Search

Abstract Membrane technology using well-defined pore structure can achieve high ion purity and recovery. However, fine-tuning the inner pore structure of the separation nanofilm to be uniform and enhance the effective pore area is still challenging. Here, we report dendrimers with different peripheral groups that preferentially self-assemble in aqueous-phase amine solution to facilitate the formation of polyamide nanofilms with a well-defined effective pore range and uniform pore structure. The high permeabilities are maintained by forming asymmetric hollow nanostripe nanofilms, and their well-designed ion effective separation pore ranges show an enhancement, rationalized by molecular simulation. The self-assembled dendrimer polyamide membrane provides Cl–/SO4 2– selectivity more than 17 times that of its pristine polyamide counterparts, increasing from 167.9 to 2883.0. Furthermore, the designed membranes achieve higher Li purity and Li recovery compared to current state-of-the-art membranes. Such an approach provides a scalable strategy to fine-tune subnanometre structures in ion separation nanofilms.

Abstract Background Perforation of the lingual cortex while placing dental implants in the interforaminal region of the mandible can cause severe hemorrhage. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the features of mandibular lingual foraminals (MLFs) and locational relationship between them and lingual mucosal vessels (LMVs) by CT/MRI fusion volumetric images. Methods 37 images within complete anterior mandibular region using both MSCT and three-dimensional volumetric interpolated breath-hold examination (3D-VIBE) MRI were taken from our imaging archives. After exclusion of 11 for lesions or artifacts, 26 CT/MRI fusion volumetric images were included to evaluate the frequency, diameter, and position of MLFs. The anterior mandibular region was divided into 4 equal segments under each teeth, and 40 regions were got from C5 to D5. Furthermore, the positional relationship between MLFs and LMVs was analyzed in this coordinate system. Results 62 MLFs (73.81%) were located below the incisors, followed by premolars (21.43%) and canines (4.76%). Female bias, the mean diameter of the female was 0.08 mm while the male was 0.21 mm. The total number of LMVs was most distributed on lingual side of C1 and D1. According to Spearman’s correlation coefficient, the location of MLFs was related to LMVs. The MLFs in fourth segment of D1 were positively moderately correlated with LMVs in fourth segment of D4, while the MLFs in third segment of C1 showed a weak positive correlation with LMVs in third segment of D4. Conclusions The features and the correlation between MLFs and LMVs in CT/MRI fusion volumetric images may offer reference to dentists when only MLFs can been seen on routine preoperative CT examination of implants. Trial registration Retrospectively registered. (D2018-072)

(1) Background: With the increasing aesthetic pursuit of facial features, the clinical use of Botulinum Toxin Type A (BoNT-A) injections for masseter hypertrophy has been on the rise. However, due to variations in masseter muscle structure and differences in clinicians’ injection techniques, blind injections may lack precision, potentially compromising treatment accuracy and increasing the risk of complications. (2) Objectives: The study aims to use ultrasonography to detail the deep inferior tendon (DIT) within the masseter muscle in a young Chinese cohort, refine its classification, analyze muscle belly thickness and variations across groups, and propose a customized ultrasound-guided BoNT-A injection protocol. (3) Methods: Ultrasound imaging was used to observe the bilateral masseter muscles at rest and during clenching. The features of the DIT were classified from these images, and the thickness of the masseter’s distinct bellies associated with the DIT types was measured in both states. (4) Results: The study cohort included 103 participants (27 male, 76 female), with 30 muscles in the normal masseter group and 176 muscles in the hypertrophy group. The DIT was categorized as Type A, B (subtypes B1, B2), and C. The distribution of these types was consistent across normal, hypertrophic, and gender groups, all following the same trend (B > A > C). In hypertrophy, Type B1 showed uniform thickness across masseter bellies, B2 presented with a thinner intermediate belly, and Type C had mainly superficial muscle enlargement. Changes in muscle thickness during clenching were noted but not statistically significant among different bellies. (5) Conclusions: The study evidences individual variation in the DIT, highlighting the importance of precise DIT classification for effective BoNT-A injections. A tailored ultrasound-guided BoNT-A injection strategy based on this classification may enhance safety and efficacy of the therapy.

Conducting polymers like polypyrrole, polyaniline, and polythiophene with nanostructures offers several advantages, such as high conductivity, a conjugated structure, and a large surface area, making them highly desirable for energy storage applications. However, the direct synthesis of conducting polymers with nanostructures poses a challenge. In this study, we employed a hard template method to fabricate polystyrene@polypyrrole (PS@PPy) core–shell nanoparticles. It is important to note that PS itself is a nonconductive material that hinders electron and ion transport, compromising the desired electrochemical properties. To overcome this limitation, the PS cores were removed using organic solvents to create hollow PPy nanospheres. We investigated six different organic solvents (cyclohexane, toluene, tetrahydrofuran, chloroform, acetone, and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF)) for etching the PS cores. The resulting hollow PPy nanospheres showed various nanostructures, including intact, hollow, buckling, and collapsed structures, depending on the thickness of the PPy shell and the organic solvent used. PPy nanospheres synthesized with DMF demonstrated superior electrochemical properties compared to those prepared with other solvents, attributed to their highly effective PS removal efficiency, increased specific surface area, and improved charge transport efficiency. The specific capacitances of PPy nanospheres treated with DMF were as high as 350 F/g at 1 A/g. And the corresponding symmetric supercapacitor demonstrated a maximum energy density of 40 Wh/kg at a power density of 490 W/kg. These findings provide new insights into the synthesis method and energy storage mechanisms of PPy nanoparticles.

ABSTRACTWe designed and developed a novel DNA topoisomerase I inhibitor MF-6, which was a more potent cytotoxin and a more potent inducer of immunogenic cell death compared with DXd. To utilize MF-6’s ability to induce antitumor immunity, a human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-targeted antibody–drug conjugate (ADC) trastuzumab-L6 that included a cleavable linker and MF-6 was developed. Different from traditional cytotoxic ADC, the antitumor activity of trastuzumab-L6 was assessed by inducing tumor cell immunogenic cell death, activating dendritic cells and cytotoxic CD8+ T cells to acquire durable adaptive immune memory. Tumor cells treated with trastuzumab-L6 were committed to immunogenic cell death, with upregulation of damage-associated molecular patterns and antigen presentation molecules. In a syngeneic tumor model with a mouse cell line that expressed human HER2, immunocompetent mice showed greater antitumor efficacy compared with nude mice. The trastuzumab-L6-cured immunocompetent mice acquired adaptive antitumor memory and rejected subsequent tumor cell challenge. The trastuzumab-L6 efficacy was abrogated when cytotoxic CD8+ T cells were depleted and enhanced when regulatory CD4+ T cells were depleted. The combination of trastuzumab-L6 with immune checkpoint inhibitors significantly increased antitumor efficacy. Enhanced T cell infiltration, dendritic cell activation, and decreased type M2 macrophages in tumor post trastuzumab-L6 administration confirmed the immune-activating responses. In conclusion, trastuzumab-L6 was considered to be an immunostimulatory agent, rather than a traditional cytotoxic ADC, and its antitumor efficacy was enhanced when combined with an anti-PD-L1 and anti-CTLA-4 antibody, which suggested a potential therapeutic strategy.

Abstract Background Cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD) is a rare and underdiagnosed congenital disorder in dentistry. The purpose of this study was to illustrate and quantify the maxillofacial bone abnormalities detected on panoramic radiographs from a relatively large retrospective case series and to provide a series of diagnostic references for dentists to indicate the presence of disease and help in making an early and accurate diagnosis. Methods The dental panoramic radiographs of thirty CCD patients aged 11 to 45 years (18 males and 12 females) were examined retrospectively. The dentition states, including supernumerary teeth and impacted teeth, were recorded. Twelve quantified measurements were adopted to determine the abnormalities of maxillofacial bones, including the degree of the zygomatic arch downward bend, bicondylar breadth, ramal height, mandibular height, mandibular aspect ratio, mandibular body height, condylar height, coronoid height, distance between the coronoid process and the condyle, bigonial width, gonial angle and best-fit gonial circle diameter. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to compare the findings of the CCD patients with those of their matched controls (n = 300). Results Supernumerary teeth were detected in 27 patients (90.0%), and all 30 patients presented impacted teeth. Compared to the matched controls, the CCD patients had a significantly larger degree of zygomatic arch downward bend (ZAD), a larger diameter of the best-fit gonial circle (BGC), and a shorter distance between the coronoid process and the condyle (DCC) in panoramic radiographs (P

Solanum nigrum L. (S. nigrum) and microbial agents are often used for the remediation of cadmium (Cd)-contaminated soil; however, no studies to date have examined the efficacy of using various microbial agents for enhancing the remediation efficiency of Cd-contaminated soil by S. nigrum. Here, we conducted greenhouse pot experiments to evaluate the efficacy of applying Bacillus megaterium (BM) along with citric acid (BM + CA), Glomus mosseae (BM + GM), and Piriformospora indica (BM + PI) on the ability of S. nigrum to remediate Cd-contaminated soil. The results showed that BM + GM significantly increased the Cd accumulation of each pot of S. nigrum by 104% compared with the control. Application of microbial agents changed the soil microbial communities. Redundancy analysis showed that the activities of Catalase (CAT) and urease (UE), soil organic matter, available N and total Cd were the main influencing factors. By constructing the microbial co-occurrence networks, the soil microbe was divided into four main Modules. BM + GM and BM + PI significantly increased the relative abundance of Module#1 and Module#3, respectively, when compared with the control. Additionally, Module#1 showed a significant positive correlation with translocation factor (TF), which could be regarded as the key microbial taxa. Further research found that Ascomycota, Glomeromycota, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria within Module#1 were also significantly correlated with TF, and these key species enriched in BM + GM. Overall, our findings indicate that the BM + GM treatment was the most effective for the remediation of Cd pollution. This treatment method may further affect the rhizosphere microbial community by affecting soil indicators, which might drive the formation of Module#1, thus greatly enhancing the Cd remediation capacity of S. nigrum.

Choline is an essential nutrient in ruminant diets, which contributes to the fundamental biological functions of the animal. However, choline is easily degraded in the rumen before it can be absorbed. Rumen-protected choline (RPC) supplementation might support the fast growth of ruminants. This study aimed to investigate the effects of supplementing graded levels of RPC in a pelleted total mixed ration for fattening lambs. Sixty three-month-old male Small Tail Han and northeast fine wool sheep hybrid lambs with a liveweight of 15.3 ± 1.8 kg (mean ± SD) were fed designated diets and randomly assigned into five treatment groups (n = 12 per group). The five treatments were the rate of RPC supplementation at 0, 1.25, 2.50, 3.75, and 5.00 g (equivalent to 0, 0.31, 0.63, 0.94, and 1.25 g of choline chloride, respectively)/kg basal diet and the RPC-supplemented feed was offered for 112 days after 12 days of adaptation. Average daily gain, dry matter intake, and nutrient digestibility were similar across treatments. The rumen pH was quadratically significant among treatments, with the lowest and highest pH observed from the 2.5 and 5 g/kg RPC supplement groups, respectively (P = 0.02). After feeding, the ruminal ammonia concentrations among treatments were different (P < 0.05), with the highest value observed from the 5 g/kg RPC supplement group. Microbial crude protein level was different, with the highest value recorded from the 0 g/kg RPC supplement group (P = 0.028). A linear effect (P < 0.05) was observed from short-chain fatty acid values among treatments before and after feeding. Serum albumin (P = 0.003) and albumin/globulin ratio (P = 0.002) had a quadratic effect, with the highest value found in the 0 g/kg RPC supplement group. Abdominal fat was higher in RPC-supplemented groups (P < 0.05) compared to the control group. Drip loss was 65% higher in RPC-supplemented groups compared to the control group (P = 0.012). Overall, the study results showed an effect of RPC on ruminal parameters, but the supplementation of low-level RPC did not improve the growth and slaughter performance of fattening lambs.

Abandoned cropland may lead to a series of issues regarding the environment, ecology, and food security. In hilly areas, cropland is prone to be abandoned due to scattered planting, relatively fewer sunlight hours, and a lower agricultural input–output ratio. Furthermore, the impact of abandoned rainfed cropland differs from abandoned irrigated cropland; thus, the corresponding land strategies vary accordingly. Unfortunately, monitoring abandoned cropland is still an enormous challenge in hilly areas. In this study, a new approach was proposed by (1) improving the availability of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 images by a series of processes, (2) obtaining training samples from multisource data overlay analysis and timeseries viewer tool, (3) mapping annual land cover from all available Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 images, training samples, and the random forest classifier, and (4) mapping the spatiotemporal distribution of abandoned rainfed cropland and irrigated cropland in hilly areas by assessing land-cover trajectories along with time. The result showed that rainfed cropland had lower F1 scores (0.759 to 0.8) compared to that irrigated cropland (0.836 to 0.879). High overall accuracies of around 0.90 were achieved, with the kappa values ranging from 0.851 to 0.862, which outperformed the existing products in accuracy and spatial detail. Our study provides a reference for extracting the spatiotemporal distribution of abandoned rainfed cropland and irrigated cropland in hilly areas.

Abstract Background Reprogramming of cancers into normal-like tissues is an innovative strategy for cancer treatment. Recent reports demonstrate that defined factors can reprogram cancer cells into pluripotent stem cells. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and aggressive malignant brain tumor in humans. Despite multimodal therapy, the outcome for patients with GBM is still poor. Therefore, developing novel therapeutic strategy is a critical requirement. Methods We have developed a novel reprogramming method that uses a conceptually unique strategy for GBM treatment. We screened a kinase inhibitor library to find which candidate inhibitors under reprogramming condition can reprogram GBM cells into neurons. The induced neurons are identified whether functional and loss of tumorigenicity. Results We have found that mTOR and ROCK kinase inhibitors are sufficient to reprogram GBM cells into neural-like cells and “normal” neurons. The induced neurons expressed neuron-specific proteins, generated action potentials and neurotransmitter receptor-mediated currents. Genome-wide transcriptional analysis showed that the induced neurons had a profile different from GBM cells and were similar to that of control neurons induced by established methods. In vitro and in vivo tumorigenesis assays showed that induced neurons lost their proliferation ability and tumorigenicity. Moreover, reprogramming treatment with ROCK-mTOR inhibitors prevented GBM local recurrence in mice. Conclusion This study indicates that ROCK and mTOR inhibitors-based reprogramming treatment prevents GBM local recurrence. Currently ROCK-mTOR inhibitors are used as anti-tumor drugs in patients, so this reprogramming strategy has significant potential to move rapidly toward clinical trials.

Abstract Background This study aimed to examine the associations among the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) core sets relevant to chronic ischemic heart disease (CIHD) using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) model based on the ICF core sets scale in Chinese patients. Methods This was a prospective study of 120 patients with CIHD selected from January 2013 to June 2014 at the Fada Institute of Forensic Medicine & Science (Beijing, China). Functioning was qualified using the ICF core sets checklist for CIHD (Chinese version). The variables of core set categories of the ICF assessment scale for CIHD were entered into the LASSO model for mining dependencies among those variables. Graphical modeling was applied using LASSO generalized linear models. Results “Muscle endurance functions”, “sensations associated with cardiovascular and respiratory functions”, “blood vessel functions”, and “heart functions” were the most injured in CIHD status. “Recreation and leisure” and “intimate relationships” were the most affected in CIHD status. “General social support services, systems, and policies” and “acquaintances, peers, colleagues, neighbors, and community members” were important for the outcome of functional status of the CIHD patient. “Economic self-sufficiency” and “family relationships” of the CIHD patient were not undermined in most cases. Conclusions Graphical modeling can be used to describe associations between different areas of functioning in CIHD patients. The results suggest that these associations could be used as basis to improve rehabilitation and provide a deeper understanding of functioning in Chinese CIHD patients.

This article has been retracted. Please see the Retraction Notice for more detail: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13046-021-02172-6

Background: Cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) is widely used to evaluate growth potential in the field of orthodontics. This study is aimed to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) system to automatically determine the CVM status and evaluate the AI performance. Methods: A total of 1080 cephalometric radiographs, with the age of patients ranging from 6 to 22 years old, were included in the dataset (980 in training dataset and 100 in testing dataset). Two reference points and thirteen anatomical points were labelled and the cervical vertebral maturation staging (CS) was assessed by human examiners as gold standard. A convolutional neural network (CNN) model was built to train on 980 images and to test on 100 images. Statistical analysis was conducted to detect labelling differences between AI and human examiners, AI performance was also evaluated. Results: The mean labelling error between human examiners was 0.48 ± 0.12 mm. The mean labelling error between AI and human examiners was 0.36 ± 0.09 mm. In general, the agreement between AI results and the gold standard was good, with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) value being up to 98%. Moreover, the accuracy of CVM staging was 71%. In terms of F1 score, CS6 stage (85%) ranked the highest accuracy. Conclusions: In this study, AI showed a good agreement with human examiners, being a useful and reliable tool in assessing the cervical vertebral maturation.

Accurate estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI) is an important task in forensic practice. In the last half-century, the use of postmortem biochemistry has become an important ancillary method in determining the time of death. The present study was carried out to determine the correlation between blood oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) values and PMIs, and to develop a three-dimensional surface equation to estimate the PMI under various temperature conditions. A total of 48 rabbits were placed into six groups and sacrificed by air embolism. Blood was obtained from the right ventricle of each rabbit, and specimens were stored at 10°C, 15°C, 20°C, 25°C, 30°C, and 35°C. At different PMIs (once every 4 h), the blood ORP values were measured using a PB-21 electrochemical analyzer. Statistical analysis and curve fitting of the data yielded cubic polynomial regression equations and a surface equation at different temperatures. Result: The results showed that there was a strong positive correlation between the blood ORP values at different temperatures and the PMI. This study provides another example of using a three-dimensional surface equation as a tool to estimate the PMI at various temperature conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze the current situation of medical malpractice and make suggestions for preventative measures from a judicial appraisal standpoint. From 2002 to 2011, we conducted and analyzed 505 medicolegal malpractice experiments at the Fada Institute of Forensic Medicine and Science (FIFMS) in Beijing, People′s Republic of China (PRC). We found that the occurrence of medical disputes in surgical and obstetrical/gynecological cases seemed more frequent. The main causes of medical disputes included issues regarding medical ethics, poor quality of the medical staff, equipment malfunctions, and dereliction of duty by the medical personnel. The reasons for dissatisfaction varied among the different levels of medical service. Basic medical services garnered the most complaints. If we can work to improve the moral and professional standards of the medical staff members, intensify their ethics, and foster good relationships between patients and medical professionals, the quality of medical care would improve and the number of disputes regarding medical services would be reduced.

In this study, we investigated the time-varying capacitated lot-sizing problem under a fast-changing production environment, where production factors such as the setup costs, inventory-holding costs, production capacities, or even material prices may be subject to continuous changes during the entire planning horizon. Traditional lot-sizing theorems and algorithms, which often assume a constant production environment, are no longer fit for this situation. We analyzed the time-varying environment of today’s agile enterprises and modeled the time-varying setup costs and the time-varying production capacities. Based on these, we presented two mixed-integer linear programming models for the time-varying capacitated single-level lot-sizing problem and the time-varying capacitated multi-level lot-sizing problem, respectively, with considerations on the impact of time-varying environments and dynamic capacity constraints. New properties of these models were analyzed on the solution’s feasibility and optimality. The solution quality was evaluated in terms of the entropy which indicated that the optimized production system had a lower value than that of the unoptimized one. A number of computational experiments were conducted on well-known benchmark problem instances using the AMPL/CPLEX to verify the proposed models and to test the computational effectiveness and efficiency, which showed that the new models are applicable to the time-varying environment. Two of the benchmark problems were updated with new best-known solutions in the experiments.

The purpose of this paper is to predict failures based on textual sequence data. The current failure prediction is mainly based on structured data. However, there are many unstructured data in aircraft maintenance. The failure mentioned here refers to failure types, such as transmitter failure and signal failure, which are classified by the clustering algorithm based on the failure text. For the failure text, this paper uses the natural language processing technology. Firstly, segmentation and the removal of stop words for Chinese failure text data is performed. The study applies the word2vec moving distance model to obtain the failure occurrence sequence for failure texts collected in a fixed period of time. According to the distance, a clustering algorithm is used to obtain a typical number of fault types. Secondly, the failure occurrence sequence is mined using sequence mining algorithms, such as-PrefixSpan. Finally, the above failure sequence is used to train the Bayesian failure network model. The final experimental results show that the Bayesian failure network has higher accuracy for failure prediction.

In leukemia, oral manifestations indicate aberrations in oral microbiota. Microbiota structure is determined by both host and environmental factors. In human hosts, how health status shapes the composition of oral microbiota is largely unknown. Taking advantage of advances in high-throughput sequencing, we compared the composition of supragingival plaque microbiota of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) pediatric patients with healthy controls. The oral microbiota of leukemia patients had lower richness and less diversity compared to healthy controls. Microbial samples clustered into two major groups, one of ALL patients and another of healthy children, with different structure and composition. Abundance changes of certain taxa including the Phylum Firmicutes, the Class Bacilli, the Order Lactobacillales, the Family Aerococcaceae and Carnobacteriaceae, as well as the Genus Abiotrophia and Granulicatella were associated with leukemia status. ALL patients demonstrated a structural imbalance of the oral microbiota, characterized by reduced diversity and abundance alterations, possibly involved in systemic infections, indicating the importance of immune status in shaping the structure of oral microbiota.