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AIM: To observe the protective effect of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hucMSCs) on retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) injury in mice with acute ocular hypertension (AOH). METHODS: Fifty-six adult male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into four groups: normal group, AOH group, hucMSCs group, normal saline (NS) group. Left eye of mice was induced by 90 mm Hg intraocular pressure for 1h to establish AOH model. hucMSCs 1×105/µL, 1 µL or NS 1 µL was injected into the vitreous body the next day. CM-Dil fluorescent dye was used to label the 3rd generation of hucMSCs, for tracing the cells in the vitreous cavity of mice. Seven days after the model established, hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining was used to observe the thickness of the inner retina layer in four groups. Numbers and loss rate of RGCs were evaluated by counting Brn-3a positive cells stained by immunofluorescencein. RESULTS: On the 7th day after AOH established, labeled hucMSCs were found in the vitreous cavity. HE staining showed that the thickness of retinal inner layer in AOH group was significantly lower than that in normal group and hucMSCs group (P0.05). Compared with AOH group, the RGCs in normal group was significantly higher; RGCs number increased in hucMSCs group and the loss rate was lower (P

Optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) can capture brain activity but are susceptible to magnetic noise. The objective of this study was to evaluate a novel methodology used to reduce magnetic noise in OPM measurements. A portable magnetoencephalography (MEG) prototype was developed with OPMs. The OPMs were divided into primary sensors and reference sensors. For each primary sensor, a synthetic gradiometer (SG) was constructed by computing a secondary sensor that simulated noise with signals from the reference sensors. MEG data from a phantom with known source signals and six human participants were used to assess the efficacy of the SGs. Magnetic noise in the OPM data appeared predominantly in a low frequency range (p < 0.01), enhanced the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) (p < 0.001) and improved the accuracy of source localization (p < 0.02). The SGs precisely revealed movement-evoked magnetic fields in MEG data recorded from human participants. SGs provided an effective method to enhance SNR and improve the accuracy of source localization by suppressing noise. Software-simulated SGs may provide new opportunities regarding the use of OPM measurements in various clinical and research applications, especially those in which movement is relevant.

The national carbon emission trading mechanism is an important policy tool for the Chinese government to control and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using the market mechanism. The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei power market is the focus of energy conservation and consumption reduction in China. Problems have already existed in the synergic development of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei power market and carbon trading market. In this article, the development status of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei power market is analyzed and the coupling mechanism between the carbon market and power market is combed out to build a synergism model of the carbon market and the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei power market based on the system dynamics. From the research results, firstly, the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei power market comes with a high energy consumption intensity and a high proportion of carbon emissions. The coupling of carbon market and power market forces the power industry to reduce carbon emissions through the effective transmission of carbon costs to power prices. Secondly, carbon price shows an upward trend in the context of the current policy scenario, which can give play to the role of price signal in the future. The revenue of thermal power plants, which are the carbon emission right sellers, with new technologies, has increased significantly, while the revenue of carbon emission right buyers, which are the manufacturers of undeveloped units, has increased less. Finally, the technical progress of thermal power plants, the introduction of auction mechanism, the increase in initial carbon price settings and the direct transmission of carbon costs are all factors that promote the effectiveness of carbon trading policy tools in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei power market. This study provides theoretical guidance for the synergic development of the “power-carbon” market.

Sea level rise will significantly impact coastal areas around the world. As a coastal country, Malaysia’s rising sea levels are a significant concern because they would affect 70% of its population. The study of sea level rise is important in order to implement effective mitigation and adaptation strategies. This study investigates the performance of CMIP6 Global Climate Models (GCMs) in simulating sea level rise in the Malaysian seas using various statistical methods. The models’ performances were evaluated by comparing historic CMIP6 GCM runs from 1993 to 2010 with sea level measurements from the satellite altimetry AVISO+ using the Taylor diagram. The SCS (SCSPM and SCSEM) had a higher sea level range and trend in both selected areas than the SM and SS. With 1.5 °C warmings, the multi-model ensemble means predicted that the SCS would rise by 16 mm near the Peninsular, with sea levels increasing by 0.908 m at a rate of 1.5 mm/year, and by 14.5 mm near East Malaysia, with sea levels increasing by 0.895 m at a rate of 1.1 mm/year. In contrast, 2.0 °C warmings project that SCSPM and SCSEM would cause sea levels to rise by 20.2 mm and 21.5 mm, respectively, at a rate of 0.6 mm/year and 0.7 mm/year. This information will provide an insight into Malaysian sea levels between now and the end of the twenty-first century, which will be beneficial for government agencies, academics, and relevant stakeholders.

Inlet boundary conditions (BC) are one of the uncertainties which may influence the prediction of flow field and hemolysis in blood pumps. This study investigated the influence of inlet BC, including the length of inlet pipe, type of inlet BC (mass flow rate or experimental velocity profile) and turbulent intensity (no perturbation, 5%, 10%, 20%) on the prediction of flow field and hemolysis of a benchmark centrifugal blood pump (the FDA blood pump) and a commercial axial blood pump (Heartmate II), using large-eddy simulation. The results show that the influence of boundary conditions on integral pump performance metrics, including pressure head and hemolysis, is negligible. The influence on local flow structures, such as velocity distributions, mainly existed in the inlet. For the centrifugal FDA blood pump, the influence of type of inlet BC and inlet position on velocity distributions can also be observed at the diffuser. Overall, the effects of position of inlet and type of inlet BC need to be considered if local flow structures are the focus, while the influence of turbulent intensity is negligible and need not be accounted for during numerical simulations of blood pumps.

The aseismic capability of the water intake tower-traffic bridge, a crucial component of the reservoir's infrastructure, is essential for ensuring the safe operation of the reservoir after an earthquake. Taking the water intake tower-traffic bridge at Shenzhen Beikeng Reservoir as an example, its seismic response was analyzed with finite element method, and its aseismic safety was evaluated. The maximum transverse displacement of the traffic bridge is 3.15 cm, and the minimum distance between adjacent decks is 2.97 cm during the design earthquake. There is no occurrence of beam dropping or collision between adjacent bridge panels. The traffic bridge experiences significant amplification of seismic accelerations in the earthquake. The maximum amplification for the bridge deck's transverse seismic acceleration is 4.01, and for the longitudinal direction, it is 3.36. During the design earthquake, the dynamic shear stress levels in the pier columns of the bridge are not high, indicating that column shear failure is unlikely. However, there are relatively high tensile stress values on the outer vertical side of the bottom of the pier columns. Additionally, the lower beams of the bridge piers exhibit high tensile stress on both the top and bottom surfaces. To ensure the seismic safety of the bridge pier structure, anti-seismic reinforcements are necessary at pier columns and beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context Guizhi-Shaoyao-Zhimu decoction (GSZD) is commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but its mechanism is unclear. Objective To investigate the effect of GSZD on bone erosion in type II collagen (CII)-induced arthritis (CIA) in rats and to identify the underlying mechanism. Materials and methods The CIA model was prepared in male Wistar rats by two subcutaneous injections of CII, 1 mg/mL. Fifty CIA rats were randomized equally into the control group given saline daily, the positive group given saline daily and methotrexate 0.75 mg/kg once a week, and three GSZD-treated groups gavaged daily with 800, 1600 and 3200 mg/kg of GSZD for 21 days. GSZD effects were assessed by paw volume, arthritic severity index and histopathology. Cytokine levels were determined by ELISA. The effects of GSZD on RAW264.7 cells were evaluated by receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL)-induced osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption assay. Expression of IκB-α and p65 was measured by Western blotting. Major components of GSZD were identified by HPLC. Results Arthritis index score, paw volume and bone destruction score showed that GSZD improved inflammatory symptoms and reduced joint tissue erosion (p

Dual oxidases (DUOXs), assembled from the catalytic DUOX and the auxiliary DUOXA subunits, produce hydrogen peroxide by transferring electrons from intracellular NADPH to extracellular oxygen in a calcium-activated manner. Here authors report the cryo-EM structures of human DUOX1-DUOXA1 complex in both high-calcium and low-calcium states.

Abstract Determination of the optimal fertilization method is crucial to maximize nitrogen use efficiency and yield of different rice cultivars. Side-deep fertilization with controlled-release nitrogen, in conjunction with machine transplanting and subsequent topdressing, was applied to Indica–japonica hybrid rice ‘Yongyou1540’ (YY1540) and indica hybrid rice ‘Tianyouhuazhan’ (TYHZ). Four nitrogen treatments were applied in 2018 and 2019: traditional nitrogen application with quick-release nitrogen (T1), single-dose deep fertilization at transplanting with 100% controlled-release nitrogen (T2), and deep fertilization of 70% controlled-release nitrogen and topdressing of 30% quick nitrogen at tillering (T3), or at panicle initiation (T4). Side-deep fertilization reduced the fertilizer application frequency without causing yield loss, T4 enhanced the yield of YY1540 by increasing the number of productive tillers and number of spikelets per panicle compared with T1, T2 and T3. The yield of TYHZ showed no significant difference among treatments. The T4 treatment decreased the number of tillers at the tilling peak stage and increased the percentage productive tillers and number of differentiated spikelets. Compared with the other treatments, T4 increased dry matter accumulation and leaf area index during panicle initiation and grain ripening, and contributed to enhanced nitrogen uptake and nitrogen utilization in YY1540. On average, nitrogen uptake and utilization in YY1540 were highest in T4, but no significant differences among treatments were observed in TYHZ. Dry matter accumulation and nitrogen uptake from panicle initiation to heading of YY1540 were correlated with number of spikelets per panicle, but no significant correlations were observed for TYHZ. Supplementary topdressing with quick-release nitrogen at the panicle initiation stage was required to increase yield of indica–japonica hybrid rice, whereas single-dose deep fertilization with controlled-release nitrogen is satisfactory for the indica hybrid cultivar.

The NALCN channel mediates sodium leak currents, which in turn adjusts resting membrane potential and neuronal excitability. Here the authors describe a cryo-EM structure of mammalian NALCN-FAM155A channel complex, showing how selectivity filter contributes to sodium permeation and calcium block and how the voltage sensors contribute to current modulation.

Abstract Background Due to the diversity of rice varieties and cropping systems in China, the limitation of seeding density and seedling quality makes it hard to improve machine-transplanted efficiency. Previous studies have shown that indica and japonica varieties varied in machine transplanting efficiency and optimal seeding density. In this study, a RIL population derived from ‘9311’ and ‘Nipponbare’ were performed to explore the seedling traits variations and the genetic mechanism under three seeding densities. Results The parents and RIL population exhibited similar trends as the seeding density increased, including seedling height and first leaf sheath length increases, shoot dry weight and root dry weight decreases. Among the 37 QTLs for six traits detected under the three seeding densities, 12 QTLs were detected in both three seeding densities. Five QTL hotspots identified clustered within genomic regions on chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 6 and 11. Specific QTLs such as qRDW 1.1 and qFLSL 5.1 were detected under low and high seeding densities, respectively. Detailed analysis the QTL regions identified under specific seeding densities revealed several candidate genes involved in phytohormones signals and abiotic stress responses. Whole-genome additive effects showed that ‘9311’ contributed more loci enhancing trait performances than ‘Nipponbare’, indicating ‘9311’ was more sensitive to the seeding density than ‘Nipponbare’. The prevalence of negative epistasis effects indicated that the complementary two-locus homozygotes may not have marginal advantages over the means of the two parental genotypes. Conclusions Our results revealed the differences between indica rice and japonica rice seedling traits in response to seeding density. Several QTL hotspots involved in different traits and specific QTLs (such as qRDW 1.1 and qFLSL 5.1 ) in diverse seeding densities had been detected. Genome-wide additive and two-locus epistasis suggested a dynamic of the genetic control underlying different seeding densities. It was concluded that novel QTLs, additive and epistasis effects under specific seeding density would provide adequate information for rice seedling improvement during machine transplanting.

Abstract Background Plasma expanders are widely used for acute normovolemic hemodilution (ANH). However, existing studies have not focused on large-volume infusion with colloidal plasma expanders, and there is a lack of studies that compare the effects of different plasma expanders. Methods The viscosity, hydrodynamic radius (Rh) and colloid osmotic pressure (COP) of plasma expanders were determined by a cone-plate viscometer, Zetasizer and cut-off membrane, respectively. Sixty male rats were randomized into five groups with Gelofusine (Gel), Hydroxyethyl Starch 200/0.5 (HES200), Hydroxyethyl Starch 130/0.4 (HES130), Hydroxyethyl Starch 40 (HES40), and Dextran40 (Dex40), with 12 rats used in each group to build the ANH model. ANH was performed by the withdrawal of blood and simultaneous infusion of plasma expanders. Acid-base, lactate, blood gas and physiological parameters were detected. Results Gel had a lower intrinsic viscosity than HES200 and HES130 (P

Electrophysiological source imaging (ESI) refers to the process of reconstructing underlying activated sources on the cortex given the brain signal measured by Electroencephalography (EEG) or Magnetoencephalography (MEG). Due to the ill-posed nature of ESI, solving ESI requires the design of neurophysiologically plausible regularization or priors to guarantee a unique solution. Recovering focally extended sources is more challenging, and traditionally uses a total variation regularization to promote spatial continuity of the activated sources. In this paper, we propose to use graph Fourier transform (GFT) based bidirectional long-short term memory (BiLSTM) neural network to solve the ESI problem. The GFT delineates the 3D source space into spatially high, medium and low frequency subspaces spanned by corresponding eigenvectors. The low frequency components can naturally serve as a spatially low-band pass filter to reconstruct extended areas of source activation. The BiLSTM is adopted to learn the mapping relationship between the projection of low-frequency graph space and the recorded EEG. Numerical results show the proposed GFT-BiLSTM outperforms other benchmark algorithms in synthetic data under varied signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Real data experiments also demonstrate its capability of localizing the epileptogenic zone of epilepsy patients with good accuracy.

The comprehensive practical activity curriculum can be said to be created to cater to children’s curiosity and nature of exploration. Through the creation of problem situations, children are guided not only to explore what the world is, but also to pay close attention to what the world will be and cultivate children’s key competencies in the real process of exploring and experiencing the world by following the behaviors of participation, reflection, service, protection and improvement of the world, such as humanistic connotation and scientific spirit, responsibility consciousness and feelings of family and country.

High-frequency oscillations (HFOs), observed within 80–500 Hz of magnetoencephalography (MEG) data, are putative biomarkers to localize epileptogenic zones that are critical for the success of surgical epilepsy treatment. It is crucial to accurately detect HFOs for improving the surgical outcome of patients with epilepsy. However, in clinical practices, detecting HFOs in MEG signals mainly depends on visual inspection by clinicians, which is very time-consuming, labor-intensive, subjective, and error-prone. To accurately and automatically detect HFOs, machine learning approaches have been developed and have demonstrated the promising results of automated HFO detection. More recently, the transformer-based model has attracted wide attention and achieved state-of-the-art performance on many machine learning tasks. In this paper, we are investigating the suitability of transformer-based models on the detection of HFOs. Specifically, we propose a transformer-based HFO detection framework for biomedical MEG one-dimensional signal data. For signal classification, we develop a transformer-based HFO (TransHFO) classification model. Then, we investigate the relationship between depth of deep learning models and classification performance. The experimental results show that the proposed framework outperforms the state-of-the-art HFO classifiers, increasing classification accuracy by 7%. Furthermore, we find that shallow TransHFO (< 10 layers) outperforms deep TransHFO models (≥10 layers) on most data augmented factors.

ObjectiveThe aim of our study was to investigate abnormal changes in brain activity in patients with persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) using magnetoencephalography (MEG).MethodsMagnetoencephalography recordings from 18 PPPD patients and 18 healthy controls were analyzed to determine the source of brain activity in seven frequency ranges using accumulated source imaging (ASI).ResultsOur study showed that significant changes in the patterns of localization in the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) were observed at 1–4, 4–8, and 12–30 Hz in PPPD patients compared with healthy controls, and changes in the frontal cortex were found at 1–4, 80–250, and 250–500 Hz in PPPD patients compared with controls. The neuromagnetic activity in TPJ was observed increased significantly in 1–4 and 4–8 Hz, while the neuromagnetic activity in frontal cortex was found increased significantly in 1–4 Hz. In addition, the localized source strength in TPJ in 1–4 Hz was positively correlated with DHI score (r = 0.7085, p < 0.05), while the localized source strength in frontal cortex in 1–4 Hz was positively correlated with HAMA score (r = 0.5542, p < 0.05).ConclusionOur results demonstrated that alterations in the TPJ and frontal cortex may play a critical role in the pathophysiological mechanism of PPPD. The neuromagnetic activity in TPJ may be related to dizziness symptom of PPPD patients, while the neuromagnetic activity in frontal lobe may be related to emotional symptoms of PPPD patients. In addition, frequency-dependent changes in neuromagnetic activity, especially neuromagnetic activity in low frequency bands, were involved in the pathophysiology of PPPD.

Squalene is a precursor of steroids with diverse bioactivities. Tea was previously found to contain squalene, but its variation between tea cultivars remains unknown. In this study, tea leaf squalene sample preparation was optimized and the squalene variation among 30 tea cultivars was investigated. It shows that squalene in the unsaponified tea leaf extracts was well separated on gas chromatography profile. Saponification led to a partial loss of squalene in tea leaf extract and so it is not an essential step for preparing squalene samples from tea leaves. The tea leaf squalene content increased with the maturity of tea leaf and the old leaves grown in the previous year had the highest level of squalene among the tested samples. The squalene levels in the old leaves of the 30 tested cultivars differentiated greatly, ranging from 0.289 to 3.682 mg/g, in which cultivar “Pingyun” had the highest level of squalene. The old tea leaves and pruned littering, which are not used in tea production, are an alternative source for natural squalene extraction.

This article discusses the results of a cohort analysis on invasive genetic testing for fetuses with isolated increased nuchal translucency (NT) measurements of 3.0-3.4 mm. The study included 604 cases and found that 8.4% of the fetuses had clinically significant copy-number variant (CNV) results, with trisomy 21 being the most common finding. The study suggests that isolated NT measurements in this range are associated with an increased risk of chromosomal anomalies and potentially monogenic disorders. The findings have implications for parental counseling and the option of invasive genetic investigations. [Extracted from the article]

ABSTRACT: Recently, continuous breakthroughs have been made about deep gold prospecting in the Jiaodong gold province area of China. Approximately 5000 t of cumulative gold resources have been explored in Jiaodong, which has thus become an internationally noteworthy gold ore cluster. The gold exploration depth has been increased to about 2000 m from the previous

Objectives: This study aimed to systematically evaluate the effects of constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT) for aphasic patients reported by randomized controlled trials. Methods: Relevant randomized controlled trials were retrieved from 11 electronic databases. A methodological quality assessment was conducted in accordance with the Cochrane Handbook, and meta-analyses were performed by using RevMan 5.2. A descriptive analysis was conducted when the included trials were not suitable for a meta-analysis. Results: A total of 12 trials were included. A statistically significant group difference was shown from the meta-analysis in the results measured by the Western Aphasia Battery (random-effects model, MD = 1.23, 95% CI = 0.31 to 2.14, P 0.05) and Aachen Aphasia Test (fixed-effects model, MD = −1.11, 95% CI = −4.49 to 2.27, P > 0.05). The descriptive analysis showed positive results in language performances of naming, repetition, and comprehension. Conclusion: This systematic review indicated that CIAT was efficient for improving language performance with regard to naming, comprehension, repetition, written language, and oral language based on the current evidence. And this review provides some meaningful guides for clinical practice: expand the therapy duration to 2 or 3 h per day, focus on naming, and choose the best assessment tool. It also indicates a need for more rigorous, large-scale, and high-quality trials in the future.

Abstract Studies in animal models of epilepsy and pre-surgical patients have unanimously found a strong correlation between high-frequency oscillations (HFOs, > 80 Hz) and the epileptogenic zone, suggesting that HFOs can be a potential biomarker of epileptogenicity and epileptogenesis. This consensus includes the definition and standard detection techniques of HFOs, the localizing value of pathological HFOs for epileptic foci, and different ways to distinguish physiological from epileptic HFOs. The latest clinical applications of HFOs in epilepsy and the related findings are also discussed. HFOs will advance our understanding of the pathophysiology of epilepsy.

Sterol O-acyltransferase 1 (SOAT1, also named ACAT1) is an endoplasmic reticulum resident enzyme which catalyzes the esterification of cholesterol to generate cholesteryl esters. Here, authors report cryo-EM structures of human SOAT1 which reveal the binding site of the competitive inhibitor CI-976.

The accumulation of excessive reactive oxygen species can exacerbate any injury of retinal tissue because free radicals can trigger lipid peroxidation, protein damage and DNA fragmentation. Increased oxidative stress is associated with the common pathological process of many eye diseases, such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and ischemic optic neuropathy. Many studies have demonstrated that Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBP) protects against oxidative injury in numerous cells and tissues. For the model of hypoxia we used cultured retinal ganglion cells and induced hypoxia by incubating with 200 µM cobalt chloride (CoCl2) for 24 hours. To investigate the protective effect of LBP and its mechanism of action against oxidative stress injury, the retinal tissue was pretreated with 0.5 mg/mL LBP for 24 hours. The results of flow cytometric analysis showed LBP could effectively reduce the CoCl2-induced retinal ganglion cell apoptosis, inhibited the generation of reactive oxygen species and the reduction of mitochondrial membrane potential. These findings suggested that LBP could protect retinal ganglion cells from CoCl2-induced apoptosis by reducing mitochondrial membrane potential and reactive oxygen species.

Abstract Radiation resistance is a serious issue in radiotherapy. Increasing evidence indicates that the human gut microbiome plays a role in the development of radiation resistance. Vitamin D is an important supplement for cancer patients treated with radiotherapy. Against this background, this paper reviewed research regarding the associations among vitamin D, microbiota dysbiosis, and radiation resistance. A hypothesis is developed to describe the relationships among vitamin D, the gut microbiota, and radiotherapy outcomes. Radiotherapy changes the composition of the gut microbiota, which in turn influence the serum level of vitamin D, and its distribution and metabolism in the body. Alteration of vitamin D level influences the patient response to radiotherapy, where the underlying mechanisms may be associated with the intestinal microenvironment, immune molecules in the intestines, gut microbiome metabolites, and signaling pathways associated with vitamin D receptors. Our understanding of the contribution of vitamin D and the gut microbiota to radiotherapy outcomes has been increasing gradually. A better understanding of the relationships among vitamin D, the gut microbiota, and radiotherapy outcomes will shed more light on radiation resistance, and also promote the development of new strategies for overcoming it, thus addressing an important challenge associated with the currently available radiotherapy modalities for cancer patients.