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Several clinical trials have reported that patients with cancer cachexia can benefit from n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) supplements; however, the results have been conflicting. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effect of n-3 PUFAs on cancer cachexia. A search of the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases was performed to identify the included randomized controlled trials. Trials including patients with cancer cachexia who were administered a course of n-3 PUFAs were included. A meta-analysis on body weight, lean body weight, proinflammatory factors, quality of life, and median duration of survival was conducted. A total of 12 randomized controlled trials with 1184 patients were included. No effect on body weight (standard mean difference [SMD], 0.10; 95% CI, -0.06 to 0.26; P = .236), lean body weight (SMD, -0.17; 95% CI, -0.36 to 0.03, P = .095), or proinflammatory factors (interleukin-6: SMD, 0.31; 95% CI, -0.14 to 0.75; P = .18; tumor necrosis factor-α: SMD, -0.85; 95% CI, -2.39 to 0.69; P = .28) was observed. The use of n-3 PUFAs was associated with a significant improvement in quality of life (SMD, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.01-1.40; P = .048) and median duration of survival (median survival ratio, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.02-1.19; P = .014). For patients with cancer cachexia, our meta-analysis indicated that n-3 PUFAs improved quality of life and survival, but not body weight.

Peptide-major histocompatibility complex I (MHC I) binding affinity prediction is crucial for vaccine development, but existing methods face limitations such as small datasets, model overfitting due to excessive parameters and suboptimal performance. Here, we present STMHCPan (STAR-MHCPan), an open-source package based on the Star-Transformer model, for MHC I binding peptide prediction. Our approach introduces an attention mechanism to improve the deep learning network architecture and performance in antigen prediction. Compared with classical deep learning algorithms, STMHCPan exhibits improved performance with fewer parameters in receptor affinity training. Furthermore, STMHCPan outperforms existing ligand benchmark datasets identified by mass spectrometry. It can also handle peptides of arbitrary length and is highly scalable for predicting T-cell responses. Our software is freely available for use, training and extension through Github (https://github.com/Luckysoutheast/STMHCPan.git).

We prepared a humanized alternative B7-H3 CAR (B7-H3-haCAR-T) targeting B7-H3 which contained the humanized singl-chain varinlde fragment (scFv) from humanized 8H9 Monoclonal Antibody (hu8H9mAb). The antitumor effects of B7-H3-haCAR-T cells were evaluated in B7-H3 overexpressed tumor cells (in vitro) and B7-H3 xenograft models (in vivo). The specific tumour killing ability of B7-H3-haCAR-T in overexpressing B7-H3 tumour cells was verified by cytotoxicity and ELISA tests. In addition, B7-H3 haCAR-T cells were also noted to suppress the tumour growth remarkably well in the xenograft murine models, and the survival time in the haCAR-T cell treatment group was appreciably longer than that in the control group. The specific recognition and highly efficient tumoricidal behavior of B7-H3 haCAR-T provide a basis for future clinical studies with humanized scFv-transduced CAR-T cells targeting solid tumors.

Additional file 6: Supplemental Table S2. The laboratory life cycle of Ixodes persulcatus and Dermacentor silvarum.

Additional file 3: Figure S3. PCoA analysis of R. raoultii-positive and -negative groups in second generation.

Additional file 7: Supplemental Table S3. Results of tick fitness post-rickettsial exposure in Ixodes persulcatus and Dermacentor silvarum.

Additional file 5: Supplemental Table S1. Reads counts of data analyzed in the study.

Additional file 8: Supplemental Table S4. Primers used in this study.

Additional file 4: Figure S4. The abundance correlation between Chlamydia and Actinobacteria in skin.

Additional file 1. Figure S1. The administration time and the dosage daily of the drugs before the patient was transferred to the Sentinel Hospital of the FifthMedical Center of the PLA General Hospital. Table S1. The panel assaysscreening for 13 common viruses and bacteria. Table S2. Laboratory values observed during hospitalisation (Reference values are given in parentheses). Table S3. Symptoms and signs reported during thefirst hospital stay. Additional materials.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Phylogenetic analysis of sequences from SFGR specific PCR with other Rickettsial specieses. Phylogenetic trees of ompA and gltA genes of SFGR identified from I. persulcatus cohort A) ompA and B) gltA and from D. silvarum C）ompA, D) gltA, respectively.

Additional file 2: Figure S2. Composition and similarity of bacteria on bitten and un-bitten skins. A) Relative abundance of bacteria between tick-bitten and un-bitten skins. B) Bray−Curtis dissimilarity within bitten or unbitten group and between unbitten and bitten group.

MicroRNA (miRNA) has emerged as an important gene-regulator that shows great potential in gene therapy because of its unique roles in gene-regulation. However, the knowledge on their function and transportation in vivo is still lacking, and there are limited obvious evidences to define intracellular transportation of miRNA. In this study, the dynamics of exogenous miR-21 transfected into HeLa cells was traced by live-cell microscopy. Their transportation at key time points was recorded and dynamic properties were analyzed by single particle tracking (SPT) and mean square displacement (MSD) calculation. Results showed that the exogenous miRNAs bounded to cells quickly and went through lysosome into cytosol, where they were subsequently recruited into p-body. They finally were degraded, otherwise went back to cytosol in some way. Long time observation and analysis of motion mode showed that the miRNAs were confined in a small region and their motion modes were flexible in different intracellular microenvironment after entering the cells.

A pair of stilbenes with γ-lactam unit [(+)

Peptide-HLA (pHLA) is a peptide that may attach to human leukocyte antigen (HLA) and be presented to specialized immune cells, then initiate an immune response. Computational prediction of peptide and HLA binding is an important tool in studying T cell immunity that can assist in the design of neoantigen vaccines. However, the majority of current prediction approaches are limited to single allele (SA) HLA data, predictive tools to optimize mutant peptides with higher affinity for multi allelic (MA) HLA are lacking. Here, we describe ResMAHPan (https://github.com/Luckysoutheast/ResMAHpan.git), which integrates long short term memory (LSTM) network and Resnet network with coordinate attention (CA) for pHLA binding and presentation prediction. ResMAHPan considerably outperforms the standard predictors NetMHCpan 4.0 and MHCflurry 2.0 by enriching for current MA HLA presentation prediction algorithms on held-out mass spectrometry experiments. We propose a mode based on existing MA-pHLA encoding that allows incorporation of neoantigen prediction tasks into computer vision methods—which can aggregate MA HLA molecules into a multichannel matrix and incorporated peptide sequences to capture binding signals efficiently. Finally, the integrated model could be employed as a independent neoantigen recognition approach to improve neoantigen identification accuracy, or in conjunction with other methods to achieve the maximum level of accuracy.

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are a major contributor to tumor stromal crosstalk in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and boost tumor progression by promoting angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis. This study aimed to identify prognostic genes associated with CAFs that lead to high morbidity and mortality in ovarian cancer (OC) patients. We performed bioinformatics analysis in 16 multicenter studies (2,742 patients) and identified CAF-associated hub genes using the weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). A machine learning methodology was used to identify COL16A1, COL5A2, GREM1, LUM, SRPX, and TIMP3 and construct a prognostic signature. Subsequently, a series of bioinformatics algorithms indicated risk stratification based on the above signature, suggesting that high-risk patients have a worse prognosis, weaker immune response, and lower tumor mutational burden (TMB) status but may be more sensitive to routine chemotherapeutic agents. Finally, we characterized prognostic markers using cell lines, immunohistochemistry, and single-cell sequencing. In conclusion, these results suggest that the CAF-related signature may be a novel pretreatment guide for anti-CAFs, and prognostic markers in CAFs may be potential therapeutic targets to inhibit OC progression.

To compare computed tomography (CT) measurement results of external deviation angle of patellar tendon and tibia tubercle-trochlea groove (TT-TG), as well as the diagnostic ability and pathology in recurrent patellar dislocation threshold.From January 2015 to March 2020, 46 patients with recurrent patella dislocation and 112 patients with non-patella dislocation were retrospectively analyzed. Forty-six patients with recurrent patella dislocation were divived into 2 groups according to TT-TG value, 11 patients with patellar dislocation with TT-TG≥20 mm(group A), including 7 males and 4 females, aged from 16 to 27 years old with an average of(21.00±3.98) years old; 35 patients with patellar dislocation with TT-TG20 mm(group B), including 14 males and 21 females, aged from 16 to 37 years old with an average of(22.83±6.09) years old. While 112 patients with non-patella dislocation(group C) included 63 males and 49 females, aged 16 to 36 years old with an average of(22.87±5.69) years old. The measurement data of external deviation angle of patellar tendon and TT-TG value among three groups were compared. Spearman analysis was used to analyze correlation among them. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to determine repeatability within group. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) area under the curve was used to evaluate diagnostic ability of parameters, and calculate osteotomy parameters of external deviation angle of patellar tendon, as well as external deviation angle of patellar tendon and TT-TG value in the diagnosis of recurrent patella diagnostic parameters of dislocation.External deviation angle of patellar tendon in group A, B and C was (22.04±3.09)°, (17.20±4.43)°and (10.22±3.45)° respectively;while TT-TG value was(21.15±0.71) mm, (15.97±2.69) mm and (11.12±3.77) mm, there were significance among three groups (CT imaging could reliably measure external deviation angle of patellar tendon.There is a strong positive correlation between external deviation angle of patellar tendon and value of TT-TG, which could be used to determine pathological state of recurrent patellar dislocation, and external deviation angle of patellar tendon is superior to the TT-TG value in the diagnosis of recurrent patellar dislocation. The external deviation angle of patellar tendon could also be used to guide the formulation of the tibial osteotomy plan for recurrent patellar dislocation.

The safety and efficacy of intravenous insulin injection coupled with subsequent milk consumption was evaluated for high-quality cardiac viability F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) images. A total of 328 patients with known/suspected coronary artery disease received intravenous insulin injection with or without subsequent milk consumption for cardiac 18F-FDG imaging. When blood glucose levels had decreased by ≥ 20%, 18F-FDG was injected. Patients were scored for hypoglycemic symptoms using a 10-point scale (discomfort: 0, none; 1 to 3, mild; 4 to 6, moderate; 7 to 9, severe). An insulin-related hypoglycemic event was defined as an increased symptomatic score following insulin injection. The number of hypoglycemic events was significantly lower in the milk consumption group than in the group that did not (24/164 vs. 51/164, P

Background: The present limitations related to the ocular administration of antifungal drugs for the treatment of fungal keratitis include poor ocular bioavailability, limited retention time, and low ocular tissue penetration. Methods: This study aimed to prepare a novel ophthalmic voriconazole-loaded nanosuspension based on Eudragit RS 100. Pharmasolve® was explored as a corneal permeation enhancer in voriconazole ophthalmic formulation using in vitro and in vivo experiments. Briefly, 1% voriconazole-loaded nanosuspension was prepared using the quasi-emulsion solvent evaporation process. Results: Characterizations of the voriconazole-loaded nanosuspension by Zetasizer Nano ZS and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) showed a uniform spherical shape without any agglomeration. The well-discreted nanoparticle with a size of 138 ± 1.3 nm was achieved with high entrapment efficiency (98.6 ± 2.5%) and positive zeta potential in the range of 22.5-31.2mV, indicating excellent physical stability. Discussion: Voriconazole-loaded nanosuspension containing the penetration enhancer displayed good permeability both in vitro and in vivo compared with the commercial voriconazole injection. The voriconazole-loaded nanosuspension exhibited good antifungal activity, significantly inhibiting the growth of Candida albicans at a lower concentration of voriconazole (2.5μg/mL, p < 0.05). Conclusion: In conclusion, the voriconazole-loaded nanosuspension containing Pharmasolve® can be used as an effective ophthalmic formulation for the topical ocular delivery of voriconazole.

Studies have reported frequent downregulation of microRNA-125-5p (miR-125) in osteosarcoma tissues. However, the molecular role and mechanism of action of miR-125-5p in osteosarcoma via regulation ...

This study was aimed to assess effects of three strains of probiotics Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM, Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001, and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis Bi-07 on the intestin...

Long noncoding RNAs and microRNAs (miRNAs) are emerging biomarkers involved in human diseases, and we focused on the roles of long noncoding RNA taurine upregulated gene 1 (TUG1) and miR-30b-3p in the related mechanisms of atherosclerosis-induced myocardial injury. ApoE-deficient mice were fed with high-fat diet to establish atherosclerotic models and then were subjected to either TUG1 downregulation or miR-30b-3p upregulation treatment. The serum myocardial enzymes, inflammatory biomarkers, pathological changes, intramyocardial macrophage infiltration, and apoptosis of cardiomyocytes in atherosclerotic mice were determined. The expression of TUG1, miR-30b-3p, and bromodomain protein 4 (Brd4) in atherosclerotic models was evaluated. Moreover, the correlations of TUG1, miR-30b-3p, and Brd4 were verified. TUG1 and Brd4 were increased while miR-30b-3p was decreased in atherosclerotic mice. The silenced TUG1 or elevated miR-30b-3p attenuated atherosclerosis-induced myocardial injury mainly by reducing serum myocardial enzyme content and inflammatory response, improving pathological changes, and preventing macrophage infiltration and cardiomyocyte apoptosis in atherosclerotic mice. Mechanistically, TUG1 could competitively bind with miR-30b-3p to prevent the degradation of its target gene Brd4. This study reveals that the silencing of TUG1 ameliorates atherosclerosis-induced myocardial injury by upregulating miR-30b-3p and downregulating Brd4, which may provide novel targets for atherosclerosis treatment.

Background There has been no ideal treatment for freezing-phase frozen shoulder to rapidly relieve pain and improve joint mobility. No any other team directly compared the effectiveness of combination of arthroscopic release and corticosteroid hydrodilatation with corticosteroid hydrodilatation only in treatment of freezing-phase frozen shoulder. Methods Seventy-two patients with freezing-phase frozen shoulder were randomly assigned to combined arthroscopic release with corticosteroid hydrodilatation (group A) or corticosteroid hydrodilatation only (group B). Clinical states were examined at baseline and periodically (Weeks 1, 4, 12, 24 and 1 year) after intervention by passive ROM; visual analog scale (VAS); UCLA and Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) score. Results The passive ROM, VAS, UCLA and DASH scores always improved along the time points (all p p p p > 0.01), the differences between group A and group B were all lower than minimal clinically important difference (MCID). At Week 12, the UCLA sores and DASH scores were 26.8 ± 3.8, 14.2 ± 2.0 in group A versus 22.3 ± 3.4, 22.5 ± 3.1 in group B (all p p p Conclusions Combined arthroscopic release with corticosteroid hydrodilatation would yield better results in passive ROM and function than corticosteroid hydrodilatation only. Trial registration ChiCTR1900024235, July 2, 2019 (Retrospectively registered).

To verify the reliability of patellar tendon-trochlear groove angle (PTTG-A) measured by computed tomography (CT) and the clinical significance in evaluation of patellar instability.A retrospective study of hospitalized patients with knee pain or injury and had knee CT from January 2017 to June 2021 was performed. PTTG-A and tibial tuberosity-trochlear groove (TT-TG) distance were measured on CT. Spearman correlation analysis was analyzed between the 2 measurements. The intraclass correlation coefficient was determined for inter- and intraobserver reproducibility. The capacity of PTTG-A and TT-TG to predict patellar instability was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic curve. Data from the control group were used to determine the pathologic thresholds and logistic regression analysis.Included were 113 patients. There were 60 patients with the history of at least 2 episodes of patellar dislocation (study group) and 53 patients without a history of patellar dislocation (control group). The respective PTTG-A and TT-TG distances in the study group (35.2 ± 8.4° and 19.6 ± 4.6 mm) were significantly greater than those of the controls (20.8 ± 5.8° and 13.3 ± 4.5 mm) (P.001). The correlation between the 2 measurements was strong (r = 0.730, P.001). The inter- and intraobserver reliability of the PTTG-A were better than TT-TG distance in both groups. The AUC of PTTG-A was greater than that of the TT-TG distance (0.895 vs 0.769, respectively). With the cutoff value of PTTG-A and TT-TG being 26.3° and 16.3 mm, the value of the pathologic threshold of PTTG-A was 30.0°, with a dominance ratio of 16.88 (95% confidence interval 2.88-98.89, P = .002).The PTTG-A measured on a single CT slice of the distal femoral trochlear groove is a more reliable measurement than TT-TG distance for the prediction of patellar instability.III; A retrospective cohort study.

Fenobucarb (2-sec-butylphenyl methylcarbamate, BPMC) is an extensively used carbamate insecticide. Its developmental neurotoxicity and the underlying mechanisms have not been well investigated. In this study, zebrafish embryos were exposed to various concentrations of BPMC from 6 hpf (hours post fertilization, hpf) to 120 hpf. BPMC induced developmental toxicity with reduced motility in larval zebrafish. The spinal cord neutrophil infiltration, increased ROS production, caspase 3 and 9 activation, central nerve and peripheral motor neuron damage, axon and myelin degeneration were observed in zebrafish treated with BPMC generally in a dose-dependent manner. The expression of eight marker genes for nervous system function or development, namely, a1-tubulin, shha, elavl3, gap43, syn2a, gfap, mbp and manf, was significantly downregulated following BPMC exposure. AChE activity reduction and ache gene expression suppression was also found significantly in BPMC-treated zebrafish. These results indicate that BPMC is highly toxic to zebrafish and that BPMC induces zebrafish developmental neurotoxicity through pathways involved in inflammation, oxidative stress, degeneration and apoptosis.

An open-label, single-center, randomized controlled prospective trial was performed to assess the efficiency and safety of an insulin loading procedure to obtain high-quality cardiac 18F-FDG PET/CT images for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Between November 22, 2018 and August 15, 2019, 60 patients with CAD scheduled for cardiac 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging in our department were randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to receive an insulin or standardized glucose loading procedure for cardiac 18F-FDG imaging. The primary outcome was the ratio of interpretable images (high-quality images defined as myocardium-to-liver ratios ≥ 1). The secondary outcome was the patient preparation time (time interval between administration of insulin/glucose and 18F-FDG injection). Hypoglycemia events were recorded. The ratio of interpretable cardiac PET images in the insulin loading group surpassed the glucose loading group (30/30 vs. 25/30, P = 0.026). Preparation time was 71±2 min shorter for the insulin loading group than for the glucose loading group (P < 0.01). Two and six hypoglycemia cases occurred in the insulin and glucose loading groups, respectively. The insulin loading protocol was a quicker, more efficient, and safer preparation for gaining high-quality cardiac 18F-FDG images.

Clustering analysis has been widely used in image segmentation, face recognition, protein identification, intrusion detection, document clustering and so on. Most of the previous clustering algorithms are not suitable for complex situations with manifold structure and large variations in density. Clustering by density core (DCore) turns out to be a very effective clustering method for complex structure. However, DCore must set too many parameters for better results, which often fails when the shape of data is complex and the density of data varies too much. Inspired by universal gravitation, we propose a novel clustering algorithm (called DCLRF) based on density core and local resultant force. In this algorithm, each data point is viewed as an object with a local resultant force (LRF) generated by its neighbors and a local measure named centrality is proposed based on LRF and natural neighbors. Firstly, we extract core points using the CE value. Then, we use the natural neighbor structure information of core points to get the final clustering results. Excluding the influence of noise, core points can well represent the structure of clusters. Therefore, DCLRF can obtain the optimal cluster numbers for the datasets which contain clusters of arbitrary shapes. Both synthetic datasets and real datasets are used for experiments to verify the efficiency and accuracy of the DCLRF.

Background: The aberrant expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) can affect the occurrence and progression of various cancers, including osteosarcoma (OS), by regulation of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification. However, their interaction involved in the prognostic value of OS and tumor microenvironment remains unclear.Methods: We collected data from TCGA and GEO datasets. Using Pearson correlation, univariate, multivariate, LASSO Cox regression analyses, we identified the prognostic m6A-related lncRNAs and conducted the prognostic cluster and model. Survival analyses were used to analyze different clusters and models, respectively. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and independent prognosis analysis was used to evaluate the performance of the risk model. We also examined the relationship of the risk model and cluster with immune checkpoint (PD1 and CTLA-4) and tumor microenvironment (TME).Results: A total of 43 m6A-related lncRNAs have significant prognostic significance for OS patients. Patients of cluster 2 have a longer survival time than cluster 1. CD8+ T cells, resting NK cells, and Monocytes were highly inflamed tissues in cluster 2, while gamma delta T cells and M0 macrophages were lowly in cluster 1. Meantime, OS patients with lower prognosis scores had better overall survival status, and ROC curves proved that the risk model had better prognostic abilities with the area under the curve (AUC) of 0.938 and 0.924 in train and test datasets, respectively. The risk score of 17 m6A-related lncRNAs was identified as an independent risk factor for OS. Both PD1 and CTLA-4 were closely associated with m6A-related lncRNAs and prognostic scores. The risk score was higher in cluster 2, while cluster 1 had a lower purity of tumor cells and a higher density of immune-related cells in the TME. Conclusions: We established a new m6A-related lncRNAs prognostic biomarker that can predict the prognostic risk of OS was significantly linked with the OS tumor microenvironment.

Four undescribed flavonoid glucosides (iridins B-C, tectoridin A and ampelopsinin A); one undescribed phenolic glucoside (diplostephioside B); one undescribed phenolic compound (phenanthrenetriol A); and seventeen known compounds were isolated from the rhizomes of Iris domestica. The chemical structures of the undescribed compounds were established by spectroscopic/spectrometric data interpretation using HRESIMS, NMR, and ECD. Tectoridin A, nigricin A and naringenin exhibited anti-inflammatory activities with inhibition rates of 53.71%, 57.68% and 88.71%, respectively, against the NF-κB signaling pathway at a concentration of 10 μM. 4'-O-methylnyasol (10 μM) exhibited 84.91% antiproliferative activity against the K562 human leukemia cell line with an IC

Objective This study was undertaken to elucidate the mechanism of improved chondrocyte migration after juvenile articular cartilage fragmentation. Design In vitro organ culture with rabbit cartilage fragments and cell culture with rabbit chondrocytes were performed. In part A, minced juvenile cartilage fragments (~0.5 × 0.5 × 0.5 mm) from rabbits, planted in gelatin sponge and fibrin glue, were cultured for 2, 4, or 6 weeks in vitro and compared with the cartilage chunks (~4 × 4 × 1 mm) and membrane type 1 matrix metalloprotease (MT1-MMP) inhibitor groups. Chondrocyte outgrowth was evaluated on histology and confocal laser scanning microscopy. MT1-MMP expression was compared between the cartilage fragment group and the cartilage chunks group. In part B, articular chondrocytes were harvested from juvenile rabbits, MT1-MMP was transfected into the cells, and cell migration was evaluated using the Transwell and wound healing tests. Results The histology and confocal microscopy results revealed that cell accumulation occurred at the edge of cartilage fragments, and outgrowth was better in the cartilage fragment group than those in the cartilage chunks group. Similar results were observed for MT1-MMP expression. After MT1-MMP inhibition, cells did not accumulate at the edge of the cartilage fragments, and chondrocyte outgrowth did not occur. Furthermore, overexpression of MT1-MMP enhanced the migration of articular chondrocytes. Conclusions Juvenile articular cartilage fragmentation improved chondrocyte migration by upregulating MT1-MMP.

Background To investigate the effects of autologous meniscus fragment (AMF) implantation on injury in the meniscal avascular zone in mature rabbits. Methods Adult New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into two groups. Massive one-piece meniscus tissue was implanted in situ as control. In the experimental group, AMF was used to repair the meniscal injury in the avascular zone. Meniscal damage was assessed by gross observation of the degree of healing and histological semi-quantitative evaluation within 12 weeks postoperatively. The healing of meniscus interface was assessed by gross observation semiquantitative scoring and microscopic examination hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining at 2, 4, 8, and 12 weeks after surgery. The expressions of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), collagen type I (COL1A1), and collagen type II (COL2) were detected by immunohistochemical staining. Results The degree of healing in the AMF group showed a significant increase over time (P P P P P P Conclusions Our study demonstrated that the AMF method can promote the repair of rabbit meniscal injury in the avascular zone, and this method may potentially be used for clinical application.

Cluster analysis plays an important role in identifying the natural structure of the target dataset. It has been widely used in many fields, such as pattern recognition, machine learning, image segmentation, document clustering and so on. There are many different methods to conduct cluster analysis. Namely, most real datasets are non-spherical and have complex shapes. Although these methods are widely used to deal with clustering tasks, they are susceptible to noise and arbitrary shapes. Thus, we propose a novel clustering algorithm (called RNN-NSDC) in this paper, which is based on the natural reverse nearest neighbor structure. Firstly, we apply the reverse nearest neighbors in the algorithm to extract core objects. Secondly, our algorithm uses the neighbor structure information of core objects to cluster. And excluding noise effects, core sets can well represent the structure of clusters. Therefore, the RNN-NSDC can obtain the optimal cluster numbers for the datasets which contain clusters of outliers and arbitrary shapes. To verify the efficiency and accuracy of the RNN-NSDC, synthetic datasets and real datasets are used for experiments. The results indicate the superiority of the RNN-NSDC compared with K-means, DBSCAN, DPC, SNNDPC, DCore and NaNLORE.

Clinical trials have reported that a four-oil intravenous lipid emulsion (SMOFlipid) play a positive role in immune function, but showed inconsistent outcomes compared to other lipid emulsions. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of SMOFlipid on liver function, triglycerides (TG), inflammatory markers, and clinical outcomes in hospitalized adults after short-term use compared to others. A search of the PubMed, Medline, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang databases was performed to identify the included randomized controlled trials. Trials with adults who were administrated a short-term course of SMOFlipid were included. A meta-analysis on liver function markers, TG, inflammatory markers, and clinical outcomes was conducted. A total of 18 randomized controlled trials with 1188 patients were included. Compared to other lipid emulsions, SMOFlipid was associated with a significant reduction in ALT, AST, γ-glutamyltransferase, total bilirubin, TG, C-reactive protein and length of hospital stay. No effect on serum interleukin-6 levels or adverse events were observed. For adult patients, our meta-analysis indicated that SMOFlipid may be beneficial to the liver and prone to prevent hyperlipidemia. The SMOFlipid also shortened length of hospital stay.

The safety and efficacy of intravenous insulin injection coupled with subsequent milk consumption was evaluated for high-quality cardiac viability F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (A total of 328 patients with known/suspected coronary artery disease received intravenous insulin injection with or without subsequent milk consumption for cardiacIntravenous insulin injection supplemented with subsequent milk consumption is a safer formulation for cardiac viability

BACKGROUND: Cardiac flow closely interact with function, however, the correlation of right ventricular (RV) flow and function remains unknown, thus our objective is to observe right ventricular flow with four-dimensional phase-contrast cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (4D flow CMR) in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and to analyze flow components with RV function and hemodynamics. METHODS: This study retrospectively enrolled 30 patients with PAH (mean age: 49±13 years, 16 females) and 14 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers as controls (mean age: 44±12 years, 9 females). All patients who underwent CMR and right heart catheterization (RHC) within 1 week between January 2019 and July 2020 were included. Hemodynamics were measured with RHC. RV flow components, including the percentages of direct flow (RVPDF), retained inflow (RVPRI), delayed ejection flow (RVPDEF) and residual volume (RVPRVo) were quantified using 4D flow CMR. The associations between RV flow components and other CMR metrics, clinical data, and hemodynamics were analyzed by Spearman’s correlation analysis. RESULTS: In patients with PAH, RVPDF was decreased and RVPRVo was increased compared with the normal control group. The sum of RVPDF and RVPDEF RV was significantly correlated with RV ejection fraction (RVEF) (r=0.802, P

This study was undertaken to elucidate the clinical significance of widening of the popliteal hiatus on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) after a torn discoid lateral meniscus (DLM). Included are 125 knees with meniscal disorders after arthroscopic surgery, divided according to preoperative MRI and symptoms into group A (torn DLM with mechanical symptoms,11 knees); group B (torn DLM without mechanical symptoms,41 knees); group C (asymptomatic DLM, 19 knees); and group D (medial meniscal tears, 54 knees). Popliteal hiatus width was measured on sagittal and coronal MRI. During arthroscopy, total meniscectomy or central partial meniscectomy combined repair of the remaining part was performed in group A and group B. Outcomes were evaluated with MRI, the Tegner, Lysholm Knee Scoring Scale, and visual analog scale (VAS) scores. The preoperative width of the popliteal hiatus was significantly larger in group A than in groups C and D (P

An open-label, single-center, randomized controlled prospective trial was performed to assess the efficiency and safety of an insulin loading procedure to obtain high-quality cardiacBetween November 22, 2018 and August 15, 2019, 60 patients with CAD scheduled for cardiacThe ratio of interpretable cardiac PET images in the insulin loading group surpassed the glucose loading group (30/30 vs. 25/30, P = 0.026). Preparation time was 71±2 min shorter for the insulin loading group than for the glucose loading group (P0.01). Two and six hypoglycemia cases occurred in the insulin and glucose loading groups, respectively.The insulin loading protocol was a quicker, more efficient, and safer preparation for gaining high-quality cardiac

We established an effective finite element model of knee joint for observation of stress and displacement of meniscus related changes after medial meniscus injury. Different types of medial meniscus injury can lead to varied meniscus stress and displacement changes. Stress and displacement concentration were found in fissure tip of meniscus tear compared to normal meniscus. The posterior horn injury of medial meniscus may initiate combined injury of medial meniscus posterior horn (MMPH) and that of medial meniscus body, and combined injury of MMPH and that of lateral meniscus anterior horn; fissure expansions regarding horizontal fissure, longitudinal fissure and grip-shaped fissure of MMPH were spotted.

Aims Astragaloside IV (AS-IV) is the central active component extracted from Radix astragali, an herbal remedy widely used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Aberrant proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is closely involved in the initiation and progression of cardiovascular complications, such as atherosclerosis. Here we investigated whether AS-IV inhibited agonist-induced vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) proliferation and the underlying mechanism. Main methods Quiescent cultured A10 cells (adult rat VSMCs) were treated with Angiotensin II (AngII) or AngII plus AS-IV for 48 h. The growth rate of A10 cells was analyzed by CCK8 assay. RT-PCR analysis was carried out to examine the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), an important phenotypic modulation marker. In addition, whether the interference of AS-IV on AngII-mediated growth of VSMCs via regulation of cell cycle was evaluated by flow cytometry. In order to explore the role of cell cycle machinery, we measured kinase activity of CDK2 by Kinase assay and the protein level of Cdc25 by western blot, respectively. Key findings These data suggested that AS-IV exerted beneficial effects on AngII -induced abnormal growth in rat VSMCs through disturbing cell cycle, especially block G1/S transition by attenuating CDK2 activity, which may hinder the process of pathological vascular remodeling during atherosclerosis.

Harmonizing the style of all the furniture placed within a constrained space/scene is an important principle for interior design. In this paper, we propose a furniture style compatibility recommendation approach for users to create a harmonic 3D virtual scene based on 2D furniture photos. Most previous works of 3D model style analysis measure the style similarity or compatibility based on predefined geometric features extracted from 3D models. However, “style” is a high-level semantic concept, which is difficult to be described explicitly by hand-crafted geometric features. Moreover, analyzing the style compatibility between two or more furniture belonging to different classes (e.g., table and lamp) is much more challenging since the given furniture may have very distinctive structures or geometric elements. Recently, deep neural network has been claimed to have more powerful ability to mimic the perception of human visual cortex, and therefore we propose to analyze style compatibility between 3D furniture models of different classes based on a Cross-Class Triplet Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). We conducted experiments based on a collected dataset containing 420 textured 3D furniture models. A group of raters were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) to evaluate the comparative suitability of paired models within the dataset. The experimental results reveal that the proposed furniture style compatibility method based on deep learning performs better than the state-of-the-art method and can be used to efficiently generate harmonic virtual scenes.

The Ge-Yb binary system was thermodynamically assessed by CALPHAD (CALculation of PHAse Diagram) approach based on the available experimental data of thermochemical properties and phase equilibria....

Magnetic anisotropic CeCo5 nanoflakes with nominated compositions of CeCo4.5Cu0.5Fe0.5 were prepared by surfactant assistant high-energy ball milling (SA-HEBM) with oleic acid as the surfactant and...

In the present work, a series of low-temperature firing scheelite structured microwave dielectric in water-insoluble La2O3–Nb2O5–V2O5 system was prepared via the traditional solid-state reaction method. Backscattering electron diffraction, X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive analysis, and Rietveld refinements were performed to study the phase evolution and crystal structure. In the full composition range of (1 – x)LaNbO4–xLaVO4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.9) ceramics, at least four typical phase regions including monoclinic fergusonite, tetragonal sheelite, B-site ordered sheelite, and composite of monoclinic LaVO4 and tetragonal sheelite phases can be detected according to XRD analysis. The variations of relative dielectric constant er, quality factor Q × f, and resonant frequency τf could be attributed to Nb/V–O bond ionicity, lattice energy, and the coefficient of thermal expansion. Infrared reflectivity spectra analysis revealed that ion polarization contributed mainly to the permittivity in microwave frequenci...

Novel high quality factor microwave dielectric ceramics (1−x)ZrTiO4−x(Mg1/3Nb2/3)TiO4 (0.325≤x≤0.4) and (ZrTi)1−y(Mg1/3Nb2/3)yO4 (0.2≤y≤0.5) with the addition of 0.5 wt% MnCO3 in the (Mg1/3Nb2/3)O2–ZrO2–TiO2 ternary system were prepared, using solid-state reaction method. The relationship between the structure and microwave dielectric properties of the ceramics was studied. The XRD patterns of the sintered samples reveal the main phase belonged to α-PbO2-type structure. Raman spectroscopy and infrared reflectivity (IR) spectra were employed to evaluate phonon modes of ceramics. The 0.65ZrTiO4−0.35(Mg1/3Nb2/3)TiO4−0.5 wt% MnCO3 ceramic can be well densified at 1240°C for 2 hours and exhibits good microwave dielectric properties with a relative permittivity (er) of 42.5, a quality factor (Q×f) value of 43 520 GHz (at 5.9 Ghz) and temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τf) value of −5ppm/°C. Furthermore, the (ZrTi)0.7(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.3O4−0.5 wt% MnCO3 ceramic sintered at 1260°C for 2 hours possesses a er of 31.8, a Q×f value of 35 640 GHz (at 6.3 GHz) and a near zero τf value of −5.9 ppm/°C. The results demonstrated that the (Mg1/3Nb2/3)O2–ZrO2–TiO2 ternary system with excellent properties was a promising material for microwave electronic device applications.

Conventional mammalian ischemic stroke models for drug screening are technically challenging, laborious and time-consuming. In this study, using Ponatinib as an inducer, we developed and characterized a zebrafish ischemic stroke model. This zebrafish ischemic stroke had the cerebral vascular endothelial injury, thrombosis, reduced blood flow, inflammation and apoptosis as well as the reduced motility. The zebrafish ischemic stroke model was validated with 6 known human therapeutic drugs of ischemic stroke (Aspirin, Clopidogrel, Naoxintong capsules, Edaravone, Xingnaojing injection, Shuxuening injection). The mRNA levels of the neovascularization-related gene (vegfaa) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor gene (VEGFR), neurodevelopment related genes (mbp and α1-tubulin), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and glial cell derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) were significantly downregulated; whereas apoptosis-related genes (caspase-3, caspase-7, caspase-9 and bax/bcl-2), and inflammatory factor genes (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α and NF-κB) were remarkably upregulated in the model. These results suggest that the pathophysiology of Ponatinib-induced zebrafish ischemic stroke is similar to that of human ischemic stroke patients and this whole animal model could be used to study the complex cellular and molecular pathogenesis of ischemic stroke and to rapidly identify therapeutic agents.