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Objective: Introducing a preoperative image simulation technique to streamline the visualization of the foramen ovale in percutaneous microcompression., Methods: Twenty-five trigeminal neuralgia patients were included in the study. Preoperative cranial computed tomography scans were processed with 3D Slicer software to create simulated fluoroscopic skulls. The angulations required for precise visualization of the foramen ovale were established via simulated anteroposterior imaging. These simulations informed the C-arm's angulations for foramen ovale targeting during surgery., Results: The preoperative simulations accurately forecasted skull rotation angulations, aligning closely with intraoperative observations with negligible discrepancies (0-2 degrees). In 17 patients, the foramen ovale was distinctly visible, while in 8 patients, it was partially obscured yet discernible using the simulated angles. Nonvisible of the foramen ovale did not occur. Postoperative pain relief and complications were recorded., Conclusions: Based on our initial findings, the application of preoperative image simulation shows significant referential value in achieving accurate visualization of the foramen ovale in percutaneous microcompression for trigeminal neuralgia., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: 3D-Slicer is an open-source medical image processing and visualization software. In the surgical treatment of trigeminal neuralgia, it is commonly used to predict the responsible vessels. However, there are few reports on the use of 3D-Slicer software to quantitatively measure the bilateral trigeminal nerve volume in patients with primary trigeminal neuralgia (PTN) based on the three-dimensional images. Therefore, this study aims to explore the role of three-dimensional fused images processed by 3D-Slicer in the evaluation of trigeminal nerve atrophy, providing an objective basis for the diagnosis of PTN., Methods: 57 PTN patients who underwent microvascular decompression (MVD) or percutaneous balloon compression (PBC) surgery in Hebei general hospital between January 2020 and April 2023 were included. Additionally, 30 patients with facial spasms(HFS) were included as a control group. All patients underwent 3D-TOF-MRA and 3D-FIESTA sequence examinations. Comparisons of bilateral trigeminal nerve volumes within and between groups were conducted by performing image fusion using 3D-slicer., Results: The volume of the affected trigeminal nerve in the MVD group (33.96 mm³±12.61 mm³) and PBC group (23.05 mm³±7.71 mm³) was smaller than that of the unaffected trigeminal nerve in the MVD group (39.61 mm³±12.83 mm³) and PBC group (26.14 mm³±6.42 mm³), as well as the average volume of the trigeminal nerve in the control group (40.27 mm³±10.25 mm³) (P<0.05). The differences in bilateral trigeminal ganglion volume (∆V) was significant between the MVD group (∆V=23.59 %±14.32 %) and the control group (∆V=14.64 %±10.00 %) (P<0.05). There was no statistical difference in the trigeminal nerve volume difference between the MVD group (∆V=23.59 %±14.32 %) and the PBC group (∆V=26.52 %±15.00 %) (P>0.05)., Conclusion: Trigeminal nerve atrophy is correlated with primary trigeminal neuralgia. 3D-slicer software can quantitatively measure trigeminal nerve volume and assist in the diagnosis of primary trigeminal neuralgia based on the difference in bilateral trigeminal nerve volumes. However, trigeminal nerve atrophy is not associated with postoperative pain recurrence in patients., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest All authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Percutaneous balloon compression (PBC) has been widely used in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (TN). Patients with tumor-related TN are typically treated by tumor resection. However, when craniotomy is not feasible, PBC may serve as a simple and effective method for pain relief. Currently, there is limited literature on the use of this technique in treating patients with tumor-related TN. In this study, we aim to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Dyna CT-assisted PBC in the treatment of tumor-related TN., Methods: From January 2018 to December 2023, a total of 19 patients with tumor-related TN underwent Dyna CT-assisted PBC at our institution. The modified Barrow Neurological Institute Pain Intensity Grading Scale and sensory reduction scores were employed to assess treatment outcomes. A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical characteristics, surgical efficacy, postoperative complications, and follow-up results of all patients., Results: Immediate and complete pain relief was observed in 18 patients following PBC, with one patient experiencing delayed recovery. Follow-up periods ranged from 4 to 62 months, revealing only 4 patients with pain recurrence at the last follow-up, and tumor-related TN patients with involvement of Meckel's cave were more prone to recurrence. No severe complications occurred throughout the follow-up period. Although facial numbness was reported in all 15 patients, jaw weakness in 8 patients, and postoperative headache in 7 patients, these symptoms resolved within a short period. There were no statistically significant differences in postoperative facial numbness and jaw weakness between tumor-related TN patients with or without Meckel's cave involvement. However, patients with Meckel's cave involvement were more likely to experience postoperative headaches. Patient satisfaction scores indicated a significant improvement in postoperative quality of life., Conclusion: For patients with tumor-related TN, when craniotomy is not feasible, Dyna CT-assisted PBC proves to be a safe and effective alternative treatment. Additionally, we observed varying postoperative clinical outcomes based on the different sites of tumor compression on the trigeminal nerve. Patients with tumor-related TN not involving Meckel's cave exhibited more enduring clinical efficacy compared to those with Meckel's cave involvement., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Policy synergies effectively contribute to the integrated management of air pollution and carbon emissions, which is crucial for safeguarding ecosystem stability and public health. This study uses the causal network model of Gaussian process regression to analyze the combined impacts of dynamic and static carbon emission reduction and air quality policies on carbon emissions and air quality. The causal effects of policy measures and their synergistic effects are also examined. The study results indicate: (1) There is significant geographical heterogeneity in the implementation of environmental policies and regional economic development, with the economically developed eastern coastal regions adopting more stringent carbon emission and air pollution control measures, while the western provinces adopt relatively lax environmental policies. (2) The synergistic effect of carbon emission reduction policies and air quality policies exists, and the two types of static policies are substitutable for managing carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution. (3) Policies' forced effect exists, where the exacerbation of environmental problems leads to the formation and implementation of policies. (4) The value added by the secondary industry is a key motivation for forming carbon emission reduction policies and air quality control policies. Additionally, the value added by the secondary industry directly impacts the incidence of respiratory diseases (e.g., tuberculosis). Finally, dynamic and synergistic policy recommendations are proposed based on the study's findings., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Phthalates are positioned as potential risk factors for health-related diseases. However, the effects of exposure to phthalates on accelerated aging and the potential modifications of physical activity remain unclear. A total of 2317 participants containing complete study-related information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2010 were included in the current study. We used two indicators, the Klemera-Doubal method biological age acceleration (BioAgeAccel) and phenotypic age acceleration (PhenoAgeAccel), to assess the accelerated aging status of the subjects. Multiple linear regression (single pollutant models), weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression, Quantile g-computation, and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models were utilized to explore the associations between urinary phthalate metabolites and accelerated aging. Three groups of physical activity with different intensities were used to evaluate the modifying effects on the above associations. Results indicated that most phthalate metabolites were significantly associated with BioAgeAccel and PhenoAgeAccel, with effect values (β) ranging from 0.16 to 0.21 and 0.16-0.37, respectively. The WQS indices were positively associated with BioAgeAccel (0.33, 95% CI: 0.11, 0.54) and PhenoAgeAccel (0.50, 95% CI: 0.19, 0.82). Quantile g-computation indicated that phthalate mixtures were associated with accelerated aging, with effect values of 0.15 (95% CI: 0.02, 0.28) for BioAgeAccel and 0.39 (95% CI: 0.12, 0.67) for PhenoAgeAccel respectively. The BKMR models indicated a significant positive association between the concentrations of urinary phthalate mixtures with the two indicators. In addition, we found that most phthalate metabolites showed the strongest effects on accelerated aging in the no physical activity group and that the effects decreased gradually with increasing levels of physical activity (P < 0.05 for trend). Similar results were also observed in the mixed exposure models (WQS and Quantile g-computation). This study indicates that phthalates exposure is associated with accelerated aging, while physical activity may be a crucial barrier against phthalates exposure-related aging., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

As a global emerging contaminant, microplastics (MPs) in water or soil can accumulate in vegetables, making them easily ingested through the diet. With excellent and tunable optical properties, carbon dots (CDs) are highly advantageous for tracing the entry process of MPs. Originally, long-wavelength CDs were synthesized from leaf-derived extracts, and fluorescent submicrometer plastics (CDs-MPs) with clean surfaces and concentrated particle sizes were obtained by soap-free microemulsion polymerization. The concentration of CDs-MPs exhibits a significant linear relationship with long-wavelength fluorescence intensity (λ Ex /λ Em : 415/676 nm). Soybean sprouts (SBS), as an important type of food, are susceptible to contamination of MPs due to their soft epidermis and rapidly growing biomass. The results showed that CDs-MPs could be embedded into the cortex of SBS and enter the plant with cell division and elongation, leading to an increase in pore size on the cell wall surface. After entering the root system, CDs-MPs will pass through the Casparian strip and migrate in the vessels. Then, CDs-MPs enter the leaves through vascular bundles, and the distribution and size of epicuticular wax on leaves have changed. Furthermore, SBS showed resistant growth and increased levels of oxidative response when exposed to MPs/CDs-MPs. It is the first study to demonstrate the application of leaf-derived CDs in the prevention of MPs pollution by revealing the migration behavior of submicrometre plastics in SBS., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Microorganisms capable of simultaneously remediating heavy metals (HMs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pollution hold significant importance in bioremediation efforts. In this study, we investigated the ability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa AO-4 to simultaneously degrade phenanthrene (PHE) and reduce Cr (VI). Specifically, it has the ability to reduce 100 % of Cr (VI) (30 mg/L) while degrading 43.8 % of PHE (50 mg/L). In batch experiments, it was observed that the presence of Cr (VI) can enhance the degradation of PHE by strain AO-4. The solubility of PHE in soluble extracellular polymeric substances (S-EPS) was found to be related to the initial concentration of Cr (VI), which could explain why Cr (VI) promotes the degradation of PHE. Additionally, XPS analysis confirmed that Cr (VI) was reduced to Cr (III) with S-EPS produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa AO-4. GC-MS analysis was conducted to analyze the degradation metabolites of phenanthrene, di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and 2TMS derivatives of salicylic acid were detected, indicating that Pseudomonas aeruginosa AO-4 is capable of degrading phenanthrene through two distinct pathways. These findings demonstrate the potential of Pseudomonas aeruginosa AO-4 in the treatment of co-contamination scenarios involving PAHs and HMs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Glutathione (GSH), an active peptide, plays pivotal roles in many physiological processes and detection of GSH inside of human body is of great importance for the playing of its biological effects. Here silver-phosphorus co-doped carbonized polymer dots (Ag@PCPDs) were prepared via solvothermal treatment of citric acid and phytic acid in the presence of Ag + for GSH determination. The physicochemical and optical performance of the Ag@PCPDs were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), fluorescence spectroscopy and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy analyses. The prepared Ag@PCPDs have outstanding water solubility with high monodispersity (7.81 ± 0.31 nm) and exhibited excellent optical properties with excitation-dependent emission, high photostability, pH, and ionic strength tolerance. An optimized excitation at 358 nm, the Ag@PCPDs showed strong photoluminescent (PL) emission at 456 nm with a PL quantum yield (QYs) of 15.6%. Furthermore, the Ag@PCPDs were used as a PL sensing platform for detection GSH in a linear range of 0-200 μM with a low limit of detection at 0.68 μM. In addition, the proposed system can construct molecular logic gates with GSH and Fe 3+ ions as the chemical inputs and PL emissions as the output. And the Ag@PCPDs were successfully used for GSH determination in real samples resulting in high sensitivity and satisfactory recoveries (92.81--107.45%). More importantly, the Ag@PCPDs showed low cytotoxicity at 500 μg/mL and superior cell imaging capability in HeLa cells, which offer a new path for detection and categorization of GSH in biomedical applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Growing studies have focused on the effects of ambient air pollution on thyroid hormones (THs), but the results were controversial. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted by pooling current evidence on this association., Methods: Four databases were searched for studies examining the associations of particulate matter [diameter ≤10 μm (PM 10 ) or ≤2.5 μm (PM 2.5 )] and gaseous [sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), ozone (O 3 ), carbon monoxide (CO)] pollutants with THs levels. Random effects models were used to pool the changes in THs levels with increasing air pollutant concentrations. Subgroup analyses were constructed by region, design, sample size, pollutant concentrations, evaluated methods, and potential risk exposure windows., Results: A total of 14 studies covering 357,226 participants were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled results showed significant associations of exposure to PM 2.5 , PM 10 , NO 2 , SO 2 , and CO with decreases in free thyroxine (FT4) with percent changes (PC) ranging from -0.593 % to -3.925 %. PM 2.5 , NO 2 , and CO were negatively associated with levels of FT4/FT3 (PC: from -0.604 % to -2.975 %). In addition, results showed significant associations of PM 2.5 with hypothyroxinemia and high thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). Subgroup analyses indicated that PM 2.5 and NO 2 were significantly associated with FT4 in studies of Chinese, and similar significant findings were found in studies of PM 2.5 and FT4/FT3 in areas with higher concentrations of air pollutants and larger samples. PM 2.5 exposure in the first trimester was found to be associated with lower FT4 levels in pregnant women., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that exposure to air pollution is associated with changes in THs levels. Enhanced management of highly polluted areas, identification of harmful components and sources of PM, and protection from harmful exposures in early pregnancy may be of great public health importance for the population's thyroid function., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

In order to determine the ideal conditions for the application of nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) in agricultural production, this review studies the effects of nZVI application on plant physiological parameters, presents its mechanism and prospective outcomes. In this research, it was observed that the application of nZVI had both favorable and unfavorable effects on plant growth, photosynthesis, oxidative stress, and nutrient absorption levels. Specifically, the application of nZVI significantly increased the biomass and length of plants, and greatly reduced the germination rate of seeds. In terms of photosynthesis, there was no significant effect for the application of nZVI on the synthesis of photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll and carotenoids). In terms of oxidative stress, plants respond by increasing the activity of antioxidant enzyme under mild nZVI stress and trigger oxidative burst under severe stress. In addition, the application of nZVI significantly increased the absorption of nutrients (B, K, P, S, Mg, Zn, and Fe). In summary, the application of nZVI can affect the plant physiological parameters, and the degree of influence varies depending on the concentration, preparation method, application method, particle size, and action time of nZVI. These findings are important for evaluating nZVI-related risks and enhancing nZVI safety in agricultural production., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a common disease among newborns, which is a leading cause of neonatal death and permanent neurological sequelae. Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is the only method for the treatment of HIE that has been recognized effective clinically at home and abroad, but the efficacy is limited. Recent research suggests that the cord blood-derived mononuclear cells (CB-MNCs), which the refer to blood cells containing one nucleus in the cord blood, exert anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic effects and play a neuroprotective role in HIE. This review focuses on safety and efficacy, the route of administration, dose, timing and combination treatment of CB-MNCs in HIE., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Generating large-scale samples of stationary random fields is of great importance in the fields such as geomaterial modeling and uncertainty quantification. Traditional methodologies based on covariance matrix decomposition have the difficulty of being computationally expensive, which is even more serious when the dimension of the random field is large. This paper proposes an efficient stochastic realization approach for sampling Gaussian stationary random fields from a systems and control point of view. Specifically, we take the exponential and squared exponential covariance functions as examples and make a decoupling assumption when there are multiple dimensions. Then a rational spectral density is constructed in each dimension using techniques from covariance extension, and the corresponding autoregressive moving-average (ARMA) model is obtained via spectral factorization. As a result, samples of the random field with a specific covariance function can be generated very efficiently in the space domain by implementing the ARMA recursion using a Gaussian white noise input. Such a procedure is computationally cheap due to the fact that the constructed ARMA model has a low order. Furthermore, the same method is integrated to multiscale simulations where interpolations of the generated samples are achieved when one zooms into finer scales. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results show that our approach performs favorably compared with covariance matrix decomposition methods., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To investigate the application value of calcium phosphate cement (CPC) in repairing cranial defects during microvascular decompression (MVD) surgery via the retrosigmoid approach., Methods: A retrospective study was carried out on patients who underwent MVD. According to the two different cranial reconstruction methods, patients were divided into a titanium mesh (TM) group and a CPC group. We compared in the two groups the length of postoperative hospital stay, the incidence of postoperative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage, the number of patients with suspected postoperative intracranial infection who underwent lumbar puncture, the number of patients with a definitive etiologic diagnosis of intracranial infection, and the imaging evaluation of plastic shape satisfaction., Results: Patients in the CPC group had an average hospital stay of 9.15 ± 2.00 days, shorter than that in the TM group (10.69 ± 2.86 days), P < 0.001. In the TM group, the rate of plasticity satisfaction was 70/89 (78.65%), which was significantly lower than that in the CPC group (60/66, 90.91%), P = 0.040. Among the patients with a definitive etiologic diagnosis of intracranial infection, there were eight cases in the TM group and one case in the CPC group, and the difference was statistically significant, P = 0.049., Conclusions: CPC is another viable alternative for complete cranial reconstructions of microvascular decompression craniectomies. The use of CPC does not increase the incidence of postoperative complications, such as CSF leakage and intracranial infection, and can reduce the average length of hospital stay and the incidence of etiologic diagnosis of intracranial infection. Furthermore, the evaluation of the plastic shape is satisfactory., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Objective: The catabolic process of autophagy is arousing the attention of researchers studying diabetic retinopathy (DR), but the role and molecular mechanism of autophagy in DR are still unclear., Methods: An in vivo diabetic rat model and in vitro hyperglycemic-exposed retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell cultures were established to mimic early DR. Transmission electron microscopy and mRFP-GFP-LC3 adenovirus transfection were applied for autophagic flux analysis. MicroRNA (miR)-19a-3p, members of the phosphate and tensin homolog (PTEN)/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway, and the autophagy-related proteins light chain (LC)3II/I and p62 were detected. Annexin V, transwell, Cell Counting Kit-8, fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran monolayer permeability assay, and transepithelial electrical resistance were performed to evaluate the effects of regulating autophagy on RPE cells under the DR condition., Results: Autophagy was aberrantly activated in DR as evidenced by autophagosome accumulation. Further mechanistic experiments revealed that DR induced PTEN expression, thus inhibiting Akt/mTOR phosphorylation and stimulating aberrant autophagy and apoptosis. Notably, these events could be reversed by miR-19a-3p directly targeting PTEN. Downregulation of autophagy by miR-19a-3p overexpression, PTEN knockdown, or 3-methyladenine (3-MA) treatment inhibited autophagosome formation and thus effectively ameliorated hyperglycemia-induced RPE cell apoptosis, increased migration, inhibited viability, and enhanced monolayer permeability under the DR condition., Conclusions: Our findings suggest that upregulation of miR-19a-3p inhibits aberrant autophagy by directly targeting PTEN, thus protecting RPE cells against DR damage. miR-19a-3p may represent a novel therapeutic target for inducing protective autophagy in early DR., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Hippocampal sclerosis of aging (HS-A) is a common degenerative neuropathology in older individuals and is associated with dementia. HS-A is characterized by disproportionate hippocampal atrophy at autopsy but cannot be diagnosed during life. Therefore, little is known about the onset and progression of hippocampal atrophy in individuals with HS-A. To better understand the onset and progression of hippocampal atrophy in HS-A, we examined longitudinal hippocampal atrophy using serial MRI in participants with HS-A at autopsy (HS-A+, n = 8) compared to participants with limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy neuropathological change (LATE-NC) without HS-A (n = 13), Alzheimer's disease neuropathologic change (ADNC) without HS-A or LATE-NC (n = 16), and those without these pathologies (n = 7). We found that participants with HS-A had lower hippocampal volumes compared to the other groups, and this atrophy preceded the onset of dementia. There was also some evidence that rates of hippocampal volume loss were slightly slower in those with HS-A. Together, these results suggest that the disproportionate hippocampal atrophy seen in HS-A may begin early prior to dementia., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

The controllable design of red-emitting carbon dots and further exploration of their application in the trace determination of environmental pollutants remains a tremendous challenge. Herein, the novel strategy for red fluorescent carbon dots (R-CDs) with a higher quantum yield of 58.9% was proposed by doping small-molecule urea into the bio-dye of resazurin for the first time, which can retain the luminophore of precursors and exhibit exceptional optical, advantageous reversibility and outstanding photostability. Importantly, the R-CDs exhibit a remarkable fluorescence reduction towards tetracyclines (TCs) accompanied by a noticeable color change of R-CDs solution from red to yellow, which can realize the trace detection of TCs at strelatively low levels, including tetracycline (TC), oxytetracycline (OTC), and chlortetracycline (CTC). The linear range of TC, CTC, and OTC are 3-40 μM, 4-50 μM, and 2-50 μM, and the corresponding detection limits are 38.5 nM, 64.6 nM, and 45.4 nM, respectively (S/N = 3). Furthermore, the R-CDs demonstrate sensitivity to the physiological pH in the linear range of 4.0-5.0 and 5.0-6.2 with a pKa of 5.61. As a multifunctional fluorescent sensor, R-CDs can provide a new perspective for the preparation of long-wavelength CDs, and further realize the trace determination of environmental pollutants., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Biomanipulation by piscivore stocking has been widely used to combat eutrophication in north temperate lakes, but its applicability in warm lakes has not yet been well elucidated. Here, we used experimental mesocosms to test the effects of a native benthi-piscivore (snakehead, Channa argus Cantor) on water clarity under subtropical conditions where small omni-benthivorous fish like crucian carp (Carassius carassius L.) prevail. Our results showed that, despite of a great reduction of crucian carp biomass, snakehead stocking did not create a strong trophic cascade as neither (herbivorous) zooplankton biomass nor their grazing pressure, indicated by biomass ratio of (herbivorous) zooplankton to phytoplankton, changed significantly. Moreover, snakehead stocking significantly increased water non-algal turbidity as well as nutrient and chlorophyll-a concentrations, suggesting that these benthi-piscivores also disturbed sediments like crucian carp did. Our study showed that biomanipulation by stocking of snakehead does not facilitate clear-water state in warm shallow lakes, even on the short-term., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None declared., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The coming crisis of phosphate rock depletion initiates the development of various solid waste derived P fertilizer. Enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) sludge is ideal waste biomass to produce biochar-P-fertilizer. Here, the form and transformation pattern of released phosphorus (P) of EBPR sludge biochar pyrolyzed at different temperatures were comprehensively investigated. As pyrolysis temperature increased, the proportion of released polyphosphates (Poly-P) increased. The main Poly-P released from low-temperature biochar was tripolyphosphates (Tri-P), while those released from high-temperature were Tri-P and cyclic Poly-P. The presence of Ca 2+ could strongly inhibit P-release of low-temperature biochar (e.g., pyrolyzed at 400 °C, E400) but had little effect on that of high-temperature biochar (e.g., 700 °C, E700). All the P species released from E400 and E700 could be efficiently utilized by Pseudomonas putida. Except for the cyclic Poly-P released from E700, the other P species could also be efficiently utilized by Escherichia coli. In short, Poly-P in biochar could hardly precipitate with Ca 2+ and can be utilized by certain soil microorganisms. Therefore, high-temperature EBPR sludge biochar (>600 °C) containing a high proportion of Poly-P could be ideal P fertilizer. This study provides a new insight on pyrolysis way to recover P from the sludge., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: To compare the diagnostic accuracy of 3D fast imaging employing steady-state acquisition (FIESTA) combined with 3D-time-of-flight (TOF) MR angiography (MRA) sequences (FTMS) and 3D-reconstuction synthesized by 3D-slicer program in evaluation the neurovascular relationships and offending vessels preoperatively in patients with hemifacial spasm (HFS)., Methods: Clinical data of HFS patients who underwent microsurgical vascular decompression (MVD) were analyzed. All patients underwent MRA scans with FTMS and 3D-reconstruction before surgery. The neurovascular relationship and offending vessels were evaluated and compared with intraoperative findings., Results: Forty patients were included in this study, 18 (45%) of them were male. The mean age was 49.6 years. The Kappa identity tests identified the agreement between the FTMS and intraoperative findings in evaluating the neurovascular relationship and offending vessel was 0.263 and 0.643, respectively. The agreement between the 3D-reconstruction and intraoperative findings was 0.633 and 0.921 respectively. There was borderline significant difference between the two methods in predicting neurovascular relationship (χ2 = 9.363, P = 0.053), and there were significant differences between the two methods in predicting offending vessels (χ2 = 188.408, P < 0.001). The sensitivity and specificity of FTMS in evaluating the neurovascular relationship were 89.7% and 100%, respectively, while those with 3D-reconstruction were both 100%. Moreover, the correct 3D- reconstruction examinations in predicting vessel and nerve relationships (r = 0.634, P = 0.034) and offending vessels (r = 0.652, P = 0.028) were significantly correlated with completely symptoms remission., Conclusions: The 3D-reconstuction synthesized by 3D-slicer program was more accurate than FTMS in preoperative evaluation of neurovascular relationship and offending vessel. The technique is expected to be helpful in preoperative evaluation., Availability of Data and Material: The dataset used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Spinal cord injury (SCI), as one of the intractable diseases in clinical medicine, affects thousands of human beings, and the pathologic changes after injury have been a hot spot for exploration in clinical medicine. With the development of new treatments, the survival of patients has shown an increasing trend; however, the inflammatory response after injury has not yet been effectively controlled. SCI is divided into primary injury and secondary injury according to the time of injury and pathophysiologic changes. Primary injury occurs immediately and the damage to the injury site is irreversible; however, secondary injury occurs after primary injury and involves pathologic changes at the cellular and molecular levels, which are reversible. Thus, the inflammatory response from secondary injuries has become the main direction of research. In recent years, a complex pathophysiologic mechanism has gradually been unveiled, which has been followed by an upgrade of treatment methods. This article describes the mechanisms of the inflammatory response after SCI and the mainstream treatment modalities. Also, neuroprotective agents and nerve regeneration agent agents are commonly used in the treatment of SCI; the therapeutic mechanism and classification of these agents are reviewed., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Low mechanical strength, poor processability, and low bioactivity of hydrogels limit their application in bone tissue engineering severely. Herein, a new 3D-printable, osteoinductive, and bioenergetic-active double-network (DN) hydrogel containing sodium alginate (SA), poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA), and sodium polyphosphate (PolyP) was developed via a two-step method. The synergy of the covalent cross-linking network and the ionic cross-linking network improves the mechanical properties of the hydrogel. And the pre-gel with Ca 2+ has better 3D printing performance to print complex tissue engineering scaffolds than common hydrogels. In addition, the incorporation of PolyP into DN hydrogel matrix significantly improves the bioactivity of hydrogels. The bioenergetic effect of PolyP improves adenosine triphosphate content of cells significantly to promote cell activities such as migration. The in vitro osseointegration investigation suggests that the orthophosphate monomer units, which are degradation fragments of PolyP, provide enough phosphoric acid units for the formation of calcium phosphate and accelerate the osteogenic differentiation of cells greatly. Therefore, the proposed printable, bioenergetic-active, osteoinductive DN hydrogel is potential to solve the problems of complex tissue engineering scaffolds and be applied in energy-crucial bone tissue regeneration., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Relapse to smoking is commonly triggered by stress, but behavioral interventions have shown only modest efficacy in preventing stress-related relapse. Continuous digital sensing to detect states of smoking risk and intervention receptivity may make it feasible to increase treatment efficacy by adapting intervention timing., Objective: Aims are to investigate whether the delivery of a prompt to perform stress management behavior, as compared to no prompt, reduces the likelihood of (a) being stressed and (b) smoking in the subsequent two hours, and (c) whether current stress moderates these effects., Study Design: A micro-randomized trial will be implemented with 75 adult smokers who wear Autosense chest and wrist sensors and use the mCerebrum suite of smartphone apps to report and respond to ecological momentary assessment (EMA) questions about smoking and mood for 4 days before and 10 days after a quit attempt and to access a set of stress-management apps. Sensor data will be processed on the smartphone in real time using the cStress algorithm to classify minutes as probably stressed or probably not stressed. Stressed and non-stressed minutes will be micro-randomized to deliver either a prompt to perform a stress management exercise via one of the apps or no prompt (2.5-3 stress management prompts will be delivered daily). Sensor and self-report assessments of stress and smoking will be analyzed to optimize decision rules for a just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI) to prevent smoking relapse., Significance: Sense2Stop will be the first digital trial using wearable sensors and micro-randomization to optimize a just-in-time adaptive stress management intervention for smoking relapse prevention., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Water, as one of the main components of bone, has a significant impact on the mechanical properties of bone. However, the micro-/nanoscale toughening mechanism induced by water in bone remains at only the theoretical level with static observations, and further research is still needed. In this study, a new in situ mechanical test combined with atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to track the micro-/nanocrack propagation of hydrated and dehydrated antler bones in situ to explore the influence of water on the micro-/nanomechanical behavior of bone. In hydrated bone, observations of the crack tip region revealed major uncracked ligament bridging, and the conversion of mineralized collagen fibrils (MCFs) from bridging to breaking is clearly seen in real time. In dehydrated bone, multiple uncracked ligament bridges can be observed, but they are quickly broken by cracks, and the MCFs tend to break directly instead of forming fibril bridges. These experimental results indicate that the hydrated interface promotes slippage between collagen and the mineral phase and slippage between MCFs, while the dehydrated interface causes MCFs to fracture directly under lower strain. The platform we built provides new insights for studying the mechanism of toughening of the components in bones., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Thermal hydrolysis (TH) is an efficient technology for food waste (FW) management. This study investigated the nutrients released from FW under various TH temperature (140, 160, 180, 200 and 220 °C) and evaluated the feasibility of the hydrolyzed liquor (HL) as liquid organic fertilizer. The phytotoxicity and biotoxicity of HL was analyzed using wheat seed and Pseudomonas putida. Results revealed that TH could effectively solubilize FW and release nutrients (N, P and K) and organic substances. The highest content of total nitrogen (TN, 1685 mgN/L) and phosphorus (TP, 235 mgP/L) in the HL was obtained under 180 °C. The K + was 278-293 mg/L regardless of treatment temperature. Secondary nutrients (Ca and Mg) and micro metals (Fe, Cu, Zn, Al, Co and Mn) were all detected at relatively high level, while heavy metals (As and Cd) were generally lower than 0.5 mg/L. Twenty types of free amino acid were identified and the maximum total concentration was 4965.13 mg/L. 2% HL displayed higher germination index (>80%) and enhanced root and shoot lengths. No biotoxicity was observed as confirmed by the bioassay. This study proposes a feasible method to solubilize food waste and produce liquid organic fertilizer., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Cervical cancer causes the fourth most cancer-related deaths of women worldwide. Early detection of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) can significantly increase the survival rate of patients. World Health Organization (WHO) divided the CIN into three grades (CIN1, CIN2 and CIN3). In clinical practice, different CIN grades require different treatments. Although existing studies proposed computer aided diagnosis (CAD) systems for cervical cancer diagnosis, most of them are fail to perform accurate separation between CIN1 and CIN2/3, due to the similar appearances under colposcopy. To boost the accuracy of CAD systems, we construct a colposcopic image dataset for GRAding cervical intraepithelial Neoplasia with fine-grained lesion Description (GRAND). The dataset consists of colposcopic images collected from 8,604 patients along with the pathological reports. Additionally, we invite the experienced colposcopist to annotate two main clues, which are usually adopted for clinical diagnosis of CIN grade, i.e., texture of acetowhite epithelium (TAE) and appearance of blood vessel (ABV). A multi-rater model using the annotated clues is benchmarked for our dataset. The proposed framework contains several sub-networks (raters) to exploit the fine-grained lesion features TAE and ABV, respectively, by contrastive learning and a backbone network to extract the global information from colposcopic images. A comprehensive experiment is conducted on our GRAND dataset. The experimental results demonstrate the benefit of using additional lesion descriptions (TAE and ABV), which increases the CIN grading accuracy by over 10%. Furthermore, we conduct a human-machine confrontation to evaluate the potential of the proposed benchmark framework for clinical applications. Particularly, three colposcopists on different professional levels (intern, in-service and professional) are invited to compete with our benchmark framework by investigating a same extra test set-our framework achieves a comparable CIN grading accuracy to that of a professional colposcopist., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This study proposes a new path to utilize thermal hydrolyzed sludge (TH sludge) as fertilizer given high value chemical compounds that can promote plant growth were identified in the liquid fraction of TH sludge (TH liquor). Together with micro- and macro-nutrients released/synthesized during thermal hydrolysis, the feasibility of using TH liquor as organic fertilizer was evaluated. Besides high contents of N, P and K, total free amino acids (FAAs) and plant-growth-promoting FAAs (including glutamic acid, leucine and cystine) also presented in high concentration (4.98-6.48 and 1.12-2.73 g/100 g) in the TH liquor. For the first time, phytohormone compound, indole-3-acetic acid, was observed and the content was the highest in TH liquor with 165 °C treatment (165 °C TH liquor). Meantime, 165 °C TH liquor did not have negative impact on the growth of soil microbes, and this product, instead, demonstrated stimulating effect on the plant growth. These results suggest that 165 °C TH liquor has a great potential to be an organic fertilizer. The remaining solids of TH sludge could be converted to valuable biochar. The holistic approach of using TH liquor as organic fertilizer and producing biochar could realize nearly zero-waste discharge in sludge management., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is nonbiodegradable, and adsorption is the main pathway for its removal in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This study compared the capability of three types of sludge on adsorbing PFOA and investigated the role of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in the adsorption process. Results show that enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) sludge had the highest adsorption capacity for PFOA. Studies on the interaction between EPS and PFOA reveal that proteins play a crucial role in binding PFOA to EPS/sludge. Specifically, the aromatic and amide groups on the structure of protein can attract the C-F chains and carboxylic head of PFOA via hydrophobic interaction and electrostatic attraction, respectively. EPS of EBPR sludge has the highest amount of protein and binding sites, thus exhibits the highest adsorption capability for PFOA. This study reveals the interaction mechanism between PFOA and sludge EPS and provides new insight into the function of EPS in perfluoroalkyl substances removal in WWTPs., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The contribution of nanostructures of bone to the macroscale mechanical properties has received much attention, but most of nano-toughening mechanisms have remained in the theoretical stage or at static experimental observation. Our study shows that the medullary surface of the bovine femur provides a smooth natural surface ideal for observing nanostructures in bone. Mechanical loading is applied using an in situ mechanical device and the nanomechanical behaviours of the specimens are in situ recorded and imaged using an atomic force microscope (AFM). By the in situ observation of nanomechanical behaviours under stress, the existing nano-toughening mechanisms, such as fibril slippage and fibril bridging, are confirmed. Before the micro failure stage, mineralized collagen fibrils are strained with the increase of stress, followed by pre-separation (or slippage) due to stress concentration, resulting in cracked nanoscale interfaces. When micro-failure occurs (i.e. crack initiation), the nano-bridging mechanism contributes to resisting the formation of nanometre crack interface, the propagation of crack tip and the failure of crack bridging. Our study provides direct evidence for the connection between bridging-type mechanisms at different scale, which are composed of the corresponding bone structures at each level. Through the in situ observation of the microscopic failure in bone, some visual information are offered on the interaction between nanomechanical behaviours and nanostructures., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Radioactive pertechnetate (TcO4 - ) has been detected in nuclear waste affected soil and groundwater, posing significant effect on human health and the environment. Yet, cost-effective remediation of Tc-contaminated soil and groundwater remains challenging. To address this critical technology need, we prepared a class of pyrite (FeS 2 ) particles for effective immobilization of pertechnetate. Using perrhenate (ReO 4 - ) as a non-radioactive surrogate of TcO 4 - , we tested the immobilization effectiveness of the material through batch kinetic experiments, and evaluated the remobilization potential of immobilized Re under anoxic (sealed from air) and oxic (exposed to air) conditions and in the presence of humic acid (HA), EDTA, nitrate, and a Chinese loess soil. The results showed that more acidic pH gave faster Re(VII) removal due to more abundant electron sources (Fe 2+ and S 2 2- ). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and/or X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses confirmed formation of ReO 2 /ReS 2 as the major reduction products. The immobilized Re remained highly stable when aged for 360 days under anoxic conditions at different influence factors. Yet, the immobilized Re was vulnerable to oxygen oxidation, and about 78% of Re was remobilized after 40 days of exposure to air regardless of the initial pH (3.5-9.0) due to excessive pyrite oxidation and the associated pH drop (~2). HA at 120 mg/L inhibited Re remobilization under oxic conditions, which lowered the Re remobilization by ~21% after 40 days of oxic aging. The presence of EDTA facilitated dissolution of Fe but inhibited the dissolution of Re under oxic conditions. Nitrate showed negligible effect on Re remobilization. The presence of a Chinese loess soil effectively inhibited Re remobilization under both oxic and anoxic conditions, lowering the leachable Re by ~32% under oxic conditions. The findings may guide engineered application of pyrite particles as a long-lasting reducing material for immobilization pertechnetate or similar redox-active contaminants in soil and water., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), Tween 20, polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) are among the commonly used surfactants and polymers to stabilize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). However, their interactions with AgNPs are different. The impact of these surfactants and polymers on the colloidal stability of freshly synthesized uncoated AgNPs was evaluated through a series of long-term experiments and analyzed in terms of their physical and chemical behavior. The cationic surfactant, CTAB was able to produce a mono modal particle size distribution in a prolonged period without affecting the dissolution. In the presence of Tween 20, a non-ionic surfactant, dissolution was promoted in the long run and the particles were preserved with minimal aggregation. In the presence of the polymers, PVP and PEG, the particle structure was not affected even though dissolution was observed. This study presents important insights on the interactions of AgNPs with surfactants and polymers, which could significantly affect the transformations and fate of AgNPs in the aquatic environment., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) plays a pivotal role in prompting ovarian follicular development and angiogenesis as well as inhibiting atresia. In the chicken, high laying performance depends largely on efficient healthy development of ovarian follicles. Moreover, rapid growth of oocytes resulted from abundant yolk deposition via blood circulation and intra-ovarian interactions among somatic and germ cells. The major components of yolk mass consist of very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and vitellogenin that are taken up by maturing oocytes via VLDL receptor (VLDLR)-mediated endocytosis from blood capillaries in the theca layer and gaps between granulosa cells. Here we used immunofluorescence, BrdU, TUNEL, Western bolt and RT-qPCR methods to investigate effects of bFGF on growth and yolk deposition of chicken prehierarchical follicles. Results showed that VLDLR was mainly expressed in the granulosa cells of the prehierarchical and preovulatory follicles, and its expression declined with follicle growth. Moreover, bFGF caused a dose-dependent promoting effect on growth of small white follicles and this effect was inhibited by SU5402 (an FGFR1 antagonist). Proliferation of follicular theca externa cells was accelerated by bFGF via FGFR1-AKT signaling, coupled with augmented angiogenesis and up-regulated p-ERK expression in granulosa cells. After combined inhibition of FGFR1 and PPARγ, we found that PPARγ could also suppress VLDLR expression in granulosa cells. These results indicate that bFGF facilitated growth and yolk deposition in chicken prehierarchical follicles through promoting proliferation and angiogenesis in theca layers, and also through down-regulating VLDLR expression in granulosa cells., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Reproducibility of multicenter diffusion magnetic resonance imaging has drawn more attention recently due to rapidly increasing need for large-size brain imaging studies. Advanced multi-shell diffusion models are recommended for their potentials to provide variety of physio-pathological information. While previous studies have investigated the consistency of single-shell diffusion acquisition from various hardware and protocols, a well-controlled study with multi-shell acquisition would be necessary to understand the inherent factors of reproducibility from new complexity of such acquisition protocol. In this study, three traveling subjects were scanned at eight imaging centers equipped with the same type of scanners using the same multi-shell diffusion imaging protocol. Track density imaging and structure connectomes were investigated in local-scale distribution and in distal-scale connectivity, respectively. With evaluations of the coefficient of variation and the intra-class correlation coefficient, our results indicated: 1) similar to single-shell schemes, the intra-center reproducibility of multi-shell is higher than inter-center; 2) multi-shell schemes produce higher reproducibility and precision among centers compared to the single-shell schemes; and 3) in addition to the diffusion schemes, image quality and the presence of complex fiber structure could also associated with multicenter reproducibility., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Severe (>70% narrowing) asymptomatic carotid stenosis (SACS) is associated with cognitive impairment and future strokes, and connectivity basis for the remote brain consequences is poorly understood. Here we explored homotopic connectivity and parenchymal lesions measured by multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) parameters in patients with SACS. Twenty-four patients with SACS (19 males/5 females; 64.25 ± 7.18 years), 24 comorbidities-matched controls (19 males/5 females; 67.16 ± 6.10 years), and an independent sample of elderly healthy controls (39 females/45 males; 57.92 ± 4.94 years) were included. Homotopic functional connectivity (FC) of resting-state functional MRI and structural connectivity (SC) of deterministic tractography were assessed. Arterial spin labeling based cerebral perfusion, susceptibility weighted imaging based microhemorrhagic lesions, and T2-weighted white matter hyperintensities were also quantified. Significant and robust homotopic reductions (validated by the independent dataset and support vector machine-based machine learning) were identified in the Perisylvian fissure in patients with SACS (false discovery rate corrected, voxel p < 0.05). These involved regions span across several large-scale brain systems, which include the somatomotor, salience, dorsal attention, and orbitofrontal-limbic networks. This significantly reduced homotopic FC can be partially explained by the corrected white matter hyperintensity size. Further association analyses suggest that the decreased homotopic FC in these brain regions is most closely associated with delayed memory recall, sensorimotor processing, and other simple cognitive functions. Together, these results suggest that SACS predominately affects the lower-order brain systems, while higher-order systems, especially the topographies of default mode network, are least impacted initially, but may serve as a hallmark precursor to vascular dementia. Thus, assessment of homotopic FC may provide a means of noninvasively tracking the progression of downstream brain damage following asymptomatic carotid stenosis., (Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic value and characteristic features of FCD epileptogenic zones using a novel sequence called fluid and white matter suppression (FLAWS)., Materials and Methods: Thirty-nine patients with pathologically confirmed FCD and good surgery outcomes (class I or II, according to the Engel Epilepsy Surgery Outcome Scale) were retrospectively included in the study. All the patients underwent a preoperative whole-brain MRI examination that included conventional sequences (T2WI, T1WI, two-dimensional (2D) axial, coronal fluid-attenuated inversion recovery [FLAIR]) and FLAWS. An additional 3D-FLAIR MRI sequence was performed in 17 patients. To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of FLAWS and investigate the cause of false-positives, 36 healthy volunteers were recruited as normal controls. Two radiologists evaluated all the image data. The detection rates of the FCD epileptogenic zone on different sequences were compared based on five criteria: abnormal cortical morphology (thickening, thinning, or abnormally deep sulcus); abnormal cortical signal intensity; blurred gray-white matter junction; abnormal signal intensity of the subcortical white matter, and the transmantle sign. The sensitivity and specificity of FLAWS for detecting the FCD lesions were calculated with the reviewers blinded to all the clinical information, i.e. to the patient identity and the location of the resected regions. To explore how many features were sufficient for the diagnosis of the epileptogenic zones, the frequency of each criterion in the resected regions and their combinations were assessed on FLAWS, according to the results of the assessment when the reviewers were aware of the location of the resected regions. Based on the findings of the 17 patients with an additional 3D-FLAIR scan when the reviewers were aware of the location of the resected regions, quantitative analysis of the regions of interest was used to compare the tissue contrast among 2D-axial FLAIR, 3D-FLAIR, and the FLAWS sequence. Visualization score analysis was used to evaluate the visualization of the five features on conventional, 3D-FLAIR, and FLAWS images. Finally, to explore the reason for false-positive results, a further evaluation of the whole brain FLAWS images was conducted for all the subjects., Results: The sensitivity and specificity for detecting the FCD lesions on the FLAWS sequence were 71.9% and 71.1%, respectively. When the reviewers were blinded to the location of the resected regions, the detection rate of the FLAWS sequence was significantly higher than that of the conventional sequences (P = 0.00). In the 17 patients who underwent an additional 3D FLAIR scan, no statistically significant difference was found between the FLAWS and the 3D-FLAIR (P = 0.25). All the patients had at least two imaging features, one of which was "the blurred junction of the gray-white matter." The transmantle sign, which is widely believed to be a specific feature of FCD type II, could also be observed in type I on the FLAWS sequence. The relative tissue contrast of FLAWS was higher than that of the 2D-FLAIR with respect to lesion/white matter (WM), deep gray matter (GM)/WM, and cortex/WM (P = 0.00 for all three measures) and higher than that of the 3D-FLAIR with respect to the lesion/WM (P = 0.01). The visualization score analysis showed that the visualization of FLAWS was more enhanced than that of the conventional and 3D-FLAIR images with respect to the blurred junction (P = 0.00 for both comparisons) and the abnormal signal intensity of the subcortical white matter (P = 0.01 for both comparisons). The thin-threadlike signal and individual FCD features outside the epileptogenic regions were considered the primary cause of the false-positive results of FLAWS., Conclusions: FLAWS can help in the detection of FCD epileptogenic zones. It is recommended that epileptogenic zone on FLAWS be diagnosed based on a combination of two features, one of which should be the "blurred junction of the gray-white matter" in types I and II. In type III, the combination of "the blurred junction of the gray-white matter" with "abnormal signal intensity of subcortical white matter" is recommended.

This study investigated the topological characteristics of brain functional networks in chronic insomnia disorder (CID) patients. The resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and graph theory analysis method were applied to investigate the brain functional connectome patterns among 45 CID patients and 32 healthy controls. The brain functional connectome was constructed by thresholding partial correlation matrices of 90 brain regions from an automated anatomical labeling atlas. The topologic properties of brain functional connectomes at both global and nodal levels were tested. The CID patients had decreased number of module ( p  = .014) and hierarchy ( p  = .038), and increased assortativity ( p  = .035). Furthermore, some brain regions located in the default mode network, dorsal attention network, and sensory-motor network in these patients showed altered nodal centralities. Within these areas, the node betweenness of right central paracentral lobule had positive correlation with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score ( R  = 0.319, p  = .039). The results imply that functional disruptions of CID patients may be related to disruptions in global and regional topological organization of the brain functional connectome, and provide new and important insights to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms of CID.

MicroRNAs are important regulators of the pathogenesis of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL). In this study, we identified miR-3173 and its predicted target gene PTK2 were correspondingly differentially expressed in B-ALL patients. In B-ALL cell lines, CCK-8 proliferation assay revealed that miR-3173 could inhibit the cell proliferation. Moreover, transwell assay revealed that miR-3173 could also inhibit cell migration and invasion in B-ALL cell lines. Luciferase assays revealed that miR-3173 directly bound to the 3'untranslated region of PTK2, and western blotting showed that miR-3173 suppressed the expression of PTK2 at the protein level. Generally, this study indicates that miR-3173 negatively regulates PTK2 and inhibits proliferation and invasion of B-ALL cell lines. Thus, miR-3173 may represent a potential therapeutic molecule for B-ALL intervention., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: We retrospectively investigated incidence, morbidity, and mortality of neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis in China, with special emphasis on determining the predictors of necrotizing enterocolitis associated mortality., Methods: We identified neonates as having necrotizing enterocolitis if they met the accepted diagnostic criterion. Data pertaining to antenatal period, labor and birth, and the postnatal course of illness were collected. Multivariate analysis and logistic regression were used to analyze the risk factors., Results: There were 1167 cases of necrotizing enterocolitis identified from the 95 participating NICUs in mainland China in 2011, with the incidence of 2.50% and 4.53% in LBW (birth weight <2500 g) and VLBW (birth weight <1500 g) infants, respectively. Stage 1, 2 and 3 diseases were noted in 51.1%, 30.3% and 18.6% of cases respectively. The mortality from stage 2 and 3 necrotizing enterocolitis in this cohort was 41.7%. In VLBW infants, the important risk factors for mortality were small for gestation age (OR: 5.02, 95% CI 1.73-14.6; P = 0.003) and stage 3 NEC (OR: 8.09, 95% CI 2.80-23.3, P < 0.001). In moderate LBW infants (birth weight 1500-2499 g), the risk factors identified for mortality were sepsis during hospitalization (OR: 2.59, 95% CI 1.57-4.28, P < 0.001) and stage 3 NEC (OR: 5.37, 95% CI 3.24-8.90; P < 0.001)., Conclusions: Necrotizing enterocolitis remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in prematurely born neonates in Chinese neonatal units. Awareness of the associated risk factors and appropriate interventions may improve the outcome of necrotizing enterocolitis in different birth weight subgroup., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Purpose: To characterize the changes in cortical thickness of adult patients with moyamoya disease (MMD)., Methods: 60 patients with MMD and 60 age and sex-matched healthy volunteers were recruited. Structural images were acquired by MRI. Freesurfer was used to measure cortical thickness in patients and controls, and this was compared with MRA scores and cerebrovascular accident (CVA) scores., Results: Compared with controls, the average cortical thickness of both cerebral hemispheres was lower in patients than in controls and symmetrical differences were seen in the regional cortex: bilateral precentral gyri were thinner, bilateral postcentral gyri and posterior cingulate gyri were thicker, and thinning and thickening were both found in the insula. CVA scores were negatively correlated with the average cortical thicknesses., Conclusions: Cortical thickness can be used as a biological indicator to assess the severity of MMD., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Cerebral venous oxygen saturation (SvO 2 ) is an important biomarker of brain function. In this study, we aimed to explore the relative changes of regional cerebral SvO 2 among axonal injury (AI) patients, non-AI patients and healthy controls (HCs) using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM). 48 patients and 32 HCs were enrolled. The patients were divided into two groups depending on the imaging based evidence of AI. QSM was used to measure the susceptibility of major cerebral veins. Nonparametric testing was performed for susceptibility differences among the non-AI patient group, AI patient group and healthy control group. Correlation was performed between the susceptibility of major cerebral veins, elapsed time post trauma (ETPT) and post-concussive symptom scores. The ROC analysis was performed for the diagnostic efficiency of susceptibility to discriminate mTBI patients from HCs. The susceptibility of the straight sinus in non-AI and AI patients was significantly lower than that in HCs ( P  < 0.001, P  = 0.004, respectively, Bonferroni corrected), which may indicate an increased regional cerebral SvO 2 in patients. The susceptibility of the straight sinus in non-AI patients positively correlated with ETPT ( r  = 0.573, P  = 0.003, FDR corrected) while that in AI patients negatively correlated with the Rivermead Post Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire scores ( r  = - 0.582, P  = 0.018, FDR corrected). The sensitivity, specificity and AUC values of susceptibility for the discrimination between mTBI patients and HCs were 88%, 69% and 0.84. In conclusion, the susceptibility of the straight sinus can be used as a biomarker to monitor the progress of mild TBI and to differentiate mTBI patients from healthy controls.

Annotating unstructured texts in Electronic Health Records data is usually a necessary step for conducting machine learning research on such datasets. Manual annotation by domain experts provides data of the best quality, but has become increasingly impractical given the rapid increase in the volume of EHR data. In this article, we examine the effectiveness of crowdsourcing with unscreened online workers as an alternative for transforming unstructured texts in EHRs into annotated data that are directly usable in supervised learning models. We find the crowdsourced annotation data to be just as effective as expert data in training a sentence classification model to detect the mentioning of abnormal ear anatomy in radiology reports of audiology. Furthermore, we have discovered that enabling workers to self-report a confidence level associated with each annotation can help researchers pinpoint less-accurate annotations requiring expert scrutiny. Our findings suggest that even crowd workers without specific domain knowledge can contribute effectively to the task of annotating unstructured EHR datasets., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Forming an accurate representation of a task environment often takes place incrementally as the information relevant to learning the representation only unfolds over time. This incremental nature of learning poses an important problem: it is usually unclear whether a sequence of stimuli consists of only a single pattern, or multiple patterns that are spliced together. In the former case, the learner can directly use each observed stimulus to continuously revise its representation of the task environment. In the latter case, however, the learner must first parse the sequence of stimuli into different bundles, so as to not conflate the multiple patterns. We created a video-game statistical learning paradigm and investigated (1) whether learners without prior knowledge of the existence of multiple "stimulus bundles" - subsequences of stimuli that define locally coherent statistical patterns - could detect their presence in the input and (2) whether learners are capable of constructing a rich representation that encodes the various statistical patterns associated with bundles. By comparing human learning behavior to the predictions of three computational models, we find evidence that learners can handle both tasks successfully. In addition, we discuss the underlying reasons for why the learning of stimulus bundles occurs even when such behavior may seem irrational., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A novel mechanism of DNA damage induced by photosensitized curcumin (Cur) was explored using laser flash photolysis, pulse radiolysis and gel electrophoresis. Cur neutral radical (Cur) was confirmed as an identical product in photo-sensitization of Cur by laser flash photolysis and pulse radiolysis. A series of reaction rate constants between Cur and nucleic acid bases/nucleotides were determined by pulse radiolysis. Gel electrophoresis was carried out to investigate damage induced by photosensitized Cur to biologically active DNA. The results indicate that the damage to DNA may be caused by Cur produced from the photosensitization of Cur., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To evaluate the correlation between parameters of dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) and microvessel density (MVD) measurements in rabbit VX2 liver tumor models after percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) and to observe influence of PEI on angiogenesis in a rabbit VX2 liver tumor model with dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI)., Materials and Methods: Forty five New Zealand white rabbits were used in this study. VX2 tumor tissue blocks were implanted in the left lobe of liver by percutaneous puncture under CT guidance. 2 weeks later, all rabbits underwent conventional MRI (T1WI, T2WI) to determine the successful models. Then those successful implanted VX2 liver tumor models in the study were randomly divided into the control group and the experimental group, the former did not have processing, and the latter underwent PEI under CT guidance. MRI (T1WI, T2WI and DCE-MRI) was performed 1 week later again, the parameters of DCE-MRI (Ktrans, Kep, Ve and iAUC60) of viable tumor portions were observed. Then all the liver samples were processed for hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and immunohistochemical staining for CD31 to determine MVD. At last, data (including DCE-MRI perfusion parameters and MVD) were compared between experimental and control groups, correlation of DCE-MRI perfusion parameters and MVD was evaluated., Results: Twenty six VX2 liver tumor models underwent all examinations (thirteen models for each group) 1 week later after PEI. For the experimental group, the parameters Ktrans (r=0.6382, P=0.0189) and iAUC60 (r=0.6591, P=0.0143) in viable tumor portions were positively moderately correlated with MVD, whereas the parameters Kep (r=0.4656, P=0.1088) and Ve (r=0.2918, P=0.3333) were not correlated with MVD. For the control group, the parameters Ktrans (r=0.6385, P=0.0188) and iAUC60 (r=0.6391, P=0.0187) in viable tumor portions were also positively moderately correlated with MVD, while the parameters Kep (r=0.5518, P=0.0506) and Ve (r=-0.0824, P=0.789) were not correlated with MVD. Ktrans, Kep, Ve, iAUC60 and MVD of residual viable tumors in the experimental group 1 week later after PEI were similar to the viable tumors of the control group (P>0.05)., Conclusions: DCE-MRI could be used to evaluate the efficiency of VX2 liver tumor after PEI. The quantitative parameter Ktrans and semi-quantitative parameter iAUC60 of DCE-MRI are correlated with MVD, which can assess tumor angiogenesis noninvasively of VX2 liver tumor model, and ethanol has no significant impact on angiogenesis of viable tumor 1week later after PEI., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) and B cells present in gut-associated lymphoid tissues (GALT) are both implicated in the resolution of colitis. However, how the functions of these cells are coordinated remains elusive. We used the dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis model combined with gene-modified mice to monitor the progression of colitis, and simultaneously examine the number of Tregs and B cells, and the production of IgA antibodies. We found that DSS-treated mice exhibited more severe colitis in the absence of B cells, and that the adoptive transfer of B cells attenuated the disease. Moreover, the transfer of IL-10(-/-) B cells also attenuated colitis, suggesting that B cells inhibited colitis through an interleukin-10 (IL-10)-independent pathway. Furthermore, antibody depletion of Tregs resulted in exacerbated colitis. Intriguingly, the number of GALT Tregs in B cell-deficient mice was significantly decreased during colitis and the adoptive transfer of B cells into these mice restored the Treg numbers, indicating that B cells contribute to Treg homeostasis. We also found that B cells induced the proliferation of Tregs that in turn promoted B-cell differentiation into IgA-producing plasma cells. These results demonstrate that B cells and Tregs interact and cooperate to prevent excessive immune responses that can lead to colitis.

Microfluidic devices employ submillimeter length scale control of flow to achieve high-resolution spatial and temporal control over the microenvironment, providing powerful tools to elucidate mechanisms of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) regulation and to elicit desired hPSC fates. In addition, microfluidics allow control of paracrine and juxtracrine signaling, thereby enabling fabrication of microphysiological systems comprised of multiple cell types organized into organs-on-a-chip. Microfluidic cell culture systems can also be integrated with actuators and sensors, permitting construction of high-density arrays of cell-based biosensors for screening applications. This review describes recent advances in using microfluidics to understand mechanisms by which the microenvironment regulates hPSC fates and applications of microfluidics to realize the potential of hPSCs for in vitro modeling and screening applications., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived endothelial cells and their progenitors are important for vascular research and therapeutic revascularization. Here, we report a completely defined endothelial progenitor differentiation platform that uses a minimalistic medium consisting of Dulbecco's modified eagle medium and ascorbic acid, lacking of albumin and growth factors. Following hPSC treatment with a GSK-3β inhibitor and culture in this medium, this protocol generates more than 30% multipotent CD34+ CD31+ endothelial progenitors that can be purified to >95% CD34+ cells via magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS). These CD34+ progenitors are capable of differentiating into endothelial cells in serum-free inductive media. These hPSC-derived endothelial cells express key endothelial markers including CD31, VE-cadherin, and von Willebrand factor (vWF), exhibit endothelial-specific phenotypes and functions including tube formation and acetylated low-density lipoprotein (Ac-LDL) uptake. This fully defined platform should facilitate production of proliferative, xeno-free endothelial progenitor cells for both research and clinical applications., (Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Objective: To evaluate the correlation between findings from diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and microvascular density (MVD) measurements in VX2 liver tumors after transarterial embolization ablation (TEA)., Materials and Methods: Eighteen New Zealand white rabbits were used in this study. VX2 tumor cells were implanted in livers by percutaneous puncture under computed tomography (CT) guidance. Two weeks later, all rabbits underwent conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (T1 and T2 imaging), DWI, (b=100, 600, and 1000s/mm(2)) and TEA. MRI was performed again1 week after TEA. Liver tissue was then harvested and processed for hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and immunohistochemical staining for CD31to determine MVD., Results: VX2 liver tumors were successfully established in all 18 rabbits. Optimal contrast was achieved with a b value of 600s/mm(2).The maximum pre-operative apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC)difference value was 0.28×10(-3)±0.10×10(-3)mm(2)/s, and was significantly different (P<0.001) from the maximum postoperative ADCdifference value of 0.47×10(-3)±0.10×10(-3)mm(2)/s. However, the mean ADC value for the entire tumor was not significantly correlated with MVD (r=0.221, P=0.379), nor was the ADC value for the regions of viable tumor (r=-0.044, P=0.862). However, the maximum postoperative ADCdifference value was positively correlated with MVD(r=0.606, F=12.247, P=0.003)., Conclusion: DWI is effective to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of TEA. The maximum ADCdifference offers a promising new method to noninvasively assess tumor angiogenesis., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Curcumin (Cur) has putative antitumor properties. In the current study, we examined photophysical and photochemical properties of Cur using laser flash photolysis. The results demonstrated that Cur could be photo-ionized at 355 nm laser pulse to produce radical cation (Cur(+)) and solvated electron e(sol)(-) in 7:3 ethanol-water mixtures. The quantum yield of Cur photo-ionization and the ratio of photo-ionization to photo-excitation were also determined. Cur(+) could be transferred into neutral radical of Cur (Cur) via deprotonation with the pKa 4.13. The excited singlet of Cur ((1)Cur* could be transferred into excited triplet ((3)Cur*, which could be quenched by oxygen to produce singlet oxygen (1)O2*. Reaction of (3)Cur* with tryptophan was confirmed. The results encourage developing curcumin as a photosensitive antitumor agent., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Gold nanoparticles coated polystyrene/reduced graphite oxide (AuNPs@PS/RGO) microspheres have been successfully prepared via a facile process, and the decorative gold nanoparticles could prevent the aggregation of RGO by electrostatic repulsive interaction, and lead to high dispersibility of the composite. The prepared composite has a highly increased conductivity of 129Sm(-1) due to the unique electrical properties of citrate reduced gold nanoparticles. Being employed as an electrochemical sensor for detection of dopamine, the modified electrode exhibits remarkable sensitivity (3.44μA/μM) and lower detection limit (5nM), with linear response in a range of 0.05-20μM. Moreover, valid response to dopamine obtained in present work also indicates the prospective performances of AuNPs@PS/RGO microspheres to other biological molecules, such as nucleic acids, proteins and enzymes., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)