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Liver cancer as the main leading cancer has caused heavy burdens globally. The prognosis of liver cancer is closely related with postoperative nutrition support. Corn oligopeptides (COPs) are protein hydrolysates produced by enzymatic treatments, which have shown potential bioactivities, such as inhibiting angiotensin I-converting enzyme, resisting lipid peroxidation and anti-oxidant. However, the correlation between COPs and liver cancer patients is still unknown and the potential mechanism of COPs on liver cancer is unclear as well. The aim of this study was to assess effects of 7-day intervention of COPs after surgery on liver function and serum metabolic profiles of liver cancer patients.Patients were assigned into COPs intervention group (n=50) and control group (n=91) for 7 days. Investigations were scheduled at 1Seven-day supplementation of COPs on early post-surgery liver cancer patients down-regulated levels of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin and up-regulated prothrombin time activity and prealbumin levels. LC/MS analysis revealed metabolic signatures including regulation of 16 metabolites, which was closely related with two metabolic pathways (nicotinate and nicotinamide metabolism, fatty acid metabolism).COPs supplementation has displayed the potentials on alleviating the injury of liver function and it may be due to regulation of fatty acid metabolism, nicotinate and nicotinamide metabolism, lipid peroxidation and anti-inflammatory action. More researches are warranted in future to confirm the exact mechanisms.

This paper mainly discusses the system integration mode of industrialized residential collaborative design, and proposes a system integration model based on Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) industrialized residential collaborative design, which solves the collaborative design problem of industrialized residential life cycle. This system integration mode will industrialize residential coordination. The key elements of the design are integrated to form a complete system methodology. Through the analysis of variance, the average and standard deviation of the respondents’ scores were tested for significance. Then I used Fuzzy Set Theory to analyze the membership degree of key elements to verify my argument.

Long-term limb nerve injury often leads to mirror-image pain (MIP), an abnormal pain sensation in the limb contralateral to the injury. Although it is clear that MIP is mediated in part by central nociception processing, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a key brain region that receives relayed peripheral nociceptive information from the contralateral limb. In this study, we induced MIP in male mice, in which a unilateral chronic constrictive injury of the sciatic nerve (CCI) induced a decreased nociceptive threshold in both hind limbs and an increased number of c-Fos-expressing neurons in the ACC both contralateral and ipsilateral to the injured limb. Using viral-mediated projection mapping, we observed that a portion of ACC neurons formed monosynaptic connections with contralateral ACC neurons. Furthermore, the number of cross-callosal projection ACC neurons that exhibited c-Fos signal was increased in MIP-expressing mice, suggesting enhanced transmission between ACC neurons of the two hemispheres. Moreover, selective inhibition of the cross-callosal projection ACC neurons contralateral to the injured limb normalized the nociceptive sensation of the uninjured limb without affecting the increased nociceptive sensation of the injured limb in CCI mice. In contrast, inhibition of the non–cross-callosal projection ACC neurons contralateral to the injury normalized the nociceptive sensation of the injured limb without affecting the MIP exhibited in the uninjured limb. These results reveal a circuit mechanism, namely, the cross-callosal projection of ACC between two hemispheres, that contributes to MIP and possibly other forms of contralateral migration of pain sensation.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTMirror-image pain (MIP) refers to the increased pain sensitivity of the contralateral body part in patients with chronic pain. This pathology requires central processing, yet the mechanisms are less known. Here, we demonstrate that the cross-callosal projection neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) contralateral to the injury contribute to MIP exhibited in the uninjured limb, but do not affect nociceptive sensation of the injured limb. In contrast, the non–cross-callosal projection neurons in the ACC contralateral to the injury contribute to nociceptive sensation of the injured limb, but do not affect MIP exhibited in the uninjured limb. Our study depicts a novel cross-callosal projection of ACC that contributes to MIP, providing a central mechanism for MIP in chronic pain state.

Wire ropes (WRs) are widely used in various areas, such as tourist cables, mining, and elevators. Thus, it is very important to detect broken wires (BWs) to prevent safety issues. To guarantee the structural health of WRs, this paper proposes the use of induction thermography (IT) to detect the BWs. An image segmentation algorithm based on scale morphology is proposed to eliminate the background influence of non-uniform heating and visualize the BWs. Further, the area of the BW region, after the image binarization, subtraction, and filtering, is extracted as a feature to quantify the number of BWs. Results show that the proposed methods can effectively visualize and quantify the broken region within 1 BWs.

Shujing Zhang,1,2,* Ping Luo,3,* Juanjuan Xu,1,* Lian Yang,4,* Pei Ma,1,* Xueyun Tan,1,* Qing Chen,5,* Mei Zhou,1 Siwei Song,1 Hui Xia,1 Sufei Wang,1 Yanling Ma,1 Fan Yang,4 Yu Liu,5 Yumei Li,1 Guanzhou Ma,1 Zhihui Wang,6 Yanran Duan,7 Yang Jin1 1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, NHC Key Laboratory of Pulmonary Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pediatrics, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Translational Medicine Center, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Radiology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, People’s Republic of China; 5Health Checkup Department, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Scientific Research, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, People’s Republic of China; 7School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, Hubei, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yang JinDepartment of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, NHC Key Laboratory of Pulmonary Diseases, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1277 Jiefang Avenue, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail whuhjy@126.comBackground: It remains unclear whether discharged COVID-19 patients have fully recovered from severe complications, including the differences in the post-infection metabolomic profiles of patients with different disease severities.Methods: COVID-19-recovered patients, who had no previous underlying diseases and were discharged from Wuhan Union Hospital for 3 months, and matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited in this prospective cohort study. We examined the blood biochemical indicators, cytokines, lung computed tomography scans, including 39 HCs, 18 recovered asymptomatic (RAs), 34 recovered moderate (RMs), and 44 recovered severe/ critical patients (RCs). A liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolomics approach was employed to profile the global metabolites of fasting plasma of these participants.Results: Clinical data and metabolomic profiles suggested that RAs recovered well, but some clinical indicators and plasma metabolites in RMs and RCs were still abnormal as compared with HCs, such as decreased taurine, succinic acid, hippuric acid, some indoles, and lipid species. The disturbed metabolic pathway mainly involved the tricarboxylic cycle, purine, and glycerophospholipid metabolism. Moreover, metabolite alterations differ between RMs and RCs when compared with HCs. Correlation analysis revealed that many differential metabolites were closely associated with inflammation and the renal, pulmonary, heart, hepatic, and coagulation system functions.Conclusion: We uncovered metabolite clusters pathologically relevant to the recovery state in discharged COVID-19 patients which may provide new insights into the pathogenesis of potential organ damage in recovered patients.Keywords: COVID-19, recovery, metabolomics

This paper systematically analyzes the main link that imposes restrictions on the overall efficiency of the Microwave Wireless Power Transfer (MWPT) system–space transmission. Three typical transmission models of aperture transmission in the near-field area, radiation-focused transmission in the middle-field area, and Friis transmission in the far-field area of radiation were analyzed and calculated. Then, the applicable conditions and efficiency of three-models were compared. And the influence of antenna electrical parameters on the efficiency of the MWPT system was discussed. In the end, three typical space transmission models of aerial vehicles, satellites, and islands were studied. The influence of the medium on the transmission efficiency was emphatically analyzed. This paper aims to summarize the general laws of space transmission of microwave energy. Provide a theoretical reference for related scientific research and engineering practice.

BACKGROUND There is a lack of data on drug-related problems (DRPs) occurring in nephrology department in China. The objective of this study was to identify and categorize the types and causes of DRPs and to assess their severity. DRPs were examined by clinical pharmacists and the results of their interventions were rated. METHODS Clinical pharmacists reviewed all medication orders for patients and documented clinical pharmacy services within a nine-month study period. The Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE) classification (Version 9.00) was used to identify DRPs. Our Primary outcomes measured the number, causes, types, potential hazards of DRPs and the types and success rate of intervention. RESULTS Admission medication reconciliation data of 113 patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) were collected and all of the medications were reviewed retrospectively. Exclude 26 patients who did not occurred DRPs, 87 patients (77%) identified 101 DRPs. The average DRP number per patient was 1.16. The most common type of problem was "treatment effectiveness P1" (84.16%; 85/101). The most common causes were "drug selection C1" (36.00%; 45/125), "dose selection C3" (29.60%; 37/125), and "patient related C7" (26.40%; 33/125). Clinical pharmacists totally proposed 249 interventions, of which 190 (76.31%) were fully accepted and implemented. CONCLUSIONS DRPs are common among CKD patients in the nephrology department. Hence the necessity for pharmaceutical care to be improved to ensure the ongoing safety of patients.

Goji berry has been used in China more than 2,000 years as a traditional medicinal herb and food supplement. Lycium barbarum polysaccharide (LBP), the chief active component in goji berry, has been used to treat hypertension, atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases in Chinese traditional medicine. However, the underlying effects of LBP- mediated activity in blood glucose and lipid metabolism remain poorly understood. The present study aims to apply the meta-analysis to explore the healthy effects of LBP. Eligible studies published up to November 15, 2020, were searched and identified from CNKI, Pubmed, Web of Science, Cocharane library detabases. A total of 315 publications were retrieved and 7 articles were included. The STATA (version 11.0) was applied to process the meta-analysis. The pooled estimate showed that daily consumption of LBP played significant effects on regulating serum triglyceride (TG), fasting blood glucose, and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) concentrations (p < 0.05), while it was effect-free on the total cholesterol (TC). The present study provided a better understanding of current research status and suggested that LBP could play potential role in prevention and therapy for non-communicable chronic diseases, and more scientific evidence are required in the future.Key teaching pointsGoji berry and LBP, its main biologically active ingredient, have a wide range of health promotion effects.The supplement of LBP may played significant effects on regulating serum TG, HDL, LDL and FBG concentrations.Goji may serve as a potential drug to prevent and treat chronic non-communicable diseases in the future.Healthy dietary patterns containing goji berries will be a new choice for consumers in the future.

Background:. Prenatal evaluation of fetal lung maturity (FLM) is a challenge, and an effective non-invasive method for prenatal assessment of FLM is needed. The study aimed to establish a normal fetal lung gestational age (GA) grading model based on deep learning (DL) algorithms, validate the effectiveness of the model, and explore the potential value of DL algorithms in assessing FLM. Methods:. A total of 7013 ultrasound images obtained from 1023 normal pregnancies between 20 and 41 + 6 weeks were analyzed in this study. There were no pregnancy-related complications that affected fetal lung development, and all infants were born without neonatal respiratory diseases. The images were divided into three classes based on the gestational week: class I: 20 to 29 + 6 weeks, class II: 30 to 36 + 6 weeks, and class III: 37 to 41 + 6 weeks. There were 3323, 2142, and 1548 images in each class, respectively. First, we performed a pre-processing algorithm to remove irrelevant information from each image. Then, a convolutional neural network was designed to identify different categories of fetal lung ultrasound images. Finally, we used ten-fold cross-validation to validate the performance of our model. This new machine learning algorithm automatically extracted and classified lung ultrasound image information related to GA. This was used to establish a grading model. The performance of the grading model was assessed using accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and receiver operating characteristic curves. Results:. A normal fetal lung GA grading model was established and validated. The sensitivity of each class in the independent test set was 91.7%, 69.8%, and 86.4%, respectively. The specificity of each class in the independent test set was 76.8%, 90.0%, and 83.1%, respectively. The total accuracy was 83.8%. The area under the curve (AUC) of each class was 0.982, 0.907, and 0.960, respectively. The micro-average AUC was 0.957, and the macro-average AUC was 0.949. Conclusions:. The normal fetal lung GA grading model could accurately identify ultrasound images of the fetal lung at different GAs, which can be used to identify cases of abnormal lung development due to gestational diseases and evaluate lung maturity after antenatal corticosteroid therapy. The results indicate that DL algorithms can be used as a non-invasive method to predict FLM.

Background The beneficial effects of ω−3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) vary between different sources. However, there is a paucity of comparative studies regarding the effects and mechanisms of marine and plant ω−3 PUFA on obesity. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of fish oil (FO) and perilla oil (PO) on glucolipid metabolism, inflammation, and adipokine in mice fed a high-fat (HF) diet in association with the contribution of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MyD88) pathway. Methods C57BL/6J mice and MyD88−/− mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: normal chow diet, HF diet, HF diet accompanied by daily gavage with either FO or PO. After 4 weeks, blood biochemistries, adipocyte histology, mRNA, and protein expression of MyD88-dependent and -independent pathways of TLR4 signaling in epididymal adipose tissue were measured. Results In C57BL/6J mice, there were no statistical differences between FO and PO in decreasing body weight, glucose, insulin, triglyceride, total cholesterol, interleukin-6, and increasing adipocyte counts. FO and PO decreased mRNA and protein expression of TLR4, MyD88, tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6, inhibitor of nuclear factor kappa B kinase beta and nuclear factor-kappa B p65. In MyD88−/− mice, the beneficial effects of FO and PO on HF diet-induced metabolism abnormalities and inflammation were abolished. FO and PO had no impacts on mRNA and protein expression of receptor-interacting protein-1, interferon regulate factor 3, and nuclear factor-kappa B p65. Conclusion FO and PO exhibit similar protective effects on metabolic disorders and inflammation through inhibiting TLR4 signaling in a manner dependent on MyD88. These findings highlight plant ω−3 PUFA as an attractive alternative source of marine ω−3 PUFA and reveal a mechanistic insight for preventive benefits of ω−3 PUFA in obesity and related metabolic diseases.

More and more patients suffered from Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have got recovery gradually due to suitable intervention. Increasing data mainly studies the clinical characteristics of recovered COVID-19 patients, and their molecular changes especially proteome changes also play the same important role in understanding of biological characteristics of recovered COVID-19 patients as clinical characteristics do. In our study, we reported the whole lung-ground glass-CT value-average of mild/severe recovered patients 3 months after discharge without underlying diseases was significantly lower than that of healthy subjects. Then we isolated the extracellular vesicles (EVs) of plasma from 19 healthy subjects and 67 recovered COVID-19 patients. Mass Spectrometry was used to catalogue the proteins of these EVs compared to a defined group of controls. Identified 174 proteins were differentially expressed in the EVs of COVID-19 patients compared with healthy subjects, which involved in lipid metabolic process, response to cellular, and response to stress oxygen-containing compound. Besides, we identified several protein of plasma EVs in recovered patients associated with coagulation activity, inflammatory reaction, immune response, and low organ function. In addition, proteins correlating with clinical index such as alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were also detected. Moreover, we also identified many unique or characteristic associations found in the recovered COVID-19 patients, which especially involved the kidney, serum electrolyte levels, and inflammation functions. This finding suggests that monitoring the situation of recovered patients might be useful, especially the indexes of coagulation, inflammation, immunity, and organ function, which can prevent bleeding, reinfection and organ dysfunction.

High entropy alloys (HEAs), which is at the expense of high cost compared to traditional alloy, should not be confined to the mechanical properties, but should be employed to devise a novel combination with unique functional and mechanical performances. In this work, high entropy alloy nitride (HEAN) is utilized as a novel double absorption layer to improve solar absorption in the high temperature solar selective absorbing coatings (SSACs). Our primary motivation is to lower thermal emittance (e) and enhance solar absorptance (α). In order to realize this goal, coating design (CODE) software is employed to design and optimize the proposed HEAN based SSACs using appropriate dielectric function model. The ultimate as-deposited coating shows good optical properties with a high α value of 0.965 and a low e value of 0.086 (at 82 °C). The estimate of thermal stability tests indicates that HEAN based SSACs has the ability to resist instability in high working temperature, which keeps good optical properties (α = 0.925, e = 0.070) after annealing at 600 °C for 10 h.

Recent advances in high-entropy alloys have spurred many breakthroughs in the fields of high-temperature materials and optical materials and they provide incredible application potentialities for photothermal conversion systems. Solar-selective absorbers (SSAs), as key components, play a vital role in photothermal conversion efficiency and service life. The most pressing problem with SSAs is their inconsistent optical performance, an instability constraint induced by thermal stress. A feasible method of improving performance stability is the introduction of high-entropy materials, such as high-entropy alloy nitrides. In this study, enabled by an intrinsic MoTaTiCrN absorption layer, the solar configuration achieves greatly enhanced, exceptional thermotolerance and optical properties, leading to the formation of a scalable, highly efficient, and cost-effective structure. Computational and experimental approaches are employed to achieve optimum preparation parameters for thicknesses and constituents. The crystal structure of high-entropy ceramic MoTaTiCrN is fully investigated, including thickness-dependent crystal nucleation. High-temperature and long-term thermal stability tests demonstrate that our proposed SSA is mechanically robust and chemically stable. Moreover, a low thermal emittance (15.86%) at 500 °C promotes the photothermal conversion efficiency. In addition, due to the exceptional spectral selectivity (α/ε = 92.3/6.5%), thermal robustness (550 °C for 168 h), and photothermal conversion efficiency (86.9% at 550 °C under 100 sun), it is possible for our proposed SSA to enhance the practical realization of large-area photothermal conversion applications, especially for concentrated solar power systems.

In recent years, the prevalence and incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM) have increased sharply worldwide. In order to evaluate the effect of chromium supplementation on patients with type 2 diabetes, a meta-analysis was conducted by searching the relevant literature. Randomized controlled trials on the effects of chromium supplements on glucose metabolism or lipid profile in patients with type 2 diabetes were retrieved from multiple databases. Literature screening, quality evaluation, and data extraction were conducted according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and Review Manager 5.4.0 was used for data analysis. A total of 10 randomized controlled trials involving 509 patients were included, including 269 cases in the experimental group and 240 cases in the placebo control group. Statistical analysis was conducted on the glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) to evaluate the blood glucose and lipid levels. Meta-analysis results showed that the differences between the experimental group and the control group in only one indicator of HbA1c were statistically significant, while there were no statistically significant differences in other indicators. The use of chromium supplements can reduce the glycosylated hemoglobin of type 2 diabetic patients to a certain extent, but it cannot effectively improve the fasting blood glucose and blood lipid levels of type 2 diabetic patients.

Background Depression is a common and serious complication in new mothers. We investigated the hypothesis that neuraxial labor analgesia is associated with a decreased risk of postpartum depression. Methods In this multicenter prospective cohort study with propensity score matching, 599 nulliparous women with single term cephalic pregnancy who planned vaginal delivery were enrolled and self-selected neuraxial analgesia or not. The primary outcome was 6-week postpartum depression assessed with the Chinese version Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale; a score of ≥10 was set as the threshold of postpartum depression. Logistic regression models were established to assess the association between neuraxial labor analgesia and postpartum depression. Results Of the 577 parturients who completed the study, 417 (72.3%) received neuraxial analgesia and 160 (27.7%) did not. After propensity score matching, 433 parturients were included in the analysis; of whom, 279 (64.4%) received neuraxial analgesia and 154 (35.6%) did not. The incidence of postpartum depression was lower in parturients with neuraxial analgesia than in those without (14.9% [62/417] vs. 23.8% [38/160], P=0.012 before matching; 13.3% [37/279] vs. 23.4% [36/154], P=0.007 after matching). After adjustment for confounding factors, neuraxial analgesia was associated with decreased odds of postpartum depression (odds ratio [OR] 0.50, 95% CI 0.28-0.88, P=0.015 before matching; OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.21-0.77, P=0.006 after matching). Limitations As an observational study, unidentified confounders might influence the results. Conclusions In nulliparae with single term cephalic pregnancy preparing to give vaginal delivery neuraxial analgesia during labor was associated with a decreased risk of 6-week postpartum depression.

Polygonatum odoratum (Mill.) Druce (POD) is a natural plant widely used for food and medicine, thanks to its rich content of a strong antioxidant agent called homoisoflavones. However, food processing methods could affect the stability of POD flavones, resulting in changes to their antioxidant activity. This study attempts to evaluate the antioxidant activity of POD flavones subject to different processing methods and determines which method could preserve the antioxidant activity of POD flavones. Therefore, flavones were extracted from POD samples, which had been treated separately with one of the four processing methods: extrusion, baking, high-pressure treatment, and yeast fermentation. After that, the antioxidant activity of the flavones was subject to in vivo tests in zebrafish embryos. The results show that yeast fermentation had the least disruption to the antioxidant activity of POD flavones, making it the most suitable food processing method for POD. By contrast, extrusion and high-pressure treatment both slightly weakened the antioxidant activity of the flavones and should be avoided in food processing. The research results provide a reference for the development and utilization of POD and the protection of its biological activity.

The most recent advances in high-entropy materials provide impetus for the development of high-performance materials, simultaneously providing high-temperature robustness and excellent functional properties owing to the high configurational entropy and distorted lattices. Thus, in this work, double-layer high-entropy alloy nitride HfNbTaTiZrN with a well-designed metal content gradient is employed to fabricate a solar selective absorber coating (SSAC). We extensively investigated whether the coating meets the definition of a high-entropy material from the points of elemental analysis and phase structure, combined with thermodynamic calculation. Remarkably, the new, tailored SSAC exhibits an exceptionally high solar absorptance (α = 96%) and a suppressed thermal emittance (e = 8.2%) at 82 °C and omnidirectional absorption. Investigations of the long-term thermal stability indicate that the HfNbTaTiZrN-based SSAC due to the entropy-driven structural stabilization could endure heat treatment at 600 °C for 168 h, retaining a performance criterion (PC) value less than 0.05, which implies the feasibility of practical applications. More importantly, the photothermal conversion efficiency (η), which is utilized to quantitatively evaluate the performance at elevated temperatures, reaches 90.1% at a working temperature of 550 °C under 100 suns, and even after annealing at 600 °C for 168 h, the efficiency drop is still less than 5%. Overall, the combination of thermal robustness and photothermal conversion efficiency at working temperatures less than 600 °C provides significant potential to maximize solar energy harvesting and pioneers an opportunity to explore simultaneous multifunctional applications of high-entropy alloys.

What is already known about this topic? Proficiency testing (PT) is a key component of quality assurance and is essential in ensuring accurate laboratory diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant TB. The National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory (NTRL) developed a novel PT panel to test laboratories’ proficiency for molecular TB diagnostic assays throughout the TB laboratory network. A total of 6 PT rounds for molecular diagnostics were conducted by NTRL from 2014 to 2019. What is added by this report? PT conducted using artificial sputum specimens increased from 120 in the first round to 1,835 in the sixth round. Overall, laboratories demonstrated good proficiency for MTB and drug-resistance detection by molecular diagnostics, which is evident from the qualification rates over the six rounds: 95%, 97%, 96%, 93%, 93%, and 97%, respectively. What are the implications for public health practice? The use of artificial sputum specimens for PT panel production to test TB molecular diagnostics in China is feasible. Most of the participating laboratories provided reliable molecular diagnostic results for MTB and drug-resistance detection. The TB laboratory network can be instrumental in implementing PT expansion and improving the quality of TB molecular diagnosis in China.

The functional application of high entropy alloys, which emerge as a novel multi-principal component alloy, has been constantly expanding in the field of solar photothermal harvesting from optical materials to high temperature materials due to their excellent properties. A solar spectrally selective absorbing coating requires such materials that show not only outstanding optical properties but also prominent thermal stability. It is desirable but challenging to fabricate high performance solar absorbing coatings. A prospective strategy for the preparation of solar absorbing coatings is the introduction of high entropy alloys. In this work, we have developed a simple, cost-conscious, scalable and highly efficient solar selective absorbing coating using a single layer high entropy nitride AlCrTaTiZrN by choosing appropriate elemental compositions. The as-deposited coatings show an outstanding spectral selectivity of α/e = 92.8%/5.1% or 91.6%/5.1%. High temperature thermal stability tests are performed in depth, indicating that the coating could endure annealing treatment at 800 °C for 2 h with insignificant reflectance spectrum variation. A prolonged period of thermal stability characterization presents that this coating could maintain good optical performance after annealing at 650 °C for 300 h. Furthermore, high temperature thermal emittance can be suppressed to as low as 15.4% at 600 °C, which contributes to the state-of-the-art photothermal conversion efficiency under 100 suns (87.7% at 600 °C, and 84.6% at 650 °C). Overall, the high entropy nitride AlCrTaTiZrN based coating contributes to good thermal stability and optical properties, showing great potential for extensive applications in solar energy harvesting.

Pulsed eddy current thermography (PECT) and eddy current lock-in thermography (ECLIT) are non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques of high promising and interest in subsurface defect detection. In the previous researches, the induction coil was set above the defect region and it always parallel to the defect orientation. However, the location and orientation of subsurface defects cannot be determined before detection. Therefore, the scanning induction thermography (SIT) based on dynamic thermography is proposed by some researchers to localize and distinguish the subsurface defects. Still, the main challenges of SIT are how to detect the subsurface defect orientation and quantify the depth. So that, the quantitative analysis in SIT with the new feature extraction methods was investigated and improved to detect the subsurface defect orientation and quantify the defect depth within 5 mm by using experimental studies.

We aimed to compare the age-related clinical characteristics between younger and elderly deceased COVID-19 patients. This single-center retrospective study included 163 adult deceased COVID-19 patients who were admitted to Wuhan Union Hospital West Campus from January 12, 2020, to March 30, 2020. Demographic and clinical features were collected by reviewing the medical records. The median age of the 163 deceased patients was 69 (interquartile range [IQR], 62-78) years. They were classified as younger (age 18-69 years; 86/163, 52.8%) and elderly (≥70 years; 77/163, 47.2%) subjects. Younger deceased patients were more likely to develop fever (72/86 vs 54/77, P=0.039) than elderly deceased patients were while anorexia was (29/77 vs 19/86, P=0.029) more common in elderly deceased patients than in younger deceased patients. In multivariate analyses, age was a protective factor for acute cardiac injury of deceased COVID-19 patients (odds ratio [OR] 0.968, [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.940-0.997]; P=0.033) while chronic cardiac disease was a risk factor for acute cardiac injury of deceased COVID-19 patients (OR 2.660 [95%CI, 1.034-6.843]; P=0.042). Our study described the clinical characteristics of younger and elderly deceased COVID-19 patients and demonstrated that younger deceased patients were more likely to develop an acute cardiac injury.

Crowdsourcing uses collective intelligence to finish complicated tasks and is widely applied in many fields. However, the crowdsourcing dilemmas between the task requester and the task completer restrict the efficiency of system severely, e.g., the cooperation dilemma leads to the failure in the interactions and the quality of service dilemma results in the inability of task completer to provide high-quality service. Current research usually focuses on solving only one aforementioned dilemma and fails to integrate perfectly with the service architectural pattern of crowdsourcing systems. In this article, combined with the crowdsourcing interaction phase, we limit the objects that cause dilemma and propose a $\boldsymbol {t}$ wo-stage $\boldsymbol {g}$ ame $\boldsymbol {p}$ ayoff $\boldsymbol {d}$ ecision-making scheme ( TGPD ) to overcome these shortcomings. To solve the cooperation dilemma between the requester and the crowdsourcing platform, we first propose a dynamic payment method based on the reputation-quality rules for the task requester, and then develop a cos-evaluation algorithm to estimate platform’s cost, last design a co-determine algorithm to determine whether the platform adopts a cooperative strategy. To address the quality of service dilemma between the crowdsourcing platform and the workers, we first present an auction-screening method to estimate the reasonable recruitment range of workers which can be optimized by the result of cos-evaluation algorithm, and then use a reward distribution method to motivate workers to complete tasks with high quality and on time. The experimental results indicate that our new scheme successfully increases the worker’s and platforms’ payoffs at the same time, improves the accuracy of screening workers, enhances the worker’s quality of service, and decreases the platform’s cost.

Background Chronic pain patients often complain of their poor memory. The mechanisms underlying chronic pain–related memory impairment remain elusive, and there are few clinical therapeutic strategies available for this condition. Methods In a neuropathic pain model induced by chronic constrictive injury of the sciatic nerve in male mice, we used circuit-specific electrophysiological recording, combined with chemogenetic, molecular, and pharmacologic methods, to examine the circuit and molecular mechanisms underlying chronic pain–related memory impairment. Results Our current results show that chronic neuropathic pain impaired the acquisition of spatial memory and, meanwhile, reduced adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus. Experimentally reducing dentate gyrus neurogenesis mimicked this pain-induced effect on spatial memory formation in naive mice. Furthermore, pain-associated impairments of both hippocampal neurogenesis and memory formation were rescued or mimicked by chemogenetic activation or deactivation, respectively, of the ventral tegmental area dopaminergic projection, through which ventral tegmental area–released brain-derived neurotrophic factor was required. Importantly, we found that chronic, but not acute, systematic administration of subanesthetic doses of ketamine, while without relieving pain, ameliorated chronic pain–related impairment of spatial memory formation, potentially by rescuing brain-derived neurotrophic factor–mediated dentate gyrus neurogenesis. Conclusions These findings provide a novel, circuit-based mechanistic link between chronic pain and memory formation deficit, and potential new therapeutic options for chronic pain–related learning deficit and memory impairment.

Objective: To evaluate achievement of comprehensive controls among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in different age groups. Results: The elderly patients had higher control rates for BMI (44.36%), TC (50.83%) and LDL-C (48.27%) than those aged 60-80 years and younger patients (all P

Particle void filling effects (Pf) under low pressure and coal matrix compressibility effects (Pc) at high pressure should not be ignored when using mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) to study the pore size distribution of coal. In this study, two coal samples (FX and HF) collected from western Guizhou were crushed into three different grain sizes; then, the subsamples were analyzed by MIP and low-pressure nitrogen adsorption to study the pore size distribution characteristics. The micro- and transition pore volumes contribute to the total pore volume of the FX and HF subsamples. With decreasing subsample grain sizes, the macropore volume of FX subsamples tends to increase, while mesopore volume decreases; the volumes of micropores and transition pores first increase and then decrease. In regard to the HF subsamples, the volumes of macropores and mesopores do not reveal any distinctive changes, while the 40–60 mesh subsample contains the greatest volume of micropores and transition pores. Fractal theory was introduced to determine Pf and Pc. Pf barely changed as grain size decreased; it ranged from 0.1 to 0.15 MPa. However, Pc increased with reduced coal grain sizes. The coal matrix compressibility coefficients of the subsamples were calculated from the cumulative mercury volume curve, and the true pore volume was also modified. The modified volume of macropores does not change markedly, while the volumes of mesopores and transition pores decrease significantly, clearly indicating the coal matrix compressibility under high mercury injection pressure. The modified pore volume shows that the pore (

Background Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by Echinococcus multilocularis larval tapeworm infections in humans that severely impairs the health of affected patients in the northern hemisphere. Methods The expression levels of 20 cytokines associated with AE infection were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the correlations between these cytokines were analysed in the R programming language. Results Serum cytokine levels differed among individuals in both the AE patient and healthy control groups. The results of the correlations among the cytokines showed obvious differences between the two groups. In the AE patients group, Th1 and Th2 cytokines formed a more complicated network than that in the healthy control group. Conclusions The altered correlations between Th1 and Th2 cytokines may be closely associated with AE infection, which may provide a new explanation for the essential differences between AE patients and healthy individuals.

For the promising next-generation thin-film solar cells, Cu2SnS3 (CTS) solar cells still suffer from low open circuit voltage (VOC) and so resulting an unsatisfactory power conversion efficiency. Herein, Ag was introduced in solution-processed CTS thin films via adding AgNO3 into precursor solution for photovoltaic devices. Compared with CTS, the VOC deficit for CuxAg2−xSnS3 (CATS) based cells could be effectively reduced for about 10 mV, together with the increased short circuit current density (JSC) and fill factor (FF), a power conversion efficiency of 3.99% was achieved. Such improved performance of CATS cells could be attributed to the improved crystallization, reduced shunting channels and the decreased band-gap of CATS films.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common malignant primary brain tumor, accounting for 50% of all cases. GBM patients have a five-year survival rate of merely 5.6% and a median overall survival of 14.6 months with the “Stupp” regimen, 20.9 months with tumor treatment fields (TTF, OptuneR) in patients who participated in clinical trials, and 11 months for all GBM patients prior to TTF use. Objective: Our group recently developed a brain cancer chip which generates tumor spheroids, and provides large-scale assessments on the response of tumor cells to various concentrations and combinations of drugs. This platform could optimize the use of tumor samples derived from GBM patients to provide valuable insight on the tumor growth and responses to drug therapies. To minimize any sample loss in vitro , we improved our brain cancer chip system by adding an additional laminar flow distribution layer, which reduces sample loss during cell seeding and prevents spheroids from escaping from the microwells. Methods: In this study, we cultured 3D spheroids from GBM cell lines and patient-derived GBM cells in vitro , and investigated the effect of the combination of Temozolomide and nuclear factor-κB inhibitor on tumor growth. Results: Our study revealed that these drugs have synergistic effects in inhibiting spheroid formation when used in combination. Conclusions: These results suggest that the brain cancer chip enables large-scale, inexpensive and sample-effective drug screening to 3D cancer tumors in vitro , and could be applied to related tissue engineering drug screening studies.

Infective endocarditis caused by Neisseria macacae in humans is extremely rare. We presented here a case of N. macacae infective endocarditis in a 61-year-old man with a native aortic valve infection. N. macacae was isolated from blood culture and was detected by nanopore-based metagenomic sequencing in the vegetations. Finally, the patient recovered completely after surgery and antibiotic therapy.

The prevalence and incidence of nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) infections are increasing globally (1).….

The obstetric issues and management styles in China are different from that in Western countries. Chinese medical education, residency training, obstetric care structure, and management of common obstetric complications are briefly reviewed and compared to the United States. Maternal-fetal medicine (MFM) is rapidly developing in China, but the development of MFM may not follow the same trajectory as in the West. Understanding the difference between China and the West may facilitate communication and foster mutual development. Key words: Education; Internship and residency; Maternal fetal medicine; Medical; Obstetric care; Prenatal care

Eddy current thermography (ECT) as one of the emerging nondestructive testing and evaluation techniques has been used for defects detection in critical components, e.g., fatigue cracks in turbine blades, bond wire lift-off in IGBT modules, lack of fusion in welded parts, etc. However, in fast inspection using the early thermal response, the thin eddy current penetration depth (skin depth) of ferromagnetic materials limits ECT's capability of detecting subsurface defects. In order to increase the detectable depth range, this paper proposes a dc-biased magnetization based ECT (DCMECT) technique. Based on the nonlinear magnetic permeability in ferromagnetic material, DCMECT can increase the thermal contrast between the defective and sound areas by the enhanced permeability distortion in the skin-depth layer. Specifically, the influences of dc-biased magnetization direction and intensity on the thermal responses (of the defective and sound areas) and their thermal contrast are investigated. Results show that the dc-biased magnetization direction has the strongest influence on the thermal response when it is parallel to the ac magnetization direction generated by the coil. Both the thermal responses of defective and sound areas decrease with the magnetization intensity increasing. Whereas, the thermal contrast between two areas increases with the magnetization intensity, which presents the enhanced defect detectability of DCMECT. The proposed technique can detect the subsurface defect with a buried depth up to 6 mm.

Depression is a debilitating mental illness that affects up to 120 million people worldwide; it is currently determined based on subjective diagnostic schemes that are limited by high uncertainty. Hence, there is an urgent need to identify effective and reliable biomarkers to increase diagnostic accuracy. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) constitute a recently discovered class of non-coding RNAs that play a key role in the regulation of gene expression by modulating translation, messenger RNA (mRNA) degradation, or stability of mRNA targets. Dysregulated expression of miRNAs is being investigated as a clinical biomarker for a variety of diseases, including depression. Accumulating evidence has shown that miRNAs participate in many aspects of neural plasticity, neurogenesis, and the stress response. This is supported by more direct studies based on human postmortem brain tissue that strongly indicate that miRNAs not only play a key role in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder, but also present potential for the development of therapeutic targets. miRNAs in the peripheral and central nervous system are being considered as potential biomarkers in the diagnosis of depression and in monitoring the therapeutic response to antidepressants, owing to their stability, tissue-specificity, and disease-specific expression. In this review, we focus on various miRNAs in tissues and fluids that could be employed as diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers in patients with depression.

We designed this study to determine the trend of moxifloxacin resistance among multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients from 2007 to 2013 in China to inform the composition of multidrug-resistant/rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR-TB) treatment regimens. We assessed moxifloxacin resistance among MDR-TB isolates collected in national drug resistance surveys in 2007 and 2013 that included 3,634 smear-positive and 7,206 culture-positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients, respectively. Moxifloxacin susceptibility was examined by a Mycobacterium growth indicator tube (MGIT) 960 for the 2007 isolates, and by the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method for the 2013 isolates, at both breakpoints 0.5 and 2.0 μg/mL. Risk factors were explored through multivariable log-binominal regression analysis. Mutations in gyrA and gyrB for part of the isolates were also studied through sequencing. Of 401 MDR strains isolated in 2007, moxifiloxacin resistance could be determined for 319 (79.6%): 41 (12.9%) and 10 (3.1%) were resistant at 0.5 and 2.0 μg/mL, respectively. Of 365 MDR strains isolated in 2013, 338 (92.6%) could be analyzed: 140 (41.4%) and 79 (23.4%) were resistant at 0.5 and 2.0 μg/mL. For patients in 2007, no characteristics were significantly associated with moxifloxacin resistance. For patients in 2013, patients aged ≥60 years (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR], 1.46; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10 to 1.93) were more likely to have resistance at 0.5 μg/mL, whereas those residing in eastern China compared to those in central China had an increased risk of resistance at both 0.5 (aPR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.38 to 2.48) and 2.0 μg/mL (aPR, 2.14; 95% CI, 1.35 to 3.40). Sequencing results were obtained for 245 and 266 MDR-TB isolates in 2007 and 2013, respectively. In total, 34 of 38 (89.5%) and 89 of 104 (85.6%) of 2007 and 2013 moxifloxacin-resistant (0.5 μg/mL) MDR-TB strains had mutations in the gyrA and gyrB gene, respectively. Asp94Gly was the most common mutation among 2007 (11 of 38, 28.9%) and 2013 isolates (24 of 104, 23.1%) and conferred high-level moxifloxacin resistance. Moxifloxacin resistance among MDR-TB patients in China increased from modest to high from 2007 to 2013. Moxifloxacin should be used carefully as a potentially effective drug for composing MDR/RR-TB regimens especially for elderly patients in China. Individual susceptibility testing especially rapid molecular-based assays should be conducted to confirm the susceptibility to moxifloxacin. IMPORTANCE China is one of the high-burden countries for multidrug-resistant/rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR-TB). Moxifloxacin is one of the critical antituberculosis drugs for MDR/RR-TB treatment. Susceptibility to moxifloxacin is therefore very important to compose effective regimens and to provide protection against development of resistance of companion drugs such as bedaquiline and linezolid. There are, however, no nationally representative data on moxifloxacin resistance among MDR/RR-TB cases in China. Therefore, we assessed the resistance prevalence for moxifloxacin among MDR-TB strains isolated in national drug resistance surveys in 2007 and 2013 that covered 72 sites around the country. We demonstrate that the prevalence of moxifloxacin resistance in MDR-TB isolates increased from modest to high, which should prompt the national tuberculosis program to use moxifloxacin cautiously in second-line regimens to treat MDR/RR-TB unless susceptibility can be laboratory-confirmed.

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus was found to be associated with metabolic disorders, particularly abnormal glucose and lipid metabolism. Dietary food choices may have profound effects on blood lipids. The primary objective of this study was to examine the effects of peanuts and tree nuts intake on lipid profile in patients with type 2 diabetes.Methods: According to preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis guidelines, we performed a systematic search of randomized controlled clinical trials and systematic reviews published in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane library, from inception through June 2021. Studies in populations with type 2 diabetes, which compare nuts or peanuts to a controlled-diet group were included. We used the mean difference with 95% CIs to present estimates for continuous outcomes from individual studies. In addition, we used the GRADEpro tool to evaluate the overall quality of evidence.Results: Sixteen studies involving 1,041 participants were eligible for this review. The results showed that peanuts and tree nuts supplementation did not induce significant changes in low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) (mean difference = −0.11; 95%CI: −0.25 – 0.03, p = 0.117) and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) (mean difference = 0.01; 95%CI: −0.01 – 0.04, p = 0.400) in patients with type 2 diabetics. In addition, we found that peanuts and tree nuts intake may cause a significantly reduction in total cholesterol (TC) (mean difference = −0.14; 95%CI: −0.26 – −0.02, p = 0.024) and triglyceride (TG) (mean difference = −0.10; 95%CI: −0.17 – −0.02, p = 0.010). In the subgroup analysis, a significantly greater reduction in TC was observed in studies which duration was p = 0.002). The quality of the body of evidence was “moderate” for TC and TG, the quality of evidence for LDL-C and HDL-C were “low.”Conclusion: Our findings suggest that consuming peanuts and tree nuts might be beneficial to lower TC concentration and TG concentration in type 2 diabetics subjects. Furthermore, peanuts and tree nuts supplementation could be considered as a part of a healthy lifestyle in the management of blood lipids in patients with type 2 diabetes. Given some limits observed in the current studies, more well-designed trials are still needed.

This study aimed to investigate the association between passive smoking and physical and psychological health in Chinese nurses. Participants of this cross-sectional study comprised 2,484 non-smoking nurses. Passive smoking and demographic information were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. Physical, psychological, and overall health status of nurses were measured using the Cornell Medical Index (CMI) health questionnaire. Multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for nurses' health were estimated by exposure to passive smoking using unconditional logistic regression models. A total of 1,219 nurses (49.07%) were exposed to passive smoking. Of these, 609 (24.52%), 160 (6.44%), and 587 (23.63%) nurses had poorer physical, mental, and overall health, respectively. After adjusting for other confounding factors, compared with the non-passive smoking group, passive smoking was associated with poor physical (OR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.25–1.83), mental (OR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.07–2.07), and overall (OR = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.30–1.93) health of nurses, respectively. We also carried out subgroup analyses stratified by age, department, and professional title, which showed that most findings supported the main results. This study demonstrated that exposure to passive smoking was a risk factor for overall decreased physical and mental health status among Chinese nurses.

The assessment of tourist destination images should not only be the arrangement of multiple influencing factors. This study explores the complex causal relationship for tourist destination images based on a configuration perspective to enhance the overall tourism image using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method. The configurational paths for promoting tourism image can be categorized into two types and nine configurations in Shandong Province. Therefore, this study recommends augmenting the tourism image of the entire region with the logical thinking of “segmentation–integration” and “enhancing strengths–supplementing weakness” and finally realizing a sustainable tourist destination image.

Background: Antihypertensive treatment may have different effects on central arterial hemodynamics. The extent of the difference in effects between various antihypertensive drugs remains undefined.Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that explored the effects of antihypertensive agents on both central and peripheral systolic blood pressure (SBP) and pulse pressure (PP) or central augmentation index, with a special focus on the comparison between newer [renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAS) inhibitors and calcium-channel blockers (CCBs)] and older antihypertensive agents (diuretics and β- and α-blockers).Results: In total, 20 studies (n = 2,498) were included. Compared with diuretics (10 studies), β-blockers (16 studies), or an α-blocker (1 study), RAS inhibitors (21 studies), and CCBs (6 studies) more efficaciously (P < 0.001) reduced both central and peripheral SBP by a weighted mean difference of −5.63 (−6.50 to −4.76 mmHg) and −1.97 mmHg (−2.99 to −0.95 mmHg), respectively. Compared with older agents, the newer agents also more efficaciously (P < 0.001) reduced central PP (−3.27 mmHg; −4.95 to −1.59 mmHg), augmentation index (−6.11%; −7.94 to −4.29) and augmentation (−3.35 mmHg; −5.28 to –1.42 mmHg) but not peripheral PP (p ≥ 0.09). Accordingly, the newer agents reduced central-to-peripheral PP amplification significantly less than the older agents (0.11 mmHg; 0.05 to 0.17 mmHg; P < 0.001).Conclusion: Newer agents, such as RAS inhibitors and CCBs, were significantly more efficacious than older agents in their effects on central hemodynamics.

The degree of vasculogenic mimicry(VM) is correlated with the prognosis of esophageal cancer, and folic acid supplementation could decrease esophagus cancer deaths among populations. This study aimed to explore the effect of folic acid on VM formation of esophageal cancer cell, and the target. Human esophageal squamous cancer cell lines(Eca-109) were cultured with different concentrations of folic acid (0,1,10,100,200,400, 600,800 μg/ml). A cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay was used to measure the cell proliferation. Then, the amount of VM under the effect of different concentrations of folic acid was observed. Target genes were screened out from several possible targets genes including MMP2, MMP9, EphA2, VE-cad or Ln-5γ2 by employing reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR). Finally, western blot analysis was used to verify the target proteins. In conclusion, this study found that folic acid inhibited the formation of VM in Eca-109 cells, and the one target protein was EphA2.

The feeding volume parameter of combine harvester greatly affects harvesting efficiency. Therefore, this paper proposes a feeding volume prediction method. This method uses the camera installed at a certain height above the front of combine harvester to capture the images of crops during operation. Then, the ARM processor unit does image processing and BP neural network inference. Here, the image processing includes color space conversion, histogram equalization, filtering operation and other operations. And its output is the pixel value of rice panicle layer. As for the neural network, the pixel value, rice stubble height, moisture content and grass to grain ratio are used as the input parameters, and the output of network is feeding volume. The result of neural network shows the decisive factor of predictive model up to 0.95, which is able to predict the feeding volume properly. At last, according to the result of experiments, this method predicts feeding volume well, and the relative error of the predicted average feeding amount is 10%.

Background Flaxseed is widely used as a functional food for its rich sources of linolenic acid, lignans and dietary fibers in the world. This systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is first to evaluate effects of different flaxseed products (whole flaxseed, oil and lignans) on lipid profiles, inflammatory and anthropometric parameters in patients with dyslipidemia related diseases. Methods Literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central, Scopus, and Web of Science from the inception dates to January, 2020. Weighted mean differences with the 95% confidence interval (CI) were pooled using fix or random-effects models. Results Thirty-one RCTs involving 1,698 participants were included. The present meta-analysis revealed that flaxseed consumption had an overall beneficial effect on serum TC, LDL-C, TG, apo B and IL-6 in patients with dyslipidemia related diseases, but not on apo A, HDL-C, hs-CRP, CRP and anthropometric indices. However, different flaxseed products showed obviously different effects. Whole flaxseed supplementation significantly reduced TC (− 11.85 mg/dl, 95% CI − 20.12 to − 3.57, P = 0.005), LDL-C (− 10.51 mg/dl, 95% CI − 14.96 to − 6.06, P P = 0.005), apolipoprotein B (− 5.73 mg/dl, 95% CI − 7.53 to − 3.93, P P = 0.044) and weight (− 0.40 kg, 95% CI − 0.76 to − 0.05, P = 0.027); Lignans supplementation significantly reduced TC (− 17.86 mg/dl, P = 0.004), LDL-C (− 15.47 mg/dl, P P = 0.04). Although flaxseed oil supplementation had no such lowering-effect on lipid, meta-analysis revealed its lowering-effect on IL-6 (− 0.35 pg/ml, P = 0.033) and hs-CRP (− 1.54 mg/l, P = 0.004). Subgroup analysis revealed that whole flaxseed decreased TC, LDL-C and TG levels irrespective of country and the intervention time prescribed, but was more pronounced when the dose of whole flaxseed was ≤ 30 g/day (TC: WMD − 13.61 mg/mL; LDL-C: WMD − 10.52 mg/mL; TG: WMD − 23.52 mg/mL), rather not a dose > 30 g/day. Moreover, a linear relationship between dose of whole flaxseed and absolute changes in C-reactive protein (P = 0.036) and a nonlinear relationship between with IL-6 (P Conclusions Flaxseed intervention suggested the positive effects on lipid profiles, inflammatory cytokines and anthropometric indices in patients with dyslipidemia related diseases. Of these, whole flaxseed and lignans play an important role in reducing blood lipid, while flaxseed oil mainly plays in anti-inflammatory. Lipid- and weight-lowering was significant when whole flaxseed was consumed at doses 25. Graphic abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease related to a broad spectrum of molecular alterations. The successes of immunotherapies treating solid tumors and a deeper understanding of the immune systems of patients with hematologic malignancies have promoted the development of immunotherapies for the treatment of AML. And high tumor mutational burden (TMB) is an emerging predictive biomarker for response to immunotherapy. However, the association of gene mutation in AML with TMB and immunological features still has not been clearly elucidated. In our study, based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and BeatAML cohorts, 20 frequently mutated genes were found to be covered by both datasets in AML. And TP53 mutation was associated with a poor prognosis, and its mutation displayed exclusiveness with other common mutated genes in both datasets. Moreover, TP53 mutation correlated with TMB and the immune microenvironment. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) showed that TP53 mutation upregulated signaling pathways involved in the immune system. In summary, TP53 mutation is frequently mutated in AML, and its mutation is associated with dismal outcome, TMB, and immunological features, which may serve as a biomarker to predict immune response in AML.

IntroductionIrritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common chronic functional gastrointestinal disorder that presents with abdominal pain/discomfort and altered bowel patterns. IBS has multiple potential causes for which conventional medicines have had limited success, resulting in a significant number of patients who do not sensitively respond to pharmacotherapy for a period of 12 months and who develop a continuing symptom profile (described as refractory IBS) and seek help through (non)pharmacological treatments. The aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture therapy for refractory IBS on the basis of conventional treatments.Methods and analysisA total of 170 eligible patients who meet the Rome IV criteria for refractory IBS will be randomly allocated to receive acupuncture or sham acupuncture. Each patient will receive 12 sessions of acupuncture over 4 weeks and a 4-week follow-up. The primary outcome will be the IBS Symptom Severity Score. Secondary outcomes will include the proportion of participants experiencing adequate relief of global IBS symptoms, the weekly frequency of defecation, the stool properties assessed by the Bristol Grading Scale, the Work and Social Adjustment Scale, the IBS-Quality of Life score, and the Self-Rating Depression Scale and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale anxiety and depression scores. Outcome measures will be collected at baseline, 2 and 4 weeks of the intervention, and 6 and 8 weeks after the intervention. Categorical variables will be compared with Fisher’s exact test or the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and continuous variables will be compared using Student’s t-test or the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.Ethics and disseminationThe entire project has been approved by the ethics committees of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (2020BZYLL0507) and Sichuan Province Regional Institution for Conducting Research on Traditional Chinese Medicine (2020KL-025). The outcomes of the trial will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications.Trial registration numberNCT04276961.

Although clinical trials of food-protein-derived peptides in the management of hypertension have been published, the results are controversial, which compelled us to conduct a meta-analysis to evaluate the pooled effect of peptide intervention. In this study, we searched for studies published between 2010 and 2021 and selected 12 eligible studies for a meta-analysis. The pooled effect of peptide intervention for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was −3.28 mmHg (95% CI: −4.54, −2.03, p < 0.001) and −1.82 mmHg (95% CI: −3.46, −0.18, p = 0.03), respectively. Sub-group analyses showed that the reduction in BP in participants with higher basal BP (>140/85 mmHg) was greater (p = 0.007 for SBP and p = 0.01 for DBP), and the effect was stronger in Asian participants as compared with non-Asian participants (p = 0.01 for SBP and p = 0.04 for DBP). In addition, the effect of peptide intervention was more pronounced on SBP in participant groups with a lower ratio of male to female (≤0.5) as well as in participants with a mean age ≥50 years old. In conclusion, food-protein-derived antihypertensive peptides can significantly reduce BP in prehypertensive and hypertensive patients. Findings from this study could provide guidance for the design of clinical trials of antihypertensive peptides.

Hot carrier harvest could save 30% energy loss in solar cells. So far, however, it is still unreachable as the photoexcited hot carriers are short-lived, ∼1 ps, determined by a rapid relaxation process, thus invalidating any reprocessing efforts. Here, we propose and demonstrate a feasible route to reserve hot electrons for efficient collection. It is accomplished by an intentional mix of cubic zinc-blend and hexagonal wurtzite phases in III-V semiconductor nanowires. Additional energy levels are then generated above the conduction band minimum, capturing and storing hot electrons before they cool down to the band edges. We also show the superiority of core/shell nanowire (radial heterostructure) in extracting hot electrons. The strategy disclosed here may offer a unique opportunity to modulate hot carriers for efficient solar energy harvest.

Xiao-Ling Zou,1,&ast; Jin-Jie Wu,2,&ast; Hui-Xia Ye,3,&ast; Ding-Yun Feng,1,&ast; Ping Meng,1 Hai-Ling Yang,1 Wen-Bin Wu,1 Hong-Tao Li,1 Zhen He,2 Tian-Tuo Zhang1 1Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Institute of Respiratory Diseases of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Gynecology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Tian-Tuo ZhangDepartment of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Institute of Respiratory Diseases of Sun Yat-sen University, 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, 510630, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail zhtituli@163.comZhen HeDepartment of Colorectal Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510655, Guangdong, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail hezh5@mail.sysu.edu.cnObjective: This study aimed to investigate the gut microbiome profile in different inflammatory phenotypes of treatment-naive newly diagnosed asthmatic adults, to gain insight on the associations between intestinal microbiota and phenotypic features that characterize asthma heterogeneity to develop new treatments for asthma.Methods: Fresh stool samples were obtained from 20 healthy subjects and 47 newly diagnosed asthmatic patients prior to any interventions. The asthmatics were divided into allergic and non-allergic cohorts. Intestinal microbiota was analyzed by 16S rRNA next-generation sequencing. Demographic and clinical parameters were collected. Alpha and beta diversity analysis were calculated to detect differences within sample phylotype richness and evenness between controls and asthmatic patients. Statistically significant differences between samples were analyzed for all used metrics, and features of gut bacterial community structure were evaluated in relation to extensive clinical characteristics of asthmatic patients.Results: Gut microbial compositions were significantly different between asthmatic and healthy groups. Alpha-diversity of the gut microbiome was significantly lower in asthmatics than in controls. The microbiome between allergic and non-allergic asthmatic patients were also different, and 28 differential species were identified. PPAR signaling pathway, carotenoid biosynthesis, and flavonoid biosynthesis were significantly positively correlated with allergy-associated clinical index, including FENO value, blood eosinophil counts, and serum IgE and IL-4 levels. A combination of Ruminococcus bromii, Brevundimonas vesicularis, and Clostridium disporicum showed an AUC of 0.743 in the specific allergic/non-allergic cohort. When integrating C. disporicum, flavone, flavonol biosynthesis, and serum IL-4 values, the AUC achieved 0.929 to classify asthmatics. At the same time, C. colinum and its associated functional pathway exhibited an AUC of 0.78 to distinguish allergic asthmatics from those without allergies.Conclusion: We demonstrated a distinct taxonomic composition of gut microbiota in different asthmatic phenotypes, highlighting their significant relationships. Our study may support considerations of intestinal microbial signatures in delineating asthma phenotypes.Keywords: asthma, phenotypes, gut microbiota, 16S rRNA next-generation sequencing, functional pathway

Genomic surveillance empowers agile responses to SARS-CoV-2 by enabling scientists and public health analysts to issue recommendations aimed at slowing transmission, prioritizing contact tracing, and building a robust genomic sequencing surveillance strategy. Since the start of the pandemic, real time RT-PCR diagnostic testing from upper respiratory specimens, such as nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs, has been the standard. Moreover, respiratory samples in viral transport media are the ideal specimen for SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequencing (WGS). In early 2021, many clinicians transitioned to antigen-based SARS-CoV-2 detection tests, which use anterior nasal swabs for SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection. Despite this shift in testing methods, the need for whole-genome sequence surveillance remains. Thus, we developed a workflow for whole-genome sequencing with antigen test-derived swabs as an input rather than nasopharyngeal swabs. In this study, we use excess clinical specimens processed using the BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 Ag Card. We demonstrate that whole-genome sequencing from antigen tests is feasible and yields similar results from RT-PCR-based assays utilizing a swab in viral transport media.