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Background: Platelets can dynamically regulate tumor development and progression. Nevertheless, research on the predictive value and specific roles of platelets in gastric cancer (GC) is limited. This research aims to establish a predictive platelets-related gene signature in GC with prognostic and therapeutic implications. Methods: We downloaded the transcriptome data and clinical materials of GC patients (n=378) from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Prognostic platelets-related genes screened by univariate Cox regression were included in Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) analysis to construct a risk model. Kaplan-Meier curves and receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs) were performed in the TCGA cohort and three independent validation cohorts. A nomogram integrating the risk score and clinicopathological features was constructed. Functional enrichment and tumor microenvironment (TME) analyses were performed. Drug sensitivity prediction was conducted through The Cancer Therapeutics Response Portal (CTRP) database. Finally, the expression of ten signature genes was validated by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Results: A ten-gene (SERPINE1 , ANXA5 , DGKQ , PTPN6 , F5 , DGKB , PCDH7 , GNG11 , APOA1 , and TF) predictive risk model was finally constructed. Patients were categorized as high- or low-risk using median risk score as the threshold. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) values for the 1-, 2-, and 3-year overall survival (OS) in the training cohort were 0.670, 0.695, and 0.707, respectively. Survival analysis showed a better OS in low-risk patients in the training and validation cohorts. The AUCs of the nomogram for predicting 1-, 2-, and 3-year OS were 0.708, 0.763, and 0.742, respectively. TME analyses revealed a higher M2 macrophage infiltration and an immunosuppressive TME in the high-risk group. Furthermore, High-risk patients tended to be more sensitive to thalidomide, MK-0752, and BRD-K17060750. Conclusion: The novel platelets-related genes signature we identified could be used for prognosis and treatment prediction in GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our ongoing research on bambusicolous Xylariomycetidae fungi, three new microfungi taxa were collected and identified as members of the genera Amphibambusa, Arecophila, and Nigropunctata. Amphibambusa aureae sp. nov., Arecophila gaofengensis sp. nov., and Nigropunctata xiaohensis sp. nov. are introduced based on morphological comparisons and phylogenetic analyses using combined ITS , LSU, tub2, and tef1α loci. Comprehensive morphological descriptions, illustrations, and a phylogenetic tree showcasing the placement of these new taxa are provided. Additionally, keys to Amphibambusa and Nigropunctata are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using carbon-based materials (CBMs) to facilitate phytoremediation shows great promise for simultaneously enhancing the restoration efficiency of contaminated soil and reducing carbon dioxide in the context of global warming, which is still in the exploring and attempting phase. In addition to direct degradation or alteration of pollutant bioavailability, CBMs can enhance phytoremediation by alleviating plant nutrient deprivation and oxidative stress, as well as by modulating soil microbial communities and root secretions. Photosynthetic carbon fixation predominantly affects both phytoremediation efficiency and carbon cycle turnover in terrestrial ecosystems. In this regard, CBMs have extremely positive properties in facilitating plant carbon capture, with intrinsic mechanisms including (1) promoting photosynthetic pigment synthesis and acting as artificial built-in antennae to improve photon capture efficiency, (2) accelerating the photosynthetic electron transport rate in photosystems, (3) improving the Calvin cycle, and (4) maintaining the structural integrity of chloroplasts. Besides, as an ultra-stable type of CBM derived from waste biomass, biochar can preserve the native biomass carbon in the soil environment for decades and attenuate the rhizosphere priming effect by influencing the structure of rhizosphere soil aggregates and microbial communities, thus retarding the native soil organic carbon efflux. This review critically elaborates on the mechanisms by which CBMs assist in improving the efficiency of phytoremediation and their positive effects on the plant-root soil carbon balance. Additionally, a simple full-life cycle analysis encompassing cost analysis as well as ecological, economic, and social benefits is concluded to evaluate the feasibility and sustainability of CBMs-phytoremediation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.) is a widespread deciduous shrub, of which the fruits (elderberries) are used in the food industry to produce different types of dietary supplement products. These berries have been found to show multiple bioactivities, including antidiabetic, anti-infective, antineoplastic, anti-obesity, and antioxidant activities. An elderberry extract product, Sambucol®, has also been used clinically for the treatment of viral respiratory infections. As the major components, phenolic compounds, such as simple phenolic acids, anthocyanins and other flavonoids, and tannins, show promising pharmacological effects that could account for the bioactivities observed for elderberries. Based on these components, salicylic acid and its acetate derivative, aspirin, have long been used for the treatment of different disorders. Dapagliflozin, an FDA-approved antidiabetic drug, has been developed based on the conclusions obtained from a structure–activity relationship study for a simple hydrolyzable tannin, β-pentagalloylglucoside (β-PGG). Thus, the present review focuses on the development of therapeutic agents from elderberries and their small-molecule secondary metabolites. It is hoped that this contribution will support future investigations on elderberries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate the recurrent and metastatic characteristics, prognosis and efficacy of palliative trastuzumab treatment in advanced HER2-positive breast cancer patients with different hormone receptor status. Methods We analyzed retrospectively the clinicopathologic data of 237 patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer. Patients were divided into HR+/HER2+ and HR-/HER2+ groups according to HR status. Clinicopathologic features, recurrent and metastatic characteristics, prognosis and palliative trastuzumab treatment efficacy were analyzed between two groups. Results Compared with HR-/HER2+ group, HR+/HER2+ group were more presented to be premenopausal, and clinical stage were mainly Ⅰ-Ⅱ stage, with lower T stage and less axillary lymphocytic infiltration. Comparing the first and subsequent sites of recurrence, patients with HR+/HER2+ were more likely to have bone metastasis and less likely to have lung metastasis. The median metastases overall survivals (M-OS) was 34 (range: 5-102) months in the HR+/HER2+ group, and 29 (range: 3-70) months in HR-/HER2+ group, with significant difference. In patients with palliative trastuzumab plus chemotherapy treatment, 68.6% of ER < 50% and 46.2% of ER≥50% patients were partial remission, with statistically significant difference (P=0.037). Multivariate analysis showed that ER status was an independent predictor for the survival of advanced HR+/ HER2+ breast cancer patients; liver metastasis and palliative anti-HER2 targeted treatment were the independent predictors for the survival of advanced HR-/HER2+ breast cancer patients. Conclusion Compared with HR-/HER2+ patients, HR+/HER2+ patients have more bone metastases and less lung metastases, with better prognosis; patients with higher proportion of ER-positive cells have a poorer response to trastuzumab.

Dynactin subunit 2 (DCTN2) has been reported to play a role in progression of several tumours; however, the involvement of DCTN2 in potential mechanism or the tumour immune microenvironment among various cancers still remains largely unknown. Therefore, the objective of this study was to comprehensively investigate the expression status and potential function of DCTN2 in various malignancies through different database, such as The Cancer Genome Atlas, the Genotype‐Tissue Expression and Gene Expression Omnimus databases. We discovered that DCTN2 expression was high in many type of tumours tissues compared to adjacent non‐tumour ones. High DCTN2 signified poor prognosis for patients with tumours. Additionally, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) analysis revealed that DCTN2 was positively correlated with oncogenic pathways, including cell cycle, tumour metastasis‐related pathway, while it was negatively with anti‐tumour immune signalling pathway, such as INF‐γ response. More importantly, we elucidated the functional impact of DCTN2 on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression and its underlying mechanisms. DCTN2 expression was much higher in HCC tissues than in adjacent non‐tumour tissues. Silencing DCTN2 dramatically suppressed the proliferative and metastasis capacities of tumour cell in vitro. Mechanistically, DCTN2 exerted tumour‐promoting effects by modulating the AKT signalling pathway. DCTN2 knockdown in HCC cells inhibited AKT phosphorylation and its downstream targets as well. Rescue experiments revealed that the anti‐tumour effects of DCTN2 knockdown were partially reversed upon AKT pathway activation. Overall, DCTN2 may be a potent biomarker signifying tumour prognosis and a promising therapeutic target for tumour treatment, particularly in HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carrier eccentricity error and gear compound faults are most likely to occur simultaneously in an actual planetary gear train (PGT). Various faults and errors are coupled with each other to generate a complex dynamic response, which makes the diagnosis of PGT faults difficult in practice. In order to analyze the joint effect of the error and the compound faults in a PGT, a carrier eccentricity error model is proposed and incorporated into the TVMS model by considering the time-varying center distance, line of action (LOA), meshing angle, and contact ratio. Then, the TVMS of the cracked gear is derived based on the potential energy method. On this basis, the dynamic model of a PGT with both the carrier eccentricity error and compound gear cracks as internal excitations are established. Furthermore, the meshing characteristics and dynamic responses of the PGT are simulated to investigate the compound fault features. A series of experiments are conducted to further analyze the influence of the compound fault on the vibration response. The relevant conclusions can provide a reference for the compound fault diagnosis of a PGT in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of compound fault components of a planetary gearbox is especially important for keeping the mechanical equipment working safely. However, the recognition performance of existing deep learning-based methods is limited by insufficient compound fault samples and single label classification principles. To solve the issue, a capsule neural network with an improved feature extractor, named LTSS-BoW-CapsNet, is proposed for the intelligent recognition of compound fault components. Firstly, a feature extractor is constructed to extract fault feature vectors from raw signals, which is based on local temporal self-similarity coupled with bag-of-words models (LTSS-BoW). Then, a multi-label classifier based on a capsule network (CapsNet) is designed, in which the dynamic routing algorithm and average threshold are adopted. The effectiveness of the proposed LTSS-BoW-CapsNet method is validated by processing three compound fault diagnosis tasks. The experimental results demonstrate that our method can via decoupling effectively identify the multi-fault components of different compound fault patterns. The testing accuracy is more than 97%, which is better than the other four traditional classification models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mode of urban renewal in China has changed from incremental expansion to a value-added stage, and the development of cities has increasingly focused on the human experience and quality improvement. However, Cultural Street Vending and the unique street spaces in the historic districts that bear important connotations to the city have shown a trend of rapid decline and even disappearance. Therefore, how to identify the characteristics and connotations of such street vending spaces, grasp the relationship between perception of locality and built environment elements in different states and formulate targeted protection and renewal strategies is presently an urgent problem to be solved. Many studies have now discussed in detail the identification of elements, street perception and preservation strategies for historic districts. However, the Cultural Street Vending space, which carries special urban memory connotations, has been neglected, especially the characterisation of this type of space in different time dimensions. This paper takes the Cultural Street Vending space as a research object and focuses on the perceptual differences between its market day and non-market day, aiming at grasping the perceptual characteristics and constituent elements of this type of street space in different time states, as well as the patterns of changes they undergo. This paper took the Baxian Temple, a typical Cultural Street Vending space in a historic district of Xi'an, as the research object and took 30 architecture students as the evaluators to score 33 pairs of adjectives and recall the elements of nine streets. This paper compared and analysed the differences in the structure of people's psychological perception of the street in the state of market day and non-market day by SD method. It was found that the activities of the vendors obviously promoted people's positive emotions, and three commonality factors including impression, vitality and morphosis were extracted through the factor analysis. Moreover, through the element recall method to understand the change in element perception on the market day, we found that the range of people's perception was smaller on the market day and summarised the element map of the space and the element components of high, medium and low characteristics. The correlation analysis between psychological quantities and environmental elements revealed that people's positive psychology has a positive correlation with vendors, goods and street components and a negative correlation with greening, colour and texture. This study can provide an important research basis for the development of conservation and renewal strategies for this type of Cultural Street Vending space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covering: 2015 through the end of July 2022 Ovarian cancer is one of the most common cancers affecting the female reproductive organs and has the highest mortality rate among gynecological cancers. Although botanical drugs and their derivatives, namely members of the taxane and camptothecin families, represent significant therapeutics currently available for the treatment of ovarian cancer, new drugs that have alternative mechanisms of action are still needed to combat the disease. For this reason, many efforts to identify additional novel compounds from botanical sources, along with the further development of existing therapeutics, have continued to appear in the literature. This review is designed to serve as a comprehensive look at both the currently available small-molecule therapeutic options and the recently reported botanically-derived natural products currently being studied and developed as potential future therapeutics that could one day be used against ovarian cancer. Specifically, key properties, structural features, and biological data are highlighted that are important for the successful development of potential agents. Recently reported examples are specifically discussed in the context of "drug discovery attributes," including the presence of structure–activity relationship, mechanism of action, toxicity, and pharmacokinetic studies, to help indicate the potential for future development and to highlight where these compounds currently exist in the development process. The lessons learned from both the successful development of the taxanes and camptothecins, as well as the strategies currently being employed for new drug development, are expected to ultimately help guide the future development of botanical natural products for ovarian cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) technology has found widespread applications in the ultrasensitive analysis of nucleic acids, where integrated ddPCR platforms with the capability of sample dispersion, followed by in situ amplification and data analysis, are highly expected. However, current integrated ddPCR platforms are usually limited by either difficultly mass-produced materials or lack of integrated control instruments, restricting their practical application. This paper proposes an integrated three-in-one ddPCR platform with high user-friendliness and practicability, which is composed of an easy-to-use chip and a matching control instrument. The chip was made of thermally resistant and easily mass-produced polycarbonate (PC) material, and the benchtop control instrument was designed to perform droplet generation, in situ amplification, and fluorescence reading. The droplet generation and in situ heating on the chip were well characterized. Finally, the performance of the platform was validated through the analysis of the EGFR L858R mutation in lung cancer. The proposed three-in-one ddPCR platform shows great practicability in ultrasensitive nucleic acid testing. By virtue of its sensitivity, practicability, and cost-effectiveness, the ddPCR can serve as a universal detection platform for monitoring nucleic acid in the fields of tumor diagnosis, pathogen detection, and prenatal diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of PD-1 blockade with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) has achieved unprecedented clinical success in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) compared to NAC alone, but the underlying mechanisms by which PD-1 blockade augments the effects of chemotherapy remain incompletely elucidated. Single-cell RNA sequencing was performed on CD45+ immune cells isolated from surgically resected fresh tumors of seven NSCLC patients receiving NAC or neoadjuvant pembrolizumab and chemotherapy (NAPC). Multiplex fluorescent immunohistochemistry was performed on FFPE tissues before and after NAC or NAPC from 65 resectable NSCLC patients, and results were validated with GEO dataset. NAC resulted in an increase only of CD20+ B cells, whereas NAPC increased the infiltration of CD20+ B cells, CD4+ T cells, CD4+CD127+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, CD8+CD127+ and CD8+KLRG1+ T cells. Synergistic increase in B and T cells promotes favorable therapeutic response after NAPC. Spatial distribution analysis discovered that CD8+ T cells and their CD127+ and KLRG1+ subsets were in closer proximity to CD4+ T/CD20+ B cells in NAPC versus NAC. GEO dataset validated that B-cell, CD4, memory, and effector CD8 signatures correlated with therapeutic responses and clinical outcomes. The addition of PD-1 blockade to NAC promoted anti-tumor immunity through T and B cells recruitment in the tumor microenvironment and induced tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells skewed toward CD127+ and KLRG1+ phenotypes, which may be assisted by CD4+ T cells and B cells. Our comprehensive study identified key immune cell subsets exerting anti-tumor responses during PD-1 blockade therapy and that may be therapeutically targeted to improve upon existing immunotherapies for NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is crucial for the protection and sustainable development of villages in China to effectively determine the changes that have occurred in traditional villages' architectural features and the causes of such changes in order to provide timely feedback, correct protection planning, and construction in these villages. This paper analyzed quantitative indexes at three different scales in Lingquan village, namely construction land, public infrastructure, and the form, material, and color of roofs, using remote sensing images at different time points, drone shooting, and a field survey. It was found that the rate of change of the architectural features at the village and street levels were low, with an overall trend of improvement observed. However, the residential roof features at the building level showed more changes, with a trend of deterioration observed. It was also found that the active participation of the government was the main reason for the substantial improvement observed in the village's street-level features. Further, for residential houses, the lack of standard guidance for their protection and renovation, as well as the lack of protection awareness and participation mechanisms, were the main reasons found for the deterioration of the village's building-level features. Finally, the study forwarded some suggestions in order to provide reference value for the timely revision of protection strategies for many villages in China similar to Lingquan village. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to continue the study of corchorusoside C (1), a cardenolide isolated from Streptocaulon juventas, as a potential anticancer agent. A mechanistic study was pursued in a zebrafish model and in DU-145 prostate cancer cells to investigate the selectivity of 1 towards NF-κB and PARP-1 pathway elements. Compound 1 was found to inhibit the expression of IKKα and NF-κB p65 in TNF-α induced zebrafish and inhibit the expression of NIK in vitro. The protein expression levels of XRCC-1 were increased and p53 decreased in DU-145 cells. XIAP protein expression was initially decreased after treatment with 1, followed by an increase in expression at doses higher than the IC50 value. The activity of caspase-1 and the protein expression levels of IL-18 were both decreased following treatment of 1. The binding interactions for 1 to NIK, XRCC-1, p53, XIAP, and caspase-1 proteins were explored in molecular docking studies. Additionally, the toxicity profile of 1 in zebrafish was favorable in comparison to its analog digoxin and other anticancer drugs at the same MTD in zebrafish. Overall, 1 targets the noncanconical NF-κB pathway in vivo and in vitro, and is well tolerated in zebrafish supporting its potential in the treatment of prostate cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aronia berry (black chokeberry) is a shrub native to North America, of which the fresh fruits are used in the food industry to produce different types of dietary products. The fruits of Aronia melanocarpa (Aronia berries) have been found to show multiple bioactivities potentially beneficial to human health, including antidiabetic, anti-infective, antineoplastic, antiobesity, and antioxidant activities, as well as heart-, liver-, and neuroprotective effects. Thus far, phenolic compounds, such as anthocyanins, cyanidins, phenolic acids, proanthocyanidins, triterpenoids, and their analogues have been identified as the major active components of Aronia berries. These natural products possess potent antioxidant activity, which contributes to the majority of the other bioactivities observed for Aronia berries. The chemical components and the potential pharmaceutical or health-promoting effects of Aronia berries have been summarized previously. The present review article focuses on the molecular targets of extracts of Aronia berries and the examples of promising lead compounds isolated from these berries, including cyanidin-3-O-galactoside, chlorogenic acid, quercetin, and ursolic acid. In addition, presented herein are clinical trial investigations for Aronia berries and their major components, including cancer clinical trials for chlorogenic acid and COVID-19 trial studies for quercetin. Additionally, the possible development of Aronia berries and their secondary metabolites as potential therapeutic agents is discussed. It is hoped that this contribution will help stimulate future investigations on Aronia berries for the continual improvement of human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]