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Abstract Background In China, both percutaneous microwave/radiofrequency ablation liver partition plus portal vein embolization (PALPP) and transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) plus portal vein embolization (PVE) have been utilized in planned hepatectomy. However, there is a lack of comparative studies on the effectiveness of these two techniques for cases with insufficient future liver remnant (FLR). Methods Patients were categorized into either the PALPP group or the TACE + PVE group. Clinical data, including FLR growth rate, complications, secondary resection rate, and overall survival rate, were compared and analyzed for both groups retrospectively. Results Between December 2014 and October 2021, a total of 29 patients underwent TACE + PVE (n = 12) and PALPP (n = 17). In the TACE + PVE group, 7 patients successfully underwent two-stage hepatectomy, while in the PALPP group, 13 patients underwent the procedure (two-stage resection rate: 58.3% vs. 76.5%, P = 0.42). There were no significant differences in postoperative complications of one-stage procedures (11.8% vs. 8.3%, P > 0.05) and second-stage resection complication (0% vs. 46.2%, P = 0.05) between the TACE + PVE and PALPP groups. However, the PALPP group demonstrated a shorter time to FLR volume growth for second-stage resection (18.5 days vs. 66 days, P = 0.001) and KGR (58.5 ml/week vs. 7.7 ml/week, P = 0.001). Conclusions Compared with TACE + PVE, PALPP results in a more significant increase in FLR volume and a higher rate of two-stage resection without increasing postoperative complications.

Malignant insulinoma is a kind of rare and challenging neuroendocrine tumor. It is often accompanied by distant metastasis, among which liver metastasis is most common, and the prognosis is often non-promising. In this paper, we report a case of multiple liver metastases from malignant insulinoma. The patient, a 70-year-old male, was admitted to the hospital due to "episodic consciousness disorder for more than four months." Blood glucose monitoring revealed recurrent hypoglycemia in the early morning, after meals, and at night. Pancreatic perfusion CT and dynamic enhanced MRI of the liver revealed a mass in the uncinate process of the pancreatic head and multiple liver metastases. Percutaneous liver biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of insulinoma. After multidisciplinary discussions, hepatic artery embolization and radiofrequency ablation were performed in stages, in combination with everolimus treatment. Thereafter, the enhanced CT demonstrated that some liver metastases shrank. The patient had regular meals, and the blood sugar gradually increased and remained normal thereafter. This article discusses this case's clinical characteristics and multidisciplinary collaborative diagnosis and treatment, aiming to provide experience for the comprehensive clinical diagnosis and treatment of malignant insulinoma patients.

Glycosylase base editor (GBE) can induce C‐to‐G transversion in mammalian cells, showing great promise for the treatment of human genetic disorders. However, the limited efficiency of transversion and the possibility of off‐target effects caused by Cas9 restrict its potential clinical applications. In our recent study, we have successfully developed TaC9‐CBE and TaC9‐ABE by separating nCas9 and deaminase, which eliminates the Cas9‐dependent DNA off‐target effects without compromising editing efficiency. We developed a novel GBE called TaC9‐GBEYE1, which utilizes the deaminase and UNG‐nCas9 guided by TALE and sgRNA, respectively. TaC9‐GBEYE1 showed comparable levels of on‐target editing efficiency to traditional GBE at 19 target sites, without any off‐target effects caused by Cas9 or TALE. The TaC9‐GBEYE1 is a safe tool for gene therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a devastating neuromuscular disease caused by mutations in the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. Gene editing technology repairs the conversion of the 6th base T to C in exon 7 of the paralogous SMN2 gene, compensating for the SMN protein expression and promoting the survival and function of motor neurons. However, low editing efficiency and unintended off‐target effects limit the application of this technology. Here, we optimized a TaC9‐adenine base editor (ABE) system by combining Cas9 nickase with the transcription activator‐like effector (TALE)‐adenosine deaminase fusion protein to effectively and precisely edit SMN2 without detectable Cas9 dependent off‐target effects in human cell lines. We also generated human SMA‐induced pluripotent stem cells (SMA‐iPSCs) through the mutation of the splice acceptor or deletion of the exon 7 of SMN1. TaC9‐R10 induced 45% SMN2 T6 > C conversion in the SMA‐iPSCs. The SMN2 T6 > C splice‐corrected SMA‐iPSCs were directionally differentiated into motor neurons, exhibiting SMN protein recovery and antiapoptosis ability. Therefore, the TaC9‐ABE system with dual guides from the combination of Cas9 with TALE could be a potential therapeutic strategy for SMA with high efficacy and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the main area for photosynthesis in trees, the canopy absorbs a large amount of carbon dioxide and plays an irreplaceable role in regulating the carbon cycle in the atmosphere and mitigating climate change. Therefore, monitoring the growth of the canopy is crucial. However, traditional field investigation methods are often limited by time-consuming and labor-intensive methods, as well as limitations in coverage, which may result in incomplete and inaccurate assessments. In response to the challenges encountered in the application of tree crown segmentation algorithms, such as adhesion between individual tree crowns and insufficient generalization ability of the algorithm, this study proposes an improved algorithm based on Mask R-CNN (Mask Region-based Convolutional Neural Network), which identifies irregular edges of tree crowns in RGB images obtained from drones. Firstly, it optimizes the backbone network by improving it to ResNeXt and embedding the SENet (Squeeze-and-Excitation Networks) module to enhance the model's feature extraction capability. Secondly, the BiFPN-CBAM module is introduced to enable the model to learn and utilize features more effectively. Finally, it optimizes the mask loss function to the Boundary-Dice loss function to further improve the tree crown segmentation effect. In this study, TCSNet also incorporated the concept of panoptic segmentation, achieving the coherent and consistent segmentation of tree crowns throughout the entire scene through fine tree crown boundary recognition and integration. TCSNet was tested on three datasets with different geographical environments and forest types, namely artificial forests, natural forests, and urban forests, with artificial forests performing the best. Compared with the original algorithm, on the artificial forest dataset, the precision increased by 6.6%, the recall rate increased by 1.8%, and the F1-score increased by 4.2%, highlighting its potential and robustness in tree detection and segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cardinality of the private set allows multiple parties to jointly compute the cardinality of the intersection and union without revealing their respective private sets. It plays an important role in data mining and data analysis to protect privacy. However, existing studies only focus on computing the cardinality of the intersection or union of private sets. To extend its application in various scenes, a private‐set intersection and union mixed cardinality protocol are proposed for any tripartite based on Bell states for the first time. During the protocol, participants are supposed to be semi‐quantum to reduce the consumption of quantum resources and improve the realizability of the protocol. Furthermore, correctness and security analysis show that the protocol can withstand internal and external attacks. Additionally, the IBM Quantum Simulator (IBMQS) is also applied to illustrate the fundamentals of the protocol and verify the availability of the protocol. The results are expected have positive effects on the further development of secure multiparty computation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of arc‐continent collision between the Palawan microcontinental block and the Cagayan Ridge in the southeastern margin of the South China Sea (SCS) is vital to understand how this collision correlated with seafloor spreading of the SCS. To address the evolution of arc‐continent collision, we studied the biostratigraphy and provenance of syn‐collisional sediments in the Isugod Basin in central‐southern Palawan. Microfossil analysis indicates a Late Miocene age (11.5–5.6 Ma) for the Isugod and Alfonso XIII Formations and rapid subsidence during initiation of the basin which may have been triggered by local extensional collapse of the wedge in response to forearc uplift. Multidisciplinary provenance analysis reveals that the Isugod and Alfonso XIII Formations were derived from the Middle Eocene–lower Oligocene Panas‐Pandian Formation on the Palawan wedge and the Late Eocene Central Palawan Ophiolite. These results suggest the emergence of both the orogenic wedge and obducted forearc ophiolite at ∼11.5 Ma, implying collision onset before ∼11.5 Ma. The collision initiation in Palawan could be better constrained to ∼18 Ma, based on the drowning of the Nido carbonate platform in the foreland. Therefore, the gravitational collapse of the Palawan wedge and the subsidence/formation of the Isugod Basin might reflect a significant uplift pulse in the hinterland of the wedge beginning within 13.4–11.5 Ma in the late stage of collision. It indicates that although compression originated from spreading of the SCS had ceased at 16–15 Ma, arc‐continent collision in Palawan did not stop and was sustained by compression from the upper plate afterward. Plain Language Summary: The Palawan microcontinental block is a continental fragment separated from the South China margin along with the seafloor spreading of the South China Sea (SCS). It finally collided with the Cagayan Ridge volcanic arc because of southward subduction of the Proto‐SCS. Therefore, precisely constraining the evolution of arc‐continent collision could help us to understand its association with the ending of the SCS spreading. To constrain the evolution of arc‐continent collision, we determined the depositional age and source of syn‐collisional sediments in the Isugod Basin in central‐southern Palawan. Our results shows that the Isugod Basin sediments were deposited during the Late Miocene (11.5–5.6 Ma) following local gravitational collapse of the Palawan orogenic wedge driven by uplift and oversteepening. Isugod Basin sediments were eroded from both the orogenic wedge and obducted forearc ophiolite that were uplifted and exposed subaerially, indicating collision began before ∼11.5 Ma. As the onset of collision could be constrained to ∼18 Ma, we propose a significant uplift pulse in the hinterland of the wedge began at 13.4–11.5 Ma in the late stage of collision. This further indicates that arc‐continent collision in Palawan did not stop although compression derived from spreading of the SCS had ceased at 16–15 Ma. Key Points: Sediments in the Isugod Basin were deposited at 11.5–5.6 Ma following local gravitational collapse of the Palawan wedge driven by upliftThe Isugod Basin sediments were supplied by erosion of the Palawan wedge and obducted forearc ophiolite exposed subaerially since ∼11.5 MaOnset of Palawan arc‐continent collision at ∼18 Ma followed by a significant uplift pulse in the Palawan wedge beginning within 13.4–11.5 Ma [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health-maintaining effects of tea on the human body have been widely proven, even with the tea prepared by brewing tea leaves in cold water becoming a new choice other than hot water. In this research, quality and the antioxidant properties of the Pouchong tea infusions prepared with cold water and hot water were determined and explored their relationships under a consumer hedonic test. The results showed that the chemical components of cold tea infusions increased with increasing duration of brewing, and a maximal increment was observed during the first 2 h of brewing. All chemical components under investigation, except caffeine, were found to be higher in the cold tea infusions over 8 h as compared in the hot tea infusions. The antioxidant ability of cold tea infusion increased with increasing duration of brewing and approached the plateau after 12 hours. The chemical components showed a significantly positive correlation with the antioxidant activities (P