Search

Abstract Nonthrombotic iliac vein lesions (NIVLs) are significant causes of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) in the left lower limb and symptom recurrence following left lower limb varicose vein treatment. The goal of this study was to explore the haemodynamic and morphological characteristics of iliac veins in patients with NIVLs. Pressure at the caudal end of the stenotic left common iliac vein (LCIV) segment, local blood flow velocity, and time-averaged wall shear stress in the stenotic segment exhibited positive correlations with the clinical CVI classification (R = 0.92, p

This study investigated the impact of chlorine dioxide (ClO2) treatment on the storage quality of Toona sinensis after harvesting. Toona sinensis samples treated with different concentrations (0.2, 0.4, 0.8, 1.6 mg/L) of chlorine dioxide and stored at (4 ± 1) °C, with sampling test every 2nd day. The changes in sensory, nutritional, and chlorine dioxide residues of T. sinensis were checked regularly. Results revealed that moderate (0.4~0.8 mg/L) chlorine dioxide concentrations maintained sensory quality, inhibited T. sinensis weight loss, slowed flavonoid and vitamin C content depletion, reduced nitrite content, and enhanced superoxide dismutase activity. The chlorine dioxide resides in T. sinensis were below the national standards (

Thorough and precise gene structure annotations are essential for maximizing the benefits of genomic data and unveiling valuable genetic insights. The cucumber genome was first released in 2009 and updated in 2019. To increase the accuracy of the predicted gene models, 64 published RNA-seq data and 9 new strand-specific RNA-seq data from multiple tissues were used for manual comparison with the gene models. The updated annotation file (V3.1) contains an increased number (24,145) of predicted genes compared to the previous version (24,317 genes), with a higher BUSCO value of 96.9%. A total of 6231 and 1490 transcripts were adjusted and newly added, respectively, accounting for 31.99% of the overall gene tally. These newly added and adjusted genes were renamed (CsaV3.1_XGXXXXX), while genes remaining unaltered preserved their original designations. A random selection of 21 modified/added genes were validated using RT-PCR analyses. Additionally, tissue-specific patterns of gene expression were examined using the newly obtained transcriptome data with the revised gene prediction model. This improved annotation of the cucumber genome will provide essential and accurate resources for studies in cucumber.

Abstract Background Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertions/deletions (InDels) are the most abundant genetic variations and widely distribute across the genomes in plant. Development of SNP and InDel markers is a valuable tool for genetics and genomic research in radish (Raphanus sativus L.). Results In this study, a total of 366,679 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 97,973 insertion-deletion (InDel) markers were identified based on genome resequencing between ‘YZH’ and ‘XHT’. In all, 53,343 SNPs and 4,257 InDels were detected in two cultivars by transcriptome sequencing. Among the InDel variations, 85 genomic and 15 transcriptomic InDels were newly developed and validated PCR. The 100 polymorphic InDels markers generated 207 alleles among 200 Chinese radish germplasm, with an average 2.07 of the number of alleles (Na) and with an average 0.33 of the polymorphism information content (PIC). Population structure and phylogenetic relationship revealed that the radish cultivars from northern China were clustered together and the southwest China cultivars were clustered together. RNA-Seq analysis revealed that 11,003 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the two cultivars, of which 5,020 were upregulated and 5,983 were downregulated. In total, 145 flowering time-related DGEs were detected, most of which were involved in flowering time integrator, circadian clock/photoperiod autonomous, and vernalization pathways. In flowering time-related DGEs region, 150 transcriptomic SNPs and 9 InDels were obtained. Conclusions The large amount of SNPs and InDels identified in this study will provide a valuable marker resource for radish genetic and genomic studies. The SNPs and InDels within flowering time-related DGEs provide fundamental insight into for dissecting molecular mechanism of bolting and flowering in radish.

In this study, we aim to provide a deep convolutional network based femoral neck fracture detection system on radiographs for emergency patients. We retrospectively collected 1,491 frontal pelvic radiographs from three institutions and assigned them to the following data sets: primary dataset (710 radiographs, to fine-tune and validate the initial model called the Digital Radiography Fracture Detection System [DR-FDS]), internal test set 1 (189 radiographs) and 2 (235 radiographs), and external test set 1 (189 radiographs) and 2 (168 radiographs). Per-bounding box recall and precision and per-image sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) were computed. We randomly extracted 300 radiographs from the above test sets and compared their effect on the diagnostic accuracy and efficiency of fine-tuned model-assisted and unassisted clinicians. The fine-tuned DR-FDS showed a better overall performance in detecting femoral neck fractures than did the initial DR-FDS. The fine-tuned DR-FDS achieved AUC values of 0.9526 (95%CI, 0.9048–0.9767) and 0.9633(95%CI, 0.9346-0.9797) in internal test sets 1 and 2. In external test sets 1 and 2, this model also achieved promising results with AUC values of 0.9231 (95%CI, 0.8779–0.9520), and 0.9937 (95%CI 0.9739–0.9985), respectively. The clinicians showed a statistically significant increase in specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy for the identification of minimal/undisplaced fracture and a decrease in the average reading time. The object detection model that is fine-tuned has high sensitivity and specificity and the universal ability to detect and locate femoral neck fractures on pelvic radiographs.

Background: Constructed an immune-prognosis index (IPI) and divided lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients into different subgroups according to IPI score, describe the molecular and immune characteristics of patients between different IPI subgroups, and explore their response to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) treatment.Methods: Based on the transcriptome profile of LUAD patients in TCGA and immune gene sets from ImmPort and InnateDB, 15 hub immune genes were identified through correlation and Bayesian causal network analysis. Then, IPI was constructed with 5 immune genes by using COX regression analysis and verified with external datasets (GSE30219, GSE37745, GSE68465, GSE126044 and GSE135222). Finally, the characteristics and the response to ICB treatment of LUAD patients between two different IPI subgroups were analyzed.Results: IPI was constructed based on the expression of 5 genes, including A2M, ADRB1, ADRB2, VIPR1 and PTH1R. IPI-high LUAD patients have a better overall survival than IPI-low LUAD patients, consistent with the results in the GEO cohorts. The comprehensive results showed that patients in the IPI-high subgroup were exhibited characters as metabolism-related signaling pathways activation, lower TP53 and TTN mutation rate, more infiltrations of CD8 T cells, dendritic cells and macrophages M1, especially earned more benefit from ICB treatment. In contrast, patients in the IPI-low subgroup were exhibited characters as p53 signaling pathways activation, higher TP53 and TTN mutation rate, more infiltrations of resting memory CD4 T cells, macrophages M2, immune-suppressive response and less benefit from ICB treatment.Conclusion: IPI is a potentially valuable prognostic evaluation method for LUAD, which works well in the benefit predicting of LUAD patients within ICB treatment.

Unlike physical capital, human capital has both embodied and disembodied dimensions. It can be perceived not only as skill and acquired knowledge but also as knowledge spillover effects between overlapping generations and across different skill groups within and across countries. We illustrate the roles these characteristics play in the process of economic development, the relation between income growth and income and fertility distributions, and the relevance of human capital in determining the skill distribution of immigrants in a balanced-growth global equilibrium setting. In all three illustrations, knowledge spillover effects play a key role. The analysis offers new insights for understanding the decline in fertility below the population replacement rate in many developed countries, the evolution of income and fertility distributions across developing and developed countries, and the often asymmetric effects that endogenous immigration flows and their skill composition exert on the long-term net benefits from immigration to natives in source and destination countries.

Due to the irregularity of colorectal tumor contours, it is a challenging task for clinicians to segment colorectal tumors manually in CT scans. To solve this problem, a novel algorithm based on a convolutional neural network with an attention mechanism is proposed to automatically achieve tumor segmentation. The proposed network consists of three major modules: an encoder module, which is fed CT scans to attain the feature map; a dual attention module, which includes a channel attention module and a position attention module to obtain more contextual information in the deep layer of the network; and a decoder module, which restores the feature map to the original size of the input images. We used 1131 CT slices of colorectal tumors to train and test the proposed network. Compared with U-Net and CE-Net, the Dice coefficient increased by 1.46% and 0.66% respectively, for our model. The comprehensive results show that the proposed network performs more effectively in colorectal tumor segmentation than the other methods.

Lactifluus is a distinct genus of milkcaps, well known as ectomycorrhizal fungi. The characteristics of the genus Lactifluus include grayish-yellow, orange to orange-brown, or reddish-brown pileus, white latex from the damaged lamellae, discoloring to a brownish color, reticulate spore ornamentation, lampropalisade-type pileipellis, and the presence of lamprocystidia. Guizhou Province is rich in wild mushroom resources due to its special geographical location and natural environment. In this study, three novel Lactifluus species were identified through the screening of extensive fungal resources in Suiyang County, Guizhou Province, China, sampled from host species of mostly Castanopsis spp. and Pinus spp. Based on critical morphology coupled with nuclear sequences of genes encoding large subunit rRNA, internal transcribed spacer, and RNA polymerase II, these new species, Lactifluus taibaiensis, Lactifluus qinggangtangensis, and Lactifluus jianbaensis, were found to belong to Lactifluus section Lactifluus. A comparison with closely related species, Lactifluus taibaiensis was distinguished by its lighter-colored pileus, different colors of lamellae, and more subglobose basidiospores; Lactifluus jianbaensis was identified by the height of the spore ornamentation and its subglobose basidiospores; and Lactifluus qinggangtangensis was characterized by having smaller basidiospores, ridges, and pleurolamprocystid.

Background: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has published new pregnancy and lactation labelling rules that set standards on the presentation of information with regard to drug usage during pregnancy and breastfeeding, as well as the effects on fertility. These guidelines became effective June 30, 2015, and classified the risks of using prescription drugs during pregnancy in three detailed subsections: Pregnancy, Lactation, and Females and Males of Reproductive Potential. These sections describe the risks within a real-world context of caring for these patients. Objective: In this study, we reclassified and categorized drugs and treatments commonly used in dermatology according to these new guidelines. Methods: We performed a search of the medical literature about the use of relevant prescription drugs during pregnancy and breastfeeding and their effect on fertility. The search included prospective and retrospective studies, review articles from PubMed-indexed journals (from inception to November 2018), U.S. Food and Drug Administration records, pregnancy exposure registries, relevant information and studies provided in drug labeling by companies, and updated pharmacologic texts and guidelines up to 2018. Results: Topical immunomodulators, systemic immunomodulators (including biologics), systemic antipruritic agents, antimicrobials, as well as acne, hair, and cosmetic agents were included. We have made best attempts to review and consolidate existing and new data and include them in our guide. Conclusion: This new narrative format facilitates prescribing by considering a variety of factors. One previously overlooked aspect was the impact on the reproductive potential of both male and female patients. Rather than depending on overly simplistic letter risk categories, dermatologists will now need to make prescribing decisions based on each patient and the information provided, which will allow for better decision making and patient care.

Background The combination of polycaprolactone and hyaluronic acid creates an ideal environment for wound healing. Hyaluronic acid maintains a moist wound environment and accelerates the in-growth of granulation tissue. Polycaprolactone has excellent mechanical strength, limits inflammation and is biocompatible. This study evaluates the safety and efficacy of bio-conjugated polycaprolactone membranes (BPM) as a wound dressing. Methods 16 New Zealand white rabbits were sedated and local anaesthesia was administered. Two 3.0×3.0 cm full-thickness wounds were created on the dorsum of each rabbit, between the lowest rib and the pelvic bone. The wounds were dressed with either BPM (n=12) or Mepitel (n=12) (control), a polyamide-silicon wound dressing. These were evaluated macroscopically on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th postoperative days for granulation, re-epithelialization, infection, and wound size, and histologically for epidermal and dermal regeneration. Results Both groups showed a comparable extent of granulation and re-epithelialization. No signs of infection were observed. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in wound size between the two groups. BPM (n=6): 8.33 cm2, 4.90 cm2, 3.12 cm2, 1.84 cm2; Mepitel (n=6): 10.29 cm2, 5.53 cm2, 3.63 cm2, 2.02 cm2; at the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th postoperative days. The extents of epidermal and dermal regeneration were comparable between the two groups. Conclusions BPM is comparable to Mepitel as a safe and efficacious wound dressing.

Eosinophilic annular erythema is an idiopathic acute eosinophilic dermatosis. It is a rare condition, with approximately 30 cases reported in the English literature. It features annular, figurate urticarial edematous plaques primarily affecting the trunk and proximal limbs. During evaluation of a patient, secondary causes of eosinophilic inflammation such as allergy-related conditions (eczema, drug, urticaria, contact dermatitis), parasitic infestations, and autoimmune dermatoses will need to be excluded. We present an unusual case of a 47-year-old patient who developed this condition.

Due to the superior catalytic activity and efficient utilization of noble metals, nanocatalysts are extensively used in the modern industrial production of chemicals. The surface structures of these materials are significantly influenced by reactive adsorbates, leading to dynamic behavior under experimental conditions. The dynamic nature poses significant challenges in studying the structure–activity relations of catalysts. Herein, we unveil an anomalous entropic effect on catalysis via surface pre‐melting of nanoclusters through machine learning accelerated molecular dynamics and free energy calculation. We find that due to the pre‐melting of shell atoms, there exists a non‐linear variation in the catalytic activity of the nanoclusters with temperature. Consequently, two notable changes in catalyst activity occur at the respective temperatures of melting for the shell and core atoms. We further study the nanoclusters with surface point defects, i.e. vacancy and ad‐atom, and observe significant decrease in the surface melting temperatures of the nanoclusters, enabling the reaction to take place under more favorable and milder conditions. These findings not only provide novel insights into dynamic catalysis of nanoclusters but also offer new understanding of the role of point defects in catalytic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous Catalysis. In their Communication (e202405379), Jun Cheng et al. use machine learning molecular dynamics to demonstrate anomalous entropic effect on catalysis via surface pre‐melting of nanoclusters...By Fu‐Qiang Gong; Yun‐Pei Liu; Ye Wang; Weinan E; Zhong‐Qun Tian and Jun ChengReported by Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author [Extracted from the article]

This article provides a retrospective review of pediatric alopecia areata (AA) cases in Singapore, focusing on the prognosis, treatment options, complications, and treatment response. The study included 182 cases of AA in patients under 21 years old. The majority of patients received topical treatments or intralesional steroid injections, with a favorable therapeutic response observed in 96.7% of patients. The study highlights the lack of validated treatments and good-quality randomized controlled trials for AA, and discusses the use of topical immunotherapy and potential side effects. The article concludes that current treatment modalities are safe for pediatric patients and emphasizes the importance of individualized treatment based on patient or parental preferences. [Extracted from the article]

Loneliness affect older people's health and well-being. This study explored the effects of changes in health and social relationships on loneliness in older adults. Data were from the 2011 and 2015 surveys of the Taiwan Longitudinal Survey on Aging. Individuals who were aged ≥55 years at the baseline (2011) and who completed both waves of the survey were included in the analysis (n = 2,512). In the 2015 wave, loneliness was predicted on the basis of the factors identified in the 2011 wave and the changes in health and social relationship between the two waves. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed. Decreased social group participation, decreased receiving instrumental social support, increased negative support, decreased feeling of usefulness to others, decreased informational support, decreased financial life satisfaction, increased stress, and increased depressive symptoms were related to a higher level of loneliness, whereas increased social support and social participation as well as decreased stress and depressive symptoms were related to a lower level of loneliness. Changes in depressive symptoms, a reduction in financial satisfaction, and an increase in stress were related to both the social and emotional dimensions of loneliness. Decreased social connection, social support, and social participation were related to social loneliness, whereas an increase in physical disability was related to emotional loneliness. Older people's changes in social support, social participation, financial satisfaction, stress, and depressive symptoms may affect their loneliness afterward. Social networks and resources should be developed in the community for older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]