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This research explored the feasibility of using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry to quantify Fe, Cu, Zn, and As concentrations in dried and ground organic materials (fungi, vegetation, and animal tissues) with intermediate thickness.

Precise chromosome congression and segregation require proper assembly of a steady-state metaphase spindle, which is dynamic and maintained by continuous microtubule flux. NuSAP is a microtubule-stabilizing and -bundling protein that promotes chromosomedependent spindle assembly. However, its function in spindle dynamics remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that NuSAP regulates the dynamics and length control of the metaphase spindle. Mechanistically, NuSAP facilitates kinetochore capture and spindle assembly via promoting Eg5 binding with microtubules. It also prevents excessive microtubule depolymerization through interacting with Kif2A and reduces its spindle-pole localization. NuSAP is phosphorylated by Aurora A at Ser-240 during mitosis, and this phosphorylation promotes its interaction with Kif2A on the spindle body and reduces its localization to the spindle poles, thus maintaining the proper spindle microtubule flux. NuSAP knockout resulted in shorter spindle formation with faster microtubule flux and chromosome misalignment. Taken together, we uncover that NuSAP participates in spindle assembly, dynamics, and metaphase spindle length control via affecting microtubule flux and Kif2A localization.

This paper presents both experimental and numerical studies on bolted glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) joints subjected to uniaxial tension and different thermal conditions (−20 ℃, 20 ℃ and 60 ℃). Laboratory tests are conducted to obtain strength, elastic modulus and deformation of the joints. The numerical model is developed using the discrete element method (DEM) that can predict not only the above properties of the joints, but also the failure modes with detailed meso/micro damages that are in consistent with the observations from the tests. The DEM model is also used in the parametric studies to study the influence of the end distance to bolt/hole diameter ratio and the lap width to bolt/hole diameter ratio on the mechanical properties and failure models of the joints.

Determination of elemental concentrations in animal tissues is critically important due to the extensive use of animal tissues in food and medicine. Traditionally, elemental analysis has mostly relied on laboratory-based methods, such as inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry, which has been widely applied in soil and rock analysis, has rarely been used to quantify elements in animal tissues. In this pilot study, the effectiveness of using pXRF to determine elemental concentrations in leeches was demonstrated. The effects of the moisture content and compaction (density) on pXRF readings were experimentally quantified. The penetration depth of X-rays in leech samples is generally

Magnetic measurement was provided to substitute for time-consuming conventional methods for determination of potentially toxic elements. Both the concentrations of 12 elements and 9 magnetic parameters were determined in 700 muscle tissue samples from the snail Bellamya aeruginosa, shrimp species Exopalaemon modestus and Macrobrachium nipponense, and fish species Hemisalanx prognathous Regan, Coilia ectenes taihuensis, and Culer alburnus Basilewsky collected from Chaohu Lake during different hydrological periods. Spherical and irregular iron oxide particles were observed in the muscle tissues of the studied aquatic products. A field survey of the exposure parameters in humans, such as per capita intake dose of local aquatic products, found no evidence that consumption of the tested species poses a potential health risk. Redundancy analysis revealed different degrees of correlation between the magnetic parameters and concentrations of elements in aquatic products. Back-propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) and support vector machine (SVM) models were applied to predict elemental concentrations in aquatic products, using magnetic parameters as input. SVM models performed well in predicting the presence of Cr and Ni, with R and index of agreement values of >0.8 in both training and validation stages as well as relatively low errors. The BP-ANN and SVM models both performed relatively poorly in predicting the presence of Cd and Zn in aquatic products, with R values between 0.333 and 0.718 for Cd and between 0.454 and 0.664 for Zn in training and validation stages. For most of the elements, a better R value was obtained with the SVM than with BP-ANN model. The R of Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Ti in the training and validation stages of snail in the SVM model were >0.8. This study is a first step in developing a novel approach allowing the rapid monitoring of potentially toxic elements concentrations in aquatic products.

The ability to manipulate the genome in a programmable manner has illuminated biology and shown promise in plant breeding. Prime editing, a versatile gene-editing approach that directly writes new genetic information into a specified DNA site without requiring double-strand DNA breaks, suffers from low efficiency in plants

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal progressive neurodegenerative disease resulting in the dysfunction of upper and lower motor neurons. Biomarkers in fluid have been used to monitor the disease and its progression. Milk fat globule-EGF factor 8 (MFG-E8) is an inflammation modulator, which is involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. We here took this study to evaluate the predictive value of MFG-E8 in ALS. This study consisted of 19 patients with ALS and 15 healthy controls. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were collected from all participants and tested for the levels of MFG-E8, neurofilament light (NFL), and heavy chain (NFH). The correlations between MFG-E8 and NFL, NFH, ALS severity, cognitive status, and forced vital capacity (FVC) were analyzed. We found that MFG-E8 performs well in distinguishing ALS from controls, with relatively higher level of MFG-E8 in ALS subjects, than controls. Moreover, MFG-E8 negatively correlated with the revised ALS function rating scale (ALS-FRS), but not with the levels of NFL and NFH, disease duration, progression rate, mini-mental state examination (MMSE), and FVC. The study proved that CSF MFG-E8 helps distinguish ALS from controls. However, the protein in CSF negatively predicted disease severity.

// Biying Yang 1 and Xiaolei Shi 2, 3 1 Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong, P.R. China 2 Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Yijishan Hospital of Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, Anhui, P.R. China 3 Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada Correspondence to: Xiaolei Shi, email: shixiaolei05@gmail.com Keywords: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); gastrostomy; meta-analysis Received: June 10, 2017 Accepted: October 13, 2017 Published: November 06, 2017 ABSTRACT Gastrostomy is recommended for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients with malnutrition. There are two main methods of gastrostomy insertion: Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy (PEG) and Fluoroscopic Gastrostomy (FG). The latter included Radiologically Inserted Gastrostomy (RIG) and Per-oral Image-Guided Gastrostomy (PRG). A meta-analysis was conducted to compare these approaches in terms of survival outcomes, pain occurrence and success rate, through the literature search in PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library. A total of 7 studies with 701 cases (322 in PEG, 264 in RIG and 115 in PRG) were enrolled in the final analysis. The lack of differences between the comparisons (PEG vs. PRG, PEG vs. RIG and PEG vs. PRG+RIG) on 30-day mortality and survival length was confirmed. For the pooling analysis of peri- and post-procedural complications, patients with PEG had a lower incidence of pain than cases with PRG and RIG together ( P < 0.001). The same trends could be found when compared with PRG and RIG, separately ( P < 0.05 and P < 0.001, respectively). And PEG showed a lower rate of successful attempts than PEG and RIG ( P < 0.05). For other complications, we didn’t find any differences. This meta-analysis demonstrates that PEG, PRG and RIG had their intrinsic advantages. The current evidences could not determine the preference of them. Further investigations should be done to reveal the most appropriate method for ALS patients.

The surface waviness of blade surfaces in numerically controlled (NC) milling processes directly affects the mechanical behavior of the blade. To research the mechanism of surface waviness formation, this study utilizes wavelet analysis in investigating the measured results of surface profile. Firstly, the experiment on a #45 steel cantilever blade was performed on an NC milling machine and the vibrational signals during the milling process were analyzed by fast Fourier transform. Secondly, the first-order natural frequencies of the machine-tool system and the machine-workpiece system were obtained by modal test based on DWESOFT and simulation based on ANSYS. Thirdly, the selected optimal wavelet was applied to decompose and reconstruct each layer of the blade surface contour signal based on MATLAB. Finally, the frequency information of the wavelet, the frequency information of the milling vibration signals, and the first-order natural frequencies of the systems were compared. The maximum of the amplitude value of the milling vibration signals corresponds to the frequency 161.1 Hz, which is equivalent to the excitation frequency of the teeth by calculating and the frequency of the maximum amplitude of the second-layer profile by wavelet analysis. The modal analysis showed that the first-order natural frequencies of the machine-tool system in the x and y directions and the machine-workpiece system are 737.3, 668.9, and 542.0 Hz, respectively, which are far away from the frequencies the maximum amplitude of the each layer profile obtained by wavelet analysis. The results showed that surface waviness is caused by forced vibration in thin-blade NC milling, rather than self-excited vibration.

Present investigation is conducted to investigate the clinical efficacy of mesalazine in combination with the Bifid Triple Viable Capsules on the ulcerative colitis (UC) and the resultant effect on the inflammatory factors (TNF-α, IL-8 and IL-10) of UC patients. A total of 120 UC patients who were admitted to this hospital for treatment between May 2014 and February 2018 were enrolled in this study and divided randomly into the research group and control group, with 60 patients in each group. For patients in the two groups, they underwent medication via mesalazine, while those in the research group additionally received the medication by Bifid Triple Viable Capsules. Following treatment, we evaluated the clinical efficacy, as well as the disease activity index (DAI) of UC, score of clinical symptoms, changes in the inflammatory factors (TNF-α, IL-8 and IL-10) and the adverse reactions to drugs before and after treatment. The total effectiveness rate in the research group was 90.0%, significantly higher than 72.5% in the control group, and the difference had statistical significance (P0.05). Before treatment, we assessed the UCDAI and clinical symptoms, and found that there were no statistically significant differences in these indicators between two groups (P0.05); however, after treatment, both of UCDAI and clinical symptoms scores were decreased evidently in two groups (P0.05), while the decreases in the research group were more significant (P0.05). In addition, following treatment, the levels of TNF-α and IL-8 were all decreased in two groups, with an acute increase in IL-10 (all P0.01), and the alterations in these indicators in the research group were much more significant than those in the control group (all P0.05). For adverse reactions, the incidence rate in the research group was 6.67%, significantly lower than 33.33% in the control group (P0.05). Mesalazine in combination with Bifid Triple Viable Capsules shows a magnificent protective effect on the mucosa of UC patients, and curb the UC-related inflammatory reactions effectively. Thus, it is a safe and reliable method that is worthy of being promoted in clinical practice.

In all eukaryotes, a functional mitotic spindle is essential for distributing duplicated chromosomes into daughter cells. Mitotic spindle assembly involves highly ordered arrangement of microtubules (MTs). The Augmin protein complex recruits γ-tubulin ring complex (γ-TuRC) to MTs and thereby promotes MT-based MT nucleation and mitotic spindle assembly. However, several factors that may promote Augmin recruitment to MTs remain unknown. Here, we show that echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 3 (EML3), an MT-associated protein, facilitates binding between MTs and Augmin/γ-TuRC and recruiting the latter to MTs for proper mitotic spindle assembly and kinetochore–MT connections. Using immunofluorescence microscopy, live-cell imaging, and immunoprecipitation assays, we found that EML3 recruits Augmin/γ-TuRC to the MTs to enhance MT-based MT nucleation in both spindle and small acentrosomal asters. We also noted that the EML3-mediated recruitment is controlled by cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1), which phosphorylated EML3 at Thr-881 and promoted its binding to Augmin/γ-TuRC. RNAi-mediated EML3 knockdown in HeLa cells reduced spindle localization of Augmin/γ-TuRC, which resulted in abnormal spindle assembly and caused kinetochore–MT misconnection. The introduction of exogenous WT or a Thr-881 phosphorylation mimic EML3 variant into the EML3 knockdown cells restored normal Augmin/γ-TuRC localization and spindle assembly. The EML3 knockdown also affected the spindle assembly checkpoint, delaying chromosome congression and cell division. Taken together, our results indicate that EML3 regulates mitotic spindle assembly and the kinetochore–MT connection by regulating MT-based MT nucleation and recruiting Augmin/γ-TuRC to MTs.

This paper reviews the use of pXRF in elemental assessment of vegetation, with emphasis on the factors that affect pXRF readings, including water content, protective film effect, critical penetration depth of X-rays, sample thickness, measurement time, and particle size. An overview and guideline for pXRF analysis of vegetal matrixes were provided, aiming to minimize the errors and to improve the predictive accuracy of pXRF data.

In order to solve the problems of high labor intensity, low efficiency, and unstable cleaning quality when cleaning optical pipelines with traditional manual high-pressure spray, automatic cleaning equipment with high pressure water jet for optical pipelines is designed. The working principle and the design points are introduced. The movement rule of the nozzle under self-propelled drive is analyzed by ANSYS, the results show that the self-propelled drive cannot meet the cleaning speed requirements. Therefore, the wire rope driving method is proposed to realize the control of the nozzle speed. Subsequently, the speed of the simulated water jet is analyzed by the STARCCM, it is inferred that the water jet is still in the basic section at the maximum target distance of the pipeline, which can be used for cleaning. For verifying the cleaning effect, the prototype is applied to the cleaning of the actual optical pipelines. The verification results show that the cleaning equipment can meet the requirements of 100 / class clean, and the efficiency is increased by 70% compared with the traditional manual high-pressure spray.

As problems with the overuse of radical prostate cancer (PCa) treatment are increasingly exposed, focal therapy represents the direction of low- or intermediate-risk PCa management in the future. However, inaccurate diagnosis and low controllability of focal therapy hinder its clinical translation. In this study, we develop simple structural cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic (cRGD) peptide-modified and indocyanine green (ICG)-loaded microbubbles (cRGD-ICG-MBs) for ultrasound-photoacoustic imaging and multi-synergistic photothermal therapy (PTT) to address the above problems. Precise PCa diagnosis is achieved by molecular ultrasound imaging. cRGD-targeting and low-frequency ultrasound with an amplitude of 500 kPa convert MBs into nanoparticles for enhanced ICG delivery. A low frequency 2500 kPa amplitude ultrasound enables temporary vasculature destruction, which minimizes heat loss during PTT. Specifically, ICG in the tumor region is 14-fold higher than the control, resulting in satisfactory PTT. Our study highlights that this theranostic strategy possesses considerable clinical translational potential, especially in mini-invasive and individualized PCa therapy.

Background The pathogenesis of myasthenia gravis (MG) has strong connection with thymic abnormalities. Thymic hyperplasia or thymoma can be found with most patients. Thymectomy is currently one of the regular treatment in clinic, which is, however, still controversial for non-thymomatous MG. This research will assess the effectiveness and safety of thymectomy plus prednisone compared to prednisone monotherapy for the treatment of non-thymomatous MG systematically. Methods According to eligibility and ineligibility criteria, 8 databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, the Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan-fang Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China Science and Technology Journal Database (CSTJ), will be searched to gather the up-to-standard articles from September 2000 to September 2025. Inclusion criteria are as follows: randomized controlled trials of thymectomy plus prednisone for the treatment of non-thymomatous MG. The quantitative myasthenia gravis score (QMG) and the dose of prednisone required will be accepted as the main outcomes. Data synthesis, subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, and meta-regression analysis will be conducted using RevMan 5.3 software. We will use Egger or Begg test to evaluate symmetry on a funnel plot which is made to assess reporting bias, and use trial sequential analysis (TSA) to exclude the probability of false positives. Results This systematic review will measure the QMG and the dose of prednisone required, the myasthenia gravis activities of daily living scale scores (MG-ADL), treatment-associated complications, incidence of myasthenic crisis and other aspects to comprehensively assess the clinical benefits of thymectomy plus prednisone for MG patients without thymoma. Conclusion The conclusion of this study will achieve convincing evidence to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of thymectomy plus prednisone for the treatment of non-thymomatous MG. Prospero registration number CRD 42020167735.

This paper presents a numerical approach using the discrete element method to predict strength and damage propagation of plates and bolted lap joints subjected to axial tension. Tensile tests on GFRP plates and bolted joints are carried to obtained their overall stiffness and strength. A new three-dimensional discrete element model constructed by a 19-ball assembly is proposed and the relationships between the macro and the micro mechanical properties of FRP is established through calibrations using the test results. The calibrated DEM model is then used to reproduce the test results. Excellent agreements are achieved between the numerical and the experimental results in terms of not only the overall failure loads, but also the detailed failure modes, including cracking and delamination. The research shows great potential of the DEM model in predicting strength of composite materials and presenting detailed local damage and damage propagation at micro-scale, which represents a significant advantage over the conventional numerical methods, such as the finite element method. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd