Search

To analyze myocardial fibrosis in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients with no late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) using T1 mapping and extracellular volume (ECV) and investigate the potential correlation with left ventricular (LV) dilation and dysfunction.The study included 41 DCM patients without LGE and 79 healthy controls. T1 and ECV were compared between the two groups using multivariable logistic regression analysis. The correlations between histological and functional parameters were evaluated using Pearson's correlation.Mean native myocardial T1 and ECV were significantly higher in the DCM group compared to controls (p ≤ 0.001, respectively). Multivariable logistic regression revealed that ECV (mean, minimum), LV ejection fraction (LVEF), and LV end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD) were independent discriminators for LGE-negative DCM; the area under the curve (AUC) of LVEF, LVEDD, ECV mean, and ECV minimum were 0.97, 0.96, 0.88, and 0.68, respectively. In the DCM group, LVEDD and LVEF were positively and negatively correlated with ECV, respectively. LVEDV index and LV end-systolic volume (LVESV) index were positively correlated with native-T1 and ECV, and the absolute value of LV global strain had a negative correlation with ECV.Early myocardial fibrosis in DCM could be detected by prolonged native T1 and elevated ECV despite the absence of LGE on CMR. Moreover, the change of histological characteristics of myocardium in DCM was correlated with LV dilation and dysfunction.• At an early stage, patients with DCM may have myocardial fibrosis despite the absence of LGE. • T1 mapping and ECV are efficient methods for early detection of potential myocardial fibrosis. • Increased native T1 and ECV are correlated with left ventricular dilation and dysfunction in LGE-negative DCM patients.

MicroRNA-21 (miRNA-21) is highly expressed in various tumors. Small-molecule inhibition of miRNA-21 is considered to be an attractive novel cancer therapeutic strategy. In this study, fluoroquinolone derivatives A1-A43 were synthesized and used as miRNA-21 inhibitors. Compound A36 showed the most potent inhibitory activity and specificity for miRNA-21 in a dual-luciferase reporter assay in HeLa cells. Compound A36 significantly reduced the expression of mature miRNA-21 and increased the protein expression of miRNA-21 target genes, including programmed cell death protein 4 (PDCD4) and phosphatase and tensin homology deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN), at 10 μM in HeLa cells. The Cell Counting Kit-8 assay (CCK-8) was used to evaluate the antiproliferative activity of A36; the results showed that the IC

Due to the strong ability of recognizing electromagnetic (EM) environment and adaptively control of EM waves, the intelligent metasurfaces have received great attention recently. However, the intelligent metasurface with frequency recognition for adaptive manipulation of the EM waves has not been studied. Here, we propose a frequency-recognition intelligent metasurface to precisely control the spatial EM waves under the agile frequencies with the help of a real-time radio-frequency sensor and an adaptive feedback control system. An active meta-atom is presented to reach 2 bit phase coding and 1 bit amplitude coding capacities to control the amplitude and phase independently. Experimental results demonstrate that the metasurface can recognize different frequency of the incoming wave with very high resolution, and can adaptively realize the self-defined multiple frequency agilities to manipulate the reflected EM waves without any human participation. As example, the intelligent metasurface with frequency recognition can adaptively operate wave absorption at 5.36 GHz, reflection to normal direction at 5.38 GHz, deflection to −30° at 5.40 GHz, random diffusion at 5.42 GHz, and deflection to +33° at 5.44 GHz by detecting the incoming frequency at the resolution of 0.02 GHz.

Lactoferrin (Lf) is a multifunctional glycoprotein that showed demonstrated a beneficial effect on cognitive function in several mouse models; however, its mechanisms are not fully elucidated. This study investigated whether Lf improves high-energy-dense 'Western'-style diets (WD)-induced cognitive impairment and neuroinflammation through microbiome-gut-brain axis. Male C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into the CON, WD, Lf, and Lf+AB groups. The mice in the latter three groups fed with WD. The Lf group was intragastrically administered with Lf and the Lf+AB group additionally drank a solution with antibiotics. Some of the mice in the CON, WD, and Lf groups were killed at 2 weeks. The experiments ended at 16 weeks. Behavioral tests, neuroinflammation, and gut microbiota were analyzed. WD resulted in neuroinflammation and impaired cognition. Lf improved the cognitive function as indicated by behavioral tests including nesting behavior test, novel object recognition test, and the Morris water maze test. It also increased the length and curvature of postsynaptic density as observed with a transmission electron microscope and upregulated the related protein expression, suggesting the improvement of the hippocampal neurons and synapses. Lf suppressed microglia activation and proliferation as revealed by immunofluorescence analysis. It decreased the serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and downregulated their protein expressions in the hippocampus region. Lf also inhibited the activation of NF‐κB/NLRP3 inflammasomes in the hippocampus. Meanwhile, WD impaired gut permeability and induced gut dysbiosis. Lf upregulated the expression of tight junction proteins, and increased the abundance of Bacteroidetes at phylum and Roseburia at genus, bothare beneficial for anti-obesity, gut barrier, and cognitive function. The antibiotics supplemented in the Lf+AB group eliminated the effects of long-term Lf intervention on cognitive impairment, suggesting that gut microbiota participated in Lf action. The 2-week Lf intervention prevented WD-induced gut microbiota alteration without inducing behavioral changes; these findings supported the timing sequence of gut microbiota to the brain. In Conclusion, our findings demonstrated that Lf intervention alleviated cognitive impairment by inhibiting microglial activation and neuroinflammation through the microbiome-gut-brain axis.

The findings regarding the associations between red meat, fish and poultry consumption, and the metabolic syndrome (Mets) have been inconclusive, and evidence from Chinese populations is scarce. A cross-sectional study was performed to investigate the associations between red meat, fish and poultry consumption, and the prevalence of the Mets and its components among the residents of Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, China. A total of 4424 participants were eligible for the analysis. A logistic regression model was used to estimate the OR and 95 % CI for the prevalence of the Mets and its components according to red meat, fish and poultry consumption. In addition, the data of our cross-sectional study were meta-analysed under a random effects model along with those of published observational studies to generate the summary relative risks (RR) of the associations between the highest v. lowest categories of red meat, fish and poultry consumption and the Mets and its components. In the cross-sectional study, the multivariable-adjusted OR for the highest v. lowest quartiles of consumption was 1·23 (95 % CI 1·02, 1·48) for red meat, 0·83 (95 % CI 0·72, 0·97) for fish and 0·93 (95 % CI 0·74, 1·18) for poultry. In the meta-analysis, the pooled RR for the highest v. lowest categories of consumption was 1·20 (95 % CI 1·06, 1·35) for red meat, 0·88 (95 % CI 0·81, 0·96) for fish and 0·97 (95 % CI 0·85, 1·10) for poultry. The findings of both cross-sectional studies and meta-analyses indicated that the association between fish consumption and the Mets may be partly driven by the inverse association of fish consumption with elevated TAG and reduced HDL-cholesterol and, to a lesser extent, fasting plasma glucose. No clear pattern of associations was observed between red meat or poultry consumption and the components of the Mets. The current findings add weight to the evidence that the Mets may be positively associated with red meat consumption, inversely associated with fish consumption and neutrally associated with poultry consumption.

In this paper, three easily implemented hardware algorithms, including the adaptive prediction error filter based on the Gram-Schmidt algorithm (GS-APEF), the least mean square adaptive filter and the comb filter, are extensively investigated for artifact denoising on a constructed semi-simulated database with varied ten-fold frequency stimulation. By implementing the GS-APEF in the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and using the edge noise mitigating technique, a stimulation artifact denoising system is designed to realize real-time stimulation artifact removal under varied ten-fold frequency functional electrical stimulation. Good performance of the artifact denoising is demonstrated in proof-of-concept experiments on able-bodied subjects with a mean correlation coefficient between the root mean square profile of denoised surface electromyography and volitional force of 0.94, verifying the validity of the proposed prototype.

Context A high amount of red meat consumption has been associated with higher risks of coronary heart disease (CHD) and all-cause mortality in a single food-exposure model. However, this model may overlook the potentially differential influence of red meat on these outcomes depending on the foods replaced by red meat. Objective A PRISMA-compliant meta-analysis of prospective observational studies was performed to quantify the risks of CHD and all-cause mortality associated with the replacement of total, unprocessed, or processed red meat with fish/seafood, poultry, dairy, eggs, nuts, and legumes. Data sources The PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched to identify relevant articles published in any language from database inception to October 30, 2021. Data extraction The prospective observational studies were considered relevant if they reported relative risks (RRs) and 95%CIs for the associations of interest. Data analysis Thirteen articles were included. A random-effects model was used to estimate the summary RRs and 95%CIs for the associations of interest. Replacing total red meat with poultry (RR, 0.88, 95%CI, 0.82–0.96; I2 = 0%), dairy (RR, 0.90, 95%CI, 0.88–0.92; I2 = 0%), eggs (RR, 0.86, 95%CI, 0.79–0.94; I2 = 7.1%), nuts (RR, 0.84, 95%CI, 0.74–0.95; I2 = 66.8%), or legumes (RR, 0.84, 95%CI, 0.74–0.95; I2 = 7.3%) was associated with a lower risk of CHD, whereas substituting fish/seafood (RR, 0.91, 95%CI, 0.79–1.04; I2 = 69.5%) for total red meat was not associated with the risk of CHD. The replacement of total red meat with fish/seafood (RR, 0.92, 95%CI, 0.89–0.96; I2 = 86.9%), poultry (RR, 0.92, 95%CI, 0.90–0.95; I2 = 61.6%), eggs (RR, 0.91, 95%CI, 0.87–0.95; I2 = 33.8%), or nuts (RR, 0.92, 95%CI, 0.87–0.97; I2 = 81.9%) was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, whereas the substitution of dairy (RR, 0.97, 95%CI, 0.93–1.01; I2 = 33.9%) or legumes (RR, 0.97, 95%CI, 0.93–1.01; I2 = 53.5%) for total red meat was not associated with the risk of all-cause mortality. Lower risks of CHD and all-cause mortality were more consistently observed for processed red meat replacements than for unprocessed red meat replacements. The results did not materially change when the analyses of total, processed, and unprocessed red meat were restricted to the studies that used a uniform substitution amount per unit of 1 serving/d. Conclusion Keeping red meat, particularly processed red meat, consumption to a minimum along with increasing healthier alternative protein sources to replace red meat in the diet may contribute to the prevention of CHD and premature death. Systematic review registration PROSPERO registration no. CRD42021259446.

To build the Spring Festival travel OD matrix of the Spring Festival of 2019 based on Baidu's inter-provincial migration data, China's inter-provincial passenger travel time and space features, the network passenger flow, and the characteristics of inter-provincial travel in different periods of Spring Festival travel in different provinces are analyzed by indicators, such as the volume of inter-provincial travel, inter-provincial migration, inter-provincial migration and net migration, the horizontal contrast of the characteristics of inter-provincial travel scale of 34 provincial administrative units across the country. The research conclusions are as follows. The inter-provincial travel of tourists has significant regular characteristics before and after the Spring Festival. The scale and time distribution characteristics of the rework flow before and after the Spring Festival can be used as an important basis for studying the social and economic activity levels based on the Spring Festival travel rush; 15 provinces with net inflow and 19 provinces with net outflow were identified. Among them, 10 provinces, such as Yunnan and Gansu, had average daily net inflows/outflows of less than 3000 people, which were relatively balanced. The 40-day Spring Festival travel period is divided into five periods according to the law of inter-provincial passenger flow. Different periods have different characteristics of passenger travel scale, providing a basis for the prediction of passenger flow and transportation capacity organization. Ten popular lines of inter-provincial travel before and after the festival were identified, indicating that the inter-provincial travel of Spring Festival passengers has an obvious spatial directivity, and the start and end of travel before and after the Spring Festival, the outflow city from the beginning or end of travel, and the inflow of the source city present a symmetric relationship. The analysis of Guangdong, Anhui, and other provinces with a large population mobility shows that they have the closest relationship with the travel of surrounding provinces, and the surrounding provinces with the top three inter-provincial trips account for more than 50% of the inter-provincial trips.

Objectives At present, locating radiotherapy targets for rectal cancer is mostly assisted by computed tomography (CT) and/or magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. This article discusses the role of the upper and lower margins of rectal cancer lesions under colonoscopy in accurately delineating target areas of radiotherapy. Methods A total of 37 patients with rectal cancer diagnosed by histopathology at the Shandong Provincial Cancer Hospital, affiliated with Shandong University, from 1 July 2017 to 1 August 2018 were selected before treatment. The upper and lower margins of the lesion were marked by titanium clips under the assistance of ultrasound and a magnifying endoscope in each patient, as well as the lower edge of the titanium clip from the anal margin. In the same position and in a thermal plastic membrane body fixation device, patients underwent CT and MR examinations to outline the gross tumor target area (GTV). The radiation therapy planning system calculated the length of the GTV under CT and MR (GTVCT, GTVMR), and the distance from the lower edge of the GTV to the anal margin. The application value of titanium clip labeling by colonoscopy in radiotherapy localization for rectal cancer was evaluated according to differences of GTV lengths by three methods. Results GTVs measured by endoscopic titanium clip labeling, CT localization, and MR localization were 5.84 ± 2.035 cm,6.97 ± 1.658 cm, and 5.45 ± 2.088 cm, respectively. The length of GTVtitanium clip was not significantly different from the length of GTVMR (P = 0.162). The marked lesion lengths by the endoscopic titanium clips and MR localization were significantly smaller than that measured by CT (GTV titanium clip

In this study, a wearable prototype system was developed for multiple-gesture rehabilitation using electrical stimulation controlled by a volitional surface electromyography (sEMG) scan of a healthy forearm. The purpose of the prototype system is to reconstruct multiple gestures of a paralysed limb and to simplify the positioning of sEMG detection sites on a healthy forearm. A self-designed eight-channel sEMG detection armband was used to detect the sEMG signal distributions of the muscle groups in healthy forearms. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used to classify the sEMG signal distributions corresponding to different gestures, and then the classification results were mapped to corresponding stimulation channels. The sEMG signal with the maximum root mean square (RMS) was used as the source of stimulus coding for each gesture. Our proposed mean absolute value (MAV)/number of slope sign changes (NSS) dual-coding (MNDC) algorithm was used to encode the sEMG signal into an electrical stimulus with a dynamic pulse width and frequency. The constant-current stimulation armband electrically stimulated multiple muscles in the affected forearm by means of a circuit designed with a time-division multiplexed stimulation channel. An experiment involving 6 able-bodied volunteers showed that when the detection armband was located near the middle of the forearm, the gesture classification accuracy was greater than 90%, and each active sEMG signal was high. Gesture bridge experiments, including grasping, wrist flexion, wrist extension and finger extension, were carried out among six hemiplegic subjects and between one able-bodied volunteer acting as a controller and each of six stroke patients as the controllee. Both sets of results show that the proposed system can reconstruct these four gestures in the controlled subject with a delay of at most 360 ms and with a correlation coefficient of >0.72.

In this paper, we proposed a fast and accurately calculated method to estimate the deviation of wideband angular glint based on single frequency or narrow band modeling method of the angular glint. By analyzing the three existing methods of modeling the target angular glint, we show that such methods are consistent when the geometrical optics approximation and linear polarized receiving antenna are assumed. Considering of the tracking system by wideband monopulse radar, the fast calculated method we present can estimate the angular glint in each resolution unit using modeling method of single frequency which is the center one of the whole bandwidth. The mathematical analysis of the unity between the wideband and narrowband modeling method is demonstrated, and the correctness of the new calculated method is well validated by high-frequency electromagnetic simulations based on the physical optics.

Drug resistance caused by epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation has largely limited the clinical use of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Herein, to overcome the intractable problem of drug resistance, proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) targeting EGFR mutants were developed by optimizing covalent EGFR ligands. Covalent or reversible covalent pyrimidine- or purine-containing PROTACs were designed, synthesized, and evaluated. As a consequence, covalent PROTAC

BackgroundAs mean HbA1c provides incomplete information regarding glycemic variability, there has been considerable interest in the emerging association between glycemic variability and macrovascular events and with microvascular complications and mortality in adults with and without diabetes. However, the association between long-term glycemic variability, represented by visit-to-visit HbA1c variability, and functional limitations has not been clarified in previous literature. The present study aimed to explore the longitudinal association between long-term glycemic variability, represented by visit-to-visit HbA1c variability and functional limitations.MethodsThis cohort study included adults aged over 50 years who participated in the 2006 to 2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Physical functions, including mobility, large muscle function, activities of daily living (ADLs), and instrumental ADLs (IADLs), were assessed at baseline and every 2 years, and HbA1c levels were assessed at baseline and every 4 years. Visit-to-visit HbA1c variability was calculated using the HbA1c variability score (HVS) during the follow-up period. Generalized estimating equation models were used to evaluate the longitudinal association between HbA1c variability and functional limitations with adjustment for a series of confounders.ResultsA total of 5,544 participants having three HbA1c measurements from 2006 to 2016, having two or more physical function measures (including one at baseline), and age over 50 years were included in this analysis. The mean age at baseline was 66.13 ± 8.39 years. A total of 916 (16.5%) participants had an HVS = 100, and 35.1% had an HVS = 50. The highest HVS category (HVS =100) was associated with increased functional status score (β = 0.093, 95% CI: 0.021–0.165) in comparison with the lowest HVS category (HVS = 0). Sensitivity analyses using the CV and SD of HbA1c as measures of variability showed similar associations between HbA1c variability and functional limitation. An incremental increase in HbA1c-CV (β = 0.630, 95% CI: 0.127–1.132) or HbA1c-SD (β = 0.078, 95% CI: 0.006–0.150) was associated with an increase in functional limitation in the fully adjusted model. ConclusionsHbA1c variability was associated with heightened difficulty in performing functional activities over time after adjusting for mean HbA1c levels and multiple demographics and comorbidities. This study provides further evidence regarding the detrimental effect of HbA1c variability and highlights the significance of steady glycemic control.

In our previous study, we proposed the bidirectional analytical ray tracing (BART). BART is based on geometrical optics (GO) and physical optics (PO) to calculate the multiple reflections of electromagnetic waves by dividing the target into many small facets, which can calculate the radar cross section (RCS) of electrically large targets quickly. However, GO can only calculate the contribution of incident and reflected field, and cannot solve the diffraction problem such as edge and vertex, which makes the calculation results of BART inaccurate under some angles. The uniform geometrical theory of diffraction (UTD) can compensate for the shortcomings of GO to overcome the failure in the shadow area and the discontinuity at the boundary between shadow area and bright area. A hybrid algorithm combining the BART and UTD is proposed in this paper. UTD is introduced into the BART to solve the problem that there is no electric field in the shadow area and discontinuity at the boundary. While ensuring calculation efficiency, it improves the accuracy of BART in calculating the RCS of electrically large targets.