Search

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of two biomacromolecules, fermented wheat bran polysaccharides (FWBPs) and sodium humate (SH), on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, digestive enzyme activity, antioxidant status, and immunity of broilers. A total of 144 male, one-day-old Arbor Acres broilers were randomly divided into three dietary groups: control (CON), 0.4% FWBPs, and 0.1% SH, with six replicates of eight birds. The FWBPs and SH groups had a greater body weight (BW) at 21 and 42 d, average daily weight gain (ADG) in the starter period, average daily feed intake (ADFI) in the overall period, and feed-to-gain ratio (F:G) in the grower period. However, the ADFI was decreased by FWBPs supplementation and increased by SH supplementation in the grower period. The dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM) digestibility were higher in the SH group at 21 d. At 21 d, the FWBPs group had an increased duodenal trypsin and serum glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity and immunoglobulin M (IgM) concentration, and a decreased liver malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration. The SH group had increased duodenal lipase activity, serum IgM, and interleukin-2 concentrations but decreased liver MDA concentrations. At 42 d, FWBPs and SH supplementation decreased duodenal trypsin and chymotrypsin and serum superoxide dismutase activity. Jejunum chymotrypsin activity and liver MDA content were decreased in the SH group. In conclusion, dietary FWBPs or SH supplementation during the starter period can improve growth performance and nutrient digestibility and enhance antioxidant capacity and immunity of broilers.

IC50 curves for ADI-PEG20 in ovarian cancer cell lines. A, ASS1-deficient ovarian cancer cell lines and B, ASS1-proficient ovarian cancer cell lines.

Table containing proteins differentially expressed in at least two rarer ovarian cancer subtypes when compared to HGSC.

Purpose:Many rare ovarian cancer subtypes, such as small-cell carcinoma of the ovary, hypercalcemic type (SCCOHT), have poor prognosis due to their aggressive nature and resistance to standard platinum- and taxane-based chemotherapy. The development of effective therapeutics has been hindered by the rarity of such tumors. We sought to identify targetable vulnerabilities in rare ovarian cancer subtypes.Experimental Design:We compared the global proteomic landscape of six cases each of endometrioid ovarian cancer (ENOC), clear cell ovarian cancer (CCOC), and SCCOHT to the most common subtype, high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC), to identify potential therapeutic targets. IHC of tissue microarrays was used as validation of arginosuccinate synthase (ASS1) deficiency. The efficacy of arginine-depriving therapeutic ADI-PEG20 was assessed in vitro using cell lines and patient-derived xenograft mouse models representing SCCOHT.Results:Global proteomic analysis identified low ASS1 expression in ENOC, CCOC, and SCCOHT compared with HGSC. Low ASS1 levels were validated through IHC in large patient cohorts. The lowest levels of ASS1 were observed in SCCOHT, where ASS1 was absent in 12 of 31 cases, and expressed in less than 5% of the tumor cells in 9 of 31 cases. ASS1-deficient ovarian cancer cells were sensitive to ADI-PEG20 treatment regardless of subtype in vitro. Furthermore, in two cell line mouse xenograft models and one patient-derived mouse xenograft model of SCCOHT, once-a-week treatment with ADI-PEG20 (30 mg/kg and 15 mg/kg) inhibited tumor growth in vivo.Conclusions:Preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies identified ADI-PEG20 as a potential therapy for patients with rare ovarian cancers, including SCCOHT.

Supplemental material and methods

Clear cell ovarian carcinoma (CCOC) is the second most common subtype of epithelial ovarian carcinoma. Late-stage CCOC is not responsive to gold-standard chemotherapy and results in suboptimal outcomes for patients. In-depth molecular insight is urgently needed to stratify the disease and drive therapeutic development. We conducted global proteomics for 192 cases of CCOC and compared these with other epithelial ovarian carcinoma subtypes. Our results showed distinct proteomic differences in CCOC compared with other epithelial ovarian cancer subtypes including alterations in lipid and purine metabolism pathways. Furthermore, we report potential clinically significant proteomic subgroups within CCOC, suggesting the biologic plausibility of stratified treatment for this cancer. Taken together, our results provide a comprehensive understanding of the CCOC proteomic landscape to facilitate future understanding and research of this disease. © 2022 The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

Bio-inspired computing promises fundamentally different ways to advances in artificial intelligence with extreme energy efficiency. Memristive technologies due to the non-volatility, high density, low-power, and synaptic bionic properties can help in realizing bio-inspired architecture and its hardware implementation. This paper proposes a novel physics-oriented memristor model with coexistence of negative differential resistance (NDR) effect and resistive switching (RS) memory behavior for bio-inspired computing. Firstly, an Ag/TiOx/FTO memristor is fabricated using sol-gel and magnetron sputtering method, and its performance test demonstrates that the coexistence of NDR effect and RS memory behavior can be modulated by the moisture. Then, a physical-oriented memristor model is constructed, which provides the possibility to explore the dynamics of the coexistence of NDR effect and RS memory behavior in simulation. Furthermore, a memristor-based affective computing circuit emulating the process of human affective associative learning is designed. The experiment demonstrates that the coexistence of NDR effect and RS memory behavior can change the memory time without additional circuit and cost, which is expected to realize the automatic conversion from short-term memory to long-term memory in bio-inspired computing. National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 62001149 and Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province under Grant LQ21F010009.

In spread spectrum induced polarization (SSIP) data processing, attenuation of background noise from the observed data is the essential step that improves the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of SSIP data. The traditional correlation identification (TCI) algorithm has been proposed to improve the SNR of these data. However, signal processing in background noise is still a challenging problem. We propose an enhanced correlation identification (ECI) algorithm to attenuate the background noise. In this algorithm, the cross-correlation matching method is helpful for the extraction of useful components of the raw SSIP data and suppression of background noise. Then the formula of the TCI algorithm is used for identifying the frequency response of the observation system. Even when the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is −37.5 dB, this ECI algorithm can still be able to keep 3.0 % relative error. Experiments on both synthetic and real SSIP data show that the ECI algorithm can not only suppress the background noise but also better preserves the valid information of the raw SSIP data to display the actual location and shape of adjacent high resistivity anomalies, which can improve subsequent steps in SSIP data processing and imaging.

We report results from a search for neutrino-induced neutral current (NC) resonant Δ(1232) baryon production followed by Δ radiative decay, with a ⟨0.8⟩ GeV neutrino beam. Data corresponding to MicroBooNE’s first three years of operations (6.80×1020 protons on target) are used to select single-photon events with one or zero protons and without charged leptons in the final state (1γ1p and 1γ0p, respectively). The background is constrained via an in situ high-purity measurement of NC π0 events, made possible via dedicated 2γ1p and 2γ0p selections. A total of 16 and 153 events are observed for the 1γ1p and 1γ0p selections, respectively, compared to a constrained background prediction of 20.5±3.65(syst) and 145.1±13.8(syst) events. The data lead to a bound on an anomalous enhancement of the normalization of NC Δ radiative decay of less than 2.3 times the predicted nominal rate for this process at the 90% confidence level (C.L.). The measurement disfavors a candidate photon interpretation of the MiniBooNE low-energy excess as a factor of 3.18 times the nominal NC Δ radiative decay rate at the 94.8% C.L., in favor of the nominal prediction, and represents a greater than 50-fold improvement over the world’s best limit on single-photon production in NC interactions in the sub-GeV neutrino energy range.

Beyond an exceptional human toll, one of the most evident impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is that of disrupted supply chain dynamics. Lessons learned here might help ameliorate the ability of frontline workers to secure personal protective equipment (PPE) such as N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) to prevent similar issues in future pandemics. A related concern is FFR waste streams, and the ability to recycle N95s using chemical or physical germicidal methods would greatly contribute to lessening PPE scarcity and providing relief to overall supply chains for all essential services. Early in 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued official guidance for sterilizers, disinfectant devices, and air purifiers with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic as a public health emergency bulletin. This guidance provided nonbinding recommendations for PPE and FFR decontamination processes, involving a wide spectrum of chemical and physical methods of sterilization. Many of the sterilization methods employ high heat or utilize polar chemical disinfectants that can compromise either the physical structure or the electrostatic properties of FFR fibers, thus attenuating the overall protection provided to the frontline worker. Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) has been employed for nearly a century to sterilize instruments and whole environments. UVGI offers numerous advantages as it is transitory by nature, leaving no chemical residue on the treated artifact. UVGI is also rapid, and depending on illumination sources, UVGI can easily scale to provide coverage to large areas. Here we provide an analysis of the regulatory aspect related to the use of UVC devices and describe our engineered design of a cost-efficient sterilization chamber that utilizes UVC for decontamination. Our design stresses a low-cost price point to facilitate easy manufacture for not only rapid deployment but also minimal impacts on supply chains. The device is intended to be easy to use, without any specialized training, and thus targets the general public for sanitizing non-washable materials, including PPE, FFR and other potential fomites, including electronic devices of daily use, that otherwise might harbor bacterial, viral and fungal pathogens.

We present a measurement of νe interactions from the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam using the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber to address the nature of the excess of low energy interactions observed by the MiniBooNE Collaboration. Three independent νe searches are performed across multiple single electron final states, including an exclusive search for two-body scattering events with a single proton, a semi-inclusive search for pionless events, and a fully inclusive search for events containing all hadronic final states.With differing signal topologies, statistics, backgrounds, reconstruction algorithms, and analysis approaches, the results are found to be either consistent with or modestly lower than the nominal νe rate expectations from the Booster Neutrino Beam and no excess of νe events is observed., United States Department of Energy (DOE) DE-AC02-07CH11359 National Science Foundation (NSF), Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), European Commission, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Royal Society of London

The aim of the study was to investigate the clinical value of the peak strain dispersion (PSD) in evaluating left ventricular (LV) systolic synchrony in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).58 SLE patients without cardiovascular diseases and 60 healthy subjects were enrolled in the study. Both groups were examined by transthoracic two-dimensional echocardiography. Traditional parameters were measured by conventional echocardiography. Two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging (2D-STI) was used to analyze the PSD and LV global longitudinal strain (LVGLS). Related ultrasound and blood test results were analyzed and compared.The PSD was significantly higher in SLE patients than in controls (p0.05). The LVGLS was significantly lower in SLE patients than in controls (p0.05). The PSD was negatively correlated with the LVGLS.LV systolic synchrony is impaired in patients with SLE disease. The PSD can be used as a new reliable index to evaluate LV systolic synchrony.

Persistent wintertime heavy haze incidents caused by anthropogenic aerosols have repeatedly shrouded North China in recent years, while natural dust from the west and northwest of China also frequently affects air quality in this region. Through continuous observation by a multi-wavelength Raman lidar, here we found that wintertime aerosols in North China are typically characterized by a pronounced vertical stratification, where scattering nonspherical particles (dust or mixtures of dust and anthropogenic aerosols) dominated above the planetary boundary layer (PBL), and absorbing spherical particles (anthropogenic aerosols) prevailed within the PBL. This stratification is governed by meteorological conditions that strong northwesterly winds usually prevailed in the lower free troposphere, and southerly winds dominated in the PBL, producing persistent and intense haze pollution. With the increased contribution of elevated dust to the upper aerosols, the proportion of aerosol and trace gas at the surface in the whole column increased. Model results show that, besides directly deteriorating air quality, the key role of the elevated dust is to depress the development of PBL and weaken the turbulent exchange, mostly by lower level cooling and upper level heating, and it is more obvious during the dissipation stage, thus inhibiting the dissipation of heavy surface anthropogenic aerosols. The interactions of natural dust and anthropogenic aerosols under the unique topography of North China increase the surface anthropogenic aerosols and precursor gases, which may be one of the reasons why haze pollution in North China is heavier than that in other heavily polluted areas in China.

The clinical data of five cases of relapsed/refractory (R/R) Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute B-lymphocytic leukaemia (Ph分析郑州大学附属肿瘤医院采用Bcl-2抑制剂维奈托克联合酪氨酸激酶抑制剂（TKI）及含地塞米松小剂量化疗方案治疗5例复发/难治（R/R）费城染色体阳性急性B淋巴细胞白血病（Ph

Background Differentiated vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (dVIN), the precursor lesion to human papillomavirus (HPV)-independent vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC), can be difficult to distinguish from vulvar inflammatory dermatoses. p53 has been suggested to be a useful biomarker for dVIN, but the percentage, intensity and patterns of staining have not been well characterized in dVIN and its histologic mimics. Method We studied p53 immunohistochemical staining patterns in 16 dVIN cases and 46 vulvar non-neoplastic squamous lesions (12 lichen sclerosus (LS); 7 lichen simplex chronicus (LSC); 3 lichen planus (LP); 6 psoriasis (PSO); 13 spongiotic dermatitis (SPO); 5 candidiasis (CAN)). dVIN cases were adjacent to a p16-negative invasive VSCC in resection specimens. Results All dVIN cases demonstrated null-type or moderate-strong uniform p53 staining in over 70% of basal cells, with moderate to strong continuous parabasal staining extending to two-thirds of the epidermis. This was in contrast to weak or weak-moderate patchy p53 staining in the majority of other lesions. Moderate-strong and increased basal p53 staining (≥70%) was also observed in a subset of lichen sclerosus (5/12, 42%), lichen planus (1/3, 33%) and spongiotic dermatitis (36%, 4/11), however in all categories, this was limited to the basal layer and any staining in the parabasal layers was patchy. Conclusion Strong and uniform p53 staining of basal cells, extending into the parabasal layers, and a complete absence of staining (null-type) is useful in distinguishing dVIN from other mimics in the vulva. p53 staining of lesser intensity or quantity, particularly basal-overexpression only, overlaps with vulvar inflammatory lesions.

Critical gaps in the amount, quality, consistency, availability, and spatial distribution of rainfall data limit extreme precipitation analysis, and the application of gridded precipitation data is challenging because of their considerable biases. This study corrected Asian Precipitation Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of Water Resources (APHRODITE) estimates in the Yarlung Tsangpo–Brahmaputra River basin (YBRB) using two linear and two nonlinear methods, and their influence on extreme precipitation indices was assessed by cross-validation. Bias correction greatly improved the performance of extreme precipitation analysis. The ability of four methods to correct wet-day frequency and coefficient of variation were substantially different, leading to considerable differences in extreme precipitation indices. Local intensity scaling (LOCI) and quantile–quantile mapping (QM) performed better than linear scaling (LS) and power transformation (PT). This study would provide a reference for using gridded precipitation data in extreme precipitation analysis and selecting a bias-corrected method for rainfall products in data-sparse regions.

Purpose: Many rare ovarian cancer subtypes, such as small-cell carcinoma of the ovary, hypercalcemic type (SCCOHT), have poor prognosis due to their aggressive nature and resistance to standard platinum- and taxane-based chemotherapy. The development of effective therapeutics has been hindered by the rarity of such tumors. We sought to identify targetable vulnerabilities in rare ovarian cancer subtypes. Experimental Design: We compared the global proteomic landscape of six cases each of endometrioid ovarian cancer (ENOC), clear cell ovarian cancer (CCOC), and SCCOHT to the most common subtype, high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC), to identify potential therapeutic targets. IHC of tissue microarrays was used as validation of arginosuccinate synthase (ASS1) deficiency. The efficacy of arginine-depriving therapeutic ADI-PEG20 was assessed in vitro using cell lines and patient-derived xenograft mouse models representing SCCOHT. Results: Global proteomic analysis identified low ASS1 expression in ENOC, CCOC, and SCCOHT compared with HGSC. Low ASS1 levels were validated through IHC in large patient cohorts. The lowest levels of ASS1 were observed in SCCOHT, where ASS1 was absent in 12 of 31 cases, and expressed in less than 5% of the tumor cells in 9 of 31 cases. ASS1-deficient ovarian cancer cells were sensitive to ADI-PEG20 treatment regardless of subtype in vitro. Furthermore, in two cell line mouse xenograft models and one patient-derived mouse xenograft model of SCCOHT, once-a-week treatment with ADI-PEG20 (30 mg/kg and 15 mg/kg) inhibited tumor growth in vivo. Conclusions: Preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies identified ADI-PEG20 as a potential therapy for patients with rare ovarian cancers, including SCCOHT.

Wire-Cell is a 3D event reconstruction package for liquid argon time projection chambers. Through geometry, time, and drifted charge from multiple readout wire planes, 3D space points with associated charge are reconstructed prior to the pattern recognition stage. Pattern recognition techniques, including track trajectory and dQ/dx (ionization charge per unit length) fitting, 3D neutrino vertex fitting, track and shower separation, particle-level clustering, and particle identification are then applied on these 3D space points as well as the original 2D projection measurements. A deep neural network is developed to enhance the reconstruction of the neutrino interaction vertex. Compared to traditional algorithms, the deep neural network boosts the vertex efficiency by a relative 30% for charged-current νe interactions. This pattern recognition achieves 80–90% reconstruction efficiencies for primary leptons, after a 65.8% (72.9%) vertex efficiency for charged-current νe (νμ) interactions. Based on the resulting reconstructed particles and their kinematics, we also achieve 15-20% energy reconstruction resolutions for charged-current neutrino interactions.