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Abstract Silicon carbide fiber reinforced silicon carbide matrix (SiCf/SiC) composite is the key cladding material of nuclear fuel, which determines the safety and reliability of nuclear fuel storage and transportation. The replacement of its storage and transportation scenario needs to be completed by the manipulator, but the application of SiCf/SiC wear, fracture, and nuclear leakage in the snatching process of brittle-flexible-rigid contact in the irradiation environment has been seriously restricted due to unclear understanding of the damage mechanism. Therefore, the effects of irradiation dose and clamping load on the friction characteristics of the contact interface between SiCf/SiC clad tube are studied in this paper, and the effects of irradiation parameters and clamping force on the static friction coefficient of the contact interface between the clad tube and flexible nitrile are obtained. Based on the Greenwood-Williamson tribological model, a numerical model of the shape and structure of the contact micro-convex at the micro-scale of the clamping interface is constructed by introducing the multi-surface integral, and finally verified by experiments. The research results show that there is a unique “Irradiation suppression zone” under the clamping condition of SiCf/SiC cladding tube under the nuclear irradiation environment, and the growth of static friction coefficient slows down until stagnates after irradiation reaches a certain extent (600 kGy), and there will be a decline when the irradiation dose continues to increase, among which the clamping force of 15.2 N within the irradiation interval of 1,000 kGy can meet the safety of nuclear environment operation. The results of this paper can provide an important theoretical basis and application guidance for the safe operation of SiCf/SiC cladding tubes in the storage and transportation clamping process.

The in vitro maturation efficiency of porcine oocytes is relatively low, and this limits the production of in vitro porcine embryos. Since melatonin is involved in mammalian reproductive physiology, in this study, we have explored whether endogenously produced melatonin can help in porcine oocyte in vitro maturation. We have found, for the first time in the literature, that mitochondria are the major sites for melatonin biosynthesis in porcine oocytes. This mitochondrially originated melatonin reduces ROS production and increases the activity of the mitochondrial respiratory electron transport chain, mitochondrial biogenesis, mitochondrial membrane potential, and ATP production. Therefore, melatonin improves the quality of oocytes and their in vitro maturation. In contrast, the reduced melatonin level caused by siRNA to knockdown AANAT (siAANAT) is associated with the abnormal distribution of mitochondria, decreasing the ATP level of porcine oocytes and inhibiting their in vitro maturation. These abnormalities can be rescued by melatonin supplementation. In addition, we found that siAANAT switches the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis, a Warburg effect. This metabolic alteration can also be corrected by melatonin supplementation. All these activities of melatonin appear to be mediated by its membrane receptors since the non-selective melatonin receptor antagonist Luzindole can blunt the effects of melatonin. Taken together, the mitochondria of porcine oocytes can synthesize melatonin and improve the quality of oocyte maturation. These results provide an insight from a novel aspect to study oocyte maturation under in vitro conditions.

The "Three Rural Issues", encompass challenges related to agriculture, farmer, and rural area, which hold significant importance in driving comprehensive rural revitalization efforts in China. Farmer entrepreneurship, as a crucial means to enhance productivity, create job opportunities, and increase residents' income, has gradually become a key driving force in promoting rural revitalization in the new stage of development in China. With the rapid development of rural e-commerce, farmer entrepreneurship has encountered new opportunities. This study utilizes the 2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data and employs a structural equation model (SEM) to analyze the direct impact of rural e-commerce participation on farmer entrepreneurial behavior, considering factors such as human capital, social capital, and network infrastructure. This study further explores the indirect effects and mechanisms of e-commerce participation as a mediating variable and analyzes the impact and mechanisms on agricultural entrepreneurship behavior. The findings are as follows: (1) E-commerce participation significantly promotes farmer entrepreneurial behavior; (2) E-commerce participation as a mediating variable has a positive indirect effect on the relationship between social trust, network infrastructure, human capital, and farmer entrepreneurial behavior; (3) E-commerce participation has a significant positive influence on farmer entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector, and farmers with higher levels of network infrastructure and human capital have a higher probability of choosing agricultural entrepreneurship under the influence of e-commerce participation. Finally, this study provides policy recommendations in terms of infrastructure construction, entrepreneurial policy environment, and education level, aiming to optimize the situation of farmer entrepreneurship and contribute to the comprehensive promotion of rural revitalization.Overall, the research in this paper effectively combines theory and empirical evidence to outline the direct and indirect impact mechanisms of rural e-commerce participation on farmers' entrepreneurial behavior and agriculture-related entrepreneurial behavior and to test the effects of their impacts. First, most of the existing literature deals with farmers in individual sample areas, while the sample selected in this paper is farmers in the whole country, which is relatively more generalizable; second, most of the previous studies explore the level of e-commerce in the inter-provincial or county areas, while this paper expands the empirical study of rural e-commerce on the entrepreneurial behavior of farmers and the micro-period of agricultural entrepreneurial behavior, and focuses on the impacts of the e-commerce activities of farmers on their entrepreneurial behavior.

In recent years, the incidence rate of lumbar diseases has been progressively increasing. The conventional lumbar fusion cages used in existing lumbar interbody fusion surgery are not able to take into account the multiple characteristics of cushioning, vibration reduction, support, cell adhesion, and bone tissue growth. Therefore, in this work, based on the CT data of a lumbar intervertebral disc plain scan, a combined symmetric lumbar fusion cage structure was innovatively designed. The core was made of lightweight TC4 medical titanium alloy flexible microporous metal rubber (LTA-FMP MR), and the outer frame was made of cobalt–chromium–molybdenum alloy. Its comprehensive biomechanical performance was comprehensively evaluated through finite element simulation, static and dynamic mechanics, and impact resistance tests. The three-dimensional model of the L3/L4 lumbar segment was established by reverse engineering, and a Mises stress analysis was conducted on the lumbar fusion cage by importing it into Ansys to understand its structural advantages compared to the traditional lumbar fusion cage. Through static experiments, the influence of the internal nucleus of a symmetrical lumbar fusion cage with different material parameters on its static performance was explored. At the same time, to further explore the superior characteristics of this symmetrical structure in complex human environments, a biomechanical test platform was established to analyze its biomechanical performance under sinusoidal excitation of different amplitudes and frequencies, as well as impact loads of different amplitudes and pulse widths. The results show that under different amplitudes and frequencies, the lumbar fusion cage with a symmetrical structure has a small loss factor, a high impact isolation coefficient, and a maximum energy consumption of 422.8 N·mm, with a maximum kinetic energy attenuation rate of 0.43. Compared to existing traditional lumbar fusion cages in clinical practice, it not only has sufficient stiffness, but also has good vibration damping, support, and impact resistance performance, and has a lower probability of postoperative settlement, which has broad application prospects.

Elymus nutans Griseb. is a dominant forage in the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. However, the combined cold and drought (CD) stress is a major problem inhibiting its growth, development, and yield. Here, the responses of morphological, photosynthetic, osmoregulation levels, and signal transduction under cold, drought, and CD stress were explored. Both cold- and drought-stressed plants showed varying degrees of damage. In addition, CD stress led to more severe damage than single stress, especially in total biomass, photosynthetic capacity, and electron transfer efficiency. The total biomass, net photosynthetic rate, and maximal quantum yield of photosystem II (PSII) photochemistry reduced by 61.47%, 95.80%, and 16.06% in comparison with the control, respectively. Meanwhile, CD stress was accompanied by lower chlorophyll contents, down-regulated expression level of key photosynthetic enzymes (EnRbcS, EnRbcL, and EnRCA), stomatal closure, disrupted chloroplast ultrastructure, and reduced starch content. Furthermore, CD stress induced some adaptability responses in cold- and drought-tolerant E. nutans seedlings. The combined stress provoked alterations in both cold- and drought-related transcription factors and responsive genes. EnCBF12, EnCBF9, EnCBF14, and EnCOR14α were significantly up-regulated under cold or drought stress, and the transcript level of EnCBF3 and EnCBF12 was even 2.94 and 12.59 times higher than control under CD treatment, which indicated the key role of transcription factors activation in coping with CD stress. In addition, the content of soluble sugar, reducing sugar, proline, glycine betaine, and other osmolytes was significantly improved under CD stress. Therefore, we demonstrated that exposure to CD stress led to severe morphological and photosynthetic damage and revealed the acclimation to the cold and drought stress combination via osmotic adjustment and transcription factors activation in the Tibetan wild E. nutans.

PurposeRadical surgery is the most effective treatment for Hirschsprung's disease. However, some children still have symptoms of intestinal dysfunction such as constipation, abdominal distension, and recurrent enterocolitis after operation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate treatment outcomes of postoperative intestinal dysfunction in children with Hirschsprung's disease by using the principle of “anorectal balance”.MethodsThe clinical data of postoperative intestinal dysfunction in children with Hirschsprung's disease in the single treatment group from July 2019 to July 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. All the enrolled children underwent botulinum toxin injection (2.5 U/kg); 3 to 6 months later, the injection was performed again; the children who had received more than two botulinum toxin injections underwent the internal sphincter myectomy. Anorectal manometry was performed routinely after operation, and abdominal distension and defecation were recorded.ResultsA total of thirty children with postoperative intestinal dysfunction underwent radical surgery for Hirschsprung's disease were included in this study. Symptoms of constipation, abdominal distension and enterocolitis were improved after botulinum toxin injections in most children compared to before surgery (P

BackgroundPreoperative evaluation of the dysganglionic bowel segment is critical for establishing the optimal resection strategy for Hirschsprung’s disease (HSCR), which facilitates patient outcomes.ObjectiveWe set out to determine the utility of the 24-h delayed film of barium retention in predicting the length of dysganglionic bowel segment in HSCR.Materials and methodsA retrospective study of patients with clinically suspicious HSCR who underwent a preoperative 24-h delayed film of barium enema and were surgically treated from January 2015 to December 2019 was conducted.ResultsTwo hundred and 58 patients were enrolled in this study. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (NPVs) of the 24-h delayed film of barium enema to predict the neuropathological segment were 89.1, 91.5, 91.3, and 89.4%, respectively. The Youden index was 80.6%, with a kappa value of 0.806 (P < 0.001). The correlation rate between barium retention level and pathological results was 72.7% (16/22) when aganglionosis was restricted within the mid-distal rectum (short-segment type), increasing to 92.0% (46/50) and 93.5% (174/186) for patients that had aganglionosis extended beyond the mid-distal rectum (classical type) and sigmoid colon (long-segment type), respectively. Lastly, patients younger than 3 months showed a lower correlation rate (72.2%) compared to patients aged 3–12 months (91.0%) and > 12 months (92.6%).ConclusionsOur investigation of the 24-h delayed film of barium enema performed for patients suspected of having HSCR indicated that the barium retention level remains crucial in predicting dysganglionic bowel segment, which contributes to the decision-making for surgical physicians.

BackgroundAlthough increasing evidence has supported that Hirschsprung disease (HSCR) is the risk factor for children developing Crohn’s disease (CD), the common mechanism of its co-occurrence remains unknown. The purpose of this study is to further explore the underlying mechanism and biomarkers for the co-occurrence of HSCR and CD.MethodsThe Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was used to obtain gene expression profiles for CD (GSE95095) and HSCR (GSE98502). Following the identification of the shared differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of CD and HSCR, functional annotation, protein–protein interaction (PPI) network creation, and module assembly were performed to discover hub genes. RT-qPCR was performed to validate the expression of the hub genes in HSCR samples. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was utilized to assess the accuracy of the hub genes as biomarkers in predicting CD in both the training dataset and test dataset.ResultsA total of 103 common DEGs (50 downregulated genes and 53 upregulated genes) were chosen for further investigation. The importance of chemokines and cytokines in these two disorders is highlighted by functional analysis. MCODE plug identified three important modules, which functionally enriched the immune system process. Finally, nine hub genes were identified using cytoHubba, including IL1B, IL10, CXCL10, ICAM1, EGR1, FCGR3A, S100A12, S100A9, and FPR1. The nine hub genes were mainly enriched in immune- and inflammation-related pathways. External data profiles and RT-qPCR confirmed the expression of the nine hub genes in HSCR and CD. ROC analysis revealed that the nine hub genes had a strong diagnostic value.ConclusionOur study reveals the common pathogenesis of HSCR and CD. These hub genes and diagnostic models may provide novel insight for the diagnosis and treatment of HSCR complicated with CD.

BackgroundEarly prediction and classification of prognosis is essential for patients in the coronary care unit (CCU). We applied a machine learning (ML) model using the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm to prognosticate CCU patients and compared XGBoost with traditional classification models.MethodsCCU patients' data were extracted from the MIMIC-III v1.4 clinical database, and divided into four groups based on the time to death:

Background and AimWe evaluated the clinical features of neonatal Hirschsprung's disease (HD)-associated bowel perforation (perforated HD) and investigated risk factors related to it.MethodsWe retrospectively collected clinical data of neonates (

The progression of NTLs after PCI accounts for a significant portion of future adverse cardiac events. The reduction in LDL-C reduces cardiovascular events. This has, however, not yet been shown in a real-world setting. We aimed to investigate the association between LDL-C changes with progression in NTLs. A total of 847 patients with successful PCI were enrolled. Patients with follow-up LDL-C ≥ 1.4 mmol/L or percent reduction n = 793); patients with follow-up LDL-C < 1.4 mmol/L and percent reduction ≥50% compared to baseline were Optimal group (n = 54). Compared to Non-optimal group, Optimal group presented a lower rate of NTL plaque progression (11.11% vs. 23.96%; p = 0.007) and a lower follow-up TC (2.77 ± 0.59 vs. 3.66 ± 0.97; p < 0.001) and LDL-C (1.09 ± 0.26 vs. 2.03 ± 0.71; p < 0.001). The univariate logistic regression analysis revealed that follow-up LDL-C < 1.4 mmol/L and a percent reduction ≥50% from baseline was a protective factor for NTL plaque progression (OR: 0.397; 95%CI: 0.167–0.941; p = 0.036). The multivariate logistic regression model revealed that follow-up LDL-C < 1.4 mmol/L and percent reduction ≥50% was indeed an independent factor associated with a lower rate of plaque progression of NTLs (OR: 0.398; 95% CI: 0.167–0.945; p = 0.037). Therefore, achieving guideline-recommended LDL-C level was associated with a significantly reduced risk of NTL plaque progression.

Paclobutrazol (PBZ) is a plant-growth regulator (PGR) in the triazole family that enhances plant tolerance to environmental stresses. Low-light (LL) intensity is a critical factor adversely affecting the growth of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.). Therefore, in this study, tall fescue seedlings were treated with PBZ under control and LL conditions to investigate the effects of PBZ on enhancing LL stress resistance by regulating the growth, photosynthesis, oxidative defense, and hormone levels. Our results reveal that LL stress reduced the total biomass, chlorophyll (Chl) content, photosynthetic capacity, and photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (PSII) but increased the membrane lipid peroxidation level and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. However, the application of PBZ increased the photosynthetic pigment contents, net photosynthetic rate (Pn), maximum quantum yield of PSII photochemistry (Fv/Fm), ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCO) activity, and starch content. In addition, PBZ treatment activated the antioxidant enzyme activities, antioxidants contents, ascorbate acid-glutathione (AsA-GSH) cycle, and related gene expression, lessening the ROS burst (H2O2 and O2∙−). However, the gibberellic acid (GA) anabolism was remarkably decreased by PBZ treatment under LL stress, downregulating the transcript levels of kaurene oxidase (KO), kaurenoic acid oxidase (KAO), and GA 20-oxidases (GA20ox). At the same time, PBZ treatment up-regulated 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED) gene expression, significantly increasing the endogenous abscisic acid (ABA) concentration under LL stress. Thus, our study revealed that PBZ improves the antioxidation and photosynthetic capacity, meanwhile increasing the ABA concentration and decreasing GA concentration, which ultimately enhances the LL stress tolerance in tall fescue.

Aim: Postoperative lower gastrointestinal bleeding in children with Hirschsprung's Disease (HSCR) is a non-specific symptom, which may be caused by various etiologies. Our current study aims to utilize colonoscopy to diagnose the causes of postoperative hematochezia and to analyze its feasibility, accuracy, and safety.Methods: Twenty-four patients with HSCR with postoperative lower gastrointestinal bleeding or occult blood in the stool were enrolled in this study. The postoperative onset duration, age at examination, accompanied anomalies were recorded. After bowel preparation, all patients underwent colonoscopy. According to visual findings, mucosal biopsy was performed, followed by pathological diagnosis. Further treatment was determined according to the visual findings and pathological diagnosis. All patients were followed up for 6 months including therapeutic outcomes and recurrence of symptoms.Results: The mean onset duration was (221.3 ± 216.8) days postoperatively (ranging from 25 to 768 days). The mean age at examination was (41.0 ± 29.4) months. There was no significant difference in the onset days among each group (all, p > 0.05). Based on visual and pathological findings, there were 11 cases of HSCR associated enterocolitis (HAEC), 4 cases of anastomotic leakage, 7 cases of anastomotic inflammation, 1 case of juvenile polyp, and 1 case of inflammatory pseudopolyp. Intraluminal saline irrigation, thrombin treatment or colorectal polyp electrocision was performed according to intraoperative diagnosis. Patients with HEAC and anastomotic inflammation underwent antibiotics therapy and colorectal irrigation. Patients with leakage underwent reoperation. The highest incidence of accompanied symptoms of diarrhea existed in HEAC group (p = 0.02) and fever in leakage group (p = 0.02), respectively. No perforation or aggravated bleeding occurs in any patients. All patients gained uneventful recovery during follow-up period.Conclusions: Colonoscopy is a safe, accurate and timely examination for HSCR patients with postoperative lower gastrointestinal bleeding. The visual findings and biopsy may provide accurate diagnosis and guide treatment for this subset of patients.

With the continuous increase in user-side flexible controllable resources connected into a distribution system, the components of electrical load become too diverse and difficult to be accuracy forecasted. A short-term load forecast method that integrates variational modal decomposition (VMD), gated recurrent unit (GRU) and time convolutional network (TCN) into a hybrid network is proposed in this paper. Firstly, original electrical load sequence data with noise are decomposed into intrinsic IMF components with different frequencies and amplitudes based on the VMD method. Secondly, a combined load forecasting method based on the GRU and TCN network is proposed for the high and low-frequency load subsequent signals, respectively. Finally, the high and low-frequency signals forecasting results of the GRU and TCN network are rebuilt for the final load forecasting. The experiment results based on actual operation data (data set 1) and simulation data (data set 2), which show that the proposed method can reduce the forecasting error by 36.20% and 10.8%, respectively, in comparison with VMD-GRU. The reliability and accuracy of the proposed method is verified through the comparison with other methods such as LSTM, Prophet and XG Boost.

Lipid is a crucial energy resource for mammalian oocyte. Melatonin could benefit the maturation of porcine oocyte in vitro, but the related mechanism is not elucidated yet. In the current study, methods to monitor lipid metabolism in single live oocytes were firstly established using probes (Lipi-Blue and Lipi-Green). It was observed that both lipid biogenesis and lipolysis occurred in maturing oocyte, but the general level of lipids dropped. Then maturing oocytes stained with probes were treated with melatonin or lipid metabolic-related inhibitors (triacsin C, rotenone, or etomoxir). The results showed that the lipid metabolism and maturation of porcine oocytes were all disrupted and that melatonin rescued the oocytes treated with triacsin C or rotenone, but not those treated with etomoxir. Further investigation demonstrated that cumulus cells are able to transfer lipids to oocytes via gap junctions. It was also observed that melatonin receptors exist in cumulus cells and are required for oocytes to maintain lipid metabolism. Meanwhile, the global gene expressing in cumulus cells was also modulated by melatonin, especially the genes related to antioxidants (SOD1, GPX1, GPX3, GPX4, PRDX2, and PRDX5), lipid metabolism (FABP3, FABP5, ACACB, TECR, etc.), and mitochondrial respiration (GPD1, ETFB, CYC1, and the genes of ATP synthase). Altogether the current research demonstrates that melatonin modulates lipid metabolism in maturing oocytes through its receptors in cumulus cells and benefits the developmental competence of oocytes.

Background: Mitsugumin 53 or Tripartite motif 72 (MG53/TRIM72), a myokine/cardiokine belonging to the tripartite motif family, can protect the heart from ischemic injury and regulate lipid metabolism in rodents. However, its biological function in humans remains unclear. This study sought to investigate the relationship between circulating MG53 levels and coronary artery disease (CAD).Methods: The concentration of MG53 was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in serum samples from 639 patients who underwent angiography, including 205 controls, 222 patients with stable CAD, and 212 patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Logistic and linear regression analyses were used to analyze the relationship between MG53 and CAD.Results: MG53 levels were increased in patients with stable CAD and were highest in patients with AMI. Additionally, patients with comorbidities, such as chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetes also had a higher concentration of MG53. We found that MG53 is a significant diagnostic marker of CAD and AMI, as analyzed by logistic regression models. Multivariate linear regression models revealed that serum MG53 was significantly corelated positively with SYNTAX scores. Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) scores also correlated with serum MG53 levels, indicating that MG53 levels were associated with the severity of CAD and AMI after adjusting for multiple risk factors and clinical biomarkers.Conclusion: MG53 is a valuable diagnostic marker whose serum levels correlate with the presence and severity of stable CAD and AMI, and may represent a novel biomarker for diagnosing CAD and indicating the severity of CAD.

Background: Mitsugumin 53 (MG53), a muscle-specific protein belonging to the TRIM family, has been demonstrated to protect the heart against oxidative injury. Although previous studies indicated that ischemic hearts released MG53 into circulation in mice, its effects in humans remains unknown. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of MG53 in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).Methods: Serum levels of MG53 were measured in 300 patients with STEMI, all patients were followed for 3 years. The primary endpoint was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), defined as a composite of cardiovascular (CV) death, heart failure causing-rehospitalization, recurrent myocardial infarction (MI), and stroke.Results: Patients with a higher concentration of serum MG53 tended to be older, with a history of diabetes. MG53 levels were also highly associated with indicators reflecting heart function, such as left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), N terminal pro B type natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP), and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) at baseline. Kaplan-Meier survival curves demonstrated that patients with MG53 levels above the cutoff value (132.17 pg/ml) were more likely to have MACEs. Moreover, it was found to be a significant predictor of CV death (HR: 6.12; 95% CI: 2.10–17.86; p = 0.001). Furthermore, the C-statistic and Integrated Discrimination Improvement (IDI) values for MACEs were improved with MG53 as an independent risk factor or when combined with cTnI.Conclusions: MG53 is a valuable prognostic marker of MACE in patients with AMI, independent of established conventional risk factors, highlighting the significance of MG53 in risk stratification post-MI.

Accurate load forecasting guarantees the stable and economic operation of power systems. With the increasing integration of distributed generations and electrical vehicles, the variability and randomness characteristics of individual loads and the distributed generation has increased the complexity of power loads in power systems. Hence, accurate and robust load forecasting results are becoming increasingly important in modern power systems. The paper presents a multi-layer stacked bidirectional long short-term memory (LSTM)-based short-term load forecasting framework; the method includes neural network architecture, model training, and bootstrapping. In the proposed method, reverse computing is combined with forward computing, and a feedback calculation mechanism is designed to solve the coupling of before and after time-series information of the power load. In order to improve the convergence of the algorithm, deep learning training is introduced to mine the correlation between historical loads, and the multi-layer stacked style of the network is established to manage the power load information. Finally, actual data are applied to test the proposed method, and a comparison of the results of the proposed method with different methods shows that the proposed method can extract dynamic features from the data as well as make accurate predictions, and the availability of the proposed method is verified with real operational data.

Detection ofde novo, low frequency mutations is important for characterising heterogeneous cell populations, such as those found in cancer cell populations. Here the authors present o2n-seq, an ultrasensitive method with highly efficient data usage for detection of rare mutations.

Soil microbial composition and diversity are widely recognized for their role in ecological functioning. This study examined the differences of soil microbial communities between two seasonally grazed grasslands. The study area was in the Gansu red deer farm located on the Qilian Mountain range in the Gansu province of northwestern China. This farm adopted a seasonal rotation grazing system whereby grasslands at higher altitudes are grazed in summer (SG), whilst grasslands at lower altitudes are grazed in winter (WG). The soil bacterial and fungal communities were examined by Illumina MiSeq sequencing. We found that soil water content (SWC), organic carbon (OC), total carbon (TC), and total nitrogen (TN) were significantly higher, whereas the C/N ratio was significantly lower in SG than WG pastures. The α-diversity of bacteria was greater than that of fungi in both pastures, while both bacterial and fungal α-diversity were not significantly different between the pastures. The bacterial β-diversity was significantly different between the pastures, but fungal β-diversity was not. The bacterial phylum Actinobacteria and fungal phylum Ascomycota were dominant in both pastures. The relative abundance of Actinobacteria in soil was significantly higher in WG pastures, whereas the relative abundance of Proteobacteria in soil was significantly higher in SG pastures. Significant correlations between bacterial and fungal phyla and soil properties were observed, but this varied between the two grasslands. This study showed that distinct microbial community structures developed in two pastures within the same geographic location that were grazed in different seasons.

Automatic sleep stage classification of multi-channel sleep signals can help clinicians efficiently evaluate an individual’s sleep quality and assist in diagnosing a possible sleep disorder. To obtain accurate sleep classification results, the processing flow of results from signal preprocessing and machine-learning-based classification is typically employed. These classification results are refined based on sleep transition rules. Neural networks—i.e., machine learning algorithms—are powerful at solving classification problems. Some methods apply them to the first two processes above; however, the refinement process continues to be based on traditional methods. In this study, the sleep stage refinement process was incorporated into the neural network model to form real end-to-end processing. In addition, for multi-channel signals, the multi-branch convolutional neural network was combined with a proposed residual attention method. This approach further improved the model classification accuracy. The proposed method was evaluated on the Sleep-EDF Expanded Database (Sleep-EDFx) and University College Dublin Sleep Apnea Database (UCDDB). It achieved respective accuracy rates of 85.7% and 79.4%. The results also showed that sleep stage refinement based on a neural network is more effective than the traditional refinement method. Moreover, the proposed residual attention method was determined to have a more robust channel–information fusion ability than the respective average and concatenation methods.

The anti-inflammatory activity of melatonin (MT) has been well documented; however, little is known regarding endogenously occurring MT in this respect, especially for large animals. In the current study, we created a MT-enriched animal model (goats) overexpressing the MT synthetase gene Aanat. The responses of these animals to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation were systematically studied. It was found that LPS treatment exacerbated the inflammatory response in wild-type (WT) goats and increased their temperature to 40 °C. In addition, their granulocyte counts were also significantly elevated. In contrast, these symptoms were not observed in transgenic goats with LPS treatment. The rescue study with MT injection into WT goats who were treated with LPS confirmed that the protective effects in transgenic goats against LPS were attributed to a high level of endogenously produced MT. The proteomic analysis in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from the transgenic animals uncovered several potential mechanisms. MT suppressed the lysosome formation as well as its function by downregulation of the lysosome-associated genes Lysosome-associated membrane protein 2 (LAMP2), Insulin-like growth factor 2 receptor (IGF2R), and Arylsulfatase B (ARSB). A high level of MT enhanced the antioxidant capacity of these cells to reduce the cell apoptosis induced by the LPS. In addition, the results also uncovered previously unknown information that showed that MT may have protective effects on some human diseases, including tuberculosis, bladder cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis, by downregulation of these disease-associated genes. All these observations warranted further investigations.

Background: Cholangitis is common in patients with biliary atresia following Kasai portoenterostomy (KPE). The prompt use of empiric antibiotics is essential due to the lack of identified microorganisms. The authors aimed to validate a severity grading system to guide empiric antibiotic therapy in the management of post-KPE cholangitis. Materials and methods: This multicenter, prospective, randomized, open-label study recruited patients with post-KPE cholangitis and was conducted from January 2018 to December 2019. On admission, patients were categorized into mild, moderate, and severe cholangitis according to the severity grading system. Patients in the mild cholangitis group were randomized to receive cefoperazone sodium tazobactam sodium (CSTS) or meropenem (MEPM). Patients with severe cholangitis were randomized to treatment with MEPM or a combination of MEPM plus immunoglobulin (MEPM +IVIG). Patients with moderate cholangitis received MEPM. Results: The primary endpoint was duration of fever (DOF). Secondary outcomes included blood culture, length of hospital stay, incidence of recurrent cholangitis, jaundice clearance rate, and native liver survival (NLS). For mild cholangitis, DOF, and length of hospital stay were similar between those treated with CSTS or MEPM (all P> 0.05). In addition, no significant difference in recurrence rate, jaundice clearance rate, and NLS was observed between patients treated with CSTS and MEPM at 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month follow-up. In patients with moderate cholangitis, the DOF was 36.00 (interquartile range: 24.00-48.00) h. In severe cholangitis, compared with MEPM, MEPM+IVIG decreased DOF and improved liver function by reducing alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyl transferase, and direct bilirubin at 1-month follow-up. However, recurrence rate, jaundice clearance rate, and NLS did not differ significantly between MEPM+ IVIG and MEPM at 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month follow-up. Conclusions: In patients with post-KPE cholangitis, MEPM is not superior to CSTS for the treatment of mild cholangitis. However, MEPM+ IVIG treatment was associated with better short-term clinical outcomes in patients with severe cholangitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to understand the influence of dislocation substructures on the size-dependent strength (smaller is stronger) of micron-sized metals, we have fabricated single-crystal cylindrical micropillars with various diameters approximately ranging from 1 to 10 µm, which were prepared on the surface of the fully annealed sample and the subsequently cold-rolled samples of high-purity aluminum (Al). The annealed micropillars exhibited a size dependence of the resolved shear stress required for slip. The shear stress (,i) normalized by shear modulus (G) and the specimen diameter (d) normalized by Burgers vector (b) followed the correlation of ,i/G = 0.33(d/b)-0.63. The size-dependent strength was reduced by cold-rolling, resulting in lower power-law exponents (0.26-0.31) for the correlation in the cold-rolled specimens. The fine dislocation substructures introduced by the cold-rolling could be associated with the reduced size-dependent strength, which can be rationalized using the stochastic model of the dislocation source length in an assumption of homogenously distributed dislocations existing in the experimental micropillars. The inhomogeneous dislocation substructure with various dislocation cell sizes would contribute to a variation in the measured strength depending on the location, likely due to the probability of exiting the dislocation cell walls (local variation in dislocation density) in the micropillars fabricated on the cold-rolled Al samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]