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The article discusses the development of MASH-Ocean 1.0, an interactive platform that allows researchers to investigate microbial diversity, function, and biogeography using marine metagenomic data. The platform integrates global marine metagenomic data and provides various analysis modules for researchers studying hydrosphere ecosystems. These modules include diversity analysis, function analysis, biogeography analysis, and interaction network analysis. The platform allows users to visualize taxonomic composition, metabolic functional pathways, global distribution patterns of microbial species and genes, and microbial co-occurrence networks. The platform aims to provide a comprehensive and convenient service for researchers working with omics data from hydrosphere ecosystems. [Extracted from the article]

Aims: Relationship between body mass index (BMI), frailty, and clinical adverse events remains unclear in patients with heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) in different patient populations. We aimed to compare the association of BMI, frailty, and clinical adverse events between a US cohort from the Treatment of Preserved Cardiac Function Heart Failure with an Aldosterone Antagonist (TOPCAT) study and a Chinese cohort from the Heart Failure Registry of Patient Outcomes (HERO) study. Methods and results: We used data of 1715 participants enrolled from America in the TOPCAT study and 1487 patients with HFpEF in the Chinese registry study, the HERO. We evaluated the relationship between BMI and frailty using multivariate restricted cubic spline logistic regression. Association between frailty and BMI categories and primary outcomes including HF hospitalization, aborted sudden death, and cardiovascular death, all‐cause mortality, and HF hospitalization were analysed by Cox proportional hazards models. The patients' mean age was 72 ± 11 years for both study populations, with 50% and 46% female for the TOPCAT study and the HERO study, respectively. Patients in the TOPCAT study had a higher mean BMI (33.9 vs. 24 kg/m2), with 72.3% vs. 52.9% defined as moderately to severely frail (frailty index > 0.3). In the TOPCAT study, risk of frailty rose as BMI increased, but not in the HERO study. Patients with frailty were at significant higher risk for the primary composite outcomes [hazard ratio (HR) 1.84 (95% confidence interval: 1.46–2.32)], all‐cause mortality [HR 1.73 (1.34–2.25)], and HF hospitalization [HR 1.83 (1.40–2.40)] in the TOPCAT study. The corresponding numbers in the HERO study were 1.26 (1.01–1.57), 2.21 (1.45–3.35), and 1.15 (0.81–1.37), respectively. The association of frailty with clinical outcomes did not vary with BMI categories in the two studies. Conclusions: BMI distribution and association between BMI and frailty risk were different between the two study populations. Frailty was associated with clinical adverse events and this association was consistent across different BMI categories in both studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is great heterogeneity in the quality of care among hospitals in China, but studies on the performance measures and prognosis of patients with heart failure (HF) are still deficient. Hypothesis: Performance measures have been used as a guideline to clinicans, however, the association between them and outcomes among HF patients in China remains unclear. Methods: We analyzed 4497 patients with HF from the Heart Failure Registry of Patient Outcomes study. Performance measures were determined according to the guidelines, and the patients were divided into four groups based on a composite performance score. Multiple imputation and Cox proportional‐hazard regression models were used to assess the association between the performance measures and clinical outcomes. Results: Overall, only 12.5% of patients met the top 25% of the performance measures, whereas 33.5% of patients met the bottom 25% of the measures. A total of 992 (22.2%) patients died within 1 year, involving a larger proportion of patients who had met only the bottom 25% of the performance measures than had met the top 25% (27.0% vs. 16.3%, respectively). The patients who met the top 25% of the measures had a lower 1‐year mortality rate (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.78, 95% confidence interval: 0.61–0.98). Conclusions: The association between performance measures and mortality appeared to follow a dose–response pattern with a larger degree of compliance with performance measures being associated with a lower mortality rate in patients with HF. Accordingly, the quality of care for patients with HF in China needs to be further improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The real‐time tracking process of dim targets in space is mainly achieved through the correlation and prediction of dots after the detection and calculation process. The on‐board calculation of the tracking needs to be completed in milliseconds, and it needs to reach the microsecond level at high frame rates. For real‐time tracking of dim targets in space, it is necessary to achieve universal tracking calculation acceleration in response to different space regions and complex backgrounds, which poses high requirements for engineering implementation architecture. This paper designs a Kalman filter calculation based on digital logic parallel acceleration architecture for real‐time solution of dim target tracking on‐board. A unified architecture of Vector Processing Element (VPE) was established for the calculation of Kalman filtering matrix, and an array computing structure based on VPE was designed to decompose the entire filtering process and form a parallel pipelined data stream. The prediction errors under different fixed point bit widths were analyzed and deduced, and the guidance methods for selecting the optimal bit width based on the statistical results were provided. The entire design was engineered based on Xilinx's XC7K325T, resulting in an energy efficiency improvement compared to previous designs. The single iteration calculation time does not exceed 0.7 microseconds, which can meet the current high frame rate target tracking requirements. The effectiveness of this design has been verified through simulation of random trajectory data, which is consistent with the theoretical calculation error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tomographic synthetic aperture radar (TomoSAR) possesses 3D imaging capability, making it significant for building reconstruction using TomoSAR data. The reconstruction algorithm is closely related to building point cloud detection, while traditional detection methods suffer from low automation and reliance on manual configuration. This study proposes a building point cloud reconstruction method based on deep learning semantic segmentation. Initially, deep learning method is employed for end‐to‐end building point cloud segmentation, followed by point cloud reconstruction based on the segmentation results. The proposed method is simple and efficient, elevating the level of automation in point cloud processing. Experimental validation on real TomoSAR data confirms that the proposed method achieves automated and refined reconstruction of building point clouds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To fulfill the demands of more bandwidth in 5G and 6G communication technology, new dielectric substrates that can be co‐fired into packages and devices that have low dielectric loss and improved thermal conductivity are desired. The motivation for this study is to design composites with low dielectric loss (tan δ) and high thermal conductivity (κ), while still limiting the electrical conductivity, for microwave applications involving high power and high frequency. This work describes the fabrication of high‐density electroceramic composites with a model dielectric material for cold sintering, namely sodium molybdate (Na2Mo2O7), and fillers with higher thermal conductivity such as hexagonal boron nitride. The physical properties of the composites were characterized as a function of filler vol.%, temperature, and frequency. Understanding the variation in measured properties is achieved through analyzing the respective transport mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orientation estimation is one of the core problems in several computer vision tasks. Recently deep learning techniques combined with the Bingham distribution have attracted considerable interest towards this problem when considering ambiguities and rotational symmetries of objects. However, existing works suffer from two issues. First, the computational overhead for calculating the normalisation constant of the Bingham distribution is relatively high. Second, the choice of loss functions is uncertain. In light of these problems, we present an online deep Bingham network to estimate the orientation of objects. We sharply reduce the computational overhead of the normalisation constant by directly applying a numerical integration formula. Additionally, we are the first to give theorems on the convexity and Lipschitz continuity of the Bingham distribution's negative log‐likelihood, which formally indicates that it is a proper choice of the loss function. We test our method on three public datasets, namely the UPNA, the T‐LESS and Pascal3D+, showing that our method outperforms the state‐of‐the‐art in terms of orientation accuracy and time efficiency, which can reduce the runtime by more than 6 h compared to the offline methods. The ablation experiments further demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of our model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to summarise the best evidence for the prevention and control of pressure ulcer at the support surface based on the site and stage of the pressure ulcer in order to reduce the incidence of pressure ulcer and improve the quality of care. In accordance with the top‐down principle of the 6 S model of evidence‐based resources, evidence from domestic and international databases and websites on the prevention and control of pressure ulcer on support surfaces, including randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews, evidence‐based guidelines, and evidence summaries, was systematically searched for the period from January 2000 to July 2022. Evidence grading based on the Joanna Briggs Institute Evidence‐Based Health Care Centre Evidence Pre‐grading System (2014 version), Australia. The outcomes mainly embraced 12 papers, including three randomised controlled trials, three systematic reviews, three evidence‐based guidelines, and three evidence summaries. The best evidence summarised included a total of 19 recommendations in three areas: type of support surface selection assessment, use of support surfaces, and team management and quality control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sodium‐ion battery is a potential application system for large‐scale energy storage due to the advantage of higher nature abundance and lower production cost of sodium‐based materials. However, there exist inevitably the safety problems such as flammability due to the use of the same type of organic liquid electrolyte with lithium‐ion battery. Gel polymer electrolytes are being considered as an effective solution to replace conventional organic liquid electrolytes for building safer sodium‐ion batteries. In this review paper, the authors present a comprehensive overview of the research progress in electrochemical and physical properties of the gel polymer electrolyte‐based sodium batteries. The gel polymer electrolytes based on different polymer hosts namely poly(ethylene oxide), poly(acrylonitrile), poly(methyl methacrylate), poly(vinylidene fluoride), poly(vinylidene fluoride‐hexafluoro propylene), and other new polymer networks are summarized. The ionic conductivity, ion transference number, electrochemical window, thermal stability, mechanical property, and interfacial issue with electrodes of gel polymer electrolytes, and the corresponding influence factors are described in detail. Furthermore, the ion transport pathway and ion conduction mechanism are analyzed and discussed. In addition, the advanced gel polymer electrolyte systems including flame‐retardant polymer electrolytes, composite gel polymer electrolytes, copolymerization, single‐ion conducting polymer electrolytes, etc. with more superior and functional performance are classified and summarized. Finally, the application prospects, development opportunities, remaining challenges, and possible solutions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Programmed cell death‐1/ligand 1 inhibitors are a new treatment strategy for advanced urothelial carcinoma. Therefore, a comparative evaluation of their efficacy and toxicity compared with chemotherapy is necessary. Methods: We comprehensively searched PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases and performed a meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials up to July 2021. We considered overall survival as the primary outcome, and progression‐free survival, objective response rate, and treatment‐related adverse events as secondary outcomes. Results: Overall, 3584 patients from five studies were evaluated. Compared with first‐line chemotherapy, programmed cell death‐1/ligand 1 inhibitors were significantly associated with worse progression‐free survival (p < 0.001) and adverse objective response rates (p < 0.001). However, the treatments were not significantly different in terms of overall survival (p = 0.33). Compared with second‐line chemotherapy, programmed cell death‐1/ligand 1 inhibitors significantly improved overall survival (p < 0.001), and there was no statistically significant difference in progression‐free survival (p = 0.89) or objective response rate (p = 0.34). Compared with chemotherapy, programmed cell death‐1/ligand 1 inhibitors were well tolerated (first‐line chemotherapy: p < 0.001; second‐line chemotherapy: p < 0.001). Conclusions: The efficacy of programmed cell death‐1/ligand 1 inhibitors in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma is not superior to that of first‐line platinum‐based chemotherapy but is better than second‐line chemotherapy; however, programmed cell death‐1/ligand 1 inhibitors are safer than first‐ and second‐line chemotherapy and have a broader prospect for use in combination therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bovine uterus is susceptible to infection, and the elevated cortisol level due to stress are common in cows after delivery. The essential trace element selenium plays a pivotal role in the antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory defence system of body. This study investigated whether selenium supplementation protected endometrial cells from inflammation in the presence of high‐level cortisol. The primary bovine endometrial epithelial cells were subjected to Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide to establish cellular inflammation model. The gene expression of inflammatory mediators and proinflammatory cytokines was measured by quantitative PCR. The key proteins of NF‐κB and MAPK signalling pathways were detected by Western blot and immunofluorescence. The result showed that pre‐treatment of Na2SeO3 (1, 2 and 4 μΜ) decreased the mRNA expression of proinflammatory genes, inhibited the activation of NF‐κB and suppressed the phosphorylation of extracellular signal‐regulated kinase, P38MAPK and c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase. This inhibition of inflammation was more apparent in the presence of high‐level cortisol (30 ng/mL). These results indicated that selenium has an anti‐inflammatory effect, which is mediated via NF‐κB and MAPK signalling pathways and is augmented by cortisol in bovine endometrial epithelial cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, asymptotic stabilization problem for a class of nonlinear systems with unknown time‐varying delays is addressed. With the introduced static gain functions and new Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals, a novel output feedback control strategy is developed. A memoryless output feedback controller which does not need precise knowledge of time delays is designed. The asymptotic stabilization and the boundedness of the closed‐loop system are proved via Lyapunov analysis. Finally, numerical simulation validates the effectiveness of this method for the nonlinear time‐delay system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we compared the inhibitory effects of recombinant oncolytic adenovirus (Ad‐apoptin‐hTERTp‐E1a, Ad‐VT) with that of doxorubicin (DOX), a first‐line chemotherapy drug, and tamoxifen (TAM), an endocrine therapy drug, on the proliferation of breast cancer cells. We found that Ad‐VT could effectively inhibit the proliferation of breast cancer cells (p < 0.01); the inhibition rate of Ad‐VT on normal mammary epithelial MCF‐10A cells was less than 20%. DOX can effectively inhibit the proliferation of breast cancer cells and also has a strong inhibitory effect on MCF‐10A cells (p < 0.01). TAM also has a strong inhibitory effect on breast cancer cells, among which the oestrogen‐dependent MCF‐7 cell inhibition was stronger (p < 0.01), At higher concentrations, TAM also had a high rate of inhibition (>70%) on the proliferation of MCF‐10A cells. We also found that both recombinant adenovirus and both drugs could successfully induce tumour cell apoptosis. Further Western blot results showed that the recombinant adenovirus killed breast cancer cells through the endogenous apoptotic pathway. Analysis of the nude mouse subcutaneous breast cancer model showed that Ad‐VT significantly inhibited tumour growth (the luminescence rate of cancer cells was reduced by more than 90%) and improved the survival rate of tumour‐bearing mice (p < 0.01). Compared with DOX and TAM, Ad‐VT has a significant inhibitory effect on breast cancer cells, but almost no inhibitory effect on normal breast epithelial cells, and this inhibitory effect is mainly through the endogenous apoptotic pathway. These results indicate that Ad‐VT has significant potential as a drug for the treatment of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thin, lightweight, and flexible textile pressure sensors with the ability to detect the full range of faint pressure (<100 Pa), low pressure (≈KPa) and high pressure (≈MPa) are in significant demand to meet the requirements for applications in daily activities and more meaningfully in some harsh environments, such as high temperature and high pressure. However, it is still a significant challenge to fulfill these requirements simultaneously in a single pressure sensor. Herein, a high-performance pressure sensor enabled by polyimide fiber fabric with functionalized carbon-nanotube (PI/FCNT) is obtained via a facile electrophoretic deposition (EPD) approach. High-density FCNT is evenly wrapped and chemically bonded to the fiber surface during the EPD process, forming a conductive hierarchical fiber/FCNT matrix. Benefiting from the large compressible region of PI fiber fabric, abundant yet firm contacting points and high elastic modulus of both PI and CNT, the proposed pressure sensor can be customized and modulated to achieve both an ultra-broad sensing range, long-term stability and high-temperature resistance. Thanks to these merits, the proposed pressure sensor could monitor the human physiological information, detect tiny and extremely high pressure, can be integrated into an intelligent mechanical hand to detect the contact force under high-temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A flexible triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is an indispensable part in future flexible self‐powered system. However, it is still a great challenge to establish a balance among the robust mechanical property, strong triboelectrification effect, and high conductivity of electrode materials. A flexible and enhanced‐performance TENG based on cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs)/transition metal carbides and nitrides (MXene) composite films is developed here for harvesting human movement energy. By introducing CNFs, the mechanical strength, flexibility of the composite film, and sensitive to the temperature change and strain are improved. The effect of CNFs concentration, working force, and frequency on the output performance of TENG is also demonstrated. At the optimized CNFs/MXene ratio of 2/5, the transferred charges and output voltage reach the maximum value of 7.4 nC and 24.9 V, respectively. The maximum instantaneous output power density of the as‐prepared TENG is 1.2 mW m−2. Moreover, a self‐powered flexible display system is demonstrated by integrating the TENG with a flexible alternating current electroluminescence. The flexible TENG based on cellulose nanofibrils‐reinforced MXene composite film is promising as a flexible energy source for self‐powered system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Diabetes is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Aim: To explore the best non‐pharmaceutical interventions for improving the behavioural and psychological symptoms in elders with dementia. Design: Bayesian network meta‐analysis. Methods: A comprehensive electronic literature search was performed in five English databases and four Chinese databases to identify relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that were published up to 31 October 2019. Results: A total of 41 RCTs were included in this network meta‐analysis involving 5 different non‐pharmacological interventions: therapeutic recreation (TC), reminiscence therapy (RT), behaviour therapy (BT), massage therapy (MT) and individualized nursing (IN).The results of network meta‐analysis showed that individualized nursing was the best in improving depression, cognitive function, and activities of daily living of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. Behaviour therapy was the best in improving anxiety symptoms. Reminiscence therapy was the best in improving neuropsychiatric symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Diabetes is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Despite the increasing number of reports on the analysis of ATP7B variants, reports on carrier screening for Wilson's disease (WD, OMIM:277900) are rare. Methods: Peripheral blood samples were collected from 42 patients from Qingdao Women and Children's Hospital diagnosed with WD for direct sequencing of ATP7B gene. Twelve hotspot variants of ATP7B were selected for carrier screening in Qingdao area based on an analysis of information related to ATP7B variants and literature reports in China. We screened 5012 dried blood spots (DBSs) from asymptomatic newborns in Qingdao area to estimate carrier frequency. DNA was extracted from dried blood spots. Gene sequencing was performed using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) combined with second‐generation sequencing. The carrier frequency of each hotspot variant was calculated using the count data (expressed as number of carriers (%) obtained by direct counting. Results: The carrier frequency of 12 hotspot variants was 1.46% (95% CI: 1.16–1.83%). The ATP7B variant with the highest carrier frequency was c.2333G>T, accounting for 54.79% of all variants screened, followed by c.2975C>T and c.2621C>T, accounting for 17.81% and 15.07% of all variants screened, respectively. Conclusion: Carrier frequency of ATP7B gene pathogenic variants is high in the population in Qingdao area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apoptin can specifically kill cancer cells but has no toxicity to normal cells. Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) can act as a tumour‐specific promoter by triggering the expression of certain genes in tumour cells. This study aims to investigate the inhibitory effects and to explore the inhibitory pathway of a dual cancer‐specific recombinant adenovirus (Ad‐apoptin‐hTERTp‐E1a, Ad‐VT) on breast cancer stem cells. Breast cancer cell spheres were obtained from MCF‐7 cells through serum‐free suspension culture. The cell spheres were detected by flow cytometry for CD44+ CD24− cell subsets. The stemness of MCF‐7‐CSC cells was confirmed by in vivo tumorigenesis experiments. The inhibitory effect of the recombinant adenoviruses on MCF‐7‐CSC cells was evaluated by CCK‐8 assay. In addition, the stemness of adenovirus‐infected MCF‐7‐CSC cells was analysed by testing the presence of CD44+ CD24− cell subsets. The ability of the recombinant adenovirus to induce MCF‐7‐CSC cell apoptosis was detected by staining JC‐1, TMRM and Annexin V. Our results showed that a significantly higher proportion of the CD44+ CD24− cell subsets was present in MCF‐7‐CSC cells with a significantly increased expression of stem cell marker proteins. The MCF‐7‐CSC cells, whlist exhibited a strong tumorigenic ability with a certain degree of stemness in mice, were shown to be strongly inhibited by recombinant adenovirus Ad‐VT through cell apoptosis. In addition, Ad‐VT was shown to exert a killing effect on BCSCs. These results provide a new theoretical basis for the future treatment of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proteolipid protein 2 (PLP2) is an integral ion channel membrane protein of the endoplasmic reticulum. The protein has been shown to be highly expressed in many cancer types, but its importance in glioma progression is poorly understood. Using publicly available datasets (Rembrandt, TCGA and CGGA), we found that the expression of PLP2 was significantly higher in high‐grade gliomas than in low‐grade gliomas. We confirmed these results at the protein level through IHC staining of high‐grade (n = 56) and low‐grade glioma biopsies (n = 16). Kaplan‐Meier analysis demonstrated that increased PLP2 expression was associated with poorer patient survival. In functional experiments, siRNA and shRNA PLP2 knockdown induced ER stress and increased apoptosis and autophagy in U87 and U251 glioma cell lines. Inhibition of autophagy with chloroquine augmented apoptotic cell death in U87‐ and U251‐siPLP2 cells. Finally, intracranial xenografts derived from U87‐ and U251‐shPLP2 cells revealed that loss of PLP2 reduced glioma growth in vivo. Our results therefore indicate that increased PLP2 expression promotes GBM growth and that PLP2 represents a potential future therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is challenging to perform automatic speech recognition when multiple people talk simultaneously. To solve this problem, speaker‐aware selective methods have been proposed to extract the speech of the target speaker, relying on the auxiliary speaker characteristics provided by an anchor (a clean audio sample of the target speaker). However, the extraction performance depends on the duration and quality of the anchors, which is unstable. To address this limitation, the authors propose a target speaker extraction network (TEnet) which applies the robust speaker embedding to extract the target speech from the speech mixture. To get more stable speaker characteristics during training, the robust speaker embeddings are accumulated over all the speech of each target speaker, rather than utilising the embedding produced by a single anchor. As for testing, very few anchors are enough to get decent extraction performance. Results show the TEnet trained with accumulated embedding achieves better performance and robustness compared with the single‐anchored TEnet. Moreover, to exploit the potential of the speaker embedding, the authors propose to feed the extracted target speech as anchor and train a feedback TEnet, whose results are superior to the short‐anchored baseline for 22.5% on word error rate and 15.5% on signal‐to‐distortion rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Meiosis is essential for eukaryotic sexual reproduction and plant fertility, and crossovers (COs) are essential for meiosis and the formation of new allelic combinations in gametes. In this study, we report the isolation of a meiotic gene, OsSHOC1, and the identification of its partner, OsPTD1. Osshoc1 was sterile both in male and female gametophytes, and it showed a striking reduction in the number of meiotic COs, indicating that OsSHOC1 was required for normal CO formation. Further investigations showed that OsSHOC1 physically interacted with OsPTD1 and that the latter was also required for normal CO formation and plant fertility. Additionally, the expression profiles of both genes were consistent with their functions. Our results suggest that OsSHOC1 and OsPTD1 are essential for rice fertility and CO formation, possibly by stabilizing the recombinant intermediates during meiosis. Significance statement: Meiosis is essential for eukaryotic sexual reproduction and plant fertility, and crossovers are essential for meiosis and the formation of new allelic combinations in gametes. Our results suggest that OsSHOC1 and OsPTD1 are essential for rice fertility and crossover formation, providing helpful information regarding the roles of SHOC1−PTD complexes in plant meiotic progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: In eukaryotes, alternative splicing (AS) greatly expands the diversity of transcripts. However, it is challenging to accurately determine full‐length splicing isoforms. Recently, more studies have taken advantage of Pacific Bioscience (PacBio) long‐read sequencing to identify full‐length transcripts. Nevertheless, the high error rate of PacBio reads seriously offsets the advantages of long reads, especially for accurately identifying splicing junctions. To best capitalize on the features of long reads, we used Illumina RNA‐seq reads to improve PacBio circular consensus sequence (CCS) quality and to validate splicing patterns in the rice transcriptome. We evaluated the impact of CCS accuracy on the number and the validation rate of splicing isoforms, and integrated a comprehensive pipeline of splicing transcripts analysis by Iso‐Seq and RNA‐seq (STAIR) to identify the full‐length multi‐exon isoforms in rice seedling transcriptome (Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica). STAIR discovered 11 733 full‐length multi‐exon isoforms, 6599 more than the SMRT Portal RS_IsoSeq pipeline did. Of these splicing isoforms identified, 4453 (37.9%) were missed in assembled transcripts from RNA‐seq reads, and 5204 (44.4%), including 268 multi‐exon long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs), were not reported in the MSU_osa1r7 annotation. Some randomly selected unreported splicing junctions were verified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. In addition, we investigated alternative polyadenylation (APA) events in transcripts and identified 829 major polyadenylation [poly(A)] site clusters (PACs). The analysis of splicing isoforms and APA events will facilitate the annotation of the rice genome and studies on the expression and polyadenylation of AS genes in different developmental stages or growth conditions of rice. Significance statement: In this study, we integrated PacBio full‐length cDNA sequencing and RNA‐seq into a STAIR pipeline to improve the discovery of splicing isoforms in rice, and further investigated alternative polyadenylation events in transcripts. The analysis of splicing isoforms and alternative polyadenylation events will facilitate the annotation of the rice genome and the understanding of the expressions of alternative splicing genes in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key Clinical Message: Twelve days after birth, the child was admitted to hospital because of "poor response, lethargy, and poor appetite for 6 days" and developed into coma immediately. The ventilator is required. The urine had significant maple syrup odor. After different diagnosis, she was diagnosed with classical maple syrup urine disease. Twelve days after birth, the child was admitted to hospital because of "poor response, lethargy, and poor appetite for 6 days" and developed into coma immediately. The ventilator is required. The urine had significant maple syrup odor. After different diagnosis, she was diagnosed with classical maple syrup urine disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Matrine, a traditional Chinese medicine, has recently been shown to have antitumor properties in diverse cancer cells. Here, we explored the effect of matrine on human glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cells. Methods: Glioblastoma multiforme cell lines were treated with matrine to assess proliferation and viability using EdU and CCK8 assays. SA‐β‐gal assays were used to evaluate cellular senescence, and a cytokine array and ELISA assay were used to screen for secreted cytokines altered in GBM cells after matrine treatment. Immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis were performed to evaluate protein levels in matrine‐treated cell lines and in samples obtained from orthotopic xenografts. Specific activators of AKT and IGF1 were used to identify the pathways mediating the effect. Results: Matrine potently inhibited growth of GBM cell lines in vitro. Based on in situ assays, growth arrest induced by matrine was primarily achieved through induction of cellular senescence. Matrine treatment led to decreased expression of proteins involved in promoting cell growth, IGF1, PI3K, and pAKT. Exposure of cells to a small molecule activating AKT (SC79) and recombinant IGF1 led to a reduced number of senescent SA‐β‐gal‐positive cells in the presence of matrine. Finally, matrine inhibited growth of orthotopic xenografts established from luciferase‐stable‐U251 or luciferase‐stable‐P3 cells and prolonged overall survival in mice. Conclusions: These results indicated that matrine arrested cell growth through inhibition of IGF1/PI3K/AKT signaling. Matrine warrants further investigation as a potential therapy in the treatment of patients with GBM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information ordering is a nontrivial task in multi-document summarization (MDS), which typically relies on the traditional vector space model (VSM) notorious for semantic deficiency. In this article, we propose a novel event-enriched VSM to alleviate the problem by building event semantics into sentence representations. The mediation of event information between sentence and term, especially in the news domain, has an intuitive appeal as well as technical advantage in common sentence-level operations such as sentence similarity computation. Inspired by the block-style writing by humans, we base the sentence ordering algorithm on sentence clustering. To accommodate the complexity introduced by event information, we adopt a soft-to-hard clustering strategy on the event and sentence levels, using expectation-maximization clustering and K-means, respectively. For the purpose of cluster-based sentence ordering, the event-enriched VSM enables us to design an ordering algorithm to enhance event coherence computed between sentence and sentence-context pairs. Drawing on the findings of earlier research, we also incorporate topic continuity measures and time information into the scheme. We evaluate the performance of the model and its variants automatically and manually, with experimental results showing clear advantage of the event-based model over baseline and non-event-based models in information ordering for multi-document news summarization. We are confident that the event-enriched VSM has even greater potential in summarization and beyond, which awaits further research. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In density estimation task, Maximum Entropy (Maxent) model can effectively use reliable prior information via nonparametric constraints, that is, linear constraints without empirical parameters. However, reliable prior information is often insufficient, and parametric constraints becomes necessary but poses considerable implementation complexity. Improper setting of parametric constraints can result in overfitting or underfitting. To alleviate this problem, a generalization of Maxent, under Tsallis entropy framework, is proposed. The proposed method introduces a convex quadratic constraint for the correction of (expected) quadratic Tsallis Entropy Bias (TEB). Specifically, we demonstrate that the expected quadratic Tsallis entropy of sampling distributions is smaller than that of the underlying real distribution with regard to frequentist, Bayesian prior, and Bayesian posterior framework, respectively. This expected entropy reduction is exactly the (expected) TEB, which can be expressed by the closed-form formula and acts as a consistent and unbiased correction with an appropriate convergence rate. TEB indicates that the entropy of a specific sampling distribution should be increased accordingly. This entails a quantitative reinterpretation of the Maxent principle. By compensating TEB and meanwhile forcing the resulting distribution to be close to the sampling distribution, our generalized quadratic Tsallis Entropy Bias Compensation (TEBC) Maxent can be expected to alleviate the overfitting and underfitting. We also present a connection between TEB and Lidstone estimator. As a result, TEB-Lidstone estimator is developed by analytically identifying the rate of probability correction in Lidstone. Extensive empirical evaluation shows promising performance of both TEBC Maxent and TEB-Lidstone in comparison with various state-of-the-art density estimation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study investigates immediate efficacy and safety of intravenous application of de novo lacosamide (LCM) as add-on therapy in patients with pharmacoresistant focal epilepsy. Methods: During presurgical video-electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring, 17 adult inpatients received LCM infusion (200 mg every 12 h for 2-3 days) followed by oral formulation with the same regimen. Before and after intravenous application of LCM, seizures and interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) recorded with continuous video-EEG monitoring were analyzed, and an assessment of adverse events (AEs) was performed daily. To evaluate the midterm tolerability and efficacy, follow-up visits were conducted 1 and 3 months after discharge from hospital. Key Findings: In the acute phase, intravenous initiation of LCM was well tolerated with few mild or moderate AEs (3 of 17, 17.6%). A significant reduction of seizure frequency in the treatment phase as compared to mean seizure frequency in the 2-day baseline phase was achieved (p < 0.05 for the first treatment day, and p < 0.005 for the second treatment day). On the first treatment day, 61.5% of the patients were seizure free, and 84.6% on the second treatment day. IED reduction after intravenous application of LCM was not significant. After 1 month, the 50% responder rate was 46.6% and after the 3-month period, 42.8%. Significance: Our data suggest that rapid intravenous initiation of de novo LCM is safe and may protect against seizures in a rapid and midterm time window. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of structural ambiguity in modifying clauses renders noun phrase (NP) extraction from running Chinese texts complicated. It is shown from previous experiments that nearly 33% of the errors in an NP extractor were actually caused by the use of clause modifiers. For example, consider the sequence “V + NP[sub 1]+ (of) + NP[sub 0].” It can be interpreted as two alternatives, a verb phrase (i.e., [V[NP[sub 1]+ + NP[sub 0]][sub NP]][sub VP]) or a noun phrase (i.e., [[V NP[sub 1]][sub VP]+ + NP[sub 0]][sub NP]). To resolve this ambiguity, syntactical, contextual, and semantics-based approaches are investigated in this article. The conclusion is that the problem can be overcome only when the semantic knowledge about words is adopted. Therefore, a structural disambiguation algorithm based on lexical association is proposed. The algorithm uses the semantic class relation between a word pair derived from a standard Chinese thesaurus, , to work out whether a noun phrase or a verb phrase has a stronger lexical association within the collocation. This can, in turn, determine the intended phrase structure. With the proposed algorithm, the best accuracy and coverage are 79% and 100%, respectively. The experiment also shows that the backed-off model is more effective for this purpose. With this disambiguation algorithm, parsing performance can be significantly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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