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With the evolution of electronic devices, such as 3D cameras, addressing the challenges of text localization in 3D video (e.g., for indexing) is increasingly drawing the attention of the multimedia and video processing community. Existing methods focus on 2D video and their performance in the presence of the challenges in 3D video, such as shadow areas associated with text and irregularly sized and shaped text, degrades. This paper proposes the first approach that successfully addresses the challenges of 3D video in addition to those of 2D. It employs a number of innovations, among which, the first is the Generalized Gradient Vector Flow (GGVF) for dominant points detection. The second is the Wavefront concept for text candidate point detection from those dominant points. In addition, an Adaptive B-Spline Polygon Curve Network (ABS-Net) is proposed for accurate text localization in 3D videos by constructing tight fitting bounding polygons using text candidate points. Extensive experiments on custom (3D video) and standard datasets (2D video and scene text) show that the proposed method is practical and useful, and overall outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods.

This paper focuses on automatic Cholangiocarcinoma (CC) diagnosis from microscopic hyperspectral (HSI) pathological dataset with deep learning method. The first benchmark based on the microscopic hyperspectral pathological images is set up. Particularly, 880 scenes of multidimensional hyperspectral Cholangiocarcinoma images are collected and manually labeled each pixel as either tumor or non-tumor for supervised learning. Moreover, each scene from the slide is given a binary label indicating whether it is from a patient or a normal person. Different from traditional RGB images, the HSI acquires pixels in multiple spectral intervals, which is added as an extension on the channel dimension of 3-channel RGB image. This work aims at fully exploiting the spatial-spectral HSI data through a deep Convolution Neural Network (CNN). The whole scene is first divided into several patches. Then they are fed into CNN for the tumor/non-tumor binary prediction and the tumor area regression. The further diagnosis on the scene is made by random forest based on the features from patch prediction. Experiments show that HSI provides a more accurate result than RGB image. Moreover, a spectral interval convolution and normalization scheme are proposed for further mining the spectral information in HSI, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the spatial-spectral data for CC diagnosis.

With the growing needs of practical applications such as security monitoring, partial face recognition is a challenging but important issue, because the captured faces in real-world surveillance videos may be occluded or with variations. Though current face recognition methods perform well in relatively constrained scenes, they may suffer from degradation for partial faces. In this paper, we propose a framework of model-based transfer learning and sparse coding (MTLSC) for partial face recognition. First, due to less information in partial face image, we exploit the mirrored image of an original probe sample as sample augment to provide further information. Considering the inadequacy of training face samples, we obtain face features based on model-based transfer learning VGGNet that is pre-trained on VGGFace dataset. Then we reconstruct face features by sliding window in view of different sizes of partial face hard to extract the same feature dimension. Finally we carry out sparse coding with rectification and calculate the minimum score of the probe and mirrored samples among all classes to get the results. Thus, by model-based transfer learning, sliding window for feature reconstruction and sparse coding with rectification, the proposed framework improves partial face recognition performance. Experimental results on three face databases (LFW, AR and NIR), and two person re-identification databases (iLIDS-VID and PKU-Reid) demonstrate our method is effective for partial face recognition.

BackgroundBalancing the yield, quality and resistance to disease is a daunting challenge in crop breeding due to the negative relationship among these traits. Large-scale genomic landscape analysis of germplasm resources is considered to be an efficient approach to dissect the genetic basis of the complex traits. Central China is one of the main regions where thejaponicarice is produced. However, dozens of high-yield rice varieties in this region still exist with low quality or susceptibility to blast disease, severely limiting their application in rice production.ResultsHere, we re-sequence 200japonicarice varieties grown in central China over the past 30 years and analyze the genetic structure of these cultivars using 2.4 million polymorphic SNP markers. Genome-wide association mapping and selection scans indicate that strong selection for high-yield and taste quality associated with low-amylose content may have led to the loss of resistance to the rice blast fungusMagnaporthe oryzae. By extensive bioinformatic analyses of yield components, resistance to rice blast, and taste quality, we identify several superior alleles for these traits in the population. Based on this information, we successfully introduce excellent taste quality and blast-resistant alleles into the background of two high-yield cultivars and develop two elite lines, XY99 and JXY1, with excellent taste, high yield, and broad-spectrum of blast resistance.ConclusionsThis is the first large-scale genomic landscape analysis ofjaponicarice varieties grown in central China and we demonstrate a balancing of multiple agronomic traits by genomic-based strategy.

Antimony chalcogenides are widely studied as a light-absorbing material due to their merits of low toxicity, efficient cost, and excellent photovoltaic properties. However, the band gaps of antimony selenide (approximately 1.1 eV) and antimony sulfide (approximately 1.7 eV) both deviate from the optimal detailed balance band gap (∼1.3 eV) for terrestrial single-junction solar cells. Notably, the band gap of Sb2(S, Se)3 can be tunable in the range from 1.1 to 1.7 eV, which can cover the detailed balance band gap. In this work, the vapor transport deposition method with two independent evaporation sources is used to deposit Sb2(S, Se)3 thin films. By carefully optimizing the evaporation temperature and the start evaporation time of the Sb2Se3 and Sb2S3 sources, a suitable band gap of 1.33 eV is obtained. Finally, on the basis of the optimal Sb2(S, Se)3 films, Sb2(S, Se)3 solar cells without a hole transport layer achieved an efficiency of 7.03%.

In this paper, we propose the Glyph-Semanteme fusion Embedding (GSE) for Chinese character and apply it to Offline Handwritten Chinese Text Recognition (offline-HCTR). It is well known that the number of Chinese characters is very large and the glyphs of these characters are complex, but few researchers realize that the underlying reason for this phenomenon is that Chinese is a form of ideogram, which indicates that there are correlations between the glyph and semanteme of a character. In order to utilize this feature and create better representations for Chinese characters, firstly, we extract the glyph embedding and semanteme embedding for each Chinese character; then we propose a parameterized gated fusion strategy to automatically calculate the Glyph-Semanteme fusion Embedding for each character by fusing its glyph embedding and semanteme embedding. We apply the proposed GSE to an attention-based Encoder-decoder network for the offline-HCTR task. Furthermore, two kinds of GSE, Character-level GSE (CGSE) and Text-level GSE (TGSE), are applied to the decoder phase to yield the predictions. On the standard benchmark ICDAR-2013 HCTR competition dataset, the proposed method achieves 96.65% character-level recognition accuracy, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed glyph-semanteme fusion embedding.

This paper examines the role of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in enhancing political relations between China and its partner countries. We postulate that an international economic cooperation scheme such as the BRI may facilitate commercial exchanges and increase the participating countries’ economic gains. This should generate incentives for these countries to avoid political tensions that may jeopardize mutually beneficial economic exchanges, and to expand the constellation of domestic coalitions in support of cordial diplomatic and political relations. We test the effect of the BRI on bilateral political relations using data on political relations between China and 91 countries along the BRI route between 2006 and 2018. Treating the promulgation of the BRI in 2013 as a policy shock, our difference‐in‐difference analysis lends substantial support to our hypotheses. Further analyses of the underlying causal mechanisms suggest that the BRI bolsters political relations by strengthening economic ties with partner countries through trade and investment related to economic cooperation.

Document image classification plays a vital role in the document image processing system. Thus it is of great importance to have a clear understanding of the state-of-the-art of the document image classification field, especially in this deep learning era, which will facilitate the development of effective document image processing systems. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of the progress that has been made in the field of document image classification over the past two decades. We categorize the document images into non-mobile images and mobile images according to the way they are acquired. The existing document image classification methods for these two types of images are reviewed, which are classified as textual-based methods, structural-based methods, visual-based methods and hybrid methods. We further compare the performance of different classification methods on several public benchmark datasets. Finally, we highlight some open issues and recommend promising directions for future research.

Background:. Previous studies have demonstrated different predominant sites of distant metastasis between patients with and without neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT). This study aimed to explore whether NCRT could influence the metastasis pattern of rectal cancer through a propensity score-matched analysis. Methods:. In total, 1296 patients with NCRT or post-operative chemoradiotherapy (PCRT) were enrolled in this study between January 2008 and December 2015. Propensity score matching was used to correct for differences in baseline characteristics between the two groups. After propensity score matching, the metastasis pattern, including metastasis sites and timing, was compared and analyzed. Results:. After propensity score matching, there were 408 patients in the PCRT group and 245 patients in the NCRT group. NCRT significantly reduced local recurrence (4.1% vs. 10.3%, P = 0.004), but not distant metastases (28.2% vs. 27.9%, P = 0.924) compared with PCRT. In both the NCRT and PCRT groups, the most common metastasis site was the lung, followed by the liver. The NCRT group developed local recurrence and distant metastases later than the PCRT group (median time: 29.2 [18.8, 52.0] months vs. 18.7 [13.3, 30.0] months, Z = –2.342, P = 0.019; and 21.2 [12.2, 33.8] vs. 16.4 [9.3, 27.9] months, Z = –1.765, P = 0.035, respectively). The distant metastases occurred mainly in the 2nd year after surgery in both the PCRT group (39/114, 34.2%) and NCRT group (21/69, 30.4%). However, 20.3% (14/69) of the distant metastases appeared in the 3rd year in the NCRT group, while this number was only 13.2% (15/114) in the PCRT group. Conclusions:. The predominant site of distant metastases was the lung, followed by the liver, for both the NCRT group and PCRT group. NCRT did not influence the predominant site of distant metastases, but the NCRT group developed local recurrence and distant metastases later than the PCRT group. The follow-up strategy for patients with NCRT should be adjusted and a longer intensive follow-up is needed.

Background In our previous study, we indicated that scutellarin (SCU) induced an anticancer effect in A549 cells. However, whether SCU regulates the radiosensitivity of non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and its related mechanism is still unclear. Methods In this study, we explored the anticancer effect induced by iodine‐125 (125I) and SCU at a sensitizing concentration in A549 and H1975 cells. Cellular apoptosis and proliferation were detected by flow cytometry, Bcl‐2/Bax expression level, cell cycle, CCK‐8, and EdU staining. A tumor model using nude mice was also carried out to investigate the combined effect of 125I and SCU in vivo. In addition, the expression level of AKT/mTOR pathway was detected to investigate whether it is linked to the anticancer effect of 125I and SCU. Results SCU at a sensitizing concentration promoted the 125I‐induced apoptosis and antiproliferative effect in A549 and H1975 cells. Moreover, the same results were obtained in vivo. Based on our findings, the AKT/mTOR pathway was significantly downregulated after combined treatment with 125I and SCU. Conclusions The results of our study suggested that SCU promotes the anticancer effects induced by 125I in NSCLC cells by downregulating the AKT/mTOR pathway and lays a foundation for future application of this combined treatment., Scutellarin (SCU) enhanced inhibition of 125I‐induced proliferation, promoted 125I‐induced apoptosis, and boosted 125I‐induced tumor inhibition in vivo in non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, as well as enhanced downregulation of the 125I‐induced AKT/mTOR pathway.

A local optimal matching scheme of attributed scattering centres (ASC) is proposed for occluded target recognition in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Considering the number of matching pairs...

BACKGROUND Azathioprine (AZA) and its close analog 6-mercaptopurine are thiopurines widely used in the treatment of patients with cancer, organ transplantation, and autoimmune or inflammatory diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus. Bone marrow inhibition is a common side effect of AZA, and severe bone marrow inhibition is related to decreased thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) activity. CASE SUMMARY We herein report a patient with proliferative lupus nephritis who was using AZA for maintenance therapy, had no common TPMT pathogenic site mutations, and exhibited severe bone marrow inhibition on the 15th day after oral administration. CONCLUSION This report alerts physicians to the fact that even though the TPMT gene has no common pathogenic site mutation, severe myelosuppression may also occur.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Dioscin has multiple biological activities and is beneficial for cardiovascular and cerebral vascular diseases. Here, we investigated the protective effects of dioscin against subarachnoid haemorrhage and the molecular mechanisms involved. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH Dioscin was administered after subarachnoid haemorrhage induced in rats. MCC950, a potent selective nod-like receptor pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inhibitor, was used to suppress NLRP3 and EX527 (selisistat) was used to inhibit sirtuin 1 (SIRT1). KEY RESULTS In vivo, dioscin inhibited acute inflammatory response, oxidative damage, neurological impairment and neural cell degeneration after subarachnoid haemorrhage along with dramatically suppressing NLRP3 inflammasome activation. While pretreatment with MCC950 reduced the inflammatory response and improved neurological outcomes it did not lessen ROS production. However, giving dioscin after MCC950 reduced acute brain damage and ROS production. Dioscin increased SIRT1 expression after subarachnoid haemorrhage, whereas EX527 abolished the up-regulation of SIRT1 induced by dioscin and offset the inhibitory effects of dioscin on NLRP3 inflammasome activation. EX527 pretreatment also reversed the neuroprotective effects of dioscin against subarachnoid haemorrhage. Similarly, in vitro, dioscin dose-dependently suppressed inflammatory response, oxidative damage and neuronal degeneration and improved cell viability in neurons and microglia co-culture system. These effects were associated with inhibition of the NLRP3 inflammasome and stimulation of SIRT1 signalling, which could be inhibited by EX527 pretreatment. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS Dioscin provides protection against subarachnoid haemorrhage via the suppression of NLRP3 inflammasome activation through SIRT1-dependent pathway. Dioscin may be a new candidate to ameliorate early brain injury after subarachnoid haemorrhage.

Here, we fabricated In2O3(ZnO)m (IZO) superlattice microplates with hexagon morphologies by the substrate-free optical vapor supersaturated precipitation. The IZO microplates possessed a superlattice structure with a large m number, i.e., m = 23, consisting of layered alternating stacks of octahedral InO2− as inversion boundaries and layered InZnmOm+1+ as a zig-zag modulated pattern. The Raman peak at 613 cm−1 confirmed the superlattice of the IZO microplates. The broad asymmetric excitonic photoluminescence (PL) emission with the photon energy of 3.236 eV indicated the heavy doping of indium in the IZO, resulting a redshift of ~ 32 meV from the near-band-edge emission. The unusual negative thermal quenching of PL intensity was also observed. Moreover, the anisotropic electrical properties of the IZO superlattice microplates were manifested, for the first time, where the in-plane conductivity was two orders of magnitude higher than out-plane one. The present work provided new insight into the free-standing IZO superlattice microdevices for future optoelectronic applications.

Background. This study aimed to explore the mechanisms of action of the PSORI-CM01 and Yinxieling formulas in the treatment of patients with psoriasis vulgaris by analyzing gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Methods. PBMC samples were collected from 21 patients before and after treatment. The study included nine patients in the PSORI-CM01 treatment group, 12 patients in the Yinxieling treatment group, and nine patients in the healthy control group. Gene expression levels in PBMCs were determined using the Affymetrix gene chip technology. Results. In the PSORI-CM01 group before and after treatment, a total of 668 differentially expressed genes were found, of which 445 were upregulated and 223 were downregulated. Before and after Yinxieling treatment, 657 differentially expressed genes were found, of which 168 were upregulated and 489 were downregulated. Venn analysis showed that 78 genes were not differentially expressed in the PSORI-CM01 group and 74 were not differentially expressed in the Yinxieling group compared with those in the controls. Among these genes, 72 genes were common to both groups, which were the genes on which the two drugs acted jointly. The results of KEGG analysis and Venn analysis on the signalling pathways of drug action in treatment groups showed that haemostasis and pathways involving Rho GTPases were common signalling pathways of drug action in the two groups. Conclusions. By a comparative analysis of the treatment groups, we found that both drugs have a positive effect on patients with psoriasis vulgaris, primarily by regulating the pathways related to platelet activation, aggregation, and blood coagulation. Trial registration: ChiCTR, ChiCTR-TRC-14005185, Registered 8 August 2014, http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=4390

Objective We aim to determine the risk of acute ischemic stroke in patients with severe and non-severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods A literature search was conducted in the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases until October 28, 2020. Studies covering COVID-19’s severity classification data and COVID-19 patients with acute ischemic stroke were included. Two independent evaluators extracted data, and the random effects model was used to calculate the risk ratios (RR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of acute ischemic stroke associated with COVID-19’s severity. Results A total of 8 studies were included, involving 5266 patients. Among all COVID-19 patients, the total incidence of ischemic stroke was 1.76% (95% CI: 0.82–3.01). Severe patients have an increased risk of acute ischemic stroke compared with non-severe patients (RR = 3.53, 95% CI: 2.06–6.07, P < 0.0001; I2 = 12%). This association was also observed when COVID-19’s severity was defined by clinical parameters (RR 2.91, 95% CI: 1.17–7.26, P = 0.02; I2 = 29%) and the need for intensive care (RR 4.47, 95% CI: 2.40–8.31, P < 0.0001; I2 = 0%). Conclusions This meta-analysis shows that the severe course of COVID-19 is associated with an increased risk of acute ischemic stroke.

CuPbSbS3 (bournonite) has emerged as a promising light-absorbing material for thin-film solar cells due to its attractive photophysical properties. The crystallinity of CuPbSbS3 films is a main challenge of achieving high power conversion efficiency. Herein, we perform a series of optimization strategies to enhance the crystallinity of CuPbSbS3 films, including adjusting the annealing temperature and reducing the carbon residue. The optimized CuPbSbS3 film acquires an enhanced crystallinity, and an optimal solar cell device based on it achieves a power conversion efficiency of 2.65% with good stability. This efficiency is the highest value for CuPbSbS3 solar cells up to now.

In recent years, the implantable cardiac monitors (ICM) have enhanced the recognition ability of atrial fibrillation (AF), which makes ICM have a new application in AF detection. We conducted a meta-analysis to determine the total incidence of newly found AF detected by ICM after cryptogenic stroke and to evaluate the factors related to the detection of AF. A literature search was conducted in the PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane library databases until March 1, 2020. Studies that reported the detection rate of AF using ICM in cryptogenic stroke patients with negative initial AF screening were analyzed. A total of 23 studies were included. The overall proportion of AF detected by ICM in cryptogenic stroke patients was 25% (95% confidence interval [CI], 22–29%). The rate of AF detected by ICM was independently related to both cardiac monitoring time (coefficient = 0.0003; 95% CI, 0.0001–0.0005; P = 0.0001) and CHA2DS2-VASc score (coefficient = 0.0834; 95% CI, 0.0339–0.1329; P = 0.001). In subgroup analysis, we found a significant difference in the detection rate of AF for monitoring duration ( 12 and ≤ 24 months: 23.6% [95% CI, 19.9–27.5%]; > 24 months and ≤ 36 months: 36.5% [95% CI, 24.2–49.9%]; P < 0.001), and continent (Europe: 26.5% [95% CI, 22.2–31.0%]; North America: 16.0% [95% CI, 10.3–22.6%]; Asia: 17.4% [95% CI, 12.4–23.0%]; P = 0.005). The longer the time of ICM monitoring after cryptogenic stroke, the higher the detection rate of AF. Further research is still needed to determine the optimal duration of long-term cardiac monitoring.

Recent years have witnessed the emerging development of flexible electronic devices in applications, such as human gait monitoring. The automatic posture identification could be achieved by sensing the feet pressure. However, the sensor data processing chip usually consumes high power. In this letter, a wearable gait recognition system integrated with an ultrahigh-energy efficiency chip is proposed. A low-power human gait pressure monitoring and recognition solution that uses artificial intelligence near-sensor chips is reported. A large-scale flexible pressure sensor array (64 × 64 pixels) was fabricated. The gait posture was recognized dynamically with a CMOS chip embedded near the sensors. The system owns a recognition rate for three different gaits of 92% with the chip power consumption of 1.45 mW. This letter paves the way for future low-power human gait monitoring.

Background and purpose Oxidative stress and neuronal apoptosis play key roles in traumatic brain injury. We investigated the protective effects of astaxanthin against traumatic brain injury and its underlying mechanisms of action. Experimental approach A weight-drop model of traumatic brain injury in vivo and hydrogen peroxide exposure in vitro model were established. Brain oedema, behaviour tests, western blot, biochemical analysis, lesion volume, histopathological study and cell viability were performed. Key results Astaxanthin significantly reduced oxidative insults on Days 1, 3 and 7 after traumatic brain injury. Neuronal apoptosis was also ameliorated on Day 3. Additionally, astaxanthin improved neurological functions up to 3 weeks after traumatic brain injury. Astaxanthin treatment dramatically enhanced the expression of peroxiredoxin 2 (Prx2), nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2/Nrf2) and sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), while it down-regulated the phosphorylation of apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) and p38. Inhibition of Prx2 by siRNA injection reversed the beneficial effects of astaxanthin against traumatic brain injury. Additionally, Nrf2 knockout prevented the neuroprotective effects of astaxanthin in traumatic brain injury. In contrast, overexpression of Prx2 in Nrf2 knockout mice attenuated the secondary brain injury after traumatic brain injury. Moreover, inhibiting SIRT1 by EX527 dramatically inhibited the neuroprotective effects of astaxanthin and suppressed SIRT1/Nrf2/Prx2/ASK1/p38 pathway both in vivo and in vitro. Conclusion and implications Astaxanthin improved the neurological functions and protected the brain from injury after traumatic brain injury, primarily by reducing oxidative stress and neuronal death via SIRT1/Nrf2/Prx2/ASK1/p38 signalling pathway and might be a new candidate to ameliorate traumatic brain injury.

Objective: The outcomes of alternative donor hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) with unmanipulated grafts for Inherited bone marrow failure syndromes (IBMFS) are discouraging. Our study...

PurposeWe examine the effect of institutional blockholders on the variability of firm performance.Design/methodology/approachWe use OLS regression models to estimate the effect of institutional blockholders on within-firm, over-time variability of firm performance.FindingsWe find that firms with more institutional blockholders experience less variable firm performance. In particular, more institutional blockholders are associated with less variability of annual stock returns, ROA and the market-to-book ratio. We further explore several underlying mechanisms through with institutional blockholders reduce firm performance variability. We find that more institutional blockholders are associated with less variable capital expenditures and R&D investments, and less frequent acquisition activities.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation of this paper is that our sample period only covers 1996–2006. Future studies can extend our research to a more recent period (e.g. 2009–2019) to test whether our findings remain valid in other periods.Practical implicationsWe document a significant relation between institutional blockholders and firm performance variability in this paper. However, we do not make any judgment as to whether firms should increase their institutional blockholders as it is unclear whether the caused reduction in risk-taking is socially efficient. We argue that the value implication of institutional blockholders depends on the existing blockholder structure and the different levels of risk appetite between the CEO and shareholders. Thus, the decision on the increase or decrease of institutional blockholders should be carefully made based on a firm’s specific characteristics.Originality/valueThis paper is a first study which examines the impact of the presence of institutional blockholders on the variability of firm performance, while most prior studies focus on the stock ownership of institutional blockholders and examine its impact on the level of firm performance.

There is a gap between recent development of 4K display technologies and the short storage of 4K contents. Super-Resolution (SR) serves as a bridge to harmonize the need and demand. Recently, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based networks have demonstrated great property in image SR. However, most existing methods require large model capacity and consume expensive computation for high performance. Besides, most methods keep the upscaling part relatively simple compared with the feature extraction part. For feature fusion, some methods directly concatenate the features of multi-levels, which is suboptimal due to ignoring the importance of different features. In this work, we propose a recursive multi-stage upscaling network (RMUN) with multiple sub-upscaling modules (SUMs) and a discriminative self-ensemble module (SEM). Specifically, we extract local hierarchical features by using a novel feature extraction module (FEM) which is recursive to reduce the number of parameters. Then, we construct multiple sub-upscaling modules to produce various high-resolution features in forward propagation. This strategy enhances the upscaling part and provides multiple error feedback routes. Furthermore, we employ an SEM for global hierarchical feature recalibration, which can selectively emphasize informative features and surpass less useful ones. Extensive quantitative and qualitative evaluations on benchmark datasets show that our proposed method performs comparable with the state-of-the-art methods in terms of the balance of model size and model performance.

We examine the relation between social trust and the speed of leverage adjustment (SOA) around the world. Using a large international sample (65 countries, 1996–2016), we find that social trust has a positive effect on SOA. In the cross section, we find that the positive effect of social trust on the SOA is more pronounced for: (i) over-levered firms; (ii) firms with higher information asymmetry; (iii) firms with lower ease of financing; and (iv) firms located in countries with weaker governance quality. Overall, we highlight the role of social trust in shaping corporate capital structure.

Herein, we developed an unmodified hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) photoelectrochemical (PEC) biosensing platform with a low background signal and high sensitivity based on CuS quantum dots (QDs)/Co3O4 polyhedra-driven multiple signal amplifications. The prepared porous h-BN nanosheets with large specific surface areas, as the photoelectric substrate material, can provide extensive active reaction sites. Meanwhile, the CuS QDs/Co3O4 polyhedra were synthesized by the zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-67) and utilized as a multiple signal amplifier, which can not only drive the p-n semiconductor quenching effect to compete with the h-BN photoelectrode for the consumption of electron donors and exciting light but also trigger a mimetic enzymatic catalytic precipitation effect to inhibit electron transfer. The quenching ability and peroxidase-like activity of CuS QDs/Co3O4 polyhedra were evaluated to prove its superiority, and the possible mechanisms of electron transfer and enzymatic catalytic were further analyzed in detail. The developed PEC biosensing platform for the chlorpyrifos assay presented outstanding performance with a wide linear range from 1 × 10-1 to 1 × 107 ng mL-1 and a low detection limit of 0.34 pg mL-1 and exhibited excellent selectivity, reproducibility, and stability. In addition, the CuS QDs/Co3O4 polyhedra-activated h-BN PEC biosensing platform may exhibit universality for various analytes via replacing the corresponding target aptamer sequence. This work provides a remarkable inspiration and valuable reference for the development of the PEC biosensor, and the signal amplifier-enabled unmodified PEC biosensing platform strategy has a bright application in early safety warning, bioanalysis and clinical diagnosis.

Trial Information Click here to access other published clinical trials. Lessons Learned Studies targeting cladribine in combination with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, low-dose cytarabine, and aclarubicin (C-CAG) regimen in relapsed and refractory acute myeloid leukemia (R/R AML) are limited. The complete remission rate after two cycles of C-CAG regimen was 67.6%, and 1-year overall survival and disease-free survival rates were 59.7% and 72.9%, respectively. The C-CAG regimen is significantly effective against R/R AML with a low hematological toxicity and thus serves as an alternative treatment for R/R AML. Background The optimal salvage chemotherapy regimen for relapsed and refractory acute myeloid leukemia (R/R AML) remains uncertain. Therefore, a phase II study was conducted for the prospective evaluation of the efficacy and safety of the purine analog cladribine in combination with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), low-dose cytarabine, and aclarubicin (C-CAG) regimen for patients with R/R AML. Methods A total of 34 patients received C-CAG regimen for salvage treatment as follows: cladribine 5 mg/m2, days 1–5; G-CSF 300 μg, days 0–9; aclarubicin 10 mg, days 3–6; cytarabine 10 mg/m2 every 12 hours, subcutaneously, days 3–9; 4 weeks per cycle. Patients were allowed to withdraw from the study if complete remission (CR) was not achieved after two courses of chemotherapy. If conditions were right, the patients achieving CR were recommended to receive allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Otherwise, they were treated for a total of six cycles unless disease progression or unacceptable side effects were observed or they withdrew their consent. Results All patients received at least two cycles of C-CAG regimen chemotherapy. After two cycles of C-CAG, 23 patients (67.6%) achieved CR, and 5 patients had partial remission (14.7%). At a median follow-up of 15 months (range, 3–38 months), the 1-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) rates were 59.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 42.6%–76.8%) and 72.9% (95% CI, 54.3%–91.5%), respectively. The most common adverse effect was myelosuppression. Nonhematological toxicities were mild, and no treatment-related deaths occurred. Conclusion Preliminary data indicate that the C-CAG regimen chemotherapy is significantly effective against R/R AML with a high remission rate and a low hematological toxicity. Thus, it may serve as an alternative treatment for R/R AML.

The investigation of single-pixel terahertz (THz) imaging opens up a new research direction for the development of THz imaging technology. In this work, we exploit a reflective single-pixel THz imaging system based on photoinduced dynamic masks. By combining the compressed sensing and inverse Fresnel diffraction algorithms, a reflective THz spectral image is accurately reconstructed and the morphology of a sample is clearly observed. Three application potentials of the THz imaging system are fully proved, including time-of-flight measurement of a sample with multiple interfaces, noninvasive testing of a hidden object, and spectral identification of different chemical substances. The reflection-type measurement mode effectively improves the practicability of single-pixel THz imaging.

Background Risk stratification and prognosis prediction of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are largely dependent on pre-treatment information. However, post-treatment data also provides much useful information. In this retrospective study, we explored whether the level of blood count recovery before and after the first minimal residual disease (MRD) negative complete remission (CR) is relevant to clinical outcomes of AML patients. Methods For each included patient, peripheral platelet counts were measured on the day before initial treatment (PLTpre), whereas platelet peak values (PLTpeak) were recorded after marrow recovery following the chemotherapy course inducing the first MRD-negative CR. The difference (DPLT) between these two values (DPLT = PLTpeak−PLTpre) was calculated. X-tile software was utilized to establish the optimal cut-point for DPLT, which was expected to distinguish CR patients with different clinical outcomes. A cross validation analysis was conducted to confirm the robustness of the established cut-point. The results were further tested by a Cox multivariate analysis. Results The optimal cut-point of DPLT was determined as 212 × 109/L. Patients in high DPLT group were observed to have a significantly better PFS (p = 0.016) and a better OS (without statistical significance, p = 0.106). Cox multivariate analysis showed that higher DPLT was associated with longer PFS (HR = 2.894, 95% CI: 1.320–6.345, p = 0.008) and longer OS (HR = 3.077, 95% CI: 1.130–8.376, p = 0.028). Conclusion Platelet recovery degree before and after achieving MRD-negative CR (DPLT) is a potential predictor of clinical outcomes in CR patients. Higher DPLT value is associated with longer PFS and OS. Our findings may help to develop simple methods for AML prognosis evaluation.

Background Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is expected to improve local and systemic disease control and has been established as a standard therapy for several types of solid tumors. Considering the benefits of frontline radiation and pegaspargase in localized extranodal natural killer (NK)/T‐cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKTL), we conducted a phase II study on pegaspargase‐based CCRT to explore an effective treatment. Materials and Methods In this study, 30 patients with newly diagnosed nasal ENKTL in stages IE to IIE received CCRT (radiation 50 Gy and two cycles of pegaspargase 2,500 unit/m2 every 3 weeks). Four courses of pegaspargase were performed after CCRT. Results The patients completed CCRT and four cycles of pegaspargase. The complete remission (CR) rate was 90%, with a 95% confidential interval (CI) of 73.5%–97.9% after CCRT. The CR rate was 100% (95% CI, 88.4%–100%) at the end of the treatment. The 2‐year overall survival and progression‐free survival rates were 90.9% (95% CI, 78.4%–100%) and 92.8% (95% CI, 83.2%–100%), respectively. The major adverse events were in grades 1–2. Conclusion Preliminary data indicate that pegaspargase combined with concurrent radiotherapy for newly diagnosed patients with nasal ENKTL was efficacious and well tolerated. Registered at www.chictr.org. Clinical Trial Registration Number. ChiCTR‐OIC‐15007662. Implications for Practice This clinical trial, evaluating the efficacy and toxicity of concurrent chemoradiotherapy by using single‐drug pegaspargase for patients with extranodal natural killer/T‐cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKTL) in stage IE to IIE, showed pegaspargase combined with concurrent radiotherapy was efficacious and well tolerated. Pegaspargase has a long half‐life and is easy to administer via intramuscular injection. Consequently, pegaspargase combined with concurrent radiotherapy for patients with ENKTL can be completed in the outpatient clinic., This phase II clinical study evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of concurrent chemoradiotherapy using single‐drug pegaspargase for patients with nasal‐type extranodal NK/T‐cell lymphoma.

As an important factor of chromosome abnormality in offspring, elderly pregnant women have attracted more and more attention. Studies have confirmed that the offspring of older pregnant women, whether conceived naturally or through assisted reproductive technology, are more likely to develop chromosome abnormalities than younger pregnant women, and the reasons have not been fully explained. The spindle assembly checkpoint monitors the correct connection between all mobile axes and the spindle. The bipolar spindle is the key to cell division to guide the correct separation of chromosomes and is the main gatekeeper to prevent the development of oocytes carrying DNA damage. Older pregnant women lead to the error of sister chromatid separation and the decrease of chromosome cohesion. The integrity of telomeres also affects the folding of DNA and the ability of cells to replicate. In addition, more oxidative stress makes the ovaries of older pregnant women unable to support fertilization and embryonic development. With the oxygen free radicals increase, the pathway of ovarian cell apoptosis and mitochondrial repair were changed. Therefore, the analysis of the causes of fetal chromosome abnormalities in elderly pregnant women is helpful to improve the understanding of the particularity of pregnancy in elderly pregnant women, so as to reduce the birth of defective babies and improve the birth quality.

PurposeLymphoblastic lymphoma (LBL) is an invasive neoplasm of precursor T-cell or B-cell lineage. A broadly accepted standard treatment for adult LBL has not yet been defined.Materials and MethodsTo address this issue, we compared two chemotherapy regimens: a modified non-Hodgkin lymphoma Berlin–Frankfurt–Münster-95 (NHL-BFM-95) regimen and HyperCVAD/MA. This retrospective study consecutively enrolled 207 adult LBL patients at two hospitals from 2000 to 2018. Univariate and multivariate analysis were used to assess prognostic factors.ResultsIn the present study, most clinical characteristics were similar between the two treatment groups except for age and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level. Patients treated with modified NHL-BFM-95 regimen tended to be younger and with elevated LDH level. The modified NHL-BFM- 95 regimen produced better treatment outcomes than those with HyperCVAD/MA in patients with T-LBL or patients < 40 years. Treatment with HyperCVAD/MA, high Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group scores, and bone marrow involvement were independent risk factors in T-LBL. No patients interrupted treatment for severe adverse events.ConclusionThe results suggested that the modified regimen is well-tolerated and can produce the promising outcomes in patients with T-LBL or patients < 40 years.

This paper uses the SMART Model to analyze the direct economic effects of the US-China tariff war on both China and the US. Based on the three lists of Chinese products subject to additional tariffs imposed under the US Section 301 investigation throughout 2018 and the tariff lists issued by China as a countermeasure, we simulate the trade creation/reduction effects, welfare effects, and trade diversion effects at the detailed product level. According to the simulation results, US imports from China and Chinese imports from the US will be greatly reduced by an estimated $91.46 and $36.71 billion, respectively. US imports will be diverted from China to other markets, specifically, Mexico, Japan and Germany, in most sectors. Chinese imports from the US will be mainly diverted to Brazil, Germany, Japan, Argentina, the United Kingdom and Canada. However, trade between the US and China cannot be completely transferred to alternative suppliers in other countries without additional costs or a loss of utility, which results in a substantial reduction in the total imports and welfare in both the US and China. The sectors with the highest welfare loss in the US are machinery and electrical products. In China, soybeans and automobiles are the most affected sectors and exhibit much higher welfare loss than other sectors. The trade war harms both sides’ welfare and could have further adverse effects on global value chains and the multilateral trading system.

The association of serum elabela (ELA) and apelin with the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is unknown. We determined if serum ELA and apelin levels were associated with CKD stage. This observational study involved 60 CKD patients and 20 healthy, age-, race-, and gender-matched controls. The participants were grouped according to renal function as follows: normal control group, CKD1 group (stage-1 CKD, 20 patients), CKD3 group (stage-3 CKD, 20 patients), and CKD5 group (stage-5 CKD, 20 patients) in accordance with the Kidney Disease Outcomes – Quality Initiative criteria. We recorded the demographic, clinical, and biochemical data of all participants. Serum ELA and apelin levels were measured using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Serum ELA levels gradually and significantly declined with decreases in the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Serum ELA showed significant negative correlations with serum creatinine (r = −0.529, p < .001), blood urea nitrogen (r = −0.575, p < .001), systolic blood pressure (r = −0.455, p < .001), and diastolic blood pressure (r = −0.450, p < .001), and significant positive correlations with hemoglobin (r = 0.523, p < .001) and eGFR (r = 0.728, p < .001). Multiple regression analysis showed that eGFR independently influenced serum ELA levels. No significant association was found between serum apelin levels and CKD progression. In CKD patients, serum ELA levels decreased with decreasing eGFR. This finding may provide a new target for the prediction, diagnosis, and staging of CKD.

Nonrigid image registration plays an important role in the field of computer vision and medical application. The methods based on Demons algorithm for image registration usually use intensity difference as similarity criteria. However, intensity based methods can not preserve image texture details well and are limited by local minima. In order to solve these problems, we propose a Gabor feature based LogDemons registration method in this article, called GFDemons. We extract Gabor features of the registered images to construct feature similarity metric since Gabor filters are suitable to extract image texture information. Furthermore, because of the weak gradients in some image regions, the update fields are too small to transform the moving image to the fixed image correctly. In order to compensate this deficiency, we propose an inertial constraint strategy based on GFDemons, named IGFDemons, using the previous update fields to provide guided information for the current update field. The inertial constraint strategy can further improve the performance of the proposed method in terms of accuracy and convergence. We conduct experiments on three different types of images and the results demonstrate that the proposed methods achieve better performance than some popular methods.

Although a substantial number of traffic videos have been accumulated via daily monitoring, deep learning is seldom utilized to process these data for multilevel traffic state detection. The application of deep learning is limited for two reasons: (1) the multilevel traffic state based on traffic images has not been defined. (2) The high noise information in traffic images and extremely similar features of adjacent traffic states hinder accurate detection. Based on this situation, A new definition of the image-based multilevel traffic state is proposed using the ratio of the vehicle areas to the road areas in a traffic image, and a standard image dataset, including various illuminations and vast scenes, are established. A deep residual network named TrafficNet, which is embedded with Squeeze-and-Excitation blocks and is learned by the improved triplet loss, is proposed for multilevel traffic state detection. The Squeeze-and-Excitation block effectively reduces the model's attention to noise information and focuses on road areas that are associated with traffic features in an image. The improved triplet loss maps the learned features to a metric space where the distance between features of inter-class is larger than that within the same class, which improves the discrimination of features between adjacent traffic states. Relevant experiments prove that the performance of TrafficNet, whose accuracy (Acc) in classifying 10 traffic states reaches 94.27% with the testing dataset, is much better than that of traditional deep classification models, which do not include Squeeze-and-Excitation blocks or the improved triplet loss.

More than 60% of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients show a positive response to the first ALK inhibitor, crizotinib, which has been used as the standard treatment for newly diagnosed patients with ALK rearrangement. However, most patients inevitably develop crizotinib resistance due to acquired secondary mutations in the ALK kinase domain, such as the gatekeeper mutation L1196M and the most refractory mutation, G1202R. Here, we develop XMU‐MP‐5 as a new‐generation ALK inhibitor to overcome crizotinib resistance mutations, including L1196M and G1202R. XMU‐MP‐5 blocks ALK signaling pathways and inhibits the proliferation of cells harboring either wild‐type or mutant EML4‐ALK in vitro and suppresses tumor growth in xenograft mouse models in vivo. Structural analysis provides insights into the mode of action of XMU‐MP‐5. In addition, XMU‐MP‐5 induces significant regression of lung tumors in two genetically engineered mouse (GEM) models, further demonstrating its pharmacological efficacy and potential for clinical application. These preclinical data support XMU‐MP‐5 as a novel selective ALK inhibitor with high potency and selectivity. XMU‐MP‐5 holds great promise as a new therapeutic against clinically relevant secondary ALK mutations., Despite the clinical success of ALK inhibitors in NSCLC, multiple drug‐resistant mutations in ALK are inevitably reported. XMU‐MP‐5 overcomes resistance to first and second generation ALK inhibitors in vitro and in vivo, thus holds great promise for the therapeutic use against ALK‐positive NSCLC.

As low-dimensional lead-free hybrids with higher stability and lower toxicity than those of three-dimensional lead perovskites, organic antimony(III) halides show great application potential in opt-electronic field owing to diverse topologies along with exceptional optical properties. We report herein an antimony(III) hybrid (MePPh3 )2 SbCl5 with a zero-dimensional (0D) structure, which exhibits brilliant orange emission peaked at 593 nm with near-unity photoluminescent quantum yield (99.4 %). The characterization of photophysical properties demonstrates that the broadband emission with a microsecond lifetime (3.24 μs) arises from self-trapped emission (STE). Electrically driven organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on neat and doped films of (MePPh3 )2 SbCl5 were fabricated. The doped devices show significant improvement in comparison to non-doped OLEDs. Owing to the much improved surface morphology and balanced carrier transport in light-emitting layers of doped devices, the peak luminance, current efficiency (CE) and external quantum efficiency (EQE) are boosted from 82 cd m-2 to 3500 cd m-2 , 1.1 cd A-1 to 6.8 cd A-1 , and 0.7 % to 3.1 % relative to non-doped devices, respectively.

Pyroptosis is a recently identified type of lytic programmed cell death, in which pores form in the plasma membrane, and cells swell, rupture, and then release their contents, including inflammatory cytokines. Molecular studies indicated that pyroptosis may occur via a gasdermin D (GSDMD) and caspase-1 (Casp1) -dependent classical pathway, a GSDMD and Casp11/4/5-dependent non-classical pathway, or a gasdermin E (GSDME) and Casp3-dependent pathway. Studies of animal models and humans indicated that pyroptosis can exacerbate several complications of diabetes, including diabetic nephropathy (DN), a serious microvascular complication of diabetes. Many studies investigated the mechanism mediating the renoprotective effect of GSDMD regulation in the kidneys of patients and animal models with diabetes. As a newly discovered regulatory mechanism, GSDME and Casp3-dependent pyroptotic pathway in the progression of DN has also attracted people’s attention. Z-DEVD-FMK, an inhibitor of Casp3, ameliorates albuminuria, improves renal function, and reduces tubulointerstitial fibrosis in diabetic mice, and these effects are associated with the inhibition of GSDME. Studies of HK-2 cells indicated that the molecular and histological features of secondary necrosis were present following glucose stimulation due to GSDME cleavage, such as cell swelling, and release of cellular contents. Therefore, therapies targeting Casp3/GSDME-dependent pyroptosis have potential for treatment of DN. A novel nephroprotective strategy that employs GSDME-derived peptides which are directed against Casp3-induced cell death may be a key breakthrough. This mini-review describes the discovery and history of research in this pyroptosis pathway and reviews the function of proteins in the gasdermin family, with a focus on the role of GSDME-mediated pyroptosis in DN. Many studies have investigated the impact of GSDME-mediated pyroptosis in kidney diseases, and these studies used multiple interventions, in vitro models, and in vivo models. We expect that further research on the function of GDSME in DN may provide valuable insights that may help to improve treatments for this disease.

This study aimed to explore a predictive risk-stratification model combing clinical characteristics and lipid profiles in multiple myeloma (MM) patients. The data of 275 patients in Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center were retrospectively analyzed and randomly divided into the training (n = 138) and validation (n = 137) cohorts. Triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), Apolipoprotein B (Apo B) and Apo B / Apolipoprotein A1 (Apo A1) ratio were the prognostic factors identified through univariate and multivariate Cox analysis. A 6-prognostic factor model was constructed based on Lasso regression. Patients were divided into low- and high-risk groups and the former group showed longer overall survival (OS) time (p

Background: Progression of nontarget lesions (NTLs) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has been reported. However, it remains unknown whether progression of NTLs was causally related to stenting. This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that stent implantation triggers acute phase response and systemic inflammation which may be associated with progression of NTLs. Methods: Thirty New Zealand rabbits receiving endothelial denudation and atherogenic diet were randomly divided into stenting, sham, and control groups. Angiography and intravascular ultrasonography were performed in the stenting and sham groups, and stent implantation performed only in the stenting group. Histopathologic study was conducted and serum levels of APPs (acute phase proteins) measured in all rabbits. Proteomics analysis was performed to screen the potential proteins related to NTLs progression after stent implantation. The serum levels of APPs and inflammatory cytokines were measured in 147 patients undergoing coronary angiography or PCI. Results: Plaque burden in the NTLs was significantly increased 12 weeks after stent implantation in the stenting group versus sham group. Serum levels of APPs and their protein expression in NTLs were significantly increased and responsible for stenting-triggered inflammation. In patients receiving PCI, serum levels of SAA-1 (serum amyloid A protein 1), CRP (C-reactive protein), TNF (tumor necrosis factor)-α, and IL (interleukin)-6 were substantially elevated up to 1 month post-PCI. Conclusions: In a rabbit model of atherosclerosis, stent implantation triggered acute phase response and systemic inflammation, which was associated with increased plaque burden and pathological features of unstable plaque in NTLs. The potential mechanism involved vessel injury-triggered acute phase response manifested as increased serum levels of SAA-1, CRP, and LBP (lipopolysaccharide-binding protein) and their protein expression in NTLs. These findings provided a new insight into the relation between stent implantation and progression of NTLs, and further studies are warranted to clarify the detailed mechanism and clinical significance of these preliminary results. Registration: URL: http://www.chictr.org.cn ; Unique identifier: ChiCTR1900026393. Graphic Abstract: A graphic abstract is available for this article.

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease with a difficult to predict prognosis. Ferroptosis, an iron‐induced programmed cell death, is a promising target for cancer therapy. Nevertheless, not much is known about the relationship between ferroptosis‐related genes and AML prognosis. Herein, we retrieved RNA profile and corresponding clinical data of AML patients from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases. Univariate Cox analysis was employed to identify ferroptosis‐related genes significantly associated with AML prognosis. Next, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression was employed to establish a prognostic ferroptosis‐related gene profile. 12 ferroptosis‐related genes were screened to generate a prognostic model, which stratified patients into a low‐ (LR) or high‐risk (HR) group. Using Kaplan‐Meier analysis, we demonstrated that the LR patients exhibited better prognosis than HR patients. Moreover, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis confirmed that the prognostic model showed good predictability. Functional enrichment analysis indicated that the infiltration of regulatory T cells (Treg) differed vastly between the LR and HR groups. Our prognostic model can offer guidance into the accurate prediction of AML prognosis and selection of personalized therapy in clinical practice.

Background. Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) undergoing deep brain electrode implantation experience a temporary improvement in motor symptoms before the electrical stimulation begins. We usually call this the microlesion effect (MLE), but the mechanism behind it is not clear. Purpose. This study aimed to assess the alterations in brain functions at the regional and whole-brain levels, using regional homogeneity (ReHo) and functional connectivity (FC), during the postoperative microlesion period after deep brain stimulation (DBS) in PD patients. Method. Resting-state functional MRI data were collected from 27 PD patients before and after the first day of DBS and 12 healthy controls (HCs) in this study. The ReHo in combination with FC analysis was used to investigate the alterations of regional brain activity in all the subjects. Results. There were increased ReHo in the basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuit (left supplementary motor area and bilateral paracentral lobule), whereas decreased ReHo in the default mode network (DMN) (left angular gyrus, bilateral precuneus), prefrontal cortex (bilateral middle frontal gyrus), and the cerebello-thalamocortical (CTC) circuit (Cerebellum_crus2/1_L) after DBS. In addition, we also found abnormal FC in the lingual gyrus, cerebellum, and DMN. Conclusion. Microlesion of the thalamus caused by electrode implantation can alter the activity of the basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuit, prefrontal cortex, DMN, and CTC circuit and induce abnormal FC in the lingual gyrus, cerebellum, prefrontal cortex, and DMN among PD patients. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the mechanism of MLE.

The investigation of single-pixel terahertz (THz) imaging opens up a new research direction for the development of THz imaging technology. In this work, we achieve a reflective single-pixel THz imaging system. By combining the compressed sensing (CS) and inverse Fresnel diffraction (IFD) algorithms, a reflective THz spectral image is accurately reconstructed and the morphology of a sample is clearly observed.

Psoriasis is a chronic proliferative skin disorder characterised by abnormal epidermal differentiation. The Fuzhenghefuzhiyang (FZHFZY) formula created by Chuanjian Lu, a master of Chinese medicine in dermatology, has been external used in the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine for the treatment of psoriasis, but its mechanisms of action against psoriasis remain poorly understood. This study involved an exploration of the effects of FZHFZY on epidermal differentiation and its underlying mechanisms in interleukin (IL)-17A/IL-22/interferon (IFN)-γ/tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α–stimulated HaCaT cells and in a mouse model of imiquimod (IMQ)-induced psoriasis. Cell viability was assessed by MTT assay. Epidermal differentiation was detected by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. Histological evaluation of the skin tissue was performed via haematoxylin and eosin staining, and the Akt/mTORC1/S6K1 pathway was analysed by western blotting. FZHFZY inhibited proliferation and improved epidermal differentiation in IL-17A/IL-22/IFN-γ/TNF-α–induced HaCaT cells. FZHFZY ameliorated symptoms of psoriasis, regulated epidermal differentiation and inhibited phosphorylation of the Akt/mTORC1/S6K1 pathway in the skin of mice with imiquimod-induced psoriasis. Our results suggest that FZHFZY may exhibit therapeutic action against psoriasis by regulating epidermal differentiation via inhibition of the Akt/mTORC1/S6K1 pathway.

Zishen Yutai Pills (ZYP) is a safe and well quality-controlled TCM preparation with promising effects in many fields of reproduction, including prevention of miscarriage, increase of pregnancy rate during in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET). The plasma of patients was collected from a clinical trial, namely, “Effect of Traditional Chinese Medicine vs placebo on live births among women undergoing in vitro fertilization, a multi-center randomized controlled trial.” Plasma samples were analyzed with metabonomics method. UPLC-MS technology was used to establish the plasma metabolic fingerprint. Multivariate statistical analysis was applied for comparing the differences of plasma metabolites between ZYP group and placebo group, 44 potential metabolites were screen out and identified. Pathway analysis was conducted with database mining. Compared with placebo, chemicals were found to be significantly down-regulated on HCG trigger day and 14 days after embryo transplantation, including trihexosylceramide (d18:1/26:1), glucosylceramide(d18:1/26:0), TG(22:6/15:0/22:6), TG(22:4/20:4/18:4). Compared with placebo, some chemicals were found to be significantly up-regulated on HCG trigger day and 14 days after embryo transplantation, i.e., PIP3(16:0/16:1), PIP2(18:1/18:1), tauroursodeoxycholic acid, L-asparagine, L-glutamic acid, kynurenic acid, 11-deoxycorticosterone, melatonin glucuronide, hydroxytyrosol. These metabolites were highly enriched in pathways including sphingolipid metabolism, alanine, aspartic acid and glutamic acid metabolism, aminoacyl tRNA biosynthesis, taurine and hypotaurine metabolism. This study revealed metabolic differences between subjects administered with ZYP and placebo. Relating metabolites were identified and pathways were enriched, providing basis on the exploration on the underlying mechanisms of ZYP combined with IVF-ET in the treatment of infertility.