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The benefit of removing the splenic lymph nodes in patients with proximal gastric cancer has been controversial. The purpose of our study was to investigate the importance of performing a splenic hilar lymph node dissection without splenectomy in patients undergoing total gastrectomy for gastric cancer. From January 2006 to December 2015, we retrospectively reviewed patients who underwent a curative total gastrectomy for gastric cancer. Propensity score matching was used to balance any potential discrepancy of the other covariates between patients with and without splenic hilar lymph node dissection. Survival analysis, Cox univariate and multivariate analysis, and subgroups analysis were conducted to determine the value of splenic hilar lymph node dissection. After matching, 2 nomograms among patients with and without splenic hilar lymph node dissection were established respectively, the C-index, calibration curve and decision curve analysis were used to further evaluate the value of splenic hilar lymph node dissection. The rate of metastatic splenic hilar lymph nodes in the 274 patients undergoing splenic hilar lymph node dissection was 16.4% (45/274). Patients undergoing splenic hilar lymph node dissection had better survival outcomes than those not undergoing splenic hilar lymph node dissection before (P =.003) and after (P =.003) propensity score matching. Cox multivariate analysis also confirmed that splenic hilar lymph node dissection was an independent prognostic factor both before (hazard ratio 1.284, 95% confidence interval 1.042–1.583, P =.019) and after (hazard ratio 1.480, 95% confidence interval 1.156–1.894, P =.002) propensity score matching. Subgroup analysis indicted that splenic hilar lymph node dissection offered better survival outcomes for esophagogastric junctional adenocarcinoma (P <.001, P for interaction =.018). After propensity score matching, the nomogram of patients with splenic hilar lymph node dissection (C-index 0.735, 95% confidence interval 0.695–0.774) also indicated a statistically significant advantage compared with that without splenic hilar lymph node dissection (C-index 0.708, 95% confidence interval 0.668–0.748, P <.001). Our study suggests that spleen-preserving splenic hilar lymph node dissection should be an essential procedure among patients undergoing total gastrectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Obesity may impact surgical outcomes of gastrectomy. Whether visceral fat area (VFA) is a better obesity parameter than body mass index (BMI) is still controversial. The aim of this study is to compare the accuracy and effectiveness of VFA and BMI in predicting the short-term surgical outcomes of gastrectomy.Methods: Patients who were diagnosed with gastric cancer were measured for BMI and VFA preoperatively and then divided into a VFA-H (VFA-high) group and VFA-L (VFA-low) group, at the cutoff point of 100 cm2, and a BMI-H (BMI-high) group and BMI-L (BMI-low) group, at the cutoff point of 25 kg/m2. The short-term surgical outcomes were compared between the different groups.Results: In total, 276 patients were enrolled in this study; 55 (19.9%) patients were classified into the BMI-H group, and 122 (44.2%) patients were classified into the VFA-H group. There was a significant correlation between BMI and VFA (r = 0.652, p < 0.001). Compared with the VFA-L group, the VFA-H group had a higher incidence of postoperative complications (31.1% vs. 13.0%; p < 0.001), longer operation duration (270.0 (235.0-305.0) vs. 255.0 (223.8-295.0), p = 0.046), and more blood loss (100.0 (100.0-150.0) vs. 80.0 (80.0-100.0), p < 0.001), while the BMI-H group had more blood loss than the BMI-L group (100.0 (100.0-120.0) vs. 100.0(80.0-100.0), p = 0.006). Logistic regression showed that VFA was an independent risk factor for postoperative complications (odds ratio 2.813, 95% CI 1.523-5.194; p = 0.001).Conclusion: For gastric cancer patients, VFA is superior to BMI in accurately and effectively illuminating the impact of obesity on short-term surgical outcomes.Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02800005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The fuzzy FJSP with variable processing speeds constraint is surveyed. • A multi-objective hybrid evolutionary immune algorithm is proposed. • A reference point-based angle selection mechanism is adopted. • A Pareto similar information-based crossover operator is developed. • Four objective-driven neighborhood structures are proposed. In this study, a fuzzy flexible job shop scheduling problem with variable processing speeds is considered. To address this problem, a multi-objective hybrid evolutionary immune algorithm (HEIA) is proposed, where the fuzzy maximum completion time (makespan) and fuzzy total energy consumption are optimized simultaneously. In the proposed HEIA, a two left-shift heuristic based active decoding method is proposed to optimize the fuzzy makespan. Then, two hybrid evolutionary strategies are used to separately enhance the exploration ability and exploitation ability, where a reference point-based angle selection strategy is incorporated to optimize the search mechanism. For the first evolutionary strategy, a Pareto similar information-based crossover operator is adopted to improve population diversity. For the second evolutionary strategy, a deep local search mechanism and four objective-driven neighborhood structures are developed. Finally, five types of instances are generated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed HEIA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Based on the distance reject option of the EKNN rule, only normal operating data is needed to construct the CMEW-EKNN model. • An adaptive discounting factor is suggested to tune the EKNN rule, so as to improve the performance of the CMEW-EKNN method. • Based on the framework of evidence theory, the uncertainty of the equipment's operating condition can be described well. Abstract It is essential and challenging to monitor complex industrial processes and thus make an early warning for abnormal conditions, in particular when no fault samples can be observed under unknown uncertainties. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a so-called CMEW-EKNN method, i.e., condition monitoring and early warning method based on the evidential k -nearest neighbor (EKNN) rule in the framework of Evidence Theory. By employing the distance reject option in the EKNN rule, only normal operating data is needed to construct the early warning model. An adaptive discounting factor is adopted to make the early warning boundary adaptive to local distribution characteristics of the training samples, so as to improve both effectiveness and robustness of CMEW-EKNN. Comparisons on two practical applications in power plant demonstrate that the proposed CMEW-EKNN, which adopts the adaptive discounting factor, yields superior fault early warning performance than the PCA-based and FD-kNN fault detection approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cleaner production of environmentally friendly materials for the controlled adsorption and desorption of ammonium and phosphate in wastewater treatment and soil fertility maintenance is a challenge. Here we show that a class of clay mineral-biochar composites which were produced via a facile cleaner pyrolysis process starting from two abundant natural materials (montmorillonite and bamboo powder). The montmorillonite-biochar composites (MBC) were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, N 2 adsorption/desorption isotherms, thermogravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The adsorption and slow-release characteristics of MBC samples for NH 4 + and PO 4 3− in aqueous solution were evaluated. Montmorillonite (Mt) acted as a solid acidic catalyst and catalyzed the pyrolysis of bamboo powder to biochar and lower the pyrolysis temperatures. Both biochar and Mt contributed to the texture and structure, which provided varied surface and various adsorptive sites. The Langmuir maximum adsorption capacity of MBC samples for NH 4 + and PO 4 3− was 12.52 mg·g −1 and 105.28 mg·g −1 . The adsorption of NH 4 + onto the MBC sample was primarily controlled by surface adsorption and partially by a CEC process. The adsorption capacity of PO 4 3− resulted from the electrostatic attraction or ionic bonding between PO 4 3− and cations in the MBC samples such as Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , Al 3+ and Fe 3+ . The release of NH 4 + and PO 4 3− from the NH 4 + - and PO 4 3− -laden MBC samples was merely 0.30–4.92% and 2.63–5.09% within 2–88 h. These findings implied that the MBC samples prepared from low-cost Mt and bamboo can remove NH 4 + and PO 4 3− from aqueous solution by adsorption and the resultant NH 4 + - and PO 4 3− -laden MBC samples can be used as an effective slow-release fertilizer of N and P. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] The gene polymorphisms of ABCB1 , EPHX1 , and SCN1A were found to influence carbamazepine (CBZ) metabolism and resistance in epilepsy patients, but the relevance remains controversial. To reveal the relationships among the gene polymorphisms of ABCB1 , EPHX1, SCN1A and the metabolism and resistance of CBZ, the databases of PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Science and Technique Journals, China Biology medicine disc and Wan Fang were retrieved for suitable studies up to April 2021. 18 studies containing 3293 epilepsy patients were included. The result revealed the gene polymorphism of ABCB1 c.3435C > T is significantly associated with altered concentration–dose ratios of CBZ (CDR CBZ) (CC vs. CT, OR = 0.25 (95% CI: 0.08–0.42), P = 0.004), and EPHX c.416A > G gene polymorphism may also significantly adjusted the concentration–dose ratios of carbamazepine-10, 11-trans dihydrodiol (CDR CBZD) (AA vs. GG, OR = 0.48 (95% CI: 0.01–0.96), P = 0.045; AG vs. GG, OR = 0.68 (95% CI: 0.16–1.20), P = 0.010, respectively) and the ratio of CBZD:carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide (CBZE) (CDR CBZD :CDR CBZE) (AG vs GG, OR = 0.83 (95% CI: 0.31–1.36), P = 0.002). Furthermore, ABCB1 c.3435C > T polymorphism was also observed to be significantly influenced CBZ resistance (CC vs TT, OR = 1.78 (95% CI: 1.17–2.72), P = 0.008; CT vs TT, OR = 1.60 (95% CI: 1.12–2.30), P = 0.01; CC + CT vs TT, OR = 1.61 (95% CI: 1.15–2.26), P = 0.006, respectively). Therefore, CBZ metabolism and resistance in patients with epilepsy may be adjusted by the gene polymorphisms of ABCB1 c.3435C > T and EPHX1 c.416A > G which provides the further scientific basis for clinical individualized therapy of epilepsy. However, larger sample size studies are still needed to provide further conclusive evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel CXCL1+_FAP+ phenotype in CAFs was identified by integrating CXCL1 and FAP. • CXCL1+_FAP+ phenotype effectively stratified NPC Patients into low and high risk groups. • Patients in the high risk group had a higher risk to encounter distant metastasis and poor prognosis than those in the low risk group. • CXCL1+_FAP+ phenotype was an independent prognostic factor for DMFS, OS, PFS and LRFS in patients with NPC. • NPC patients in the high risk group had higher PD-L1 expression levels than those in the low risk group. There is a lack of effective biomarkers for predicting the distant metastasis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We aimed to explore the expression of FAP+Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) derived CXCL1 in NPC and its predictive values for distant metastasis and correlation with PD-L1 expression. A total of 345 patients with locoregionally advanced NPC were retrospectively enrolled (the training cohort: the validation cohort = 160:185). Co-expression of CXCL1 and FAP and the expression of PD-L1 were detected by multi-immunofluorescence staining and immunohistochemistry, respectively. The primary end-point was distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS). The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the survival. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess prognostic risk factors. A novel CXCL1+_FAP+ phenotype in CAFs was identified in NPC and then used to divide patients into low and high risk groups. Both in the training cohort and validation cohort, patients in the high risk group had poorer DMFS, overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and locoregional relapse-free survival (LRFS) than patients in the low risk group. Multivariate analysis revealed CXCL1+_FAP+ phenotype was an independent prognostic factor for DMFS, OS, PFS and LRFS. Further results showed patients in the high risk group had higher PD-L1 expression than those in the low risk group. Our study showed CXCL1+_FAP+ phenotype in CAFs could effectively classified locoregionally advanced NPC patients into different risk groups for distant metastasis and might be a potential biomarker for anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurotrophin 3 (NT3) is a potent neurotrophic factor for promoting remyelination and recovery of neuronal function; upregulation of its expression in the central nervous system (CNS) is thus of major therapeutic importance for neurological deficits. Matrine (MAT), a quinolizidine alkaloid derived from the herb Radix Sophorae Flavescent, has been recently reported to effectively ameliorate clinical signs in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS), by secreting antiinflammatory cytokines. In the present study, our goal was to investigate whether MAT could affect NT3 expression of glial cells in the CNS, the major cell populations in the CNS foci of MS/EAE. We found that MAT markedly upregulated NT3 expression in the CNS not only by microglia/macrophages and astrocytes, but also by oligodendrocyte precursor cells, indicative of both paracrine and autocrine effects on myelinating cells. While MAT treatment reduced the numbers of iNOS + M1, but increased Arg1 + M2 microglia/macrophage phenotypes, NT3 expression was upregulated in both phenotypes. These results indicate that MAT therapy for EAE acts, at least in part, by stimulating local production of NT3 by glial cells in the CNS, which protects neural cells from CNS inflammation-induced tissue damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Genistein, a principal component of soybean isoflavones, plays an important role in the prevention of atherosclerosis. However, the detailed mechanisms have not been fully investigated. The aims of this study were to evaluate the anti-atherosclerotic effect and investigate potential pharmacological mechanism of genistein. Methods: A model of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL)-induced injury in on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) was established to evaluate the protective role of genistein. Macrophage/monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), vascular cellular adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) secretion and their messenger RNA transcription were observed via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR). Meanwhile, the study investigated the role of Nrf2/HO-1 pathway during the process. Results: Pretreatment with genistein markedly reduced ox-LDL-induced MCP-1, VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 secretion and mRNA transcription, which was further decreased by the inducer of HO and reversed by the inhibitor of HO; additionally, the effects were accompanied with upregulating HO-1 mRNA and protein expression and markedly abolished with Nrf2 siRNA. Conclusions: Anti-inflammatory effect of genistein on endothelial cells may be associated with the activation of Nrf2/HO-1 pathway. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Glutathione peroxidases (GPx) are parts of the enzymatic antioxidant system that can eliminate the peroxides produced as effect of reactions of molecules with reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, a selenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase 3 cDNAs (designated as SpGPx3) was obtained from the mud crab Scylla paramamosain. The open reading frame (ORF) of SpGPx3 was 639 bp, which encoded a putative protein of 212 amino acids. SpGPx3 protein contained a characteristic GPx signature motif, and an active site motif. Mud crabs were exposed to 20 mg L−1 nitrite for 72 h. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that the SpGPx3 mRNA was distributed abundantly in mud crab. The transcript levels of antioxidant enzyme genes (SpGPx3, SpSOD and SpCAT) were obviously induced after acute nitrite exposure. After knockdown of the SpGPx3 level, the mortality of mud crabs and malondialdehyde (MDA) content significantly increased under nitrite stress. These results suggested that SpGPx3 played an important role in protecting organisms against oxidative stress. Unlabelled Image • Glutathione peroxidases (GPx) cDNA was first isolated from mud crab. • The mRNA expression levels of antioxidant system (SpGPx3, SpSOD, and SpCAT) were obviously induced after nitrite exposure. • Silencing of SpGPx3 may increase the mortality of mud crabs after nitrite tress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mud crab, Scylla paramamosain , is an economically-important crab in China. Air exposure is an important environmental stressor during mud crab culture and transportation. Adaptive mechanisms responding to air exposure in mud crabs are still poorly understood. In this study, mud crabs were exposed to air for 120 h. Air exposure decreased total hemocyte counts, led to cytological damage, and caused high mortality. Transcriptomic analysis was conducted at 0, 6 and 96 h after air exposure. A total of 3530 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. DEGs were mainly involved in the oxidative stress response, metabolism, cellular processes, signal transduction, and immune functions. Transcriptomic analysis also revealed that genes of glycolysis and of the tricarboxylic acid cycle were key factors in regulating the mud crab adaptation to air exposure. Unlabelled Image • Air exposure induced oxidative stress, and led to cytological damage. • Some genes involved in response to air exposure were found. • Glycolysis and tricarboxylic acid cycle related pathways associated with air exposure stress were altered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the main cause of blindness in adults and investigating new therapeutic targets for DR is necessary. This study aimed to investigate the effect of high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) protein and its mechanism in diabetic retinopathy (DR) were investigated. Human retinal endothelial cells (HREC) were uesd for chip-seq. Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into control group, HMGB1 group, diabetes mellitus (DM) combined with HMGB1 siRNA group, and DM group. Next, eyeballs were removed and retinas were detached for western blot. The DM model of cell was built by increasing the glucose concentration in cell culture medium. The regulation of HMGB1 was achieved by short hairpin (sh)-HMGB1 transfection, then, the transfected cells were harvested for luciferase assay, western blot and qRT-PCR analyses as well as proliferation and apoptosis detection. Chip-seq and luciferase assay showed the possible transcription factor functions of HMGB1 and IKB-α was one of the HMGB1 binding sites. In vivo and in vitro results indicated high expression of HMGB1 and NF-kB and low expression of IKB-α in DR and the expression of IKB-α and NF-kB was regulated by HMGB1. Moreover, cell assays showed that HMGB1 inhibited cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis. The results from the present study showed that HMGB1 may be involved in the pathogenesis of DR as a transcription factor through NF-kB pathway. Therefore, blockade of HMGB1 may be a new method for the treatment of DR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glutathione S-transferase (GST) plays important roles in cellular detoxification and antioxidant defense. A Mu-type glutathione S-transferase (designated as SpMu-GST) was obtained from the mud crab Scylla paramamosain. The open reading frame of SpMu-GST was comprised a 690 bp, which encoded a putative protein of 229 amino acids. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) revealed that the SpMu-GST mRNA was expressed in all examined tissues, with highest expression in hepatopancreas. During ammonia exposure, the SpMu-GST transcriptions in hepatopancreas and gill were significantly up-regulated at early exposure time. Moreover, RNA interference (RNAi) experiment was designed to understand the roles of SpMu-GST under ammonia exposure. Ammonia exposure reduced the levels of glutathione S-transferase (GST), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and total antioxidative capacity (T-AOC), and increased the formation of malondialdehyde (MDA). After knockdown of the SpMu-GST level, GST activity and T-AOC were significantly decreased at some exposure time after ammonia exposure. However, the mortality of mud crabs and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents significantly increased under ammonia exposure. These results further suggested that SpMu-GST played a critical role in mud crab antioxidant defenses in response to environmental stress. Unlabelled Image • A Mu-type glutathione S-transferase (GST) cDNA was isolated from mud crab. • SpMu-GST was up-regulated in response to ammonia stress. • SpMu-GST expression silence increased oxidative damage after ammonia stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]