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BackgroundNon-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) ranks among the most prevalent and lethal malignancies globally. Fatty acids (FAs) play a significant role in diverse physiological and pathological mechanisms, yet their precise involvement in NSCLC remains poorly understood.MethodsThis study utilized a large-scale prospective cohort of 249,132 participants, observed over an average of 12 years, to investigate the relationship between different FAs and NSCLC risk. Analytical approaches included Cox proportional hazards regression, Kaplan–Meier survival analysis, accelerated failure time (AFT) modeling, and restricted cubic spline (RCS) analysis.ResultsDuring the follow-up period, 1,460 participants were diagnosed with NSCLC. Cox regression analysis demonstrated that elevated levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), linoleic acid (LA), and omega-3 were inversely associated with NSCLC risk. Kaplan–Meier curves, along with AFT models, corroborated that elevated concentrations of DHA and LA significantly delayed NSCLC onset. Additionally, RCS analysis uncovered nuanced dose–response relationships between these FAs and NSCLC. Stratified analyses highlighted variability based on smoking status, gender, and body mass index subgroups.ConclusionThe concentration of specific FAs exhibits a significant association with NSCLC risk. These results offer a foundation for devising dietary FA composition adjustments aimed at reducing NSCLC risk.

Researching the structural characteristics of the spatial correlation network of cultivated land utilization ecological efficiency is of great significance to China's food security and agricultural green and low-carbon development. Taking 47 cities (autonomous prefectures) in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River as the research object, the ecological efficiency of cultivated land utilization from 2010 to 2020 was measured based on the unexpected output model (Super SBM), and the spatial correlation matrix was constructed using the revised gravity model. The structural characteristics of the spatial correlation network were analyzed using the social network model (SNA), and finally, the factors affecting the spatial correlation network of cultivated land utilization ecological efficiency in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River were analyzed through the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) model. The results show that: (1) the ecological efficiency of cultivated land utilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River has been increasing year by year, but the overall level is low, and there is a large gap among provinces. Sichuan Province has the highest average value of 0.605, and Yunnan Province has the lowest average value of 0.359. (2) The ecological efficiency of cultivated land utilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River has broken through the provincial boundaries and has formed an obvious spatial correlation network, but the overall density is low, and the network is still relatively loose, needing further development and improvement. Chengdu, Yibin, Luzhou, and other cities are located in the center of the network and have formed four cohesive subgroups. (3)The differences in the level of agricultural economic development, the rural per capita disposable income, the differences in agricultural mechanization intensity, the regional population differences, and spatial adjacency have an impact on the spatial network of ecological efficiency of cultivated land utilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The difference in the level of agricultural economic development, the rural per capita disposable income, and the differences in agricultural mechanization intensity are negatively correlated, while the regional population differences are positively correlated with spatial adjacency.

Discovering maximal frequent itemsets is an important issue and key technique in many data mining problems such as association rule mining. In the literature, generating maximal frequent itemsets proves either to be NP-hard or to have O(l34l(m+n))O\left({l}^{3}{4}^{l}\left(m+n)) complexity in the worst case from the perspective of generating maximal complete bipartite graphs of a bipartite graph, where mm, nn are the item number and the transaction number, respectively, and ll denotes the maximum of ∣C∣∣Ψ(C)∣/(∣C∣+∣Ψ(C)∣−1)| C| | \Psi \left(C)| \hspace{0.1em}\text{/}\hspace{0.1em}\left(| C| +| \Psi \left(C)| -1), with the maximum taken over all maximal frequent itemsets CC. In this article, we put forward a method for discovering maximal frequent itemsets, whose complexity is O(3mn2β+4βn)O\left(3mn{2}^{\beta }+{4}^{\beta }n), lower than the known complexity both in the worst case, from the perspective of semigroup algebra, where β\beta is the number of items whose support is more than the minimum support threshold. Experiments also show that an algorithm based on the algebraic method performs better than the other three well-known algorithms. Meanwhile, we explore some algebraic properties with respect to items and transactions, prove that the maximal frequent itemsets are exactly the simplified generators of frequent itemsets, give a necessary and sufficient condition for a maximal i+1i+1-frequent itemset being a subset of a closed ii-frequent itemset, and provide a recurrence formula of maximal frequent itemsets.

Abstract Background Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is one of the mechanisms of airway remodeling in chronic asthma. Interleukin (IL)-24 has been implicated in the promotion of tissue fibrosis, and increased IL-24 levels have been observed in the nasal secretions and sputum of asthmatic patients. However, the role of IL-24 in asthmatic airway remodeling, especially in EMT, remains largely unknown. We aimed to explore the effect and mechanism of IL-24 on EMT and to verify whether IL-37 could alleviate IL-24-induced EMT in chronic asthma. Methods BEAS-2B cells were exposed to IL-24, and cell migration was assessed by wound healing and Transwell assays. The expression of EMT-related biomarkers (E-cadherin, vimentin, and α-SMA) was evaluated after the cells were stimulated with IL-24 with or without IL-37. A murine asthma model was established by intranasal administration of house dust mite (HDM) extracts for 5 weeks, and the effects of IL-24 and IL-37 on EMT and airway remodeling were investigated by intranasal administration of si-IL-24 and rhIL-37. Results We observed that IL-24 significantly enhanced the migration of BEAS-2B cells in vitro. IL-24 promoted the expression of the EMT biomarkers vimentin and α-SMA via the STAT3 and ERK1/2 pathways. In addition, we found that IL-37 partially reversed IL-24-induced EMT in BEAS-2B cells by blocking the ERK1/2 and STAT3 pathways. Similarly, the in vivo results showed that IL-24 was overexpressed in the airway epithelium of an HDM-induced chronic asthma model, and IL-24 silencing or IL-37 treatment could reverse EMT biomarker expression. Conclusions Overall, these findings indicated that IL-37 mitigated HDM-induced airway remodeling by inhibiting IL-24-mediated EMT via the ERK1/2 and STAT3 pathways, thereby providing experimental evidence for IL-24 as a novel therapeutic target and IL-37 as a promising agent for treating severe asthma.

The redox potential plays a critical role in sustaining the stability of gut microbiota. This study measured the fecal redox potential in healthy and diarrheal pigs using direct and dilution methods and investigated their correlation with microbiota. The results showed that the fluctuations in the redox potential of healthy pig feces were consistent using two different methods and the two methods are equivalent based on an equivalence test. The redox potential was positively correlated with the number of fungi and negatively related to the total bacteria. The relative or absolute abundances of many bacteria at the phyla and genus levels were associated with redox potential. In diarrheal pigs, the potentiometric trends of the two methods demonstrated an opposing pattern and the correlation with total bacteria was reversed. Precipitously elevated redox potential was detected post-diarrhea using dilution methods. The absolute abundance of Escherichia-Shigella and Fuurnierella was positively correlated with redox potential, while both relative and absolute abundances of Limosilactobacillus were positively correlated. These results suggest that both methods are suitable for detecting gut redox potential in healthy pigs, while the dilution method is more suitable for diarrheal pigs. The findings on the correlation of Limosilactobacillus, Prevotella, and Escherichia-Shigella with redox potential offer novel insights for targeted modulation of intestinal health.

We experimentally demonstrate a novel 2 μm soliton laser using a bidirectional nonlinear polarization evolution mode-locked Tm3+-doped fiber oscillator. The mode-locking operations between the laser signals propagating in clockwise and counterclockwise directions can be achieved through the intracavity polarization state adjustments independently, and the maximum achieved output powers are 332.5 and 367.8 mW with transfer efficiencies of 17.2 % and 18.3 %, respectively. Hysteresis in the output powers and spectra transformation between the two laser signals propagating in counter directions are observed and investigations are conducted in detail. Benefiting from the robust birefringence filtering effect, the central wavelength of this soliton laser can be continuously tuned from 1951.51 to 2015.89 nm. Stable high-order harmonic mode-locking (HML) operations are observed, and up to 633.02 MHz repetition rate with a central wavelength of 1992.55 nm is achieved. The monitored intensity spectra stability and average output power fluctuations exhibit excellent performance of this proposed 2 μm soliton fiber laser. The phase noise levels in two counter directions propagating light signals are characterized at different average output powers. Our experiment provides a potential technique for the generation of 2 μm solitons fiber laser that can be widely applied in ultrafast time-resolved measurements, mid-infrared frequency metrology, molecular spectroscopy, etc.

BackgroundOrthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is a life-saving option for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the expanded OLT criteria remain controversial.ObjectiveThe study aimed to explore whether expanded OLT criteria can be applied to Chinese cirrhotic patients with HCC.MethodsThis retrospective study analyzed risk factors for HCC recurrence and death and compared patients’ tumor characteristics and outcomes in groups of Milan, “Up-to-seven,” and Hangzhou criteria, and groups between met and unmet the combinative criteria of “Up-to-seven” and AFP of < 1000 ng/mL.ResultsAmong 153 patients who underwent OLT for HCC from January 2015 to February 2019 in 4 years of follow-up, 20 (13.1%) patients had HCC recurrence, and 11 (7.2%) had HCC-related death. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that preoperative alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) of > 1000 ng/mL (hazard ratio [HR]: 10.05, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.45–41.13, P = 0.001) was an independent risk factor for HCC recurrence and HCC-related death (HR: 6.63, 95%CI: 1.31–33.52, P = 0.022). Patients who did not meet Milan criteria but satisfied the “Up-to-seven” criteria had no differences in overall survival (OS) (P = 0.69) and disease-free survival (DFS) (P = 0.35) than patients who met the Milan criteria. The combination of “Up-to-seven” criteria and AFP of < 1000 ng/mL differed significantly (HR: 18.9; 95% CI: 4.0–89.2; P < 0.001). Patients with HCC who met the “Up-to-seven” criteria and AFP of < 1000 ng/mL (n = 121) had excellent survival with 4-year OS of 91.6% (P < 0.001) and DFS of 90.8% (P < 0.001), which is significantly better compared to the other group (n = 32) (OS of 67.5% and DFS of 46.5%) and patients who met the Milan criteria (n = 108, OS of 89.8%, DFS of 89.6%), allowing 28.9% (13/45) of patients who did not meet the Milan criteria to benefit from OLT.ConclusionChinese cirrhotic patients with HCC who met the combinative criteria of “Up-to-seven” and AFP of < 1000 ng/mL had better survival than those who met the Milan criteria, and these combinative criteria benefited more patients and may become a better option for OLT.

During cold storage, boar spermatozoa undergo oxidative stress, which can impair sperm function and fertilizing capacity. The objective of the present study was to assess the effects of Schisandrin B (Sch B) in semen extenders on the quality of boar semen stored at hypothermia. Semen was collected from twelve Duroc boars and diluted in extenders supplemented with different concentrations of Sch B (0 μmol/L, 2.5 μmol/L, 5 μmol/L, 10 μmol/L, 20 μmol/L, and 40 μmol/L). Here, we demonstrated that 10 μmol/L Sch B provided the best effects on motility, plasma membrane integrity, acrosome integrity, sperm normality rate, average movement velocity, wobbility, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and DNA integrity of sperm. The results of Sch B effects on antioxidant factors in boar sperm showed that Sch B significantly elevated the total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and markedly decreased the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content of sperm. The expression of catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) mRNA was increased, while the expression of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) mRNA demonstrated no change compared to non-treated boar sperm. Compared to the non-treated group, Sch B triggered a decrease in Ca2+/protein kinase A (PKA) and lactic acid content in boar sperm. Similarly, Sch B led to a statistically higher quantitative expression of AWN mRNA and a lower quantitative expression of porcine seminal protein I (PSP-I) and porcine seminal protein II (PSP-II) mRNA. In a further reverse validation test, no significant difference was observed in any of the parameters, including adhesion protein mRNA, calcium content, lactic acid content, PKA, and protein kinase G (PKG) activity after sperm capacitation. In conclusion, the current study indicates the efficient use of Sch B with a 10 μmol/L concentration in the treatment of boar sperm through its anti-apoptosis, antioxidative, and decapacitative mechanisms, suggesting that Sch B is a novel candidate for improving antioxidation and decapacitation factors in sperm in liquid at 4 °C.

With the completion of the human genome project and the advancement of sequencing technology, the ethical issues involved in medical genetics have become increasingly prominent. This requires the integration of ethical and other ideological elements into classroom teaching of medical genetics, and cultivation of the ethical qualities of medical undergraduates. This paper systematically discusses the reform of medical genetics curriculum focusing on ethical issues from the aspects of syllabus construction, ethical issues, and classroom practice and effect. Strengthening the ethical literacy of medical undergraduates is an inevitable trend in the development of medical genetics, and it is a realistic need for comprehensive education. Besides, the teaching reform based on the ethical problems, is also possible to improve the curriculum construction as a pilot project with a step-by-step remodeling strategy, and comprehensively promote the reformation of education of medical genetics.

Objective To investigate the influence of Glutathione S-transferase P-1 (GSTP-1) genetic variation on the prognosis of postoperative glioblastoma patients received temozolomide combined with radiotherapy regimens. Methods We included 175 glioblastoma patients received temozolomide combined with radiotherapy after surgical resection. Peripheral blood of the glioblastoma patients was collected for the genotyping of GSTP-1 genetic variation. Additionally, RNA was extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cell specimens of patients prior to chemotherapy for GSTP-1 mRNA expression analysis. The correlation analysis was performed between the genetic variation and other characteristics. Results The prevalence of Ile105Val among the study population were as follows: 119 cases (68.00%) of G/G genotype, 51 cases (29.14%) of G/A genotype, 5 cases (2.86%) of A/A genotype, minimum allele frequency of Ile105Val was 0.17; the distribution of three genotypes were in accordance with Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (P=0.868). The median progression-free survival (mPFS) of patients with G/A+A/A genotypes and GG genotype were 4.4 and 6.9 months, respectively (P=0.005); the median overall survival (mOS) of the two genotypes was 11.0 and 15.3 months, respectively (P < 0.001). G/A+A/A genotype was an independent factor for OS (OR=1.68, P=0.011). Additionally, the GSTP-1 mRNA expression in the patients with G/A+A/A genotypes were significantly higher than those in the G/G genotype patients (P < 0.001). Conclusion The prognosis of postoperative glioblastoma patients received temozolomide combined with radiotherapy regimens may be influenced by GSTP-1 Ile105Val genetic variation through mediating the mRNA expression of GSTP-1.