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Near‐infrared (NIR) photonic materials find extensive applications across important fields such as telecommunications, laser radar, and atmospheric remote sensing. In particular, photonic materials activated by main group elements, which exhibit unique spectral features including ultra‐broadband tunable luminescence and long lifetime, have become rising stars in NIR emitting dopants. In this review, the energy level characteristics of the p‐electrons to gain insight into the fundamentals of the NIR optical response from the main group elements are first introduced. Next, the NIR luminescence properties of the main group elements are discussed. Then, the strategy for the design of main group elements activated materials with the desired properties based on local chemical environment engineering is proposed. In addition, recent advances in the applications of main group element (excluding bismuth) activated materials are highlighted. Furthermore, the key scientific issues that urgently need to be solved for such materials, such as the detailed luminescence mechanism are highlighted. Anticipation also extends to the future research trends in this exciting field, including the ways for enhancing luminescence efficiency and extending spectral region, and the efforts for implementing these advancements in novel cutting‐edge technologies like photovoltaics and biomedicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To evaluate the role of Piezo1 in the malocclusion‐induced osteoarthritic cartilage of the temporomandibular joint. Methods: A temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis model was established using a unilateral anterior crossbite in vivo, and cartilage degeneration and Piezo1 expression were observed by histological and immunohistochemical staining. ATDC5 cells were loaded with 24 dyn/cm2 fluid flow shear stress using the Flexcell device in vitro and expression and function of Piezo1 were evaluated. After identifying the function of Piezo1 in YAP translocation under FFSS conditions, the influence of Piezo1 and YAP on metabolism‐related enzymes under FFSS was detected through a real‐time polymerase chain reaction analysis and western blotting. A UAC‐TMJ injection model was established to observe the therapeutic effect of intra‐articular injection of a Piezo1 inhibitor on osteoarthritic cartilage matrix loss. Results: Piezo1 was overexpressed in the osteoarthritic cartilage and cultured chondrocytes under shear stress. Piezo1 Silencing inhibited the nuclear translocation of YAP and subsequently downregulated the expression of MMP13 and ADAMTS5. Intra‐articular injection of the Piezo1 inhibitor, GsMTx4, could ameliorate proteoglycan degradation in malocclusion‐induced TMJOA and suppressed MMP13 and ADAMTS5 expression. Conclusions: Our results revealed that the activation of Piezo1 promotes mechanical‐induced cartilage degradation through the YAP‐MMP13/ADAMTS5 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vitamin D receptor (VDR) is a transcription factor that mediates a variety of biological functions of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3. Although there is growing evidence of cytological and animal studies supporting the suppressive role of VDR in cancers, the conclusion is still controversial in human cancers and no systematic pan-cancer analysis of VDR is available. We explored the relationships between VDR expression and prognosis, immune infiltration, tumor microenvironment, or gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) in 33 types of human cancers based on multiple public databases and R software. Meanwhile, the expression and role of VDR were experimentally validated in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). VDR expression decreased in 8 types and increased in 12 types of cancer compared with normal tissues. Increased expression of VDR was associated with either good or poor prognosis in 13 cancer types. VDR expression was positively correlated with the infiltration of cancer-associated fibroblasts, macrophages, or neutrophils in 20, 12, and 10 cancer types respectively and this correlation was experimentally validated in PTC. Increased VDR expression was associated with increased percentage of stromal or immune components in tumor microenvironment (TME) in 24 cancer types. VDR positively and negatively correlated genes were enriched in immune cell function and energy metabolism pathways, respectively, in the top 9 highly lethal tumors. Additionally, VDR expression was increased in PTC and inhibited cell proliferation and migration. In conclusion, VDR is a potential prognostic biomarker and positively correlated with immune infiltration as well as stromal or immune components in TME in multiple human cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicone-based elastomers (SEs) have been extensively applied in numerous cutting-edge areas, including flexible electronics, biomedicine, 5G smart devices, mechanics, optics, soft robotics, etc. However, traditional strategies for the synthesis of polymer elastomers, such as bulk polymerization, suspension polymerization, solution polymerization, and emulsion polymerization, are inevitably restricted by long-time usage, organic solvent additives, high energy consumption, and environmental pollution. Here, we propose a Joule heating chemistry method for ultrafast universal fabrication of SEs with configurable porous structures and tunable components (e.g., graphene, Ag, graphene oxide, TiO2, ZnO, Fe3O4, V2O5, MoS2, BN, g-C3N4, BaCO3, CuI, BaTiO3, polyvinylidene fluoride, cellulose, styrene-butadiene rubber, montmorillonite, and EuDySrAlSiOx) within seconds by only employing H2O as the solvent. The intrinsic dynamics of the in situ polymerization and porosity creation of these SEs have been widely investigated. Notably, a flexible capacitive sensor made from as-fabricated silicone-based elastomers exhibits a wide pressure range, fast responses, long-term durability, extreme operating temperatures, and outstanding applicability in various media, and a wireless human-machine interaction system used for rescue activities in extreme conditions is established, which paves the way for more polymer-based material synthesis and wider applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabolic modeling and machine learning (ML) are crucial components of the evolving next-generation tools in systems and synthetic biology, aiming to unravel the intricate relationship between genotype, phenotype, and the environment. Nonetheless, the comprehensive exploration of integrating these two frameworks, and fully harnessing the potential of fluxomic data, remains an unexplored territory. In this study, we present, rigorously evaluate, and compare ML-based techniques for data integration. The hybrid model revealed that the overexpression of six target genes and the knockout of seven target genes contribute to enhanced ethanol production. Specifically, we investigated the influence of succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) on ethanol biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae through shake flask experiments. The findings indicate a noticeable increase in ethanol yield, ranging from 6 % to 10 %, in SDH subunit gene knockout strains compared to the wild-type strain. Moreover, in pursuit of a high-yielding strain for ethanol production, dual-gene deletion experiments were conducted targeting glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD) and SDH. The results unequivocally demonstrate significant enhancements in ethanol production for the engineered strains Δsdh4Δgpd1, Δsdh5Δgpd1, Δsdh6Δgpd1, Δsdh4Δgpd2, Δsdh5Δgpd2, and Δsdh6Δgpd2, with improvements of 21.6 %, 27.9 %, and 22.7 %, respectively. Overall, the results highlighted that integrating mechanistic flux features substantially improves the prediction of gene knockout strains not accounted for in metabolic reconstructions. In addition, the finding in this study delivers valuable tools for comprehending and manipulating intricate phenotypes, thereby enhancing prediction accuracy and facilitating deeper insights into mechanistic aspects within the field of synthetic biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glass ceramics may exhibit enhanced functionalities compared to the glass and crystal counterparts due to the synergistic effect with the "1+1 > 2" feature in a cooperative manner. Nonlinear optical property is expected to be next breakthrough in presenting synergistic effect in glass ceramics. In this article, we give a comprehensive review of the recent progress of the development in nonlinear glass ceramics with unique photonic domain structure, emphasizing their synergistic effect in nonlinear response. The applications in photonics of the nonlinear glass ceramics are also described. Finally, we also present the opportunities and challenges for further exploring synergistic effect in nonlinear response in glass ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of a high-fidelity simulation model for heating systems is crucial for practical guidance, as it serves predictive and evaluative purposes, offering accurate references for the operational management of actual engineering projects, thereby minimizing resource and cost wastage. This study, utilizing the Transient System Simulation Program (TRNSYS) software and focusing on an electric boiler water storage heating system in an elementary school, has developed a high-fidelity simulation model. Multiple TRNSYS (Types) modules were independently programmed, and the model's stability and precision were verified through error analysis. The model is capable of dynamically simulating the changes in supply and return water temperatures on both the storage and usage sides of the system under varying external environmental conditions and hydraulic states, achieving synchronous computation of the thermal and hydraulic characteristics of the heating system. The comparison and analysis of the temperature measurements at various system points against actual collected data revealed an average relative error of less than 5% across these measurements, indicating the simulation model's high accuracy and operational stability. It accurately and reliably reflects the thermal dynamics of the heating system, providing a reliable reference for practical application. This model is applicable for guiding the operational management of actual engineering projects and offers a scientific basis for subsequent system design and optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The constant interplay and information exchange between cells and the microenvironment are essential to their survival and ability to execute biological functions. To date, a few leading technologies such as traction force microscopy, optical/magnetic tweezers, and molecular tension-based fluorescence microscopy are broadly used in measuring cellular forces. However, the considerable limitations, regarding the sensitivity and ambiguities in data interpretation, are hindering our thorough understanding of mechanobiology. Here, we propose an innovative approach, namely, quantum-enhanced diamond molecular tension microscopy (QDMTM), to precisely quantify the integrin-based cell adhesive forces. Specifically, we construct a force-sensing platform by conjugating the magnetic nanotags labeled, force-responsive polymer to the surface of a diamond membrane containing nitrogen-vacancy centers. Notably, the cellular forces will be converted into detectable magnetic variations in QDMTM. After careful validation, we achieved the quantitative cellular force mapping by correlating measurement with the established theoretical model. We anticipate our method can be routinely used in studies like cell-cell or cell-material interactions and mechanotransduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf nitrogen content (LNC) is an important index to measure the nitrogen deficiency in cotton. The rapid and accurate monitoring of LNC is of great significance for understanding the growth status of cotton and guiding precise fertilization in the field. At present, the hyperspectral technology monitoring of LNC is very mature, but it is interfered with by external factors such as shadow and soil, and data acquisition is still dependent on manpower. Therefore, on the basis of clarifying the correlation and quantitative relationship between physiological parameters and cotton LNC, the 400-2500 nm spectral curve was simulated based on PROSPECT-5 model. Combined with the measured spectra, the sensitive bands of leaf nitrogen content were screened, and four machine learning algorithms based on the reflectance of the sensitive bands were compared to construct a model for the estimation of LNC in cotton and determine the optimal model. The results show the following: (1) The parameter with the best correlation with nitrogen content was Cab, and the linear relationship was y=0.3942x+12.521, R2=0.81, RMSE=12.87 g/kg. (2) The shuffled frog leaping algorithm (SFLA) and the successive projections algorithm (SPA) were used to screen the relevant bands sensitive to LNC. SFLA selected nine characteristic bands, mainly distributed between 700 and 750 nm. SPA screened seven characteristic bands, mainly distributed between 670 and 760 nm. The characteristic bands of both screening methods were distributed near the red edge. (3) Based on the sensitive bands, the four machine learning algorithms were compared. Among them, the band modeling of SFLA screening under the random forest (RF) algorithm was the best (modeling set R2=0.973, RMSE=1.001 g/kg, rRMSE=3.41%, validation set R2=0.803, RMSE=3.191 g/kg, rRMSE=10.85%). In summary, this study proposes an optimal estimation model of cotton leaf nitrogen content based on the radiative transfer model, which provides a theoretical basis for the dynamic, accurate, and non-destructive monitoring of cotton leaf nitrogen content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] We perform a lattice QCD calculation of the η c → 2 γ decay width using a model-independent method that requires no momentum extrapolation of the off-shell form factors. This method also provides a straightforward and simple way to examine the finite-volume effects. The calculation is accomplished using N f = 2 twisted mass fermion ensembles. The statistically significant excited-state effects are observed and eliminated using a multi-state fit. The impact of fine-tuning the charm quark mass is also examined and confirmed to be well-controlled. Finally, using three lattice spacings for the continuum extrapolation, we obtain the decay width Γ η c γ γ = 6.67 (16) stat (6) syst keV, which differs significantly from the Particle Data Group's reported value of Γ η c γ γ = 5.4 (4) keV (2.9 σ tension). We provide insight into the comparison between our findings, previous theoretical predictions, and experimental measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a high recurrence rate even after radical surgery. Postoperative adjuvant transhepatic arterial chemoembolization (PA-TACE), postoperative adjuvant hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (PA-HAIC), postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy (PA-RT), and postoperative adjuvant molecular targeted therapy have been demonstrated to be effective in reducing the postoperative recurrence rate. The present network meta-analysis was conducted to compare the effects of PA-TACE, PA-HAIC, PA-RT and postoperative adjuvant molecular targeted therapy on the overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in HCC patients after radical resection and to determine the optimal treatment strategy. Methods: Network meta-analysis was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were used to collect eligible studies up to December 25, 2022. Studies related to PA-TACE, PA-HAIC, and postoperative adjuvant molecular targeted therapy after radical HCC resection was included. The endpoints were OS and DFS, and the effect size was determined using hazard ratio with a 95% confidence interval. R software and "gemtc" package were employed to analyze the results. Results: A total of 38 studies involving 7079 patients with HCC after radical resection were ultimately enrolled to be analyzed. Four postoperative adjuvant therapy measures and two oncology indicators were evaluated. In this study, OS-related investigations validated that PA-Sorafenib and PA-RT markedly enhanced the OS rates in patients after radical resection when compared to PA-TACE and PA-HAIC. However, statistical analysis revealed no significant difference between PA-Sorafenib and PA-RT, as well as PA-TACE and PA-HAIC. In the DFS-related investigations, PA-RT demonstrated superior efficacy over PA-Sorafenib, PA-TACE, and PA-HAIC. Additionally, PA-Sorafenib displayed better efficacy than PA-TACE. Nevertheless, there was no statistical significance between PA-Sorafenib and PA-HAIC, as well as PA-TACE and PA-HAIC. We also performed a subgroup analysis of studies focusing on HCC complicated by microvascular invasion after radical resection. In terms of OS, both PA-RT and PA-Sorafenib demonstrated a noteworthy improvement over PA-TACE, whereas no statistical significance was detected between PA-RT and PA-Sorafenib. Likewise, for DFS, both PA-Sorafenib and PA-RT exhibited superior efficacy compared to PA-TACE. Conclusion: In patients with HCC after radical resection and a high risk of recurrence, both PA-Sorafenib and PA-RT significantly improved OS and DFS when compared to PA-TACE and PA-HAIC. Notably, PA-RT exhibited superior efficacy over PA-Sorafenib, PA-TACE, and PA-HAIC in terms of DFS. Similarly, PA-Sorafenib appeared to be more effective than PA-TACE for DFS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a miniaturized bandpass filter based on low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology is proposed. The miniaturization is achieved by two double folded substrate integrated waveguide (DFSIW) resonant cavities. By interconnecting LTCC three-dimensional structure, the resonant cavities can be stacked vertically. Compared with the conventional SIW filter, the size is reduced by 75.6%. The experimental results show that the low insertion loss and good selectivity are achieved. The proposed miniaturized bandpass filter is promising for 5G application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Studies have shown long non-coding RNAs to be involved in a wide array of cancer-related processes. This study analyzed the role of LncRNA GAL1 in osteosarcoma cancer proliferation, migration and invasion of cancer cells. Material and methods: The qRT-PCR technique was used to determine the expression of GASL1. MTT assay was performed for analysis of cell viability. Migration of cancer cells was monitored by wound healing assay. Transwell assay was used for analysis of cancer cell invasion. Western blotting was performed for determination of protein expression levels. Results: The results showed that GASL1 exhibits lower expression in osteosarcoma tissues and cell lines than normal surroundings tissues and osteoblasts respectively. GASL1 overexpression resulted in a decline of cancer cell viability as revealed by MTT and colony formation assays. The migration and invasion of cancer cells decreased remarkably when GASL1 was overexpressed in cancer cells. GASL1 over-expression also affected the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and promoted cell apoptosis. The anticancer effects of GASL1 overexpression were found to be mediated via the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. GASL1 was seen to play an inhibitory role in PI3K and Akt phosphorylation. Conclusions: Long ncRNA GASL1 inhibits the growth of osteosarcoma cancer cells. Cell apoptosis was promoted via inactivation of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. Taken together LncRNA GAL1 may prove to be a beneficial therapeutic target in the treatment of osteosarcoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photosynthetic bacteria wastewater treatment is an efficient water pollution treatment method, but photosynthetic bacteria fermentation is a multivariable, non-linear, and time-varying process. So it is difficult to establish an accurate model. Aiming at the difficulty of online measurement of key parameters, such as bacterial concentration and matrix concentration in photosynthetic bacteria fermentation process, an improved ant colony algorithm least squares support vector machine (AC-LSSVM) soft sensing model method is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the virtual sensing subsystem of the photosynthetic bacteria fermentation process is proposed, with measurable parameters as input and unmeasurable key parameters as output, and the left inverse soft sensing model of virtual sensing is constructed. Then, the ant colony algorithm can quickly find the shortest path to optimize the parameters of the traditional PI regulation, to improve the dynamic performance and accuracy of parameter measurement in the fermentation process. After that, the ant colony algorithm is used to optimize penalty parameters C and kernel parameters σ of LSSVM, which effectively avoids the local optimization and improves the computing power and global optimization ability. Finally, the soft sensing prediction model of the photosynthetic bacteria fermentation process based on AC-LSSVM is established. Compared with SVM and LSSVM prediction models, the root mean square error of bacterial concentration and matrix concentration based on the AC-LSSVM model are 0.468 and 0.126, respectively. The simulation analysis shows that this model has less error and better prediction ability, and it can meet the needs of online prediction of key parameters of photosynthetic bacteria fermentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the enhancement of flow boiling heat transfer and improvement of flow instability due to the porous surface modification and channel section expansion, which is a hot research issue. The two-phase cooling system offers a potential solution for dissipating a large amount of heat at a very small area. There are too many articles on enhancing flow boiling heat transfer on smooth (non-coating) straight and divergent heat exchangers, however, all of them ignored the effect of the surface characterizations such as micro porous coating which is very significant parameter when presented and discussed the flow boiling results. Therefore, the major novelty of the current work is to improve the heat transfer performance of the heat exchanger by applying micro porous coatings on the linear and divergent heat exchangers as well as it aims at further understanding the effect of micro porous coatings under low and high heat flux conditions. The micro porous coatings were fabricated by spraying method with average particle size of 25 µm and having optimum thickness of 150 µm using FC-72 as a working fluid. The test results show that the micro porous coatings increase the active cavities, decrease the required vapour superheat, enhance the liquid replenishment to the heating surface, delay the dry-out phenomena, and decrease the vapour release resistance, and therefore, better enhancement in the performance of the system and critical heat flux up to 20% and 61% respectively. It was also observed that applying micro porous coating led to decrease thermal resistance by 35%. Moreover, the results depict that for the straight channel micro-micro-heat exchanger, the geometry of the flow path is very simple, and therefore, the pressure drop is very small compared to the divergent heat exchanger. For the divergent micro-heat exchanger, the pressure drops are higher than that of the straight channel micro-heat exchanger at varies vapor qualities since the fluid is distributed in the different flow channels, and this leads to higher pressure drops loss compared with the straight flow channels. In addition, the test results show that the flow boiling HTC and CHF are affected by the geometric configurations, i.e. the ability of increasing the heat transfer area, the ability to release the bubbles to the outlet of the channels, reducing the back flow, and delaying the dryness phenomena (CHF). For linear flow-channel surface, a stratified flow state of vapour in the upper layer and the liquid in the lower layer under low and high heat fluxes conditions dominates. For the divergent flow-channel surface, the results show that under low heat flux condition, the bubbles generated are easy to move downstream of the flow channel, and there is no bubbles backflow phenomenon, but under high heat flux condition, the backflow phenomena occurs on the uncoated divergent-flow channel surface. However, attributing to the capillary action on the micro porous layer surface, the liquid can rewet the surface, and this enhances the flow boiling HTC as well as this delay the CHF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using evidence from 667 Chinese enterprises over the period 2013 to 2018, this study examines whether corporate internationalization improves the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate financial performance (CFP). Specifically, we define CSR along the dimensions of shareholder, employee, supply chain, environment and society. The change in the relationship between CSR and CFP in the context of internationalization was studied systematically using regression analysis. The study’s results indicate that corporate internationalization exercises a significant and negative moderating effect on the relationship between shareholder-oriented CSR and CFP across the whole sample. In addition, corporate internationalization significantly moderates the relationship between different dimensions of CSR and CFP when the sample is further divided into labor-intensive, capital-intensive and technology-intensive enterprises; and that such moderating impacts vary across the three subsets of enterprises. The findings can suggest to managers in different industries which dimensions of CSR activities are likely to improve CFP in the context of corporate internationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis is a major cause of ischemic stroke, accounting for 30% of ischemic strokes in Asian populations. Purpose: To investigate the relationship between the degree of arterial stenosis and enhancement grade of intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD), the plaque characteristics in different remodeling patterns, and its potential impact. Material and Methods: A total of 210 patients diagnosed with ICAD were enrolled in this retrospective study. Patients were divided into the middle cerebral artery (MCA) group (101 cases), posterior cerebral artery (PCA) group (14 cases), basilar artery (BA) group (71 cases), and intracranial segment of vertebral artery (VA) group (90 cases) according to the difference of diseased vessels. Data on presence or absence of ischemic infarction, intracranial vascular position of lesions, plaque characteristics, ICAD enhancement grade, remodeling index, and degree of arterial stenosis were collected for analysis. Results: The incidence of ischemic infarction in enhancement grade 2 was significantly higher than that in enhancement grade 1 in MCA group (P = 0.019). Enhancement grade 2 of ICAD was an independent risk factor for the development of ischemic infarction (odds ratio = 4.60; 95% confidence interval: 1.91–11.03; P = 0.001). There was no significant statistical difference in infarct rate between different remodeling modalities (P >0.05). Conclusion: Enhancement grade of ICAD is significantly associated with the degree of stenosis and the occurrence of ischemic stroke, which varies in different intracranial vessels. The pattern of vascular remodeling varies among different intracranial vessels, and the pattern of vascular remodeling has a significant impact on plaque characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porous regenerated cellulose microspheres (RCMs) have attracted increasing attention due to their wide range of applications from medical carriers to environmental remediation. Here, porous RCMs were synthesized for adsorption of cationic methylene blue dye using a simple emulsification-acid coagulation-oven-drying technique after dissolving pulp cellulose with a degree of polymerization (DP) of approximately 1500 in tetraethylammonium hydroxide (TEAOH)/urea solvents at room temperature. The RCMs with controllable size (20 to 224 μm) and high pore volume (8.24 to 10.20 mL/g) were prepared by varying the dosage of the surfactant polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate (polysorbate 80). Moreover, the viscosity of the cellulose solution steadily decreased with storage time due to the decrease in cellulose DP, but the effect on the particle size and morphology of RCMs was negligible, which could be advantageous to the scalable production of RCMs. When used as an adsorbent for cationic methylene blue dye removal, it showed high adsorption efficiency (1 h to achieve equilibrium, 24.5 mg/g), stability, recyclability, and reusability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the clinical efficacy and immune function of Daratumumab combined with chemotherapy in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). Methods: Eighty patients with RRMM treated in Xingtai People’s Hospital from January, 2020 to December, 2021 were randomly divided into two groups. Patients in the study group were treated with Daratumumab combined with PAD regimen, while patients in the control group were provided with PAD regimen alone. Further comparison was performed on the therapeutic effects, adverse drug reactions, the levels of T lymphocyte subsets CD3+, CD4+, CD8+ and CD4+ /CD8+, the positive expression rate of CD38 and the expression level of Notch-1 on the membrane of plasma cells between the two groups. Results: The overall response rate in the study group (67.50%) was significantly better than that in the control group (45.00%). There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups. After treatment, the reviewed levels of CD3+, CD4+ and CD4+ /CD8+ were obviously higher in the study group than those in the control group, while the positive expression rate of CD38 and the expression level of Notch one on the membrane of plasma cells were both lower than those in the control group (p<0.05). Conclusion: Daratumumab combined with a PAD regimen is a safe and effective approach that has a definite curative effect on patients with RRMM, which can improve immune function significantly and result in no significant increase in adverse reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging WiFi Round Trip Time measured by the IEEE 802.11mc standard promised sub-meter-level accuracy for WiFi-based indoor positioning systems, under the assumption of an ideal line-of-sight path to the user. However, most workplaces with furniture and complex interiors cause the wireless signals to reflect, attenuate, and diffract in different directions. Therefore, detecting the non-line-of-sight condition of WiFi Access Points is crucial for enhancing the performance of indoor positioning systems. To this end, we propose a novel feature selection algorithm for non-line-of-sight identification of the WiFi Access Points. Using the WiFi Received Signal Strength and Round Trip Time as inputs, our algorithm employs multi-scale selection and Machine Learning-based weighting methods to choose the most optimal feature sets. We evaluate the algorithm on a complex campus WiFi dataset to demonstrate a detection accuracy of 93% for all 13 Access Points using 34 out of 130 features and only 3 s of test samples at any given time. For individual Access Point line-of-sight identification, our algorithm achieved an accuracy of up to 98%. Finally, we make the dataset available publicly for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Lupenone (LUP) is the active ingredient of Musa basjoo Sieb. et Zucc. (Musaceae) with antidiabetes effects, but an unclear underlying mechanism of action. Objective: Animal experiments combined with network pharmacology were used to explore the mechanism of LUP for treating diabetes. Materials and methods: Insulin resistance (IR) in male Sprague-Dawley rats with type 2 diabetic was induced using a high-fat diet and streptozotocin. The selected rats were divided into normal group, model group, positive group and LUP (2.0, 4.0 and 8.0mg/kg) groups, and orally administrated twice daily with Tween 80, rosiglitazone or LUP. Fasting blood glucose (FBG), oxidative stress index, blood lipids and IR-related targets were detected. A network pharmacology analysis was performed. Results: Compared to the model group, LUP (8.0mg/kg) significantly decreased the levels of FBG (22.3%), LEP (9.5%), HbA1c (14.9%) and MDA (12.3%), increased the ADPN (24.2%) levels and GSH-PX activity (12.4%) (p<0.05), improved oxidative stress, lipid metabolism disorders and pancreas pathological changes, increased the mRNA and protein expression of InsR (3.7-fold and 1.3-fold), IRS-1 (3-fold and 2-fold), IRS-2 (2-fold and 1.6-fold), GLUT-4 (2-fold and 2.4-fold) in skeletal muscle and IRS-1 (6-fold and 1.6-fold), IRS-2 (5.8-fold and 1.5-fold), GLUT-4 (2.5-fold and 1.7-fold) and PPAR-c (7-fold and 1.4-fold) in adipose tissue (p<0.05). Network pharmacology analysis revealed that LUP improves IR by multiple targets and signal pathways. Conclusions: The mechanism of LUP for treating diabetes is related to improving IR. LUP has the potential to be developed as a new drug for treating type 2 diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ovarian cancer is one of the most serious and deadly cancers for female and currently no effective screening approaches have been achieved. Therefore it is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage and most patients have a poor prognosis. The development of ovarian cancer is a comprehensive process depending on the cross-talk between the various cells in the tumor microenvironment and the immune system. Thus, the immunotherapy may be revolutionized as an effective treatment of this disease. In this study, we firstly identified ASS1 as an immunomodulatory molecule. By RNA sequencing, antibody array and animal assys, we further provided new insights into understanding the crosstalk between ovarian cancer cells and their microenvironmental immune molecules , which may suggest a new potential therapeutic target for ovarian cancer. • ASS1 is highly expressed in high grade serous ovarian cancer. •ASS1 promotes ovarian cancer proliferation and metastasis. •ASS1 is associated with tumor microenvironment. •ASS1 activates IL-17 signaling and upregulates the expression of CXCL8. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study introduces innovative strategies, the doublet regimen of concurrent chemoradiotherapy, to ensure longer survival for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 104 locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients who underwent taxane combined platinum-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy in our center between January 2013 and December 2018. All statistical analyses were performed using the Kaplan-Meier method (SPSS 23.0). Different groups were compared with the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.Results: Ultimately, 104 patients were selected for this study, including 18 and 86 who received either concurrent chemoradiation therapy alone or concurrent chemoradiation therapy plus adjuvant chemotherapy, respectively. The median follow-up time for progression free survival was 53.0 months (IQR 48.5-57.5). The 3-years progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), local-regional recurrence-free survival (LRRFS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) rates of the doublet regimen of concurrent chemotherapy for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma were 85.9%, 96.0%, 96.0% and 90.8%, respectively. Additionally, we analyzed the subgroups and found that the 3-years PFS, OS, LRRFS and DMFS rates for stage III versus stage IVa were 97.8% versus 75.5% (P = 0.000), 100% versus 92.5% (P = 0.004), 100% versus 92.4% (P = 0.015) and 97.8% versus 82.8% (P = 0.002), respectively. During concurrent chemotherapy, acute chemotherapy adverse events of grade 3 or 4 was only 18.3%. Leukopenia was the most common acute chemotherapy adverse event (in 10 patients [9.6%]), followed by neutropenia (in 8 patients [7.6%]).Conclusion: The doublet regimen of taxane plus platinum concurrent chemoradiotherapy resulted in improved long-term survival of locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients, especially for local control rate and warrants further prospective evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flavan‐3‐ols of 10 primarily plant food byproducts, including Muscat Hamburg grape seed, hawthorn sarcocarp, litchi pericarp, cocoa bean, peanut skin, lotus seedpod, Xinyang Maojian green tea, Cinnamomi cortex, Sargentodoxa cuneata stem, and Cyperus esculentus, leaves were analyzed. Ultrahigh‐performance liquid chromatography–triple quadrupole mass spectrometry was used for the analysis. Cyperus esculentus leaves contained a high amount of procyanidin B1 (198.9 mg/100 g), second only to Muscat Hamburg grape seed (292.9 mg/100 g). Unlike grape seed that contained several procyanidin B isomers with very similar retention times, C. esculentus leaves contained primarily procyanidin B1 with few isomers. Procyanidin B1 was enriched in the ethyl acetate fraction of a 70% methanol extract of C. esculentus leaves and purified at 95% purity by two runs of open column chromatography. Direct chromatography of the plant extract on octadecylsilane and Sephadex LH20 open columns improved the yield of the resultant leaf procyanidin B1 (95% purity) to 0.21‰. The present research demonstrated that the leaves of C. esculentus, byproducts of tigernut, are ideal plant sources for isolating and providing high‐purity procyanidin B1. Practical Application: Procyanidin B1 has a broad range of health benefits. Cyperus esculentus is cultivated in many countries with nearly 6190 square hectares (hm2) in the Spanish Mediterranean region in 2020–2021 and over 16,700 hm2 in China in recent years, primarily for its tubers. The byproducts, the leaves of C. esculentus, contain high levels of procyanidin B1, with few isomers that interfere with its isolation and purification. Thus, the leaves of this plant provide a viable source for preparing high‐purity procyanidin B1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desert-inhabiting cyanobacteria can tolerate extreme desiccation and quickly revive after rehydration. The regulatory mechanisms that enable their vegetative cells to resurrect upon rehydration are poorly understood. In this study, we identified a single gene family of high light-inducible proteins (Hlips) with dramatic expansion in the Nostoc flagelliforme genome and found an intriguingly special convergence formed through four tandem gene duplication. The emerged four independent hlip genes form a gene cluster (hlips-cluster) and respond to dehydration positively. The gene mutants in N. flagelliforme were successfully generated by using gene-editing technology. Phenotypic analysis showed that the desiccation tolerance of hlipscluster– deleted mutant decreased significantly due to impaired photosystem II repair, whereas heterologous expression of hlips-cluster from N. flagelliforme enhanced desiccation tolerance in Nostoc sp. PCC 7120. Furthermore, a transcription factor Hrf1 (hlips-cluster repressor factor 1) was identified and shown to coordinately regulate the expression of hlips-cluster and desiccation-induced psbAs. Hrf1 acts as a negative regulator for the adaptation of N. flagelliforme to the harsh desert environment. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that most species in the Nostoc genus possess both tandemly repeated Hlips and Hrf1. Our results suggest convergent evolution of desiccation tolerance through the coevolution of tandem Hlips duplication and Hrf1 in subaerial Nostoc species, providing insights into the mechanism of desiccation tolerance in photosynthetic organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Robotic distal gastrectomy (RDG) is performed increasingly; a sound understanding of the learning curve in robotic distal gastrectomy has taken on great importance METHODS: Data on the 67 RDG cases were collected from one surgeon with rich experience in laparoscopic gastrectomy. Cumulative sum (CUSUM) analysis based on operative time was used to identify inflexion points.Results: Thirty-five cases, on average, were needed to complete operation time-learning curve sufficiently. A reduction in surgical time was observed in the last 32 cases compared with the first 35 cases (185.3 ± 25.3 min vs. 225.1 ± 49 min, P < 0.01).Conclusions: Surgeons with extensive laparoscopic experience can master robotic distal gastrectomy techniques after some training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the etiology of intracranial artery stenosis and the distribution characteristics of intracranial artery atherosclerotic stenosis using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI). Methods: A total of 262 patients with intracranial artery stenosis that underwent HR-MRI from November 2019 to December 2020 were retrospectively enrolled. The etiology of intracranial anterior and posterior circulation artery stenosis was analyzed, and the relationship between the location of plaques and the distribution characteristics of plaques and the occurrence of ischemic stroke was summarized. Results: A total of 276 plaques were identified with HR-MRI. There were 101 cases (36.59%) in the middle cerebral artery (MCA), 14 cases (5.07%) in the posterior cerebral artery (PCA), 90 cases (32.62%) in vertebral artery (VA), and 71 cases (25.72%) in the basilar artery (BA). The infarct rate of ventral and superior wall MCA plaques was higher than that of dorsal and inferior wall (63.33% vs 31.25% P = 0.021) (100.00% vs 50% P = 0.022). MCA with plaques throughout the course had the greatest degree of stenosis (P < 0.001). Sphenoid segment (M1) of MCA was most susceptible (85 cases, 84.16%), MCA plaques were most common in the proximal M1 segment (35 cases, 34.65%), and most BA plaques were found in the distal segment (28 cases, 39.44%). PCA plaques were most frequently involved in traffic anterior segment (P1) (7 cases, 50.00%). Conclusion: HR-MRI could provide accurate imaging reference for clinical evaluation of intracranial arterial stenosis and formulation of treatment plans. The intracranial arterial plates mostly appeared in the middle cerebral artery and vertebral artery. Middle cerebral arteries with atherosclerotic plaques are more likely to narrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The functional prognosis of mechanical thrombectomy (MT) for mild acute ischemic stroke (AIS) with large-vessel occlusion (LVO) is controversial. To explore a more precise estimation, a meta-analysis was conducted. Methods: The relevant studies were identified by searching PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Collaboration Database until October 2021. The pooled analysis, subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, and publication bias examination were all conducted. The meta-analysis was performed by using Stata 12.0. Results: Eleven studies were included with a total of 1,929 subjects, including 794 patients receiving MT and 1,135 patients receiving medical management. The pooled analysis showed that MT might be not associated with functional prognosis among mild AIS with LVO (excellent functional prognosis: risk ratio (RR) = 1.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.94–1.21, p = 0.294; favorable functional prognosis: RR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.96–1.06, p = 0.823). The statistical stability and reliability were demonstrated by the sensitivity analysis and publication bias outcomes. Conclusion: Our meta-analysis suggests that MT may be not associated with functional prognosis of mild AIS with LVO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-mercury wet deposition in the southeastern United States has been noticed for many years. Previous studies came up with a theory that it was associated with high-altitude divalent mercury scavenged by convective precipitation. Given the coarse resolution of previous models (e.g., GEOS-Chem), this theory is still not fully tested. Here we employed a newly developed WRF-GEOS-Chem (WRF-GC; WRF: Weather Research Forecasting) model implemented with mercury simulation (WRF-GC-Hg v1.0). We conduct extensive model benchmarking by comparing WRF-GC with different resolutions (from 50 to 25 km) to GEOS-Chem output (4 ∘ × 5 ∘) and data from the Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) in July–September 2013. The comparison of mercury wet deposition from two models presents high-mercury wet deposition in the southeastern United States. We divided simulation results by heights (2, 4, 6, 8 km), different types of precipitation (large-scale and convective), and combinations of these two variations together and find most mercury wet deposition concentrates on higher level and is caused by convective precipitation. Therefore, we conclude that it is the deep convection that caused enhanced mercury wet deposition in the southeastern United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnitude of potential benefits that hypothermic oxygenated perfusion (HOPE) may provide for liver transplantation (LT) patients compared to static cold storage (SCS) remains uncertain. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect that HOPE can offer LT recipients relative to SCS by synthesizing available evidence. A literature search was conducted in Embase, Medline, Web of Science, and the Cochrane database up to 1 June, 2023. The included studies were pooled for meta-analysis to synthesize their findings. Subgroup analysis was performed to investigate potential differences between HOPE and SCS for specific subgroups. A total of 11 studies comprising 1765 patients were included. Compared with SCS, HOPE was associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of early allograft dysfunction (EAD) (OR: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.26–0.50), as well as a noteworthy decrease in graft loss rate within one year (OR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.33–0.97) and a lower occurrence of Clavien-Dindo grade IIIa or higher complications (OR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.43–0.89). Subgroup analysis revealed that HOPE significantly reduced the one-year mortality rate, any biliary complications incidence, and acute rejection of transplanted liver rate in patients who received organs from donation after cardiac death (DCD). HOPE has demonstrated efficacy in reducing the incidence of EAD after LT and shows some potential in diminishing postoperative complications such as biliary complications and acute rejection. This ultimately leads to improved patient prognosis, particularly among those receiving DCD grafts. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) is the most common endocrine malignancy and highly expresses the receptor for 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D). However, it is unclear whether 1,25(OH)2D regulates DTC proliferation and differentiation. Here, we found that 1,25(OH)2D3 inhibited proliferation but not differentiation of the DTC cells. Notably, CYP27B1 was elevated in DTC cells and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) reduced DTC cell proliferation. Knockdown of VDR did not affect the anti-proliferative effects of 1,25(OH)2D3. However, knockdown of CCAAT enhancer-binding protein β (C/EBPβ) abolished 1,25(OH)2D3-suppressed DTC cell proliferation. In addition, 1,25(OH)2D3 induced phosphorylation and translocation of C/EBPβ to the nucleus from the cytoplasm. However, inhibition of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) abrogated 1,25(OH)2D3- induced phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of C/EBPβ as well as 1,25(OH)2D3- suppressed DTC cell proliferation. Knockdown of C/EBPβ reduced the expression of Notch3. Knockdown of Notch3 blocked 1,25(OH)2D3-suppressed DTC cell proliferation. In the DTC cell-derived xenograft SCID mouse, knockdown of C/EBPβ markedly increased tumor growth and proliferation and decreased apoptosis. In DTC patients, C/EBPβ was predominantly located in the cytoplasm of DTC cells in the tumor tissue when compared with adjacent non-cancerous tissue in which C/EBPβ is located in the nucleus. In conclusion, C/EBPβ stimulated Notch3 signaling via the p38 MAPK-dependent pathway mediates the inhibitory effect of 1,25(OH)2D on DTC cell proliferation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies mobile edge computing (MEC) networks where multiple wireless devices (WDs) choose to offload their computation tasks to an edge server. To conserve energy and maintain quality of service for WDs, the optimization of joint offloading decision and bandwidth allocation is formulated as a mixed integer programming problem. However, the problem is computationally limited by the curse of dimensionality, which cannot be solved by general optimization tools in an effective and efficient way, especially for large-scale WDs. In this paper, we propose a distributed deep learning-based offloading (DDLO) algorithm for MEC networks, where multiple parallel DNNs are used to generate offloading decisions. We adopt a shared replay memory to store newly generated offloading decisions which are further to train and improve all DNNs. Extensive numerical results show that the proposed DDLO algorithm can generate near-optimal offloading decisions in less than one second. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wild soybean, the progenitor and close relative of cultivated soybean, has an excellent environmental adaptation ability and abundant resistance genes. Expansins, as a class of cell wall relaxation proteins, have important functions in regulating plant growth and stress resistance. In the present study, we identified a total of 75 members of the expansin family on the basis of recent genomic data published for wild soybean. The predicted results of promoter elements structure showed that wild soybean expansin may be associated with plant hormones, stress responses, and growth. Basal transcriptome data of vegetative organs suggest that the transcription of expansin members has some organ specificity. Meanwhile, the transcripts of some members had strong responses to salt, low temperature and drought stress. We screened and obtained an expansin gene, GsEXPB1, which is transcribed specifically in roots and actively responds to salt stress. The results of A. tumefaciens transient transfection showed that this protein was localized in the cell wall of onion epidermal cells. We initially analyzed the function of GsEXPB1 by a soybean hairy root transformation assay and found that overexpression of GsEXPB1 significantly increased the number of hairy roots, root length, root weight, and the tolerance to salt stress. This research provides a foundation for subsequent studies of expansins in wild soybean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thyroid cancer has the fastest rising incidence among cancers, especially for differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). Although the prognosis of DTC is relatively good, if it changes to anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC), the prognosis will be very poor. The prognosis of DTC is largely depending on the degree of cell differentiation and proliferation. However, whether the vitamin D receptor (VDR) plays a role in regulating the proliferation and the differentiation of DTC cells is unclear. In the present study, we found that VDR was upregulated in DTC tissues compared to the a djacent non-cancerous tissue. Knockdown of VDR increased proliferation and decreased differentiation proliferation in DTC cells in vitro as well as DTC cell-derived xenografts in vivo. In contrast, overexpression of VDR had an opposite effect. Knockdown of E-cadherin abolished VDR-induced suppression of proliferation and enhancement of differentiation of the DTC cells. Knockdown of β-catenin partially reversed the effect of the VDR knockdown. VDR increases the levels of E-cadherin in the plasma membrane a nd decreases the levels of β-catenin in the nucleus. VDR binds to E-cadherin and β-catenin in the plasma membrane of the DTC cell. Taken together, VDR inhibits DTC cell proliferation and promotes differentiation via regulation of the E-cadherin/β-catenin complex, potentially representing novel clues for a therapeutic strategy to attenuate thyroid cancer progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reasonable production scheduling plays a vital role in the production of precast component factories. However, previous static scheduling models no longer fit actual production. In particular, some factors will cause errors in the actual delivery time of the components, including the lack or redundancy of processes in the model, resource constraints required by the core processes, and differences in transportation schemes. Moreover, the optimization goal of simply pursuing the minimization of fines from order delivery underestimates companies' emphases on reputation. Therefore, this study proposes an improved model for precast component production scheduling considering resource constraints. The number of production processes is adjusted to eight, and three resource constraints for mold, steel, and concrete are added. An enterprise decision-making coefficient is introduced into the optimization object function, and the constraints of the transportation scheme are improved. Finally, a real case study is conducted to verify the applicability of the model. Compared with previous models, the developed model fills the gap in considering production resource constraints and enterprise decisions in precast production, can better meet diverse production conditions and business needs of factories for scheduling, and help give full play to the advantages of prefabricated construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garnet-bearing peridotites commonly occur in the deeper parts of mature or thickened oceanic lithosphere, and are rarely exhumed and emplaced onto the seafloor. The Purang ophiolitic peridotites in south Tibet contain rare symplectite pseudomorphs after garnet, offering a unique window into the still poorly understood evolution of the deep oceanic lithosphere. Here, integrated petrologic and Os-Li isotopic data are used to constrain the evolution and dynamics of emplacement for these garnet peridotite protoliths. The Purang peridotites show wide variations of chemical compositions (spinel Cr#: 0.2-0.8) and Os model ages (up to 2.0 Ga), thus representing a piece of heterogeneous oceanic mantle lithosphere. Dunite channels show two distinctive groups of Cr# of spinels and Os-isotope compositions, with the low- to medium-Cr# (0.2-0.6) and high-Cr# (0.7-0.8) dunites reflecting the reaction of host lherzolites/harzburgites with percolating mid-ocean ridge basalt-like and boninitic melts, respectively. This confirms recent subduction initiation-related melt percolation in the Purang peridotites. Coexisting olivines and pyroxenes in the peridotites show systematic Li elemental and isotopic disequilibrium, suggesting fast cooling of the peridotites to Li closure temperature shortly after the melt percolations, likely during exhumation of the peridotites onto the seafloor. This supports a close link between subduction initiation and tectonic emplacement of the Purang peridotites. Combined with other geological evidence, we suggest the Purang peridotites may originate from the deep part of old, thick oceanic lithosphere of the Neo-Tethys. This thick oceanic lithosphere was progressively weakened and thinned likely during widespread plume-lithosphere interaction, triggering the transformation of garnet peridotite protoliths to spinel peridotites. Subsequently, initiation of a new subduction zone along the lithospheric weakness caused rapid ascent and emplacement of the Purang peridotites at a nascent forearc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the non-Darcy law for the scaling law flow in porous medium associated with the scaling law calculus with respect to the Mandelbrots scaling law is suggested for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High mercury wet deposition in southeastern United States has been noticed for many years. Previous studies came up with a theory that it was associated with high-altitude divalent mercury scavenged by convective precipitation. Given the coarse resolution of previous models (e.g. GEOS-Chem), this theory is still not fully tested. Here we employed a newly developed WRF-GEOS-Chem (WRF-GC) model implemented with mercury simulation. We conduct extensive model benchmarking by comparing WRF-GC with different resolutions (from 50 km to 25 km) to GEOS-Chem output (4° × 5°) and data from Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) in July-September 2013. The comparison of mercury wet deposition from two models both present high mercury wet deposition in southeastern United States. We divided simulation results by heights, different types of precipitation and combination of these two variations together and find most of mercury wet deposition concentrates on higher space and caused by convective precipitation. Therefore, we conclude that it is the deep convection caused enhanced mercury wet deposition in the southeastern United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a cascade refrigeration system equipped with a single-screw compressor (SSC-CRS) is proposed and built in order to achieve the goal of high load cooling capacity under ultra-low temperature conditions. Firstly, the isentropic efficiency curve of the single-screw compressor (SSC) is fitted through experimental method in response to the characteristics of low suction temperature and large pressure ratio of the compressor. In addition, the analysis of SSC-CRS with 28 refrigerant pairs are made to compare the coefficient of refrigeration (COP) and power consumption. On the basis of the cascade system, the paper compares the improvement of performance between two circuits with SSC: vapor injection cascade refrigeration system (SSC-ICRS) and ejector vapor injection cascade refrigeration system (SSC-EICRS). The results indicate the COP improvement rate of SSC-ICRS system is 17.39 %–41.98 % and the COP improvement rate of SSC-EICRS system is 49.46 %–68.37 % compared with SSC-CRS. • The isentropic efficiency curve of the single-screw compressor is fitted through experimental method. • The analysis of SSC-CRS with 28 refrigerant pairs are made to compare the coefficient of refrigeration and power consumption. • The COP improvement rate of SSC-EICRS system is 49.46 %–68.37 % compared with SSC-CRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rational control of intrinsic defects in materials can significantly enhance their scientific and technological potentials, but it remains a long‐standing challenge in nanocrystal‐in‐glass composites (NGCs). Herein, a defect engineering strategy mediated by the mixed alkali effect is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for NGCs. Interestingly, the hybridization of large alkali ions can effectively increase the barrier of Li+ migration and reduce the Li‐related defects in LiNbO3 NGC. As a result, a novel LiNbO3 NGC with greatly reduced Li‐related defects, high crystallinity of over 60%, and excellent optical transmission are successfully fabricated. This unique NGC configuration facilitates efficient transverse second harmonic generation (TSHG) in a broad wavelength region. Based on the above effects, a standard TSHG device is fabricated and implemented to monitor ultrashort optical pulses with duration in the order of ≈10−13 s over a broad wavelength region, down to 780 nm. The proposed strategy not only provides a new idea for defect engineering in materials science but also has great significance for boosting the practical applications of NGCs in ultrashort optical pulse monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. There is a lack of understanding of the development of metastasis in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). This study is aimed at exploring the upstream regulatory transcription factors of L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM) and to construct a prognostic model to predict the risk of brain metastasis in LUAD. Methods. Differences in gene expression between LUAD and brain metastatic LUAD were analyzed using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. The GRNdb (http://www.grndb.com) was used to reveal the upstream regulatory transcription factors of L1CAM in LUAD. Single-cell expression profile data (GSE131907) were obtained from the transcriptome data of 10 metastatic brain tissue samples. LUAD prognostic nomogram prediction models were constructed based on the identified significant transcription factors and L1CAM. Results. Survival analysis suggested that high L1CAM expression was negatively significantly associated with overall survival, disease-specific survival, and prognosis in the progression-free interval (p < 0.05). The box plot indicates that high expression of L1CAM was associated with distant metastases in LUAD, while ROC curves suggested that high expression of L1CAM was associated with poor prognosis. FOSL2, HOXA9, IRF4, IKZF1, STAT1, FLI1, ETS1, E2F7, and ADARB1 are potential upstream transcriptional regulators of L1CAM. Single-cell data analysis revealed that the expression of L1CAM was found significantly and positively correlated with the expression of ETS1, FOSL2, and STAT1 in brain metastases. L1CAM, ETS1, FOSL2, and STAT1 were used to construct the LUAD prognostic nomogram prediction model, and the ROC curves suggest that the constructed nomogram possesses good predictive power. Conclusion. By bioinformatics methods, ETS1, FOSL2, and STAT1 were identified as potential transcriptional regulators of L1CAM in this study. This will help to facilitate the early identification of patients at high risk of metastasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The presence of clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH) remains a relative contraindication to liver resection for patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The goal of this study was to explore whether a laparoscopic approach could extend the indications for hepatectomy to patients with PH.Method: Patients who underwent laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) from February 2016 to September 2019 performed by a single medical team were included in this study. We analyzed the surgical and oncological outcomes between groups with and without CSPH before and after propensity score matching (PSM).Result: We enrolled 156 patients divided into two groups according to the presence (CSPH, n = 26) or absence (non-CSPH, n = 130) of CSPH. CSPH group was associated with more clinical signs of liver dysfunction (p < 0.05). After PSM (n = 48 patients), the CSPH group tended to have a longer postoperative hospital stay (p = 0.054); however, there was no difference in operation time (p = 0.329), blood loss volume (p = 0.392), transfusion rates (p = 0.701), rate of conversion to open surgery (p = 0.666), surgical margin (p = 0.306), surgical mortality (n = 0), or comprehensive complication index (p = 0.844) between the two groups. The median follow-up time for the entire cohort was 19.6 months (range 0.2-40.6 months). The 3-year overall survival rate was 62.9% in the CSPH group and 84.3% in the non-CSPH group (p = 0.1090), and results were similar after PSM (p = 0.5734).Conclusions: LLR is safe and feasible for HCC with PH. The introduction of minimally invasive surgery, represented by LLR, can appropriately expand the indications for hepatectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the interventional therapy and clinical efficacy of extracranial ICA aneurysm. Methods: The clinical data of eight patients with extracranial ICA aneurysm treated by interventional stent implantation from December 2014 to February 2018 in the Neurosurgery Department of the Third Hospital of Mianyang were analyzed. And this research was a retrospective analysis. All patients underwent digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and were diagnosed with extracranial carotid artery aneurysm. These patients, therefore, were treated with interventional stent implantation. Results: Interventional treatment was successfully conducted on all eight patients. In eight patients, the aneurysm cavity was not developed immediately after angiography, and in one case, the aneurysm cavity was developed with coil-assisted embolization. All the internal carotid arteries were well developed, with no complications such as intraoperative rupture, bleeding and thrombosis occur. Follow-up for three months to two years showed that the patients recovered well, the GOS score was 4 points for patients with cerebral infarction, and the rest reached five points. Follow-up CTA showed no signs of aneurysm recurrence or ICA restenosis. Conclusion: Interventional stent placement is a preferable and relatively safe method for the treatment of extracranial carotid artery aneurysm with less trauma and short operation time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forward calculation of gravity anomalies is a non-negligible aspect contributing to the time consumption of the entire process of basement relief estimation. In this study, we develop a fast hybrid computing scheme to compute the gravity anomaly of a basement. We use the vertical prism source equation in a given region R centered at a certain gravity observation point and the vertical line source equation outside R to derive the gravity anomaly. We observe that the computation with the vertical line source equation is much faster than that of the vertical prism source equation, but the former is slightly inaccurate. Therefore, our method is highly efficient and able to avoid the errors caused by the low accuracy of the vertical line source equation near the observation point. We then derive the general principle of choosing the size of R via a series of prism model tests. Our tests on the gravity anomaly over the Los Angeles Basin confirm the correctness of our proposed forward strategy. We modify Bott's method with an accelerating factor to expedite the inversion procedure and presume that the density contrast between the sediments and the basement in a sedimentary basin varies laterally and can be obtained using the equivalent equation. Synthetic data and real data applications in the Weihe Basin illustrate that our proposed method can accurately and efficiently estimate the basement relief of sedimentary basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the WRF-GC model v2.0, an online two-way coupling of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) meteorological model (v3.9.1.1) and the GEOS-Chem model (v12.7.2). WRF-GC v2.0 is built on the modular framework of WRF-GC v1.0 and further includes aerosol–radiation interaction (ARI) and aerosol–cloud interaction (ACI) based on bulk aerosol mass and composition, as well as the capability to nest multiple domains for high-resolution simulations. WRF-GC v2.0 is the first implementation of the GEOS-Chem model in an open-source dynamic model with chemical feedbacks to meteorology. In WRF-GC, meteorological and chemical calculations are performed on the exact same 3-D grid system; grid-scale advection of meteorological variables and chemical species uses the same transport scheme and time steps to ensure mass conservation. Prescribed size distributions are applied to the aerosol types simulated by GEOS-Chem to diagnose aerosol optical properties and activated cloud droplet numbers; the results are passed to the WRF model for radiative and cloud microphysics calculations. WRF-GC is computationally efficient and scalable to massively parallel architectures. We use WRF-GC v2.0 to conduct sensitivity simulations with different combinations of ARI and ACI over China during January 2015 and July 2016. Our sensitivity simulations show that including ARI and ACI improves the model's performance in simulating regional meteorology and air quality. WRF-GC generally reproduces the magnitudes and spatial variability of observed aerosol and cloud properties and surface meteorological variables over East Asia during January 2015 and July 2016, although WRF-GC consistently shows a low bias against observed aerosol optical depths over China. WRF-GC simulations including both ARI and ACI reproduce the observed surface concentrations of PM 2.5 in January 2015 (normalized mean bias of - 9.3 %, spatial correlation r of 0.77) and afternoon ozone in July 2016 (normalized mean bias of 25.6 %, spatial correlation r of 0.56) over eastern China. WRF-GC v2.0 is open source and freely available from http://wrf.geos-chem.org (last access: 20 June 2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A clear systematic delineation of the interactions between phosphorylation sites on substrates and their effector kinases plays a fundamental role in revealing cellular activities, understanding signaling modulation mechanisms and proposing novel hypotheses. The emergence of bioinformatics tools contributes to studying phosphorylation network. Some of them feature the visualization of network, enabling more effective trace of the underlying biological problems in a clear and succinct way. In this review, we aimed to provide a toolbox for exploring phosphorylation network. We first systematically surveyed 19 tools that are available for exploring phosphorylation networks, and subsequently comparatively analyzed and summarized these tools to guide tool selection in terms of functionality, data sources, performance, network visualization and implementation, and finally briefly discussed the application cases of these tools. In different scenarios, the conclusion on the suitability of a tool for a specific user may vary. Nevertheless, easily accessible bioinformatics tools are proved to facilitate biological findings. Hopefully, this work might also assist non-specialists, students, as well as computational scientists who aim at developing novel tools in the field of phosphorylation modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to investigate whether transcutaneous auricular vagal nerve stimulation (taVNS) would be able to improve major pathophysiologies of functional dyspepsia (FD) in patients with FD. Thirty-six patients with FD (21 F) were studied in two sessions (taVNS and sham-ES). Physiological measurements, including gastric slow waves, gastric accommodation, and autonomic functions, were assessed by the electrogastrogram (EGG), a nutrient drink test and the spectral analysis of heart rate variability derived from the electrocardiogram (ECG), respectively. Thirty-six patients with FD (25 F) were randomized to receive 2-wk taVNS or sham-ES. The dyspeptic symptom scales, anxiety and depression scores, and the same physiological measurements were assessed at the beginning and the end of the 2-wk treatment. In comparison with sham-ES, acute taVNS improved gastric accommodation (P = 0.008), increased the percentage of normal gastric slow waves (%NSW, fasting: P = 0.010; fed: P = 0.007) and vagal activity (fasting: P = 0.056; fed: P = 0.026). In comparison with baseline, 2-wk taVNS but not sham-ES reduced symptoms of dyspepsia (P = 0.010), decreased the scores of anxiety (P = 0.002) and depression (P < 0.001), and improved gastric accommodation (P < 0.001) and the %NSW (fasting: P < 0.05; fed: P < 0.05) by enhancing vagal efferent activity (fasting: P = 0.015; fed: P = 0.048). Compared with the HC, the patients showed increased anxiety (P < 0.001) and depression (P < 0.001), and decreased gastric accommodation (P < 0.001) and %NSW (P < 0.001) as well as decreased vagal activity (fasting: P = 0.047). The noninvasive taVNS has a therapeutic potential for treating nonsevere FD by improving gastric accommodation and gastric pace-making activity via enhancing vagal activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics of quantum dot solar cells (QDSCs) based on type II QDs are investigated theoretically. Based on a drift-diffusion model, we obtained a much higher open circuit voltage (Voc) as well as conversion efficiency in a type II QDSC, compared to type I QDSCs. The improved Voc and efficiency are mainly attributed to the much longer Auger recombination lifetime in type II QDs. Moreover, the influence of the carrier lifetime on devices' performance is discussed and clarified. In addition, an explicit criterion to determine the role of quantum dots in solar cells is put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective : This study aims to investigate the relationship between aneurysm wall enhancement and clinical rupture risks based on the magnetic resonance vessel wall imaging (MR-VWI) quantitative methods. Methods : One hundred and eight patients with 127 unruptured aneurysms were prospectively enrolled from Feburary 2016 to October 2017. Aneurysms were divided into high risk (≥10) and intermediate-low risk group (<10) according to the PHASES (Population, Hypertension, Age, Size of aneurysm, Earlier SAH history from another aneurysm, Site of aneurysm) scores. Clinical risk factors, aneurysm morphology, and wall enhancement index (WEI) calculated using 3D MR-VWI were analyzed and compared. Results : In comparison of high-risk and intermediated-low risk groups, univariate analysis showed that neck width (4.5±3.3 mm vs. 3.4±1.7 mm, p=0.002), the presence of wall enhancement (100.0% vs. 62.9%, p<0.001), and WEI (1.6±0.6 vs. 0.8±0.8, p<0.001) were significantly associated with high rupture risk. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that WEI was the most important factor in predicting high rupture risk (odds ratio, 2.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.4-4.9; p=0.002). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis can efficiently differentiate higher risk aneurysms (area under the curve, 0.780; p<0.001) which have a reliable WEI cutoff value (1.04; sensitivity, 0.833; specificity, 0.67) predictive of high rupture risk. Conclusion : Aneurysms with higher rupture risk based on PHASES score demonstrate increased neck width, wall enhancement, and the enhancement intensity. Higher WEI in unruptured aneurysms has a predictive value for increased rupture risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]