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The gut-brain axis is an active area of research. Several representative diseases, including central nervous system disorders (Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and depression), metabolic disorders (obesity-related diseases), and intestinal disorders (inflammatory bowel disease and dysbiosis), are associated with the dysfunctional gut-brain axis. Baicalin, a bioactive flavonoid extracted from Scutellaria baicalensis , is reported to exert various pharmacological effects. This narrative review summarizes the molecular mechanisms and potential targets of baicalin in disorders of the gut-brain axis. Baicalin protects the central nervous system through anti-neuroinflammatory and anti-neuronal apoptotic effects, suppresses obesity through anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, and alleviates intestinal disorders through regulatory effects on intestinal microorganisms and short-chain fatty acid production. The bioactivities of baicalin are mediated through the gut-brain axis. This review comprehensively summarizes the regulatory role of baicalin in gut-brain axis disorders, laying a foundation for future research, although further confirmatory basic research is required.

Introduction: Platinum-based chemotherapy is the first-line treatment strategy for ovarian cancer patients. The dismal prognosis of ovarian cancer was shown to be stringently associated with the heterogeneity of tumor cells in response to this therapy, therefore understanding platinum sensitivity in ovarian cancer would be helpful for improving patients' quality of life and clinical outcomes. HRDetect, utilized to characterize patients' homologous recombination repair deficiency, was used to predict patients' response to platinum-based chemotherapy. However, whether each of the single features contributing to HRD score is associated with platinum sensitivity remains elusive. Methods: We analyzed the whole-exome sequencing data of 196 patients who received platinum-based chemotherapy from the TCGA database. Genetic features were determined individually to see if they could indicate patients' response to platinum-based chemotherapy and prognosis, then integrated into a Pt-score employing LASSO regression model to assess its predictive performance. Results and discussion: Multiple genetic features, including bi-allelic inactivation of BRCA1/2 genes and genes involved in HR pathway, multiple somatic mutations in genes involved in DNA damage repair (DDR), and previously reported HRD-related features, were found to be stringently associated with platinum sensitivity and improved prognosis. Higher contributions of mutational signature SBS39 or ID6 predicted improved overall survival. Besides, arm-level loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of either chr4p or chr5q predicted significantly better disease-free survival. Notably, some of these features were found independent of HRD. And SBS3, an HRD-related feature, was found irrelevant to platinum sensitivity. Integrated all candidate markers using the LASSO model to yield a Pt-score, which showed better predictive ability compared to HRDetect in determining platinum sensitivity and predicting patients' prognosis, and this performance was validated in an independent cohort. The outcomes of our study will be instrumental in devising effective strategies for treating ovarian cancer with platinum-based chemotherapy., Competing Interests: GL, XL, LG, and CZ are current employees of Geneplus-Shenzhen. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Yang, Wei, Li, Lan, Liu, Gao, Zhang, Fan and Li.)

Special separation membranes are widely employed for separation and purification purposes under challenging operating conditions due to their low energy consumption, excellent solvent, and corrosion resistance. However, the development of membranes is limited by corrosion-resistant polymer substrates and precise interfacial separation layers. Herein, polyaniline (PANI) is employed to achieve insitu anchoring of multiple interfaces, resulting in the fabrication of polyaniline@graphene oxide/polyether ether ketone (PANI@GO/PEEK) membranes. Insitu growth of PANI achieves the adequate bonding of the PEEK substrate and GO separation interface, which solves the problem of solution processing of PEEK and the instability of GO layers. By bottom-up confined polymerization of aniline, it could control the pore size of the separation layer, correct defects, and anchor among polymer, nano-separation layer, and nano-sheet. The mechanism of membrane construction within the confined domain and micro-nano structure modulation is further explored. The membranes demonstrate exceptional stability realizing over 90% rejection in 2 m HCl, NaOH, and high temperatures. Additionally, -membranes exhibit remarkable durability after 240 days immersion and 100 h long-term operation, which display the methanol flux of 50.2 L m -2 h -1 and 92% rejection of AF (585 g mol -1 ). This method substantially contributes to special separation membranes by offering a novel strategy., (© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The treatment of refractory cutaneous wounds remains to be a clinical challenge. There is growing evidence to show that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have great potential in promoting wound healing. However, the therapeutic effects of MSCs are greatly dampened by their poor survival and engraftment in the wounds. To address this limitation, in this study, MSCs were grown into a collagen-glycosaminoglycan (C-GAG) matrix to form a dermis-like tissue sheet, named engineered dermal substitute (EDS). When seeded on C-GAG matrix, MSCs adhered rapidly, migrated into the pores, and proliferated readily. When applied onto excisional wounds in healthy and diabetic mice, the EDS survived well, and accelerated wound closure, compared with C-GAG matrix alone or MSCs in collagen hydrogel. Histological analysis revealed that EDS prolonged the retention of MSCs in the wounds, associated with increased macrophage infiltration and enhanced angiogenesis. RNA-Seq analysis of EDS-treated wounds uncovered the expression of abundant human chemokines and proangiogenic factors and their corresponding murine receptors, suggesting a mechanism of ligand/receptor-mediated signals in wound healing. Thus, our results indicate that EDS prolongs the survival and retention of MSCs in the wounds and enhances wound healing.

Background: The phenomenon of short-form video application addiction among Chinese adolescents is noteworthy. More research has focused on the influencing factors of internet addiction, but research on specifically exploring the antecedents and influencing mechanisms of short-form video application addiction (a subcategory of internet addiction) among adolescents is insufficient., Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the relation between parental neglect and short-form video application addiction among Chinese adolescents and examine the mediating effect of alexithymia and the moderating role of refusal self-efficacy., Methods: A total of 1203 Chinese adolescents were assigned to complete scales regarding parental neglect, alexithymia, refusal self-efficacy and short-form video application addiction., Results: Parental neglect was positively related to short-form video application addiction among Chinese adolescents, and alexithymia mediated this link. Furthermore, refusal self-efficacy moderated the direct connection between parental neglect and short-form video application addiction. Specifically, the link between parental neglect and short-form video application addiction became weaker as adolescents' refusal self-efficacy increased., Conclusion: The experiences of parental neglect are closely related to higher levels of short-form video application addiction among Chinese adolescents. Parental neglect is associated with higher level of short-form video application addiction through stronger alexithymia, and the relationship between parental neglect and short-form video application addiction is attenuated when adolescents have high refusal self-efficacy., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Conductive elastomers with both softness and conductivity are widely used in the field of flexible electronics. Nonetheless, conductive elastomers typically exhibit prominent problems such as solvent volatilization and leakage, and poor mechanical and conductive properties, which limit their applications in electronic skin (e-skin). In this work, a liquid-free conductive ionogel (LFCIg) with excellent performance was fabricated by utilizing the innovative double network design approach based on a deep eutectic solvent (DES). The double-network LFCIg is cross-linked by dynamic non-covalent bonds, which exhibit excellent mechanical properties (2100% strain while sustaining a fracture strength of 1.23 MPa) and >90% self-healing efficiency, and a superb electrical conductivity of 23.3 mS m -1 and 3D printability. Moreover, the conductive elastomer based on LFCIg has been developed into a stretchable strain sensor that achieves accurate response recognition, classification, and identification of different robot gestures. More impressively, an e-skin with tactile sensing functions is produced by in situ 3D printing of sensor arrays on flexible electrodes to detect light weight objects and recognize the resulting spatial pressure variations. Collectively, the results demonstrate that the designed LFCIg has unparalleled advantages and presents wide application potential in flexible robotics, e-skin and physiological signal monitoring.

Dynamic infrared emissivity regulators, which can efficiently modulate infrared radiation beyond vision, have emerged as an attractive technology in the energy and information fields. The realization of the independent modulation of visible and infrared spectra is a challenging and important task for the application of dynamic infrared emissivity regulators in the fields of smart thermal management and multispectral camouflage. Here, we demonstrate an electrically controlled infrared emissivity regulator that can achieve independent modulation of the infrared emissivity while maintaining a high visible transparency (84.7% at 400-760 nm). The regulators show high degree of emissivity regulation (0.51 at 3-5 μm, 0.41 at 7.5-13 μm), fast response ( < 600 ms), and long cycle life ( > 10 4 cycles). The infrared emissivity regulation is attributed to the modification of the carrier concentration in the surface depletion layer of aluminum-doped zinc oxide nanocrystals. This transparent infrared emissivity regulator provides opportunities for applications such as on-demand smart thermal management, multispectral displays, and adaptive camouflage., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

Deep Transfer Learning (DTL) signifies a novel paradigm in machine learning, merging the superiorities of deep learning in feature representation with the merits of transfer learning in knowledge transference. This synergistic integration propels DTL to the forefront of research and development within the Intelligent Fault Diagnosis (IFD) sphere. While the early DTL paradigms, reliant on fine-tuning, demonstrated effectiveness, they encountered considerable obstacles in complex domains. In response to these challenges, Adversarial Deep Transfer Learning (ADTL) emerged. This review first categorizes ADTL into non-generative and generative models. The former expands upon traditional DTL, focusing on the efficient transference of features and mapping relationships, while the latter employs technologies such as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to facilitate feature transformation. A thorough examination of the recent advancements of ADTL in the IFD field follows. The review concludes by summarizing the current challenges and future directions for DTL in fault diagnosis, including issues such as data imbalance, negative transfer, and adversarial training stability. Through this cohesive analysis, this review aims to offer valuable insights and guidance for the optimization and implementation of ADTL in real-world industrial scenarios.

Radiotherapy resistance is an important and urgent challenge in the clinical management of esophageal squamous carcinoma (ESCC). However, the factors mediating the ESCC resistance to radiotherapy and its underlying molecular mechanisms are not fully clarified. Our previous studies have demonstrated the critical role of DNA polymerase iota (POLI) in ESCC development and progression, here, we aimed to investigate the involvement of POLI in ESCC radiotherapy resistance and elucidate the underlying molecular mechanism. We found that highly expressed POLI was correlated with shorter overall survival of ESCC patients received radiotherapy. Down-regulation of POLI sensitized ESCC to IR, prolonged γH2AX foci in nuclei and comet tails after IR. HR but not NHEJ repair is inhibited in POLI-deficient ESCC cells. POLI stabilizes RAD51 protein via competitively binding with and blocking the interaction between RAD51 and E3 ligase XIAP and XIAP-mediated ubiquitination. Furthermore, loss of POLI leads to the activation of GAS signaling. Our findings provide novel insight into the role of POLI in the development of radioresistance mediated by stabilizing RAD51 protein in ESCC., (© 2023. Cell Death Differentiation Association (ADMC).)

PAX5, a member of the paired box gene family of transcription factors, is a B-cell-specific activator protein that plays important roles during B lymphopoiesis. Two putative PAX5 binding sites in the human GINS1 promoter region were identified. EMSA, ChIP and luciferase assay showed that PAX5 functions as a positive transcription factor for GINS1 expression. Furthermore, coordinated expression of PAX5 and GINS1 was observed in mice B cells under physiological conditions and LPS stimulation situations. A similar pattern was also observed in human DLBCL cell lines under differentiation-inducing conditions. In addition, both PAX5 and GINS1 were highly expressed and significantly correlated in DLBCL specimens and cell lines. These findings suggested that dysregulation of PAX5 played an extremely important role in controlling the universal phenomenon of tumor progression through increased expression of GINS1 in DLBCL. In addition, circ1857 that was generated using back splicing of PAX5 pre-mRNA could further stabilize GINS1 mRNA, modulate GINS1 expression and promote lymphoma progression. To the best of our knowledge, this report is the first to demonstrate the role of GINS1 in DLBCL progression, and the mechanism of GINS1 upregulation using both circ1857 and PAX5 in DLBCL was revealed. Our results suggested that GINS1 may be a possible therapeutic target for DLBCL., (© 2023 The Authors. Cancer Science published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japanese Cancer Association.)

Fluoride-induced male reproductive failure is a major environmental and human health concern, but interventions are still lacking. Melatonin (MLT) has potential functions in regulating testicular damage and interleukin-17 (IL-17) production. This study aims to explore whether MLT can mitigate fluoride-induced male reproductive toxicity through IL-17A, and screen the potential targets. So the wild type and IL-17A knockout mice were employed and treated with sodium fluoride (100 mg/L) by drinking water and MLT (10 mg/kg.BW, intraperitoneal injection per two days starting from week 16) for 18 weeks. Bone F- concentrations, grade of dental damage, sperm quality, spermatogenic cells counts, histological morphology of testis and epididymis, and the mRNA expression of spermatogenesis and maturation, classical pyroptosis related and immune factor genes were detected respectively. The results revealed that MLT supplementations alleviated fluoride-induced impairment of spermatogenesis and maturation process, protecting the morphology of testis and epididymis through IL-17A pathway, and Tesk1 and Pten were identified as candidate targets from 29 regulation genes. Taken together, this study demonstrated a new physiological role for MLT in the protection against fluoride-induced reproductive injury and possible regulation mechanisms, which providing a useful therapeutic strategy for male reproductive function failure caused by fluoride or other environmental pollutants., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Fluoride (F) is usually treated as a hazardous material, and F-caused public health problem has attracted global attention. Previous studies demonstrate that interleukin-17A (IL-17A) plays a crucial role in F-elicited autoimmune orchitis and self-recovery reverses F-induced testicular toxicity to some extent, but these basic mechanisms remain unclear. Thus, we established a 180 d F exposure model of wild type (WT) mice and IL-17A knockout mice (C57BL/6 J background), and 60 d & 120 d self-recovery model based on F exposure model of WT mice, and used various techniques like qRT-PCR, western blot, immunohistochemistry and ELISA to further explore the mechanism of F-induced autoimmune reaction, the role of IL-17A in it and the reversibility of F-caused toxicity in testis. The results indicated that F exposure for 180 d caused the decreased sperm quality, the damaged testis histopathology, the enhanced mRNA and protein expression levels of inflammatory cytokines, the changes of autoantibody such as the appearance and increased content of anti-testicular autoantibodies in sera and the autoantibody deposition in testis, the alterations of autoimmune related genes containing the decreased mRNA and protein expressions of AIRE and FOXP3 with an increase of MHCII, and the reduced protein expressions of CTLA4, and the activation of IL-17A signaling cascade like the elevated mRNA and protein expressions of IL-17A, Act1, NF-κB, AP-1 and CEBPβ, and the increased protein expressions of IL-17RC, with a decrease of IκBα. After IL-17A knockout, 29 of 35 F-induced changes were alleviated. In two self-recovery models, all F-caused differences except fluorine concentration in femur were gradually restored in a time-dependent manner. This study concluded that IL-17A knockout or self-recovery attenuated F-induced testicular injury and decrease of sperm quality through alleviating autoimmune reaction which was involved with the activation of IL-17A pathway, the damage of self-tolerance and the enhancement of antigen presentation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Ship fires are one of the main factors that endanger the safety of ships; because the ship is far away from land, the fire can be difficult to extinguish and could often cause huge losses. The engine room has many pieces of equipment and is the principal place of fire; however, due to its complex internal environment, it can bring many difficulties to the task of fire detection. The traditional detection methods have their own limitations, but fire detection using deep learning technology has the characteristics of high detection speed and accuracy. In this paper, we improve the YOLOv7-tiny model to enhance its detection performance. Firstly, partial convolution (PConv) and coordinate attention (CA) mechanisms are introduced into the model to improve its detection speed and feature extraction ability. Then, SIoU is used as a loss function to accelerate the model's convergence and improve accuracy. Finally, the experimental results on the dataset of the ship engine room fire made by us shows that the mAP@0.5 of the improved model is increased by 2.6%, and the speed is increased by 10 fps, which can meet the needs of engine room fire detection.

Background: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a crucial mechanism that microRNA-222-3p (miR-222-3p) promotes breast cancer (BC) progression. Our study aimed to identify EMT-associated target genes (ETGs) of miR-222-3p for further analysis of their roles in BC based on bioinformatics tools., Methods: Based on bioinformatics analysis, we identified 10 core ETGs of miR-222-3p. Then, we performed a comprehensive analysis of 10 ETGs and miR-222-3p, including pathway enrichment analysis of ETGs, differential expression, clinical significance, correlation with immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoint genes (ICGs) expression, tumor mutational burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), stemness, drug sensitivity, and genetic alteration., Results: The expression of miR222-3p in basal-like BC was significantly higher than in other subtypes of BC and the normal adjacent tissue. Pathway analysis suggested that the ETGs might regulate the EMT process via the PI3K-Akt and HIF-1 signaling pathway. Six of the 10 core ETGs of miR-222-3p identified were down-expressed in BC, which were EGFR, IL6, NRP1, NTRK2, LAMC2 , and PIK3R1 , and SERPINE1, MUC1, MMP11 , and BIRC5 were up-expressed in BC, which also showed potential diagnostic values in BC. Prognosis analysis revealed that higher NTRK2 and PIK3R1 expressions were related to a better prognosis, and higher BIRC5 and miR-222-3p expressions were related to a worse prognosis. Most ETGs and miR-222-3p were positively correlated with various infiltration of various immune cells and ICGs expression. Lower TMB scores were correlated with higher expression of MUC1 and NTRK2 , and higher BIRC5 was related to a higher TMB score. Lower expression of MUC1 , NTRK2 , and PIK3R1 were associated with higher MSI scores. Higher expression of ETGs was associated with lower mRNAsi scores, except BIRC5 and miR-222-3p conversely. Most ETGs and miR-222-3p expression were negatively correlated with the drug IC50 values. The analysis of the genetic alteration of the ETGs suggested that amplification was the main genetic alteration of eight ETGs except for NTRK2 and PIK3R1 ., Conclusion: MiR-222-3p might be a specific biomarker of basal-like BC. We successfully identify 10 core ETGs of miR-222-3p, some might be useful diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. The comprehensive analysis of 10 ETGs and miR-222-3p indicated that they might be involved in the development of BC, which might be novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of BC., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Fang, Zhang, Chen, Chen, Zheng, She, Zhang and Wu.)

The development of a competitive-cost and high-efficiency NiMo/Al 2 O 3 hydrodesulfurization (HDS) catalyst remains challenging in the field of petrochemical industry. Herein, a highly efficient NiMo/Al 2 O 3 monolithic HDS catalyst was elaborately designed and successfully fabricated via a one-pot three-dimensional (3D) printing strategy, and its HDS activity was examined for 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene conversion. The results unveil that the NiMo/Al 2 O 3 monolithic catalyst prepared by the 3D printing strategy (3D-NiMo/Al 2 O 3 ) exhibits hierarchical structure due to the combustion of hydroxymethyl cellulose serving as adhesive, which endows the weaker metal-support-interaction between Mo oxides and Al 2 O 3 , remarkably promoting sulfidation of both Mo and Ni species and the formation of "Type II" NiMoS active phase, thereby reducing the apparent activation energy ( E a = 109.2 kJ·mol -1 ) and increasing the catalytic activity (TOF = 4.0 h -1 ) and thereafter dramatically boosting the HDS performance of 3D-NiMo/Al 2 O 3 compared with that of NiMo/Al 2 O 3 ( E a = 150.6 kJ·mol -1 and TOF = 2.1 h -1 ) counterpart synthesized by conventional method with P123 serving as the mesoporous template. Therefore, this study offers a facile and straightforward strategy to fabricate an efficient HDS catalyst with hierarchical structures.

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have been adopted widely as classifiers for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, advancing beyond traditional machine learning models. Consequently, transfer learning of the pre-trained DNN becomes crucial to enhance DNN classification performance, specifically by alleviating an overfitting issue that occurs when a substantial number of DNN parameters are fitted to a relatively small number of fMRI samples. In this study, we first systematically compared the two most popularly used, unsupervised pretraining models for resting-state fMRI (rfMRI) volume data to pre-train the DNNs, namely autoencoder (AE) and restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM). The group in-brain mask used when training AE and RBM displayed a sizable overlap ratio with Yeo's seven functional brain networks (FNs). The parcellated FNs obtained from the RBM were fine-grained compared to those from the AE. The pre-trained AE and RBM served as the weight parameters of the first of the two hidden DNN layers, and the DNN fulfilled the task classifier role for fMRI (tfMRI) data in the Human Connectome Project (HCP). We tested two transfer learning schemes: (1) fixing and (2) fine-tuning the DNN's pre-trained AE or RBM weights. The DNN with transfer learning was compared to a baseline DNN, trained using random initial weights. Overall, DNN classification performance from the transfer learning proved superior when the pre-trained RBM weights were fixed and when the pre-trained AE weights were fine-tuned (average error rates: 14.8% for fixed RBM, 15.1% fine-tuned AE, and 15.5% for the baseline model) compared to the alternative scenarios of DNN transfer learning schemes. Moreover, the optimal transfer learning scheme between the fixed RBM and fine-tuned AE varied according to seven task conditions in the HCP. Nonetheless, the computational load reduced substantially for the fixed-weight-based transfer learning compared to the fine-tuning-based transfer learning (e.g., the number of weight parameters for the fixed-weight-based DNN model reduced to 1.9% compared with a baseline/fine-tuned DNN model). Our findings suggest that weight initialization at the DNN's first layer using RBM-based pre-trained weights provides the most promising approach when the whole-brain fMRI volume supports associated task classification. We believe that our proposed scheme could be applied to a variety of task conditions to improve their classification performance and to utilize computational resources efficiently using our AE/RBM-based pre-trained weights compared to random initial weights for DNN training., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

GINS1 is overexpressed in several types of cancers including leukemia and linked to poor outcomes. However, GINS1 remains poorly investigated in DLBCL (diffuse large B-cell lymphoma). This project aimed to explore the expression, functions and regulation of GINS1 in DLBCL. In this study, through analysis of clinical specimens from DLBCL patients, we uncovered that GINS1 was upregulated in DLBCL. By EMSA, ChIP and luciferase reporter assays, it was found that FOXP1 transcriptionally activated GINS1 expression by directly binding to the promoter region of the GINS1 gene. Western blotting and RT-PCR also revealed that GINS1 expression positively correlated with FOXP1 in human DLBCL specimens and cell lines. In an in vivo xenograft lymphoma mouse model, the FOXP1/GINS1 regulatory axis was also validated. Moreover, with CCK8 cell proliferation assays and colony formation assay, elevated GINS1 expression was found to be associated with doxorubicin resistance in lymphoma cells. Our findings showed that the FOXP1-GINS1 axis played a critical role in DLBCL development and doxorubicin resistance, and targeting the FOXP1-GINS1 axis could be a potential therapeutic approach for DLBCL treatment., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists., (© The author(s).)

Background: Motor imagery brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) is a classic and potential BCI technology achieving brain computer integration. In motor imagery BCI, the operational frequency band of the EEG greatly affects the performance of motor imagery EEG recognition model. However, as most algorithms used a broad frequency band, the discrimination from multiple sub-bands were not fully utilized. Thus, using convolutional neural network (CNNs) to extract discriminative features from EEG signals of different frequency components is a promising method in multisubject EEG recognition., Methods: This paper presents a novel overlapping filter bank CNN to incorporate discriminative information from multiple frequency components in multisubject motor imagery recognition. Specifically, two overlapping filter banks with fixed low-cut frequency or sliding low-cut frequency are employed to obtain multiple frequency component representations of EEG signals. Then, multiple CNN models are trained separately. Finally, the output probabilities of multiple CNN models are integrated to determine the predicted EEG label., Results: Experiments were conducted based on four popular CNN backbone models and three public datasets. And the results showed that the overlapping filter bank CNN was efficient and universal in improving multisubject motor imagery BCI performance. Specifically, compared with the original backbone model, the proposed method can improve the average accuracy by 3.69 percentage points, F1 score by 0.04, and AUC by 0.03. In addition, the proposed method performed best among the comparison with the state-of-the-art methods., Conclusion: The proposed overlapping filter bank CNN framework with fixed low-cut frequency is an efficient and universal method to improve the performance of multisubject motor imagery BCI., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Purpose: Anlotinib is a novel oral small-molecule multi-target tyrosine kinase inhibitor that has been approved for treating non-small cell lung cancer. However, its efficacy and safety among patients with advanced gynecological cancer have not been comprehensively evaluated. We conducted this study to address this issue in the real-world setting., Patients and Methods: Data from patients treated with Anlotinib for persistent, recurrent or metastatic gynecological cancer were collected from 17 centers from August 2018. The database lock-time was on March 2022. Anlotinib was administered orally on days 1-14 every 3 weeks until disease progression, severe toxicity occurred, or death. In this study, disease-specific advanced gynecological cancer was mainly referred to cervical, endometrial, and ovarian cancer. The outcomes included objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and progression-free survival (PFS)., Results: A total of 249 patients were analyzed, with a median follow-up of 14.5 months. The overall ORR and DCR were 28.1% [95% confidence interval (CI) 22.6% to 34.1%] and 80.7% (95% CI 75.3% to 85.4%), respectively. Specifically, the ORR varied from 19.7% to 34.4% and the DCR differed from 81.7% to 90.0% in disease-specific advanced gynecological cancer. The median PFS was 6.1 months and ranged from 5.6 to 10.0 months in the overall and disease-specific advanced gynecological cancer, respectively. Larger cumulative dosage of Anlotinib (>700 mg) was in general associated with longer PFS in the overall and disease-specific advanced gynecological cancer. The most common adverse event related to Anlotinib treatment was pain/arthralgia (18.3%)., Conclusion: In conclusion, Anlotinib holds promise in treating patients with advanced gynecological cancer including its disease-specific types, with reasonable efficacy and tolerable safety., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2023 Hong et al.)

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is resistant to targeted therapy with HER2 monoclonal antibodies and endocrine therapy, because it lacks the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). TNBC is a subtype of breast cancer with the worst prognosis and the highest mortality rate compared to other subtypes. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification is significant in cancer and metastasis, because it can alter gene expression and function at numerous levels, such as RNA splicing, stability, translocation, and translation. There are limited investigations into the connection between TNBC and m6A., Materials and Methods: Breast cancer-related data were retrieved from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, and 116 triple-negative breast cancer cases were identified from the data. The GSE31519 data set, which included 68 cases of TNBC, was obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Survival analysis was used to determine the prognosis of distinct m6A types based on their m6A group, gene group, and m6A score. To investigate the potential mechanism, GO and KEGG analyses were performed on the differentially expressed genes., Results: The expression of m6A-related genes and their impact on prognosis in TNBC patients were studied. According to the findings, m6A was crucial in determining the prognosis of TNBC patients, and the major m6A-linked genes in this process were YTHDF2, RBM15B, IGFBP3, and WTAP. YTHDF2, RBM15B and IGFBP3 are associated with poor prognosis, while WTAP is associated with good prognosis. By cluster analysis, the gene cluster and the m6A cluster were beneficial in predicting the prognosis of TNBC patients. The m6A score based on m6A and gene clusters was more effective in predicting the prognosis of TNBC patients. Furthermore, the tumor microenvironment may play an important role in the process of m6A, influencing TNBC prognosis., Conclusions: N6-adenylic acid methylation (m6A) was important in altering the prognosis of TNBC patients, and the key m6A-associated genes in this process were YTHDF2, RBM15B, IGFBP3, and WTAP. Furthermore, the comprehensive typing based on m6A and gene clusters was useful in predicting TNBC patients' prognosis, showing potential as valuable evaluating tools for TNBC., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) is a promising candidate for actuation in light-driven soft robot applications. Due to the fact that LCE has complex hysteretic nonlinearities, which are highly dependent on the environment, modeling of actuators made of LCE is a very challenging issue. In this article, a model is proposed to describe the deformation of the LCE actuator accurately and analytically by considering the dynamic phase transition process of LCE molecules. First, an overview of the physical process of LCE's deformation is presented, and the schematic of the LCE actuator, as well as the modeling scheme are then introduced. Next, a thermodynamic analysis of the system's free energy is performed to establish the model for the LCE actuator, which gives the relationship between the system's deformation and the temperature. Here, to describe the complex hysteretic nonlinearity in the model, the dynamic process of the phase transition of LCE molecules is exploited. To effectively identify the model parameters, a two-step parameter identification strategy based on the differential evolution algorithm and nonlinear least-squares method is utilized. Finally, experimental results verify the validity of the proposed model. This modeling provides an approach to describe LCE's deformation with high accuracy and can fully reflect the physical nature of LCE's deformation, especially hysteresis. It can be utilized as a basis for accurate control over LCE actuators in photoresponsive soft robot applications.

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) show broad application prospects in the area of soft robots since they offer merits of fast response, large deformation, light weight and high energy conversion efficiency. Practical soft robot applications would usually require the study on the modeling and control of the DEA. However, the DEA has a memory property, which results in a highly nonlinear characteristics, bringing difficulties to the subject. To address this issue, an effective strategy is the utilization of the fractional order model, which is a type of modeling approach that can accurately characterize the memory property of a material with a small amount of parameters. Meanwhile, the fractional order controller can better handler the memory property, and it owns a better flexibility than traditional integer order controllers. With the above considerations, this paper proposes a modeling strategy and a tracking control strategy for the DEA on the basis of the fractional calculus. In the proposed strategy, a fractional order model is established to characterize the complicated nonlinear characteristics of the DEA. Then, to facilitate the computer simulation, the Oustaloup filter is used to construct an integer order approximation model (IOAM) of the fractional order model. Since the IOAM is difficult to be employed in the system controller design due to its high order, the IOAM is further simplified into a reduced order model based on the square root balance truncation algorithm. To realize the high accuracy control of the DEA, a feedforward-feedback combined controller is devised, which is composed of a feedforward controller and a fractional order proportional integral feedback controller (FOPIFC). Among which, the feedforward controller is devised based on the analytical inverse of the reduced order model to compensate the complicated nonlinear characteristics of the DEA, and the FOPIFC is devised to handle the bad influence from the modeling error and uncertainties on the control performance. Based on the proposed strategy, control experiment was conducted, and the root-mean-square errors in experiment are all below 0.7%, indicating the superiority of the presented modeling and tracking control strategies., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Previous observational studies reported associations between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and major depressive disorder (MDD), however, these associations are often inconsistent and underlying biological mechanisms are still poorly understood. We conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) study to examine relationships between genetic variants and NSAID target gene expression or DNA methylation (DNAm) using publicly available expression, methylation quantitative trait loci (eQTL or mQTL) data and genetic variant-disease associations from genome-wide association studies (GWAS of MDD). We also assessed drug exposure using gene expression and DNAm levels of NSAID targets as proxies. Genetic variants were robustly adjusted for multiple comparisons related to gene expression, DNAm was used as MR instrumental variables and GWAS statistics of MDD as the outcome. A 1-standard deviation (SD) lower expression of NEU1 in blood was related to lower C-reactive protein (CRP) levels of -0.215 mg/L (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.128-0.426) and a decreased risk of MDD (odds ratio [OR] = 0.806; 95% CI: 0.735-0.885; p = 5.36 × 10 -6 ). A concordant direction of association was also observed for NEU1 DNAm levels in blood and a risk of MDD (OR = 0.886; 95% CI: 0.836-0.939; p = 4.71 × 10 -5 ). Further, the genetic variants associated with MDD were mediated by NEU1 expression via DNAm (β = -0.519; 95% CI: -0.717 to -0.320256; p = 3.16 × 10 -7 ). We did not observe causal relationships between inflammatory genetic marker estimations and MDD risk. Yet, we identified a concordant association of NEU1 messenger RNA and an adverse direction of association of higher NEU1 DNAm with MDD risk. These results warrant increased pharmacovigilance and further in vivo or in vitro studies to investigate NEU1 inhibitors or supplements for MDD., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Soft strain gauges provide a flexible and versatile alternative to traditional rigid and inextensible gauges, overcoming issues such as impedance mismatch, the limited sensing range, and fatigue/fracture. Although several materials and structural designs are used to fabricate soft strain gauges, achieving multi-functionality for applications remains a significant challenge. Herein, a mechanically interlocked gel-elastomer hybrid material is exploited for soft strain gauge. Such a material design provides exceptional fracture energy of 59.6 kJ m -2 and a fatigue threshold of 3300 J m -2 , along with impressive strength and stretchability. The hybrid material electrode possesses excellent sensing performances under both static and dynamic loading conditions. It boasts a tiny detection limit of 0.05% strain, ultrafast time resolution of 0.495 ms, and high linearity. This hybrid material electrode can accurately detect full-range human-related frequency vibrations ranging from 0.5 to 1000 Hz, enabling the measurement of physiological parameters. Additionally, the patterned soft strain gauge, created through lithography, demonstrates superior signal-noise rate and electromechanical robustness against deformation. By integrating a multiple-channel device, an intelligent motion detection system is developed, which can classify six typical human body movements with the assistance of machine learning. This innovation is expected to drive advancements in wearable device technology., (© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Introduction: Microwave ablation (MWA) is an effective local treatment for malignant liver tumors; however, its efficacy and safety for liver tumors adjacent to important organs are debatable., Patients and Methods: Forty-three cases with liver tumors adjacent to important organs were the risk group and 66 cases were the control group. The complications between two groups were compared by chi-square test and t-test. Local tumor recurrence (LTR) was analyzed by log-rank test. Factors affecting complications were analyzed by logistic regression and Spearman analyses. Factors affecting LTR were analyzed by Cox regression analysis. A receiver operating characteristic curve predicted pain treated with drugs and LTR., Results: We found no significant difference in complications and LTR between two groups. The risk group experienced lower ablation energy and more antennas per tumor than control group. Necrosis volume after MWA was positively correlated with pain; necrosis volume and ablation time were positively correlated with recovery duration. Major diameter of tumor >3 cm increased risk of LTR by 3.319-fold, good lipiodol deposition decreased risk of LTR by 73.4%. The area under the curve (AUC) for necrosis volume in predicting pain was 0.74, with a 69.1 cm3 cutoff. AUC for major diameter of tumor in predicting LTR was 0.68, with a 27.02 mm cutoff., Conclusion: MWA on liver tumors in at-risk areas is safe and effective, this is largely affected by proper ablation energy, antennas per tumor, and experienced doctors. LTR is primarily determined by major diameter of tumor and lipiodol deposition status., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Background and Objective: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) combined with angiogenesis inhibitors may have synergistic effects in elderly patients with advanced driver-negative NSCLC, but its true efficacy remains unclear. In addition, chemotherapy tolerance in elderly NSCLC patients is poor, and the precise identification of the population that may benefit from ICIs combined with angiogenesis inhibitors is also the focus of current research. Methods: We retrospectively compared the efficacy and safety of ICIs combined with or without antiangiogenic agents in elderly patients with advanced driver-gene negative NSCLC ≥65 years of age in the Cancer Center of Suzhou Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University. The primary endpoint was PFS. Secondary endpoints were OS, ORR, and immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Results: A total of 36 patients in the IA group (immune checkpoint inhibitors plus angiogenesis inhibitors group) and 43 patients in the NIA group (immune checkpoint inhibitors without angiogenesis inhibitors group) were enrolled in the study between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2021. The median follow-up time for patients in the IA group and NIA group was 18.2 months (95%CI: 14 - 22.5 months) and 21.4 months (95%CI: 16.7 -26.1 months), respectively. The median PFS and median OS were longer in the IA group compared to the NIA group (8.1 months vs 5.3 months; HR for PFS: 0.778, 95%CI: 0.474-1.276, P=0.32; NA vs 30.9 months; HR for OS: 0.795, 95%CI: 0.396-1.595, P=0.519). There were no significant differences in median PFS and median OS between the two groups. Subgroup analysis showed that patients in the IA group had significantly longer PFS in the subgroup with PD-L1 expression ≥50% ( P =0.017), and the association between different groups and disease progression was still different in the two subgroups ( P for interaction = 0.002). There was no significant difference in ORR between the two groups (23.3% vs 30.5%, P =0.465). The incidence of irAEs in the IA group was lower than that in the NIA group (39.5% vs 19.4%, P =0.05), and the cumulative incidence of treatment interruptions due to irAEs was significantly reduced ( P =0.045). Conclusion: In elderly patients with advanced driver-negative NSCLC, the addition of antiangiogenic agents to ICIs therapy did not provide significant clinical benefit, but the incidence of irAEs and treatment interruptions due to irAEs was significantly reduced. In the subgroup analysis, we found that the clinical benefit of this combination therapy was observed in patients with PD-L1 expression ≥50%, which warrants further exploration., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists., (© The author(s).)

A visible-light metal-free photocatalytic regioselective and enantioselective alkene halofunctionalization reaction under mild conditions is reported. Various terminal and internal alkenes were transformed to their α-halogenated and α,β-dibrominated derivatives in good to excellent yields within reaction time as short as 5 min. Water can be used as the "green" nucleophile and solvent in the halohydroxylation and halo-oxidation reactions. Different types of products can be obtained by adjusting the reaction conditions. In addition, sunlight is proved to produce products with similar yields, representing a practical example of solar synthesis and providing an opportunity for solar energy utilization.

The skin harbours transcriptionally and functionally heterogeneous mesenchymal cells that participate in various physiological activities by secreting biochemical cues. In this study, we aimed to identify a new subpopulation of dermal mesenchymal cells that enhance hair follicle regeneration through a paracrine mechanism. Integrated single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data analysis revealed epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) as a marker of distinct fibroblast subpopulation in the neonatal murine dermis. Immunofluorescence staining and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) were used to validate the existence of the cell population in Krt14-rtTA-H2BGFP mouse. The difference of gene expression between separated cell subpopulation was examined by real-time PCR. Potential effect of the designated factor on hair follicle regeneration was observed after the application on excisional wounds in Krt14-rtTA-H2BGFP mouse. Immunofluorescence staining demonstrated the existence of dermal EGFR + cells in neonatal and adult mouse dermis. The EGFR + mesenchymal population, sorted by FACS, displayed a higher expression level of Igf1 (insulin-like growth factor 1). Co-localisation of IGF1 with EGFR in the mouse dermis and upregulated numbers of hair follicles in healed wounds following the application of exogenous IGF1 illustrated the contribution of EGFR + cells in promoting wound-induced hair follicle neogenesis. Our results indicate that EGFR identifies a subpopulation of dermal fibroblasts that contribute to IGF1 promotion of hair follicle neogenesis. It broadens the understanding of heterogeneity and the mesenchymal cell function in skin and may facilitate the potential translational application of these cells., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published by Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Small cell carcinoma of the cervix is a rare but poor prognosis pathological type of cervical cancer, for which advice in clinical guidelines is unspecific. We therefore aimed to investigate the factors and treatment methods that affect the prognosis of patients with small cell carcinoma of the cervix., Methods: In this retrospective study, we collected data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 18 registries cohort and a Chinese multi-institutional registry. The SEER cohort included females diagnosed with small cell carcinoma of the cervix between Jan 1, 2000, and Dec 31, 2018, whereas the Chinese cohort included women diagnosed between Jun 1, 2006, and April 30, 2022. In both cohorts, eligibility was limited to female patients older than 20 years with a confirmed diagnosis of small cell carcinoma of the cervix. Participants who were lost to follow-up or those for whom small cell carcinoma of the cervix was not the primary malignant tumour were excluded from the multi-institutional registry, and those with an unknown surgery status (in addition to those for whom small cell carcinoma of the cervix was not the primary malignant tumour) were excluded from the SEER data. The primary outcome of this study was overall survival (length of time from the date of first diagnosis until the date of death from any cause, or the last follow-up). Kaplan-Meier analysis, propensity score matching, and Cox-regression analyses were used to assess treatment outcomes and risk factors., Findings: 1288 participants were included in the study; 610 in the SEER cohort and 678 in the Chinese cohort. Both univariable and multivariable Cox regression analysis (SEER hazard ratio [HR] 0·65 [95% CI 0·48-0·88], p=0·0058; China HR 0·53 [0·37-0·76], p=0·0005) showed that surgery was associated with a better prognosis. In subgroup analyses, surgery remained a protective factor for patients with locally advanced disease in both cohorts (SEER HR 0·61 [95% CI 0·39-0·94], p=0·024; China HR 0·59 [0·37-0·95]; p=0·029). Furthermore, the protective effect of surgery was observed among patients with locally advanced disease after propensity score matching in the SEER cohort (HR 0·52 [95% CI 0·32-0·84]; p=0·0077). In the China registry, surgery was associated with better outcomes in patients with stage IB3-IIA2 cancer (HR 0·17 [95% CI 0·05-0·50]; p=0·0015)., Interpretation: This study provides evidence that surgery improves outcomes of patients with small cell carcinoma of the cervix. Although guidelines recommend non-surgical methods as first-line treatment, patients with locally advanced disease or stage IB3-IIA2 cancer might benefit from surgery., Funding: The National Key R&D Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests We declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Before discussing how to balance and decide on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and traditional revenue enhancement projects, it is crucial to clarify the relationship between corporate financial performance (CFP) and ESG. However, little attention has been paid to the nexus of ESG and CFP. This paper attempts firstly to investigate the bidirectional causality of ESG and CFP, followed by the micro-foundations, and finally, the moderating effect of intrinsic factors. A GMM-PVAR method was used to examine the research hypotheses, which can effectively deal with endogenous problems that have been ignored by traditional literature. The findings of this research demonstrate that CFP promoted ESG growth, but ESG did not boost CFP. This asymmetric causality was because CFP had a supportive effect on the environment and society pillars, while the social pillar cannot promote CFP, and the environment pillar negatively affects CFP. The relationship between ESG and CFP was moderated by total quality management, environmental sensitivity, and the pay gap. Furtherly, a panel threshold model was constructed to access the threshold effects of ESG on CFP, showing an inverted U-shape. Based on these findings, the theoretical implications, managerial prescriptions, and limitations are also discussed., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The combination of a living anionic technology and a unique alternating strategy provided an exciting opportunity to prepare novel and well-defined poly(1,3-pentadiene- co -syrene- co -1,1-diphenylethylene) resins consisting of three alternating sequences of modules ( A/B/C zwitterions). "A" being Styrene (St)/1,3-pentadiene (PD), "B" being diphenylethylene (DPE)/PD, "A" being DPE/St, respectively, A wide composition range of new polyolefin resins, i.e., poly ( A - co - B ), poly ( A - co - C ), and poly ( B - co - C ), with controlled molecular weight and very narrow molecular weight and composition distributions have been prepared by a one-pot living characteristic method. In the section of kinetic analysis, the terpolymer yields and kinetic parameters were strongly dependent on the feed/comonomer ratio as well as the content of the alternating structure. The competition copolymerization behaviors of A/B , B/C , and A/C were studied in detail in this work. By contrast, the microstructure and the thermal property of the resulting terpolymer were investigated via Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis. The results of 1H NMR tracking the change of [Aromatic ring]/[C=C] value indicated the distinctive copolymer-ization behavior of the selective "alternating-modules". The glass transition temperature ( T g ) was very sensitive to the terpolymer composition. By contrast to poly( A - ran - B ) with only one obvious T g , there were two T g s in the A/C and B/C copolymerization cases. Moreover, the desirable high T g ~ 140 °C resin was limited to the terpolymers with up to 50 mol % DPE. Finally, the " ABC-X " mechanism was proposed to interpret the unique terpolymerization behavior, which belongs to the classical "bond-forming initiation" theory.

An antibiogram is a periodic summary of antibiotic resistance results of organisms from infected patients to selected antimicrobial drugs. Antibiograms help clinicians to understand regional resistance rates and select appropriate antibiotics in prescriptions. In practice, significant combinations of antibiotic resistance may appear in different antibiograms, forming antibiogram patterns. Such patterns may imply the prevalence of some infectious diseases in certain regions. Thus it is of crucial importance to monitor antibiotic resistance trends and track the spread of multi-drug resistant organisms. In this paper, we propose a novel problem of antibiogram pattern prediction that aims to predict which patterns will appear in the future. Despite its importance, tackling this problem encounters a series of challenges and has not yet been explored in the literature. First of all, antibiogram patterns are not i.i.d as they may have strong relations with each other due to genomic similarities of the underlying organisms. Second, antibiogram patterns are often temporally dependent on the ones that are previously detected. Furthermore, the spread of antibiotic resistance can be significantly influenced by nearby or similar regions. To address the above challenges, we propose a novel Spatial-Temporal Antibiogram Pattern Prediction framework, STAPP, that can effectively leverage the pattern correlations and exploit the temporal and spatial information. We conduct extensive experiments on a real-world dataset with antibiogram reports of patients from 1999 to 2012 for 203 cities in the United States. The experimental results show the superiority of STAPP against several competitive baselines.

Background: Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) may have a positive impact on physical and psychological well-being in breast cancer patients, but the evidence remains limited and inconclusive. This systematic review aims to evaluate the effects of TCC on the quality of life (QoL) and psychological symptoms in women patients with breast cancer., Methods: This review has been registered on PROSPERO (ID: CRD42019141977). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of TCC for breast cancer were searched from eight major English and Chinese databases. All trials included were analyzed in accordance with the Cochrane Handbook. The primary outcomes were QoL, anxiety, and depression in patients with breast cancer. Fatigue, sleep quality, cognitive function, and inflammatory cytokine were the secondary outcomes., Results: Fifteen RCTs involving a total of 1,156 breast cancer participants were included in this review. The methodological quality of included trials was generally poor. The pooled results suggested that TCC-based exercise could significantly improve QoL [standardized mean difference (SMD)=0.35, 95%CI: 0.15-0.55, I 2  = 0, model: fixed, IV], anxiety [weighted mean difference (WMD)=-4.25, 95%CI: -5.88 to -2.63, I 2  = 0, model: fixed, IV], and fatigue (SMD=-0.87, 95%CI: -1.50 to -0.24, I 2  = 80.9%, model: random, DL) compared other controls, with moderate to low certainty of evidence. The improvement of QoL and fatigue by TCC was also clinically meaningful. However, TCC-based exercise failed to show any between-group differences in depression, sleep quality, cognitive function, and inflammatory cytokine. Post-hoc analysis revealed that TCC-based exercise outperformed the other exercise in improving shoulder function with very low certainty of evidence., Conclusion: Our findings manifested that TCC-based exercise is helpful for improving the QoL, anxiety, and fatigue in patients with breast cancer within the range of comparisons covered in this study. However, the results must be treated with great caution because of the methodological flaws of included trials. Larger, well-designed, and conducted randomized controlled trials with longer follow-up is warranted in the future to evaluate the important outcomes of TCC for breast cancer., Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display&#95;record.php?ID=CRD42019141977, identifier, CRD42019141977., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Li, You, Wang, Shen, Wang and Guo.)

Massive actions have been and are being taken into protecting the world's primates from extinction, while the study of the properties of genetic diversity, demographic history, and ecological relationships will benefit the understanding of the long-term survival of a species. The Taihangshan macaque (Macaca mulatta tcheliensis), a subspecies of rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), is endemic to China and currently restricted to southern Mt. Taihangshan area. Herein, we evaluated the genetic diversity, population structure, and demographic history of this subspecies using mitochondrial (Cytb and high variable region I: HVR I) and nuclear markers (microsatellite loci) of 131 individuals collected from 9 localities covering the distribution range of this subspecies. Both phylogenetic analyses and genetic assignment revealed that the wild populations of Taihangshan macaques could be divided into 2 major highly divergent clades, THS-east and THS-west. Low genetic diversity (π: 0.00266 ± 0.00016) but high haplotype diversity (H d : 0.80352 ± 0.015) were detected in the Taihangshan macaques, particularly in THS-east. Analyses of demographic history suggested that the Taihangshan macaques experienced first a stable historical population size from Holocene to early 19th century but a subtle decline and then slight growth in the recent 200 years. We suggest that bridging the neighbor populations (i.e. setting corridors) would facilitate the male-mediated gene flow and subsequently increase the genetic diversity of the Taihangshan macaque populations., (© 2022 International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Background: Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is an important tool for patient positioning in radiotherapy due to its outstanding advantages. However, the CBCT registration shows errors due to the limitations of the automatic registration algorithm and the nonuniqueness of manual verification results. The purpose of this study was to verify the feasibility of using the Sphere-Mask Optical Positioning System (S-M&#95;OPS) to improve the registration stability of CBCT through clinical trials., Methods: From November 2021 to February 2022, 28 patients who received intensity-modulated radiotherapy and site verification with CBCT were included in this study. S-M&#95;OPS was used as an independent third-party system to supervise the CBCT registration result in real time. The supervision error was calculated based on the CBCT registration result and using the S-M&#95;OPS registration result as the standard. For the head and neck, patients with a supervision error ≥3 or ≤-3 mm in 1 direction were selected. For the thorax, abdomen, pelvis, or other body parts, patients with a supervision error ≥5 or ≤-5 mm in 1 direction were selected. Then, re-registration was performed for all patients (selected and unselected). The registration errors of CBCT and S-M&#95;OPS were calculated based on the re-registration results as the standard., Results: For selected patients with large supervision errors, CBCT registration errors (mean ± standard deviation) in the latitudinal (LAT; left/right), vertical (VRT; superior/inferior), and longitudinal (LNG; anterior/posterior) directions were 0.90±3.20, -1.70±0.98, and 7.30±2.14 mm, respectively. The S-M&#95;OPS registration errors were 0.40±0.14, 0.32±0.66, and 0.24±1.12 mm in the LAT, VRT, and LNG directions, respectively. For all patients, CBCT registration errors in the LAT, VRT, and LNG directions were 0.39±2.69, -0.82±1.47, and 2.39±2.93 mm, respectively. The S-M&#95;OPS registration errors were -0.25±1.33, 0.55±1.27, and 0.36±1.34 mm for all patients in the LAT, VRT, and LNG directions, respectively., Conclusions: This study shows that S-M&#95;OPS registration offers comparable accuracy to CBCT for daily registration. S-M&#95;OPS, as an independent third-party tool, can prevent large errors in CBCT registration, thereby improving the accuracy and stability of CBCT registration., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://qims.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/qims-22-989/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2023 Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery. All rights reserved.)

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease that threatens human health. Although many drugs are available to treat DM, various complications caused by DM are unavoidable. As an emerging treatment for DM, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have shown many advantages and are gradually gaining public attention. This review summarizes the clinical studies on the use of MSCs to treat DM and the potential mechanisms of complications such as pancreatic dysfunction, cardiovascular lesions, renal lesions, neurological lesions, and trauma repair. This review focuses on the research progress on MSC-mediated secretion of cytokines, improvements in the microenvironment, repair of tissue morphology, and related signaling pathways. At present, the sample sizes in clinical studies of MSCs in treating DM are small, and there is a lack of standardized quality control systems in the preparation, transportation, and infusion methods, so we need to conduct more in-depth studies. In conclusion, MSCs have shown superior potential for use in the treatment of DM and its complications and will hopefully become a novel therapeutic approach in the future., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Jiarui Zhang et al.)

The study investigated the effect of pterostilbene (PTE) on intestinal glucose absorption and its underlying mechanisms in high-intensity swimming exercise (HISE)-treated mice. Male C57BL/6 mice were treated with PTE for 4 weeks and performed high-intensity swimming training in the last week. Intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) were pretreated with 0.5 and 1.0 μM PTE for 24 h before being incubated in hypoxia/reoxygenation condition. Intestinal glucose absorption was detected by using an oral glucose tolerance test and d-xylose absorption assay, and the levels of factors related to mitochondrial function and pyroptosis were measured via western blot analyses, cell mito stress test, and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. In vivo and in vitro, the results showed that PTE attenuated HISE-induced intestinal glucose absorption dysfunction and pyroptosis in mice intestine. Moreover, PTE inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome and the mitochondrial homeostasis as well as the ROS accumulation in IEC in vitro. Additionally, knockdown of SIRT3, a major regulator of mitochondria function, by siRNA or inhibiting its activity by 3-TYP abolished the effects of PTE on pyroptosis, mitochondrial homeostasis, and ROS generation of IEC in vitro. Our results revealed that PTE could alleviate HISE-induced intestinal glucose absorption dysfunction associated with the inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome-induced IECs pyroptosis.

This paper reports the efficient synthesis of substituted ( Z )- N -allyl sulfonamides via a palladium-catalyzed three-component tandem reaction of N -buta-2,3-dienyl sulfonamides with iodides and sulfonyl hydrazide or sulfinic acid sodium salt as nucleophiles. Pd(PPh 3 ) 4 (2.5 mol %), K 2 CO 3 , and THF were used as the optimal catalyst, base, and solvent, respectively. The substituted ( Z )- N -allyl sulfonamides were obtained in a 30-83% overall yield. Mechanistic investigations revealed that the formation of the single ( Z )-isomer was controlled by the formation of a six-membered palladacycle intermediate.

Background: The role of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels in clinical risk stratification and intervention for coronary heart disease (CHD) remains uncertain. We aimed to examine whether circulating levels of SHBG are predictive of CHD risk in men and women., Methods: We investigated the association between SHBG and the risk of incident CHD in 128 322 men and 135 103 women free of CHD at baseline in the prospective United Kingdom Biobank (UKB) cohort. The unconfounded associations were estimated using Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. We further conducted a meta-analysis to integrate currently available prospective evidence. CHD events included nonfatal and fatal myocardial infarction and coronary revascularization., Results: In the UKB, during a median of 11.7 follow-up years, 10 405 men and 4512 women developed CHD. Serum levels of SHBG were monotonically associated with a decreased risk of CHD in both men (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] per log nmol/L increase in SHBG: 0.88 [0.83-0.94]) and women (HR: 0.89 [0.83-0.96]). MR-based analyses suggested causality and a dose-response relationship of SHBG with CHD risk. A cumulative meta-analysis including 216 417 men and 138 282 women from 11 studies showed that higher levels of SHBG were prospectively associated with decreased CHD risk in men comparing the highest with the lowest quartile: pooled relative risk (RR) 0.81 (0.74-0.89) and women (pooled RR: 0.86 [0.78-0.94])., Conclusions: Higher circulating SHBG levels were directly and independently predictive of lower CHD risk in both men and women. The utility of SHBG for CHD risk stratification and prediction warrants further study., (© American Association for Clinical Chemistry 2023. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

During the onset of liver fibrosis, capillarized liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) limit substance exchange between the blood and the Disse space, further accelerating hepatic stellate cell (HSCs) activation and fibrosis progression. Limited accessibility of therapeutics to the Disse space is often overlooked and remains a major bottleneck for HSCs-targeted therapy in liver fibrosis. Here, an integrated systemic strategy for liver fibrosis treatment is reported, utilizing pretreatment with the soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator, riociguat, followed by insulin growth factor 2 receptor-mediated targeted delivery of the anti-fibrosis agent, JQ1, via peptide-nanoparticles (IGNP-JQ1). The riociguat reversed the liver sinusoid capillarization to maintain a relatively normal LSECs porosity, thus facilitating the transport of IGNP-JQ1 through the liver sinusoid endothelium wall and enhancing the accumulation of IGNP-JQ1 in the Disse space. IGNP-JQ1 is then selectively taken up by activated HSCs, inhibiting their proliferation and decreasing collagen deposition in the liver. The combined strategy results in significant fibrosis resolution in carbon tetrachloride-induced fibrotic mice as well as methionine-choline-deficient-diet-induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) mice. The work highlights the key role of LSECs in therapeutics transport through the liver sinusoid. The strategy of restoring LSECs fenestrae by riociguat represents a promising approach for liver fibrosis treatment., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Excess fluoride (F) exposure can cause oxidative stress in the kidney. As an antioxidant, selenium (Se) can potentially protect the kidney from F-induced injury in rats. Hence, the histopathological, renal biochemical, oxidative stress, and apoptotic-related indices upon exposure to 100 mg/L sodium fluoride (NaF) and various doses of sodium selenite (Na 2 SeO 3 ; 0.5, 1, and 2 mg/L) were assessed. Our results demonstrated that F-mediated renal structural damage and apoptosis elevated the content of serum creatinine (SCr), inhibited the activity of catalase (CAT) in serum, and increased the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in kidney and malondialdehyde (MDA) in serum. Interestingly, 1 mg/L dietary supplementation of Se tangibly mitigated these injuries. Furthermore, F could also change the gene and protein expression of the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), and NAD(P)H quinone oxidoreductase1 (NQO1). Concomitantly, the different concentrations of Se notably alleviated their expression. Taken together, 1-2 mg/L Se ameliorated F-induced renal injury through oxidative stress and apoptosis-related routes. The recorded ameliorative effects might be related to the activation of the Nrf2/HO-1/NQO1 signaling pathway., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study was performed to analyze the application of dexmedetomidine (Dex) in anesthesia for gastric cancer surgery and its effect on serum inflammatory factors in patients. In this regard, a total of 78 patients with gastric cancer who were hospitalized in our hospital from January 2020 to September 2023 and received general intravenous anesthesia were randomly divided into two groups (n=39 in each group). The conventional group was given the same volume of 0.9% sodium chloride solution 10min before induction of anesthesia, and the Dex group was given Dex1μg/kg intravenous pump 10min before induction of anesthesia. The hemodynamics, serum levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, CRP, propofol, remifentanil, and the total incidence of adverse reactions were compared between the two groups at different periods. The results showed that the mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), serum IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α and CRP in the Dex group were compared with those in the routine group (P>0.05). MAP and HR in T1, T2 and T3Dex groups were lower than those in the conventional group (P<0.05). The serum levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α and CRP in T4 and T5 of the Dex group were lower than those of the routine group (P<0.05). The dosage of propofol and remifentanil in the Dex group was lower than those in the conventional group (P<0.05). The total incidence of adverse reactions in the Dex group (5.13%) was compared with that in the conventional group (10.26%), P>0.05. It was concluded that Dex can effectively maintain the stability of hemodynamics during gastric cancer surgery, reduce the dosage of propofol and other anesthetic drugs, reduce inflammation, and has a certain safety without obvious adverse reactions.

Background: Chrysanthemum is a popular ornamental plant worldwide. MYB (v-myb avian myeloblastosis viral oncogene homolog) transcription factors play an important role in everything from stress resistance to plant growth and development. However, the MYB family of chrysanthemums has not been the subject of a detailed bioinformatics and expression investigation., Results: In this study, we examined 324 CnMYB transcription factors from Chrysanthemum nankingense genome data, which contained 122 Cn1R-MYB, 183 CnR2R3-MYB, 12 Cn3R-MYB, 2 Cn4R-MYB, and 5 atypical CnMYB. The protein motifs and classification of CnMYB transcription factors were analyzed. Among them, motifs 1, 2, 3, and 4 were found to encode the MYB DNA-binding domain in R2R3-MYB proteins, while in other-MYB proteins, the motifs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 encode the MYB DNA-binding domain. Among all CnMYBs, 44 genes were selected due to the presence of CpG islands, while methylation is detected in three genes, including CnMYB9, CnMYB152, and CnMYB219. We analyzed the expression levels of each CnMYB gene in ray floret, disc floret, flower bud, leaf, stem, and root tissues. Based on phylogenetic analysis and gene expression analysis, three genes appeared likely to control cellulose and lignin synthesis in stem tissue, and 16 genes appeared likely to regulate flowering time, anther, pollen development, and flower color. Fifty-one candidate genes that may be involved in stress response were identified through phylogenetic, stress-responseve motif of promoter, and qRT-PCR analyses. According to genes expression levels under stress conditions, six CnMYB genes (CnMYB9, CnMYB172, CnMYB186, CnMYB199, CnMYB219, and CnMYB152) were identified as key stress-responsive genes., Conclusions: This research provides useful information for further functional analysis of the CnMYB gene family in chrysanthemums, as well as offers candidate genes for further study of cellulose and lignin synthesis, flowering traits, salt and drought stress mechanism., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of aflibercept and panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) in the treatment of proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR)., Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 59 patients (59 eyes) with high-risk PDR who were treated with aflibercept and PRP between January 2018 and December 2019. The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central foveal thickness (CFT), and retinal vein diameter post-treatment were compared to those before the treatment., Results: The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) at 6 months (0.49 ± 0.14 logMAR), 12 months (0.54 ± 0.15 logMAR), 18 months (0.48 ± 0.15 logMAR), and 24 months (0.51 ± 0.15 logMAR) post-treatment were superior to the pre-treatment measurement (0.65 ± 0.18 logMAR). The central foveal thickness (CFT) at 6 months (310.67 ± 52.53 μm), 12 months (295.98 ± 45.65 μm), 18 months (282.56 ± 43.57 μm), and 24 months (281.53 ± 51.16 μm) post-treatment were lower than the pre-treatment measurement (456.53 ± 51.49 μm); the retinal vein diameter at 12 months (310.13 ± 24.60 μm), 18 months (309.50 ± 31.58 μm), and 24 months (317.00 ± 27.54 μm) post-treatment were lower than the pre-treatment measurement (361.81 ± 30.26 μm)., Conclusion: Aflibercept intravitreal injection and panretinal photocoagulation may morphologically reverse retinal vein diameter and venous beading in high-risk proliferative diabetic retinopathy., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Zhao, Wang, Li, Bao, Zheng, Tao and Wang.)

Natural biological tissues such as ligaments, due to their anisotropic across scale structure, have high water content, while still maintaining high strength and flexibility. Hydrogels are ideal artificial materials like human ligaments. However, conventional gel materials fail to exhibit high strength or fatigue resistance at high water content in human tissues. To address this challenge, we propose a simple integrated strategy to prepare an anisotropic hierarchical hydrogel architecture for artificial ligaments by combining freeze-casting assisted compression annealing and salting-out treatments. The hybrid polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels are of water content up to 79.5 wt%. Enhanced by the added carbon nanotubes, the hydrogels exhibit high strength of 4.5 MPa and a fatigue threshold of 1467 J m -2 , as well as excellent stress sensitivity. The outstanding durability of the artificial ligament provides an all-around solution for biomedical applications.

Rosacea is a chronic erythematous disease with telangiectasia that affects the central area of the face. However, because of the ambiguity in the pathophysiology of rosacea, its treatment has not been clearly elucidated; therefore, new therapeutic options need to be developed. Gyejibokryeong-hwan (GBH) is widely used in clinical practice for various blood circulation disorders, including hot flushes. Therefore, we explored the potential pharmaceutical mechanism of GBH on rosacea and investigated the therapeutic points exclusive to GBH through comparative analysis with chemical drugs recommended in 4 guidelines for rosacea based on network analysis. The active compounds in GBH were identified, and the proteins targeted by these compounds and the genes related to rosacea were searched. Additionally, the proteins targeted by the guideline drugs were also searched to compare their effects. And the pathway/term analysis of common genes was conducted. Ten active compounds were obtained for rosacea. There were 14 rosacea-related genes targeted by GBH, with VEGFA, TNF, and IL-4, which were suggested as core genes. The pathway/term analysis of the 14 common genes revealed that GBH could potentially act on rosacea via 2 pathways: the "interleukin 17 signaling pathway" and the "neuroinflammatory response." Comparison and analysis of the protein targets between GBH and guideline drugs revealed that only GBH separately acts on the "vascular wound healing pathway." GBH has the potential to act on IL-17 signaling pathway, neuroinflammatory response and vascular wound healing pathway. Further studies are needed to determine the potential mechanism of GBH in rosacea., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)