Search

ObjectiveTo investigate the value of suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 （SOCS1）， speckled protein 140 （SP140）， calcyclin binding protein （CacyBP） expressions in peritoneal dialysis effluent in the diagnosis of peritoneal fibrosis （PF）.MethodsA total of 90 patients with end-stage renal disease who underwent peritoneal dialysis in the First Affiliated Hospital of Hebei North University from November 1， 2021 to September 30， 2023 were selected as study subjects. They were divided into PF group （n=38） and control group （non-PF， n=52） according to peritoneal tissue biopsy. The mRNA levels of exsome SOCS1， SP140 and CacyBP in peritoneal dialysis effluent were detected by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction （qRT-PCR）. The ultrafiltration volume at 4 h， 4 h dialysate/plasma creatinine （4 h D/PCr）， and the ratio of glucose content in dialysate at 4 h and 0 h （D/D0） were detected by peritoneal balance test. The diagnostic value of SOCS1， SP140 and CacyBP expressions in PF was analyzed.ResultsThe mRNA levels of exosomes SOCS1 ［（0.84 ± 0.11） vs （1.00 ± 0.15）］， SP140 ［（0.82 ± 0.12） vs （1.00 ± 0.13）］ and CacyBP ［（0.85 ± 0.09） vs （1.00 ± 0.13）］ in peritoneal dialysis effluent of PF group were significantly lower than those of control group （P

Abstract Reactive Transport Models (RTMs) are essential tools for understanding and predicting intertwined ecohydrological and biogeochemical processes on land and in rivers. While traditional RTMs have focused primarily on subsurface processes, recent watershed‐scale RTMs have integrated ecohydrological and biogeochemical interactions between surface and subsurface. These emergent, watershed‐scale RTMs are often spatially explicit and require extensive data, computational power, and computational expertise. There is however a pressing need to create parsimonious models that require minimal data and are accessible to scientists with limited computational background. To that end, we have developed BioRT‐HBV 1.0, a watershed‐scale, hydro‐biogeochemical RTM that builds upon the widely used, bucket‐type HBV model known for its simplicity and minimal data requirements. BioRT‐HBV uses the conceptual structure and hydrology output of HBV to simulate processes including advective solute transport and biogeochemical reactions that depend on reaction thermodynamics and kinetics. These reactions include, for example, chemical weathering, soil respiration, and nutrient transformation. The model uses time series of weather (air temperature, precipitation, and potential evapotranspiration) and initial biogeochemical conditions of subsurface water, soils, and rocks as input, and output times series of reaction rates and solute concentrations in subsurface waters and rivers. This paper presents the model structure and governing equations and demonstrates its utility with examples simulating carbon and nitrogen processes in a headwater catchment. As shown in the examples, BioRT‐HBV can be used to illuminate the dynamics of biogeochemical reactions in the invisible, arduous‐to‐measure subsurface, and their influence on the observed stream or river chemistry and solute export. With its parsimonious structure and easy‐to‐use graphical user interface, BioRT‐HBV can be a useful research tool for users without in‐depth computational training. It can additionally serve as an educational tool that promotes pollination of ideas across disciplines and foster a diverse, equal, and inclusive user community.

Abstract Background Higher resistance rates of > 20% have been noted in Enterobacteriaceae urinary isolates towards ciprofloxacin and co-trimoxazole (C + C) in Singapore, compared with amoxicillin-clavulanate and nitrofurantoin (AC + N). This study examined if treatment failure varied between different antibiotics, given different resistant rates, for uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) managed in primary care. We also aimed to identify gaps for improvement in diagnosis, investigations, and management. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted from 2019 to 2021 on female patients aged 18–50 with uncomplicated UTIs at 6 primary care clinics in Singapore. ORENUC classification was used to exclude complicated UTIs. Patients with uncomplicated UTIs empirically treated with amoxicillin-clavulanate, nitrofurantoin, ciprofloxacin or co-trimoxazole were followed-up for 28 days. Treatment failure was defined as re-attendance for symptoms and antibiotic re-prescription, or hospitalisation for UTI complications. After 2:1 propensity score matching in each group, modified Poisson regression and Cox proportional hazard regression accounting for matched data were used to determine risk and time to treatment failure. Results 3194 of 4253 (75.1%) UTIs seen were uncomplicated, of which only 26% were diagnosed clinically. Urine cultures were conducted for 1094 (34.3%) uncomplicated UTIs, of which only 410 (37.5%) had bacterial growth. The most common organism found to cause uncomplicated UTIs was Escherichia coli (64.6%), with 92.6% and 99.4% of isolates sensitive to amoxicillin-clavulanate and nitrofurantoin respectively. Treatment failure occurred in 146 patients (4.57%). Among 1894 patients treated with AC + N matched to 947 patients treated with C + C, patients treated with C + C were 50% more likely to fail treatment (RR 1.49, 95% CI 1.10–2.01), with significantly higher risk of experiencing shorter time to failure (HR 1.61, 95% CI 1.12–2.33), compared to patients treated with AC + N. Conclusion Treatment failure rate was lower for antibiotics with lower reported resistance rates (AC + N). We recommend treating uncomplicated UTIs in Singapore with amoxicillin-clavulanate or nitrofurantoin, based on current local antibiograms. Diagnosis, investigations and management of UTIs remained sub-optimal. Future studies should be based on updating antibiograms, highlighting its importance in guideline development.

The extraction of underground mineral deposits can cause surface subsidence, which will bring danger to surface buildings or structures. In this paper, the Panlong lead–zinc mine in Guangxi, China, was taken as an example to analyze the correlation between underground mining-induced surface subsidence trends, and the depth of extraction. Based on the stochastic probability integral method, the surface subsidence trend at various different mining depths was analyzed. The results showed that with the increase of mining depth, the surface subsidence presents an obvious increasing trend, but the rate gradually decreases. The maximum surface subsidence is closely related to the mining depth and is less notably affected by the mining size. The maximum surface subsidence along the dip direction is basically the same as that along the strike direction for the same mining depth of the same ore body. In addition, numerical simulation by FLAC3D was conducted to analyze the evolution trend of surface subsidence at different mining depths. The subsidence cloud map demonstrated a significant expansion of the subsidence area until a depth of 680 m. With the further increase of mining depth, the subsidence area did not substantially increased, while the maximum subsidence at the center of the subsidence zone was increasing. Finally, the maximum subsidence at the center of the subsidence zone was measured by Global Positioning System (GPS) monitoring instruments. The observed data showed that subsidence trend along the direction of the mineral body was basically consistent with the theoretical and numerical simulation results above. This verifies the reliability and accuracy of the above research methods for analyzing surface settlement trend.

The strategy of coupling the micro-vibration mechanical field with Ca/P ceramics to optimize the osteogenic microenvironment and enhance the functional activity of the cells can significantly improve the bone regeneration of the graft. However, the regulation mode and mechanism of this coupling strategy are not fully understood at present. This study investigated the influence of different waveforms of the electrical signals driving Microvibration Stimulation (MVS) on this coupling effect. The results showed that there were notable variances in calcium phosphate dissolution and redeposition, protein adsorption, phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and FAK signal pathways and activation of calcium channels such as TRPV1/Piezo1/Piezo2 in osteogenic microenvironment under the coupling action of hydroxyapatite (HA) ceramics and MVS driven by different electrical signal waveforms. Ultimately, these differences affected the osteogenic differentiation process of cells by a way of time-sequential regulation. Square wave-MVS coupled with HA ceramic can significantly delay the high expression time of characteristic genes (such as Runx2, Col-I and OCN) in MC3T3-E1 cells during in vitro the early, middle and late stage of differentiation, while maintain the high proliferative activity of MC3T3-E1 cells. Triangle wave signal-MVS coupled with HA ceramic promoted the osteogenic differentiation of cells in the early and late stages. Sine wave-MVS shows the effect on the process of osteogenic differentiation in the middle stage (such as the up-regulation of ALP synthesis and Col-I gene expression in the early stage of stimulation). In addition, Square wave-MVS showed the best coupling effect. The bone graft constructed under square wave-MVS formed new bone tissue and mature blood vessels only 2 weeks after subcutaneous implantation in nude mice. Our study provides a new non-invasive regulation model for precisely optimizing the osteogenic microenvironment, which can accelerate bone regeneration in bone grafts more safely, accurately and reliably.

Talent is one of the basic and strategic supports for building a modern socialist country in all aspects. Since the 1980s, the establishment of forensic medicine major and the cultivation of innovative talents in forensic medicine have become hot topics in higher education in forensic medicine. Over the past 43 years, the forensic medicine team of Shanxi Medical University has adhered to the joint education of public security and colleges, and made collaborative innovation, forming a training mode of “One Combination, Two Highlights, Three Combinations, Four in One” for innovative talents in forensic medicine. It has carried out “5+3/X” integrated reform, and formed a relatively complete talent training innovation mode and management system in teaching, scientific research, identification, major, discipline, team, platform and cultural construction. It has made a historic contribution to China’s higher forensic education, accumulated valuable experience for the construction of first-class major and first-class discipline of forensic medicine, and provided strong support for the construction of the national new forensic talent training system. The popularization of this training mode is conducive to the rapid and sustainable development of forensic science, and provides more excellent forensic talents for national building, regional social development and the discipline construction of forensic science.

Secchi disk depth (SDD) is a simple but particularly important indicator for characterizing the overall water quality status and assessing the long-term dynamics of water quality for diverse global waters. For this reason, countless efforts have been made to collect SDD data from the field and through remote sensing systems. Many empirical and semianalytical algorithms have been proposed to estimate SDD from different satellite images for a specific or regional water. However, the construction of a robust global SDD estimation model is still challenging due to the nonlinear response of SDD to optical properties and the complex physical and biogeochemical processes of different waters. Therefore, machine learning methods to better interpret nonlinear processes were used to improve remote sensing estimations of SDD for global lakes and reservoirs based on a global matchup dataset from Landsat TM (N = 4099), ETM+ (N = 2420), and OLI (N = 1249) covering in situ SDD from 0.01 m to over 18 m. Overall, extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) and random forest (RF) had better SDD retrievals than back propagation neural network, support vector regression, empirical and quasi-analytical models showing high precision with mean relative error of approximately 30% and good agreements with the long-term in situ SDD in different waters with various optical properties. Our results can support long-term global-level water quality evaluation and thus making informed decisions about development policy.

ObjectiveTo establish a carbofuran intragastric administration death model in rabbits, and to observe the postmortem distribution and postmortem redistribution of carbofuran-7-phenyl glucuronic acid （Glu-7PH） in rabbits.MethodsThe postmortem distribution: Rabbits were given an administration of 1/2LD50, LD50, 2LD50 carbofuran. Dead rabbits were dissected immediately. Rabbits that had remained alive 2 hours were sacrificed by carbon dioxide （CO2） inhalation and dissected immediately. The myocardium, cardiac blood, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, brain and right hindlimb muscle were collected. The postmortem redistribution: After giving an administration of 4LD50 carbofuran, the myocardium, cardiac blood, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, brain, and right hindlimb muscle were collected at 0, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h postmortem in supine position at 15 ℃ room temperature. The quantity of Glu-7PH was determined by LC-MS/MS.ResultsThe postmortem distribution: Among the three dose groups, there were significant differences in the quantities of Glu-7PH in different tissues. The postmortem redistribution: There was no significant difference in the Glu-7PH quantities in cardiac blood, mycardium, spleen, kidney, brain and right hindlimb muscle, but there was a significant difference in the Glu-7PH quantities in the liver and lung.ConclusionThe mycardium, cardiac blood, liver, lung, kidney, brain and hindlimb muscle of rabbits can be used as appropriate samples for Glu-7PH detection. However, it should be noted that Glu-7PH was redistributed postmortem in rabbit liver and lung.

So far, how to achieve the optimal regenerative repair of large load-bearing bone defects using artificial bone grafts is a huge challenge in clinic. In this study, a strategy of combining osteoinductive biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) bioceramic scaffolds with intramedullary nail fixation for creating stable osteogenic microenvironment was applied to repair large segmental bone defects (3.0 cm in length) in goat femur model. The material characterization results showed that the BCP scaffold had the initial compressive strength of over 2.0 MPa, and total porosity of 84%. The cell culture experiments demonstrated that the scaffold had the excellent ability to promote the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). The in vivo results showed that the intramedullary nail fixation maintained the initial stability and structural integrity of the implants at early stage, promoting the osteogenic process both guided and induced by the BCP scaffolds. At 9 months postoperatively, good integration between the implants and host bone was observed, and a large amount of newborn bones formed, accompanying with the degradation of the material. At 18 months postoperatively, almost the complete new bone substitution in the defect area was achieved. The maximum bending strength of the repaired bone defects reached to the 100% of normal femur at 18 months post-surgery. Our results demonstrated the good potential of osteoinductive BCP bioceramics in the regenerative repair of large load-bearing bone defects. The current study could provide an effective method to treat the clinical large segmental bone defects.

Alzheimer's disease has become more prevalent in our lives as the population ages. Accurate diagnosis and positive intervention can effectively delay the progress of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease requires the combination of information from multiple regions of interest (ROIs), because the use of one single ROI may lose the connection and impact among multiple brain regions. In this paper, we firstly proposed a three-input convolutional neural network (CNN) to comprehensively utilize the information from three ROIs, hippocampus, other gray matter (without hippocampus) and white matter. In addition, as the neural network deepens, important feature information of original image will be partially lost. Therefore, we proposed a multi-output 3D CNN, which increases the connection and output of middle layers, shortens the distance between input and output, enhances feature propagation and reduces the loss of feature information. The results showed that the accuracy rate, precision rate, sensitivity, specificity and F1-score of the test set diagnosis obtained by multi-output 3D CNN model were 90.5%, 91.0%, 90.4%, 95.2% and 90.5%, respectively. The diagnostic performance was better than that of the single-output 3D CNN model.

Carbon encapsulated CdS nanoparticles with the core-shell structure were successfully prepared by hydrothermal method, and the influences of carbon coating layer on the microstructure and optical properties of CdS@C were investigated by X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscope, and spectroscope. The results show that, the carbon encapsulated CdS nanoparticles have the obvious core-shell structure, the inner core is CdS with the hexagonal wurtzite structure, and the outer shell is carbon layer. The particle morphology is mainly spherical or ellipsoidal shape with the uniform particle size and good dispersion, the particle size distribution is in the range of 20～60 nm, the average particle size is 35 nm, and the thickness of carbon layer is about 5 nm. Photoluminescence spectra show that the luminescence intensity of the carbon encapsulated CdS is weaker than that of the pure CdS, the Raman spectra reveal that the carbon coating layer shows the low graphitization degree in the carbon encapsulated CdS samples, the Fourier transform infrared spectra show that the absorption peaks of the pure CdS and the carbon encapsulated CdS samples are basically similar. The ultraviolet visible spectra indicate that the carbon encapsulated CdS nanocrystals enhance the absorption intensity of the visible light, narrow the energy gap, and result in the red shift.

Due to the exotic electronic and optical properties, two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as graphene, topological insulators, transition metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus, MXenes, graphitic carbon nitride, metal-organic frameworks, and so on, have attracted enormous interest in the scientific communities dealing with electronics and photonics. Combing the 2D materials with the microfiber, the 2D material-decorated microfiber photonic devices could be assembled. They offer the advantages of a high nonlinear effect, all fiber structure, high damage threshold, and so on, which play important roles in fields of pulse shaping and all-optical signal processing. In this review, first, we introduce the fabrication methods of 2D material-decorated microfiber photonic devices. Then the pulse generation and the nonlinear soliton dynamics based on pulse shaping method in fiber lasers and all-optical signal processing based on 2D material-decorated microfiber photonic devices, such as optical modulator and wavelength converter, are summarized, respectively. Finally, the challenges and opportunities in the future development of 2D material-decorated microfiber photonic devices are given. It is believed that 2D material-decorated microfiber photonic devices will develop rapidly and open new opportunities in the related fields.

Background: Antibiotic prescription practices in primary care in Singapore have received little scholarly attention. In this study, we ascertained prescription prevalence and identified care gaps and predisposing factors. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on adults (>21 years old) at six public primary care clinics in Singapore. Prescriptions >14 days were excluded. Descriptive statistics were used to showcase the prevalence data. We used chi-square and logistic regression analyses to identify the factors affecting care gaps. Results: A total of 141,944 (4.33%) oral and 108,357 (3.31%) topical antibiotics were prescribed for 3,278,562 visits from 2018 to 2021. There was a significant reduction in prescriptions (p < 0.01) before and after the pandemic, which was attributed to the 84% reduction in prescriptions for respiratory conditions. In 2020 to 2021, oral antibiotics were most prescribed for skin (37.7%), genitourinary (20.2%), and respiratory conditions (10.8%). Antibiotic use in the “Access” group (WHO AWaRe classification) improved from 85.6% (2018) to 92.1% (2021). Areas of improvement included a lack of documentation of reasons for antibiotic use, as well as inappropriate antibiotic prescription for skin conditions. Conclusion: There was a marked reduction in antibiotic prescriptions associated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Further studies could address the gaps identified here and evaluate private-sector primary care to inform antibiotic guidelines and the local development of stewardship programs.

Scientific communities are increasingly publishing data to evaluate, accredit, and build on published research. However, guidelines for curating data for publication are sparse for model-related research, limiting the usability of archived simulation data. In particular, there are no established guidelines for archiving data related to terrestrial models that simulate land processes and their coupled interactions with climate. Terrestrial modelers have a unique set of challenges when publishing data due to the diversity of scientific domains, research questions, and the types and scales of simulations. Researchers in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) projects use a variety of multiscale models to advance robust predictions of terrestrial and subsurface ecosystem processes. Here, we synthesize archiving needs for data associated with different DOE models, and provide guidelines for publishing terrestrial model data components following FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles. The guidelines recommend archiving model inputs and testing data used in final simulation runs along with associated codes, workflow scripts, and metadata in public repositories. Researchers should consider archiving model outputs if they are within the storage limits of the repository. We also provide considerations for how to bundle files into different data publications with citable digital object identifiers. Finally, we identify repository features and tools that would enable storage and reuse of model data. Given the diversity of DOE terrestrial models, these guidelines are transferable to other model types and will enable efficient reuse of simulation data for purposes such as model intercomparisons, initialization, benchmarking, synthesis, and comparisons with field observations.

When there are too many people in large shopping malls, crowd congestion accidents are likely to occur. To ensure the rapid and safe evacuation of indoor crowds, this paper uses crowd density maps to determine the location of crowded areas and uses an improved ant colony algorithm to optimize the evacuation route from this location to the exit. First, a crowd density map is generated from the collected image data by the improved multiscale convolutional neural network algorithm, and the location of the high-density crowd is determined as the initial location. Then, the pheromone volatility coefficient $\rho $ is measured through adaptive adjustment by using the exponential decline method and the introduction of elite ants to optimize and update the ant colony pheromone to improve the ant colony algorithm, and the optimal evacuation route from the location of the crowded area to the exit is obtained. The research in this paper uses Beijing Xidan Joy City as an example. The results show that the method in this paper can optimize evacuation routes and reduce the turning points of the evacuation route by 25% and reduce the route length by 10%. Therefore, it can be seen that the proposed method can achieve the optimal evacuation path with the shortest distance and the least turning points, which has feasibility and practicability.

Pure and Ni-doped Zn1-xNixFe2O4 nanoparticles with different contents were successfully prepared via hydrothermal method. The influence of nickel doping concentration on the microstructure, morphology, optical and magnetic properties of Zn1-xNixFe2O4(x=0,0.1,0.3,0.5) nanocrystals were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), selected area electron diffraction(SAED), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy(XEDS),ultraviolet-visible absorption spectrum(UV-Vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and etc. The results show that all Zn1-xNixFe2O4 nanoparticles are with good crystallization,Ni2+ enters into ZnFe2O4 lattice in the form of replacing Zn2+,and generating cubic spinel structure ZnFe2O4. With the increase of Ni content, the crystalline size increases and the lattice constant shrinks. The morphology of the samples exhibits irregular ellipsoid with uniform particle size. The absorption peak position of FT-IR spectra does not change with the increase of Ni doping concentration. The energy band gap of Zn1-xNixFe2O4 nanocrystals increases with the increase of Ni doping concentration, and blue shift occurs compared with the corresponding bulk. Pure ZnFe2O4 nanocrystals exhibit super paramagnetic properties and the doped samples show obvious ferromagnetism at room temperature.

The lack of vascular tissue and the low metabolism and biological activity of mature chondrocytes lead to the low regeneration ability of articular cartilage. People try to solve this problem through various methods, but the effect is not very ideal. Inspired by the piezoelectric effect of collagen in cartilage tissue, this work focused on the design of a biomimetic hydrogel by introducing piezoelectric materials and silver nanowires into hydrogel to endow them with piezoelectric and antibacterial properties to promote tissue regeneration. Additionally, the mechanical and swelling properties of the material were adjusted to match natural articular cartilage. Based on bionic principles, a double-layer piezoelectric hydrogel was prepared and applied for the repair of osteochondral defects. An enhanced repair effect of osteochondral defects has been seen, which has demonstrated potential values for future application in bionics principle- and piezoelectric effect-based osteochondral tissue engineering. Furthermore, piezoelectric effect-induced degradation was observed. These results fully indicated the positive effect of the piezoelectric effect on promoting the regeneration of osteochondral tissue and in vivo degradation of materials.

C34H36CoN4O5, triclinic, P1̅ (no. 2), a = 8.7040(5) Å, b = 12.7375(9) Å, c = 14.2626(9) Å, α = 99.054(2)°, β = 95.727(2)°, γ = 92.477(2)° V = 1550.96(17) Å3, Z = 2, Rgt(F) = 0.0554, wRref(F2) = 0.1369, T = 296(2) K.

Diluted magnetic semiconductors Zn1-xMnxS with different consistency (x=0.00, 0.02, 0.05, 0.07) were synthesized by hydrothermal method, and the effects of doping concentration Mn2+ on the microstructure and optical properties of ZnS nanorods were investigated. The crystal microstructure,morphology and optical properties of the products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), corresponding selected-area electron diffraction (SAED), X-ray energy dispersive spectrometry (XEDS) and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer(UV-vis).The results show that all samples synthesized by this method possess wurtzite structure with good crystallization, no other impurity phase appears and generates single-phase Zn1-xMnxS nanocrystalline. The morphology of the samples is nanorods and well disperses. The doping element of Mn enters into the ZnS nanocrystals, Mn2+ replaces Zn2+, and the lattice constant decreases with the increase of Mn content. Meanwhile, the optical band gap increases and the blue shift occurs for the sample in the UV-vis spectra.

C36H34Cl4N4O8, monoclinic, C2/c (no. 15), a = 33.048(10) Å, b = 6.4688(7) Å, c = 24.301(7) Å, β = 133.30(5)°, Z = 4, V = 3781(3) Å3, Rgt(F) = 0.0477, wRref(F2) = 0.1016, T = 293(2) K.