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In this paper, we propose a differential multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scheme based on the novel concept of chaos-based time-varying unitary matrices to demonstrate—for the first time in the literature—the ability of differential encoding in achieving practical physical layer security even without the need for using channel estimation. In the proposed scheme, an erroneous secret key, which is extracted from the wireless nature, is used to initialize a chaos sequence that is responsible for generating artificially time-varying unitary matrices capable of obfuscating the transmitted data symbols from illegitimate eavesdroppers. Contrary to conventional studies, the key agreement ratio in this study is assumed to be imperfect, which is often true and very realistic in high-mobility scenarios. Following this, we conceive a new calibration algorithm for reconciling the chaotic sequence generated at the legitimate parties, thus making this calibration algorithm a unique, novel solution to the key sharing problem of conventional chaos-based communication techniques, which has been overlooked over the past few decades. It is found out that differential encoding obviates additional complexity and insecurity in dealing with channel estimation, whereas an eavesdropper must tackle the complicated differentially encoded patterns, which have an exponentially increasing complexity order. In addition, the obtained simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can outperform conventional chaos-based MIMO schemes that assume perfect channel knowledge.

Corynespora cassiicola, the causal agent of an extensive range of plant diseases worldwide, is a momentous fungus with diverse lifestyles and rich in intraspecies variations. In the present study, a total of 56 mitochondrial genomes of C. cassiicola were assembled (except two available online) and analyzed, of which 16 mitogenomes were newly sequenced here. All these circular mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecules, ranging from 39,223 bp to 45,786 bp in length, comprised the same set of 13 core protein-coding genes (PCGs), two rRNAs and 27 tRNAs arranged in identical order. Across the above conserved genes, nad3 had the largest genetic distance between different isolates and was possibly subjected to positive selection pressure. Comparative mitogenomic analysis indicated that seven group I (IB, IC1, and IC2) introns with a length range of 1013–1876 bp were differentially inserted in three core PCGs (cox1, nad1, and nad5), resulting in the varied mitogenome sizes among C. cassiicola isolates. In combination with dynamic distribution of the introns, a well-supported mitogenome-wide phylogeny of the 56 C. cassiicola isolates revealed eight phylogenetic groups, which only had weak correlations with host range and toxin class. Different groups of isolates exhibited obvious differences in length and GC content of some genes, while a degree of variance in codon usage and tRNA structure was also observed. This research served as the first report on mitogenomic comparisons within C. cassiicola, and could provide new insights into its intraspecific microevolution and genetic diversity.

Abstract Background The objective of this study was to ascertain the importance rankings of factors affecting the implementation of shared decision-making (SDM) in medical students in China and determine whether these factors were consistent across the respondents’ individual characteristics. Method Students studying clinical medicine were recruited from three medical universities in China. A cross-sectional online survey using best-worst object scaling with a balanced incomplete block design was adopted to investigate their preference towards implementing SDM in China. Count analysis, multinomial logit analysis and mixed logit analysis were used to estimate the preference heterogeneity of the SDM factors among respondents. Results A total of 574 medical students completed the online survey. The three most important factors for implementing SDM were trust and respect, (providing) high-quality medical information and multi-disciplinary collaboration. The mixed logit regression model identified significant heterogeneity in SDM preferences among respondents, and sub-group analysis showed that some heterogeneities varied in respondents by sex, study programs and their experience of visiting doctors. Conclusion The importance rankings provide rich information for implementing SDM and facilitate the reform of education in medical schools in China. However, the heterogeneities in SDM preference need further explorations.

Abstract Background DNA methylation is an important heritable epigenetic mark that plays a crucial role in transcriptional regulation and the pathogenesis of various human disorders. The commonly used DNA methylation measurement approaches, e.g., Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation-27 and -450 BeadChip arrays (27 K and 450 K arrays) and reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS), only cover a small proportion of the total CpG sites in the human genome, which considerably limited the scope of the DNA methylation analysis in those studies. Results We proposed a new computational strategy to impute the methylation value at the unmeasured CpG sites using the mixture of regression model (MRM) of radial basis functions, integrating information of neighboring CpGs and the similarities in local methylation patterns across subjects and across multiple genomic regions. Our method achieved a better imputation accuracy over a set of competing methods on both simulated and empirical data, particularly when the missing rate is high. By applying MRM to an RRBS dataset from subjects with low versus high bone mineral density (BMD), we recovered methylation values of ~ 300 K CpGs in the promoter regions of chromosome 17 and identified some novel differentially methylated CpGs that are significantly associated with BMD. Conclusions Our method is well applicable to the numerous methylation studies. By expanding the coverage of the methylation dataset to unmeasured sites, it can significantly enhance the discovery of novel differential methylation signals and thus reveal the mechanisms underlying various human disorders/traits.

Objective: This study analyzed the association of gastric acid secretion inhibitors (GASIs) [including proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and histamine 2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs)] with the occurrence of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and in-hospital mortality in patients who received invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV).Method: Patients who received IMV and used GASI were included based on records in the MIMIC-IV database. The relationships of GASIs with VAP and the in-hospital mortality were determined using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Also, the effects of GASIs in some subgroups of the population were further analyzed.Results: A total of 18,669 patients were enrolled, including 9191 patients on H2RAs only, 6921 patients on PPIs only, and 2557 were on a combination of the two drugs. Applying logistic regression to the univariate and multivariate models revealed that compared with H2RAs, PPIs had no significant effect on the incidence of VAP, and the combination of H2RAs and PPIs was a risk factor for VAP. Compared with H2RAs, univariate logistic regression revealed that, PPIs and combine the two drugs were both risk factors for in-hospital mortality, but multivariate logistic regression showed that they were not significantly associated with in-hospital mortality. In subgroup analysis, there were interaction in different subgroups of age, PCO2, myocardial infarct, congestive heart failure (P for interaction

In this study, the electrospinning method was used to prepare silver nanoparticle–activated carbon (AgNP-AC) composite nanofiber membranes, aiming to obtain a high-performance dual-functional filter composite fiber membrane with good antibacterial and adsorption properties. A scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and other instruments were used to characterize the morphology and structure of the composite nanofibers. The effects of different concentrations of activated carbon, silver, and polymer (polyethylene–vinyl alcohol—EVOH) on the fiber morphology were discussed. The adsorption performance and antibacterial performance of the composite fiber membrane were investigated to verify the mutual influence of silver and activated carbon. The results show that with the increase in the activated carbon and silver concentration, the fiber diameter of the AgNP-AC membrane increase and the diameter distribution tends to become uniform. When the mass fraction of polymer EVOH is 10% and the concentration ratio of silver nitrate and carbon is 0.05 and 0.085 (g/ml), the adsorption performance of the composite fiber membrane is at the best with an adsorption rate of 94.07%. The AgNP-AC composite nanofiber membrane also demonstrates a good antibacterial function against Staphylococcus aureus and is most effective in the first 8 h. However, it is found that the silver concentration is proportional to the antibacterial ability, but the activated carbon has a certain inhibitory effect on the antibacterial properties.

MDM2 and MDM4 are key regulators of p53 and function as oncogenes when aberrantly expressed. MDM2 and MDM4 partner to suppress p53 transcriptional transactivation and polyubiquitinate p53 for degradation. The importance of MDM2 E3-ligase-mediated p53 regulation remains controversial. To resolve this, we generated mice with an Mdm2 L466A mutation that specifically compromises E2 interaction, abolishing MDM2 E3 ligase activity while preserving its ability to bind MDM4 and suppress p53 transactivation. Mdm2L466A/L466A mice exhibit p53-dependent embryonic lethality, demonstrating MDM2 E3 ligase activity is essential for p53 regulation in vivo. Unexpectedly, cells expressing Mdm2L466A manifest cell cycle G2-M transition defects and increased aneuploidy even in the absence of p53, suggesting MDM2 E3 ligase plays a p53-independent role in cell cycle regulation and genome integrity. Furthermore, cells bearing the E3-dead MDM2 mutant show aberrant cell cycle regulation in response to DNA damage. This study uncovers an uncharacterized role for MDM2's E3 ligase activity in cell cycle beyond its essential role in regulating p53's stability in vivo.

The maintenance and resilience of tidal flats have become critical concerns in ecological planning for coastal areas, and high-qualified maps are expected to provide worthwhile references to the authorities. Owing to the booming developments in remote sensing systems and high-performance cloud computing services, several frameworks were proposed to map tidal flats on large spatiotemporal scales, but current productions are still far from meeting the practical needs in the United States. Based on Google Earth Engine, a classification model of random forests was proposed in this study, through which we derived an annual map collection of tidal flats in the conterminous United States from 1984 to 2020. Aside from the confusion matrix, a comparison with peers’ work was implemented to further endorse the reliability of the mapping product. The whole study area was divided into four zones, and the map production was examined by analyzing the temporal characteristics, spatial features, and evolutionary trends of tidal flat dynamics in each zone. The results warn that tidal flats throughout the study area are under threat of shrinking, and particularly those along the Atlantic Coast pose a severe environmental and ecological risk for local communities and biodiversity. As such, coastal environments in the United States call for urgent conservation and restoration.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of magnesium (Mg) supplementation on the growth performance, muscle fiber development and flesh quality of Megalobrama amblycephala fed a high-carbohydrate (CHO) diet. In vivo, six experimental diets, a control diet (30% CHO, C), and five Mg supplementation levels (0 (HC1), 200 (HC2), 400 (HC3), 800 (HC4) and 1200 (HC5) mg kg−1, respectively) of high-CHO diet (45% CHO), were formulated and then fed to M. amblycephala (initial weight 43.15 ± 0.43 g) for 13 weeks. Results showed that the HC1 diets remarkably decreased weight gain rate (WGR), specific growth rate (SGR), water holding capacity (WHC), pH 24 h postmortem, collagen content, textural properties (hardness, tenderness, chewiness and resilience), muscle fiber density, succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) and malate dehydrogenase (MDH) activities, as well as transcriptions of ampkα2, pgc-1α, mrf-4, myf-5 and myf-6 compared with the C group, but muscle AMP/ATP ratio, ATPase activities and mstna and mstnb transcription showed an opposite trend. The HC3 group of fish obtained relatively high values of WGR, SGR, muscle lipid and protein content, collagen content, textural properties (hardness, tenderness, chewiness and resilience), fiber density, SDH and MDH activities, AMP/ATP ratio as well as transcriptions of ampkα1, pgc-1α, myod, myog and myf-5 compared with other HC groups. In vitro, the isolated primary hepatocytes from M. amblycephala were assigned into four experimental groups: a control group (5.5 mM glucose, Control), a high glucose group (30 mM glucose, HG), an AICAR group (30 mM glucose + 250 μM AICAR, HGA) and an MgSO4 group (30 mM glucose + 2 mM MgSO4, HGM). Results showed that MgSO4 treatment remarkably increased p-Ampk/t-Ampk ratio, Pgc-1α protein content and transcriptions of ampkα1, ampkα2 and pgc-1α compared with the HG group. Overall, based on regression analysis for SGR, the optimal Mg level of M. amblycephala fed high-CHO diets was 366.67 mg kg-1, which was consistent with the above results that fish fed HC3 diets displayed higher the growth performance, muscle fiber density and flesh quality of M. amblycephala.

Land-use/land-cover (LULC) change could have huge impacts on a wide range of ecosystem services, such as the quality, types, processes, temporal, and spatial patterns of ecosystem, leading to dramatic changes in different types of ecosystem services. China has implemented Grain-for-Green Programme (GFGP) to alleviate soil erosion, restore and improve ecosystem services. We selected Jinghe River basin, one of the main GFGP pilot areas in the central part of the Loess Plateau in China as study area. InVEST models were adopted to quantify three of the most important ecosystem services (water yield, sediment control and carbon storage) from 2000 to 2015, during which an important GFGP process happens. Results showed that compared with 2000, the area of farmland decreased by 466 km2, the area of degraded grassland decreased by 394 km2, while the area of forestland increased by 339 km2 (including shrub land) in Jinghe River basin. The average annual water yield and sediment export from 2000 to 2015 is 1.11 × 109 m3 and 9.67 × 107 t, which is 36.2% and 60.7% lower than the average of the previous 50 years. Unsurprisingly, carbon storage has increased 5907559.28 mg, about 2.4% more compared to 2000. There are trade-offs between water yield and sediment control as well as carbon storage, and there are synergies between sediment control and carbon storage. Our quantitative assessment has revealed the complex spatial and temporal trade-offs and synergies among competing ecosystem services during the GFGP process. In addition, the results of t-tests in the sub-basin showed that the water yield and sediment control of grassland restoration area and forestland restoration area are better than those of farmland. The water yield of grassland restoration area is better than that of forestland restoration area. But it is difficult to judge the sediment export in forestland restoration area and grassland restoration area. Therefore, considering the trade-offs between water yield and sediment control, grasses are better vegetation type of GFGP compared to trees for the Loess Plateau which has relatively limited precipitation. Our results showed that the control of the erosion by adding vegetation triggers to a diminution of water yield, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. Decision making regards to future GFGP and ecological restoration projects should consider the complex and competing trade-offs and synergies in a wide range of ecosystem services, and optimize the planting structure and scale of vegetation in order to achieve long-term, secure, and sustainable provision of vital ecosystem services.

Based on the transaction theory of stress and the theory of resource conservation, which introduces knowledge acquisition and intrinsic motivation as mediating variables, a chain mediating model for the influence of challenge-hindrance stress on innovation performance is constructed. Data of 295 samples collected in three stages were used to testify hypothesis. The results confirmed a positive relationship between challenge stress and innovation performance, and a negative relationship between hindrance stress and innovation performance. Intrinsic motivation and knowledge acquisition play a parallel and chain mediating role in the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress and innovation performance. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how challenge -hindrance stress affects innovation performance and provide important practical guidance for improving innovation performance.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common type of cancer worldwide. Distant metastasis is the major cause of cancer-related mortality in patients with CRC. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a critical process triggered during tumor metastasis, which is also the main impetus and the essential access within this duration. Therefore, targeting EMT-related molecular pathways has been considered a novel strategy to explore effective therapeutic agents against metastatic CRC. Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) with unique properties multi-target and multi-link that exert their therapeutic efficacies holistically, which could inhibit the invasion and metastasis ability of CRC cells via inhibiting the EMT process by down-regulating transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)/Smads, PI3K/Akt, NF-κB, Wnt/β-catenin, and Notch signaling pathways. The objective of this review is to summarize and assess the anti-metastatic effect of TCM-originated bioactive compounds and Chinese medicine formulas by mediating EMT-associated signaling pathways in CRC therapy, providing a foundation for further research on the exact mechanisms of action through which TCMs affect EMT transform in CRC.

The traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)–Chaihu Shugan Formula (CSF), consisting of several Chinese botanical drugs like Bupleurum, is derived from the ancient Chinese pharmacopeia. It has been used for more than thousands of years in various suboptimal health statuses and diseases induced by chronic stress based on empirical therapy. Recent studies confirm the role of CSF in the development of many diseases, including depression, stress-induced hepatic injury and tumors. However, little has been known about the mechanisms behind the health effects of CSF. Here, we investigate the influence of CSF on the modulation of the simulated colonic microbiota of five healthy donors, gut barrier integrity, and intestinal immunity by combining the simulator of the human intestinal microbial ecosystem (SHIME®) technology platform with co-culture of intestinal and immune cells. This approach revealed that CSF stimulated the production of SCFA (acetate, propionate and butyrate) across donors while significantly lowering the production of branched SCFA (bSCFA). In terms of community composition, CSF stimulated a broad spectrum of health-related Bifidobacterium species, which are potent acetate and lactate producers. At the same time, it lowered the abundance of opportunistic pathogenic Escherichia coli. Later, we explore the effect of colonic fermentation of CSF on the gut barrier and intestinal immunity in the Caco-2/THP1-blue™ cell co-culture model. Based on the study using SHIME technology platform, CSF showed protective effects on inflammation-induced intestinal epithelial barrier disruption in all donors. Also, the treatment of CSF showed pronounced anti-inflammatory properties by strongly inducing anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-10 and reducing pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α. These findings demonstrate a significant modulatory effect of CSF on intestinal gut microbiota. CSF-microbial fermentation products improved the gut barrier and controlled intestinal inflammation.

Background and PurposeEarly neurological deterioration (END) occurs in 10% among patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) who are receiving intravenous thrombolysis (IVT). Over half of them have no straightforward causes, which is referred to as unexplained END. We aimed to explore whether the presence of baseline corticospinal tract (CST) hypoperfusion could predict the development of unexplained END at 24 h in patients with AIS after receiving IVT.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the clinical and imaging data from patients with AIS who received IVT. Unexplained END was defined as ≥ 2-point increase of National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) from baseline to 24 h without straightforward causes. Hypoperfusion lesions involving CST and other cerebral areas were identified on perfusion maps.ResultsAmong 807 patients, CST hypoperfusion and non-CST hypoperfusion occurred in 488 (60.5%) and 319 (39.5%) patients, respectively. Patients with CST hypoperfusion were more likely to have unexplained END compared with patients with non-CST hypoperfusion (16.6 vs. 2.8%, P < 0.001). Binary logistics regression analysis showed that CST hypoperfusion was independently associated with unexplained END after IVT (OR = 5.64; 95% CI: 2.699–11.785; P < 0.001) after adjusting for baseline NIHSS, onset to needle time, baseline hypoperfusion volume, atrial fibrillation, and hypertension.ConclusionsPatients with CST hypoperfusion were more likely to suffer from unexplained END after IVT, implying potential mechanisms and potential prevention of unexplained END.

High temperature and high relative humidity (RH) are one of the most serious agricultural meteorological disasters that limit the production capacity of agricultural facilities. However, little information is available on the precise interaction between these factors on tomato growth. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of high temperature under different RH levels on tomato growth and endogenous hormones and to determine the optimal RH for tomato seedling growth under high temperature environment. Two high temperature (38/18 °C, 41/18 °C) and three relative humidity (50 ± 5%, 70 ± 5%, 90 ± 5%) orthogonal experiments were conducted, with 28/18 °C, 50 ± 5% (CK) as control. The results showed that the dry matter accumulation of tomato plants under high temperature environment was significantly lower than that of CK. At 38 °C, the dry matter accumulation with 70% relative humidity was not significantly different from that of CK; at 41 °C, dry matter accumulation with 70% and 90% relative air humidity was significantly greater than that of 50%. The concentrations of soluble sugar and free amino acids in all organs in high temperature-treated plants were significantly higher than that in CK. As relative humidity increased, soluble sugar concentrations of each organ decreased, and the free amino acid concentrations increased. Cytokinin (ZT) and indole acetic acid (IAA) concentrations in tomato buds were significantly lower than in CK under high temperature conditions. The lower the RH, the lower the content of ZT and IAA. The gibberellin (GA3) and abscisic acid (ABA) concentrations were higher than in CK under high temperatures. GA3 concentrations decreased and ABA concentrations were augmented with increased humidity. The differences of tomato seedling growth indices and apical bud endogenous hormone concentrations between RHs under high temperature conditions were significant. Raising RH to 70% or higher under high temperature conditions could be beneficial to the growth of tomato plants. The results contribute to a better understanding of the interactions between microclimate parameters inside a Venlo-type glass greenhouse environment, in a specific climate condition, and their effects on the growth of tomato.

Abstract Background Accurate forecasting of medical service demand is beneficial for the reasonable healthcare resource planning and allocation. The daily outpatient volume is characterized by randomness, periodicity and trend, and the time series methods, like ARIMA are often used for short-term outpatient visits forecasting. Therefore, to further enlarge the prediction horizon and improve the prediction accuracy, a hybrid prediction model integrating ARIMA and self-adaptive filtering method is proposed. Methods The ARIMA model is first used to identify the features like cyclicity and trend of the time series data and to estimate the model parameters. The parameters are then adjusted by the steepest descent algorithm in the adaptive filtering method to reduce the prediction error. The hybrid model is validated and compared with traditional ARIMA by several test sets from the Time Series Data Library (TSDL), a weekly emergency department (ED) visit case from literature study, and the real cases of prenatal examinations and B-ultrasounds in a maternal and child health care center (MCHCC) in Ningbo. Results For TSDL cases the prediction accuracy of the hybrid prediction is improved by 80–99% compared with the ARIMA model. For the weekly ED visit case, the forecasting results of the hybrid model are better than those of both traditional ARIMA and ANN model, and similar to the ANN combined data decomposition model mentioned in the literature. For the actual data of MCHCC in Ningbo, the MAPE predicted by the ARIMA model in the two departments was 18.53 and 27.69%, respectively, and the hybrid models were 2.79 and 1.25%, respectively. Conclusions The hybrid prediction model outperforms the traditional ARIMA model in both accurate predicting result with smaller average relative error and the applicability for short-term and medium-term prediction.

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of internal fixation versus hemiarthroplasty in the treatment of unstable intertrochanteric fractures in the elderly. Methods A search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases up to April 2020. The present study compared internal fixation and hemiarthroplasty in the treatment of unstable intertrochanteric fractures in the elderly. RevMan5.3 software provided by the International Cochrane Group was used for the meta‐analysis. To compare the differences in the operation time, intraoperative bleeding, length of hospital stay, superficial infection, Harris hip score, mortality within 1 year, mortality within 2 years, reoperation, incidence of deep venous thrombosis (DVT), partial weight‐bearing time, non‐union, and implant‐related complications between an internal fixation group and an hemiarthroplasty group. Results A total of 1300 patients were included in nine studies. The results showed that the operation time (MD = −18.09, 95% CI: −27.85–−8.34, P = 0.0003), intraoperative bleeding (MD = −195.31, 95% CI: −244.8–−147.74, P

Abstract Background Chloroplast genome sequence data is very useful in studying/addressing the phylogeny of plants at various taxonomic ranks. However, there are no empirical observations on the patterns, directions, and mutation rates, which are the key topics in chloroplast genome evolution. In this study, we used Calycanthaceae as a model to investigate the evolutionary patterns, directions and rates of both nucleotide substitutions and structural mutations at different taxonomic ranks. Results There were 2861 polymorphic nucleotide sites on the five chloroplast genomes, and 98% of polymorphic sites were biallelic. There was a single-nucleotide substitution bias in chloroplast genomes. A → T or T → A (2.84%) and G → C or C → G (3.65%) were found to occur significantly less frequently than the other four transversion mutation types. Synonymous mutations kept balanced pace with nonsynonymous mutations, whereas biased directions appeared between transition and transversion mutations and among transversion mutations. Of the structural mutations, indels and repeats had obvious directions, but microsatellites and inversions were non-directional. Structural mutations increased the single nucleotide mutations rates. The mutation rates per site per year were estimated to be 0.14–0.34 × 10− 9 for nucleotide substitution at different taxonomic ranks, 0.64 × 10− 11 for indels and 1.0 × 10− 11 for repeats. Conclusions Our direct counts of chloroplast genome evolution events provide raw data for correctly modeling the evolution of sequence data for phylogenetic inferences.

Abstract Background Through the comparison of three-dimensional CT reconstruction between the supine position and the prone position, the relative position of thoracolumbar great vessels and vertebral body was studied, and the shortest safe distance between them was measured to improve the safety of bicortical pedicle screw insertion and reduce the risk of vascular injury. Methods Forty adults were selected to participate the research. Three-dimensional reconstruction of thoracolumbar (T9-L3) CT was performed in the prone position and the supine position. The relative distance between the Aorta/Inferior Vena Cava (IVC) and vertebral body was obtained as AVD/VVD respectively. The relative angle of the Aorta/ IVC and the vertebral body was calculated as ∠AOY/∠VOY. Self-controlled experiments were carried out in the prone and the supine positions, and the data obtained were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 statistical software. Results The AVD of the prone position and the supine position was the shortest at T12 (3.18 ± 0.68 mm), but the difference was not statistically significant. The aorta of the T9-L3 segment was shifted from the anterolateral to the anteromedial. The ∠AOY of the other groups differed significantly between the prone and supine positions in all vertebrae except T12 and L1 (P

Improving the quality of on-grid solar power has attracted worldwide attention in recent years due to the natural intermittent and instability of solar irradiance. As an emerging technology, the photovoltaic/concentrated solar power (PV-CSP) hybrid technology is considered as one of the research focuses currently in solar energy field, due to various advantages compared with the PV-alone and CSP-alone technologies. This paper introduced PV, CSP technologies, and PV-CSP hybrid technology. Through the attention to the construction and operation of some typical commercial PV-CSP hybrid power plants, the application status of commercial PV-CSP hybrid power plants was analyzed, and the technical and economic research of PV-CSP hybrid system in recent years was summarized.

Human computer interaction plays an increasingly important role in our life. People need more intelligent, concise and efficient human-computer interaction. It is of great significance to optimize the process of human-computer interaction by using appropriate calculation methods. In order to eliminate the interference data of thumb recognition based on sEMG signal in the process of human-computer interaction, simplify the data processing, and improve the working efficiency of general equipment of sEMG signal. In the process of gesture recognition using sEMG signals generated by thumb, a method of redundant electrode determination based on variance theory is proposed. The redundancy of five groups of action signals is divided into 16 levels and visualized. By comparing the results of thumb motion recognition when different redundant channels are removed, the optimal channel combination in the process of thumb motion recognition is obtained. Finally, two kinds of classifiers suitable for sEMG signal field are selected, and the classification results are compared, and the best method of thumb motion pattern recognition is obtained.

Congenital pain insensitivity is a rare genetic disease and its clinical manifestations are many. In orthopaedics, common complications of this disease include painless fracture and Charcot's arthropathy. We followed up a case of multiple fractures of the lower extremity in two years, during which time he came to the clinic for five painless fractures of the lower extremity in a total of six parts. A mutation was found on the NTKRI gene (chr1:156813923(hg19), NM_001007792.1: c.1221938C > T). We have developed a combination of surgery and conservative treatments for his condition, focusing on the mental state of the child and considering comprehensive treatment to be the best option for this type of patient. Occult fractures caused by pain insensitivity are often treated only as fractures, however their complications require routine examination and cleaning, suitable protective shoes, splint fixation, stretching, guided exercise planning, and early treatment of injuries. Due to the risk of fracture in the future, it is important that parents pay attention to the behavior and psychology of the child, such as not letting the child participate in exercise with a risk of injury, protective measures while playing, engaging in psychological counseling, and inducing interest in mental activity. These interventions will play a very important role in preventing the recurrence of fracture.

Abstract Background Nuclear genome or family mitochondrial screening system has become the hot focus of studies into essential hypertension. The role of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in sporadic Chinese patients with hypertension has not been fully understood. The study was to evaluate the associations of mtDNA mutations with maternally inherited essential hypertensive subjects in China. Methods From June 2009 to June 2016, a total of 800 gender-matched Chinese patients with maternally inherited essential hypertension (MIEH) and control group were 1:1 enrolled in this case-control study. Genomic DNA was extracted from each person’s peripheral blood cells. The main mtDNA locations for MIEH were screened with oligodeoxynucleotides 3777-4679 bp, analyzed and compared with the updated consensus Cambridge Sequence. Pathogenic mtDNA mutations were identified from the mitochondrial map. Results MIEH subjects presented significantly higher values than those of control group in abdominal circumference (AC), waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI), fasting blood glucose (FBG), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) and renal function (P T, m.4048G > A, m.4071C > T, m.4086C > T, m. 4164A > G and m.4248 T > C in ND1 gene, and m.4386 T > C and m.4394C > T in tRNAGln gene(P T. Conclusions The mtDNA mutations were involved in the process of MIEH. We identified mitochondrial genetic characteristics in MIEH patients in China. The present research serves as a solid foundation for further detailed research on the association between MIEH and mitochondrial dysfunction, and their causal relationship in Chinese and other populations with a similar lifestyle.

Abstract Background The signal peptides (SPs) of secretory proteins are frequently used or modified to guide recombinant proteins outside the cytoplasm of prokaryotic cells. In the periplasmic space and extracellular environment, recombinant proteins are kept away from the intracellular proteases and often they can fold correctly and efficiently. Consequently, expression levels of the recombinant protein can be enhanced by the presence of a SP. However, little attention has been paid to the use of SPs with low translocation efficiency for recombinant protein production. In this paper, the function of the signal peptide of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Cry1Ia toxin (Iasp), which is speculated to be a weak translocation signal, on regulation of protein expression was investigated using fluorescent proteins as reporters. Results When fused to the N-terminal of eGFP or mCherry, the Iasp can improve the expression of the fluorescent proteins and as a consequence enhance the fluorescent intensity of both Escherichia coli and Bt host cells. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis revealed the higher transcript levels of Iegfp over those of egfp gene in E. coli TG1 cells. By immunoblot analysis and confocal microscope observation, lower translocation efficiency of IeGFP was demonstrated. The novel fluorescent fusion protein IeGFP was then used to compare the relative strengths of cry1Ia (P i ) and cry1Ac (P ac ) gene promoters in Bt strain, the latter promoter proving the stronger. The eGFP reporter, by contrast, cannot indicate unambiguously the regulation pattern of P i at the same level of sensitivity. The fluorescent signals of E. coli and Bt cells expressing the Iasp fused mCherry (ImCherry) were also enhanced. Importantly, the Iasp can also enhanced the expression of two difficult-to-express proteins, matrix metalloprotease-13 (MMP13) and myostatin (growth differentiating factor-8, GDF8) in E. coli BL21-star (DE3) strain. Conclusions We identified the positive effects of a weak signal peptide, Iasp, on the expression of fluorescent proteins and other recombinant proteins in bacteria. The produced IeGFP and ImCherry can be used as novel fluorescent protein variants in prokaryotic cells. The results suggested the potential application of Iasp as a novel fusion tag for improving the recombinant protein expression.

Abstract Background There are about 2.4 hundred thousand new cases and 1.5 hundred thousand deaths of ovarian cancer (OC) annually in the world. Chronic inflammation is a risk factor for OC. C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 1 (CXCL1) defects may facilitate inflammation and transactivate EGFR in ovarian cancer, but the precise haplotypes associated with the potential diseases remained largely unknown. In this work, we characterized CXCL1 gene variations to elucidate their possible associations with OC. Methods We analyzed the CXCL1 gene for 300 OC patients with 400 healthy participants as controls. The statistical analyses and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium tests of the patients and control populations were conducted using the SPSS software (version 19.0) and Plink (version 1.9). Results The variants rs11547681, rs201090116, rs199791199, rs181868085, rs4074 and rs1814092 within or near the CXCL1 gene were characterized. The genetic heterozygosity of rs11547681 and rs4074 was very high. Statistical analysis showed that the variant rs11547681 in the gene was closely associated with the risk of OC in the Chinese Han population, although this variant was not associated with FIGO stages or pathological grades of the patients. Conclusions Rs11547681 in CXCL1 gene was associated with the risk of OC in the Chinese Han population.

To address the increasing need for detecting and validating protein biomarkers in clinical specimens, mass spectrometry (MS)-based targeted proteomic techniques, including the selected reaction monitoring (SRM), parallel reaction monitoring (PRM), and massively parallel data-independent acquisition (DIA), have been developed. For optimal performance, they require the fragment ion spectra of targeted peptides as prior knowledge. In this report, we describe a MS pipeline and spectral resource to support targeted proteomics studies for human tissue samples. To build the spectral resource, we integrated common open-source MS computational tools to assemble a freely accessible computational workflow based on Docker. We then applied the workflow to generate DPHL, a comprehensive DIA pan-human library, from 1096 data-dependent acquisition (DDA) MS raw files for 16 types of cancer samples. This extensive spectral resource was then applied to a proteomic study of 17 prostate cancer (PCa) patients. Thereafter, PRM validation was applied to a larger study of 57 PCa patients and the differential expression of three proteins in prostate tumor was validated. As a second application, the DPHL spectral resource was applied to a study consisting of plasma samples from 19 diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients and 18 healthy control subjects. Differentially expressed proteins between DLBCL patients and healthy control subjects were detected by DIA-MS and confirmed by PRM. These data demonstrate that the DPHL supports DIA and PRM MS pipelines for robust protein biomarker discovery. DPHL is freely accessible at https://www.iprox.org/page/project.html?id=IPX0001400000.

Background Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common pathological lung cancer and an important cause of cancer‐related death. Metastasis is a major underlying reason for poor prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma. Opsin3 (OPN3), a member of the guanine nucleotide‐binding protein‐coupled receptor superfamily, has been identified to affect the apoptosis of hepatoma cells by modulating the phosphorylation of Akt and Bcl2/Bax. However, the expression and role of OPN3 in lung adenocarcinoma remains unclear. Methods Opsin3 expression in lung adenocarcinoma tissues was detected by western blot, qPCR, and immunohistochemistry. Changes in cell migration and invasion ability resulting from the change of OPN3 expression level were detected by wound healing and transwell migration assays. Changes in the markers of epithelial‐mesenchymal transformation were detected by western blot and qPCR. Results Opsin3 expression in lung adenocarcinoma tissues was higher than that in normal lung tissues. Patients with high expression of OPN3 had lower survival rates. Owing to overexpression of OPN3, the HCC827 cells showed enhanced invasion and migration ability in vitro. Upon decreasing the expression of OPN3, the invasion and migration ability of the A549 cells decreased. Conclusion Our study demonstrated for the first time that OPN3 gene enhanced the metastasis in lung adenocarcinoma, and its overexpression promoted epithelial‐mesenchymal transition. Key points A significant finding of the study was that OPN3 acted an oncogene in promoting lung adenocarcinoma metastasis. Our study complemented the research on the expression and function of OPN3 in lung adenocarcinoma.

Abstract A multi-dimensional conductive heterojunction structure, composited by TiO2, SnO2, and Ti3C2T X MXene, is facilely designed and applied as electron transport layer in efficient and stable planar perovskite solar cells. Based on an oxygen vacancy scramble effect, the zero-dimensional anatase TiO2 quantum dots, surrounding on two-dimensional conductive Ti3C2T X sheets, are in situ rooted on three-dimensional SnO2 nanoparticles, constructing nanoscale TiO2/SnO2 heterojunctions. The fabrication is implemented in a controlled low-temperature anneal method in air and then in N2 atmospheres. With the optimal MXene content, the optical property, the crystallinity of perovskite layer, and internal interfaces are all facilitated, contributing more amount of carrier with effective and rapid transferring in device. The champion power conversion efficiency of resultant perovskite solar cells achieves 19.14%, yet that of counterpart is just 16.83%. In addition, it can also maintain almost 85% of its initial performance for more than 45 days in 30–40% humidity air; comparatively, the counterpart declines to just below 75% of its initial performance.

Passive reconstruction methods such as traditional multi-view stereo are capable to accurate reconstruction results. However, the depth calculation of multi-view stereo encounters significant difficulties, especially when the corresponding points have some degree of inaccuracy or unreliability. In this paper, we make use of geometric and shading cues information in the multi-view stereo approach to construct a robust energy function, which is also effective to optimize the depth information provided by multi-view stereo. This work improves the accuracy of point cloud depth. we evaluated our algorithm in the famous DTU datasets, and established our own dinosaur datasets. All the data is collected by mobile devices under natural light condition, while the reconstruction results are completed and accurate.

In Cyber-Physical-Social Systems (CPSS), large-scale data are continually generated from edge computing devices in our daily lives. These heterogeneous data collected from CPSS are urgently needed to be processed efficiently with low power consumption. Hybrid cache based edge computing can accelerate the computing speed for the edge devices. Hybrid cache consisting of spin-transfer torque RAM (STT-RAM) and static RAM (SRAM) has been proposed as last level cache (LLC) for energy efficiency recently in CPSS. However, the write operations on STT-RAM suffer from considerably higher energy consumption as well as longer latency than SRAM, the proper allocation of data blocks has a significant effect on both energy consumption and performance in the hybrid cache. So it is very useful to adjust the data allocation for the asymmetric-access in hybrid cache. To enhance the performance of hybrid cache, this paper proposes a novel statistical behavior guided block allocation (SBOA) scheme to process CPSS data. The key idea is to estimate the cache block characteristics based on the statistical behavior of data read/write re-references. We design a theoretical analysis model to optimize the energy consumption and guide block allocation in both SRAM region and STT-RAM region. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme reduces the dynamic energy consumption by 18.5%, and reduces execution time by 7.4% on average compared to the baseline with negligible overhead.

Background and PurposeSubarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a life-threatening subtype of stroke with high rates of mortality. In the early stages of SAH, neuroinflammation is one of the important mechanisms leading to brain injury after SAH. In various central nervous system diseases, activation of RARα receptor has been proven to demonstrate neuroprotective effects. This study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects of RARα receptor activation after SAH.MethodsInternal carotid artery puncture method used to established SAH model in Sprague-Dawley rats. The RARα specific agonist Am80 was injected intraperitoneally 1 hour after SAH. AGN196996 (specific RARα inhibitor), Msr1 siRNA and LY294002 (PI3K-Akt inhibitor) were administered via the lateral ventricle before SAH. Evaluation SAH grade, neurological function score, blood-brain barrier permeability. BV2 cells and SH-SY5Y cells were co-cultured and stimulated by oxyhemoglobin to establish an in vitro model of SAH. RT-PCR, Western blotting, and immunofluorescence staining were used to investigate pathway-related proteins, microglia activation and inflammatory response. Results: The expression of RARα, Mafb, and Msr1 increased in rat brain tissue after SAH. Activation of the RARα receptor with Am80 improved neurological deficits and attenuated brain edema, blood brain barrier permeability. Am80 increased the expression of Mafb and Msr1, and reduced neuroinflammation by enhancing the phosphorylation of Akt and by inhibiting the phosphorylation of NF-κB. AGN196996, Msr1 siRNA, and LY294002 reversed the therapeutic effects of Am80 by reducing the expression of Msr1 and the phosphorylation of Akt. In vitro model of SAH, Am80 promoted M1-to-M2 phenotypic polarization in microglia and suppressed the nuclear transcription of NF-κB.ConclusionActivation of the RARα receptor attenuated neuroinflammation by promoting M1-to-M2 phenotypic polarization in microglia and regulating the Mafb/Msr1/PI3K-Akt/NF-κB pathway. RARα might serve as a potential target for SAH therapy.

Toxoplasma gondii is known to have a complex life cycle and infect almost all kinds of warm-blooded animals around the world. The brain of the host could be persistently infected by cerebral cysts, and a variety of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and suicide have been reported to be related with latent toxoplasmosis. The infected animals showed fear reduction and a tendency to be preyed upon. However, the mechanism of this “parasites manipulation” effects have not been elucidated. Here, we reviewed the recent infection prevalence of toxoplasmosis and the evidence of mental and behavioral disorders induced by T. gondii and discussed the related physiological basis including dopamine dysregulation and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) pathway and the controversial opinion of the necessity for cerebral cysts existence. Based on the recent advances, we speculated that the neuroendocrine programs and neurotransmitter imbalance may play a key role in this process. Simultaneously, studies in the evaluation of the expression pattern of related genes, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), and mRNAs of the host provides a new point for understanding the mechanism of neurotransmitter dysfunction induced by parasite manipulation. Therefore, we summarized the animal models, T. gondii strains, and behavioral tests used in the related epigenetic studies and the responsible epigenetic processes; pinpointed opportunities and challenges in future research including the causality evidence of human psychiatric disorders, the statistical analysis for rodent-infected host to be more vulnerable preyed upon; and identified responsible genes and drug targets through epigenetics.

Various betaine ionic liquids composed of different chain lengths and different anions were designed and synthesized to modify Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB). The results showed that the catalytic activity of all modified lipases improved under different temperature and pH conditions, while also exhibiting enhanced thermostability and tolerance to organic solvents. With an increase in ionic liquid chain length, the modification effect was greater. Overall, CALB modified by [BetaineC16][H2PO4] performed best, with the modified CALB enzyme activity increased 3-fold, thermal stability increased 1.5-fold when stored at 70°C for 30 min, with tolerance increased 2.9-fold in 50% DMSO and 2.3-fold in 30% mercaptoethanol. Fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopic analysis showed that the introduction of an ionic liquid caused changes in the microenvironment surrounding some fluorescent groups and the secondary structure of the CALB enzyme protein. In order to establish the enzyme activity and stability change mechanisms of the modified CALB, the structures of CALB modified with [BetaineC4][Cl] and [BetaineC16][Cl] were constructed, while the reaction mechanisms were studied by molecular dynamics simulations. Results showed that the root mean square deviation (RMSD) and total energy of modified CALB were less than those of native CALB, indicating that modified CALB has a more stable structure. Root mean square fluctuation (RMSF) calculations showed that the rigidity of modified CALB was enhanced. Solvent accessibility area (SASA) calculations exhibited that both the hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of the modified enzyme-proteins were improved. The increase in radial distribution function (RDF) of water molecules confirmed that the number of water molecules around the active sites also increased. Therefore, modified CALB has enhanced structural stability and higher hydrolytic activity.

Background. Kallmann syndrome (KS) is a rare genetic disease characterized by the reproductive system and olfactory dysplasia due to the defective migration of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons. However, this disorder is clinically heterogeneous and the genotype-phenotype relationship has not been determined. Objective. The present study aimed to identify the variant causing KS in a Chinese family and evaluate the functional consequences and phenotypes associated with the novel variant. Methods. A Chinese family with KS was screened for pathogenic variants by whole-exome sequencing (WES). Bioinformatic analysis was performed to predict the consequences of the identified variant. The expression of the mutant protein was examined in vitro. Results. A novel heterozygous variant (NM_006080.2 : c.814G > T) in SEMA3A was identified in the patient and his father, which caused the substitution of aspartic acid with tyrosine in codon 272. It was predicted to result in pathogenic significance with a high damaging score and seriously affect protein structure by bioinformatic analysis. In vitro experiments revealed this variant could significantly decrease the expression of SEMA3A. Furthermore, it may cause the disease by failing to induce the phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in GnRH neurons. Conclusion. Identification and functional characterization of this novel variant in the SEMA3A gene in a Chinese family with Kallmann syndrome extend the genetic variant spectrum of SEMA3A and provide more data about the heterogeneity of KS, which may provide further insights into the diagnosis of KS and help patients get additional data in genetic counseling and timely treatment.

Cerebral ischemia usually leads to axonal degeneration and demyelination in the adjacent white matter. Promoting remyelination still remains a challenging issue in the field. Considering that ischemia deprives energy supply to neural cells and high metabolic activities are required by oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) for myelin formation, we assessed the effects of transplanting exogenous healthy mitochondria on the degenerating process of oligodendrocytes following focal cerebral ischemia in the present study. Our results showed that exogenous mitochondria could efficiently restore the overall mitochondrial function and be effectively internalized by OPCs in the ischemic cortex. In comparison with control cortex, there were significantly less apoptotic and more proliferative OPCs in mitochondria-treated cortex. More importantly, higher levels of myelin basic protein (MBP) and more morphologically normal myelin-wrapped axons were observed in mitochondria-treated cortex at 21 days postinjury, as revealed by light and electron microscope. Behavior assay showed better locomotion recovery in mitochondria-treated mice. Further analysis showed that olig2 and lipid synthesis signaling were significantly increased in mitochondria-treated cortex. In together, our data illustrated an antidegenerating and myelination-promoting effect of exogenous mitochondria, indicating mitochondria transplantation as a potentially valuable treatment for ischemic stroke.

Understanding the performance of commercially relevant cathode materials for lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries is vital to realize the potential of high-capacity materials for automotive applications. Of particular interest is the spatial variation of crystallographic behavior across (what can be) highly inhomogeneous electrodes. In this work, a high-resolution X-ray diffraction technique was used to obtain operando transmission measurements of Li-ion pouch cells to measure the spatial variances in the cell during electrochemical cycling. Through spatially resolved investigations of the crystallographic structures, the distribution of states of charge has been elucidated. A larger portion of the charging is accounted for by the central parts, with the edges and corners delithiating to a lesser extent for a given average electrode voltage. The cells were cycled to different upper cutoff voltages (4.2 and 4.3 V vs. graphite) and C-rates (0.5, 1, and 3C) to study the effect on the structure of the NMC811 cathode. By combining this rapid data collection method with a detailed Rietveld refinement of degraded NMC811, the spatial dependence of the degradation caused by long-term cycling (900 cycles) has also been shown. The variance shown in the pristine measurements is exaggerated in the aged cells with the edges and corners offering an even lower percentage of the charge. Measurements collected at the very edge of the cell have also highlighted the importance of electrode alignment, with a misalignment of less than 0.5 mm leading to significantly reduced electrochemical activity in that area.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the gender difference in anxiety in novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) patients in the quarantine ward during the outbreak.MethodsThe self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) was used on the seventh day of isolation to analyze the anxiety levels of a total of 242 suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients in the quarantine wards of two hospitals; 232 of these patients (112 males and 120 females) completed the anxiety scoring. The anxiety scores were compared between male and female patients using the t-test, and a scatter diagram was used for analysis.ResultsThe SAS scores of females in quarantine wards were higher than those of males at seven days of isolation.ConclusionWomen with COVID-19 are more prone to anxiety than men while in isolation. It is necessary to give more attention to female patients in quarantine wards in the future, and psychological counseling may be necessary.

Purpose To investigate the mechanism of miR-148a-3p regulating the proliferation and migration of bladder tumor cells. Materials and Methods We conducted a preliminary study to detect the relative expression of miR-148a-3p in bladder cancer and para-cancerous tissue samples. Three bladder tumor cell lines, T24, 5,637 and UM-UC-3, were selected. The expression levels of miR-148a-3p were artificially regulated with miR-148a-3p mimics and the miR-148a-3p inhibitor. The relative expression levels of miR-148a-3p in the samples of each cell line were determined. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) was used to detect cell proliferation, while the effect of the miR-148a-3p mimics and inhibitor on tumor cell migration was detected by wound healing assay. Flow cytometry assay was carried out to explore the effect of miR-148a-3p on cell apoptosis. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was performed in order to verify miR-148a-3p’s target gene. The expressions of ROCK-1 and Bcl-2 were analyzed by western blot. Results The relative expression of miR-148a-3p in tumor and adjacent tissues was assessed with qRT-PCR (P < 0.05) and found to be significantly lower in the tumor tissues than the adjacent tissues. The data obtained from the CCK-8 and wound healing assay showed that intracellular transfection of miR-148a-3p mimics could inhibit cell proliferation and migration, while the miR-148a-3p inhibitor promoted them. Overexpression of miR-148a-3p promoted cell apoptosis in the T24 and 5,637 cell lines. The dual-luciferase reporter assay verified that ROCK-1 is a direct target of miR-148a-3p. Western blot showed that miR-148a-3p overexpression downregulated the expression of ROCK-1 and Bcl-2, while miR-148a-3p knockdown upregulated the expression of ROCK-1 and Bcl-2. Conclusions We confirmed that miR-148a-3p was significantly decreased in bladder cancer cells. miR-148a-3p overexpression inhibited bladder cancer cell proliferation and migration, whereas miR-148a-3p knockdown promoted bladder cancer cell proliferation and migration. Moreover, we found that ROCK-1 was a downstream target of miR-148a-3p. We also found that miR-148a-3p induced cell apoptosis by regulating the expression of Bcl-2. However, the deeper mechanism of this regulatory relationship needs further study.

Emerging evidence indicates that probiotics have been proved to influence liver injury and regeneration. In the present study, the effects of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum AR113 on the liver regeneration were investigated in 70% partial hepatectomy (PHx) rats. Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were gavaged with L. plantarum AR113 suspensions (1 × 1010 CFU/mL) both before and after partial hepatectomy. The results showed that L. plantarum AR113 administration 2 weeks before partial hepatectomy can accelerate liver regeneration by increased hepatocyte proliferation and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) expression. Probiotic administration enriched Lactobacillus and Bacteroides and depleted Flavonifractor and Acetatifactor in the gut microbiome. Meanwhile, L. plantarum AR113 showed decline of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidyl serine (PS), and lysophosphatidyl choline (LysoPC) levels in the serum of the rats after the L. plantarum AR113 administration. Moreover, L. plantarum AR113 treated rats exhibited higher concentrations of L-leucine, L-isoleucine, mevalonic acid, and lower 7-oxo-8-amino-nonanoic acid in plasma than that in PHx. Spearman correlation analysis revealed a significant correlation between changes in gut microbiota composition and glycerophospholipid. These results indicate that L. plantarum AR113 is promising for accelerating liver regeneration and provide new insights regarding the correlations among the microbiome, the metabolome, and liver regeneration.

Automatic segmentation of polyps during colonoscopy can help doctors accurately find the polyp area and remove abnormal tissues in time to reduce the possibility of polyps transforming into cancer. However, the current polyp segmentation research still has the following problems: blurry polyp boundaries, multi-scale adaptability of polyps, and close resemblances between polyps and nearby normal tissues. To tackle these issues, this paper proposes a dual boundary-guided attention exploration network (DBE-Net) for polyp segmentation. Firstly, we propose a dual boundary-guided attention exploration module to solve the boundary-blurring problem. This module uses a coarse-to-fine strategy to progressively approximate the real polyp boundary. Secondly, a multi-scale context aggregation enhancement module is introduced to accommodate the multi-scale variation of polyps. Finally, we propose a low-level detail enhancement module, which can extract more low-level details and promote the performance of the overall network. Extensive experiments on five polyp segmentation benchmark datasets show that our method achieves superior performance and stronger generalization ability than state-of-the-art methods. Especially for CVC-ColonDB and ETIS, two challenging datasets among the five datasets, our method achieves excellent results of 82.4% and 80.6% in terms of mDice (mean dice similarity coefficient) and improves by 5.1% and 5.9% compared to the state-of-the-art methods.

This study developed an experimental system based on Joule heat of sliding-pressure additive manufacturing (SP-JHAM), and Joule heat was used for the first time to accomplish high-quality single-layer printing. The roller wire substrate is short-circuited, and Joule heat is generated to melt the wire when the current passes through. Through the self-lapping experimental platform, single-factor experiments were designed to study the effects of power supply current, electrode pressure, contact length on the surface morphology and cross-section geometric characteristics of the single-pass printing layer. Through the Taguchi method, the effect of various factors was analyzed, the optimal process parameters were obtained, and the quality was detected. The results show that with the current increase, the aspect ratio and dilution rate of a printing layer increase within a given range of process parameters. In addition, with the increase in pressure and contact length, the aspect ratio and dilution ratio decrease. Pressure has the greatest effect on the aspect ratio and dilution ratio, followed by current and contact length. When a current of 260 A, a pressure of 0.60 N and a contact length of 1.3 mm are applied, a single track with a good appearance, whose surface roughness Ra is 3.896 μm, can be printed. Additionally, the wire and the substrate are completely metallurgically bonded with this condition. There are also no defects such as air holes and cracks. This study verified the feasibility of SP-JHAM as a new additive manufacturing strategy with high quality and low cost, and provided a reference for developing additive manufacturing technology based on Joule heat.

Amide bond is often seen in value-added nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds, which can present promising chemical, biological, and pharmaceutical significance. However, current synthesis methods in the preparation of amide-containing N-heterocyclic compounds have low specificity (large amount of by-products) and efficiency. In this study, we focused on reviewing the feasible enzymes (nitrogen acetyltransferase, carboxylic acid reductase, lipase, and cutinase) for the amidation of N-heterocyclic compounds; summarizing their advantages and weakness in the specific applications; and further predicting candidate enzymes through in silico structure-functional analysis. For future prospects, current enzymes demand further engineering and improving for practical industrial applications and more enzymatic tools need to be explored and developed for a broader range of N-heterocyclic substrates.

There are several requirements of properties for filter material: adsorption, antibacterial property, air permeability, mechanical properties, etc. Electrospinning technology is a recognized method with great potential to fabricate nanofiber membrane. In particular, the mechanical properties need to be well understood for applications where the membrane is subjected external loading, e.g. tension forces which could be monotonic or cyclic. In this study, the mechanical properties of ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) nanofiber membranes loaded with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and activated carbon (AC) were investigated in detail. Static load tensile tests were carried out for nine groups of membranes with different mass fraction of EVOH (7.5%, 10%, 12.5%) and concentration ratios of Ag/AC (2:5, 1:1, 5:2). The results showed that the tensile strength and Young’s modulus of this membrane would increase with the increase of EVOH mass fraction. When the mass fraction of EVOH is 7.5% and the concentration ratio of Ag/AC is 1:1, the fracture strength of nanofiber membrane was the highest, which was 0.1545 MPa.

Specular Reflections often exist in the endoscopic image, which not only hurts many computer vision algorithms but also seriously interferes with the observation and judgment of the surgeon. The information behind the recovery specular reflection areas is a necessary pre-processing step in medical image analysis and application. The existing highlight detection method is usually only suitable for medium-brightness images. The existing highlight removal method is only applicable to images without large specular regions, when dealing with high-resolution medical images with complex texture information, not only does it have a poor recovery effect, but the algorithm operation efficiency is also low. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes a specular reflection detection and removal method for endoscopic images based on brightness classification. It can effectively detect the specular regions in endoscopic images of different brightness and can improve the operating efficiency of the algorithm while restoring the texture structure information of the high-resolution image. In addition to achieving image brightness classification and enhancing the brightness component of low-brightness images, this method also includes two new steps: In the highlight detection phase, the adaptive threshold function that changes with the brightness of the image is used to detect absolute highlights. During the highlight recovery phase, the priority function of the exemplar-based image inpainting algorithm was modified to ensure reasonable and correct repairs. At the same time, local priority computing and adaptive local search strategies were used to improve algorithm efficiency and reduce error matching. The experimental results show that compared with the other state-of-the-art, our method shows better performance in terms of qualitative and quantitative evaluations, and the algorithm efficiency is greatly improved when processing high-resolution endoscopy images.

Global cerebral ischemia can elicit rapid innate neuroprotective mechanisms that protect against delayed neuronal death. Brain-derived 17β-estradiol (BDE2), an endogenous neuroprotectant, is synthesized from testosterone by the enzyme aromatase (Aro) and is upregulated by brain ischemia and inflammation. Our recent study revealed that G1, a specific G-protein-coupled estrogen receptor 1 (GPER) agonist, exerts anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic roles after global cerebral ischemia (GCI). Herein, we aimed to elucidate whether G1 modulates the early inflammatory process and the potential underlying mechanisms in the ovariectomized rat hippocampal CA1 region. G1 was found to markedly reduce pro-inflammatory (iNOS, MHCII, and CD68) and to enhance anti-inflammatory (CD206, Arginase 1, IL1RA, PPARγ, and BDNF) markers after 1 and 3 days of reperfusion after GCI. Intriguingly, the neuroprotection of G1 was blocked by the Aro inhibitor, letrozole. Conversely, the GPER antagonist, G36, inhibited Aro-BDE2 signaling and exacerbated neuronal damage. As a whole, this work demonstrates a novel anti-inflammatory role of GPER, involving a synergistic mediation with BDE2 during the early stage of GCI.

Flexible wearable sensors show great potential for applications in wearable devices, remote health monitoring, artificial intelligence, soft robotics, and artificial skin due to their stretchability, bendability, thinness and portability, and excellent electrical properties. Hydrogels have tunable mechanical properties, excellent biocompatibility, and flexibility, making them attractive candidates for wearable flexible sensors. Among them, tremendous efforts have focused on the advancement of chitosan-based hydrogels (CS-Gels) to realize multifunctional wearable sensing by modifying hydrogel networks with additives/nanofillers/functional groups. Recently, remarkable progress has been made in flexible wearable sensors. Herein, this review summarizes recent advances in CS-Gels wearable sensors for applications such as human motion monitoring, health monitoring, human-machine interface and soft robotics. Representative synthesis methods and strategies for CS-Gels are briefly described, the problems and deficiencies of CS-Gels for wearable sensors are discussed. Finally, the possible opportunities and challenges for the future development of CS-Gels flexible wearable devices are proposed.

Abstract Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with high microporosity and relatively high thermal stability are potential thermal insulation and flame-retardant materials. However, the difficulties in processing and shaping MOFs have largely hampered their applications in these areas. This study outlines the fabrication of hybrid CNF@MOF aerogels by a stepwise assembly approach involving the coating and cross-linking of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) with continuous nanolayers of MOFs. The cross-linking gives the aerogels high mechanical strength but superelasticity (80% maximum recoverable strain, high specific compression modulus of ~ 200 MPa cm3 g−1, and specific stress of ~ 100 MPa cm3 g−1). The resultant lightweight aerogels have a cellular network structure and hierarchical porosity, which render the aerogels with relatively low thermal conductivity of ~ 40 mW m−1 K−1. The hydrophobic, thermally stable MOF nanolayers wrapped around the CNFs result in good moisture resistance and fire retardancy. This study demonstrates that MOFs can be used as efficient thermal insulation and flame-retardant materials. It presents a pathway for the design of thermally insulating, superelastic fire-retardant nanocomposites based on MOFs and nanocellulose.