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The penetration depth is one of the important indicators in aluminium alloy laser welding, which is closely related to the welding quality. In situ monitoring penetration depth can provide a judging basis for the process optimization so as to reduce the occurrence of lack of penetration or burn-through defects. In this paper, the acoustic emission (AE) technique combing with various machine learning (ML) algorithms, including the shallow machine learning (SML) and deep learning (DL) algorithms, was proposed to predict the weld penetration. Furthermore, the class activation map (CAM) method was applied to visualise and explain the prediction mechanism of convolutional neural network (CNN). The comparison results demonstrated that the combination of ML and AE monitoring can achieve very accurate penetration prediction, and the classification performance of DL algorithm is stronger than that of SML algorithm. The constructed ResNet weld penetration status recognition model achieved the highest accuracy of up to 97.7% on the test set. In addition, the CAM method can effectively reveal the important feature areas related to penetration in AE signal, which provides valuable information for the understanding and optimization of DL algorithm. In summary, our work proposes a new approach for in situ penetration monitoring of aluminium alloy pulse laser welding, which can improve the welding quality and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

lntroduction: Postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) can cause postmenopausal women to experience pain and interference. Identifying and exploring potential early diagnostic biomarkers of PMOP is of substantial clinical value and social significance. This study aimed to screen for potential novel diagnostic biomarkers of PMOP through a multiomics approach, providing new directions and ideas for the early prevention and treatment of this disease. Materials and Methods: Fifteen postmenopausal women with osteoporosis and 12 without were recruited. Clinical information was collected, and various clinical biochemical parameters were tested. Plasma and fecal samples were collected and analyzed using Olink proteomics and gut microbial metabolomics. Results: The functions of the differentially abundant metabolites were mainly related to autophagy and arginine and proline metabolism and were involved in immunoinflammatory metabolic processes. Olink showed significant differences in the expression of seven inflammation-related proteins between the two groups. Conclusion: We demonstrated that metabolic differences between PMOP patients and healthy controls were associated with inflammatory responses and found seven proteins with significant differences. Among these proteins, CDCP1, IL10, and IL-1alpha combined with clinical indicators had high discriminant efficiency in identifying PMOP. This is also the first study to demonstrate noteworthy changes in CDCP1 levels in patients with PMOP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockade of the interaction of the immune checkpoint receptor programmed cell death protein (PD)-1 and its ligand PD-L1 has been found to be a promising cancer treatment. Our previous studies identified that nABPD1 competed with PD-L1 to bind PD-1. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of anti-tumor immunotherapy of ICIK cells conjugated with peptides in vivo and in vitro. Here, we synthesized the nABPD1 derivatives SBP1 and SBP2 and showed that their binding efficiency to PD-1-positive improving cytokine-induced killer (ICIK) cells was 98 and 82%, respectively. The cytotoxicity of ICIK cells to T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cells was increased by conjugating with SBP1 or SBP2, which was 2 times higher than that of ICIK cells alone. Furthermore, mice experiments showed that the fluorescence intensity of leukemia cells in T-ALL xenograft models was reduced by more than 95%, indicating that the peptides enhanced the therapeutic effect in vivo, while morphological evaluations showed that the peptides had no toxicity to important organs. Therefore, peptide-cell conjugates (PCCs) may be a novel method to improve the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy by blocking PD-1 in T-ALL patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Obesity is an established risk factor for pelvic floor disorders (PFD) but the effects of bariatric surgery on PFD are uncertain. This meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of bariatric surgery on PFD in obese women.Methods: A systematic search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, CNKI and CBM databases up to October 2016 was performed, and studies reporting pre-operative and post-operative outcomes in obese women undergoing bariatric surgery were included. The Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory (PFDI-20), the Pelvic Floor Incontinence Questionnaire (PFIQ-7), the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire, Female Sexual Function Index and the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Urinary Incontinence short form score were used for evaluating pelvic floor dysfunction after bariatric surgery.Results: Eleven cohort studies were finally included. Pooled results revealed that bariatric surgery was associated with a significant improvement in PFD for obese women on the whole [PFDI-20: SMD = 0.89, 95% CI (0.44, 1.34), P < 0.001; PFIQ-7: SMD = 1.23, 95% CI (0.17, 2.29), P = 0.023]. In the subscale analysis, there was significant improvement in urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. However, no significant improvement was found in fecal incontinence and sexual function.Conclusions: Bariatric surgery is associated with significant improvement in urinary incontinence, and has a benefit on pelvic organ prolapse for obese women. However, there is no significant improvement in fecal incontinence and sexual function. Further multi-center, large-scale and longer-term randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interferon-gamma (IFN- γ) released by T cells performs very important roles in latent diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infections and control of tuberculosis. In this work, a multilayer screen printing indium tin oxide (ITO) detector modified with a self-assembled graphene/chitosan (Gr-Chit) composite film followed by glutathione-modified gold nanoparticles (GSH-AuNPs), antibodies, and antigens was fabricated for highly sensitive and rapid detection of IFN- γ. The formation of the antibody-antigen complex at the electrode surface causes the impedance to increase. Under optimum conditions, the relative increased differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) peak current values are proportional to the logarithmic value of IFN- γ concentrations in a wide range of 5 to 4000 pg/mL with a low detection limit of 0.5 pg/mL ( S/ N = 3). The resulting IFN- γ immunosensor shows excellent detection reproducibility, good specificity, and stability. In addition, for the detection of clinical serum samples, it is well consistent with the standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests. Compared to the expensive glassy carbon electrode, the ITO detector can act as a disposable electrode in clinical detection due to its low cost. This study provides a lower cost, simple, and highly sensitive approach for potential application in early diagnosis of MTB infections and control of tuberculosis. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperature has an important effect on plant growth and sex determination in flowers. The effect of different temperatures (high temperature: 30°C /25°C (day/night), medium temperature: 25°C /18°C and low temperature: 15°C /10°C ) on flower sex determination and fruit yield was studied in Chieh-qua ( Benincasa hispida Cogn. var. Chieh-qua How. 'No. 4 Jiang xin'), also the content of absicsic acid (ABA) and indole acetic acid (IAA) in the shoot apex was measured. The results showed that medium and low temperatures during seedling stage boost the female flower differentiation after transplanting, compared with high temperature treatment, and the effect was more obvious when the temperature was lower. Lower temperature increased the content of ABA and IAA in shoot apex of Chieh-qua. There was a positive relationship between the ratio of IAA/ABA and plant female flower determination under different temperature treatments (R = 0.8744). Temperature may affect female flower differentiation of Chieh-qua by changing the contents of ABA and IAA in shoot apex. Fruit yield was not significantly affected by different temperature treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]