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BDNF and its expressing neurons in the brain critically control feeding and energy expenditure (EE) in both rodents and humans. However, whether BDNF neurons would function in thermoregulation during temperature challenges is unclear. Here, we show that BDNF neurons in the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH

Regarding the correction of X-ray beam hardening in the current CT imaging system, the traditional method will cause the overlapping of images during use, which will gradually harden the beam, and the image reconstructed by the imaging system will gradually become “cup-shaped” or “striped.” “False images” seriously degrade the quality of the images, while causing more interfering diagnostic problems. In this paper, the cloud computing big data analysis algorithm is applied to the X-ray beam hard correction process. According to the transition energy and its energy absorption, the X-ray beam is used as the cut-in point, and the relationship between the attenuation coefficient of similar materials and the X-ray energy is used to remove the artifact image in the initial image reconstruction process to obtain a clear corrected image. Meanwhile, according to the thickness and gray value of the X-ray penetrable object, the result of fitting using a polynomial function is calculated, and an accurate line fitting can be completed for data with smaller coordinates. Finally, the experimental study shows that the cloud computing big data analysis proposed in this paper can detect X-ray beams in real time. This method uses optical receivers to achieve high noise sensitivity to X-rays, and in long-distance transmission scenarios, the bandwidth of communication transmission can be maximized, and different types of formats can be used to complete modulation for different X-rays. Therefore, X-ray beam hardening correction technology has better advantages and the market application scenarios compared with other technologies.

In this article, an effective clutter suppression algorithm is presented for the space-borne azimuth multiantenna high-resolution and wide-swath (HRWS) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system, which is based on the null-space technique. First, the echo of bistatic geosynchronous-low earth orbit (GEO-LEO) azimuth multiantenna HRWS SAR-ground moving target indication (GMTI) system is utilized to deduce the coarse-focused image of moving targets and clutter, where the Chirp Fourier transform (CFT) in azimuth is involved. Then, the matrix form can be utilized to describe the coarse-focused image of the multiantenna SAR system and the corresponding covariance matrix can be estimated. After that, the null-space is constructed using the covariance matrix corresponding to clutter, where at least a redundant channel freedom is required. Since the null-space vector is orthogonal to signal-space vector, it can be used to suppress the clutter. As an equivalent phase is brought by the slant velocity, the moving targets' echo can be preserved during clutter suppression. Then, the optimization and suboptimization vectors for clutter suppression are introduced. It is worth noting that the proposed clutter suppression algorithm is robust for the antenna mismatch, that is, the antenna mismatch in phase and the corresponding position error. Finally, the theoretical investigations are validated using some simulation experiments, where the experiments for bistatic GEO-LEO and single-platform azimuth multiantenna HRWS SAR-GMTI system are both included. In addition, the real measured single-platform azimuth multiantenna HRWS SAR data experiments are also performed.

The spaceborne high-resolution wide-swath synthetic aperture radar (HRWS-SAR) system generally does not meet the optimal SAR imaging configuration, and thus, it is necessary to apply digital beam-forming filtering technology to restore the nonuniformly sampled signal into the uniform grids. However, in practice, because of the influences of temperature, receiving machine, and other error factors, the channel errors may possibly exist, causing the SAR image to be smeared. To address this issue, this letter proposes a novel algorithm based on the hybrid artificial fish school algorithm-glowworm swarm optimization-genetic algorithm (AFSA-GSO-GA) to address the channel imbalance issue. First, coarse HRWS-SAR imaging processing is performed to obtain the positions of the Doppler ambiguity components. Then, according to the designed cost function, the hybrid AFSA-GSO-GA algorithm is used to realize the channel phase error estimation. Finally, a well-focused SAR image can be obtained after channel balance. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by both simulated and real SAR data.

In recent years, action recognition has been extensively studied. For some general action datasets, such as UCF101 [1] , the recognition accuracy in a specific domain can reach 95 % . However, due to the existence of the domain-wise discrepancy, the performance of the model will be significantly reduced when deployed to realistic scenes. Therefore, to support the generalization of the action recognition model in practical scenes, the cross-domain problem should be addressed urgently. In this paper, we propose a cross-domain video data fusion mechanism to reduce the difference between domains. Our method is different from existing methods in two points: (1) Instead of performing mix-up at the feature-level, we propose to execute the mix-up directly at the input-level, which introduces more original information beyond the middle features. In addition, a progressive learning method is introduced for adaptive cross-domain fusion. (2) To make full use of the action class knowledge from the source domain, we also propose pseudo-label guided mix-up data learning. Note that only top-ranking confident pseudo labels are selected to ensure the stable similarity between the source and target domains. We evaluate the proposed method on two widely used cross-domain datasets, including the UCF101-HMDB51full and UCF-Olympic. Extensive experimental results have shown that the proposed method is effective and achieves the state-of-the-art performance. In the HMDB51(source domain) → UCF101(target domain) direction, the accuracy of our method can reach 98.60 % , which is 9.54 % improvement over the existing state-of-the-art method.

Designing efficient metal organic frameworks (MOF)-based photocatalysts has recently attracted wide attention. In this work, Au nanoparticles(NPs)-decorated defective DUT-67(Zr) (Au@DUT-67(Zr)) with enlarged channels was successfully fabricated and achieved 7.5 times higher conversion than Au NPs-decorated UiO-66(Zr) (Au@UiO-66(Zr)) for photocatalytic selective oxidation of amines to imines driven by visible light. Au NPs are more effectively fixed on DUT-67(Zr) due to its partially hollow structure. Au@DUT-67(Zr) possesses more active sites including unsaturated Zr atoms and oxygen vacancies (VO) than Au@UiO-66(Zr). In situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum reveals that benzylamine is activated on unsaturated Zr sites via HN

In this work, we employed waste activated sludge (WAS) as carbon source to prepare ultrahigh specific surface area (SSA) biopolymers-based carbons (BBCs) through alkali (KOH) treatment coupled to pyrolysis strategy. Before the pyrolysis process, the involvement of KOH made a great recovery of soluble biopolymers from WAS, resulting in highly-efficient catalytic pyrolysis. The Brunner-Emmett-Teller and pore volume of BBCs prepared at 800°C (BBC800) reached the maximum at 2633.89 m2·g-1 and 2.919 m3·g-1, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy suggested that aromatic carbon in the form of C=C was the dominant fraction of C element in BBCs. The N element in BBCs were composed of pyrrolic nitrogen and pyridinic nitrogen at 700°C, while a new graphitic nitrogen appeared over 800°C. As a refractory pollutant of wastewater treatment plants, tetracycline (TC) was selected to evaluate adsorption performance of BBCs. The adsorption behavior of BBCs towards TC was conformed to the pseudo-second-order kinetic and the Langmuir models, signifying that chemisorption of monolayers was dominant in TC adsorption. The adsorption capacity of BBC800 reached the maximum at 877.19 mg·g-1 for 90 min at 298 K. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that the adsorption process was endothermic and spontaneous. Hydrogen bonding and π-π stacking interaction were mainly responsible for TC adsorption, and interfacial diffusion was the main rate-control step in adsorption process. The presence of soluble microbial products (SMPs) enhanced TC removal. This work provided a novel strategy to prepare bio-carbon with ultrahigh SSA using WAS for highly-efficient removal of organic pollutants.

Interleukin (IL)‐36α, a newly recognized IL‐1 family member, has been previously reported to play a pivotal role in autoimmunity diseases and acute inflammatory reactions. Recently, several studies have indicated that IL‐36α has potential anticancer effects against certain types of cancer. However, the expression pattern and functional role of IL‐36α in non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have not been elucidated. Here, we report that the mRNA and protein levels of IL‐36α are significantly reduced in NSCLC tissues. Low levels of intratumoral IL‐36α are correlated with higher tumor status, advanced TNM stage, increased vascular invasion and shorter overall survival (OS). Intratumoral IL‐36α expression is an independent prognostic factor for OS (hazard ratio = 3.081; P = 0.012) in patients with NSCLC. Overexpression of IL‐36α in lung cancer cells did not disturb cell proliferation, apoptosis or cell‐cycle distribution in vitro, but markedly inhibited tumor growth in vivo. Mechanistically, IL‐36α reduced the expression and secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor A through inhibiting hypoxia‐inducible factor 1α expression. Finally, decreased IL‐36α expression was associated with high microvessel density and vascular endothelial growth factor A in patients with NSCLC. Together, our findings suggest that IL‐36α expression is a valuable marker indicating poor prognosis in patients with NSCLC., Interleukin (IL)‐36α is an IL‐1 family member with pivotal roles in autoimmunity diseases. Here, we report that IL‐36α is a potent antitumor cytokine in non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). IL‐36α suppresses tumor growth by inhibiting tumor angiogenesis via suppression of hypoxia‐inducible factor‐1α/vascular endothelial growth factor A signaling. IL‐36α expression is an independent prognostic factor for overall survival in patients with NSCLC. IL‐36α expression might be a valuable marker indicating poor prognosis in patients with NSCLC.

OBJECTIVE. One central question pertaining to mammography quality relates to discerning the optimal recall rate to maximize cancer detection while minimizing unnecessary downstream diagnostic imaging and breast biopsies. We examined the trade-offs for higher recall rates in terms of biopsy recommendations and cancer detection in a single large health care organization. MATERIALS AND METHODS. We included 2D analog, 2D digital, and 3D digital (tomosynthesis) screening mammography examinations among women 40-79 years old performed between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2017, with cancer follow-up through 2018. There were 36, 67, and 38 radiologists who read at least 1000 2D analog examinations, 2D digital examinations, and 3D tomosynthesis examinations, respectively, who were included in these analyses. Using logistic regression with marginal standardization, we estimated radiologist-specific mean recall (abnormal interpretations/1000 mammograms), biopsy recommendation, cancer detection (screening-detected in situ and invasive cancers/1000 mammograms), and minimally invasive cancer detection rates while adjusting for differences in patient characteristics. RESULTS. Among 1,060,655 screening mammograms, the mean recall rate was 10.7%, the cancer detection rate was 4.0/1000 mammograms, and the biopsy recommendation rate was 1.60%. Recall rates between 7% and 9% appeared to maximize cancer detection while minimizing unnecessary biopsies. CONCLUSION. The results of this investigation are in contrast to those of a recent study suggesting appropriateness of higher recall rates. The "sweet spot" for optimal cancer detection appears to be in the recall rate range of 7-9% for both 2D digital mammography and 3D tomosynthesis. Too many women are being called back for diagnostic imaging, and new benchmarks could be set to reduce this burden.

Fertilizer application of controlled-release urea (CRU) is a feasible fertilization method because of its simple operation, high efficiency, environmental friendliness, and labor-saving. However, t...

In this article, an effective clutter suppression and moving target imaging approach is proposed for the geosynchronous-low earth orbit (GEO-LEO) bistatic multichannel synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system, which is robust for the fast moving target with Doppler centroid ambiguity. For the GEO-LEO bistatic multichannel SAR system, the characteristic of baseline with azimuth invariant in Doppler Fourier transform domain is not tenable. It is difficult to implement clutter suppression by the unified baseline compensation in azimuth Doppler Fourier transform domain. Fortunately, we discover that the baseline can be approximately regarded as a constant in chirp Fourier transform domain for the GEO-LEO bistatic multichannel SAR system. Hence, the corresponding baseline compensation can be achieved in the azimuth chirp Fourier transform domain for the clutter. With an orthogonality vector of clutter, the clutter can be well suppressed and the moving target is extracted. After that, the moving target imaging approach is developed with the baseband Doppler centroid estimation and Doppler ambiguity number estimation. Finally, the theoretical investigations and the proposed approach in this article are validated by some experiments, where the experiments for clutter suppression and experiments for fast moving targets are included. Especially, an experiment with real SAR scattering scene is involved. In addition, some discussions for blind velocity targets are presented.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder. Studies have shown that long noncoding RNA SRY-box transcription factor 2 overlapping transcript (lncRNA SOX2-OT) is highly expressed in PD patients, but its specific functions and mechanisms require further research. To address this gap, this study utilized an in vitro PD cell model induced by 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+). Cell viability, apoptosis, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, inflammatory factor secretion, and oxidative stress indicators were determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-dipheyltetrazolium bromide assay, LDH assay, flow cytometry, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and corresponding kits, respectively. Gene and protein expression were measured using quantitative real-time-PCR and western blotting, respectively. The results indicated that microRNA-942-5p (miR-942-5p) was a direct target of lncRNA SOX2-OT and nuclear apoptosis-inducing factor 1 (NAIF1) was a direct target of miR-942-5p. The expression levels of lncRNA SOX2-OT and NAIF1 were increased, and miR-942-5p expression was decreased in SH-SY5Y cells following MPP+ treatment. In addition, MPP+ treatment reduced SH-SY5Y cell viability, increased apoptosis; increased cleaved caspase-3 protein expression and cleaved caspase-3/caspase-3 ratio; enhanced lactate dehydrogenase viability; increased tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and reactive oxygen species, and decreased superoxide dismutase activity in SH-SY5Y cells were inhibited by SOX2-OT-siRNA, and these inhibitions were reversed by miR-942-5p inhibitor. Moreover, the protective role of miR-942-5p mimic in MPP+-induced SH-SY5Y cells was eliminated by the NAIF1 plasmid. Overall, lncRNA SOX2-OT-mediated regulation of oxidative stress, inflammation, and neuronal apoptosis were directly controlled by the miR-942-5p/NAIF1 signal axis in MPP+-induced SH-SY5Y cells.

Purpose ACT001 is a novel sesquiterpene lactone derivative with anticancer effects, including the reversal of tamoxifen resistance in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cells. However, few studies have investigated the anticancer effects of ACT001 in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a highly aggressive cancer with a poor prognosis. This study aimed to investigate the effects of ACT001 on TNBC and the potential mechanism underlying these effects. Materials and Methods The anticancer effects of ACT001 on the murine TNBC cell line 4T1 were evaluated by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay, animal experiments, TUNEL staining, flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and Western blotting analysis. Results ACT001 induced apoptosis in 4T1 cells by upregulating B cell lymphoma 2-associated X protein expression. Moreover, ACT001 markedly decreased levels of secretory granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in 4T1 tumors, decreased the number of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), and reduced angiogenesis. Furthermore, GM-CSF promoted angiogenesis and the proliferation of MDSCs in a dose-dependent manner. Finally, ACT001 suppressed phospho-NF-κB and IκB-α levels in 4T1 cells, thereby further decreasing GM-CSF levels. Conclusion Our results suggest that ACT001 exerts its anticancer effects by inducing apoptosis in murine TNBC cell line 4T1 and regulates the tumor microenvironment by attenuating angiogenesis and accumulation of MDSCs in 4T1 tumors. The underlying mechanism may involve the suppression of NF-κB activity.

Background With a high frequency of 30%, KRAS mutations in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) often lead to their poor response to most anti-cancer therapies. As a multi-target tyrosine kinase inhibitor, Anlotinib shows clinical efficacy against several types of cancer. However, its effects on KRAS mutant NSCLC and the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Materials and Methods Cell counting Kit-8 assay, colony formation assay, flow cytometry analysis, wound healing scratch assay, Transwell assay and xenograft mouse model were used to evaluate the anti-cancer effects of Anlotinib. The potential molecular mechanisms were determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blotting. Results Anlotinib inhibited proliferation of KRAS mutant lung cancer cells and induced apoptosis in vitro. In addition, the migration and invasion abilities of these cells were also decreased after treatment with Anlotinib. It significantly suppressed tumor growth in vivo and prolonged the survival of the xenograft-bearing mice, which correlated to lower expression levels of Ki67 in the tumor tissues. Mechanistically, Anlotinib downregulated MEK and ERK as well as their phosphorylated forms in the KRAS mutant lung cancer cells. Conclusion Anlotinib inhibits the growth of KRAS mutant lung cancer cells partly via the suppression of the MEK/ERK pathway. Our findings provide novel insights into treating recalcitrant KRAS mutated NSCLC.

In this letter, a novel method is proposed to estimate the along-track baseline for a multichannel high-resolution and wide-swath (HRSW) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system. First, a spatial correlation function is constructed to remove the range cell migration and Doppler broadening of ground static targets. Then, the iterative adaptive approach (IAA) is applied to iteratively estimate the along-track baseline with high precision. Finally, a high-resolution SAR image can be obtained based on the estimated baseline. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is validated by both simulated and real SAR data.

In this paper, starting from the noise and blur characteristics of the strain clamp X-ray image , an image processing method combining bilateral filter denoising and unsharp mask enhancement is proposed. Experimental results show that unsharp mask algorithm have certain limitations in image edge enhancement. After the image is denoised by bilateral filtering,the unsharp mask method is used for image edge enhancement, which can effectively expand the scope of the unsharp mask algorithm. This method greatly improve the image qualityand help identify defects. It provides a strong guarantee and support for the X-ray inspection of the strain clamp, and has important practical value.

The electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD) is widely used in low-light-level (LLL) imaging field. In order to solve the problems of low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and low contrast of EMCCD LLL images under low illumination, a denoising method based on the nonlinear diffusion filter with wavelet transform and contrast sensitivity function (CSF) is proposed. Aiming at the problems existing in the P-M diffusion model, that is, the diffusion coefficient is easily disturbed by noise, and the direction affects the noise reduction process, the method introduces the wavelet transform and the CSF, then a new diffusion function is proposed to reduce the noise of LLL images. The experimental results show that, compared with other denoising methods, the proposed method has better denoising effect on EMCCD LLL images.

In this paper, a method of removing ion-feedback noise based on RPCA and median filter is proposed, a removal mechanism based on iterative strategy of "detection-location-removal" is established to remove the noise step by step, and BM3D algorithm is used to remove the Gaussian noise. The experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively remove the noise, and protect the edges and details of ICCD LLL images as much as possible. In addition, we quantitatively evaluate the denoising performance of the method. Our method obtains better objective measurement values. It has better effectiveness and robustness for ICCD LLL image denoising.

BackgroundPrimary pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LELC) is a rare type of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Currently, anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1)/programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) has become an important treatment for NSCLC. Anti-human PD-1 monoclonal antibodies, such as nivolumab, significantly prolong the survival time of patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma and lung squamous cell carcinoma. However, there are few reports on the therapeutic effect, drug resistance mechanism, and strategies to overcome resistance to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 treatment in advanced pulmonary LELC. We report the case of a patient with advanced pulmonary LELC harboring fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR)3 gene amplification that showed resistance to nivolumab. After treatment with anlotinib, a multi-targeted small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor, the patient’s resistance to nivolumab was reversed. She achieved long-term disease remission with a combination of anlotinib and nivolumab treatment.Case PresentationA 68-year-old woman was diagnosed with stage IVA pulmonary LELC. After multiple-line chemotherapy, her disease progressed. Since the PD-L1 expression rate of the patient was 90%, nivolumab was administered. However, the therapeutic effect of nivolumab was not ideal; the disease continued to progress, and a new cervical lymph node metastasis appeared. FGFR3 gene amplification was detected in lymph node metastasis. Based on this gene abnormality, we added anlotinib to the treatment. After two cycles of anlotinib and nivolumab, the metastatic focus of the patient was significantly reduced. The patient continued to receive this combined treatment and achieved remission for more than 15 months.ConclusionPulmonary LELC with FGFR3 gene amplification may not respond well to nivolumab monotherapy. The combination of anlotinib and nivolumab can reverse the resistance to nivolumab in pulmonary LELC with FGFR3 gene amplification.

Improving yield is one of the most important targets of sesame breeding. Identifying quantitative trait loci (QTLs) of yield-related traits is a prerequisite for marker-assisted selection (MAS) and QTL/gene cloning. In this study, a BC(1) population was developed and genotyped with the specific-locus amplified fragment (SLAF) sequencing technology, and a high-density genetic map was constructed. The map consisted of 13 linkage groups, contained 3528 SLAF markers, and covered a total of 1312.52 cM genetic distance, with an average distance of 0.37 cM between adjacent markers. Based on the map, 46 significant QTLs were identified for seven yield-related traits across three environments. These QTLs distributed on 11 linkage groups, each explaining 2.34–71.41% of the phenotypic variation. Of the QTLs, 23 were stable QTLs that were detected in more than one environment, and 20 were major QTLs that explained more than 10% of the corresponding phenotypic variation in at least one environment. Favorable alleles of 38 QTLs originated from the locally adapted variety, Yuzhi 4; the exotic germplasm line, BS, contributed favorable alleles to only 8 QTLs. The results should provide useful information for future molecular breeding and functional gene cloning. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11032-021-01236-x.