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Deep learning has gained superior accuracy on Euclidean structure data in neural networks. As a result, non-Euclidean structure data, such as graph data, has more sophisticated structural information, which can be applied in neural networks as well to address more complex and practical problems. However, actual graph data obeys a power-law distribution, so the adjacent matrix of a graph is random and sparse. Graph processing accelerator (GPA) is designed to handle the problems above. However, graph computing only processes 1-dimensional data. In graph neural networks (GNNs), graph data is multi-dimensional. Consequently, GNNs include the execution processes of both traditional graph processing and neural network, which have irregular memory access and regular computation, respectively. To obtain more information in graph data and require better model generalization ability, the layers of GNN are deeper, so the overhead of memory access and computation is considerable. At present, GNN accelerators are designed to deal with this issue. In this paper, we conduct a systematic survey regarding the design and implementation of GNN accelerators. Specifically, we review the challenges faced by GNN accelerators, and existing related works in detail to process them. Finally, we evaluate previous works and propose future directions in this booming field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transplantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) has demonstrated promising clinical utility in the treatment of endometrial injury and the restoration of fertility. However, since the efficacy of BMSCs after transplantation is not stable, it is very important to find effective ways to enhance the utilisation of BMSCs. Electroacupuncture (EA) has some positive effects on the chemotaxis of stem cells and diseases related to uterine injury. In this study, we established the intrauterine adhesion (IUA) model of the Sprague–Dawley rat using lipopolysaccharide infection and mechanical scratching. Phosphate-buffered saline, BMSCs alone, and BMSCs combined with EA were randomly administered to the rats. Fluorescent cell labelling showed the migration of transplanted BMSCs. H&E staining, Masson staining, Western blot, immunohistochemistry, ELISA, and qRT-PCR were utilised to detect changes in endometrial morphology and expressions of endometrial receptivity-related factors, endometrial pro-inflammatory factors, and fibrosis factors. Finally, we conducted a fertility test to measure the recovery of uterine function. The results showed that EA promoted transplanted BMSCs to migrate into the injured uterus by activating the SDF-1/CXCR4 axis. Endometrial morphology showed the most significant improvement in the BMSC + EA group. The expressions of endometrial pro-inflammatory factors and fibrosis indexes in the BMSC + EA group were lower than those in the model and BMSC groups. Further studies revealed that the expression of endometrial receptivity-related factors and the number of embryos implanted on day 8 of gestation increased in the BMSC + EA group compared with the model group and the BMSC group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its identification as a marker for advanced melanoma in the 1980s, CD146 has been found to have multiple functions in both physiological and pathological processes, including embryonic development, tissue repair and regeneration, tumor progression, fibrosis disease, and inflammations. Subsequent research has revealed that CD146 is involved in various signaling pathways as a receptor or co-receptor in these processes. This correlation between CD146 and multiple diseases has sparked interest in its potential applications in diagnosis, prognosis, and targeted therapy. To better comprehend the versatile roles of CD146, we have summarized its research history and synthesized findings from numerous reports, proposing that cell plasticity serves as the underlying mechanism through which CD146 contributes to development, regeneration, and various diseases. Targeting CD146 would consequently halt cell state shifting during the onset and progression of these related diseases. Therefore, the development of therapy targeting CD146 holds significant practical value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active faults in the earthquake region are consistently regarded as a potential geological hazard to the construction and operation of railway engineering. However, the effects of normal faulting on railway embankments have not been investigated thoroughly. For bridging this knowledge gap, three-dimensional finite element analysis considering the influence of faulting offset, the soil layer's thickness, the fault dip angle and the embankment cross-fault angle are conducted to clarify the normal faulting effects on the railway embankment. Emphasis is given to the stress and strain characteristic in the fault rupture outcropping regions on the embankment, the deformation of the embankment centerline for design purposes, and the determination of the affected zones for railway embankment preservation. The analysis shows that the normal fault rupture outcropping regions on railway embankment are tensile yield in most cases. The existence of the soil layer and its thickening would widen the affected zones and the regions where the fault ruptures outcrops. The fault dip angle and the cross-fault angle of the embankment have a complex effect on the behaviors of the crossing embankment. The depth of the subsidence zone of the embankment would increase with the decrease of the fault dip angle and the large fault dip angle would change the primary fault rupture to be a compressive one directly above the fault line. If the embankment crosses the fault line obliquely, the curvature radius of the centerline would hardly meet the design code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structured light, particularly in the terahertz frequency range, holds considerable potential for a diverse range of applications. However, the generation and control of structured terahertz radiation pose major challenges. In this work, we demonstrate a novel programmable spintronic emitter that can flexibly generate a variety of structured terahertz waves. This is achieved through the precise and high-resolution programming of the magnetization pattern on the emitter's surface, utilizing laser-assisted local field cooling of an exchange-biased ferromagnetic heterostructure. Moreover, we outline a generic design strategy for realizing specific complex structured terahertz fields in the far field. Our device successfully demonstrates the generation of terahertz waves with diverse structured polarization states, including spatially separated circular polarizations, azimuthal or radial polarization states, and a full Poincaré beam. This innovation opens a new avenue for designing and generating structured terahertz radiations, with potential applications in terahertz microscopy, communication, quantum information, and light-matter interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to identify osteoporosis-related core genes using bioinformatics analysis and machine learning algorithms. Methods: mRNA expression profiles of osteoporosis patients were obtained from the Gene Expression Profiles (GEO) database, with GEO35958 and GEO84500 used as training sets, and GEO35957 and GSE56116 as validation sets. Differential gene expression analysis was performed using the R software "limma" package. A weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was conducted to identify key modules and modular genes of osteoporosis. Kyoto Gene and Genome Encyclopedia (KEGG), Gene Ontology (GO), and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) were performed on the differentially expressed genes. LASSO, SVM-RFE, and RF machine learning algorithms were used to screen for core genes, which were subsequently validated in the validation set. Predicted microRNAs (miRNAs) from the core genes were also analyzed, and differential miRNAs were validated using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) experiments. Results: A total of 1280 differentially expressed genes were identified. A disease key module and 215 module key genes were identified by WGCNA. Three core genes (ADAMTS5, COL10A1, KIAA0040) were screened by machine learning algorithms, and COL10A1 had high diagnostic value for osteoporosis. Four core miRNAs (has-miR-148a-3p, has-miR-195-3p, has-miR-148b-3p, has-miR-4531) were found by intersecting predicted miRNAs with differential miRNAs from the dataset (GSE64433, GSE74209). The qPCR experiments validated that the expression of has-miR-195-3p, has-miR-148b-3p, and has-miR-4531 was significantly increased in osteoporosis patients. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the utility of bioinformatics analysis and machine learning algorithms in identifying core genes associated with osteoporosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While one can characterize mental health using questionnaires, such tools do not provide direct insight into the underlying biology. By linking approaches that visualize brain activity to questionnaires in the context of individualized prediction, we can gain new insights into the biology and behavioral aspects of brain health. Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) can be used to identify biomarkers of these conditions and study patterns of abnormal connectivity. In this work, we estimate mental health quality for individual participants using static functional network connectivity (sFNC) data from rs-fMRI. The deep learning model uses the sFNC data as input to predict four categories of mental health quality and visualize the neural patterns indicative of each group. We used guided gradient class activation maps (guided Grad-CAM) to identify the most discriminative sFNC patterns. The effectiveness of this model was validated using the UK Biobank dataset, in which we showed that our approach outperformed four alternative models by 4-18% accuracy. The proposed model's performance evaluation yielded a classification accuracy of 76%, 78%, 88%, and 98% for the excellent, good, fair, and poor mental health categories, with poor mental health accuracy being the highest. The findings show distinct sFNC patterns across each group. The patterns associated with excellent mental health consist of the cerebellar-subcortical regions, whereas the most prominent areas in the poor mental health category are in the sensorimotor and visual domains. Thus the combination of rs-fMRI and deep learning opens a promising path for developing a comprehensive framework to evaluate and measure mental health. Moreover, this approach had the potential to guide the development of personalized interventions and enable the monitoring of treatment response. Overall this highlights the crucial role of advanced imaging modalities and deep learning algorithms in advancing our understanding and management of mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a means of vibration reduction, the ladder track has seen broad implementation in urban rail transit. However, issues such as increased vibration noise, rail corrugation, and fastener failure have been observed in certain sections of the ladder track during later operation. To investigate the mechanisms behind these phenomena and provide comprehensive insights into the system's response to various operational conditions, this study employed vehicle-track coupled dynamic theory to establish a three-dimensional finite element model of the flexible vehicle-ladder track system. The vibration transmission and dynamic response characteristics of the vehicle-ladder track system were analyzed. The findings revealed that the vehicle-track resonance and anti-resonance phenomena were more prominent in the medium- to low-frequency range. At specific frequencies, the wheelset exhibited various vibration modes, and the fastener force was found to closely correlate with the ladder vibration mode. Furthermore, the influence of speed on diverse components of the vehicle-ladder track system, in terms of maximum vibration and the dominant vibration frequency range, differed considerably. This study provides a more comprehensive and reasonable exploration of the modeling and dynamic behavior of vehicle-ladder track systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction land quota pricing mechanism with cost plus pricing method is not sufficient to reflect its intrinsic value. This diminishes the willingness of farmers to voluntarily reclaim abandoned residential and other rural construction land, leading to suboptimal efficiency in rural land utilization and an excessive squandering of rural land resources. Thus, a sequential auction model with two stages for complementary goods was constructed, which considered the synergic characteristics between the land and quota. Further, regret psychology of bidder was considered in the case of winning or losing. A rational pricing mechanism has been developed to allocate construction land quotas, aiming to enhance farmers' motivation to the vacant homesteads of reclamation and revitalizing the stock of rural construction land. The results revealed that the regret psychology in the case of winning would decrease the transaction price of the quota, i.e., the greater the perceived regret in the case of winning, the more significant the reduction in the bidding price offered. Moreover, the regret psychology in the event of losing/failure would increase the transaction price of quota. Furthermore, publishing only the winner's price after the auction leads to the highest price of the quota offered by the bidder. In contrast, publishing only the loser's bidding price leads to the lowest transaction price of the quota offered by the bidder. In addition, the fee for delayed construction would increase the bidding price of the construction land quota. Therefore, local governments should consider announcing only the winner of price after the quota auction has ended. In addition, imposing a fee for delayed construction would enhance the transaction price of land quota, increase farmers' revenue from land reclamation, and incentivize farmers to reclaim unused rural land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Rice accounts for around 20% of the calories consumed by humans. Essential nutrients like zinc (Zn) are crucial for rice growth and for populations relying on rice as a staple food. No well-established study method exists. As a result, we a lack a clear picture of the chemical forms of zinc in rice grain. Furthermore, we do not understand the effects of widespread and variable zinc deficiency in soils on the Zn speciation, and to a lesser extent, its concentration, in grain. Methods: The composition and Zn speciation of Cambodian rice grain is analyzed using synchrotron-based microprobe X-ray fluorescence (µ-XRF) and extended X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy (EXAFS). We developed a method to quantify Zn species in different complexes based on the coordination numbers of Zn to oxygen and sulfur at characteristic bond lengths. Results: Zn levels in brown rice grain ranged between 15–30 mg kg−1 and were not correlated to Zn availability in soils. 72%-90% of Zn in rice grains is present as Zn-phytate, generally not bioavailable, while smaller quantities of Zn are bound as labile nicotianamine complexes, Zn minerals like ZnCO3 or thiols. Conclusion: Zn speciation in rice grain is affected by Zn deficiency more than previously recognized. A majority of Zn was bound in phytate complexes in rice grain. Zinc phytate complexes were found in higher concentrations and also in higher proportions, in Zn-deficient soils, consistent with increased phytate production under Zn deficiency. Phytates are generally not bioavailable to humans, so low soil Zn fertility may not only impact grain yields, but also decrease the fraction of grain Zn bioavailable to human consumers. The potential impact of abundant Zn-phytate in environments deficient in Zn on human bioavailability and Zn deficiency requires additional research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in ocean ventilation have been pivotal in regulating carbon sequestration and release on centennial to millennial timescales. However, paleoceanographic reconstructions documenting changes in deep-ocean ventilation using 14C dating, may bear multidimensional explanations, obfuscating the roles of ocean ventilation played on climate evolution. Here, we show that previously inferred poorly ventilated conditions in the North Atlantic were linked to enhanced pre-aged organic carbon (OC) input during Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1). The 14C age of sedimentary OC was approximately 13,345 ± 692 years older than the coeval foraminifera in the central North Atlantic during HS1, which is coupled to a ventilation age of 5,169 ± 660 years. Old OC was mainly of terrigenous origin and exported to the North Atlantic by ice-rafting. Remineralization of old terrigenous OC in the ocean may have contributed to, at least in part, the anomalously old ventilation ages reported for the high-latitude North Atlantic during HS1. Ocean ventilation plays on global climate evolution. Here, the authors suggest that previously inferred poorly ventilated conditions in the North Atlantic were linked to enhanced pre-aged organic carbon input. Old organic carbon was mainly of terrigenous origin and exported by ice-rafting [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perilla as herb, ornamental, oil and edible plant is widely used in East Asia. Until now, the mechanism of regulated leaf coloration is still unclear. In this study, four different kinds of leaf colors were used to measure pigment contents and do transcriptome sequence to postulate the mechanism of leaf coloration. The measurements of chlorophyll, carotenoid, flavonoid, and anthocyanin showed that higher contents of all the aforementioned four pigments were in full purple leaf 'M357', and they may be determined front and back leaf color formation with purple. Meanwhile, the content of anthocyanin was controlled back leaf coloration. The chromatic aberration analysis and correlative analysis between different pigments and L*a*b* values analysis also suggested front and back leaf color change was correlated with the above four pigments. The genes involved in leaf coloration were identified through transcriptome sequence. The expression levels of chlorophyll synthesis and degradation related genes, carotenoid synthesis related genes and anthocyanin synthesis genes showed up-/down-regulated expression in different color leaves and were consistent of accumulation of these pigments. It was suggested that they were the candidate genes regulated perilla leaf color formation, and genes including F3'H, F3H, F3',5'H, DFR, and ANS are probably important for regulating both front and back leaf purple formation. Transcription factors involved in anthocyanin accumulation, and regulating leaf coloration were also identified. Finally, the probable scheme of regulated both full green and full purple leaf coloration and back leaf coloration was postulated. Key message: The contents of pigments determined front and back leaf coloration, and the key regulated gene were identified, and the probable scheme of regulated front and back leaf coloration was postulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vortex and vector terahertz (THz) beams with inhomogeneous polarization states have become a considerable hot topic in the last decade due to their important roles in multiplexed wireless data transmission. However, the technical instruments to form and evaluate such beams are rather limited, as they are mainly collected in the visible range. The emergence of coded metasurfaces has reinvigorated the design of functional devices with multiple degrees of freedom. Here, we demonstrate a versatile design inspired by a binary encoding approach for generating off-axis vectorial THz beams on all-silicon metasurfaces. Experimentally, simultaneous manipulation of the encoding method within the orthogonal circularly polarized (CP) channel provides strong support for developing versatility in vector THz beams, including the generation of arbitrary polarization profiles and the directional emission of multiplexed vector vortex beams (VVBs) with specified polarization states. The introduction of the latitudinal polarization control factor guarantees that continuously rotating or independently designed vector polarization profiles can be obtained on a pre-defined focal plane. Subsequently, a universal parametric theoretical model is developed to analyze the evolutionary trend of off-axis VVB in detail. Notably, the proposed monolayer vector metasurface bypasses the requirement of multiple cascaded optical elements, further inducing the advancement of ultra-thin vector THz sources, and also facilitating the generation of vector fields with tailored polarization distributions in 3D space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to identify the mechanism of Inhibin Subunit Beta B (INHBB), a member of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) family involved in the regulation of human endometrial stromal cells (HESCs) decidualization in recurrent implantation failure (RIF). Methods: RNA-seq was conducted to identify the differentially expressed genes in the endometria from control and RIF patients. RT-qPCR, WB, and immunohistochemistry were performed to analyse the expression levels of INHBB in endometrium and decidualised HESCs. RT-qPCR and immunofluorescence were used to detect changes in the decidual marker genes and cytoskeleton after knockdown INHBB. Then, RNA-seq was used to dig out the mechanism of INHBB regulating decidualization. The cAMP analogue (forskolin) and si-INHBB were used to investigate the involvement of INHBB in the cAMP signalling pathway. The correlation of INHBB and ADCY expression was analysed by Pearson's correlation analysis. Results: Our results showed significantly reduced expression of INHBB in endometrial stromal cells of women with RIF. In addition, INHBB was increased in the endometrium of the secretory phase and significantly induced in in-vitro decidualization of HESCs. Notably, with RNA-seq and siRNA-mediated knockdown approaches, we demonstrated that the INHBB-ADCY1-mediated cAMP signalling pathway regulates the reduction of decidualization. We found a positive association between the expression of INHBB and ADCY1 in endometria with RIF (R2 = 0.3785, P = 0.0005). Conclusions: The decline of INHBB in HESCs suppressed ADCY1-induced cAMP production and cAMP-mediated signalling, which attenuated decidualization in RIF patients, indicating that INHBB is an essential component in the decidualization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Wear affects the vibration characteristics of gear system by changing tooth thickness. In the planetary gearbox (PGB), the planet gears are prone to a variety of wear types related to the number of planet gears due to their large number and complex motion characteristics. However, it is an unsolved problem to clarify the fault mechanism and fault characteristics of planet gears with multiple wear types. Methods: To study the fault mechanism, this paper proposes a stiffness model based on the three-segment tooth profile equation to calculate the meshing stiffness under health and wear condition. The meshing relative displacement function considering the effect of backlash and wear thickness is established. Considering the effect of wear on the tooth profile error, the meshing error function is established. The meshing stiffness, meshing relative displacement, and meshing error, which are affected by wear, are incorporated into the translation-torsion coupling dynamic model of PGB, and the vibration signals of different wear levels are obtained through the synthetic meshing vibration signal model. To analyze the fault characteristics, the statistical characteristic analysis method based on the residual signal is used to analyze the relationship of statistical indicators and wear types and wear levels. Results and Conclusion: The results show that indicators such as root mean square and frequency kurtosis can be used to evaluate the wear levels, form factor and frequency root mean square can be used to distinguish different wear types, and indicators such as waveform factor and kurtosis are sensitive to initial faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypochlorite is an important biological reactive oxygen species, which plays a pivotal role in various life activities. Excessive presence in the human body or excessive intake in life causes a series of diseases. To monitor the hypochlorite level in living cells, organisms and environment water samples, we herein designed and synthesized three organic small molecule fluorescent probes with different recognition sites based on nitrile biphenyl. Through performance comparison, it was found that probe A-HM exhibited the best detection performance for hypochlorite with a low detection limit of 2.47 × 10–6 M. The introduction of hypochlorite will induce probe fluorescence A-HM to turn on, and the fluorescence colour will change from colourless to green. The application of A-HM in biological systems has been demonstrated by the imaging monitoring of hypochlorite in MCF-7, L929 cells and zebrafish. Furthermore, A-HM was also used for the accurate determination of the hypochlorite level in real water samples with high sensitivity and good recoveries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have demonstrated that neuroimaging data can be used to estimate biological brain age, as it captures information about the neuroanatomical and functional changes the brain undergoes during development and the aging process. However, researchers often have limited access to neuroimaging data because of its challenging and expensive acquisition process, thereby limiting the effectiveness of the predictive model. Decentralized models provide a way to build more accurate and generalizable prediction models, bypassing the traditional data-sharing methodology. In this work, we propose a decentralized method for biological brain age estimation using support vector regression models and evaluate it on three different feature sets, including both volumetric and voxelwise structural MRI data as well as resting functional MRI data. The results demonstrate that our decentralized brain age regression models can achieve similar performance compared to the models trained with all the data in one location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variety of circular RNAs (circRNAs) have tumor-regulatory roles in breast cancer (BC). Circ_0000442 was reported to inhibit the progression of BC, and this study was designed to explore the novel functional mechanism of circ_0000442 in BC. The expression analysis for circ_0000442, microRNA-1229-3p (miR-1229-3p) and zinc finger and BTB domain containing 1 (ZBTB1) was performed using the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Dual-luciferase reporter assay was used to affirm the target interaction. Cell proliferation was examined using Edu assay and colony formation assay. Cell migration and invasion were assessed by transwell assay. Flow cytometry was applied for the detection of cell apoptosis. Glycolysis was analyzed using the detection kits to measure the glucose consumption and lactate production. The protein expression levels were determined by western blot. The role of circ_0000442 in BC in vivo was explored using tumor xenograft assay. Circ_0000442 expression was downregulated and miR-1229-3p expression was upregulated in BC tissues and cells. Circ_0000442 directly interacted with miR-1229-3p. Circ_0000442 repressed proliferation, migration, invasion and glycolysis but promoted apoptosis in BC cells. The anti-tumor role of circ_0000442 was attributed to the sponge effect on miR-1229-3p. ZBTB1 was a downstream target for miR-1229-3p. Downregulation of miR-1229-3p blocked the malignant behaviors in BC cells by elevating the expression of ZBTB1. Circ_0000442 regulated the ZBTB1 level by targeting miR-1229-3p, and it inhibited tumor growth of BC in vivo by mediating the miR-1229-3p/ZBTB1 axis. All evidence unraveled that circ_0000442 impeded the progression of BC by sponging miR-1229-3p to evoke the ZBTB1 expression upregulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schizophrenia is a highly heritable psychiatric disorder characterized by widespread functional and structural brain abnormalities. However, previous association studies between MRI and polygenic risk were mostly ROI-based single modality analyses, rather than identifying brain-based multimodal predictive biomarkers. Based on schizophrenia polygenic risk scores (PRS) from healthy white people within the UK Biobank dataset (N = 22,459), we discovered a robust PRS-associated brain pattern with smaller gray matter volume and decreased functional activation in frontotemporal cortex, which distinguished schizophrenia from controls with >83% accuracy, and predicted cognition and symptoms across 4 independent schizophrenia cohorts. Further multi-disease comparisons demonstrated that these identified frontotemporal alterations were most severe in schizophrenia and schizo-affective patients, milder in bipolar disorder, and indistinguishable from controls in autism, depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. These findings indicate the potential of the identified PRS-associated multimodal frontotemporal network to serve as a trans-diagnostic gene intermediated brain biomarker specific to schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is highly heritable and characterized by widespread brain abnormalities. Here, the authors identify schizophrenia polygenic risk associated multimodal frontotemporal network that can serve as a transdiagnostic brain signature specific to schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomaterial based scaffolds for treating large bone defects require excellent biocompatibility and osteoconductivity. Here we report on the fabrication of hydroxyapatite-dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HA-DMSN) based scaffolds with hierarchical micro-pores (5 µm) and nano-pores (6.4 nm), and their application for bone regeneration. The in vitro studies demonstrated good biocompatibility of dissolution extracts, as well as enhanced osteogenic potential indicated by dose-dependent upregulation of bone marker gene expression (osteocalcin gene (OCN), osteopontin gene (OPN), collagen type I alpha 1 gene (CoL1A1), runt-related transcription factor 2 gene (RUNX2), and integrin-binding sialoprotein gene (IBSP)), alkaline phosphatise (ALP) activity, and alizarin red staining. The in vivo studies showed that HA-DMSN scaffolds significantly increased bone formation in a rat cranial bone defect model after 4 weeks healing. Our study provides a simple method to fabricate promising inorganic scaffolds with hierarchical pores for bone tissue engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of childhood obesity in China has recently become increasingly severe, and intervention measures are needed to stop its growth. Currently, there is a lack of assessment and prediction methods for childhood obesity. We develop a predictive model that uses currently measured predictors [gender, age, urban/rural, height and body mass index (BMI)] to quantify children's probabilities of belonging to one of four BMI category 5 years later and identify the high-risk group for possible intervention. A total of 88,980 students underwent a routine standard physical examination and were reexamined 5 years later to complete the study. The full model shows that boys, urban residence and height have positive effects and that age has a negative effect on transition to the overweight or obese category along with significant BMI effects. Our model correctly predicts BMI categories 5 years later for 70% of the students. From 2018 to 2023, the prevalence of obesity in rural boys and girls is expected to increase by 4% and 2%, respectively, while that in urban boys and girls is expected to remain unchanged. Predictive models help us assess the severity of childhood obesity and take targeted interventions and treatments to prevent it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current age of data explosion, the amount of data has reached incredible proportions. Digital image data constitute most of these data. With the development of science and technology, the demand for networked work and life continues to grow. Cloud computing technology plays an increasingly important role in life and work. This paper studies the optimization methods for cloud computing image data recognition models. The parallelization and task scheduling of the remote-sensing image classification model SCSRC based on spatial correlation regularization and sparse representation are studied in a cloud computing platform. First, cloud detection technology, combined with the dynamic features of the edge overlap region, is implemented in cloud computing mode. For image edge overlap region detection, the SCSRC method is implemented on a single machine, and the time performance of the method is analysed experimentally, which provides a basis for parallelization research under the cloud computing platform. Finally, the speedup and expansion ratio of the SK-SCSRC algorithm are determined by experiment, and MR-SCSRC and SK-SCSRC are compared. The simulation results show that, compared to previous methods, the method of image edge overlap detection is more accurate and the image fusion is better, which improves the image recognition ability in the overlap region and demonstrates the performance improvement of the MR-SCSRC algorithm under scheduling. This method addresses the shortcomings of Hadoop's existing scheduler and can be integrated into remote-sensing cloud computing systems in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The objective of this study was to assess efficacy and safety of repository corticotropin injection (RCI) in subjects with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) despite treatment with a corticosteroid and one or two disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Methods: All subjects received open-label RCI (80 U) twice weekly for 12 weeks (part 1); only those with low disease activity [LDA; i.e., Disease Activity Score 28 joint count and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28-ESR) < 3.2] were randomly assigned to receive either RCI (80 U) or placebo twice weekly during the 12-week double-blind period (part 2). The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of subjects who achieved LDA at week 12. Secondary efficacy endpoints included proportions of subjects who maintained LDA during weeks 12 through 24 and achieved Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) ≤ 10 at weeks 12 and 24. Safety was assessed via adverse event reports. Results: Of the 259 enrolled subjects, 235 completed part 1; 154 subjects (n = 77 each for RCI and placebo) entered part 2, and 127 (RCI, n = 71; placebo, n = 56) completed. At week 12, 163 subjects (62.9%) achieved LDA and 169 (65.3%) achieved CDAI ≤ 10 (both p < 0.0001). At week 24, 47 (61.0%) RCI-treated and 32 (42.1%) placebo-treated subjects maintained LDA (p = 0.019); 66 (85.7%) RCI-treated and 50 (65.8%) placebo-treated subjects maintained CDAI ≤ 10 (p = 0.004). No unexpected safety signals were observed. Conclusions: RCI was effective and generally safe in patients with active RA despite corticosteroid/DMARD therapy. By week 12, > 60% of patients achieved LDA, which was maintained with 12 additional weeks of treatment. Most patients who achieved LDA maintained it for 3 months after RCI discontinuation. Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT02919761. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) was the most common neuro-otological disorder manifests as recurrent positional vertigo, but its risk factors are elusive. Recent studies suggest that decreased Vitamin D level may be a risk factor, but the literature is inconsistent. Methods: The databases PubMed, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, SinoMed, and Embase were systematically searched for studies on the association between BPPV and serum Vitamin D levels published up to June 2019. Data from eligible studies were meta-analyzed using Stata 12.0. Results: A total of 18 studies were included in the analysis. Serum Vitamin D levels were significantly lower in individuals with BPPV than in controls (WMD − 2.46, 95% CI − 3.79 to − 1.12, p < 0.001). Subgroup analysis by geographical area showed that vitamin D level was significantly lower in BPPV than in controls in China (WMD − 3.27, 95% CI − 4.12 to − 2.43, p < 0.001), but not outside China (WMD − 0.90, 95% CI − 4.36 to 2.56, p = 0.611). Vitamin D levels were significantly lower in recurrent than non-recurrent BPPV across all countries in the sample (WMD 2.59, 95% CI 0.35–4.82, p = 0.023). Vitamin D deficiency emerged as an independent risk factor of BPPV (OR 1.998, 95% CI 1.400–2.851, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The available evidence suggests that BPPV is associated with decreased levels of serum Vitamin D, and vitamin D deficiency was an independent risk factor for BPPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional connectivity networks, derived from resting-state fMRI data, have been found as effective biomarkers for identifying mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from healthy elderly. However, the traditional functional connectivity network is essentially a low-order network with the assumption that the brain activity is static over the entire scanning period, ignoring temporal variations among the correlations derived from brain region pairs. To overcome this limitation, we proposed a new type of sparse functional connectivity network to precisely describe the relationship of temporal correlations among brain regions. Specifically, instead of using the simple pairwise Pearson's correlation coefficient as connectivity, we first estimate the temporal low-order functional connectivity for each region pair based on an ULS Group constrained-UOLS regression algorithm, where a combination of ultra-least squares (ULS) criterion with a Group constrained topology structure detection algorithm is applied to detect the topology of functional connectivity networks, aided by an Ultra-Orthogonal Least Squares (UOLS) algorithm to estimate connectivity strength. Compared to the classical least squares criterion which only measures the discrepancy between the observed signals and the model prediction function, the ULS criterion takes into consideration the discrepancy between the weak derivatives of the observed signals and the model prediction function and thus avoids the overfitting problem. By using a similar approach, we then estimate the high-order functional connectivity from the low-order connectivity to characterize signal flows among the brain regions. We finally fuse the low-order and the high-order networks using two decision trees for MCI classification. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on MCI classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intrauterine adhesion (IUA) is a common cause of uterine infertility and one of the most severe clinical features is endometrial fibrosis namely endometrial scarring for which there are few cures currently. Blocked angiogenesis is the main pathological change in the scarred endometrium. The fibroblast growth factor 2 (bFGF), a member of FGF family, is usually applied to promote healing of refractory ulcer and contributes to angiogenesis of tissues. In this study, the sustained-release system of bFGF 100 µg was administrated around scarred endometrium guiding by ultrasound every 4 weeks in 18 patients (2–4 times). Results showed that after treatment, the menstrual blood volume, endometrial thickness and the scarred endometrial area were improved. Histological study showed blood vessel density increased obviously. Three patients (3/18) achieved pregnancy over 20 gestational weeks. Therefore, administrating the bFGF surrounding scarred endometrium may provide a new therapeutic approach for the patients with endometrial fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, humic acid (HA) was used as stabilizer to prepare silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) by chemically reducing silver salts in water phase, which were employed to produce Ag NPs inks for inkjet printing conductive silver patterns. The obtained silver nanoparticles stabilized with HA (HA-Ag NPs) were all in spherical shape and the particle size was about 7–12 nm. By re-dispersing HA-Ag NPs in ultrapure water, conductive ink with excellent storage stability was prepared, which can be placed at room temperature for 30 days without any precipitation. The as-prepared HA-Ag NPs conductive ink was printed onto photopapers to fabricate conductive silver patterns with a domestic inkjet printer. The resistivity of the printed pattern could reach 135 μΩ cm after printed for 40 layers and sintered at 180 °C for 60 min. In addition, the printed conductive silver patterns could be integrated into a LED device or alarm apparatus, indicating it could be widely used in flexible printing electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell-to-cell transport of risk molecules is a highly anticipated pathogenic mechanism in the initiation and progression of various neurodegenerative diseases. Extracellular exosome-mediated neuron to neuron transport of α-synuclein (α-syn) is increasingly recognized as a potential etiologic mechanism in Parkinson's disease (PD). Exosomal inflammation has also been increasingly implicated in PD pathogenesis and could trigger, facilitate, or aggravate disease development. However, these mechanisms have not been verified systematically, especially in vivo. Since serum contains abundant exosomes, the correlation between serum exosomes and PD pathogenesis remains unknown. Here, we show that exosomes from PD patient serum contain more α-syn and inflammatory factors such as IL-1β and TNF-α than neurological normal controls, eventually cause α-syn, ubiquitin, and P62 aggregation in recipient cells. More importantly, the intravenous or intrastriatal treatment of mice with exosomes from PD patient serum could evoke protein aggregation, trigger dopamine neuron degeneration, induce microglial activation, and cause apomorphine-coaxed rotation and movement defects. All these findings imply the exosome pathway as a new pathogenesis mechanism for PD, and therefore may present new targets for therapeutics. Key messages: We have presented the evidence for a relationship between PD (Parkinson's disease) patients' serum exosomes and pathogenesis. PD patients' serum-derived exosomes could induce α-syn, ubiquitin and P62 aggregation in recipient cells. Intravenous or intrastriatal treatments of mice with PD exosomes were able to recapitulate the molecular, cellular and behavioral phenotypes of PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storage reliability of massive amounts of data is the basis for deep learning, and continuous data protection (CDP) technology is an effective means of ensuring it. The method of storing CDP historical data, represented by TRAP-Array parity logs, effectively reduces the overheads of storage capacity, but it increases the risk of historical data loss due to the absence of the RAID protection mechanism for the parity data. This paper proposes a design method for a fault-tolerant and energy-efficient continuous data protection system (FTEECDP), which is composed of SSD mirror array, TRAP parity generation logic and S-RAID disk array. Taking the SSD mirror array as the source data volume of the system to provide the I/O service of the upper applications, FTEECDP improves the throughput of the system. This method also takes S-RAID as the CDP log volume to store the TRAP parity logs. When the disk data error occurs, the error data will be recovered from the data redundancy information of S-RAID, thus protecting the TRAP parity chain from being destroyed and improving the reliability of the TRAP parity logs. The experiment shows that in the continuous data protection system, the CDP logs stored as the TRAP parity can greatly reduce the storage space overheads and reduce the system energy consumption. In addition, with the disk scheduling algorithm, S-RAID shifts the disk grouping without any data requests into a standby state, thus further reducing the energy consumption of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distinguishing subsequence patterns mining aims to discover the differences between different categories of sequence databases and to express characteristics of classes. It plays an important role in biomedicine, feature information selection, time-series classification, and other areas. The existing distinguishing subsequence patterns mining only focuses on whether a pattern appears in a sequence, regardless of the number of occurrences of the pattern in the sequence and the proportion of the pattern in the entire sequence database, which affects the discovery of the distinguishing patterns when there are a large number of irrelevant occurrences. Therefore, the nonoverlapping conditional distinguishing subsequence patterns mining algorithm is proposed. In this paper, we focus on the number of nonoverlapping occurrences that effectively reduce the number of irrelevant or redundant occurrences, and in this way, the number of occurrences can be better grasped. At the same time, we use a specially designed data structure, namely, a Nettree, to avoid backtracking. In addition, we use the distinguishing patterns as classification features, and carry out classification experiments on DNA sequences and time-series data with two classes. Extensive experimental results and comparisons demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm and the correctness of the feature extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premature ovarian failure (POF) is a refractory disease; one of the most important goals of treatment is to improve fertility. In the study, collagen scaffold loaded with human umbilical cord–derived mesenchymal stem cells (collagen/UC-MSCs) transplantation in POF mice preserved ovarian function, as supported by increased estrogen (E2) and anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) levels, increased ovarian volume, and an increased number of antral follicles. Immunohistochemistry results of Ki67 indicated transplantation of collagen/UC-MSCs promoted granulosa cell proliferation, which is crucial to oocyte maturation and follicular development. Additionally, transplantation of collagen/UC-MSCs significantly promoted ovarian angiogenesis with the increased expression of CD31. In general, collagen/UC-MSCs transplantation probably is an effective therapeutic strategy of POF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premature ovarian failure (POF) is a refractory disease for clinical treatment with the goal of restoring fertility. In this study, umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells on a collagen scaffold (collagen/UC-MSCs) can activate primordial follicles in vitro via phosphorylation of FOXO3a and FOXO1. Transplantation of collagen/UC-MSCs to the ovaries of POF patients rescued overall ovarian function, evidenced by elevated estradiol concentrations, improved follicular development, and increased number of antral follicles. Successful clinical pregnancy was achieved in women with POF after transplantation of collagen/UC-MSCs or UC-MSCs. In summary, collagen/UC-MSC transplantation may provide an effective treatment for POF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate how uncertainties in key parameters in the carbon cycle and climate system propagate to the costs of climate change mitigation and adaptation needed to achieve the 2 and 1.5 °C targets by 2100 using a stochastic version of the simple climate model for optimization (SCM4OPT), an integrated assessment model. For the 2 °C target, we find a difference in 2100 CO2 emission levels of 20.5 GtCO2 (− 1.2 GtCO2 to 19.4 GtCO2), whereas this difference is 12.0 GtCO2 (− 6.9 GtCO2 to 5.1 GtCO2) for the 1.5 °C target (17-83% range). Total radiative forcing in 2100 is estimated to be 3.3 (2.7-3.9) Wm−2 for the 2 °C case and 2.5 (2.0-3.0) Wm−2 for the 1.5 °C case. Carbon prices in 2100 are 482 (181-732) USD(2005)/tCO2 and 713 (498-1014) USD(2005)/tCO2 for the 2 and 1.5 °C targets, respectively. We estimate GDP losses in 2100 that correspond to 1.9 (1.2-2.5)% of total gross output for the 2 °C target and 2.0 (1.5-2.7)% for the 1.5 °C target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single particle ICP-MS has evolved rapidly as a quantitative method for determining nanoparticle size and number concentration at environmentally relevant exposure levels. Central to the application of spICP-MS is a commonly used, but not rigorously validated, calibration approach based on the measured transport efficiency and the response of ionic standards. In this work, we present a comprehensive and systematic study of the accuracy, precision and robustness of spICP-MS using the rigorously characterized reference material (RM) 8017 (Polyvinylpyrrolidone Coated Nominal 75 nm Silver Nanoparticles), recently issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). We report for the first time, statistically significant differences in frequency-based and size-based measures of transport efficiency with NIST RM 8013 Gold Nanoparticles and demonstrate that the size-based measure of transport efficiency is more robust and yields accurate results for the silver nanoparticle RM relative to TEM-based reference values. This finding is significant, because the frequency-based method is more widely applied. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the use of acidified ionic standards improves measurement of ICP-MS Ag response, but does not degrade the accuracy of the results for AgNP suspensions in water or various other diluents. Approaches for controlling AgNP dissolution were investigated and are shown to effectively improve particle stability in dilute suspensions required for spICP-MS analysis, while minimally affecting the measured intensity and allowing for more robust analysis. This study is an important and necessary advancement toward full validation and adoption of spICP-MS by the broader research community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNA-9 upregulation was reported in several tumors. However, its function and mechanism in human bladder cancer remains obscure. The present study aims to identify the expression pattern, biological roles and potential mechanism of miR-9 in human bladder cancers. We found that expression level of miR-9 in bladder cancer tissues was higher than normal tissues. miR-9 mimic transfection was performed in T24 and 5637 cells with low miR-9 expression, and miR-9 inhibitor was employed in BIU-87 cell line with high endogenous expression. miR-9 increased cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, invasion and chemoresistance, with upregulation of cyclin D1, MMP9, Bcl-2, and survivin and downregulation of E-cadherin. Using luciferase reporter assay, we confirmed that LASS2 was a direct target of miR-9 in bladder cancer cells. Transfection of miR-9 mimic downregulated LASS2 expression. LASS2 transfection downregulated Bcl-2 and survivin expression, which were induced by miR-9 mimic in both cell lines. In conclusion, these results indicate that miR-9 upregulation might be associated with malignant phenotype of bladder cancer. miR-9 promotes chemoresistance of bladder cancer cells by target LASS2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is mainly focused on generating a high quality surface on tungsten carbide by micro polycrystalline diamond (PCD) milling tool. Micro milling tools made of PCD are developed. In order to machine tungsten carbide more precisely and more efficiently, systematic experimental procedures have been carried out. The influence of cutting parameters, including axial depth of cutting ( a) and feed per tooth ( f), on the achievable surface quality are studied under one-factor variation experimental design. Further tests are also conducted to monitor surface roughness as a function of the machining time. Mirror quality surfaces, with surface roughness Ra around 40 nm are obtained on the machined samples, which could be used as an example of the application of the process in specific fields, such as superior surface finishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five new binuclear lanthanide compounds [Ln(2,4-DClBA)phen] (Ln = Pr( 1), Eu( 2), Tb( 3), Ho( 4) and Er( 5); 2,4-DClBA = 2,4-dichlorobenzoate; phen = 1,10-phenanthroline) have been synthesized and structurally characterized by X-ray crystallography. And all of them were carefully investigated by elemental analysis, molar conductance, IR, UV and TG/DSC-FTIR technology. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies revealed that compounds 1- 5 were binuclear molecules with an inversion center and the Ln ions contained two kinds of coordination environment that was a distorted monocapped square-antiprism in the compounds 1- 2, and a distorted square-antiprism geometry in the compounds 3- 5. The 3D surface graphs for the FTIR spectra of gaseous products for the compounds 1- 5 were recorded using simultaneous TG/DSC-FTIR technique which is intended to further analysis of the thermal decomposition processes. Hence the gaseous products were identified by the solved single IR spectra obtained at different temperatures from the 3D surface graphs. Furthermore, the Eu(III) and Tb(III) ternary compounds exhibited intense luminescence under the radiation of UV light. And the results for antimicrobial test show that these compounds exhibit good bacteriostatic activity against Staphylococcus aureus, and better antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of lanthanide complexes with the 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoic acid (3,4,5-tmoba) and 1,10-phenanthroline(phen), [Ln(3,4,5-tmoba)phen](Ln = Pr(1), Nd (2) and Ho(3)), have been synthesized and characterized by a series of techniques including elemental analysis, IR spectra, X-ray crystallography and TG/DSC-FTIR technology. The three complexes have two kinds of coordination modes, in which the Pr and Nd cations are nine-coordinated and the Ho cation is eight-coordinated. The three-dimensional IR accumulation spectra of gaseous products for complexes 1-3 were analyzed and the gaseous products were identified by the typical IR spectra obtained from the 3D surface graphs. Meanwhile, we obtained the activation energy E of the first steps of complexes 1-3 by the integral isoconversional non-linear (NL-INT) method and discussed the non-isothermal kinetics of complexes 1-3 using the Malek method. Finally, SB( m, n) was defined as the kinetic method of the first-step thermal decomposition. The thermodynamic parameters Δ G, Δ H and Δ S of activation at the peak temperature were also calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]