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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2010.07.001 Byline: Keyi Liu, Le Cheng, Andrea Flesken-Nikitin, Lynn Huang, Alexander Y. Nikitin, Bendicht U. Pauli Keywords: Fibronectin; Conditional knockout; Mammary epithelial cell proliferation; Lobuloalveolar differentiation Abstract: Fibronectin (Fn) plays an important part in the branching morphogenesis of salivary gland, lung, and kidney. Here, we examine the effect of the conditional knockout of Fn in the mammary epithelium [Fn.sup.MEp-/-] on postnatal mammary gland development, using Cre-loxP-mediated gene knockout technology. Our data show that Fn deletion causes a moderate retardation in outgrowth and branching of the ductal tree in 5-week-old mice. These defects are partially compensated in virgin 16-week-old mice. However, mammary glands consisting of Fn-deficient epithelial cells fail to undergo normal lobuloalveolar differentiation during pregnancy. The severity of lobuloalveolar impairment ranged from lobular hypoplasia to aplasia in some cases and was associated with the amount of Fn protein recovered from these glands. Decreased rates of mammary epithelial cell proliferation accounted for delayed ductal outgrowth in virgin and lack of alveologenesis in pregnant Fn.sup.MEp-/- mice. Concomitant decreased expression of integrin [beta].sub.1 (Itgb1) and lack of autophosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (Fak) suggest that this pathology might, at least in part, be mediated by disruption of the Fn/Itgb1/Fak signaling pathway. Article History: Received 13 January 2010; Revised 29 June 2010; Accepted 2 July 2010

In the ore beneficiation process, large block detection is necessary to ensure production safety. This typically involves identifying oversized ore on the conveyor belt and preventing material blockage accidents in the transfer buffer bin between the ore feeding belt and the ore receiving belt. Methods based on deep learning can learn to construct complex features from a large amount of data, but they also require a large number of hand-made datasets for training. Although the existing few shot detection methods for ore images reduce the cost of manual labeling, the corresponding detection performance is insufficient. This article mainly explores how to improve the performance of the detector under the ore image detection task in the case of few labeled images. First, a shot enhancement block is proposed to enhance the valuable foreground information for higher-quality support features. Subsequently, we present a dual-attention region proposal network that effectively leverages support features to enhance the precision of generating candidate proposals. Finally, we propose a lightweight multi-relational detector to effectively evaluate the relationship between query and support proposals, leading to a substantial enhancement in guidance performance. The proposed few-shot object detector (FS-OreDet) achieves the best detection results with state-of-the-art methods with an average precision (A P) of 55.1, a speed of 57 frames per second (F P S), and a model size of only 17 M B. Furthermore, our framework adeptly captures the feature information of ore images with substantial data. The detector's accuracy achieves a significant improvement of 14% in A P. Compared with general object detectors, the performance of the detector ranks first and meets the requirements for outdoor scene deployment. • Proposing a stronger few-shot object detector for ore images via feature enhancement and relationship exploration. • Some components are designed for boosting few-shot object detectors of ore images. • Extensive experiments on the ore dataset and theoretical analyses are also added to verify the superiority of the proposed detectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • This study revealed mechanisms of diabetes-related memory impairment in vivo and in vitro. • TP ameliorated memory impairment and neuronal apoptosis in aged T2DM rats. • TP improved hippocampal glucose uptake/metabolism and O-GlcNAc glycosylation/phosphorylation of Tau. • This study not only involves glycolysis and the TCA in glucose metabolism, but also focuses on the hexosamine biosynthesis pathway. • It provides new insights into the beneficial effect of TP on diabetes-related memory impairment. Diabetes mellitus (DM) plays a causative role in memory impairment. Neuroprotective effects of tea polyphenol (TP), a unique and vital functional component of tea, have been widely investigated in neurodegenerative diseases, but the exact mechanisms have still not been entirely clarified yet. Here, we conducted the experiment to assess whether TP could protect the aged T2DM rats from memory impairment and its potential mechanisms. Our study revealed that memory impairment in aged T2DM rats was alleviated after TP treatment. Both in vivo and in vitro experiments showed that TP raised expression of GLUT4, activities of key enzymes of glucose metabolism and production of ATP in the model group, along with elevated O-GlcNAc glycosylation and reduced phosphorylation of Tau. Collectively, TP ameliorates memory impairment in aged T2DM rats via modulating hippocampal glucose uptake/metabolism and O-GlcNAc glycosylation/phosphorylation of Tau, which provides new insights into the beneficial effect of TP on DM-related memory impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The skeletal muscle mass index (SMI) and skeletal muscle radiodensity (SMD) are important components of sarcopenia and malnutrition. However, their assessment requires additional resources in cancer patients, which is inconvenient for the early detection of sarcopenia and malnutrition. Objectives This study aimed to develop and validate nomograms for the prediction of low muscle mass and muscle radiodensity and to examine the application value of the nomograms in the diagnoses of sarcopenia and malnutrition. Methods A total of 1315 patients diagnosed with gastric cancer between July 2014 and May 2019 were included. Random resampling with an 80/20 split ratio was performed to obtain a training cohort (n  = 1056) and a validation cohort (n  = 259). Nomograms were separately constructed for low SMI (LSMI) and low SMD (LSMD) in the training cohort based on prospectively collected preoperative data. The performance of the nomograms was assessed using the AUC, calibration curve, and Hosmer-Lemeshow test. The application values of the nomograms in the diagnoses of sarcopenia and malnutrition were also evaluated. Results Age, BMI, hemoglobin concentration, and gait speed were included in the nomogram for LSMI predictions. These variables, in addition to sex, were included in the nomogram for LSMD predictions. The diagnostic nomograms exhibited good discrimination, with AUCs of 0.818 (95% CI, 0.791−0.845) for the LSMI nomogram and 0.788 (95% CI, 0.761−0.815) for the LSMD diagnostic nomogram in the training cohort. Calibration was also excellent. The agreement ratios between the nomograms and actual observations in the total population were 92.3% and 95.6% for sarcopenia and malnutrition, respectively. Prognostic nomograms exhibited similar performance in the validation cohort. Conclusions Diagnostic nomograms consisting of preoperative factors can successfully predict LSMI and LSMD. These models facilitate early identification and timely interventions for at-risk populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser-induced graphene (LIG) has gained popularity for electrochemical water disinfection due to its efficient antimicrobial activity when activated with low voltages. However, the antimicrobial mechanism of LIG electrodes is not yet fully understood. This study demonstrated an array of mechanisms working synergistically to inactivate bacteria during electrochemical treatment using LIG electrodes, including the generation of oxidants, changes in pH—specifically high alkalinity associated with the cathode, and electro-adsorption on the electrodes. All these mechanisms may contribute to the disinfection process when bacteria are close to the surface of the electrodes where inactivation was independent of the reactive chlorine species (RCS); however, RCS was likely responsible for the predominant cause of antibacterial effects in the bulk solution (i.e., ≥100 mL in our study). Furthermore, the concentration and diffusion kinetics of RCS in solution was voltage-dependent. At 6 V, RCS achieved a high concentration in water, while at 3 V, RCS was highly localized on the LIG surface but not measurable in water. Despite this, the LIG electrodes activated by 3 V achieved a 5.5-log reduction in Escherichia coli (E.coli) after 120-min electrolysis without detectable chlorine, chlorate, or perchlorate in the water, suggesting a promising system for efficient, energy-saving, and safe electro-disinfection. [Display omitted] • An array of mechanisms works synergistically to inactivate bacteria close to LIG electrodes. • The RCS was likely responsible for the predominant cause of antibacterial effects in the bulk solution. • At a low applied voltage (3 V), highly localized RCS on the LIG surface contributed to efficient disinfection. • LIG with low voltages inactivated bacteria without high levels of oxidants, suggesting a safe electro-disinfection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The targeted loss function handles imbalanced ECG data instead of picking data. • Different noises in ECG data are accurately filtered by a 9-layer wavelet algorithm. • Z-score normalization decreases individual differences in ECG data. • High-precision time-domain CNN model divides ECG data into 8 pathological groups. • Frequency-domain feature improves time-domain networks results. The electrocardiogram (ECG) plays a vital auxiliary role in medical diagnosis, but due to the very low amplitude of the ECG signals, it is challenging and time-consuming to conduct artificial visual evaluation of the ECG signals. In recent years, medical aid research methods through ECG have emerged one after another. However, most of them have defects such as poor model generalization ability and obvious individual differences. This paper constructs two-way multiplex convolutional neural networks (CNNs) based on time–frequency features to classify normal cardiac rhythm (NOR) and seven cardiac arrhythmias including atrial premature contraction (APC), ventricular premature beat (PVC), left bundle branch block (LBBB), right bundle branch block (RBBB), signal quality change (∼), ventricular fused heart beat (FVN), and pacing heart beat (/). Firstly, the preprocessing steps of the original rough ECG signal are arranged in a unique order, including wavelet transform, threshold denoising, normalization, chopping, mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC). Secondly, a 12-layer one-dimensional CNN model with block representation and a 11-layer auxiliary-two-dimensional CNN architecture are designed for the time-domain feature and the frequency-domain feature, respectively, where the focal loss function is defined to solve the problem of data categories imbalance. Finally, the experimental results show that the proposed algorithm presents excellent performances in processing variable length ECGs, the average accuracy of time-domain model is 99.1 %, and the classification accuracy of APC in frequency-domain model is 96.3 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This review introduced a automatic verification system for thermocouple sensors and resistance thermometer sensors,in Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 programming environment by the MSCOMM Control write serial communication which is used to communicate with the fluke 1560 precise temperature gauge,and other controls for the user interfaces. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • TP can improve the spatial memory by increasing glucose transport and metabolism. • EGCG has a protective effect on cellular energy metabolism monitored by Seahorse. Tea polyphenols (TP) are the main active components of tea. In our study, the effect of TP on the menopause and aging related memory decline and the mechanisms focused on the brain glucose metabolism were clarified. In vivo, ovariectomy (OVX) combined with D-galactose (D-gal) injection were used to establish the memory decline model. TP administration improved the spatial memory by increasing the expressions of GLUT1, 3 and Tau protein O-GlcNAc glycosylation, decreasing Tau hyper-phosphorylation and the Aβ 1-42 level, and improving the morphology of mitochondria in hippocampus. Furthermore, in vitro, PC12 cells were treated with Aβ 1-42 and EGCG treatment regulated the mitochondrial respiratory function and glycolytic functions, improved the activities of the key enzymes in glycolysis and tricarboxylic acid cycle, increased the SOD activity and decreased the MDA levels in cells. Our study suggests that TP improve the memory in aging ovariectomized rats by regulating brain glucose metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL) facilitates differentiation of osteoclast precursors into osteoclasts, resulting in bone erosion in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) are the main cells for producing RANKL. Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling is activated in FLS of RA patients (RA-FLS), which has been linked to RANKL production. A two-herb formula (RL) comprising Rosae Multiflorae Fructus and Lonicerae Japonicae Flos is traditionally used for treating RA in China. We have found that a standardized ethanolic extract of RL (RLE for short) alleviates bone erosion in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rats.Purpose: This study aimed to determine whether RLE inhibits RANKL production and osteoclastogenesis in cell and rat models, and to explore the involvement of the STAT3 pathway in this inhibition.Study Design and Methods: A CIA rat model, interleukin-6/soluble interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6/sIL-6R)-stimulated RA-FLS and a co-culture system (IL-6/sIL-6R-stimulated RA-FLS/peripheral blood mononuclear cells) were used to evaluate the effects of RLE. Micro-computed tomography analysis was used to observe bone erosion in CIA rats. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase staining was used to evaluate osteoclastogenesis. Western blotting and ELISA assays were employed to examine protein levels. RT-qPCR was used to detect mRNA levels. STAT3-over-activated RA-FLS were used to investigate the involvement of STAT3 signaling in the anti-osteoclastogenic effects of RLE.Results: RLE alleviated bone erosion in joints of CIA rats. In both synovial tissues of CIA rats and IL-6/sIL-6R-stimulated RA-FLS, RLE downregulated the protein level of RANKL. In the co-culture system, RLE significantly and dose-dependently inhibited IL-6/sIL-6R-induced osteoclastogenesis. Mechanistic studies revealed that RLE lowered the protein level of phospho-STAT3 (Tyr705) in synovial tissues of CIA rats. In IL-6/sIL-6R-stimulated RA-FLS, RLE inhibited the activation/phosphorylation of a STAT3 upstream kinase Janus kinase 2 (Tyr1007/1008) and STAT3 (Tyr705), decreased the nuclear localization of STAT3, lowered mRNA levels of STAT3-transcriptionally regulated genes IL-1β and TNF-α. RLE's inhibitory effects on RANKL production in RA-FLS gradually decreased when IL-6/sIL-6R doses increased. Over-activation of STAT3 diminished the inhibitory effects of RLE on RANKL production in IL-6/sIL-6R-stimulated RA-FLS, and attenuated the anti-osteoclastogenic effects of RLE in the co-culture system.Conclusion: We, for the first time, demonstrated that suppressing STAT3 signaling contributes to the inhibition of RANKL production and osteoclastogenesis, and thereby supports the mechanisms responsible for the reduction in bone erosion in RLE-treated CIA rats. This study provides further pharmacological groundwork for developing RLE as a modern anti-arthritic drug, and supports the notion that targeting STAT3 signaling is a viable strategy for managing bone erosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chrysoeriol is a flavone found in diverse dietary and medicinal herbs such as Lonicerae Japonicae Flos (the dried flower bud or newly bloomed flower of Lonicera japonica Thunb.). These herbs are commonly used for treating inflammatory diseases. Herbal extracts containing chrysoeriol have been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects and inhibit nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) signaling. Some of these extracts can inhibit signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling in cancer cells.Purpose: This study aimed to determine whether chrysoeriol has anti-inflammatory effects and whether NF-κB and STAT3 pathways are involved in the effects.Study Design and Methods: A TPA (12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate)-induced ear edema mouse model and LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells were used to evaluate the effects of chrysoeriol. Griess reagent was used to measure the production of nitric oxide (NO). Western blot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were employed to detect protein levels. RT-qPCR analyses were used to detect mRNA levels. Haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining was employed to examine the pathological conditions in animal tissues.Results: In the mouse model, chrysoeriol ameliorated acute skin inflammation, evidenced by reduced ear thickness, ear weight and number of inflammatory cells in inflamed ear tissues. The compound lowered protein levels of phospho-p65 (Ser536), phospho-STAT3 (Tyr705), inducible nitric oxide synthases (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-1β and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) in mouse swollen ears. In LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells, chrysoeriol also lowered levels of these proteins. In addition, chrysoeriol decreased the production of NO and prostaglandin E2; inhibited the phosphorylation of inhibitor of κB (Ser32), p65 (Ser536) and Janus kinase 2 (Tyr1007/1008); decreased nuclear localization of p50, p65 and STAT3; and down-regulated mRNA levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-α that are transcriptionally regulated by NF-κB and STAT3 in the cell model.Conclusion: We for the first time demonstrated that chrysoeriol ameliorates TPA-induced ear edema in mice, and that inhibition of JAK2/STAT3 and IκB/p65 NF-κB pathways are involved in the anti-inflammatory effects of chrysoeriol. This study provides chemical and pharmacological justifications for the use of chrysoeriol-containing herbs in treating inflammatory diseases, and provides pharmacological groundwork for developing chrysoeriol as a novel anti-inflammatory agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Metastasized melanoma is extremely difficult to treat. Activation of C-C chemokine receptor type 7 (CCR7) has been linked to melanoma metastasis. CCR7 can be directly regulated by miR-let-7. We have previously shown that an ethanolic extract of an herbal formula comprising Sophorae Flos and Lonicerae Japonicae Flos (SLE) inhibits melanoma cell migration and invasion.Purpose: In this study, we determined whether SLE suppresses melanoma metastasis, and whether regulation of miR-let-7a/f-CCR7 signaling is involved in the effect.Study Design and Methods: Small RNA sequencing was conducted to compare miRNA expression profiles of B16F10 tumors dissected from SLE-treated or untreated mice. Western blot and RT-qPCR analyses were employed to examine protein and miRNA levels, respectively. A B16F10 melanoma lung metastasis mouse model was used to evaluate the effects of SLE on melanoma metastasis. MiR-let-7a/f-knockdown and CCR7-overexpression cell models were used to investigate the involvement of miR-let-7a/f-CCR7 signaling in the anti-metastatic effects of SLE.Results: It was found that SLE upregulated levels of miR-let-7a/f in B16F10 melanoma tissues. SLE significantly elevated levels of miR-let-7a/f, lowered the protein level of CCR7, inhibited the phosphorylation of CCR7 downstream molecules p38 and JNK in B16F10 and A375 melanoma cells. SLE inhibited B16F10 melanoma lung metastasis in mice. SLE upregulated levels of miR-let-7a/f, and lowered protein levels of CCR7, MMP-2, MMP-9, phospho-p38 (Thr180/Tyr182) and phospho-JNK (Thr183/Tyr185) in melanoma-invaded lung tissues. Knockdown of miR-let-7a/f diminished the effects of SLE on CCR7 signaling in, and invasion of, melanoma cells. Overexpression of CCR7 lessened the effects of SLE in inhibiting the phosphorylation of p38 and JNK in, and the invasive capability of, melanoma cells.Conclusion: We for the first time demonstrated that SLE inhibits melanoma metastasis in mice, and that regulation of the miR-let-7a/f-CCR7 pathway contributes to the anti-metastatic mechanisms of SLE. These findings provide a pharmacological basis for developing SLE as a modern agent for treating metastatic melanoma. Additionally and importantly, this study suggests that regulating the miR-let-7a/f-CCR7 pathway is a novel strategy for controlling melanoma metastasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation methods have been utilized to determine the particle size distribution of crushed ores. Due to the complex working environment, high-powered computing equipment is difficult to deploy. At the same time, the ore distribution is stacked, and it is difficult to identify the complete features. To address this issue, an effective box-supervised technique with texture features is provided for ore image segmentation that can identify complete and independent ores. Firstly, a ghost feature pyramid network (Ghost-FPN) is proposed to process the features obtained from the backbone to reduce redundant semantic information and computation generated by complex networks. Then, an optimized detection head is proposed to obtain the feature to maintain accuracy. Finally, Lab color space (Lab) and local binary patterns (LBP) texture features are combined to form a fusion feature similarity-based loss function to improve accuracy while incurring no loss. Experiments on MS COCO have shown that the proposed fusion features are also worth studying on other types of datasets. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, which achieves over 50 frames per second with a small model size of 21.6 MB. Meanwhile, the method maintains a high level of accuracy 67.8 in A P 50 b o x and 47.7 in A P 50 m a s k compared with the state-of-the-art approaches on ore image dataset, even better than bounding box tightness prior (BBTP) by 10.4/1.3 on A P 50 b o x / A P 50 m a s k metrics with the ResNet50 as backbone. The source code is available at https://github.com/MVME-HBUT/OREINST. • A fusion feature combining Lab color space (Lab) and local binary pattern (LBP) texture features is proposed. • A Ghost-FPN and an optimized detection head are presented to reduce model size while increasing inference speed. • Experiments on MS COCO have shown that the proposed fusion features are also worth studying on other types of datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new member of lead-free Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 (NBT) ceramics based on bismuth layer-structured ferroelectrics (BLSFs), Bi x Ti 3 O 6+1.5 x ( x = 3.96, 3.98, 4.0, 4.02, 4.04) ceramics was prepared by a conventional mixed oxide route. In order to explore the ferroelectric and dielectric properties, we changed the content of Bi in the ceramics. XRD patterns of Bi x Ti 3 O 6+1.5 x demonstrated that the new material was a single phase of Bi-layered perovskite structure. Through impedance spectra analysis, we found that the Bi 4.02 Ti 3 O 12.03 ceramics sintered at 1100 °C showed excellent dielectric properties with a highest dielectric constant of 8967.49 and a lowest dielectric loss of 0.00298 measured under 10 kHz, which were enhanced much compared with Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 prepared by the same means. Meantime, the Curie temperature of the whole samples was about 670 °C. In addition, the ferroelectric hysteresis loops of all the samples indicated that they were ferroelectric materials, and Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 ceramics sintered at 1100 °C processed a remanent polarization (2 P r ) of 12.206 µC/cm 2 and a coercive field of 29.542 kV/cm. SEM can roughly describe the results of the dielectric spectrum and ferroelectricity with different Bi concentration through grain size mechanics. Because of the high dielectric constant, wide operating temperature and low dielectric loss, the Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 ceramics have a broad application prospect in components, such as sensors, high-temperature capacitors and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]