Search

We aimed to compare the clinical outcomes of pre-emptive angioplasty versus post-thrombotic percutaneous endovascular restoration of dysfunctional arteriovenous fistula (AVF).This retrospective study reviewed the data from 80 patients who underwent 114 endovascular interventions for a malfunctioning AVF from July 2016 to August 2019. Stenotic AVFs were treated with pre-emptive angioplasty. Thrombosed AVFs were treated with percutaneous pharmacomechanical fibrinolysis with urokinase used only during the operation or continuously infused. The differences in patency rates were evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method. In addition, univariate and multivariate regression Cox models were used to determine influential factors on the postintervention primary patency.Post-thrombotic interventions and pre-emptive angioplasty yielded statistically similar rates in clinical success (100 vs. 100%), anatomic success (94 vs. 89%; P = 0.52), complication (4 vs. 11%; P = 0.29), as well as postintervention primary, assisted primary and secondary patency (P = 0.80; 0.57; 0.57). The use of pre-emptive angioplasty was associated with reduced total cost (¥25,108 vs. ¥30,833, P 0.001). The patients who used urokinase only during the operation prolonged both the primary and assisted primary patency (P = 0.02; 0.002), while those with continuous infusion of urokinase had worst patency rates and high costs (¥39,275 vs. ¥25,108 vs. ¥27,140, P 0.001). Compared with the other locations, dysfunction in the anastomotic or juxta-anastomotic segment (HR = 0.41, P = 0.001) was associated with prolonged postintervention primary patency.No clinical outcome differences were found between the post-thrombotic percutaneous endovascular interventions and pre-emptive angioplasty. However, pre-emptive angioplasty decreased access expenditure.

The study was aimed at exploring the diagnostic value of artificial intelligence reconstruction algorithm combined with CT image parameters on hepatic ascites, expected to provide a reference for the etiological evaluation of clinical abdominal effusion. Specifically, the adaptive iterative hard threshold (AIHT) algorithm for CT image reconstruction was proposed. Then, 100 patients with peritoneal effusion were selected as the research subjects. After 8 cases were excluded, the remaining was divided into 50 cases of the S1 group (hepatic ascites) and 42 cases of the D0 group (cancerous peritoneal effusion). Gemstone energy spectrum CT scanning was performed on all patients, and CT image parameters of the two groups were compared. It was found that CT value of mixed energy, CT value of 60-100 KeV single energy, concentration value of water (calcium), concentration value of water (iodine), and slope of energy spectrum curve in the S1 group were significantly lower than those in the D0 group ( P < 0.05 ). The effective atomic number in the S1 group was significantly higher than that in the D0 group ( P < 0.05 ). Of the 50 patients in the S1 group, 3 (6%) had an ascending and 47 (94%) had a descending spectral curve. Of the 42 patients in the D0 group, 37 (88.1%) had an ascending and 5 (11.9%) had a descending spectral curve. The sensitivity and specificity of water (iodine) were 0.927 and 0.836, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of water (calcium) were 0.863 and 0.887, respectively. For different scan ranges ([0,90]; [0,120]), root mean square error (RMSE) of AIHT reconstructed image was significantly smaller than that of traditional algorithm, while peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) was opposite. The differences were statistically significant ( P < 0.05 ). In conclusion, AIHT-based CT images can better display the distribution of hepatic ascites, and the parameters of CT value, effective atomic number, water (iodine), water (calcium), and spectral curve can all provide help for the identification of hepatic ascites. Especially, water (iodine) and water (calcium) demonstrated high diagnostic performance of hepatic ascites.

Background Exosomes derived from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (HuMSCs) have been utilized as a potential therapeutic candidate to alleviate amyloid β-protein (Aβ) expression in APP/PS1 or 5XFAD transgenic mice due to their low immunogenicity and extensive sources. Accumulated evidence also suggests that encysting appropriate cargos into exosomes can more effectively reduce Aβ expression by interfering with the metabolism of β-Amyloid precursor protein (APP). Therefore, exosomes loaded with bioactive substances to reduce Aβ expression have attracted much attention. A new strategy to load therapeutic exogenous cargoes of interest into exosomes in a high-throughput and straightforward fashion is desired. Results In this study, neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells were stably transfected with Swedish mutant APP695K, 595N plasmid to construct a cell model of Aβ overexpression. Then extracted Exosomes from HuMSCs and loaded with micro (miR)-29a via a microfluidic exosome nanoengineering platform (ExoNP) to target a post-transcriptional modification of the β-secretase1 (β-site APP cleaving enzyme 1, BACE1) gene to prevent protein expression. Finally, processed exosomes were utilized to treat APPswe-SH-SY5Y cells and decrease the expression of Aβ1−42 and BACE1 and further alleviated apoptosis. Conclusion HuMSCs-derived exosomes loaded with hsa-miR-29a via ExoNP to efficiently deliver to APPswe-SH-SY5Y cells and alleviate Aβ1−42 expression and promote cell survival.

Objective: Quantitative technique based on In-line phase-contrast computed tomography with single scanning attracts more attention in application due to the flexibility of the implementation. However, the quantitative results usually suffer from artifacts and noise, since the phase retrieval and reconstruction are independent ("two-steps") without feedback from the original data. Our goal is to develop a method for material quantitative imaging based on a priori information specifically for the single-scanning data. Method: An iterative method that directly reconstructs the refractive index decrement delta and imaginary beta of the object from observed data ("one-step") within single object-to-detector distance (ODD) scanning. Simultaneously, high-quality quantitative reconstruction results are obtained by using a linear approximation that achieves material decomposition in the iterative process. Results: By comparing the equivalent atomic number of the material decomposition results in experiments, the accuracy of the proposed method is greater than 97.2%. Conclusion: The quantitative reconstruction and decomposition results are effectively improved, and there are feedback and corrections during the iteration, which effectively reduce the impact of noise and errors. Significance: This algorithm has the potential for quantitative imaging research, especially for imaging live samples and human breast preclinical studies.

The goal of this work was to explore the potential effects of bacteria inoculation on the lignocellulose degradation and the underlying microbial mechanism during cow dung composting. The results suggested that bacteria inoculation better-accelerated temperature rose and increased thermophilic phase. Compared to the control (without inoculation, CK), the cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin degradation rates of treated group (EG) increased from 53.3% to 70.0%, 50.2% to 61.3% and 46.4% to 60.0%, respectively. The microbial community structure and diversity were obviously changed by inoculation. Moreover, inoculation contributed to modulate the key compost microbial functional populations linking to the degradation of lignocelluloses by stamp analysis. Correlation matrix analysis indicated that the expression of bacterial lingo-cellulolytic enzymes were closely related to the key microbial functional populations. Overall, the results confirmed the importance of bacteria inoculation and have important implication for promoting the efficiency and quality of cow dung compost.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are actively secreted by mammalian cells. They are increasingly recognized as promising circulating biomarkers of disease progression. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is currently one of the most powerful techniques for the rapid analysis of biological samples, especially for discovering biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis. It is unclear what cell culture medium components and EV isolation methods are suitable for MALDI-TOF MS analysis. Using a human lung carcinoma cell line (A549), we investigated and optimized the critical experimental conditions for EVs' protein profiling by combining differential ultracentrifugation and MALDI-TOF MS. The results demonstrated that medium components and ultracentrifugation procedures to extract EVs played important roles in MS detection. Compared with EV-depleted serum and normal serum medium, conditioned medium with 2% fetal bovine serum in this study maintained cell proliferation and displayed significant protein profiling of EVs. RPS27A (ribosomal protein), which plays an essential role in mRNA translation and ribosome assembly for the differentiation of cancer cells, was detected from the EVs of lung cancer cells associated with cancer cell migration and invasion. We also found the known tumor diagnosis marker, which is S100A10_S100 calcium-binding protein A10. Therefore, MALDI-TOF MS-based EV analysis with optimized experimental protocols can contribute to future development of rapid screening techniques of protein biomarkers associated with early cancer diagnosis.

Methods Forty-four COVID-19 patients (severe/critical: N = 8, non-severe: N = 36) were examined by next generation sequencing (NGS) of nasopharyngeal test paper to observe the effect of novel coronavirus infection to the microbial composition in upper airway. Results In these nasopharyngeal test paper samples, 38 kinds of bacteria, 10 kinds of viruses except SARS-CoV-2, nine kinds of fungi and three kinds of atypical pathogens had been found. There was some difference in microbial composition in the upper airway between severe and non-severe cases. Summary These results are important for us to study the effect of SARS-CoV-2 on the local microbial composition of upper airway and prevent opportunistic infection in severe patients.

Resin-based porous carbon spheres with well dispersed MnO2 particles were sucessfully synthesised by steam activation and preoxidation-assisted impregnation of manganese nitrate salt. X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), N2 adsorption–desorption, scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), H2 temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR), O2 temperature-programmed desorption (O2-TPD) and in-situ diffuse reflectance fourier transform spectrometry (DRIFTS) were applied to characterize the obtained porous carbon spheres, and the HCHO adsorption and stability performances were evaluated in a fixed bed reactor. The results demonstrated that surface chemical properties and HCHO removal performances were significantly enhanced after the modification of preoxidation-assisted impregnation. The optimal manganese nitrate loading value, and relative humidity were 6 and 50%, respectively. Moreover, the higher HCHO concentration showed a smaller breakthrough time. The HCHO removal efficiency of ACS–O-6% Mn remained 100% even after reaction for 20 h at room temperature, while the average HCHO removal efficiency only declines by 0.2% compared with the first adsorption after 10 regeneration cycles. The in-situ DRIFTS results showed the smaller accumulation and faster desorption of intermediate products over the ACS–O-6% Mn. The HCHO removal mechanism analysis indicated that the enriched Mn3+ and surface active chemisorbed oxygen accounted for the excellent catalytic oxidation activity and stability.

Limited-angle computed tomography (CT) has arisen in some medical and industrial applications. It is also a challenging problem since some scan views are missing and the directly reconstructed images often suffer from severe distortions. For such kind of problems, we analyze the features of limited-angle CT images and propose a multi-scale dilated convolution neural network (MSD-CNN) to correct the artifacts and to restore the image. In this network, the dilated convolution layer and multi-scale pooling layer are combined to form a group and exited in the whole encoder-decoder process. Since the dilated convolutions support an exponential expansion of the receptive field without losing resolution and coverage, the obtained artifact features possess the multi-scale characteristic. Furthermore, to improve the effectiveness and accuracy of the training step, we employ a preprocessing method, which extracts image patches. Numerical experiments verify the out-performance of the proposed method compared with some conventional methods, such as Unet based deep learning,TV- and L0 -based optimization methods.

Background Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a common complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) and also a major cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Olmesartan medoxomil (OM) is an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) and has been shown to exhibit renoprotective effects on a streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat model. Yet, whether OM affects DN progression and renal injury in db/db mice, a type 2 diabetic murine model, has not been established. Methods Wild-type (n = 15) and db/db mice (n = 15) were treated with control saline or OM via oral gavage. The physiological and biochemical parameters were evaluated and histological examinations of kidney specimens were performed. Results Compared with saline-treated db/db mice, db/db mice administered with OM showed ameliorated diabetic physiological and biochemical parameters. In addition, OM decreased urinary albumin excretion and plasma creatinine level in db/db mice. Moreover, histologically, OM reduced glomerular hypertrophy and injury, and also ameliorated tubular injury, thus suggesting that OM improves renal function and minimizes renal pathological deterioration in db/db mice. Conclusion Our study reveals a beneficial role of OM in ameliorating DN in db/db mice, which is associated with its renoprotective function.

Multiorgan venous and lymphatic defect (MOVLD) syndrome is a unique visceral vascular malformations with complex etiologies. In this study, primary skin fibroblasts were obtained from three MOVLD patients and reprogrammed into iPSCs by Yamanaka’s classical strategy. The MOVLD- iPSCs carrying the DDX24 p.Glu271Lys mutation were confirmed by Sanger sequencing. The pluripotency of MOVLD-iPSCs was verified by the specific molecular markers and gene expression, trilineage differentiation potential. The establishment of the MOVLD-iPSCs will provide a useful model for understanding the mechanisms involved the MOVLD and promoting the development of medical treatment.

Background Multiple factors, including co-exposure between lifestyle and environmental risks, are important in susceptibility to oxidative DNA damage. However, the underlying mechanism is not fully understood. This study was undertaken to evaluate whether Cytochrome P4501A1 (CYP1A1) methylation can mediate the co-exposure effect between smoking and occupational polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in development of oxidative DNA damage. Methods We explored the associations between smoking and occupational PAH co-exposure effect, CYP1A1 methylation and oxidative DNA damage among 500 workers from a coke-oven plant in China. Urine biomarkers of PAH exposure (1-hydroxypyrene, 1-OHP; 2-hydroxynaphthalene, 2-NAP; 2-hydroxyfluorene, 2-FLU; and 9-hydroxyphenanthren, 9-PHE) and a marker of oxidative DNA damage (8-hydroxy- 2′- deoxyguanosine, 8-OHdG) were measured by high performance liquid chromatography. CYP1A1 methylation was measured by pyrosequencing. Finally, mediation analysis was performed to investigate whether CYP1A1 methylation mediated smoking and occupational PAH co-exposure effect on oxidative DNA damage. Results We observed significant associations of smoking and 1-OHP co-exposure with CYP1A1 hypomethylation (OR: 1.87, 95% CI: 1.01–3.47) and high 8-OHdG (OR: 2.13, 95% CI: 1.14–3.97). There was a significant relationship between CYP1A1 hypomethylation and high 8-OHdG (1st vs. 3rd tertile = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.01–2.47, P for trend = 0.046). In addition, mediation analysis suggested CYP1A1 hypomethylation could explain 13.6% of effect of high 8-OHdG related to smoking and 1-OHP co-exposure. Conclusions Our findings suggested that the co-exposure effect of smoking and occupational PAH could increase the risk of oxidative DNA damage by a mechanism partly involving CYP1A1 hypomethylation. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12940-019-0508-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are well-known to be carcinogenic and the mechanisms that it contributes to oxidative DNA damage and aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR)-dependent induction are also well understood. However, little is known about the associations between PAH exposure, AhR expression, and oxidative DNA damage. We investigated their associations of AhR expression and oxidative DNA damage related to PAH exposure among 310 workers from a coke-oven plant in China. Urine biomarkers of PAH exposure (2-hydroxynaphthalene, 2-NAP; 2-hydroxyfluorene, 2-FLU; 9-hydroxyphenanthren, 9-PHE; and 1-hydroxypyrene, 1-OHP) and a marker of oxidative damage (8-hydroxy- 2′- deoxyguanosine, 8-OHdG) were measured by high performance liquid chromatography. AhR expression in venous blood was measured by reverse transcription -polymerase chain reaction. The results showed that increasing levels of urinary 1-OHP was positively associated with high 8-OHdG (OR (95% CI) was 4.01 (1.41–11.45) for 4th quartile, compared with 1st quartile, P for trend = 0.013). The similar associations were also found between urinary 1-OHP and high-AhR expressions (4th vs. 1st quartile = 3.50, 95% CI: 1.24–9.87, P for trend = 0.029). A significant association between AhR expression and high 8-OHdG was also found (4th vs. 1st quartile = 2.44, 95% CI: 1.05–5.70, P for trend = 0.027). In addition, mediation analysis showed the AhR expression could explain 35.9% of the association of oxidative DNA damage related to PAH exposure. Our findings implicated that the association between PAH exposure and oxidative DNA damage may be mediated by AhR expression among Chinese occupational workers.

Material decomposition (MD) is an important application of computer tomography (CT). For phase contrast imaging, conventional MD methods are categorized into two types with respect to different operation sequences, i.e., “before” or “after” image reconstruction. Both categories come down to two-step methods, which have the problem of noise amplification. In this study, we incorporate both phase and absorption (PA) information into MD process, and correspondingly develop a simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (SART). The proposed method is referred to as phase & absorption material decomposition-SART (PAMD-SART). By iteratively solving an optimization problem, material composition and substance quantification are reconstructed directly from absorption and differential phase projections. Comparing with two-step MD, the proposed one-step method is superior in noise suppression and accurate decomposition. Numerical simulations and synchrotron radiation based experiments show that PAMD-SART outperforms the classical MD method (image-based and dual-energy CT iterative method), especially for the quantitative accuracy of material equivalent atomic number.

Objective: The purpose of this work is to investigate the feasibility of using deep convolutional neural network (CNN) to improve the image quality of a grating-based X-ray differential phase contrast imaging (XPCI) system. Methods: In this work, a novel deep CNN based phase signal extraction and image noise suppression algorithm (named as XP-NET) is developed. The numerical phase phantom, the ex vivo biological specimen and the ACR breast phantom are evaluated via the numerical simulations and experimental studies, separately. Moreover, images are also evaluated under different low radiation levels to verify its dose reduction capability. Results: Compared with the conventional analytical method, the novel XP-NET algorithm is able to reduce the bias of large DPC signals and hence increasing the DPC signal accuracy by more than 15%. Additionally, the XP-NET is able to reduce DPC image noise by about 50% for low dose DPC imaging tasks. Conclusion: This proposed novel end-to-end supervised XP-NET has a great potential to improve the DPC signal accuracy, reduce image noise, and preserve object details. Significance: We demonstrate that the deep CNN technique provides a promising approach to improve the grating-based XPCI performance and its dose efficiency in future biomedical applications.

Objective: To observe the anxiety and depression experienced by patients with suspected and confirmed COVID-19 during hospitalization and isolation.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was performed with 66 patients with suspected and confirmed COVID-19 who were admitted to the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from February 9, 2020, to February 22, 2020. The data collected including sex, age, education level, and nucleic acid test results. Anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders were evaluated using the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Scale (PSQI), respectively. Statistical analysis: SPSS 23.0 software was used for data processing, and multifactor logistic regression analysis was used to identify the independent risk factors. Spearman correlation analysis was used to study the correlations among the observed indicators; P Results: The incidences of anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders in the suspected case group were 18.2%, 18.2%, and 39.4%; the incidences of anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders in the diagnosed group were 42.4%, 57.6%, and 69.7%. The incidence of sleep disorders was higher than the domestic norm, and the difference was statistically significant (P P Conclusion: Patients with suspected and confirmed COVID-19, especially people aged 50 years and over, have significant anxiety, depression and sleep disorders. Anxiety, depression and sleep disorders in patients with confirmed cases are more serious than those in patients with suspected cases. It is necessary to focus on the psychological state of such patients, actively conduct psychological counseling, and reduce their anxiety and depression.

In this work, we developed a new theoretical framework using wave optics to explain the working mechanism of the grating based X-ray differential phase contrast imaging (XPCI) interferometer systems consist of more than one phase grating. Under the optical reversibility principle, the wave optics interpretation was simplified into the geometrical optics interpretation, in which the phase grating was treated as a thin lens. Moreover, it was derived that the period of an arrayed source, e.g., the period of a source grating, is always equal to the period of the diffraction fringe formed on the source plane. When a source grating is utilized, the theory indicated that it is better to keep the periods of the two phase gratings different to generate large period diffraction fringes. Experiments were performed to validate these theoretical findings.

A new small-bodied troodontid (LH PV39) recovered from the Upper Cretaceous Wulansuhai Formation, Suhongtu, Inner Mongolia, China, is described. The new specimen preserves six postaxial cervical vertebrae, five completely fused sacral and four posterior caudal vertebrae in addition to two manual unguals. The completely fused neurocentral junctions indicate that a skeletally mature individual of the same species of LH PV39 would be smaller than Philovenator and comparable in body size to a skeletal mature individual of Almas. The extremely dorsoventrally compressed sacral centra and neural canal, and the middle three sacral centra that are shorter and wider than the first and the last one distinguishing LH PV39 from other known troodontids. A series of phylogenetic analyses were conducted using modified published matrices. By coding LH PV39 in different strategies, the troodontid affinity of LH PV39 is confirmed and it was recovered as the sister taxon of either Mei and Sinovenator (LH PV39 scored as a separate OTU) or Linhevenator (incorporating LH PV39 into Philovenator) in the best resolved coelurosaurian interrelationships. The referral of LH PV39 to Philovenator does not seriously alter the phylogenetic position of Philovenator nor the interrelationships of troodontids. This new finding confirms that the small and large sized troodontids are coexisted in the Gobi Desert of the Mongolia Plateau until the end of Cretaceous.

To provide an elaborate understanding on the performance of Entererococcus sp. L1 in biogas production at different fermentation periods under controlled low temperature, biogas optimization experiments was undertaken. Specifically, microscopic and culture techniques, physiological and biochemical studies, and measurement of optical densities at 600 wavelengths (OD600) were undertaken to identify and characterize the Entererococcus sp. L1. The aim was to identify the strain and determine its optimum working conditions in biogas production at different fermentation periods under controlled low temperature. The result confirmed the strain as hydrogen-producing bacteria (Enteroccus sp. L1). It was also confirmed that the organic nitrogen source was significantly better than the inorganic nitrogen source in supporting the growth of the bacteria. The optimal pH and temperature for the growth and biogas production performance of the Entererococcus sp. L1 was 7 and 15 °C respectively. The Na2HPO4 concentration of 0.2% was confirmed to be best for the optimum growth of the bacteria, and addition of citric acid resulted to significant inhibitory effect on the growth of the Entererococcus sp. L1. The effect of adding different concentrations (0, 1%, 5%, 10%) of the L1 bacteria inoculum on cow dung at simulated low temperature (15 °C) biogas fermentation showed that 10% treatment had the highest gas production of 3121 ml, which was 89% higher than the control (0 concentration). The daily gas production rate was 0.02 m3/(m−3d−1), which was 90% higher than the control. This showed that 10% treatment provided the best gas production result, with highest gas production occurring at 10% treatment within 31–60 days of fermentation (p

Table S1. Primers used for pyrosequencing size of the PCR amplicons and position of the primers from the transcription start point. Table S2. Distributions of urine PAH metabolites among 500 occupational workers. Table S3. The correlation coefficients (rs) of urine PAH metabolites among 500 occupational workers. Table S4. The correlation coefficients (rs) of CYP1A1 methylation among 500 occupational workers. Table S5. Contribution rates of smoking on urine PAH metabolites among 500 occupational workers. (DOC 67 kb)

Our understanding of spider reproductive biology is hampered by the vast anatomical diversity and difficulties associated with its study. Although authors agree on the two general types of female spider genitalia, haplogyne (plesiomorphic) and entelegyne (apomorphic), our understanding of variation within each group mostly concerns the external genital part, while the internal connections with the reproductive duct are largely unknown. Conventionally and simplistically, the spermathecae of haplogynes have simple two-way ducts, and those of entelegynes have separate copulatory and fertilization ducts for sperm to be transferred in and out of spermathecae, respectively. Sperm is discharged from the spermathecae directly into the uterus externus (a distal extension of the oviduct), which, commonly thought as homologous in both groups, is the purported location of internal fertilization in spiders. However, the structural evolution from haplo- to entelegyny remains unresolved, and thus the precise fertilization site in entelegynes is ambiguous. We aim to clarify this anatomical problem through a widely comparative morphological study of internal female genital system in entelegynes. Our survey of 147 epigyna (121 examined species in 97 genera, 34 families) surprisingly finds no direct connection between the fertilization ducts and the uterus externus, which, based on the homology with basal-most spider lineages, is a dead-end caecum in entelegynes. Instead, fertilization ducts usually connect with a secondary uterus externus, a novel feature taking over the functional role of the plesiomorphic uterus externus. We hypothesize that the transition from haplo- to entelegyny entailed not only the emergence of the two separate duct systems (copulatory, fertilization), but also involved substantial morphological changes in the distal part of the oviduct. Thus, the common oviduct may have shifted its distal connection from the uterus externus to the secondary uterus externus, perhaps facilitating discharge of larger eggs. Our findings suggest that the conventional model of entelegyne reproduction needs redefinition.

Due to its ability of optical sectioning and low phototoxicity, z -stacking light-sheet microscopy has been the tool of choice for in vivo imaging of the zebrafish brain. To image the zebrafish brain with a large field of view, the thickness of the Gaussian beam inevitably becomes several times greater than the system depth of field (DOF), where the fluorescence distributions outside the DOF will also be collected, blurring the image. In this paper, we propose a 3D deblurring method, aiming to redistribute the measured intensity of each pixel in a light-sheet image to in situ voxels by 3D deconvolution. By introducing a Hessian regularization term to maintain the continuity of the neuron distribution and using a modified stripe-removal algorithm, the reconstructed z -stack images exhibit high contrast and a high signal-to-noise ratio. These performance characteristics can facilitate subsequent processing, such as 3D neuron registration, segmentation, and recognition.

The Enantiornithes were the most taxonomically diverse bird group in the Mesozoic. Most of the known taxa are from Lower Cretaceous deposits of the Jehol Group in north-eastern China. A new specimen from the Jiufotang Formation in Jianchang, Liaoning Province, is described here; being a subadult individual at the time of death it had reached a relatively large size. The presence of uncinate processes, bicapitate and forked vertebral ribs, sternal ribs that were all of similar length, as well as the location of parapophyses and diapophyses on the thoracic vertebrae, may imply a rigid and volume-constant lung, and less efficient lung ventilation in enantiornithines. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 113, 820–827. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: Jianchang – Jiufotang Formation – Liaoning province – respiratory apparatus – ribs – thoracic vertebrae.

Differential phase-contrast (DPC) X-ray imaging has been performed in the Talbot-Lau configuration, in which the X-ray source was a combination of an absorption grating and a laboratory X-ray generator. We report here quantitative analysis of partial coherence effects on the X-ray Talbot-Lau interferometer. Based on the visibility of the self-image, the well-known geometry condition is reproduced. It is shown that effects of partial coherence are determined by the opening ratio of the source grating, and that the effects are independent of the Talbot order and the type of the phase grating, a condition quite different from those in a Talbot interferometer. A possible explanation is discussed from the point of view of the effective spatial coherence length. Taking into account the available X-ray flux and experimental fluctuations, we present the optimum opening ratio. Furthermore, we mention that our results can also be successfully used to discuss the properties of a multiline X-ray source.

In industrial CT, it is often required to inspect large objects using short line-detectors. To acquire the complete CT data for the scanning slice of large objects using short line-detectors, some multi-scan modes have been developed. But the existing methods reconstructing an image from the data scanned by multi-scan modes have to rebin the data into fan-beam or parallel-beam form via data interpolation. The data rebinning process not only increases great computational cost, but also degrades image resolution. In this paper, we propose a backprojection-filtration (BPF)-based reconstruction algorithm for rotation–translation (RT) multi-scan mode. An important feature of the proposed algorithm is that data rebinning process is not introduced. The simulation results have verified the validity of the proposed algorithm.

The vacuolar-type H+ adenosine triphosphatase (V-ATPase) plays an important role in cellular acidification and bone resorption by osteoclasts. However, the direct effect of bovine parathyroid hormone (bPTH) on V-ATPase has not yet been elucidated. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of bPTH on V-ATPase and osteoclasts. Osteoclasts from bone marrow (BM)-derived monocytes of C57BL/6 mice were cultured with or without bPTH. The mRNA and protein expression levels of the V-ATPase a3-subunit and d2-subunit (by RT-qPCR and western blot analysis), V-ATPase activity (using the V type ATPase Activity Assay kit) and the bone resorption function of osteoclasts (by bone resorption assay) were examined following treatment with various concentrations of bPTH (0.1, 1.0, 10 and 100 ng/ml) alone or with bPTH and its inhibitor, bafilomycin A1. Furthermore, the expression of parathyroid hormone (PTH) receptors in osteoclasts was also detected. The results revealed that the mRNA and protein expression levels of V-ATPase a3-subunit and d2-subunit increased in a dose‑dependent manner, paralleling the level of bPTH present. In addition, an increase in the concentration of bPTH was accompanied by the increased resorption capability of osteoclasts, whereas bone resorption was inhibited in the presence of bafilomycin A1. In addition, we confirmed the existence of parathyroid hormone 1 receptor (PTH1R) in osteoclasts using three different methods (RT-qPCR, western blot analysis and immunofluorescence staining). We found that bPTH enhanced the bone resorption capability of osteoclasts by modulating the expression of V-ATPase subunits, intracellular acidification and V-ATPase activity. Thus, we propose that PTH has a direct effect on osteoblasts and osteoclasts, and that this effect is mediated through PTH1R, thus contributing to bone remodeling.

The aim of this study was to explore the expression and clinical significance of miR-494 and PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome ten) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Immunohistochemistry for PTEN and in situ hybridization (ISH) for miR-494 were performed in 92 NSCLC tissues and 10 normal lung tissues to detect their expression, and correlation between their expression with clinical characteristics and prognosis was analyzed. The expression of miR-494 was significantly higher in NSCLC than in normal lung tissues (P = 0.004). The positive expression of PTEN protein in the lung carcinoma tissues was significantly lower than that in the normal lung tissues (P = 0.013), while the level of miR-494 expression was negatively correlated with PTEN expression (r = −0.577, P