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BACKGROUND: This study sought to explore the application value of indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) in the harvest of multi-angiosome perforator flap and the effect of low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) on the survival of postoperative flap. METHODS: Twenty-four SD male rats were selected to construct a three-angiosome perforator flap model with the unilateral iliolumbar artery perforator. They were randomly divided into two groups: the control group was injected with indocyanine green (ICG) into the femoral vein during the operation, and the fluorescence signal was collected and quantitatively analyzed using Real-Time Image Guided System to determine the intraoperative fluorescence imaging length. The experimental group was injected subcutaneously with LMWH (400 U/kg) after 0.5 h postoperatively, and the control group was injected with the same amount of normal saline. The injection was repeated at the same time each day from 0 to 7 days postoperatively. After the flap was sutured in situ, ICGA was performed at 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7 days postoperatively to observe the vascular structure of the two groups of flaps. The flap survival length of the control group was counted at 7 days postoperatively, and the correlation between the intraoperative fluorescence imaging length and the survival length at 7 days postoperatively was calculated. The proportion of distal necrosis of the flaps between the two groups was compared at 7 days postoperatively. RESULTS: The average length of intraoperative fluorescence imaging in the control group was 6.29±0.50 cm, and the survival length of the flap at 7 days postoperatively was 8.24±0.52 cm. The actual survival length was higher than the intraoperative fluorescence imaging length, with a ratio of 1.31±0.08. The difference was statistically significant (P

The investigation into entrepreneurial behavior and model innovation of new ventures based on news communication aims to reinforce the market competition strength and improve the performance level of new ventures to meet the urgent needs of transformation and upgrading. Based on the theoretical basis of news communication and social cognition theory, a theoretical model is constructed to analyze the relationship between entrepreneurial behavior, innovation mode, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and to provide a reference for the implementation of entrepreneurial behavior of new ventures. Evidently, taking individual factors as antecedent variables to verify their impact on internal entrepreneurial behavior extends the scope of research on corporate entrepreneurship and also provides significant managerial implications for the promotion of entrepreneurial activities.

Experimental tests were conducted to study the influence of natural cooling and water cooling on the physical and mechanical properties of quartz sandstone. This study aims to understand the effect of different cooling methods on the physical and mechanical properties of quartz sandstone (such as mass, volume, density, P-wave velocity, elastic modulus, uniaxial compressive strength, etc.). The results show that the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) and elastic modulus(E) of the specimens cooled by natural-cooling and water-cooling decrease with heating temperature. At 800℃, after natural cooling and water cooling, the average value of UCS decreased by 34.65% and 57.90%, and the average value of E decreased by 87.66% and 89.05%, respectively. Meanwhile, scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were used to capture the development of microcracks and pores within the specimens after natural-cooling and water-cooling, and it was found that at the same temperature, water cooling treatment was more likely to cause microcracks and pores, which can cause more serious damage to the quartz sandstone. These results confirm that different cooling methods have different effects on the physical and mechanical properties of quartz sandstone, and provide a basis for the stability prediction of rock mass engineering such as tunnel suffering from fire.

Nowadays, the increasing Dolichospermum (Anabaena) blooms pose a major threat to the aquatic environment and public health worldwide. The use of naturally derived chemicals from plants to control cyanobacteria blooms has recently received a tremendous amount of attention. This study investigates the possibility of transforming watermelon peel (WMP) into a biological resource to allelopathically inhibit Dolichospermum flos-aquae blooms. The results demonstrated that the growth of D. flos-aquae was efficiently restricted by the aqueous extract of watermelon peel (WMPAE) in a concentration-dependent manner. Cell viability decreased quickly, intracellular structural damage occurred, chlorophyll a in algal cells degraded, and photosynthesis was clearly inhibited. At the same time, the levels of reactive oxygen species in viable cells increased significantly, as did malondialdehyde levels, indicating that WMPAE elucidated strong oxidative stress and corresponding damage to D. flos-aquae. Capsular polysaccharide (CPS) levels increased in all treatment groups, which represents an adaptive response indicative of the development of resistance to WMPAE stress and oxidative damage. Despite this, WMPAE had clear inhibitory effects on D. flos-aquae. These findings provide fundamental information on an allelopathic system that could be a novel and attractive approach for suppressing D. flos-aquae blooms in small aquatic environments, especially aquaculture ponds.

Numerous studies have shown that long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) are involved in the development and immune escape of head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma (HNSCC). However, the specific regulatory mechanisms by which LINC01123 regulates HNSCC and its correlation with immunity remain unclear. Therefore, this study’s primary purpose was to explore the mechanisms by which LINC01123 regulates the immune escape and progression of HNSCC. This study confirmed that LINC01123 is competitively bound to miR-214-3p, and miR-214-3p specifically targets B7–H3. The effects of LINC01123, B7–H3, and miR-214-3p on tumor progression, CD8+T-cell-mediated immune response, and the tumorigenicity of HNSCC in vitro and in vivo were examined through the downregulation or upregulation of LINC01123, B7–H3, and miR-214-3p. Our results indicated that LINC01123 and B7–H3 were highly expressed in HNSCC and are associated with poor prognosis in patients. Notably, overexpression of LINC01123 or B7–H3 or downregulation of miR-214-3p inhibited the function of CD8+T cells and promoted the progression of HNSCC. Therefore, LINC01123 acts as a miR-214-3p sponge to inhibit the activation of CD8+T cells and promote the progression of HNSCC by upregulating B7–H3.

Utilizing the bistatic range (BR) and bistatic range rate (BRR) obtained from time delay difference and Doppler shift difference, a moving target can be localized with the passive multistatic radar (PMR) network. This paper presents a two-stage closed-form method for target localization in PMR. Different from the conventional two-stage weighted least squares (TSWLS) methods, the proposed method employs the weighted spherical-interpolation method to obtain an initial estimate in the first stage and reduces the error in the initial estimate with the deviation refinement in the second stage. Theoretical analysis through mean-square error (MSE) shows the proposed method approaches the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) accuracy under the assumption of mild measurement noises. Simulation results validate the analytical results. The proposed method is also shown to achieve the accuracy improvement in target velocity estimate at relatively higher noise levels.

Src Homology 2-containing Inositol Phosphatase-1 (SHIP-1) is a target of miR-155, a pro-inflammatory factor. Deletion of the SHIP-1 gene in mice caused spontaneous lung inflammation and fibrosis. However, the role and function of endothelial miR-155 and SHIP-1 in lung fibrosis remain unknown. Using whole-body miR-155 knockout mice and endothelial cell-specific conditional miR-155 (VEC-Cre-miR-155 or VEC-miR-155) or SHIP-1 (VEC-SHIP-1) knockout mice, we assessed endothelial-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT) and fibrotic responses in bleomycin (BLM) induced lung fibrosis models. Primary mouse lung endothelial cells (MLEC) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) with SHIP-1 knockdown were analyzed in TGF-β1 or BLM, respectively, induced fibrotic responses. Fibrosis and EndoMT were significantly reduced in miR-155KO mice and changes in EndoMT markers in MLEC after TGF-β1 stimulation confirmed the in vivo findings. Furthermore, lung fibrosis and EndoMT responses were reduced in VEC-miR-155 mice but significantly enhanced in VEC-SHIP-1 mice after BLM challenge. SHIP-1 knockdown in HUVEC cells resulted in enhanced EndoMT induced by BLM. Meanwhile, these changes involved the PI3K/AKT, JAK/STAT3, and SMAD/STAT signaling pathways. These studies demonstrate that endothelial miR-155 plays an important role in fibrotic responses in the lung through EndoMT. Endothelial SHIP-1 is essential in controlling fibrotic responses and SHIP-1 is a target of miR-155. Endothelial cells are an integral part in lung fibrosis.

Resting state electroencephalography (EEG) during eyes-closed and eyes-open conditions is widely used to evaluate brain states of healthy populations and brain dysfunctions in clinical conditions. Although several results have been obtained by measuring these brain activities in humans, it remains unclear whether the same results can be replicated in animals, i.e., whether the physiological properties revealed by these findings are phylogenetically conserved across species. In the present study, we describe a paradigm for recording resting state EEG activities during eyes-closed and eyes-open conditions from rats, and investigated the differences between eyes-closed and eyes-open conditions for humans and rats. We found that compared to the eyes-open condition, human EEG spectral amplitude in the eyes-closed condition was significantly higher at 8–12 Hz and 18–22 Hz in the occipital region, but significantly lower at 18–22 Hz and 30–100 Hz in the frontal region. In contrast, rat EEG spectral amplitude was significantly higher in the eyes-closed condition than in the eyes-open condition at 1–4 Hz, 8–12 Hz, and 13–17 Hz in the frontal-central region. In both species, the 1/f-like power spectrum scaling of resting state EEG activities was significantly higher in the eyes-closed condition than in the eyes-open condition at parietal-occipital and frontal regions. These results provided a neurophysiological basis for future translational studies from experimental animal findings to human psychophysiology, since the validity of such translation critically relies on a well-established experimental paradigm and a carefully-examined signal characteristic to bridge the gaps across different species.

Methyl modified silica (Me-SiO2) aerogels are prepared using tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) as co-precursor through a two-step sol-gel reaction followed by solvent exchange and supercritical drying. They possess tailored dual modal pore structure consisting of mesopores (10–18 nm) from the stacking of TEOS-derived clusters and small mesopores (2–6 nm) from filling and stacking of small MTES-derived clusters. Moreover, the replacing Si-OH groups by Si-CH3 groups on the aerogel’s surface makes them excellent hydrophobicity with contact angle up to 148°. The dual modal pore structure and hydrophobicity endow the Me-SiO2 aerogels outstanding adsorbing capability of quality factor Q up to 23 g/g for ethanol and selective adsorption of oil from water, which makes them tremendous potential for applications of oil adsorbing and oil-water separation.

Repeated dry-wet cycling can substantially alter rock mechanical properties, which poses a serious risk to the safety and stability of geotechnical engineering projects. Shear creep tests were performed on granite samples subjected to dry-wet cycling to determine the performance deterioration and variation of creep properties under hydraulic weathering conditions. The mechanism by which dry-wet cycling influences the creep properties of granite analyzed and discussed. The experimental results show that the creep deformation of granite gradually increases with increasing dry-wet cycle number, whereas the creep failure stress, creep duration, and long-term strength significantly. The effect of dry-wet cycling on the microscopic structure of granite analyzed longitudinal wave velocity and resistivity. A variable-parameter creep damage model is proposed that considers the effects of dry-wet cycling on granite based on the experimental results. A comparison between the experimental and theoretical curves verifies the model accuracy and applicability. This study provides a useful reference for the support design of geotechnical engineering projects under dry-wet cycle conditions.

Background Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one of the primary types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the occurrence of which has been increasing worldwide. Although IBD is an intensively studied human microbiome-associated disease, research on Chinese populations remains relatively limited, particularly on the mucosal microbiome. The present study aimed to analyze the changes in the mucosal microbiome associated with UC from the perspectives of medical ecology and complex network analysis. Results In total, 56 mucosal microbiome samples were collected from 28 Chinese UC patients and their healthy family partners, followed by amplicon sequencing. Based on sequencing data, we analyzed species diversity, shared species, and inter-species interactions at the whole community, main phyla, and core/periphery species levels. We identified four opportunistic “pathogens” (i.e., Clostridium tertium, Odoribacter splanchnicus, Ruminococcus gnavus, and Flavonifractor plautii) with potential significance for the diagnosis and treatment of UC, which were inhibited in healthy individuals, but unrestricted in the UC patients. In addition, we also discovered in this study: (i) The positive-to-negative links (P/N) ratio, which measures the balance of species interactions or inhibition effects in microbiome networks, was significantly higher in UC patients, indicating loss of inhibition against potentially opportunistic “pathogens” associated with dysbiosis. (ii) Previous studies have reported conflicting evidence regarding species diversity and composition between UC patients and healthy controls. Here, significant differences were found at the major phylum and core/periphery scales, but not at the whole community level. Thus, we argue that the paradoxical results found in existing studies are due to the scale effect. Conclusions Our results reveal changes in the ecology and network structure of the gut mucosal microbiome that might be associated with UC, and these changes might provide potential therapeutic mechanisms of UC. The four opportunistic pathogens that were identified in the present study deserve further investigation in future studies.

SARS-CoV-2 is a betacoronavirus with a single-stranded, positive-sense, 30-kilobase RNA genome responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Although population average structure models of the genome were recently reported, there is little experimental data on native structural ensembles, and most structures lack functional characterization. Here we report secondary structure heterogeneity of the entire SARS-CoV-2 genome in two lines of infected cells at single nucleotide resolution. Our results reveal alternative RNA conformations across the genome and at the critical frameshifting stimulation element (FSE) that are drastically different from prevailing population average models. Importantly, we find that this structural ensemble promotes frameshifting rates much higher than the canonical minimal FSE and similar to ribosome profiling studies. Our results highlight the value of studying RNA in its full length and cellular context. The genomic structures detailed here lay groundwork for coronavirus RNA biology and will guide the design of SARS-CoV-2 RNA-based therapeutics.

The defect identification of tunnel lining is a task with a lot of tasks and time-consuming work, and currently, it mainly relies on manual operation. This paper takes the ground-penetrating radar image of the internal defects of the lining as the research object, and chooses the popular VGG16, ResNet34 convolutional neural network (CNN) to build the automatic recognition model for comparative study, and proposes an improved ResNet34 defect-recognition model. In this paper, SGD and Adam training algorithms are used to update network parameters, and the PyTorch depth framework is used to train the network. The test results show that the ResNet34 network has faster convergence speed, higher accuracy rate, and shorter training time than the VGG16 network. The ResNet34 network using the Adam algorithm can achieve 99.08% accuracy. The improved ResNet34 network can achieve an accuracy of 99.25%, and at the same, reduce the parameter amount by 4.22% compared with the ResNet34 network, which can better identify defects in the lining. The research in this paper shows that the deep learning method can provide new ideas for the identification of tunnel lining defects.

Additional file 1.

To investigate the long-term stability of surrounding rock in tunnels in cold regions, the gneiss in the Huibai tunnel of Jilin Province in China was selected for the triaxial creep test after subjecting it to freeze–thaw (F–T) cycles. Furthermore, the influence of F–T cycles on the creep properties of saturated gneiss was analyzed and discussed. The experimental results showed that the increase in the number of F–T cycles increased the creep deformation of gneiss gradually, while the creep failure stress, creep duration, and long-term strength decreased significantly. Additionally, based on the experimental results, a variable-parameter creep damage model was proposed considering the effect of F–T cycles on gneiss. The creep damage model was composed of three components: a Hooke body, a Kelvin body (parallel viscoelastic components), and a new nonlinear viscoplastic damage component. The creep damage model can not only describe the three typical creep stages (primary creep, secondary creep, and tertiary creep), but also reflect the effect of F–T damage on the creep failure stress. The comparison between the creep test curve and fitting curve of the theoretical model verified the accuracy and applicability of the model. The result of this study can provide a reference value for the support design and anti-freeze damage design for geotechnical engineering in cold areas.

Background: Allium schoenoprasum is a world-wide common vegetable while only its leave is used in the food factory. Its stalk is largely discarded, for potential heavy metal accumulations, which eventually lead to an environmental contamination. To fully utilize this vegetable and minimize its metal content, the major polysaccharide content is purified and characterized with chemical and computational approaches.Results: The major polysaccharide component from the stalk of Allium schoenoprasum (AssP) was extracted and purified. The gel filtration chromatography purified AssP exhibited a molecular weight of around 1.6 kDa, which was verified by MALDI-ToF-MS. Monosaccharide analysis revealed its composition as rhamnose: arabinose: galactose: glucose: mannose: fructose with a molar ratio of 0.0264:2.46:3.71:3.35:1.00:9.93, respectively. Multiple NMR analysis revealed its backbone as α-Ara/Glu/Gal-(1→2)-linked and β-D-Fru-(4→5)-linked sugar residues. There was no tertiary structure of this polysaccharide, however, it self-assembled into a homogenous nanoparticle with a diameter of ~600 nm. The solution behavior of this AssP polysaccharide was simulated, and there was no specific binding site on one molecule for another. Association of this polysaccharide was concentration dependent. As the AssP concentration increased, the spherical particles increased their sizes and eventually merged into cylindrical micelles. The diversity of AssP hydrodynamic behavior endowed potential versatility in its applications.Conclusions: AssP was characterized as a polysaccharide with identified monosaccharide compositions and linkage between them. Although there is no tertiary structure in one AssP molecule, self-assembly of AssP molecules could form nanoparticles or micelles depending on its solution concentrations. The unique AssP solution behavior endows itself a potential biomaterial for nanoparticles preparations.

Background: Mucosal healing(MH) is a treatment goal in ulcerative colitis (UC). Our previous studies showed heat shock transcription factor 2 (HSF2) was positively correlated with the activity of U...

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory disease with unknown aetiology. As a pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-1β (IL-1β) plays a critical, damaging role in UC. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are important anti-inflammatory factors that maintain intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) homeostasis. Heat shock transcription factor 2 (HSF2) is an important regulator of HSPs. In our previous research, we found that HSF2 is highly expressed in UC, is negatively related to colon inflammation of mice, and inhibits the expression of IL-1β, but the specific mechanism is still unclear. As a product of the NLRP3 inflammasome, the expression of IL-1β is closely related to NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Therefore, we hypothesised that HSF2 affects the secretion of IL-1β by regulating activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. In this study, hsf-/- DSS model mice showed highest levels of expression of the NLRP3 inflammasome and the secretion of IL-1β. In Caco-2 cells, the levels of expression of the NLRP3 inflammasome and the secretion of IL-1β were inhibited by overexpression of HSF2, and inhibited HSF2 increased activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and the secretion of IL-1β. These findings indicated that HSF2 might be an important target for inflammatory modulation in UC.

Single-frequency solid-state lasers have important applications in laser remote sensing, such as Doppler lidar, differential absorption lidar (DIAL), gravitational wave detection and so on. In recent ten years, highly stable and narrow spectrum single-frequency Q-switched 1.6 μm lasers are widely applied in coherent Doppler wind detection liar and CH4 DIAL. For applications in space-based wind lidar and DIAL, high output energy of the lasers is essential. In order to obtain a single-frequency laser with high energy, a common method is to inject a stable single-frequency seed laser into a high-energy Q-switched slave laser. Energy upconversion is the main factor which affects the energy enhancement of Er:YAG laser at 1.6μm. We report a Er:YAG ceramic single-frequency pulsed laser at 1645nm dual-end-pumped by two diode lasers with different wavelengths. Compared to a laser pumped by the two same wavelength diode lasers, the laser has higher slope efficiency because the energy upconversion is weakened. Otherwise, ceramic materials have many advantages compared with single crystals, such as ease of fabrication large-size ceramic material, short fabrication time, low cost and good thermo-mechanical properties. Uniform dopant can be realized in ceramic materials, which are much tougher and stronger than single crystals. All the advantages of ceramic materials mentioned above contribute to scalability to high energy laser. In this letter, we report a single frequency pulse ceramic laser with output energy of more than 10 mJ and pulse-width of more than 150 ns at a repetition rate of 500 Hz, which is pumped by two diode lasers with the wavelengths of 1470 nm and 1532 nm, respectively. This single-frequency pulse laser is a potential candidate as a seed laser for a slab laser amplifier system, which is an ideal source for space-based DIAL and Doppler wind lidar.

Objective. The investigation of neurophysiologic mechanisms of anesthetic drug-induced loss of consciousness (LOC) by using the entropy, complexity, and information integration theories at the mesoscopic level has been a hot topic in recent years. However, systematic research is still lacking. Approach. We analyzed electrocorticography (ECoG) data recorded from nine rats during isoflurane-induced unconsciousness. To characterize the complexity and connectivity changes, we investigated ECoG power, symbolic dynamic-based entropy (i.e. permutation entropy (PE)), complexity (i.e. permutation Lempel-Ziv complexity (PLZC)), information integration (i.e. permutation cross mutual information (PCMI)), and PCMI-based cortical brain networks in the frontal, parietal, and occipital cortical regions. Main results. Firstly, LOC was accompanied by a raised power in the ECoG beta (12–30 Hz) but a decreased power in the high gamma (55–95 Hz) frequency band in all three brain regions. Secondly, PE and PLZC showed similar change trends in the lower frequency band (0.1–45 Hz), declining after LOC (p < 0.05) and increasing after recovery of consciousness (p < 0.001). Thirdly, intra-frontal and inter-frontal-parietal PCMI declined after LOC, in both lower (0.1–45 Hz) and higher frequency bands (55–95 Hz) (p < 0.001). Finally, the local network parameters of the nodal clustering coefficient and nodal efficiency in the frontal region decreased after LOC, in both the lower and higher frequency bands (p < 0.05). Moreover, global network parameters of the normalized average clustering coefficient and small world index increased slightly after LOC in the lower frequency band. However, this increase was not statistically significant. Significance. The PE, PLZC, PCMI and PCMI-based brain networks are effective metrics for qualifying the effects of isoflurane.

Herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) infection is a major factor driving the global HIV epidemic, leading to increased HIV plasma viral loads (PVLs) and transmission. Previous studies which focused on mucosal responses cannot explain the observed effects of HSV-2 on HIV PVLs. We sought to determine mechanisms by which HSV-2 increases HIV PVLs. CD4 T cells are recruited to sites of HSV-2 lesions and HSV-2 can infect these cells. Phenotyping of CD4 cells infected with HSV-2 in vitro suggested a preference for T follicular helper cells, an HIV latent reservoir. HSV infection of latently infected Jurkat-2D10 cells resulted in a 10-fold increase in HIV ltr expression. After exposing CD4 cells from HIV+ donors to HSV-2, HIV p24 was detected only in cells expressing HSV-2 glycoprotein B (gB), a marker of productive HSV-2 infection. Bulk and single cell RNAseq on FACS-purified, HSV-infected and uninfected CD4 cells demonstrated reduced expression of HIV restriction factors in HSV+ cells; HSV exposed but uninfected cells exhibited higher expression of interferon response genes, potentially explaining their resistance to HIV reactivation. HSV+ cells exhibited increased expression of the lncRNA MALAT1, which may promote HIV reactivation through epigenetic modification, and HSV infection of 2D10 and CD4 cells led to decreased histone deacetylase activity. Transfection of 2D10 cells with HSV protein VP16 resulted in significantly increased HIV ltr and MALAT1 gene expression, and reduced epigenetic silencing marks. HIV proteins were also increased by proteomic analyses. These findings identify several mechanisms by which HSV-2 directly triggers HIV reactivation, such as the up-regulation of the lncRNA MALAT1. Supported by grants from the NIH (R01 AI134367, T32 AI007501, T32 GM007288)

Integral membrane proteins (IMPs) are popular target for drugs, but their resolved structures have been overlooked when compared with cytosolic proteins. The main reason is that IMPs usually need intensive post-translational modifications and they are bound to membranes, which increase the complexity of purifying or crystalizing them. Although different expression systems are used to express IMPs, baculovirus is considered one of the most successful expression systems for those proteins. Despite that, there are always unknown discrepancies in the level of IMPs expression in the baculovirus expression system. Retrospective studies have shown that expression of an immunoglobulin (anti-Chymase mouse monoclonal IgG1) driven by vp39 promoter was more efficient compared to its expression under polyhedrin (polh) promoter; however, this conclusion was not tested on different IMPs to generalize such a conclusion. In this study, the expression of eight different IMPs has been compared under vp39 and polh promoters of Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus. Although different IMPs have shown different patterns of expression, the expression driven by vp39 promoter was found to be generally more efficient than the polh promoter.

Background Cerebral morphological abnormalities may play a key role in pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, few studies have used multimodal imaging strategies to investigate alterations of cortical morphometry and white matter (WM) integrity. This study aimed to evaluate cortical thickness, cortical and subcortical volume, and WM integrity characteristics in OCD patients comprehensively. Methods We acquired magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from 52 OCD patients and 46 well-matched healthy controls (HCs). Cortical thickness and cortical and subcortical volume were measured using the surface-based morphometry (SBM) approach. We also evaluated fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) derived from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). The disease severity was evaluated by score of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS). For those brain regions exhibiting altered structure, correlations between alterations and clinical symptoms severity were analyzed in all patients and medication-naive patients, respectively. Results Compared with controls, OCD patients exhibited cortical thinning in right posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), as well as significantly decreased FA values in the genu and body of corpus callosum (CC). In medication-naive patients group, the total Y-BOCS score and obsession score were significantly negative correlated with right PCC cortical thickness. Conclusions OCD patients demonstrated symptom-related reduced cortical thickness structural alteration of the right PCC, and altered WM integrity in the genu and body of CC. Medication seems could alleviate the alteration of cortical thickness but not WM integrity. Combined multimodal neuroimaging methods may provide a more comprehensive perspective to clarify the pathological mechanism of OCD.

A facile and efficient one-step hydrothermal approach is presented to prepare a three-dimensional graphene-nanosheets/nickel foam (3D NF/G) substrate for pseudocapacitive materials to utilize its high specific surface area and short ion channel lengths. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation shows thin graphene nanosheets (∼10 nm) are assembled into 3D porous architectures and uniformly deposited on NF for the NF/G substrate obtained under addition of KOH at low graphene oxide (GO) concentration. Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis further shows the homogenous dispersion of GO in the solution increases reducibility of graphene and avoids agglomeration of nanosheets during the hydrothermal process, which accelerate the graphene nanosheets self-assemble into 3D interconnected structures on NF. Furthermore, flower-like Ni-Co-S nanosheets was then deposited on NF/G substrate by electrodeposition to form NF/G/Ni-Co-S composite, in which 3D graphene can guarantee the high utilization of electroactive species and favorable reaction kinetics. The as-synthesized electrode shows greatly improved electrochemical performances with an ultrahigh specific capacitance of 2526 F g−1 at a current density of 2 A g−1 and of 1916 F g−1 even at a current density of 10 A g−1. Additionally, it also exhibits superior cycle stability by retaining 77.0% of its original state after 2000 cycles at high current density of 20 A g−1, indicating promising applications as an efficient electrode for supercapacitors.

Silicon oxycarbides (SiOCs) are promising anode materials for high-energy LIBs because of their high theoretical capacity. However, due to their intrinsically poor electronic conductivity, the battery performance is often restricted. Herein, high performance anodes are demonstrated by designing a hierarchical 3D interconnected structure using graphene sponge as a scaffold. The graphene sponge was infiltrated with a polysiloxane precursor and further converted into porous frameworks consisting of multi-layered sandwich-like nanosheets (SiOC@graphene@SiOC) by subsequent pyrolysis. The deliberate structure not only improved the electrical conductivity, accelerated ion insertion, and shortened the ionic diffusion distance but also enabled full utilization of SiOC active sites in the anode. The 3D-GNS/SiOC anodes exhibited excellent electrochemical performance, including high initial discharge capacity (1280 mA h g−1 at 0.1 A g−1), high reversibility and stability (701 mA h g−1/371 μA h cm−2 after 100 cycles) and extreme rate performance (656 mA h g−1/348 μA h cm−2 at 0.5 A g−1). For full-cells, high initial charge capacity (680 mA h g−1 at 0.5 A g−1) and high stability (416 mA h g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 after 100 cycles) were obtained. Significantly, this simple and scalable method can be extended to fabricate high-rate and long-cycle SiOC or other anode materials for commercial LIBs.

A host's immune system plays a central role in shaping the composition of the microbiota and, in return, resident microbes influence immune responses. Symbiotic associations of the maternally transmitted bacterium Wolbachia occur with a wide range of arthropods. It is, however, absent from the dengue and Zika vector mosquito Aedes aegypti in nature. When Wolbachia is artificially forced to form symbiosis with this new mosquito host, it boosts the basal immune response and enhances the mosquito's resistance to pathogens, including dengue, Zika virus and malaria parasites. The mechanisms involved in establishing a symbiotic relationship between Wolbachia and A. aegypti, and the long-term outcomes of this interaction, are not well understood. Here, we have demonstrated that both the immune deficiency (IMD) and Toll pathways are activated by the Wolbachia strain wAlbB upon its introduction into A. aegypti. Silencing the Toll and IMD pathways via RNA interference reduces the wAlbB load. Notably, wAlbB induces peptidoglycan recognition protein (PGRP)-LE expression in the carcass of A. aegypti, and its silencing results in a reduction of symbiont load. Using transgenic mosquitoes with stage-specific induction of the IMD and Toll pathways, we have shown that elevated wAlbB infection in these mosquitoes is maintained via maternal transmission. These results indicate that host innate immunity is utilized to establish and promote host-microbial symbiosis. Our results will facilitate a long-term projection of the stability of the Wolbachia-A. aegypti mosquito system that is being developed to control dengue and Zika virus transmission to humans.

This paper presents a method of direction finding for linear array Aensors Ay exploiting Ahe Aymmetry of Aignal cyclostationary in Ahe cyclic frequency domain. A new cyclic cross-correlation matrix is constructed Atilizing Ahe positive and negative cyclic frequencies, and Ahen AUSIC algorithm is Ased to estimate direction of arrival of Ahe Aources. Compared with the existing algorithms, Ahe proposed algorithm has Aetter angle resolution Ander low ANR condition when Ahe Aources impinge on Ahe array from closely directions and Ahe computational complexity is little higher Ahan AC-SSF and AACM algorithm but far lower Ahan others. Aoreover, Ahe proposed algorithm can be applied for Aoth narrow-band and wide-band Aignals. Ahe effectiveness of Ahe algorithm is verified Ay computer simulation.

With porous structure, carbon based composite anode materials can not only improve electronic connectivity, but also buffer the volume expansion during the lithiation/delithiation process. In this work, two porous MnO/C composite nanowires were synthesized by calcining Mn-based coordination polymer nanowires precursor in nitrogen and argon atmospheres. The sample calcined in argon displayed significant increase in surface area by 34% than that in nitrogen. Besides, at the current density of 0.1 Ag−1, the first charge and discharge capacity improved by 59.7% and 73.6%, respectively, Foremost, even at a higher current density, the sample synthesized in argon exhibited better cycle stability (93.1%) than that in nitrogen (85.3%) after 60 cycles, the reversible capacity increased by 1.2 times.

High-efficiency terahertz (THz) wave generation with multiple frequencies by optimized cascaded difference frequency generation (OCDFG) is investigated at 100 K using a nonlinear crystal consisting of a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) part and an aperiodically poled lithium niobate (APPLN) part. Two infrared pump waves with a frequency difference ω T1 generate THz waves and a series of cascaded optical waves in the PPLN part by cascaded difference frequency generation (CDFG). The generated cascaded optical waves with frequency interval ω T1 then further interact in the APPLN part by OCDFG, yielding the following two advantages. First, OCDFG in the APPLN part is efficiently stimulated by inputting multi-order cascaded optical waves rather than the only two intense infrared pump waves, yielding unprecedented energy conversion efficiencies in excess of 37% at 1 THz at 100 K. Second, THz waves with M times ω T1 are generated by mixing the mth-order and the (m + M)th-order cascaded optical waves by designing poling period distributions of the APPLN part.

This study aimed to explore the effects of the long-acting antipsychotic drug palmitate paliperidone in resting-state brain activity of schizophrenia patients. Seventeen schizophrenia outpatients were included and received palmitate paliperidone injection (PAL) treatment for 13 weeks. These patients were compared to seventeen matched healthy controls. All subjects underwent two scan sessions of resting-state magnetic resonance imaging (baseline and the 13th week) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) at resting-state where compared. After 13 weeks of treatment, PAL increased ReHo of the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus and orbital frontal gyrus, while PAL decreased ReHo of the thalamus, parahippocampal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus. Furthermore, improvement of psychiatric symptoms correlated with changing amplitude of ReHo: positively correlated with postcentral gyrus and negatively correlated with the occipital cortex. Baseline ReHo values of the middle occipital gyrus were positively correlated with the rate of reduction of psychiatric symptoms and improvement of social function. These results suggested that PAL might achieve its clinical effect in schizophrenia by influencing the resting-state function of the occipital cortex, lateral prefrontal cortex and temporal lobe. Baseline function of the inferior occipital gyrus might potentially predict the short-term effect of PAL in schizophrenia.

Two experiments were conducted to compare apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of calcium (Ca) in pigs. In experiment 1, three semipurified diets with soybean meal, canola meal, or sunflower meal as the sole source of Ca were formulated. Eighteen cannulated pigs (initial BW = 66 ± 5 kg) were assigned in a randomized complete block design to three treatments and six replicates per treatment. Results indicated that for either Ca or phosphorus (P), the ATTD was not different from the AID in the three diets (Psite = 0.16 and 0.81, respectively). In experiment 2, diets with four Ca concentrations were formulated with calcium carbonate as the Ca source. Sixteen cannulated pigs (initial BW = 73 ± 4 kg) were assigned in a randomized complete block design to four treatments in two experimental periods. The results indicated that the ATTD of Ca was not different from the AID for all diets. Furthermore, the Ca digestibility was not affected by dietary treatments, but the P digestibility was linearly improved (P

Silicon oxycarbide/titanium dioxide (SiOC/TiO 2 ) fibers have been prepared from tetrabutyl titanate modified polyhydromethylsiloxane through electrospinning and pyrolysis. The SiOC/TiO 2 fibers, which are hydrophobic with water contact angle of 130°, own wrinkle-like surface rising from anisotropic volume shrinkage during the pyrolysis. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy are exploited for characterization on the obtained polytitanosiloxane gel fibers and the ceramic fibers. The results indicate that the gel fibers are converted to ceramic fibers consisting of amorphous silicon and titanium oxycarbide glass by pyrolysis at 1000 °C, and further decomposed into cristobalite-SiO 2 , brookite-TiO 2 and trace of TiC nanoparticles embedded in amorphous phase at 1300 °C.

Background & Aims Beyond bacteria, the human gastrointestinal tract is host to a vast diversity of fungi, collectively known as the gut mycobiome. Little is known of the impact of geography, ethnicity, and urbanization on the gut mycobiome at a large population level. We aim to delineate the variation of human gut mycobiome and its association with host factors, environmental factors, and diets. Methods Using shotgun metagenomic sequencing, we profiled and compared the fecal mycobiome of 942 healthy individuals across different geographic regions in China (Hong Kong and Yunnan), spanning 6 ethnicities: Han, Zang, Bai, Hani, Dai, and Miao (including both urban and rural residents of each ethnicity). In parallel to fecal sampling, we collected participant metadata (environmental exposure, bowel habits, anthropometrics, and medication), diet, and clinical blood measurement results (a total of 118 variables) and investigated their impact on the gut mycobiome variation in humans. Results The human gut mycobiome was highly variable across populations. Urbanization-related factors had the strongest impact on gut mycobiome variation, followed by geography, dietary habit, and ethnicity. The Hong Kong population (highly urbanized) had a significantly lower fungal richness compared with Yunnan population. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was highly enriched in urban compared with rural populations and showed significant inverse correlations with liver pathology–associated blood parameters, including aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase, gamma-glutamyltransferase, and direct bilirubin. Candida dubliniensis, which was decreased in urban relative to rural populations, showed correlations with host metabolism-related parameters in blood, including a positive correlation with fasting high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and a negative correlation with fasting glucose levels. The fungal-blood parameter correlations were highly geography- and ethnicity-specific. Food choices had differential influences on gut mycobiome and bacterial microbiome, where taxa from the same genus tended to be coregulated by food and thereby cobloom. Ethnicity-specific fungal signatures were associated with distinct habitual foods in each ethnic group. Conclusions Our data highlight, for the first time to our knowledge, that geography, urbanization, ethnicity, and habitual diet play an important role in shaping the gut mycobiome composition. Gut fungal configurations in combination with population characteristics (such as residing region, ethnicity, diet, lifestyle) influence host metabolism and health.

Electrocortical responses, elicited by laser heat pulses that selectively activate nociceptive free nerve endings, are widely used in many animal and human studies to investigate the cortical processing of nociceptive information. These laser-evoked brain potentials (LEPs) consist of several transient responses that are time-locked to the onset of laser stimuli. However, the functional properties of the LEP responses are still largely unknown, due to the lack of a sampling technique that can simultaneously record neural activities at the surface of the cortex (i.e., electrocorticogram [ECoG] and scalp electroencephalogram [scalp EEG]) and inside the brain (i.e., local field potential [LFP]). To address this issue, we present here an animal protocol using freely moving rats. This protocol is composed of three main procedures: (1) animal preparation and surgical procedures, (2) a simultaneous recording of ECoG and LFP in response to nociceptive laser stimuli, and (3) data analysis and feature extraction. Specifically, with the help of a 3D-printed protective shell, both ECoG and LFP electrodes implanted on the rat's skull were securely held together. During data collection, laser pulses were delivered on the rat's forepaws through gaps in the bottom of the chamber when the animal was in spontaneous stillness. Ongoing white noise was played to avoid the activation of the auditory system by the laser-generated ultrasounds. As a consequence, only nociceptive responses were selectively recorded. Using the standard analytical procedures (e.g., band-pass filtering, epoch extraction, and baseline correction) to extract stimulus-related brain responses, we obtained results showing that LEPs with a high signal-to-noise ratio were simultaneously recorded from ECoG and LFP electrodes. This methodology makes the simultaneous recording of ECoG and LFP activities possible, which provides a bridge of electrocortical signals at the mesoscopic and macroscopic levels, thereby facilitating the investigation of nociceptive information processing in the brain.

Butyrate-induced autophagy and anti-inflammatory effects of IECs plays an important role in UC. HSP has been proved to be associated with autophagy. HSF2, as an important regulator of HSP, has been determined to be highly expressed in UC. This study was designed to elucidate the relationship between HSF2, butyrate and epithelial autophagy and the potential mechanism of HSF2-related autophagy in UC. The autophagy levels and HSF2 expression in intestinal mucosa were increased in UC patients compared to controls. In DSS colitis models, hsf2-/- mice exhibited more severe intestinal inflammation and lower autophagy levels than wild-type mice. HSF2 expression could be induced by sodium butyrate and LPS as a dose-response relationship in HT-29 cells, epigenetically via increasing histone acetylation levels at the promoter region by sodium butyrate. Autophagy induced by sodium butyrate was promoted by overexpression HSF2 in HT-29 cells. Moreover, overexpression HSF2 decreased the expression and phosphorylation levels of PI3K, Akt and mTOR induced by sodium butyrate. HSF2 might induced by sodium butyrate and inflammation and played protective roles in UC by enhancing autophagy of IECs. This indicated that HSF2 may be a critical target for autophagy modulation and a new potential therapeutic target in UC.

Sialic acid-binding Ig-like lectin 8 (Siglec-8) is expressed on the surface of human eosinophils, mast cells, and basophils&mdash, cells that participate in allergic and other diseases. Ligation of Siglec-8 by specific glycan ligands or antibodies triggers eosinophil death and inhibits mast cell degranulation, consequences that could be leveraged as treatment. However, Siglec-8 is not expressed in murine and most other species, thus limiting preclinical studies in vivo. Based on a ROSA26 knock-in vector, a construct was generated that contains the CAG promoter, a LoxP-floxed-Neo-STOP fragment, and full-length Siglec-8 cDNA. Through homologous recombination, this Siglec-8 construct was targeted into the mouse genome of C57BL/6 embryonic stem (ES) cells, and chimeric mice carrying the ROSA26-Siglec-8 gene were generated. After cross-breeding to mast cell-selective Cre-recombinase transgenic lines (CPA3-Cre, and Mcpt5-Cre), the expression of Siglec-8 in different cell types was determined by RT-PCR and flow cytometry. Peritoneal mast cells (dual Fc&epsilon, RI+ and c-Kit+) showed the strongest levels of surface Siglec-8 expression by multicolor flow cytometry compared to expression levels on tissue-derived mast cells. Siglec-8 was seen on a small percentage of peritoneal basophils, but not other leukocytes from CPA3-Siglec-8 mice. Siglec-8 mRNA and surface protein were also detected on bone marrow-derived mast cells. Transgenic expression of Siglec-8 in mice did not affect endogenous numbers of mast cells when quantified from multiple tissues. Thus, we generated two novel mouse strains, in which human Siglec-8 is selectively expressed on mast cells. These mice may enable the study of Siglec-8 biology in mast cells and its therapeutic targeting in vivo.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of oral N-carbamylglutamate (NCG) administration on intestinal digestive enzymes, microbiota population and immunity under physiological condition in newborn piglets. A total of 48 1-d-old piglets (sow reared) were allotted, based on the initial body weights (1.57±0.04 kg), into 4 treatments (12 piglets/group): (1) 0.52 g/kg body weight (BW) l -Alanine (control), (2) 0.31 g/kg BW l -Arginine·HCl (arginine), (3) 0.52 g/kg BW l -Alanine plus 50 mg/kg BW NCG, and (4) 0.52 g/kg BW l -Alanine plus 100 mg/kg BW NCG. The supplement were offered twice daily for 14 d. At d 7 and d 14, 6 piglets from each group were killed. Piglets supplemented with 50 mg/ kg BW NCG had increased average daily gain during days 1–14 after birth and jejunal mucosal lactase activity on d 7 compared with piglets supplemented with control, arginine and 100 mg/kg BW NCG groups. Serum concentrations of arginine, glutamate, citrulline and ornithine in arginine, 50 and 100 mg/kg BW NCG groups were markedly increased at d 7 and 14, in comparison with the control group (P

This study presents fabrication and characterization of novel SiOC/HfO 2 fibers by a sol–gel process. Polyhafnosiloxane (PHfSO) fibers have been drawn from silicon alkoxide solution consisting of tetraethoxylsilane (TEOS) and dimethyldiethoxylsilane (DMDES) using tetrachloride hafnium (HfCl 4 ) as hafnium source. The spinnability of the solution has been optimized by varying the amount of HfCl 4 and H 2 O. The Hf incorporation is confirmed by the formation of Hf–O–Si bridge through co-condensation of HfCl 4 , TEOS and DEDES. Subsequent pyrolysis treatment of the PHfSO gel fibers yields dense SiOC/HfO 2 fibers with high ceramic yield of 81 wt%. The SiOC/HfO 2 fibers exhibit good thermal stability up to 1500 °C and mechanical property with tensile strength of 930 MPa.