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Real-time performance is the primary requirement for edge computing systems. However, with the surge in data volume and the growing demand for computing power, a computing framework consisting solely of CPUs is no longer competent. As a result, CPU+ heterogeneous architecture using accelerators to improve edge computing systems' computing capacity has received great attention. The type of accelerators determines the performance of the edge computing system largely. The accelerators include Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). FPGAs with its reconfigurability and high energy efficiency are widely used in many edge computing scenarios. Nontheless, the performance depends also on the scheduling efficiency between software tasks on CPUs and hardware tasks on FPGAs. Unfortunately, the existing strategies have not fully exploited the differences between hardware and software tasks, thus resulting in low scheduling efficiency. This paper proposes a task scheduling framework on the Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (DPR) platform. We take full account of the characteristics of task switching overhead and predictable execution time of hardware tasks in DPR, and reduce the number of task-switching times and active tasks in the system, thus improving the scheduling efficiency. We conduct a set of experiments on the Zynq platform to verify the proposed framework. Experimental results demonstrate that when the execution time of the accelerator exceeds the reconfiguration cost by an order of magnitude, the efficiencies of all the cases are more than 98%, and the efficiencies can reach 90%-98% in the same order of magnitude.

For the self-energy recycling (SER) untrusted relay network, a two-phase destination-based jamming (DBJ) protocol is proposed, in which the destination transmits the jamming signal to reduce the received SNR of the untrusted relay node in the first phase and the relay node operated in full-duplex (FD) mode for simultaneous energy transfer and information relaying in the second phase. In addition, the loopback interference (LI) generated by FD relay node can be reused as part of energy. To satisfy some practical application scenarios, we consider the imperfect channel estimation error at the destination. Considering the total power constraint and the quality of service (QoS) requirement at the destination, the secrecy rate maximization problem is formulated by optimizing the transmission power of source and destination. However, the formulated problem is non-convex and difficult to solve directly. To cope with this difficulty, an iterative power allocation algorithm is proposed. The key idea of the proposed algorithm first integrates the non-convex constraint into the objective function by the exact penalty method. Then the difference of convex functions (DC) programming can be utilized to convert the non-convex objective function into the approximate convex function and the sub-optimal transmission power of source and destination can be obtained by the traditional convex programming. Simulation results show the superiority security performance of the proposed scheme with the traditional schemes.

Community detection is an important research direction in complex network analysis that aims to detect the community structure in networks via clustering operation, which has an important application value and practical significance in mining potential network information. Genetic algorithm (GA) is commonly used in community detection to solve NP-hard problems caused by modularity optimization effectively. However, in terms of GA, the problems of global search performance and slow convergence still remain due to the low accuracy of initial population generation and the randomness of the mutation operator. Thus, a novel local structural similarity-based GA (LSSGA) is proposed in this study to address such problems. It mainly contains two innovations: First, a new generation strategy for initial population based on local structural similarity and roulette wheel selection is designed to improve the quality of initial individuals, at the same time, maintain the diversity of the initial population. Secondly, an effective mutation operator based on label propagation and local structural similarity is proposed, which can quickly achieve targeted and effective mutation. The performance of LSSGA has been verified in many detailed aspects such as the convergence of initialization strategy, the effectiveness of overcome falling into local optimum, and rationality of objective function. Experimental results of both synthetic and real-world networks demonstrate the effective performance of the proposed method via systematic comparison with other existing advanced algorithms.

The avian pineal gland, an independent circadian oscillator, receives external photic cues and translates them for the rhythmical synthesis of melatonin. Our previous study found that monochromatic green light could increase the secretion of melatonin and expression of CLOCK and BMAL1 in chick pinealocytes. This study further investigated the role of BMAL1 and CLOCK in monochromatic green light-induced melatonin secretion in chick pinealocytes using siRNAs interference and overexpression techniques. The results showed that si-BMAL1 destroyed the circadian rhythms of AANAT and melatonin, along with the disruption of the expression of all the seven clock genes, except CRY1. Furthermore, overexpression of BMAL1 also disturbed the circadian rhythms of AANAT and melatonin, in addition to causing arrhythmic expression of BMAL1 and CRY1/2, but had no effect on the circadian rhythms of CLOCK, BMAL2 and PER2/3. The knockdown or overexpression of CLOCK had no impact on the circadian rhythms of AANAT, melatonin, BMAL1 and PER2, but it significantly deregulated the circadian rhythms of CLOCK, BMAL2, CRY1/2 and PER3. These results suggested that BMAL1 rather than CLOCK plays a critical role in the regulation of monochromatic green light-induced melatonin rhythm synthesis in chicken pinealocytes. Moreover, both knockdown and overexpression of BMAL1 could change the expression levels of CRY2, it indicated CRY2 may be involved in the BMAL1 pathway by modulating the circadian rhythms of AANAT and melatonin.

In this study, a low-cost, self-balancing crop spectral reflectance sensor (CSRS) was designed for real-time, nondestructive monitoring of the spectral reflectance and vegetation index of crops such as tomato and rapeseed. The sensor had a field of view of 30°, and a narrow-band filter was used for light splitting. The filter’s full width at half-maximum was 10 nm, and the spectral bands were 710 nm and 870 nm. The sensor was powered by a battery and used WiFi for communication. Its software was based on the Contiki operating system. To make the sensor work in different light intensity conditions, the photoelectric conversion automatic gain circuit had a total of 255 combinations of amplification. The gimbal of the sensor was mainly composed of an inner ring and an outer ring. Under the gravity of the sensor, the central axis of the sensor remained vertical, such that the up-facing and down-facing photosensitive units stayed in the horizontal position. The mechanical components of the sensor were designed symmetrically to facilitate equal mass distribution and to meet the needs of automatic balancing. Based on the optical signal transmission process of the sensor and the dark-current characteristics of the photodetector, a calibration method was theoretically deduced, which improved the accuracy and stability of the sensor under different ambient light intensities. The calibration method is also applicable for the calibration of other crop growth information sensors. Next, the standard reflectance gray scale was taken as the measurement variable to test the accuracy of the sensor, and the results showed that the root mean square error of the reflectance measured by the sensor at 710 nm and 870 nm was 1.10% and 1.27%, respectively; the mean absolute error was 0.95% and 0.89%, respectively; the relative error was below 4% and 3%, respectively; and the coefficient of variation was between 1.0% and 2.5%. The reflectance data measured by the sensor under different ambient light intensities suggested that the absolute error of the sensor was within ±0.5%, and the coefficients of variation at the two spectral bands were 1.04% and 0.39%, respectively. With tomato and rapeseed as the monitoring targets, the proposed CSRS and a commercial spectroradiometer were used to measure at the same time. The results showed that the reflectance measured by the two devices was very close, and there was a linear relationship between the normalized difference vegetation index of the CSRS and that of the commercial spectroradiometer. The coefficient of determination (R2) for tomato and rapeseed were 0.9540 and 0.9110, respectively.

The aim was to build a predictive model based on ultrasonography (US)-based deep learning model (US-DLM) and clinical features (Clin) for differentiating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from other malignancy (OM) in cirrhotic patients. 112 patients with 120 HCCs and 60 patients with 61 OMs were included. They were randomly divided into training and test cohorts with a 4:1 ratio for developing and evaluating US-DLM model, respectively. Significant Clin predictors of OM in the training cohort were combined with US-DLM to build a nomogram predictive model (US-DLM+Clin). The diagnostic performance of US-DLM and US-DLM+Clin were compared with that of contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) liver imaging and reporting system category M (MRI LR-M). US-DLM was the best independent predictor for evaluating OMs, followed by clinical information, including high cancer antigen 199 (CA199) level and female. The US-DLM achieved an AUC of 0.74 in the test cohort, which was comparable with that of MRI LR-M (AUC=0.84, p=0.232). The US-DLM+Clin for predicting OMs also had similar AUC value (0.81) compared with that of LR-M+Clin (0.83, p>0.05). US-DLM+Clin obtained a higher specificity, but a lower sensitivity, compared to that of LR-M +Clin (Specificity: 82.6% vs. 73.9%, p=0.007; Sensitivity: 78.6% vs. 92.9%, p=0.006) for evaluating OMs in the test set. The US-DLM+Clin model is valuable in differentiating HCC from OM in the setting of cirrhosis.

Objectives: The pathogenesis of heterogeneity in gastric cancer (GC) is not clear and presents as a significant obstacle in providing effective drug treatment. We aimed to identify subtypes of GC and explore the underlying pathogenesis.Methods: We collected two microarray datasets from GEO (GSE84433 and GSE84426), performed an unsupervised cluster analysis based on gene expression patterns, and identified related immune and stromal cells. Then, we explored the possible molecular mechanisms of each subtype by functional enrichment analysis and identified related hub genes.Results: First, we identified three clusters of GC by unsupervised hierarchical clustering, with average silhouette width of 0.96, and also identified their related representative genes and immune cells. We validated our findings using dataset GSE84426. Subtypes associated with the highest mortality (subtype 2 in the training group and subtype C in the validation group) showed high expression of SPARC, COL3A1, and CCN. Both subtypes also showed high infiltration of fibroblasts, endothelial cells, hematopoietic stem cells, and a high stromal score. Furthermore, subtypes with the best prognosis (subtype 3 in the training group and subtype A in the validation group) showed high expression of FGL2, DLGAP1-AS5, and so on. Both subtypes also showed high infiltration of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, NK cells, pDC, macrophages, and CD4+ T effector memory cells.Conclusion: We found that GC can be classified into three subtypes based on gene expression patterns and cell composition. Findings of this study help us better understand the tumor microenvironment and immune milieu associated with heterogeneity in GC and provide practical information to guide personalized treatment.

Chronic neuropathic pain caused by nerve damage is a most common clinical symptom, often accompanied by anxiety- and depression-like symptoms. Current treatments are very limited at least in part due to incompletely understanding mechanisms underlying this disorder. Changes in gene expression in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) have been acknowledged to implicate in neuropathic pain genesis, but how peripheral nerve injury alters the gene expression in other pain-associated regions remains elusive. The present study carried out strand-specific next-generation RNA sequencing with a higher sequencing depth and observed the changes in whole transcriptomes in the spinal cord (SC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and amygdala (AMY) following unilateral fourth lumbar spinal nerve ligation (SNL). In addition to providing novel transcriptome profiles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and mRNAs, we identified pain- and emotion-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and revealed that numbers of these DEGs displayed a high correlation to neuroinflammation and apoptosis. Consistently, functional analyses showed that the most significant enriched biological processes of the upregulated mRNAs were involved in the immune system process, apoptotic process, defense response, inflammation response, and sensory perception of pain across three regions. Moreover, the comparisons of pain-, anxiety-, and depression-related DEGs among three regions present a particular molecular map among the spinal cord and supraspinal structures and indicate the region-dependent and region-independent alterations of gene expression after nerve injury. Our study provides a resource for gene transcript expression patterns in three distinct pain-related regions after peripheral nerve injury. Our findings suggest that neuroinflammation and apoptosis are important pathogenic mechanisms underlying neuropathic pain and that some DEGs might be promising therapeutic targets.

Purpose: Deficiency of adenosine deaminase 2 (DADA2) is a rare autosomal recessive systemic autoinflammatory disorder. We describe a rare case of an adult patient with DADA2 who presented with unilateral frosted branch angiitis (FBA) combined with branch retinal vein occlusion and panuveitis.Method: This paper is a clinical case report.Results: A 31-year-old male patient complained of blurred vision in his right eye for 2 days. His fundus examination showed FBA combined with branch retinal vein occlusion and panuveitis. He had a medical history of intermittent and recurrent fever, skin rash and aphthous ulcer for 5 years, and lacunar infarction for 1 month. Laboratory examinations showed hypogammaglobulinemia and mild prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT). Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed old lacunar infarction in the right basal ganglia and the lateral ventricle and fresh lacunar infarction in the right pons, respectively. The perivascular sheathing of FBA and macular edema were resolved after steroid administration and treatment of intravitreal anti-VEGF injection. During the period of follow-up, the patient subsequently suffered from recurrence of strokes, abnormality of coagulation function, sudden hearing loss of the left ear, and diplopia. His gene sequencing results demonstrated several deletion mutations in ADA2, and the diagnosis of DADA2 was eventually confirmed.Conclusions: FBA represents a very rare ocular feature of DADA2 and may in some cases be the presenting manifestation. Therefore, ophthalmologists need to be aware of this rare autoinflammatory disease.

We aimed to study the clinical utility of serum lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) with cerebral artery stenosis (CAS). We included 200 AIS patients and 90 healthy controls in this study. AIS patients were classified into three subgroups depending on the severity of CAS. They were also classified based on the stability of the carotid plaques. Spearman correlation analysis was performed to determine the correlation relationship between the level of Lp-PLA2 and neurologic injury. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the independent risk factors for AIS. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to assess the diagnostic value of Lp-PLA2 for AIS and for the degree of CAS. We found that the serum level of Lp-PLA2 in AIS patients was significantly higher than that in the control group. Lp-PLA2 was further identified as an independent risk factor for AIS (p = 0.001, OR = 1.057). In addition, serum Lp-PLA2 level was the highest in AIS patients with severe CAS or occlusion. Lp-PLA2 level was higher in AIS patients with unstable plaques and in AIS patients with moderate to severe neurological injury. Lp-PLA2 level was positively correlated with National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score (r = 0.335, p = 0.001). We found that the optimal cut-off value for Lp-PLA2 level was 123.365 ng/ml, at which the sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of ACI were 74.5 and 86.7%, respectively, and the area under ROC curve (AUC) was 0.892. Similarly, the optimal value for Lp-PLA2 level was 136.46 ng/ml, at which the sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of the presence of moderate to severe artery stenosis or occlusion were 79.6 and 95.2%, respectively, and the AUC was 0.938. The ROC curve indicated that serum Lp-PLA2 level has an excellent diagnostic value for AIS and severe stenosis. Based on these results we conclude that Lp-PLA2 could be a potential biomarker to complement the current imaging methods in the prediction and diagnosis of AIS. An elevated Lp-PLA2 level is also correlated with carotid plaque instability, severe neurological injury and cerebrovascular stenosis. Future longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether there is a causative relationship between Lp-PLA2 and AIS.

Chronological age is one of the important factors influencing muscle development and meat quality in chickens. To evaluate the protein expression profiles during skeletal muscle development, we performed a tandem mass tag (TMT)-based quantitative proteomic strategy in pectoralis major (breast muscle) of Beijing-You chicken (BYC) at the chronological age of 90, 120, and 150 days. Each chronological age contained 3 pooling samples or 15 birds (five birds per pooling sample). A total of 1,413 proteins were identified in chicken breast muscle with FDR < 1% and 197 of them were differentially expressed (fold change ≥1.2 or ≤0.83 and p < 0.05). There were 110 up- and 71 down-regulated proteins in 120 d vs 90 d group, 13 up- and 10 down-regulated proteins in 150 d vs 120 d group. The proteomic profiles of BYC at 120 d were very similar to those at 150 d and highly different from those at 90 d, suggesting that 120 d might be an important chronological age for BYC. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses indicated that these differentially expressed proteins were mainly involved in the pathway of glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, adrenergic signaling in cardiomyocytes, focal adhesion, oocyte meiosis and phagosome. Furthermore, some DEPs were quantified using parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) to validate the results from TMT analysis. In summary, these results provided some candidate protein-coding genes for further functional validation and contribute to a comprehensive understanding of muscle development and age-dependent meat quality regulation by proteins in chickens.

We develop a new type of high-speed wavefront determination method with single feedback measurement to focus light through a 15.2 scattering mean free path in ∼113 ms. Our method is based on a heterodyne-detection phase sensitivity interferometer. First, the matrix which describes the light propagation process in the sample is measured by single input and output optical fields’ analysis. Then, by using a spatial light modulator to reshape the incident light with a matched wavefront, a focused beam is observed behind the sample. The proposed high-speed light focusing method will open new spot scanning mode toward deeper imaging through highly scattering biological tissues.

Background: Activated hepatic stellate cells (aHSCs) regulate the function of immune cells during liver fibrosis. As major innate cells in the liver, macrophages have inducible plasticity. Nevertheless, the mechanisms through which aHSCs regulate macrophages' phenotype and function during liver fibrosis and cirrhosis remain unclear. In this study, we examined the immunoregulatory function of aHSCs during liver fibrosis and explored their role in regulating macrophage phenotype and function.Methods: A total of 96 patients with different stages of chronic hepatitis B-related liver fibrosis were recruited in the study. Metavir score system was used to evaluate the degree of fibrosis. The expression of hepatic CCL2 and M2 phenotype macrophage marker CD163 were detected by immunohistochemistry, and the relationship among hepatic CD163, CCL2, and fibrosis scores were also explored. In the in vitro model, the aHSCs isolated from human liver tissues and THP-1-derived M0-type macrophages (M0MΦ) were co-cultured to observe whether and how aHSCs regulate the phenotype and function of macrophages. To explore whether CCL2/CCR2 axis has a crucial role in macrophage phenotypic changes during liver fibrosis, we treated the M0MΦ with recombinant human CCL2 or its specific receptor antagonist INCB-3284. Furthermore, we used LX2 and TGF-β-activated LX2 to mimic the different activation statuses of aHSCs to further confirm our results.Results: In patients, the infiltration of M2 macrophages increased during the progression of liver fibrosis. Intriguingly, as a key molecule for aHSC chemotactic macrophage aggregation, CCL2 markedly up-regulated the expression of CD163 and CD206 on the macrophages, which was further confirmed by adding the CCR2 antagonist (INCB 3284) into the cell culture system. In addition, the TGF-β stimulated LX2 further confirmed that aHSCs up-regulate the expression of CD163 and CD206 on macrophages. LX2 stimulated with TGF-β could produce more CCL2 and up-regulate other M2 phenotype macrophage-specific markers, including IL-10, ARG-1, and CCR2 besides CD163 and CD206 at the gene level, indicating that the different activation status of aHSCs might affect the final phenotype and function of macrophages.Conclusions: The expression of the M2 macrophage marker increases during liver fibrosis progression and is associated with fibrosis severity. AHSCs can recruit macrophages through the CCL2/CCR2 pathway and induce M2 phenotypic transformation.

Background Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) may have an abnormal peripheral body temperature rhythm, but its relationship with suicidal risk and the response to treatment with antidepressants remain unknown.Aims This study aimed to investigate the feature of peripheral body temperature in patients with MDD and its relationship with suicide risk before and after treatment with antidepressants.Methods This is a prospective case-control study. Patients diagnosed as MDD were enrolled into MDD group. Healthy subjects who matched in terms of gender, age and body mass index were enrolled into normal control (NC) group. The 24-hour peripheral body temperatures were monitored by TM’ Holter the next day after assessment. Patients with MDD were re-assessed after a 2-week treatment with antidepressants. All temperature data were fitted into cosine curves by Python.Result There were 41 patients with MDD, and 21 NC participants enrolled and completed the baseline assessments before the treatment. Patients with MDD were further divided into subgroup of with suicide risk or without suicide risk. In patients with MDD, the mesor of peripheral body temperature rhythm was higher in both patients with (36.17 (0.30)) and without suicide risk (36.22 (0.27)) than the mesor in NC participants before treatment (35.84 (0.38), Z=11.82, p=0.003, Kruskal-Wallis test). The phase-delay of temperature before treatment was greater in patients with MDD with suicidal risk (4.71 (1.68)) in comparison with those without suicidal risk (3.05 (2.19)) and NC participants (3.19 (1.82), Z=9.68, p=0.008, Kruskal-Wallis test). Moreover, phase-delay of temperature was associated with suicide risk in patients with MDD before treatment (OR=1.046, 95% CI: 1.009 to 1.085, p=0.015, unadjusted; OR=1.080, 95% CI: 1.020 to 1.144, p=0.009, adjusted by age and sex).Conclusion Patients with MDD might have abnormal peripheral body temperature. The abnormal phase-delay of peripheral body temperature may indicate suicide risk in patients with MDD, depending on validation in large-scale cohorts.

Elemental red phosphorus (P) responds well to sunlight but displays low photocatalytic activity of H2 evolution. Au/P composites were fabricated by a facile photoreduction method in this paper. 0.5% Au/P showed the highest activity of H2 evolution, 2.97 and 2.47 folds of pure P under visible and near-infrared light, especially, obtained the fastest H2 generation rate of 564.11 μmol·g−1·h−1 under the full spectrum of Xe lamp irradiation. The Au cocatalyst efficiently separated the photocarriers and enhanced the activity of pure P. It provides guideline to rationally design excellent wide spectral photocatalyst for water splitting.

BackgroundMortality among patients with hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) is quite high; however, information on risk factors for short-term mortality in this population remains limited. The aim of the current study was to identify the risk factors for mortality in bedridden patients with HAP during a 3-month observation period.MethodsA secondary data analysis was conducted. In total, 1141 HAP cases from 25 hospitals were included in the analysis. Univariate and multilevel regression analyses were performed to identify the risk factors for mortality.ResultsDuring the 3-month observation period, there were 189 deaths among bedridden patients with HAP. The mortality rate in this study was 16.56%. Multilevel regression analysis showed that ventilator-associated pneumonia (OR = 2.034, 95%CI: 1.256, 3.296, p = 0.004), pressure injuries (OR = 2.202, 95%CI: 1.258, 3.852, p = 0.006), number of comorbidities (OR = 1.076, 95%CI: 1.016,1.140, p = 0.013) and adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index score (OR = 1.210, 95%CI: 1.090, 1.343, pConclusionsThe identification of risk factors associated with mortality is an important step towards individualizing care plans. Our findings may help healthcare workers select high-risk patients for specific interventions. Further study is needed to explore whether appropriate interventions against modifiable risk factors, such as reduced immobility complications or ventilator-associated pneumonia, could improve the prognoses.

The upper part of high gas coal seam often has a hard and thick sandstone roof, which provides the condition for the occurrence of gas accident in goaf caused by the friction effect for the sliding and instability of hard quartz sandstone. Based on the engineering background of the 1007 working face of Xiakuotan Coal Mine, the conditions of sliding instability of hard quartz sandstone and the possibility of the friction effect are discussed by combining theoretical analysis with the laboratory test. When the ratio of span to thickness is less than 2∼2.56, the hard-thick sandstone strata may slip and lose stability. The influence of friction velocity and gas concentration on the induced gas of quartz sandstone is analyzed and compared. The results show that the point spark, the spark beam, and the gas explosion time are inversely proportional to the relative friction velocity, and the intensity of the gas explosion is directly proportional to the gas concentration and the relative friction velocity. This paper provides the basis for the prevention and control of gas disasters in goaf and the control of hard and thick sandstone roof strata under similar engineering geological conditions. It is of great significance to promote the safe and efficient production of coal mines and to ensure the safety of personal and property.

Light pollution is one of the most serious public problems, especially the night light. However, the effect of dim blue light at night (dLAN-BL) on cognitive function is unclear. In this study, we evaluated the effects of exposure to dLAN-BL in C57BL/6J mice for 4 consecutive weeks. Our results showed dLAN-BL significantly impaired spatial learning and memory and increased plasma corticosterone level in mice. Consistent with these changes, we observed dLAN-BL significantly increased the numbers and activation of microglia and the levels of oxidative stress product MDA in the hippocampus, decreased the levels of antioxidant enzymes Glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Gluathione reductase (Gsr), total antioxidants (T-AOC) and the number of neurons in the hippocampus, up-regulated the mRNA expression levels of IL6, TNF-α and the protein expression levels of iNOS, COX2, TLR4, p-p65, Cleaved-Caspase3 and BAX, and down-regulated the mRNA expression levels of IL4, IL10, Psd95, Snap25, Sirt1, Dcx and the protein expression level of BCL2. In vitro results further showed corticosterone (10uM)-induced BV2 cell activation and up-regulated content of IL6, TNF-α in the cell supernatant and the protein expression levels of iNOS, COX2, p-p65 in BV2 cells. Our findings suggested dLAN-BL up-regulated plasma corticosterone level and hippocampal microglia activation, which in turn caused oxidative stress and neuroinflammation, leading to neuronal loss and synaptic dysfunction, ultimately leading to spatial learning and memory dysfunction in mice.

Antimicrobials may be used to inhibit the growth of micro-organisms in the cultivation of mung bean sprouts, but the effects on mung bean sprouts are unclear. In the present study, the growth performance, morphology, antimicrobial effect and antimicrobial residues of mung bean sprouts cultivated in typical antimicrobial solutions were investigated. A screening of antimicrobial residues in thick-bud and rootless mung bean sprouts from local markets showed that the positive ratios of chloramphenicol, enrofloxacin, and furazolidone were 2.78%, 22.22%, and 13.89%, respectively. The cultivating experiment indicated that the production of mung bean sprouts in antimicrobial groups was significantly reduced over 96 h (p < 0.05). The bud and root length of mung bean sprouts in enrofloxacin, olaquindox, doxycycline and furazolidone groups were significantly shortened (p < 0.05), which cultivated thick-bud and rootless mung bean sprouts similar to the 6-benzyl-adenine group. Furthermore, linear regression analysis showed average optical density of 450 nm in circulating water and average production had no obvious correlation in mung bean sprouts (p > 0.05). Antimicrobial residues were found in both mung bean sprouts and circulating water. These novel findings reveal that the antimicrobials could cultivate thick-bud and rootless mung bean sprouts due to their toxicity. This study also proposed a new question regarding the abuse of antimicrobials in fast-growing vegetables, which could be a potential food safety issue.

Heavy metal elements in farmland soil can be absorbed by crops and endanger food security. To assess the risk of heavy metal elements in farmland soil to crops in Shaanxi Province, we collected 693 soil samples and analyzed the concentrations of nine heavy metals (As, Hg, Pb, Cd, Cr, Mn, Cu, Zn, and Ni). According to the National Standard (GB 15619-2018) of the People’s Republic of China, the proportions of soil sample points in which the concentration of heavy metals was higher than the risk screening value were 2.02% (Cd), 0.29% (Cr), 0.29% (Zn), 2.31% (Cu), 1.15% (Ni), and 0.14% (Pb). The proportions of areas in which the concentration of heavy metal was higher than the background value were as follows, from largest to smallest: Zn (53.20%) > Mn (49.86%) > Cd (29.51%) > Hg (26.77%) > As (26.58%) > Ni (14.95%) > Cu (13.90%) > Pb (6.49%) > Cr (1.40%). The assessment of the risk of heavy metal exposure (geo-accumulation index (Igeo), pollution load index (PLI), and potential ecological risk index (RI)) determined that Hg was the most concerning heavy metal in the farmland soil of Shaanxi Province. Moreover, 11.56% of these areas had Hg contamination, and they were mainly distributed in the western Guanzhong region. The farmland soil in the Guanzhong region was the most contaminated, followed by the southern Shaanxi region and then the northern Shaanxi region. The main sources of heavy metal contamination causing large-scale farmland soil pollution are agricultural production activities, transportation, and air pollution caused by coal combustion in Shaanxi Province. Therefore, sustainable strategies for the prevention and control of heavy metal pollution and agricultural development must be applied in different regions. Heavy metal pollution should be managed, and relevant policies should be created and enforced, such as the standardization of the use of qualified pesticides and fertilizers, improved treatment of livestock and poultry manure, development of the clean energy industry structure, and promotion of renewable energy vehicles. In terms of the high-quality development of agriculture, developing modern and local agriculture in different regions should be based on local geographical, climatic, and economic conditions.

Previous studies found that melatonin modulates a combination of green-and-blue-light-induced B-lymphocyte proliferation via its membrane receptors Mel1a and Mel1c. However, in addition to its membrane-bound receptors, melatonin also functions through binding to nuclear receptors RORα/RORβ/RORγ. In this study, we raised 120 chicks under 400–700 nm white (WW), 660 nm red (RR), 560 nm green (GG) and 480 nm blue light (BB) from P0 to P26. From P27 to P42, half of the chickens in green, blue and red were switched to blue (G→B), green (B→G) and red (R→B), respectively. We used immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, qRT-PCR, Elisa and MTT to investigate the influence of various monochromatic light combinations on the bursal B lymphocyte apoptosis and oxidative stress levels as well as estimate whether melatonin and its nuclear receptors were involved in this process. Consistent with the increase in the plasma melatonin concentration and antioxidant enzyme activity, we observed that G→B significantly decreased the RORα, RORγ mRNA level, inhibited Bax, Caspase-3 and p-iκb, p-p65 protein expression, increased the IL-10 level and Nrf2, HO-1 protein expression, down-regulated the MDA and pro-inflammatory IL-6, TNF-α and IFN-γ levels in the bursa compared with WW, RR, GG, BB and R→B, respectively. Our in vitro results showed exogenous melatonin supplementation inhibited B-lymphocyte apoptosis, decreased IL-6, TNF-α, IFN-γ and ROS production, down-regulated RORα, RORγ mRNA level and p-iκb and p-p65 protein expression, whereas it improved the IL-10 level and Nrf2 and the HO-1 protein expression in bursal B lymphocyte. Moreover, these responses were abrogated by RORα agonist SR1078 but were mimicked by RORα antagonist SR3335 or RORγ antagonist GSK2981278. In addition, p65 antagonist BAY reversed RORα/RORγ-mediated G→B-inhibited bursal B lymphocyte apoptosis. Overall, we concluded that melatonin nuclear RORα/RORγ mediates G→B-inhibited bursal B lymphocyte apoptosis via reducing oxidative stress and Nfκb expression.

During ultrafast laser-induced crystallization from glass with a non-congruent composition, a phase separation occurs. The morphology of the crystallized area, inside the heat-affected zone (HAZ), is spectacular showing a bouquet-like structure, under some specific conditions related to glass chemical composition and laser parameters. In this work, we investigate this HAZ along a written line through a set of high-resolution electron microscopy techniques to probe both the morphology and the chemical distribution at the nanoscale. Based on these findings, we demonstrate that the bouquet-like structure arises from poorly textured nanocrystals between two regions that have probably accumulated elastic strain. From that analysis, we also provide insights into the chemical separation process during this complex light-matter transformation in which the induced plasma structure guides the spatial distribution of SiO2 and LiNbO3. We suggest a model based on an electric field modulation produced by the inhomogeneous plasma electron trapping, that modifies the electrochemical potentials of the constituents.

Introduction Venous thromboembolism (VTE) occurs in up to 40%–80% of patients after hip and knee arthroplasty. Clinical decision-making aided by guidelines is the most effective strategy to reduce the burden of VTE. However, the quality of guidelines is dependent on the strength of their evidence base. The objective of this article is to critically evaluate the quality of VTE prevention guidelines and the strength of their recommendations in VTE prophylaxis in patients undergoing hip and knee arthroplasty.Methods Relevant literature up to 16 March 2020 was systematically searched. We searched databases such as Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and WanFang and nine guidelines repositories. The identified guidelines were appraised by two reviewers using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II and appraised the strength of their recommendations independently. Following quality assessment, a predesigned data collection form was used to extract the characteristics of the included guideline.Results We finally included 15 guidelines. Ten of the included guidelines were rated as ‘recommended’ or ‘recommended with modifications’. The standardised scores were relatively high in the domains of Clarity of Presentation, and Scope and Purpose. The lowest average standardised scores were observed in the domains of Applicability and Stakeholder Involvement. In reference to the domains of Rigour of Development and Editorial Independence, the standardised scores varied greatly between the guidelines. The agreement between the two appraisers is almost perfect (intraclass correlation coefficients higher than 0.80). A considerable proportion of the recommendations is based on low-quality or very-low-quality evidence or is even based on working group expert opinion.Conclusions In summary, the majority of the recommendations are based on low-quality evidence, and further confirmation is needed. Furthermore, guideline developers should pay more attention to methodological quality, especially in the Stakeholder Involvement domain and the Applicability domain.

Abstract Stroke is a leading cause of mortality and disability worldwide, expected to result in 61 million disability‐adjusted life‐years in 2020. Rapid diagnostics is the core of stroke management for early prevention and medical treatment. Serum metabolic fingerprints (SMFs) reflect underlying disease progression, predictive of patient phenotypes. Deep learning (DL) encoding SMFs with clinical indexes outperforms single biomarkers, while posing challenges with poor prediction to interpret by feature selection. Herein, rapid computer‐aided diagnosis of stroke is performed using SMF based multi‐modal recognition by DL, to combine adaptive machine learning with a novel feature selection approach. SMFs are extracted by nano‐assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI MS), consuming 100 nL of serum in seconds. A multi‐modal recognition is constructed by integrating SMFs and clinical indexes with an enhanced area under curve (AUC) up to 0.845 for stroke screening, compared to single‐modal diagnosis by only SMFs or clinical indexes. The prediction of DL is addressed by selecting 20 key metabolite features with differential regulation through a saliency map approach, shedding light on the molecular mechanisms in stroke. The approach highlights the emerging role of DL in precision medicine and suggests an expanding utility for computational analysis of SMFs in stroke screening.

Background: Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary intraocular cancer in adults. Genomic studies have provided insights into molecular subgroups and oncogenic drivers of UM that may lead to novel therapeutic strategies.Methods: Dataset TCGA-UVM, download from TCGA portal, were taken as the training cohort, and dataset GSE22138, obtained from GEO database, was set as the validation cohort. In training cohort, Kaplan–Meier analysis and univariate Cox regression model were applied to preliminary screen prognostic genes. Besides, the Cox regression model with LASSO was implemented to build a multi-gene signature, which was then validated in the validation cohorts through Kaplan–Meier, Cox, and ROC analyses. In addition, the correlation between copy number aberrations and risk score was evaluated by Spearman test. GSEA and immune infiltrating analyses were conducted for understanding function annotation and the role of the signature in the tumor microenvironment.Results: A ten-gene signature was built, and it was examined by Kaplan–Meier analysis revealing that significantly overall survival, progression-free survival, and metastasis-free survival difference was seen. The ten-gene signature was further proven to be an independent risk factor compared to other clinic-pathological parameters via the Cox regression analysis. Moreover, the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis results demonstrated a better predictive power of the UM prognosis that our signature owned. The ten-gene signature was significantly correlated with copy numbers of chromosome 3, 8q, 6q, and 6p. Furthermore, GSEA and immune infiltrating analyses showed that the signature had close interactions with immune-related pathways and the tumor environment.Conclusions: Identifying the ten-gene signature (SIRT3, HMCES, SLC44A3, TCTN1, STPG1, POMGNT2, RNF208, ANXA2P2, ULBP1, and CA12) could accurately identify patients' prognosis and had close interactions with the immunodominant tumor environment, which may provide UM patients with personalized prognosis prediction and new treatment insights.

BackgroundLung cancer has become the most common cancer type and caused the most cancer deaths. Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is one of the major types of lung cancer. Accumulating evidence suggests the tumor microenvironment is correlated with the tumor progress and the patient’s outcome. This study aimed to establish a gene signature based on tumor microenvironment that can predict patients’ outcomes for LUAD.MethodsDataset TCGA-LUAD, downloaded from the TCGA portal, were taken as training cohort, and dataset GSE72094, obtained from the GEO database, was set as validation cohort. In the training cohort, ESTIMATE algorithm was applied to find intersection differentially expressed genes (DEGs) among tumor microenvironment. Kaplan–Meier analysis and univariate Cox regression model were performed on intersection DEGs to preliminarily screen prognostic genes. Besides, the LASSO Cox regression model was implemented to build a multi-gene signature, which was then validated in the validation cohorts through Kaplan–Meier, Cox, and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analyses. In addition, the correlation between tumor mutational burden (TMB) and risk score was evaluated by Spearman test. GSEA and immune infiltrating analyses were conducted for understanding function annotation and the role of the signature in the tumor microenvironment.ResultsAn eight-gene signature was built, and it was examined by Kaplan–Meier analysis, revealing that a significant overall survival difference was seen. The eight-gene signature was further proven to be independent of other clinico-pathologic parameters via the Cox regression analyses. Moreover, the ROC analysis demonstrated that this signature owned a better predictive power of LUAD prognosis. The eight-gene signature was correlated with TMB. Furthermore, GSEA and immune infiltrating analyses showed that the exact pathways related to the characteristics of eight-genes signature, and identified the vital roles of Mast cells resting and B cells naive in the prognosis of the eight-gene signature.ConclusionIdentifying the eight-gene signature (INSL4, SCN7A, STAP1, P2RX1, IKZF3, MS4A1, KLRB1, and ACSM5) could accurately identify patients’ prognosis and had close interactions with Mast cells resting and B cells naive, which may provide insight into personalized prognosis prediction and new therapies for LUAD patients.

Despite the great increase in human lifespan with improved medical care, the physiological and pathological changes such as memory and cognitive disorders and associated anxiety and depression are major concern with aging. Molecular mechanisms underlying these changes are little known. The present study examined the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and the genes with differentially expressed isoforms in three brain regions, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), amygdala and hippocampus, throughout the lifespan of mice. Compared to 2-month old mice, both 12- and 24-month old mice displayed memory and cognitive impairments in the Morris water maze, Y-maze, and novel object recognition tests and depression- and anxiety-like behaviors in the tail suspension, forced swimming, open field, and elevated plus maze tests. RNA sequencing analysis identified 634 and 1078 DEGs in ACC, 453 and 1015 DEGs in the amygdala and 884 and 1054 DEGs in hippocampus in the 12- and 24-month old mice, respectively. Similarly, many genes with differentially expressed isoforms were also identified in these three brain regions in the 12- and 24-month old mice. Further functional analysis revealed that many DEGs and the genes with differentially expressed isoforms in the ACC and amygdala were mapped to depression- and anxiety-related genes, respectively and that a lot of DEGs and the genes with differentially expressed isoforms in hippocampus were mapped to cognitive dysfunction-related genes from both 12- and 24-month old mice. All of these mapped DEGs and the genes with differentially expressed isoforms were closely related to neuroinflammation. Our findings indicate that these neuroinflammation-related DEGs and the genes with differentially expressed isoforms are likely new targets in the management of memory/cognitive impairment and emotional disorders during the aging.

Background: With the adoption of powerful preventive and therapeutic measures, a large number of patients with COVID-19 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals in Wuhan, China. Prevention of epidemic rebound is a top priority of current works. However, information regarding post-discharge quarantine and surveillance of recovered patients with COVID-19 is scarce.Methods: This study followed up 337 patients with COVID-19 in a Wuhan East-West Lake Fangcang shelter hospital during the post-discharge quarantine. Demographic, clinical characteristics, comorbidities, and chest computed tomography (CT) image, mental state, medication status, and nucleic acid test data were summarized and analyzed.Results: 21/337 (6.2%) patients were SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid re-positive, and 4 /337(1.2%) patients were suspected positive. The median day interval between the discharge to nucleic acid re-positivity was 7.5 days (IQR, 6–13), ranging from 6 to 13 days. Cough/expectoration are the most common symptoms, followed by chest congestion/dyspnea during the 2 weeks post-discharge quarantine. Risk factors of nucleic acid re-positivity including the number of lobes infiltration (odds ratio[OR], 1.14; 95% CI, 1.09–1.19), distribution (OR, 0.16; 95% CI, 0.13–0.19), CT imaging feature of patchy shadowing accompanying with consolidation (OR, 9.36; 95% CI, 7.84–11.17), respiratory symptoms of cough accompanying with expectoration (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.28–1.52), and chest congestion accompanying by dyspnea (OR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.28–1.57).Conclusion: The 2 weeks post-discharge quarantine may be an effective measure to prevent the outbreak from rebounding from the recovered patients. The second week is a critical period during post-discharge quarantine. Special attention should be paid to cough, expectoration, chest congestion, and dyspnea in recovered COVID-19 patients. A few recovered patients may prolong the quarantine based on clinical symptoms and signs and nucleic acid results in the 2 weeks of medical observation.

Accumulating evidence suggests that circular RNAs (circRNAs) may be a key contributor to oncogenesis. Yet, the function of circRNAs in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is still not clear. In this study, we examined the function of circRNA_103862 in LSCC progression by analyzing the tissue specimens collected from a patient with LSCC by using different LSCC cell models in vitro and an LSCC xenograft model in nude mice. We found that circRNA_103862 was frequently upregulated in the tissues of LSCC and was correlated with metastasis and prognosis of LSCC patients. Furthermore, circRNA_103862 downregulation could reduce proliferation, migration, and invasion ability of LSCC cells. In terms of mechanism exploration, miR-493-5p was sponged by circRNA_103862. Rescue experiments also showed that circRNA_103862 could achieve a carcinogenic effect by regulating miR-493-5p. Moreover, a luciferase reporter analysis showed that Golgi membrane protein 1 (GOLM1) is a downstream effector of miR-493-5p. In conclusion, our data suggested that circRNA_103862 promotes the proliferation of LSCC through targeting the miR-493-5p/GOLM1 axis, and it might serve as a potential prognosis marker and therapy target for LSCC.

The cooling processes of hot working for TA15 titanium alloy are highly nonlinear, during which non-isothermal and non-isokinetic phase transformations often occur leading to the changes in the microstructures and mechanical properties. The existing phase transformation models, that are established based on isothermal transformations, are either difficult to reflect the real transformation process or complicated for use. Therefore, in this paper a succinct model suitable for the transformations at any cooling path was developed by separating the transformation process into a series of linear cooling steps. First, the transformation behaviors during linear cooling processes were studied by thermal expansion experiments, and then a kinetic model of the transformations at constant cooling rates was developed based on the JMAK law. Second, the additivity of the transformations during linear cooling processes was proved, and therefore the additivity rule was extended to calculate the incubation period of the transformation during non-linear cooling process. Finally, based on the crystallization model built by T. Ozawa, the new transformation model was established, and its reliability was proved by experiments.

Fibulin-1, a component of the extracellular matrix (ECM), its prognostic, pathophysiologic and diagnostic role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still unexplored. We first found that either Fibulin-1 messenger RNA (mRNA) or protein level was highly elevated in HCC tissues compared with normal tissues. Fibulin-1 correlated with poor overall survival, and it was an independent prognostic predictor (p = 0.001). Furthermore, Overexpression or inhibition of Fibulin-1 reduced or sensitized HCC cells to apoptotic signals, and Fibulin-1 silencing suppressed the ability of HCC cells to form tumors in vivo. Moreover, Fibulin-1 inhibited apoptosis via the Notch pathway while Fibulin-1 silencing had no obvious effect on p-MAPK, p-c-jun and p-stat3 expression, and both Mcl-1 and Bcl-xL are targets of Fibulin-1. Furthermore, the stromal and immune score was elevated in high Fibulin-1 tissues, and FBLN1 expression was associated with increased infiltrating macrophages using xCell, TIMER and TISDIB tool based on TCGA HCC database. Importantly, the circulating cell-free RNA (cfRNA) level of Fibulin-1 in the serum were significantly increased in patients with HCC compared with those in healthy controls, individuals with chronic hepatitis B and patients with HBV-induced liver cirrhosis. The area under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) was 0.791 for Fibulin-1, 0.640 for α-fetoprotein and 0.868 for the combination of the two tumor markers. Our findings indicate that Fibulin-1 may be a potential prognostic indicator, a promising serum biomarker and a therapeutic target in patients with HCC.

Objective: The burden of comorbidity among young patients with hemorrhagic stroke is high. This study examines the effect of comorbidity on the length of stay (LoS) and mortality among immobile hemorrhagic stroke patients younger than 50 years.Materials and Methods: A retrospective post-hoc analysis study design was used. A total of 767 younger adults (mean age 41.64 ± 8.16 years) hospitalized for hemorrhagic stroke between November 2015 and July 2017 were evaluated. All-cause mortality was recorded for 90 days after admission regardless of whether death occurred before or after discharge. Comorbidity was assessed using the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), categorized as low (0–1) and high (≥2). A multiple linear regression model was applied to examine the association between CCI and LoS. Survival was evaluated with Kaplan–Meier and Cox regression analyses.Results: The mean CCI of all patients was 1.25 (SD ± 0.79) and median was 1.0 (IQR 1, 1). The average LoS for patients with a low CCI was 17.73 (± 11.59) days compared with 19.49 (± 15.21) days in those with a high CCI (p = 0.142). The mortality rate was 6.0% (12.10% for high CCI vs. 4.82% for low CCI, p = 0.002). After controlling for confounders, high CCI was not associated with longer LoS (regression coefficient 0.825, 95% CI −1.155 to 2.805; p = 0.413), whereas high CCI was associated with greater likelihood of death than a low CCI (hazard ratio 3.417, 95% CI 1.626 to 7.180; p = 0.001).Conclusions: High global comorbidity was associated with increased short-term mortality but not with LoS. Measures to manage comorbidities aimed at reducing negative clinical impacts of stroke among younger adults are warranted.

BackgroundWith the advent of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing tool in gene therapy, identification of aberrantly expressed genes is of great value across various cancer types. Since a large number of patients may benefit from molecular targeted gene therapy. The purpose of this study was to identify aberrantly expressed genes across various cancer types, analyze prospective mechanisms and their correlation with survival outcomes.ResultsNCAPG was highly expressed in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, which includes the transcriptomes of 6,647 cancer and 647 normal tissue samples from 16 cancer types. Furthermore, a predicted NCAPG overexpression rate was also observed at the protein level in 16 tumor types. Importantly, high NCAPG level was significantly associated with unfavorable survival in various cancer types such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), breast, lung or ovarian cancer. The multivariate analyses demonstrated that NCAPG, TNM, and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging were independent risk factors for mortality of patients with HCC. Moreover, functional and pathway enrichment analysis suggested that NCAPG was closely correlated with the pathways of cell cycle, cellular senescence, and mismatch repair. By weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we identified NCAPG as a hub gene in the turquoise module mostly related to the survival time of HCC samples.ConclusionTo our knowledge, this study represents a comprehensive RNA-Seq analysis of several tumor types, revealing NCAPG as a promising molecular target. NCAPG overexpression may play important roles in carcinogenesis and progression of tumors via regulating tumor-related pathways, thereby broadening the understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms and highlighting the possibility of developing novel targeted therapeutics.

BACKGROUND:Immobility is common and associated with adverse outcomes in hospitalized patients, especially older people. However, the factors contributing to mortality in bedridden patients are not well known. This study aimed to estimate short-term mortality and analyze risk factors that affect the prognosis of bedridden patients. METHODS:This was a multicenter study in China involving 23,738 patients admitted to 25 hospitals between November 2015 and June 2016. All-cause mortality was recorded for 90 days after enrollment regardless of whether death occurred before or after discharge. Socio-demographic and clinical information was obtained from an electronic database. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with mortality. RESULTS:In total, 23,738 hospitalized bedridden patients, there were 1,114 (4.7%) observed deaths. The overall mortality rate was therefore 4.7%. Of these, 318 (1.4%) died while hospitalized and 796 (3.4%) after discharge. The univariate Cox regression analysis showed that variables significantly associated with 90-day mortality included total time spent bedridden, urinary tract infection and pulmonary infection (p

Various dietary fibers are considered to prevent obesity by modulating the gut microbiota. Cordyceps sinensis polysaccharide (CSP) is a soluble dietary fiber known to have protective effects against obesity and related diseases, but whether these effects induce any side effects remains unknown. The function and safety of CSP were tested in high-fat diet (HFD)-feding C57BL/6J mice. The results revealed that even though CSP supplementation could prevent an increase in body weight, it aggravated liver fibrosis and steatosis as evidenced by increased inflammation, lipid metabolism markers, insulin resistance (IR) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in HFD-induced obesity. 16S rDNA gene sequencing was used to analyze the gut microbiota composition, and the relative abundance of the Actinobacteria phylum, including the Olsenella genus, was significantly higher in CSP-treated mice than in HFD-fed mice. CSP supplementation may increase the proportion of Actinobacteria, which can degrade CSP. The high level of Actinobacteria aggravated the disorder of the intestinal flora and contributed to the progression from obesity to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and related diseases.

Purpose. There has not been a recent population-based study regarding the epidemiological trend and survival of eyelid primary malignant melanoma (PMM). Our study aims to evaluate the updated incidence trends and discuss the factors affecting the survival outcomes of eyelid PMM. Methods. A total of 1397 eyelid PMM cases diagnosed between 1975 and 2016 were retrospectively identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Age-adjusted incidence rates and annual percent changes (APC) were calculated. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to calculate survival outcomes and identify potential prognostic factors. Results. The overall age-adjusted incidence of eyelid PMM rose from 0.039 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.012–0.088) in 1975 to 0.103 (95% CI, 0.070–0.143) per 100 000 population in 2016, with significant APC of 1.313% (p

Ophiocordyceps sinensis is a highly valued fungus that has been used as traditional Asian medicine. This fungus is one of the most important sources of income for the nomadic populations of the Tibetan Plateau. With global warming and excessive collection, the wild O. sinensis resources declined dramatically. The cultivation of O. sinensis hasn’t been fully operational due to the unclear genetic basis of the fruiting body development. Here, our study conducted pairwise comparisons between transcriptomes acquired from different growth stages of O. sinensis including asexual mycelium (CM), developing fruiting body (DF) and mature fruiting body (FB). All RNA-Seq reads were aligned to the genome of O. sinensis CO18 prior to comparative analyses. Cluster analysis showed that the expression profiles of FB and DF were highly similar compared to CM. Alternative splicing analysis (AS) revealed that the stage-specific splicing genes may have important functions in the development of fruiting body. Functional enrichment analyses showed that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were enriched in protein synthesis and baseline metabolism during fruiting body development, indicating that more protein and energy might be required for fruiting body development. In addition, some fruiting body development-associated genes impacted by ecological factors were up-regulated in FB samples, such as the nucleoside diphosphate kinase gene (ndk), β subunit of the fatty acid synthase gene (cel-2) and the superoxide dismutase gene (sod). Moreover, the expression levels of several cytoskeletons genes were significantly altered during all these growth stages, suggesting that these genes play crucial roles in both vegetative growth and the fruiting body development. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to validate the gene expression profile and the results supported the accuracy of the RNA-Seq and DEGs analysis. Our study offers a novel perspective to understand the underlying growth stage-specific molecular differences and the biology of O. sinensis fruiting body development.

The Guanylate binding proteins (GBPs) are a family of large GTPases and the most studied GBP family member is the guanylate binding protein 1 (GBP1). Earlier studies revealed that GBP1 expression was inflammatory cytokines-inducible, and most of the studies focused on inflammation diseases. Increasing number of cancer studies began to reveal its biological role in cancers recently, although with contradictory findings in literature. It was discovered from our earlier prostate cancer cell line models studies that when prostate cancer cells treated with either ethidium bromide or a cell cycle inhibitor flavopiridol for a long-term, the treatment-survived tumor cells experienced metabolic reprogramming toward Warburg effect pathways with greater aggressive features, and one common finding from these cells was the upregulation of GBP1. In this study, possible role of GBP1 in two independent prostate cancer lines by application of CRISR/Cas9 gene knockout (KO) technology was investigated. The GBP1 gene KO DU145 and PC3 prostate cancer cells were significantly less aggressive in vitro, with less proliferation, migration, wound healing, and colony formation capabilities, in addition to a significantly lower level of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis. At the same time, such GBP1 KO cells were significantly more sensitive to chemotherapeutic reagents. Xenograft experiments verified a significantly slower tumor growth of the GBP1 KO cells in nude mouse model. Furthermore, GBP1 protein expression in clinical prostate cancer sample revealed its aggressive clinical feature correlation and shorter overall survival association. Collectively, our results indicate a pro-survival or oncogenic role of GBP1 in prostate cancer.

Recognition of biological tissue denaturation is a vital work in high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy. Multiscale permutation entropy (MPE) is a nonlinear signal processing method for feature extraction, widely applied to the recognition of biological tissue denaturation. However, the typical MPE cannot derive a stable entropy due to intensity information loss during the coarse-graining process. For this problem, an improved multiscale permutation entropy (IMPE) is proposed in this work. IMPE is obtained through refining and reconstructing MPE. Compared with MPE, the IMPE overcomes the deficiency of amplitude information loss due to the coarse-graining process when computing signal complexity. Through the simulation of calculating MPE and IMPE from white Gaussian noise, it is found that the entropy derived by IMPE is more stable than that derived by MPE. The processing method based on IMPE feature extraction is applied to the experimental ultrasonic scattered echo signals in HIFU treatment. Support vector machine and Gustafson–Kessel fuzzy clustering based on MPE and IMPE feature extraction are also used for biological tissue denaturation classification and recognition. The results calculated from the different combination algorithms show that the recognition of biological tissue denaturation based on IMPE-GK clustering is more reliable with the accuracy of 95.5%.

Thermoelectrics can convert waste heat to electricity and vice versa. The energy conversion efficiency depends on materials figure of merit, zT, and Carnot efficiency. Due to the higher Carnot efficiency at a higher temperature gradient, high-temperature thermoelectrics are attractive for waste heat recycling. Among high-temperature thermoelectrics, silicon-based compounds are attractive due to the confluence of light weight, high abundance, and low cost. Adding to their attractiveness is the generally defect-tolerant nature of thermoelectrics. This makes them a suitable target application for recycled silicon waste from electronic (e-waste) and solar cell waste. In this review, we summarize the usage of high-temperature thermoelectric generators (TEGs) in applications such as commercial aviation and space voyages. Special emphasis is placed on silicon-based compounds, which include some recent works on recycled silicon and their thermoelectric properties. Besides materials design, device designing considerations to further maximize the energy conversion efficiencies are also discussed. The insights derived from this review can be used to guide sustainable recycling of e-waste into thermoelectrics for power harvesting.

Thuja occidentalis is well-known for its ability to treat skin disorders. Although the plant extract of T. occidentalis has been shown to possess promising activity on skin infection, there is no report on T. occidentalis -based nanoparticles for wound-healing therapy. Therefore, the present study was conducted to synthesize nanoparticles from T. occidentalis in a simple, facile and green method and to assess the ability of formulated nanoparticles in wound care management. The characterization of fabricated AgNPs revealed the particle size range of 40–80 nm, The UV-vis absorption peak at 443 nm and a zeta potential value of −24 mV, confirmed the development of stabilized AgNPs. In vitro cytotoxicity analysis carried out on MCF-7 and Vero cells through MTT assay revealed the cytotoxic effect in cancer cells. LD _50 greater than 3000 mg kg ^−1 unveiled the less-toxic nature of fabricated nanoparticles. Furthermore, the phytosynthesized AgNPs were assessed for the wound healing property based on the size of lesions calculated form patients endured surgery (those who surpassed anorectal surgery). The injury site was found to be completely healed on 17th day on the AgNPs treated cases. The findings suggest that T. occidentalis -based AgNPs could be a better wound dressing material for chronic wounds. On the other hand, the obtained nanoparticles were found to be safe, efficient, non-toxic and eco-friendlier. However, this study is limited to the molecular mechanisms.

Environmental light has an important impact on the growth, development and oxidative stress of chicks. Thus, we investigated the effects of colored lights on microbes and explored the molecular mechanism by which external color light information alters the gut microbiota and induces the cell response in vivo. We raised 96 chicks under 400–700 nm white (WL), 660 nm red (RL), 560 nm green (GL) or 480 nm blue light (BL) for 42 days. We used 16S rRNA high-throughput pyrosequencing and gas chromatography to explore the effect of different monochromatic lights on the jejunal microbiota. We used qRT-PCR, western blotting, immunohistochemistry and Elisa to determine the effect of different monochromatic lights on small intestine development and oxidative stress levels. With consistency in the upregulation of antioxidant enzyme ability and anti-inflammatory cytokine level, the 16S rRNA and gas chromatography results showed that BL significantly increased the diversity and richness of the jejunal microbiota and improved the relative abundances of Faecalibacterium, Ruminiclostridium_9 and metabolite butyrate content compared with WL, RL and GL (p < 0.05). In addition, we observed that BL increased the goblet cell numbers, PCNA cell numbers, villus-length-to-crypt-depth (V/C) ratios, ZO-1, Occludin, and Claudin-1 protein expression; decreased permeability; and enhanced the digestion and absorption capacity in the jejunum (p < 0.05). In the in vitro experiment, we found that butyrate promoted chick small intestinal epithelial cell (CIEC) proliferation and inhibited apoptosis (p < 0.05). These responses were abrogated by the Gi inhibitor, PI3K inhibitor or AKT inhibitor, but were mimicked by GPR43 agonists or the GSK-3β inhibitor (p < 0.05). Overall, these findings suggested that BL increased the relative abundance of Faecalibacterium, Ruminiclostridium_9 and butyrate production. Butyrate may act as one of the signals to mediate blue-light-induced small intestinal development and mucosal barrier integrity enhancement and promote cell proliferation via the GPR43/Gi/PI3K/AKT/p-GSK-3β/β-catenin pathway.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the status of job satisfaction, emotional labour, core competencies and job stress and the associations of emotional labour and core competencies with the job satisfaction of nurses in China. Methods: Data were collected by using a self-designed general information questionnaire, a job satisfaction questionnaire (McCloskey/Mueller Satisfaction Scale), a nurse emotional labour questionnaire, the Competency Inventory for Registered Nurses questionnaire, and a nurse job stressor questionnaire. A total of 13,448 nurses from 92 hospitals across mainland of China were surveyed, and 11,337 respondents (84.3% response rate) completed the questionnaires. Results: The survey results indicated that Chinese nurses had average job satisfaction (24.77 ± 5.23), moderate job stress (86.84 ± 21.12), moderate to high emotional labour experiences (55.08 ± 9.63) and high competency (195.77 ± 37.61). Multiple linear regression indicated that surface acting was negatively correlated with job satisfaction (P

Abstract Background To investigate the effect of DACH1 over-expression on proliferation and invasion of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). Methods The 120 cases of LSCC tumors and 114 adjacent non-neoplastic tissues were collected to detect the expression of DACH1 by immunohistochemistry. The changes of DACH1 expression from each group were assessed and correlated to the clinical parameters of the patients. Plasmid-DACH1 was transfected into Hep-2 cells to up-regulate the expression of DACH1C. Real-time PCR, Western blot, CCK8 and transwell assay were used to verify the cell proliferation and invasion after plasmid-DACH1 transfection. Results The results indicated that DACH1 was downregulated in LSCC tissues as compared to corresponding adjacent non-neoplastic tissues. Decreased expression of DACH1 was found in the tumors upraglottic tumor, lymph node metastases, T3–4 stage and advanced clinical stage. In Hep-2 cells, transfection with plasmid-DACH1 could suppress cell proliferation, invasion and induce G1 phase extension in cell cycle. Conclusions DACH1 may act as a tumor suppressor gene and could be a potential target for therapeutic intervention of LSCC.

Abstract In recent years, the study of oxidative stress (OS) has become increasingly popular. In particular, the role of OS on female fertility is very important and has been focused on closely. The occurrence of OS is due to the excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS are a double-edged sword; they not only play an important role as secondary messengers in many intracellular signaling cascades, but they also exert indispensable effects on pathological processes involving the female genital tract. ROS and antioxidants join in the regulation of reproductive processes in both animals and humans. Imbalances between pro-oxidants and antioxidants could lead to a number of female reproductive diseases. This review focuses on the mechanism of OS and a series of female reproductive processes, explaining the role of OS in female reproduction and female reproductive diseases caused by OS, including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, preeclampsia and so on. Many signaling pathways involved in female reproduction, including the Keap1-Nrf2, NF-κB, FOXO and MAPK pathways, which are affected by OS, are described, providing new ideas for the mechanism of reproductive diseases.

Abstract Background Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness among the elderly characterized by retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) degeneration with accumulation of abnormal intracellular deposits (lipofuscin) and photoreceptor death. RPE is vital for the retina and integrity of photoreceptors through its phagocytic function which is closely linked to formation of lipofuscin through daily phagocytosis of discarded photoreceptor outer segments (POS). Although phagocytosis has been implicated in AMD, it has not been directly shown to be altered in AMD. RPE phagocytic defect was previously shown to be rescued by subretinal injection of human umbilical tissue derived cells (hUTC) in a rodent model of retinal degeneration (RCS rat) through receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) ligands and bridge molecules. Here, we examined RPE phagocytic function directly in the RPE from AMD patients and the ability and mechanisms of hUTC to affect phagocytosis in the human RPE. Methods Human RPE was isolated from the post-mortem eyes of normal and AMD-affected subjects and cultured. RPE phagocytic function was measured in vitro using isolated POS. The effects of hUTC conditioned media, recombinant RTK ligands brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), as well as bridge molecules milk-fat-globule-EGF-factor 8 (MFG-E8), thrombospondin (TSP)-1, and TSP-2 on phagocytosis were also examined in phagocytosis assays using isolated POS. RNA was isolated from normal and AMD RPE treated with hUTC conditioned media and subjected to transcriptome profiling by RNA-Seq and computational analyses. Results RPE phagocytosis, while showing a moderate decline with age, was significantly reduced in AMD RPE, more than expected for age. hUTC conditioned media stimulated phagocytosis in the normal human RPE and significantly rescued the phagocytic dysfunction in the AMD RPE. RTK ligands and bridge molecules duplicated the rescue effect. Moreover, multiple molecular pathways involving phagocytosis, apoptosis, oxidative stress, inflammation, immune activation, and cholesterol transport were affected by hUTC in the RPE. Conclusions We demonstrated for the first time RPE phagocytic dysfunction in AMD, highlighting its likely importance in AMD, and the ability of hUTC to correct this dysfunction, providing insights into the therapeutic potential of hUTC for AMD.

Abstract Background Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in elderly people worldwide, especially in developing countries. Studies to identify strategies that can prevent or retard cataract formation are urgently required. This study aimed to investigate the potential mechanism of the cytoprotective effects of curcumin in in vivo and in vitro experiments. Methods Male Wistar rats were randomly divided into three groups: the control group, the model group (administered 20 μmol/kg sodium selenite), and the curcumin group (pretreated with 75 mg/kg body weight curcumin 24 h prior to the administration of sodium selenite). The expression levels of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), the activities of 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), catalase (CAT), malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) were assessed by using RT-PCR assay and ELISA. In addition, the cell viability, cell apoptosis, and cell cycle were assessed using a CCK-8 assay and flow cytometry in in vitro studies, followed by RT-PCR analysis to identify the mRNA expression levels of caspase 3, Bcl-2 associated X (Bax), B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), cyclooxygenase (Cox-2), c-met, and Slug. Results Cataract was successfully established in rats of the model group and the curcumin group through intraperitoneal injection of sodium selenite. The expression levels of HSP70 and the activities of 8-OHdG and MDA in the curcumin group were decreased compared with those in the model group, whereas the activities of CAT, SOD, and GSH-Px were significantly higher than those in the model group (P

With the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), increasingly, more computing tasks are implemented on power-sensitive mobile devices, causing a bottleneck on energy consumption. Most mobile devices consume considerable power in the standby mode, during which the capacitive DRAM cells' self-refresh power, which is used to preserve data integrity, accounts for a large part. To address this issue, strategies from both hardware and software perspectives have been proposed, and yet, the existing hardware methods usually have a high cost. Software strategies mainly focus on the operating system page allocation strategy to maximize resource idleness. The partial array self-refresh technique has been proposed to allow for some of the DRAM cells to retain the self-refresh state while shutting down the others. Using this technique, numerous studies extend the unused DRAM idle time by clustering the applications' data but do not discuss the impact of the address mapping mechanism on power consumption. However, this impact was proven to be essential in our previous study. In this paper, we attempt to investigate the impacts of different memory mapping schemes on different clustering strategies using a hierarchy-based memory management system (HBMM) and provide insights for selecting the optimal schemes. The experimental results on the Android platform demonstrate that the schemes and strategies are closely correlated, and memory idle time can be prolonged 125 times with their suitable combination. Conversely, the worst scheme may decrease memory idleness by 12% compared with the original system. Furthermore, our studies on a physical platform show that standby power consumption can be saved by 23% when using HBMM combined with the best clustering strategy.

Background: Compared with full-term infants, very preterm infants are more vulnerable to injury and long-term disability and are at high risk of death. The predictive value of ultrasound and imaging on the neurodevelopment is one of the hot topics. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between cranial ultrasound (cUS) variables and neurodevelopmental outcomes of very preterm infants. Methods: Totally 129 very preterm infants (gestational age ≤28 weeks) in neonatal intensive care unit of Hunan Children's Hospital between January 2012 and November 2014 were included in this retrospective study. Serial cUS (weekly before discharge and monthly after discharge) was performed on the infants until 6 months or older. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed on the infants at approximately the term-equivalent age. The mental developmental index (MDI) and psychomotor developmental index (PDI) were followed up until the infants were 24 months or older. The relationship between brain injury and MDI/PDI scores was analyzed. Results: The consistency rate between cUS and MRI was 88%. At the first cUS, germinal matrix hemorrhage (GMH) Grades 3 and 4, hospitalization duration, and weight are significantly correlated with MDI/PDI and prognosis (MDI: odds ratio [OR] = 8.415, 0.982, and 0.042, P = 0.016, 0.000, and 0.004; PDI: OR = 7.149, 0.978, and 0.012, P = 0.025, 0.000, and 0.000, respectively). At the last cUS, gestational age, extensive cystic periventricular leukomalacia (c-PVL), and moderate and severe hydrocephaly are significantly correlated with MDI (OR = 0.292, 60.220, and 170.375, P = 0.004, 0.003, and 0.000, respectively). Extensive c-PVL and moderate and severe hydrocephaly are significantly correlated with PDI (OR = 76.861 and 116.746, P = 0.003 and 0.000, respectively). Conclusions: Very premature infants with GMH Grades 3 and 4, short hospitalization duration, and low weight have low survival rates and poorly developed brain nerves. Cerebral palsy can result from severe cerebral hemorrhage, moderate and severe hydrocephaly, and extensive c-PVL. The sustained, inhomogeneous echogenicity of white matter may suggest subtle brain injury.