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Purpose: Abdominal incisional hernia is one of the most common complications after surgery. The preoperative evaluation of the area of abdominal wall defect and the hernia sac volume(HCV) is very important for the selection of patch size and incisional herniorrhaphy. Meanwhile the overlap range of reinforcement repair is controversial. This study aimed to explore the value of ultrasonic volume auto-scan(UVAS) in the diagnosis, classification and treatment of incisional hernia. Methods: Both the width and the area of abdominal wall defect and HCV were measured by UVAS in 50 cases with incisional hernias. In 32 of these cases, the measurements of HCV were compared with those of CT. Classification of incisional hernia based on ultrasonic images were compared with operative diagnosis. Results: The measurements of HCV by UVAS and CT 3D reconstruction had good consistency, of which the mean ratio was 1.0084. According to the location and width of abdominal wall defect, UVAS, which showed good accuracy rate (90%, 96%), reached a good agreement in the classification of incisional hernias with operative diagnoses (Kappa = 0.85, Confidence Interval [0.718,0.996]; Kappa = 0.95, Confidence Interval [0.887,0.999]). The patch area should be at least two times as large as the defect area. Conclusions: UVAS is an accurate alternative to measure the abdominal wall defect and HCV and classify the incisional hernia, with additional benefits of no radiation exposure and instant bedside interpretation. The use of UVAS is conducive to preoperative assessment of the risk of hernia recurrence and abdominal compartment syndrome.

As important nodes of the global coal supply chain, coal export terminals bear the tasks of coal storage, processing, and handling, whose efficiency and stability are of great importance with the growing coal shipping market in recent years. However, poor working conditions of the handling equipment in the coal export terminal, together with its relatively fixed layout and poor flexibility, allow frequent equipment failures to seriously affect the ship-loading operations. To solve the problem, this paper constructs a scheduling optimization model for ship-loading operation systems considering equipment maintenance and proposes an opportunity-maintenance-based two-layer algorithm to solve the model. The upper layer aims to optimize the scheduling scheme of the ship-loading operation system under a certain maintenance plan. The lower layer of the algorithm, an opportunity-maintenance-based “equipment-level–flow-level” maintenance optimization method, determines the best equipment maintenance plan. A coal export terminal in China is employed as the case study to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method can reduce the average dwell time of ships at the terminal by 15.8% and save total scheduling and maintenance costs by 10.3%. This paper shows how to make full use of equipment failure historical data and integrate equipment maintenance schemes into the scheduling problem of the ship-loading operation system, which can effectively reduce the impact of equipment failures on ship-loading operations and provide decision support for coal export terminal management.

Biochar is regarded as a soil improvement material possessing superior physical and chemical properties that can effectively enhance plant growth. However, there exists a paucity of research examining the efficacy of biochar in supplanting traditional materials and its subsequent impact on the growth of Ardisia crenata, which is currently domesticated as fruit ornamentals. In this study, the mechanism of biochar’s effect on Ardisia crenata was analyzed by controlled experiments. For 180 days, their growth and development were meticulously assessed under different treatments through the measurement of various indices. Compared with the references, the addition of biochar led to an average increase in soil nutrient content, including a 14.1% rise in total nitrogen, a 564.1% increase in total phosphorus, and a 63.2% boost in total potassium. Furthermore, it improved the physical and chemical properties of the soil by reducing soil bulk density by 6.2%, increasing total porosity by 6.33%, and enhancing pore water by 7.35%, while decreasing aeration porosity by 1.11%. The growth and development of Ardisia crenata were better when the appending ratio of biochar was in the range of 30% to 50%, with the root parameters, such as root length, root surface area, and root volume, 48.90%, 62.00%, and 24.04% higher to reference. At the same time, the biomass accumulation of roots in the best group with adding biochar also increased significantly (55.80%). The addition of biochar resulted in a significant improvement in the content of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b (1.947 mg g−1) and the net photosynthetic rate (5.6003 µmol m−2 s−1). This study’s findings underpinned the addition of biochar in soil improvement and plant response. Therefore, biochar can favor the cultivation and industrial application of Ardisia crenata in the future, leading to an efficient and environmentally friendly industrial development.

Thorough and precise gene structure annotations are essential for maximizing the benefits of genomic data and unveiling valuable genetic insights. The cucumber genome was first released in 2009 and updated in 2019. To increase the accuracy of the predicted gene models, 64 published RNA-seq data and 9 new strand-specific RNA-seq data from multiple tissues were used for manual comparison with the gene models. The updated annotation file (V3.1) contains an increased number (24,145) of predicted genes compared to the previous version (24,317 genes), with a higher BUSCO value of 96.9%. A total of 6231 and 1490 transcripts were adjusted and newly added, respectively, accounting for 31.99% of the overall gene tally. These newly added and adjusted genes were renamed (CsaV3.1_XGXXXXX), while genes remaining unaltered preserved their original designations. A random selection of 21 modified/added genes were validated using RT-PCR analyses. Additionally, tissue-specific patterns of gene expression were examined using the newly obtained transcriptome data with the revised gene prediction model. This improved annotation of the cucumber genome will provide essential and accurate resources for studies in cucumber.

Abstract Background Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertions/deletions (InDels) are the most abundant genetic variations and widely distribute across the genomes in plant. Development of SNP and InDel markers is a valuable tool for genetics and genomic research in radish (Raphanus sativus L.). Results In this study, a total of 366,679 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 97,973 insertion-deletion (InDel) markers were identified based on genome resequencing between ‘YZH’ and ‘XHT’. In all, 53,343 SNPs and 4,257 InDels were detected in two cultivars by transcriptome sequencing. Among the InDel variations, 85 genomic and 15 transcriptomic InDels were newly developed and validated PCR. The 100 polymorphic InDels markers generated 207 alleles among 200 Chinese radish germplasm, with an average 2.07 of the number of alleles (Na) and with an average 0.33 of the polymorphism information content (PIC). Population structure and phylogenetic relationship revealed that the radish cultivars from northern China were clustered together and the southwest China cultivars were clustered together. RNA-Seq analysis revealed that 11,003 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the two cultivars, of which 5,020 were upregulated and 5,983 were downregulated. In total, 145 flowering time-related DGEs were detected, most of which were involved in flowering time integrator, circadian clock/photoperiod autonomous, and vernalization pathways. In flowering time-related DGEs region, 150 transcriptomic SNPs and 9 InDels were obtained. Conclusions The large amount of SNPs and InDels identified in this study will provide a valuable marker resource for radish genetic and genomic studies. The SNPs and InDels within flowering time-related DGEs provide fundamental insight into for dissecting molecular mechanism of bolting and flowering in radish.

Abstract Objective The purpose of this meta-analysis is to evaluate the role of high-intensity statin pretreatment on coronary microvascular dysfunction in patients with coronary heart disease undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase were searched. This meta-analysis selection included randomized controlled trials (RCTs), involving high-intensity statin pretreatment as active treatment, and measurement of thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI), myocardial blush grade (MBG) or index of microvascular resistance (IMR) in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients undergoing PCI. I2 test was used to evaluate heterogeneity. Pooled effects of continuous variables were reported as Standard mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Pooled effects of discontinuous variables were reported as risk ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Random-effect or fix-effect meta-analyses were performed. The Benefit was further examined based on clinical characteristics including diagnosis and statin type by using subgroup analyses. Publication bias was examined by quantitative Egger’s test and funnel plot. We performed sensitivity analyses to examine the robustness of pooled effects. Results Twenty RCTs were enrolled. The data on TIMI

Abstract Three basic deformation modes of an object (bending, twisting, and contraction/extension) along with their various combinations and delicate controls lead to diverse locomotion. As a result, seeking mechanisms to achieve simple to complex deformation modes in a controllable manner is a focal point in related engineering fields. Here, a pneumatic-driven, origami-based deformation unit that offers all-purpose deformation modes, namely, three decoupled basic motion types and four combinations of these three basic types, with seven distinct motion modes in total through one origami module, was created and precisely controlled through various pressurization schemes. These all-purpose origami-based modules can be readily assembled as needed, even during operation, which enables plug-and-play characteristics. These origami modules with all-purpose deformation modes offer unprecedented opportunities for soft robots in performing complex tasks, which were successfully demonstrated in this work.

Abstract Alveolar epithelial barrier is a potential therapeutic target for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, an effective intervention against alveolar epithelial barrier has not been developed. Here, based on single-cell RNA and mRNA sequencing results, death receptor 3 (DR3) and its only known ligand tumor necrosis factor ligand-associated molecule 1A (TL1A) were significantly reduced in epithelium from an ARDS mice and cell models. The apparent reduction in the TL1A/DR3 axis in lungs from septic-ARDS patients was correlated with the severity of the disease. The examination of knockout (KO) and alveolar epithelium conditional KO (CKO) mice showed that TL1A deficiency exacerbated alveolar inflammation and permeability in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ARDS. Mechanistically, TL1A deficiency decreased glycocalyx syndecan-1 and tight junction-associated zonula occludens 3 by increasing cathepsin E level for strengthening cell-to-cell permeability. Additionally, DR3 deletion aggravated barrier dysfunction and pulmonary edema in LPS-induced ARDS through the above mechanisms based on the analyses of DR3 CKO mice and DR3 overexpression cells. Therefore, the TL1A/DR3 axis has a potential value as a key therapeutic signaling for the protection of alveolar epithelial barrier.

Groupitizing is a well-established strategy in numerosity perception that enhances speed and sensory precision. Building on the ATOM theory, Anobile proposed the sensorimotor numerosity system, which posits a strong link between number and action. Previous studies using motor adaptation technology have shown that high-frequency motor adaptation leads to underestimation of numerosity perception, while low-frequency adaptation leads to overestimation. However, the impact of motor adaptation on groupitizing, and whether visual motion adaptation produces similar effects, remain unclear. In this study, we investigate the persistence of the advantage of groupitizing after motor adaptation and explore the effects of visual motion adaptation. Surprisingly, our findings reveal that proprioceptive motor adaptation weakens the advantage of groupitizing, indicating a robust effect of motor adaptation even when groupitizing is employed. Moreover, we observe a bidirectional relationship, as groupitizing also weakens the adaptation effect. These results highlight the complex interplay between motor adaptation and groupitizing in numerosity perception. Furthermore, our study provides evidence that visual motion adaptation also has an adaptation effect, but does not fully replicate the effects of proprioceptive motor adaptation on groupitizing. In conclusion, our research underscores the importance of groupitizing as a valuable strategy in numerosity perception, and sheds light on the influence of motion adaptation on this strategy.

Pediatric hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most common primary liver malignancy in infants and children. With great diversity and plasticity, tumor-infiltrating neutrophils were one of the most determining factors for poor prognosis in many malignant tumors. In this study, through bulk RNA sequencing for sorted blood and tumor-infiltrated neutrophils and comparison of neutrophils in tumor and para-tumor tissue by single-cell sequencing, we found that intratumoral neutrophils were composed of heterogenous functional populations at different development stages. Our study showed that terminally differentiated neutrophils with active ferroptosis prevailed in tumor tissue, whereas, in para-tumor, pre-fate naïve neutrophils were dominant and ferroptotic neutrophils dispersed in a broad spectrum of cell maturation. Gene profiling and in vitro T-cell coculture experiment confirmed that one of main functional intratumoral neutrophils was mainly immunosuppressive, which relied on the activation of ferroptosis. Combining the bulk RNA-seq, scRNA-seq data, and immunochemistry staining of tumor samples, CXCL12/CXCR4 chemotaxis pathway was suggested to mediate the migration of neutrophils in tumors as CXCR4 highly expressed by intratumoral neutrophils and its ligand CXCL12 expressed much higher level in tumor than that in para-tumor. Moreover, our study pinpointed that infiltrated CXCR4hi neutrophils, regardless of their differential distribution of cell maturation status in HB tumor and para-tumor regions, were the genuine perpetrators for immune suppression. Our data characterized the ferroptosis-dependent immunosuppression energized by intratumoral CXCR4 expression neutrophils and suggest a potential cell target for cancer immunotherapies.

The global prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is rapidly increasing, revealing a strong association between these two diseases. Currently, there are no curative medication available for the comorbidity of T2DM and AD. Ceramides are structural components of cell membrane lipids and act as signal molecules regulating cell homeostasis. Their synthesis and degradation play crucial roles in maintaining metabolic balance in vivo, serving as important mediators in the development of neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders. Abnormal ceramide metabolism disrupts intracellular signaling, induces oxidative stress, activates inflammatory factors, and impacts glucose and lipid homeostasis in metabolism-related tissues like the liver, skeletal muscle, and adipose tissue, driving the occurrence and progression of T2DM. The connection between changes in ceramide levels in the brain, amyloid β accumulation, and tau hyper-phosphorylation is evident. Additionally, ceramide regulates cell survival and apoptosis through related signaling pathways, actively participating in the occurrence and progression of AD. Regulatory enzymes, their metabolites, and signaling pathways impact core pathological molecular mechanisms shared by T2DM and AD, such as insulin resistance and inflammatory response. Consequently, regulating ceramide metabolism may become a potential therapeutic target and intervention for the comorbidity of T2DM and AD. The paper comprehensively summarizes and discusses the role of ceramide and its metabolites in the pathogenesis of T2DM and AD, as well as the latest progress in the treatment of T2DM with AD.

Background: High-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) and conventional oxygen therapy (COT) are important respiratory support strategies for acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. However, the results are conflicting for the risk of intubation with HFNC as compared to COT. Objectives: We systematically synthesized the outcomes of HFNC relative to COT in COVID-19 patients with AHRF and evaluated these outcomes in relevant subpopulations. Design: This study was designed in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Data sources and methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, ClinicalTrials.gov, medRxiv, BioRxiv, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for randomized controlled trials and observational studies that compared the efficacy of HFNC with COT in patients with COVID-19-related AHRF. Primary outcomes were intubation rate and mortality rate. Secondary outcomes were the ratio of arterial oxygen partial pressure to fractional inspired oxygen (PaO 2 /FiO 2 ), respiratory rate, hospital length of stay, intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, and days free from invasive mechanical ventilation. Results: In total, 20 studies with 5732 patients were included. We found a decreased risk of requiring intubation in HFNC compared to COT [odds ratio (OR) = 0.61, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.46–0.82, p = 0.0009, I 2 = 75%]. Similarly, we found HFNC was associated with lower risk of intubation rate compared to COT in the subgroup of patients with baseline PaO 2 /FiO 2

Abstract Terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA), derived from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, has been widely used in hydrology studies. The inversion is commonly achieved by truncating and filtering spherical harmonic coefficients (SHC), whereby the result is characterized by leakage error and low resolution. It remains unclear whether machine learning methods can help resolve this challenging issue. In this study, we present a convolutional neural network (CNN) approach to correct TWSA from GRACE SHC by leveraging the knowledge of the leakage effect determined from global hydrological models (GHMs) and land surface models (LSMs). The CNN approach is implemented in three representative regions in China, that is, the human‐impacted Haihe River Basin, the nature‐impacted Yangtze River Basin and the model‐limited Tibetan Plateau. The results show the following: (a) The recovery performance of CNN at the basin scale is better than that at the grid scale, and the grid‐scale recovery is significantly influenced by the spatial heterogeneity of TWSA and the input GHM/LSMs; (b) The more accurate the GHM/LSMs used for training, the better the recovery performance of CNN; and (c) The trained model retains comparable performance in deriving the TWSA time series from GRACE SHC when compared to that derived from other methods (i.e., scaling factor and mass concentration solutions) with average r = 0.90 and RMSE = 21.50 mm. This study highlights the potential of machine learning to supplement conventional correction methods when deriving the TWSA from GRACE SHC by utilizing signal restoration knowledge learned from multiple accurate GHMs/LSMs.

Objectives:. Eccrine angiomatous hamartoma (EAH) is a rare vascular anomaly with mixed eccrine and vascular components, typically identified in children. While benign, EAH can cause significant morbidity and be difficult to treat. The aims of this case series were to identify all patients with EAH that have been seen at the Queensland Children’s Hospital and describe their phenotypic and somatic genotypic details, in an effort to contribute to the limiting understanding and literature surrounding this condition. Methods:. Individuals with EAH were retrospectively identified through engagement in a multidisciplinary vascular anomaly clinic in a tertiary Australian children’s hospital. All individuals had a previous histological diagnosis of EAH. High-read-depth sequencing of a panel of 27 genes known to be associated with vascular anomalies was undertaken on affected tissue. Samples were rereviewed by a senior pathologist and geneticist for this study. Results:. Five cases of EAH were identified. All were associated with 1 of 3 somatic PIK3CA variants (c.1633G>A;p.Glu545Lys, c.1624G>A;p.Glu542Lys, and c.3140A>G;p.Histo1047Arg) in low allele fractions. These variants have previously been reported in a range of tumors and vascular anomalies, including PIK3CA-related overgrowth spectrum, but not in EAH. Conclusion:. Occurrence of somatic PIK3CA variants in EAH provides evidence for a novel gene-disease association and is plausibly the cause of EAH in some individuals. This finding expands the phenotypic spectrum of PIK3CA, contributes to understanding of the pathophysiology of this rare condition, and may avail molecularly targeted therapy in the future.

Background To evaluate the procedural pain experienced by neonates in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) setting and determine the corresponding pain grades.Methods Two experienced nurses independently used the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS) to evaluate the neonatal pain during procedures taking place in the tertiary NICU and two level-two neonatal care units in the Children’s Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine. The mean and distribution of NIPS pain scores and the corresponding pain grades of participants when experiencing clinical painful procedures were analysed.Results A total of 957 neonates exposed to 15 common clinical painful procedures were included in the study. The clinical painful procedures experienced by 957 participants could be divided into three groups: severe pain (NIPS score 5–7: peripheral intravenous cannulation, arterial catheterisation, arterial blood sampling, peripherally inserted central catheter placement and nasopharyngeal suctioning), mild to moderate pain (NIPS score 3–4: finger prick, intramuscular injection, adhesive removal, endotracheal intubation suctioning, heel prick, lumbar puncture and subcutaneous injection) and no pain to mild pain (NIPS score 0–2: gastric tube insertion, enema and intravenous injection).Conclusions The neonatal pain response to clinical procedures in NICU had certain pattern and preintervention drug analgesia could be taken for painful procedures with clustered high NIPS pain scores. Meanwhile, full coverage non-drug pain relief measures could be taken for procedures that are with scattered pain scores, and real-time pain evaluation should be provided to determine whether further drug analgesia is required.

Agriculture in the 21st century faces challenges in adopting efficient and sustainable production methods to feed the growing population. In this context, seaweed offers greater advantages over terrestrial plants. This study investigated the nutritional composition and antioxidant properties of six edible seaweeds found in Malaysia. The seaweeds studied were brown (Padina australis, Sargassum binderi, Sargassum polycystum), green (Caulerpa racemosa, Caulerpa sertularioides), and red (Garcilaria changgi) seaweeds. The moisture, ash, protein, fat, and total dietary fibre contents of the seaweeds were analysed according to the Association of Official Analytical Chemists methods. Total available carbohydrate content was assessed using the Clegg-anthrone method. Mineral, amino acid, and fatty acid contents were determined through atomic absorption spectroscopy, high-performance liquid chromatography, and gas chromatography methods, respectively. Results revealed that the seaweeds were all high in total dietary fibre (53.96–76.97 g/100 g dried weight, dw) and ash (4.46–18.53 g/100 g dw) whereas their fat (0.05–4.62 g/100 g dw) content was generally low. The brown seaweeds were good sources of calcium. Red seaweed G. changii had the highest content of essential amino acids whereas brown seaweed S. binderi had the highest polyunsaturated fatty acid and lowest saturated fatty acid contents. Fucoxanthin could only be detected in brown seaweeds. Methanolic extracts of seaweeds showed good antioxidant activities measured using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity (DPPH-RSA), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and trolox equivalent antioxidant activity (TEAC) assays. Overall, this study contributed knowledge on underexploited Malaysian seaweeds and proposed them as an alternative source of nutrients for humans to meet food security challenges.

Abstract Soil erosion (SE) is one of the most serious disasters in the world, which directly damage the productivity of the land and affect human well-being. How to effectively mitigate soil erosion is a challenge faced by all countries in the world. In this study, soil erosion was quantitatively assessed base on the RULSE model in an ecologically fragile area [Xiushui watershed (XSW)], and the effects of three major categories of factors (land use/cover change, landscape fragmentation and climate) on soil erosion were investigated using correlation analysis and structural equation model. The results indicated that there was no continuous increase or decrease trend on the SE of XSW with impact of rainfall, the mean values of SE were 2205.27 t/ha, 3414.25 t/ha and 3319.44 t/ha from 2000 to 2020 and the hot areas of SE were mainly distributed around the Xiushui river channel, respectively. The expansion of urbanization (the area of impervious increased from 113.12 to 252.57 km2) aggravated landscape fragmentation, and the landscape fragmented area had some overlap with the hot zone of SE. Additionally, the LUCC factor dominated by NDVI, landscape fragmentation factor and climate factor dominated by rainfall had a directly driving effect on SE, where the path coefficient of landscape fragmentation was 0.61 (P

Abstract Purpose To evaluate the influence of various factors on CT attenuation values (HUs) of acute and old fracture vertebra, and to determine the efficacy of HU differences (△HUs) in the differentiation of the two type of fractures. Materials and Methods A total of 113 acute and 71 old fracture vertebrae confirmed by MRI were included. Four HUs measured at the mid-sagittal, upper 1/3 axial, mid-axial, and lower 1/3 axial planes of each vertebra were obtained. The △HUs between fracture vertebra and its control counterpart was calculated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used and the areas under the ROC curve (AUC) were calculated to evaluate the efficacy of HUs and △HUs. To evaluate the effect of height reduction, region, age and gender on HUs and △HUs, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis and t-test were used. Results The HUs and △HUs at the upper 1/3 axial plane achieved the highest AUCs of 0.801 and 0.839, respectively. The HUs decreased gradually from Thoracic to Lumbar in control group of acute fracture. While no significant differences were found in the HUs among the 3 localizations in both fracture groups (all P > 0.05). The HUs were negatively correlated with age in all groups. The HUs of male were significantly higher than female patients in all groups (all P 0.05). Conclusion The vertebral HUs at the upper 1/3 axial plane are more likely to identify acute fractures. △HUs were beneficial in eliminating interfering factors.

Intro: Treating complex paediatric wounds is a challenge for many clinicians. Biodegradable Temporising Matrix (BTM) is a completely synthetic product that has shown promise in adults with acute burns, complex wounds, and reconstructive procedures. Currently, there is little documentation regarding the use of BTM in the paediatric population. Method: A retrospective chart review was conducted of all children who required application of BTM for wound treatment. Children were grouped into categories according to the type of injury or condition including thermal, friction, and electrical injuries, scar reconstruction, and various wound defects. Outcomes of interest included infection rates, time to application of BTM and split-thickness skin graft (SSG), dressings used, and overall functional and cosmetic outcomes. Results: 63 children were identified. Thermal (19/63) and friction (10/63) injuries represented the largest groups. Males accounted for 68 % of total children with lower limbs and feet most often affected. The median time for application of BTM was 7.5 days and 27 days from time of application of BTM to SSG. BTM provided satisfactory options for early wound closure and the ability to convert complex wounds, however it still does not negate the need for scar management. Conclusion: From our review, BTM is a versatile product that has shown positive results for the treatment of complex wounds in the paediatric population. It represents the largest consecutive BTM case series in either adult or paediatric populations to date.

For the significant distortion problem caused by the special projection method of equi-rectangular projection (ERP) images, this paper proposes an omnidirectional image super-resolution algorithm model based on position information transformation, taking SwinIR as the base. By introducing a space position transformation module that supports deformable convolution, the image preprocessing process is optimized to reduce the distortion effects in the polar regions of the ERP image. Meanwhile, by introducing deformable convolution in the deep feature extraction process, the model’s adaptability to local deformations of images is enhanced. Experimental results on publicly available datasets have shown that our method outperforms SwinIR, with an average improvement of over 0.2 dB in WS-PSNR and over 0.030 in WS-SSIM for ×4 pixel upscaling.

Background Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy holds promise in metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC). Fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) mutation drives T-cell-depleted microenvironment in UC, which led to the hypothesis that FGFR3 mutation might attenuate response to ICB in patients with metastatic UC. The study aims to compare prognosis and response between patients with FGFR3-mutated and FGFR3-wildtype metastatic UC after ICB therapy, and decode the potential molecular mechanisms.Methods Based on the single-arm, multicenter, phase 2 trial, IMvigor210, we conducted a propensity score matched (PSM) analysis. After a 1:1 ratio PSM method, 39 patients with FGFR3-mutated and 39 FGFR3-wildtype metastatic UC treated with atezolizumab were enrolled. A meta-analysis through systematical database retrieval was conducted for validation. In addition, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing on three FGFR3-mutated and three FGFR3-wildtype UC tumors and analyzed 58,069 single cells.Results The PSM analysis indicated FGFR3-mutated patients had worse overall survival (OS) in comparison to FGFR3-wildtype patients (HR=2.11, 95% CI=(1.16 to 3.85), p=0.015) receiving atezolizumab. The median OS was 9.2 months (FGFR3-mutated) versus 21.0 months (FGFR3-wildtype). FGFR3-mutated patients had lower disease control rate than FGFR3-wildtype patients (41.0% vs 66.7%, p=0.023). The meta-analysis involving 938 patients with metastatic UC confirmed FGFR3 mutation was associated with worse OS after ICB (HR=1.28, 95% CI=(1.04 to 1.59), p=0.02). Single-cell RNA transcriptome analysis identified FGFR3-mutated UC carried a stronger immunosuppressive microenvironment compared with FGFR3-wildtype UC. FGFR3-mutated UC exhibited less immune infiltration, and lower T-cell cytotoxicity. Higher TREM2+ macrophage abundance in FGFR3-mutated UC can undermine and suppress the T cells, potentially contributing to the formation of an immunosuppressive microenvironment. Lower inflammatory-cancer-associated fibroblasts in FGFR3-mutated UC recruited less chemokines in antitumor immunity but expressed growth factors to promote FGFR3-mutated malignant cell development. FGFR3-mutated UC carried abundance of malignant cells characterized by high hypoxia/metabolism and low interferon response phenotype.Conclusions FGFR3 mutation can attenuate prognosis and response to ICB in patients with metastatic UC. FGFR3-mutated UC carries a stronger immunosuppressive microenvironment in comparison with FGFR3-wildtype UC. Inhibition of FGFR3 might activate the immune microenvironment, and the combination of FGFR inhibitor targeted therapy and ICB might be a promising therapeutic regimen in metastatic UC, providing important implications for UC clinical management.

FOXG1, a transcriptional factor belonging to the Forkhead Box (Fox) superfamily, is highly expressed in the brain tissue during brain development and plays an important role in cellular proliferation. Recently, FOXG1 was reported to play important roles in oncogenesis, wherein its abnormal expression regulates tumor cell proliferation. However, the expression and role of FOXG1 in lung cancer remain largely unknown. This study investigated the clinical significance, expression, and role of FOXG1 in lung cancer. We found that FOXG1 was highly expressed in lung cancer tissues. MTT, CCK-8 and colony formation assays showed that FOXG1 overexpression could enhance the proliferation of A549 lung cancer cells. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that FOXG1 promoted the cell cycle and suppressed cell apoptosis. Additionally, the expression levels of PTEN, phosphorylated AKT, mTOR, p53, and Bax were significantly altered in response to changes in FOXG1 expression, indicating that FOXG1 regulated the PI3K pathway. Furthermore, in the xenograft mouse model, the upregulated FOXG1 expression strongly promoted tumor growth. In conclusion, these results suggested that FOXG1 was a critical regulator of the proliferation of lung cancer cells and enhanced tumor growth in vivo.

ObjectiveTo investigate the MRI findings of fetal abdominal or sacrococcygeal teratomas and parasitic fetuses and analyze the outcomes on the basis of follow-up assessments.MethodsThe MRI data of 60 cases of abdominal or sacrococcygeal masses were examined. The outcomes were followed up and compared with the prenatal MRI diagnoses.ResultsThe 60 cases included 52 cases of sacrococcygeal teratomas and eight cases of abdominal lesions. The common types of sacrococcygeal teratomas were type I (21/52, 40.4%) and type II (20/52, 38.5%); type III sacrococcygeal teratomas were rarer (8/52, 15.4%), while type IV tumors (3/52, 5.7%) were frequently complicated with hydronephrosis. Other complications included polyhydramnios in 22 cases, placental edema in six cases, and fetal hydronephrosis in three cases (all type IV). Seven of the eight parasitic fetuses were located in the abdominal cavity, and one was located in the sacrococcygeal region. Postnatal surgery was performed in 51 cases (51/60), including 44 with teratomas and seven with parasitic fetuses. In one case with hydronephrosis, peritoneal effusion, and subcutaneous edema, treatment was discontinued after birth (1/60). Fetal induction of labor was observed in eight cases (8/60). Prenatal ultrasound yielded incorrect or ambiguous diagnoses in 11 cases, while 51 cases showed a favorable course after surgery.ConclusionsMRI shows high accuracy in the diagnosis of fetal sacrococcygeal teratomas and parasitic fetuses. The prognosis in these cases is generally good. However, type IV sacrococcygeal teratomas are prone to fetal hydronephrosis and misdiagnosis and show a poorer prognosis.

Upper limb tremor is a prominent symptom of both Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. Its kinematic parameters overlap substantially for these two pathological conditions, thus leading to high rate of misdiagnosis, especially for community doctors. Several groups have proposed various methods for improving differential diagnosis. These prior studies have attempted to identify better kinematic parameters, however they have mainly focused on single limb features including tremor intensity, tremor frequency, and tremor variability. In this paper, we propose a wearable system for multi-segment assessment of upper limb tremor and differential diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease versus essential tremor. The proposed system collected tremor data from both wrist and fingers simultaneously. From this data, we extracted multi-segment features in the form of phase relationships between limb segments. Using support vector machine classifiers, we then performed differential diagnosis from the extracted features. We evaluated the performance of the proposed system on 19 Parkinson’s disease patients and 12 essential tremor patients. Moreover, we also assessed the performance cost associated with reducing task load and sensor array size. The proposed system reached perfect accuracy in leave-one-out cross validation. Task reduction and sensor array reduction were associated with penalties of 2% and 9-10% respectively. The results demonstrated that the proposed system could be simplified for clinical applications, and successfully applied to the differential diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease versus essential tremor in real-world setting.

The finger tapping test is a widely-used and important examination in the Movement Disorder Society Clinical Diagnosis for Parkinson’s Disease. However, finger tapping motion could be affected by age, medication, and other conditions. As a result, Parkinson’s disease patients with mild sign and healthy people could be rated as similar scores on the Movement Disorder Society-sponsored revision of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale, making it difficult for community doctors to perform diagnosis. We therefore propose a three-dimensional finger tapping framework to recognize mild PD patients. Specifically, we first derive the three-dimensional finger-tapping motion using a self-designed three-dimensional finger-tapping measurement system. We then propose a three-dimensional finger-tapping segmentation algorithm to segment three-dimensional finger tapping motion. We next extract three-dimensional pattern features of motor coordination, imbalance impairment, and entropy. We finally adopted the support vector machine as the classifier to recognize PD patients. We evaluated the proposed framework on 49 PD patients and 29 healthy controls and reached an accuracy of 94.9% for the right hand and 89.4% for the left hand. Moreover, the proposed framework reached an accuracy of 95.0% for the right hand and 97.8% for the left hand on 17 mild PD patients and 28 healthy controls who were both rated as 0 or 1 on the Movement Disorder Society-sponsored revision of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale. The results demonstrated that the proposed framework was less sensitive to traditional features and performed well in recognizing mild PD patients by involving three-dimensional patter features.

In the application of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are difficult to collect in large quantities due to the non-stationary nature and long calibration time required. Transfer learning (TL), which transfers knowledge learned from existing subjects to new subjects, can be applied to solve this problem. Some existing EEG-based TL algorithms cannot achieve good results because they only extract partial features. To achieve effective transfer, a double-stage transfer learning (DSTL) algorithm which applied transfer learning to both preprocessing stage and feature extraction stage of typical BCIs was proposed. First, Euclidean alignment (EA) was used to align EEG trials from different subjects. Second, aligned EEG trials in the source domain were reweighted by the distance between the covariance matrix of each trial in the source domain and the mean covariance matrix of the target domain. Lastly, after extracting spatial features with common spatial patterns (CSP), transfer component analysis (TCA) was adopted to reduce the differences between different domains further. Experiments on two public datasets in two transfer paradigms (multi-source to single-target (MTS) and single-source to single-target (STS)) verified the effectiveness of the proposed method. The proposed DSTL achieved better classification accuracy on two datasets: 84.64% and 77.16% in MTS, 73.38% and 68.58% in STS, which shows that DSTL performs better than other state-of-the-art methods. The proposed DSTL can reduce the difference between the source domain and the target domain, providing a new method for EEG data classification without training dataset.

Dysregulation of plasmalogen metabolism in adipose tissue is associated with metabolic diseases. Here the authors characterize the role of adipocyte TMEM86A as a lysoplasmalogenase and show its deletion is protective against high fat diet induced metabolic disease, an effect that can be recapitulated by plasmenyl lysophosphatidylethanolamine 18:0 supplementation.

An accurate prediction of local scour depth at piles is essential for bridge safety. In order to obtain the prediction formula of local scour around pile groups, a series of local scour experiments of pile groups were carried out. The results show that the scouring depth decreases along the flow direction and the deepest scouring occurs in the first row of the upstream surface. The local scour depth of the front row is greater than that of the single pile. According to the test data and previous data, a calculation coefficient of pile group scour depth with reasonable forms is introduced. The scour depth calculated by this coefficient is in good agreement with the measured value, which proves the rationality of the proposed coefficient.

Abstract Background Growing evidences have indicated neurodevelopmental disorders in infantile esotropia (IE). However, few studies have analyzed the characteristics of large‐scale functional networks of IE patients or their postoperative network‐level alterations. Methods Here, individuals with IE (n = 32) and healthy subjects (n = 30) accomplished the baseline clinical examinations and resting‐state MRI scans. A total of 17 IE patients also underwent corrective surgeries and completed the longitudinal clinical assessments and resting‐state MRI scans. Linear mixed effects models were applied for cross‐sectional and longitudinal network‐level analyses. Correlation analysis was performed to assess the relationship between longitudinal functional connectivity (FC) alterations and baseline clinical variables. Results In cross‐sectional analyses, network‐level FC were apparently aberrant in IE patients compared to controls. In longitudinal analyses, intra‐ and internetwork connectivity were observed with significant alterations in postoperative IE patients compared to the preoperative counterparts. Longitudinal FC changes are negatively correlated to the age at surgery in IE. Conclusions Obviously, altered network‐level FC benefiting from the corrective surgery serves as the neurobiological substrate of the observed improvement of stereovision, visuomotor coordination, and emotional management in postoperative IE patients. Corrective surgery should be performed as early as possible to obtain more benefits for IE in brain function recovery.

The stochastic resonance (SR) phenomenon in two coupled fractional harmonic oscillators with inherent frequency, employing the Jerk equation under the influence of multiplicative dichotomous noise and an applied periodic force have been investigated in our paper. It is worthwhile to mention that the phenomenon of generalized stochastic resonance (GSR) has been extensively discussed experimentally and theoretically in various fields. The coupling strength and fractional order can enhance or suppress the resonance intensity. We found that the GSR, reverse SR phenomenon, bona fide SR, stochastic multi-resonance (SMR) phenomena. Furthermore, numerical simulations are carried out in support of theoretical analyses. It is remarkable that two coupled oscillators are subjected to a multiplicative dichotomous noise in the Jerk equation, which was seldom explored.

Acute and persistent infection of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with several life-threatening hematological disorders, including lymphoproliferative disorders (LPD), hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), and chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection (CAEBV). Currently, there are no efficacious virus-targeted therapies for EBV-driven hematological diseases. To explore the potential of phagocytosis-based immunotherapy, we created a bispecific antibody by targeting the viral envelope protein gp350 with a novel EBV-neutralizing antibody (named R1) that was paired with a monoclonal antibody against CD89 for redirecting macrophages and neutrophils. In vitro study showed that the bispecific antibody enabled efficient phagocytosis of EBV and killing of gp350 + lymphoma cells in the presence of PBMC. In vivo studies in NSG mice inoculated with EBV showed that bispecific antibody dramatically reduced the viral load in blood, solid organs and tissues. Treatment of mice implanted with EBV-harboring Raji lymphoma cells efficiently prevented tumor formation and massive metastasis to solid organs. Treatment of mice implanted with whole blood from EBV-HLH patients was effective in reducing viral levels in blood and solid organ. The gp350/CD89 bispecific antibody was highly effective in clearing EBV and immunotherapy of EBV-driven hematological diseases such as LPD and EBV-HLH.

Land subsidence, resulting from natural or human activities, is a global environmental geological disaster. The Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) time-series analysis technique offers high spatial and continuous temporal resolution, providing data and a foundation for investigating regional land subsidence and its evolution mechanism. Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) has experienced uneven land subsidence since 1935, together with severe fissures significantly affecting its normal operations. In this study, the time-series InSAR method was successfully applied to monitor the gradual increase in uneven local subsidence and ground fissures activity at BCIA from June 2003 to March 2023. Initially, ENVISAT-ASAR, Cosmo-SkyMed, and Sentinel-1 data were processed by time-series InSAR techniques to generate deformation rate maps and time series for the airport area. Subsequently, a comparison was made between the displacement time series from InSAR and ground leveling measurements to assess the accuracy of InSAR-derived measurements. Through a comprehensive analysis of the distribution characteristics of land subsidence at the airport, a long-standing ground fault was located within the airport was identified. A preliminary discussion on the development status of this ground fissure was carried out based on the visual interpretation of optical images. Lastly, the inducing factors and evolutionary conditions of land subsidence were discussed. This case demonstrates the applicability of InSAR technology in identifying and monitoring geological processes such as land subsidence and ground fissure activities. It provides a scientific approach to exploring and studying the causes and formation mechanisms of land subsidence and ground fissures in the Beijing Capital Airport area.

In recent years, there has been significant growth in the ubiquity and popularity of three-dimensional (3D) point clouds, with an increasing focus on the classification of 3D point clouds. To extract richer features from point clouds, many researchers have turned their attention to various point set regions and channels within irregular point clouds. However, this approach has limited capability in attending to crucial regions of interest in 3D point clouds and may overlook valuable information from neighboring features during feature aggregation. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel 3D point cloud classification method based on global attention and adaptive graph convolution (Att-AdaptNet). The method consists of two main branches: the first branch computes attention masks for each point, while the second branch employs adaptive graph convolution to extract global features from the point set. It dynamically learns features based on point interactions, generating adaptive kernels to effectively and precisely capture diverse relationships among points from different semantic parts. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model achieves 93.8% in overall accuracy and 90.8% in average accuracy on the ModeNet40 dataset.

The security of several fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) schemes depends on the intractability assumption of the approximate common divisor (ACD) problem over integers. Subsequent efforts to solve the ACD problem as well as its variants were also developed during the past decade. In this paper, an improved orthogonal lattice (OL)-based algorithm, AIOL, is proposed to solve the general approximate common divisor (GACD) problem. The conditions for ensuring the feasibility of AIOL are also presented. Compared to the Ding–Tao OL algorithm, the well-known LLL reduction method is used only once in AIOL, and when the error vector r is recovered in AIOL, the possible difference between the restored and the true value of p is given. Experimental comparisons between the Ding-Tao algorithm and ours are also provided to validate our improvements.

This study investigates the location accuracy distribution of the lightning detection networks (LDNs) deployed on inclined terrains, an aspect frequently encountered in complex terrains but hitherto disregarded in previous studies. By designing eight substation LDNs deployed on slope-type (ST), mountain-type (MT) and basin-type (BT) terrains, respectively, we employed Monte Carlo simulations to analyze their spatial location accuracy distribution based on time-of-arrival technology. Significant differences among the LDNs on inclined terrains and between them and the LDN on plain-type (PT) terrain were revealed. Compared to the PT LDN, LDNs on inclined terrains exhibited a reduction in high-precision location regions and a shift in the distribution pattern of location accuracy. The ST LDN showed marked deviations in the high-precision vertical location toward the lower slope side with increases in the elevation angle and consistently smaller high-precision vertical location areas compared to MT and BT LDNs. The variations in elevation angles of MT and BT LDNs had a substantial impact on the spatial distribution patterns of both horizontal and vertical location accuracy, with BT LDNs featuring larger vertical high-precision areas than MT LDNs. Our conclusions were further corroborated through an analysis of an actual LDN, which combined characteristics from both ST and MT terrain patterns.

Super-wetting interface materials have shown great potential for applications in oil–water separation. Hydrogel-based materials, in particular, have been extensively studied for separating water from oily wastewater due to their unique hydrophilicity and excellent anti-oil effect. In this study, a superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic bamboo cellulose hydrogel-coated mesh was fabricated using a feasible and eco-friendly dip-coating method. The process involved dissolving bamboo cellulose in a green alkaline/urea aqueous solvent system, followed by regeneration in ethanol solvent, without the addition of surface modifiers. The resulting membrane exhibited excellent special wettability, with superhydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity, enabling oil–water separation through a gravity-driven “water-removing” mode. The super-wetting composite membrane demonstrated a high separation efficiency of higher than 98% and a permeate flux of up to 9168 L·m−2·h−1 for numerous oil/water mixtures. It also maintained a separation efficiency of >95% even after 10 cycles of separation, indicating its long-term stability. This study presents a green, simple, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly approach for fabricating superhydrophilic surfaces to achieve oil–water separation. It also highlights the potential of bamboo-based materials in the field of oil–water separation.

Objective To understand the epidemiological characteristics and trends of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in the genital tract in Zhaoqing city, and provide a basis for formulating effective control strategies. Methods Data were collected through "China disease prevention and control information system". Epidemiological analysis of Chlamydia trachomatis genital infection cases reported in Zhaoqing city of Guangdong from 2011 to 2020. Results The reported incidence of Chlamydia trachomatis genital infection showed an upward trend (χ2=730.95, P

Objective: To explore the typical CT features of diffuse pulmonary lymphangiomatosis in children and improve the diagnostic accuracy. Methods: The radiologic data of 13 children with diffuse pulmonary lymphangiomatosis confirmed by clinical, imaging and pathological biopsy were reviewed retrospectively, including 6 girls and 7 boys, with an average age of 5.8 years. All the 13 cases underwent CT plain scan and enhanced examination. Results: The characteristic CT findings of diffuse pulmonary lymphangiomatosis in this group were as follows: (1) Mediastinum and hilum, peribronchovascular, interlobular septa were involved; (2) The thickening of soft tissue in mediastinum continued with the thickening of soft tissue around hilum and bronchovascular; (3) The soft tissue density in the mediastinum was low, no enhancement was observed under contrast, and there was no compression or shift in the brachiocephalic great vessels; (4) Hilar thickening, smooth thickening of soft tissue around bronchovascular and interlobular septa, most of which involved both sides of the lung, and a few involved one side at the same time; (5) Pleural thickening or pleural effusion; (6) Spleen involvement is common; (7) Cervical and or axillary lymph node enlargement and density reduction; (8) The density of several or single vertebrae wasreduced. Laboratory examination with thrombocytopenia and/or DIC was considered Kaposiform lymphangiomatosis. Conclusion: CT findings of diffuse pulmonary lymphangioma lymphangiomatosis in children show high specificity, when combined with the age of onset and clinical laboratory examinations, can significantly improve the diagnostic coincidence rate of the disease.

In this paper, the chemical components and in vitro antioxidant activities of Camellia sinensis, a large-leaf species in Yunnan were studied. The main biochemical indicators of 13 Yunnan large-leaf tea tree flowers and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging ability, 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) free radical scavenging capacity, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), hydroxyl radical (·OH) scavenging capacity, superoxide anion scavenging capacity, five kinds of in vitro antioxidant indexes were measured. The correlation between the main biochemical components and in vitro antioxidant indexes was analyzed. The results showed that the contents of tea tree flower water extract, tea polyphenols and amino acids were 41.22%~63.73%, 7.74%~13.56%, 1.61%~5.91%, respectively. The contents of caffeine and flavonoids were 4.98~8.46, 4.21~8.63 mg/g, respectively. Each sample showed a certain difference. There were significant differences in the in vitro antioxidant capacity of different tea tree flower samples (P

Abstract The discovery of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has now been universally acknowledged as a significant breakthrough in tumor therapy after the targeted treatment of checkpoint molecules: anti-programmed cell death protein 1/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) and anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) on several cancer types achieved satisfying results. However, there are still quite a lot of patients suffering from severe side effects and ineffective treatment outcomes. Although the current ICI therapy is far from satisfying, a series of novel immune checkpoint molecules with remarkable preclinical and clinical benefits are being widely investigated, like the V-domain Ig suppressor of T cell activation (VISTA), which can also be called PD-1 homolog (PD-1H), and ectonucleotidases: CD39, CD73, and CD38, which belong to the ribosyl cyclase family, etc. In this review, we systematically summarized and discussed these molecules' biological structures, molecular features, and the corresponding targeted drugs, aiming to help the in-depth understanding of immune checkpoint molecules and promote the clinical practice of ICI therapy.

Simple multiplication errors are primarily shown in whether the lures are related to the operands (relatedness, such as 3 × 4 = 15 vs. 17) or whether the same decades are shared with the correct answers (consistency, such as 3 × 4 = 16 vs. 21). This study used a delayed verification paradigm and event-related potential technique to investigate the effects of relatedness and consistency in simple multiplication mental arithmetic for 30 college students in an experiment of presenting probes in auditory channels. We found that, compared to the related inconsistent lures, the related consistent lures showed significantly faster reaction time and induced significantly large amplitudes of N400 and late positive component. The findings suggest that related consistent lures are less affected by the activation diffusion of the arithmetic problem, and the credibility of being perceived as the correct answer is less; the lures related to operands and sharing the same decades with the accurate results can promote the judgment of multiplication mental arithmetic, and the results support the Interacting Neighbors Model.