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Abstract Background The application of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) for diagnosis of prostate cancer has been recommended by the European Association of Urology (EAU), National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), and European Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR) guidelines. The purpose of this study is to systematically review the literature on assessing the accuracy of mpMRI in patients with suspicion of prostate cancer. Method We searched Embase, Pubmed and Cochrane online databases from January 12,000 to October 272,018 to extract articles exploring the possibilities that the pre-biopsy mpMRI can enhance the diagnosis accuracy of prostate cancer. The numbers of true- and false-negative results and true- and false-positive ones were extracted to calculate the corresponding sensitivity and specificity of mpMRI. Study quality was assessed using QUADAS-2 tool. Random effects meta-analysis and a hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic (HSROC) plot were performed for further study. Results After searching, we acquired 3741 articles for reference, of which 29 studies with 8503 participants were eligible for inclusion. MpMRI maintained impressive diagnostic value, the area under the HSROC curve was 0.87 (95%CI,0.84–0.90). The sensitivity and specificity for mpMRI were 0.87 [95%CI, 0.81–0.91] and 0.68 [95%CI,0.56–0.79] respectively. The positive likelihood ratio was 2.73 [95%CI 1.90–3.90]; negative likelihood ratio was 0.19 [95% CI 0.14,-0.27]. The risk of publication bias was negligible with P = 0.96. Conclusion Results of the meta-analysis suggest that mpMRI is a sensitive tool to diagnose prostate cancer. However, because of the high heterogeneity existing among the included studies, further studies are needed to apply the results of this meta-analysis in clinic.

This article analyzes Chinese video artist Zhang Peili's latex-glove-themed paintings and conceptual art from the 1980s. It argues that they are an important intervention into post-socialist China's politicized discussions on art's role in society. Building on Mel Chen's discussion of animacy hierarchies as sociopolitical constructs, the article reads Zhang's latex gloves as animate—transgressing boundaries of "aliveness" between humans and objects. It locates Zhang and his art collective, "Pond" Society, amid mid-1980s discourses on art's emotional contagiousness, highlighting that the Chinese art establishment's insistence on Realism and on the Maoist art methodology of "immersion into life" (shenru shenghuo) reflected anxieties about "healthy" art making that could promote national progress. Zhang's series of X? glove paintings from 1986 onward represent strategic promotions of his medical conceptualization of art. Zhang was infected during the 1988 Shanghai hepatitis A epidemic, and his subsequent glove-themed work called for an embrace of viral life. The figure of the glove was also central to Zhang's first two video works, including Document on Hygiene No. 3, which signals a shift away from the insistence that art should reinforce the artist's authority. Instead, Document uses the gloved hand to reflect on where, in a society obsessed with purity and in an art world obsessed with radicalism, we might fundamentally locate agency. This article shows that the history of contemporary Chinese art cannot be understood without considering artists' responses to, and contributions in shaping, the deeply politicized notion of hygiene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) imaging can significantly reduce the radiation dose to a patient. However, a low radiation dose will cause considerable noise and artifacts in the image, seriously impacting the clinical diagnosis. To better solve the problems, we propose an edge protection and global attention mechanism densely connected convolutional network (EP–GAMNet) for LDCT denoising. First, edge information was extracted using the improved eight-directional Prewitt operator and then, passed to each convolutional block through skip connections. Subsequently, a multiscale feature extractor and global attention mechanism were used for feature extraction. The final predicted images were then obtained by the noise reduction module. Further, a compound loss function based on mean squared error and perceptual loss was used to enhance the texture detail and improve the visual quality of the image. Extensive experiments on Mayo and piglet datasets showed the effectiveness of the proposed method in reducing noise/artifacts while preserving edges. The peak-signal-to-noise ratio value of CT images of the AAPM dataset processed by the new model is 33.5712, and the structural similarity (SSIM) value is 0.9244. Moreover, it performed better than some classical methods in terms of objective indicators and subjective effects. The proposed model is robust and can effectively retain edge information and extract effective features from LDCT images. Moreover, it is effective in improving LDCT image quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of assimilating Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay (AMDAR) observations on the prediction of two typhoons, Nesat and Haitang (2017), using the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) assimilation system and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Two quality control (QC) methods, Minimum Covariance Determinant (MCD) and one-class Support Vector Machine (OCSVM), were employed to perform QC on the AMDAR observations before data assimilation. The QC results indicated that both methods significantly reduced kurtosis, skewness, and discrepancies between the AMDAR data and the reanalysis data. The data distribution after applying the MCD-QC method exhibited a closer resemblance to a Gaussian distribution. Four numerical experiments were conducted to assess the impact of different AMDAR data qualities on typhoon forecasting, including a control experiment without data assimilation (EXP-CNTL), assimilating all AMDAR observations (EXP-RAW), assimilating observations after applying MCD-QC (EXP-MCD), and assimilating observations after applying OCSVM-QC (EXP-SVM). The results demonstrated that using AMDAR data in assimilation improved the track and intensity prediction of the typhoons. Furthermore, utilizing QC before assimilation enhanced the performance of track forecasting prediction, with EXP-MCD showing the best performance. As for intensity prediction, the three assimilation experiments exhibited varying strengths and weaknesses at different times, with EXP-MCD showing smaller intensity forecast errors on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an efficient short-time probability approximation with Lévy excitation to capture the transient probability distribution and its evolving path. Using principal component analysis (PCA), the method constructs a probability core to exclude outliers beyond it. The statistics of samples that fall inside the core are treated, with a prescribed fiducial probability, as an easy-to-estimate Gaussian type. The idea is verified numerically by compared with Monte-Carlo results. Then, it is integrated into the path integral (PI) method, combined with evolving probabilistic vector (EPV) techniques, to efficiently obtain probability distributions in each time step of PI. This scheme is semianalytical, only dependent on a relatively small amount of response samples to form the probability core; thus, it can have very computational advantages over full Monte-Carlo simulation to capture transient responses and probability distributions. The application to investigating response transitions of a nonsmooth system driven by Lévy shock and jump has revealed the performance of the proposed method. Also, the exit times of stochastic response are characterized quantitatively from the perspective of global dynamic transition. These investigations will be helpful to achieve the efficient probability estimation for nonlinear system with non-Gaussian inputs and quantify the reliability of the mechanical system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unaffordable computational cost and memory storage induced by the curse of dimensionality has become the bottleneck of numerical methods in different fields. In the global analysis of nonlinear dynamical systems, the capability of numerical methods, like cell mapping methods, are mostly feasible only to a system dimension less than four. Although cell mappings are naturally parallelizable that may be used to greatly enhance the computational efficiency, it is still not enough to release the computational burden on a higher-dimensional system of greater than seven, not to mention the memory in dealing with millions of billion cells. In this paper, the subdomain synthesis method, which partitions the chosen region in state space into subdomains suitable for operating in a computational unit and then synthetizes the so-called virtual invariant sets to get the underlying global invariant sets, is promoted to be parallelizable on the subdomains so as to build a two-layer massively parallel architecture in both cell and subdomain levels. The proposed approach can be implemented by GPU Cluster that can maximize the powerful computation capability of hardwares. Examples with global invariant sets in very fine distances of a Jerk system and in bifurcations of a twelve-dimensional nonsmooth rotor system are presented for the first time to demonstrate then the feasibility of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new flexible aromatic polymer sulfonated polybenzothiazole (sPBT-SE) with sulphone and ether units is reported as an advanced cathode material for storing Na+, which delivers a high discharge capacity of 103 mA h g−1 after 350 cycles at 30 mA g−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) is an effective method for reducing radiation exposure. However, reducing radiation dose leads to considerable noise in the reconstructed image that can affect doctor's judgment. OBJECTIVE: To solve this problem, this study proposes a local total variation and improved wavelet residual convolutional neural network (LTV-WRCNN) denoising model. METHODS: The model first introduces local total variation (LTV) to decompose the LDCT image into cartoon and texture image. Next, the texture image is filtered using the non-local mean (NLM). Then, the cartoon image is added to the filtered texture image to obtain the preprocessing image. Finally, the pre-processed image is fed into the improved wavelet residual neural network (WRCNN) to obtain an improved image. Additionally, we also introduce a compound loss in wavelet domain that combines mean squared error loss and directional regularization loss to separate the structural details from noise more thoroughly. RESULTS: Compared with state-of-the-art methods, the peak-signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) value and the structure similarity (SSIM) value of the processed CT images using the new proposed model are 33.4229 dB and 0.9158. Study also shows that applying new model obtains better results visually and numerically, especially in terms of the preservation of structural details. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed new model is feasible and effective in improving the quality of LDCT images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to investigate the generalized anxiety levels and its association with semen quality in infertile men. We recruited male patients who visited the infertility outpatient departments of three teaching hospitals in North China and evaluated their generalized anxiety symptoms using the self‐administered 7‐item generalized anxiety disorder (GAD‐7) scale. Seminal analysis was performed as per WHO guidelines. A total of 378 infertile men (average age: 31.43 ± 5.85 years) were classified into the normal group (n = 174, 46%) and the anxiety group (n = 204, 54%) according to their GAD‐7 scale score. The proportion of patients with hyperlipidaemia in the normal group was significantly higher than that in the anxiety group (14.9% vs. 5.9%, p = 0.004). The other demographic characteristics were not statistically different between both groups. Patients with abnormal GAD‐7 scale scores had a significantly lower sperm count (202.48 vs. 166.80 million per ejaculate, p = 0.023), sperm concentration (54.75 vs. 46.54 million/ml, p = 0.033), and progressive motility (40.25 vs. 37.16, p = 0.020) than those with normal GAD‐7 scale scores. Multivariate linear regression models revealed that anxiety was significantly negatively associated with sperm concentration (percent change = −9.79, 95%CI: −12.38 to −7.12, p < 0.001), total sperm count (percent change = −13.07, 95%CI: −16.05 to −9.84, p < 0.001), progressive motility (β = −1.41, 95%CI: −1.86 to −0.96, p < 0.001), total sperm motility (β = −1.73, 95%CI: −2.38 to −1.08, p < 0.001), and normal sperm morphology (β = −0.16, 95%CI: −0.28 to −0.04, p = 0.009), respectively. Taken together, generalized anxiety disorder could significantly influence the clinical semen quality in infertile men in North China, and psychological stress management might be helpful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to assess the value of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUC‐MSCs) for the treatment of diabetes‐induced erectile dysfunction (DMED). We established a type 1 diabetes model through intra‐abdominal streptozotocin injection. After 10 weeks, an apomorphine test was performed to screen the rats for erectile dysfunction (ED). The rats were divided into three groups: normal control group (n = 10), DMED group (n = 9) and DMED+hUC‐MSC group (n = 9). After 4 weeks of hUC‐MSC therapy, erectile function was evaluated by intracavernous pressure measurements, and penile tissue collagen and smooth muscle were examined by haematoxylin‐eosin and Masson's trichrome staining. In addition, western blotting, immunohistochemistry and RT‐PCR analysis of TLR4, VEGF and eNOS were performed. The results showed that hUC‐MSC treatment restored erectile function (p <.05) and reversed the smooth muscle/collagen ratio changes of DMED rats (p <.05). Furthermore, hUC‐MSC treatment inhibited the expression of TLR4 (p <.05) and enhanced VEGF and eNOS expression (p <.05). In conclusion, hUC‐MSC treatment restored the erectile function of diabetic rats by inhibiting TLR4, improving corpora cavernosa fibrosis, and increasing VEGF and eNOS expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stimulator of interferon genes (STING) is an endoplasmic-reticulum resident protein, playing essential roles in immune responses against microbial infections. However, over-activation of STING is accompanied by excessive inflammation and results in various diseases, including autoinflammatory diseases and cancers. Therefore, precise regulation of STING activities is critical for adequate immune protection while limiting abnormal tissue damage. Numerous mechanisms regulate STING to maintain homeostasis, including protein-protein interaction and molecular modification. Among these, post-translational modifications (PTMs) are key to accurately orchestrating the activation and degradation of STING by temporarily changing the structure of STING. In this review, we focus on the emerging roles of PTMs that regulate activation and inhibition of STING, and provide insights into the roles of the PTMs of STING in disease pathogenesis and as potential targeted therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To evaluate the expression, potential functions and mechanisms of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the pathogenesis of varicocele (VC)‐induced spermatogenic dysfunction. Materials and Methods: We established a rat model with left experimental VC and divided rats into the sham group, the VC group, and the surgical treatment group (each group, n = 10). Haematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and sperm quality were analysed to evaluate spermatogenesis function. LncRNA expression profiles were analysed using lncRNA‐Seq (each group n = 3) and validated using quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (each group n = 10). Correlation analysis and gene target miRNA prediction were used to construct competing endogenous RNA network. The regulated signalling pathway and spermatogenic dysfunction of differentially expressed lncRNAs (DE lncRNAs) were validated by Western blot. Results: HE detection and sperm quality analysis showed that VC could induce spermatogenic dysfunction. Eight lncRNAs were upregulated and three lncRNAs were downregulated in the VC group compared with the sham group and surgical treatment group. The lncRNA of NONRATG002949.2, NONRATG001060.2, NONRATG013271.2, NONRATG022879.2, NONRATG023424.2, NONRATG005667.2 and NONRATG010686.2 were significantly negatively related to sperm quality, while NONRATG027523.1, NONRATG017183.2 and NONRATG023747.2 were positively related to sperm quality. The lncRNAs promote spermatogenic cell apoptosis and inhibit spermatogonia and spermatocyte proliferation and meiotic spermatocytes by regulating the PI3K–Akt signalling pathway. Conclusion: DE lncRNAs may be potential biomarkers for predicting the risk of spermatogenic dysfunction in VC and the effect of surgical repair. These DE lncRNAs promote spermatogenic dysfunction by regulating the PI3K–Akt signalling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes mellitus (DM), which is closely related to microvascular dysfunction, is a risk factor for erectile dysfunction (ED). Furthermore, the upregulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) is associated with systemic vascular dysfunction in rats with diabetes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of iNOS in diabetes mellitus erectile dysfunction (DMED). First, we developed a type 1 DM rat model using streptozotocin and selected those that developed DMED. Then, we injected these rats with the 1400W, an iNOS inhibitor, for 10 weeks and subsequently assessed their ED. Lastly, we performed various molecular studies and histopathological analyses of penile tissues collected from these rats after the experiments. Through the histopathological studies, we also found that the treatment restored the ratios of the smooth muscle to collagen fibres, delayed the development of microvascular injury and alleviated the oxidative stress caused by hyperglycaemia. Based on these results, we confirmed that upregulation of iNOS leads to microvascular dysfunction in patients with ED. Overall, we found that inhibition of iNOS displayed beneficial effects in the treatment of ED, suggesting that its mechanism should be further explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic progressive interstitial pulmonary disease characterized with radiographically evident pulmonary infiltrates and extracellular matrix deposition with limited treatment options. We previously described that microcystin-LR (MC-LR) reduces transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1/Smad signaling and ameliorates pulmonary fibrosis in bleomycin (BLM)-induced rat models. In the present study, we further demonstrate that microcystin-RR (MC-RR), an MC congener with lower toxicity than MC-LR, exerted an anti-fibrotic effect on BLM-induced pulmonary fibrosis rodent models and compared it with MC-LR. Our data show that MC-RR treatment attenuated BLM-associated pulmonary inflammation and collagen deposition in both therapeutic and preventive models. MC-RR reduced the expression of fibrotic markers, including vimentin, α-smooth muscle actin, collagen 1α1, and fibronectin, in rat pulmonary tissues. Furthermore, the core features of BLM-induced pulmonary fibrotic lesions were better alleviated by MC-RR than by MC-LR. MC-RR treatment substantially decreased the number of pulmonary M2 macrophages. In vitro , MC-RR attenuated the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and fibroblast-myofibroblast transition triggered by M2 macrophages. Therefore, we highlight MC-RR as a promising molecule for developing therapeutic and prophylactic strategies against IPF, a refractory lung disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human papillomavirus (HPV) has a high incidence rate in both males and females. HPV infection in women has been shown to affect fertility and lead to foetal death and pregnancy loss. However, research on HPV infection in men is limited. The aim of this study was to study the effect of HPV infection in semen on sperm quality and present the findings of previous studies through a meta‐analysis. Databases including PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, WanFang data and China National Knowledge Infrastructure were searched for relevant studies. A systematic review and meta‐analysis were performed, and 17 studies were included for analyses based on a set criterion. Meta‐analyses indicated that HPV infection in semen significantly reduced sperm concentration (SMD = −0.12, 95% CI: −0.21 to −0.03, p =.009), sperm motility (SMD = −0.55, 95% CI: −0.780 to −0.33, p =.000), sperm viability (SMD = −0.55, 95% CI: −0.780 to −0.33, p =.000) and sperm morphology (SMD = −0.34, 95% CI: −0.61 to −0.07, p =.015). The high‐risk HPV (HrHPV) infection could significantly reduce sperm count (SMD = −0.65, 95% CI: −1.11 to −0.18, p =.007) compared with high‐risk HPV (LrHPV) infection. In conclusion, HPV infection in semen significantly reduced sperm quality, and the HrHPV infection could significantly reduce sperm count compared with LrHPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To seek novel prognostic biomarkers for testicular germ cell tumour (TGCT) and investigate the tumour immune microenvironment, we identified critical differentially expressed genes (DEGs) by overlapping GSE1818 dataset from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was used to investigate key modules and hub genes. Functional enrichment analysis was performed to investigate the underlying molecular functions of the DEGs in TGCT development and progression. The following survival analysis based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) TGCT dataset indicated that AKAP4, SPA17 and TNP1 are correlated with TGCT prognosis. Immunohistochemistry and quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction verified the down‐regulation of the 3 hub genes in TGCT. Gene set enrichment analysis was conducted to further explore the role of the 3 hub genes in TGCT respectively. In addition, TGCT samples had high infiltration of CD8+ T cells, M0 and M1 macrophage cells, and resting myeloid dendritic cells in immune microenvironment. We also constructed the microRNA‐gene regulatory networks to identify the key upstream microRNAs in TGCT. In conclusion, our findings indicated that AKAP4, SPA17 and TNP1 are promising biomarkers of TGCT. AKAP4 and TNP1 might regulate immune cells infiltration in immune microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components are associated with increased risks of several cancers. However, the relationship between MetS and upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) has never been investigated before. Methods: We identified 3,785 UTUC cases aged over 65 years old within the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare database between 2007 and 2016. For comparison, non-cancer controls (n = 189,953) were selected from the 5% random sample of individuals residing within regions of SEER registries and matched with cases through diagnosis date and pseudo-diagnosis date. MetS and its components were all defined by using ICD-9-CM codes. Multivariate logistic regression models were conducted to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Time trends for MetS and its components were reported and we also performed dose-response effect analysis to test the concomitant effect of these components. The study was presented following the STROBE reporting checklist. Results: UTUC risk was associated with metabolic syndrome (NCEP-III: OR: 1.669, 95% CI: 1.550–1.792; IDF: OR: 1.924, 95% CI: 1.676–2.172) and its component factors: elevated waist circumference/central adiposity (OR: 1.872, 95% CI: 1.693–2.055), impaired fasting glucose (OR: 1.306, 95% CI: 1.133–1.480), high blood pressure (OR: 1.295, 95% CI: 1.239–1.353), high triglycerides (OR: 1.280, 95% CI: 1.222–1.341), and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (OR: 1.354, 95% CI: 1.118–1.592). Consistent associations could also be observed in the subgroup analyses by tumor stages, grades, and tumor size. Additionally, the rates of MetS increased over time in both UTUC and control cohort (NCEP-III criterion; EAPC: +18.1%, P < 0.001; EAPC: +16.1%, P < 0.001, respectively). A significantly gradual increase in UTUC rates could be seen as the No. of the MetS components increase (χ ² = 37.239, P trend = 0.000). Conclusions: Among people aged over 65, MetS and its components were significant risk factors for UTUC with consistent associations in different tumor stages, grades, and tumor size. Even if a subject who did not meet the criteria for MetS had only one of the components, he (she) still had an elevated risk for UTUC. Strategies to control the epidemic of MetS and its components might contribute to a reduction in the UTUC burden. The findings should be considered tentative until ascertained by more researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]