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Objective To investigate the risk factor of postoperative intestinal obstruction in elderly patients with colorectal cancer. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 300 elderly patients who underwent radical resection for colorectal cancer admitted to Jiangsu Cancer Hospital from January 2021 to February 2024. Patients were divided into an occurrence group (40 cases) and a non occurrence group (260 cases) based on whether intestinal obstruction occurred within 30 days after surgery. Clinical data were collected and compared between the two groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis model was performed to identify risk factors for postoperative intestinal obstruction. Results The differences in age, gender, smoking history, tumor location, TNM staging, and abdominal surgery history between the two groups were statistically significant(P

Abstract Patients with stage IIB/C (T4a-bN0) colon cancer often exhibit worse survival rates compared to those with stage IIIA (T1-2N1, T1N2a) colon cancer. This study re-evaluates the survival paradox using the latest Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data (released on April 17, 2024) to inform potential revisions to the staging criteria. Utilizing SEER data with 8th edition TNM staging criteria, 4692 colon cancer patients diagnosed between 2018 and 2021 were analyzed with chi-square test. Cox regression and Kaplan–Meier survival analysis were employed to assess factors associated with cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS). The 3-year CSS rates for stage IIB and IIC were 73.1% and 70.3%, respectively, whereas stage IIIA had a substantially higher CSS rate of 91% (P

ObjectivesDriven by the dual carbon goal and the accelerated transformation of China’s energy structure, the scale of the wind power industry continues to grow rapidly, and there is an urgent need to reduce costs and increase efficiency to cope with the pressure of grid parity. The cost of collector lines accounts for a relatively large proportion of investment, and there is considerable space for optimization. In order to reduce the investment cost, an improved fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering algorithm was proposed.MethodsThe improved FCM clustering algorithm was used to divide the collector circuit of onshore wind farm. The algorithm comprehensively considered the azimuth angle and the Euclidean distance to ensure that the lines between the circuits were not crossed, and the adjacent units were gathered to the same circuit. The correction factor of the distance from the machine position to the cluster center was introduced, and the circuit capacity was limited by adjusting the distance correction factor. On the basis of circuit division, the dynamic Prim algorithm was used to optimize the line selection of each circuit. Finally, the effectiveness of the method was verified by an example of an onshore wind farm.ResultsCompared with the clustering method only considering the azimuth angle, the improved FCM algorithm considering azimuth angle and spacing has better optimization effect. The total cost of single-circuit and double-circuit collection lines is reduced by 2.6% and 5.4%, respectively.ConclusionsThe proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the total cost of collector lines, and has certain application value. It can provide a reference for the design of wind farm collector lines.

Abstract Lenvatinib, a multitarget kinase inhibitor, has been proven to be effective in the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. It has been previously demonstrated that tumour associated macrophages (TAMs) in tumour tissues can promote HCC growth, invasion and metastasis. Furthermore, lenvatinib has certain immunomodulatory effects on the treatment of HCC. However, the role of lenvatinib in macrophage polarization during HCC treatment has not been fully explored. In this study, we used a variety of experimental methods both in vitro and in vivo to investigate the effect of lenvatinib on TAMs during HCC progression. This study is the first to show that lenvatinib can alter macrophage polarization in both humans and mice. Moreover, macrophages treated with lenvatinib in vitro displayed enhanced classically activated macrophages (M1) activity and suppressed liver cancer cell proliferation, invasion, and migration. Furthermore, during the progression of M1 macrophage polarization induced by lenvatinib, STAT-1 was the main target transcription factor, and inhibiting STAT-1 activity reversed the effect of lenvatinib. Overall, the present study provides a theoretical basis for the immunomodulatory function of lenvatinib in the treatment of HCC.

Abstract Background The treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients exhibiting high-risk characteristics (Vp4, and/or bile duct invasion, and/or tumor occupancy ≥ 50%) lacks standardized approaches and yields unfavorable results. This study endeavors to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and prognostic impacts of employing hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC), lenvatinib, and humanized programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) in the treatment of high-risk HCC patients. Methods In this retrospective analysis, HCC patients with high-risk features were treated with either lenvatinib combined with PD-1 (LEN-PD1) or a combination of HAIC, lenvatinib, and PD-1 (HAIC-LEN-PD1). The study assessed the antitumor efficacy by calculating overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR), and disease control rate (DCR). Treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) were analyzed to assess the safety profiles. Results Between June 2019 and September 2022, a total of 61 patients were included in the LEN-PD1 group, while 103 patients were enrolled in the HAIC-LEN-PD1 group. The OS was 9.8 months in the LEN-PD1 group, whereas the HAIC-LEN-PD1 group exhibited a significantly longer median OS of 19.3 months (HR = 0.43, p

Abstract Background The CRAFITY score serves as a simple and effective predictive model for individuals diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and subjected to treatment with atezolizumab and bevacizumab (Atez/Bev). However, no large sample size studies have reported the application of the CRAFITY score among HCC patients undergoing transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in conjunction with lenvatinib. This research aims to assess the prognostic role of the CRAFITY score in the context of individuals with HCC receiving TACE in combination with lenvatinib. Methods This retrospective analysis encompassed 314 individuals diagnosed with HCC who underwent the combination of TACE and lenvatinib at two medical facilities in China from August 2019 to August 2022 (comprising a training cohort of n = 172 and a validation cohort of n = 142). We investigated the prognostic values of overall survival (OS), progression‐free survival (PFS), disease control rate, and objective response rate in the training cohort based on the CRAFITY scores. Furthermore, the predictive capacity of the model was corroborated through validation using an external cohort. Results We included 174 and 142 patients treated with TACE plus lenvatinib in the training and validation cohorts, correspondingly. PFS and OS differed across all three groups in all training and validation cohorts, based on the CRAFITY score (p

The Gobi Desert ecosystem is currently experiencing the impacts of persistent climate warming and extreme weather. However, the relative influences of factors such as soil, climate, and spatial variables on the β-diversity of desert plants and their key components have not been systematically studied. In this research, the Dunhuang North Mountain and Mazong Mountain areas were selected as study areas, with a total of 79 plant community plots systematically established. The aim was to explore intercommunity β-diversity and its components and to analyze the interrelationships with climate factors, soil factors, and geographic distance. The results indicate that (1) there is a geographic decay pattern and significant differences among plant communities in the Dunhuang North Mountain and Mazong Mountain areas, with β-diversity primarily driven by replacement components. (2) Climate, soil, and geographic distance significantly influence β-diversity and its replacement components, with climate factors exerting the greatest influence and geographic distance the least. (3) Multiple regression analysis (MRM) reveals differential effects of climate factors, soil factors, and geographic distance on β-diversity and its replacement components, with climate and soil factors exerting a much greater influence than geographic distance. In summary, the β-diversity of plant communities and their replacement components in the Dunhuang North Mountain and Mazong Mountain areas result from the combined effects of habitat filtering and dispersal limitation, with habitat filtering having a greater impact, while environmental heterogeneity is an important factor influencing species differences in this region.

When shield tunnels are under complex geological conditions, tunnel damage, decreased structural performance, and shield tunnel deformation and destruction may occur. Therefore, a new type of composite segment and combined splicing joint were suggested and experimentally investigated in this study. According to the test results, the new composite segment effectively enhanced the load capacity of the segment, and the yield and ultimate loads of the segment were increased. Compared with the reference specimen, the ultimate load capacities of the proposed segments with different numbers were 23.8%, 50.0%, and 64.3% greater. Moreover, the combined splicing joint enhanced the initial bending stiffness and load capacity of the segment joint, reduced the opening displacement, and improved the rotational stiffness of the segment joint. The addition of a plug-in joint at the segment joint increased its load capacity by approximately 25%. A parametric study showed that the number and posit ion of the plug-in joint clearly affected the load capacity of the segment joint. In addition to the above test results, reasonable theoretical formulas for the new composite segment and combined splicing joint are given in this paper.

Abstract DNA tiles serve as the fundamental building blocks for DNA self-assembled nanostructures such as DNA arrays, origami, and designer crystals. Introducing additional binding arms to DNA crossover tiles holds the promise of unlocking diverse nano-assemblies and potential applications. Here, we present one-, two-, and three-layer T-shaped crossover tiles, by integrating T junction with antiparallel crossover tiles. These tiles carry over the orthogonal binding directions from T junction and retain the rigidity from antiparallel crossover tiles, enabling the assembly of various 2D tessellations. To demonstrate the versatility of the design rules, we create 2-state reconfigurable nanorings from both single-stranded tiles and single-unit assemblies. Moreover, four sets of 4-state reconfiguration systems are constructed, showing effective transformations between ladders and/or rings with pore sizes spanning ~20 nm to ~168 nm. These DNA tiles enrich the design tools in nucleic acid nanotechnology, offering exciting opportunities for the creation of artificial dynamic DNA nanopores.

The constraints of data protection make the data confined to different enterprises and organizations, forming many “data islands” and making it difficult to bring out the important value it contains. In this paper, we use federated learning technology as the service foundation and introduce differential privacy, federation chain, interstellar file system, and trusted execution environment to construct a multi-technology fusion e-commerce data transaction method. The three concepts of budget feasibility, individual rationality, and incentive mechanisms are applied to the data transaction scenario to design smart contracts. At the same time, the incentive mechanism is created by combining the trusted execution environment and Shapley value, and the transaction process model is optimized. Simulation comparison is carried out based on the public dataset of the Taobao e-commerce platform, and the experimental results show that MTFDT can realize the accurate evaluation of the model training effect, and the incremental profit stabilization point of the data buyer and seller is around 0.4, which improves the fairness of benefit distribution.

Urtica cannabina L. (UL) has been used clinically for centuries because of its anti-inflammatory properties. This study aimed to investigate the underlying mechanisms and anti-inflammatory effects of different UL concentrations in zebrafish. To elucidate UL's anti-inflammatory properties, two inflammation zebrafish models were designed 1) by severing the zebrafish's caudal fin to assess the repairing effect of UL on the tail inflammation, and 2) by inducing lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-mediated intestinal inflammation to assess the protective and reparative effects of UL on intestinal inflammation at the histological and genetic levels. Furthermore, the effect of UL on the LPS-induced intestinal flora changes was also assessed. After caudal fin resection, a scar formed on the tail of the zebrafish, and the area of the caudal fin increased by 1.30 times as much as that of the control group (P < 0.01). Moreover, this tail scar was alleviated after 10 mg/g UL supplementation but not after 30 mg/g UL dose. LPS decreased the feed intake and body weight of the zebrafish; however, these effects were reversed after 10 and 30 mg/g doses of UL. In addition, the LPS treatment also reduced the intestinal goblet cells by 49% in the zebrafish when compared with the control, which was significantly restored after 10 and 30 mg/g UL treatments. At the genetics level, the expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine genes (TNF-α, IL6, and IL8) showed that 10 and 30 mg/g UL doses could rescue LPS-induced expression. The gut microbiota analysis revealed changes in the abundance of four major bacterial phyla in the 10 and 30 mg/g UL-treated groups, with an increased probiotic Bacteroidota and decreased pathogenic bacteria. These results indicate that UL strongly inhibits inflammation caused by caudal fin removal and LPS-induced inflammatory changes in the zebrafish intensity, suggesting that UL is a feed additive that could be developed to improve resistance to inflammation in livestock.

To better improve student performance and make students more receptive to knowledge, a study of artificial intelligence algorithms for the development and evaluation of college teachers’ teaching skills is proposed. Connections are established with multiple neurons in the periphery through dendrites and axons, and weighted integration of neuronal inputs to the next neuron, given an intelligent learning target. The sensitivity is back-propagated in the adjustment of model parameters, and the centroids are selected to calculate the Euclidean distance to obtain an accurate prediction model, and the weight parameters and bias vectors of the model are adjusted. Using a two-by-two comparison to determine the hierarchical factors, the weights of the relative importance of all factors at each level were calculated and ranked, and the multi-level index system was formed according to the constraint relationship between factors. According to the hierarchical structure of the teaching ability of college teacher educators and the opinions of some experts, the weights of each element in each matrix were determined to reasonably evaluate the effective teaching ability of college teachers in the classroom. The analysis results show that the artificial neural network model has a relative error value of about 1.5% and high numerical accuracy in evaluating teachers’ classroom teaching ability by hierarchical analysis.

A nitrate transporter gene, named B46NRT2.1, from salt-tolerant Zea mays L. B46 has been cloned. B46NRT2.1 contained the same domain belonging to the major facilitator superfamily (PLN00028). The results of the phylogenetic tree indicated that B46NRT2.1 exhibits sequence similarity and the closest relationship with those known nitrate transporters of the NRT2 family. Through RT-qPCR, we found that the expression of B46NRT2.1 mainly happens in the root and leaf. Moreover, the treatment with NaCl, Na2CO3, and NaHCO3 could significantly increase the expression of B46NRT2.1. B46NRT2.1 was located in the plasma membrane. Through the study of yeast and plant salt response brought by B46NRT2.1 overexpression, we have preliminary knowledge that the expression of B46NRT2.1 makes yeast and plants respond to salt shock. There are 10 different kinds of cis-acting regulatory elements (CRES) in the promotor sequences of B46NRT2.1 gene using the PlantCARE web server to analyze. It mainly includes hormone response, abscisic acid, salicylic acid, gibberellin, methyl jasmonate, and auxin. The B46NRT2.1 gene’s co-expression network showed that it was co-expressed with a number of other genes in several biological pathways, including regulation of NO3 long-distance transit, modulation of nitrate sensing and metabolism, nitrate assimilation, and transduction of Jasmonic acid-independent wound signal. The results of this work should serve as a good scientific foundation for further research on the functions of the NRT2 gene family in plants (inbred line B46), and this research adds to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms under salt tolerance.

Traditional mayonnaise has some dietary health problems such as high cholesterol, high fat and high calories. In this work, the mayonnaise-like emulsions with cholesterol-free and high omega-3 unsaturated fatty acid were prepared with whey protein (WP) and Konjac glucomannan (KGM) instead of egg yolk, and linseed oil as the oil phase. The effect of flaxseed oil concentration on the physical stability, such as appearance, droplet size and microstructure, stacking and extrusion formability, and rheological properties of mayonnaise-like emulsions were investigated. The results showed that the droplets size was decreased from 30.8 µm to 17.1 µm and the uniformity of droplet-size increased with the increase of oil phase concentration. The microstructure observation showed there was no flocculation among droplets indicating a good dispersion. Moreover, when the oil phase concentration was increased from 40% to 80%, the rheological properties of the mayonnaise-like emulsion were changed from fluid properties (G′>G″ at 40%) to solid gel properties (50%~80%, G′>G″). The viscosity, elastic modulus and viscous modulus were all increased with the increase of oil phase concentration, suggesting the ability to resist deformation under a certain external force and to return to the original state after deformation was gradually enhanced. The stacking property and extrusion formability were also increased with the increase of oil phase concentration. In conclusion, by adjusting the concentration of flaxseed oil, mayonnaise-like emulsion( flaxseed oil concentration: 40%~60%) with low viscosity and strong fluidity could be prepared for use in sauces and condiments with high fluidity and dispersity requirements, or mayonnaise-like emulsion (flaxseed oil concentration: 70%~80%) with high viscosity and strong stacking property could be prepared for use in condiments with molding and coating requirements.

In unconventional oil and gas development, the hydraulic fracturing (HF) technique is adopted to inject high-pressure fluid into the reservoir and change its pore-fracture connection structure to enhance production. HF causes the rocks to crack and generates microseismic events (with moment magnitudes of Mw≤3). Studying the microseismic focal mechanisms (shear/tensile/compressive HF cracks) is helpful for characterizing fracture geometry, monitoring the in situ stress state, and evaluating the HF effects to optimize the reservoir reconstruction for increasing production. Due to fluid injection activity, there may be non-double-couple (non-DC) mechanisms associated with HF cracks, and the commonly used double-couple (DC) source model may not be suitable. For the moment tensor (MT) source model, which is commonly used to describe the non-DC mechanism, inversion is challenging in single-well monitoring. The shear-tensile general dislocation (GD) model includes a non-DC mechanism, and its inversion is more constrained than the full MT model by specifying the focal mechanism as shear-tensile (or compressive) faulting. This paper reports a focal mechanism inversion case study of HF shear/tensile/compressive cracks in a tight oil reservoir in the Ordos Basin, China. We perform inversions based on the DC, GD, and MT source models, respectively. The results indicate that, for the downhole monitoring geometry in this study, most of the DC inversions fail to obtain proper synthetic and observed waveform fitting results, and the MT inversion results of different microseismic events exhibit worse consistencies than the GD results. According to the GD results, almost all the HF cracks can be explained as strike-slip faulting and most cracks correspond to non-negligible tensile/compressive mechanisms. Our study suggests that the GD source model is preferred in downhole microseismic monitoring to obtain reliable shear/tensile/compressive HF cracks, and the inverted non-zero slope angle reduces the uncertainty in fracturing geometry characterization, which will help improve microseismic studies and HF evaluations for enhanced resource recovery.

Aiming at the problem that the basic impedance control has great impact force and is difficult to cope with environmental changes when it contacts with the tooth surface of worm gear, an adaptive impedance control method based on genetic algorithm was proposed. The influence law of spindle speed, feed speed and grinding force on the surface quality of worm gear tooth surface is analyzed. With material removal rate as the optimization objective, an optimization model of grinding process parameters is established based on particle swarm optimization algorithm, and the optimal grinding process parameters for industrial robot grinding worm gear tooth surface knife marks are obtained: Spindle speed (n=3087.82r/min), Feed speed (vf=0.51mm/s), Normal grinding force (F=19.9N). The experimental results show that the roughness of worm gear tooth surface is increased from 0.941 to 0.719 by using the optimized grinding process parameters. Moreover, this method can effectively suppress the external force influence of industrial robots in the process from free space to constrained space, and the force fluctuation is significantly reduced after contact stabilization, and it has stronger environmental adaptability and force control performance.

Oxaliplatin, as a third-generation platinum-based anticancer drug, is widely used in tumor therapy of many systems. Clinically, oxaliplatin has a number of serious side effects, most notably neuropathy and ototoxicity. The degeneration of cochlear hair cells is the main reason for the hearing loss caused by platinum-based drugs. However, the mechanism of oxaliplatin-induced cochlear hair cell death remains unclear. Ferroptosis is a novel cell injury pattern triggered by the accumulation of iron hydroperoxides in lipids and dependent on the participation of iron ions, which plays an important role in a variety of diseases. Whether ferroptosis is involved in oxaliplatin-induced ototoxicity has not been reported. In this study, we observed that oxaliplatin treatment resulted in lipid peroxidation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in OC1 cells, which may be an early alteration in the occurrence of ferroptosis. Additional treatment with ferroptosis inducer or inhibitor significantly aggravated or ameliorated oxaliplatin-induced cytotoxicity. Similarly, inhibition of ferroptosis also protected cochlear hair cells against oxaliplatin-induced injury. In addition, the expression of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor2 (Nrf2) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) was significantly increased after oxaliplatin treatment, and treatment with the Nrf2 agonist, resveratrol, dramatically attenuated cochlear hair cell damage induced by oxaliplatin. Activation of Nrf2 significantly decreased the expression of iron regulatory protein 2 (IRP-2) and reversed the expression of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4). Collectively, our results demonstrated that activation of Nrf2 alleviates oxaliplatin-induced cochlear hair cell damage by inhibiting ferroptosis, which may be a new mechanism of oxaliplatin-induced ototoxicity.

Interaction between microbial plays an important role in Baijiu brewing. Cyberlindnera fabianii and Clavispora lusitaniae are common non-Saccharomyces yeast in Baijiu brewing, but their interaction with mold is not clear. This study focused on sensory evaluation, content of volatile flavor substances, yeast biomass, enzyme activity and metabolites, and discussed the interaction between C. fabianii HY-11, C. lusitaniae HY-21 and Aspergillus oryzae M-08 in the brewing process. Results showed that, when two non-Saccharomyces yeasts were co-cultured with A. oryzae M-08, respectively, the biomass of C. fabianii HY-11 and C. lusitaniae HY-21 were 4.96 and 0.97-fold higher and alpha-amylases increased by 70.31 and 107.73-fold than that of pure fermentation using single yeast. These results indicated that the two yeasts were dependent on A. oryzae M-08. Compared with C. lusitaniae HY-21, the mixed fermentation of C. fabianii HY-11 and A. oryzae M-08 showed better flavor. After 6 days of fermentation, strong cantaloupe, wine and ester aroma were obtained. The total amount of volatile flavor substances was up to 1408.97 μg/g, which was 381.87-fold higher than that under single yeast fermentation condition. A. oryzae M-08 interacted well with C. fabianii HY-11 and C. lusitaniae HY-21. Compared with the single yeast fermentation system, the level of free amino acids in the mixed fermentation system increased by 105.02 and 3837.29 μg/g, and the esterase activity increased by 27.67 and 387.82 U/g, respectively. Therefore, the metabolism of volatile flavor substances was promoted. This study elucidates the relationship between two non-Saccharomyces yeasts and A. oryzae M-08 and their flavor characteristics, providing a theoretical basis for their rational application.

Neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) for advanced colorectal cancer (ACRC) is a kind of well-evidenced therapy, yet a portion of ACRC patients have poor therapeutic response. To date, no suitable biomarker used for assessing NAT efficacy has been reported. Here, we collect 72 colonoscopy biopsy tissue specimens from ACRC patients before undergoing NAT and investigate the relationship between HOXA13 expression and NAT efficacy. The results show that HOXA13 expression in pretreated tumor specimens is negatively associated with tumor regression ( P

Kruppel-like factors (KLFs) are a family of zinc finger transcription factors that have been found to play an essential role in the development of various human tissues, including epithelial, teeth, and nerves. In addition to regulating normal physiological processes, KLFs have been implicated in promoting the onset of several cancers, such as gastric cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer, and colon cancer. To inhibit cancer progression, various existing medicines have been used to modulate the expression of KLFs, and anti-microRNA treatments have also emerged as a potential strategy for many cancers. Investigating the possibility of targeting KLFs in cancer therapy is urgently needed, as the roles of KLFs in cancer have not received enough attention in recent years. This review summarizes the factors that regulate KLF expression and function at both the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels, which could aid in understanding the mechanisms of KLFs in cancer progression. We hope that this review will contribute to the development of more effective anti-cancer medicines targeting KLFs in the future.

As an important part of the national economy, the carbon emission problem of the transportation industry is becoming increasingly prominent. This paper analyzes the current situation of the carbon emission in the transportation field from the two dimensions of energy use and carbon emission.By constructing the LEAP model and designing different scenarios, the “bottom-up” method is selected to take Tai’an city as an example to predict the carbon peak in the field of transportation trend.On this basis, put forward to strengthen the construction of energy infrastructure, promote clean energy and new energy vehicles, strengthen energy technology innovation research and development, improve the carbon emissions statistics and monitoring system, strengthen policy guidance and support implementation path, and combined with the specific situation of Tai’an City analysis, these path green low carbon development in the field of transportation provides an important reference, also for other areas of similar problems provides reference and enlightenment.

20Ne can be considered as a double-magic 16O core nucleus surrounded by four nucleons, the constituents of an α-like quartet. Similar to other nuclei (212Po, 104Ti, etc.) with a quartet on top of a double-magic core nucleus, significant α-like correlations are expected. The quartetting wave function (QWF) approach predicts a large α-like cluster contribution near the surface of the nuclei. The Tohsaki-Horiuchi-Schuck-Röpke (THSR) approach describes α-like clustering in nuclear systems. The results of the QWF approach in the Thomas-Fermi and shell-model approximation are compared with THSR calculations for the container model.

The cultural origin of Taoism life thought includes: the mythological origin contained in matriarchal society, the rebirth conveyed by reproduction worship, and the wisdom of heaven and man nourished by witchcraft history culture. Taoism life thought is composed of life view, life and death view, rebirth theory and health theory. Taoism life thought has the distinct characteristics of life standard, natural concern and transcendent intention. The Taoist concept of “reverence for life” and “maintenance of life” is of enlightening significance to the settlement of life.

The aim of this study is to investigate the protective effects of glaucocalyxin A (GLA) on airways in mouse models of asthma, concerning the inflammatory mediators, Th1/Th2 subgroup imbalance, and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/NF-κB signaling pathway. Hematoxylin and eosin/periodic acid–Schiff staining was used to observe the pathological changes in lung tissues. Inflammatory cytokine contents in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Protein expression levels were detected with Western blot, immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescence. In vivo studies showed that, in ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthmatic mouse models, the GLA treatments reduced the airway hyperresponsiveness and the secretion of inflammatory cells, declined the proliferation of goblet cells, decreased the levels of IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13, and increased the contents of interferon-γ and IL-12. Moreover, GLA inhibited the protein expression levels of TLR4, MyD88, TRAF6, and NF-κB in OVA-induced asthmatic mouse models. Further in vitro studies showed that GLA inhibited the expression of NF-κB, p-IκBα, tumor necrosis factor-α, IL-6, and IL-1β and blocked the nuclear transfer of NF-κB in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. Conclusively, GLA can inhibit the inflammatory responses in OVA-induced asthmatic mice and inhibit the release of inflammatory factors in LPS-induced RAW264.7 macrophages, which may be related to the inhibition of TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway.

More and more patients with advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) have benefited from surgical resection or ablation following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT), but nCRT may be ineffective and have potential risks to some patients. Therefore, it is necessary to discover effective biomarkers for predicting the nCRT efficacy in CRC patients. Chromokinesin Kif4A plays a critical role in mitosis, DNA damage repair and tumorigenesis, but its relationship with nCRT efficacy in advanced CRC remains unclear. Here, we find that Kif4A expression in pretreated tumor tissue is positively correlated with poorer tumor regression after receiving nCRT ( P=0.005). Knockdown of endogenous Kif4A causes an increased sensitivity of CRC cells to chemotherapeutic drugs 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and Cisplatin (DDP), while overexpression of Kif4A enhances resistance of CRC cells to the chemotherapeutic drugs. Furthermore, depending on its motor domain and tail domain, Kif4A regulates DNA damage response (DDR) induced by 5-FU or DDP treatment in CRC cells. In conclusion, we demonstrate that Kif4A may be a potential independent biomarker for predicting the nCRT efficacy in advanced CRC patients, and Kif4A regulates chemosensitivity of CRC cells through controlling DDR.

Abstract Background Systemic factors can strongly affect how tumour cells behave, grow, and communicate with other cells in breast cancer. Lipid metabolic reprogramming is a systemic process that tumour cells undergo; however, the formation and dynamics of lipids associated with the tumour immune microenvironment (TIME) remain unclear. The investigation of the sophisticated bidirectional crosstalk of tumour cells with cancer metabolism, gene expression, and TIME could have the potential to identify novel biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and immunotherapy. This study aimed to construct a prognostic signature to detect the bicrosstalk between the lipid metabolic system and the TIME of breast cancer. Methods To detect the expression of LRGs and execute GO/KEGG analysis, the R program was chosen. Considering the clinical information and pathological features, a prognostic gene signature was constructed by LASSO Cox regression analysis. TMB, MSI, and immune infiltration analyses were performed, and consensus cluster analysis of LRGs was also performed. Results These 16 lipid metabolism-related genes (LRGs) were mainly involved in the process of lipid metabolism and fatty acid binding in breast cancer. Prognosis analysis identified the prognostic value of FABP7(Fatty acid binding protein 7) and NDUFAB1(NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase subunit AB1) in breast cancer patients. The prognostic gene signature constructed with FABP7 and NDUFAB1 was significantly related to immune cell infiltration and could predict the overall survival rate with above average correctness of breast cancer patients. FABP7 and NDUFAB1 were proven to have relevance in immune cell infiltration and tumour mutation burden (TMB). Consensus cluster analysis identified that the upregulated mRNAs were mostly related to the oncogenesis process, while the downregulated mRNAs were associated with immune-related signalling pathways. Conclusion A comprehensive analysis was performed to evaluate the lipid metabolic system and identified a signature constructed by two prognostic genes for immunotherapies in breast cancer. The results also revealed evidence of vulnerabilities in the interplay between the lipid metabolic system and the TIME in breast cancer. Further data with clinical studies and experiments are warranted.

Abstract Background Implant-based breast reconstruction is easy to be performed but has flaws that an unnatural appearance might be presented when no sufficient coverage existing. While autologous tissue reconstruction also has disadvantages like donor site scar and skin patch effect. There is a demand for a new method to obtain natural and aesthetic appearance while surmounting drawbacks of conventional breast reconstruction surgery. Methods A retrospective review of thirty-one patients undergoing tissue expander (TE)/implant two-stage breast reconstruction with latissimus dorsi muscle flap (LDMF) transfer through endoscopic approach in Peking University Third Hospital from April 2016 to August 2020 was performed. The LDMF harvest time, drain time, and complications were reviewed. The 3D volume was obtained to assess the volume symmetry of bilateral breasts. The BREAST-Q reconstruction module was used to evaluate the satisfaction. Results The mean endoscopic LDMF harvest time was 90.4 min. In the mean follow-up of 11.2 months, there were no severe capsular contracture happened. The reconstructed side achieved good volume symmetry to the contralateral side (P = 0.256). Based on the evaluation of the BREAST-Q scores, the outcome of Satisfaction with Breasts was excellent or good in 87.1% of the cases. Conclusions The novel type of two-stage breast reconstruction protocol, which includes tissue expansion followed by implant insertion with endoscopy-assisted LDMF transfer, could effectively reduce visible scars, avoid the patch effect, while require short time for LDMF harvest and present low incidence of complications. It is a promising method for breast reconstruction because it achieves good outcomes in the mastectomy patients.

Mayfly algorithm is a new intelligent optimization algorithm with unique optimization capabilities recently proposed. It has strong research value, but there are also insufficient explorations, and it is easy to fall into the problem of local optimization. This paper aims to improve the optimization performance of the mayfly algorithm and explore its application value in practical engineering optimization problems. An improved mayfly algorithm based on the median position of the group is proposed. In its velocity update, the median position of the group is introduced with emphasis, and a non-linear gravity coefficient is introduced at the same time. Through the benchmark test function, its superiority in exploitation, convergence speed and accuracy and the improvement of exploration are verified. At the same time, the simulation model of the hydro-turbine governor using MATLAB/Simulink is established, and 10% frequency disturbance experiments of this model are carried out separately in two typical working conditions. The experiments results show that the optimal ITAE index value of the system obtained by the improved mayfly algorithm is smaller, and 16.5 and 18.1 iterations to complete on average. In addition, the experiments results reveal that the PID parameters optimized by the improved mayfly algorithm can make the dynamic performance of the regulation system better than other popular swarm intelligence algorithms, where the overshoot decreased by more than 3.1%, and the adjustment time also decreased in different degrees. The proposal of the median position of the group provides a new idea for the improvement of the swarm intelligence optimization algorithm. Meanwhile, a new effective method for optimizing the PID parameters of the hydro-turbine governor has been found.

Antidepressants refer to psychotropic drugs which are used to treat mental illness with prominent emotional depression symptoms. It was reported that antidepressants had associated with anti-carcinogenic function which was associated with various signaling pathways and changing of microenvironment. Its mechanism includes cell apoptosis, antiproliferative effects, mitochondria-mediated oxidative stress, DNA damaging, changing of immune response and inflammatory conditions, and acting by inhibiting multidrug resistance of cancer cells. Accumulated studies showed that antidepressants influenced the metabolic pathway of tumor cells. This review summarized recent developments with the impacts and mechanisms of 10 kinds of antidepressants in carcinostasis. Antidepressants are also used in combination therapy with typical anti-tumor drugs which shows a synergic effect in anti-tumor. By contrast, the promotion roles of antidepressants in increasing cancer recurrence risk, mortality, and morbidity are also included. Further clinical experiments and mechanism analyses needed to be achieved. A full understanding of the underlying mechanisms of antidepressants-mediated anticarcinogenic effects may provide new clues for cancer prevention and clinical treatment.

slPHB3 was cloned from Salix linearistipularis, the amino acid sequence blast and phylogenetic tree analysis showed that slPHB3 has the most similarity with PHB3 from Populus trichocarpa using DNAMAN software and MEGA7 software. RT-qPCR results confirmed that the expression of slPHB3 was induced obviously under stress treatments. The growth of recombinant yeast cells was better than that of the control group under the stress treatment, indicating that slPHB3 may be involved in the stress response of yeast cells. The transgenic tobacco was treated with different concentrations of NaCl, NaHCO3 and H2O2, fresh weigh of overexpression tobacco were heavier than wild-types. The results showed that transgenic tobacco was more tolerant to salt and oxidation than wild-type tobacco. Expression of important genes including NHX1 and SOS1 in salt stress response pathways are steadily higher in overexpression tobacco than that in wild-types. We identified 17 proteins interacting with slPHB3 by yeast two-hybrid technique, most of these proteins were relation to the stresses. The salt tolerance of slPHB3 expressing yeast and slPHB3 overexpressing plants were better than that of the control. Ten stress-related proteins may interact with slPHB3, which preliminarily indicated that slPHB3 had a certain response relationship with salt stress. The study of slPHB3 under abiotic stress can improve our understanding of PHB3 gene function.

Lilium Pumilum with wide distribution is highly tolerant to salinity. The blue copper protein LpCPC (Lilium pumilum Cucumber Peeling Cupredoxin) gene was cloned from Lilium pumilum, which has the conserved regions of type I copper protein. Moreover, LpCPC has the closest relation to CPC from Actinidia chinensis using DNAMAN software and MEGA7 software. qRT-PCR indicated that LpCPC expression was higher in root and bulb of Lilium pumilum, and the expression of the LpCPC gene increased and reached the highest level at 12 h in bulbs under 20 mM NaHCO3. The transgenic yeast was more tolerant compared with the control under NaHCO3 stress. Compared with the wild type, overexpressing plants indicated a relatively lower degree of wilting. In addition, the chlorophyll content, soluble phenol content, and lignin content of overexpressing lines were higher than that of wild-type, whereas the relative conductivity of overexpressing plants was significantly lower than that of wild-type plants. Expression of essential genes including NHX1 and SOS1 in salt stress response pathways are steadily higher in overexpression tobacco than that in wild-types. Transgenic lines had much higher levels of CCR1 and CAD, which are involved in lignin production, compared with wild-type lines. The yeast two-hybrid technique was applied to screen probable interacting proteins interacting with LpCPC. Eight proteins interacted with LpCPC were screened, and five of which were demonstrated to be associated with plant salinity resistance. Overall, the role of gene LpCPC is mediating molecule responses in increasing saline-alkali stress resistance, indicating that it is an essential gene to enhance salt tolerance in Lilium pumilum.

A novel framework of reliability analysis was developed in this study to consider the uncertainty of geomaterials and geological conditions by combining the reduced-order model (ROM), reliability analysis, and numerical model. The reliability method was used to determine the reliability index using the simplicial homology global optimization (SHGO) based on the ROM. The developed method was verified and illustrated using three numerical examples and a simple slope. The limit state curve in all three numerical examples was in excellent agreement with the actual curve. The reliability index and failure probability were also in excellent agreement with those of the actual limit state function using the first-order reliability method (FORM) and Monte Carlo simulation, respectively, indicating that the ROM method can present the limit state function well. The results showed that the developed method is feasible and effective for reliability analysis of geotechnical and geological engineering problems with a complex, nonlinear, and implicit limit state function. Furthermore, the developed method is effective, efficient, and accurate for reliability analysis. It provides an excellent way to approximate the limit state function to avoid the time-consuming numerical model in a practical engineering system.

Enhanced recovery after surgery(ERAS) has been a hot research topic of modern surgery, and the core of ERAS is based on a high level evidence-based medicine, aiming to reduce the influence of surgical trauma and stress on patients, reduce the risk of postoperative complications, shorten the length of hospital stay and reduce hospitalization expenses. Perioperative nutrition, especially in enteral nutrition intake is particularly important for the prognosis of patients. This paper summarized the clinical research progress of enteral nutrition, especially oral nutritional supplement, in fast-track surgery for colorectal cancer and to provide reference and basis for its safety and implementation strategy. (术后加速康复是现代外科的研究热点, 其核心理念是基于高水平的循证医学证据, 减少患者的手术创伤和应激, 从而减少术后并发症, 缩短住院时间, 减少住院费用, 而围术期营养特别是肠内营养的摄入对患者的预后具有特别重要的意义。本文总结了目前关于结直肠癌加速康复外科肠内营养实施的临床研究进展, 为其安全性和实施策略提供参考和依据。)

In order to solve the problems of low accuracy of monitoring data, weak data analysis capabilities, and low intelligenceof existing mining equipment, an intelligent safety monitoring and predictive maintenance system for mining equipment is proposed.The system preprocesses mining equipment safety monitoring data through an intelligent data pre-selection model based on the simulated annealing algorithm, filters out the data within the threshold range so as to eliminate outliers in the data. The intelligent safety predictive maintenance model based on convolutional neural network is used to perform dual-channel convolution using convolutional kernels of different sizes to diversify the extracted filtered data characteristics. By comparing them with the mining equipment historical status sample data, it is able to judge the mining equipment operation status and then provide corresponding equipment predictive maintenance solutions.The experimental results show that the system has high accuracy in judging the operation status and predictive maintenance of mining equipment.

Fault diagnosis technology is key to the safe and stable operation of wind turbines. An effective fault diagnosis technology for wind turbines can quickly identify fault types to reduce the operation and maintenance costs of wind farms and improve power generation efficiency. Currently, most wind farms obtain operation and maintenance data via supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, which contain rich information related to the operation characteristics of wind turbines. However, few SCADA systems provide fault diagnosis functionality. Support vector machines (SVMs) are a popular intelligence method in the fault diagnosis of wind turbines. SVM parameter selection is key for accurate model classification. The sparrow search algorithm (SSA) is a novel and highly efficient optimization method used to optimize the penalty factor and kernel function parameter of SVM in this paper and to construct the SSA-SVM wind turbine fault diagnosis model. Data are acquired from a wind farm SCADA system and form a faulting set after preprocessing and feature selection. Experiments show that the SSA-SVM diagnostic model effectively improves the accuracy of wind turbine fault diagnosis compared with the GS-SVM, GA-SVM and PSO-SVM models and has fast convergence speed and strong optimization ability. Moreover, the SSA-SVM diagnostic model can be used to diagnose faults in practical engineering applications.

Blue rubber bleb nevus syndrome is a very rare systemic vascular malformation frequently affecting the skin and the gastrointestinal tract. The pathogenesis of the disease is still unclear, and the standard treatment does not exist. This study reports two blue rubber bleb nevus syndrome cases, of which the second patient received the TEK gene mutations detection and got a low-dose sirolimus therapy, compared with the first patient who was not treated with sirolimus. The report shows some positive findings of TEK gene mutations and the efficacy of sirolimus treatment. We postulate that the TEK gene mutations play an important role in the pathogenesis. The mutations of different locations of the TEK gene cause a wide range of activating TIE2 mutations, which could stimulate the mammalian target of rapamycin signaling pathways to mediate angiogenesis, resulting in different clinical phenotypes of cutaneomucosal venous malformations. Sirolimus could effectively block the upstream and downstream factors of mammalian target of rapamycin signaling pathways to achieve the antiangiogenic effect. The initial dose of sirolimus can be 0.05–0.1 mg/kg/d for a trough level of 5–15 μg/L in the treatment of blue rubber bleb nevus syndrome. However, a lower-dose sirolimus is also effective while minimizing the side effects.