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Abstract Hormone receptor-positive breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent subtype of BC and is generally correlated with a favorable prognosis. This study aimed to determine the incidence and survival trends among women diagnosed with hormone receptor-positive BC between 1990 and 2019. Female patients with hormone receptor-positive BC for calendar years 1990–2019 were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database and categorized into six diagnostic groups according to the year of diagnosis. Age-adjusted incidence rates (IRs) were calculated using joinpoint regression. We used the Kaplan–Meier method and multivariate Cox regression analyses to determine the association between diagnostic groups, and overall survival (OS) and BC-specific survival (BCSS). The final analysis included 370,729 women, among whom 37,943 (10.2%), 49,266 (13.3%), 55,652 (15.0%), 64,451 (17.4%), 77,127 (20.8%), and 86,290 (23.3%) were diagnosed between 1990 and 1994, 1995–1999, 2000–2004, 2005–2009, 2010–2014, and 2015–2019, respectively. Within the overall cohort, IRs gradually increased from 70 per 100,000 in 1990 to 113 per 100,000 in 2019 (average annual percent change, 1.59%; 95% CI, 1.18–1.99). Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the survival outcomes gradually improved over nearly three decades among hormone receptor-positive BC patients, with a 0.8% and 1.3% decrease in risk for all-cause and BC-specific mortality each year, respectively. Compared to 1990–1994, hormone receptor-positive BC patients diagnosed in 2015–2019 had a 22% lower risk of all-cause death (hazard ratio [HR], 0.78; 95% CI, 0.76–0.81) and a 27% lower risk of BC-specific death (HR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.70–0.76). The development of treatment strategies within the past three decades, especially endocrine therapy, may contribute to the continuous improvement of clinical outcomes in patients with hormone receptor-positive BC.

Abstract Background Racial and ethnic disparities in mortality persist among US cancer survivors, with social determinants of health (SDoH) may have a significant impact on these disparities. Methods A population-based cohort study of a nationally representative sample of adult cancer survivors, who participated in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2018 was included. Sociodemographic characteristics and SDoH were self-reported using standardized questionnaires in each survey cycle. The SDoH was examined by race and estimated for associations with primary outcomes, which included all-cause and cancer-specific mortality. Multiple mediation analysis was performed to assess the contribution of each unfavorable SDoH to racial disparities to all-cause and cancer-specific mortality. Results Among 5163 cancer survivors (2724 [57.7%] females and 3580 [69.3%] non-Hispanic White individuals), only 881 (24.9%) did not report an unfavorable SDoH. During the follow-up period of up to 249 months (median 81 months), 1964 deaths were recorded (cancer, 624; cardiovascular, 529; other causes, 811). Disparities in all-cause and cancer-specific mortality were observed between non-Hispanic Black and White cancer survivors. Unemployment, lower economic status, education less than high school, government or no private insurance, renting a home or other arrangements, and social isolation were significantly and independently associated with worse overall survival. Unemployment, lower economic status, and social isolation were significantly associated with cancer-specific mortality. Compared to patients without an unfavorable SDoH, the risk of all-cause mortality was gradually increased in those with a cumulative number of unfavorable SDoHs (1 unfavorable SDoH: hazard ratio [HR] = 1.54, 95% CI 1.25–1.89; 2 unfavorable SDoHs: HR = 1.81, 95% CI 1.46–2.24; 3 unfavorable SDoHs: HR = 2.42, 95% CI 1.97–2.97; 4 unfavorable SDoHs: HR = 3.22, 95% CI 2.48–4.19; 5 unfavorable SDoHs: HR = 3.99, 95% CI 2.99–5.33; 6 unfavorable SDoHs: HR = 6.34 95% CI 4.51–8.90). A similar trend existed for cancer-specific mortality. Conclusions In this cohort study of a nationally representative sample of US cancer survivors, a greater number of unfavorable SDoH was associated with increased risks of mortality from all causes and cancer. Unfavorable SDoH levels were critical risk factors for all-cause and cancer-specific mortality, as well as the underlying cause of racial all-cause mortality disparities among US cancer survivors.

Abstract Background The global COVID‐19 pandemic presented an immense obstacle to public health, with vaccination emerging as a crucial measure to curb transmission. This study aimed to evaluate the willingness, hesitancy, and coverage of SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccines among healthcare workers (HCWs) in Tanzania and reveal their concerns about SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccines and the reasons that might prevent them from getting vaccinated. Methods We conducted a cross‐sectional study using an anonymous online survey from October to November 2022. The multivariate logistic regression model explored the factors associated with SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccine willingness, hesitancy, and coverage. Results The study included 560 HCWs, with the largest group being doctors (47.9%), followed by nurses (26.9%) and other HCWs (25.2%). A total of 70.5% of HCWs reported being vaccinated against SARS‐CoV‐2. The primary driver for SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccination was collective responsibility. A total of 81.4% of HCWs reported being willing to accept SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccines, while 62.5% of HCWs reported vaccine hesitancy. HCWs with higher educational qualifications were likelier to take the vaccine, while the respondents aged 18–30 years had the highest SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccination refusal (71.9%). We also investigated the role of HCWs as a source of information to promote COVID‐19 vaccine uptake. 79.4% of HCWs provided information and advice on SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccines. Conclusion To increase vaccine acceptance among HCWs and the general population, targeted messaging is needed to deliver transparent information on vaccine safety, efficacy, and development.

In recent years, pollution caused by the discharge of industrial wastewater into Bohai Bay has posed a potential threat to the health of surrounding residents. Sludge was collected from the outlet of a factory that discharges effluent into Bohai Bay, and alcohol extracts of sludge (SE) were prepared. We confirmed by UPLC-MS/MS analysis that the SE contained PAHs, including fluorene, pyrene, and phenanthrene. Zebrafish embryos as animal models were exposed to 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1 and 5 ​mg/mL SE from 2 to 4 ​h post-fertilization (hpf) until 120 hpf. The results showed that SE caused a concentration-dependent increase in mortality and a decrease in hatchability. We found that SE significantly reduced eye pigmentation and decreased the movement of embryos and larvae. In addition, SE decreased triiodothyronine (T3) content and down-regulated the mRNA expression of some thyroid hormone-related genes including TPO and Thrβ, and caused the up-regulation of Dio2 and Dio3 at 120 hpf. Exposure to three individual PAHs found in SE, namely fluorene, pyrene, and phenanthrene, caused morphological and transcriptional changes that were similar to those caused by SE exposure. These findings indicate that PAHs in SE can reduce the pigmentation of zebrafish, which may be related to the genetic changes associated with thyroid hormones, and that zebrafish eye pigmentation can be used as an indicator of PAHs exposure.

ObjectiveAlthough Leflunomide (LEF) is effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA), there are still a considerable number of patients who respond poorly to LEF treatment. Till date, few LEF efficacy-predicting biomarkers have been identified. Herein, we explored and developed a DNA methylation-based predictive model for LEF-treated RA patient prognosis.MethodsTwo hundred forty-five RA patients were prospectively enrolled from four participating study centers. A whole-genome DNA methylation profiling was conducted to identify LEF-related response signatures via comparison of 40 samples using Illumina 850k methylation arrays. Furthermore, differentially methylated positions (DMPs) were validated in the 245 RA patients using a targeted bisulfite sequencing assay. Lastly, prognostic models were developed, which included clinical characteristics and DMPs scores, for the prediction of LEF treatment response using machine learning algorithms.ResultsWe recognized a seven-DMP signature consisting of cg17330251, cg19814518, cg20124410, cg21109666, cg22572476, cg23403192, and cg24432675, which was effective in predicting RA patient’s LEF response status. In the five machine learning algorithms, the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm provided the best predictive model, with the largest discriminative ability, accuracy, and stability. Lastly, the AUC of the complex model(the 7-DMP scores with the lymphocyte and the diagnostic age) was higher than the simple model (the seven-DMP signature, AUC:0.74 vs 0.73 in the test set).ConclusionIn conclusion, we constructed a prognostic model integrating a 7-DMP scores with the clinical patient profile to predict responses to LEF treatment. Our model will be able to effectively guide clinicians in determining whether a patient is LEF treatment sensitive or not.

In this work, a comparison between Quartz Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (QEPAS) and Beat Frequency-QEPAS (BF-QEPAS) techniques for environmental monitoring of pollutants is reported. A spectrophone composed of a T-shaped Quartz Tuning Fork (QTF) coupled with resonator tubes was employed as a detection module. An interband cascade laser has been used as an exciting source, allowing the targeting of two NO absorption features, located at 1900.07 cm−1 and 1900.52 cm−1, and a water vapor absorption feature, located at 1901.76 cm−1. Minimum detection limits of 90 ppb and 180 ppb were achieved with QEPAS and BF-QEPAS techniques, respectively, for NO detection. The capability to detect multiple components in the same gas mixture using BF-QEPAS was also demonstrated.

Bringing enzymes and substrates together in confined compartments within porous systems can offer enhanced catalytic efficiency and increased lifetimes for the encapsulated enzymes. Here, the authors construct enzymatic compartments by spatiotemporal control of the self-assembly of catalytic peptide TPE-Q18H in hollow glucan particles, and demonstrate enhanced substrate-binding affinity and reaction kinetics as well as increased thermostability and resistance to hydrolysis.

Abstract Objective Resveratrol (RSV) is a polyphenol compound found in grapes, veratrum and other plants. It has been reported that RSV has anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-cancer and other pharmacological effects. However, the impacts of RSV on development of nervous system are not understood well. The study aims to investigate RSV’s neuroprotective effect during development and to provide a health care for pregnant women and their fetuses with RSV supplementation. Methods In this study, we induced human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to form the embryoid bodies (EBs) and cerebral organoids (COs) with 3 dimensional (3D) culture. In the meantime, D-galactose (D-gal, 5 mg/ml) was used to make nervous injury model, and on the other hand, RSV with various doses, such as 2 μm/L, 10 μm/L, 50 μm/L, were applied to understand its neuroprotection. Therefore, the cultures were divided into control group, D-gal nervous injury group and RSV intervention groups. After that, the diameters of EBs and COs were measured regularly under a reverted microscope. In the meantime, the neural proliferation, cell apoptosis and the differentiation of germ layers were detected via immunofluorescence. Results (1) D-gal could delay the development of EBs and COs; (2) RSV could rescue the atrophy of EBs and COs caused by D-gal; (3) RSV showed its neuroprotection, through promoting the neural cell proliferation, inhibiting apoptosis and accelerating the differentiation of germ layers. Conclusion RSV has a neuroprotective effect on the development of the nervous system, suggesting RSV supplementation may be necessary during the health care of pregnancy and childhood.

Hydrogen can alleviate the increasing environmental pollution and has good development prospects in power generation due to its high calorific value and low environmental impact. The previously designed hydrogen-fired combined cycle ignored water recycling, which led to an inefficient application of hydrogen and the wastage of water. This paper proposes the concept of a hydrogen-fired combined cycle with water recovery to reuse the condensed water as an industrial heat supply. It was applied to an F-class combined cycle power plant. The results demonstrate that the efficiency of hydrogen-fired combined cycles with and without water recovery increased by 1.92% and 1.35%, respectively, compared to that of the natural-gas-fired combined cycle under full working conditions. In addition, an economic comparison of the three cycles was conducted. The levelized cost of energy of the hydrogen-fired combined cycle with water recovery will be 52.22% lower than that of the natural-gas-fired combined cycle in 2050. This comparative study suggested that water recovery supplementation could improve the gas turbine efficiency. The proposed hydrogen-fired combined cycle with water recovery would provide both environmental and economic benefits.

The deployment of low earth orbits is seen as a promising way of enlarging data capacities as well as high data rates. Catering to these interests, optical communication presents possible ways of larger bandwidth than microwave communication. The current generation of mainstream communication systems are classified as coherent systems and incoherent systems, and in particular, coherent systems have received more attention owing to their high receiving sensitivity. This study investigates a digital coherent transceiver, based on binary phase-shift keying technology. As coherent demodulation will be affected by considering the Doppler shift effect in digital demodulation, Doppler shift of ± GHz can be compensated by adopting a two-stage frequency offset compensation. Moreover, by leveraging a fast filtering algorithm a considerable amount of resource consumption is saved in its engineering implementation, and its sensitivity can be significantly enhanced via a high-speed parallel error-correction codec based on low-density parity-check technology.

BackgroundAirflow obstruction is a critical element of chronic airway diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of preoperative airflow obstruction on the prognosis of patients following surgery for esophageal carcinoma.MethodsA total of 821 esophageal cancer patients were included and classified into two groups based on whether or not they had preoperative airflow obstruction. Airflow obstruction was defined as a forced expiration volume in the first second (FEV1)/forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio below the lower limit of normal (LLN). A retrospective analysis of the impact of airflow obstruction on the survival of patients with esophageal carcinoma undergoing esophagectomy was performed.ResultsPatients with airflow obstruction (102/821, 12.4%) had lower three-year overall (42/102, 58.8%) and progression-free survival rate (47/102, 53.9%) than those without airflow obstruction (P

Soil freezing characteristic curve (SFCC) defines the relationship between unfrozen water content and subzero temperature. The SFCC is widely applied to estimate the soil properties. The current study explored the effects of initial water content, dry density, soil type and desalination on the SFCC during a freezing-thawing process. It showed that the initial water content, soil type and desalination had great impacts on SFCC, while the dry density had an insignificant effect on SFCC. Hysteresis behavior was observed for all the soil samples. The hysteresis behavior was obvious in the temperature range of -5°C < T < 0, but not obvious in the temperature range of T ≤ -10 °C. A new equation containing freezing/thawing point was proposed to model the SFCC. The new model and four SFCC models were evaluated with measured data in this study. It showed that the new model performed best among these models. The new model accurately mimics the SFCC and is continuous near the freezing/thawing point and 0 °C. It can be easily incorporated into numerical algorithms for coupled heat and mass transfer in cold regions.

The deformation and failure of loess in areas of high seismic intensity are closely related to the dynamic vulnerability, which is primarily controlled by the loess microstructure. This study performed a series of dynamic triaxial tests and microstructure tests on intact loess to track and quantitatively characterize the evolution of the three-dimensional microstructure during deformation. The microstructural observations were performed using micro-CT on the samples after varying vibration times. The microstructure parameters (including pore radius, elongation, orientation, coordination number, pore throat area, and channel length) were obtained using a reconstructed pore network model. The results of this study demonstrated that the loess seismic subsidence originated from both compositional and microstructural characteristics. The intact loess had a loose structure with high porosity and limited cementation. Upon cyclic loading, cementation and contact breakdown led to the failure of the loess structure, followed by particle rearrangement. With increasing vibration times, the spaced and inter-aggregate pores became intra-aggregate pores, the pore throat size tended to decrease while the pore number tended to increase, the connectivity tended to weaken, and the shape tended to be long and flat. Pores >28 μm mainly provided spatial conditions for collapse deformation under seismic load. In addition, under the ultimate loading, large-volume cracks occurred inside the sample. The findings of this study provide further insights into loess seismic subsidence from the perspective of three-dimensional microstructures and a research basis for analyzing the stability of loess in relation to construction projects by combining finite and discrete elements.

Computer game is the drosophila in the field of artificial intelligence, which has attracted the attention of researchers in artificial intelligence, and has become an advantageous testbed for the research of cognitive intelligence.Poker game can be modeled as dynamic games with imperfect information, definite boundaries and fixed rules.Computer poker AI needs such abilities as dynamic decision-making with incomplete information, identification of misleading and fraudulent behaviors by opponents, and multi-round chips and risk management.Firstly , the development of computer poker game was introduced, which represented by Texas Hold’em poker.Then, typical intelligence game model algorithm, key techniques and existing main problems of computer poker were reviewed analysis.Finally, the future development trends and application prospect of computer intelligent poker game were discussed for cognitive intelligence.

This paper used the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method to construct a three-dimensional mathematical model of the selective laser melting (SLM) process of 304 L austenitic stainless steel. Important driving force models for the melt pool in the SLM process were developed, including a surface tension model, a boundary normal-modified wetting effect model, a Marangoni shear force model, and a recoil pressure model. Meanwhile, the virtual particle boundary method prevented particles from flying over the solid boundary. Artificial viscosity, artificial stress, and artificial heat were added to correct the SPH equation, which provided a guarantee for the accuracy and speed of the numerical simulation of the SLM process. Finally, the temperature field and velocity field in the SLM process were explored according to the constructed mathematical model. The evolution mechanism in the melting process was analyzed, and the influence of different laser powers on the shape of the molten pool was mainly analyzed, which provided a reference for optimizing the laser parameters to reduce the surface roughness of the formed specimen.

Background: Overweight and hyperglycemia might result in poor prognosis in patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia (SCAP). XueBiJing treatment could significantly improve the outcomes of patients with SCAP. We investigated the efficacy of XueBiJing injection in patients with SCAP stratified by body mass index (BMI) and fasting blood glucose (FBG).Methods: This is a post hoc analysis of XueBiJing trial, a large prospective, randomized, controlled study conducted in 33 hospitals in China. We compared data from non-overweight (BMI 0.05).Conclusion: Overweight or hyperglycemia might weaken the efficacy of XueBiJing injection in the treatment of SCAP as indicated by the significant elevated risk of 28-day mortality. Additional studies are needed to validate our findings and to further understand the underlying mechanisms.

Rosa roxburghii tratt (R. roxburghii) is an important plant resource that is widely distributed in the southwest of China and favored by consumers due to its high nutritional value and healthy functions. Meanwhile, it is a traditional edible and medicinal plant in China. With the deepening research of R. roxburghii, more and more bioactive components and its health care and medicinal value have been discovered and developed in recent years. This review summarizes and discusses the recent advances on main active ingredients such as vitamin, protein, amino acid, superoxide dismutase, polysaccharide, polyphenol, flavonoid, triterpenoid and mineral, and pharmacological activities including antioxidant activity, immunomodulatory activity, anti-tumor activity, glucose and lipid metabolism regulation, anti-radiation effect, detoxification effect, and viscera protection of R. roxbughii, as well as its development and utilization. The research status and existing problems of R. roxburghii development and quality control are also briefly introduced. This review ends with some suggestions on the perspectives and directions for future research and potential applications of R. roxbughii.

Thermoelectric (TE) technology, which can convert scrap heat into electricity, has attracted considerable attention. However, broader applications of TE are hindered by lacking high-performance thermoelectric materials, which can be effectively progressed by regulating the carrier concentration. In this work, a series of PbSe(NaCl)x (x = 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5) samples were synthesized through the NaCl salt-assisted approach with Na+ and Cl− doped into their lattice. Both theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that manipulating the carrier concentration by adjusting the content of NaCl is conducive to upgrading the electrical transport properties of the materials. The carrier concentration elevated from 2.71 × 1019 cm−3 to 4.16 × 1019 cm−3, and the materials demonstrated a maximum power factor of 2.9 × 10−3 W m−1 K−2. Combined with an ultralow lattice thermal conductivity of 0.7 W m−1 K−1, a high thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) with 1.26 at 690 K was attained in PbSe(NaCl)4.5. This study provides a guideline for chemical doping to improve the thermoelectric properties of PbSe further and promote its applications.

Recently, massive efforts have been made to control phonon transport via introducing disorder. Meanwhile, materials informatics, an advanced material-discovery technology that combines data-driven search algorithms and material property simulations, has made significant progress and shown accurate prediction ability in studying the target properties of new materials. However, with the introduction of disorder, the design space of random structures is greatly expanded. Global optimization for the entire domain is nearly impossible with the current computer resource even when materials informatics reduces the design space to a few percent. Toward the goal of reducing design space, we investigate the effect of different types of disorders on phonon transport in two-dimensional graphene/hexagonal boron nitride heterostructure using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation. The simulation results show that when the hexagonal boron nitride is distributed disorderly in the coherent phonon-dominated structure, that is, the structure with a period length of 1.23 nm, the thermal conductivity is significantly reduced due to the appearance of coherent phonon localization. By qualitatively analyzing different types of disorder, we found that the introduction of disordered structure in the cross direction with a larger shift distance can further reduce the thermal conductivity. Further physical mechanism analysis revealed that the structures with lower thermal conductivity were caused by weak propagation and strong localization of phonon. Our findings have implications for accelerating machine learning in the search for structures with the lowest thermal conductivity, and provide some guidance for the future synthesis of 2D heterostructures with unique thermal properties.

Abstract Purpose Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a disease with a high disability rate, resulting in severe family and social burden. The aim of treatment is to improve the health-related quality of life (QoL) of patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the QoL of patients with RA in Northeast China and analyze its influencing factors. Methods The study group consisted of 200 patients diagnosed with RA. The control group consisted of 200 healthy subjects. All subjects were residents in Northeast China. The investigation was conducted by questionnaire survey and electronic medical record. The WHOQOL-BREF, The Short-Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) and Quality of Life Instruments for Chronic Diseases-RA (QLICD-RA) were used as questionnaires. Results The QoL scores acquired by SF-36, WHOQOL-BREF and QLICD-RA scales showed significant differences between RA and control groups (P

With the rapid development of 5G technology in recent years, multimedia communication services, such as live online and short video, have received wide attention and become the important means of people's daily social intercourse. However, the rapid growth of multimedia communication demands pose greater challenges to both the wireless network communication capacity and the network processing capacity. Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is widely regarded as a promising technology to cope with the above challenges. To satisfy the growing demands and improve the quality of experience for users, it is in urge need to seek the effective and efficient task assignment and computing offloading strategy for MEC networks. In this paper, we focused on the multimedia services which need to be processed, uploaded and shared in the network and research the long-term task assignment and resource coordination problem. We formulate the optimization problem as a stochastic optimization problem with the aim of the minimizing the time-average energy consumption of the system. By using the Lyapunov optimization technique, we decompose the original problem into several subproblems which can be solved with current system information and low computational complexities. On this basis, we propose an online energy-efficient task assignment and computing offloading strategy to adaptively decide the task assignment, coordinate and optimize the wireless and computation resource allocation by taking the dynamic wireless condition and service delay constraints into consideration. Extensive simulation results show that our proposed algorithm can achieve considerate energy consumption and delay performances under different conditions.

Low temperature is a common biological abiotic stress in major cotton-growing areas. Cold stress significantly affects the growth, yield, and yield quality of cotton. Therefore, it is important to develop more robust and cold stress-resilient cotton germplasms. In response to climate change and erratic weather conditions, plants have evolved various survival mechanisms, one of which involves the induction of various stress responsive transcript factors, of which the C-repeat-binding factors (CBFs) have a positive effect in enhancing plants response to cold stress. In this study, genomewide identification and functional characterization of the cotton CBFs were carried out. A total of 29, 28, 25, 21, 30, 26, and 15 proteins encoded by the CBF genes were identified in seven Gossypium species. A phylogenetic evaluation revealed seven clades, with Clades 1 and 6 being the largest. Moreover, the majority of the proteins encoded by the genes were predicted to be located within the nucleus, while some were distributed in other parts of the cell. Based on the transcriptome and RT-qPCR analysis, Gthu17439 (GthCBF4) was highly upregulated and was further validated through forward genetics. The Gthu17439 (GthCBF4) overexpressed plants exhibited significantly higher tolerance to cold stress, as evidenced by the higher germination rate, increased root growth, and high-induction levels of stress-responsive genes. Furthermore, the overexpressed plants under cold stress had significantly reduced oxidative damage due to a reduction in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production. Moreover, the overexpressed plants under cold stress had minimal cell damage compared to the wild types, as evidenced by the Trypan and 3,3′-Diaminobenzidine (DAB) staining effect. The results showed that the Gthu17439 (GthCBF4) could be playing a significant role in enhancing cold stress tolerance in cotton and can be further exploited in developing cotton germplasm with improved cold-stress tolerance.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is one of the gram-negative bacteria that mainly colonize the stomach mucosa and cause many gastrointestinal diseases, such as gastritis, peptic ulcer, and gastric cancer. Macrophages play a key role in eradicating H. pylori. Recent data have shown that Notch signaling could modulate the activation and bactericidal activities of macrophages. However, the role of Notch signaling in macrophages against H. pylori remains unclear. In the present study, in the co-culture model of macrophages with H. pylori, the inhibition of Notch signaling using γ-secretase decreased the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and its product, nitric oxide (NO), and downregulated the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokine and attenuated phagocytosis and bactericidal activities of macrophages to H. pylori. Furthermore, we identified that Jagged1, one of Notch signaling ligands, was both upregulated in mRNA and protein level in activated macrophages induced by H. pylori. Clinical specimens showed that the number of Jagged1+ macrophages in the stomach mucosa from H. pylori-infected patients was significantly higher than that in healthy control. The overexpression of Jagged1 promoted bactericidal activities of macrophages against H. pylori and siRNA-Jagged1 presented the opposite effect. Besides, the addition of exogenous rJagged1 facilitated the pro-inflammatory mediators of macrophages against H. pylori, but the treatment of anti-Jagged1 neutralizing antibody attenuated it. Taken together, these results suggest that Jagged1 is a promoting molecule for macrophages against H. pylori, which will provide insight for exploring Jagged1 as a novel therapeutic target for the control of H. pylori infection.

With the rapid development of mobile communication technology, short video applications, which combine the features of both social and multimedia applications, have become more and more popular. However, the transmission of short videos poses great challenges to the existing mobile networks. In this paper, mobile edge computing is adopted to provide content caching of short videos close to end users. To improve the quality of service, we take both the quality level of the video and the long-term wireless network transmission performance into consideration. The joint video quality selection and radio bearer control optimization problem is formulated as a Markov decision process, aiming at maximizing the long-term video quality profit and minimizing the cost of bearers and the penalty of latency. Deep reinforcement learning is used as the solution and the policy gradient based quality selection and radio bearer control method is proposed. The REINFORCE algorithm with baseline is used to train the policy network, and the episodic simulations are built to obtain the training samples. Different weight coefficients of the objective function are configured. Training results show that the proposed method can achieve the best accumulated value among all the comparison methods. When the weight coefficients are changed, the training processes can lead the policy networks to obtain proper trade-off between different objective factors. Moreover, the performance of the trained policy network is evaluated with different short video request arriving rates. Testing results show that the proposed method performs well when the arriving rates vary in a certain range.

Background: Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease characterized by typical autoantibody production and lymphocytic-mediated exocrine gland damage. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a common complication of pSS and can be associated with a poor prognosis. However, the pathogenesis of ILD in pSS is still unclear.Methods: In this study, we used RNA sequencing to investigate the gene-expression profile of the minor salivary glands (MSGs) from 36 patients with ILD-pSS and 128 patients with non-ILD-pSS.Results: In the remarkably enriched chemokine-mediated signaling pathway, C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 2 (CXCR2), a receptor for interleukin-8, which participates in the activation of neutrophils, was found to be significantly elevated in both MSG and plasma from pSS patients with vs. without ILD (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the CXCR2 expression level in MSG and plasma was significantly associated with the diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and EULAR Sjögren’s Syndrome disease Activity Index in ILD-pSS.Conclusion: Therefore, with its potential role in ILD progression in patients with pSS and its strong association with clinical manifestations of the disease, CXCR2 may serve as a useful index for disease activity in ILD associated with pSS.

In this work, we report on a quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) sensor for hydrogen sulfide (H2S) detection, exploiting a liquid-nitrogen-cooled THz quantum cascade laser (QCL) operating in pulsed mode. The spectrophone was designed to accommodate a THz QCL beam and consisted of a custom quartz tuning fork with a large prong spacing, coupled with acoustic resonator tubes. The targeted rotational transition falls at 2.87 THz (95.626 cm−1), with a line-strength of 5.53 ∙ 10-20 cm/mol. A THz QCL peak power of 150 mW was measured at a heat sink temperature of 81 K, pulse width of 1 μs and repetition rate of 15.8 kHz. A QEPAS record sensitivity for H2S detection in the THz range of 360 part-per-billion in volume was achieved at a gas pressure of 60 Torr and 10 s integration time.

The University-Enterprise-Cooperation (UEC) has been adopted by many universities globally to effectively utilize the high-quality resources of the construction industry, to improve the general competence, problem-solving skills and innovation capability of graduates of an engineering discipline. There are a limited amount of papers published in international journals on UEC, compared to a significant volume of Chinese published literature. However, based on the best knowledge of the authors, no existing literature has conducted a quantitative statistical analysis on UEC research in Chinese and international journals. In order to fill this knowledge gap, 300 high-quality papers on UEC were derived through the Chinese CNKI database from 2010-2019. The general development trend of UEC research in the past 30 years was also mapped and analyzed. The most popular topics under the UEC theme and the most frequently adopted research methods within the UEC field were also identified. It was found that since the first UEC publication in 1990, the number of UEC publications experienced a steady increase during the last decade, aiding by strong promotion from the government and active practice within universities and from educators in China. Course development (52.94%) and practice resource development (24.89%) were two of the most popular research topics in the UEC field. The elaboration research method was adopted by more than half (55.94%) of UEC papers, followed by case study (21.25%). The findings of this study are valuable for researchers and practitioners globally, to better understand the development status of UEC research in China and embark on future research in this field.

Abstract Percutaneous coronary intervention for coronary artery disease treatment often results in pathological vascular injury, characterized by P‐selectin overexpression. Adipose‐derived stem cells (ADSCs) therapeutic efficacy remains elusive due to poor ADSCs targeting and retention in injured vessels. Here, conjugated P‐selectin binding peptide (PBP) to polyethylene glycol‐conjugated phospholipid derivative (DMPE‐PEG) linkers (DMPE‐PEG‐PBP; DPP) are used to facilitate the modification of PBP onto ADSCs cell surfaces via hydrophobic interactions between DMPE‐PEG and the phospholipid bilayer. DPP modification neither has influence on ADSCs proliferation nor apoptosis/paracrine factor gene expression. A total of 5 × 10−6 m DPP‐modified ADSCs (DPP‐ADSCs) strongly binds to P‐selectin‐displaying activated platelets and endothelial cells (ECs) in vitro and to wire‐injured rat femoral arteries when administered by intra‐arterial injection. Targeted binding of ADSCs shields injury sites from platelet and leukocyte adhesion, thereby decreasing inflammation at injury sites. Furthermore, targeted binding of ADSCs recovers injured ECs functionality and reduces platelet‐initiated vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) chemotactic migration. Targeted binding of DPP‐human ADSCs to balloon‐injured human femoral arteries is also demonstrated in ex vivo experiments. Overall, DPP‐ADSCs promote vascular repair, inhibit neointimal hyperplasia, increase endothelium functionality, and maintain normal VSMCs alignment, supporting preclinical noninvasive utilization of DPP‐ADSCs for vascular injury.

Diabetic nephropathy is a common complication in diabetes, but still lack of effective therapeutic strategies. This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in db/db mice with diabetic nephropathy and explore its possible metabolic mechanisms using a nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomic approach. We found that bFGF treatment significantly alleviate urinary albumin to creatinine ratio and renal fibrosis in db/db mice, suggesting a potential renal protective effect. Metabolomics results reveal that bFGF remodeled metabolic phenotypes of the kidney and urine in db/db mice, mainly involving energy metabolism, methylamine metabolism, osmoregulation, and oxidative stress. Furthermore, the results show that bFGF-induced reductions of oxidative stress and apoptosis in db/db mice might be mediated by NOX-ROS-Nrf2 signaling. Therefore, our study suggests that the protective effect of bFGF on diabetic nephropathy could be mediated by remodeling metabolic phenotype and suppressing oxidative stress.

The objective of this paper is to study the variation in the physical and mechanical properties of expanded perlite mortar with environmental factors and analyze its deterioration mechanism. In this paper, the influence of the heat-rain cyclic and natural aging on the physical and mechanical properties of expanded perlite mortar has been studied. The expanded perlite mortar specimens were subjected to 80 heat-rain cycles (the maximum temperature rises to 70 °C, and the spray volume reaches 1 l/(m ^2 min)) and 60-day natural aging tests (the daily average temperature is 23 °C, with the maximum temperature reaching 36 °C). The corresponding mass loss rate, water absorption, and compressive strength of the specimens at every 10 heat-rain cycles and 10 days were determined. The results show that the mass loss rate gradually increases with the increase in heat-rain cycles and the natural aging days. The variation range was found as about 0.2%∼0.7% and −0.4%∼0.2%, respectively. The water absorption rate gradually decreases with the number of heat-rain cycles and natural aging days; however, the decay rate of the water absorption rate differs by orders of magnitude in the two weathering conditions. The compressive strength does not have an obvious change with the number of heat rain cycles, but it first increases and then decreases with the number of natural aging days. Under artificial and natural aging, the deterioration mechanism and aging speed of expanded perlite mortar are much different. The comparative analysis of the physical and mechanical properties of expanded perlite mortar under artificially accelerated and natural aging conditions can further reveal its evolution model and the corresponding relationships under the two conditions and provide a theoretical basis for establishing a more scientific and reasonable aging system.

Background/Aims: Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a serious complication of diabetes. It is therefore crucial to elucidate the characteristic metabolic changes that occur during the development of diabetes to gain an understanding the pathogenesis of this disease and identify potential drug targets involved. Methods: 1H nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabonomics combined with HPLC measurements were used to determine the metabolic changes in isolated cardiac tissues after 5 weeks, 9 weeks, and 15 weeks in rats treated with streptozotocin. Results: Pattern recognition analysis clearly discriminated the diabetic rats from time-matched control rats, suggesting that the metabolic profile of the diabetic group was markedly different from that of the controls. Quantitative analysis showed that the levels of energy metabolites, such as the high-energy phosphate pool (ATP and creatine), significantly decreased in a time-dependent manner. Correlation analysis revealed the inhibition of glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, enhanced lipid metabolism, and changes in some amino acids, which may have led to the decline in energy production in the DCM rats. Conclusions: The results indicated that the administration of energy substances or the manipulation of myocardial energy synthesis induced by increased glucose oxidation may contribute to the amelioration of cardiac dysfunction in diabetes.

Background/Aims: To investigate the effects of miR-137 on high glucose (HG)-induced vascular injury, and to establish the mechanism underlying these effects. Methods: Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were transfected with miR-137 inhibitor or mimic, and then treated with normal or high glucose. Cell viability and apoptosis were detected by using the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), malondialdehyde (MDA), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were detected by fluorescent probe (DCFH-DA), thiobarbituric acid reaction, and the nitroblue tetrazolium assay, respectively. The mRNA and protein expressions of AMPKα1 were determined by qRT-PCR and Western blotting. Results: Down-regulation of miR-137 dramatically reverted HG-induced decreases in cell viability and SOD levels and increases in apoptosis, ROS and MDA levels. Moreover, bioinformatics analysis predicted that the AMPKα1 was a potential target gene of miR-137. Luciferase reporter assay demonstrated that miR-137 could directly target AMPKα1. AMPKα1 overexpression had the similar effect as miR-137 inhibition. Down-regulation of AMPKα1 in HUVECs transfected with miR-137 inhibitor partially reversed the protective effect of miR-137 inhibition on HG-induced oxidative stress in HUVECs. Conclusion: Down-regulation of miR-137 ameliorates HG-induced injury in HUVECs by overexpression of AMPKα1, leading to increasing cellular reductive reactions and decreasing oxidative stress. These results provide further evidence for protective effect of miR-137 inhibition on HG-induced vascular injury.

The rational treatment of hazardous textile sludge is critical and challenging for the environment and a sustainable future. Here, a water-soluble chitosan derivative was synthesized and used as an effective flocculant in removal of reactive dye from aqueous solution. Employing these chitosan-containing textile sludges as precursors, graphene-like carbon nanosheets were synthesized through simple one-step carbonization with the use of Fe (III) salt as graphitization catalyst. It was found that the resultant graphene-like carbon nanosheets material at thickness near 3.2 nm (NSC-Fe-2) showed a high graphitization degree, high specific surface area, and excellent bifunctional electrochemical performance. As-prepared NSC-Fe-2 catalyst exhibited excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity (onset potential 1.05 V) and a much better methanol tolerance than that of commercial Pt/C (onset potential 0.98 V) in an alkaline medium. Additionally, as electrode materials for supercapacitors, NSC-Fe-2 also displayed an outstanding specific capacitance of 195 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and superior cycling stability (loss of 3.4% after 2500 cycles). The good electrochemical properties of the as-prepared NSC-Fe materials could be attributed to the ultrathin graphene-like nanosheets structure and synergistic effects from codoping of iron and nitrogen. This work develops a simple but effective strategy for direct conversion of textile sewage sludge to value-added graphene-like carbon, which is considered as a promising alternative to fulfill the requirements of environment and energy.

Dye sludge is a major by-product and it will bring critical environmental problems in the textile industry. In this study, dicyandiamide formaldehyde resin (DFR) is used as an effective flocculating agent for the removal of anionic dyes from textile dye wastewater. Employing dye-contaminated sewage sludges as precursors, N, S dual-doped carbon materials are successfully synthesized by using DFR as a soft template. The specific surface area, morphology, and pore structure of the resulting annealed products can be easily controlled by changing the DFR content of the dye sludge. The oxygen reduction reaction performance of optimal carbon material (N, S-DF-2) is close to commercial 20% Pt/C in alkaline medium, including onset potential (0.98 V), half-wave potential (0.82 V), as well as limiting current density (5.46 mA·cm−2). Furthermore, it also shows better durability and crossover resistance. In addition, N, S-DF-2 exhibits a large specific capacitance (230 F·g−1 at 1 A·g−1) and super capacitance retention (nearly 98% at 10 A·g−1) after 2500 cycles as supercapacitors electrodes. This work opens up a new method to take full advantage of organic polymeric flocculant as a soft template to prepare N, S dual-doped carbon materials, which will be beneficial for the reuse and recycling of sewage sludge, as well as for the production of good quality energy conversion and storage materials.

This review aims to discuss the latest advancements of an acoustic detection module (ADM) based on quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS). Starting from guidelines for the design of an ADM, the ADM design philosophy is described. This is followed by a review of the earliest standard quartz tuning fork (QTF)-based ADM for laboratory applications. Subsequently, the design of industrial fiber-coupled and free-space ADMs based on a standard QTF for near-infrared and mid-infrared laser sources respectively are described. Furthermore, an overview of the latest development of a QEPAS ADM employing a custom QTF is reported. Numerous application examples of four QEPAS ADMs are described in order to demonstrate their reliability and robustness.

High glucose-induced cardiomyocyte death is a common symptom in advanced-stage diabetic patients, while its metabolic mechanism is still poorly understood. The aim of this study was to explore metabolic changes in high glucose-induced cardiomyocytes and the heart of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats by 1H-NMR-based metabolomics. We found that high glucose can promote cardiomyocyte death both in vitro and in vivo studies. Metabolomic results show that several metabolites exhibited inconsistent variations in vitro and in vivo. However, we also identified a series of common metabolic changes, including increases in branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs: leucine, isoleucine and valine) as well as decreases in aspartate and creatine under high glucose condition. Moreover, a reduced energy metabolism could also be a common metabolic characteristic, as indicated by decreases in ATP in vitro as well as AMP, fumarate and succinate in vivo. Therefore, this study reveals that a decrease in energy metabolism and an increase in BCAAs metabolism could be implicated in high glucose-induced cardiomyocyte death.

Free fatty acids (FFAs) serve as crucial analytical markers in oils, fats, and food, reflecting food safety through their content variations. However, the analysis of FFAs in food samples is constrained by potential interferences from other acidic components in the sample matrix during sample processing, resulting in distorted analytical outcomes and introducing positive bias. The established method was also validated in terms of linearity, limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ), and matrix effect. It was proved to be linear (R2 > 0.99), with lower LODs of 0.108–0.564 μg/mL, and lower LOQs of 0.258–1.541 μg/mL for all FFAs. Overall, the simple, rapid, and cost-effective method developed in this study provides a potential application for the extraction and enrichment of FFAs in complex sample matrices, including edible oils, fatty foods, and high-content biological samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]