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We developed novel shackled P-chiral ligands based on 1-phosphanorbornenes and oxazolines. They were subsequently evaluated in palladium-catalyzed (4+2) annulations, producing enantioenriched tetrahydropyran scaffolds in good yields with high site selectivity and enantioselectivity. Moreover, chemoselective (4+4) products were also achieved by using acyclic imines. In addition, density functional theory calculations were performed to afford the energy profile of the Michael addition step and ring formation step. This demonstrated that the enantioselective (4+2) annulations and the chemoselective reaction between (4+2) and (4+4) products were mostly under thermodynamic control.

We study the private information retrieval (PIR) problem under arbitrary collusion patterns for replicated databases. We find a general characterization of the PIR capacity, which is the same as the capacity of the original PIR problem with the number of databases $N$ replaced by a number $S^{*}$ . $S^{*}$ is the optimal solution to a linear programming problem that is a function of the incidence matrix of the collusion pattern. Hence, the essence of any collusion pattern can be distilled into one number $S^{*}$ . In the proposed achievable scheme, databases are non-uniformly queried according to the optimal solution of a linear programming problem based on the collusion pattern. It can be seen that the databases who collude more with others are queried less. In the converse proof, Shearer’s lemma is applied, in place of Han’s inequality, to a linear combination of inequalities, where each inequality corresponds to one colluding set in the collusion pattern. The weights of the linear combination come from the optimal solution of another linear programming problem based on the collusion pattern. Finally, by noting the interesting fact that the two seemingly different linear programming problems, one used in the achievability proof and the other used in the converse proof, are in fact dual problems, we characterize the capacity of the PIR problem under arbitrary collusion patterns.

Generation of non-stabilized β-ester diazos and their applications in carboxylic acid O-H insertion reactions have been reported, which afford β-acyloxy esters in excellent yield. Varieties of aryl- and alkyl-substituted diazos are well tolerated in this insertion reaction under mild and convenient conditions. Moreover, structural modification of the natural product and molecular drug can also be achieved in this reaction. This protocol not only realizes the reaction involving unstable β-ester diazos but also provides an efficient strategy for the synthesis of β-acyloxy esters.

Middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) injury refers to impaired blood supply to the brain that is caused by a cerebrovascular disease, resulting in local brain tissue ischemia, hypoxic necrosis, and rapid neurological impairment. Nevertheless, the mechanisms involved are unclear, and pharmacological interventions are lacking. 25-Hydroxycholesterol (25-HC) was reported to be involved in cholesterol and lipid metabolism as an oxysterol molecule. This study aimed to determine whether 25-HC exerts a cerebral protective effect on MCAO injury and investigate its potential mechanism. 25-HC was administered prior to reperfusion in a mouse model of MCAO injury. 25-HC evidently decreased infarct size induced by MCAO and enhanced brain function. It reduced stimulator of interferon gene (STING) activity and regulated mTOR to inhibit autophagy and induce cerebral ischemia tolerance. Thus, 25-HC improved MCAO injury through the STING channel. As indicated in this preliminary study, 25-HC improved MCAO injury by inhibiting STING activity and autophagy as well as by reducing brain nerve cell apoptosis. Thus, it is a potential treatment drug for brain injury.

We report the magnetic and electronic transport properties of Mn-doped LaTi

Evidence for the prognostic importance of tumor thickness in acral melanoma (AM) patients is limited.The objective of the study was to determine the prognostic impact of Breslow thickness in AM.This multicenter study enrolled patients diagnosed with localized AM between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2017. Melanoma-specific survival (MSS) in different tumor thickness strata (T1-T4: ≤1,1-2,2-4,4 mm, respectively) was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Comparisons were performed by the log-rank test and multivariable Cox regression.A total of 853 patients with clinical N0 (cN0) AM were included in the analysis. The median follow-up time was 60.1 months. The median MSS in patients with T1-T4 disease was not reached, 111.0, 92.8, and 67.1 months, respectively. MSS differed significantly among cN0 patients with T1-T3 AM (log-rank P = .004, .012,0.001 for T1 vs T2, T2 vs T3, and T1 vs T3, respectively); however, there was no significant difference between T3 and T4 AM (hazard ratio = 0.82, 95% CI, 0.62-1.09). Six-subgroup analyses confirmed that survival outcomes were similar between different subgroups with tumor thickness2 mm.The limitations were retrospective design and some missing variables.There was no association between tumor thickness and survival in AM patients with a Breslow thickness2 mm.

BackgroundSurgical resection and reconstruction for low-grade bone sarcoma in the metaphysis of the distal femur remain challenging. We hypothesized that 3D printing osteotomy guide plate could assist to accurately resect the tumor lesion and save the joint function.MethodsFrom January 2017 to August 2019, five patients diagnosed with low-grade bone sarcoma in the metaphysis of the distal femur were treated with hemicortical resection using 3D printing guide plate. Autologous bone graft was inactivated in a high-temperature water bath and re-implanted in situ fixed with plate and screw. Patients were followed up from 17 to 33 months. The Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Score was used to evaluate the joint function. X-ray was used to evaluate the bone union.ResultsOne patient was paracorticular osteosarcoma, and four cases had highly differentiated chondrosarcoma. All cases were involved in the metaphysis of the distal femur. Patients were followed up from 13 to 33 months, with an average of 23.6 months. There was neither post-operation infection, internal fixation loosening, nor fracture occurrence in any of the patients. The Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Score averaged at 28.1, while the International Society of Limb Salvage imaging score examination averaged 89.8%.ConclusionsHere, we demonstrate that the 3D printing osteotomy guide plate-assisted hemicortical bone resection is a beneficial strategy to effectively resect the primary low-grade malignant bone tumors in the metaphysis of the distal femur and retained satisfied joint function.

Due to the low efficiency and poor adaptability of template matching in target detection, this paper represents a space-ground joint detection system based on artificial intelligence, which takes advantage of the high computation power of the ground system to train neural networks and utilize the measurement and control channel to update and synchronize the on-orbit system. Based on YOLOv5, an oriented bounding box is used for labeling and training, the angle is considered as a class and the loss for the angle is added to the code. After training the network with the ground system, the weight will be sent to the satellite. This process would repeat once there are new training data that worse the update. Based on the new routine for target detection, the accuracy and robustness are significantly higher than before.

This study designs to investigate the role and potential mechanism of lncNRA HOTTIP in OS progression in vitro and in vivo. HOTTIP, PTBP1, and KHSRP expression levels were tested through qRT-PCR and western blot in OS tissues or cell lines. Cell proliferation was examined via CCK-8 and colony formation. Cell cycle and apoptosis were analyzed via flow cytometry analysis. The invasive and migratory abilities of OS cells were evaluated by transwell and wound-healing assays. The localization of HOTTIP in OS cells was determined by subcellular fractionation assay. RNA pull down and RNA immunoprecipitation were allowed to assess the interaction between HOTTIP and PTBP1. Xenograft tumor growth assay was employed to test the role of HOTTIP and KHSRP in OS progression. Our data demonstrated HOTTIP was upregulated in OS tissues. HOTTIP knockdown resulted in a suppression of OS cell proliferation, invasion and migration, as well as a promotion of OS cell apoptosis, while HOTTIP overexpression exhibited opposite effects. In mechanism, PTBP1 and KHSRP highly expressed in OS and HOTTIP was identified to interact with PTBP1 to promote KHSRP expression. Meanwhile, we found that overexpression of KHSRP or PTBP1, individually, can partially remove the repression of HOTTIP suppression for OS cell progression. Moreover, xenograft tumor growth assay revealed that HOTTIP knockdown significantly inhibited tumor growth, and this inhibitory effect was abolished by KHSRP overexpression. Collectively, these findings confirmed that HOTTIP facilitates OS cell proliferation, invasion and migration by binding to PTBP1 to promote KHSRP level. Abbreviation: LncRNA: long noncoding RNA; HOTTIP: HOXA distal transcript antisense RNA; KHSRP: KH-Type Splicing Regulatory Protein; qRT-PCR: quantitative real-time PCR; OS: osteosarcoma; OST: osteosarcoma tissues; ANT: adjacent normal tissue.

Electroacupuncture (EA) is commonly used to treat cerebrovascular diseases. This study aimed to clarify the mechanisms of action of treatments of cerebral ischemic stroke from the perspective of gut microecology. We used a mouse model and cell cultures to investigate the effects of EA on the intestinal microflora in mice models of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and the mechanisms underlying the antioxidant activities of metabolites. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) was used to validate the roles of gut microbiota. Metabolomic analysis was performed to characterize the metabolic profile differences between the mice in the EA + MCAO and MCAO groups. Gavaging with feces relieved brain damage in mice that received EA (EA mice) more than in mice that did not (non-EA [NEA] mice). The gut microbial composition and metabolic profiles of the EA and NEA mice were different. In particular, the microbiota from the mice in the EA or EA-FMT groups generated more indole-3-propionic acid (IPA) than the microbiota from the mice in the MCAO or NEA-FMT groups. We confirmed that IPA binds to specific melatonin receptors (MTRs) in target cells and exerts antioxidant effects by adding MTR inhibitors or knocking out the MTR1 gene in vivo and in the oxygen and glucose deprivation/reperfusion models of N2a cell experiments. EA can prevent ischemic stroke by improving the composition of intestinal microbiota in MCAO mice. Moreover, this study reveals a new mechanism of intestinal flora regulation of stroke that differs from inflammation/immunity, namely gut microbiota regulates stroke by affecting IPA levels.

Lake Taihu is an important drinking water source for cities in the Yangtze River Delta region, while the dramatic fluctuation in turbidity has caused serve problems for local waterworks management. Because the sediment behavior induced by wind disturbance was believed to be the main factor for the matter, the effect of wind fields on the hydrodynamics and sediment distribution of Lake Taihu and the turbidity of the raw water were conducted based on a wind-driven numerical model. The obtained results indicate that wind direction was more influential on the structure of flow and wave fields, while wind speed contributed more to the field intensity, and the suspended sediment of the water intake area primarily consisted of migrated particles from other erosion regions. The high consistency between the simulated suspended sediment concentration and the turbidity with a lag effect of 7 h made it possible for turbidity prediction when combined with the weather forecast technique. The model achieved operation adjustment in advance, thus improving the management efficiency of the waterworks.

Lake Taihu is an important drinking water source for cities in the Yangtze River Delta region, while the dramatic fluctuation in turbidity has caused severe problems for local waterwork management. The effects of sediment resuspension and migration on turbidity of water intake in a waterworks located in the south of Lake Taihu are studied. Because the sediment behavior induced by wind disturbance was believed to be the main factor for the matter, the effect of wind field on the hydrodynamics and sediment distribution of Lake Taihu was conducted based on a wind-driven numerical model. The obtained results indicate that wind direction was more influential on the structure of flow and wave fields, while wind speed contributed more to the field intensity. The suspended sediment concentration (SSC) of water intake area was most sensitive to onshore winds, which led to significant increase in suspended sediment concentration at 3 m/s, while for alongshore winds, the incipient speed was 4 m/s, and offshore winds were less influential. In addition, the suspended sediment of the water intake area was primarily migrated from other erosion regions rather than local suspended particles. A 7-h lag was found between SSC and the measured turbidity confirmed the lag effect of wind disturbance on turbidity change. The high consistency between the 2 series demonstrated the potential of this method to turbidity prediction when combined with the weather forecast technique.

Simplified local density (SLD) model has been widely used to describe the gas adsorption behaviors in porous media. However, the slit pore geometry and constant pore width associated with the SLD model may fail to represent the heterogeneous pore network structure in shale. In this study, a new method to integrate the SLD model with the slit and cylindrical pore structures as well as the pore size distribution (PSD) is proposed and validated by the grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations and the experimentally measured adsorption of methane on shale with complex pore network. Comparison results show that reasonably good agreement is achieved between the SLD model and GCMC simulations for both the gas adsorption isotherms and discrete-density profiles in multiwalled carbon nanoslit and nanotube. The corresponding average absolute percentage deviations (% AADs) are below 0.3 and 9.3 for gas adsorption isotherm and discrete-density profile, respectively. In addition, the SLD model coupled with the PSD of slit and cylindrical pores ranging from micro- to macropores properly characterizes the measured excess adsorption of methane on Wolfcamp shale core sample with % AADs between 1.7 and 3.6. It is found that when the pore volume is fixed, the gas adsorption isotherm and gas density profile are heavily dependent on the pore geometry and pore size. Furthermore, integrating the PSD into the SLD model can guarantee the valid identification of the adsorbed- and free-gas regions in flow channels with different sizes based on the gas density profiles. The findings of this study shed light on the effects of pore structure on gas adsorption in nanopores and enable us to precisely evaluate and predict the gas adsorption behaviors in slit and cylindrical pores over a wide range of pore sizes.

The organic content in urban sewer sediment can significantly influence sediment erosion behavior because of biological activity. In this experimental study, the erosion behavior of sediments with different organic content was investigated to develop a mathematical relationship between the critical shear stress and biological activities. Before testing, sediment samples were incubated under two environmental conditions: aerobic conditions with high biological activities and sterile conditions with low biological activities. With different incubation periods, samples were subjected to the scouring test in an open channel flume, by which the incipient motion of sediments was determined. Experimental results show that the sediment erosion resistance is simultaneously subject to the strengthening and the weakening effect induced by the biological activity, which is dependent on the incubation period and organic content. For low organic content sediment (volatile solids content < 4%), the biological activity can strengthen the sediment erosion resistance and increase τc, while τc of higher organic content sediment is distinctly reduced. The biological activity can both strengthen and weaken the sediment erosion resistance. The strengthening effect is attributed to the biofilm formation in the biological activity, whereas the weakening effect is due to the sediment volume expansion by the gas bubble formation. These effects depend on the incubation period and organic content within sediments, which can be used to predict the incipient motion of sediments by modifying the biological influence coefficient. Finally, Shields curves were modified to account for the biological activity.

Introduction Emerging evidence has revealed the importance of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in carcinogenesis. The aim of this work was to investigate the roles of lncRNA growth arrest specific 5 (GAS5) in osteosarcoma (OS) progression. Methods Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was performed to explore GAS5, microRNA-663a (miR-663a), and ras homolog family member B (RHOB) expression levels in OS tissues and cells. Moreover, cell counting kit-8 assay, wound-healing assay, and transwell invasion assay were conducted to investigate biological roles of GAS5 in OS progression. In addition, mechanisms underlying the functions of GAS5 in OS were investigated by bioinformatic analysis, luciferase activity reporter assay, and rescue experiments. Results The GAS5 expression level was significantly decreased in OS tissues and cells compared with normal tissues and cells, and could negatively regulate miR-663a expression. Moreover, we found RHOB expression can be negatively regulated by miR-663a. Overexpression of GAS5 and RHOB suppresses, while overexpression of miR-663a stimulates, OS cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. In summary, we revealed lncRNA GAS5 was a downregulated lncRNA in OS and impaired OS malignant behaviors. In addition, this regulation relied on miR-663a and its target gene, RHOB. Discussion To sum up, we showed lncRNA GAS5 regulates OS progression via regulating the miR-663a/RHOB axis.

As Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies become widely popular recently, the underlying concept—Blockchain—gets unprecedented attentions. One popular usage of Blockchain is a distributed replicated database. In this paper, we present initial studies on the challenges and opportunities of using Blockchain as a database for Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. For IoT applications, latency is an important factor, whereas for application developers, consistency is an important property which specifies how the system orders the operations over blocks (that are stored in the Blockchain). However, consistency property of Blockchain-based database is not well studied, especially in the case when network is not synchronized and the system is dynamic—both are typical scenario in an IoT environment. Intuitively, Blockchain is designed to maintain a single ground truth—one can view the Blockchain itself as the order of the blocks that all participants should observe and respect. In most Blockchain designs, the participants will eventually converge to the same chain of blocks. However, there is very few study on the challenges of using Blockchains as a database in an IoT environment. This paper focuses on the enabling technology behind Bitcoin, Bitcoin Backbone Protocol (BBP). We first survey Blockchain-based IoT applications, and identify why it is necessary to use it as a database for IoT applications. Then we explore several reasonable consistency models for BBP-based database, and then show that such a database does not satisfy many consistency models under certain typical IoT environments. Moreover, we use simulation to study how network quality and system dynamic affect consistency. Finally, we propose a simple mechanism to make the BBP-based database satisfy both read-my-write and eventual consistency.

Background The clinicopathological and survival profiles across primary sites in acral melanoma (AM) are still controversial and unclear. Methods This is a multi-center retrospective study. Clinicopathological data of AM patients diagnosed between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2017 from 6 large tertiary hospitals in China were extracted. Chi square tests were used to compare basic characteristics between primary sites of sole, palm and nail bed. Melanoma-specific survival (MSS) differences based on primary sites were compared by log-rank tests and multivariate Cox regressions were used to identify prognostic factors for MSS. Results In total, 1157 AM patients were included. The sole group had a more advanced initial stage, deeper Breslow thickness, higher recurrence rate and distant metastases risk (all P P = 0.0102). The median MSS of sole, nail bed and palm patients were 65.0 months, 112.0 months, and not reached, respectively (log-rank P = 0.0053). In multivariate analyses, primary site, initial stage, ulceration and recurrence were the prognostic factors for MSS in overall population, but the statistical significance varied over primary sites. Conclusions Substantial clinicopathological and survival heterogeneities exist across different primary sites in the AM population. Sole melanoma has worse prognosis compared with palm and nail bed subtypes.

Extramammary Paget's disease (EMPD) frequently extends beyond clinical borders, causing a high recurrence rate. Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) has been used for management of EMPD, but its efficiency is compromised by technical limitations inherent in MMS. To identify clinicopathologic parameters of predictive value regarding MMS final margin width (FMW) for EMPD, and provide some preliminary guidance in selecting initial surgical margin width for improved efficiency. This was a retrospective study of 150 consecutive EMPD patients who underwent MMS between 2013 and 2019. Clinicopathological parameters and surgical data were collected to construct a classification tree of FMW. A six-node classification tree with a sensitivity of 86.25% and a specificity of 48.57% was generated. Lesion width, disease duration and inflammation score were used to select subgroups of patients in whom optimal initial margin width may be recommended. Classification tree analysis may help identify important variables to consider when selecting MMS initial surgical margins for EMPD.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) substantially affects the quality of life of patients, and an effective therapy is unavailable. Previous studies have shown that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and low-intensity transcranial ultrasound (LITUS) are effective treatments for neurological damage, inflammation, edema and cognitive impairment caused by TBI. However, it is unclear whether the combination of the two treatments exerts an additive effect. In this study, a rat TBI model was established using the controlled cortical impact (CCI) method. Neurological function was assessed by determining the rat modified neurological score (mNSS), and cognitive function was assessed using the Y-maze. Pathological changes in the injured tissue were observed using hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining and immunohistochemistry (IHC), and western blot was performed to detect the expression levels of Nestin, neuron-specific enolase (NSE), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), growth-associated protein-43 (GAP-43), postsynaptic density protein (PSD-95), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and aquaporin-4 (AQP-4). Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to detect the expression levels of GAP-43, PSD-95, BDNF, TNF-α, and AQP-4 mRNA to investigate whether MSCs combined with LITUS exert an additive therapeutic effect of alleviating the cognitive dysfunction caused by TBI and the possible mechanisms involved. Rats exhibited cognitive dysfunction 28 days after TBI, and MSCs combined with LITUS treatment ameliorated the cognitive deficits caused by TBI via increasing Nestin, NSE, GAP-43, PSD-95, and BDNF expression and attenuating the inflammatory response and edema caused by TBI via reducing TNF-α and AQP-4 expression. According to these results, MSCs combined with LITUS is more effective than MSCs alone for the treatment of TBI, and the mechanism may be the promotion of neuronal proliferation and differentiation, and the attenuation of the inflammatory response and edema, which ameliorates the spatial learning memory impairment caused by TBI. MSCs combined with LITUS treatment represents a new approach for the clinical treatment of patients with TBI.

Lake Taihu is an important drinking water source for cities of Yangtze River Delta region, while the dramatically fluctuate of turbidity caused serve problems for local waterworks’ management. Since the sediment behavior induced by wind disturbance was believed to be the main factor for the matter, the effect of wind fields on hydrodynamic and sediment distribution of Lake Taihu and the turbidity of the raw water were conducted based on wind driven numerical model. The results indicate that wind direction was more influential for the structure of flow and wave fields while wind speed contributed more to the field intensity, and the suspended sediment of the water intake area was primarily consisted of migrated particles from other erosion regions. The high consistence between the simulated suspended sediment concentration and the turbidity with a lag effect of 7-hour made it possible for turbidity prediction when combined with weather forecast technique. The model achieved operation adjusting in advance, thus improve the management efficiency of the waterworks.

We report the discovery of TOI-2180 b, a 2.8 $M_{\rm J}$ giant planet orbiting a slightly evolved G5 host star. This planet transited only once in Cycle 2 of the primary Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. Citizen scientists identified the 24 hr single-transit event shortly after the data were released, allowing a Doppler monitoring campaign with the Automated Planet Finder telescope at Lick Observatory to begin promptly. The radial velocity observations refined the orbital period of TOI-2180 b to be 260.8$\pm$0.6 days, revealed an orbital eccentricity of 0.368$\pm$0.007, and discovered long-term acceleration from a more distant massive companion. We conducted ground-based photometry from 14 sites spread around the globe in an attempt to detect another transit. Although we did not make a clear transit detection, the nondetections improved the precision of the orbital period. We predict that TESS will likely detect another transit of TOI-2180 b in Sector 48 of its extended mission. We use giant planet structure models to retrieve the bulk heavy-element content of TOI-2180 b. When considered alongside other giant planets with orbital periods over 100 days, we find tentative evidence that the correlation between planet mass and metal enrichment relative to stellar is dependent on orbital properties. Single-transit discoveries like TOI-2180 b highlight the exciting potential of the TESS mission to find planets with long orbital periods and low irradiation fluxes despite the selection biases associated with the transit method., Comment: Published in AJ

Using rice straw as a carbon source, photoluminescent carbon nanodots (CNDs) were quickly prepared by pyrolysis under insufficient air flow and ultrasonic methods without the addition of other chemical reagents. This method is simple and environmentally friendly. The prepared CNDs have quasispherical nanoparticles with the average diameter of 5.8 nm observed from TEM image, and have good fluorescence performance with the quantum yield of 5.1%. The CNDs possess a clear correlation between photoluminescence wavelength and intensity and excitation wavelength, as well as good water solubility and salt resistance. In addition, the luminescent CNDs can not only be effectively taken up by HeLa cells and HUVECs but also exhibit low cytotoxicity and good biocompatibility from CCK8 test and laser confocal imaging observations, respectively, making them promising complement to future cellular imaging assay applications. Moreover, the prepared CNDs can be used as ion sensors to selectively and sensitively detect Fe3+ ions in the concentration range of 0–1000 μM with a detection limit of 300 nM. Our proposed strategy for preparing carbon nanodots explores a new way to obtain fluorescent carbon materials and avoid environmental pollution caused by burning straw.

Stroke is one of the most important diseases that seriously threaten the health and public health of elderly patients.NSUN2 refers to the predominant methyltransferase for RNA m5C methylation, contributing to increased RNA stability, translocation and translation, and playing an important role in the physiopathology. However, there is insignificant progress on the biological functions and mechanisms of NSUN2 in cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. Here, C57BL/6 mice were employed to establish a middle cerebral artery ischemia-reperfusion injury model (MCAO) and found to significantly increase in NSUN2 protein and mRNA expression levels by Western blotting and qRT-PCR. Subsequently, NSUN2 knockout mice were exploited to build the MCAO model. This study reported that knockout of NSUN2 significantly aggravated brain infarct size and behavioral scores, while reducing 7-day postoperative survival and increasing neuronal apoptosis and injury in MCAO mice. According to the investigation of Western blotting results, decreased PI3K/AKT, ICAM-1 and Bcl-2 protein expressions and increased apoptosis-related protein (Caspase-3/Bax) were found. Overall, this study suggested that NSUN2 may affect cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury via PI3K/AKT signaling channel and ICAM-1 protein regulation of apoptosis.

BackgroundIntrauterine devices (IUDs) are commonly used as a contraceptive method. IUD migration and colon perforation are rare but serious complications occurring sometimes years after insertion.CaseA 42-year-old woman with complaints of slight abdominal pain underwent a colonoscopy. Colonoscopy showed that a “nail” had penetrated the ascending colon wall and that an arm of the “nail” was embedded in the colon wall. We did not remove the “nail” rashly under colonoscopy. Considering the safety and effectiveness of the patient's operation, we were able to remove the “nail” easily by performing laparoscopic-endoscopic cooperative surgery (LECS) combined with hysteroscopy at the same time.ConclusionWe report a case of successful removal of a colonic perforation device by colonoscopy, laparoscopy, and hysteroscopy, which is the first method used.

Fe nGeTe2 ( n = 3, 4, and 5) has recently attracted increasing attention due to its two-dimensional van der Waals characteristic and high temperature ferromagnetism, which makes promises for spintronic devices. A Fe(1) split site is an important structural characteristic of Fe5GeTe2, which makes it very different from other Fe nGeTe2 ( n = 3 and 4) systems. The local atomic disorder and short-range order can be induced by the split site. In this work, high-quality van der Waals ferromagnet Fe5GeTe2 single crystals were grown to study low-temperature transport properties. We found a resistivity upturn below 10 K. The temperature and magnetic field dependence of the resistivity are in good agreement with a combination of the theory of disorder-enhanced three-dimensional electron–electron and single-channel Kondo effect. The Kondo effect exists only at low magnetic fields [Formula: see text], while electron–electron interaction dominates the appearance for the low-temperature resistivity upturn. We believe that the enhanced three-dimensional electron–electron interaction in this system is induced by the local atomic structural disorder due to the split site of Fe(1). Our results indicate that the split site of Fe plays an important role for the exceptional transport properties.

During the past decades, considerable effort has been focused on the development of nitrogen-rich high-energy density compounds (HEDCs). In this research, 5-(2-pyrimidyl) tetrazole (Hpymtz), an energetic potential heterocyclic compound which may lead to serious explosions due to the thermal decomposition, was prepared from NaN3 and 2-cyanopyrimidine and characterized by IR spectroscopy. Thermokinetics characteristics of Hpymtz were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). A better approach to non-isothermal kinetics was applied to overcome the insufficiency of the traditional kinetic method, which oversimplified the process having complex behaviors. Fraser–Suzuki (FS) function was used to gain insights into reaction mechanisms and a complete kinetic description after deconvolution steps. Based on the results of the deconvolution method, kinetic parameters for two decomposition processes were obtained by Kissinger method, Ozawa method and Starink method after deconvolution steps. Self-accelerated decomposition temperature (TSADT), thermal ignition temperature (TTIT), critical temperature of thermal explosion (Tb), enthalpy of activation (ΔH≠), entropy of activation (ΔS≠), and free energy of activation (ΔG≠) were obtained by experiment data from DSC. The kinetics and thermodynamic properties serve as a theoretical basis for the production, transportation, and application of tetrazole materials.

The invasiveness of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is closely associated with the Salmonella pathogenicity island (SPI)‐encoded type Ⅲ secretion system (T3SS), which can directly inject a series of effector proteins into eukaryotic cells to enable bacterial infection. In this study, syringaldehyde was identified as an effective inhibitor of the S. Typhimurium T3SS using an effector protein‐lactamase fusion reporter system. Syringaldehyde treatment could inhibit the expression of important effector proteins (SipA, SipB and SipC) at a concentration of 0.18 mM without affecting bacterial growth. Additionally, significant inhibition of bacterial invasion and cellular injury was observed following the syringaldehyde treatment in the co‐infection system of HeLa cells and S. Typhimurium. Furthermore, treatment with syringaldehyde provided systemic protection to mice infected with S. Typhimurium, reducing mortality (40.00%) and bacterial loads and relieving caecal damage and systemic inflammation. The results presented in this study indicate that syringaldehyde significantly affects T3SS activity and is a potential leading compound for treating S. Typhimurium infections.

A novel tetrazole-based lead(II) complex, [PbL(H2O)] (1) [H2L = N-(1-carboxymethyltetrazole-5-yl)-N-(2′-carboxymethyltetrazole-5′-yl)amine], was prepared by solvothermal reaction. IR, single crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), elemental analysis and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to characterize the structure of 1. Complex 1 shows a 2D network. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was used to study the kinetic parameters and thermal hazards of 1. Starink method was adopted for isoconversional approach to determine the activation energy during the decomposition of 1. An improved method developed from Malek’s was employed in order to figure out the most probable reaction model for the decomposition process. Kinetic analysis reveals that decomposition of 1 conforms to the S-B function. Self-accelerating decomposition temperature (SADT) was also determined, indicating the temperature range for safe transportation of 1.

Psoriasis is the most common skin disease in adults. Current experimental and clinical evidences suggested the infiltrating immune cells could target local skin cells and thus induce psoriatic phenotype. However, recent studies indicated the existence of a potential feedback signaling loop from local resident skin cells to infiltrating immune cells. Here, we deconstructed the full-thickness human skins of both healthy donors and patients with psoriasis vulgaris at single cell transcriptional level, and further built a neural-network classifier to evaluate the evolutional conservation of skin cell types between mouse and human. Last, we systematically evaluated the intrinsic and intercellular molecular alterations of each cell type between healthy and psoriatic skin. Cross-checking with psoriasis susceptibility gene loci, cell-type based differential expression, and ligand-receptor communication revealed that the resident psoriatic skin cells including mesenchymal and epidermis cell types, which specifically harbored the target genes of psoriasis susceptibility loci, intensively evoked the expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, upregulated interferon (INF), tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signalling and increased cytokine gene expression for primarily aiming the neighboring dendritic cells in psoriasis. The comprehensive exploration and pathological observation of psoriasis patient biopsies proposed an uncovered immunoregulatory axis from skin local resident cells to immune cells, thus provided a novel insight for psoriasis treatment. In addition, we published a user-friendly website to exhibit the transcriptional change of each cell type between healthy and psoriatic human skin.

Psoriasis is a common disease in dermatology, but its etiology and pathogenesis have not been fully elucidated. In recent years, researchers have found that HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR) plays an important role in biological processes as an important long-chain noncoding RNA (lncRNA). The goal of this study was to investigate the association between HOTAIR polymorphisms and psoriasis in a Chinese Han population by screening key candidate single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) sites in HOTAIR. A total of 269 patients diagnosed with psoriasis and 273 healthy control subjects were enrolled in this case-control study. Three SNPs of HOTAIR were genotyped: SNP1 (rs12826786), SNP2 (rs1899663), and SNP3 (rs4759314). All polymorphisms were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in both the control and patient groups, and the SNPs were in linkage disequilibrium. The distribution of the rs4759314 genotype in the control group and case group was statistically significant according to all the models except the recessive model (adjusted p value < 0.05), and the CCG haplotype group had a significant difference ( OR 95 % CI = 2.907 1.344 − 6.289 , adjusted p value = 0.0263). rs12826786 was associated with a risk of psoriasis according to the dominant model (C/T-T/T vs. C/C: OR 95 % CI = 0.70 0.48 − 1.01 , adjusted p value = 0.049) and overdominant model (C/T vs. C/C-T/T: OR 95 % CI = 0.69 0.47 − 1.01 , adjusted p value = 0.048). The current work showed that a genomic variant within HOTAIR was associated with a risk of psoriasis, and the clinical value of this study should be further evaluated in the future.

Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”) are shell companies formed for the purpose of acquiring an existing operating company. A typical characteristic of a SPAC is that it has no specific business plan at the time of establishment or that it is still unclear of its target company. A SPAC raises capital through an initial public offering ("IPO") process, and the investment of SPACs is related to the credibility, reputation, previous achievement, and other factors of the management team. For that reason, we want to determine whether the performances of SPACs are correlated with various factors of their founders. In our study, we apply factor analysis to analyze and seek a correlation between the management factors and the performance of the SPACs. We have collected by far the largest SPAC data set including information about the management team of each SPAC and quantify that information into factors. The factors include education level, previous financial experience, experience heterogeneity, the average age of the team, size of the management team, and ownership of any patent. To obtain a deeper perspective of the factors' impact on SPACs' performance, we divided the SPACs into 8 sectors based on their target industries and run factor analysis over the management factors for each sector.

Turbidity is an indication of water quality and enables the growth of pathogenic microorganisms. For drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs), violent fluctuations in turbidity are highly disruptive to operational performance due to the lag in process parameter adjustments. Such risks must be carefully managed to guarantee safe drinking water. Machine learning techniques have been proven to be effective for modeling complex nonlinear environmental systems, and this study adopted such a technique to develop a model for predicting source water turbidity for DWTPs to allow DWTPs to make proactive interventions in advance. A random forest (RF) model used preprocessed (empirical mode decomposition and quartile rejecting) meteorological factors (wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, and rainfall) as the input variables, to establish the turbidity prediction of a lake with significant turbidity in China's South Tai Lake. The modeling process included four main stages: (1) source data analysis, (2) raw data preprocessing, (3) modeling and tuning, and (4) model evaluation. The results of the RF model indicated that the correlation coefficient between the predicted and actual sequences is over 0.7, and more than 55% of the predicted values could control the errors within 20% compared to the actual measured values, suggesting that machine learning techniques are suitable for predicting the turbidity of raw source water. It was found that the RF model can provide a modest performance boost because of its stronger capacity to capture nonlinear interactions in the data. The findings of this study can inform the development of turbidity prediction models using readily available meteorological forecast data. The model can be applied to other DWTPs using similar shallow lakes as water sources.

Xinyu Yao, Xianan Li, Yi Luo, Xuezheng Xu, Jianfan Liu, Jie Bu Department of Orthopaedics, Hunan Cancer Hospital and The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410013, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Jie Bu Email bujie_0731@yeah.netIntroduction: Emerging evidence has revealed the importance of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in carcinogenesis. The aim of this work was to investigate the roles of lncRNA growth arrest specific 5 (GAS5) in osteosarcoma (OS) progression.Methods: Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was performed to explore GAS5, microRNA-663a (miR-663a), and ras homolog family member B (RHOB) expression levels in OS tissues and cells. Moreover, cell counting kit-8 assay, wound-healing assay, and transwell invasion assay were conducted to investigate biological roles of GAS5 in OS progression. In addition, mechanisms underlying the functions of GAS5 in OS were investigated by bioinformatic analysis, luciferase activity reporter assay, and rescue experiments.Results: The GAS5 expression level was significantly decreased in OS tissues and cells compared with normal tissues and cells, and could negatively regulate miR-663a expression. Moreover, we found RHOB expression can be negatively regulated by miR-663a. Overexpression of GAS5 and RHOB suppresses, while overexpression of miR-663a stimulates, OS cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. In summary, we revealed lncRNA GAS5 was a downregulated lncRNA in OS and impaired OS malignant behaviors. In addition, this regulation relied on miR-663a and its target gene, RHOB.Discussion: To sum up, we showed lncRNA GAS5 regulates OS progression via regulating the miR-663a/RHOB axis.Keywords: lncRNA, GAS5, miR-663a, RHOB, osteosarcoma