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Objective To explore the interaction between 1,25-hydroxyvitamin D3 [25-（OH）D3] and M-type phospholipase A2 receptor 1 （PLA2R1） gene polymorphism in the progression of idiopathic membranous nephropathy （IMN）. Methods A total of 101 hospitalized IMN patients from January 2019 to January 2023 were selected for this prospective study. They were assigned into two groups of recurrence and non-recurrence according to whether or not relapse occured within 6 months. Baseline profiles， 25-（OH）D3 level and PLA2R1 gene polymorphism were compared between two groups. Logistic regression was utilized for examining the influencing factors of IMN progression. And interaction coefficient γ and OR values were employed for analyzing the interaction effects of 25-（OH）D3 and PLA2R1 gene polymorphism on IMN progression. Results The level of uric acid was higher in recurrence group than that in non-recurrence group [（419.36 ± 25.44）μmol/L vs （366.20 ± 28.34）μmol/L] while 25-（OH）D3 level was lower than that in non-recurrence group [（33.60 ± 10.74）nmol/L vs （42.40 ± 9.56）nmol/L，P＜0.05]. The proportion of patients with AA genotype at rs4664308 locus was higher in recurrence group than that in non-recurrence group （69.44% vs 44.62%） while the proportions of patients with GA genotype （27.78% vs 43.08%） and GG genotype （2.78% vs 12.31%） were lower than those in non-recurrent group （P＜0.05）. Logistic regression analysis revealed that uric acid， 25-（OH）D3， GA and AA genotypes at rs4664308 were correlated with the progression of IMN （P＜0.05）； the risk of progression spiked by 4.233 folds for each unit of uric acid increase. For each unit reduction of 25-（OH）D3， the risk of disease progression increased by 0.581 fold. The risk of disease progression in GA and AA genotype rs4664308 patients was 3.253 and 4.054 folds higher than that in GG genotype ones. Interaction analysis showed that OR values of interaction between 25-（OH）D3 and PLA2R1 gene polymorphisms were ＜ product of OR values of two genes alone and the effects of two genes on the progression of IMN were in line with sub-multiplication model and interaction coefficient γ was ＞1. Abnormal 25-（OH）D3 had a positive interaction with PLA2R1 gene polymorphism （P＜0.05）. Conclusion 25-（OH）D3 and PLA2R1 gene polymorphisms are correlated with disease progression in IMN patients. And 25-（OH）D3 level has a positive interaction on the effect of PLA2R1 gene polymorphism， and combined detection may help to predict the risk of disease progression and provide decision-making support for personalized preventive interventions.

Blue sky often represents better air quality and lower air pollution. Using satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) data of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province from 2000 to 2023, combined with the blue-sky data observed at noon time in 2023, a blue-sky grade index is established based on satellite AOD, in which the monitoring index of blue-sky grade is the AOD at 550 nm less than 0.36, and that of deep blue-sky grade is the AOD at 550 nm less than 0.2.Spatial and temporal characteristics of blue-sky grade days in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region from 2000 to 2023 are investigated. Results show that the multi-year average blue-sky days in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei are 144.2 d·a-1, 96.3 d·a-1, and 119.6 d·a-1, respectively, with the highest number of blue-sky days for Beijing, followed by Hebei and the lowest number is recorded in Tianjin. In terms of spatial distribution, the northern part of Hebei has the highest annual average of blue-sky days, while the southern part of Hebei has the lowest number of blue-sky days. The number of blue-sky days in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei exhibits noticeable seasonal changes, with the highest number of blue-sky days in winter and autumn, followed by spring, and the lowest in summer.From 2001 to 2023, the average annual number of clear-sky days in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei takes on an increasing trend, with an increase of 18.1 d, 22.3 d and 16.3 d per decade, respectively. There is no significant trend change from 2001 to 2013. However, the annual average blue-sky days in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei from 2013 to 2023 all show increasing trends, with increments of 26.9 d, 46.5 d, and 36.4 d per decade, respectively. The annual average blue-sky days and deep blue-sky days in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei from 2013 to 2023 are higher than those in 2001-2013, with the annual average blue-sky days in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei of 153.5 d, 107.5 d, and 128.5 d, respectively, which are 17.5 d, 21.8 d, and 16.9 d higher than those in 2001-2013. It may be largely due to the implementation of regional air pollution prevention and control measures, which have led to a reduction in atmospheric particulate matter concentration since 2013.

[Objective] The study aims to explore the antibacterial activity and allelopathy of flavonoids from leaves of Eleutherococcus brachypus, and to provide the basis for the development of plant-derived antimicrobial agents and the application of their allelopathy in plant protection and agricultural production. [Methods] Leaf flavonoids was extracted by an ultrasonic-assisted method from E. brachypus leaves, then the antibacterial sphere, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), the apoptosis rate, MDA content, ROS content, and the activity of antioxidant enzymes of epidermal cells from onion scaly leaves, as well as the inhibitory rate of the onion root and shoot growth were determined with different concentrations of leaf flavonoid extracts (100%, 50%, and 25%). [Results] (1) The yield of leaf flavonoids from E. brachypus was 42.3 mg/g. (2) At same concentration, the diameter of the inhibition zone was S. aureus > B. subtilis > Salmonella, respectively, and expanded with the increase in the extract concentrations with the same strain. The minimum inhibitory concentration of the three strains was also S. aureus < B. subtilis < Salmonella, respectively. (3) Each concentration of leaf flavonoids from E. brachypus induced apoptosis in the upper epidermal cells of Allium cepa. Meanwhile, as the concentration of flavonoid extracts increased, the apoptosis rate, MDA content, and H2O2 content were increased. POD activity and CAT activity were increased first and then decreased during the same time of treatment, which were higher in treatment groups than the control. (4) The growth of root and shoot of the onion scale leaves were inhibited under the treatment of flavonoids extracts, which was negatively correlated with the treatment dose. [Conclusion] The antibacterial effects of the leaf flavonoid extracts of E. brachypus on Gram-positive bacteria are better than that of Gram-negative bacteria, and the antibacterial effects are positively correlated with the concentration of flavonoid extracts. Moreover, all these changes suggest that the allelopathic mechanism of flavonoid extracts from E. brachypus may be due to the overproduction of ROS and the inhibition of antioxidant enzyme activity, which cause oxidative damage to membrane lipids and cell death.

Abstract Human pose estimation is an important task in computer vision, which can provide key point detection of human body and obtain bone information. At present, human pose estimation is mainly utilized for detection of large targets, and there is no solution for detection of small targets. This paper proposes a multi-channel spatial information feature based human pose (MCSF-Pose) estimation algorithm to address the issue of medium and small targets inaccurate detection of human key points in scenarios involving occlusion and multiple poses. The MCSF-Pose network is a bottom-up regression network. Firstly, an UP-Focus module is designed to expand the feature information while reducing parameter computation during the up-sampling process. Then, the channel segmentation strategy is adopted to cut the features, and the feature information of multiple dimensions is retained through different convolutional groups, which reduces the parameter lightweight network model and makes up for the loss of the feature information associated with the depth of the network. Finally, the three-layer PANet structure is designed to reduce the complexity of the model. With the aid of the structure, it also to improve the detection accuracy and anti-interference ability of human key points. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm outperforms YOLO-Pose and other human pose estimation algorithms on COCO2017 and MPII human pose datasets.

ObjectiveTo investigate the pathogenic spectrum and molecular characteristics of infectious diarrhea among children in Putuo District of Shanghai from 2018 to 2023， and to provide scientific basis for the prevention and control of infectious diarrhea in children.MethodsFecal samples from the cases visited sentinel hospitals for children’s diarrheal disease in Putuo District， Shanghai， were collected from January 2018 to December 2023. A total of 11 species of bacteria were isolated and cultured， and 5 species of viruses were detected by real-time fluorescent polymerase chain reaction （PCR）. The molecular typing of some positive strains was analyzed by the standard pulsed-field gel electrophoresis （PFGE） method. The polymerase-capsid protein linkage region of some norovirus-positive samples was amplified by reverse transcription PCR， and was sequenced and analyzed by bioinformatics software. The Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact probability test were used to compare the pathogen-positive rates in 2018‒2019 and 2020‒2023.ResultsOf the 707 cases of children with infectious diarrhea， the total positive rate was 47.67%， with a single bacterial positivity rate of 16.27%， a single viral positivity rate of 22.63%， and a mixed positivity rate of 8.77%， respectively. The dominant pathogens were rotavirus （10.75%）， norovirus （10.33%）， enteropathogenic Escherichia coli （8.06%）， Salmonella （6.36%）， enteroaggregative Escherichia coli （5.52%）， and Campylobacter （5.23%）. Bacterial infections were predominant in summer and fall， and viral infections were predominant in winter and spring. The total positive rate decreased in 2020‒2023 compared with that of 2018‒2019 （χ2=5.753，P

Abstract The virtual synchronous generator (SG) (VSG) can not only enhance the inertia of the grid, but also introduce the oscillation characteristics of SG, which is easy to interact with the power angle of SG in the grid, and even produce low‐frequency oscillation (LFO). The authors first construct a two‐machine interconnected power system model containing VSG and traditional SG. The model is linearised to construct the state space equations to obtain the Phillips–Heffron model with VSG. The LFO path of action between VSG and SG is analysed. To reduce the negative damping torque provided by VSG to SG through this path, a virtual power system stabiliser (VPSS) is proposed and the controller parameters are adjusted according to the phase compensation method. Finally, the effectiveness of VPSS is verified by modal analysis and simulation comparison.

Summary: The maternal-to-zygotic transition is crucial in embryonic development, marked by the degradation of maternally provided mRNAs and initiation of zygotic gene expression. However, the changes occurring at the protein level during this transition remain unclear. Here, we conducted protein profiling throughout zebrafish embryogenesis using quantitative mass spectrometry, integrating transcriptomics and translatomics datasets. Our data show that, unlike RNA changes, protein changes are less dynamic. Further, increases in protein levels correlate with mRNA translation, whereas declines in protein levels do not, suggesting active protein degradation processes. Interestingly, proteins from pure zygotic genes are present at fertilization, challenging existing mRNA-based gene classifications. As a proof of concept, we utilized CRISPR-Cas13d to target znf281b mRNA, a gene whose protein significantly accumulates within the first 2 h post-fertilization, demonstrating its crucial role in development. Consequently, our protein profiling, coupled with CRISPR-Cas13d, offers a complementary approach to unraveling maternal factor function during embryonic development.

Abstract Background Studies involving chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) have mostly focused on bilateral cases, making unilateral CRSwNP inadequately recognized. This study examined the differences in clinical characteristics, outcomes, and risk factors for poor outcomes between unilateral and bilateral CRSwNP to facilitate a better assessment in the two groups. Methods Demographic information, tissue and blood cells, endoscopic scores, Lund‐Mackay scores, recurrence rates, and disease control conditions were compared between 310 unilateral and 596 bilateral CRSwNP patients. Furthermore, the stepwise regression multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were performed to generate risk factors for poor outcomes in the two groups. Results Bilateral cases exhibited higher rates of smoking, AR, and asthma comorbidities, along with higher numbers of tissue eosinophils and blood inflammatory cells when compared to unilateral patients. Endoscopic nasal polyp score, total computed tomography (CT) score (with scores for each sinus cavity), and adjusted CT scores were significantly higher in the bilateral group, except for a markedly higher adjusted maxillary score in the unilateral group. Furthermore, significantly higher proportions of bilateral patients experienced nasal polyp recurrence, uncontrolled status, and most disease control‐related symptoms at follow‐up. The primary risk factors for poor outcomes were asthma, tissue eosinophils, and total CT score in the bilateral group and blood basophils in the unilateral group. Conclusions Bilateral CRSwNP patients experience worse disease severity and outcomes than their unilateral counterparts. Primarily, asthma, tissue eosinophils, and total CT score were risk factors for poor outcomes in bilateral CRSwNP patients, with blood basophils in unilateral cases.

The geographical mismatch between water availability and demand further exacerbates the challenge of the water-energy-food nexus in China. This study characterizes competing water uses for crops and energy to reveal their resulting impacts on regional inequality by integrating the modified Gini coefficient and unbalanced index with respect to water scarcity and water surplus. From 2000–2019, China’s food production decreased by 2.3 % in the blue water footprint (ranging from −90.3 % to 71.7 % for specific provinces), while the energy sector increased by 111.9 % (varying from −69.9 % to 692.4 %). The energy sector showed greater inequality in blue water consumption verses available water, with the Gini coefficient ranged from 0.43 to 0.62, while the food-water nexus maintained a relatively stable value of approximately 0.35. Spatially, there was consistent water scarcity inequality in the north and water surplus inequality in the south for both the food-water and the energy-water nexus. Overall, the energy-water nexus exhibited larger variations in provincial inequalities. This divergent evolving inequality was primarily caused by a combination of factors that included resource endowments, regional economic disparities, and government interventions. These findings can inform policy makers towards optimizing the management of water-energy-food resources.

Abstract High reproductive compatibility between crops and their wild relatives can provide benefits for crop breeding but also poses risks for agricultural weed evolution. Weedy rice is a feral relative of rice that infests paddies and causes severe crop losses worldwide. In regions of tropical Asia where the wild progenitor of rice occurs, weedy rice could be influenced by hybridization with the wild species. Genomic analysis of this phenomenon has been very limited. Here we use whole genome sequence analyses of 217 wild, weedy and cultivated rice samples to show that wild rice hybridization has contributed substantially to the evolution of Southeast Asian weedy rice, with some strains acquiring weed-adaptive traits through introgression from the wild progenitor. Our study highlights how adaptive introgression from wild species can contribute to agricultural weed evolution, and it provides a case study of parallel evolution of weediness in independently-evolved strains of a weedy crop relative.

In the article, we considered the fixed point problem for contractive mappings of integral type in the setting of $ b $-metric spaces for the first time. First, we introduced the concepts of $ \theta $-weak contraction and $ \theta $-$ \psi $-weak contraction. Second, the existence and uniqueness of fixed points of contractive mappings of integral type in $ b $-metric spaces were studied. Meanwhile, two examples were given to prove the feasibility of our results. As an application, we proved the solvability of a functional equation arising in dynamic programming.

In response to the limited detection ability and low model generalization ability of the YOLOv7 algorithm for small targets, this paper proposes a detection algorithm based on the improved YOLOv7 algorithm for steel surface defect detection. First, the Transformer-InceptionDWConvolution (TI) module is designed, which combines the Transformer module and InceptionDWConvolution to increase the network's ability to detect small objects. Second, the spatial pyramid pooling fast cross-stage partial channel (SPPFCSPC) structure is introduced to enhance the network training performance. Third, a global attention mechanism (GAM) attention mechanism is designed to optimize the network structure, weaken the irrelevant information in the defect image, and increase the algorithm's ability to detect small defects. Meanwhile, the Mish function is used as the activation function of the feature extraction network to improve the model's generalization ability and feature extraction ability. Finally, a minimum partial distance intersection over union (MPDIoU) loss function is designed to locate the loss and solve the mismatch problem between the complete intersection over union (CIoU) prediction box and the real box directions. The experimental results show that on the Northeastern University Defect Detection (NEU-DET) dataset, the improved YOLOv7 network model improves the mean Average precision (mAP) performance by 6% when compared to the original algorithm, while on the VOC2012 dataset, the mAP performance improves by 2.6%. These results indicate that the proposed algorithm can effectively improve the small defect detection performance on steel surface defects.

Abstract Wind power supply chains are evolving as markets expand to reach climate goals. With the largest installed wind power capacity globally, China must deal with increasing composite turbine waste and anticipate its associated costs. Here we predict the quantity and composition of wind turbine blade waste based on historic deployment. A high-resolution database containing 14 turbine capacities (150–5500 kilowatts) was compiled based on 104 turbine models. The environmental and financial costs of waste treatment options were evaluated using a bottom-up approach. Based on current installations and future projections, 7.7 to 23.1 million tonnes of blade waste will be generated in China by 2050. Technologies exist to recycle glass fibre from blade waste, but these solutions vary in level of maturity and are not always commercially available, cost-competitive, or environmentally sustainable. Our findings can inform decision-makers in governments and industry on the pathways to carbon neutrality.

The climatic characteristics of tropical cyclones affecting Qingdao, China, were analyzed from the aspects of frequency, period, and intensity of the tropical cyclones and their impact on rainfall in Qingdao by referring to the Typhoon Yearbook, the tropical cyclone data of China during 1949–2020 as well as surface meteorological observations. The results showed that the frequency of tropical cyclones affecting Qingdao during 1949–2020 took on an overall decreasing trend and mostly exhibited a significant variation period of 2–4 year. Tropical cyclones with the track of turning after landfall and continuing northward after landfall accounted for 47.9%. In July, there were tropical cyclones mainly followed tracks of continuing northward after landfall, and tracks turning after landfall mostly occurred in September. The intensity of the tropical cyclones showed an overall weakening feature with distinct inter-decadal variations, and it did not change much when the northward tropical cyclones close affecting Qingdao. The different track of tropical cyclones had spatially heterogeneous, strong rainfall in Qingdao with the track of continuing northward after landfall brought the highest daily and process rainfall to Qingdao, while the tropical cyclones turning nearshore or advancing offshore before landfall had relatively little rainfall.

Phenotypic plasticity facilitates organismal invasion of novel environments, and the resultant phenotypic change may later be modified by genetic change, so called ‘plasticity first.’ Herein, we quantify gene expression plasticity and regulatory adaptation in a wild bird (Eurasian Tree Sparrow) from its original lowland (ancestral stage), experimentally implemented hypoxia acclimation (plastic stage), and colonized highland (colonized stage). Using a group of co-expressed genes from the cardiac and flight muscles, respectively, we demonstrate that gene expression plasticity to hypoxia tolerance is more often reversed than reinforced at the colonized stage. By correlating gene expression change with muscle phenotypes, we show that colonized tree sparrows reduce maladaptive plasticity that largely associated with decreased hypoxia tolerance. Conversely, adaptive plasticity that is congruent with increased hypoxia tolerance is often reinforced in the colonized tree sparrows. Genes displaying large levels of reinforcement or reversion plasticity (i.e. 200% of original level) show greater genetic divergence between ancestral and colonized populations. Overall, our work demonstrates that gene expression plasticity at the initial stage of high-elevation colonization can be reversed or reinforced through selection-driven adaptive modification.

Abstract Objective This study aimed to assess the effects of surgical timing and approach on operative duration, postoperative suture removal time, and postoperative recurrence rate in the management of preauricular fistula. A 12-year single-center clinical observation was conducted to analyze the potential effects of different surgical strategies on these critical outcomes. Methods The clinical data from 576 (782 ears) patients who underwent surgical resection for preauricular fistulas were examined in this retrospective study. The patients were classified into various groups based on differences in operative duration, surgical techniques and the use of intraoperative magnifying equipment. Furthermore, the specific data on operative duration, postoperative suture removal time, and postoperative recurrence rate were also recorded. Results The average operative duration for 782 ears and the average time required for postoperative suture removal were determined to be (34.57 ± 4.25) min and (3.62 ± 0.76) days, respectively. Among the cases examined, recurrence occurred in 13 ears, but all of them were cured after a second surgery, resulting in a recurrence rate of 1.67% (13/782). Interestingly, the operative and postoperative suture removal time was prolonged during the infection period (P 0.05). Conclusion The use of methylene blue, partial removal of the cartilage of the pedicle, and surgical incision during preauricular fistula resection did not affect the operative duration, postoperative suture removal time, and postoperative recurrence rate. Therefore, surgeons can select their preferred approaches based on their individual practices and patient-specific situations. However, the use of magnifying equipment during surgery is associated with a reduced risk of recurrence.

The prediction of the containerized freight index has important economic and social significance. Previous research has mostly applied sub-predictors directly for integration, which cannot be optimized for different datasets. To fill this research gap and improve prediction accuracy, this study innovatively proposes a new prediction model based on adaptive model selection and multi-objective ensemble to predict the containerized freight index. The proposed model comprises the following four modules: adaptive data preprocessing, model library, adaptive model selection, and multi-objective ensemble. Specifically, an adaptive data preprocessing module is established based on a novel modal decomposition technology that can effectively reduce the impact of perturbations in historical data on the prediction model. Second, a new model library is constructed to predict the subseries, consisting of four basic predictors. Then, the adaptive model selection module is established based on Lasso feature selection to choose valid predictors for subseries. For the subseries, different predictors can produce different effects; thus, to obtain better prediction results, the weights of each predictor must be reconsidered. Therefore, a multi-objective artificial vulture optimization algorithm is introduced into the multi-objective ensemble module, which can effectively improve the accuracy and stability of the prediction model. In addition, an important discovery is that the proposed model can acquire different models, adaptively varying with different extracted data features in various datasets, and it is common for multiple models or no model to be selected for the subseries.The proposed model demonstrates superior forecasting performance in the real freight market, achieving average MAE, RMSE, MAPE, IA, and TIC values of 9.55567, 11.29675, 0.44222%, 0.99787, and 0.00268, respectively, across four datasets. These results indicate that the proposed model has excellent predictive ability and robustness.

With the explosion of crab farming in China, the urgent need to treat crab wastewater can never be overemphasized. Hence, in this study, excitation–emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy with parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC), moving window two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (MW-2DCOS) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed to identify changes in the dissolved organic matter (DOM) fractions in a crab farming park and reveal latent factors associated with removal processes. Seven components (C1–C7) were extracted from DOMs by EEM-PARAFAC as follows: C1: microbial byproduct-like substances, C2: visible-tryptophan-like substances, C3: fulvic-like substances, C4: phenolic-like substances, C5: ultraviolet tyrosine-like substances, C6: D-tryptophan-like substances and C7: L-tryptophan-like substances. Interestingly, C7 (39.20%), a representative component of DOM in the crab farming pond, was deeply degraded in the aeration pond by aerobic microbes, whereas C6 was absent in the crab pond. According to 2DCOS, the changing order of the components was C7 → C4 → C6 → C5 → C2 → C1 → C3, and the changing order of the functional groups was carboxylic → phenolic → aromatic. As assessed by MW-2DCOS, the Fmax of the components, especially components C2, C5 and C6 (and with the exception of C4 and C7) exponentially increased in the aeration pond, where an accumulative effect occurred. C2, C5 and C7 were removed by 24.26%, 39.42% and 98.25% in the crab farming system, and were deeply degraded in the paddy-field, purification pond and aeration pond, respectively. As assessed by SEM, the latent factors of organic matter removal were C1, C2, C4, C5, SUVA254, CODMn and DO. This study could be conducive to comprehensively characterizing the removal of components and functional groups of DOMs in crab farming parks.

Background The promotion of appropriate traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) techniques in primary care institutions is an important measure emphasizing the co-development of Chinese and western medicine, and enhancing the inheritance and development of TCM. Objective To analyze primary health workers'preferences for the use of appropriate TCM techniques, providing policy recommendations for the promotion and use of such techniques in primary healthcare institutions. Methods This questionnaire survey was conducted between July and August 2021. A discrete choice model with seven attributes and 18 choice sets obtained through the use of an efficient orthogonal design were used to develop the questionnaire used in the survey, and the questionnaire has three versions each version with evenly allocated six choice sets (including an opt-out option). Additionally, the three versions have a common general demographic part (sex, age, education level, professional title, etc.) and one common consistency test question. A randomized multistage stratified cluster sampling was used to select 319 health workers on duty on the survey day from a total of 23 primary healthcare institutions in three counties in eastern, central and western China (one county was extracted from each region), and each worker was required to complete one version of the questionnaire extracted sequentially by themselves. Two hundred and ninety-five cases who returned a questionnaire passing a consistency test were included for analysis, resulting in a response rate of 92.5%. Primary health workers' preferences for appropriate TCM techniques were analyzed using conditional Logit models and latent class models. Furthermore, the changes in utility of primary health workers due to attribute level changes were monetized using willingness to pay and presented accordingly. Results The conditional Logit analysis showed that medical insurance, the average duration of each operation with the TCM technique, the influence of operation with the TCM technique on income, work burden, the promotion of professional title, and patient healthcare cost, as well as effectiveness of the TCM technique were associated with primary health workers' preferences for the use of appropriate TCM techniques (P

Abstract Purpose We aimed to study the association between adjusted mtDNA levels in human trophectoderm biopsy samples and the developmental potential of euploid and mosaic blastocysts. Methods We analyzed relative mtDNA levels in 2,814 blastocysts obtained from 576 couples undergoing preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy from June 2018 to June 2021. All patients underwent in vitro fertilization in a single clinic; the study was blinded—mtDNA content was unknown at the time of single embryo transfer. The fate of the euploid or mosaic embryos transferred was compared with mtDNA levels. Results Euploid embryos had lower mtDNA than aneuploid and mosaic embryos. Embryos biopsied on Day 5 had higher mtDNA than those biopsied on Day 6. No difference was detected in mtDNA scores between embryos derived from oocytes of different maternal ages. Linear mixed model suggested that blastulation rate was associated with mtDNA score. Moreover, the specific next-generation sequencing platform used have a significant effect on the observed mtDNA content. Euploid embryos with higher mtDNA content presented significantly higher miscarriage rates and lower live birth rates, while no significant difference was observed in the mosaic cohort. Conclusion Our results will aid in improving methods for analyzing the association between mtDNA level and blastocyst viability.

Abstract In addition to the classical role as a serum effector system of innate immunity, accumulating evidence suggests that intracellular complement components have indispensable functions in immune defense, T cell homeostasis, and tumor cell proliferation and metastasis. Here, we revealed that complement component 3 (C3) is remarkably upregulated in paclitaxel (PTX)-resistant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells and that knockdown of C3 promoted PTX-induced cell apoptosis, sensitizing resistant cells to PTX therapy. Ectopic C3 decreased PTX-induced apoptosis and induced resistance to PTX treatment in original NSCLC cells. Interestingly, C3b, the activated fragment of C3, was found to translocate into the nucleus and physically associate with the HDAC1/2-containing SIN3A complex to repress the expression of GADD45A, which plays an important role in cell growth inhibition and apoptosis induction. Importantly, C3 downregulated GADD45A by enhancing the binding of the SIN3A complex with the promoter of GADD45A, thus decreasing the H3Ac level to compress chromatin around the GADD45A locus. Subsequently, ectopic GADD45A promoted PTX-induced cell apoptosis, sensitizing resistant cells to PTX therapy, and insufficiency of GADD45A in original cancer cells induced resistance to PTX treatment. These findings identify a previously unknown nucleus location and oncogenic property for C3 in chemotherapy and provide a potential therapeutic opportunity to overcome PTX resistance.

In order to improve the axial compression bearing capacity of concrete filled steel tubular columns, steel fibers were added into self-compacting concrete.Through orthogonal test, the influence of 3 groups of steel fiber content on the strength of self-compacting concrete is studied, and the basis for the steel fiber content of concrete filled steel tube is provided.The axial compression tests of steel fiber reinforced concrete filled steel tubular columns and ordinary steel fiber reinforced concrete filled steel tubular columns were carried out to study the influence of steel fiber on the axial compression properties of self-compacting concrete filled steel tubular columns.Based on ABAQUS, 26 groups of concrete-filled steel tubular column models with different steel fiber content are established.After the correctness of the model is verified according to the field test results, the influence of six groups of steel fiber content on its axial compression performance is analyzed, and the calculation formula of the axial compression bearing capacity of concrete-filled steel tubular column with different steel fiber content is established.The results show that 2 % steel fiber has a significant contribution to the strength growth of self-compacting concrete, and can increase the axial compression bearing capacity of self-compacting concrete filled steel tubular columns by about 4 %.The calculation formula considering the increase of steel fiber content to the strength of concrete filled steel tube is proposed, which is in good agreement with the test results.

Summary: Background: The pathology of keloid and especially the roles of bacteria on it were not well understood. Methods: In this study, multi-omics analyses including microbiome, metaproteomics, metabolomic, single-cell transcriptome and cell-derived xenograft (CDX) mice model were used to explore the roles of bacteria on keloid disease. Findings: We found that the types of bacteria are significantly different between keloid and healthy skin. The 16S rRNA sequencing and metaproteomics showed that more catalase (CAT) negative bacteria, Clostridium and Roseburia existed in keloid compared with the adjacent healthy skin. In addition, protein mass spectrometry shows that CAT is one of the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs). Overexpression of CAT inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of keloid fibroblasts, and these characteristics were opposite when CAT was knocked down. Furthermore, the CDX model showed that Clostridium butyricum promote the growth of patient's keloid fibroblasts in BALB/c female nude mice, while CAT positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis inhibited it. Single-cell RNA sequencing verified that oxidative stress was up-regulated and CAT was down-regulated in mesenchymal-like fibroblasts of keloid. Interpretation: In conclusion, our findings suggest that bacteria and CAT contribute to keloid disease. Funding: A full list of funding bodies that contributed to this study can be found in the Acknowledgements section.

The application and promotion of the traditional micro-surfacing is limited by the defects of high noise and poor wear resistance. In order to improve the adhesive strength and noise reduction properties of the micro-surfacing, an attempt was made to add waste rubber powder (WRP) in dry form to the micro-surfacing. Firstly, the mixtures were prepared by orthogonal tests taking into account the number of rubber powder grades, rubber powder dosages, asphalt-aggregate ratio and gradation. The microscopic strength formation mechanism at the micro-surfacing of the waste rubber powder was investigated by means of Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Secondly, the effect of waste rubber powder (WRP) on the modification of asphalt mastic was investigated with the Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR), both as unaged and after short-term ageing. Finally, the effect of waste rubber powder on the performance improvement and noise reduction characteristics of the micro-surfacing was analyzed through road performance tests, and to establish the correlation between microstructure and road performance. The results showed that 2% of 40-mesh rubber powder mixed with 8% asphalt-aggregate ratio of medium grade MS-3 micro-surfacing mixture, the densest structure of the slurry. Significantly improved high-temperature and ageing performance at the micro-surfacing reduced noise generation and suppressed noise transmission, but no significant improvement in water stability performance. The waste rubber powder enhances the strength of the micro-surfacing by interweaving with cement hydration products and asphalt mortar. It also optimizes the inter-aggregate embedding and void characteristics, and has an excellent noise reduction effect.

Abstract Background We aimed to compare differences in infant feeding patterns (breastfeeding and complementary food supplementation) between children with the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children through a multicentre study. The relationship between these patterns and later core symptoms and neurodevelopment in children with ASD was also investigated. Methods We analysed breastfeeding and complementary feeding patterns in 1389 children with ASD and 1190 TD children. The Children Neuropsychological and Behavior Scale-Revision 2016 (CNBS-R2016) was used to assess neurodevelopmental levels. The Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC), Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), and ASD Warning Behavior Subscale of the CNBS-R2016 were used to assess ASD symptoms. Results Children with ASD had a shorter breastfeeding duration in infancy (8 (3–12) months vs. 10 (6–14) months, P

The traditional prediction of remaining useful life (RUL) for bearings cannot be calculated in parallel and requires manual feature extraction and artificial label construction. Therefore, this article proposes a two-stage framework for predicting the RUL of bearings. In the first stage, an unsupervised approach using a temporal convolutional network (TCN) is employed to construct a health indicator (HI). This helps reduce human interference and the reliance on expert knowledge. In the second stage, a prediction framework based on a convolutional neural network (CNN)–transformer is developed to address the limitations of traditional neural networks, specifically their inability to perform parallel calculations and their low prediction accuracy. The life prediction framework primarily maps the complete life data of bearings onto the HI vector. Based on the HI constructed through TCN, the known HI is input into the CNN–transformer network, which sequentially predicts the remaining unknown HI. Finally, the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method are verified using two bearing datasets, providing validation of its capabilities.

The extraction of entities and relationships is a crucial task in the field of natural language processing (NLP). However, existing models for this task often rely heavily on a substantial amount of labeled data, which not only consumes time and labor but also hinders the development of downstream tasks. Therefore, with a focus on enhancing the model’s ability to learn from small samples, this paper proposes an entity and relationship extraction method based on the Universal Information Extraction (UIE) model. The core of the approach is the design of a specialized prompt template and schema on cotton pests and diseases as one of the main inputs to the UIE, which, under its guided fine-tuning, enables the model to subdivide the entity and relationship in the corpus. As a result, the UIE-base model achieves an accuracy of 86.5% with only 40 labeled training samples, which really solves the problem of the existing models that require a large amount of manually labeled training data for knowledge extraction. To verify the generalization ability of the model in this paper, experiments are designed to compare the model with four classical models, such as the Bert-BiLSTM-CRF. The experimental results show that the F1 value on the self-built cotton data set is 1.4% higher than that of the Bert-BiLSTM-CRF model, and the F1 value on the public data set is 2.5% higher than that of the Bert-BiLSTM-CRF model. Furthermore, experiments are designed to verify that the UIE-base model has the best small-sample learning performance when the number of samples is 40. This paper provides an effective method for small-sample knowledge extraction.

Elevated lactate levels are common in sepsis patients. This study aimed to assess the effect of dynamic changes in lactate levels within the first 24 hours following admission on patient prognosis. We extracted data from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC)-IV database and classified patients using latent class growth analysis (LCGA). This analysis classified sepsis patients into different groups based on dynamic changes in lactate levels during the initial 24 hours post-admission, dividing this time frame into four periods (0–3 h, 3–6 h, 6–12 h, and 12–24 h). The highest lactate level recorded in each period was then used for patient classification. We subsequently compared the baseline characteristics and outcomes between these different groups. Our study encompassed 7,830 patients, whom LCGA successfully divided into two classes: class 1 (steady lactate class) and class 2 (increasing lactate class). Class 2 demonstrated a worse clinical status at baseline, as indicated by vital signs, disease severity scores, and laboratory results. Importantly, class 2 also had a significantly higher 28-day mortality rate than class 1 (55.6% vs 13.5%, P < 0.001). In conclusion, LCGA effectively categorized sepsis patients into two distinct groups based on their dynamic changes in lactate levels during the first 24 hours post-admission. This methodology has potential utility in clinical practice for managing sepsis patients.

IntroductionElevated red cell distribution width (RDW) has been associated with a range of health outcomes. This study aims to examine prognostic and etiological roles of RDW levels, both phenotypic and genetic predisposition, in predicting cardiovascular outcomes, diabetes, chronic kidney disease (CKD) and mortality.MethodsWe studied 27,141 middle-aged adults from the Malmö Diet and Cancer study (MDCS) with a mean follow up of 21 years. RDW was measured with a hematology analyzer on whole blood samples. Polygenic scores for RDW (PGS-RDW) were constructed for each participant using genetic data in MDCS and published summary statistics from genome-wide association study of RDW (n = 408,112). Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess associations between RDW, PGS-RDW and cardiovascular outcomes, diabetes, CKD and mortality, respectively.ResultsPGS-RDW was significantly associated with RDW (Pearson's correlation coefficient = 0.133, p

Abstract The endangerment mechanisms of various species are a focus of studies on biodiversity and conservation biology. Hipposideros pomona is an endangered species, but the reasons behind its endangerment remain unclear. We investigated the endangerment mechanisms of H. pomona using mitochondrial DNA, nuclear DNA, and microsatellite loci markers. The results showed that the nucleotide diversity of mitochondria DNA and heterozygosity of microsatellite markers were high (π = 0.04615, HO = 0.7115), whereas the nucleotide diversity of the nuclear genes was low (THY: π = 0.00508, SORBS2: π = 0.00677, ACOX2: π = 0.00462, COPS7A: π = 0.00679). The phylogenetic tree and median‐joining network based on mitochondrial DNA sequences clustered the species into three clades, namely North Vietnam‐Fujian, Myanmar‐West Yunnan, and Laos‐Hainan clades. However, joint analysis of nuclear genes did not exhibit clustering. Analysis of molecular variance revealed a strong population genetic structure; IMa2 analysis did not reveal significant gene flow between all groups (p > .05), and isolation‐by‐distance analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between genetic and geographic distances (p

Cardiac ventricular arrhythmia triggered by acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a major cause of sudden cardiac death. We have reported previously that an increased serum level of circular RNA CDR1as is a potential biomarker of AMI. However, the possible role of CDR1as in post-infarct arrhythmia remains unclear. This study in MI mice investigated the effects and underlying mechanism of CDR1as in ventricular arrhythmias associated with MI. We showed that knockdown of CDR1as abbreviated the duration of the abnormally prolonged QRS complex and QTc intervals and decreased susceptibility to ventricular arrhythmias. Optical mapping demonstrated knockdown of CDR1as also reduced post-infarct arrhythmia by increasing the conduction velocity and decreasing dispersion of repolarization. Mechanistically, CDR1as led to the depletion of NAD+ and caused mitochondrial dysfunction by directly targeting the NAMPT protein and repressing its expression. Moreover, CDR1as aggravated dysregulation of the NaV1.5 and Kir6.2 channels in cardiomyocytes, a change which was alleviated by the replenishment of NAD+. These findings suggest that anti-CDR1as is a potential therapeutic approach for ischemic arrhythmias.

In this work, the effects of addition of different amounts (2%, 4% and 6%) of soy protein isolate (SPI), egg white protein (EWP) and whey protein isolate (WPI) on the structure of silver carp surimi myofibrillar protein (MP) and its ability to bind to fishy-odor compounds (hexanal, nonanal, and 1-octen-3-ol) were investigated. The results indicated that adding an appropriate amount of external proteins could promote the unfolding of MP, thus increasing its surface hydrophobicity, turbidity, particle size, and zeta-potential. Moreover, the exposed hydrophobic group enhanced the ability of MP to bind to hexanal and nonanal, and the exposed hydroxyl group enhanced the ability of MP to bind to 1-octen-3-ol. With increasing amount of added EWP and WPI, the capacity of MP to bind to 1-octen-3-ol increased due to the increased hydrophilic groups on the protein surface. In addition, addition of WPI could better enhance the capacity of MP to bind to the three fishy-odor compounds.

In order to solve the problem of floor heave control in deep soft rock roadway, based on the engineering background of the 18th floor track roadway in the south of the fourth level of Xing’an Mine, a new type of bottom heave control technology, that is combined inverted arch-floor pile. The numerical analysis of combined inverted arch-floor pile was carried out by ABAQUS software, and its bearing capacity and deformation were studied. Through the FLAC3D software, the floor heave control effect of the combined inverted arch-floor pile is analyzed, the bottom heave control mechanism of the combined inverted arch-floor pile is discussed, and the influence of the rise-span ratio on the floor heave control effect of the combined inverted arch-floor pile is revealed. The result shows that under the action of uniform load, the number and strength of connecting rods at the mid-span should be appropriately increased in the combined inverted arch. The length and strength of the embedded end should be appropriately increased. The bottom casing in the combined inverted arch -bottom pile is very important, and the strength of the bottom casing should be appropriately increased. The reasonable range of the rise-span ratio of the combined inverted arch-floor pile is 0.225-0.250.

ObjectiveTo investigate the impact of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) alone or in combination with high-fat diet on gut microbe in mice. MethodsTwenty 6-week-old male specific pathogen-free C57BL/6J mice were divided into four groups: control, high-fat diet (40% of fat), VCM (static inhalation of 2 hours at dosage of 800 mg/m3, 5 times per week continuously for 13 weeks), and VCM plus high-fat diet. By the end of treatments, fecal samples were collected from the mice for 16S rDNA sequence analysis to examine alterations of the mice′s gut microbe. ResultsThe abundance and community structure of gut microbe changed in the mice with high-fat diet and VCM exposure. In terms of phylum, the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes of the mice exposed to VCM and high-fat diet were higher than those of control mice. At genus level, the degree of gut microbes aggregation was different among the four groups. Alpha diversity analysis revealed that the observed gut species of the mice with high-fat diet were inferior to those of the mice of control and VCM plus high-fat diet group (both P < 0.05); the Shannon index for the mice with high-fat diet was significantly lower than that for the mice of other three groups (all P < 0.05). Beta diversity analysis indicated that there were differences in community composition of gut microbes among the four groups. ConclusionExposure to VCM and high-fat diet, alone or combined, could lead to gut microbial imbalance in mice and the combined exposure mainly affect the abundance of gut microbial genera.

The measurement of gas phase collision cross section (CCS) of ions can provide complementary structure information to those typically obtained from mass spectrometry or tandem mass spectrometry. Thus, the ion mobility spectrometry is typically coupled with a mass spectrometer to achieve the advantage after the combination. Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) is characterized by its ultra high resolution and tandem mass spectrometry capabilities. Due to the collisions with neutral molecules, the image current caused by the cyclotron motion of ions in the analysis cell gradually decays under high vacuum condition. Based on this feature, the CCS of ions can be calculated by selecting an appropriate theoretical model and combining with the corresponding algorithm. This method can be directly applied to obtain the value of CCS of the selected ion through the analysis of high-resolution mass spectrometry data without increasing the cost of instrument hardware. With the development and promotion of FT-ICR MS instruments in recent years, such methods have developed rapidly in the past decade and have attracted extensive attention. There are three different ion-neutral collision models (Langevin collision model, hard-sphere collision model and energetic hard-sphere model) which have been applied to connect ion CCS and image current of FT-ICR MS instruments. Time-domain analysis, frequency-domain analysis and time-frequency analysis are three types of data analysis method used to measure ion CCS based on FT-ICR MS. Although the reliability and accuracy of the CCS data provided by such methods need to be further improved, it has been demonstrated its unique advantages in the dynamic CCS measurement and potentials in isomerization study. Such methods can be further combined with ion mobility technology to provide multi-dimensional ion structure information with the help of FT-ICR′s superior mass resolution and superior ion manipulation capabilities.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder defined by social communication impairments and restricted, repetitive behaviors. In addition to behavioral interventions and psychotherapies, and pharmacological interventions, in-depth studies of intestinal microbiota in ASD has obvious abnormalities which may effectively influenced in ASD. Several attempts have been made to indicate that microbiota can reduce the occurrence of ASD effectively. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a type of biological therapy that involves the transplant of intestinal microbiota from healthy donors into the patient’s gastrointestinal tract to improve the gut microenvironment. In this case report, we describe a case of child ASD treated by FMT. The patient have poor response to long-term behavioral interventions. After five rounds of FMT, clinical core symptoms of ASD and gastrointestinal(GI) symptoms were significantly altered. Moreover, the multiple levels of functional development of child were also significantly ameliorated. We found that FMT changed the composition of the intestinal microbiota as well as the metabolites, intestinal inflammatory manifestations, and these changes were consistent with the patient’s symptoms. This report suggests further FMT studies in ASD could be worth pursuing, and more studies are needed to validate the effectiveness of FMT in ASD and its mechanisms.

The dynamic load of vehicles is the main cause of rutting on asphalt pavement. To study the magnitude of the rutting depth generated by the load frequency on asphalt pavement, the rutting test procedure was developed through a material test system (MTS). A rutting fixture for the MTS test system has been designed. Rutting tests were carried out on AC-13, AC-20, and SMA-13 modified asphalt mixtures at different temperatures and load frequencies. Track and detect rut deformation under different loading times. The finite element Abaqus was used for simulation analysis, and a paired sample t-test was performed between the finite element simulation results and the MTS rutting test results. Through multiple regression analysis of the MTS rutting test data, an indoor rutting prediction model for asphalt mixtures including load frequency parameters was established. The correlation between the rutting prediction model established in this study and the rutting prediction model Specifications for Design of Highway Asphalt Pavement (JTG D50-2017) reached 0.894. The researchers conducted the MTS rut loading test by adding AC-20 modified asphalt mixture. SPSS data analysis software was used to analyze the measured data and predicted data. The correlation coefficient between the predicted and measured values was 0.973. In the paired sample test, the significance probability P = 0.671 was much larger than 0.05, indicating that the data error of the two groups was small. It is verified that the rut prediction model established in this study has high accuracy.

Although extensive studies have investigated changes in regional ecosystem services (ESs) under rapid urbanization, few analyses have used high-resolution image data to investigate urban wetlands. Taking the Xixi wetland region as a case area, this study aimed to investigate the temporal and spatial variation and influencing factors of typical ESs during 1984–2018 using high-resolution images. The results showed that the Xixi wetland region underwent substantial changes of land use as well as in different ESs. While carbon storage presented an increasing trend from 223.25 t/ha to 368.11 t/ha from 1984 to 2018, the changes of other services illustrated an overall degradation in this important urban wetland. Evident trade-off and synergy effects were observed between water yield and carbon storage and between biodiversity protection and recreation and cultural services. Redundancy analysis revealed the detrimental impacts of impervious cover on the provision of ESs in this urban wetland area. The results obtained in this study highlight the great challenges that urban wetland parks face in balancing wetland conservation and sustainable use.

Understanding developments in the trunk sap flow of prevalent tree species within the hilly areas of the Haihe River basin is imperative for ecosystem conservation. Nevertheless, the changes in sap flow of local trees and their response to environmental factors remain elusive. This study focuses on seven dominant tree species in the hilly area of the Haihe River basin and analyzed the relationship between tree sap flow rate and environmental factors at different time scales (hourly and daily). Our findings suggested: (1) Regardless of the time scale, total solar irradiance played a primary role in influencing sap flow rate. Conversely, as the time scale grew, the associations between most soil factors and sap flow rate enhanced, while those with meteorological factors declined. Notably, soil temperature exerted a more profound influence on sap flow rate than soil moisture and conductivity. (2) At the hourly scale, the sap flow rate of each species had a lag effect of 1–2 h with vapour pressure deficit, relative humidity and temperature, and 1 h or no lag effect with total solar irradiance and wind speed. (3) The response model of sap flow rate and environmental factors showed that, except for Pinus tabuliformis Carr., other tree species fit well at various time scales (R2 ≥ 0.59). As the time scale of most tree species increased from hourly scale to daily scale, the fit gradually weakened. Concurrently, considering the time-lag effect, the accuracy of the model has been improved, and the fitting accuracy of Koelreuteria paniculata Laxm. and Pinus tabuliformis Carr. has been significantly improved.

A large quantity of coal fly ash is generated worldwide from thermal power plants, causing a serious environmental threat owing to disposal and storage problems. In this work, for the first time, coal fly ash is converted into advanced and novel aerogel fibers and high-purity α-Al2O3. Silica–bacterial cellulose composite aerogel fibers (CAFs) were synthesized using an in situ sol-gel process under ambient pressure drying. Due to the unique “nanoscale interpenetrating network” (IPN) structure, the CAFs showed wonderful mechanical properties with an optimum tensile strength of 5.0 MPa at an ultimate elongation of 5.8%. Furthermore, CAFs with a high porosity (91.8%) and high specific surface area (588.75 m2/g) can inherit advanced features, including excellent thermal insulation, stability over a wide temperature range, and hydrophobicity (contact angle of approximately 144°). Additionally, Al2O3 was simultaneously extracted from the coal fly ash to ensure that the coal fly ash was fully exploited. Overall, low-cost woven CAFs fabrics are suitable for wearable applications and offer a great approach to comprehensively use coal fly ash to address environmental threats.

Abstract Defective execution of proteases and protease inhibitors that mediate abnormal signaling cascades is emerging as a key contributor to skin diseases, such as psoriasis. SerpinB7 is identified as a skin-specific endogenous protease inhibitor, but the role and underlying mechanism in psoriasis are poorly understood. Here we found that SerpinB7 is highly expressed in psoriatic keratinocytes of patients and imiquimod-induced psoriatic lesions in mice. SerpinB7-/- mice showed abnormal epidermal barrier integrity and skin architecture in homeostasis, and aggravated psoriatic lesion with inhibiting terminal differentiation and increasing inflammatory cells infiltration compared to SerpinB7+/+ mice after Imiquimod treatment. Mechanistically, SerpinB7 deficiency results in excessive proliferation and impaired differentiation, as well as increased chemokines and antimicrobial peptide expression in normal human epidermal keratinocyte and mouse primary keratinocyte. Transcriptomics and proteomics results showed that the SeprinB7 deficiency affected keratinocyte differentiation and proinflammatory cytokines, possibly by affecting the calcium ion channel-related proteins. Notably, we demonstrated that SerpinB7 deficiency prevented the increase in intracellular Ca2+ influx, which was partly eliminated by the intracellular Ca2+ chelator BAPTA-AM. Our findings first described the critical role of SerpinB7 in the regulation of keratinocyte differentiation and psoriatic microenvironment mediated via keratinocytes' intracellular calcium flux, proposing a new candidate for therapeutic targets in psoriasis.

Abstract Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of clinically heterogenic neurodevelopmental disorders, with intellectual disability being one of its common comorbidities. No large-sample, multicenter study has focused on the neurodevelopmental aspect of preschoolers with ASD. This study investigated the neurodevelopmental characteristics of preschoolers with ASD in China and explored the association between them and the core symptoms. Methods We enrolled 1019 ASD preschoolers aged 2–7 years old from 13 cities around China between May 2018 and December 2019, and used the revised Children Neuropsychological and Behavior Scale (CNBS-R2016) to assess their neurodevelopment. Their autistic core behaviors were evaluated based on their Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC), Child Autism Rating Scale (CARS), and communication warning behavior (CWB) scores in the CNBS-R2016. Results Based on general developmental quotient (GQ) 70%) was found in language and personal-social skills, followed by fine motor skills (68.9%). Gross motor skills had the lowest DD rate (34.0%). We found that fine motor, language, and personal-social developmental quotients (DQs) were significantly lower than gross motor skills in no DD (GQ > 70), mild DD (GQ 55–69), and moderate and below DD groups (GQ ≤ 54). Furthermore, the DQs for language and personal-social skills were significantly lower than for gross and fine motor skills in both DD groups. The ABC, SRS, CARS, and CWB scores in the no DD group were the lowest, moderate in the mild DD group, and highest in the moderate and below DD group. Besides, negative correlations were found between the DQs of the four domains and the ABC, SRS, CARS, and CWB scores, of which the language and personal-social skills DQs had the strongest correlations. Conclusions Preschoolers with ASD had unbalanced neurodevelopment domain patterns and their neurodevelopmental levels were negatively correlated with the autism core symptoms. Hence, pediatricians should actively evaluate the neurodevelopment of children with ASD and conduct long-term follow-up during their early childhood to promote early diagnosis and develop personalized intervention plans. Trial registration ChiCTR2000031194 , registered on 03/23/2020.

Centrifugal pump, which is widely used in water conservancy, electric power, petrochemical, ship, aerospace, and other technical fields, is the core equipment used to ensure all kinds of energy transfer. Cavitation not only affects the service life of the centrifugal pump but also seriously impacts the reliability of the process flow or device system. Due to the influence of the life, position and number of vibration sensors, the existing cavitation fault feature identification accuracy is not enough. The state analysis and characteristic recognition of the current signal under the cavitation state of the centrifugal pump are conducted in this paper based on soft sensing technology, and the signal component and judgment threshold representing the cavitation state are obtained. The following results are presented. Under different critical cavitation numbers, a small number of bubbles appeared near the suction surface of the inlet edge of the impeller, which verified the reliability of criterion for the critical cavitation number when the head coefficient decreased by 3%. The overall accuracy of binary classification cavitation recognition based on the current signal is 12.9% higher than that of three classification cavitation recognition. The recognition rate of VMD decomposition under different working conditions is higher than that of EMD, in design conditions, for example, overall accuracy improved by 7.3%, which also indicates that the obtained cavitation information of each component by VMD decomposition is richer than that obtained by EMD decomposition. Comparing different working conditions, a large flow rate easily leads to cavitation and high recognition current rate, compared with the flow of 0.75 Q and 1.25 Q, the overall accuracy is improved by 9.6%.

ObjectivesKeloid is a highly aggressive fibrotic disease resulting from excessive extracellular matrix deposition after dermal injury. Intra-lesional injection of triamcinolone acetonide (TAC) in combination with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is a commonly used pharmacological regimen and long-term repeated injections can achieve sustained inhibition of keloid proliferation. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the inhibitory effect on keloids remain insufficiently investigated.Methods and materialsThis study performed single-cell RNA sequencing analysis of keloids treated with TAC+5-FU injections, keloids, and skins to explore patterns of gene expression regulation and cellular reprogramming. ResultsThe results revealed that TAC+5-FU interrupted the differentiation trajectory of fibroblasts toward pro-fibrotic subtypes and induced keloid atrophy possibly by inhibiting the FGF signaling pathway in intercellular communication. It also stimulated partial fibroblasts to develop the potential for self-replication and multidirectional differentiation, which may be a possible cellular source of keloid recurrence. T cell dynamics demonstrated elevated expression of secretory globulin family members, which may be possible immunotherapeutic targets. Schwann cell populations achieved functional changes by increasing the proportion of apoptotic or senescence-associated cell populations and reducing cell clusters that promote epidermal development and fibroblast proliferation. ConclusionsOur findings elucidated the molecular and cellular reprogramming of keloids by intra-lesional injection of TAC+5-FU, which will provide new insights to understand the mechanism of action and therapeutic targets.

Abstract Interleukin 37 (IL‐37), a member of the IL‐1 family, is considered a suppressor of innate and adaptive immunity and, hence is a regulator of tumor immunity. However, the specific molecular mechanism and role of IL‐37 in skin cancer remain unclear. Here, we report that IL‐37b‐transgenic mice (IL‐37tg) treated with the carcinogenic 7,12‐dimethylbenzoanthracene (DMBA)/12‐o‐tetradecylphorbol‐13‐acetate (TPA) exhibited enhanced skin cancer and increased tumor burden in the skin by inhibiting the function of CD103+ dendritic cells (DCs). Notably, IL‐37 induced rapid phosphorylation of adenosine 5‘‐monophosphate (AMP)‐activated protein kinase (AMPK), and via single immunoglobulin IL‐1‐related receptor (SIGIRR), inhibited the long‐term Akt activation. Specifically, by affecting the SIGIRR‐AMPK‐Akt signaling axis, which is related to the regulation of glycolysis in CD103+DCs, IL‐37 inhibited their anti‐tumor function. Our results show that a marked correlation between the CD103+DC signature (IRF8, FMS‐like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand, CLEC9A, CLNK, XCR1, BATF3, and ZBTB46) and chemokines C‐X‐C motif chemokine ligand 9, CXCL10, and CD8A in a mouse model with DMBA/TPA‐induced skin cancer. In a word, our results highlight that IL‐37 as an inhibitor of tumor immune surveillance through modulating CD103+DCs and establishing an important link between metabolism and immunity as a therapeutic target for skin cancer.

ObjectivesEarly gastric cancer (EGC) is defined as aggressive gastric cancer involving the gastric mucosa and submucosa. Early detection and treatment of gastric cancer are beneficial to patients. In recent years, many studies have focused on endoscopic diagnosis and therapy for EGC. Exploring new methods to analyze data to enhance knowledge is a worthwhile endeavor, especially when numerous studies exist. This study aims to investigate research trends in endoscopy for EGC over the past 20 years using bibliometric analysis.MethodsOriginal articles and reviews examining the use of endoscopy for EGC published from 2000 to 2022 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, and bibliometric data were extracted. Microsoft Office Excel 2016 was used to show the annual number of published papers for the top 10 countries and specific topics. VOSviewer software was used to generate network maps of the cooccurrences of keywords, authors, and topics to perform visualization network analysis.ResultsIn total, 1,009 published papers met the inclusion criteria. Japan was the most productive country and had the highest number of publications (452, 44.8%), followed by South Korea (183, 18.1%), and China (150, 14.9%). The National Cancer Center of Japan was the institution with the highest number of publications (48, 4.8%). Ono was the most active author and had the highest number of cited publications. Through the network maps, exploring endoscopic diagnosis and therapy were major topics. Artificial intelligence (AI), convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and deep learning are hotspots in endoscopic diagnosis. Helicobacter pylori eradication, second-look endoscopy, and follow-up management were examined.ConclusionsThis bibliometric analysis investigated research trends regarding the use of endoscopy for treating EGC over the past 20 years. AI and deep learning, second-look endoscopy, and management are hotspots in endoscopic diagnosis and endoscopic therapy in the future.

Abstract Background Coxiella burnetii, the etiologic agent of Q fever, is mainly responsible for endocardite. But there are only a few cases of Coxiella burnetii-caused wound infection have been published, because the pathogen is very difficult to isolate using conventional culture methods. Case presentations A 76-year-old man, underwent endovascular repair of ruptured left iliac aneurysm plus abdominal aortic aneurysm under general anesthesia in 2018. Left iliac fossa mass resection was performed in 2020. After operation, the wound in the left iliac fossa was repeatedly ruptured and not healing. We used the wound tissue to perform the Metagenomics next-generation sequencing (mNGS), Coxiella burnetii was detected. Sanger sequencing and serologic verification of Coxiella burnetii all showed positive results. Conclusions This study proved that mNGS was an effective method to detect clinically unexplained infections, and showed the ability of pathogen identification with high sensitivity and accuracy.

Abstract Interleukin-37b (hereafter called IL-37) was identified as fundamental inhibitor of natural and acquired immunity. The molecular mechanism and function of IL-37 in colorectal cancer (CRC) has been elusive. Here, we found that IL-37 transgenic (IL-37tg) mice were highly susceptible to colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC) and suffered from dramatically increased tumor burdens in colon. Nevertheless, IL-37 is dispensable for intestinal mutagenesis, and CRC cell proliferation, apoptosis, and migration. Notably, IL-37 dampened protective cytotoxic T cell-mediated immunity in CAC and B16-OVA models. CD8+ T cell dysfunction is defined by reduced retention and activation as well as failure to proliferate and produce cytotoxic cytokines in IL-37tg mice, enabling tumor evasion of immune surveillance. The dysfunction led by IL-37 antagonizes IL-18–induced proliferation and effector function of CD8+ T cells, which was dependent on SIGIRR (single immunoglobulin interleukin-1 receptor-related protein). Finally, we observed that IL-37 levels were significantly increased in CRC patients, and positively correlated with serum CRC biomarker CEA levels, but negatively correlated with the CD8+ T cell infiltration in CRC patients. Our findings highlight the role of IL-37 in harnessing antitumor immunity by inactivation of cytotoxic T cells and establish a new defined inhibitory factor IL-37/SIGIRR in cancer-immunity cycle as therapeutic targets in CRC.

In turbid water, target reflected lidar signal is easily buried in “clutter” due to scattering. We proposed an underwater laser ranging model applying an optical vortex in the receiver to separate the scattering clutter from the target reflected signal. A spiral phase plate (SPP) was placed in front of the detector to convert the target reflected Gaussian beam to an optical vortex. While the scattering clutters were not able to be converted due to the loss of spatial coherence. Therefore, the target reflected signal and scattering clutters were spatially separated by the SPP. An underwater laser detection simulation using Zemax software was carried out. The numerical simulation showed that when the SPP was placed in front of the receiver, the contrast of signal to clutter of the detection was improved by blocking the scattering clutters which had a Gaussian distribution at the center on the detection plane. The effects of beam divergence and orbital angular momentum (OAM) order to the lidar performance were also analyzed.

Firstly, the concept of a new triangular α-orbital admissible condition is introduced, and two fixed point theorems for Sehgal-Guseman-type mappings are investigated in the framework of rectangular b-metric spaces. Secondly, some examples are presented to illustrate the availability of our results. At the same time, we furnished the existence and uniqueness of solution of an integral equation.