedure can be clearly displayed to enhance execution efficiency of the suggested fuzzy MCDM model. A numerical example is used to display feasibility of the proposed model. Finally, an experiment is investigated to show that the proposed ranking method improves upon Chen’s method in consistently ranking the final fuzzy numbers in the suggested fuzzy MCDM model.

It is a critical unmet need to predict chemosensitivity in muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients who receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Quantification of tumor heterogeneity has been shown to be useful in the assessment of therapeutic response. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) is derived from diffusion weighted MRI (DWI) to quantify the water diffusivity which characterizes micro-cellularity in tumor tissues. The aim of this study is to assess if a quantitative measurement of ADC heterogeneity in bladder tumors can be a predictor of therapeutic response to NAC. Twenty patients with pT2 bladder cancer have been included in this study. Patient MRI was performed on a 3T system with DWI prior to NAC. Regions of interest (ROIs) were placed over the whole tumor volume on ADC maps to acquire a data matrix of voxel-wise ADC values for each patient. We performed histogram analysis on each ADC data matrix to calculate uniformity (U) and entropy (E). These quantities were subsequently correlated with the patient’s response to chemotherapy. Statistical significance was found with P < 0.05. Fifteen patients were categorized as responders, and five as non-responders. The data showed that tumors of responders were significantly higher in U (P = 0.01) and lower in E (P < 0.01) than non-responders. This finding indicates that resistant tumors were more heterogeneous in their spatial distribution of ADC values. While this difference in ADC heterogeneity was not always visually recognizable, it could be quantified by the data analytics. This study demonstrates that the quantitative readout of tumor heterogeneity in micro-cellularity is associated with the patient’s defined response to chemotherapy. Quantification of tumor ADC heterogeneity may provide useful information to enable the prediction of chemotherapeutic response prior to the treatment to improve patient outcomes.

This study provides an update on the movement ecology of the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) in three distinct ecoregions of Vietnam. Using radio telemetry, we tracked 12 pangolins rescued from the illegal wildlife trade and translocated to protected areas. We found that the average home range of translocated Sunda pangolins was 1.58 km2 and did not vary significantly between sexes, mass, or habitat. However, there was a marked decrease in range size with decreasing size of suitable forest space and terrain, or localized abundance of resources in some locations. Pangolins were most active from 03:00 to 04:00. The study highlights the need for further research to fully understand the ecology of this unique and enigmatic species.

This study aims to investigate the role of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in localization of the hand motor area compared to conventional magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) in patients with perirolandic lesions and to analyze the correlation of lesion to activation distance (LAD) with presurgical motor deficit.

African swine fever (ASF) virus (ASFV) is responsible for one of the most severe swine diseases worldwide, with a morbidity rate of up to 100%; no vaccines or antiviral medicines are available against the virus. Exosomal miRNAs from individual cells can regulate the immune response to infectious diseases. In this study, pigs were infected with an ASFV Pig/HN/07 strain that was classified as acute form, and exosomal miRNA expression in the serum of infected pigs was analyzed using small RNA sequencing (small RNA-seq). Twenty-seven differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs were identified in the ASFV-infected pigs compared to that in the uninfected controls. Of these, 10 were upregulated and 17 were downregulated in the infected pigs. All DE miRNAs were analyzed using gene ontology (GO) terms and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database, and the DE miRNAs were found to be highly involved in T-cell receptor signaling, cGMP-PKG signaling, Toll-like receptor, MAPK signaling, and mTOR signaling pathways. Furthermore, the Cytoscape network analysis identified the network of interactions between DE miRNAs and target genes. Finally, the transcription levels of four miRNA genes (ssc-miR-24-3p, ssc-miR-130b-3p, ssc-let-7a, and ssc-let-7c) were examined using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and were found to be consistent with the small RNA-seq data. These DE miRNAs were associated with cellular genes involved in the pathways related to immune response, virus–host interactions, and several viral genes. Overall, our findings provide an important reference and improve our understanding of ASF pathogenesis and the immune or protective responses during an acute infection in the host.Total 27 miRNAs were differentially expressed in serum-derived exosomes from African swine fever virus infected pigs and results showed that 21 differentially expressed miRNAs may regulate the expression of genes which involved in several immune-related pathways. This study provides information that is helpful to improve the understanding of pathogenesis of African swine fever virus.African swine fever is a viral disease caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV) which induces a big threat to the pig industry in the world. To date, there are no vaccines or antiviral medicines against the ASFV. Therefore, it is important to improve the understanding of the pathogenesis of ASFV and host–pathogen interaction using miRNA that may regulate genes related to the immune system. This study aimed to investigate the differentially expressed (DE) miRNA in serum-derived exosomes from African swine fever virus infected pigs. We successfully infected pigs with an ASFV Pig/HN/07 strain and identified the DE miRNAs in serum-derived exosomes using small RNA sequencing. Our results showed that total of 27 miRNAs were differentially expressed in serum-derived exosomes from ASFV-infected pigs. We analyzed the small RNA sequencing results using gene ontology (GO) terms and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database and found that most DE miRNA may regulate the expression of genes related with the immune response pathway (T-cell receptor signaling pathway, cGMP-PKG signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, etc.).

Porous MnO2 microflowers with a hexagonal crystalline structure were facilely prepared at a low hydrothermal temperature of 90°C, without using any template or capping agent. The as-prepared MnO2 only presented an excellent detection ability for copper (II) by a square wave anodic stripping voltammetry in the presence of super P carbon black as conducting agent, and Nafion as binder. In the present work, to evaluate the detection ability of copper (II) in the MnO2 microflowers, chips of screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) having a polyurethane substrate, a silver working electrode, a carbon counter electrode, and a silver pseudoelectrode, were designed. Then, the SPEs chips were modified with MnO2 microflowers and/or super P carbon and used as electrochemical sensors for the detection of copper (II) present in water sources. From the measured results, the fabricated sensors with excellent copper detection in a linear range from 0.625 nM to 15 nM (R2 = 0.9737), and a low detection limit (0.5 nM), high sensitivity (214.05 μA/cm2 nM), and rapid response (180 s) demonstrated high application potential for electrochemical sensors in the detection of copper in water resources.

A series of silole-based nickel bisdithiolene complexes were designed and theoretically studied. The electronic, optical, and charge transport properties of these complexes were investigated using density functional theory methods with the PBEPBE functional. Very small band gaps and broad absorption spectra extending to the near infrared region, special characteristics of nickel bisdithiolene complexes, were also observed for the silole-based complexes. Modifications of the structures of these complexes result in several complexes with suitable energy levels for applications in both p- and n-channel field effect transistors (FETs). The very small highest occupied molecular orbital–lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO–LUMO) gap in some complexes allows them to be used in ambipolar FETs along with the fact that the HOMO and LUMO levels are close to the work function of electrodes. Possible applications of the silole-based complexes designed in thin film solar cells and dye sensitized solar cells were also proven.

The methanol activation pathways occurring on small pure and mixed silicon clusters Sim–nMnwith M = Be, Mg, Ca and m= 3–4, n= 0–1 were investigated using quantum chemical computations (density functional theory B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ and coupled-cluster theory CCSD(T)/CBS extrapolated from energies with the aug-cc-pVnZ basis sets, n= D, T, Q) to examine their thermodynamic and kinetic feasibilities. In all cases considered, the cleavage of the O–H bond is favored over that of the C–H bond. The O–H bond cleavage in the presence of the singlet Si3cluster is thermodynamically less preferred than on mixed Si2M clusters, even though it becomes more kinetically favored. Most importantly, the energy barriers for the O–H bond breaking on the singlet Si3, Si2Ca, and Si3Ca clusters are found to be lower than the previously reported results for metal clusters, catalytic metal surfaces, metal oxides, etc. The small mixed Si clusters thus appear to be good catalysts for methanol activation and most probably in other dehydrogenation processes from the X–H bonds of organic compounds. These findings suggest further extensive searches for doped silicon clusters as realistic catalysts that can experimentally be prepared, for methanol activation particularly and dehydrogenation processes generally.

The objective of this study was to assess the capability of T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (T2W-MRI) and the additional diagnostic value of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) using multitransmit 3 T in the localization of bladder cancer.

Interleukin-1 receptor type 2 (IL1R2) is a decoy receptor for exogenous IL-1. However, its functional role in chicken immunity is poorly understood. Herein, chicken IL-1R2 (chIL-1R2) was identified and functionally characterized in vivo and in vitro. The chIL-1R2coding sequence includes 1,236 nucleotides encoding 412 amino acids, is highly conserved, and has a close relationship with its mammalian counterpart. Its extracellular region has three Ig-like domains but no TIR domain for intracellular signaling. Using ELISA, the recombinant chIL-1R2 protein was demonstrated to specifically bind to the chicken IL-1β. ChIL-1R2mRNA expression was shown to be higher in the spleen, lung, kidney, small intestine, and liver. The expression of chIL-1R2and chIL-1R1was significantly upregulated in DF-1 cells treated with poly (I:C), but significantly downregulated in the presence of NF-κB, JNK, and MEK inhibitors, indicating that the NF-κB, JNK, and MEK signaling pathways are required for the transcriptional regulation of chIL-1R1and chIL-1R2expression. It is worth noting that while the p30 MAPK pathway was required for chIL-1R1expression, it was not required for chIL-1R2expression. Furthermore, chIL-1R2expression increased as early as day 1, and then significantly decreased until day 3, while chIL-1R1 was dramatically upregulated in four organs of chickens infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV). These findings indicate that chIL-1R1and chIL-1R2may play a crucial in innate and adaptive immune responses toward HPAIV infection. In summary the present study showed that chIL-1R2 binds to chIL-1β antibody. ChIL-1R2expression can be induced by a viral infection, and may be regulated through NF-κB/JNK/MEK-mediated signaling pathways.

We performed a theoretical investigation on a series of π-conjugated organic molecules containing naphtho[2,3-b]thiophene and their derivatives using density functional theory calculations. All molecules considered exhibit planar structures and aromaticity. Energy levels of frontier orbitals and reduction and oxidation potentials of these compounds predicted by our solvation model reveal good agreement with available experimental values. The UV absorption spectra point out a clear trend that maximum peaks corresponding HOMO–LUMO transitions are red-shifted: (i) from compounds containing O to those containing Se, (ii) from dimers 1a–3aand 1b–3bto trimers 4a–6aand 4b–6b, and (iii) from parent compounds 1a–6ato perfluorinated derivatives 1b–6b. Parent compounds 1a–6acan be considered as p-type semiconducting materials with low reorganization energies, high transfer integrals, and hole mobility. Perfluorinated compounds 1b–6bare suggested to be very good candidates for ambipolar semiconducting materials. Introduction of fused-ring core molecules considerably improves the charge transport characteristics of the co-oligomers 4a–6aand 4b–6bas compared to those of corresponding molecules 1a–3aand 1b–3b. Accordingly, the former have lower reorganization energies, higher electron transfer integrals, and higher rates of charge hopping.

We presented a theoretical study of the effects from two-side (2S) doing on low-temperature lateral transport in square quantum wells (QWs). Within a variational approach, we obtained analytic expressions for the carrier distribution, screening function, and autocorrelation functions for various scattering mechanisms. We found that the mobility of a 2S-doped square QW is larger than that of the one-side (1S) doped counter part for scattering from both interfaces or from the top interface. However, the former is smaller than the latter for scattering from the bottom (substrate-side) interface. The mobility of a 2S-doped square QW exhibits a well-width evolution slower than the power-of-six law characteristic of the undoped QW. The mobility may be enhanced by 2S doping. We examine the dependence of the enhancement factor on QW parameters for optimization of the structure. This factor may achieve an order of magnitude, which is much larger than that provided by earlier methods. Our theory is able to reproduce recent experimental data on transport in 2S-doped narrow square QWs, e.g., the mobility dependence on well width and the enhancement factor, which have not been explained so far.

A theory is given of the density of states (DOS) in the low-energy tail for the disordered two-dimensional electron gas (2D EG) in a semiconductor heterostructure subjected to Gaussian random fields of any origin (especially of short range). The calculation is carried out by means of a path-integral technique within the approximation based on a non-local harmonic modelled action and that of the ground-state contribution. A simple analytic expression for the 2D DOS and different variational equations for the curvature of the trial well are then obtained, which describe the DOS tail in explicit dependence on the potential correlator, i.e., on the disorder origin as well as the geometry of the realistic 2D EG. An interpolation scheme for obtaining the 2D DOS over the whole energy region is proposed. The DOS in the deep tail is found to roughly go as a decreasing exponential function whose exponent is proportional to |E|n with n varying from 1 to 2 for very short- and long-range potential correlations, respectively. The case of a Gaussian potential correlator is thoroughly examined.

A theory is developed of the density of states (DOS) of the two-dimensional electron gas (2D EG) in semiconductor heterostructures, taking into account the effect of disorder caused by some random field existing in the sample. For a smooth random field, the calculation is carried out within its Gaussian statistics and a semiclassical approach. A simple closed expression thus obtained includes the classical DOS and its quantum correction as well, which describe the DOS of the 2D EG in explicit dependence on the rms of the potential and of the force of the random field. The disorder effect is found to smear out the step-like singularity of the DOS at an unperturbed band edge of the ideal 2D EG into a tail deep below the band edge. A detailed treatment is given of the case when the disorder is due to remote ionized impurities, which are distributed randomly or correlated in the sample.

Abstract: We describe a technique to modify protein solubility and optimize enzyme activity in reversed micellar solutions. The technique is based on the ability of hydrates of natural gas to form in the micro-aqueous phase. Clathrate hydrates are crystalline inclusions of water and gas, and their formation in bulk water has traditionally been studied with relevance to natural gas recovery. We have found that hydrates can form in the environment of the microaqueous pools of reversed micelles, and that their extent of formation can be well controlled through the thermodynamic variables of temperature and pressure. Additionally, formation of hydrates affects the size and aggregation number of the micelles, and thus influences the solubility and conformation of encapsulated proteins. We demonstrate how the concept can be used in two applications: (i) protein extraction into reversed micelles and subsequent recovery, and (ii) optimization of enzyme activity in reversed micelles.

Clinacanthus nutans Lindau has been traditionally used for healing of bone fragility, but the mechanism of actions has not been clarified yet. In this study, the bone regeneration activity of lupeol derived from C. nutans was assessed using an in vitro model of osteoblast cells MC3T3-E1. The finding revealed that the compound was not significantly toxic to osteoblast cells at concentration of ≤40 μg/mL. Lupeol demonstrated the osteogenic activity through enhancement of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) of osteoblast cells up to 31.2%, 21%, and 12% at concentrations of 5, 10, and 20 µg/mL, respectively (p < 0.05). Besides, the mineralization activity was increased up to 170, 230, 185, and 117% at concentration of 5, 10, 20, and 40 μg/mL, respectively (p < 0.05). The marker genes related to osteoblast differentiation evaluated on the expression level in the presence of lupeol, including collagen I (col 1), osteopontin (opn), osterix (osx), and runx2, showed upregulated expression in all the test genes (p < 0.05). The Western blot analysis demonstrated a clear effect of lupeol on expression of p38/p-p38, and ERK/p-ERK proteins involved in the MAPK signaling pathway. Thus, lupeol isolated from C. nutans exhibited the osteogenic activity by enhancing expression of important markers of osteogenesis, as well as affected the MAPK signaling pathway relating to osteoblast differentiation. This is the first report on the detailed mechanism of action of lupeol on bone regeneration and also explains for the traditional use of this medicinal plant for bone healing.

Tumor organoids are promising tools for cancer biology investigations and pre-clinical drug screenings because they are often representative of the histology and drug responses of patients. Here, we introduce a facile protocol to overcome technical limitations by generating patient-derived tumor organoids using a simplified ring-like geometry. This facilitates media exchange and drug treatment for histopathology characterization and automated high-throughput drug screenings.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks engender a severe economic impact on the poultry industry and public health. Migratory waterfowl are considered the natural hosts of HPAI virus, and HPAI viruses are known to be transmitted over long distances during seasonal bird migration. Bird migration is greatly affected by the weather. Many studies have shown the relationship between either autumn or spring bird migration and climate. However, few studies have shown the relationship between annual bird migration and annual weather. This study aimed to establish a model for the number of migratory waterfowl involved in HPAI virus transmission based on meteorological data. From 136 species of waterfowl that were observed at Futatsudate in Miyazaki, Japan, from 2008 to 2016, we selected potential high-risk species that could introduce the HPAI virus into Miyazaki and defined them as ‘risky birds’. We also performed cluster analysis to select meteorological factors. We then analysed the meteorological data and the total number of risky birds using a generalised linear mixed model. We selected 10 species as risky birds: Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), Northern pintail (Anas acuta), Eurasian wigeon (Anas penelope), Eurasian teal (Anas crecca), Common pochard (Aythya ferina), Eurasian coot (Fulica atra), Northern shoveler (Anas clypeata), Common shelduck (Tadorna tadorna), Tufted duck (Aythya fuligula) and Herring gull (Larus argentatus). We succeeded in clustering 35 meteorological factors into four clusters and identified three meteorological factors associated with their migration: (1) the average daily maximum temperature; (2) the mean value of global solar radiation and (3) the maximum daily precipitation. We thus demonstrated the relationship between the number of risky birds and meteorological data. The dynamics of migratory waterfowl was relevant to the risk of an HPAI outbreak, and our data could contribute to cost and time savings in strengthening preventive measures against epidemics.