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Objective: Telemedicine can offer services to remote patients regardless of the distance. Fifth‐generation (5G) mobile networks may make telemedicine practical because of their low latency. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and safety of a novel 5G robot‐assisted remote abdominal ultrasound (AUS) telemedicine technology in clinical applications in distant locations. Methods: We performed 5G‐based telerobotic AUS in patients who were located more than 100 km away from the physicians. Results: The telerobotic AUS had a longer examination time than the conditional bedside AUS; however, the complete examination rate was not inferior. None of the volunteers experienced discomfort during the examination and the examination time was acceptable for all. Conclusion: Our findings confirm the feasibility and safety of 5G‐based telerobotic AUS in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe the development of a platform for image collection and annotation that resulted in a multi‐sourced international image dataset of oral lesions to facilitate the development of automated lesion classification algorithms. Materials and Methods: We developed a web‐interface, hosted on a web server to collect oral lesions images from international partners. Further, we developed a customised annotation tool, also a web‐interface for systematic annotation of images to build a rich clinically labelled dataset. We evaluated the sensitivities comparing referral decisions through the annotation process with the clinical diagnosis of the lesions. Results: The image repository hosts 2474 images of oral lesions consisting of oral cancer, oral potentially malignant disorders and other oral lesions that were collected through MeMoSA® UPLOAD. Eight‐hundred images were annotated by seven oral medicine specialists on MeMoSA®ANNOTATE, to mark the lesion and to collect clinical labels. The sensitivity in referral decision for all lesions that required a referral for cancer management/surveillance was moderate to high depending on the type of lesion (64.3%–100%). Conclusion: This is the first description of a database with clinically labelled oral lesions. This database could accelerate the improvement of AI algorithms that can promote the early detection of high‐risk oral lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymer fibres are widely used in various materials in contact with the human body. As bacterial contamination may lead to the emergence of disease, it is necessary to provide fibres with durably antibacterial properties. In this work, based on 4-vinyl pyridine, fluorine-containing monomers and acrylic acid monomers, new quaternary ammonium salt polymer containing fluorine (NP) were prepared by solution polymerisation, and then the antibacterial composite fibre was prepared by melt spinning of the NP (9 wt%) and Nylon 6 fibre (PA6). The structure and properties of NP and composite fibres were characterised, respectively. The results indicated that the water contact angle of NP reached 104°, the pyrolysis temperature was 302°C, and the interface interaction between NP and PA6 was good, which could achieve more uniform dispersion in Nylon 6 matrix. In addition, the composite fibre decreased obviously the number of colony-forming units within 24 h (the bactericidal rate was 99.99% against E. coli and 99.81% against S. aureus) compared with pure PA6 fibre. The composite fibre was a good durably antibacterial material, which could still inactivate over 96% inoculated E. coli and S. aureus after washing 7 days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Egg substrates, including eggshell, egg membranes, and egg white, exert a significant influence on CaCO3 biomineralization. CaCO3 crystallization at different temperatures, concentrations, and with various egg substrates was systematically investigated via rapidly mixing solution method. The crystals were determined by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. As the CaCl2 concentration increased, the CaCO3 crystal form gradually changed from calcite to vaterite. Under rising temperature, the single-hole vaterite and besom-like aragonite were formed on the raw and boiled egg white substrate, respectively. The effects of electric field on CaCO3 crystallization were also explored. The findings may offer a novel approach to CaCO3 synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preparation of silicon dioxide (SiO2)@poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) microsphere was reported. The modified microspheres can be well dispersed in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) matrix. The structure of SiO2@PAA microspheres can be well-controlled and its mixtures with chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) for controlling diisooctyl terephthalate (DOTP) migration from PVC matrix. The results showed that the migration of DOTP was decreased with increasing content of SiO2@PAA microspheres, and the use of CPE together with SiO2@PAA microspheres has a synergistic effect on the reduction of DOTP migration. Moreover, CPE can enhance the interface combination between SiO2@PAA microsphere and PVC, and good dispersibility was observed in PVC/CPE/SiO2@PAA composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A synthetic approach for the preparation and conductive polyurethane (PU)/activated carbon (AC) microcapsule to poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) is described. The developed flexible PVC/PU/AC microcapsule composites are economically and ecologically viable, because it is based on AC as inexpensive starting material; the reactions can be carried out one-pot with quantitative yields of the PU/AC microcapsule. The approach is furthermore highly versatile and allows for the preparation of excellent plasticiser migration stability, electrical property and mechanical properties that may be adjusted to a broad range of applications from highly flexible to semi-rigid PVC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design and fabrication of structurally optimised conductive materials are important for many energy applications. Here is reported a carbon(C) @polyaniline(PANI)@silver(Ag) core-double-shell microspheres with good conductive performance. These three components formed a well-defined core-double-shell configuration that was distinct from simple core-shell or hybrid structures. Synergistic effect from respective components (C, PANI and Ag) offers the polyurethane (PU) material a high electrically conductive performance. The C@PANI@Ag microsphere can significantly reduce the surface resistivity of PU and maintain the structure stability. The surface resistivities of PU/C@PANI@Ag composites were even lower than those of PU/C composites and PU/C@PANI composites. These encouraging results showed their great potential in flexible and wearable electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early Cambrian pentamerous microfossil Olivooides/Punctatus in South China, which is characterized by a diagnostic stellate tubular apex, has been well-known for its almost complete development sequence that can be confidently traced from embryos and hatched juveniles, to conical adults. However, its zoological affinity remains highly controversial. Here we describe the internal microanatomic structures of the soft-body inside the peridermal theca of Olivooides multisulcatus Qian, 1977, including interradial pairs of tentacles, adradial and perradial fremila, perradial oral marginal lappets and twins of perradial gastric saccule-like humps as well as a circular velarium with striated coronal muscles. Particularly, one specimen shows bifurcated velarial canals along the bell aperture. Both the components of the soft-body and the external theca (or cyst) are arranged in perfect pentaradial symmetry. These characteristics are more compatible with those of living cubomedusans and co-occurring Cambrian athecate embryonic cubozoans. Concerning the presence of peridermal theca, Olivooides most likely represents an extinct thecate stem-group cubomedusae but devoid of both perradial eyes and specialized pedalia. The well-grown soft body inside the peridermal tube displays a set of mixed features of both polyp and medusa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cdc42 is a Ras-related small GTP-binding protein. A previous study has shown that Cdc42 binding to the ? subunit of the coatomer protein complex (?COP) is essential for Cdc42-regulated cellular transformation, but the molecular mechanism involved is not well understood. Here, we demonstrate that constitutively-active Cdc42 binding to ?COP induced the accumulation of epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) in the cells, sustained EGF-stimulated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), JUN amino-terminal kinase (JNK) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling and promoted cell division. Moreover, constitutive Cdc42 activity facilitated the nuclear translocation of EGFR, and this indicates a novel mechanism through which Cdc42 might promote cellular transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A congruent melting compound MgSrB2O5 was synthesized by high temperature solution method from the MgO-SrO-B2O3 system, and the structure was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods. The compound crystallizes in the monoclinic system, with space group P21/ c. The crystal structure is composed of isolated B2O5 units and MgO6 octahedra that are connected to form two-dimensional [Mg2B4O10] layers stacking along the c axis. The layers are bridged by the Sr2+ cations to form a three-dimensional framework. The IR spectrum and the thermal properties of MgSrB2O5 were also reported. Additionally, detailed structure comparisons between MgSrB2O5 and other borates, such as Mg2B2O5, Sr2B2O5 and SrCdB2O5 are carried out and the first-principle theoretical studies are performed to aid the understanding of electronic structures and linear optical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In plants, microRNAs ( miRNAs) play a critical role in post-transcriptional gene regulation and have been shown to control many genes involved in various biological and metabolic processes. There have been extensive studies to discover miRNAs and analyze their functions in model plant species, such as Arabidopsis and rice. Deep sequencing technologies have facilitated identification of species-specific or lowly expressed as well as conserved or highly expressed miRNAs in plants. In this research, we used Solexa sequencing to discover new miRNAs in cultivated strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa). A total of 23 282 309 reads representing 22 500 402 distinct sequences were obtained from a short RNA library generated from small RNAs extracted from strawberry fruit tissues. On the basis of sequence similarity and hairpin structure prediction, we found that 156 639 reads representing 153 sequences have good matches to known miRNAs. We also identified 37 novel miRNA candidates. These sequences had not been previously described in other plant species. Potential target genes were predicted for the majority of and novel miRNAs. These results show that regulatory miRNAs exist in the agriculturally important cultivated strawberry and may play an important role in its growth, development and response to disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNA molecules which have significant gene regulation roles in organisms. The advent of new high-throughput sequencing technologies has enabled the discovery of novel miRNAs. Although there are two recent reports on high-throughput sequencing analysis of small RNA libraries from different organs of two wine grapevine varieties, there was a significant divergence in the number and kinds of miRNAs sequenced in these studies. More sequencing of small RNA libraries is still important for the discovery of novel miRNAs in grapevine. In this study, a total of 130 conserved grapevine Vitis vinifera miRNA (Vv-miRNA) belonging to 28 Vv-miRNA families were validated, other 80 unconserved Vv-miRNAs including 72 novel potential and 8 known but unconserved ones were found. Fifty-two (52.5%) of these 80 unconserved Vv-miRNAs exhibited differential poly(A)-tailed reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction expression profiles in various grapevine tissues that could further confirm their existence in grapevine, among which 20 were expressed only in grapevine berries, indicating a degree of fruit-specificity. One hundred thirty target genes for 56 unconserved miRNAs could be predicted. The locations of these potential target genes on grapevine chromosomes and their complementary levels with the corresponding miRNAs were also analyzed. These results point to a regulatory role of miRNAs in grapevine berry development and response to various environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which examines the isolation and characterization of long tail Thermus bacteriophage which can be found in the Tengchong hot springs in China. The study involves the use of sampling and phage isolation and electron microscopy during the investigation of the bacteriophage. It also concludes that the characteristics of thermophilic phage in China are the similar to Thermus siphoviruses P23-45 and P74-26.

A series of monolithic silica/resorcinol–formaldehyde (silica/RF) aerogels have been prepared by a simple one-step sol–gel process of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES), resorcinol (R), and formaldehyde (F) in ethanol, followed by drying with supercritical CO2. The silica/carbon composite aerogels were obtained by pyrolysis of the silica/RF aerogels under N2 atmosphere. The silica/carbon composite aerogels exhibit low densities (0.1241–0.2751 g/cm3) and high porosities (>84%). The pore morphologies of the composite aerogels have been investigated in detail by nitrogen sorption measurements, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The surface areas of these composite aerogels result from the contribution of macropores, mesopores, and micropores. Combustion in air or etching in HF solution can remove carbon or silica from the silica/carbon composite aerogels and yields monolithic or cracked unitary silica or carbon aerogels. The study indicates that when the starting APTES/R molar ratio is high (sample 3SiOC–C and 2SiOC–C), the silica framework is the supporting framework; and for low starting APTES/R ratio samples (sample SiOC–3C, SiOC–2C, and SiOC–C), the carbon framework is the supporting framework. Remarkably, carbon aerogels with high surface areas of 2000 m2/g can be obtained after removing silica frameworks of composite aerogels of 3SiOC–C and 2SiOC–C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten 8-(3,3-dimethylallyl)-substituted flavonoid glycosides, including the four new flavonol glycosides 1 and 3–5 and the new flavanonol glycoside 2, besides five known flavonol glycosides, were isolated from the aerial parts of Epimedium koreanumNakai. Their structures were determined by spectroscopic methods, including UV, IR, 1D- and 2D-NMR, ESI-MSn, HR-ESI-MS, and circular dichroism (CD) experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cosmopolitan kutorginates, the most abundant Early Cambrian rhynchonelliformean brachiopods, became extinct at the end of the Middle Cambrian. Consequently, any information concerning the anatomy of this peculiar lineage of brachiopods has great phylogenetic significance with regard to their extant relatives for analogies with the stem-group clade. Such data have been supplied from fossils of which the soft parts have been preserved in exceptional detail. A new brachiopod, Kutorgina chengjiangensis sp. nov., from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte of southern China, is described here. It is the first articulated brachiopod species collected from this deposit. The specimens preserve a set of soft-body parts, i.e. lophophore, digestive tract and pedicle, all previously poorly known in almost all Palaeozoic calcareous brachiopod taxa. The lophophore attains an early spirolophe stage, clearly homologous to that in the coeval lingulids. The digestive tract consists of a mouth, oesophagus, swollen stomach, intestine and a terminal anus. The pedicle protruding between the valves is stout and elongate, with annulated lamellae on the surface, and contains a putative cœlomic cavity. K. chengjiangensis displays the characteristics of the stem group of calcareous brachiopods, and illustrates anatomical similarities between Cambrian phosphatic- and calcareous-shelled brachiopods, thus corroborating that the Brachiopoda are a monophyletic group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study that examined a large number of well-preserved specimens of the Chengjiang Lagerstätte naraoiid protaspis in the Lower Cambrian of South China. Systematic description of the morphology of the discovered species; Tests on the prostapid hypotheses; Implications of the discovery in interpreting the evolution of arthropods and metazoans.

The article presents a case study of a 66-year-old male complaining of intermittent abdominal pain and distension. Topics include gastric ulcer revealed from esophagogastroduodenoscopy, stenotic and edematous segment of jejunum located from the ligament of Treitz and eosinophilic infiltration in the entire layer of the bowel wall. Other topics include persistent eosinophilia after surgery and steroids effective for all types of eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders such as gastroenteritis.

CsV2(H3O)(HPO3)4 (I) and Ba3V2(HPO3)6 (II) are prepared by hydrothermal reaction of aqueous Cs2CO3 or BaCO3, NaVO3, and H3PO3 (autoclave, 210 °C, 4 d, pH 0.5→1; 83 and 85% yield, resp.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single crystals of the title compounds are prepared by solid state reaction of K2CO3 or Ba(OH)2, Sb2O3, and H3BO3 (Pt crucibles, 850 °C, 33 h). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Review: 69 refs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A congruent melting compound MgSrB2O5 was synthesized by high temperature solution method from the MgO-SrO-B2O3 system, and the structure was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods. The compound crystallizes in the monoclinic system, with space group P21/ c. The crystal structure is composed of isolated B2O5 units and MgO6 octahedra that are connected to form two-dimensional [Mg2B4O10] layers stacking along the c axis. The layers are bridged by the Sr2+ cations to form a three-dimensional framework. The IR spectrum and the thermal properties of MgSrB2O5 were also reported. Additionally, detailed structure comparisons between MgSrB2O5 and other borates, such as Mg2B2O5, Sr2B2O5 and SrCdB2O5 are carried out and the first-principle theoretical studies are performed to aid the understanding of electronic structures and linear optical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]