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Altered homeostasis and dysfunction of dendritic epidermal T cells (DETCs) contribute to abnormal diabetic wound healing. IL-15 plays important roles in survival and activation of T lymphocytes. Recently, reduction of epidermal IL-15 has been reported as an important mechanism for abnormal DETC homeostasis in streptozotocin -induced diabetic animals. However, the role of IL-15 in impaired diabetic wound healing remains unknown. Here, we found that, through rescuing the insufficient activation of DETCs, IL-15 increased IGF-1 production by DETCs and thereby promoted diabetic skin wound repair. Regulation of IGF-1 in DETCs by IL-15 was partly dependent on the mTOR pathway. In addition, expression of IL-15 and IGF-1 were positively correlated in wounded epidermis. Together, our data indicated that IL-15 enhanced IGF-1 production by DETCs to promoting diabetic wound repair, suggesting IL-15 as a potential therapeutic agent for managing diabetic wound healing.

Anthropogenic activities have had diversiform impacts on the surrounding river and environments. A study on the surface water of the Lhasa River Basin was undertaken to assess its hydrogeochemical characteristics under the influence of anthropogenic activities. A total of 16 samples collected from the Lhasa River were analyzed for pH, electric conductivity (EC), oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), total dissolved solids (TDS), major cations (K+, Na+, Ca2+, and Mg2+), major anions (Cl−, SO42−, HCO3−, and NO3−), and trace metals. The pH of the analyzed water samples varied from 6.40 to 9.10, indicating alkaline in nature. The EC values varied from 77.3 to 213 μs/cm while the TDS values varied from 73.37 to 217.55 mg/L. HCO3− and SO42− are the dominant anions while Ca2+ and Na+ are the dominant cations in the river water. The concentration of alkaline earth metals (Ca2+ + Mg2+) exceed the alkali metals (Na+ + K+) and HCO3− dominates over SO42− + Cl− concentrations in the majority of the surface water samples. Ca2+-Mg2+-HCO3− and Ca2+-Mg2+-Cl− are the dominant hydrogeochemical facies in the surface water of the area. The water chemistry is mainly controlled by rock weathering with secondary contribution from anthropogenic sources. The content of trace elements in the Lhasa River is low, basically at the natural background value. The high content of individual elements is mainly due to the mineral resource exploitation and geothermal resources in the basin. Countermeasures and attention should be payed to these aspects, such as the construction of water conservancy facilities, urban economic development, the development of mining activities, and sewage and wastewater discharge, so as to protect the water quality and sustainable development of the Lhasa River Basin.

To investigate the effects of different ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) contents on the performance of wood plastic composites (WPCs) made from poplar wood flour (PWF) and high density polyethylene (HDPE), physical properties tests, mechanical properties tests, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) tests were employed. The thermal stability and functional groups of PWF treated by EVA were evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), respectively. The results showed that the hardness, water uptake, and thickness swelling of the WPCs was reduced with increasing content of EVA. The MOR and tensile strength of the WPC treated by 15% EVA content were enhanced by 17.48% and 9.97%, respectively, compared with those of the WPC without EVA. TGA results showed that the thermal stability of PWF treated by EVA was improved. FTIR analysis indicated that PWF was reacted and coated with EVA. SEM results showed that gaps and voids hardly existed in the sections of the WPCs treated by EVA. This research suggests that the flexibility and mechanical properties of WPCs could be improved by adding EVA. The best condition of EVA content could be 15%.

Hydrogel is a kind of attractive drug carriers because of its good biocompatibility and transparency. But traditional hydrogel showed some restrictions in its application in ocular drug delivery. A simple surface modification technique based on layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembled multilayer for ocular drug delivery was developed in this work. Polycarboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrin (poly(CM-β-CD))/poly-l-lysine (PLL) multilayer film was designed and constructed for ocular drug delivery, since β-CD showed good drug delivery property. The properties such as the contact angle and transparency varied a little with the deposition of poly(CM-β-CD)/PLL multilayer. Orfloxacin and puerarin were loaded into multilayer during the self-assembly procedure by two methods, which were tracked by the largest drug absorbance of UV spectrum. The loaded drug amount by incorporating drugs into poly(CM-β-CD) solution was larger than that by incorporating drugs into PLL solution. The loaded drug in the multilayer could gradually be released from multilayer in some period either for orfloxacin or for puerarin. The drug release behavior was influenced by drug loading method and pH value of released medium. Moreover, the balanced released drug amount by incorporating drugs into poly(CM-β-CD) solution is much smaller than that by incorporating drugs into PLL solution.

As a continuation of our efforts directed towards the development of natural anti-diabetic cataract agents, gigantol was isolated from Herba dendrobii and was found to inhibit both aldose reductase (AR) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) activity, which play a significant role in the development and progression of diabetic cataracts. To improve its bioefficacy and facilitate use as a therapeutic agent, gigantol (compound 14f) and a series of novel analogs were designed and synthesized. Analogs were formulated to have different substituents on the phenyl ring (compounds 4, 5, 8, 14a-e), substitute the phenyl ring with a larger steric hindrance ring (compounds 10, 17c) or modify the carbon chain (compounds 17a, 17b, 21, 23, 25). All of the analogs were tested for their effect on AR and iNOS activities and on D-galactose-induced apoptosis in cultured human lens epithelial cells. Compounds 5, 10, 14a, 14b, 14d, 14e, 14f, 17b, 17c, 23, and 25 inhibited AR activity, with IC50 values ranging from 5.02 to 288.8 μM. Compounds 5, 10, 14b, and 14f inhibited iNOS activity with IC50 ranging from 432.6 to 1188.7 μM. Compounds 5, 8, 10, 14b, 14f, and 17c protected the cells from D-galactose induced apoptosis with viability ranging from 55.2 to 76.26%. Of gigantol and its analogs, compound 10 showed the greatest bioefficacy and is warranted to be developed as a therapeutic agent for diabetic cataracts.

By using minimax methods in critical point theory, we obtain the existence of periodic solutions for second-order ordinary differential equations with linear nonlinearity.

Among the largest US metropolitan areas, trends in mortality rates for injection drug users (IDUs) with AIDS vary substantially. Ecosocial, risk environment and dialectical theories suggest many metropolitan areas characteristics that might drive this variation. We assess metropolitan area characteristics associated with decline in mortality rates among IDUs living with AIDS (per 10,000 adult MSA residents) after highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was developed.This is an ecological cohort study of 86 large US metropolitan areas from 1993-2006. The proportional rate of decline in mortality among IDUs diagnosed with AIDS (as a proportion of adult residents) from 1993-1995 to 2004-2006 was the outcome of interest. This rate of decline was modeled as a function of MSA-level variables suggested by ecosocial, risk environment and dialectical theories. In multiple regression analyses, we used 1993-1995 mortality rates to (partially) control for pre-HAART epidemic history and study how other independent variables affected the outcomes.In multivariable models, pre-HAART to HAART era increases in 'hard drug' arrest rates and higher pre-HAART income inequality were associated with lower relative declines in mortality rates. Pre-HAART per capita health expenditure and drug abuse treatment rates, and pre- to HAART-era increases in HIV counseling and testing rates, were weakly associated with greater decline in AIDS mortality.Mortality among IDUs living with AIDS might be decreased by reducing metropolitan income inequality, increasing public health expenditures, and perhaps increasing drug abuse treatment and HIV testing services. Given prior evidence that drug-related arrest rates are associated with higher HIV prevalence rates among IDUs and do not seem to decrease IDU population prevalence, changes in laws and policing practices to reduce such arrests while still protecting public order should be considered.

The concept of the well posedness for a special scalar problem is linked with strictly efficient solutions of vector optimization problem involving nearly convexlike set-valued maps. Two scalarization theorems and two Lagrange multiplier theorems for strict efficiency in vector optimization involving nearly convexlike set-valued maps are established. A dual is proposed and duality results are obtained in terms of strictly efficient solutions. A new type of saddle point, called strict saddle point, of an appropriate set-valued Lagrange map is introduced and is used to characterize strict efficiency.

Based on the works of Perko and Walter, Moeckel and Simo, and Zhang and Zhou, we study the necessary conditions and suffcient conditions for the uniformly rotating planar nested regular polygonal periodic solutions for the -body problems.

We present a new extension of Serrin's lower semicontinuity theorem. We prove that the variational functional defined on is lower semicontinuous with respect to the strong convergence in , under the assumptions that the integrand has the locally absolute continuity about the variable .

BackgroundIdiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) is the most common pathological type for nephrotic syndrome in adults in western countries and China. The benefits and harms of immunosuppressive treatment in IMN remain controversial.ObjectivesTo assess the efficacy and safety of different immunosuppressive agents in the treatment of nephrotic syndrome caused by IMN.MethodsPubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and wanfang, weipu, qinghuatongfang, were searched for relevant studies published before December 2011. Reference lists of nephrology textbooks, review articles were checked. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) meeting the criteria was performed using Review Manager.Main results17 studies were included, involving 696 patients. Calcineurin inhibitors had a better effect when compared to alkylating agents, on complete remission (RR 1.61, 95% CI 1.13, to 2.30 P = 0.008), partial or complete remission (effective) (CR/PR, RR 1.29, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.52 P = 0.003), and fewer side effects. Among calcineurin inhibitors, tacrolimus (TAC) was shown statistical significance in inducing more remissions. When compared to cyclophosphamide (CTX), leflunomide (LET) showed no beneficial effect, mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) showed significant beneficial on effectiveness (CR/PR, RR: 1.41, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.72 P = 0.0006) but not significant on complete remission (CR, RR: 1.38, 95% CI 0.89 to 2.13 P = 0.15).ConclusionsThis analysis based on Chinese adults and short duration RCTs suggested calcineurin inhibitors, especially TAC, were more effective in proteinuria reduction in IMN with acceptable side effects. Long duration RCTs were needed to confirm the long-term effects of those agents in nephrotic IMN.

Soft contact lenses can improve the bioavailability and prolong the residence time of drugs and, therefore, are ideal drug carriers for ophthalmic drug delivery. Hydrogels are the leading materials of soft contact lenses because of their biocompatibility and transparent characteristic. In order to increase the amount of load drug and to control their release at the expected intervals, many strategies are developed to modify the conventional contact lens as well as the novel hydrogel contact lenses that include (i) polymeric hydrogels with controlled hydrophilic/hydrophobic copolymer ratio; (ii) hydrogels for inclusion of drugs in a colloidal structure dispersed in the contact lenses; (iii) ligand-containing hydrogels; (iv) molecularly imprinted polymeric hydrogels; (v) hydrogel with the surface containing multilayer structure for drugs loading and releasing. The advantages and disadvantages of these strategies in modifying or designing hydrogel contact lenses for extended ophthalmic drug delivery are analyzed in this paper.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and placental growth factor (PlGF) serve key roles in the regulation of vascular development, revascularization and vasopermeability in the endometrium, decidua and trophoblasts. Furthermore, both VEGF and PlGF are modulators of embryonic vascular development. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the serum levels of VEGF and PlGF in female patients with early threatened abortion (TA) who experienced preterm delivery. The present case-control study included 130 pregnant patients with or without TA that were admitted to The Maternal and Childcare Hospital of Nantong University from January 2019 to January 2022. Patients were divided into two groups: i) Group A, which included 55 patients diagnosed with TA with slight vaginal bleeding and closed cervical internal os within the first 6-12 weeks of pregnancy; and ii) group B, which included 75 patients with healthy asymptomatic pregnancy. Blood samples were obtained from all patients and VEGF and PlGF levels were examined prior to treatment, and the chi-squared, Student's t-test and two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni's post hoc analysis were used to analyze statistical differences between the two patient groups. Results of the present study demonstrated that patients with TA had significantly lower levels of VEGF and PlGF, compared with the controls. In patients with or without TA, the levels of serum PlGF in the preterm delivery group were significantly decreased compared with patients that did not experience preterm delivery. However, there was no signifi- cant difference in the levels of VEGF between patients with or without preterm delivery. In addition, lower levels of PlGF, compared with those in patients without TA, may be associated with an increased risk of preterm delivery in patients without early TA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background This study evaluates a three-dimensional (3D) visualisation design combined with customized surgical guides to assist anterior maxillary segmental distraction osteogenesis (AMSDO) in correcting maxillary hypoplasia in adolescents with cleft lip and palate (CLP), focusing on treatment outcomes, satisfaction and the validity of 3D planning. Methods This retrospective cohort study was conducted at a single hospital in China. Between January 2020 and December 2023, 12 adolescents with CLP with maxillary hypoplasia were included. An advanced 3D simulation was used to convey the treatment strategy to the patients and their families. A customized surgical guide and distraction osteogenesis device were designed. Cephalometric analysis evaluated AMSDO changes and long-term stability. Patient satisfaction was assessed. The Chinese version of the Child Oral Health Impact Profile was used to evaluate the children’s oral health-related quality of life before and after treatment. The postoperative outcomes were compared with the planned outcomes by superimposing the actual postoperative data onto the simulated soft tissue models and calculating the linear and angular differences between them. Results One patient experienced postoperative gingivitis, yielding an 8.33% complication rate. Most patients (83.33%) were highly satisfied with the target position, with the rest content. Cephalometric analysis showed significant improvements in various indices post-traction. Quality-of-life scores significantly improved post-treatment. The discrepancies in facial soft tissue between the simulated and actual results were within clinically satisfactory ranges. Conclusions Digitally designed surgical guides effectively treat maxillary hypoplasia in adolescents with CLP, ensuring stability, reducing complications, reducing dependency on operator experience, and enhancing satisfaction and health outcomes. Although the simulated results were clinically acceptable, it is important to inform patients of potential variations in the predicted soft tissue.

Abstract Radar High‐Resolution Range Profile (HRRP) has great potential for target recognition because it can provide target structural information. Existing work commonly applies deep learning to extract deep features from HRRPs and achieve impressive recognition performance. However, most approaches are unable to distinguish between the target and non‐target regions in the feature extraction process and do not fully consider the impact of background noise, which is harmful to recognition, especially at low signal‐to‐noise ratios (SNR). To tackle these problems, the authors propose a radar HRRP target recognition framework termed Adaptive Soft Threshold Transformer (ASTT), which is composed of a patch embedding (PE) layer, ASTT blocks, and Discrete Wavelet Patch Merging (DWPM) layers. Given the limited semantic information of individual range cells, the PE layer integrates nearby isolated range cells into semantically explicit target structure patches. Thanks to its convolutional layer and attention mechanism, the ASTT blocks assign a weight to each patch to locate the target areas in the HRRP while capturing local features and constructing sequence correlations. Moreover, the ASTT block efficiently filters noise features in combination with a soft threshold function to further enhance the recognition performance at low SNR, where the threshold is adaptively determined. Utilising the reversibility of the discrete wavelet transform, the DWPM layer efficiently eliminates the loss of valuable information during the pooling process. Experiments based on simulated and measured datasets show that the proposed method has excellent target recognition performance, noise robustness, and small‐scale range shift robustness.