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Abstract Background A previous study demonstrated that N-glycosylation profiles of IgG are associated with subclinical atherosclerosis in a British population. However, the generalisability of this finding to other ethnic groups remains to be investigated, and it has yet to account for additional traditional atherosclerotic risk factors. The present study, thus, aims to explore IgG N-glycosylation profiles in Han Chinese with atherosclerosis, and their potential role in atherosclerosis, while controlling for traditional atherosclerotic risk factors. Methods Data of this case-control study were obtained from an established umbrella Health Examination Cohort Study (registration number: ChiCTR2100048740). The investigation was conducted at the Health Care Centre of the First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College in China, from August 1, 2021, to July 31, 2022. A sample of 69 carotid atherosclerosis (CAS) cases was recruited from the umbrella cohort, along with 69 controls without carotid atherosclerosis, matched by traditional atherosclerosis-related risk factors, including gender, age, smoking, alcohol consumption, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia and obesity. Subsequently, serum IgG N-glycosylation was profiled using Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography. Results After propensity score matching, the relative abundance of IgG fucosylation in CAS cases was significantly lower than that in controls [95.32 (92.96, 95.99) vs. 95.96 (94.70, 96.58), P = 0.022]. The traditional atherosclerosis-related risk factors showed no statistically significant difference between CAS cases and controls (P > 0.05). Conclusions The reduced fucosylation of IgG in CAS cases underscores the pivotal role of afucosylation in CAS. Enhancing the inflammatory capability of IgG via initiating antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity could be the potential mechanism behind this, which should be further verified by functional studies.

Background: Radiation-induced lung fibrosis (RILF) is a life-threatening complication of thoracic radiotherapy. Ferroptosis, a recently discovered type of cell death, is believed to contribute to RILF, though the associated mechanisms are unknown. This study aimed to investigate the potential mechanism of ferroptosis in RILF and examine the contribution of different cell types to ferroptosis during RILF progression. Methods: Histopathological changes in RILF lung tissue were assessed through H&E and Masson staining. IHC staining investigated ferroptosis markers (GPX4, ACSL4, NCOA4). Ferroptosis-related genes (FRG) and pathway scores were derived from RILF transcriptome microarray data. The sc-RNAseq analysis detected FRG score dynamics across cell types, validated by IF staining for PDGFR-α and ACSL4. Results: ACSL4 and NCOA4 protein levels were significantly higher and GPX4 lower in IR than control. FRG scores were positively correlated with fibrosis-related pathway scores in the RILF transcriptome data. FRG and ECM scores were concurrently upregulated in myofibroblasts. Enhanced co-staining of PDGFR-α and ACSL4 were observed in the fibrotic areas of RILF lungs. Conclusions: Our research indicated that in RILF, fibroblasts undergoing ferroptosis may release increased levels of ECM, potentially accelerating the progression of lung fibrosis. This finding presents ferroptosis as a potential therapeutic target in RILF.

The mixing process of the cathodic jets is an important connection between the metal surface and the plasma arc column, which helps to understand the diffusion mechanism of the vacuum arc and guides the vacuum switch design. The interaction process of double cathode jets is simulated using a 3D magnetohydrodynamic method. This study analyzes the evolution of plasma parameters as the double cathode jets transition from a separated state to a mixed state. The results indicate that a mixed single-peaked jet ultimately forms at the exit when the double cathode jets are present at the inlet of the cathode surface. The transition from the separated state to the mixed state occurs further away from the cathode surface as the inlet current density of the jets increases from 3 to 5 × 109 A/m2. Additionally, the asymmetry in the current density of the double cathode jets causes the peaks of the mixed single-peak current density and ion temperature to be skewed toward the direction of the lower inlet current density. In cases where the inlet current direction is asymmetric, the peaks shift toward the direction where the inlet current is perpendicular to the cathode surface. Furthermore, the outward expansion acceleration trend of the plasma aligns well with the results from single-jet numerical simulations.

Abstract Based on Chebyshev polynomials, the two‐way slant range is first approximated by the fourth‐order polynomial approximation. With the series reversion method, the point target reference spectrum (PTRS) which is further used for the development of imaging algorithm in this letter is obtained. The presented method processes the echoed signal corresponding to each transmitter/receiver pair. And then a high‐resolution synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) image is obtained by coherently superposing all coarse‐resolution images. Comparing the peak sidelobe ratio (PSLR) and integration sidelobe ratio (ISLR), the performance of the presented method is superior to that of the traditional method. Simulations are further validated by the presented method.

Abstract With the Loffeld's bistatic formula, the point target reference spectrum (PTRS) of multireceiver synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) can be decomposed into the quasi monostatic term and bistatic deformation (BD) term. The former term is analogous to the monostatic SAS PTRS while the latter one describes the bistatic phase introduced by the bistatic displacement between the transmitter and receiver. The multireceiver SAS echo signal can be transformed into monostatic SAS equivalent data after correcting the BD term. Based on the range sub‐block processing method, this data transformation is conducted by using the preprocessing step. Then, fast imaging processors based on monostatic SAS system can be directly exploited to process the monostatic SAS equivalent data. In this paper, the authors mainly focus on the application of non‐linear chirp scaling algorithm. At last, the simulations and real data are used to validate the presented method. The processing results show that the imaging performance of presented method is nearly close to that of traditional method. Besides, the imaging efficiency is highly improved compared to the phase centre approximation (PCA) method.

Abstract Background Uric acid was found to have a positive correlation with thyroid nodules in the cross-sectional studies recently. We aimed to conduct a retrospective cohort study to investigate whether uric acid is a risk factor for the development of thyroid nodules. Methods We reviewed the data of individuals who attended the medical check-ups in our hospital from 2010 to 2019. A total of 6587 adults without thyroid nodules at baseline were enrolled in this study. Logistic regression with or without restricted cubic spline function was used to investigate the non-linear or linear association between uric acid and thyroid nodules, respectively. Results Baseline characteristics showed that subjects mainly consisted of the healthy, young population. After fully adjusting for the potential confounders, such as age, sex, metabolic and inflammatory indicators, hepatic and renal function, a logistic restricted cubic spline regression model suggested that uric acid had a significant association (P = 0.028) with the development of thyroid nodules, but the association was not non-linear (P = 0.516). The results indicate that the association between them is linear, which was demonstrated by a logistic regression model, in which the odds ratio of uric acid per 100 mmol/L was 1.137 (P = 0.004). Age, sex, diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, and blood monocyte were found to be risk factors for thyroid nodules as well. Conclusion Uric acid is an independent risk factor for the formation of thyroid nodules. This finding warrants attention to this risk factor in apparently healthy adults.

Abstract In this Letter, the authors present a novel imaging algorithm for multireceiver synthetic aperture sonar (SAS). The Loffeld's bistatic formula (LBF) including quasi‐monostatic (QM) and multireceiver deformation (MD) phases is first reformulated into range‐variant and range‐invariant phases. After compensating the range‐invariant phase, the subsequent steps are the extended Stolt mapping for each bistatic SAS. Based on simulations, the presented method can also provide high‐resolution result which is similar to that of back projection (BP) algorithm.

In order to deal with problems of reduced searching efficiency and poor quality of algorithms for large-scale inter-cell scheduling problems, an improved cuckoo search algorithm under bottleneck-degree-based search guidance is proposed. A large-scale inter-cell scheduling optimization model aiming at minimizing makespan is established. A tabu search is adopted to replace the local search strategy of the cuckoo search algorithm. The bottleneck degree of a complex network model for an inter-cell scheduling problem is used to guide the design of the neighborhood structure of the tabu search. The proposed algorithm is validated by numerical examples. The results show that the convergent speed and qualities of solutions of the proposed algorithm are improved. It is verified that the proposed search guidance based on a complex network’s bottleneck degree could improve the searching ability and convergence speed of the algorithm for large-scale inter-cell scheduling optimization problems.

Abstract Traditional chirp scaling algorithm is often developed based on the quadratic approximation of point target reference spectrum, which neglects the higher‐order coupling between range and azimuth dimensions. Besides, the scaling operation is conducted based on quadratic term of reference range, and the residual quadratic error increases with target range far away from reference range. The analysis of phase error shows that both errors are noticeable under the case of wide‐bandwidth signal, and the imaging performance would be seriously distorted. To solve this problem, the higher‐order coupling and quadratic error are compensated by exploiting sub‐block processing method in the range dimension when the chirp scaling algorithm is exploited to reconstruct targets. Compared to traditional methods, the presented method significantly improves the focussing performance based on the simulation results. The processing of real data further shows that the performance of presented method is superior to that of traditional method.

Synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) can provide high-resolution underwater images. Traditional fast imaging algorithms designed for multi-receiver synthetic aperture sonar (MSAS) are complex because the point target reference spectrum (PTRS) deduction and imaging algorithm development are complicated. This paper proposes an imaging algorithm for the MSAS system to solve this issue. The proposed method first approximates the two-round slant range based on the phase center approximation method. The PTRS, including the quasi-monostatic and bistatic deformation terms, can be easily deduced. After compensating for the bistatic deformation term based on the interpolation and complex multiplication with the preprocessing step, the MSAS imagery can be simplified to the focus of the traditional monostatic SAS. Therefore, the conventional imaging algorithms designed for traditional monostatic SAS can be used directly. The proposed method providing high-resolution imaging results is more efficient than the traditional methods.

Background: The association between impaired fasting glucose level (IFG) and coronary heart disease (CAD) remain controversial. In the present study, we sought to ascertain a relationship of IFG with the number of diseased coronary artery and occurrence of myocardial infarction, among CAD cases.Methods: We studied 1,451 consecutive no-diabetic patients who underwent coronary angiography at the First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College in Southern China. Demographic, biochemical, clinical and angiographic data were collected.Results: The prevalence of IFG was higher in patients with angiographically confirmed CAD than in subjects without angiographic evidence of CAD (33.4 versus 28.2%, p = 0.034). Compared with CAD cases without IFG, CAD cases with IFG had a higher odds ratio (OR) of having triple-vessel disease as opposed to having single- or double-vessel disease [OR = 1.53, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.13–2.07]. Furthermore, the occurrence of MI was higher in CAD cases with IFG than in CAD cases without IFG (OR = 1.73, 95% CI = 1.27–2.36).Conclusions: There is an association between IFG and a predisposition to severe CAD indicated by triple vessel disease or myocardial infarction.

BackgroundPerturbation of tryptophan (TRP) metabolism contributes to the immune escape of cancer; however, the explored TRP metabolites are limited, and their efficacy in clarifying the susceptibility and progression of esophageal cancer (EC) remains ambiguous. Our study sought to evaluate the effects of the TRP metabolic profile on the clinical outcomes of EC using a Chinese population cohort; and to develop a risk prediction model targeting TRP metabolism.MethodA total of 456 healthy individuals as control subjects and 393 patients with EC who were followed up for one year as case subjects were enrolled. Quantification of the plasma concentrations of TRP and its metabolites was performed using HPLC-MS/MS. The logistic regression model was applied to evaluate the effects of the clinical characteristics and plasma metabolites of the subjects on susceptibility and tumor metastasis events, whereas Cox regression analysis was performed to assess the overall survival (OS) of the patients.ResultsLevels of creatinine and liver enzymes were substantially correlated with multiple metabolites/metabolite ratios in TRP metabolism, suggesting that hepatic and renal function would exert effects on TRP metabolism. Age- and sex-matched case–control subjects were selected using propensity score matching. Plasma exposure to 5-HT was found to be elevated 3.94-fold in case subjects (N = 166) compared to control subjects (N = 203), achieving an AUC of 0.811 for predicting susceptibility event. Subsequent correlation analysis indicated that a higher plasma exposure to 5-HIAA significantly increased the risk of lymph node metastasis (OR: 2.16, p = 0.0114). Furthermore, it was figured out that OS was significantly shorter for patients with elevated XA/KYN ratio (HR: 1.99, p = 0.0016), in which medium and high levels of XA/KYN versus low level had a significantly lower OS (HR: 0.48, p = 0.0080 and HR: 0.42, p = 0.0031, respectively).ConclusionThis study provides a pivotal basis for targeting endogenous TRP metabolism as a potential therapeutic intervention.

The back projection (BP) algorithm is characterized by its high performance for multi-receiver synthetic aperture sonar (SAS). For this reason, it is usually used to evaluate the imaging performance of Fourier-domain methods. However, this algorithm suffers from a large computation load, and the imaging efficiency is seriously lowered. In order to improve the imaging performance, this paper proposes focusing the multi-receiver SAS data using the BP algorithm based on two interpolators, including the linear interpolation and nearest-neighbor interpolation. The former interpolation is used to decrease the interpolation error based on adjacent sampled data; the latter estimates the data at the desired moment by assigning the data value of the nearest sample as estimated data. Then, the imaging performance of the presented method is discussed in detail based on simulations and real-data processing. With the presented method, the imaging performance can be improved without a loss of efficiency compared to nearest-neighbor interpolation without an upsampling operation. In comparison with the traditional BP algorithm, the presented method can be used to improve the imaging efficiency without any loss of performance.

When the multi-receiver synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) works with a wide-bandwidth signal, the performance of the range-Doppler (R-D) algorithm is seriously affected by two approximation errors, i.e., point target reference spectrum (PTRS) error and residual quadratic coupling error. The former is generated by approximating the PTRS with the second-order term in terms of the instantaneous frequency. The latter is caused by neglecting the cross-track variance of secondary range compression (SRC). In order to improve the imaging performance in the case of wide-bandwidth signals, an improved R-D algorithm is proposed in this paper. With our method, the multi-receiver SAS data is first preprocessed based on the phase center approximation (PCA) method, and the monostatic equivalent data are obtained. Then several sub-blocks are generated in the cross-track dimension. Within each sub-block, the PTRS error and residual quadratic coupling error based on the center range of each sub-block are compensated. After this operation, all sub-blocks are coerced into a new signal, which is free of both approximation errors. Consequently, this new data is used as the input of the traditional R-D algorithm. The processing results of simulated data and real data show that the traditional R-D algorithm is just suitable for an SAS system with a narrow-bandwidth signal. The imaging performance would be seriously distorted when it is applied to an SAS system with a wide-bandwidth signal. Based on the presented method, the SAS data in both cases can be well processed. The imaging performance of the presented method is nearly identical to that of the back-projection (BP) algorithm.

Background. Some studies have demonstrated that inflammation is highly associated with the prevalence of thyroid nodules (TNs). However, more confounders, such as metabolic diseases, should be adjusted. Methods. A clinical study collecting 2722 subjects was conducted to confirm the association between inflammation and TNs. The underlying mechanism was investigated in combination with bioinformatics analysis. Results. In the clinical study, propensity score matching was used to match metabolic parameters and other confounders, and it is observed that subjects with high inflammation had a higher prevalence of TNs and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) than those with low inflammation. After further matching TNs, it is found that inflammation was positively associated with TSH, which was also demonstrated in a population without TNs. In bioinformatics study, inflammation did not promote TNs formation directly. Instead, it inhibited the synthesis of thyroid hormone, which might be the cause of the elevated TSH coexisting with inflammation. Conclusion. Inflammation promotes the development of TNs disease, probably due to its indirect effect through inhibiting the synthesis of thyroid hormone, which results in the elevation of TSH.

Purpose. Several commercial tests have been used for the classification of indeterminate thyroid nodules in cytology. However, the geographic inconvenience and high cost confine their widespread use. This study aims to develop a classifier for conveniently clinical utility. Methods. Gene expression data of thyroid nodule tissues were collected from three public databases. Immune-related genes were used to construct the classifier with stacked denoising sparse autoencoder. Results. The classifier performed well in discriminating malignant and benign thyroid nodules, with an area under the curve of 0.785 [0.638–0.931], accuracy of 92.9% [92.7–93.0%], sensitivity of 98.6% [95.9–101.3%], specificity of 58.3% [30.4–86.2%], positive likelihood ratio of 2.367 [1.211–4.625], and negative likelihood ratio of 0.024 [0.003–0.177]. In the cancer prevalence range of 20–40% for indeterminate thyroid nodules in cytology, the range of negative predictive value of this classifier was 37–61%, and the range of positive predictive value was 98–99%. Conclusion. The classifier developed in this study has the superb discriminative ability for thyroid nodules. However, it needs validation in cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules before clinical use.

Background. Metabolic syndrome (MS) and its components have been demonstrated to facilitate the prevalence of thyroid nodules (TNs). The underlying pathogenesis needs to be elucidated. Methods. A total of 2722 subjects, who underwent health checkup in our institute from December 2014 to November 2018, were retrospectively and randomly collected. After exclusion, 2068 subjects were chosen, and their anthropic and clinical data were collected. Results. After matching age, gender, uric acid (UA), and creatinine (Cr) by propensity score matching (PSM), subjects with MS had higher prevalence of TNs than those without MS, as well as higher thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and inflammatory levels, indicated by the higher white blood cell (WBC), lymphocyte (LY), and monocyte/high-density lipoprotein (Mo/HDL). After matching age, gender, UA, Cr, TSH, free triiodothyronine (FT3), thyroxine (FT4), WBC, NE, LY, Mo, NE/LY, LY/Mo, and Mo/HDL by PSM, no significant difference of the prevalence of TNs was found between MS and non-MS groups. Step logistic regression suggested glucose intolerance (GI), among all the components of MS, was an independent impact factor of TNs and was considered to contribute most to the formation of TNs. The prevalence of TNs was higher in the GI group after matching age, gender, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fasting blood sugar (FBS), UA, Cr, triglyceride (TG), cholesterol (CHOL), HDL, and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Conclusions. Patients with MS have a higher prevalence of TNs, probably due to the elevated TSH and inflammatory levels in vivo. Among the components of MS, glucose intolerance contributes most to the development of TNs.

In this paper, we introduce a novel sub-bottom profiler, making good use of the Mills cross configuration of multibeam sonar and synthetic aperture techniques of the synthetic aperture sonar system. The receiver array is mounted along the ship keel, while the transmitter array is mounted perpendicular to the receiver array. With the synthetic aperture technique, the along-track resolution can be greatly improved. The system often suffers from motion error, which severely degrades the imaging performance. To solve this problem, the imaging algorithm with motion compensation (MC) is proposed. With the presented method, the motion error is first estimated based on overlapped elements between successive pulses. Then, the echo data is processed by using the range migration algorithm based on the phase center approximation (PCA) method, which simultaneously performs the MC with the estimated motion error. In order to validate the proposed sub-bottom profiler and data processing method, some simulations and lake trial results are discussed. The processing results of the real data further indicate that the presented configuration has great potential to find buried objects in seabed sediments.

There are sex differences in many inflammatory and immune diseases, and the differences tend to diminish after menopause. The underlying reasons are unclear, but sex hormone levels are likely to be an important factor. Blood leukocyte count and composition provide an indicator of the inflammatory and immune status of an individual. We performed a cross-sectional analysis of blood leukocyte data from 46,879 individuals (26,212 men and 20,667 women, aged 18 to 93 years) who underwent a routine health checkup. In women aged around 50 years, neutrophil percentage (NE%) dropped whilst lymphocyte percentage (LY%) rose. Accordingly, women before age 50 had significantly higher NE%, lower LY%, and higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) than women of 51-70 years of age (p = 1.35×10-82, p = 5.32×10-100, and p = 1.25×10-26, respectively). In age groups of 51 years, it was the reverse (p = 1.92×10-15, p = 1.43×10-84, and p = 1.51×10-48, respectively). These results show that blood leukocyte composition differs between women before and after menopausal age, with distinct sexual dimorphism.