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Psoriasis, a chronic and easily recurring inflammatory skin disease, causes a great economic burden to the patient’s family because the etiology and mechanism are still unclear and the treatment cycle is long. In this study, the function and related mechanisms of Momordin Ic in psoriasis were investigated. The IMQ-induced mouse psoriasis model was constructed. The protective effects of different doses of Momordin Ic on psoriasis skin damage in mice were detected by PASI score, HE staining and Ki-67 staining. A psoriasis-like keratinocyte model was established at the cellular level using M5 (IL-17A, IL-22, oncostatin M, IL-1α, and TNF-α) triggered HaCaT. The effects of Momordin Ic upon HaCaT cell biological behavior were examined using MTT and CCK-8 assays. In terms of mechanism, the expression level of each inflammatory factor was assessed using IHC staining and/or ELISA, qRT-PCR, the expression of oxidative stress-related indicators was detected biochemically, and western blot was performed to detect the levels of key proteins of the Wnt signaling and VEGF. As the results shown, at the in vivo level, Momordin Ic significantly alleviated skin damage, reduced PASI score and inhibited hyperproliferation of keratinized cells in psoriasis mice. At the cellular level, Momordin Ic also significantly reversed M5-induced hyperproliferation of HaCaT keratinocytes. In terms of mechanism, Momordin Ic significantly inhibited the IL-23/IL-17 axis, dramatically elevated the levels of intracellular antioxidants including SOD, GSH-Px, and CAT, and significantly down-regulated the levels of the indicator of oxidative damage, malondialdehyde (MDA). In addition, Momordin Ic also significantly inhibited the level of β-catenin, a pivotal protein of the Wnt signaling, C-Myc, a target gene of the Wnt signaling, and VEGF, a critical protein of angiogenesis. In conclusion, Momordin Ic can be involved in the skin-protective effects of psoriasis by multiple mechanisms, including inhibition of the Wnt signaling pathway and the IL-23/IL-17 axis, and suppression of oxidative damageand VEGF expression. Momordin Ic has been proven to be an underlying therapeutic drug for the treatment of psoriasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We deal with the following predator-prey model involving nonlinear indirect chemotaxis mechanism { u t = Δ u + ξ ∇ ⋅ (u ∇ w) + a 1 u (1 − u r 1 − 1 − b 1 v) , x ∈ Ω , t > 0 , v t = Δ v − χ ∇ ⋅ (v ∇ w) + a 2 v (1 − v r 2 − 1 + b 2 u) , x ∈ Ω , t > 0 , w t = Δ w − w + z γ , x ∈ Ω , t > 0 , 0 = Δ z − z + u α + v β , x ∈ Ω , t > 0 , under homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions in a bounded and smooth domain Ω ⊂ R n (n ≥ 1 ), where the parameters ξ , χ , a 1 , a 2 , b 1 , b 2 , α , β , γ > 0 . It has been shown that if r 1 > 1 , r 2 > 2 and γ (α + β) < 2 n , then there exist some suitable initial data such that the system has a global classical solution (u , v , w , z) , which is bounded in Ω × (0 , ∞) . Compared to the previous contributions, in this work, the boundedness criteria are only determined by the power exponents r 1 , r 2 , α , β , γ and spatial dimension n instead of the coefficients of the system and the sizes of initial data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the following quasilinear chemotaxis system involving nonlocal effect u t = ∇ · (φ (u) ∇ u) - ∇ · (u ∇ v) + μ u 1 - ∫ Ω u α d x , x ∈ Ω , t > 0 , [ 2.5 m m ] 0 = Δ v - m (t) + u , m (t) = 1 | Ω | ∫ Ω u (x , t) d x , x ∈ Ω , t > 0 , [ 2.5 m m ] u (x , 0) = u 0 (x) , x ∈ Ω , where Ω = B R (0) ⊂ R n (n ≥ 3) with R > 0 , the parameters μ , α are positive constants and diffusion function φ (u) ≤ C 0 (1 + u) - m for all u ≥ 0 with C 0 > 0 and m > - 1. It has been shown that if 0 < α < min 2 , n 2 , n (m + 1) 2 , then there exist suitable initial data u 0 such that the corresponding radially symmetric solution blows up in finite time. In this work, we extend the blow-up result established by previous researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To investigate the effect of timing of statin administration on lipid-lowering efficacy. Methods: Computer searches of Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases from 1986 to 2023. The impact of administration time on the lipid-lowering efficacy of statin drugs was investigated. Following a series of screenings, a funnel plot was constructed to assess its symmetry, and Egger and Beggar tests were conducted using StataMP-64 to evaluate publication bias. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 to combine MD values. Results: Fifteen papers (1352 participants) met and included the criteria. The results of the meta-analysis showed that the effect of morning and evening administration time on plasma triglycerides (TG) (P > 0.05) and plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (P > 0.05) was not statistically significant. There were significant reductions in total cholesterol (TC) (MD: 0.15 mmol/L, 95% CI: 0.06–0.23, P < 0.01) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (MD: 0.10 mmol/L, 95% CI: − 0.00–0.20, P < 0.01) in the night group. According to the analysis results of the half-life of statins, only short half-life statins showed that nocturnal administration reduced LDL-C (MD: 0.21 mmol/L, 95% CI: 0.09–0.33, P < 0.01) and TC (MD: 0.32 mmol/L, 95% CI: 0.18–0.46, P < 0.01) levels and was better than morning administration. Long half-life statins did not show significant differences. In addition, the administration time of short half-life statins also showed that night administration tended to reduce TG (MD: 0.16 mmol/L, 95% CI: 0.02–0.30, P < 0.05) levels. In subgroup analysis according to clinical factors in patients aged < 55 years, there was no significant difference in the timing of administration between the two groups; the efficacy of statins in lowering lipids in patients aged ≥ 55 years was significantly different in the TC group (P < 0.01) and LDL-C group (P < 0.01). The administration time of the TC group (P < 0.05) and LDL-C group (P < 0.05) in the Americas, Europe, and Asian groups was significantly different for statins. In addition, the American group also showed that the administration time of the two groups was significantly different from the TG group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The efficacy of administering short half-life statin drugs at night in reducing plasma levels of TC, LDL-C, and TG surpasses that of morning administration. However, this study did not determine the impact of timing of statin administration in patients taking long half-life statins on the efficacy of the medication. Therefore, it is recommended to consider patient adherence when. The study was registered on PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews) as CRD42022372105 (available at https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with a quasilinear parabolic–parabolic–elliptic chemotaxis system u t = ∇ · (φ (u) ∇ u - ψ (u) ∇ v) + a u - b u γ , x ∈ Ω , t > 0 , v t = Δ v - v + w γ 1 , x ∈ Ω , t > 0 , 0 = Δ w - w + u γ 2 , x ∈ Ω , t > 0 , under homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions in a bounded and smooth domain Ω ⊂ R n (n ≥ 1) , where a , b , γ 1 , γ 2 > 0 , γ > 1 , φ and ψ are nonlinear functions satisfying φ (s) ≥ a 0 (s + 1) α and | ψ (s) | ≤ b 0 s (1 + s) β - 1 for all s ≥ 0 with a 0 , b 0 > 0 and α , β ∈ R. When β + γ 1 γ 2 < max { n + 2 n + α , γ } , then the system has a classical solution which is globally bounded in time. Moreover, when β + γ 1 γ 2 = max { n + 2 n + α , γ } , it has been shown that the existence of global bounded classical solution depends on the size of coefficient b and initial data u 0. Furthermore, we consider a specific system with γ 1 = 1 , γ 2 = κ and γ = κ + 1 for κ > 0. If b > 0 is sufficiently large, the global classical solution(u, v, w) exponentially converges to the steady state ((a b) 1 κ , a b , a b) in L ∞ norm as t → ∞ , where convergence rate is explicitly expressed in terms of the system parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nephroblastoma is one of the most common renal malignancies in children, and tumor angiogenesis increases the risk of metastasis and recurrence. This study investigated the effect of the tumor microenvironment on angiogenesis in nephroblastoma cell and its molecular mechanism. The indirect co-culture model of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) was established using a conditioned medium from the nephroblastoma cell line G401. Cell medium was collected to prepare tumor-conditioned medium (TCM), which was applied to HUVECs. Western blotting and immunofluorescence assays were used to analyze the expression of tumor endothelial marker 8 (TEM8) and the elements phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (PKB)/AKT signaling pathway at the protein level. In addition, the proliferation, invasion, migration, and tube formation of HUVECs after induction by TCM were analyzed by the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), as well as by transwell invasion, wound-healing, and matrigel tube formation assays. Compared with that of the control group, the expression of TEM8, p-PI3K/PI3K, and p-AKT/AKT was increased, and proliferation, invasion, migration, and tubulogenesis were significantly enhanced in HUVECs induced by TCM. A PI3K pathway inhibitor (LY294002) weakened the canalization of HUVECs. These findings suggest that the nephroblastoma microenvironment can promote the transformation of endothelial cells (ECs) into tumor endothelial cells (TECs), significantly enhancing their proliferation, invasion, migration, and tubular formation, and this effect may be related to the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing applications of the planetary roller screw mechanism (PRSM) in mechanical systems particularly machine tools, a comprehensive mathematical model is required to define the kinematic characteristics and relations of the PRSM, such that its performances can be predicted for reliability analysis and design of machine tools. In this paper, the influences of machining and assembly errors on the motion characteristics of the PRSM are analyzed, and the kinematic model of the PRSM is established considering runout errors and elastic deformation. The planetary roller screw mechanism can be considered as a spring-mass system for analysis of the elastic deformation of the ball screw's thread under inertial force. For the spring-mass system, adjacency matrix is introduced to define the relationships between the elastic displacements of the joints and the deformations of the elements. Then, by considering the balance of force and the coordination of deformation, the nonlinear motion model of the double-nut roller screw is established. The effectiveness of the proposed model is verified by comparing the analytical results with the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reliability allocation of machine tools which is a multi-attribute decision-making problem has great significance in designment of machine tools. This paper integrates the intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy numbers and performance sorting technique based on similar ideal solutions to achieve the flexible allocation of machine tools reliability. Firstly, intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy numbers are employed to integrate decisions made by multiple decision-makers and fuzzy information of their preferences. Then, intuitionistic trapezoid fuzzy numbers' expectations are treated as the weights of criteria. Finally, performance sorting technique based on similar ideal solutions is used to obtain the reliability allocation weight of every subsystem. To investigate the efficacy and simplicity of the provided approach, reliability distribution in a CNC machine tool is introduced as an example to explain its specific contents. It can be concluded that the provided method is more precise and convenient by comparing the results of this approach with those obtained by analytic hierarchy process method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyimide films derived from representative PMDA/ODA were prepared with thickness ranging from 5 µm to 25 µm, and the effect of aggregation structure on thermal expansion behavior along different directions was studied. Both in-plane and out-of-plane linear thermal expansion (CTF// and CTF⊥) were respectively characterized by thermal mechanical analysis and FT-near-IR interference method. Volumetric and anisotropic behavior of thermal expansion were also investigated. With increasing film thickness, CTF// gradually increased from 32.2 ppm/°C to 46.1 ppm/°C while CTF⊥ decreased from 149.7 ppm/°C to 128.2 ppm/°C. Volumetric thermal expansion of polyimide films was less sensitive to the varied thickness, but anisotropy of thermal expansion was reduced. Polyimide film of 5 µm thickness showed large birefringence, indicating more considerable in-plane chain orientation anisotropy. Besides, molecular chains were more densely packed along in-plane direction when film thickness increased, while became loosely stacked in the out-of-plane direction. In contrast to the enhanced lateral chain packing for thicker films, higher vertical chain packing order was found in thinner films. The variation of aggregation structure during thermal expansion procedure was analyzed by temperature-dependent WAXD. It is proved that thermal expansion behavior of thinner films could be largely attributed to molecular chain packing, whereas that may be influenced by many factors for thicker films in addition to the effect of chain packing. The results revealed that thermal expansion of films with thickness variation is closely related to molecular chain orientation and packing, which is associated with both chemistry and morphological structure of polyimide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical fiber bundle-based microendoscope, which is significant in clinical diagnosis and industrial detection, calls for miniaturization of the probe and high-resolution observation. Here, we propose a double-layer metasurface array borrowing the structures of insect compound eyes to meet both requirements instead of traditional optical components. Each unit in the array aims for an incident field of view, focusing light at the center of the fiber end face with no chromatic aberration at the wavelengths of 470 nm, 530 nm and 630 nm. The metasurface array is composed of a series of isotropic TiO2 nanopillars which are special selected after considering resonance mode and angular dispersion characteristics, etched on both sides of a silica substrate, with the individual functions of deflecting and focusing. In image space, numerical aperture (NA) is 0.287 and the particular layout of two layers achieve zero telecentricity theoretically, which meet the requirements of optical fiber bundle coupling. A unit for incident angle of 20° is shown to validate our design approach numerically, which obtains a focused spot close to the diffraction limit. The compact and ultrathin metasurface could greatly reduce the size of the probe in optical fiber bundle based microendoscope while ensuring the imaging quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical fiber bundle-based microendoscope, which is significant in clinical diagnosis and industrial detection, calls for miniaturization of the probe and high-resolution observation. Here, we propose a double-layer metasurface array borrowing the structures of insect compound eyes to meet both requirements instead of traditional optical components. Each unit in the array aims for an incident field of view, focusing light at the center of the fiber end face with no chromatic aberration at the wavelengths of 470 nm, 530 nm and 630 nm. The metasurface array is composed of a series of isotropic TiO2 nanopillars which are special selected after considering resonance mode and angular dispersion characteristics, etched on both sides of a silica substrate, with the individual functions of deflecting and focusing. In image space, numerical aperture (NA) is 0.287 and the particular layout of two layers achieve zero telecentricity theoretically, which meet the requirements of optical fiber bundle coupling. A unit for incident angle of 20° is shown to validate our design approach numerically, which obtains a focused spot close to the diffraction limit. The compact and ultrathin metasurface could greatly reduce the size of the probe in optical fiber bundle based microendoscope while ensuring the imaging quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the image fusion method using sparse representation, the adaptive dictionary and fusion rule have a great influence on the multi-modality image fusion, and the maximum L 1 norm fusion rule may cause gray inconsistency in the fusion result. In order to solve this problem, we proposed an improved multi-modality image fusion method by combining the joint patch clustering-based adaptive dictionary and sparse representation in this study. First, we used a Gaussian filter to separate the high- and low-frequency information. Second, we adopted the local energy-weighted strategy to complete the low-frequency fusion. Third, we used the joint patch clustering algorithm to reconstruct an over-complete adaptive learning dictionary, designed a hybrid fusion rule depending on the similarity of multi-norm of sparse representation coefficients, and completed the high-frequency fusion. Last, we obtained the fusion result by transforming the frequency domain into the spatial domain. We adopted the fusion metrics to evaluate the fusion results quantitatively and proved the superiority of the proposed method by comparing the state-of-the-art image fusion methods. The results showed that this method has the highest fusion metrics in average gradient, general image quality, and edge preservation. The results also showed that this method has the best performance in subjective vision. We demonstrated that this method has strong robustness by analyzing the parameter’s influence on the fusion result and consuming time. We extended this method to the infrared and visible image fusion and multi-focus image fusion perfectly. In summary, this method has the advantages of good robustness and wide application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most important post-translational modifications, protein glycosylation plays vital role in various physiological processes. With multitudinous glycosyltransferases, N-glycans present structural diversity in linkages and branching styles. Structure-specific glycan profiling may provide more potential biological information than compositional profiling. In this work, N-glycans released from human serum samples were derivatized with reduction and methylamination prior to profiling using nanoLC-ESI–MS with PGC as stationary phase. In addition, α 2–3 neuraminidase was also applied for distinguishing the linkage types of sialic acid corresponding to different isomers. Relative abundances of 280 isomeric N-glycans were compared and 20 isomers showed significant difference between multiple myeloma cases and healthy controls. ROC was performed to assess the significantly altered isomeric glycans and 6 AUCs have exceeded 0.80, providing high diagnostic accuracy for MM. PCA is also employed to establish the differences among sample sets. Furthermore, these specific isomers have also been used for early detection of multiple myeloma, presenting important clinical application value. Isomer-specific biomarker discovery in multiple myeloma with dual-derivatized N-glycans [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a series of high strength, thermal stable and antioxidant proton exchange membranes were designed with solution processible polybenzimidazole (PBI) as the matrix and perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) as the fortifier for proton exchange. Solution processible PBI was successfully synthesized by introducing 4,4′-dicarboxydiphenyl ether into the molecular chains of PBI. PFSA/PBI composite membranes were obtained by solution blending and film casting. PBI and PFSA/PBI composite membranes exhibited greatly enhanced tensile strength and Young's modulus compared to PFSA. PFSA/PBI composite membranes are stable below 300 °C which are suitable for practical application in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. The PFSA/PBI composite membranes show good dimensional stability with low water uptake and swelling rate. The PFSA/PBI composite membranes also exhibit excellent antioxidation stability with less than 5% initial mass loss over 120 h in Fenton reagent. The proton conductivity of PBI is greatly enhanced by blending with PFSA and the proton conductivities of the composite membranes are increased with the raise of PFSA content and temperature. This work offers valuable insights into the exploration of PBI based highperformance proton exchange membranes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the definition of generalized complex vague soft set as the extension to complex vague soft set. Based on this new definition we present and discuss some related concepts as well as some basic operations like the complement, union, intersection, AND and OR. We propose the axiomatic definitions of similarity measure, distance measure and entropy for generalized complex vague soft sets. Some examples are given to show how these measurement tools successfully work. Furthermore, the relationships among three kinds of measures are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, the Poincaré conjecture has probably been the most famous statement among all the contributions of Poincaré to the mathematics community. There have been many papers and books that describe various attempts and the final works of Perelman leading to a positive solution to the conjecture, but the evolution of Poincaré's works leading to this conjecture has not been carefully discussed or described, and some other historical aspects about it have not been addressed either. For example, one question is how it fits into the overall work of Poincaré in topology, and what are some other related questions that he had raised. Since Poincaré did not state the Poincaré conjecture as a conjecture but rather raised it as a question, one natural question is why he did this. In order to address these issues, in this paper, we examine Poincaré's works in topology in the framework of classifying manifolds through numerical and algebraic invariants. Consequently, we also provide a full history of the formulation of the Poincaré conjecture which is richer than what is usually described and accepted and hence gain a better understanding of overall works of Poincaré in topology. In addition, this analysis clarifies a puzzling question on the relation between Poincaré's stated motivations for topology and the Poincaré conjecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optical fiber air acoustic sensor has the advantages of anti-electromagnetic interference, intrinsic safety, and suitable for long-distance transmission. This paper proposes a non-metallic air acoustic sensor which is suitable for high-sensitivity concealed acoustic detection in environments such as electromagnetic interference. The sensor is based on a DFB fiber laser within an air cavity of polyimide (PI) film and poly-ether–ether–ketone (PEEK) shell. The dynamic acoustic response characteristics of the DFB fiber laser modulated by the acoustic-sensitive diaphragm is theoretically studied and numerically simulated. Based on the study and simulation results, a DFB fiber laser acoustic sensor for broadband detection covering the human auditory frequency range is designed and fabricated. An improved phase generated carrier (PGC) demodulation technique is introduced to realize high-resolution dynamic wavelength demodulation and, at the same time, to realize low sensitivity to modulation amplitude and photoelectric changes. The experimental test of the fiber laser air acoustic sensor demonstrated that, in the frequency range of 200 Hz to18 kHz, the sensitivity is − 40.39 dB re.pm/Pa, the fluctuation is less than ± 3.15 dB, and the minimum-detectable pressure (MDP) is 66.7 μPa/√Hz at 1 kHz, and the lower limit of human hearing threshold is reached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the techniques, safety, and feasibility of minimally invasive neurosurgery through the supraorbital eyebrow arch keyhole approach by neuroendoscopy. Retrospective analysis of clinical data of patients with various cranial diseases treated by transcranial neuroendoscopic supraorbital eyebrow keyhole approach in our hospital from March 2021 to October 2023. A total of 39 complete cases were collected, including 21 cases of intracranial aneurysms, 9 cases of intracranial space occupying lesions, 5 cases of brain trauma, 3 cases of cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea, and 1 case of cerebral hemorrhage. All patients' surgeries were successful. The good prognosis rate of intracranial aneurysms was 17/21 (81%), and the symptom improvement rate of intracranial space occupying lesions was 8/9 (88.9%). Among them, the initial symptoms of one patient with no improvement were not related to space occupying, while the total effective rate of the other three types of patients was 9/9 (100%). The average length of the craniotomy bone window of the supraorbital eyebrow arch keyhole is 3.77 ± 0.31 cm, and the average width is 2.53 ± 0.23 cm. The average postoperative hospital stay was 14.77 ± 6.59 days. The average clearance rate of hematoma by neuroendoscopy is 95.00% ± 1.51%. Our results indicate that endoscopic surgery through the supraorbital eyebrow arch keyhole approach is safe and effective for the treatment of anterior skull base lesions and cerebral hemorrhage. However, this retrospective study is a single center, small sample study, and the good surgical results do not exclude the subjective screening of suitable patients by clinical surgeons, which may have some bias. Although the clinical characteristics such as indications and contraindications of this surgical method still require further prospective and multicenter clinical research validation, our study still provides a new approach and choice for minimally invasive surgical treatment of anterior skull base lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semi-interpenetrating (semi-IPN) hydrogels formed by the continuous interpenetration of cross-linked polymer network and linear non-crosslinked polymer with multifunctionality are widely used in biomedical and other fields. However, the negative impact of linear polymer on the homogeneity of the cross-linked network often leads to a decrease in the mechanical properties of semi-IPN hydrogels and severely limits their applications. Herein, a bioinspired hydrogen-bonding induced phase separation strategy is presented to construct the tough semi-IPN polyvinylpyrrolidone/polyacrylamide hydrogels (named PVP/PAM hydrogels), including the linear polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and cross-linked polyacrylamide (PAM) network. The resultant PVPx/PAM hydrogels exhibit unique phase separation induced by the hydrogen bonding between PVP and PAM and affected by the amount of substance of PVP. Meanwhile, the phase separation of PVPx/PAM hydrogels results in excellent mechanical properties with a strain of 2590%, tensile strength of 0.28 MPa and toughness of 2.17 MJ/m3. More importantly, the hydrogen bonding between PVP and PAM firstly disrupts to dissipate energy under external forces, so the PVPx/PAM hydrogels exhibit good self-recovery properties and outperform chemically cross-linked PAM hydrogels in impact resistance and damping applications. It is believed that the PVPx/PAM hydrogels with hydrogen-bonding induced phase separation possess more potential application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ti-Ni composite sub-micron powders with different compositions were prepared by vacuum melting and atomization technology. These powders, after being mixed with a solution of phenolic resin and alcohol, were applied on the mold cavity wall, by which a casting-infiltration layer was introduced on the surface of ZG45 steel via reactions between the powders and molten steel under the heat released by solidification. The effects of the powders' composition and pouring temperature on the corrosion resistance of the casting-infiltration layer were studied. An optimal casting-infiltration layer with a thickness of ∼7 mm was obtained by infiltrating the Ti-Ni composite powders containing 35wt.% Ti to ZG45 steel pouring at 1,650 °C. The casting-infiltration layer has a good metallurgic bonding with the matrix, and is mainly composed of Fe2Ti phase and continuous γ-(Fe, Ni) solid solution. In the corrosive H2SO4 solution, the corrosion potential of the casting-infiltration layer is lower than the matrix, tending to form a passivation film, which lowers the dissolution rate especially when the potential rises to 0.50 V. After dipping in the 10wt.% NaCl solution for 480 h, a lot of corrosion holes appear in the ZG45 steel matrix, while there are no obvious traces of corrosion on the casting-infiltration layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Application of multi-scale modelling workflows to characterise polymorphism in ritonavir with regard to its stability, bioavailability and processing. Methods: Molecular conformation, polarizability and stability are examined using quantum mechanics (QM). Intermolecular synthons, hydrogen bonding, crystal morphology and surface chemistry are modelled using empirical force fields. Results: The form I conformation is more stable and polarized with more efficient intermolecular packing, lower void space and higher density, however its shielded hydroxyl is only a hydrogen bond donor. In contrast, the hydroxyl in the more open but less stable and polarized form II conformation is both a donor and acceptor resulting in stronger hydrogen bonding and a more stable crystal structure but one that is less dense. Both forms have strong 1D networks of hydrogen bonds and the differences in packing energies are partially offset in form II by its conformational deformation energy difference with respect to form I. The lattice energies converge at shorter distances for form I, consistent with its preferential crystallization at high supersaturation. Both forms exhibit a needle/lath-like crystal habit with slower growing hydrophobic side and faster growing hydrophilic capping habit faces with aspect ratios increasing from polar-protic, polar-aprotic and non-polar solvents, respectively. Surface energies are higher for form II than form I and increase with solvent polarity. The higher deformation, lattice and surface energies of form II are consistent with its lower solubility and hence bioavailability. Conclusion: Inter-relationship between molecular, solid-state and surface structures of the polymorphic forms of ritonavir are quantified in relation to their physical-chemical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Adaptive MaxWeight policy achieves optimal throughput for switches with nonzero reconfiguration delay and has been shown to have good delay performance in simulation. In this paper, we analyze the queue length behavior of a switch with nonzero reconfiguration delay operating under the Adaptive MaxWeight. We first show that the Adaptive MaxWeight policy exhibits a weak state space collapse behavior in steady state, which can be viewed as an inheritance of a similar property of the MaxWeight policy in a switch with zero reconfiguration delay. The weak state space collapse result is then utilized to obtain an asymptotically tight bound on an expression involving the steady-state queue length and the probability of reconfiguration for the Adaptive MaxWeight policy in the heavy traffic regime. We then derive the relation between the expected schedule duration and the steady-state queue length through Lyapunov drift analysis and characterize bounds for the expected steady-state queue length. While the resulting queue length bounds are not asymptotically tight, they suggest an approximate queue length scaling behavior, which approaches the optimal scaling with respect to the traffic load and the reconfiguration delay when the hysteresis function of the Adaptive MaxWeight policy approaches a linear function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the segmentation of retinal vessel, the details of retinal vessel cannot be segmented accurately, and the single-pixel fine retinal vessels were prone to be mistakenly recognized by the unsupervised and supervised approaches. In order to solve this problem, we proposed novel fine retinal vessel segmentation by combining Nest U-net and patch-learning in this study. The special extraction strategy was designed to effectively generate massive training samples including fine retinal vessels, and these samples had a great advantage in the fine retinal vessel segmentation. Nest U-net which directly fast-forwarded high-resolution feature maps from the encoder to the decoder network was designed as a new image segmentation model. This model was trained by the k-fold cross-validation strategy, and the testing samples were predicted, and the final retinal vessel was reconstructed by the sequential reconstruction strategy. This proposed method was tested on the publicly available datasets DRIVE and STARE. Sensitivity (SE), specificity (SP), accuracy (ACC), area under each curve (AUC), F1-score, and jaccard similarity score (JSC) were adopted as evaluation metrics to prove the superiority of this proposed method. The results that we achieved on public datasets (DRIVE: SE = 0.8060, SP = 0.9869, ACC = 0.9512, AUC = 0.9748, F1-score = 0.7863; STARE: SE = 0.8230, SP = 0.9945, ACC = 0.9641, AUC = 0.9620, F1-score = 0.7947) were higher than other state-of-the-art methods. This proposed method can achieve state-of-the-art segmentation results in terms of visual quality and objective assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant-specific WRKY transcription factors play important roles in regulating the expression of defense-responsive genes against pathogen attack. A multiple stress-responsive WRKY gene, ZmWRKY65, was identified in maize by screening salicylic acid (SA)-induced de novo transcriptomic sequences. The ZmWRKY65 protein was localized in the nucleus of mesophyll protoplasts. The analysis of the ZmWRKY65 promoter sequence indicated that it contains several stress-related transcriptional regulatory elements. Many environmental factors affecting the transcription of ZmWRKY65 gene, such as drought, salinity, high temperature and low temperature stress. Moreover, the transcription of ZmWRKY65 gene was also affected by the induction of defense related plant hormones such as SA and exogenous ABA. The results of seed germination and stomatal aperture assays indicated that transgenic Arabidopsis plants exhibit enhanced sensitivity to ABA and high concentrations of SA. Overexpression of ZmWRKY65 improved tolerance to both pathogen attack and abiotic stress in transgenic Arabidopsis plants and activated several stress-related genes such as RD29A, ERD10, and STZ as well as pathogenesis-related (PR) genes such as PR1, PR2 and PR5; these genes are involved in resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses in Arabidopsis. Together, this evidence implies that the ZmWRKY65 gene is involved in multiple stress signal transduction pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debris flows destroys the facilities and seriously threatens human lives, especially in mountainous area. Susceptibility mapping is the key for hazard prevention. The aim of the present study is to compare the performance of three methods including Bayes discriminant analysis (BDA), logistic regression (LR) and random forest (RF) for debris flow susceptibility mapping from three aspects: applicability, analyticity and accuracy. Nyalam county, a debris flow-prone area, located in Southern Tibet, was selected as the study area. Firstly, the dataset containing 49 debris flow inventories and 16 conditioning factors was prepared. Subsequently, divided the dataset into two groups with a ratio of 70/30 for training and validation purposes, and repeated 5 times to obtain 5 different groups. Then, 16 factors were involved in the modeling of RF, of which 11 factors with low linear correlation were for BDA and LR. Finally, receiver operating characteristic curves, the area under curve (AUC) and contingency tables were applied to evaluated the accuracy performance of the 3 models. The prediction rates were 74.6–81.8%, 74.6–83.6% and 80–92.7%, for the BDA, LR and FR, while the AUC values of three models were 0.72–0.78, 0.82–0.92 and 0.90–0.99, respectively. Compare to LR an BDA, RF not only effectively process and preserved dataset without priori assumption and the obtained susceptibility zoning map and major factors were reasonable. The conclusion of the current study is useful for risk mitigation and land use planning in the study area and provide related references to other researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a theoretical framework for encoding arbitrary logical states of a quantum bit (qubit) into a continuous-variable quantum mode through quantum walks. Starting with a squeezed vacuum state of the quantum mode, we show that quantum walks of the state in phase space can generate output states that are variants of codeword states originally put forward by Gottesman, Kitaev and Preskill (GKP) (Phys Rev A 64:012310, 2001). In particular, with a coin-toss transformation that projects the quantum coin onto the diagonal coin state, we show that the resulting dissipative quantum walks can generate qubit encoding akin to the prototypical GKP encoding. We analyze the performance of these codewords for error corrections and find that even without optimization our codewords outperform the GKP ones by a narrow margin. Using the circuit representation, we provide a general architecture for the implementation of this encoding scheme and discuss its possible realization through circuit quantum-electrodynamics systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photodynamic therapy is attracting increasing attention, but how to increase its tumor-specificity remains a daunting challenge. Herein we report a theranostic probe (azo-PDT) that integrates pyropheophorbide α as a photosensitizer and a NIR fluorophore for tumor imaging. The two functionalities are linked with a hypoxic-sensitive azo group. Under normal conditions, both the phototoxicity of the photosensitizer and the fluorescence of the fluorophore are inhibited. While under hypoxic condition, the reductive cleavage of the azo group will restore both functions, leading to tumor specific fluorescence imaging and phototoxicity. The results showed that azo-PDT selectively images BEL-7402 cells under hypoxia, and simultaneously inhibits BEL-7402 cell proliferation after near-infrared irradiation under hypoxia, while little effect on BEL-7402 cell viability was observed under normoxia. These results confirm the feasibility of our design strategy to improve the tumor-targeting ability of photodynamic therapy, and presents azo-PDT probe as a promising dual functional agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that one of Poincaré's most important contributions to mathematics is the creation of algebraic topology. In this paper, we examine carefully the stated motivations of Poincaré and potential applications he had in mind for developing topology. Besides being an interesting historical problem, this study will also shed some light on the broad interest of Poincaré in mathematics in a concrete way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The convergence of solutions of the parabolic Allen-Cahn equation with potential K and a transport term u to a generalized Brakke's mean curvature flow is established. More precisely, we show that a sequence of Radon measures, associated to the solutions to the parabolic Allen-Cahn equation, converges to a weight measure of an integral varifold. Moreover, the limiting varifold evolves by a vector which is the sum of the mean curvature vector and the normal part of u − ∇ K / 2 K in weak sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use quantum feedback control and classical driving to enhance the precision of parameter estimation in a dissipative qutrit by investigating its dynamics of quantum Fisher information. We investigate the parameter estimation of a dissipative qutrit in a cavity which provides the quantum feedback to the qutrit. The results show that the precision of the parameter to be estimated can be effectively enhanced via the local quantum feedback control based on quantum-jump detection. Particularly, the higher parameter estimation accuracy can be achieved when the feedback control and classical driving are present at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active immunization is a crucial colony-level pathogen defense to improve the survival of eusocial termites, which limits the lethal effect of biopesticides for termite control. Here, we report a possible strategy for RNAi-mediated metabolic disorders, which causes reduction in insect pathogen defense and might facilitate the foundation of nontoxic and sustainable pest control methods. Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) was significantly upregulated by active immunization in termites, but its regulatory mechanism has yet to be well understood. We found that dsIDH-injected termites exhibited significantly reduced IDH at mRNA and protein levels and altered levels of isocitrate and NADH, indicating the impaired NAD+-IDH reaction. IDH-silenced termites displayed metabolic disorders, which was implied by significant changes in several metabolites from the carbohydrates and amino acids. When grooming toward fungus-exposed termites, IDH-silenced nestmates showed a significant upregulation of four apoptosis-related genes and caspase 3 activity, and hence the significantly increased rate of apoptosis. These physiological changes led to more apoptotic cell death in different body parts of the nestmates. In particular, more apoptotic cells increased disease susceptibility of the nestmates as revealed by growth of the significantly increased number of colony-forming units from dissected gut contents. Furthermore, the IDH-silenced nestmates exhibited lower antifungal activity and higher mortality, suggesting that IDH downregulation disrupted active immunization against fungal pathogens in termites. These findings illustrated the metabolic regulation of active immunization and provide a sound foundation for enhancing the impact of biopesticides by reducing the pathogen defense of hosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a painting genre classification system is proposed. Four feature descriptors about the color and texture defined in the MPEG-7 specification, which are more against painting characteristics, are extracted from data sets. Then, we use a self-adaptive harmony search algorithm to select relevant features (or a local feature set) to train each one-against-one SVM classifier. Finally, a majority voting strategy on N(N − 1)/2 prediction results would determine their respective genres of paintings. The experimental results show that the overall accuracy reaches 69.8%, and this demonstrates more precise features can be selected for each pair of genres to get better classification results. Besides, we also verify that if the number of painting genres is few, the classification method without feature selection will be sufficient to obtain good results. Finally, we propose new measurement to assess the methods with different datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid and flexible design of natural environments is an important yet challenging task in graphics simulation, virtual reality, and video game productions. This is particularly difficult for natural river modeling due to its complex topology, geometric diversity, and its natural interaction with the complicated terrain. In this paper, we introduce an integrated method for example-based procedural modeling to overcome such difficulties. First, we propose a compact parametric model to represent the certain river, which inherits typical features of natural rivers such as tributary, distributary, tortuosity, possible lakes adjacent to the river. Then, we demonstrate our method for generating 3D river scene solely based on the parametric model. However, choosing appropriate parameters is a tedious undertaking in practice. To further enhance our method's functionality, we rely upon a natural river image to extract meaningful parameters toward the rapid procedural production of the new river scene. Finally, we design a new method to compare two river scenes and iteratively optimize the river network by using the simulated annealing technique. Our method can produce natural river scenes from an example river network and single terrain image with little interaction, and the synthesized scene is visually consistent with the input example in terms of feature similarity. We also demonstrate that our procedural modeling approach is highly automatic toward rapid scene production through various graphics examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the design of a low cost wearable hand exercise device that can assist repetitive wrist and finger exercise for stroke patients. The design of this device was guided by neurobiological principles of motor learning, such as sensory-motor integration, movement repetition, and cognitive interaction. This pilot study tested the efficacy of a wireless sensing system in the device to serve as a facilitator of repetitive hand exercise, which is an essential part of rehabilitation after stroke. The results from healthy young adults showed that the device with a wireless sensing system yielded quantitatively better motor function with the repetitive wrist and finger joint movements.This proof-of-concept study shows potential therapeutic evidence for stroke rehabilitation as well as the potential utility of sensing system for stroke rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of new isatin derivatives was synthesized and evaluated for anti-proliferative activity against SNU-398 and LO2 cells through CCK-8 assay. Among them, 3-{2-[4-(benzyloxy)phenyl]-2-oxoethyl}-3-hydroxy-1-phenethylindolin-2-one exhibited the most inhibitory activity against SNU-398 cells (IC50 = 6.69 μM), which could be as a lead compound to develop more potent anti-tumor agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rapid and sensitive N-glycan profiling strategy for MALDI-MS incorporating the use of deglycosylation with microwave assistance and the co-derivatization of glycosylamine labeling with tris(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)phosphonium acetic acid N-hydroxysuccinimide ester (TMPP-Ac-OSu) and methylamidation has been developed in this work. Notably, highly efficient release and tagging of N-glycans from ribonuclease B was achieved in less than 90 min, providing up to 35-fold enhancement of MALDI-MS sensitivity with comparison to underivatized N-glycans. After further validation with other two standard glycoproteins (ovalbumin and bovine fetuin), the proposed strategy was applied to human serum for preliminary pathological analysis of N-glycans between healthy and lung cancer individuals. As a result, significant differences ( T test p value <0.01) of 6 glycan structures were determined from 54 detected N-glycan structures with only 50 nL of loading amount and further confirmed through PCA and ROC (AUC) analyses between two sample sets. Subsequently, the trend of each lung cancer stage and controls in expression of the selected glycans was implemented with T test and box-plots. Accordingly, these structures can be used as potential lung cancer glycan-based biomarkers and for further definition of cancer progression highlighting the ability of proposed method to rapidly and efficiently analyze N-glycome present in human serum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tibetan web pages appear enormously. It is meaningful that the information processing technology is utilized to find the useful knowledge from the Tibetan web information. Tibetan semantic ontology can enrich the Tibetan digital resource and is helpful to improve the information processing performance. In this paper, semantic classification of Tibetan network corpus is studied. Firstly Tibetan web pages are collected. Secondly preprocessing is conducted to extract the useful information from Web pages. Thirdly the word segmentation and text representation are introduced. Finally the text similarity classification algorithm is proposed to classify the text. During the experiment, the comparison between semantic classification and non semantic classification is conducted. The results show that the semantic classification performance is obviously superior to non semantic classification. This means that making full use of ontology semantic relationship can greatly enhance the classification accuracy. The research is useful and helpful to the study of Tibetan semantic information processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The H-pyrophosphatase (H -PPase) gene plays an important role in maintaining intracellular proton gradients. Here, we characterized the full-length complementary DNA (cDNA) and DNA of the H -PPase gene ScHP1 in rye ( Secale cereale L. 'Qinling'). We determined the subcellular localization of this gene and predicted the corresponding protein structure. We analysed the evolutionary relationship between ScHP1 and H −PPase genes in other species, and did real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction to explore the expression patterns of ScHP1 in rye plants subjected to N, P and K deprivation and to cold, high-salt and drought stresses. ScHP1 cDNA included a 2289 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding 762 amino acid residues with 14 transmembrane domains. The genomic ScHP1 DNA was 4354 bp and contained eight exons and seven introns. ScHP1 was highly homologous with other members of the H -PPase gene family. When the full-length ORF was inserted into the expression vector pA7-YFP, the fluorescent microscopy revealed that ScHP1-YFP fusion protein was located in the plasma membrane. Rye plants that were subjected to N deprivation, cold and high-salt stresses, ScHP1 expression was higher in the leaves than roots. Conversely, plants subjected to P and K deprivation and drought stress, ScHP1 expression was higher in the roots than leaves. Under all the investigated stress conditions, expression of ScHP1 was lower in the stem than in the leaves and roots. Our results imply that ScHP1 functions under abiotic stress response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have proven that merging hands-on and online learning can result in an enhanced experience in learning science. In contrast to traditional online learning, multiple in-classroom activities may be involved in an augmented-reality (AR)-embedded e-learning process and thus could reduce the effects of individual differences. Using a three-stage AR-embedded instructional process, we conducted an experiment to investigate the influences of individual differences on learning earth science phenomena of 'day, night, and seasons' for junior highs. The mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was employed. In the quantitative phase, factors of learning styles and ICT competences were examined alongside with the overall learning achievement. Independent t tests and ANCOVAs were employed to achieve inferential statistics. The results showed that overall learning achievement was significant for the AR-embedded instruction. Nevertheless, neither of the two learner factors exhibited significant effect on learning achievement. In the qualitative phase, we analyzed student interview records, and a wide variation on student's preferred instructional stages were revealed. These findings could provide an alternative rationale for developing ICT-supported instruction, as our three-stage AR-embedded comprehensive e-learning scheme could enhance instruction adaptiveness to disperse the imparities of individual differences between learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prediction of thin-bed thickness has been generally recognized as one of the challenges in seismic exploration. Based on joint constraints of pseudo- and real-well, a seismic method for predicting the thin-bed thickness is presented in this paper. By analyzing geological and petrophysical characteristics of thin beds and surrounding rocks, a geological model, which is consistent with the geological features and represents the variation of thin-bed thicknesses, is established to conduct the forward modeling. Using the model, pseudo-well samples are 'created' by extracting thin-bed thicknesses and their corresponding seismic attributes from the forward modeling. On the other hand, real-well samples formed by real thin-bed thicknesses and their seismic attributes are extracted from the wells and seismic data. A joint sample set combining the pseudo- and real-well samples is then used to fit the correlation between seismic attributes and thinbed thicknesses quantitatively, which can finally be used to predict the distribution of thinbed thickness. By making a full use of the pseudo- and real-well data in establishing the quantitative relationship between seismic attributes and thin-bed thicknesses, especially in the early stage of oil and gas exploration when only few wells are available, this method increases the number of valid samples and could largely reduce ambiguity in interpretations of seismic attributes, which may improve the accuracy of the prediction significantly. The method presented here was applied to predict the thin-bed thickness of Carboniferous formation in Fuling district, and a new well drilled in the area confirmed the accuracy of the prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: The structures of Ag2n-1Sn− (n = 2–11) clusters are obtained by the combination of genetic algorithm (GA) and density functional theory (DFT). All the global minimum structures prefer hollow polyhedral structures, in which S–Ag-S element, triangular Ag3S3 and tetragonal Ag4S4 units present to stabilize the structures. The S atoms in the structures appear in μ3-S or μ4-S form. Adiabatic and vertical electron affinities of the clusters have been obtained, which reveals that they increases as cluster size. Stability analysis shows that Ag9S5− and Ag19S10− have special stability. The HOMO, LUMO orbitals of the clusters are obtained and the orbital components of them are calculated. The HOMO orbitals are mainly from the p orbitals of S atoms, whereas the s, p and d orbitals of Ag atoms contribute much bigger than the p orbitals of S atoms for LUMO orbitals. The orbital delocalization indexes (ODI) of the HOMOs and LUMOs are calculated, and the small ODIs of the HOMOs and LUMOs for n = 4–10 reveal that these orbitals are highly delocalized. By studying the projected density of states and molecular orbitals of Ag9S5− and Ag19S10− clusters, it is found that their molecular orbitals have superatomic properties. Superatomic properties play an important role in stabilizing clusters. Methods: This work used combined genetic algorithm and density functional theory (GA-DFT), and PBE0/Lanl2tz(Ag)/6-311G(d,p)(S) method to optimize the structures. Gaussian 16 program, Gauss view 6.0.16 program and Multiwfn 3.8 code are the softwares used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Propofol can be used alone or in combination with opioids during gastroscopy. This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of intravenous propofol and different doses of alfentanil in patients undergoing gastroscopy. Methods: A total of 300 patients undergoing sedative gastroscopy were randomly divided into four groups, and 0.9% saline (group A), 2 μg/kg alfentanil (group B), 3 μg/kg alfentanil (group C) or 4 μg/kg alfentanil (group D) were injected intravenously 1 min before the intravenous injection of 1.5 mg/kg propofol. If body movement and coughing occurred during the procedure, 0.5 mg/kg propofol would be administered intravenously. The primary outcome (awakening time) and secondary outcomes were recorded and analyzed, including hemodynamic changes, the incidences of body movement, coughing, hypoxemia, hypotension, hypertension, bradycardia, tachycardia, nausea and vomiting, drowsiness and dizziness. Results: Patients in group C (7.0 [5.0 to 8.0] min) and group D (6.0 [5.0 to 7.0] min) woke up significantly earlier than those in group A (8.0 [6.0 to 10.0] min) (P < 0.001). Patients in group A experienced more body movement (P = 0.001) and coughing (P < 0.001) than the other groups. With the increasing dose of alfentanil, the morbidity of hypotension and bradycardia increased significantly (P = 0.001), while the incidence of dizziness decreased significantly (P = 0.037). The incidences of hypoxemia, tachycardia, drowsiness, nausea and vomiting were similar among the four groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Intravenous 1.5 mg/kg propofol combined with 3 μg/kg alfentanil is more suitable for patients undergoing gastroscopy, and the dose of alfentanil can be reduced according to the patient's actual physical condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stressful life events especially the chronic unpredictable stress are the obvious precipitating factors of depression. The biological information transduction in cells plays an important role in the molecular biology mechanism of depression. Mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase-1 (MKP-1) regulates the cell physiological activity and involves in the adjustment of neural plasticity, function, and survival. This experiment tried to explore the possible effects of MKP-1 in hippocampus on depression of rats by determining the expression of MKP-1 mRNA and DNA methylation in MKP-1 gene promoter. The animal model was established by chronic unpredictable stress, and evaluated by open-field test and weight changes. All the rats were divided into the sham stimulation, the physiological saline, and the fluoxetine (1.25, 2.50, and 5.00 mg/kg) groups randomly. The expression of MKP-1 mRNA in the hippocampus was measured by RT-PCR and the methylation of MKP-1 promoter DNA was detected by COBRA. The chronic unpredicted stress (1) increased the animal movement scores in open-field test, and fluoxetine could prevent this increasement; (2) increased the body weight, and fluoxetine could not prevent this increasement; and (3) increased MKP-1 mRNA expression in the hippocampus, and fluoxetine could prevent it. However, fluoxetine did not influence the DNA methylation of MKP-1 gene promoter in the hippocampus during the chronic unpredicted stress. MKP-1 in the hippocampus might be involved in the etiology of depression, and DNA methylation of MKP-1 gene promoter in the hippocampus did not related with the depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the deformation of discrete monitoring points within the same deformable body usually have similar physical properties and tend to undergoing identical dynamic process, joint modelling of the deformation processes of these points in time domain are expected to generate better results. Yin et al. (1997) first extended the multi-variable grey model-system cloud grey model SCGM(1, m), with obviously superior modelling mechanism than single-variable grey model, to multi-point deformation modelling. However, this model is still not widely recognized and its applications remain very limited in the field of deformation analysis. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the capability of the SCGM(1, m) model, to present two revisions to further improve the performance of the model and to draw more attention to the community of deformation analysis. We first introduce the principles of the SCGM(1, m) model in the analysis and prediction of deformation surveys. Two practical techniques, namely residuals re-modelling and linear regression adjustment, are then presented to improve the SCGM(1, m) model. Combined with slope monitoring data, the modelling with the original and the improved SCGM(1, m) models by residuals re-modelling and linear regression adjustment are illustrated. The mean relative prediction errors decrease from 5.89% to 3.54% and 2.69%, when the two refining techniques are applied, respectively, indicating relative improvements of 39.9% and 54.3%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent cell death form characterized by reactive oxygen species (ROS) overgeneration and lipid peroxidation. Myricetin, a flavonoid that exists in numerous plants, exhibits potent antioxidant capacity. Given that iron accumulation and ROS-provoked dopaminergic neuron death are the two main pathological hallmarks of Parkinson's disease (PD), we aimed to investigate whether myricetin decreases neuronal death through suppressing ferroptosis. The PD models were established by intraperitoneally injecting 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) into rats and by treating SH-SY5Y cells with 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+), respectively. Ferroptosis was identified by assessing the levels of Fe2+, ROS, malondialdehyde (MDA), and glutathione (GSH). The results demonstrated that myricetin treatment effectively mitigated MPTP-triggered motor impairment, dopamine neuronal death, and α-synuclein (α-Syn) accumulation in PD models. Myricetin also alleviated MPTP-induced ferroptosis, as evidenced by decreased levels of Fe2+, ROS, and MDA and increased levels of GSH in the substantia nigra (SN) and serum in PD models. All these changes were reversed by erastin, a ferroptosis activator. In vitro, myricetin treatment restored SH-SY5Y cell viability and alleviated MPP+-induced SH-SY5Y cell ferroptosis. Mechanistically, myricetin accelerated nuclear translocation of nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and subsequent glutathione peroxidase 4 (Gpx4) expression in MPP+-treated SH-SY5Y cells, two critical inhibitors of ferroptosis. Collectively, these data demonstrate that myricetin may be a potential agent for decreasing dopaminergic neuron death by inhibiting ferroptosis in PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of autonomous cars, the incidence of motion sickness has increased. Current studies on the characteristics of motion sickness have primarily focused on its long-term characteristics while ignoring its short-term characteristics, especially for the reporting time of the real-time evaluation method. This study explores the long and short-term characteristics of motion sickness, and uses self-reported motion sickness ratings at the end of car motion (the high point) and 3 s after the end of motion (the low point). Motion sickness ratings increased with task vs. no-task conditions. There is no significant correction between gender and maximum motion sickness in this study. Moreover, participants with high motion sickness susceptibility experienced increased motion sickness. The difference between the low point and the high point is found to decrease as the motion sickness ratings increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ergot alkaloids (EAs) are a diverse group of indole alkaloids known for their complex structures, significant pharmacological effects, and toxicity to plants. The biosynthesis of these compounds begins with chanoclavine-I aldehyde (CC aldehyde, 2), an important intermediate produced by the enzyme EasDaf or its counterpart FgaDH from chanoclavine-I (CC, 1). However, how CC aldehyde 2 is converted to chanoclavine-I acid (CC acid, 3), first isolated from Ipomoea violacea several decades ago, is still unclear. In this study, we provide in vitro biochemical evidence showing that EasDaf not only converts CC 1 to CC aldehyde 2 but also directly transforms CC 1 into CC acid 3 through two sequential oxidations. Molecular docking and site-directed mutagenesis experiments confirmed the crucial role of two amino acids, Y166 and S153, within the active site, which suggests that Y166 acts as a general base for hydride transfer, while S153 facilitates proton transfer, thereby increasing the acidity of the reaction. Key points: •EAs possess complicated skeletons and are widely used in several clinical diseases •EasDafbelongs to the short-chain dehydrogenases/reductases (SDRs) and converted CC or CC aldehyde to CC acid •The catalytic mechanism of EasDaffor dehydrogenation was analyzed by molecular docking and site mutations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone age assessment (BAA) is a crucial task in clinical, forensic, and athletic fields. Since traditional age estimation methods are suffered from potential radiation damage, this study aimed to develop and evaluate a deep learning radiomics method based on multiparametric knee MRI for noninvasive and automatic BAA. This retrospective study enrolled 598 patients (age range,10.00–29.99 years) who underwent MR examinations of the knee joint (T1/T2*/PD-weighted imaging). Three-dimensional convolutional neural networks (3D CNNs) were trained to extract and fuse multimodal and multiscale MRI radiomic features for age estimation and compared to traditional machine learning models based on hand-crafted features. The age estimation error was greater in individuals aged 25–30 years; thus, this method may not be suitable for individuals over 25 years old. In the test set aged 10–25 years (n = 95), the 3D CNN (a fusion of T1WI, T2*WI, and PDWI) demonstrated the lowest mean absolute error of 1.32 ± 1.01 years, which is higher than that of other MRI modalities and the hand-crafted models. In the classification for 12-, 14-, 16-, and 18- year thresholds, accuracies and the areas under the ROC curves were all over 0.91 and 0.96, which is similar to the manual methods. Visualization of important features showed that 3D CNN estimated age by focusing on the epiphyseal plates. The deep learning radiomics method enables non-invasive and automated BAA from multimodal knee MR images. The use of 3D CNN and MRI-based radiomics has the potential to assist radiologists or medicolegists in age estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for tumor postoperative treatments aimed at recurrence prevention and tissue regeneration have raised wide considerations in the context of the design and functionalization of implants. Herein, an injectable hydrogel system encapsulated with anti-tumor, anti-oxidant dual functional nanoparticles has been developed in order to prevent tumor relapse after surgery and promote wound repair. The utilization of biocompatible gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) was geared towards localized therapeutic intervention. Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8@ceric oxide (ZIF-8@CeO2, ZC) nanoparticles (NPs) were purposefully devised for their proficiency as reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers. Furthermore, injectable GelMA hydrogels loaded with ZC NPs carrying doxorubicin (ZC-DOX@GEL) were tailored as multifunctional postoperative implants, ensuring the efficacious eradication of residual tumor cells and alleviation of oxidative stress. In vitro and in vivo experiments were conducted to substantiate the efficacy in cancer cell elimination and the prevention of tumor recurrence through the synergistic chemotherapy approach employed with ZC-DOX@GEL. The acceleration of tissue regeneration and in vitro ROS scavenging attributes of ZC@GEL were corroborated using rat models of wound healing. The results underscore the potential of the multifaceted hydrogels presented herein for their promising application in tumor postoperative treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prediction of wrinkling characteristics is strongly correlated with the strain perpendicular to wrinkling direction. In this paper, the strain field of wrinkled membrane is tested by VIC-3D system based on the digital image correlation technique. Experimental results are validated by the tension wrinkling simulation. The experimental strain perpendicular to wrinkling direction is analyzed in depth. The wrinkling strain of a square wrinkled membrane under corner tension is extracted from experimental strain perpendicular to wrinkling direction. A quantitative characterization format of the experimental wrinkling strain is proposed. A modified prediction method of wrinkling amplitude is presented based on the experimental wrinkling strain. The results show that the precision of modified prediction model has improved 13.2% compared with the classical prediction model. The results reveal that the modified model can give an accurate prediction of the wrinkling amplitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]