Search

Purpose To investigate the value of pre-operative gadoxetate disodium (Gd-EOB-DTPA) enhanced MRI predicting early post-operative recurrence ( Methods Retrospective analysis of pre-operative MR imaging features of 177 patients diagnosed as suffering from HCC and that underwent radical resection. Multivariate logistic regression assessment was adopted to assess predictors for HCC recurrence with different degrees of pathological differentiation. The area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristics (ROC) was utilized to assess the diagnostic efficacy of the predictors. Results Among the 177 patients, 155 (87.5%) were males, 22 (12.5%) were females; the mean age was 49.97 ± 10.71 years. Among the predictors of early post-operative recurrence of highly-differentiated HCC were an unsmooth tumor margin and an incomplete/without tumor capsule (p = 0.037 and 0.033, respectively) whereas those of early post-operative recurrence of moderately-differentiated HCC were incomplete/without tumor capsule, peritumoral enhancement along with peritumoral hypointensity (p = 0.006, 0.046 and 0.004, respectively). The predictors of early post-operative recurrence of poorly-differentiated HCC were peritumoral enhancement, peritumoral hypointensity, and tumor thrombosis (p = 0.033, 0.006 and 0.021, respectively). The AUCs of the multi-predictor diagnosis of early post-operative recurrence of highly-, moderately-, and poorly-differentiated HCC were 0.841, 0.873, and 0.875, respectively. The AUCs of the multi-predictor diagnosis were each higher than for those predicted separately. Conclusions The imaging parameters for predicting early post-operative recurrence of HCC with different degrees of pathological differentiation were different and combining these predictors can improve the diagnostic efficacy of early post-operative HCC recurrence.

Among the basic elements of music, timbre is one of the most important elements of sound, and it is also the main basis for distinguishing one pronunciation from another. People usually have the ability to “listen and argue” because everyone’s pronunciation is different. However, the existing audio extraction technology has low efficiency and low accuracy. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss the algorithm that can make music timbre feature extraction more accurate and efficient. For audio signal feature extraction, this paper proposed an audio feature based on harmonic components to describe the harmonic structure information in the audio signal spectrum. The algorithm in this paper extracts timbre features from the sound data of Western musical instruments and national musical instruments and analyzes the recognition accuracy. The experimental results showed that the classification accuracy of the four feature extractors is above 92%, among which B has the worst effect, with an accuracy of 92.42%, and D has the best classification effect, with an accuracy of 99.15%, which shows that the feature extraction algorithm designed in this paper combined with the traditional feature extraction algorithm can achieve better results.

In Xanthomonas spp., the biosynthesis of the yellow pigment xanthomonadin and fatty acids originates in the type II polyketide synthase (PKS II) and fatty acid synthase (FAS) pathways, respectively. The acyl carrier protein (ACP) is the central component of PKS II and FAS and requires posttranslational phosphopantetheinylation to initiate these pathways. In this study, for the first time, we demonstrate that the posttranslational modification of ACPs in X. campestris pv. campestris is performed by an essential 4′-phosphopantetheinyl transferase (PPTase), XcHetI (encoded by Xc_4132). X. campestris pv. campestris strain XchetI could not be deleted from the X. campestris pv. campestris genome unless another PPTase-encoding gene such as Escherichia coli acpS or Pseudomonas aeruginosa pcpS was present. Compared with wild-type strain X. campestris pv. campestris 8004 and mutant XchetI::PapcpS, strain XchetI::EcacpS failed to generate xanthomonadin pigments and displayed reduced pathogenicity for the host plant, Brassica oleracea. Further experiments showed that the expression of XchetI restored the growth of E. coli acpS mutant HT253 and, when a plasmid bearing XchetI was introduced into P. aeruginosa, pcpS, which encodes the sole PPTase in P. aeruginosa, could be deleted. In in vitro enzymatic assays, XcHetI catalyzed the transformation of 4′-phosphopantetheine from coenzyme A to two X. campestris pv. campestris apo-acyl carrier proteins, XcAcpP and XcAcpC. All of these findings indicate that XcHetI is a surfactin PPTase-like PPTase with a broad substrate preference. Moreover, the HetI-like PPTase is ubiquitously conserved in Xanthomonas spp., making it a potential new drug target for the prevention of plant diseases caused by Xanthomonas. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY 4.0 International license .

The cytochrome P450s (CYP450s) include key oxidative enzymes involved in the metabolism of various carcinogens and anticancer drugs. Bioinformatic studies have demonstrated the association of CYP3A43 with liver cancer and ovarian cancer. However, the biological function of CYP3A43 in tumor progression remains unclear. To further reveal the role of CYP3A43 in tumor progression, we first analyzed the data from the UALCAN database and found that CYP3A43 was negatively correlated to the cancer staging and lymph node metastasis of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). We established stable CYP3A43-knockdown LUAD H1299 cell line and found that its knockdown enhanced cell proliferation, colony formation, and migration in vitro, and promoted the growth of tumor xenograft in vivo. Interestingly, when CYP3A43 was ectopically-expressed in the LUAD cell lines, decreased cell proliferation and ERK1/2 phosphorylation level were observed. Lastly, we also identified CYP3A43 co-expressed genes in LUAD from LinkedOmics database followed by GO and KEGG analyses. In conclusion, our results indicate the unprecedented role of CYP3A43 in the suppression of LUAD and provide new possibilities for targeted therapy of this life-threatening disease.

BACKGROUND The management of severe extravasation injuries is still controversial. Extravasation injuries can be treated in many ways. AIM To present a series of patients with severe extravasation injuries due to infusion who were managed with ethacridine lactate dressing combined with localized closure and phototherapy. METHODS In this study, we evaluated the data of eight patients, including six from the Department of Burn, one (with colorectal carcinoma) from the Veteran Cadre Department, and one (with leukemia) from the Hematology Department. Of these, three patients were male and five were female. Age of the patients ranged from 10 mo to 72 years, including two children (10 and 19 mo of age). In this study, the infusion was stopped immediately when the extravasation was identified. The extravasation event was managed routinely using a blocking solution. A ring-shaped localized closure was performed using the blocking agents. Moreover, ethacridine lactate dressing and phototherapy were applied for 3-5 d. RESULTS In this study, the drugs contained in the infusates were iodixanol, norepinephrine, alprostadil, amino acids, fat emulsion, cefoselis, cefoxitin, and potassium chloride + concentrated sodium chloride. All of the patients achieved complete healing after treatment and no obvious adverse reactions were observed. CONCLUSION The treatment of severe extravasation injuries using a combination of localized closure, ethacridine lactate dressing, and phototherapy resulted in satisfactory outcomes in patients.

Tibetan Plateau (TP, with the height > 3000 m) is a region with complex topographical features and a large diversity of climate both in space and time. The use of higher resolution regional climate models (RCMs) to downscale global climate model simulations is of high importance. In the present study, future climate change over TP and the surrounding areas is investigated based on the ensemble of a set of the 21st century climate change projections using the RCM RegCM4. The model is driven by five different GCMs at a grid spacing of 25 km under RCP4.5. The focus is on the December‒January‒February (DJF), June‒July‒August (JJA), and annual mean temperature and precipitation, with comparisons against the driving GCMs also provided. Overall, the RegCM4 greatly improves the simulation by providing finer scale spatial details of both temperature and precipitation distributions over the region. The topographic effects are well reproduced by RegCM4 but not the GCMs. For the projected future changes, general warming and increase in precipitation are found in both GCM and RegCM4 simulations. However, substantial differences exist in both the spatial distribution and magnitude of the changes. The added value of RegCM4 for temperature, in addition to the finer spatial details, is characterized by a more pronounced warming in DJF over TP compared to its surrounding areas. The projected changes of precipitation show also differences between RegCM4 and the driving GCMs. The increase of precipitation is more pronounced and over the basins in DJF for RegCM4, and in general with a better agreement across the simulations compared to the driving GCMs.

Four-Dimensional Cone-Beam Computed Tomography (4D-CBCT) imaging is important in upper abdomen tumor radiation treatment as it can obtain the tumor motion information immediately before treatment. However, the number of projections at a single phase for 4D-CBCT imaging is very small, and the CT images reconstructed by using conventional algorithms will be contaminated by view aliasing artifacts and noises. To address this problem, we propose a framework to jointly estimate and compensate the inter-phase motion for 4D-CBCT image reconstruction. Specifically, by introducing the intensity-based optical flow (OF) constraint into the reconstruction framework, the model can deal with the inter-frame displacements and improve the image quality simultaneously. The primal-dual algorithm method was used to optimize the cost function of the proposed model. Experiments on physical phantoms and patient data show that the proposed approach can effectively reduce the noise and artifacts in 4D–CBCT images and achieve the inter-phase motion vector fields (MVFs).

Curcuma kwangsiensis root tuber is a widely used genuine medicinal material in Guangxi, with the main active components of terpenoids and curcumins. It has the effects of promoting blood circulation to relieve pain, moving Qi to relieve depression, clearing heart and cooling blood, promoting gallbladder function and anti-icterus. Modern research has proved its functions in liver protection, anti-tumor, anti-oxidation, blood lipid reduction and immunosuppression. Considering the research progress of C. kwangsiensis root tubers and the core concept of quality marker(Q-marker), we predicted the Q-markers of C. kwangsiensis root tubers from plant phylogeny, chemical component specificity, traditional pharmacodynamic properties, new pharmacodynamic uses, chemical component measurability, processing methods, compatibility, and components migrating to blood. Curcumin, curcumol, curcumadiol, curcumenol, curdione, germacrone, and β-elemene may be the possible Q-markers. Based on the predicted Q-markers, the mechanisms of the liver-protecting and anti-tumor activities of C. kwangsiensis root tubers were analyzed. AKT1, IL6, EGFR, and STAT3 were identified as the key targets, and neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction signaling pathway, nitrogen metabolism pathway, cancer pathway, and hepatitis B pathway were the major involved pathways. This review provides a basis for the quality evaluation and product development of C. kwangsiensis root tubers and gives insights into the research on Chinese medicinal materials.

To evaluate 3D reconstruction through CT in the measurement of abdominal cavity volume. From January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019, 61 patients diagnosed as external abdominal hernia were included in this prospective study. Multislice computed tomography (MSCT) was applied to patients scanning, and the images were transferred to post-processing workstation for further analysis. We measured the abdominal cavity volumes using volume rendering (VR) method and diameter rendering (DR) method, and the results were used to test whether there is a correlation between them. In addition, the time required for the measurement was recorded and analyzed. In this study, we found that there was no significant difference in the abdominal cavity volumes between these two groups (VR vs. DR = 7857.316 ± 2035.786 cm3 vs. 7967.268 ± 2925.792 cm3, P > 0.05). Besides, the correlation analysis between the measured values of VR method and DR method showed there was a significant positive correlation (r = 0.922, P

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a major pathogen in immunocompromised population and CMV infections in immunocompromised patients cause substantial morbidity and mortality. The common clinical manifestations of CMV infection are pneumonia, hepatitis, colitis and so on, while CMV peritonitis without gut perforation is rare. Reviewing the literature, CMV peritonitis in patients with nephrotic syndrome (NS) had not been reported. Only four cases of CMV peritonitis without gut perforation were reported in adults with other diseases. Two cases were diagnosed by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of ascites while the other two cases by histopathological examination of peritoneal tissue. We report four cases of primary nephrotic syndrome complicated with CMV peritonitis. Four cases all diagnosed by RT-PCR of ascites (659–455 000 copies/mL). We mainly discusses the diagnosis and treatment of CMV peritonitis without gut perforation.

Dissimilarity nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) is of significance in agriculture ecosystems as the process is beneficial to N retention in soils. However, how fertilization regimes influence DNRA rates and functional microbes in agriculture was rarely estimated. In the present study, a 2-year pot experiment was conducted in two contrasting paddy soils to evaluate the effects of straw and nitrogen addition on DNRA process and the related functional microbes, using stable isotope tracer and molecular ecology techniques. The results showed that the abundance and transcription activity of nitrite reductase encoding gene (nrfA) involved in DNRA process and DNRA rates were significantly higher in alkaline soils than in acidic soils. Straw incorporation significantly enhanced nrfA gene abundance and transcription activity, with a greater effect in alkaline soil than in acidic soil. The rates of DNRA, abundance and transcription activity of nrfA gene positively correlated to soil C/N and C/NO3− induced by straw application. Sequencing analysis based on nrfA gene transcript showed that Deltaproteobacteria was the most dominant group in both soil types (30.9%–67.4%), while Gammaproteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Actinobacteria were selectively enriched by straw incorporation. These results demonstrated that DNRA activity can be improved by straw return practice in paddy soils while the effect will vary among soil types due to differentiated functional microbial communities and edaphic properties.

An azo-based ligand of azotetrazolyl-2,7-dihydroxynaphthalene (H3ATD) was used to synthesize three FeIII–MII–FeIII(M = Fe, Cd) linear trinuclear complexes with different high temperature spin crossover (SCO) behaviours for the terminal FeIIIions.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence has made various fields to have corresponding connections with it, and music plays an important role in daily life. One of the applications of artificial intelligence in the field of art is to use music generation algorithms to endow machines with the function of generating melody. This ability can provide certain assistance to musicians when composing music, so that music creators can inspire inspiration in the creative process. Researchers have done a lot of work in the automatic generation of music. The piano is widely used in the field of automatic accompaniment and has strong versatility. The main purpose of this paper is to design a piano-based automatic accompaniment system, to think of melody and harmony as a machine learning-like task. By training on a selected series of samples, a database of phonomorphic metastructures is constructed, to systematically collect the original piano accompaniment patterns by building a sound pattern database, and convert the collected original sound patterns into the original sound pattern structure and store in the database. Then, by establishing two Hidden Markov Model (HMM) systems to simulate the thinking mode of the composer’s piano accompaniment process, a melody style related to a certain collection of samples is formed. Finally, the Viterbi algorithm is used to select the appropriate piano accompaniment metastructure in the database to generate the piano accompaniment of the melody section. The experimental results of this paper show that, as far as the accompaniment generation effect is concerned, although the generation effect of this paper is slightly different, the overall difference does not change much. It shows that the effect generated by the method in this paper is relatively stable.

Studying the relatively underexplored atypical MAP Kinase MAPK15 on cancer progression/patient outcomes and its potential transcriptional regulation of downstream genes would be highly valuable for the diagnosis, prognosis, and potential oncotherapy of malignant tumors such as lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Here, the expression of MAPK15 in LUAD was detected by immunohistochemistry and its correlation with clinical parameters such as lymph node metastasis and clinical stage was analyzed. The correlation between the prostaglandin E2 receptor EP3 subtype (EP3) and MAPK15 expression in LUAD tissues was examined, and the transcriptional regulation of EP3 and cell migration by MAPK15 in LUAD cell lines were studied using the luciferase reporter assay, immunoblot analysis, qRT-PCR, and transwell assay. We found that MAPK15 is highly expressed in LUAD with lymph node metastasis. In addition, EP3 is positively correlated with the expression of MAPK15 in LUAD tissues, and we confirmed that MAPK15 transcriptionally regulates the expression of EP3. Upon the knockdown of MAPK15, the expression of EP3 was down-regulated and the cell migration ability was decreased in vitro; similarly, the mesenteric metastasis ability of the MAPK15 knockdown cells was inhibited in in vivo animal experiments. Mechanistically, we demonstrate for the first time that MAPK15 interacts with NF-κB p50 and enters the nucleus, and NF-κB p50 binds to the EP3 promoter and transcriptionally regulates the expression of EP3. Taken together, we show that a novel atypical MAPK and NF-κB subunit interaction promotes LUAD cell migration through transcriptional regulation of EP3, and higher MAPK15 level is associated with lymph node metastasis in patients with LUAD.

The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is increasing rapidly. In addition to the metabolic disease risks, GDM might increase the risks of cryptorchidism in children. However, its mechanism involved in abnormalities of the male reproductive system is still unclear. The purpose of this study was to study the effects of GDM on the development of mouse fetal Leydig cells (FLCs) and Sertoli cells (SCs). Pregnant mice were treated on gestational days 6.5 and 12.5 with streptozotocin (100 mg/kg) or vehicle (sodium citrate buffer). Leydig cell and SC development and functions were evaluated by investigating serum testosterone levels, cell number and distribution, genes, and protein expression. GDM decreased serum testosterone levels, the anogenital distance, and the level of desert hedgehog in SCs of testes of male offspring. FLC number was also decreased in testes of GDM offspring by delaying the commitment of stem Leydig cells into the Leydig cell lineage. RNA-seq showed that FOXL2, RSPO1/β-catenin signaling was activated and Gsk3β signaling was inhibited in GDM offspring testis. In conclusion, GDM disrupted reproductive tract and testis development in mouse male offspring via altering genes related to development.

BACKGROUND The recurrence rate of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) post-renal transplantation is as high as 30%-50%. However, the pathogenesis is unclear. At present, there is no unified standard for the treatment of recurrent FSGS post-transplantation. Its treatment is full of risks and challenges. METHODS We report a child with recurrent FSGS with massive proteinuria 6~9 g/m2 /day and resistance to plasma exchange (PE) and rituximab (RTX). On the basis of receiving anti-rejection therapy of prednisone, tacrolimus, and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), we treated the child with adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), and reviewed the literature on the application of ACTH in the recurrence of FSGS post-transplantation. RESULTS After 1 year of treatment with ACTH, the patient's urinary protein decreased and fluctuated between 0.6 and 1.1 g/m2 /day. The albumin (ALB) and cholesterol (CHOL) returned to the normal range. The patient achieved complete remission after 19 months of ACTH treatment and maintained until now. There was no obvious adverse reaction. Literature review showed that up to February 2021, a total of 8 studies showed the use of ACTH in kidney transplant patients, and all the patients in the study achieved remission. CONCLUSIONS ACTH is a potential option for treating recurrent FSGS post-transplantation with fewer side effects and relatively safe for patients. However, further evaluation is needed to better adapt to different populations.

Acetyl-CoA Carboxylases (ACCs) are key fatty acid metabolic enzymes responsible for catalyzing the carboxylation of acetyl-CoA to malonyl-CoA. The role of ACC1 has been associated with tumor biology, but the role of ACC2 in cancer remains largely uncharacterized.We conducted a transcriptomic analysis using GEPIA and Oncomine to study the expression of ACC2 in different cancers. Immunohistochemistry was used to examine the expression of ACC2 in lung cancer tissue microarray, and the correlation between ACC2 expression and clinical parameters was analyzed. Following ACC2 knockdown by RNA interference in A549 and HCC827 cells, Cell Counting Kit‑8 and transwell assays were used to detect cell proliferation and migration. Real-time PCR was used to detect cell cycle-related genes in A549 cells. GEO dataset and KM-plotter database were used to analyze the relationship between ACC2 expression and the prognosis in lung cancer patients.We found that ACC2 is under-expressed in cancerous tissue and the expression of ACC2 is negatively correlated with tumor size, regional lymph-node metastases, and clinical stage of lung adenocarcinoma patients. In addition, knocking down ACC2 in A549 cells and HCC827 cells can promote cell proliferation and migration, and cell cycle-related genes MAD2L1 and CCNB2 were up-regulated after ACC2 was knockdown in A549 cells. Finally, we found that lung adenocarcinoma patients with under-expressed ACC2 have a worse prognosis.Our results suggest that ACC2 is a potential diagnostic and prognostic marker that negatively correlated with clinical outcomes in lung adenocarcinoma.