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Societal Impact Statement: Rice wild relatives (RWR) provide valuable genetic resources for modern rice breeding, yet knowledge gaps constrain their conservation and further utilization. To address these gaps, the potential distributions of 22 RWR taxa were modeled, and their conservation statuses were assessed. Most taxa were identified as medium priority for further conservation. Further ex‐situ collecting hotspots are in Southeast and South Asia, Northern Australia, West Africa, and tropical Americas, while habitat protection lies in Southeast and South Asia, Northern Australia, and West Africa. Climate change may shift equatorial habitats to higher latitudes and mountain habitats to higher altitudes. Summary: Rice wild relatives (RWR) provide valuable genetic resources for modern rice breeding. However, knowledge gaps on their geographic distributions and conservation status constrain their conservation and further utilization.To fill these critical gaps, we modeled the potential distributions of 22 RWR taxa under current climate scenarios, assessed their conservation status, both ex situ (in genebanks or botanical gardens) and in situ (in protected areas), and examined changes in taxa richness of RWR in predicted areas under future climate scenarios.The RWR were primarily distributed in tropical Asia to tropical Australia, tropical Africa, and South and Central America. We identified 4 out of 22 taxa as high priority (HP) for further conservation action and 18 taxa as medium priority (MP).Hotspots requiring further collecting for ex situ conservation are concentrated in Southeast and South Asia, Northern Australia, West Africa, and tropical Americas. Meanwhile, habitat protection should be enhanced in Southeast and South Asia, Northern Australia, and West Africa. Under future climate change, suitable habitats near the equator are expected to shift toward higher latitudes and some in lower‐latitude basins may become unsuitable due to excessive heat, resulting in decreased taxa richness in these areas. Additionally, suitable habitats in high mountain areas may shift to higher altitudes, potentially augmenting taxa richness in the highlands. Our findings provide vital insights to guide future rescue conservation efforts for RWR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) has been widely deployed in datacenters for its high performance. Large-scale high performance cloud services built on geographically distributed datacenters require long-range RDMA for performance requirements. However, existing RDMA solutions can hardly satisfy the stringent requirements of the emerging large-scale high-performance cloud services built on geo-distributed datacenters in terms of throughput and delay. On the one hand, lossless RDMA suffers from a deep buffer and potential suboptimal throughput for inter-datacenter traffic due to delayed response to Priority Flow Control (PFC) messages. On the other hand, lossy RDMA with selective retransmissions suffers from poor performance when multiple flows with different round-trip times (RTTs) coexist in cross-datacenter scenarios. This article proposes Swing, which expands the high-performance lossless RDMA to long-distance links through PFC-Relay. Swing ensures the throughput of long-distance links while minimizing the buffer requirement for long-range RDMA. It enables long-range RDMA without making any modifications to existing in-datacenter networks. The evaluation shows that Swing can reduce the average flow completion time (FCT) by 14%-66% in a variety of traffic scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accumulation of microglia around senile plaques is one of the pathological features of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Chemerin is an adipokine with immune-modulating properties. Our previous study showed that chemokine-like receptor 1 (CMKLR1), the receptor for chemerin, is also a functional receptor of Aβ. However, it remains unclear whether and how the chemerin/CMKLR1 axis affects the migration of microglia. The impact of CMKLR1 on microglial activation and recruitment toward Aβ deposits was examined in APP/PS1 mice mated with CMKLR1 knockout (CMKLR1−/−) mice. CMKLR1 deficiency reduced the number of microglia around Aβ deposits in aged APP/PS1-CMKLR1−/− mice compared with APP/PS1 mice. Chemerin expression was significantly decreased in the hippocampus and cortex of aged APP/PS1 mice compared with WT mice. In vitro assays demonstrated that activation of the chemerin/CMKLR1 axis promoted the migration of primary cultures of microglia and murine microglial N9 cells. Mechanistic studies found that chemerin/CMKLR1 induced polarization and protrusion formation of microglia by promoting the remodeling of actin filaments and microtubules, and Golgi apparatus reorientation. The inhibition of p38 MAPK attenuated the promotion of the chemerin/CMKLR1 axis on microglial migration and polarization. In addition, chemerin inhibited Aβ-induced microglial clustering. The inhibition of p38 MAPK alleviated the suppressive effect of chemerin on Aβ-induced microglial aggregation. Our data indicate that the chemerin/CMKLR1 axis is involved in the migration and recruitment of microglia to senile plaques via the p38 MAPK pathway. Modulation of the chemerin/CMKLR1 axis is a potential new strategy for AD therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the aging population increases, the focus on elderly patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is also increasing. In this article, we found progranulin (PGRN) differential expression in ARDS patients and healthy controls, even in young and old ARDS patients. Its expression strongly correlates with several cytokines in both young and elderly ARDS patients. PGRN has comparable therapeutic effects in young and elderly mice with lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury, manifesting as lung injury, apoptosis, inflammation, and regulatory T cells (Tregs) differentiation. Considering that Tregs differentiation relies on metabolic reprogramming, we discovered that Tregs differentiation was mediated by mitochondrial function, especially in the aged population. Furthermore, we demonstrated that PGRN alleviated the mitochondrial damage during Tregs differentiation through the AMPK/PGC-1α pathway in T cells. Collectively, PGRN may regulate mitochondria function to promote Tregs differentiation through the AMPK/PGC-1α pathway to improve ARDS. [Display omitted] • Differential expression of PGRN and mitochondrial respiratory in ARDS patients and healthy controls. • PGRN has an equivalent therapeutic effect on Tregs differentiation in young and old ALI mice induced by LPS intratracheal instillation. • PGRN has a better promotion effect on metabolic reprogramming during the differentiation of old Tregs than that of young. • PGRN promotes mitochondrial function through the AMPK/PGC-1α pathway in T cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The relation between industrial structure and eco-environment was explored. • Industrial investment structure and eco-environmental state had the greatest effect. • The comprehensive level of eco-environment surpassed that of industrial structure. • The coupling degree of two systems kept in the process of continuous optimization. • The scissors difference of two systems tended to be stable. Tremendous economic growth creates increasing pressure on the eco-environment, and the industrial structure has an important influence on the eco-environment. To explore the relation between the industrial structure and the eco-environment, we established a new evaluation index system for both the industrial structure and the eco-environment; then, using data on Beijing from 1992 to 2016, we applied an integrated approach involving the combination weight method, the coupling coordination degree model, the dynamic coupling coordination degree model and the scissors difference model with the following results. (1) The industrial investment structure and the eco-environment status account for the largest proportion of the industrial structure and the eco-environment index systems, respectively. (2) The comprehensive level of the industrial structure is initially higher than that of the industrial structure system and then gradually slows and lags behind. (3) The coupling coordination degree between the industrial structure and the eco-environment in Beijing shifts from "barely coordinated development" stage to "superior coordinated development" stage. (4) The dynamic coupling coordination degree of the whole system presents an S-shaped curve evolving from the "low-grade symbiosis" stage to the "harmonious development" stage and approaching the "utmost development" stage. (5) The scissors difference presents a V-shaped curve, and the gap in the development trend between the industrial structure and the eco-environment diminishes. This study discusses the relationship between the industrial structure and the eco-environment of Beijing from 1992 to 2016, which should be beneficial in promoting the coordinated development between the industrial structure and the eco-environment of Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journal writing involving guided reflections on intercultural experiences has a potential in facilitating intercultural communicative competence (ICC). However, most of the research on reflective journal writing relied on content-based thematic analysis alone and neglected the use of language that reveals, complements or even distorts the true meaning of the content. Using linguistic tools provided by appraisal theory, the study investigated the attitudinal changes towards self and others in the reflective journals of intercultural encounter written by 41 undergraduates in an College English Intercultural Communication class in a Chinese university. Positive attitudinal changes were found, including the extension of reflection from people in the incidents to cultures they represented, more appreciation of the intercultural experience, more objectivity and empathy for others, and critical reflection on one's own behaviour in intercultural experience and one's initial ethnocentric interpretation of it. Problematic tendencies included outgroup-favouritism, non-judgement on the surface and overgeneralisation. Suggestions were provided for teachers who intend to use reflective journals in facilitating students' ICC growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recruitment and accumulation of reactive astrocytes around senile plaques are common pathological features of Alzheimer's disease (AD), with unclear mechanisms. Chemerin, an adipokine implicated in neuroinflammation, acts through its receptor, chemokine-like receptor 1 (CMKLR1), which also functions as a receptor for amyloid β (Aβ). The impact of the chemerin/CMKLR1 axis on astrocyte migration towards Aβ plaques is unknown. Here we investigated the effect of CMKLR1 on astrocyte migration around Aβ deposition in APP/PS1 mice with Cmklr1 knockout (APP/PS1-Cmklr1−/−). CMKLR1-expressed astrocytes were upregulated in the cortices and hippocampi of 9-month-old APP/PS1 mice. Chemerin mainly co-localized with neurons, and its expression was reduced in the brains of APP/PS1 mice, compared to WT mice. CMKLR1 deficiency decreased astrocyte colocalization with Aβ plaques in APP/PS1-Cmklr1−/− mice, compared to APP/PS1 mice. Activation of the chemerin/CMKLR1 axis promoted the migration of primary cultured astrocytes and U251 cells, and reduced astrocyte clustering induced by Aβ42. Mechanistic studies revealed that chemerin/CMKLR1 activation induced STING phosphorylation. Deletion of STING attenuated the promotion of the chemerin/CMKLR1 axis relative to astrocyte migration and abolished the inhibitory effect of chemerin on Aβ42-induced astrocyte clustering. These findings suggest the involvement of the chemerin/CMKLR1/STING pathway in the regulation of astrocyte migration and recruitment to Aβ plaques/Aβ42. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For sustainable application of chloroprene rubber (CR), a new technology is developed by the vulcanization of CR using 2,2'-dithiodipyridine (DPD) as a cross-linking agent with the reprocessing performance owing to disulfide metathesis. When DPD was incorporated into CR vulcanization, the Menschutkin reaction between allyl chloride group and pyridine group occurred with a maximum exothermic peak at 184°C. The number of effective cross-linking bond at 0.5 phr DPD vulcanizate was higher than that at high DPD content. This vulcanizate showed high tensile strength (11.12 MPa) and elongation at break (1253 ± 120%) owing to the exchangeable disulfide bond in the system. Under the catalysis of triphenylphosphine, the metathesis of disulfide compound was improved obviously, which endowed CR/DPD vulcanizates with good recyclability performance. Disulfide cross-linkage maintains its stability at low temperature, thus ensuring the mechanical stability of CR/DPD vulcanizate under the ambient conditions. Vulcanization and reprocessing of CR/DPD vulcanizate can be conducted with common industrial rubber processing equipment. Such reprocessable chloroprene rubber could have potential application in CR industry, also serve to significantly improve environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Polyoxomolybdate [Mo 132 ] was fabricated with various ionic liquid groups loaded on dendritic fibrous nanotitanium. • Owing to the DFNT@IL/Mo 132 morphology, they produce a satisfactory outer layer for CO 2 uptake at every Mo 132 site. • DFNT@IL/Mo 132 has an excellent efficiency for production of dimethyl carbonate from methanol and CO 2. • DFNT@IL/Mo 132 can be reused for ten cycles without changing characteristics. The simultaneous fabrication of a phase junction and fibrous anatomy is able to ameliorate the separation, catalytic power, and catalytic activity of nano TiO 2. However, It's easy and green fabrication is still essentially required. Here, an advanced dandelion-like TiO 2 with anatase/TiO 2 phase interface and the high particular outer layer was well created by a convenient and eco-friendly deep eutectic solvent-tuning approach. The large specific outer layer is the result of its 3D hierarchical anatomy assembled by 2D ultrathin nanosheets with mesopores. We fabricated Polyoxomolybdate [Mo 132 ] nanospheres with various ionic liquid groups loaded on dendritic fibrous nanotitanium (DFNT@IL/Mo 132) employing an unchallenging synthetic path. DFNT could provide abundant hydroxyl groups for uniform loading of IL through chemical bonding interaction, while IL could adjust the appropriate fiber dimension and show the active adsorption sites of amino groups that contribute to chemisorption with CO 2. The overall topography of the DFNT@IL/Mo 132 composite did not considerably alter after IL/Mo 132 loading, and its mesoporous anatomy as well as crystal line shape were still sustained. This catalyst suffers from a low rate of DMC formation for the direct production of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) from methanol and CO 2 due to its small specific outer layer and less active sites. In the current paper, we improved the issueby uniform dispersion of doped IL/Mo 132 DFNT-based metal–organic frameworks (DFNT@IL/Mo 132), which were produced through anamended hydrothermal approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(A) Primary cultures of microglia and murine microglial N9 cells were incubated for 12 h with chemerin (0.1-20 nM) or 10% FBS, and the migration of the cells was evaluated by 48-well chemotaxis chambers. Figure Graph: Figure 3 Chemerin/CMKLR1 axis promotes the migration of microglia in Boyden chamber migration and scratch-wound assay. Primary microglia and N9 cells were treated with chemerin (5 nM), C9 (100 nM), or 10% FBS; then, the migration of the cells was detected by scratch-wound assay. [Extracted from the article]

Objective: This study assessed the ability of conventional computed tomography (CT) features (including primary tumors, metastatic lesions, lymph nodes, and emphysema) to predict epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in advanced pulmonary adenocarcinoma.Methods: Patients who were diagnosed with advanced pulmonary adenocarcinoma between January 2017 and August 2017 and had undergone a chest CT and EGFR mutation testing were enrolled in this retrospective study. Qualitative and quantitative CT-features and clinical characteristics evaluated in this study included: primary tumor location, size, and morphology (including degree of lobulation, density, calcification, cavitation, vacuole sign, and air bronchogram), size and distribution of lung and pleural metastatic nodules, size and status of hilar and mediastinal lymph nodes, emphysema, organs with distant metastasis, and patient age, sex, and smoking history.Results: Of 201 patients, 107 (53.23%) were EGFR-mutation positive. The multivariate logistic regression indicated that EGFR mutations were significantly associated with smaller lymph nodes, a lower percentage of deep lobulation of the primary tumor and partial fusion of lymph nodes, and absence of emphysema. The area under the curve of logistic regression model for predicting EGFR mutations was 0.898.Conclusions: Conventional CT-features, including emphysema, degree of primary tumor lobulation, and lymph node size and status, help to predict the presence or absence of EGFR mutations in advanced pulmonary adenocarcinoma. Additionally, these same CT-features demonstrated that the CT manifestations of the EGFR mutant group were of relatively lower malignancy and less invasive as compared to the wild-type EGFR group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The current diagnostic methods for tuberculosis (TB) have several limitations. Although commercial serological tests based on antibody detection are available, their variable accuracies limit their roles in the clinic. The aim of this study was to discover the improved biomarkers for TB disease by investigating the serum profiles of IgG and IgM antibodies against nearly all Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) antigens in 36 active TB patients and 18 healthy controls (HCs) using proteome microarrays. Our results revealed that multiple antigens could induce stronger serum IgG or IgM responses in TB patients compared to HCs, among them, Rv2026c and Rv2421c were further validated by ELISA with sera from 221 samples and showed the moderate performance in diagnosing TB by receiver operating characteristic analysis. Moreover, logistic regression analysis was performed to establish a combined panel that provided better sensitivity and specificity at 82.5% and 88.12%, respectively, than single antigens in the diagnosis of active TB. Furthermore, the antibody reactivity against Rv2026c and Rv2421c was correlated with clinical backgrounds. These results suggest that the combination of different antigens and classes of antibodies could provide promise and encouragement in developing an efficient serological test for the diagnosis of active TB. Highlights • Serum profiles of IgG and IgM against MTB antigens were useful for discovering novel candidate biomarkers for TB diagnosis. • The combination of the Rv2026c- and Rv2421c-specific IgG and IgM showed some promise in the diagnosis of TB. • Antibody reactivity against Rv2026c and Rv2421c associated with clinical backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tripartite motif (TRIM) family proteins play important regulatory roles in innate immune responses, the dysregulation of which cause several infectious diseases. However, the role and function of TRIM family proteins during tuberculosis (TB) infection remains unclear. In this study, we employed real-time quantitative PCR to profile the transcript levels of 72 TRIM genes from a cohort of 5 active TB patients, 5 latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) subjects, and 5 healthy controls (HCs) in an initial discovery phase. The notable TRIM genes were assessed by in vitro cell infection experiments and further validated in another independent cohort (36 active TB, 24 LTBI and 28 HCs). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was used to analyze the diagnostic power of these TRIM genes. Our results revealed that 20 TRIM genes were decreased in active TB compared to LTBI and HCs. In addition, TRIM4, 16, 27, 32, 35, 46, 47, 65 and 68 were further shown to be downregulated in Mycobacterium smegmatis -infected macrophages and were found to be closely correlated with infection time and initial bacteria loads. Furthermore, the ROC analyses showed that TRIM4, 27 and 65 all exhibited the highest areas under the curve (AUC) values of 1.00 in discriminating active TB from LTBI and HCs. Moreover, TRIM27 combined with TRIM32 for an improved AUC value of 0.81 in discriminating LTBI from HCs. These results suggest that TRIM gene dysregulation might be involved in the pathogenesis of TB and that these genes could serve as potential biomarkers for indicating TB status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased risks of certain cancers have been observed in patients with hepatitis C virus ( HCV) infection. However, data on other cancer sites/types are lacking. We analyzed systematically the risk of developing 35 common cancers in patients with HCV infection using a nationwide Swedish database. Patients with HCV infection were identified from the Swedish Hospital Inpatient and Outpatient Register and Primary Health Care Database, and followed until the diagnosis of cancer. Standardized incidence ratios ( SIRs) were calculated for subsequent 35 common cancer sites/types between 1990 and 2010 in patients with HCV infection in Sweden. Increased risks were recorded for six cancers. The highest SIR was seen for liver cancer (36.67; 95% CI: 33.20-40.40). The decreased risk was for prostate cancer (0.73; 95% CI: 0.59-0.90) and melanoma (0.50; 95% CI: 0.30-0.79). A significant sex-difference for cancer was observed only for liver cancer (40.72; 95% CI: 36.36-45.45 for men and 27.21; 95% CI: 21.90-33.41 for women). Also, increased SIRs were noted only for liver cancer during the entire period of follow-up. HCV infection was associated with an increased incidence of liver cancer and additionally five other types of cancer. Active surveillance of other cancers may be needed in order to be diagnosed at an earlier stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical interpretation benefits from identifying analogies among famous people: Who are the Lincolns, Einsteins, Hitlers, and Mozarts? As a knowledge source that benefits many applications in language processing and knowledge representation, Wikipedia provides the information we need to make such comparisons. We investigate several approaches to convert the Wikipedia pages of approximately 600,000 historical figures into vector representations to quantify similarity. On the other hand, Wikipedia pages are assigned to different categories according to their contents as human-annotated labels. A rough similarity estimation could just count the number of shared Wikipedia categories. However, such counting can neither make good similarity quantification (i.e. Is there a difference between those with same number of shared categories?) nor make distinguishable comments on different categories (i.e. Is US Presidents more important than state lawyer when defining similarity?). We use the counting as an indicator to demonstrate high-level agreements of our similarity detection algorithms. In particular, we investigate four different unsupervised approaches to representing the semantic associations of individuals: (1) TF-IDF, (2) Weighted average of distributed word embedding, (3) LDA Topic analysis and (4) Deepwalk graph embedding from page links. All proved effective, but the Deepwalk embedding yielded an overall accuracy of 88.23% in our evaluation. Combining LDA and Deepwalk yielded even higher performance. Finally, we demonstrate that our similarity measurements can also be used to recognize the most descriptive Wikipedia categories for historical figures. We rank the descriptive level of Wikipedia categories according to their categorical coherence, and our ranking yield an overall agreement of 88.27% compared with human crowdsourced data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tim3/Gal9 pathway is associated with immunosuppression and worse clinical outcome in multiple cancers. To illustrate the specific mechanism of Tim3/Gal9 interaction in osteosarcoma, we examined expression, function, and regulation of Tim3/Gal9 in various cells from osteosarcoma patients. Data showed that CD4 + T cells, CD8 + T cells, and monocytes from both peripheral blood and tumor of osteosarcoma patients contained high frequencies of Tim3 + cells, while the Gal9 expression was primarily found in regulatory T cells (Tregs) from osteosarcoma patients and was elevated compared to that in non-cancer controls. The Tim3 + CD4 + and CD8 + T cells presented lower proliferation capacity compared to their Tim3 − counterparts, which could be reverted by blocking Tim3 or Gal9. Interestingly, purified Tim3 + CD4 + T cells secreted more interferon gamma (IFNγ) than purified Tim3 − CD4 + T cells, but IFNγ production by Tim3 + CD4 + T cells was vulnerable to Gal9-mediated suppression. In monocytes, Tim3 expression was associated with high interleukin (IL)-10 and low IL-12 cytokine secretion profile. Exogenous recombinant Gal9, as well as CD4 + CD25 + Treg supernatant, further decreased IL-12 expression in monocytes. In CD4 + T cell-monocyte coculture experiments, Tim3 + monocytes inhibited IFNγ expression from total CD4 + T cells and the development of IFNγ response in naive CD4 + T cells. Blocking the Tim3/Gal9 pathway reverted these effects. Together, these results suggested that in osteosarcoma patients, Tim3 expression did not directly mediate immune suppression, but the interaction between Tim3 + T cells and monocytes, naive CD4 + T cells, and Gal9-expressing CD4 + CD25 + Tregs could resulting in progressive suppression of Th1 responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of numbers by people. Topics mentioned include the several aspects of numerical usage including trends units and magnitude, the numerical representation, and the precision of general numeracy. Also mentioned are the importance of numerical analysis, the value of numbers, and the importance of logarithms.

Background The effectiveness of available biologics for the treatment of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is limited. Additional therapeutic options are needed. Objectives To investigate the efficacy and mode of action of guselkumab [an anti-interleukin (IL)-23p19 monoclonal antibody] 200 mg subcutaneously every 4 weeks for 16 weeks in patients with HS. Methods An open-label, multicentre, phase IIa trial in patients with moderate-to-severe HS was carried out (NCT04061395). The pharmacodynamic response in skin and blood was measured after 16 weeks of treatment. Clinical efficacy was assessed using the Hidradenitis Suppurativa Clinical Response (HiSCR), the International Hidradenitis Suppurativa Severity Score System (IHS4), and the abscess and inflammatory nodule (AN) count. The protocol was reviewed and approved by the local institutional review board (METC 2018/694), and the study was conducted in accordance with good clinical practice guidelines and applicable regulatory requirements. Results Thirteen of 20 patients (65%) achieved HiSCR with a statistically significant decrease in median IHS4 score (from 8.5 to 5.0; P = 0.002) and median AN count (from 6.5 to 4.0; P = 0.002). The overall patient-reported outcomes did not show a similar trend. One serious adverse event, likely to be unrelated to guselkumab treatment, was observed. In lesional skin, transcriptomic analysis revealed the upregulation of various genes associated with inflammation, including immunoglobulins, S100, matrix metalloproteinases, keratin, B-cell and complement genes, which decreased in clinical responders after treatment. Immunohistochemistry revealed a marked decrease in inflammatory markers in clinical responders at week 16. Conclusions Sixty-five per cent of patients with moderate-to-severe HS achieved HiSCR after 16 weeks of treatment with guselkumab. We could not demonstrate a consistent correlation between gene and protein expression and clinical responses. The main limitations of this study were the small sample size and absence of a placebo arm. The large placebo-controlled phase IIb NOVA trial for guselkumab in patients with HS reported a lower HiSCR response of 45.0–50.8% in the treatment group and 38.7% in the placebo group. Guselkumab seems only to be of benefit in a subgroup of patients with HS, indicating that the IL-23/T helper 17 axis is not central to the pathophysiology of HS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of cultivated land quality gradation are made of the results of county, provincial, national levels. The results at the provincial level are integrated by the results at the county level. Provincial integration is an essential link in cultivated land quality grading work. The traditional provincial integration methods excessively depend on the provincial integration base map, which makes the integration efficiency low. Moreover, the quality of integration work completely depends on the quality of integration base map. Based on these defects, this paper comes up with a method that uses the grid instead of the integration base map. In provincial integration work, we need to build traceability relation between county units and provincial units. It requires all county units can find provincial units and all provincial units have their corresponding county units. Moreover, there is a principle we have to abide by: the ownership, the land type and the grade should be coincident between the county units and corresponding provincial units. That is "ownership-land type-grade" coincident principle. The purpose of this method is to make spatial distribution of provincial cultivated land quality is similar to that of the county when abiding by this principle. First we need to classify the county results according to "ownership-land type-grade". Then we determine the corresponding grid category according to the area dominant principle. Through the spatial nearest neighboring method, we find the grid unit closest to the unit at the county level to build "Grid-County grading unit" relations. But maybe there are some categories which can't be found in the provincial grids. Based this situation, the barycenter of the missing category was firstly calculated, then an uncultivated area grid closest to the barycenter was searched out, and lastly this grid was marked as the missing category. The grid coding method proposed in this paper stipulates that grid code is formed by county's administrative code, the grid rank, quality gradation and land class code. The length of the code is 21. At last, this paper uses the mean center and standard deviational ellipse to test the similarity of the spatial distribution of cultivated land before and after integration. This paper takes Daxing district, Bejing as a study area. By "ownership-land type-grade", there are 8 categories in Daxing. According to the distribution of cultivated land in Daxing district, 688 valid cultivated land grids were finally determined. Using the method in this article, we completed the integration at the provincial level for Daxing. After test, it showed that the difference of mean center between provincial grid results and county results is only 405.6 m, and the difference of distribution direction is only 0.34°, which means that this method can ensure the consistency of spatial distribution of cultivated land at different levels. Compared with the method which depends on the integration base map, the method based on grid doesn't make base map, reduces workload and improves work efficiency. This method orientates the provincial cultivated land into each grid and codes for these grids. Through grid code, we can quickly search cultivated land quality in the corresponding position, which is very convenient for both management and application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Keel is an essential structural bone, providing anchorage for the attachment of large breast muscles in birds, allowing them to flap wings and provide proper ventilation for their lungs during flight. Previous studies reported that keel bone damage (especially fractures) negatively affects the welfare, health, production performance, eggshell quality, and mobility of laying hens contained in different housing systems. Furthermore, various factors affect keel bone damage, including nutrition, age, housing systems, and strains of laying hens. However, studies on the effects of abnormal bone metabolism and development on keel bone damage in laying hens are limited. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impacts of bone metabolism and development status on keel bone damage by determining the levels of serum bone turnover markers in laying hens. The results showed that laying hens with impaired keel bone had significantly altered levels of serum Ca and P metabolism-related and osteoblast and osteoclast activity-related markers compared to those in laying hens with normal keel bone. Thus, these results indicated that abnormal bone metabolism before keel bone damage reflected by varying levels of serum bone turnover markers might be a pivotal factor causing keel bone damage in laying hens. Our results also provide new insights into the occurrence of keel bone damage in laying hens. Keel bone damage negatively affects the welfare, production performance, egg quality, and mobility of laying hens. This study aimed to investigate whether abnormal bone metabolism causes keel bone damage in laying hens. Eighty Hy-line Brown laying hens were housed in eight furnished cages with 10 birds per cage and studied from 18 to 29 weeks of age (WOA). Accordingly, keel bone status was assessed at 18, 22, 25, and 29 WOA using the X-ray method, and the serum samples of laying hens with normal keel (NK), deviated keel (DK), and fractured keel (FK) that occurred at 29 WOA were collected across all the time-points. Subsequently, the serum samples were used to measure markers related to the metabolism of Ca and P and activities of osteoblast and osteoclast. The results showed that FK laying hens had lighter bodyweight than NK and DK birds throughout the trial (p < 0.05), while the keel bone length and weight were not different in NK, DK, and FK hens at 29 WOA (p > 0.05). Moreover, bone hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) staining indicated that damaged keel bone had evident pathological changes. In the FK hens, serum P level was reduced but serum 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D3 (1,25-(OH)2D3) and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25-OHD3) levels were elevated compared to NK hens (p < 0.05). Additionally, DK hens had higher levels of serum 1,25-(OH)2D3, parathyroid hormone (PTH) and calcitonin (CT), and lower level of serum 25-OHD3 than the NK birds (p < 0.05). Furthermore, serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP), osteocalcin (OC), osteoprotegerin (OPG), TRAP, and corticosterone (CORT) levels were elevated in DK and FK hens compared to NK hens (p < 0.05). The levels of serum Ca, P, PTH, ALP, TRAP, OPG, OC, and CORT in laying hens fluctuated with the age of the birds. Generally, the results of this study indicate that keel bone damage, especially fractures, could be associated with abnormal bone metabolism in laying hens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we fabricated a metacomposite using magnetorheological fluid, in which Fe nanoparticles dispersed in silica gel spontaneously aligned under a magnetic field to form chain-like grids, thus working as a wire-grid polarizer. A single-layer polarizer was fabricated by mixing silica gel, silicone oil, high-purity spherical Fe powder with about 100 nm in diameter, followed by spin-coating and curing the mixture under a uniform magnetic field to form a solid matecomposite layer on a Teflon substrate. The polarizer was characterized by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, showing good anisotropy and polarizing characteristics. Its performance was improved by multiple-layer stacking. The extinction ratio and degree of polarization of a five-layer polarizer are above 20 dB and 0.95 respectively in a frequency range of 0.8–2 THz. • Fabricate low-cost THz linear polarizers using magnetorheological fluid by a chemical method. • The preparation process is simple and one can achieve large-scale fabrication without relying on expensive instruments. • Polarizers show polarization modulation capabilities in the frequency range from 0.8 to 2.0 THz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A polymer-stabilised blue-phase liquid crystal display (PSBP-LCD) with double-sided protrusion (DSP) electrodes structure is proposed. The oblique electric field between the protrusion electrodes inside both top and bottom glass substrates can induce more isotropic-to-anisotropic transition in the polymer-stabilised blue-phase liquid crystal (PS-BPLC) medium through Kerr effect than using the in-plane switching electrode. For the same electrode width, spacing and cell gap, the transmittance of PSBP-LCD with the DSP electrodes is ∼29% higher than that using the IPS electrode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Admission levels of HE4 were significantly elevated in the patients with sepsis. • Septic non-survivors had significantly higher HE4 concentrations than survivors. • Serum levels of HE4 correlated with disease severity scores and cytokine levels. • HE4 was an independent mortality predictor in septic patients. Human epididymal protein 4 (HE4) has been widely used as an important clinical tumor biomarker for epithelial ovarian cancer. HE4 has recently been suggested to be an inflammatory biomarker and we hypothesized that the serum HE4 level upon intensive care unit (ICU) admission might predict prognosis in septic patients. We hypothesized that serum HE4 level upon intensive care unit (ICU) admission could predict prognosis in septic patients. Serum levels of HE4, procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP), IL-6 and IL-8 were quantified, and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores were recorded on day one of admission to ICU. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) analysis of HE4, IL-6, PCT and SOFA at ICU admission for 28-day mortality was used to evaluate the ability of HE4 in predicting 28-day mortality of sepsis. Multivariate regression analysis was used to identify the independent risk factors for 28-day mortality. A total of 1289 patients were recruited, and 117 patients were included for final analysis. On day of ICU admission, septic patients had significantly higher levels of serum HE4 than those with infection without sepsis, those with ovarian cancer, or healthy controls. Compared with septic survivors, septic non-survivors presented with significantly higher serum HE4 concentrations. Serum levels of HE4 correlated with disease severity scores and cytokine levels (IL-6 and IL-8). Upon ICU admission, the AUC for HE4 level association with 28-day mortality was 0.881, higher than the AUC for SOFA (0.713), IL-6 (0.589), and PCT (0.567). A regression analysis showed that HE4 was an independent mortality predictor. HE4 can predict poor prognosis in septic patients, which may help to identify a group of septic patients at high risk of death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A polymer-stabilised blue-phase liquid crystal display (PSBP-LCD) with double-side in-plane switching (DS-IPS) electrode structure is proposed. The DS-IPS electrodes generate more horizontal fields to induce isotropic-to-anisotropic transition in the BP-LC medium through the Kerr effect. The strip electrodes of the top glass substrate help to lower the operating voltage and promote the transmittance. A low voltage (∼19.5 V) and high transmittance (∼98%) BP-LCD can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuronal inter-spike intervals (ISIs) have previously been described as Poisson, Gamma, inverse Gaussian or other unimodal distributions. We analyzed ISIs of rhythmic and arrhythmic neuronal spike trains in cerebellum recorded from freely behaving rats, and found that their distributions can be described as the summation or integration of multiple Gaussian distributions. The ISIs of rhythmic cerebellar Purkinje cells have a main Gaussian peak at a basic firing interval and exponentially reduced peaks at multiples of this firing period. ISIs of arrhythmic Purkinje cells can be modeled as the integration of multiple Gaussian distributions centered at continuous intervals with exponentially reduced peak amplitudes. The sources of variability are directly related to the relative timing of action potentials between neighboring cells since we show that irregularities of discharge in one cell are associated with the previous history of its discharge in time relative to another cell. Through relative phase analyses, we demonstrate that the shape and the mathematical form of the ISI distributions in cerebellum are direct result of dynamic interactions in the nearby neuronal network, in addition to intrinsic firing properties. The analysis in this paper provides a unified description of cerebellar inter-spike interval distributions which deviate from the usual Poisson assumptions. Our results suggest the existence of an intrinsic rhythmicity in cells exhibiting arrhythmic spike trains in cerebellum, and may identify an important source of variability in neuronal firing patterns that is relevant to the mechanism of neural computation in cerebellum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Let G be a simple connected graph with n vertices and m edges. Denote the degree of vertex by . The matrix is called the signless Laplacian of G, where and denote the diagonal matrix of vertex degrees and the adjacency matrix of G, respectively. Let be the largest eigenvalue of . In this paper, we first present two sharp upper bounds for involving the maximum degree and the minimum degree of the vertices of G and give a new proving method on another sharp upper bound for . Then we present three sharp lower bounds for involving the maximum degree and the minimum degree of the vertices of G. Moreover, we determine all extremal graphs which attain these sharp bounds. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A novel pH-sensitive semi-interpenetrating polymer network (semi-IPN) hydrogels were prepared by using konjac glucomannan (KGM) and poly(aspartic acid) (PAsp) with trisodium trimetaphosphate (STMP) as the cross-linking agent. The effects of component ratio, cross-linking density (STMP concentration), pH and ionic strength on the swelling properties of hydrogels were investigated. The structure of the semi-IPN hydrogels were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), surface area analyzer and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The equilibrium swelling characteristics were investigated at 37°C in buffer solutions of pH 2.2 and 7.4 as simulated gastric and intestinal fluids, respectively. At pH 2.2, the release amount of 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) incorporated into the hydrogels was about 23% within 180min, while this value approached to 95% at pH 7.4. These results showed that the semi-IPN hydrogels could be a suitable polymeric carrier for site-specific drug delivery in the intestine. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The conductance of a benzene molecule connected to two ruthenium (Ru) electrodes through two C(H) anchoring groups is investigated using a self-consistent ab initio approach that combines the non-equilibrium Green’s function formalism with density functional theory. Our calculations demonstrate that a nearly perfect conductance with magnitude exceeding 84% of the conductance quantum G 0 can be obtained when the two C(H) anchoring groups are bonded to a Ru adatom on the Ru(0001) surface, independently from whether this is a Rubond or a Rubond. Both the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the benzene backbone interact with the Ru–C π bonds in the contact region to form efficient charge transport channels, illustrating the high conducting nature of benzene. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: SnS films were prepared onto the ITO-coated glass substrates by pulse-form electro-deposition. The potential applied to the substrates was of pulse-form and its “on” potential, V on was −0.75 V (vs. SCE )and “off ” potential, V off was varied in the range of −0.1–0.5 V. The SnS films deposited at different V off values were characterized by XRD, EDX, SEM and optical measurements. It shows that all the films are polycrystalline orthorhombic SnS with grain sizes of 21.54–26.93 nm and lattice dimensions of a =0.4426–0.4431 nm, b =1.1124–1.1134 nm and c =0.3970–0.3973 nm, though the V off has some influence on the surface morphology of the films and Sn/S ratio. When V off =0.1–0.3 V, the SnS films have the best uniformity, density and adhesion, and the Sn/S ratio is close to 1/1. The direct band gap of the films was estimated to be between 1.23 and 1.33 eV with standard deviation within ±0.03 eV, which is close to the theoretical value. The SnS films exhibit p-type or n-type conductivity and their resistivity was measured to be 16.8–43.1 Ω cm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: SnS films have been prepared on the indium tin oxide coated glass substrates by the constant-current electro-deposition. By investigating the influence of the deposition parameters on the composition of the deposited films, we obtained the optimum deposition parameters with pH=2.7, Sn2+ /S2O3 2− =1/5, J =3.0 mA/cm2 and t =1.5 h. Many nearly stoichiometric SnS films were prepared. These films were characterized with X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analysis, and they were polycrystalline with orthorhombic structure. Their direct band gaps were estimated to be 1.21∼1.42 eV from optical measurements. The films have p-type conductivity with a resistivity of 7.5∼20 Ω·cm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A method for detecting relationships between single-unit spike trains and local field potentials (LFPs) was developed and applied to recordings from rat cerebellum. LFPs were repeatedly filtered with a shifting frequency window. The resulting traces were transformed into peak-time point processes for comparison with spike trains using “relative-phase” analysis (Biol. Cybernet., in press). Discharge of some Purkinje cells was phase-related to LFP oscillations in the 2–10 Hz and 30–50 Hz frequency ranges. This analysis method revealed hidden coherency between spike-trains and LFPs. The findings suggest that cerebellar activity is, to some extent, temporally organized according to both slow and fast rhythms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents evidence indicating that the signals generated by neural responses to visual input can be either enhanced by increasing or suppressed by decreasing the area of the stimuli to which attention is directed. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure the frequency-tagged steady-state visual evoked responses of 11 subjects presented with two superimposed images flickering at different frequencies. Each image consisted of seven parallel bars of equal length; in any image, all bars were either red or green and either horizontal or vertical. At randomly chosen times during the experiments, any one of the three middle bars in either image transiently increased or decreased in width. Subjects were asked to attend to one image and ignore the other and to respond to changes in bar width in the attended image with a key press. In one condition, subject responses were required for changes in any of the three central bars of the attended image. We found that visual steady-state evoked responses to the attended image were enhanced relative to those evoked by the unattended image in this condition. In a second condition, subject responses were required for changes only in the middle bar. In this condition, the responses to the attended image were suppressed relative to those of the unattended image. These results may reflect relative differences in the synchronization and desynchronization of responding neuronal populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new method of studying the correlation between neuronal spike trains. This technique is based on the analysis of relative phase between two point processes. Relative phase here is defined as the relative timing difference between two spike trains normalized by the associated interspike interval of one cell. This phase measurement is intended to reveal the relative timing relationship between spike trains atdifferent firing rates. We apply this method to a numerical example and an example from two cerebellar neuronal spike trains of a behaving rat. The results are compared with classical cross-correlation analysis. We show that the technique can avoid some of the limitations of cross-correlation methods, reveal certain statistical dependencies that cannot be shown by cross correlation, and provide information as to the direction of influence between two spike trains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spectral analysis was applied to study the variability in human rhythmic synchronization to a visual, auditory or combined auditory–visual metronome of about 2 Hz, as well as the variability in continuation tapping at the same rate with or without visual or auditory feedback. In synchronization, variability was larger in the visual condition than in the auditory and combined conditions, but only below frequencies of about 0.3 Hz. Thus, there seem to be at least two sources of variability in synchronization, one being modality-independent and limited to intervals shorter than 3 s, and the other being modality-dependent and evident as slow “drift”, especially in the visual task. In continuation tapping, variability did not depend reliably on the presence or modality of feedback. However, spectral analysis revealed a change in the temporal structure of variability around 0.08 Hz (a period of about 12 s or 24 taps), which roughly agrees with earlier findings reported in the literature. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Human rhythmic activities are variable. Cycle-to-cycle fluctuations form the behavioral observable. Traditional analysis focuses on statistical measures such as mean and variance. In this article we show that, by treating the fluctuations as a time series, one can apply techniques such as power spectra and rescaled range analysis to gain insight into the mechanisms underlying the remarkable abilities of humans to perform a variety of rhythmic movements, from maintaining memorized temporal patterns to anticipating and timing their movements to predictable sensory stimuli. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

ABSTRACT. The authors analyzed fluctuations in timing errors when 8 human participants attempted to coordinate movement with external rhythmic signals. The temporal dynamics of the errors is usually described in terms of simple, self-correcting models. Here the authors demonstrate that timing errors are characterized by a 1/f[sup alpha] type of long memory process. The value of the exponent a differentiates different types of coordination states: synchronization and syncopation. More interesting, evidence was found that a can be changed when participants use different coordination strategies. Together with the authors' understanding of the generation mechanism for long memory processes, these results suggest that 1/f[sup alpha] type of long-range correlated timing errors are of higher cortical origin and are likely the outcome of distributed neural processes acting on multiple time scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time, a field survey was conducted to investigate the present situation, vertical distribution and ecological risks of heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Mn, Cr, Pb and As) from 21 in-situ samples drilled out from Yeshan iron mine tailings in the Jiangsu Province of China. The heavy metal contents obtained for the tailing wastes in decreasing order were as follows: Mn > Cu > Zn > As > Cr > Pb. The contents of heavy metals varied with depth, and the variation trends were not completely consistent. Vertical distribution profiles showed that heavy metals accumulated in certain strata. Both the monomial potential ecological risk factor (E) and the risk quotient (RQ) showed a high ecological risk for Cu, Mn and As. The comprehensive ecological risk index (RI) also indicated that the wastes presented a high ecological risk level, to which Cu, Mn and As were the key contributors. Our study showed that the health of individuals, especially children, living in the mining-impacted areas could be affected by the potential noncarcinogenic risk of copper, manganese and the carcinogenic risk of arsenic. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three novel process related impurities (impurity I-III) in empagliflozin bulk drug were isolated, identified and characterized using modern analytical tool. The possible formation mechanism of these impurities was discussed in this report. [Display omitted] • Isolation, identification and characterization of process related impurities in empagliflozin. • Structural conformation of process impurities has been confirmed by HRMS, 1D-NMR and 2D-NMR techniques. • The possible pathway for the formation of the impurities has been discussed. Empagliflozin is an effective sodium glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitor to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes. During the manufacture of empagliflozin, three unknown impurities were discovered in pilot batches ranging from 0.05 % to 0.15 % by LC analysis. These unknown impurities were isolated from the crystallization mother liquor by column chromatography and semi-preparative LC, and their structures were elucidated by comprehensive analysis of HRMS, 1D-NMR (1H, 13C) and 2D-NMR (1H-1H COSY, HSQC, HMBC) spectroscopy data. The plausible mechanistic pathways to the formation of these three impurities were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of rice genomics in breeding progress is becoming increasingly important. Deeper research into the rice genome will contribute to the identification and utilization of outstanding functional genes, enriching the diversity and genetic basis of breeding materials and meeting the diverse demands for various improvements. Here, we review the significant contributions of rice genomics research to breeding progress over the last 25 years, discussing the profound impact of genomics on rice genome sequencing, functional gene exploration, and novel breeding methods, and we provide valuable insights for future research and breeding practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replacing traditional products with green products has become a key way to achieve decoupling between economic development and environmental pollution. As an incentive mechanism, subsidies can be provided by a government to facilitate the popularization and acceptance of green products. Subsidies play a significant role in encouraging the development of green products. We explored the proper optimal subsidy mechanism for green products from the angle of maximizing the net policy return, which cannot only encourage the development of green products but also do not aggravate financial burden for the government. In order to explore the optimal subsidy level for green products from the perspective of net policy benefit maximization, this paper established the optimal subsidy principal-agent models and a numerical example was presented to verify the effectiveness of the model we constructed. The results show that improving investors' preference and eliminating asymmetric information contribute to reduce subsidy cost savings. Additionally, improving consumer environmental awareness, promoting the development and application of green technology, and reducing market risk reduce subsidy costs. This article provides policymakers with an effective subsidy scheme to accelerate the development of green products and achieve sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Despite the availability of effective biologic therapies for psoriasis, there is no gold-standard treatment for nonpustular palmoplantar psoriasis (ppPsO). Methods. G-PLUS, a phase IIIb, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre clinical trial, randomised adults with moderate-to-severe nonpustular ppPsO and limited plaque psoriasis (Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) ≥3 but <10) to guselkumab (an interleukin-23p19 blocker) or placebo. Placebo participants were crossed over to receive guselkumab at week (Wk) 16. The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of participants achieving palmoplantar PASI (ppPASI) 75 response at Wk16; clinical, biomarker, and quality-of-life endpoints were assessed through Wk48 and safety through Wk56. Results. At Wk16, ppPASI75 response was achieved by 35.9% of the guselkumab participants compared with 28.2% in the placebo group, resulting in a 7.7% difference in response rates (95% confidence interval: −11.5 and 24.7), which was not statistically significant (p = 0.533). More pronounced numerical improvements favouring guselkumab were observed for more stringent efficacy endpoints, such as Wk16 palmoplantar Investigator's Global Assessment (ppIGA) 0/1 response (guselkumab 34.6% vs. placebo 15.4%). Through Wk48, further improvements were observed in ppPASI75 response (55.1% and 64.1%) and ppIGA 0/1 response (42.3% and 48.7%) for the guselkumab and placebo-crossover groups, respectively. Dermatology Life Quality Index responses showed comparable trends at both timepoints. Safety and pharmacodynamic findings were consistent with the established profile for guselkumab. Serum biomarker levels were significantly reduced with guselkumab and correlated with the baseline PASI score but not the ppPASI score. Conclusion. Although the primary endpoint was not met, analysis of stringent secondary endpoints and post hoc analyses showed numerical improvements favouring guselkumab at Wk16. There were no new safety signals. Further studies are warranted to better understand the impact of guselkumab treatment in patients with ppPsO. This trial is registered with NCT03998683. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless charging to autonomous underwater vehicle effectively prolongs the attended time and extends the endurance mileage. As the most promising underwater power feeding technique, inductive power transfer is also faced with challenges such as the attenuation in seawater, ocean current disturbance, etc. Special concerns in terms of power quality, efficiency improvement, and mechanical fixing need to be considered when designing the underwater electromagnetic coupling structure. An attenuation model in seawater is established in this article. The optimal working frequency range is refined for a specific transmission media. Different from the wireless power transfer system in the air, the underwater WPT system features tight coupling between the transmitter and receiver. The optimal range of coupling coefficient needs to be redesigned, as high coupling coefficient incurs frequency splitting and the increase of harmonic component, while low coupling coefficient results in low efficiency. Based on the theoretical analysis, a self-latching coupling structure is proposed with lightweight design on receiver side. System parameters are optimized correspondingly and a 3-kW experiment validates the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to expound the CT features of COVID-19 patients whose throat swab samples were negative for two consecutive nucleic acid tests after treatment. We retrospectively reviewed 46 COVID-19 patients with two consecutive negative RT-PCR tests after treatment. The cases were divided into moderate group and severe/critical group according to disease severity. Clinical and CT scanning data were collected. CT signs of pulmonary lesions and the score of lung involvement were expounded. Thirty-nine moderate cases and seven severe/critical cases were included. Residual pulmonary lesions were visible in CT images. Moderate patients showed peripheral lesions while severe/critical cases exhibited both central and peripheral lesions with all lobes involvement. Mixed ground glass opacity (GGO) and pulmonary consolidation were noted. A larger proportion of severe patients showed reticular pulmonary interstitium thickening. Air bronchogram, pleural effusion, vascular enlargement, bronchial wall thickening, bronchiectasis, pleural thickening and pleural adhesion were more frequently observed in severe/critical group. The severe/critical group showed higher CT score. Pulmonary lesions persisted even after twice consecutive negative nucleic acid tests. We strongly recommended regular follow-up of CT scans after nucleic acid tests conversion. Evaluation of complete remission should base on chest CT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & aims: Originally believed to be primarily a disorder of T-cell signaling, evidence shows that macrophage-lineage cells also contribute to the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD). Colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) is a key regulator of the macrophage lineage, but its role in CD has not been well established. We examined transcriptional data from CD mucosa for evidence of CSF-1 pathway activation and tested JNJ-40346527 (PRV-6527), a small molecule inhibitor of CSF-1 receptor kinase (CSF-1R), for its ability to inhibit disease indices in murine colitis. Methods: A CSF-1 pathway gene set was created from microarray data of human whole blood cultured ex vivo with CSF-1 and compared to a TNFα-induced gene set generated from epithelial-lineage cells. Gene set variation analysis was performed using existing Crohn's mucosa microarray data comparing patients who either responded or failed to respond to anti-TNFα therapy. Commencing day 14 or day 21, mice with T-cell transfer colitis were treated with vehicle or JNJ-40346527 until study termination (day 42). Endpoints included colon weight/length ratios and histopathology scores, and macrophage and T cells were assessed by immunohistochemistry. Mucosal gene expression was investigated using RNAseq. Results: Both the CSF-1 and the TNFα gene sets were enriched in the colonic mucosal transcriptomes of Crohn's disease and in mouse colitis, and expression of both gene sets was highest in patients who did not respond to anti-TNFα therapy. In these patients neither set was reduced by therapy. In the mouse model, JNJ-40346527 inhibited the increase in colon weight/length ratio by ∼50%, reduced histological disease scores by ∼60%, and reduced F4/80+ mononuclear cell and CD3+ lymphocyte numbers. RNAseq analysis confirmed the CSF-1 gene set was sharply reduced in treated mice, as were gene sets enriched in "M1" inflammatory and "M0" resident macrophages and in activated T cells. Conclusions: CSF-1 biology is activated in Crohn's disease and in murine T cell transfer colitis. Inhibition of CSF-1R by JNJ-40346527 was associated with attenuated clinical disease scores and reduced inflammatory gene expression in mice. These data provide rationale for testing JNJ-40346527 (PRV-6527) in human inflammatory bowel disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory skin condition that causes substantial physical, emotional and psychological burdens. Guselkumab, a monoclonal antibody that binds to the p19 subunit of interleukin‐23, has demonstrated high levels of efficacy in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, including psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Objective: To evaluate the effect of guselkumab on the treatment of HS, a phase 2, multicentre, randomized, placebo‐controlled, double‐blind, proof‐of‐concept study was conducted. Methods: Patients ≥18 years of age with moderate‐to‐severe HS for ≥1 year were randomized to (1) guselkumab 200 mg by subcutaneous (SC) injection every 4 weeks (q4w) through Week 36 (guselkumab SC); (2) guselkumab 1200 mg intravenously (IV) q4w for 12 weeks, then switched to guselkumab 200 mg SC q4w from Weeks 12 through 36 (guselkumab IV); or (3) placebo for 12 weeks, with re‐randomization to guselkumab 200 mg SC q4w at Weeks 16 through 36 (placebo → guselkumab 200 mg) or guselkumab 100 mg SC at Weeks 16, 20, 28 and 36 and placebo at Weeks 24 and 32 (placebo → guselkumab 100 mg). End points included HS clinical response (HiSCR) and patient‐reported outcomes. Results: Although guselkumab SC or guselkumab IV resulted in numerically higher HiSCR versus placebo at Week 16 (50.8%, 45.0%, 38.7%, respectively), statistical significance was not achieved. Numerically greater improvements in patient‐reported outcomes were also observed for guselkumab SC and guselkumab IV versus placebo at Week 16. Through Week 40, no clear differences to suggest a dose response were observed for HiSCR and patient‐reported outcomes. Conclusions: Despite modest improvements, the primary end point was not met and the overall findings do not support the efficacy of guselkumab in the treatment of HS. Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT 03628924. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental imagery occurs “when a representation of the type created during the initial phases of perception is present but the stimulus is not actually being perceived.” How does the capability to perform mental imagery arise? Extending the idea that imagery arises from learned associations, we propose that mental rotation, a specific form of imagery, could arise through the mechanism of sequence learning–that is, by learning to regenerate the sequence of mental images perceived while passively observing a rotating object. To demonstrate the feasibility of this proposal, we constructed a simulated nervous system and embedded it within a behaving humanoid robot. By observing a rotating object, the system learns the sequence of neural activity patterns generated by the visual system in response to the object. After learning, it can internally regenerate a similar sequence of neural activations upon briefly viewing the static object. This system learns to perform a mental rotation task in which the subject must determine whether two objects are identical despite differences in orientation. As with human subjects, the time taken to respond is proportional to the angular difference between the two stimuli. Moreover, as reported in humans, the system fills in intermediate angles during the task, and this putative mental rotation activates the same pathways that are activated when the system views physical rotation. This work supports the proposal that mental rotation arises through sequence learning and the idea that mental imagery aids perception through learned associations, and suggests testable predictions for biological experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To develop a nomogram based on CT radiomics and clinical features to predict the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in early‐stage lung adenocarcinomas. Methods: A retrospective analysis of postoperative patients with pathologically confirmed lung adenocarcinoma, which had been tested for EGFR mutations was performed from January 2015 to December 2015. Patients were randomly assigned to training and validation cohorts. A total of 1,078 radiomics features were extracted. least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis was applied to select clinical and radiomics features, and to establish predictive models. The radiomics score (rad‐score) of each patient was calculated. The discrimination of the model was evaluated with area under the curve. Results: 1092 patients (444 men and 648 women; mean age: 59.59±9.6) were enrolled. The radiomics signature consisted of 28 radiomics features and emphysema. The mean validation cohort result of the rad‐score for patients with EGFR mutations (0.814±0.988) was significantly higher than those with EGFR wild‐type (0.315±1.237; p = 0.001). When combined with clinical features, LASSO regression analysis revealed four radiomics features, emphysema, and three clinical features including sex, age, and histologic subtype as associated with to EGFR mutation status. The nomogram that combined radiomics and clinical features significantly improved the predictive discrimination (AUC: 0.723), which is better than that of the radiomics signature alone (AUC: 0.646). Conclusion: A relationship between selected radiomics features and EGFR mutant lung adenocarcinomas is demonstrated. A nomogram, combining radiomics features and clinical features for EGFR prediction in early‐stage lung adenocarcinomas, has shown a moderate discriminatory efficiency and high sensitivity, providing additional information for clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the expression and location of epithelial sodium channels (ENaCs) in human nasal polyp and normal nasal mucosa, and to characterize the relevance of ENaCs to the development of NPs. Nasal polyp tissue from 17 patients and nasal mucosa from ten patients were obtained through endoscopic sinus surgery. The mRNA concentrations of ENaC-α, β, and γ were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction. The expression of ENaC-α was detected using western blot and immunofluorescence techniques. The distribution of ENaC-α in mucosal tissue was observed using a laser scanning confocal microscope. The transcriptional expression of three subunits of ENaC was in the following order: α > β > γ, in both groups. The transcriptional expression of α, β, and γ subunits of ENaC was elevated in nasal polyp compared to nasal mucosa ( p < 0.01). ENaC-α expression was higher in nasal polyp than in nasal mucosa ( p < 0.05). Immunofluorescent staining indicated that ENaC-α protein was distributed in the epithelial cell apical membrane. The expression of ENaC is upregulated in human nasal polyp, which might in turn facilitate the formation and development of nasal polyp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]