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Background. West Africa has witnessed the unprecedented outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD). The Ebola virus (EBOV) can cause Ebola hemorrhagic fever, which is documented as the most deadly viral hemorrhagic fever in the world. RT-PCR had been suggested to be employed in the detection of Ebola virus; however, this method has high requirements for laboratory equipment and takes a long time to determine Ebola infection. Although Xpert Ebola is a fast and simple instrument for the detection of Ebola virus, its effect is still unclear. This study is aimed at evaluating the accuracy of Xpert Ebola in diagnosing Ebola virus infection. Methods. Using the keywords “Xpert” and “Ebola virus”, relevant studies were retrieved from the database of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane. RT-PCR was employed as a reference standard to evaluate whether the study is eligible to be included in the meta-analysis. Data from these included studies were extracted by two independent assessors and were then analyzed by the Meta-DiSc 1.4 software to produce the heterogeneity of sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SP), positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and diagnostic advantage ratio (DOR) of the study. The results of pooled analysis were plotted, together with the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve plotted by calculating the area under the curve (AUC). Generated pooled summary estimates (95% CIs) were calculated for the evaluation of the overall accuracy of this study. Results. Five fourfold tables were made from the four studies that were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity of Xpert Ebola was 0.98 (95% confidence interval (CI) (0.95, 0.99)), and the pooled specificity was 0.98 (95% CI (0.97, 0.99)). The pooled values of positive likelihood ratio was 53.91 (95% CI (12.82, 226.79)), with negative likelihood ratio being 0.04 (95% CI (0.02, 0.08)) and diagnostic odds ratio being 2649.45 (95% CI (629.61, 11149.02)). The AUC was 0.9961. Conclusions. Compared with RT-PCR, Xpert Ebola has high sensitivity and specificity. Therefore, it is a valued alternative method for the clinical diagnosis of Ebola virus infection. However, the Xpert Ebola test is a qualitative test that does not provide quantitative testing of EBOV concentration. Whether it can completely replace other methods or not calls for further evidences.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. The difference of left and right hip. The angle α of right hip is larger than that of left hip in both male and female of all age. Figure S2. Visualization of the first and last examination of 4229 infants with follow-up ultrasonographic examinations. A. points were colored in Graf types. B. points were colored in Z-levels. Figure S3. The change of angle α in multiple examinations. The x axis represents the age in weeks of the first US examination. The y axis represents the change of angle α value in 30 days at different first examination age. The false positive patients were shown in solid line; The true positive (positive at both first examination and follow-up examination) patients were shown in dash line; All patients were shown in dotted line. Figure S4. The difference of the “true positive” and “false positive” population. The upper section shows the “true positive” population at two time points (left and right hip respectively) and the lower section shows the “false positive” population at two time points (left and right hip respectively). The false positive cases concentrated at the early examination and with more border line values. Table S1 Graf hip classification. Table S2. The Graf types of the first-time results in population with follow up US examinations. Table S3 The Graf types and recover time of the false positive hip. Table S4 The Graf types of the 551 positive patients at first-time and last-time examination.

Purpose : We aimed to introduce an explainable machine learning technology to help clinicians understand the risk factors for neonatal postoperative mortality at different levels. Methods : A total of 1481 neonatal surgeries performed between May 2016 and December 2019 at a children's hospital were included in this study. Perioperative variables, including vital signs during surgery, were collected and used to predict postoperative mortality. Several widely used machine learning methods were trained and evaluated on split datasets. The model with the best performance was explained by SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) at different levels. Results : The random forest model achieved the best performance with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.72 in the validation set. TreeExplainer of SHAP was used to identify the risk factors for neonatal postoperative mortality. The explainable machine learning model not only explains the risk factors identified by traditional statistical analysis but also identifies additional risk factors. The visualization of feature contributions at different levels by SHAP makes the “black-box” machine learning model easily understood by clinicians and families. Based on this explanation, vital signs during surgery play an important role in eventual survival. Conclusions : The explainable machine learning model not only exhibited good performance in predicting neonatal surgical mortality but also helped clinicians understand each risk factor and each individual case.

Kidney damage initiates the deteriorating metabolic states in tubule cells that lead to the development of end-stage renal disease (ESTD). Interleukin 22 (IL-22) is an effective therapeutic antidote for kidney injury via promoting kidney recovery, but little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms. Here we first provide evidence that IL-22 attenuates kidney injury via metabolic reprogramming of renal tubular epithelial cells (TECs). Specifically, our data suggest that IL-22 regulates mitochondrial function and glycolysis in damaged TECs. Further observations indicate that IL-22 alleviates the accumulation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) and dysfunctional mitochondria via the induction of AMPK/AKT signaling and PFBFK3 activities. In mice, amelioration of kidney injury and necrosis and improvement of kidney functions via regulation of these metabolism relevant signaling and mitochondrial fitness of recombinant IL-22 are certificated in cisplatin induced kidney damage and diabetic nephropathy (DN) animal models. Taken together, our findings unravel new mechanistic insights into protective effects of IL-22 on kidney and highlight the therapeutic opportunities of IL-22 and the involved metabolic regulators in various kidney diseases.

With the fast development of electronic packaging technology, the chip integration density becomes higher, and the interconnecting trace pitch becomes smaller. The 3D stacked packaging technology has become an important route for the continuation of "Moore’s law". However, the traditional interconnect materials such as Sn and Ag can hardly meet the requirement for the interconnection of 3D ultra-narrow pitch due to their low melting point, high cost and electromigration under high electric field. As an alternative material, the Cu nanoparticles (CuNPs) can obtain interconnecting performance similar to Ag, with only one-tenth of cost. CuNPs are not susceptible to electromigration under electric fields, and can be sintering at low temperature to realize the interconnection of ultra-narrow pitch. In this paper, size-controllable and antioxidative CuNPs were prepared via wet-chemical redox method, with the selections of copper hydroxide as the main salt, ascorbic acid as the reducing agent, and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP-K30) as the coating agent. The as-synthesized CuNPs showed near spherical shape, high dispersibility, uniform size distribution of 102±36 nm, and were not oxidized after 30 days storage in air. The formation process of these CuNPs were also investigated by electrodeposition method. The results revealed that with the addition of PVP coating agent, the over-potential for the reduction of Cu2+ to CuNPs will increase, and the nucleation/growth rate of Cu will be restricted. As a result, finer CuNPs can be obtained.

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is a complex chronic disease in which pulmonary artery stenosis or obstruction caused by organized thrombus can lead to increased pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance, ultimately triggering progressive right heart failure and death. Currently, its exact mechanism is not fully understood. Pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA) has immediate effects with low perioperative mortality and satisfactory prognosis in experienced expert centers for CTEPH patients with proximal lesions. Nevertheless, 37% of patients are deemed unsuitable for PEA surgery due to comorbidities and other factors, and nearly half of the operated patients have residual or recurrent pulmonary hypertension. Riociguat is the only approved drug for CTEPH, although its effect is limited. Balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) is a promising alternative treatment for patients with CTEPH. After more than 30 years of development and refinements, emerging evidence has confirmed its role in patients with inoperable CTEPH or residual/recurrent pulmonary hypertension, with acceptable complications and comparable long-term prognosis to PEA. This review summarizes the pathophysiology of CTEPH, BPA history and development, therapeutic principles, indications and contraindications, interventional procedures, imaging modalities, efficacy and prognosis, complications and management, bridging and hybrid therapies, ongoing clinical trials and future prospects.

Background Variants in the gene encoding bone morphogenetic protein receptor type II (BMPR2) are the most common genetic cause of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), whereas biallelic variants in the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2 alpha kinase 4 gene (EIF2AK4) are described in pulmonary veno-occlusive disease/pulmonary capillary haemangiomatosis (PVOD/PCH). Racial background may influence the clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with PAH or PVOD/PCH. Here, we compared the clinical characteristics and survival between patients with BMPR2 variants or EIF2AK4 variants in a Chinese population. Methods Heterozygous variants in BMPR2 and homozygous or compound heterozygous biallelic EIF2AK4 variants predicted to be deleterious were identified as potentially causal. Clinical and radiological data were collected and analysed. The primary outcomes were death or lung transplantation. Hazard ratios (HRs) for death or transplantation associated with the presence of BMPR2 or biallelic EIF2AK4 variants were calculated using Cox proportional hazards models to analyse patient survival. Results Two hundred thirty-two patients with PAH were enrolled for genetic testing, and PAH patients with associated conditions were excluded from the study. Forty-five patients with BMPR2 variants and 11 patients with biallelic EIF2AK4 variants were recruited. PAH patients with BMPR2 or biallelic EIF2AK4 variants presented symptoms at the ages of 25.57 ± 10.17 years and 31.6 ± 9.38 years, respectively. The whole group of patients showed female dominance either with BMPR2 variants or biallelic EIF2AK4 variants. Specific radiological abnormalities are more prominent in EIF2AK4 variant carriers but can also be found in some patients with BMPR2 variants. Biallelic EIF2AK4 variant carriers had worse survival than BMPR2 variant carriers (p Conclusions Clinical pictures of PAH patients with BMPR2 and biallelic EIF2AK4 variants in the Chinese population differ from other populations by a younger age at diagnosis and demonstrate female dominance in the whole patient group. High-resolution chest CT can help assist in differentiating PAH with PVOD/PCH. BMPR2 variants and biallelic EIF2AK4 variants are associated with adverse outcomes, but the survival of patients with biallelic EIF2AK4 variants is dismal.

BACKGROUND Rhubarb and astragalus capsule (RAC) has been used in the clinical treatment of chronic kidney disease for decades. However, the mechanism of RAC has not been fully elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the protective effect and mechanisms of RAC on unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO)-induced renal interstitial fibrosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS The main components of RAC are detected by high-performance liquid phase (HPLC). A rat model of UUO was established, and a subset of rats underwent treatment with RAC. Renal function and renal pathology were examined at 14 days and 21 days after the UUO operation. Renal cell apoptosis was detected by TUNEL staining. The levels of Bcl-2 and Bax in the kidney were examined by western blotting, and the levels of collagen I, alpha-SMA, transforming growth factor (TGF)-s1, and p38 MAPK in the kidneys were detected by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS High-performance liquid phase chromatography showed that RAC contained 1.12 mg/g aloe-emodin, 2.25 mg/g rhein, 1.75 mg/g emodin, and 4.50 mg/g chrysophanol. Administration of RAC significantly decreased the levels of urinary N-acetyl-s-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and creatinine (Scr) and also reduced renal tissue damages and interstitial fibrosis induced by UUO in rats. Moreover, the increased levels of collagen I, alpha-SMA, TGF-s1, p38 MAPK, and the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, as well as cell apoptosis in the kidney, were induced by UUO, and were all found deceased by RAC treatment. CONCLUSIONS RAC can improve the renal interstitial fibrosis induced by UUO, and the mechanism may be related to inhibition of renal tubular cell apoptosis via TGF-s1/p38 MAPK pathway.

Aqueous solubility is an important physicochemical property of compounds in anti-cancer drug discovery. Artificial intelligence solubility prediction tools have scored impressive performances by employing regression, machine learning, and deep learning methods. The reported performances vary significantly partly because of the different datasets used. Solubility prediction on novel compounds needs to be improved, which may be achieved by going deeper with deep learning. We constructed deeper-net models of ~20-layer modified ResNet convolutional neural network architecture, which were trained and tested with 9,943 compounds encoded by molecular fingerprints. Retrospectively tested by 62 recently-published novel compounds, one deeper-net model outperformed four established tools, shallow-net models, and four human experts. Deeper-net models also outperformed others in predicting the solubility values of a series of novel compounds newly-synthesized for anti-cancer drug discovery. Solubility prediction may be improved by going deeper with deep learning. Our deeper-net models are accessible at http://www.npbdb.net/solubility/index.jsp.

Background Drug safety in children is a major concern; however, there is still a lack of methods for quantitatively measuring, let alone to improving, drug safety in children under different clinical conditions. To assess pediatric drug safety under different clinical conditions, a computational method based on Electronic Medical Record (EMR) datasets was proposed. Methods In this study, a computational method was designed to extract the significant drug-diagnosis associations (based on a Bonferroni-adjusted hypergeometric P-value Results The comparison between the children’s hospital and the general hospital showed unique features of pediatric drug use and identified the drug treatment gap between children and adults. In total, 591 drugs were used in the children’s hospital; 18 drug clusters that were associated with certain clinical conditions were generated based on our method; and the quantitative drug safety levels of each drug cluster (under different clinical conditions) were calculated, analyzed, and visualized. Conclusion With this method, quantitative drug safety levels under certain clinical conditions in pediatric patients can be evaluated and compared. If there are longitudinal data, improvements can also be measured. This method has the potential to be used in many population-level, health data-based drug safety studies.

A series of indole carboxylic acid conjugates of the podophyllotoxin were synthesized and evaluated as antiproliferative agents against two human chronic myeloid leukemia cell lines. Several compounds (In-2, In-8 and In-9) not only showed antiproliferative activity against normal K562 cells but also exhibited potent antineoplastic effect against resistant K562/VCR cells. The indole-6-formyl conjugate, In-9, revealed potent cytotoxic activity against K562 and K562/VCR cell lines, with IC50 values of 0.100 ± 0.008 and 0.227 ± 0.011 μM, respectively. Preliminary mechanism studies indicated that In-9 could disrupt the microtubule network in K562/VCR cells via occupying the colchicine binding site of the tubulin. Molecular dynamics simulation results revealed that the complex of In-9 and tubulin were stable. Furthermore, In-9 induced intracellular ROS generation, apoptosis, and cycle arrest at the G2 phase by inhibition of CDKs, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and cleavage of caspase. In-9 simultaneously induced K562/VCR cells autophagy by upregulating the levels of Beclin1 and LC3-II, and exhibited anti-MDR ability by downregulating the levels of P-gp and MRP1. Finally, In-9 activated the AMPK and JNK signaling, and inhibited the ERK, P38, and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling in K562/VCR cells. In silico prediction indicated that In-9 mainly obeyed Lipinski rule for druglikeness. Together, In-9 possessed potent antiproliferative activity, and may be a promising agent for the potential treatment of resistant leukemia cancer.

The self-heterodyne detection Brillouin optical time domain reflectometer (BOTDR) system using broad-band laser is proposed to reduce coherent Rayleigh noise and improve the system performance. Compared with the system with narrow-band laser, the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) threshold can be improved by about 3 dB. The experimental results of the narrow-band laser measurements for three times independently and the broad-band laser measurement for one time are compared. The root-mean-square (RMS) errors of Brillouin linewidth for two systems with narrow-band laser and broad-band laser are 6.9 MHz and 2.7 MHz, respectively, and the RMS errors of temperature for the heated fiber are about 1.3 °C and 0.7 °C. With the broad-band laser, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the unheated fiber is approximately equivalent to that of the integrated three independent Brillouin signals for the narrowband laser, and the results are believed to be beneficial for performance improvement and measurement time reduction.

In this study, Cu alloy joints were fabricated with a Ni-foam reinforced Sn-based composite solder with the assistance of ultrasonic vibration. Effects of ultrasonic soldering time on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Cu/Ni-Sn/Cu joints were investigated. Results showed that exceptional metallurgic bonding could be acquired with the assistance of ultrasonic vibration using a self-developed Ni-foam/Sn composite solder. For joint soldered for 5 s, a (Cu,Ni)6Sn5 intermetallic compound (IMC) layer was formed on the Cu substrate surface, Ni skeletons distributed randomly in the soldering seam and a serrated (Ni,Cu)3Sn4 IMC layer was formed on the Ni skeleton surface. Increasing the soldering time to 20 s, the (Ni,Cu)3Sn4 IMC layer grew significantly and exhibited a loose porous structure on the Ni skeleton surface. Further increase the soldering time to 30 s, Ni skeletons were largely dissolved in the Sn base solder, and micro-sized (Ni,Cu)3Sn4 particles were formed and dispersed homogeneously in the soldering seam. The formation of (Ni,Cu)3Sn4 particles was mainly ascribed to acoustic cavitations induced erosion and grain refining effects. The joint soldered for 30 s exhibited the highest shear strength of 64.9 ± 3.3 MPa, and the shearing failure mainly occurred at the soldering seam/Cu substrate interface.

In order to enhance the infrared emission property, a NiCr spinel coating was synthesized via the air plasma spraying method, and doped with MnO2 and rare-earth oxides (CeO2, Pr6O11, and Tb4O7). The obtained coating had a thickness of approximately 150–200 μm with a typical laminated structure. The deposited coating was composed of mainly a mixture of NiCr2O4 and NiCrMnO4. Compared with the non-doped NiCr spinel coating, doping MnO2 and rare-earth oxides could effectively improve the infrared emissivity in the wavelength ranges of 2.5–8 μm and 15–25 μm, owing to the charge transfer transitions in NiCrMnO4 spinel and the lower symmetry of lattice vibration. The prepared infrared radiation coating showed a considerably high total emissivity of 0.917 in the wavelength range of 2.5–25 μm at 1000 °C. Further, good thermal shock resistance was confirmed, as micro-cracks only appeared in the coating after 37 thermal cycles with air-cooling from 1000 °C to 25 °C.

In the paper, the electronic properties and magnetic orderings in the Mn/Gd doped zinc-blende (ZB) and wurtzite (WZ) structural CdSe are investigated extensively using first-principles calculations. We find that the infiltration of Mn ions in the ZB/WZ structural CdSe will lead to the antiferromagnetic ordering; while the infiltration of Gd ions will lead to the ferromagnetic ordering. Moreover, the antiferromagnetic/ferromagnetic coupling interactions between the magnetic Mn/Gd ions will become more and more strong with decreasing Mn-Mn/Gd-Gd distance. Particularly, the electronic properties in the Mn mono-doping case (spin-polarized) and in the Mn double-doping case (ferromagnetic) are almost same, and they tend to be the magnetic/ferromagnetic semiconductor via the comparison from the different calculations; as a whole, the Mn doped ZB/WZ structural CdSe system tends to present the antiferromagnetic semiconductor character. In addition, the band gap in the Mn doped ZB/WZ structural CdSe decreases with increasing Mn concentration using GGA+U calculations. In contrast to the case of the Mn doped ZB/WZ CdSe: (i) the Gd doped ZB/WZ CdSe in the mono-doping case displays the magnetic semiconductor character; but the Gd doped ZB/WZ structural CdSe in the double-doping case presents the n-type ferromagnetic semiconductor, and the robust ferromagnetism is obtained in the system irregardless of the crystal structure and the distance between the magnetic ions; (ii) the band gap in the Gd doped ZB/WZ structural CdSe increases with increasing Gd concentration, Burstein-Mott-effect might be major reason.

Based on the theory of social information processing, this research develops a conceptual model linking organizational virtuousness perception and pro-social rule breaking. In this model, organizational virtuousness perception of employees positively affects the pro-social rule breaking via psychological empowerment; Proactive personality positively moderates the indirect effect of organizational virtuousness perception on pro-social rule breaking though psychological empowerment. The proposed conceptual framework reveals the functional mechanism of organizational virtuousness perception on pro-social rule breaking from cognitive perspective and discusses individual character’s moderating role, which helps identify research gap and advance further knowledge development in organizational virtuousness.

In this study, a double-layer Ti (C, N) film was successfully prepared on Ti-6Al-4V alloy by a series of YAG laser irradiation in nitrogen atmosphere, aiming at improving the wear resistance. The effects of laser irradiation pass upon surface chemical composition, microstructures and hardness were investigated. The results showed that the surface chemicals were independent from laser irradiation pass, which the up layer of film was a mixture of TiN and TiC 0.3 N 0.7 , and the down layer was nitrogen-rich α-Ti. Both the surface roughness and hardness increased as raising the irradiation passes. However, surface deformation and cracks happened in the case above 3 passes’ irradiation. The wear resistance of laser modified sample by 3 passes was improved approximately by 37 times compared to the as received substrate. Moreover, the cytotoxic V ion released from laser modified sample was less than that of as received Ti-6Al-4V alloy in SBF, suggesting the potentiality of a new try to modify the sliding part of Ti-based hard tissue implants in future biomedical application.

Being one of the most toxic pollutants commonly present in wastewater as soluble hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) specie, its concomitant adsorption and chemical reduction to relatively insoluble and less poisonous Cr(III) would be an effective strategy for remediation of Cr-polluted water. As such, a novel MXene-polyelectrolyte nanocomposite was typically synthesized for enhanced Cr(VI) removal. In detail, we applied polyethylenimine (PEI) to modify the Ti3C2Tx surfaces and synthesized Ti3C2Tx/PEI nanocomposites. The as-prepared composites were characterized by various methods such as SEM-EDX, N2 sorption-desorption isotherm, XRD, FTIR, and XPS. Further, the Ti3C2Tx/PEI was used to adsorb Cr(VI) for clarifying the kinetics, isotherms, and the effects of solution pH and coexisting ions on Cr(VI) removal by batch experiments. Our results show that coating of Ti3C2Tx nanosheets with PEI regulates surface charge of the as-synthesized adsorbent and creates it with a three-dimensional network, allowing the fast electrostatic adsorption of Cr(VI) anions to positively charged surface over wide pH range of 1–10 and promoting to achieve improved removal capacity maximum up to 186.5 mg/g. The Cr(VI) adsorption data were well fitted by the pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models. In addition, Ti3C2Tx/PEI also exhibits excellent selectivity for Cr(VI) anions over competing ones such as NO3−, Cl−, ClO4−, and SO42−. Time-dependent reaction routes of Ti3C2Tx/PEI nanocomposite toward Cr(VI) was studied by XPS, which confirmed the slow reduction of all sorbed Cr(VI) to Cr(III) in the dozens of hours and final in-situ Cr(III) immobilization, clarifying the sorption-reduction mechanism for Cr(VI) elimination. All these results suggest that Ti3C2Tx/PEI nanocomposite prepared by reported surface-modification approach available for developing other functionalized adsorbents, may be a potential candidate for decontamination of Cr(VI)-polluted wastewater.

In this study, a facile and nontoxic synthetic method of well-covered Cu-Ag core-shell nanoparticles (Cu@Ag NPs) was determined. Through chemical reduction reaction in a modified silver ammonia solution with gelatin additive, the as-synthesized Cu@Ag NPs showed attractive comprehensive characteristics, including small and narrow size distribution, low proportion of Ag, dense and uniform Ag shell, good dispersibility, good sphericity, and desirable oxidation resistance. Based on electrochemical analysis, a complexing model was proposed to explain the effects of gelatin on the deposition of Ag. It revealed that the gelatin acted as not only the steric hindrance but also the complexing agent and diffusivity modifier. The gelatin addition could increase the stability and decrease the decoupling rate of complexed Ag ions, thus leading to significant negative shift of the deposition potential and decrease of the deposition rate, promoting the formation of finer and thinner Ag shell. Our study proposes an applicable approach for the synthesis of Cu@Ag core-shell nanoparticles, and the complexing model can provide a theoretical tool to describe the effects of complexing agent on the synthesis of Cu@Ag and other bimetallic nanoparticles.

With current trends to progressively miniaturize optical systems, it is now essential to look for alternative methods to control light at extremely small dimensions. Metalenses are composed of subwavelength nanostructures and have an excellent ability to manipulate the polarization, phase, and amplitude of incident light. Although great progress of metalenses has been made, the compact metalens-integrated devices have not been researched adequately. In the study, we present compact imaging devices for near-infrared microscopy, in which a metalens is exploited. The indicators including resolution, magnification, and image quality are investigated via imaging several specimens of intestinal cells to verify the overall performance of the imaging system. The further compact devices, where the metalens is integrated directly on the CMOS imaging sensor, are also researched to detect biomedical issues. This study provides an approach to constructing compact imaging devices based on metalenses for near-infrared microscopy, micro-telecopy, etc., which can promote the miniaturization tending of futural optical systems.

WC-Fe composite/metal coatings consisting of a WC-Fe composite layer and a metal interlayer were successfully fabricated on an Al 6061 substrate by resistance seam welding. The microstructures and phase compositions of the WC-Fe composite/metal coatings with different WC particle sizes (nano, fine, and coarse) were investigated. The WC-Fe composite layer consisted of WC particles and a Fe-C-Si super hard alloy (SHA) component, whereas the metal interlayer was composed of SHA, FeAl 3 , Fe 2 Al 5 , and Al 6061. The surface microhardness of the WC-Fe composite/metal coating increased with increasing WC particle size. The wear performance of the coatings tested with different sliding distances is discussed in detail. Coating-C (coarse) showed the best wear resistance. The wear rates of both coating-N (nano) and coating-C decreased as the sliding distance increased, while coating-F (fine) demonstrated the opposite behavior. The wear mechanisms of the coatings were drastically different owing to the significantly different WC particle behavior at various sliding distances.

Extensive efforts have been directed at the discovery, investigation and clinical monitoring of targeted therapeutics. These efforts may be facilitated by the convenient access of the genetic, proteomic, interactive and other aspects of the therapeutic targets. Here, we describe an update of the Therapeutic target database (TTD) previously featured in NAR. This update includes: (i) 2000 drug resistance mutations in 83 targets and 104 target/drug regulatory genes, which are resistant to 228 drugs targeting 63 diseases (49 targets of 61 drugs with patient prevalence data); (ii) differential expression profiles of 758 targets in the disease-relevant drug-targeted tissue of 12 615 patients of 70 diseases; (iii) expression profiles of 629 targets in the non-targeted tissues of 2565 healthy individuals; (iv) 1008 target combinations of 1764 drugs and the 1604 target combination of 664 multi-target drugs; (v) additional 48 successful, 398 clinical trial and 21 research targets, 473 approved, 812 clinical trial and 1120 experimental drugs, and (vi) ICD-10-CM and ICD-9-CM codes for additional 482 targets and 262 drugs against 98 disease conditions. This update makes TTD more useful for facilitating the patient focused research, discovery and clinical investigations of the targeted therapeutics. TTD is accessible at http://bidd.nus.edu.sg/group/ttd/ttd.asp.

There has been renewed interests in the exploration of natural products (NPs) for drug discovery, and continuous investigations of the therapeutic claims and mechanisms of traditional and herbal medicines. In-silico methods have been employed for facilitating these studies. These studies and the optimization of in-silico algorithms for NP applications can be facilitated by the quantitative activity and species source data of the NPs. A number of databases collectively provide the structural and other information of ∼470 000 NPs, including qualitative activity information for many NPs, but only ∼4000 NPs are with the experimental activity values. There is a need for the activity and species source data of more NPs. We therefore developed a new database, NPASS (Natural Product Activity and Species Source) to complement other databases by providing the experimental activity values and species sources of 35 032 NPs from 25 041 species targeting 5863 targets (2946 proteins, 1352 microbial species and 1227 cell-lines). NPASS contains 446 552 quantitative activity records (e.g. IC50, Ki, EC50, GI50 or MIC mainly in units of nM) of 222 092 NP-target pairs and 288 002 NP-species pairs. NPASS, http://bidd2.nus.edu.sg/NPASS/, is freely accessible with its contents searchable by keywords, physicochemical property range, structural similarity, species and target search facilities.

Pose variations are still challenging problems in 3D face recognition because large pose variations will cause self-occlusion and result in missing data. In this paper, a new method for pose-invariant 3D face recognition is proposed to handle significant pose variations. For pose estimation and registration, a coarse-to-fine strategy is proposed to detect landmarks under large yaw variations. At the coarse search step, candidate landmarks are detected using HK curvature analysis and subdivided according to a facial geometrical structure-based classification strategy. At the fine search step, candidate landmarks are identified and labeled by comparing with a Facial Landmark Model. By using the half face matching, we perform the matching step with respect to frontal scans and side scans. Experiments carried out on the Bosphorus and UND/FRGC v2.0 databases show that our method has high accuracy and robustness to pose variations.

Ultrasound-assisted dipping of ZrO2 ceramics into molten Sn solder was performed to realize the low-temperature joining of ZrO2 ceramics in this study. Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectrometer, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed to study the effects of ultrasonic vibration on the microstructure of Sn/ZrO2 interface, and to elucidate the joining mechanism between Sn coating layer and ZrO2 ceramic. Results showed that, after ultrasonically dipping in molten Sn for 1200 s, a pure Sn solder layer with a thickness of approximately 8–9 µm was coated on the ZrO2 surface. The Sn coating layer exhibited excellent metallurgic bonding with ZrO2 ceramic. A nano-sized ZrSnO4 ternary phase, which was beneficial to the smooth transition of the lattice from Sn solder to ZrO2 ceramic, was formed at the Sn/ZrO2 interface. The formation of ZrSnO4 interlayer was ascribed to the acoustic cavitation induced high-temperature reaction of Sn, O and ZrO2 at the molten Sn/ZrO2 ceramic interface. The tested average shear strength of ZrO2/Sn/ZrO2 joints was approximately 32 MPa, and the shearing failure mainly took place within the Sn solder layer.

Motivation Genetic and gene expression variations within and between populations and across geographical regions have substantial effects on the biological phenotypes, diseases, and therapeutic response. The development of precision medicines can be facilitated by the OMICS studies of the patients of specific ethnicity and geographic region. However, there is an inadequate facility for broadly and conveniently accessing the ethnic and regional specific OMICS data. Results Here, we introduced a new free database, HEROD, a human ethnic and regional specific OMICS database. Its first version contains the gene expression data of 53 070 patients of 169 diseases in seven ethnic populations from 193 cities/regions in 49 nations curated from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), the ArrayExpress Archive of Functional Genomics Data (ArrayExpress), the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC). Geographic region information of curated patients was mainly manually extracted from referenced publications of each original study. These data can be accessed and downloaded via keyword search, World map search, and menu-bar search of disease name, the international classification of disease code, geographical region, location of sample collection, ethnic population, gender, age, sample source organ, patient type (patient or healthy), sample type (disease or normal tissue) and assay type on the web interface. Availability and implementation The HEROD database is freely accessible at http://bidd2.nus.edu.sg/herod/index.php. The database and web interface are implemented in MySQL, PHP and HTML with all major browsers supported.

Ion transport plays an important role in solar-to-electricity conversion, drug delivery, and a variety of biological processes. Carbon nanotube (CNT) is a promising material as an ion transporter in the applications of the mimicking of natural ion channels, desalination, and energy harvesting. Here, we demonstrate a unique, enhanced ion transport through a vertically aligned multiwall CNT membrane after the application of an electric potential across CNT membranes. Interestingly, electrowetting arising from the application of an electric potential is critical for the enhancement of overall ion transport rate through CNT membranes. The wettability of a liquid with high surface tension on the interior channel walls of CNTs increases during an electric potential treatment and promotes the formation of water channels in CNTs. The formation of water channels in CNTs induces an increase in overall ion diffusion through CNT membranes. This phenomenon is also related to a decrease in the charge transfer resistance of CNTs (R

RNA-seq analysis was used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at the genetic level in the longissimus dorsi muscle from two pigs to investigate the genetic mechanisms underlying the difference in meat quality between Debao pigs and Landrace pigs. Then, these DEGs underwent functional annotation, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment, and protein–protein interaction (PPI) analyses. Finally, the expression levels of specific DEGs were assessed using qRT-PCR. The reference genome showed gene dosage detection of all samples which showed that the total reference genome comprised 22342 coding genes, including 14743 known and 190 unknown genes. For detection of the Debao pig genome, we obtained 14168 genes, including 13994 known and 174 unknown genes. For detection of the Landrace pig genome, we obtained 14404 genes, including 14223 known and 181 unknown genes. GO analysis and KEGG signaling pathway analysis show that DEGs are significantly related to metabolic regulation, amino acid metabolism, muscular tissue, muscle structure development etc. We identified key genes in these processes, such as FOS, EGR2, and IL6, by PPI network analysis. qRT-PCR confirmed the differential expression of six selected DEGs in both pig breeds. In conclusion, the present study revealed key genes and related signaling pathways that influence the difference in pork quality between these breeds and could provide a theoretical basis for improving pork quality in future genetic thremmatology.

BackgroundBalloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) has been demonstrated to improve cardiac function and exercise capacity in patients with inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), but its instant impact on cardiopulmonary function has seldom been evaluated. This study aims to determine the safety and efficacy of BPA and its immediate and lasting effects on cardiopulmonary function among CTEPH patients.MethodsFrom May 2018 to January 2019, patients with inoperable CTEPH who underwent BPA sessions were consecutively enrolled. Hemodynamics were measured by right heart catheterization, selective pulmonary angiography and BPA were successively conducted. Hemodynamic variables, WHO functional class (WHO-FC), 6-min walk distance (6MWD) and serum NT-proBNP were evaluated before and after BPA sessions during hospitalization. Pulmonary function testing (PFT) and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) were performed within 1–3 days pre and post BPA to evaluate the effect of BPA on cardiopulmonary function.ResultsTwenty-five patients with inoperable CTEPH who underwent a total of forty BPA sessions were consecutively enrolled. A total of 183 segmental or subsegmental vessels (4.6 ± 1.9 vessels per session) in 137 segments (3.4 ± 1.6 segments per session) were dilated. No procedure-related complications occurred. Instant hemodynamics, WHO-FC, 6MWD and NT-proBNP were all significantly improved after a single BPA session. Significant improvement in cardiopulmonary function was also evident as assessed by PFT indexes (forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in the first second, maximal voluntary ventilation) and CPET parameters (peak work rate, peak VO2, oxygen uptake efficiency slope). Further analysis among ten CTEPH patients receiving multiple BPA sessions (2–4 sessions) indicated BPA resulted in lasting improvements in hemodynamics and cardiopulmonary function.ConclusionsBPA, a safe and effective approach, can bring instant improvements after a single session and lasting benefits after multiple sessions to hemodynamics and cardiopulmonary function for patients with inoperable CTEPH.

To explore the value of right ventricular (RV) parameters detected by three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) in risk stratification in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients. We prospectively recruited 130 pulmonary hypertension patients from National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Fuwai Hospital. Each participant was performed a transthoracic echocardiography and 3DE parameters were measured using an off-line software (4D RV Function 2.0, TomTec). Patients were classified into low, intermediate-high risk group based on 2015 ESC Guidelines. A total of 91 PAH patients (34 ± 12 years old, 25 males) were enrolled, among which, 42 were classified into low risk group, while 49 were intermediate-high risk group. Compared with low-risk patients, those with intermediate-high risk had significantly larger 3DE-RV volumes, worse ejection fraction (EF) and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion, and decreased longitudinal strain (LS). Receive operating characteristic curves illustrated all the 3DE parameters were able to predict intermediate-high risk stratification, especially 3D-RVEF (area under curve, 0.82, 95% CI 0.73–0.91, P

Ambient pressure dried (APD) silica-based aerogel-like monoliths are prepared using vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS) as the sole silicon source by a rare-earth-assisted process. The APD method avoids the processes of solvent exchange and surface modification, is cost-effective, and reduces the preparation period from several days or weeks to 30 h. By controlling the solvent proportions, products with excellent mechanical properties, including exceptional mechanical strength and elasticity, can be synthesized. The monoliths also exhibit the outstanding characteristics of high hydrophobicity and lipophilicity and can rapidly absorb 13.5 times their weight in chloroform, showing great potential as reusable materials for application toward the separation/extraction of organic pollutants and oils.

PIC (Paediatric Intensive Care) is a large paediatric-specific, single-centre, bilingual database comprising information relating to children admitted to critical care units at a large children’s hospital in China. The database is deidentified and includes vital sign measurements, medications, laboratory measurements, fluid balance, diagnostic codes, length of hospital stays, survival data, and more. The data are publicly available after registration, which includes completion of a training course on research with human subjects and signing of a data use agreement mandating responsible handling of the data and adherence to the principle of collaborative research. Although the PIC can be considered an extension of the widely used MIMIC (Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care) database in the field of paediatric critical care, it has many unique characteristics and can support database-based academic and industrial applications such as machine learning algorithms, clinical decision support tools, quality improvement initiatives, and international data sharing., Measurement(s)Demographics • Vital Signs Measurement • Medication • clinical laboratory measurement • fluid balance • length of hospital stay • survival time • microbiological informationTechnology Type(s)digital curationSample Characteristic - OrganismHomo sapiensSample Characteristic - EnvironmentIntensive Care UnitSample Characteristic - LocationChina Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.11481810

We investigated and compared the correlations between two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography detected left ventricular peak early diastolic strain rates (global: left ventricular global peak early diastolic strain rate; septum: left ventricular peak early diastolic strain rate of septum; free wall: left ventricular peak early diastolic strain rate of free wall) and disease severity in pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension. Seventy-four pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension patients (23 males and 51 females, 35 ± 13 years) and thirty healthy controls were consecutively recruited for two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography analyses in our study. Medical records of pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension patients were reviewed to capture clinical data; risk assessments were performed based on the 2015 ESC Guidelines. Compared with healthy controls, left ventricular global peak early diastolic strain rate was lower in pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension patients (1.11 ± 0.60 s −1 versus 1.47 ± 0.45 s −1 , P = 0.001), especially that of the septum (1.13 ± 0.58 s −1 versus 1.68 ± 0.46 s −1 , P

Due to various etiologies and pathogenesis of kidney diseases, an invasive procedure called renal biopsy may be needed to determine the specific type of kidney disease, its severity, and the best treatment for it. This study aims to detmine if a text understanding technology based on admission records can recommend such an invasive procedure objectively. To understand clinical documents from nephrology, a semi-automatic learning-based lexicon construction method based on CRF and Word2vec was used. We constructed a dictionary of symptom terms for the nephrology department from clinical document, and then extracted patients' symptoms and detected their negation from admission notes. Combined with the preliminary diagnosis given by the doctor, an eigenvector was produced and fed to a machine learning classifier. When compared to the gold standard marked by physicians, the final recommendation achieved 83.5% accuracy, 80.6% precision, 76.6% recall, and 78.6% f1-measure respectively.

To investigate and compare the value of right ventricular longitudinal strain detected by two-dimensional and three-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography in risk stratification evaluation in pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension. We consecutively screened 66 patients diagnosed with pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension in our center. According to the risk assessment recommended by 2015 European Society of Cardiology Guidelines, all participants were classified into low- and intermediate-high-risk group. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional strains were measured using off-line softwares (GE EchoPAC version 201 and TomTec, 4D RV Function 2.0). Fifty-seven pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension patients (average 35 years old, 18 males and 39 females) were finally enrolled in our study, 32 (56.1%) were classified in low-risk group, while 25 (43.9%) were in the intermediate-high-risk group. Clinical data associated with disease severity, such as N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide ( r = 0.574, P

OBJECTIVES Our objectives were to identify the risk factors for postoperative complications after paediatric cardiac surgery, develop a tool for predicting postoperative complications and compare it with other risk adjustment tools of congenital heart disease. METHODS A total of 2308 paediatric patients who had undergone cardiac surgeries with cardiopulmonary bypass support in a single centre were included in this study. A univariate analysis was performed to determine the association between perioperative variables and postoperative complications. Statistically significant variables were integrated into a synthetic minority oversampling technique-based XGBoost model which is an implementation of gradient boosted decision trees designed for speed and performance. The 7 traditional risk assessment tools used to generate the logistic regression model as the benchmark in the evaluation included the Aristotle Basic score and category, Risk Adjustment for Congenital Heart Surgery (RACHS-1), Society of Thoracic Surgeons–European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (STS-EACTS) mortality score and category and STS morbidity score and category. RESULTS Our XGBoost prediction model showed the best prediction performance (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.82) when compared with these risk adjustment models. However, all of these models exhibited a relatively lower sensitivity due to imbalanced classes. The sensitivity of our optimization approach (synthetic minority oversampling technique-based XGBoost) was 0.74, which was significantly higher than the average sensitivity of the traditional models of 0.26. Furthermore, the postoperative length of hospital stay, length of cardiac intensive care unit stay and length of mechanical ventilation duration were significantly increased for patients who experienced postoperative complications. CONCLUSIONS Postoperative complications of paediatric cardiac surgery can be predicted based on perioperative data using our synthetic minority oversampling technique-based XGBoost model before deleterious outcomes ensue.

Atom-atom-anion three-body recombination (TBR) in mixed