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The existing time-division duplex (TDD) and frequency-division duplex (FDD) techniques rely on a guard time and/or a guard band to avoid self-interference (SI) between the uplink and downlink channels, which results in the wastage of precious spectral resources. The full-duplex (FD) schemes of in-band FD (IBFD), as well as multicarrier division duplex (MDD), may overcome this drawback while retaining the key benefits of both TDD and FDD. Moreover, the MDD exhibits the exclusive benefits of the reduced peak-to-average-power ratio (PAPR) for signal transmission as well as the SI-free signal detection. Against this background, in this paper, we propose a novel FD scheme conceived for frequency-selective millimeter-wave (mmWave) channels, which have not been investigated in the open literature. Furthermore, we propose a novel projection-aided iterative eigenvalue decomposition (P-IEVD) algorithm, which performs null-space SI cancellation in the inherent beamforming structure of mmWave communication. Our simulation results confirm that the MDD is capable of outperforming its half-duplex (HD) counterparts of the TDD/FDD, even the IBFD can only achieve a better bandwidth efficiency than the MDD when a sufficiently high SNR is provided.

In the research of multi-agent systems (MASs), structurally balanced networks (SBNs) have been widely used to explain the cooperation and competition between agents. At present, most of the research focuses on the model over SBNs with deterministic information channels. The highlight of this paper is to examine leader-follower tracking of general linear MASs over random SBNs, in which the existence of information channel between agents at each time instant is probabilistic and independent of other channels. By describing the random interaction process by the products of sub-stochastic matrices, a sufficient condition is established even with a strictly unstable system matrix, and the upper bound of eigenvalue modules closely related to the stability of the system matrix is further given. The observed leader-follower tracking performance over SBNs is verified by simulation experiments.

Abstract Background Effective evaluation or prediction of therapy response could be helpful for treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD), which may rely on accurate biomarkers. Acylcarnitines are involved with lipid metabolism and mitochondrial function. The relation of acylcarnitines with treatment response in patients with CKD is unknown. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association of plasma acylcarnitines with renal function and its alteration by intervention in patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN). Methods A retrospective study was performed in 81 IgAN patients with treatment by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Multivariate linear regression analyses were performed to identify the association of acylcarnitines with baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and eGFR changes after treatment. Results Twenty-seven acylcarnitines were measured at baseline and after 1-year TCM intervention. Certain short-chain and median-chain acylcarnitines were independently associated with baseline eGFR and eGFR alterations after 1 year treatment. Particularly, patients with high C5:1(β = − 0.42), C8:1(β = − 0.49), C3DC(β = − 0.5), C10:1(β = − 0.36) and C5DC(β = − 0.64)at baseline would have worse prognosis and treatment response. Moreover, certain acylcarnitines could be changed along with the eGFR alteration after 1-year TCM treatment. Conclusions The findings indicate a significant association between plasma acylcarnitines with prognosis and treatment responses in patients with IgAN, which suggest its role as a potential penal of biomarker for IgAN.

Methionine is the first or second limiting amino acid for ruminants, such as sika deer, and has a variety of biological functions such as antioxidant activity, immune response, and protein synthesis. This study aimed to investigate the effects of methionine supplementation on antler growth, serum biochemistry, rumen fermentation, and the bacterial community of sika deer during the antler-growing period. Twelve 4-year-old male sika deer were randomly assigned to three dietary groups supplemented with 0 g/day (n = 4, CON), 4.0 g/day (n = 4, LMet), and 6.0 g/day (n = 4, HMet) methionine. No significant difference (p > 0.05) was found in the production performance between the three groups, but antler weight was higher in both the LMet and HMet groups than in the CON group. Methionine supplementation significantly increased the serum glutathione peroxidase activity (p < 0.05). The serum immunoglobulin G level was significantly higher in the HMet group than in the other two groups (p < 0.05). No significant effect was found on the apparent amino acid digestibility of the three groups, but cysteine and methionine digestibility were higher in the LMet group. The serum hydroxylysine level was significantly lower in the LMet and HMet groups, whereas the serum lysine level was significantly lower in the HMet group compared with the CON group (p < 0.05). The LMet group had the highest but a nonsignificant total volatile fatty acid content and significantly higher microbial protein content in the rumen than the CON group (p < 0.05). The phyla Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria were dominant in the rumen of the sika deer. The principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) results showed a significant change in the bacterial composition of the three groups (p < 0.05). The relative abundance of Prevotella and Rikenellaceae-RC9 was significantly higher in the LMet group compared with the CON group and CON and HMet groups, respectively. These results revealed that methionine supplementation improved the antioxidant activity and immune status, affecting amino acid metabolism and rumen microbial composition of the sika deer.

Ni60 self-lubricated anti-wear composite coatings were successfully precipitated on the 35CrMoV substrate by laser cladding technology. The effects of heat treatment on the macro-morphology, microstructure, precipitated phase, microhardness, and wear properties of the composite coatings with different heat treatment temperatures (25 °C, 500 °C, 600 °C, and 700 °C for 1 h) were investigated systemically. The macro-morphology, microstructure, precipitated phases, and elements distribution of laser cladding layers were detected by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. The mechanical and tribological properties of the cladding layers were tested using a microscopic Vickers hardness tester and friction and wear tester, respectively. The results show that the main phases of Ni60 coatings are composed of γ-(Ni, Fe), Cr7C3, Cr23C6, CrB, CrFeB, and Cr2Ni3. In particular, the micro-structure and mechanical properties reach the best levels after heat treatment at 600 °C. The micro-hardness, average friction coefficient, and wear volume of the cladding layer are 771.4 to 915.8 HV1 and 0.434 and 2.9546 × 10−5 mm3, respectively. In conclusion, the micro-structure and mechanical properties of the cladding layer are greatly improved by the proper heat treatment temperature.

The NiP coating has excellent wear and corrosion resistance, and electroless nickel-phosphorus coating is one of the best measures for surface modification of metal optical devices. The NiP layer could be processed by single-point diamond turning (SPDT). However, the periodic marks on the surface of the NiP coating processed by SPDT will lead to diffraction and stray light, which will reduce the reflectivity and image quality of the mirror. This paper studied smoothing polishing based on chemical mechanical polishing to remove turning periodic marks efficiently. Firstly, we studied the chemical corrosion and mechanical removal mechanism of smoothing polishing of the NiP coating through theoretical analysis. Then, the influencing factors of processing the quality of smoothing polishing are analyzed, and the optimal machining parameters and polishing slurry formula are formulated. Finally, through the developed process, the surface roughness of Root Mean Square (RMS) 0.223 nm is realized on the NiP coating, and an ultra-smooth surface that can meet the service accuracy of a hard X-ray mirror is obtained. Our research simplifies the high-precision machining process of the NiP coating and improves the machining efficiency. Therefore, it can be used as a new high-precision manufacturing NiP coating method.

In recent years, deep convolutional neural network (CNN)-based image enhancement has shown outstanding performance. However, due to the problems of uneven illumination and low contrast existing in endoscopic images, the implementation of medical endoscopic image enhancement using CNN is still an exploratory and challenging task. An endoscopic image enhancement network (EIEN) based on the Retinex theory is proposed in this paper to solve these problems. The structure consists of three parts: decomposition network, illumination correction network, and reflection component enhancement algorithm. First, the decomposition network model of pre-trained Retinex-Net is retrained on the endoscopic image dataset, and then the images are decomposed into illumination and reflection components by this decomposition network. Second, the illumination components are corrected by the proposed self-attention guided multi-scale pyramid structure. The pyramid structure is used to capture the multi-scale information of the image. The self-attention mechanism is based on the imaging nature of the endoscopic image, and the inverse image of the illumination component is fused with the features of the green and blue channels of the image to be enhanced to generate a weight map that reassigns weights to the spatial dimension of the feature map, to avoid the loss of details in the process of multi-scale feature fusion and image reconstruction by the network. The reflection component enhancement is achieved by sub-channel stretching and weighted fusion, which is used to enhance the vascular information and image contrast. Finally, the enhanced illumination and reflection components are multiplied to obtain the reconstructed image. We compare the results of the proposed method with six other methods on a test set. The experimental results show that EIEN enhances the brightness and contrast of endoscopic images and highlights vascular and tissue information. At the same time, the method in this paper obtained the best results in terms of visual perception and objective evaluation.

As a typical complex system, the stock market has attracted the attention of scholars and investors to comprehensively understand its fractal characteristics and analyze its market efficiency. Firstly, this paper proposes an asymmetric, detrended fluctuation analysis based on overlapping sliding windows (OSW-A-MFDFA). It reduces the generation of fluctuation errors, and the calculation results are more robust and reliable. The advantage of the OSW-A-MFDFA is that it not only can reveal the multifractal characteristics of time series clearly, but also can further accurately analyze the asymmetry of fractal characteristics under different trends. Secondly, this paper focuses on the variation in the width difference and height difference of the multifractal spectrum under different trends. Finally, based on multifractality, this paper proposes a comprehensive indicator MED that can be used to measure market efficiency, which is characterized by traversing all fluctuation orders. The application revealed many interesting findings in style stock indices. Style stock indices have asymmetric multifractal characteristics, and there are significant differences in the fractal spectrum of different style assets. Moreover, the market efficiency of style stock indices is time-varying, which can be reasonably explained from the perspective of the adaptive market hypothesis.

Biosensor analysis based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon enables label-free, highly sensitive analyte detection without prior sample purification or processing. However, potential applications of SPR biosensors in virus detection in biological samples remain to be explored. Owing to its excellent biocompatibility and abundance of hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups, graphene oxide (GO) has been widely used as a biosensor of proteins and metal ions in living cells. The present work explored the effect of GO modification on the sensitivity of an SPR biosensor and used a GO-modified sensor to detect porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus in cell culture, as shown. The GO modification markedly enhanced the sensitivity of the Fourier transform SPR sensor and enabled linear detection of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) with a multiplicity of infection in the range 0.2–1.7 (R2 = 0.998). Such a GO-modified sensor provides a promising alternative for virus detection.

In order to adapt to the local brightness and contrast of input image sequences, we propose a new weighted average adaptive factor well-exposure weight evaluation scheme. The exposure weights of brighter and darker pixels are determined according to the local average brightness and expected brightness. We find that in the traditional multi-exposure image fusion scheme, the brighter and darker regions of the scene lose many details. To solve this problem, we first propose a standard to determine the brighter and darker regions and then use a fast local Laplacian filter to enhance the image in the region. This paper selects 16 multi-exposure images of different scenes for subjective and objective analysis and compares them with eight existing multi-exposure fusion schemes. The experimental results show that the proposed method can enhance the details appropriately while preserving the details in static scenes and adapting to the input image brightness.

Feature extraction is an important part of perceptual hashing. How to compress the robust features of images into hash codes has become a hot research topic. Converting a two-dimensional image into a one-dimensional descriptor requires a higher computational cost and is not optimal. In order to maintain the internal feature structure of the original two-dimensional image, a new Bilinear Supervised Neighborhood Discrete Discriminant Hashing (BNDDH) algorithm is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the algorithm constructs two new neighborhood graphs to maintain the geometric relationship between samples and reduces the quantization loss by directly constraining the hash codes. Secondly, two small rotation matrices are used to realize the bilinear projection of the two-dimensional descriptor. Finally, the experiment verifies the performance of the BNDDH algorithm under different feature types, such as image original pixels and a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based AlexConv5 feature. The experimental results and discussion clearly show that the proposed BNDDH algorithm is better than the existing traditional hashing algorithm and can represent the image more efficiently in this paper.

Reverse engineering is conducted based on the analysis of an already existing product. The results of such an analysis can be used to improve the functioning of the product or develop new organizational, economic, information technology, and other solutions that increase the efficiency of the entire business system, in particular 3D printed products. Therefore, the main aim of this research is to focus on evaluation of the load-bearing capacity of already existing 3D printed metals in order to see their suitability for the intended application and to obtain their relevant mechanical properties. To this end, 3D printed metallic bars with almost square cross-sections were acquired from an external company in China without any known processing parameters, apart from the assumption that specimens No. 1–3 are printed horizontally, and specimens No. 4–7 are printed vertically. Various experiments were conducted to study microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties of 3D printed metals. It was observed that specimens No. 1–6, were almost similar in hardness, while specimen No. 7 was reduced by about 4.5% due to the uneven surface. The average value of hardness for the specimens was found to be approximately 450 HV, whereas the load-extension graphs assessed prior point towards the conclusion that the specimens’ fractured in a brittle status, is due to the lack of plastic deformation. For different specimens of the 3D printed materials, the main defects were identified, namely, lack of fusion and porosity are directly responsible for the cracks and layer delamination, prevalent in SLM printed metals. An extensive presence of cracks and layer delamination prove that the printing of these metallic bars was completed in a quick and inaccurate manner, which led to higher percentages of lack of fusion due to either low laser power, high scan speed, or the wrong scan strategy.

In a colonoscopy, accurate computer-aided polyp detection and segmentation can help endoscopists to remove abnormal tissue. This reduces the chance of polyps developing into cancer, which is of great importance. In this paper, we propose a neural network (parallel residual atrous pyramid network or PRAPNet) based on a parallel residual atrous pyramid module for the segmentation of intestinal polyp detection. We made full use of the global contextual information of the different regions by the proposed parallel residual atrous pyramid module. The experimental results showed that our proposed global prior module could effectively achieve better segmentation results in the intestinal polyp segmentation task compared with the previously published results. The mean intersection over union and dice coefficient of the model in the Kvasir-SEG dataset were 90.4% and 94.2%, respectively. The experimental results outperformed the scores achieved by the seven classical segmentation network models (U-Net, U-Net++, ResUNet++, praNet, CaraNet, SFFormer-L, TransFuse-L).

There is an increasing need for 3D printing of metallic structures in a green and cost-effective way. Here, an environment-friendly and reusable metallic ink was developed for an economical metal 3D printing method. The metallic ink is composed of steel micro powders, a biodegradable polymer: chitosan, acetic acid and deionized water. The metal 3D printing method consists of: (i) 3D printing of metallic structures using the metallic ink at room temperature, (ii) thermal treatments on the as-printed structures that decompose the polymer binder and sinter the steel powders, and (iii) an optional step: infiltrating melted copper into the sintered structures to achieve fully dense metal/metal hybrid structures. We demonstrate that any incorrectly built as-printed structures and scrap materials can be recycled and reused for 3D printing by dissolving them again in acetic acid. The fabricated structures after copper infiltration feature a low filament porosity of 1.0% which enables high properties such as an electrical conductivity of 1.3 × 106 S/m and a Young's modulus of 160 GPa. The metallic ink can be used for the 3D printing of high performance metallic structures while demonstrating a low environmental impact and a very effective utilization of metallic materials. Keywords: 3D printing, Metallic ink, Environment-friendly, Metallic structures, Secondary metal infiltration

Abstract Background With the patient in a constant supine position, elevation of the femur in THA (DAA) provides a more intuitive and conducive location of the acetabulum for the correct placement of the acetabular prosthesis, but elevation of the femur for broaching becomes more challenging. The purpose of this study is to analyze the restriction of the ischiofemoral ligament and short external rotation muscles, and its effect on the elevation of the proximal femur in the DAA. Methods The study subjects comprised 5 freshly frozen cadavers with 10 normal hips. All of the anatomic dissections of all of the hips were performed through the DAA. The ischiofemoral ligament, piriformis, conjoint tendon, and external obturator were successively resected. All of the proximal femurs of the specimens were levered by a point tip curved retractor that was connected with a dynamometer. Through preliminary measurements, an applied force of 80 N was adopted and maintained on the curved retractor. The experiment was repeated to measure the displacement of the proximal femur being raised after the posterior structures of the hip joint had been resected in a stepwise fashion. The displacement of the retractor was recorded, and the data were then analyzed. Results The distance significantly increased after the ischiofemoral ligament was severed (P 0.05). After the obturator externus was cut off, the distance increased by an insignificant amount (P > 0.05). Conclusion In DAA, the ischiofemoral ligament contributed stability when the femur was being raised. The main contribution of restriction was provided by the conjoint tendon. The tendons of the obturator externus muscle and piriformis muscle did not provide any significant restriction when the femur was being raised.

Cd is a common pollutant that contaminates the ecological environment of soil-crop systems and threatens food security and human health. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) has a great potential for use as energy feedstock and Cd phytoremediation. Therefore, the identification of sorghum genotypes with high Cd accumulation is of great significance to Cd pollution remediation and production of bioenergy. A total of 126 biomass sorghum genotypes grown in a Cd-polluted field were investigated, and their agronomic traits were analyzed, including plant height, leaf number, shoot dry weight (SDW), soil and plant analyzer development (SPAD) value, and concentration of metal ions at seedling stage. Plant height was an important factor for screening potential biomass sorghum species because it presented a significant correlation with the Cd concentration in shoots and SDW (P

Toxoplasma gondii, a representative model organism belonging to the phylum Apicomplexa, can infect almost all warm-blooded organisms, including humans. The invasion of host cells via host–parasite interaction is the key step for T. gondii to complete its life cycle. Herein we performed tandem mass tag analysis to investigate global proteomic changes in host cells (human foreskin fibroblasts, HFFs) [HFFs infected with T. gondii (HT) vs. HFFs (H)] and T. gondii [HT vs. T. gondii (T)] during intracellular infection. Overall, 3477 and 1434 proteins were quantified, of which 375 and 1099 proteins were differentially expressed (adjusted p-value < 0.05 and >1.5 or

Background: Hematoma of the colon is a rare hemorrhagic complication that affects patients accepting low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) therapy. Only scarce cases of colon hematoma have been reported, usually in children or patients accepting warfarin therapy.Case summary: A 76-year-old Chinese man was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and heart failure, with cardiac function NYHA grade III on March 21, 2018. This patient was given LMWH for anticoagulation therapy and developed a colon hematoma on the third day of hospitalization. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) showed the thickening of areas of the colon up to 110 mm × 78 mm in thickness, which was a symptom of colon hematoma. The patient underwent conservative treatment successfully. On March 27, the patient’s abdominal pain was alleviated, and a CT scan showed that the intestinal hematoma was absorbed.Conclusions: The most frequent minor bleeding events of LMWH anticoagulation are hemorrhage and subcutaneous hematoma. This case demonstrated that bowel hematoma despite its low incidence should be considered as an ADR of LMWH therapy, especially among patients who present with gastrointestinal symptoms.

Background and objective: Hyperglycemia on admission was associated with worse clinical outcomes after mechanical thrombectomy (MT) of acute ischemic stroke (AIS). We evaluated whether increased postoperative fasting glucose (PFG) was also related to poor clinical outcomes in patients who underwent MT treatment.Methods: Consecutive patients with large vessel occlusion underwent MT in our center were included. Admission glucose and fasting glucose levels after MT treatment were evaluated. Primary outcome was 90-day unfavorable outcomes (modified Rankin Scale score of 3–6). Secondary outcome was the rate of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) after MT treatment. The association of PFG and 90-day clinical outcome after MT treatment was determined using logistic regression analyses.Results: One hundred twenty seven patients were collected. The median postoperative fasting glucose level was 6.27 mmol/L (IQR 5.59–7.62). Fourteen patients (11.02%) had sICH, and fifty-eight patients (45.67%) had unfavorable outcomes at 90-day after MT. After adjustment for potential confounding factors, PFG level was an independent predictor of 90-day unfavorable outcome (OR 1.265; 95% CI 1.017–1.575; p = 0.035) and sICH (OR 1.523; 95% CI 1.056–2.195; p = 0.024) after MT. In addition, older age, higher baseline NIHSS score, and higher postoperative NLR were also associated with unfavorable outcomes at 90-day after MT treatment.Conclusions: Increased PFG is associated with unfavorable outcomes at 90-day and an increased risk of sICH in patients underwent MT treatment.

Abstract Background Schmid‐type metaphyseal chondrodysplasia (SMCD) is a rare autosomal dominant skeletal dysplasia caused by heterozygous mutations in COL10A1, the gene which encodes collagen type X alpha 1 chain. However, its genotype–phenotype relationship has not been fully determined. Subjects and Methods The proband is a 2‐year‐old boy, born of non‐consanguineous Chinese parents. We conducted a systematic analysis of the clinical and radiological characteristics and a follow‐up study of the proband. Whole‐exome sequencing was applied for the genetic analysis, together with bioinformatic analysis of predicted consequences of the identified variant. A homotrimer model was built to visualize the affected region and predict possible outcomes of this variant. Furthermore, a literature review and genotype–phenotype analysis were performed by online searching all cases with SMCD. Results A novel heterozygous variant (NM_000493.4: c.1863_1866delAATG, NP_000484.2: p.(Met622 Thrfs*54)) was identified in COL10A1 gene in the affected child. And it was predicted to be pathogenic by in silico analysis. Protein modeling revealed that the variant was located in the NC1 domain, which was predicted to produce truncated collagen and impair the trimerization of collagen type X alpha 1 chain and combination with molecules in the matrix. Moreover, genotype–phenotype correlation analysis demonstrated that patients with truncating variants or variants in NC1 domain often presented earlier onset and severer symptoms compared with those with non‐truncating or variants in non‐NC1 domains. Conclusion The NC1 domain of COL10A1 was proved to be the hotspot region underlying SMCD, patients with variants in NC1 domain were more likely to present severer manifestations at an earlier age.

A new method based on the innovation of Kalman filter and extrapolation-accumulation is proposed to detect weak frequency anomalies in atomic clocks with short detection time and high detection probability. In this method, the detection statistics of the innovation extrapolation method in several epochs are accumulated. It avoids the influence of outliers, increases the noncentrality parameter of chi-square distribution, and realizes more effective detection of weak frequency anomalies. The simulation results show that compared with the innovation method and the innovation extrapolation method, the new method has a higher detection probability for micro frequency anomalies, and the detection time is shortened. The new method is used to analyze the real data of the cesium atomic clock, and the results are consistent with the simulation results.

Although nanostructuring strategies can greatly enhance the hardness of diamond, a large amount of grain boundaries were involved, and little research has been reported on the effect of grain boundaries on the indentation hardness and plastic deformation of diamond. Through molecular dynamics simulations, we have systematically investigated the diamond symmetrical 〈001〉 tilt grain boundaries under Vickers indentations. Our results indicate that the smaller the misorientation angle is, the more favorable for the hardness enhancement of diamond. For the symmetrical 〈001〉 tilt grain boundaries models with misorientation angles smaller than 36.87°, the plastic deformations are mainly resulted from the dislocation propagation mode. For the grain boundaries with misorientation angles larger than 36.87°, the plastic deformation is mainly through the atomic disordering mode, accompanied with the dislocation mode. The effects of grain boundaries on dislocation activities and atomic disordering transformations are systematically discussed. The results presented in this work not only answered the question about the effect of symmetrical 〈001〉 tilt grain boundaries on the hardness of diamond, but also offers fundamental insights for understanding the indentation induced plastic deformation mechanisms of diamond grain boundaries, which could provide reference data for the design of novel nano structured superhard materials.

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), one of the most common urologic cancer types, has a relatively good prognosis. However, clinical diagnoses are mostly done during the medium or late stages, when mortality and recurrence rates are quite high. Therefore, it is important to perform real-time information tracking and dynamic prognosis analysis for these patients. We downloaded the RNA-seq data and corresponding clinical information of ccRCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. A total of 3,238 differentially expressed genes were identified between normal and ccRCC tissues. Through a series of Weighted Gene Co-expression Network, overall survival, immunohistochemical and the least absolute shrinkage selection operator (LASSO) analyses, seven prognosis-associated genes (AURKB, FOXM1, PTTG1, TOP2A, TACC3, CCNA2, and MELK) were screened. Their risk score signature was then constructed. Survival analysis showed that high-risk scores exhibited significantly worse overall survival outcomes than low-risk patients. Accuracy of this prognostic signature was confirmed by the receiver operating characteristic curve and was further validated using another cohort. Gene set enrichment analysis showed that some cancer-associated phenotypes were significantly prevalent in the high-risk group. Overall, these findings prove that this risk model can potentially improve individualized diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

A number of methods have been proposed for face reconstruction from single/multiple image(s). However, it is still a challenge to do reconstruction for limited number of wild images, in which there exists complex different imaging conditions, various face appearance, and limited number of high-quality images. And most current mesh model based methods cannot generate high-quality face model because of the local mapping deviation in geometric optics and distortion error brought by discrete differential operation. In this paper, accurate geometrical consistency modeling on B-spline parameter domain is proposed to reconstruct high-quality face surface from the various images. The modeling is completely consistent with the law of geometric optics, and B-spline reduces the distortion during surface deformation. In our method, 0th- and 1st-order consistency of stereo are formulated based on low-rank texture structures and local normals, respectively, to approach the pinpoint geometric modeling for face reconstruction. A practical solution combining the two consistency as well as an iterative algorithm is proposed to optimize high-detailed B-spline face effectively. Extensive empirical evaluations on synthetic data and unconstrained data are conducted, and the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on challenging scenario, e.g., limited number of images with different head poses, illuminations, and expressions.

Taxus cuspidata Siebold et Zuccarini, one of the plant species with extremely small populations in China, is listed as a first-class national key protected wild plant that urgently needs to be rescued. However, there are different viewpoints on the population status of T. cuspidata. To elucidate the current actual population status of T. cuspidata, we conducted a systematic field survey in the distribution area of T. cuspidata in China, and analyzed the size structure, sex ratio, dynamics, and threat factors of T. cuspidata populations. Our results are as follows. (1) T. cuspidata was mainly distributed in Wangqing County, Helong City, Hunchun City of Jilin Province, and Muling City of Heilongjiang Province, while seldom distributed in Liaoning Province. T. cuspidata was distributed in the broad-leaved-conifer-Korean pine mixed forest in Northeast China, mostly as sporadic single individuals or scattered small populations. The highest density of adult individuals of T. cuspidata was 20 individuals/0.1 ha in DHZ, and the highest density of regeneration individuals was 28 individuals/0.1 ha in JGL. There was a significant exponential relationship (p

The Yi–Qi–Jian–Pi–Xiao–Yu–Xie–Zhuo (YQJPXYXZ) formula has been used for treating chronic kidney disease (CKD) for many years with good efficiency based on the cumulative empirical experience of previous practitioners. Impairment of the IGF-1/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway plays an important role in mediating muscle wasting. This study aimed to observe effects of the YQJPXYXZ formula on muscle atrophy in CKD rats and investigate its possible mechanism on regulation of the IGF-1/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. The 5/6 nephrectomized rats were randomly allocated into 3 groups: the CKD group, the KT (compound α-ketoacid tablets) group, and the YQJPXYXZ group. Besides, sham-operated rats were included as the sham group. All rats were treated for 12 weeks. Results showed that administration of the YQJPXYXZ formula prevented body weight loss and muscle fiber size decrease. Moreover, the YQJPXYXZ formula increased the IGF-1 level of serum and skeletal muscle in CKD rats and enhanced the phosphorylation level of Akt. Furthermore, the YQJPXYXZ formula decreased the Atrogin1 and MuRF1 mRNA and MuRF1 proteins. In conclusion, our data demonstrated that the YQJPXYXZ formula improves muscle wasting in CKD rats, which might be associated with the modulation of the IGF-1/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway and inhibition of the ubiquitin–proteasome system (UPS).

Introduction: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality in the People’s Republic of China. Targeted therapies for patients with lung cancer, which depend on accurate identification of actionable genomic alteration, have improved survival compared with previously available treatments. However, data on the types of molecular testing often used in the People’s Republic of China, and how they have changed over time, are scarce. We explored the overall landscape of molecular testing of lung cancer in mainland People’s Republic of China in the past decade. Methods: We distributed a stratified random sampling survey of molecular testing to 49 hospitals from members of the Molecular Pathology Collaboration Group of Chinese Anti-Cancer Association which was weighted by the numbers of lung cancer cases in seven different geographic regions in mainland People’s Republic of China from 2010 to 2019. The questionnaire contained four parts for all respondents. The questionnaire ascertained the use of approved in vitro diagnostic (IVD) devices published by the Center for Medical Device Evaluation, National Medical Products Administration of the People’s Republic of China. Results: A total of 226,227 NSCLC specimens were tested from 2010 to 2019 in the selected hospitals. The annual number of initiated molecular tests increased over time (p < 0.0001), with an average annual growth rate of 31.8%. A notable increase in the number of molecular tests occurred during 2014 and 2016, which coincided with the approval of the National Medical Products Administration to IVD devices. For the diagnosis of molecular subtypes, EGFR mutation testing was first conducted in year 2007, followed by ALK translocation testing in 2010 and ROS1 in 2011. For other rare genetic variations in NSCLC, BRAF mutation testing was first launched in 2012, MET exon 14 skipping mutation in 2014, HER2 exon 20 mutations in 2017, and RET translocation in 2015. A markedly uneven distribution was also observed in the geography of leading units with the largest number of leading units located in east People’s Republic of China (34.7%, 17 of 49) and the smallest number located in northwest People’s Republic of China (6.1%, 3 of 49). The growth trends we observed illustrate the progress and increasing capability of molecular testing of lung cancer achieved in mainland People’s Republic of China in the decade from 2010. Conclusions: In the decade 2010 to 2019, progress and increased capability of molecular testing of lung cancer were achieved in mainland People’s Republic of China. Further efforts should address the clinical application of next-generation sequencing technology, rare genomic aberrations, and the balance between novel genomic testing techniques and the approval of IVD products.

Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common malignancy in the urinary system. Despite substantial improvements in available treatment options, the survival outcome of advanced RCC is unsatisfactory. Identifying novel biomarkers to assist in early diagnosis and to screen patients who are sensitive to immunotherapy would be beneficial. CD248 is a promising candidate that deserves to be investigated.Methods: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data set and clinical specimens were adopted to analyze the expression of CD248 between normal and tumor tissues. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were employed to identify independent prognostic factors and construct a CD248-based prognostic signature. The correlation among the present signature, tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs), the tumor mutation burden (TMB), and immunomodulatory molecules was evaluated. The weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), the enrichment analysis, and the miRNA correlation analysis were performed to explore the underlying mechanism of CD248 in the progression of RCC.Results: The overexpression of CD248 in RCC was related to a poor prognosis, and a CD248-based prognostic signature could precisely stratify patients with RCC with different survival outcomes regardless of the training or testing cohort. The present signature could reflect the immunosuppressive landscape of RCC (i.e., increased infiltration of regulatory T cells and upregulated immune checkpoints), accompanied by deteriorated clinicopathologic indexes. The TMB and immunostimulatory molecules expression also increased with the risk score generated from the present signature. CD248 co-expressed gene sets were identified through the WGCNA algorithm, and several immunosuppressive Gene Ontology (GO) terms and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways were significantly enriched. The result of CD248-correlated miRNA further emphasized the importance of CD248 in RCC.Conclusion: CD248 is a valuable biomarker to improve the diagnostic and therapeutic efficiency of RCC. The immunosuppressive effect of CD248 co-expressed genes may provide insight for the present study, and miRNA would help to reveal the mechanism of the expressive regulation of CD248.

Background: N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant mRNA modification. Whether m6A regulators can determine tumor aggressiveness and risk of immune evasion in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains unknown. Methods: An integrated model named “m6Ascore” is constructed based on RNA-seq data of m6A regulators in PDAC. Association of m6Ascore and overall survival is validated across several different datasets. Overlaps of m6Ascore and established molecular classifications of PDAC is examined. Immune infiltration, enriched pathways, somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs), mutation profiles and response to immune checkpoint inhibitors are compared between m6Ascore-high and m6Ascore-low tumors. Findings: m6Ascore is associated with dismal overall survival and increased tumor recurrence in PDAC as well as several other solid tumors including colorectal cancer and breast cancer. Basal-like (Squamous) PDAC has higher m6Ascore than that in the classical PDAC. Mechanism study showed m6Ascore-high tumors are characterized with reduced immune infiltration and T cells exhaustion. Meanwhile, m6Ascore is associated with genes regulating cachexia and chemoresistance in PDAC. Furthermore, distinct SCNAs patterns and mutation profiles of KRAS and TP53 are present in m6Ascore-high tumors, indicating immune evasion. m6Ascore-low tumors have higher response rates to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Interpretation: These findings indicate m6Ascore can predict aggressiveness and immune evasion in pancreatic cancer. This model has implications for pancreatic cancer prognosis and treatment response to ICIs. Funding: This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to M. Li (R01 CA186338, R01 CA203108, R01 CA247234 and the William and Ella Owens Medical Research Foundation) and NIH/National Cancer Institute Q39 award P30CA225520 to Stephenson Cancer Center.

Recent developments have led to the formulation of multi-component surrogates that closely match physical and chemical properties of diesel fuels. These surrogates have been characterized and extensively tested in constant pressure vessels as well as engine experiments. The adoption of such surrogates in simulations is an important step towards predictive engine simulations. However, significant challenges remain in adoption of such surrogates. The complex chemical kinetics associated with a multi-component fuel leads to an extremely large and stiff chemistry mechanism with thousands of species. Such chemistry mechanisms are prohibitive to be directly used in engine simulations using traditional solvers due to the excessively-high computational cost. This work describes some of the experimental investigations of a 4-component diesel fuel surrogate in constant volume combustion chambers that provide useful validation datasets for numerical models. In addition, a chemical kinetic mechanism for the multi-component diesel surrogate with 1544 species is proposed. A previously validated unsteady flamelet model, accelerated by a sparse solver and analytical Jacobian, is used to implement large chemistry mechanisms for realistic diesel engine simulations. A flamelet solver is used to generate multi-dimensional unsteady flamelet libraries for the multi-component surrogate for a range of conditions. This approach is then used in a large eddy simulation (LES) framework to model combustion of the 4-component surrogate in a constant pressure spray vessel over a range of ambient oxygen conditions. The current chemistry mechanism and computational methodology can capture the two-step ignition delay as well as flame lift-off length trends observed in the experiments. Some of the low temperature combustion characteristics are analyzed in detail. The computational setup and the validation results demonstrate the feasibility of using these latest multi-component fuel surrogates for engine simulations by leveraging multi-dimensional chemistry tabulation methods.Highlights:1. Detailed experiments with the multicomponent V0A surrogate were carried out in the High Temperature Pressure Vessel facility.2. A detailed chemistry mechanism with 1544 species was developed for the V0A surrogate.3. The LSODES based flamelet tabulation method was used to implement and validate these high-fidelity surrogates and mechanisms in engine relevant LES calculations.

Background and Purpose: Optimal periprocedural management of blood pressure during mechanical thrombectomy (MT) remains controversial. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the duration of blood pressure drops during general anesthesia and the outcomes in large vessel occlusion (LVO) patients treated with MT.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed our prospectively collected data for LVO patients treated with MT between January 2018 and July 2020. Intraprocedural mean arterial pressure (MAP) was recorded every 5 min throughout the procedure. Baseline MAP minus each MAP value recorded during general anesthesia was defined ΔMAP. Cumulated time (in min) and longest continuous episode (in min) with ΔMAP more than 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 mmHg were calculated, respectively. Poor outcome was defined as 90-day modified Rankin score (mRS) 3–6. Associations between cumulated time of different ΔMAP thresholds and poor outcome were determined using binary logistic regression models.Results: A total of 131 patients were finally included in the study. After controlling for age, atrial fibrillation, baseline NIHSS, baseline ASPECTS, procedure duration of MT, and times of retrieval attempts, the results indicated that cumulated time of MAP drop more than 10 mmHg (OR 1.013; 95% CI 1.004–1.023; P = 0.007) and 15 mmHg (OR 1.011; 95% CI 1.002–1.020; P = 0.017) were independently associated with poor outcomes.Conclusion: Prolonged episodes of intraprocedural MAP lowering were more likely to have poor outcomes in LVO patients following MT with general anesthesia, which might be helpful in guiding intraprocedural hemodynamic management of patients under general anesthesia.

Acrylamide (ACR) is generated during thermal processing of carbohydrate-rich foods at high temperature and can directly enter the body through ingestion, inhalation and skin contact. The toxicity of ACR has been widely studied. The main results of these studies show that exposure to ACR can cause neurotoxicity in both animals and humans, and show reproductive toxicity and carcinogenicity in rodent animal models. However, the mechanism of toxicity of ACR has not been studied by metabolomics approaches, and the effect of ACR on autophagy remains unknown. Here, U2OS cell were treated with ACR 6 and 24 h and collected for further study. We have demonstrated that ACR inhibited autophagic flux, and increased ROS content. Accumulation of ROS resulted in increase of apoptosis rates and secretion of inflammatory factors. In addition, significant differences in metabolic profiles were observed between ACR treated and control cells according to multiple analysis models. A total of 73 key differential metabolites were identified. They were involved in multiple metabolic pathways. Among them, exposure to ACR caused glycolysis/gluconeogenesis attenuation by decreasing levels of glycolytic intermediates, reduced the rate of the TCA cycle, while elevating levels of several amino acid metabolites and lipid metabolites. In summary, our study provides useful evidence of cytotoxicity caused by ACR via metabolomics and multiple bioanalytic methods.

Uranium is a radioactive element that is widely present in aquatic environment. However, limited knowledge is available about the effect of uranium on thyroid system, which plays a key role in the development of animals. In this study, zebrafish embryos were exposed to different environmentally relevant concentrations of uranium (2, 20 and 100 μg/L) for 120 h. The bioaccumulation, developmental toxicities, changes of thyroid hormones (THs) and key genes related to the hypothalamic–pituitary–thyroid (HPT) axis in larvae were analyzed after exposure. Results showed that uranium could bioaccumulate in zebrafish larvae, with the bioconcentration factors ranging from 49.6 to 523. Consequently, significant developmental toxicities and changes in locomotor activities were observed with a concentration-dependent manner. The levels of triiodothyronine (T3) levels in larvae were substantially decreased, whereas those of thyroxine (T4) were increased in fish bodies. The levels of THs were regulated by the negative feedback loops through HPT axis related genes, most of which (NIS, Deio1, Deio2, TRα, TSHβ and UGT1ab) were significantly depressed after exposure to uranium. Our results suggest the potential toxicities and thyroid disruption of uranium on zebrafish, which would provide baseline data set for better understanding the impact of waterborne uranium on aquatic organisms and the associated mechanisms. This study also highlights the key role of thyroid disruption in the ecological risk assessment of uranium pollution.

Tianwen-1, the first mission of China’s planetary exploration program, accomplished its goals of orbiting, landing, and roving on the Mars. The entry, descent, and landing (EDL) phase directly determines the success of the entire mission, of which the guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system is crucial. This paper outlines the Tianwen-1 EDL GNC system design by introducing the GNC requirements followed by presenting the GNC system architecture and algorithms to meet such requirements. The actual flight results for the whole EDL phase are also provided in this paper.

The thick and hard rock strata (THRS) exist widely in coal measure strata, which control the movements of overlying rock strata in stopes. When THRS break, great energy is released, which could aggravate the risks of coal and gas outburst, rock burst, and other dynamic disasters. Therefore, the foundation and key of preventing dynamic disasters are to distinguish the THRS that could induce coal-rock dynamic disasters and to analyze the laws of rock stratum breaking and energy releasing. The paper proposed the theoretical calculation methods of the energy accumulation and attenuation of rock breaking which is greatly affected by the hanging length of rock strata and the spreading distance. One or more roof strata that play a leading role in inducing dynamic disasters of the underlying coal mass are defined as the key disaster-inducing strata (KDIS). The disaster-inducing coefficient (DIC) is defined and used as the criterion of KDIS. The greater the source energy, the shorter the spreading distance, and the smaller the attenuation coefficient are, the easier the roof strata are to become KDIS. The disaster-inducing ability of the main THRS was analyzed, and the igneous sill was judged as KDIS, taking the Yangliu Coal Mine as project background. The breaking laws of the igneous sill were obtained by the methods of UDEC numerical simulation and microseismic monitoring, which verified the criterion of KDIS.

Phototherapy, including photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) has attracted growing attention as a noninvasive option for cancer treatment. At present, researchers have developed various “all-in-one” nanoplatforms for cancer imaging and PTT/PDT combinational therapy. However, the complex structure, tedious preparation procedures, overuse of extra carriers and severe side effects hinder their biomedical applications. In this work, we reported a nanoplatform (designated as ICG-MB) self-assembly from two different FDA-approved dyes of indocyanine green (ICG) and methylene blue (MB) without any additional excipients for cancer fluorescence imaging and combinational PTT/PDT. ICG-MB was found to exhibit good dispersion in the aqueous phase and improve the photostability and cellular uptake of free ICG and MB, thus exhibiting enhanced photothermal conversion and singlet oxygen (1O2) generation abilities to robustly ablate cancer cells under 808 nm and 670 nm laser irradiation. After intravenous injection, ICG-MB effectively accumulated at tumor sites with a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence signal, which helped to delineate the targeted area for NIR laser-triggered phototoxicity. As a consequence, ICG-MB displayed a combinational PTT/PDT effect to potently inhibit tumor growth without causing any system toxicities in vivo. In conclusion, this minimalist, effective and biocompatible nanotheranostic would provide a promising candidate for cancer phototherapy based on current available dyes in clinic.

Multidrug efflux pumps function at the frontline to protect bacteria against antimicrobials by decreasing the intracellular concentration of drugs. This protective barrier consists of a series of transporter proteins, which are located in the bacterial cell membrane and periplasm and remove diverse extraneous substrates, including antimicrobials, organic solvents, toxic heavy metals, etc., from bacterial cells. This review systematically and comprehensively summarizes the functions of multiple efflux pumps families and discusses their potential applications. The biological functions of efflux pumps including their promotion of multidrug resistance, biofilm formation, quorum sensing, and survival and pathogenicity of bacteria are elucidated. The potential applications of efflux pump-related genes/proteins for the detection of antibiotic residues and antimicrobial resistance are also analyzed. Last but not least, efflux pump inhibitors, especially those of plant origin, are discussed.

The surface of metal mirrors is often polished by electroless coating with a Ni–P modified layer after single-point diamond turning. In practice, however, improvements in mirror quality are closely related to the polishing environment, polishing medium, and polishing force. If not adequately controlled, processing defects such as visible scratches can lead to the deterioration of surface roughness. Based on the Ni–P modified surface of a metal reflector mirror, this study optimizes the configuration of magnetorheological figuring (MRF) fluid and polishing process parameters so that MRF high-efficiency surface modification can be realized and the scratch problem can be resolved. The processing method of a high-performance metal mirror is developed by studying the high-efficiency and high-precision processing technology based on small head smoothing. The surface roughness achieved by the proposed method was better than Ra = 0.39 nm. The ultrasonic cleaning process effectively improved the surface roughness after processing. According to the combined processing technology developed in this study, the modified layer of the parabolic mirror with a diameter of 370 mm was processed, and the surface quality was increased from RMS = 338.684 nm to RMS = 21.267 nm.

An implantable antenna, operating at the dual Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands of 902–928 MHz and 2.4–2.48 GHz, is presented for RF energy harvesting and data transmission. By introducing multiple radiating branches and etching a C-shaped slot, multiple resonant frequencies were generated to produce the wide dual bands. The proposed antenna has compact dimensions of 7.9 × 7.7 × 1.27 mm3. The simulated impedance bandwidths of the antenna are 0.67–1.05 GHz (44.2%) and 2.11–2.96 GHz (33.5%), and the peak gains are −28.9 dBi and −29.5 dBi, respectively. The lower band can be applied in RF energy harvesting, while the upper band is designed for data transmission with external medical equipment. Furthermore, to convert RF power into DC power, in RF energy harvesting, a voltage-doubled rectifier was positioned under the ground plane of the proposed antenna. The rectifier circuit can achieve a maximum conversion efficiency of 52% at an input power of 5 dBm. Furthermore, the integrated scheme of the implantable rectenna was fabricated and the numerical performance of the wireless power transfer was verified with the measurement results.

According to the International Diabetes Federation, 530 million people worldwide have diabetes, with more than 6.7 million reported deaths in 2021. Monitoring blood glucose levels is essential for individuals with diabetes, and developing noninvasive monitors has been a long-standing aspiration in diabetes management. The ideal method for monitoring diabetes is to obtain the glucose concentration level with a fast, accurate, and pain-free measurement that does not require blood drawing or a surgical operation. Multiple noninvasive glucose detection techniques have been developed, including bio-impedance spectroscopy, electromagnetic sensing, and metabolic heat conformation. Nevertheless, reliability and consistency challenges were reported for these methods due to ambient temperature and environmental condition sensitivity. Among all the noninvasive glucose detection techniques, optical spectroscopy has rapidly advanced. A photoacoustic system has been developed using a single wavelength quantum cascade laser, lasing at a glucose fingerprint of 1080 cm−1 for noninvasive glucose monitoring. The system has been examined using artificial skin phantoms, covering the normal and hyperglycemia blood glucose ranges. The detection sensitivity of the system has been improved to ±25 mg/dL using a single wavelength for the entire range of blood glucose. Machine learning has been employed to detect glucose levels using photoacoustic spectroscopy in skin samples. Ensemble machine learning models have been developed to measure glucose concentration using classification techniques. The model has achieved a 90.4% prediction accuracy with 100% of the predicted data located in zones A and B of Clarke’s error grid analysis. This finding fulfills the US Food and Drug Administration requirements for glucose monitors.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of restricted feeding on the growth performance, glycolipid metabolism and glucose homeostasis of Megalobrama amblycephala fed a high-carbohydrate (HC) diet. A total of 240 fish (46.94 ± 0.04 g) were randomly assigned to four groups containing the satiation of a control diet (30 % carbohydrate) and three satiety levels (100 %, HC1; 80 %, HC2; and 60 %, HC3) of the HC diet (43 % carbohydrate) for 8 weeks. High carbohydrate levels remarkably decreased daily growth coefficient (DGC), growth rate per metabolic body weight (GRMBW), feed intake (FI) and the transcriptions of growth hormone (GH), growth hormone receptor (GHR), fructose-1,6-biphosphatase peroxisome (FBPase), proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) and carnitine palmitoyl transferase I (CPT I) compared to the control group, but intestinal enzymes activities, tissue glycogen and lipid contents, and the transcriptions of glucokinase (GK), pyruvate kinase (PK), sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP 1), fatty acid synthase (FAS) and acetyl-CoA carboxylase α (ACCα) showed an opposite trend. Furthermore, HC2 group obtained relatively high values of DGC, GRMBW, feed efficiency ratio (FER), intestinal enzymes activities and the transcriptions of GH, GHR, IGF-I, GK, PK, PPARα and CPT I. Meanwhile, the HC2 group enhanced the glucose tolerance of fish fed HC diet after glucose administration. Overall, the satiation level at 80 % benefited the growth rate, feed efficiency and glucose homeostasis of M. amblycephala fed a high-carbohydrate diet.

Recently, our preliminary research showed that 40–80 % of dietary fishmeal (FM, 30 %) could be successfully replaced by the terrestrial compound protein (CPro) in the carnivorous marine teleost, Trachinotus ovatus. Here, to further confirm the feasibility of CPro and evaluate their environmental benefits, another 8-week feeding trial was performed using the large size T. ovatus (initial body weight about 79 g) and three isoproteic (46 %) and isolipidic (11.5 %) formula diets (D1-D3) or ice fresh trash fish (D0), where a total of 240 fish were randomly distributed into 4 floating cages at sea and each with 60 fish. D1 contained 30 % FM (control); D2 and D3 contained 18 % and 6 % FM, respectively, where 40 % and 80 % FM was replaced by CPro I and CPro II. The results showed that growth index like weight gain (WG) and specific growth rate (SGR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), feed conversion ratio (FCR), as well as flesh textural parameters including cooking percentage (CP), water holding capacity (WHC) and textural parameters (except tenderness), and amino acids composition of flesh in fish fed D2 and D3 showed no difference or even improved values compared with those of fish fed D1 (P > 0.05). Moreover, cost per kg of fish produced (CFP) in D2 and D3 group was only 90.25 % and 68.46 % of D1 group. In addition, the nitrogen (NRE) and phosphorus retention efficiency (PRE) of fish fed D1-D3 were significantly higher than those of fish fed D0, whereas the opposite was true for total nitrogen (TNW) and total phosphorus wastes output (TPW) (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, fish fed D3 exhibited the highest NRE and PRE, and the lowest TNW. These results demonstrated that fish fed D2 (18 % FM) and D3 (6 % FM) with 40 % and 80 % replacement of dietary FM by terrestrial compound proteins displayed no negative effects on growth performance and flesh quality, but better farming income and environmental benefits, especially for the 6 % FM group.

Background: This study aims to investigate the association between blood pressure (BP) at the time of recanalization and hemorrhagic transformation in large vessel occlusion (LVO) patients following mechanical thrombectomy (MT) with general anesthesia.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed our data base for patients with acute ischemic stroke acute ischemic stroke (AIS) who received MT between January 2018 and December 2019. The BP at two adjacent time points immediately after successful recanalization was recorded for subsequent calculation of mean BP (BPmean), maximum BP (BPmax), minimum BP (BPmin), range of BP (BPrange), and standard deviation of SP (BPSD). Hemorrhagic transformation was identified on 24-h computerized tomography images according to the European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study (ECASS) III trial. We used binary logistic regression analysis to investigate the association of BP parameters and the incidence of parenchymal hemorrhage (PH) and PH-2.Results: A total of 124 patients with anterior circulation LVO were finally included for analyses. After controlling for intravenous thrombolysis, procedure duration of mechanical thrombectomy, baseline National institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), baseline ASPECTS, and number of device passes, the results showed that every increment of 10 mmHg in SBPrange (OR 1.559; 95% CI 1.027–2.365; P = 0.037) and SBPSD (OR 1.998; 95% CI 1.017–3.925; P = 0.045) were independently associated with PH. After adjustment for intravenous thrombolysis, procedure duration of mechanical thrombectomy, baseline NIHSS, the results showed that every increment of 10 mmHg in SBPmean (OR 1.973; 95% CI 1.190–3.271; P = 0.008), SBPmax (OR 1.838; 95% CI 1.199 to 2.815; P = 0.005), SBPrange (OR 1.908; 95% CI 1.161–3.136; P = 0.011) and SBPSD (OR 2.573; 95% CI 1.170–5.675; P = 0.019) were independently associated with PH-2.Conclusion: Patients with higher systolic BP and variability at the time of successful recanalization were more likely to have PH-2 in LVO patients following MT with general anesthesia.

Sepsis is the major cause of mortality in the intensive care unit. The aim of this study was to identify the key prognostic biomarkers of abnormal expression and immune infiltration in sepsis. In this study, a total of 36 differentially expressed genes were identified to be mainly involved in a number of immune-related Gene Ontology terms and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways. The hub genes ( MMP9 and C3AR1 ) were significantly related to the prognosis of sepsis patients. The immune infiltration analysis indicated a significant difference in the relative cell content of naive B cells, follicular Th cells, activated NK cells, eosinophils, neutrophils and monocytes between sepsis and normal controls. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis and a de-convolution algorithm that quantifies the cellular composition of immune cells were used to analyse the sepsis expression data from the Gene Expression Omnibus database and to identify modules related to differential immune cells. CEBPB is the key immune-related gene that may be involved in sepsis. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that CEBPB is involved in the processes of T cell selection, B cell–mediated immunity, NK cell activation and pathways of T cells, B cells and NK cells. Therefore, CEBPB may play a key role in the biological and immunological processes of sepsis.

Background: Traumatic brain injury is a common condition in neurosurgery. Traditional methods of treatment include conservative treatment and surgical evacuation using burr-holes or craniotomy; however, studies have reported problems such as high re-expansion rates after conservative treatment of epidural hematoma and high postoperative recurrence rates of subdural hematoma. Solutions to these problems are lacking, and research into new treatment methods is ongoing. Among the potential new treatments, middle meningeal arterial embolization is an option. This study involved patients with acute epidural hematoma and chronic subdural hematoma. The purpose was to evaluate the use and effects of absolute alcohol to embolize the middle meningeal artery to treat intracranial hematoma.Material and Methods: A retrospective description study was 12 cases of intracranial hematoma who treated with absolute alcohol interventional therapy from our hospital between June 2018 and October 2019. Five patients with acute epidural hematoma and seven patients with chronic subdural hematoma were treated using absolute alcohol to embolize the middle meningeal artery. Patients' clinical data, imaging results, surgical results, and prognosis were recorded and analyzed.Results: All patients underwent absolute alcohol embolization of the middle meningeal artery, in combination with burr-hole drainage. All imaging data were confirmed preoperatively. We successfully used absolute alcohol to embolize the middle meningeal artery intraoperatively and confirmed these results by postoperative angiography. All patients achieved symptomatic relief without complications, and no recurrence or re-expansion was seen with follow-up computed tomography. Our study has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (http://www.chictr.org.cn, ChiCTR1800018714).Conclusion: The use of absolute alcohol to embolize the middle meningeal artery could be used as an attempt to treat acute epidural hematoma and chronic subdural hematoma.

Abstract Conspicuously, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) serve as homogenously and periodically atom‐dispersed self‐sacrificial template for in situ engineering of hierarchical porous carbon‐encapsulated micro/nanoheterostructure materials, integrating the merits of micro/nanostructure to high‐volumetric energy storage. Copper phosphide represents a promising candidate due to its compact material density compared to commercial graphite. Herein, micro/nanostructured Cu3P/Cu encapsulated by carbon‐nanotube‐assembled hierarchical octahedral carbonaceous matrix (Cu3P/Cu@CNHO) is constructed by an in situ MOF‐derived engineering for novel anode material in LIBs, which achieves an extraordinary cycling stability (a well‐maintained gravimetric/volumetric capacity of 463.2 mAh g−1/1878.4 mAh cm−3 at 1 A g−1 up to 1600 cycles) and distinguished rate capability (an ameliorated capacity of 317.7 mAh g−1 even at 10 A g−1), together with unprecedented heat‐resistant capability (an elevated temperature of 50 °C for 1000 cycles maintaining 434.7 mAh g−1 at 0.5 A g−1). The superior electrochemical performance of Cu3P/Cu@CNHO is credited to the large specific surface area, conductive carbon matrix and metallic copper dopants, synergistic effects of the intrinsic Cu3P/Cu heterostructure, and well‐defined micro/nanostructure, facilitating a boosted electrochemical conductivity and accelerated diffusion kinetics.

ABSTRACT: Heredity is the major factor contributing to the susceptibility to ankylosing spondylitis(AS). Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) has been associated with AS. Urine-derived cells from an AS patient with JAK2 mutation were used to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with five episomal iPSC reprogramming vectors (pCXLE-hOCT3/4-shp53-F, pCXLE-hSK, pCXLE-hUL, pCXLE-EGFP and pCXWB-EBNA1). The iPSCs were pluripotent and will be valuable for research on the role and mechanism of JAK2 in the pathogenesis of AS.

Berberine (BBR) is an isoquinoline alkaloid, which has been used in the treatment of intestinal mucositis. However, BBR on chemotherapy-induced mucositis in cancer patients remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated the effect of BBR on intestinal mucositis induced by 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) using rat model. We detected the degree of intestinal mucosal damage and inflammatory response in 5-Fu treated rats with or without BBR administration, and investigated the changes of fecal metabolites and gut microbiota using 1H NMR spectroscopy and 16S rRNA. The mechanism was further explored by fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). Results showed that BBR treated rats displayed less weight loss, lower diarrhea score and longer colon length in 5-Fu treated rats. Meanwhile, BBR treatment significantly increased the expression of Occludin in ileum and decreased the d-lactate content in serum. Moreover, the expression of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in ileum were suppressed by BBR treatment. The pattern of fecal metabolism changed obviously after treated with 5-Fu, which was reversed by BBR. Importantly, BBR significantly increased the levels of butyrate and glutamine in feces from 5-Fu treated rats. In terms of gut microbiota, BBR enriched the relative abundance of Firmicutes and decreased Proteobacteria at the phylum level. Meanwhile, BBR increased the propotion of unclassified_f_ Porphyromonadaceae, unclassified_f_ Lachnospiraceae, Lactobacillus, unclassified_o_ Clostridiales, Ruminococcus, Prevotella, Clostridium IV, and decreased Escherichia/Shigella at the genera level. Furthermore, principal component analysis (PCA) showed that fecal transplantation led to changes in fecal metabolites. Fecal transplantation from BBR treated rats had low diarrhea score, reduced inflammatory response in ileum, and relieved intestinal mucosal injury, which may be caused by the increased of butyrate level in fecal metabolites. In conclusion, our study provides evidence that BBR regulates fecal metabolites to ameliorate 5-Fu induced intestinal mucositis by modifying gut microbiota.