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Abstract A fundamental property of infectious agents is their particulate nature: infectivity arises from independently-acting particles rather than as a result of collective action. Assemblies of the protein tau can exhibit seeding behaviour, potentially underlying the apparent spread of tau aggregation in many neurodegenerative diseases. Here we ask whether tau assemblies share with classical pathogens the characteristic of particulate behaviour. We used organotypic hippocampal slice cultures from P301S tau transgenic mice in order to precisely control the concentration of extracellular tau assemblies in neural tissue. Whilst untreated slices displayed no overt signs of pathology, exposure to recombinant tau assemblies could result in the formation of intraneuronal, hyperphosphorylated tau structures. However, seeding ability of tau assemblies did not titrate in a one-hit manner in neural tissue. The results suggest that seeding behaviour of tau arises at high concentrations, with implications for the interpretation of high-dose intracranial challenge experiments and the possible contribution of seeded aggregation to human disease.

Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to assess the risk factors for cholesterol polyp formation in the gallbladder. Methods This was a multicenter retrospective study based on pathology. From January 2016 to December 2019, patients who underwent cholecystectomy and non-polyp participants confirmed by continuous ultrasound follow-ups were reviewed. Patients in the cholesterol polyp group were recruited from three high-volume centers with a diagnosis of pathologically confirmed cholesterol polyps larger than 10 mm. Population characteristics and medical data were collected within 24 h of admission before surgery. The non-polyp group included participants from the hospital physical examination center database. They had at least two ultrasound examinations with an interval longer than 180 days. Data from the final follow-up of the non-polyp group were analyzed. The risk factors for cholesterol polyp formation were analyzed by comparing the two groups. Results A total of 4714 participants were recruited, including 376 cholesterol polyp patients and 4338 non-polyp participants. In univariate analysis, clinical risk factors for cholesterol polyps were age, male sex, higher body mass index (BMI), higher low-density lipoprotein (LDL), lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and higher aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels. In multivariate logistic analysis, independent risk factors were age > 50 years (odds ratio [OR] = 3.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.33–3.91, P 2.89 mmol/L (OR = 1.38, 95% CI 1.08–1.78, P = 0.011), lower HDL (OR = 1.78 95% CI 1.32–2.44, P 40 IU/L (OR = 3.55, 95% CI 2.07–6.07, P 25 kg/m 2 (OR = 1.32, 95% CI 1.01–1.72, P = 0.037). Conclusions Age, LDL, HDL, AST, and BMI are strong risk factors for cholesterol polyp formation. Older overweight patients with polyps, accompanied by abnormal lipid levels, are at high risk for cholesterol polyps.

Objectives To evaluate the feasibility and safety of treating painful osseous metastases using image‐guided percutaneous thermal microwave ablation. Methods This is a retrospective study of patients treated from December 2016 to December 2019 in one institute. A total of 50 patients (35 men, 15 women; mean age 55.24 ± 11.03 years) with 56 osseous metastatic lesions underwent image‐guided percutaneous microwave ablation. There were 7 patients with multiple and 43 patients with single metastases. The numbers of patients with primary cancer were as follows: lung, 13; liver, 17; kidney, 10; prostate, 1; breast, 3; osteosarcoma, 1; and thyroid, 5. Seventeen patients had cancer combined with soft tissue masses. The radiological images for the ablative procedures were obtained by CT, fluoroscopy with ultrasound, and fluoroscopy alone in 16, 11, and 23 patients, respectively. Pain severity was estimated using the visual analogue scale before and after treatment (1 week, 1 month, and 3 months after treatment). Radiological evaluations were performed at baseline and 3 months after the procedure. Results In all patients, pain reduction occurred from the first day after treatment. Pain did not recur during the 3 months of follow up. The mean total ablation time per microwave electrode was 3.99 ± 2.48 min (range, 1–15 min). The mean power of the microwave electrode was 66.40 ± 12.08 W. The average volume of bone (load‐bearing bone, such as vertebra and acetabulum) cement after ablation was 2.82 ± 0.81 mL. There were no significant differences in visual analogue scale pain scores for different imaging techniques or ablation energies. No procedure‐related complications occurred. Conclusion Image‐guided percutaneous thermal microwave ablation of osseous metastases relieves pain and improves mobility. CT remains the first choice for percutaneous ablation. Fluoroscopy combined with ultrasound is effective for cases with soft tissue masses; fluoroscopy is also suitable for combination with vertebroplasty. However, further investigations are required.

Objectives To evaluate whether curettage with adjuvant microwave therapy was successful in the treatment of giant cell tumor of the bone (GCTB) in extremities, especially for GCTB with pathological fractures and GCTB of the distal radius. Methods This was a retrospective study of 54 cases of GCTB of the extremities treated by curettage with adjuvant microwave therapy between 2007 and 2019. Five patients were lost to follow up and excluded from the study. A total of 33 male and 21 female patients were included in this study. Patients were aged 15–57 years (mean 29.72 ± 10.48 years). Among these patients, there were 10 cases of GCTB with pathological fractures and eight cases of GCTB of the distal radius; one of these cases was combined with a pathological fracture. Comprehensive imaging examinations (X‐rays [including lesion site and chest], CT, MRI, emission computed tomography, and pathology examination) of all patients were reviewed. The clinical staging of these patients were evaluated radiologically using the Campanacci classification system based on the extent of spread of the tumor. All patients underwent curettage with adjuvant microwave therapy. Clinical and imaging evaluations were performed in all cases to check for recurrence or metastasis. Lower limb and upper limber function were assessed using the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society score (MSTS), and wrist function was assessed according to the disabilities of the arm, shoulder and hand (DASH) score. Data on surgical‐related complications were recorded. Results All cases were followed up for 24–126 months (mean 60.69 ± 29.61 months). There were 24 patients with a Campanacci grade of 3 and 30 with a Campanacci grade of 2. The 52 patients were continuously disease‐free. The local recurrence rate was 3.70% (2 patients). One patient had recurrence in the proximal femur, and the other developed in soft tissue of the calf muscle. No recurrence occurred for GCTB of the distal radius. One recurrence occurred in a GCTB with pathological fractures. The intervals were 9 and 28 months, respectively. The cases of recurrence all had a Campanacci grade of 3 (8.33%). The median MSTS among the 54 patients was 27.67 ± 3.81. The mean wrist function DASH score was 8.30 ± 2.53. The mean MSTS was 28.67 ± 1.63 and 26.71 ± 5.49 for patients with GCTB of the distal radius and for those with pathological fractures, respectively. In comparing patients with and without pathological fractures, there was no significant difference in the MSTS functional score. Five patients had complications after the surgery. Conclusion Curettage with adjuvant microwave ablation therapy provided favorable local control and satisfactory functional outcomes in the treatment of GCTB, especially for cases with pathological fractures and those with GCTB of the distal radius.

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are widely studied to enhance corrosion resistance and biocompatibility of Mg alloys, which are promising bone implants. However, the influence of LDH coating on the osteointegration of Mg implants lacks of a systematic study. In this work, Mg-Al LDH coating was prepared on pure Mg via hydrothermal treatment. The as-prepared Mg-Al LDH coated Mg exhibited better in vitro and in vivo corrosion resistance than bare Mg and Mg(OH)2 coated Mg. In vitro culture of mouse osteoblast cell line (MC3T3-E1) suggested that Mg-Al LDH coated Mg was more favorable for its osteogenic differentiation. In vitro culture of HUVECs revealed that cells cultured in the extract of Mg-Al LDH coated Mg showed superior angiogenic behaviors. More importantly, the immune response of Mg-Al LDH coated Mg was studied by in vitro culturing murine-derived macrophage cell line (RAW264.7). The results verified that Mg-Al LDH coated Mg could induce macrophage polarize to M2 phenotype (anti-inflammatory). Furthermore, the secreted factor in the macrophage-conditioned culture medium of Mg-Al LDH group was more suitable for the bone differentiation of rat bone marrow stem cells (rBMSCs) and the angiogenic behavior of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Finally, the result of femoral implantation suggested that Mg-Al LDH coated Mg exhibited better osteointegration than bare Mg and Mg(OH)2 coated Mg. With favorable in vitro and in vivo performances, Mg-Al LDH is promising as protective coating on Mg for orthopedic applications.

Global warming and rapid urbanization are changing the livability of cities. The eco-livability (EL) in Jiading, a newly emerging urban sub-center in the northwestern part of Shanghai megacity, is assessed from a climatic perspective, by composing an EL index consisting of meteorological hazards, human comfort, vegetation ecology, and air quality, based on multi-source observations. The results show that the EL in Jiading has improved with the restoration of green spaces and the reduction of air pollution. However, with the rising risk of weather extremes (e.g., heat waves, rainstorms) brought by the warming world, the EL in Jiading is being undermined. We should take preventive measures to improve our ability to resist climate risks.

Oxide metallurgy technology can improve the microstructure of a coarse-grained heat-affected zone (CGHAZ) but introduces extra inclusions. Local corrosion behavior of the CGHAZ of a Zr–Ti–Al–RE deoxidized steel was investigated in this work using theoretical calculations and experimental verification. The modified inclusions have a (Zr–Mg–Al–Ca–RE)Ox core claded by a CaS and TiN shell. CaS dissolves first, followed by the oxide core, leaving TiN parts. This confirms that the addition of rare earth can reduce lattice distortion and prevent a galvanic couple between the inclusions and the matrix, while the chemical dissolution of CaS causes localized acidification, resulting in the pitting corrosion initiation.

Rotator cuff tendinopathy (RCT) is the most common cause of shoulder pain, therefore posing an important clinical problem. Understanding the mechanism and biochemical changes of RCT would be of crucial importance and pave the path to targeting novel and effective therapeutic strategies in translational perspectives and clinical practices. Phosphorylation, as one of the most important and well-studied post-translational modifications, is tightly associated with protein activity and protein functional regulation. Here in this study, we generated a global protein phosphorylation atlas within the pathological site of human RCT patients. By using Tandem Mass Tag (TMT) labeling combined with mass spectrometry, an average of 7,741 phosphorylation sites (p-sites) and 3,026 proteins were identified. Compared with their normal counterparts, 1,668 p-sites in 706 proteins were identified as upregulated, while 73 p-sites in 57 proteins were downregulated. GO enrichment analyses have shown that majority of proteins with upregulated p-sites functioned in neutrophil-mediated immunity whereas downregulated p-sites are mainly involved in muscle development. Furthermore, pathway analysis identified NF-κB–related TNF signaling pathway and protein kinase C alpha type (PKCα)–related Wnt signaling pathway were associated with RCT pathology. At last, a weighted kinase-site phosphorylation network was built to identify potentially core kinase, from which serine/threonine-protein kinase 39 (STLK3) and mammalian STE20-like protein kinase 1 (MST1) were proposed to be positively correlated with the activation of Wnt pathway.

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) constitute a class of phytotoxin which demonstrates strong hepatotoxicity. In China, many plants containing PAs are used as traditional medicines or medicinal preparations, which could harm human health and safety. Xiaoyao Tablet (XYT) is an antidepressant drug registered in the European Union (EU), Compound Danshen Dropping Pills (CDDP) is a commonly used drug for coronary heart disease, and phase III clinical study is ongoing in the United States. The purpose of this study is to provide data to support the use of Chinese medicine preparations internationally and to establish analytical methods for 32 PAs in XYT and CDDP. The extraction parameters that were optimized include solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridge, extraction method, and extraction solvent. Then ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple-quadrupole linear ion-traptandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was developed to effectively and efficiently quantify the 32 PAs of the XYT and CDDP. The analytical methods for XYT and CDDP were verified respectively. For XYT, the analytical method for 32 PAs was linear, and the correlation coefficient r was greater than 0.994; the recovery (REC%) at 10–2000 μg/kg was 73.3%–118.5%, and the relative standard deviation (RSD%) was 2.1%–15.4%. The CDDP REC% was 71.8%–112.0%, and the RSD% was 2.0%–17.1%. This study provides technical and data support for the registration of Chinese patented medicines in the EU, controls quality and ensures safety, and is committed to the internationalization and standardization of Chinese patented medicines.

A swarm-based metaheuristic algorithm, like artificial bee colony (ABC), embraces four key elements of collective intelligence: positive feedback, negative feedback, multiple interactions, and fluctuation. Fluctuation refers to population diversity which can be measured using dimension-wise diversity. This paper performed component-wise analysis of ABC algorithm using diversity measurement. The analysis revealed scout bees component as counterproductive and onlooker bees component with poor global search ability. Subsequently, an ABC algorithm without scout bees component and modified onlooker bees component is proposed in this paper. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed ScoutlessABC is validated on test suite of a dozen of benchmark functions. To further evaluate the performance, ScoutlessABC is employed on the parameter training problem of fuzzy neural network for solving eight classification problems. The experimental results show that ScoutlessABC maintains strong convergence ability than the original ABC algorithm. Overall, this study has two major contributions: (a) an effective component-wise analysis approach using diversity measurement and (b) a simplified and modified ABC variant with enhanced search efficiency.

Abstract Background and Aims The prognosis of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) after radical resection is far from satisfactory; however, the clinical value of adjuvant therapy (AT) remains controversial. This multicenter study aimed to evaluate the clinical value of AT and identify potential patients who would be benefited from AT. Methods Data from ICC patients who underwent radical resection were retrospectively collected from 12 hepatobiliary centers in China between December 2012 and December 2015. Patients were divided into AT and non‐AT groups based on whether AT was administered or not. Overall survival (OS) and disease‐free survival (DFS) were analyzed using the Kaplan‐Meier method before and after 1:2 propensity score matching (PSM). Subgroup analyses were conducted based on the established staging systems. Results A total of 412 patients were enrolled in this study, and 77 patients (18.9%) received AT, including 32 (7.8%) patients who received transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), 21 (5.1%) patients who received chemotherapy, 10 (2.4%) patients who received radiotherapy, and 14 (3.4%) patients who received adjuvant chemoradiotherapy. The median OS and DFS were both longer in the AT group than in the non‐AT group (43.0 months vs 21.0 months, P = .015; 16.0 months vs 11.0 months, P = .045, respectively), and the advantage of AT was confirmed for both the OS and DFS (P = .023; P = .046, respectively) after 1:2 PSM. Furthermore, based on the established nomogram, only “middle‐risk” patients receiving AT cherished a longer median OS (43.0 months vs 20.0 months, P = .033). In subgroup analyses that were stratified by different AT strategies, patients receiving postoperative chemotherapy had a longer median OS (37.0 months vs 21.0 months, P = .039), while patients receiving postoperative TACE had a longer median DFS (50.0 months vs 11.0 months, P = .007). Conclusion With the current data, we conclude that AT benefits ICC patients following radical resection, especially those “middle‐risk” patients, as evaluated by the established nomogram. However, exactly which patients are the most suitable for AT requires further study and validation.

Protein sequence representation is a key problem for protein studies, especially for those sequence-based models. In this paper, a distributed representation model of protein sequence is proposed, which involves evolutionary information by introducing multi-alignment results. Firstly, we construct a non-redundancy protein dataset and perform multi-alignment for each protein. Then k-mer amino acids "biology corpus" was abstracted from the alignment results which are "evolutionary information" enriched. Using the "biology corpus", k-mer amino acids distributed embedding vectors could be trained according to word2vec method. We compared the amino acid pair distance derived from our produced 1-mer amino acids distributed embedding vectors with that derived from BLOSUM62; it was found that their Pearson coefficient is 0.937, showing they have strong correlation. Then we applied the obtained amino acids distributed embedding representation to protein secondary structure recognition and solubility prediction. For both of the experiments, our proposed alignment results based amino acid distributed representation outperforms that derived directly from protein sequences. Moreover, compared to those existing up-to-date algorithms, our method could get better or comparative results, on condition of only using the feature of our produced amino acid distributed vectors.

Pathway-specific protein domain (PSPD) are associated with specific pathways. Many protein domains are pervasive in various biological processes, whereas other domains are linked to specific pathways. Many human disease pathways, such as cancer pathways and signaling pathway-related diseases, have caused the loss of functional PSPD. Therefore, the creation of an accurate method to predict its roles is a critical step toward human disease and pathways. In this study, we proposed a deep learning model based on a two-dimensional neural network (2D-CNN-PSPD) with a pathway-specific protein domain association prediction. In terms of the purposes of a sub-pathway, its parent pathway and its super pathway are linked to the Uni-Pathway. We also proposed a dipeptide composition (DPC) model and a dipeptide deviation (DDE) model of feature extraction profiles as PSSM. Then, we predicted the proteins associated with the same sub-pathway or with the same organism. The DDE model and DPC model of the PSSM feature profile input was associated with our proposed 2D-CNN method. We deployed several parameters to optimize the model's output performance and used the hyperparameter optimization approach to find the best model for our dataset based on the 10-fold cross-validation results. Ultimately, we assessed the predictive performance of the current model by using independent datasets and cross-validation datasets. Therefore, we enhanced the efficiency of deep learning methods. PSPD is involved in any known pathway and then follow the association in different stages of the pathway hierarchy with other proteins. Our proposed method could identify 2D-CNN-PSPD with 0.83% sensitivity, 0.92% specificity, 87.27% accuracy, and 0.75% accuracy. We provided an important method for the analysis of PSPD proteins in the proposed research, and our achievements might promote computational biological research. We concluded our proposed model architecture in the future, the use of the latest features, and the multi-one structure to predict different types of molecules, such as DNA, RNA, and disease-pathway specific proteins associations.

Natural soundscape is considered a dominant type of hearing in forested areas and contributes to health and recovery effects from exposure to the biophilic outdoor environment. This study focuses on the different forest structures, and aims to explore the relationship between perceived soundscape and acoustical parameters, observe physiological indicators, and model the physiological restorative role of soundscape. Questionnaires and measuring equipment were used to gather psychophysical and physiological information at 20 observation sites in urban forested areas. Back-propagation neural network techniques were conducted to determine the forecasting model from psychophysical to physiological parameters. Our results suggested that LAeq and L10 are important factors that influence questionnaire responses. Our findings also showed that electromyogram (EMG) signals were the most obvious and sensitive in physiological parameters. Additionally, we found that L10–90 played the most important role among all physical parameters in the physiological restorativeness soundscape model. This can facilitate the understanding of the physiological restorative role of soundscape in different forest structures when proposing suitable forest-based health care strategies.

The rapid and accurate identification of photovoltaic (PV) model parameters is of great significance in solving practical engineering problems such as PV power prediction, maximum power point tracking and battery failure model recognition. Aiming at the shortcomings of low accuracy and poor reliability and being easy to fall into local optimization when standard intelligent optimization algorithms identify PV model parameters, a novel drunken adaptive walking chaotic wolf swarm algorithm is proposed, which is named DCWPA for short. The DCWPA uses the chaotic map sequence to initialize the population, thus to improve the diversity of the initial population. It adopts the walking direction mechanism based on the drunk walking model and the adaptive walking step size to increase the randomness of walking, enhance the individual’s ability to explore and develop and improve the ability of algorithm optimization. It also designs the judgment conditions for half siege in order to accelerate the convergence of the algorithm and improve the speed of the algorithm. In the iterative process, according to the change of the optimal solution, the Hamming Distance is used to judge the similarity of individuals in the population, and the individuals in the population are constantly updated to avoid the algorithm from stopping evolution prematurely due to falling into local optimization. This paper firstly analyzes the time complexity of the algorithm, and then selects eight standard test functions (Benchmark) with different characteristics to verify the performance of the DCWPA algorithm for continuous optimization, and finally the improved algorithm is applied for parameter identification of PV models. The experiments show that the DCWPA has higher identification accuracy than other algorithms, and the results are more consistent with the measured data. Thus, the effectiveness and superiority of the improved algorithm in identifying solar cell parameters are verified, and the identification effect of the improved algorithm on solar cell parameters under different illumination is shown. This research provides a new idea and method for parameter identification of a PV module model.

Peritendinous adhesion (PA) around tendons are daunting challenges for hand surgeons. Tenotomy with various sutures are considered classical tendon repair models (TRM) of tendon adhesion as well as tendon healing. However, potential biomimetic therapies such as anti-adhesion barriers and artificial tendon sheaths to avoid recurrence of PA are sometimes tested in these models without considering tendon healing. Thus, our aim is to create a simplified model without sutures in this study by using three 6 mm longitudinal and parallel incisions called the longitudinal incision model (LCM) in the murine flexor tendon. We found that the adhesion score of LCM has no significant difference to that in TRM. The range of motion (ROM) reveals similar adhesion formation in both TRM and LCM groups. Moreover, mRNA expression levels of collagen I and III in LCM shows no significant difference to that in TRM. The breaking force and stiffness of LCM were significantly higher than that of TRM. Therefore, LCM can imitate flexor tendon adhesion formation without sutures compared to TRM, without significant side effects on biomechanics with an easy operation.

The Port of Gwangyang was built with the aim of reducing congestion at the Port of Busan by acting as sub-hub port. Many studies have discussed the new port construction and dual-hub port system to solve the increasing demand and port congestion problems; however, there is not much research discussing the sub-hub port system. As such, the main purpose of this paper is to analyze the liner shipping network structure of the sub-hub-oriented Port of Gwangyang using social network analysis (SNA). In terms of number of connections among ports, using in-degree, out-degree, and betweenness centrality, Busan is the most important port in Gwangyang's network. However, when it comes to considering the influence of ports using hub centrality, Busan drops to the fifth most influential position. In the network of the Port of Gwangyang, Shanghai and Hong Kong have more important roles compared to those of the Port of Busan. Keywords: Container Shipping, Network Structure Gwangyang Port Social Network Analysis, Sub-hub port

Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) is widely used as a surface modification method to enhance the corrosion resistance of Mg alloy, the most likely applied biodegradable material used in orthopedic implants. However, the pores and cracks easily formed on the PEO surface are unfavorable for long-term corrosion resistance. In this study, to solve this problem, we used simple immersion processes to construct Mn and Fe oxyhydroxide duplex layers on the PEO-treated AZ31 (PEO–Mn/Fe). As control groups, single Mn and Fe oxyhydroxide layers were also fabricated on PEO (denoted as PEO–Mn and PEO–Fe, respectively). PEO–Mn showed a similar porous morphology to the PEO sample. However, the PEO–Fe and PEO–Mn/Fe films completely sealed the pores on the PEO surfaces, and no cracks were observed even after the samples were immersed in water for 7 days. Compared with PEO, PEO–Mn, and PEO–Fe, PEO–Mn/Fe exhibited a significantly lower self-corrosion current, suggesting better corrosion resistance. In vitro C3H10T1/2 cell culture showed that PEO–Fe/Mn promoted the best cell growth, alkaline phosphatase activity, and bone-related gene expression. Furthermore, the rat femur implantation experiment showed that PEO–Fe/Mn–coated Mg showed the best bone regeneration and osteointegration abilities. Owing to enhanced corrosion resistance and osteogenesis, the PEO–Fe/Mn film on Mg alloy is promising for orthopedic applications.

BackgroundThe clinical value of lymph-node dissection (LND) for intrahepatic carcinoma (ICC) patients with clinically negative lymph node metastasis (LNM) remains unclear; hence we conducted a multi-center study to explore it.MethodsPatients who were diagnosed ICC with clinically negative LNM and underwent hepatectomy with or without LND from December 2012 to December 2015 were retrospectively collected from 12 hepatobiliary centers in China. Overall survival (OS) was analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method, and then subgroup analysis was conducted stratified by variables related to the prognosis.ResultsA total of 380 patients were eligible including 106 (27.9%) in the LND group and 274 (72.1%) in the non-LND group. Median OS in the LND group was slightly longer than that in the non-LND group (24.0 vs. 18.0 months, P = 0.30), but a significant difference was observed between the two groups (24.0 vs. 14.0 months, P = 0.02) after a well-designed 1:1 propensity score matching without increased severe complications. And, LND was identified to be one of the independent risk factors of OS (HR = 0.66, 95%CI = 0.46–0.95, P = 0.025). Subgroup analysis in the matched cohort showed that patients could benefit more from LND if they were male, age 5 cm, single tumor, mass-forming, no satellite, no MVI, and no perineural invasion (all P < 0.05). Furthermore, only patients with pathologically confirmed positive LNM were found to benefit from postoperative adjuvant therapy (P < 0.001).ConclusionWith the current data, we concluded that LND would benefit the selected ICC patients with clinically negative LNM and might guide the postoperative management.

The anion exchange (AIX) spent brine, generated during the NDMP-3 resin regeneration process, highly loaded with organic substances mainly humic substances (HSs) and salts (mainly NaCl) remains an environmental concern. In this study, pilot-scale electro dialysis (ED) and ultrafiltration (UF) hybrid technologies were first used to recover NaCl solution as a resin regeneration agent and HSs, which could be utilized as a vital ingredient of organic fertilizer, from the AIX spent brine. Recovered ≈ 15% w/w NaCl solution obtained by two-stage pilot-scale ED can be used to regenerate saturated NDMP-3 anion exchange resins; the regeneration–readsorption performance of NDMP-3 resins was equivalent to that of fresh ≈ 15% w/w NaCl solution. The two-stage dilute solution with low-salt content (0.49% w/w) was further concentrated by pilot-scale UF, so that the HS content in the retentate solution was >30 g/L, which meets the HS content required for water-soluble organic fertilizers. The HS liquid fertilizer could significantly stimulate the growth of green vegetables with no phytotoxicity, mainly due to special properties of HSs. These results demonstrate that ED + UF hybrid technologies can be a promising approach for the sustainable treatment and resource recovery of AIX spent brine.

The age-related loss of skeletal muscle, sarcopenia, is characterized by progressive loss of muscle mass, reduction in muscle strength, and dysfunction of physical performance. It has become a global health problem leading to several adverse outcomes in the ageing population. Research on skeletal muscle loss prevention and treatment is developing quickly. However, the current clinical approaches to sarcopenia are limited. Recently, novel drug delivery systems offer new possibilities for treating aged muscle loss. Herein, we briefly recapitulate the potential therapeutic targets of aged skeletal muscle and provide a concise advance in the drug delivery systems, mainly focus on the use of nano-carriers. Furthermore, we elaborately discuss the prospect of aged skeletal muscle treatment by nanotechnology approaches.

Abstract To assess biofilm formation ability and identify differences in the prevalence of genes involved in biofilm formation among Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from different food samples, the ability of biofilm formation among 97 S. aureus strains was evaluated using a colorimetric microtiter plate assay. Thirteen genes encoding microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules, and the intracellular adhesion genes were detected by PCR using specific primers. Approximately 72% of the isolates produced biofilms. Among these isolates, 54.64% were weak biofilm producers, while 14.43% and 3.09% produced moderate and strong biofilms, respectively. The icaADBC, clfA/B, cidA, and fib genes were detected in all the S. aureus strains, whereas the bap gene was not present in any of the strains. The occurrence of other adhesin genes varied greatly between biofilm‐producing and nonbiofilm‐producing strains. However, a significant difference was observed between these two groups with respect to the fnbpB, cna, ebps, and sdrC genes. No obvious evidence was found to support the link between PFGE strain typing and the capacity for biofilm formation. Considerable variation in biofilm formation ability was observed among S. aureus strains isolated from food samples. The prevalence of adhesin‐encoding genes also varied greatly within strains. This study highlights the importance of biofilm formation and the adhesins of S. aureus strains in food samples.

Locating multiple optima/peaks in a single run and maintaining these found optima until the end of a run is the goal of multimodal optimization. Three variants of brain storm optimization (BSO) algorithms, which include original BSO algorithm, BSO in objective space algorithm with Gaussian random variable, and BSO in objective space algorithm with Cauchy random variable, were utilized to solve multimodal optimization problems in this paper. The experimental tests were conducted on eight benchmark problems and its applications in seven nonlinear equation system problems. The performance and effectiveness of various BSO algorithms on solving multimodal optimization problems were validated based on the experimental results. The conclusions could be made that the global search ability and solutions maintenance ability of an algorithm needs to be balanced simultaneously on solving multimodal optimization problems.

Through modeling human's brainstorming process, the brain storm optimization (BSO) algorithm has become a promising population-based evolutionary algorithm. However, BSO is pointed out that it possesses a degenerated L-curve phenomenon, i.e., it often gets near optimum quickly but needs much more cost to improve the accuracy. To overcome this question in this paper, an excellent direct search-based local solver, the Nelder-Mead Simplex method is adopted in BSO. Through combining BSO's exploration ability and NMS's exploitation ability together, a simplex search-based BSO (Simplex-BSO) is developed via a better balance between global exploration and local exploitation. Simplex-BSO is shown to be able to eliminate the degenerated L-curve phenomenon on unimodal functions, and alleviate significantly this phenomenon on multimodal functions. Large number of experimental results shows that Simplex-BSO is a promising algorithm for global optimization problems.

In literature, benchmark test functions have been used for evaluating performance of metaheuristic algorithms. Algorithms that perform well on a set of numerical optimization problems are considered as effective methods for solving real-world problems. Different researchers choose different set of functions with varying configurations, as there exists no standard or universally agreed test-bed. This makes hard for researchers to select functions that can truly gauge the robustness of a metaheuristic algorithm which is being proposed. This review paper is an attempt to provide researchers with commonly used experimental settings, including selection of test functions with different modalities, dimensions, the number of experimental runs, and evaluation criteria. Hence, the proposed list of functions, based on existing literature, can be handily employed as an effective test-bed for evaluating either a new or modified variant of any existing metaheuristic algorithm. For embedding more complexity in the problems, these functions can be shifted or rotated for enhanced robustness.

In this study, four kinds of phospholipase A1-metal (Al/Co/Cu/Mn) hybrid nanostructures were prepared for enhancing the stability of the free PLA1. The formed hybrid complexes were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The stability and substrate specificity of immobilized enzymes were subsequently determined. After immobilization, the temperature tolerance of PLA1–metal hybrid nanostructures was enhanced. The relative activity of PLA1–Al/Co/Cu hybrid nanostructures remained above 60% at 50 °C, while that of free enzyme was below 5%. The thermal transition temperature measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was found to increase from 65.59 °C (free enzyme) to 173.14 °C, 123.67 °C, 96.31 °C, and 114.79 °C, referring to PLA1–Cu/Co/Al/Mn hybrid nanostructures, respectively. Additionally, after a storage for fourteen days at 4 °C, the immobilized enzymes could exhibit approximately 60% of the initial activity, while the free PLA1 was inactivated after four days of storage. In brief, using Co2+, Cu2+, Al3+, and Mn2+ as the hybridization materials for immobilization could improve the catalytic properties and stability of the free PLA1, suggesting a promising method for a wider application of PLA1 in many fields such as food, cosmetics, and the pharmaceutical industry.

Nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) play a vital role in maintaining the homeostasis of the intervertebral disc (IVD). Previous studies have discovered that NPCs exhibited malfunction due to cellular senescence during disc aging and degeneration; this might be one of the key factors of IVD degeneration. Thus, we conducted this study in order to investigate the altered biofunction and the underlying genes and pathways of senescent NPCs. We isolated and identified NPCs from the tail discs of young (2 months) and old (24 months) SD rats and confirmed the senescent phenotype through SA-β-gal staining. CCK-8 assay, transwell assay, and cell scratch assay were adopted to detect the proliferous and migratory ability of two groups. Then, a rat Gene Chip Clariom™ S array was used to detect differentially expressed genes (DEGs). After rigorous bioinformatics analysis of the raw data, totally, 1038 differentially expressed genes with a fold change>1.5 were identified out of 23189 probes. Among them, 617 were upregulated and 421 were downregulated. Furthermore, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were conducted and revealed numerous number of enriched GO terms and signaling pathways associated with senescence of NPCs. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of the DEGs was constructed using the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) database and Cytoscape software. Module analysis was conducted for the PPI network using the MCODE plugin in Cytoscape. Hub genes were identified by the CytoHubba plugin in Cytoscape. Derived 5 hub genes and most significantly up- or downregulated genes were further verified by real-time PCR. The present study investigated underlying mechanisms in the senescence of NPCs on a genome-wide scale. The illumination of molecular mechanisms of NPCs senescence may assist the development of novel biological methods to treat degenerative disc diseases.

Effects of temperature and slag composition on dephosphorization in a 120 ton top-bottom combined blown converter steelmaking process by double slag method were studied. The slag properties were determined by scanning electron microscope- energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that the transition oxidation temperature between dephosphorization and decarbonization Tf is not the favorable temperature for the first deslagging. The optimum first deslagging temperature is confirmed to be approximately 1,673 K which is about 70 K higher than Tf. High melting temperatures phases (such as 3CaO·SiO2) in the slag with high basicity and MgO content are unfavorable to the dephosphorization. The optimum process condition for dephosphorization at the first deslagging in present work is approximately 1,673 K in temperature, 2.0 in slag basicity, 6 and 17 mass% in MgO and T.Fe content, 6 mass% ≤ MnO content.

The effect of boron and titanium addition on the hot ductility of Nb-containing steel was investigated using hot tensile tests. The fracture surface and the quenched longitudinal microstructure were examined by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results showed that both steel samples had the similar change from 1,100°C to 700°C. The hot ductility of Nb-containing steel with boron and titanium addition was higher than the steel without boron and titanium in the temperature range of 900–750°C. Because the formation of intergranular ferrite was inhibited by solute boron segregating on the grain boundary, the formation of TiN changed the distribution of Nb- and boron-containing precipitates and improved the amount of intragranular ferrite.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: High incidences of acute kidney injury after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) were observed in previous reports. However, whether deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) leads to more severe kidney injury than CPB without DHCA remains controversial. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of DHCA on renal function in a novel rabbit model of using closed-thoracic DHCA. DESIGN AND SETTINGS: Experimental study on New Zealand white rabbits performed in the Department of Cardiac Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University. METHODS: Thirty rabbits were randomly divided into 3 groups : the sham-operated group (Group A, N=10), the CPB group (Group B, N=10), and the DHCA group (Group C, N=10). Serum creatinine (Scr), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum cystatin C, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities, histopathologic llesions, and apoptosis were assessed. RESULTS: Each single rabbit in Groups B and C died during surgery. Animals received DHCA exhibited more severe kidney impairments than those received CPB and those that were sham operated. Scr and BUN concentrations at 24 and 48 hours after surgery; cystatin C and NGAL concentrations at 12, 24, and 48 hours after surgery; MDA levels, histopathological lesions, and apoptosis score of the kidneys were the highest in Group C, followed by Group B, and were the lowest in Group A (all P