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Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a serious clinical disease associated with reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst and subsequent inflammatory responses. However, traditional treatments were limited by low efficacy and serious side effects due to the special liver structure. Here, we developed a molybdenum (Mo)-based nanoparticles, EGM NPs, after overall consideration of the pathophysiology of DILI and the advantages of nanodrugs. It demonstrated that EGM NPs treated acetaminophen (APAP)-induced DILI by scavenging ROS and inhibiting inflammation. EGM NPs effectively scavenged various ROS and reduced cell apoptosis at the cellular level. More importantly, EGM NPs can treat APAP-induced DILI in vivo, reducing the levels of liver function indicators in mice with liver injury, scaling down the area of hepatocyte necrosis and successfully inhibiting endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in the liver. EGM NPs also showed a certain anti-inflammatory effect by reducing infiltration of macrophages, decreasing pro-inflammatory factors and inhibiting the expression levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS2) and myeloperoxidase (MPO). Collectively, our findings suggest that EGM NPs-based nanotherapeutic is a novel strategy for the treatment of DILI.

Abstract Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, dramatically improving survival rates of melanoma and lung cancer patients. Nevertheless, immunotherapy is almost ineffective against ovarian cancer (OC) due to its cold tumor immune microenvironment (TIM). Many traditional medications aimed at remodeling TIM are often associated with severe systemic toxicity, require frequent dosing, and show only modest clinical efficacy. In recent years, emerging nanomedicines have demonstrated extraordinary immunotherapeutic effects for OC by reversing the TIM because the physical and biochemical features of nanomedicines can all be harnessed to obtain optimal and expected tissue distribution and cellular uptake. However, nanomedicines are far from being widely explored in the field of OC immunotherapy due to the lack of appreciation for the professional barriers of nanomedicine and pathology, limiting the horizons of biomedical researchers and materials scientists. Herein, a typical cold tumor‐OC is adopted as a paradigm to introduce the classification of TIM, the TIM characteristics of OC, and the advantages of nanomedicines for immunotherapy. Subsequently, current nanomedicines are comprehensively summarized through five general strategies to substantially enhance the efficacy of immunotherapy by heating the cold OC. Finally, the challenges and perspectives of this expanding field for improved development of clinical applications are also discussed.

Sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) is an intricated complication of sepsis that brings abnormal emotional and memory dysfunction and increases patients’ mortality. Patients’ alterations and abnormal function seen in SAE occur in the hippocampus, the primary brain region responsible for memory and emotional control, but the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms remain unclear. In the current study, we employed an integrative analysis combining the RNA-seq-based transcriptomics and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based metabolomics to comprehensively obtain the enriched genes and metabolites and their core network pathways in the endotoxin (LPS)-injected SAE mice model. As a result, SAE mice exhibited behavioral changes, and their hippocampus showed upregulated inflammatory cytokines and morphological alterations. The omics analysis identified 81 differentially expressed metabolites (variable importance in projection [VIP] > 1 and p < 0.05) and 1747 differentially expressed genes (Foldchange >2 and p < 0.05) were detected in SAE-grouped hippocampus. Moreover, 31 compounds and 100 potential target genes were employed for the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) Markup Language (KGML) network analysis to explore the core signaling pathways for the progression of SAE. The integrative pathway analysis showed that various dysregulated metabolism pathways, including lipids metabolism, amino acids, glucose and nucleotides, inflammation-related pathways, and deregulated synapses, were tightly associated with hippocampus dysfunction at early SAE. These findings provide a landscape for understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms of the hippocampus in the progression of SAE and pave the way to identify therapeutic targets in future studies.

Abstract Background Biomarkers for distinguishing psoriatic arthritis (PsA) from psoriasis without arthritis (PsO) are still lacking. Methods We applied isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) and LC–MS/MS to analyze the proteome profile of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) collected from patients with PsO, patients with PsA, and healthy controls. Bioinformatics analysis and western blotting were performed to identify and validate differentially expressed proteins. Results We identified 389, 199, 291, and 60 significantly differentially expressed proteins (adj.p

This study explored the effects of combined urea and 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) on several components critical to the soil system: net nitrification rates; communities of targeted ammonia oxidizers [ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) and complete ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (comammox)]; non-targeted nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and bacteria. We conducted the study in two contrasting soils (acidic and neutral) over the course of 28 days. Our results indicated that DMPP had higher inhibitory efficacy in the acidic soil (30.7%) compared to the neutral soil (12.1%). The abundance of AOB and Nitrospira-like NOB were positively associated with nitrate content in acidic soil. In neutral soil, these communities were joined by the abundance of AOA and Nitrobacter-like NOB in being positively associated with nitrate content. By blocking the growth of AOB in acidic soil—and the growth of both AOB and comammox in neutral soil—DMPP supported higher rates of AOA growth. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that urea and urea + DMPP treatments significantly increased the diversity indices of bacteria, including Chao 1, ACE, Shannon, and Simpson in the acidic soil but did not do so in the neutral soil. However, both urea and urea + DMPP treatments obviously altered the community structure of bacteria in both soils relative to the control treatment. This experiment comprehensively analyzed the effects of urea and nitrification inhibitor on functional guilds involved in the nitrification process and non-targeted bacteria, not just focus on targeted ammonia oxidizers.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide due to high morbidity and mortality. Many attempts and efforts have been devoted to fighting cancer. Owing to the significant role of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in cell function, inducing ER stress can be promising for cancer treatment. However, the sustained activation of cytoprotective unfolded protein response (UPR) presents a tremendous obstacle for drugs in inducing unsolved ER stress in tumor cells, especially small-molecule drugs with poor bioavailability. Therefore, many emerging nanodrugs inducing and amplifying ER stress have been developed for efficient cancer treatment. More importantly, the novel discovery of ER stress in immunogenic cell death (ICD) makes it possible to repurpose antitumor drugs for immunotherapy through nanodrug-based strategies amplifying ER stress. Therefore, this mini-review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the latest developments of the strategies underlying nanodrugs in the treatment of cancer via manipulating ER stress. Meanwhile, the prospects of ER stress–inducing nanodrugs for cancer treatment are systematically discussed, which provide a sound platform for novel therapeutic insights and inspiration for the design of nanodrugs in treating cancer.

Abstract Dysregulations in transcription factors (TFs) and their genetic products play important roles in tumorigenesis, tumor progression and metastasis. However, prognostic value of the transcriptional regulatory networks in different cancers has not been investigated in depth. The purpose of our study was to identify and validate a potential predictive signature that combines TFs and their regulatory products in eight solid tumors. We used bioinformatics analysis to identify MET Transcriptional Regulator (MACC1) and Serine Peptidase Inhibitor Kunitz Type 1 (SPINT1) as candidate TFs with the respective downstream regulatory proteins for patient prognosis in pan‐cancer. Subsequent molecular analysis of clinical gastric cancer tissue samples further verified the negative correlation between MACC1 and SPINT1. Further, we showed that mechanistically, MACC1/SPINT1 mediated the pro‐HGF proteolysis and c‐Met phosphorylation in HGF/c‐MET signaling pathway. Kaplan‐Meier plots and receiver operating characteristics analysis revealed that the two‐gene signature combining MACC1 with SPINT1 was effective in predicting survival in all eight cancer cohorts tested. In conclusion, our study clarified the regulatory relationship between MACC1 and SPINT1 in the context of the HGF/c‐MET signaling pathway and determined MACC1/SPINT1 panel as a valuable signature for the prediction of prognosis in patients for multiple solid cancer types.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of disability and mortality worldwide, whose symptoms ranging from mild to severe, even life-threatening. However, specific cell types and key regulators involved in traumatic brain injury have not been well elucidated. In this study, utilizing single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) data from mice with TBI, we have successfully identified and characterized 13 cell populations including astrocytes, oligodendrocyte, newly formed oligodendrocytes, microglia, two types of endothelial cells, five types of excitatory and two types of inhibitory neurons. Differential expression analysis and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) revealed the upregulation of microglia and endothelial markers, along with the downregulation of markers of excitatory neurons in TBI. The cell-cell communication analysis revealed that microglia and endothelial cell might interact through the interaction of Icam1-Il2rg and C1qa-Cd93, and microglia might also communicate with each other via Icam1-Itagm. The autocrine ligand-receptor in microglia might result in activation of TYROBP causal network via Icam1-Itgam. The cell-cell contact between microglia and endothelial cell might activate integrin signaling pathways. Moreover, we also found that genes involved in microglia activation were highly downregulated in Tyrobp/Dap12-deficient microglia, indicating that the upregulation of Tyrobp and TYROBP causal network in microglia might be a candidate therapeutic target in TBI. In contrast, the excitatory neurons were involved in maintaining normal brain function, and their inactivation might cause dysfunction of nervous system in TBI patients. In conclusion, the present study has discerned major cell types such as microglia, endothelial cells and excitatory neurons, and revealed key regulator such as TYROBP, C1QA, and CD93 in TBI, which shall improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of TBI.

Objective To investigate the contamination levels and critical control point of Bacillus cereus in wet rice products and starch products and propose control measures. Methods Enterprises and workshops that produce wet rice products and starch products in Guangzhou were selected to collect food samples in production and sale. Raw materials including rice and starch were also collected. Quantitative detection of Bacillus cereus was carried out. Results A total of 32 production samples, 139 sales samples, 32 rice samples and 8 starch samples were collected. The detection rates of Bacillus cereus were 50.00%(16/32), 43.17%(60/139), 93.75%(30/32), 40.00%(2/5) and 66.67%(2/3), the exceeding standard rate of Bacillus cereus in wet rice products and starch products was 3.60%, while Bacillus cereus counts were 10-4.97×104, 10-2.10×106, 10-1.22×103, 10-30 and 10 CFU/g respectively. There was no significant difference in the positive rates of sales products in four quarters, which were 45.28%, 42.50%, 31.03% and 58.82% respectively. Conclusion The contamination of Bacillus cereus in wet rice products and starch products in Guangzhou was serious. Microbiological control measures should focus on material rinsing, equipment cleaning, whole-process cold chain transportation and storage, storage time control and formation of good eating habits.

A ring signature (RS) scheme enables a group member to sign messages on behalf of its group without revealing the definite signer identify, but this also leads to the abuse of anonymity by malicious signers, which can be prevented by traceable ring signatures (TRS). Up until that point, traceable ring signatures have been secure based on the difficult problem of number-theoretic (discrete logarithms or RSA), but since the advent of quantum computers, traditional traceable ring signatures may no longer be secure. Thus Feng proposed a lattice based TRS, which are resistant to attacks by quantum computers. However, that works did not tackle the certificate management problem. To close this gap, a quantum-resistant certificateless TRS scheme was proposed in the study. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first lattice based certificateless TRS. In detail, a specific TRS scheme was combined with the lattice-based certificateless signature technology to solve the certificate management problem while avoid key escrow problem. Additionally, a better zero-knowledge protocol is used to improve the computational efficiency of the scheme, and by reducing the soundness error of the zero-knowledge protocol, the number of runs of the zero-knowledge protocol is reduced, so that the communication overhead of the scheme is reduced. Under random oracle model, the proposed scheme satisfies tag-linkability, anonymity, exculpability and is secure based on the SIS problem and the DLWE problem. In conclusion, the proposed scheme is more practical and promising in e-voting.

Objectives: We aimed to estimate the time-varying transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in China, Wuhan City, and Guangdong province, and compare to that of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Methods: Data on COVID-19 cases in China up to 20 March 2020 was collected from epidemiological investigations or official websites. Data on SARS cases in Guangdong Province, Beijing, and Hong Kong during 2002–3 was also obtained. We estimated the doubling time, basic reproduction number (R0), and time-varying reproduction number (Rt) of COVID-19 and SARS. Results: As of 20 March 2020, 80,739 locally acquired COVID-19 cases were identified in mainland China, with most cases reported between 20 January and 29 February 2020. The R0 value of COVID-19 in China and Wuhan was 5.0 and 4.8, respectively, which was greater than the R0 value of SARS in Guangdong (R0 = 2.3), Hong Kong (R0 = 2.3), and Beijing (R0 = 2.6). At the start of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Rt value in China peaked at 8.4 and then declined quickly to below 1.0 in one month. With SARS, the Rt curve saw fluctuations with more than one peak, the highest peak was lower than that for COVID-19. Conclusions: COVID-19 has much higher transmissibility than SARS, however, a series of prevention and control interventions to suppress the outbreak were effective. Sustained efforts are needed to prevent the rebound of the epidemic in the context of the global pandemic.

Abstract Functional encryption (FE) is a novel paradigm for encryption scheme which allows tremendous flexibility in accessing encrypted information. In FE, a user can learn specific function of encrypted messages by restricted functional key and reveal nothing else about the messages. Inner product encryption (IPE) is a special type of functional encryption where the decryption algorithm, given a ciphertext related to a vector x and a secret key related to a vector y, computes the inner product x·y. In this paper, we construct an efficient private-key functional encryption (FE) for inner product with simulation-based security, which is much stronger than indistinguishability-based security, under the External Decisional Linear assumption in the standard model. Compared with the existing schemes, our construction is faster in encryption and decryption, and the master secret key, secret keys and ciphertexts are shorter.

Abstract Private Set Intersection Cardinality (PSI-CA) and Private Set Union Cardinality (PSU-CA) are two cryptographic primitives whereby two or more parties are able to obtain the cardinalities of the intersection and the union of their respective private sets, and the privacy of their sets is preserved. In this paper, we propose a three-party protocol to finish these tasks by using quantum resources, where every two, as well as three, parties can obtain the cardinalities of the intersection and the union of their private sets with the help of a semi-honest third party (TP). In our protocol, GHZ states play a role in encoding private information that will be used by TP to compute the cardinalities. We show that the presented protocol is secure against well-known quantum attacks. In addition, we analyze the influence of six typical kinds of Markovian noise on our protocol.

BackgroundVisceral fat has been considered an important risk factor of elevated serum uric acid (SUA). Perirenal fat is a unique visceral fat around the kidneys that has special morphological and physiological features while its relationship with SUA remains incompletely elucidated. This study aimed to assess the association between perirenal fat volume (PrFV) and SUA.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in 102 subjects aged ≥ 18 years old recruited from Nanjing,China. The clinical characteristics including age, sex, drinking behavior, history of hypertension, body mass index, waist circumference, total cholesterol, fast plasma glucose, urea, serum creatinine, C-reactive protein, and SUA were recorded. PrFV was measured by ultrasonography. Multivariate linear models and the restricted cubic spline were used to investigate the association between PrFV and SUA.ResultsThe median age of this study population was 52.5 (42.0-60.0) years and 56.9% were female. The median value of SUA was 5.73 mg/dL (4.58-6.80 mg/dL). The subjects were divided by PrFV tertiles and we found that the subjects in the highest PrFV tertile had a higher level of SUA compared to those in the lowest tertile (β=1.86, 95%CI 1.23–2.48, P for trend

DNA is always one of the most important targets for cancer therapy due to its leading role in the proliferation of cancer cells. Phototherapy kills cancer cells by generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) and local hyperthermia under light. It has attracted extensive interest in the clinical treatment of tumors because of many advantages such as non-invasiveness, high patient compliance, and low toxicity and side effects. However, the short ROS diffusion distance and limited thermal diffusion rate make it difficult for phototherapy to damage DNA deep in the nucleus. Therefore, nucleus-targeting phototherapy that can destroy DNAs via in-situ generation of ROS and high temperature can be a very effective strategy to address this bottleneck. Recently, some emerging nucleus-targeting phototherapy nanodrugs have demonstrated extremely effective anticancer effects. However, reviews in the field are still rarely reported. Here, we comprehensively summarized recent advances in nucleus-targeting phototherapy in recent years. We classified nucleus-targeting phototherapy into three categories based on the characteristics of these nucleus-targeting strategies. The first category is the passive targeting strategy, which mainly targets the nucleus by adjusting the physicochemical characteristics of phototherapy nanomedicines. The second category is to mediate the phototherapy nanodrugs into the nucleus by modifying functional groups that actively target the nucleus. The third category is to assist nanodrugs enter into the nucleus in a light-controlled way. Finally, we provided our insights and prospects for nucleus-targeting phototherapy nanodrugs. This minireview provides unique insights and valuable clues in the design of phototherapy nanodrugs and other nucleus-targeting drugs.

Cancer cell lysosomes contain various hydrolases and non-degraded substrates that are corrosive enough to destroy cancer cells. However, many traditional small molecule drugs targeting lysosomes have strong side effects because they cannot effectively differentiate between normal and cancer cells. Most lysosome-based research has focused on inducing mild lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP) to release anticancer drugs from lysosomal traps into the cancer cell cytoplasm. In fact, lysosomes are particularly powerful “bombs”. Achieving cancer cell-selective LMP induction may yield high-efficiency anticancer effects and extremely low side effects. Nanodrugs have diverse and combinable properties and can be specifically designed to selectively induce LMP in cancer cells by taking advantage of the differences between cancer cells and normal cells. Although nanodrugs-induced LMP has made great progress recently, related reviews remain rare. Herein, we first comprehensively summarize the advances in nanodrugs-induced LMP. Next, we describe the different nanodrugs-induced LMP strategies, namely nanoparticles aggregation-induced LMP, chemodynamic therapy (CDT)-induced LMP, and magnetic field-induced LMP. Finally, we analyze the prospect of nanodrugs-induced LMP and the challenges to overcome. We believe this review provides a unique perspective and inspiration for designing lysosome-targeting drugs.

AimsTo assess whether MTHFR rs1801131 and rs1801133 SNPs are associated with concomitant psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and investigate the efficacy and hepatotoxicity of MTX in patients with psoriasis in the Han Chinese population.MethodsThis prospective, single-arm, interventional study recruited a total of 309 patients with psoriasis, 163 with psoriatic arthritis and 146 without psoriatic arthritis, who completed a 12-week MTX treatment and 1,031 healthy controls. Patients' characteristics including age, gender, disease duration, height, weight, smoking status, alcohol consumption, medical history, disease severity and liver function test results were accessed and recorded. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping of rs1801131 and rs1801133 in the MTHFR gene was performed.ResultsThe rs1801133 CC genotype was more frequent in patients with PsA than those with PsO and healthy controls (42.3% vs. 28.8% vs. 33.1%, p < 0.05). The 90% reduction from baseline PASI score (PASI 90) response rates to MTX were significantly higher in patients with the rs1801133 TT genotype than those with the CT and CC genotype (33.96% vs. 19.31% vs. 14.41%, OR = 2.76, p = 0.006). The rs1801133 CT+TT genotype was more frequent in PsA patients with abnormal liver function than in those with normal liver function (p < 0.05). In addition, patients with the rs1801131 CT genotype had lower PASI 75 response rates to MTX (OR = 0.49, p = 0.01), and lower risk of ALT elevation (OR = 0.46, p = 0.04).ConclusionsThis study provided some evidence for MTHFR polymorphism association with the risk of PsA and the efficacy and hepatotoxicity of the low-dose MTX in the Chinese population. Given the relatively small sample size and potentially missed diagnosis of PsA, the results from this study warrant further investigation.

Abstract Background Growing evidence has shown that the gut-renal connection and gut microbiota dysbiosis play a critical role in immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN). However, the fecal microbiome profile in Chinese patients with IgAN remains unknown. A cross-sectional study was designed for the first time to investigate the fecal microbiota compositions in patients with primary IgAN in China and to evaluate the relationship between the fecal microbiome and IgAN clinical presentation. Methods Fecal samples were collected from 17 IgAN patients and 18 age-, sex-, and body mass index-matched healthy controls, and bacterial DNA was extracted for 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing targeting the V3-V4 region. Results Fecal samples from the IgAN patients and healthy controls showed differences in gut microbiota community richness and compositions. Compared to the healthy controls, IgAN patients at the phylum level had an increased abundance of Fusobacteria, but a decreased abundance of Synergistetes. The significantly increased genera in the IgAN group were Escherichia-Shigella, Hungatella, and Eggerthella, all of which possess pathogenic potential. Furthermore, the genus Escherichia-Shigella was negatively associated with the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) but was positively associated with the urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (uACR). However, the genus rectale_group was present in the IgAN group with a low abundance and was negatively associated with the uACR. Functional analysis disclosed that infection-related pathways were enriched in the IgAN group. Conclusions We demonstrate that gut microbiota dysbiosis occurs in patients with IgAN, and that changes in gut bacterial populations are closely related to IgAN clinical features, suggesting that certain specific gut microbiota may be a potential therapeutic target for IgAN.

ABSTRACTReduced doses of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs may lower toxicity while preserving efficacy. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of reduced doses of both tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and efavirenz for the treatment of HIV-1 infection. In this open-label, non-inferiority trial, HIV-1-infected antiretroviral-naive adults were randomly assigned to receive either a lower dose anti-retroviral regimen comprised of TDF (200 mg), efavirenz (400 mg), and standard dose lamivudine (300 mg) or the standard dose regimen. The primary endpoint was the proportion of participants with HIV-1 RNA≤ 50 copies/mL at week 48 using a non-inferiority margin of –10%. At week 48, 79 of 92 (85.9%) participants in the lower dose regimen group and 78 of 92 (84.8%) in the standard dose regimen group achieved HIV-1 RNA≤ 50 copies/mL (treatment difference 1.1%, 95% CI −9.1 to 11.3) in the intention-to-treat analysis. Drug-related adverse events occurred more frequently in the participants receiving the standard dose regimen compared with the lower dose one (63.0% vs 80.4%). Changes in estimated glomerular filtration rate and bone mineral density were comparable between the two groups. The non-inferior efficacy and better safety profile of the lower dose ARV regimen support its use as alternative initial therapy for HIV-1 infected patients.

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to estimate the attack rates, and identify the risk factors of COVID-19 infection. Based on a retrospective cohort study, we investigated 11,580 contacts of COVID-19 cases in Guangdong Province from 10 January to 15 March 2020. All contacts were tested by RT-PCR to detect their infection of SARS-COV-2. Attack rates by characteristics were calculated. Logistic regression was used to estimate the risk factors of infection for COVID-19. A total of 515 of 11,580 contacts were identified to be infected with SARS-COV-2. Compared to young adults aged 20–29 years, the infected risk was higher in children (RR: 2.59, 95%CI: 1.79–3.76), and old people aged 60–69 years (RR: 5.29, 95%CI: 3.76–7.46). Females also had higher infected risk (RR: 1.66, 95%CI: 1.39–2.00). People having close relationship with index cases encountered higher infected risk (RR for spouse: 20.68, 95%CI: 14.28–29.95; RR for non-spouse family members: 9.55, 95%CI: 6.73–13.55; RR for close relatives: 5.90, 95%CI: 4.06–8.59). Moreover, contacts exposed to index case in symptomatic period (RR: 2.15, 95%CI: 1.67–2.79), with critically severe symptoms (RR: 1.61, 95%CI: 1.00–2.57), with symptoms of dizzy (RR: 1.58, 95%CI: 1.08–2.30), myalgia (RR: 1.49, 95%CI: 1.15–1.94), and chill (RR: 1.42, 95%CI: 1.05–1.92) had higher infected risks. Children, old people, females, and family members are susceptible of COVID-19 infection, while index cases in the incubation period had lower contagiousness. Our findings will be helpful for developing targeted prevention and control strategies to combat the worldwide pandemic.

Abstract Background Metastasis and recurrence, wherein circulating tumour cells (CTCs) play an important role, are the leading causes of death in colorectal cancer (CRC). Metastasis-initiating CTCs manage to maintain intravascular survival under anoikis, immune attack, and importantly shear stress; however, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Methods In view of the scarcity of CTCs in the bloodstream, suspended colorectal cancer cells were flowed into the cyclic laminar shear stress (LSS) according to previous studies. Then, we detected these suspended cells with a CK8+/CD45−/DAPI+ phenotype and named them mimic circulating tumour cells (m-CTCs) for subsequent CTCs related researches. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction, western blotting, and immunofluorescence were utilised to analyse gene expression change of m-CTCs sensitive to LSS stimulation. Additionally, we examined atonal bHLH transcription factor 8 (ATOH8) expressions in CTCs among 156 CRC patients and mice by fluorescence in situ hybridisation and flow cytometry. The pro-metabolic and pro-survival functions of ATOH8 were determined by glycolysis assay, live/dead cell vitality assay, anoikis assay, and immunohistochemistry. Further, the concrete up-and-down mechanisms of m-CTC survival promotion by ATOH8 were explored. Results The m-CTCs actively responded to LSS by triggering the expression of ATOH8, a fluid mechanosensor, with executive roles in intravascular survival and metabolism plasticity. Specifically, ATOH8 was upregulated via activation of VEGFR2/AKT signalling pathway mediated by LSS induced VEGF release. ATOH8 then transcriptionally activated HK2-mediated glycolysis, thus promoting the intravascular survival of colorectal cancer cells in the circulation. Conclusions This study elucidates a novel mechanism that an LSS triggered VEGF-VEGFR2-AKT-ATOH8 signal axis mediates m-CTCs survival, thus providing a potential target for the prevention and treatment of hematogenous metastasis in CRC.

Sensitive data would be encrypted before uploading to the cloud due to the privacy issue. However, how to compare the encrypted data efficiently becomes a problem. Public Key Encryption with Equality Test (PKEET) provides an efficient way to check whether two ciphertexts (of possibly different users) contain the same message without decryption. As an enhanced variant, Attribute-based Encryption with Equality Test (ABEET) provides a flexible mechanism of authorization on the equality test. Most of the existing ABEET schemes are only proved to be secure in the random oracle model. Their security, however, would not be guaranteed if random oracles are replaced with real-life hash functions. In this work, we propose a construction of CP-ABEET scheme and prove its security based on some reasonable assumptions in the standard model. We then show how to modify the scheme to outsource complex computations in decryption and equality test to a third-party server in order to support thin clients.

Although there exist many researches on the compression of original non-encrypted binary images, few approaches focus on the compression of encrypted binary images. As binary images like contract, signature, halftone images are still used widely in practice, how to compress efficiently encrypted binary images in a lossy way deserves further exploration. To this end, this paper develops a lossy compression scheme for encrypted binary images by exploiting the Markov random field (MRF) model. Considering that the third-party in scenarios of cloud or distributed computing cannot access to the encryption key, we develop the concatenated down-sampling and LDPC-based encoding to perform the compression, in which four different down-sampling methods are designed to facilitate improving the quality of reconstructed image. In reconstruction, we first formulate the lossy reconstruction from the encrypted and compressed binary image as an optimization problem, and then build a joint factor graph involving the LDPC-decoding, decryption, and MRF to solve this optimization problem, in which the MRF is exploited to well infer pixels discarded in the down-sampling process. By adapting the sum-product algorithm (SPA) to the constructed joint factor graph for lossy reconstruction (JFG-LR) and running the adapted SPA on the JFG-LR, we thus recover the original binary image in a lossy way. By integrating the stream-cipher-based encryption, the down-sampling and LDPC-based compression, and the JFG-LR-involved reconstruction, we thus propose a new lossy compression scheme for encrypted binary images. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme achieves desirable compression efficiency, which is comparable to or even better than that of the JBIG2 with the original unencrypted binary image as input.

Plaintext-checkable encryption (PCE), first introduced by Canard et al., allows users searching on encrypted data through plaintexts. It provides a useful primitive in the cloud computing security. However, existing PCE schemes could not guarantee verifiability to prevent from malicious adversaries. To concentrate with, we provide the notion of plaintext-verifiably-checkable encryption (PVCE). Our PVCE scheme could check that if a ciphertext is valid, even though it could pass the check procedure, to avoid malicious ciphertexts. Furthermore, we extend the work in dual-server setting, called dual-server plaintext-verifiably-checkable encryption (DS-PVCE), to resist offline message recover attack. We also give the security definition IND-CCA-FS, IND-CCA-BS and IND-CCA-BS-II in standard model for DS-PVCE and prove that DS-PVCE is secure under these security notions. Then we give constructions of PVCE and DS-PVCE from pairing-friendly smooth projective hash function (PF-SPHF) and their instantiations based on k-MDDH assumption. At the end of this paper, we provide implementation to compare existing PCE schemes and our schemes, which shows that DS-PVCE has very high check efficiency compared with other PCE schemes.

Cloud storage systems provide a flexible, convenient and friendly way for users to outsource data. However, users lose control of their data once outsourcing them to the cloud. Public auditing was introduced to ensure data integrity, in which a third-party auditor (TPA) is delegated to execute auditing tasks. In general, TPA generates and sends challenge information to the cloud server (CS), which proves data possession accordingly. However, the TPA may not perform public auditing protocol honestly or may even collude with CS to deceive users. Some existing public auditing schemes utilize blockchain to resist against the malicious TPA. However, the CS may guess the challenge messages and there is a risk that users' information may be leaked to the TPA during the process of auditing. In this paper, we propose a decentralized and privacy-preserving public auditing scheme based on blockchain (DBPA), in which a blockchain is utilized as an unpredictable source for the generation of (random) challenge information, and the auditor is required to record the audit process onto the blockchain. Due to the characteristics of blockchain, users can check the audit results publicly. Moreover, zero-knowledge proof is used in DBPA to protect user's privacy during the audit process so that the response information returned by the CS does not leak information about user's data. Security analysis and performance evaluation show that DBPA is secure and efficient.

For the multi-histogram-based reversible watermarking (MHRW) scheme, the performance greatly depends on the multi-histogram construction, which remains a challenge in this field. To generate more desirable multi-histograms, this paper improves the MHRW using the Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering technique by developing the following approaches: 1)optimize the original feature set, 2)adopt an alternative FCM (AFCM) clustering method, and 3)determine adaptively the optimal clustering number for low embedding rates. These approaches are then integrated to bring about the proposed scheme, i.e., the improved MHRW (IMHRW). Extensive simulations show that the proposed scheme improves the performance of multi-histogram-based reversible watermarking, and it is comparable to or even better than the state of the arts. This thus demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Radiotherapy (RT), as one of the main methods of clinical tumor treatment, has been applied to the treatment of most solid tumors. However, the effect of RT is compromised by the radiation resistance of tumor hypoxic environment and non-specific damage caused by high-dose radiation. Bismuth chalcogenides (Bi2X3, X = S, Se) based nanodrugs have attracted widespread attention as highly efficient radiosensitizers due to their high photoelectric effect and excellent biocompatibility. More importantly, specially designed nanocomposites can effectively alleviate the radiation resistance of tumor tissues. Here, for the first time, we systematically summarize the latest progresses of Bi2X3 nanodrugs to enhance RT by alleviating the hypoxic tumor microenvironment. These emerging Bi2X3 nanodrugs mainly include three aspects, which are Bi2X3 nanocomposites with high-efficient O2 supply, non-O2-dependent Bi2X3 nanocomposites RT enhancers, and Bi2X3 nanocomposites-based photothermal-enhanced radiosensitizers. These Bi2X3 nanodrugs can effectively overcome the RT resistance of tumor hypoxic microenvironment, and have extremely high therapeutic effects and clinical application prospects. Finally, we put forward the challenges and prospects of Bi2X3 nanomaterials in the field of RT.

Mitochondria, as one of the most critical subcellular organelles of cancer cells, are very vulnerable and often on the verge of oxidative stress. The classic chemodynamic therapy (CDT) directly employs endogenous chemical energy to trigger reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst and destroy tumor cells. However, the effectiveness of CDT is restricted by the limited diffusion distance and short half-life of ROS. From this perspective, the treatment method (mitochondria-targeting chemodynamic therapy nanodrugs, M-CDT nanodrugs) that can generate high levels of ROS at the mitochondrial site is extremely efficient and promising for cancer treatment. Currently, many emerging M-CDT nanodrugs have been demonstrated excellent spatial specificity and anti-cancer efficacy. In this minireview, we review various proof-of-concept researches based on different M-CDT nanodrugs designs to overcome the limits of the efficacy of CDT, mainly divided into four strategies: supplying H2O2, non-H2O2 dependent CDT, eliminating GSH and enhancing by hyperthermia therapy (HT). These well-designed M-CDT nanodrugs greatly increase the efficacy of CDT. Finally, the progress and potential of M-CDT nanodrugs are discussed, as well as their limitations and opportunities.

Overall, 12% of the global population (800 million) suffers from liver disease, which causes 2 million deaths every year. Liver injury involving characteristic reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (RONS) and inflammation plays a key role in progression of liver disease. As a key metabolic organ of the human body, the liver is susceptible to injury from various sources, including COVID-19 infection. Owing to unique structural features and functions of the liver, most current antioxidants and anti-inflammatory drugs are limited against liver injury. However, the characteristics of the liver could be utilized in the development of nanodrugs to achieve specific enrichment in the liver and consequently targeted treatment. Nanodrugs have shown significant potential in eliminating RONS and regulating inflammation, presenting an attractive therapeutic tool for liver disease through controlling liver injury. Therefore, the main aim of the current review is to provide a comprehensive summary of the latest developments contributing to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying nanodrugs in the treatment of liver injury via harnessing RONS and inflammation. Meanwhile, the prospects of nanodrugs for liver injury therapy are systematically discussed, which provides a sound platform for novel therapeutic insights and inspiration for design of nanodrugs to treat liver disease.

The grand challenges of ovarian cancer early diagnosis have led to an alarmingly high mortality rate from ovarian cancer (OC) in the past half century. In vitro diagnosis (IVD) has great potential in the early diagnosis of OC through non-invasive and dynamic analysis of biomarkers. However, common IVDs often fail to provide reliable test results due to lack of sensitivity, specificity, and convenience. In recent years, the discovery of new biomarkers and the progress of nanomaterials can solve the shortcomings of traditional IVD for early OC. These emerging biosensors based on nanomaterials offer great improvements in convenience, speed, selectivity, and sensitivity of IVD. In this review, we firstly systematically summarized the limits of commercial IVD biosensors of OC and the latest discovery of new biomarkers for OC. The representative optimization strategies for six potential ovarian cancer biomarkers are systematically discussed with emphasis on nanomaterial selection and the design of detection principles. Then, various strategies adopted by emerging biosensors based on nanomaterials are also introduced in detail, including optical, electrochemical, microfluidic, and surface plasmon sensors. Finally, current challenges of early OC IVD are proposed, and future research directions on this promising field are also discussed.

Artificial intelligence can bring convenience to human life. In the field of sports rehabilitation, the application of artificial intelligence is becoming more and more in-depth. This paper is aimed at studying the prevention and detection of sports rehabilitation in the context of artificial intelligence and proposing a compliance control method for lower limb rehabilitation robots based on artificial neural networks. In this paper, a double closed-loop control system is designed: the outer loop is an adaptive impedance control model based on sEMG feedback, and the purpose is to adjust the predicted desired joint trajectories. In the inner loop, a sliding mode iterative learning controller is designed to suppress periodic disturbance and abnormal jitter and achieve stable tracking of the target trajectory. Finally, the control method is simulated and verified by matlab/simulink, and a statistical experiment is done on the patient’s recovery. The experimental results show that the use of artificial intelligence technology can effectively increase the sensitivity of the control system and improve the recovery rate of patients. Compared with the traditional sports rehabilitation control system, the sensitivity is increased by 22.7%, and the patient recovery rate is increased by 10.4%, which is of great significance in the field of sports rehabilitation.

Transforming data into ciphertexts and storing them in the cloud database is a secure way to simplify data management. Public key encryption with keyword search (PEKS) is an important cryptographic primitive as it provides the ability to search for the desired files among ciphertexts. As a variant of PEKS, certificateless public key authenticated encryption with keyword search (CLPAEKS) not only simplifies certificate management but also could resist keyword guessing attacks (KGA). In this paper, we analyze the security models of two recent CLPAEKS schemes and find that they ignore the threat that, upon capturing two trapdoors, the adversary could directly compare them and distinguish whether they are generated using the same keyword. To cope with this threat, we propose an improved security model and define the notion of strong trapdoor indistinguishability. We then propose a new CLPAEKS scheme and prove it to be secure under the improved security model based on the intractability of the DBDH problem and the DDH problem in the targeted bilinear group.

The live weight of pigs has always been an important reference index for growth monitoring and the health status of breeding pigs. An accurate weight acquisition of breeding pigs is the key to guide the scientific feeding of breeding pigs and improve economic benefits. Compared with the traditional contact measurement method, the non-contact weighing method of live pigs can greatly reduce human–pig contact and measurement errors. In this paper, a deep neural network is constructed which can automatically and accurately predict the weight of live pigs by measuring multiple body parameters. Because of the good generalization ability of the radial basis function (RBF) neural network and the better fitting ability of multilayer network than the traditional single-layer network, this paper introduces a full-connection model in the middle layer, connects multiple RBF layers, builds a multilayer RBF network, and invents the automatic learning method of pig weight based on the network. In this method, the body length, body height, body width, and five other body parameters are input, after normalization, into the multilayer RBF network model for training, and resultingly the network gives a predicted weight. Among our 4721 live pigs, there are 2452 sows and 2269 boars, among which 2000 samples of sows are randomly selected as training sets and 452 samples as test sets; 1930 samples of boars are taken as training sets and 339 samples as test sets. The test shows that the performance of the network structure is as follows: R2 is 0.63, MAE is 1.85, RMSE is 5.74, and MAPE is 1.68.

Affected by shooting angle and light intensity, shooting through transparent media may cause light reflections in an image and influence picture quality, which has a negative effect on the research of computer vision tasks. In this paper, we propose a Residual Attention Based Reflection Removal Network (RABRRN) to tackle the issue of single image reflection removal. We hold that reflection removal is essentially an image separation problem sensitive to both spatial and channel features. Therefore, we integrate spatial attention and channel attention into the model to enhance spatial and channel feature representation. For a more feasible solution to solve the problem of gradient disappearance in the iterative training of deep neural networks, the attention module is combined with a residual network to design a residual attention module so that the performance of reflection removal can be ameliorated. In addition, we establish a reflection image dataset named the SCAU Reflection Image Dataset (SCAU-RID), providing sufficient real training data. The experimental results show that the proposed method achieves a PSNR of 23.787 dB and an SSIM value of 0.885 from four benchmark datasets. Compared with the other most advanced methods, our method has only 18.524M parameters, but it obtains the best results from test datasets.

Background and Objectives: The purpose of this systematic review was to summarize the current evidence to examine the safety and effectiveness of auricular acupressure on dry eye diseases. Materials and Methods: Twenty databases were searched from their inception until November 2022. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in which auricular acupressure was used for dry eye diseases were included. The selection process, data extraction and quantitative were conducted according to the guidelines. Results: Seven RCTs met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis showed that compared to artificial tears, auricular acupressure had a favorable effect on prolonging tear breakup time (TBUT), improving the Schirmer I test (SIT) score and the score of symptoms (SOS) of patients with dry eye disease (p < 0.05). Furthermore, compared to the artificial tears alone, auricular acupressure plus artificial tears had a significantly greater SIT score (p < 0.001) and response rate (p = 0.006), significantly longer TBUT (p < 0.001), and significantly lower Ocular surface disease index (OSDI) (p = 0.02) and SOS (p = 0.03). However, there was no statistically significant difference between the auricular acupressure plus artificial tears group and the artificial tears group in terms of cornea fluorescein staining (CFS) (p = 0.09). Conclusions: Auricular acupressure, as a sole intervention or in combination with artificial tears, may have a beneficial effect on dry eye disease. However, more high-quality RCTs need to be included in the future to further prove the positive effects of auricular acupressure on patients with dry eye disease.

Background: Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are public health measures that aim to suppress the transmission of infectious diseases, including border restrictions, quarantine and isolation, community management, social distancing, face mask usage, and personal hygiene. This research aimed to assess the co-benefits of NPIs against COVID-19 on notifiable infectious diseases (NIDs) in Guangdong Province, China.Methods: Based on NID data from the Notifiable Infectious Diseases Surveillance System in Guangdong, we first compared the incidence of NIDs during the emergency response period (weeks 4–53 of 2020) with those in the same period of 2015–2019 and then compared that with the expected incidence during the synchronous period of 2020 for each city by using a Bayesian structural time series model.Findings: A total of 514,341 cases of 39 types of NIDs were reported in Guangdong during the emergency response period in 2020, which decreased by 50·7% compared with the synchronous period during 2015–2019. It was estimated that the number of 39 NIDs during the emergency response in 2020 was 65·6% (95% credible interval [CI]: 64·0% – 68·2%) lower than expected, which means that 982,356 (95% CI: 913,443 – 1,105,170) cases were averted. The largest reduction (82·1%) was found for children aged 0–14 years. For different categories of NIDs, natural focal diseases and insect-borne infectious diseases had the greatest reduction (89·4%), followed by respiratory infectious diseases (87·4%), intestinal infectious diseases (59·4%), and blood-borne and sexually transmitted infections (18·2%). Dengue, influenza, and hand-foot-and-mouth disease were reduced by 99·3%, 95·1%, and 76·2%, respectively. Larger reductions were found in the regions with developed economies and a higher number of COVID-19 cases.Interpretation: NPIs against COVID-19 may have a large co-benefit on the prevention of other infectious diseases in Guangdong, China, and the effects have heterogeneity in populations, diseases, time and space.Funding: Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province

Objective: To evaluate the predictors of new-onset conduction disturbances in bicuspid aortic valve patients using self-expanding valve and identify modifiable technical factors.Background: New-onset conduction disturbances (NOCDs), including complete left bundle branch block and high-grade atrioventricular block, remain the most common complication after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).Methods: A total of 209 consecutive bicuspid patients who underwent self-expanding TAVR in 5 centers in China were enrolled from February 2016 to September 2020. The optimal cut-offs in this study were generated from receiver operator characteristic curve analyses. The infra-annular and coronal membranous septum (MS) length was measured in preoperative computed tomography. MSID was calculated by subtracting implantation depth measure on postoperative computed tomography from infra-annular MS or coronal MS length.Results: Forty-two (20.1%) patients developed complete left bundle branch block and 21 (10.0%) patients developed high-grade atrioventricular block after TAVR, while 61 (29.2%) patients developed NOCDs. Coronal MS 73 years (OR: 2.26, 95% CI: 1.17–4.36, p = 0.015), Δcoronal MSID 3.2% (OR: 3.42, 95% CI: 1.74–6.72, p < 0.001) showed best predictive value of NOCDs, with c-statistic = 0.768 (95% CI: 0.699–0.837, p < 0.001). The incidence of NOCDs was much lower (7.5 vs. 55.2%, p < 0.001) in patients without Δcoronal MSID 3.2% compared with patients who had these two risk factors.Conclusion: The risk of NOCDs in bicuspid aortic stenosis patients could be evaluated based on MS length and prosthesis oversizing ratio. Implantation depth guided by MS length and reducing the oversizing ratio might be a feasible strategy for heavily calcified bicuspid patients with short MS.

SARS-CoV-2 has caused up to 127 million cases of COVID-19. Approximately 5% of COVID-19 patients develop severe illness, and approximately 40% of those with severe illness eventually die, corresponding to more than 2.78 million people. The pathological characteristics of COVID-19 resemble typical sepsis, and severe COVID-19 has been identified as viral sepsis. Progress in sepsis research is important for improving the clinical care of these patients. Recent advances in understanding the pathogenesis of sepsis have led to the view that an uncontrolled inflammatory response and oxidative stress are core factors. However, in the traditional treatment of sepsis, it is difficult to achieve a balance between the inflammation, pathogens (viruses, bacteria, and fungi), and patient tolerance, resulting in high mortality of patients with sepsis. In recent years, nanomaterials mediating reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) and the inflammatory response have shown previously unattainable therapeutic effects on sepsis. Despite these advantages, RONS and inflammatory response-based nanomaterials have yet to be extensively adopted as sepsis therapy. To the best of our knowledge, no review has yet discussed the pathogenesis of sepsis and the application of nanomaterials. To help bridge this gap, we discuss the pathogenesis of sepsis related to inflammation and the overproduction RONS, which activate pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP)-pattern recognition receptor (PRR) and damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP)-PRR signaling pathways. We also summarize the application of nanomaterials in the treatment of sepsis. As highlighted here, this strategy could synergistically improve the therapeutic efficacy against both RONS and inflammation in sepsis and may prolong survival. Current challenges and future developments for sepsis treatment are also summarized.

Pig behavior recognition and tracking in group-housed livestock are effective aids for health and welfare monitoring in commercial settings. However, due to demanding farm conditions, the targets in the pig videos are heavily occluded and overlapped, and there are illumination changes, which cause error switches of pig identify (ID) in the tracking process and decrease the tracking quality. To solve these problems, this study proposed an improved DeepSORT algorithm for object tracking, which contained three processes. Firstly, two detectors, YOLOX-S and YOLO v5s, were developed to detect pig targets and classify four types of pig behaviors including lying, eating, standing, and other. Then, the improved DeepSORT was developed for pig behavior tracking and reducing error changes of pig ID by improving trajectory processing and data association. Finally, we established the public dataset annotation of group-housed pigs, with 3600 images in a total from 12 videos, which were suitable for pig tracking applications. The advantage of our method includes two aspects. One is that the trajectory processing and data association are improved by aiming at pig-specific scenarios, which are indoor scenes, and the number of pig target objects is stable. This improvement reduces the error switches of pig ID and enhances the stability of the tracking. The other is that the behavior classification information from the detectors is introduced into the tracking algorithm for behavior tracking. In the experiments of pig detection and behavior recognition, the YOLO v5s and YOLOX-S detectors achieved a high precision rate of 99.4% and 98.43%, a recall rate of 99% and 99.23, and a mean average precision (mAP) rate of 99.50% and 99.23%, respectively, with an AP.5:.95 of 89.3% and 87%. In the experiments of pig behavior tracking, the improved DeepSORT algorithm based on YOLOX-S obtained multi-object tracking accuracy (MOTA), ID switches (IDs), and IDF1 of 98.6%,15, and 95.7%, respectively. Compared with DeepSORT, it improved by 1.8% and 6.8% in MOTA and IDF1, respectively, and IDs had a significant decrease, with a decline of 80%. These experiments demonstrate that the improved DeepSORT can achieve pig behavior tracking with stable ID values under commercial conditions and provide scalable technical support for contactless automated pig monitoring.

This paper studies an alternating direction implicit orthogonal spline collocation (ADIOSC) technique for calculating the numerical solution of the hyperbolic integrodifferential problem with a weakly singular kernel in the two-dimensional domain. The integral term is approximated with the help of the second-order fractional quadrature formula introduced by Lubich. The stability and convergence analysis of the proposed strategy are proven in L2-norm. Numerical results highlight the high accuracy and efficiency of the proposed strategy and clarify the theoretical prediction.

Abstract. Introduction:. Darier's disease is a rare autosomal dominant skin disorder caused by mutations in ATP2A2. Recently, the high prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms is frequently reported in Darier's disease patients. We present a case of patient with concurrence of Darier's disease and depression and detected the mutations in ATP2A2. Case presentation:. A 29-year-old man presented with a 15-year history of brown, harsh keratotic papules on his scalp, face, neck, trunk, axilla, ingunia and upper limbs. Meanwhile, he had persistent depression. He was diagnosed as Darier's disease according to clinical manifestations and result of histological examination. We sequenced all coding regions of ATP2A2. The mutation c.2993_2994del (p. Val998Alafs∗33) in exon 20 of ATP2A2 was detected. Discussion:. Darier's disease has been associated with several extracutaneous manifestations, in particular neuropsychiatric morbidity. Likely gene disrupting mutations in ATP2A2 was reported to have a close relationship to Darier's disease cases with reported co-occurring neuropsychiatric features. Consistent with the previous reports, an likely gene disrupting mutations was detected in our patient with concurrence of DD and depression. Conclusion:. The psychiatric disorders in patients with Darier's disease should be well appreciated .The underlying mechanism in correlation between the mutation in ATP2A2 and neuropsychiatric phenotypes in Darier's disease remain unclarified and warrants further investigation.

Abstract Background Human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most common sexually transmitted viruses. Data about HPV infection in Guizhou is limited. Methods 56,768 cervical samples were collected and genotyped for 15 main high risk and 6 main low risk HPV types. Results 16.95% (9623/56768) of samples were HPV positive; 90.70% (8728/9623) of HPV positive women were infected by high risk HPV. High risk and high risk mix infection (1458; 70.85%) was the most common mix HPV infection type. The highest HPV detection rate was found in age group 41–45 years old (detection rate = 17.89%) (χ2 = 204.77; P

Abstract Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) is potentially useful for the biological conversion of carbon dioxide into value-added chemicals and biofuels. The study evaluated several limiting factors that affect MES performance. Among all these factors, the optimization of the applied cell voltage, electrode spacing, and trace elements in catholytes may significantly improve the MES performance. MES was operated under the optimal condition with an applied cell voltage of 3 V, an electrode spacing of 8 cm, 2× salt solution, and 8× trace element of catholyte for 100 days, and the maximum acetate concentration reached 7.8 g L−1. The microbial community analyses of the cathode chamber over time showed that Acetobacterium, Enterobacteriaceae, Arcobacter, Sulfurospirillum, and Thioclava were the predominant genera during the entire MES process. The abundance of Acetobacterium first increased and then decreased, which was consistent with that of acetate production. These results provided useful hints for replacing the potentiostatic control of the cathodes in the future construction and operation of MES. Such results might also contribute to the practical operation of MES in large-scale systems.

Abstract Background Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) is a biocathode-driven process, in which electroautotrophic microorganisms can directly uptake electrons or indirectly via H2 from the cathode as energy sources and CO2 as only carbon source to produce chemicals. Results This study demonstrates that a hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalyst can enhance MES performance. An active HER electrocatalyst molybdenum carbide (Mo2C)-modified electrode was constructed for MES. The volumetric acetate production rate of MES with 12 mg cm−2 Mo2C was 0.19 ± 0.02 g L−1 day−1, which was 2.1 times higher than that of the control. The final acetate concentration reached 5.72 ± 0.6 g L−1 within 30 days, and coulombic efficiencies of 64 ± 0.7% were yielded. Furthermore, electrochemical study, scanning electron microscopy, and microbial community analyses suggested that Mo2C can accelerate the release of hydrogen, promote the formation of biofilms and regulate the mixed microbial flora. Conclusion Coupling a HER catalyst to a cathode of MES system is a promising strategy for improving MES efficiency.

With the higher rate of using cloud storage, protecting data privacy becomes an important issue. The most effective solution is to encrypt data before uploading to the cloud. However, how to efficiently search over data encrypted with different keys is still an open problem. To address this problem, we introduce a new notion of the identity-based encryption with equality test supporting flexible authorization (IBEET-FA). It supports the test of whether two ciphertexts encrypted under the different keys encapsulate the same message, and in the meanwhile supports fine-grained authorization of the test. Based on the equality test on ciphertexts, there is a direct way to support an authorized user to search over ciphertexts of different users, which accelerates secret data sharing among a group of users. Besides, IBEET-FA does not suffer from the complex key management problem of its counterpart in the traditional public key infrastructure. We propose a concrete construction of IBEET-FA and prove it to be securely based on simple mathematical assumptions. The experimental results show that our IBEET-FA scheme is efficient and can satisfy various types of search over encrypted data.

Barrier coverage is an important coverage model for intrusion detection. Clearly energy consumption of sensors is a critical issue to the design of a sensor deployment scheme. In mobile sensor network, it costs the sensors much energy to move. In this paper, we study how to optimize the sensor movement while scheduling the mobile sensors to achieve barrier coverage. Given a line barrier and $n$ sink stations that can supply a required number of mobile sensors, we study how to find the mobile sensors' final positions on the line barrier so that the barrier is covered and the total sensor movement is minimized. We first propose a fast algorithm for determining the nearest sink for the given point on the barrier. We then propose a greedy algorithm and an optimal polynomial-time algorithm for calculating the optimal sensor movement. To obtain an optimal algorithm, we first introduce a notion of the virtual-cluster which represents a subset of sensors covering a specified line segment of the barrier and their sensor movements are minimized. Then we construct a weighted barrier graph with the virtual-clusters modeled as vertexes and the weight of each vertex as the total sensor movements of the virtual-cluster. We also prove that the minimum total sensor movements for achieving barrier coverage is the minimum total weights of the path between the two endpoints of the line barrier in this graph. We also solve this barrier coverage problem for the case when the barrier is a cycle by extending the techniques used for the line barrier. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our algorithms by simulations.

Due to the massive growth of data and security concerns, data of patients would be encrypted and outsourced to the cloud server for feature matching in various medical scenarios, such as personal health record systems, actuarial judgments and diagnostic related groups. Public key encryption with equality test (PKEET) is a useful utility for encrypted feature matching. Authorized tester could perform data matching on encrypted data without decrypting. Unfortunately, due to the limited terminology in medicine, people within institutions may illegally use data, trying to obtain information through traversal methods. In this paper we propose a new PKEET notion, called public-key authenticated encryption with designated equality test (PKAE-DET), which could resist this kind of attacks launched by an inside adversary, known as offline message recovery attacks (OMRA). We propose a concrete construction of PKAE-DET, which only requires one single server to perform the feature matching job securely, and does not require any group mechanism. We prove its security based on some simple mathematical assumptions. Experimental results show that our scheme has efficiency comparable with those PKEET schemes which do not resist OMRA attacks or require group mechanism. We further show how our scheme could be effectively used in diagnostic related groups in medicine, demonstrating its practicability.

The outer steel tube in a concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) column confines the core concrete and improves the compressive strength of the core concrete. When there is a notch damage in the tube, the confinement effect may be affected. The confinement effects of the notched steel tube in rectangular CFST columns were systematically investigated by using numerical approaches. Refined three-dimensional finite element models with advanced concrete constitutive relations were established. With the verified finite element modeling method, full-sized square CFST columns with horizontal, vertical, or diagonal notches at different locations of the steel tube were simulated. Stress distributions and deformation modes of the steel tube and core concrete were analyzed. Columns with a horizontal notch at the plate center location displayed a higher axial strength reduction than those with vertical notches. A parametric study was performed to investigate the influences of concrete strengths, steel strengths, steel ratios, notch length to column width ratios, and notch angles on the compressive strengths of the rectangular CFST columns. A practical design formula was proposed based on the obtained results. The proposed formula could effectively predict the influences of different notches on the confinement effect in the notched CFST columns.

Endophthalmitis is a rare and infectious disease caused by Streptococcus suis (S suis). Traditionally, S suis is detected by the pathogenic microorganism culture method, which has low positivity and high false negativity. Nanopore sequencing (NS), which is a third-generation sequencing technology, has several advantages over the traditional method; in particular, it is cost and time effective and has a high throughput. In this report, a case of infectious endophthalmitis caused by trauma is examined. The NS results suggest that the pathogen in question is a mixed infection caused by S suis and Clostridium perfringens. This case report provides evidence of the fact that NS can quickly identify pathogens, which is of great significance for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Chlorobenzene (CB) is a volatile and harmful organic molecule that may result in deformities, cancer, etc. Catalytic oxidization of CB may be a way to manage it. The development of nonprecious catalysts with high catalytic activity is the key but is still a challenge. In this work, a series of Ce-Mn-Ox/TiO2 modified by citric acid monohydrate were developed and exhibited a composite pore structure. This pore structure leads to a large specific surface area, highly exposed activity sites, and excellent catalytic activity. The as-prepared 10C-CM/T exhibited nearly 100% efficiency for CB oxidization in the temperature range of 300–350 °C. The in situ DRIFT measurements demonstrated that the main intermediates at 250 °C are maleate and phenolic acid, whereas when the temperature is 350 °C, the main intermediates are carbonate, bidentate carbonate, and maleate.