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Ascorbic acid (AsA) can participate in the enzymatic and nonenzymatic clearance processes of reactive oxygen species (ROS), thereby enhancing stress tolerance in plants. GDP-L-galactose phosphorylase (GGP) is predicted to be a critical enzyme in the L-galactose route of plant AsA biosynthesis. However, information on the catalytic AsA synthesis and stress-resistance effect of the GGP gene in sweetpotato remains scarce. In this study, the IbGGP1 gene from sweetpotato was successfully isolated. The qRT-PCR determination revealed a distinctly higher expression level of IbGGP1 in sweetpotato flowers, and the gene was induced by multiple stresses, especially in drought, salt, and extreme temperatures. The seed germination, root elongation, and fresh weight were promoted in T3Arabidopsis IbGGP1-overexpressing lines as compared to wild-type plants under mannitol and salt stresses. The heterologous overexpression of IbGGP1 upregulated the mRNA level of the AtGME and AtGPP genes, and elevated the AsA content and AsA/DHA ratio under soil drought and salt stress. This stress-tolerance phenotype was associated with lower hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde content and higher antioxidant enzyme activity. These results indicate that the increased expression of IbGGP1 in Arabidopsis improves tolerance to multiple environmental stresses by promoting AsA biosynthesis and ROS-scavenging system. The functional identification of IbGGP1 provides a new approach for improving stress tolerance to drought and salt in sweetpotato and other species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building safety has become a serious and important topic for the development of the construction industry, as well as for the preservation of contractors' and workers' lives and property. With the development and expansion of a sensitive and complex monitoring system for the safety of buildings, allowing accidents to occur is no longer acceptable. Therefore, risk management identifies potential hazards before any operations take place, and the safety system operates based on a planned, organized, and systematic process known as "pre-incident." This plan is based on the analysis-control method. Failure to utilize risk management methods and the acceleration of the construction industry can lead to a decrease in the safety of residents and introduce unpredictable risks. While nowadays risk management is less utilized for project control, contractors face numerous problems after construction. Lack of resources and facilities in this regard can be problematic, but emerging building technologies, which are slowly being identified, can solve and separate most of the industry's safety issues. Therefore, utilizing innovative building technologies not only enhances quality, speed, and cost reduction in construction but also contributes significantly to industrialization and the reduction of risks resulting from deteriorated structures towards building safety. In this study, the extraordinary effects of innovative technologies on building safety have been examined, and the relationship between risk management and innovative technologies has been investigated using a questionnaire. The impacts of all risk management and safety aspects are examined in this research, which ultimately resulted in clarifying the direct and meaningful connection between risk management and safety with modern technologies and determining the necessary corrective measures to improve building safety performance through the use of innovative building technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various environmental stresses induce the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which have deleterious effects on plant cells. Glutathione (GSH) is an antioxidant used to counteract reactive oxygen species. Glutathione is produced by glutamylcysteine synthetase (GCS) and glutathione synthetase (GS). However, evidence for the GCS gene in sweetpotato remains scarce. In this study, the full-length cDNA sequence of IbGCS isolated from sweetpotato cultivar Xu18 was 1566 bp in length, which encodes 521 amino acids. The qRT-PCR analysis revealed a significantly higher expression of the IbGCS in sweetpotato flowers, and the gene was induced by salinity, abscisic acid (ABA), drought, extreme temperature and heavy metal stresses. The seed germination rate, root elongation and fresh weight were promoted in T3 Arabidopsis IbGCS-overexpressing lines (OEs) in contrast to wild type (WT) plants under mannitol and salt stresses. In addition, the soil drought and salt stress experiment results indicated that IbGCS overexpression in Arabidopsis reduced the malondialdehyde (MDA) content, enhanced the levels of GCS activity, GSH and AsA content, and antioxidant enzyme activity. In summary, overexpressing IbGCS in Arabidopsis showed improved salt and drought tolerance. Headings: •IbGCS gene was cloned from the sweetpotato cultivar Xu18. • The multiple abiotic stresses significantly increased the expression of IbGCS gene. • Overexpression of IbGCS significantly improved the salt and drought stress tolerance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In intrusion detection systems, deep learning has demonstrated its capability to effectively mine flow representations, significantly enhancing the ability to detect anomalies. However, current approaches still suffer from limitations in flow feature extraction and may require fine-tuning on different forms of data, and may even be nontransferable. The task of accurately and efficiently handling multiple forms of flow remains a challenging endeavor. In this work, we propose the Hypergraph Recurrent Neural Network (HRNN), a novel intrusion detection method that leverages the hypergraph higher-order structure and recurrent network. We construct flow data as hypergraph structures, which allow for more abundant information representation and implicitly incorporate more similar information in the model. The recurrent module extracts temporal features of the flow. Our design effectively fuses representations imbued with rich spatial and temporal semantics. Evaluations of several publicly available datasets portray that HRNN outperforms other state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) rupture rarely occurs, especially in skeletally immature adolescents, and poses a dilemma in appropriately managing the open physis with its vast growth potential. However, although many epiphyseal-protecting techniques for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction have been reported, a similar problem in PCL reconstruction has received scant attention and needs more relevant research. So, this study aims to evaluate the short-term clinical and imaging results of the arthroscopic physeal-sparing reconstruction program. Method: All the 13 patients we reviewed in this study have accepted the arthroscopic physeal-sparing PCL reconstruction from January 2019 to December 2022 in our Department of Orthopedics. Primary demographic data collected include gender (8 males and 5 females), age (11–15 years, average 13.3 years), follow-up period (15–35 months, average 25.2 months), injury mechanism (nine non-contact injuries and four contact injuries), and days following injury (1–10 days, average 5.3 days). The assessment of clinical outcomes included pre- and postoperative physical examination, knee functional scores, and imaging data. Result: All patients in this study were followed up with an average 25.2-month (range 15–35 months) follow-up period. All the cases preoperatively had a positive posterior drawer test and turned negative at the final follow-up. The average ROM improved from 103.6° ± 11.4° to 132.6° ± 3.6° at the last follow-up (p < 0.05). The VAS score decreased from 5.8 ± 1.6 to 0.9 ± 0.5 (p < 0.05); the average KT-1000 healthy-side to affected-side difference decreased from 11.3 ± 1.6 to1.8 ± 0.5 mm. The comparison of all the knee functional scores (IKDC, Tegner scores, and Lysholm) at preoperative and last follow-up showed a significant difference (p < 0.05). None of the cases had operation-related complications, and all recovered to sports well. Conclusion: The arthroscopic physeal-sparing posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction is a dependable and recommended treatment for posterior cruciate ligament rupture in adolescents with open physis, showing a striking improvement in knee function without growth arrest and angular deformity of the affected limb in the short-term follow-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise in drug resistance in pathogenic bacteria greatly endangers public health in the post-antibiotic era, and drug-resistant bacteria currently pose a great challenge not only to the community but also to clinical procedures, including surgery, stent implantation, organ transplantation, and other medical procedures involving any open wound and compromised human immunity. Biofilm-associated drug failure, as well as rapid resistance to last-resort antibiotics, necessitates the search for novel treatments against bacterial infection. In recent years, the flourishing development of nanotechnology has provided new insights for exploiting promising alternative therapeutics for drug-resistant bacteria. Metallic agents have been applied in antibacterial usage for several centuries, and the functional modification of metal-based biomaterials using nanotechnology has now attracted great interest in the antibacterial field, not only for their intrinsic antibacterial nature but also for their ready on-demand functionalization and enhanced interaction with bacteria, rendering them with good potential in further translation. However, the possible toxicity of MNPs to the host cells and tissue still hinders its application, and current knowledge on their interaction with cellular pathways is not enough. This review will focus on recent advances in developing metallic nanoparticles (MNPs), including silver, gold, copper, and other metallic nanoparticles, for antibacterial applications, and their potential mechanisms of interaction with pathogenic bacteria as well as hosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the technological development of industrial automation, an increasing number of modern electronic components, which are very sensitive to voltage changes, are emerging in the distribution network as sensitive lodes. Enormous economic losses will be caused if voltage disturbance happens. Therefore, in this article, to support the voltage on these sensitive nodes in a targeted manner, an index denoted as vrc ~ is constructed to quantitatively describe the voltage recovery capability. Afterward, to satisfy the constraint of index vrc ~ , distributed wind turbines (DWTs) and distribution static compensators (D-STATCOMs) are optimized to the most beneficial capacities and locations, to provide the reactive power required by the sensitive nodes during voltage recovery process. The proposed mathematical model is relaxed from MINLP model into a second-order cone relaxation (SOCR) model and verified on IEEE 33-bus distribution network under scenarios with different vrc ~ values. The results prove that connecting sensitive loads to distribution network has large influences on the configuration scheme of DWTs and D-STATCOMs. Moreover, three algorithms named cuckoo search optimization(CSO), clustering cuckoo search optimization(CCSO) and Jaya are provided to compete with SOCR method in solving this mathematical model. Results show that SOCR method is superior than all the algorithms in robustness and effectiveness in terms of processing time and solution quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic dimension opens new horizons in quantum physics and topological photonics by enabling new dimensions for field and particle manipulations. The most appealing property of the photonic synthetic dimension is its ability to emulate high-dimensional optical behavior in a unitary physical system. Here we show that the photonic synthetic dimension can transform technical problems in photonic systems between dimensionalities, providing unexpected solutions to technical problems that are otherwise challenging. Specifically, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a fully reconfigurable photonic Galton board (PGB) in the temporal synthetic dimension, in which the temporal high-speed challenge is translated into a spatial fiber-optic length matching problem, leading to the generation of tera-sample-per-second arbitrary waveforms with ultimate flexibility. In the experiments, an arbitrary waveform with a widely tunable sampling rate, ranging from 10.42 GSa/s to a record high of 1.64 TSa/s, is demonstrated. The concept of dimension conversion offers possible solutions to various physical dimension-related problems, such as super-resolution imaging, high-resolution spectroscopy, and high-precision time measurement. Synthetic dimensions have drawn a lot of attention in photonics recently, where many physical phenomena have been explored. This work, on the other hand, utilizes the temporal synthetic dimension to solve a technical problem that is otherwise challenging, and showcases the generation of tera-sample-per-second arbitrary waveforms with extreme flexibility, which offers new possible solutions in many application-related problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba (E. superba), is a key organism in the Antarctic marine ecosystem and has been widely studied. However, there is a lack of transcriptome data focusing on temperature responses. Methods: In this study, we performed transcriptome sequencing of E. superba samples exposed to three different temperatures: −1.19 °C (low temperature, LT), − 0.37 °C (medium temperature, MT), and 3 °C (high temperature, HT). Results: Illumina sequencing generated 772,109,224 clean reads from the three temperature groups. In total, 1,623, 142, and 842 genes were differentially expressed in MT versus LT, HT versus LT, and HT versus MT, respectively. Moreover, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis revealed that these differentially expressed genes were mainly involved in the Hippo signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, and Toll−like receptor signaling pathway. Quantitative reverse-transcription PCR revealed that ESG037073 expression was significantly upregulated in the MT group compared with the LT group, and ESG037998 expression was significantly higher in the HT group than in the LT group. Conclusions: This is the first transcriptome analysis of E. superba exposed to three different temperatures. Our results provide valuable resources for further studies on the molecular mechanisms underlying temperature adaptation in E. superba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circulating neutrophils are activated shortly after stroke and in turn affect the fate of ischemic brain tissue, and microRNAs (miRNA) participate in regulating neuroinflammation. We probed the role of neutrophilic miRNA in ischemic stroke. miR-193a-5p was decreased in circulating neutrophils of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients and healthy controls. In another set of AIS patients treated with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator, higher neutrophilic miR-193a-5p levels were associated with favorable outcomes at 3 months and non-symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage. An experimental stroke model and human neutrophil-like HL-60 cells were further transfected with agomiR-193a-5p/antagomiR-193a-5p or ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme V2 (UBE2V2)-siRNA prior to model induction for in vivo and in vitro studies. Results of 2,3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride staining and neurological function evaluations at post-experimental stroke showed that intravenous agomiR-193a-5p transfusion protected against ischemic cerebral injury in the acute stage and promoted neurological recovery in the subacute stage. This protective role was suggested to correlate with neutrophil N2 transformation based on the N2-like neutrophil proportions in the bone marrow, peripheral blood, and spleen of the experimental stroke model and the measurement of neutrophil phenotype-associated molecule levels. Mechanistically, analyses indicated that UBE2V2 might be a target of miR-193a-5p. Cerebral injury and neuroinflammation aggravated by miR-193a-5p inhibition were reversed by UBE2V2 silencing. In conclusion, miR-193a-5p protects against cerebral ischemic injury by restoring neutrophil N2 phenotype-associated neuroinflammation suppression, likely, in part, via UBE2V2 induction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: It remains unclear whether there is an association between posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) rupture and the medial posterior tibial slope (MTS) or lateral posterior tibial slope (LTS). The present case–control study aimed to investigate a possible association between primary PCL rupture and MTS or LTS measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods: A retrospective case–control study was conducted. Patients with primary PCL ruptures but not with anterior cruciate ligament injuries, were 1:1 matched by age and sex to a control group with no evidence of knee ligament injuries. Knee MRI was used to measure the MTS and LTS. In addition, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to identify an optimal cut-off value of the MTS and/or LTS. Results: In total, 46 patients with PCL ruptures (32 males, 14 females) and 46 controls (32 males, 14 females) were included in this study. The MTS was significantly lower in the patients with PCL ruptures (3.0° ± 2.2°) than in the control group (5.1° ± 2.3°, p < 0.001). The mean LTS/MTS ratio was significantly higher in patients with PCL ruptures (2.6 ± 2.5) than in the control group (1.3 ± 1.3, p = 0.001). However, the LTS was not significantly different between patients with PCL ruptures and the controls (4.4° ± 2.3° vs. 5.3° ± 2.6°, n.s.). After the MTS was determined to be a significant predictor, the ROC analysis was performed. The ROC analysis revealed the most accurate MTS cut-off of < 3.9°, with a sensitivity of 76.1% and a specificity of 73.9%. Conclusion: A decreased MTS and an increased LTS/MTS ratio are associated with an increased risk of primary PCL rupture. People with MTS < 3.9° are particularly at risk for PCL ruptures, and prevention and intervention programs for PCL ruptures should be developed and targeted towards them. Levels of evidence: Level III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apoptosis of kidney tubular epithelial cells contributes to diabetic kidney disease (DKD) pathophysiology, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. Zinc transporter protein member 8 (ZnT8, SLC30A8) is a susceptive gene in diabetes. Here, we aim to investigate whether ZnT8 has effects on pathophysiology of DKD. The animal groups include control, ZnT8KO mice, STZ-induced, and ZnT8-KO-STZ. STZ-induced DKD was performed in male C57BL/6 J mice and in ZnT8-KO mice. High glucose (HG)–induced apoptosis in a normal rat kidney tubular epithelial cell line (NRK-52E cells) was performed in vitro. Transfection of hZnT8-EGFP or TNFAIP3 siRNA was done in NRK-52E cells. Flow cytometry with Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining and TUNEL analysis was performed for the detection of apoptosis. Gene expression at mRNA and protein levels was examined with real-time RT-PCR and Western blot. Urine albumin to creatinine ratio, proinflammatory cytokines, and apoptosis were enhanced in kidneys of STZ and ZnT8-KO-STZ mice compared to control or ZnT8-KO mice. ZnT8 overexpression after hZnT8-EGFP transfection decreased HG-stimulated inflammatory activity and apoptosis in NRK-52E cells. Furthermore, treatment with ZnSO4 blunted HG-induced apoptosis and NF-κB activation. ZnSO4 increased the abundance of zinc-finger protein TNF-α-induced protein 3 (TNFAIP3). Also, ZnT8 over-expression after hZnT8-EGFP transfection significantly ameliorates HG-induced NF-κB-dependent transcriptional activity and apoptotic protein expressions in NRK-52E cells, but the inhibitory effect of ZnT8 was significantly abolished with TNFAIP3 siRNA. Our study provides evidence that ZnT8 has protective effects against apoptosis of renal tubular epithelial cells through induction of TNFAIP3 and subsequent suppression of the NF-κB pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonreciprocal light transmission in an all-fiber platform is critical in modern optical communication systems, which can avoid the packaging and integration process required in current devices based on magneto-optical or nonlinear materials. Here we propose and demonstrate an all-fiber device with remotely tunable isolation ratio and switchable isolation direction by constructing two mutually coupled Fabry-Perot (FP) resonators with identical geometry and balanced gain and loss. By controlling the pumping power, strong optical nonreciprocity is achieved due to gain saturation nonlinearity that is enhanced by the broken parity-time symmetry. Nonreciprocal light transmission with an isolation ratio of 8.58 dB at 1550 nm and an insertion loss of 2.5 dB is demonstrated. The isolation bandwidth is 125 MHz, which is determined by the bandwidths of the two coupled FP resonators. The proposed approach provides an all-fiber solution for a remotely tunable and optically controlled isolator, which may find applications in software-defined optical networks. Optical nonreciprocity is of fundamental importance for signal processing in modern optical communication systems but is still facing issues on either high energy consumption, complicated design or on-chip integration. Here, an all-fiber device, containing two mutually coupled Fabry-Perot resonators to realize broken parity-time (PT) symmetry is demonstrated, which may find applications in software-defined optical networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with various skill sets and backgrounds are usually found working on projects and thus, group decision-making (GDM) is one of the most important functions within any project. However, when projects concern healthcare or other critical services for proletariat or general public (especially during COVID19), the importance of GDM can hardly be overstated. Measuring the performance of healthcare construction projects is a critical activity and should be gauged based on the input from a large number of stakeholders. Such problems are usually recognized as large-scale group decision-making (LSGDM). In the current study, we aim to propose a decision support system for measuring the performance of healthcare construction projects against a large number of experts using ordinal data. The study identifies several key indicators from literature and recorded the observations of a large number of experts about these indicators. After that, the acceptable range of complexity is specified, the Silhouette plot is provided to find the optimal number of clusters, and the ordinal K-means method is employed to cluster the experts' opinions. Later, the confidence level is measured using a novel Weighted Kendall's W for the optimal number of the clusters, and the threshold is checked. Finally, the conventional problem is solved using the Group Weighted Ordinal Priority Approach (GWOPA) model in multiple attributes decision making (MADM), and the performance of the projects is determined. The validity of the proposed approach is confirmed through a comparative analysis. Also, a real-world case is solved, and the performance of some healthcare construction projects in China is gauged with a comprehensive sensitivity analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a case study of a 72-year-old woman with pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS), a rare benign disorder of the synovium. The woman underwent a [68Ga]Ga-fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (FAPI)-04 PET/CT scan, which revealed intense and inhomogeneous FAPI uptake in both knees, indicating PVNS. The study highlights the potential value of [68Ga]Ga-FAPI in detecting PVNS, although further research is needed to determine its specificity. The article emphasizes the need to consider other bone or joint diseases in the differential diagnosis. [Extracted from the article]

In routine surveillance for avian influenza viruses (AIVs) in the environments of live poultry markets (LPMs), certain samples were positive for AIVs type A while negative for subtypes (e.g., H5, H7, and H9). However, little attention has been paid to these unsubtyped AIVs samples. To reveal the dynamic distribution and molecular characteristics of AIVs, especially the unsubtyped AIVs, we reported and analyzed 1969 samples collected from the water environments of LPMs in Changsha, China, from January 2014 to November 2018. Our results revealed that 1504 (76.38%) samples were positive for AIV type A. Of these samples, the predominant hemagglutinin (HA) subtype was H9, followed by H5 and H7 (P < 0.05). The positive rate of H5 subtype in water environmental samples exhibited seasonality, which reached a peak in each winter–spring season from January 2014 to March 2017. The positive rates of AIVs (including type A, subtype H9, and mixed subtype H5/H7/H9) in non-central-city regions were higher than that in the central-city regions (P < 0.05). Notably, 161 unsubtyped AIVs samples were detected during the routine surveillance. However, subtyping with the commercial kit further identified eight different HA and seven different neuraminidase subtypes. Analyses unraveled that further subtyped AIVs H1, H6, and H11 had only one basic amino acid (R or K) at the cleavage site and residues Q226 and G228 at the receptor-binding associated sites. Overall, in addition to H5, H7, and H9 subtypes, we should also pay attention to unsubtyped AIVs samples during the routine surveillance for AIVs in the environments of LPMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Emerging studies have reported gut microbial composition plays a key role in alleviating AD clinical symptoms during the probiotic intervention, but the correlation among clinical symptoms, immune responses and gut microbial alteration needs to be explored. Therefore, the objective was to investigate the correlation during Bifidobacterium adolescentis intervention in DNFB-induced AD mice. Methods: The mice were randomly divided into nine groups and fed B. adolescentis for 3 weeks. At the end of the experiment, clinical and immune indicators were assessed. Flow cytometry was performed to explore the effect of B. adolescentis on regulatory T cells in the spleen. V3–V4 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene was sequenced to evaluate changes in the gut microbiota. Results: Bifidobacteria adolescentis treatments reduced ear and skin thickness and suppressed eosinophils and mast cells infiltration. Th1- and Th2-type responses were regulated and the Tregs population was promoted in the spleen by B. adolescentis treatments. Bifidobacteria adolescentis increased the relative abundance of Lactobacillus but decrease Dorea and Pediococcus. Propionic and butyric acids were increased but isovaleric acid was decreased by B. adolescentis treatment. Besides, the functional modules, such as fatty acid biosynthesis, antigen processing and presentation were upregulated by B. adolescentis Ad1 treatment compared to the DNFB group. Conclusion: Collectively, these results imply that B. adolescentis with the role of immunomodulation promotes Treg differentiation and suppresses Th2 responses, and increases the proportion of Lactobacillus that is positively correlated to increase in propionic acid production, and thus has the potential for AD amelioration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show a parity-time (PT) symmetric microwave photonic system in the optical wavelength space within a single spatial resonator, in which the gain and loss modes can perfectly overlay spatially but are distinguishable in the designated parameter space. To prove the concept, a PT-symmetric optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) in the optical wavelength space is implemented. The OEO has a single-loop architecture, with the microwave gain and loss modes carried by two optical wavelengths to form two mutually coupled wavelength-space resonators. The operation of PT symmetry in the OEO is verified by the generation of a 10-GHz microwave signal with a low phase noise of −129.3 dBc/Hz at 10-kHz offset frequency and small sidemodes of less than −66.22 dBc/Hz. Compared with a conventional spatial PT-symmetric system, a PT-symmetric system in the wavelength space features a much simpler configuration, better stability and greater resilience to environmental interferences. Most conventional PT-symmetric systems contain two physically separated modes. Here the authors proposed a PT-symmetric microwave optoelectronic oscillator, where the gain and loss modes are confined in a single spatial resonator, resulting in an increased structural simplicity, and long-term stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) is one of the most common salivary gland malignant tumors. Its treatment failure is partly due to the limitations of chemotherapeutic agents and their adverse effects. The objective of this study was to determine the potential additive anti-cancer effect of a novel CDK inhibitor dinaciclib with first-line chemotherapy drugs in ACC. Protein expression of phosphorylated CDK2 (p-CDK2) in paraffin-embedded tissue specimens of ACC from 17 patients was investigated by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Cell Counting Kit (CCK-8), clone formation assay, and flow cytometry were used to test the proliferation and apoptosis of ACC-2 cells treated with dinaciclib with or without other first-line chemotherapy drugs. Protein expression was also determined by Western blot. Interestingly, we discovered that p-CDK2 protein was expressed in both cytoplasmic and nucleus in salivary ACC tissues, which was higher than that in normal salivary tissues, indicating that agents targeting CDK2 may be potential therapeutic strategies against this type of tumor. As expected, CDK inhibitor dinaciclib significantly induced ACC-2 cells apoptosis. Moreover, it sensitized cells to the chemotherapeutic agents such as cisplatin, pemetrexed, and etoposide (VP-16), and this effect by dinaciclib may induce cell cycle arrest via abrogating CDK2 activity. Therefore, combinational therapy of CDK inhibitor dinaciclib with first-line chemotherapy drugs may be a promising strategy in the treatment of salivary ACC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eu3+-doped germanate based red emitting phosphors SrGe4O9: xEu3+ (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5 mol%) were prepared by high-temperature solid-state procedure. Moreover, the Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation, X-ray diffraction (XRD) Rietveld refinement, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and photoluminescence (PL) measurement were discussed in detail to fully investigate the crystal structure and PL properties of SrGe4O9: xEu3+. Furthermore, the Judd–Ofelt (J–O) analysis demonstrated that the Eu3+ ions in the SrGe4O9 host possessed lower sites symmetry. In addition, the phosphor SrGe4O9: 0.35%Eu3+ displayed superior thermal stability with PL intensity at 423 K is around 90% of its initial value at 298 K. As a result, the white light emitting diodes (WLED) device based on SrGe4O9: 0.35%Eu3+ achieved an expected result of a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 4573 K and a color rendering index (CRI) of 80.8 under a voltage of 3 V and a driven current of 20 mA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Word-of-mouth plays an important role in the spread of influence by means of a cascading manner, e.g., the promotion of new products, information dissemination, etc. Today's Online Social Networks (OSNs) provide viral marketing for many companies to conduct business promotion, and the idea behind viral marketing comes from the word-of-mouth effects. Given a predefined budget (e.g., the set size k), influence maximization selects a set of initial users to help companies to promote their products. The budget-making often is of challenging owning to the hardness of trade-off between profit and cost. Most of recent research on influence maximization primarily study the problem of independent product promotion, but few take into account the impacts of other existing products that users have already owned. Moreover, the current solutions encounter scalability problem whenever facing a large scale social network. In this paper, we explore the viral marketing by defining a general influence maximization problem where a practical scenario of coexistence of multiple products is considered. To capture the impacts of other existing products, we put forward a new method to measure the influence between users. Different from previous work, the goal of our general problem is to maximize the profit/cost ratio which can avoid the difficulty of budget-making and reflects maximization effects better. Then, we propose a ( 1 2 + ε )-approximate algorithm with linear complexity to solve the problem, and further design a distributed implementation to achieve good scalability. Extensive experiments on real world datasets validate the effectiveness and efficiency of our solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Current guidelines recommend renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitors in the treatment of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). However, evidence suggests that the combined use of RAAS blockers may be associated with increased rates of adverse events. Objectives: Our objective was to examine the efficacy and safety of dual blockade of the RAAS in patients with DKD. Methods: This was a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published between January 1990 and January 2018 sourced via the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases. RCTs were included if they investigated the efficacy and safety of dual blockade therapy compared with monotherapy in patients with DKD. Random effects models were used in meta-analysis to account for heterogeneities in effect sizes across the reviewed studies. Analyses were stratified by blood pressure and albuminuria. We further conducted subgroup analyses by considering various combinations of RAAS inhibitors. Results: Based on 42 RCTs with 14,576 patients, dual RAAS blockade therapy was associated with significant decreases in blood pressure, albuminuria, and proteinuria. However, dual therapy was not superior to monotherapy in terms of reductions in all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, or progression to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Significant increases in serum potassium and rates of hyperkalemia and hypotension were more common in patients treated with dual therapy. However, glomerular filtration rates (GFR) did not decrease significantly with dual therapy. In subgroup analysis, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) plus an angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB) or a direct renin inhibitor (DRI) plus an ACEI/ARB did not significantly increase the risk of hyperkalemia, hypotension, and adverse events, and the risk of hypotension increased significantly within the normotensive subgroup but not within the hypertensive subgroup. The risk of hyperkalemia increased significantly in patients with DKD with macroalbuminuria but not in those with microalbuminuria. Conclusion: Dual inhibition therapy is superior to monotherapy for blood pressure control and urine protein reduction, though such superiority does not translate into improvements in longer-term outcomes, such as reduced progression to ESRD, all-cause mortality, and cardiovascular mortality. An ACEI plus an ARB or a DRI plus an ACEI/ARB may be a safe and effective therapy for patients with DKD, and combination therapy may be suitable for patients with DKD and hypertension and microalbuminuria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has a rising prevalence and gut microbiota involvement is increasingly recognized. Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a major complication of T2DM. The aim of the study was to understand the gut–kidney axis by an analysis of gut microbiota composition among biopsy-proven DN, T2DM without kidney disease, and healthy control. Methods: Fecal samples were collected from 14 DNs, 14 age/gender-matched T2DMs without renal diseases (DM), 14 age and gender-matched healthy controls (HC) and household contacts (HH) of DM group. The microbiota composition was analyzed by 16sRNA microbial profiling approach. Results: Substantial differences were found in the richness of gut microbiota and the variation of bacteria population in DM compared to HC, and DN compared to DM, respectively. DM could be accurately distinguished from age/gender-matched healthy controls by the variable of genus g_Prevotella_9 (AUC = 0.9), and DN patients could be accurately distinguished from age/gender-matched DM by the variables of two genera (g_Escherichia-Shigella and g_Prevotella_9, AUC = 0.86). The microbiota composition of HH group was close to that of HC group, and was different from DM group. Under the same diet, DM could be more accurately detected by the same genus (g_Prevotella_9, AUC = 0.92). Conclusion: Gut microbiota composition was explored to be related to the occurrence of biopsy-proven DN from DM. DM could be distinguished from HC by detecting g_Prevotella_9 level in feces, while DN was different from DM by the variables of g_Escherichia-Shigella and g_Prevotella_9, which potentially contributed to the physiopathological diagnosis of DN from DM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During an investigation of the biodiversity of the cultivable bacterial community associated with paralytic shellfish poisoning toxin-producing marine dinoflagellate, Alexandrium minutum a novel algal-associated bacterium, designated strain AT2-AT was isolated. 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity analysis showed that the strain is a member of the genus Ponticoccus, with high sequence similarity to Ponticoccus litoralis DSM 18986T (97.9%) and Ponticoccuslacteus JCM 30379T (96.0%). However, based on the data obtained for the physiological and biochemical characteristics, and low level of DNA-DNA relatedness analysis, the strain could be genotypically and phenotypically differentiated from two type strains of the genus Ponticoccus. Therefore, this algal-associated bacterial strain is concluded to represent a novel species of the genus Ponticoccus, for which the name Ponticoccus alexandrii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is AT2-AT (CCTCC AB 2017228 T = KCTC 52626 T). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of sharp boundary widely exists in image classification algorithms that use traditional association rules. This problem makes classification more difficult and inaccurate. On the other hand, massive image data will produce a lot of redundant association rules, which greatly decrease the accuracy and efficiency of image classification. To relieve the influence of these two problems, this paper proposes a novel approach integrating fuzzy association rules and decision tree to accomplish the task of automatic image annotation. According to the original features with membership functions, the approach first obtains fuzzy feature vectors, which can describe the ambiguity and vagueness of images. Then fuzzy association rules are generated from fuzzy feature vectors with fuzzy support and fuzzy confidence. Fuzzy association rules can capture correlations between low-level visual features and high-level semantic concepts of images. Finally, to tackle the large size of fuzzy association rules base, we adopt decision tree to reduce the unnecessary rules. As a result, the algorithm complexity is decreased to a large extent. We conduct the experiments on two baseline datasets, i.e. Corel5k and IAPR-TC12. The evaluation measures include precision, recall, F-measure and rule number. The experimental results show that our approach performs better than many state-of-the-art automatic image annotation approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial distribution patterns of the different life stages of Euphausia superba in the region of the South Shetland Islands and southern Scotia Sea (Antarctica) were assessed based on scientific survey data collected in January and February of 2010. Adults, eggs, nauplii, metanauplii, calyptopis I-III, and furcilia I-II were found in the investigation. The abundance of larvae averaged 1 172.8 ind./m 2, with calyptopis I and II as the dominant stages. Habitat occupancy patterns varied among Euphausia superba at different stages, and three sub-regionswere identified by cluster analysis. The degree of larval development increased fromwest to east. Larvae were not observed north of the South Shetland Islands. Calyptopis I was predominant in the water between Elephant Island and the South Orkney Islands, which featured no thermocline. Older stages, including calyptopis II and III and furcilia I and II, were common in north and northeast of the South Orkney Islands, which were characterized by high temperature and high chlorophyll concentration. Distribution and abundance of the early life stages of E. superba were associated with specific environmental conditions. According to Biota-Environment matching (BIOENV), the distributions of E. superba larvae were correlated with a combination of temperature at the surface and 200m, and 0–100 mintegrated chlorophyll a concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The particle filter is an effective approach for virtual object tracking. However, it suffers from the inaccuracy of tracking performance and track drifts which are caused by the inaccurate dynamic model. In irregular motion tracking, because of the large motion uncertainty and the poor prediction of the dynamic model, these two problems will definitely occur. We propose to model the object motion by an implicit dynamic model which is optimized by an iterative optimization method. We observe that the state with the biggest value of the sum of all particles' likelihoods will reach or be close to the ground truth which is testified by many experiments. Based on this, the dynamic model is formulated by maximizing an objective function. By evolving particles to new positions to obtain the maxima of summed particle likelihood, this particle shift strategy considerably improves the sampling efficiency. Extensive experiments show that the proposed algorithm outperforms other six trackers in dealing with irregular motions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the purpose of efficient and safe transdermal administration of propranolol hydrochloride (PHCl), effects of (+)-borneol, (+)-camphor, and α-bisabolol (5 w/v%) in 66.6% ethanol solution on transdermal permeation across rat skin in vitro and their enhancement mechanism was investigated with fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and PHCl-stratum corneum binding studies. Each of (+)-borneol, (+)-camphor, and α-bisabolol significantly increased the transdermal flux of PHCl through rat skin in comparison to the control. The enhancement mechanism of the terpenes is involved with disruption of the lipid bilayer and increase of PHCl partitioning coefficient to the stratum corneum. As for α-bisabolol, the protect effect of skin from dehydration and an important reason of irritation incident were observed with differential scanning calorimetry for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction is presented to the article "Bifdobacteria adolescentis regulated immune responses and gut microbial composition to alleviate DNFB‑induced atopic dermatitis in mice."

Mechanism of satellitic thermo-infrared brightness temperature and temperature increaming is studied. Experiments are made with a gas sample taken around the epicenter area. The gas ample is pmved to contain green house gases such as CH4, and CO2 which have increased by tens of thousands of times. In addition, lab research slso pmes that CH4, and CO2 can obtain energy under the action of transient electric field and release heat, thus reeulting in a temperature increase of 2–6°C. Also a brief account of practices since 1990 is given; altogether 40 short-tenn and impending earthquake predictions have been made, with 9 precise ones whose three main factors of an earthquake are clearly depicted, and 12 fairly good ones. These predictions include 3 earthquakes of M.⩾ 7, 4 of M.⩾ 6.0 and the rest are mund M. 5.0. Yet there are earthquakes left out of prediction. Finally the evolutionwy processing characters of satellitic thermo-infrared brightness temperature and temperature increase before the Lijiang earthquake on Feb. 3, 1996 and Tangshan earthquake on April 14, 1998 are introduced in detail. The conclusion makes a study on the regularities of connection among time, space and stress when there appears the satellitic thermal-inlinred brightness tempera- and temperature increasing anomaly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subsequent to the publication of this article, it was noted that one of the culture collection numbers given for the type strain was given in error. Consequently, in the abstract “The type strain is AT2-AT (CCTCC AB 2016296T = KCTC 52626T).” should read “The type strain is AT2-AT (CCTCC AB 2016296T = KCTC 62340T).” Likewise, in the protologue section, “The type strain is AT2-AT (= CCTCC AB 201696T = KCTC 52626T), which is a algal-associated bacterium isolated from the culture of a toxigenic marine dinoflagellate, Alexandrium minutum (Amtk-4) collected from southern Taiwan.” should read “The type strain is AT2-AT (= CCTCC AB 201696T = KCTC 62340T), which is an algal-associated bacterium isolated from the culture of a toxigenic marine dinoflagellate, Alexandrium minutum (Amtk-4), collected from southern Taiwan.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several epidemiological studies suggested an increased incidence rate of multiple myeloma (MM) among first responders and other individuals who exposed to World Trade Center (WTC) dust. In this report, we provided evidence showing that WTC dust is potent in inducing mdig protein and/or mRNA in bronchial epithelial cells, B cells and MM cell lines. An increased mdig expression in MM bone marrow was observed, which is associated with the disease progression and prognosis of the MM patients. Through integrative genomics and proteomics approaches, we further demonstrated that mdig directly interacts with c-myc and JAK1 in MM cell lines, which contributes to hyperactivation of the IL-6-JAK-STAT3 signaling important for the pathogenesis of MM. Genetic silencing of mdig reduced activity of the major downstream effectors in the IL-6-JAK-STAT3 pathway. Taken together, these data suggest that WTC dust may be one of the key etiological factors for those who had been exposed for the development of MM by activating mdig and c-myc signaling circuit linked to the IL-6-JAK-STAT3 pathway essential for the tumorigenesis of the malignant plasma cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]