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Through statistical analysis of geological and hydrogeological data of the early mining section of a mine field in Wubao Mining Area, the main control factors affecting the water inrush from the floor of the main mining coal seam were determined. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process（FAHP）and entropy weight method（EWM）were used to calculate the subjective and objective weights of each factor. The combination weights were calculated by addition synthesis method, range maximization method, game theory method and minimum discriminant information method, respectively. Combined with the vulnerability index method, the information fusion technology of GIS was used to obtain the water inrush vulnerability assessment zoning of the study area. The transition trend of the four evaluation results is basically the same, but there are some areas with different rating results. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used to optimize the evaluation results of four kinds of water inrush vulnerability. The results showed that the correlation coefficient between the vulnerability index ranking based on the minimum discriminant information method and the “reasonable ranking” was the highest. Therefore, it can be inferred that among the four vulnerability assessment results, the water inrush vulnerability assessment obtained by the combination of the minimum discriminant information method is the best.

Abstract Aim Patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) exhibiting an imatinib plasma trough concentration (IM Cmin) under 1100 ng/ml may show a reduced drug response rate, leading to the suggestion of monitoring for IM Cmin. Consequently, the objective of this research was to create a customized IM Cmin classification model for patients with advanced GISTs from China. Methods Initial data and laboratory indicators from patients with advanced GISTs were gathered, and the above information was segmented into a training set, validation set, and testing set in a 6:2:2 ratio. Key variables associated with IM Cmin were identified to construct the classification model using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression and forward stepwise binary logistic regression. Within the training and validation sets, nine ML classification models were constructed via the resampling method and underwent comparison through the Brier scores, the areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUROC), the decision curve, and the precision-recall (AUPR) curve to determine the most suitable model for this dataset. Two methods of internal validation were used to assess the most suitable model's classification performance: tenfold cross-validation and random split-sample validation (test set), and the value of the test set AUROC was used to evaluate the model's classification performance. Results Six key variables (gender, daily IM dose, metastatic site, red blood cell count, platelet count, and percentage of neutrophils) were ultimately selected to construct the classification model. In the validation set, it is found by comparison that the Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) model has the largest AUROC, the lowest Brier score, the largest area under the decision curve, and the largest AUPR value. Furthermore, as evaluated via internal verification, it also performed well in the test set (AUROC = 0.725). Conclusion For patients with advanced GISTs who receive IM, initial data and laboratory indicators could be used to accurately estimate whether the IM Cmin is below 1100 ng/ml. The XGBoost model may stand a chance to assist clinicians in directing the administration of IM.

Abstract In this paper, we study the propagations of external fields in a specific black hole solution in Horndeski theory, including the scalar field, electromagnetic field and Dirac field. We extensively explore the quasinormal frequencies, time evolution, greybody factors and emission rates of those massless perturbing fields by solving the corresponding master equations in the specific Horndeski hairy black hole. With the use of both numerical and analytical methods, we disclose the competitive/promotional influences of the Horndeski hair, spin and quantum momentum number of the external fields on those phenomenal physics. Our results show that this specific Horndeski hairy black hole is stable under those perturbations. Moreover, a larger Horndeski hair could enhance the intensity of energy emission rate for Hawking radiation of various particles, indicating that comparing to the Schwarzschild black hole, this specific Horndeski hariy black hole could have longer or shorter lifetime depending on the sign of the Horndeski hair.

Objective: To study the preventive effect of ethanolic extract from Chimonanthus praecox flower on obesity induced by high-fat diet in mice. Methods: A total of 50 C57BL/6 mice were divided into five groups of blank control, model control, low-, medium- and high-dose Chimonanthus praecox flower extract (CPFE) treatment. The mice in the blank control group were provided with a basal diet whereas those in the other groups were given a high-fat diet. The mice in the low-, medium- and high-dose groups were orally administered with CPFE at doses of 0.2, 0.4 and 0.8 g/(kg mb·d), containing 24.81, 49.62 and 99.25 mg/(kg mb·d) of Chimonanthus praecox flower polyphenols, respectively. The blank control, model control groups were administered with 0.9% NaCl. The administration lasted for 4 weeks. Then, body weight, serum biochemical indicators, organ antioxidant capacity were measured and pathological sections of liver tissue were examined. Results: The body weight, liver coefficient, serum levels of TC, LDL-C, organ levels of MDA in the model control group were significantly higher than those in the blank control group (P

Abstract Neuron localization is a fundamental step in the neuron morphology reconstruction and quantitative analysis of cell counting and spatial distribution. The recent development of labelling and imaging techniques has resulted in growing demand for automatic neuron localization methods of 3D neuronal microscopy images. However, accurately localizing touching neurons remains a challenge. To address this issue, a novel method utilizing a super‐resolution segmentation network based on 2D Conv‐LSTM and a region growing method are proposed. This network can map and detect individual neurons in higher resolution space, allowing for the separation of closely touching neurons with reduced resource consumption. Subsequently, a region growing method is employed to localize neurons accurately. This method is evaluated using neuronal images generated by TDI‐fMOST. This method achieved neuron localization with an F1 score of 0.91. In comparison, other automatic localization methods achieved F1 scores lower than 0.85. It is also demonstrated that our network has fewer computational requirements compared to 3D neural networks. This method is promising for accurately localizing neurons in large‐scale neuron images.

To modernize traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and improve the efficiency of Tuina therapy in the rehabilitation of cervical spondylosis. This study aimed to solve the problem of the efficacy of cervical spine Tuina therapy, which lacks objective evaluation standards because it is difficult to provide effective feedback for massage robots. A cervical spine Tuina efficacy assessment model built with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data was proposed to evaluate the performance of a multi-information fusion TCM massage robot. The robot combined visual guidance technology, a multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm, fNIRS, and TCM Tuina techniques to provide a scientific auxiliary diagnostic and therapeutic method for TCM Tuina therapy. The feasibility and effectiveness of the robot were verified through two tests: comparing the subjective scale with the objective fNIRS data and comparing the feelings of the physician’s massage with the robot’s massage. The accuracy of the efficacy assessment model was greater than 95%.

The shore power cable is directly connected between the ship and the shore. Affected by direct sunlight, sea wind and tide, the shore power cable’s insulation has aged, which has a significant impact on the shore power cable’s service life and current carrying capability. In order to investigate the effects of wind speed, water flow velocity, solar radiation, and ambient temperature on the temperature distribution of shore power cables, the paper builds an electromagnetic-thermal-flow multiphysics simulation model of shore power cable CEU94 - 8.7/10 kV - $3\times 120$ mm2. Each layer of the model takes into account parameters such as thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity of the material and is based on the characteristics of the finite element method to ensure accurate calculation of the temperature distribution. Meanwhile, the boundary conditions such as wind speed and water flow velocity are based on meteorological data and water current measurements of the actual harbor to ensure the technical rationality of the model. The findings demonstrate that the conductor temperature varies in a linear fashion with the surrounding temperature. There is a 10°C increase in the ambient temperature and an 11.66°C increase in the conductor temperature; When the wind speed increases from still to 10 m/s, the maximum conductor temperature decreases by 13.84°C; When the shore power cable is laid in the air, the decrease in temperature is within 2°C when the water speed is 10 m/s, and the decrease in temperature is within 15°C when the wind speed is 10 m/s. When laid in water, the temperature stabilizes with the flow velocity, and the temperature of laying in water is about 5.5°C lower than that of laying in air; In extremely hot summer weather, the shore power cable’s maximum conductor temperature is 117.6°C.

Abstract Cell-free RNAs (cfRNAs) offer an opportunity to detect diseases from a transcriptomic perspective, however, existing techniques have fallen short in generating a comprehensive cell-free transcriptome profile. We develop a sensitive library preparation method that is robust down to 100 µl input plasma to analyze cfRNAs independent of their 5’-end modifications. We show that it outperforms adapter ligation-based method in detecting a greater number of cfRNA species. We perform transcriptome-wide characterizations in 165 lung cancer, 30 breast cancer, 37 colorectal cancer, 55 gastric cancer, 15 liver cancer, and 133 cancer-free participants and demonstrate its ability to identify transcriptomic changes occurring in early-stage tumors. We also leverage machine learning analyses on the differentially expressed cfRNA signatures and reveal their robust performance in cancer detection and classification. Our work sets the stage for in-depth study of the cfRNA repertoire and highlights the value of cfRNAs as cancer biomarkers in clinical applications.

In this article, we develop a generic controlled alternate quantum walk model by combining parity-dependent quantum walks with distinct arbitrary memory lengths and propose a hash function (called QHFM-P) based on this model. The statistical properties of the proposed scheme are stable with respect to the coin parameters of the underlying controlled quantum walks, and with certain parameter values, the collision resistance property of QHFM-P is better than that of the state-of-the-art hash functions based on discrete quantum walks. Moreover, the proposed hash function can also maintain near-ideal statistical performance when the input message is of small length. In addition, we derive a type of inappropriate initial states of hash functions based on 1-D one-particle quantum walks (with ordinary shift operator) on cycles, with which all messages will be mapped to the same hash value, regardless of the angles adopted by the coin parameters.

Abstract In addition to the strong and electromagnetic decay modes, the $$\psi (1S,2S)$$ ψ ( 1 S , 2 S ) and $$\eta _{c}(1S,2S)$$ η c ( 1 S , 2 S ) can also decay via the weak interaction. Such weak decays can be detected by the high-luminosity heavy-flavor experiments. At present, some of the semileptonic and nonleptonic $$J/\Psi $$ J / Ψ weak decays have been measured at BESIII. Researching for these charmonium weak decays to $$D_{(s)}$$ D ( s ) meson can provide a platform to check of the standard model (SM) and probe new physics (NP). So we investigate the semileptonic and nonleptonic weak decays of $$\psi (1S,2S)$$ ψ ( 1 S , 2 S ) and $$\eta _{c}(1S,2S)$$ η c ( 1 S , 2 S ) to $$D_{(s)}$$ D ( s ) within the covariant light-front quark model (CLFQM). With form factors of the transitions $$\psi (1S,2S)\rightarrow D_{(s)}$$ ψ ( 1 S , 2 S ) → D ( s ) and $$\eta _{c}(1S,2S)\rightarrow D_{(s)}$$ η c ( 1 S , 2 S ) → D ( s ) calculated under the CLFQM, we predict and discuss some physical observables, such as the branching ratios, the longitudinal polarizations $$f_{L}$$ f L and the forward–backward asymmetries $$A_{FB}$$ A FB . One can find that the Cabibbo-favored semi-leptonic decay channels $$\psi (1\,S,2\,S)\rightarrow D_{s}^{-}\ell ^{+}\nu _{\ell }$$ ψ ( 1 S , 2 S ) → D s - ℓ + ν ℓ with $$\ell =e,\mu $$ ℓ = e , μ and the nonleptonic decay modes $$\psi (1S,2S)\rightarrow D_{s}^{-}\rho ^{+}$$ ψ ( 1 S , 2 S ) → D s - ρ + have relatively large branching ratios of the order $$\mathcal {O}(10^{-9})$$ O ( 10 - 9 ) , which are most likely to be accessible at the future high-luminosity experiments.

Abstract We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the visual, anatomical, and safety outcomes of the intravitreal faricimab, a novel vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)/angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) bispecific agent, in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) patients. The follow-up times in the included studies ranged from a minimum of 36 weeks to a maximum of 52 weeks. EMBASE, Ovid-Medline, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Science, Scopus, the WHO ICTRP, ClinicalTrial.gov, the EU Clinical Trials Register, and Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) were searched (The last literature search was performed on August 17, 2023) for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing faricimab with control groups for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). The risk of bias for eligible RCTs was independently assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool by two authors (W.-T.Y. and C.-S.W.). The meta-analysis was conducted using Review Manager 5.4 software. The mean best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central subfield thickness (CST), total choroidal neovascularization (CNV) area, and total lesion leakage were analyzed as continuous variables and the outcome measurements were reported as the weighted mean difference (WMD) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). The ocular adverse events and ocular serious adverse events were analyzed as dichotomous variables and the outcome measurements were analyzed as the odds ratios (ORs) with a 95% CI. Random-effects model was used in our study for all outcome synthesizing due to different clinical characteristics. Four RCTs with 1,486 patients were eligible for quantitative analysis. There was no statistically significant difference between intravitreal faricimab and anti-VEGF in BCVA [weighted mean difference (WMD) = 0.47; 95% CI: (− 0.17, 1.11)]. The intravitreal faricimab group showed numerically lower CST [WMD = − 5.96; 95% CI = (− 7.11, − 4.82)], total CNV area [WMD = − 0.49; 95% CI = (− 0.68, − 0.30)], and total lesion leakage [WMD = − 0.88; 95% CI = (− 1.08, − 0.69)] after intravitreal therapy compared with the intravitreal anti-VEGF group. There were no statistically significant differences between intravitreal faricimab and anti-VEGF in ocular adverse events (AEs) [pooled odds ratio (OR) = 1.10; 95% CI = (0.81, 1.49)] and serious adverse events (SAEs) [pooled OR = 0.84; 95% CI = (0.37, 1.90)]. The intravitreal bispecific anti-VEGF/angiopoietin 2 (Ang2) antibody faricimab with a extended injection interval was non-inferior to first-line anti-VEGF agents in BCVA. It was safe and had better anatomical recovery. Large, well-designed RCTs are needed to explore the potential benefit of extended faricimab for nAMD. This systematic review was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) database (CRD42022327450).

Abstract Patients with residual nasopharyngeal carcinoma after receiving definitive treatment have poor prognoses. Although immune checkpoint therapies have achieved breakthroughs for treating recurrent and metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, none of these strategies have been assessed for treating residual nasopharyngeal carcinoma. In this single-arm, phase 2 trial, we aimed to evaluate the antitumor efficacy and safety of toripalimab (anti-PD1 antibody) plus capecitabine in patients with residual nasopharyngeal carcinoma after definitive treatment (ChiCTR1900023710). Primary endpoint of this trial was the objective response rate assessed according to RECIST (version 1.1). Secondary endpoints included complete response rate, disease control rate, duration of response, progression-free survival, safety profile, and treatment compliance. Between June 1, 2020, and May 31, 2021, 23 patients were recruited and received six cycles of toripalimab plus capecitabine every 3 weeks. In efficacy analyses, 13 patients (56.5%) had complete response, and 9 patients (39.1%) had partial response, with an objective response rate of 95.7% (95% CI 78.1-99.9). The trial met its prespecified primary endpoint. In safety analyses, 21 of (91.3%) 23 patients had treatment-related adverse events. The most frequently reported adverse event was hand-foot syndrome (11 patients [47.8%]). The most common grade 3 adverse event was hand-foot syndrome (two patients [8.7%]). No grades 4-5 treatment-related adverse events were recorded. This phase 2 trial shows that combining toripalimab with capecitabine has promising antitumour activity and a manageable safety profile for patients with residual nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Abstract Background The protective effect of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) on the cardiovascular system has been reported, however, whether it can promote early recovery of cardiac function and alleviate cardiac remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI) remains to be elucidated. Whether CoQ10 may regulate the macrophage-mediated pro-inflammatory response after MI and its potential mechanism are worth further exploration. Methods To determine the baseline plasma levels of CoQ10 by LC-MS/MS, healthy controls and MI patients (n = 11 each) with age- and gender-matched were randomly enrolled. Additional MI patients were consecutively enrolled and randomized into the blank control (n = 59) or CoQ10 group (n = 61). Follow-ups were performed at 1- and 3-month to assess cardiac function after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). In the animal study, mice were orally administered CoQ10/vehicle daily and were subjected to left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) ligation or sham operation. Echocardiography and serum BNP measured by ELISA were analyzed to evaluate cardiac function. Masson staining and WGA staining were performed to analyze the myocardial fibrosis and cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, respectively. Immunofluorescence staining was performed to assess the infiltration of IL1β/ROS-positive macrophages into the ischemic myocardium. Flow cytometry was employed to analyze the recruitment of myeloid immune cells to the ischemic myocardium post-MI. The expression of inflammatory indicators was assessed through RNA-seq, qPCR, and western blotting (WB). Results Compared to controls, MI patients showed a plasma deficiency of CoQ10 (0.76 ± 0.31 vs. 0.46 ± 0.10 µg/ml). CoQ10 supplementation significantly promoted the recovery of cardiac function in MI patients at 1 and 3 months after PCI. In mice study, compared to vehicle-treated MI mice, CoQ10-treated MI mice showed a favorable trend in survival rate (42.85% vs. 61.90%), as well as significantly alleviated cardiac dysfunction, myocardial fibrosis, and cardiac hypertrophy. Notably, CoQ10 administration significantly suppressed the recruitment of pro-inflammatory CCR2+ macrophages into infarct myocardium and their mediated inflammatory response, partially by attenuating the activation of the NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3)/Interleukin-1 beta (IL1β) signaling pathway. Conclusions These findings suggest that CoQ10 can significantly promote early recovery of cardiac function after MI. CoQ10 may function by inhibiting the recruitment of CCR2+ macrophages and suppressing the activation of the NLRP3/IL1β pathway in macrophages. Trial registration Date of registration 09/04/2021 (number: ChiCTR2100045256).

Background/Purpose: To develop a prediction model for emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to identify trauma patients at high risk of deterioration to emergency medical service (EMS)-witnessed traumatic cardiac arrest (TCA) on the scene or en route. Methods: We developed a prediction model using the classical cross-validation method from the Pan-Asia Trauma Outcomes Study (PATOS) database from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2020. Eligible patients aged ≥18 years were transported to the hospital by the EMS. The primary outcome (EMS-witnessed TCA) was defined based on changes in vital signs measured on the scene or en route. We included variables that were immediately measurable as potential predictors when EMTs arrived. An integer point value system was built using multivariable logistic regression. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve and Hosmer-Lemeshow (HL) test were used to examine discrimination and calibration in the derivation and validation cohorts. Results: In total, 74,844 patients were eligible for database review. The model comprised five prehospital predictors: age 20/minute, pulse oximetry

Abstract Large explosive volcanic eruptions from island arcs pour pyroclastic currents into marine basins, impacting ecosystems and generating tsunamis that threaten coastal communities and infrastructures. Risk assessments require robust records of such highly hazardous events, which is challenging as most of the products lie buried under the sea. Here we report the discovery by IODP Expedition 398 of a giant rhyolitic pumice deposit emplaced 520 ± 10 ky ago at water depths of 200 to 1000 m during a high-intensity, shallow submarine eruption of ancestral Santorini Volcano. Pyroclastic currents discharged into the sea transformed into turbidity currents and slurries, forming a >89 ± 8 km3 volcaniclastic megaturbidite up to 150 m thick in the surrounding marine basins, while breaching of the sea surface by the eruption column laid down veneers of ignimbrite on three islands. The eruption is one of the largest recorded on the South Aegean Volcanic Arc, and highlights the hazards from submarine explosive eruptions.

Abstract With the development of cloud computing and deep learning, an increasing number of artificial intelligence models have been applied to reality. Such as videos on cell phones can be uploaded to the cloud for storage, which is detected by cloud arithmetic. Nevertheless, achieving this goal requires frequent consideration of the security of the model, since videos or images that go to the cloud, it is very likely to receive an adversarial attack. Regarding object detection, there has however been slow advancement in robustness research in this area. This is because training a target detection model requires a lot of arithmetic and time. Moreover, the current research has only slightly reduced the gap between clean and adversarial samples. To alleviate this problem, we propose a uniform perspective object detection robustness model based on bilinear interpolation that can accurately identify clean and adversarial samples. We propose the robustness optimization based on uniform metric perspective (RPU) for feature learning of clean and adversarial samples, drawing on the fine-grained idea. Following this, we analyze the fragility of the adversarial samples and consequently use the proposed perturbation filtering verification (PVB) based on bilinear interpolation. With slightly degraded clean sample detection performance, it substantially improves the robustness of object detection. Extensive experiments on PASCAL VOC and MS COCO show that our model guarantees the detection performance of clean samples and increases the detection performance of adversarial samples. The work we did has been open-sourced on GitHub: https://github.com/KujouRiu/RPU-PVB .

Abstract Objectives Glucose transporter 3 (GLUT3) plays a major role in glycolysis and glucose metabolism in cancer cells. We aimed to investigate the correlation between GLUT3 and histone lactylation modification in the occurrence and progression of gastric cancer. Materials and methods We initially used single-cell sequencing data to determine the expression levels of GLUT3 and lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) in primary tumor, tumor-adjacent normal, and metastasis tumor tissues. Immunohistochemistry analysis was conducted to measure GLUT3, LDHA, and L-lactyl levels in gastric normal and cancer tissues. Transwell and scratch assays were performed to evaluate the metastatic and invasive capacity of gastric cancer cell lines. Western blotting was used to measure L-lactyl and histone lactylation levels in gastric cancer cell lines. Results Single-cell sequencing data showed that GLUT3 expression was significantly increased in primary tumor and metastasis tumor tissues. In addition, GLUT3 expression was positively correlated with that of LDHA expression and lactylation-related pathways. Western blotting and immunohistochemistry analyses revealed that GLUT3 was highly expressed in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines. GLUT3 knockdown in gastric cancer cell lines inhibited their metastatic and invasive capacity to various degrees. Additionally, the levels of LDHA, L-lactyl, H3K9, H3K18, and H3K56 significantly decreased after GLUT3 knockdown, indicating that GLUT3 affects lactylation in gastric cancer cells. Moreover, LDHA overexpression in a GLUT3 knockdown cell line reversed the levels of lactylation and EMT-related markers, and the EMT functional phenotype induced by GLUT3 knockdown. The in vivo results were consistent with the in vitro results. Conclusions This study suggests the important role of histone lactylation in the occurrence and progression of gastric cancer, and GLUT3 may be a new diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for gastric cancer.

Abstract Inflammasome activity is important for the immune response and is instrumental in numerous clinical conditions. Here we identify a mechanism that modulates the central Caspase-1 and NLR (Nod-like receptor) adaptor protein ASC (apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD). We show that the function of ASC in assembling the inflammasome is controlled by its modification with SUMO (small ubiquitin-like modifier) and identify that the nuclear ZBTB16 (zinc-finger and BTB domain-containing protein 16) promotes this SUMOylation. The physiological significance of this activity is demonstrated through the reduction of acute inflammatory pathogenesis caused by a constitutive hyperactive inflammasome by ablating ZBTB16 in a mouse model of Muckle-Wells syndrome. Together our findings identify an further mechanism by which ZBTB16-dependent control of ASC SUMOylation assembles the inflammasome to promote this pro-inflammatory response.

Abstract Collagen-based biomaterials (CBB) are highly esteemed by researchers in materials science and biomedicine due to their extensive applications across various biomedical disciplines. In recent years, owing to advancements in developmental biology techniques, this superior biomaterial has seen increasing utilization in 3D in vitro tissue culture. Three-dimensional cell cultures, often referred to as organoids, have emerged in response to technological advancements in biomaterials and the growing need in the field of medical research. They serve as important models for simulating normal physiological activities in vivo, addressing limitations in experimental material sources, and resolving ethical issues. In this review, we discuss the material characteristics of CBBs commonly used for organoid culture, integrating aspects such as Matrigel and decellularized ECM as culture matrices. We also analyzed the development prospects and directions of various materials in the context of biology, clinical medicine, and particularly reproductive medicine. Currently, despite the FDA approval and clinical research incorporating numerous CBBs, existing challenges in multiple studies indicate a significant unmet need in the development of key tissue models for both medical research and clinical applications. In summary, CBBs are swiftly broadening their applicability in the realms of organoid nature and medical research, serving as a versatile and high-performing material for 3D in vitro tissue culture. Graphical abstract

Aim: Respiratory failure is common after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer (EC). This study aimed to identify the risk factors associated with postoperative respiratory failure following esophagectomy for EC. Methods: A single-center observational study from China was conducted on 262 patients with EC who underwent thoracoscopic esophagectomy between April 2014 and June 2016. The patients were divided into two groups: group I (respiratory failure) and group II (without respiratory failure). Demographic and perioperative variables, tumor-related factors, surgical factors, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) scores, and clinical course were compared between the groups. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the risk factors of postoperative respiratory failure after esophagectomy. Results: Among the 262 patients, 24 (9.2%) developed respiratory failure. Univariable analysis revealed several risk factors, including age, smoking, comorbidities, partial pressure of oxygen (PO2), partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2), forced vital capacity (FVC), FVC percentage (FVC%), urine volume during surgery, and APACHE II score. Multivariable analysis showed that age, comorbidities of diabetes mellitus (DM), FVC%, urine volume during surgery, and APACHE II score were independent predictors of respiratory failure. Specifically, elderly patients (> 65 years) with comorbidities of DM, lower FVC%, higher urine volume during surgery, and elevated APACHE II score were found to be more susceptible to respiratory failure, resulting in prolonged hospitalization and increased healthcare burden. These findings emphasize the importance of considering these factors in the management and care of patients at risk of respiratory failure. Conclusions: As a common complication following esophagectomy for EC. Respiratory failure is significantly associated with age, comorbidities of DM, FVC%, urine volume during surgery, and APACHE II score in the dataset. The findings will contribute to the evaluation of the risk of respiratory failure and guide early intervention strategies in clinical decision-making.

Abstract Human interleukin-10 (IL-10) is an immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory cytokine, and its expression is upregulated in tumor tissues and serum samples of patients with various cancers. Because of its immunosuppressive nature, IL-10 has also been suggested to be a factor leading to tumor cells’ evasion of immune surveillance and clearance by the host immune system. In this study, we refined a peptide with 20 amino acids, named NK20a, derived from the binding region of IL-10 on the basis of in silico analysis of the complex structure of IL-10 with IL-10Ra, the ligand binding subunit of the IL-10 receptor. The binding ability of the peptide was confirmed through in vitro biophysical biolayer interferometry and cellular experiments. The IL-10 inhibitory peptide exerted anticancer effects on lymphoma B cells and could abolish the suppression effect of IL-10 on macrophages. NK20a was also conjugated with gold nanoparticles to target the chemotherapeutic 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-loaded nanoparticles to enhance the anticancer efficacy of 5-FU against the breast cancer cell line BT-474. Our study demonstrated that NK20a designed in silico with improved binding affinity to the IL-10 receptor can be used as a tool in developing anticancer strategies.

Background/Purpose: Patients with esophageal cancer who undergo minimally invasive esophagectomy are at risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. High-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy delivers humidified, warmed positive airway pressure but has not been applied routinely after surgery. Here, we aimed to compare high-flow nasal cannula and conventional oxygen therapy in patients with esophageal cancer during intensive care unit hospitalization 48 h postoperatively. Methods: In this prospective pre- and post-intervention study, patients with esophageal cancer who underwent elective minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) and were extubated in the operation room and admitted to the intensive care unit postoperatively were assigned to receive either high-flow nasal cannula (HFNCO) or standard oxygen (SO) therapy. Participants in the SO group were recruited before January 2020, and those in the HFNCO group were enrolled after January 2020. The primary outcome was the difference in postoperative pulmonary complication incidence. Secondary outcomes were the occurrence of desaturation within 48 h, PaO2/FiO2 within 48 h, anastomotic leakage, length of intensive care unit and hospital stay, and mortality. Results: The standard oxygen and high-flow nasal cannula oxygen groups comprised 33 and 36 patients, respectively. Baseline characteristics were comparable between groups. In the HFNCO group, postoperative pulmonary complication incidence was significantly reduced (22.2% vs 45.5%) and PaO2/FiO2 was significantly increased. No other between-group differences were observed. Conclusion: HFNCO therapy significantly reduced postoperative pulmonary complication incidence after elective MIE in patients with esophageal cancer without increasing the risk of anastomotic leakage.

AbstractContext Tormentic acid (TA), an effective triterpenoid isolated from Chaenomeles speciosa (Sweet) Nakai (Rosaceae) fruits, exerts an effective treatment for gastric damage.Objective To investigate the gastroprotective effect of TA on indomethacin (IND) damaged GES-1 cells and rats, and explore potential mechanisms.Materials and methods TA concentrations of 1.563–25 µM were used. Cell proliferation, apoptosis and migration were performed using MTT, colony formation, wound healing, migration, Hoechst staining assays. SD rats were divided into control, IND, TA (1, 2 and 4 mg/kg) + IND groups, once a day for 21 continuous days. Twenty-four hours after the last administration, all groups except the control group were given IND (100 mg/kg) by gavage. Gastric juice parameters, gastric ulcer, gastric blood flow (GBF), blood biochemical parameters and cytokine analysis and gastric mucosal histopathology were detected for 2 h and 6 h after IND oral administration. The mRNA and protein expression of miR-139 and the CXCR4/CXCL12/PLC/PKC/Rho A/MLC pathway were analyzed in the IND-damaged GES-1 cells and gastric tissue of rats.Results TA might ameliorate the gastric mucosal injury by accelerating the IND-damaged GES-1 cell proliferation and migration, ameliorating GBF, ulcer area and pathologic changes, the redox system and cytokine levels, the gastric juice parameters, elevating the gastric pH in IND damaged rats; suppressed miR-139 mRNA expression, elevated CXCR4 and CXCL12 mRNA and protein expression, p-PLC, p-PKC, Rho A, MLCK and p-MLC protein expression.Discussion and conclusions TA may have potential use as a clinical drug candidate for gastric mucosal lesion treatment.

This paper introduces a new prefabricated recyclable double-row piles retaining system for excavations in silty clay ground. Laboratory model test and numerical simulation are conducted to study the system behavior upon excavation. The horizontal displacement (δh), Von Mises stress (σM), strain (ε), ground surface settlement (δv), and earth pressure are systematically investigated. Furthermore, the monitoring data of 13 excavation cases supported by double-row piles retaining system are presented and discussed. The experimental results can basically match the numerical results, and the maximum σM, maximum bending moment (Mmax), maximum horizontal displacement (δhm) of structural members are all less than the tolerance limits. The ground surface settlement model of double-row piles retaining system consists of three zones, i.e., rebound influence zone, primary influence zone and secondary influence zone. The δhm values are 0.07%–1.42% of the excavation depth (He). The maximum ground surface settlement (δvm) is generally less than δhm. The ratio of δvm/δhm varies between 0.09 and 0.76, with an average value of 0.5. The observed earth pressure on the retained side of front pile (paf) is about 0.53–0.57 γH below the excavation surface. Above the excavation surface, paf decreases dramatically when getting closer to the ground surface.

The “source–load” attributes of the nodes in a new energy power system are complex and diverse due to a large amount of new energy access. The node power (active and reactive power) in the system can offer a changing mode, which causes several serious challenges to the security of steady-state voltage stability. Aiming at the steady-state voltage stability problem in the system with multi-quadrant power modes, this paper reveals the mechanism of voltage evolution by voltage analytical expressions and the geometric characteristics of voltage components. Then, the indexes of voltage rise and drop are put forward by using a normalized voltage sensitivity. The voltage stability index is formulated based on the characteristics of voltage–power change. These indexes are used for steady-state voltage safety and stability assessment. Through the analysis of results that simulated by the IEEE-14 node power system and the coupled system in which the traditional power supply and new energy are connected to the same point of interconnection in Liaoning province, the results have proved that these indicators can be used to evaluate the steady-state voltage stability under multi-quadrant power modes. It is of great significance to guide the operation of voltage security in the power system with new energy.

The threat of quantum computing has spurred research into post-quantum cryptography. SQIsign, a candidate submitted to the standardization process of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is emerging as a promising isogeny-based signature scheme. This work aimed to enhance SQIsign’s practical deployment by optimizing its low-level arithmetic operations. Through hierarchical decomposition and performance profiling, we identified the ideal-to-isogeny translation, primarily involving elliptic curve operations, as the main bottleneck. We developed efficient 32-bit finite field arithmetic for elliptic curves, such as basic operations, like addition with carry, subtraction with borrow, and conditional move. We then implemented arithmetic operations in the Montgomery domain, and extended these to quadratic field extensions. Our implementation offers improved compatibility with 32-bit architectures and enables more fine-grained SIMD acceleration. Performance evaluations demonstrated the practicality in low-level operations. Our work has potential in easing the development of SQIsign in practice, making SQIsign more efficient and practical for real-world post-quantum cryptographic applications.

Linear chlorinated phosphazene acid is prepared using PCl5 and NH4Cl as raw materials. Using hexaethylcyclotrisiloxane as the monomer, 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane or 1,3-divinyl-1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane as the end-capping agent, and linear chlorinated phosphazene acid as the catalyst, polydiethylsiloxane oligomers terminated with active Si-H or Si-CH=CH2 groups have been prepared. Using hexaethylcyclotrisiloxane and 1,3,5,7-octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane as comonomers, 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane or hexamethyldisiloxane as the end-capping agent, or using hexaethylcyclotrisiloxane and octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane as comonomers, 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane as the end-capping agent, copolymers containing active Si-H bonds and dimethylsiloxane segments have been prepared under the catalysis of linear chlorinated phosphazene acid. The effects of catalyst dosage, reaction temperature, reaction time, end-capping agent, and polymerization monomer dosage on polymer yield and structure were investigated. Using 300 ppm of linear chlorinated phosphazene acid, oligomers and copolymers containing an active Si-H bond and diethylsiloxane segment were prepared under mild conditions. The molecular weight of the obtained polymers was close to their designed values, but their PDI values were small. The highest yield of α, ω-bisdimethylsiloxyl-terminated PDES oligomers reached 93%. Using oligomers and copolymers containing Si-H bonds and diethylsiloxane segments as crosslinkers, a silicone gel containing diethylsiloxane segments was prepared by hydrosilylation reaction. With the introduction of a diethylsiloxane segment, the glass transition temperature of the silicone gel decreased relative to that of the PDMS oligomer, but the temperature at 5% weight loss in nitrogen atmosphere decreased from 347 °C to 312 °C. The mechanism of the ring-opening polymerization of hexaethylcyclotrisiloxane catalyzed by linear chlorinated phosphazene acid is also discussed.

This study examined the effects of hot air drying (HAD), infrared radiation drying (IRD), microwave vacuum drying (MVD), freeze drying (FD), and freeze drying combined with microwave vacuum drying (FD-MVD) on the drying kinetics, color, rehydration ratio, titratable acidity, and vitamin C content of small white apricots (Prunus armeniaca L.). Results showed drying times of 12.5 h (IRD), 14.1 h (FD), 16 h (HAD), 0.53 h (MVD), and 6.15 h (FD-MVD). FD-MVD significantly outperformed MVD, HAD, and IRD in color, vitamin C, titratable acidity, and rehydration, though was slightly inferior to FD. Microstructural analysis revealed that FD-MVD preserved the most uniform pore structure, better maintaining apricots’ original appearance. In contrast, IRD and HAD caused severe surface shriveling, compromising quality. In conclusion, FD-MVD emerges as a promising drying method to enhance apricot quality and market competitiveness in food processing.