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Abstract: As a convenient and non-invasive diagnostic method, computed tomography (CT) has been developing continuously, and dual-energy CT imaging is one of its current research hotspots. Dualenergy CT, using two different X-ray energies for imaging, can generate spectral image sets such as virtual monoenergetic images, virtual non-contrast images, iodine density images, uric acid images, calcium inhibition images, and effective atomic number images. These images could help to increase the contrast of vascular, improve the detection rate of lesions, reduce artifacts, reduce the dose of radiation, and characterize materials. Dual-layer spectral detector CT, a detector-based dual-energy scanning device, has an X-ray tube and a dual-layer X-ray detector that can simultaneously separate lowenergy and high-energy photons from a multi-energy X-ray beam, which means excellent time registration. This paper aims to introduce the applications of dual-layer spectral detector CT in abdominal angiography, including optimizing image quality, reducing the dose of contrast agent and radiation, providing richer diagnostic information, organ perfusion, and thrombus identification.

Aim. We sought to profile gut microbiota’s role in combination of Bu Fei Hua Yu (BFHY) with cisplatin treatment. Methods. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) mice model were constructed followed by treatment with cisplatin alone or combined with BFHY. Mice weight and tumor volume were measured during the experiment. And mice cecum were detected by hematoxylin and eosin, cecum contents were collected for Enzyme Linked ImmuneSorbent Assay, and stool were profiled for metagenomic sequencing. Results. Combination of BFHY with cisplatin treatment decreased the tumor growth and relieved the damage of cecum. Expressions of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP), and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) were decreased compared with cisplatin treatment alone. Linear discriminant analysis effect size analysis showed that g_Parabacteroides was downregulated and g_Escherichia and g_Blautia were upregulated after cisplatin treatment. After combination with BFHY, g_Bacteroides and g_Helicobacter were decreased. g_Klebsiella, g_Unclssified_Proteobacteria, and g_Unclssified_Clostridiates were increased. Moreover, heatmap results showed that Bacteroides abundance was increased significantly after cisplatin treatment; BFHY combination treatment reversed this state. Function analysis revealed that multiple functions were slightly decreased in cisplatin treatment alone and increased significantly after combination with BFHY. Conclusion. Our study provided evidence of an efficacy of combination of BFHY with cisplatin on treatment of NSCLC and revealed that gut microbiota plays a role in it. The above results provide new ideas on NSCLC treatment.

While mobile application (app) software is becoming increasingly important in people's daily lives, researchers have the limitation of understanding the details of user operations inside the app. With the update of the Android system and application user interface, relying on manually defined user operation event templates or modifying the app source code can no longer meet the needs of fine-grained user operation analysis in multiparallel applications. In this article, a novel method is proposed for effectively analyzing user operations in parallel apps based on the temporal context of user operation sequences. The authors provide a general framework in the Android system to parse out fine-grained user operations. In addition, the authors build a deep learning model with LSTM-TextCNN to complete user operations in parallel app from global temporal context and app temporal context. The authors collected 240k operations of 12 users over a month. Comparative experiments with a baseline show that the proposed method can efficiently and accurately analyze parallel app user operations.

Aims: Atractylodes macrocephala is a traditional Chinese medicine with a variety of pharmacological activities. This study aimed to evaluate its anti-hyperuricemia and antiinflammatory effects on gout, and to preliminarily explore its mechanism. Methods: The hyperuricemia rat model was established by intraperitoneal injection of oteracil potassium and intragastric gavage of yeast powder solution. And the acute gouty arthritis (GA) model was established by injecting monosodium urate (MSU) suspension. In the study of the antihyperuricemia effect of Atractylodes macrocephala, the healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into the blank group, hyperuricemia group allopurinol group as well as low, moderate and high dose groups of Atractylodes macrocephala decoction (N=8 rats in each group). Serum, liver and kidney tissue samples were collected from each group. Serum uric acid (UA), adenosine deaminase (ADA) and xanthine oxidase (XOD) levels in each group were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Protein levels of ADA and XOD in liver tissues were detected by Western blot, and renal histological changes were observed by Hematoxylin-eosin (H＆E) and Masson staining. In order to investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of Atractylodes macrocephala, the healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into the blank group, GA group, colchicine group, high, moderate and low dose groups of Atractylodes macrocephala decoction (N=8 rats in each group), and serum and synovial tissue of each group were collected. Then the level of serum interleukin (IL)-1β and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α was observed by ELISA, and the histological changes of synovial tissue were observed by H＆E staining. Besides, the expression of adenosine monophosphate- activated protein kinase (AMPK) /silent information regulator (SIRT) 1/ nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) protein in synovial tissue was observed by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. The markers of M1 and M2 macrophages, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and arginase-1 (ARG1) were observed by Western blot and immunofluorescence. Results: Atractylodes macrocephala could reduce the production of UA by inhibiting the level of ADA and XOD, and could improve renal injury and fibrosis. In addition, Atractylodes macrophages could reduce the levels of IL-1β and TNF-α, activate AMPK/SIRT1 signaling pathway, and inhibit the activation of NF-κB and the polarization of macrophages to a pro-inflammatory phenotype. Conclusion: Atractylodes macrocephala shows good anti-hyperuricemic and anti-inflammatory effects, and its anti-inflammation pharmacological activity may be related to the inhibition of M1 macrophage polarization and NF-κB activation through activating AMPK/SIRT1.

Qingyao Li,1,2,&ast; Ying Jiang,2,&ast; Anqi Song,2 Yun Li,1 Xinyi Xu,3 Renying Xu2 1Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Clinical Nutrition, Ren Ji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Economics and Management, Shanghai Polytechnic University at Jing Hai Road, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Renying Xu, Department of Clinical Nutrition, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-21-68383335, Email 721001735@shsmu.edu.cn Yun Li, Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-315-8805586, Email liyun@ncst.edu.cnBackground and Aims: Dyslipidemia is obviously an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, which might further lead to disability and death in aged population. We thus performed the current study to evaluate the association between chronological age and dyslipidemia.Subjects and Methods: A total number of 59,716 Chinese aged population (31,174 men and 28,542 women, average age 67.8y) were included in the current study. Age and sex were abstracted from medical records. Height, body weight, and blood pressure were measured by trained nurses. Serum concentration of total cholesterol (TC) and total triglycerides were performed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent method after at least 8-h fast. Dyslipidemia was defined if total cholesterol≥ 5.7 mmol/L, or total triglycerides≥ 1.7 mmol/L, or self-reported history of dyslipidemia.Results: The prevalence of dyslipidemia was 50.4% in the current study population. Compared to the youngest age group (60– 64y), the adjusted odds ratio was 0.88 (95% CI: 0.84, 0.92), 0.77 (95% CI: 0.73, 0.81), 0.66 (95% CI: 0.61, 0.70), 0.55 (95% CI: 0.50, 0.59) for the participants who were 65 to 69, 70– 74, 75– 79, and ≥ 80 years old (p trend < 0.001). Excluding participants with low body weight and with overweight and obesity, with high blood pressure and history of hypertension, with high fasting blood glucose and history of diabetes, generated similar results with main analysis.Conclusion: Chronological age was closely associated with the risk of dyslipidemia in Chinese aged population.Keywords: age, total cholesterol, TC, total triglycerides, TG, dyslipidemia

Influenza-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (IAPA) is a feared complication in patients with influenza tracheobronchitis, especially those receiving corticosteroids. Herein, we established a novel IAPA mouse model with low-inoculum Aspergillus infection and compared outcomes in mice with and without cortisone acetate (CA) immunosuppression. CA was an independent predictor of increased morbidity/mortality in mice with IAPA. Early antifungal treatment with liposomal amphotericin B was pivotal to improve IAPA outcomes in CA-immunosuppressed mice, even after prior antiviral therapy with oseltamivir. In summary, our model recapitulates key clinical features of IAPA and provides a robust preclinical platform to study the pathogenesis and treatment of IAPA.

Doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) is an anthracycline broad-spectrum antitumor drug, but it can produce a wide range of cytotoxicities in the body. Intravenous injection of a high dose of DOX causes serious toxicity and side effects in the heart and spinal cord. These shortcomings limit the clinical adoption of DOX. In this work, folic acid was coupled to DOX albumin nanoparticles (NPs) by chemical modification so that the preparation could actively target tumor site accumulation and release DOX to inhibit tumor cells. Albumin NPs were prepared by the desolvation method, and the formulation and preparation process were optimized. The particle size and granularity were taken as evaluation indexes. The in vitro antitumor activity of folic acid-mediated DOX albumin NPs against human hepatoma cell HepG2 and human gastric cancer cell SGC7901 was evaluated by using the methyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay with commercial DOX as a reference. Twenty SD rats were utilized to participate in the efficacy analysis of folic acid-mediated DOX albumin NPs for gastric precancerous lesions (GPLs). The results showed that the average particle size of folate-mediated doxorubicin albumin NPs was 267.28±0.38 nm, and 90% of them were less than 280.00 nm, showing a uniform particle size distribution. The drug release rate of the NPs within 24 h was 27.3%, and the NPs had sustained release properties. The IC50 values of the NPs and DOX aqueous solution on the highly expressed HepG2 cells were 4.78 μmol/L and 5.26 μmol/L, respectively, and those on the SGC7901 cells were 4.62 μmol/L and 5.06 μmol/L, respectively. After the establishment of the GPL model, the gene levels in the Wnt/β-catenin signaling were markedly upregulated (P P

To determine whether exoskeleton-assisted walking (EAW) improves pulmonary ventilation function, motor function and related body structure, and activities equivalently as the conventional exercise program for people with spinal cord injury (SCI).Forty participants (7 females and 33 males; age 37.1±12.0 years) with thoracic SCI were randomized into two groups and undertook 16 sessions of 50-60 min training (4 days/week). Participants in the EAW group received EAW trainings, such as assisted standing, walking, and climbing the stairs. The control group received a conventional exercise program. Outcomes were measured at baseline and upon completion of treatment.After trainings, the EAW group improved more than the control group in the forced vital capacity (FVC, 0.53 L [0.01-1.06 L]), predicted FVC% (19.59 [6.63-32.54]) and forced expiratory volume in 1s (0.61 L [0.15-1.07 L]), basic activities of daily living (BADL) (19.75 [10.88-28.62]), and distal femoral cartilage. Participants in the EAW group completed 6-minute walk test with median 17.3 meters while wearing the exoskeleton. There was no difference in trunk and lower extremity motor function, bone mineral density, and adverse events (P0.05).In people with lower thoracic neurological level of SCI, EAW training has potential benefits to facilitate pulmonary ventilation function, walking, BADL and thickness of cartilage comparing to a conventional excise program.This study provided more evidence for using EAW in clinic, and partly proved EAW had equivalent effects as conventional exercise program, which may combine with conventional exercise program for reducing burden of therapists in the future.

An inorganic/organic CABB/Ni-MOF hybrid photocatalyst was fabricated. Due to the efficient charge separation, high reduction potential preservation, and the improved CO2 adsorption, the CABB/Ni-MOF hybrid showed high CO2 photoreduction activity.

Background/Aim: Gastric acid reflux into the esophagus can cause irritation and inflammation of the esophagus and progress to reflux esophagitis (RE). Vitamin D3 (VitD3) has anti-inflammatory effects and plays an important regulatory role in adaptive and innate immunity. We hypothesized that VitD3 may play a protective role in RE. Materials and Methods: Seventy male Sprague–Dawley rats were used, and acute RE (n=35) or chronic RE (n=35) were surgically induced. The effects of different doses of VitD3 on morphological changes and alteration of pro-inflammatory cytokine levels were examined in the rat models. Western blot analysis was performed to determine protein expression levels of IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 in esophageal tissues. Serum levels of VitD3 and calcium were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Results: The protein expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 was found significantly increased in RE. VitD3 treatment significantly reduced the levels of these pro-inflammatory cytokines in both the low-dose and high-dose VitD3 groups compared to control groups in acute RE, but not chronic RE. Macrographic and histopathological examination revealed various degrees of esophageal impairment in rats following surgical induction of acute or chronic RE in rats. These impairments were not improved by VitD3. Morphological grading of esophageal mucosa showed no significant differences between acute and chronic RE. Elevated serum levels of calcium were observed after VitD3 treatment. Conclusion: IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 levels were significantly elevated in RE. The abnormal increase in these important pro-inflammatory cytokines was suppressed by VitD3 in the rat models of acute RE. These novel findings suggest a potential protective role of VitD3 in early-stage RE.

The microstructure evolution process of the core–rim structure with the sintering time in 95BaTiO3–2CaO–2MgO–1Dy2O3 ceramics by the systematic characterization of morphology, composition and defects.

The effect of exciton–phonon coupling on the excitonic emission of two-dimensional layered (BA)2PbI4 (BA = C4H9NH3) perovskites.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has escalated into a global tragedy afflicting human health, life, and social governance. Through the increasing depth of research and a better understanding of this disease, it has been ascertained that, in addition to the lungs, SARS-CoV-2 can also induce injuries to other organs including the liver. Liver injury is a common clinical manifestation of COVID-19, particularly in severe cases, and is often associated with a poorer prognosis and higher severity of COVID-19. This review focuses on the general existing information on liver injury caused by COVID-19, including risk factors and subpopulations of liver injury in COVID-19, the association between preexisting liver diseases and the severity of COVID-19, and the potential mechanisms by which SARS-CoV-2 affects the liver. This review may provide some useful information for the development of therapeutic and preventive strategies for COVID-19-associated liver injury.

Plant growth is greatly influenced by the rhizosphere microbiome, which has been traditionally investigated from a bottom-up perspective assessing how resources such as root exudates stimulate microbial growth and drive microbiome assembly. However, the importance of predation as top-down force on the soil microbiome remains largely underestimated. Here, we planted wheat both in natural and in sterilized soils inoculated with the key microbiome predators - bacterivorous nematodes - to assess how plant performance responds to top-down predation of the soil microbiome and specific plant growth-promoting bacteria, namely phosphate-solubilizing bacteria. We found that nematodes enriched certain groups (e.g. Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Firmicutes) and strengthened microbial connectance (e.g. Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria). These changes in microbiome structure were associated with phosphate-solubilizing bacteria that facilitated phosphorus (P) cycling, leading to greater P uptake and biomass of wheat in both soils. However, the enhancement varied between nematode species, which may be attributed to the divergence of feeding behavior, as nematodes with weaker grazing intensity supported greater abundance of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria and better plant performance compared with nematodes with greater grazing intensity. These results confirmed the ecological importance of soil nematodes for ecosystem functions via microbial co-occurrence networks and suggested that the predation strength of nematodes determines the soil bacteria contribution to P biogeochemical cycling and plant growth.

Bone morphogenic protein/retinoic acid inducible neural-specific proteins (BRINPs) and astrotactins (ASTNs) are two members of membrane attack complex/perforin-like (MACPF) superfamily proteins that present high expression in the growing and mature vertebrate neurons. Lamprey has a unique evolutionary status as a representative of the oldest jawless vertebrates, making it an ideal animal model for understanding vertebrate evolution. The evolutionary origins of BRINPs and ASTNs genes in vertebrates, however, have not been shown in lampreys. Here, BRINP and ASTN genes were found in lamprey genomes and the evolutionary relationships of them were investigated by phylogenetic analysis. Protein domains, motifs, genetic structure, and crystal structure analysis revealed that the features of BRINP and ASTN appear to be conserved in vertebrates. Genomic synteny analysis indicated that lamprey BRINP and ASTN neighbor genes differed dramatically from jawed vertebrate. Real-time quantitative results illustrated that the BRINP and ASTN genes family might take part in immune defence and spinal cord injury repair. This study not only enriches a better understanding of the evolution of the BRINP and ASTN genes but also offers a foundation for exploring their roles in the development of the vertebrate central nervous system (CNS).