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AbstractThe prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with extrahepatic metastasis (EHM) is extremely poor. This study aimed to identify prognostic factors for systemic chemotherapy of HCC with EHM. Eighty-five patients who received systemic chemotherapy for HCC with EHM between May 2014 and October 2021 were retrospectively evaluated. Patient demographic data and characteristics of hepatic tumors and EHM were assessed to identify factors that were significantly associated with prognosis. Of the 85 patients, 68 (80.0%) had pulmonary metastasis, 11 (12.9%) had abdominal lymph node metastasis, 7 (8.2%) had abdominal metastasis, and 4 (4.7%) had bone metastasis. The median overall survival (OS) was 17.0 months, and the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 5.1 months. Univariate analysis of OS showed that synchronous EHM-HCC, serum albumin level<35 g/l and number of hepatic tumors>1 were significantly associated with poorer OS. The results of the multivariate analysis indicated that the serum albumin level and number of hepatic tumors were independent prognostic factors. Subgroup analysis of patients with 0, 1, or 2 of these independent prognostic factors showed that the median OS was 24.0 months, 16.2 months and 7.7 months and that the ORR was 38.3%, 22.6% and 0, respectively. Systemic chemotherapy is beneficial for well-selected HCC patients with EHM. The number of hepatic tumors and serum albumin level were independent risk factors for prognosis, and the number of risk factors significantly influenced OS. Therefore, these factors need to be considered before administering systemic chemotherapy for HCC patients with EHM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of efficient and cheap electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) plays a key role for renewable energy technologies such as fuel cells and metal–air batteries. Using a simple and effective route, electronically conductive acetylene black (AB) was deliberately introduced into Fe3O4/HCS-600 with enough ORR active sites to be used as an ORR catalyst. The good homogenization of the electron conductor AB and the high intimate contact of Fe3O4/HCS-600 and AB in the composite catalyst provide the possibility of facile electron accessibility. The resulting composite catalyst exhibited a high and stable electrocatalytic activity for the ORR, which is better than Fe3O4/HCS-600 or AB alone. These features may offer potential for the development of efficient ORR catalysts with low cost for alkaline fuel cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feasibility of combining spectral and textural information from hyperspectral imaging to predict the moisture content and storage time of cooked beef was explored. A total of 10 optimal wavelengths were selected for the moisture content and storage time by conducting variable combination population analysis (VCPA). Principal component analysis was employed to reduce the number of dimensions of hyperspectral images, while a discrete cosine transform was applied to the first three principal component images to extract 30 textural features. A back-propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) model and partial least-squares regression model were developed to predict the moisture content and storage time from spectra, textural data, and their combination. The fused BP-ANN model provided satisfactory results with R p 2 of 0.977, and RMSEP of 0.9151 for the prediction of moisture content; these results were superior to those obtained with spectral or textual information alone. Combined with the storage time, the distribution map of the moisture content of cooked beef was visualized using the best fused BP-ANN model with imaging process method. The results reveal that the combination of spectral and textural information of hyperspectral imaging coupled with the BP-ANN algorithm has strong potential for the prediction and visualization of the moisture content of cooked beef at different storage times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A promising Ca doping approach was reported to improve the durability and electrocatalytic OER activity of the perovskite Pr0.5Ba0.5CoO3−δ (PBC). Compared to the pristine PBC, the electrocatalytic activity of Ca-doped Pr0.5Ba0.3Ca0.2CoO3−δ perovskite was increased by ca. 90%. More importantly, its durability was significantly enhanced after doping with calcium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the spread and location of the fosA3 gene among Enterobacteriaceae from diseased broiler chickens. Twenty-nine Escherichia coli and seven Proteus mirabilis isolates recovered from one chicken farm were screened for the presence of plasmid-mediated fosfomycin resistance genes by PCR. The clonal relatedness of fosA3 -positive isolates, the transferability and location of fosA3 , and the genetic context of the fosA3 gene were determined. Seven P. mirabilis isolates with three different pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns and five E. coli isolates belonging to sequence type 117 (ST117) and phylogenetic group D were positive for fosA3 and all carried the bla CTX-M gene. In E. coli , the genetic structures IS 26 –IS Ecp1–bla CTX-M-65 –IS 26 – fosA3 –1758 bp–IS 26 and IS 26 –IS Ecp1 – bla CTX-M-3 – bla TEM-1 –IS 26 – fosA3 –1758 bp–IS 26 were present on transferable IncHI2/ST3 and F2:A-:B- plasmids, respectively. However, fosA3 was located on the chromosome of the seven P. mirabilis isolates. IS 26 –IS Ecp1 - bla CTX-M-65 –IS 26 – fosA3 –1758 bp–IS 26 and IS 26 – bla CTX-M-14 –611 bp– fosA3 –1222 bp–IS 26 were detected in three and four P. mirabilis isolates, respectively. Minicircles that contained both fosA3 and bla CTX-M-65 were shared between E. coli and P. mirabilis . This is the first report of the fosA3 gene integrated into the chromosome of P. mirabilis isolates with the bla CTX-M gene. The emergence and clonal spread of avian pathogenic E. coli ST117 with the feature of multidrug resistance and high virulence are a serious problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different surface morphologies of TiO films were prepared through hydrothermal synthesis method on transparent fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates by changing reaction temperatures. The as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS). As the hydrothermal temperatures increases, the surface morphologies of the TiO changes from nanorods (150 °C) to nanobuds (180 °C), and finally to nanoflowers (210 °C). Evolution of these structures are accompanied by great variations of optical properties and photocatalytic activities including a narrowing of band gap from 3.01 to 2.97 eV, increase of UV-visible absorption intensity and specific surface area, and photocatalytic degradation efficiencies from 88.18 to 95.56%. Under ultraviolet light (UV light) irradiation, the TiO nanoflowers exhibit significantly activity (95.56%) in degradation of methyl orange (MO) compared to commercial P25 (76.15%). The outstanding photocatalytic activity of the TiO nanoflowers can be attributed to the synergetic effect of much larger specific surface area, the larger content of oxygen vacancy, and higher intensity of absorption. These findings help to grow unique TiO films with desired structure and activities for photocatalyst applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmine, a β-carboline alkaloid present in Peganum harmala with a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities, has been shown to exert strong inhibition against acetylcholinesterase in vitro . However, whether it can rescue the impaired cognition has not been elucidated yet. In current study, we examined its effects on scopolamine-induced memory impairment mice and APP/PS1 transgenic mice, one of the models for Alzheimer's disease, using Morris Water Maze test. In addition, whether harmine could penetrate blood brain barrier, interact with and inhibit acetylcholinesterase, and activate downstream signaling network was also investigated. Our results showed that harmine (20 mg/kg) administered by oral gavage for 2 weeks could effectively enhance the spatial cognition of C57BL/6 mice impaired by intraperitoneal injection of scopolamine (1 mg/kg). Meanwhile, long-term consumption of harmine (20 mg/kg) for 10 weeks also slightly benefited the impaired memory of APP/PS1 mice. Furthermore, harmine could pass through blood brain barrier, penetrate into the brain parenchyma shortly after oral administration, and modulate the expression of Egr-1, c-Jun and c-Fos. Molecular docking assay disclosed that harmine molecule could directly dock into the catalytic active site of acetylcholinesterase, which was partially confirmed by its in vivo inhibitory activity on acetylcholinesterase. Taken together, all these results suggested that harmine could ameliorate impaired memory by enhancement of cholinergic neurotransmission via inhibiting the activity of acetylcholinesterase, which may contribute to its clinical use in the therapy of neurological diseases characterized with acetylcholinesterase deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the computer technology improves rapidly, the scale of software has increased greatly, which makes it more and more difficult to find a bug in software. As a result, the enhancement of software quality and reliability has become an important task in the field of software engineering. Test is an important step that guarantees software quality and reliability. We put forward a novel multi-objective optimization scheme based on improved multi-objective particle swarm optimization. Then software test case optimization method is investigated based on proposed multi-objective particle swarm optimization. The experiment results show that the proposed software test case optimization method has high efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]