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To analyse spermatic vein parameters and post‐varicocelectomy diagnostic ultrasound methods by comparing pre‐ and post‐operative ultrasound parameters and semen quality in patients undergoing varicocelectomy. Ultrasound and semen analyses were performed within 1 week before surgery and 3 months after surgery in 125 patients who underwent varicocelectomy for infertility. Patients were divided into three groups according to the post‐operative internal diameter of the spermatic vein and reflux: recovery, dilatation, and reflux. Changes in semen quality before and after surgery were compared between groups. Sperm concentration, motility, and morphology were significantly improved (p < 0.05); however, semen volume did not improve (p > 0.05) in patients in the recovery and dilatation groups compared to those in patients before surgery. Sperm concentration, motility, and semen volume did not improve in patients in the reflux group compared with those in patients before surgery (p > 0.05). Logistic regression analysis revealed that the internal diameter of the spermatic vein and reflux duration were risk factors for post‐operative spermatic vein dilatation without reflux. Ultrasonography after varicocelectomy should primarily be used to observe reflux, and should not be used as a diagnostic criterion for varicocele based on the internal diameter of the spermatic vein alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key Clinical Message We report a comatose patient with severe neurological deficits who was without spontaneous language or movement. He had a good response to recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt PA) thrombolysis even though there were no detectable lesions on diffusion-weighted imaging ( DWI). DWI is very sensitive for diagnosing hyperacute ischemic stroke, and rt PA thrombolysis is the best treatment. However, rt PA thrombolysis in ischemic stroke patients without lesions on DWI has rarely been reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pathogen Legionella pneumophila, which is the causative agent of Legionnaires' disease, secrets hundreds of effectors into host cells via its Dot/Icm secretion system to subvert host‐cell pathways during pathogenesis. VipF, a conserved core effector among Legionella species, is a putative acetyltransferase, but its structure and catalytic mechanism remain unknown. Here, three crystal structures of VipF in complex with its cofactor acetyl‐CoA and/or a substrate are reported. The two GNAT‐like domains of VipF are connected as two wings by two β‐strands to form a U‐shape. Both domains bind acetyl‐CoA or CoA, but only in the C‐terminal domain does the molecule extend to the bottom of the U‐shaped groove as required for an active transferase reaction; the molecule in the N‐terminal domain folds back on itself. Interestingly, when chloramphenicol, a putative substrate, binds in the pocket of the central U‐shaped groove adjacent to the N‐terminal domain, VipF remains in an open conformation. Moreover, mutations in the central U‐shaped groove, including Glu129 and Asp251, largely impaired the acetyltransferase activity of VipF, suggesting a unique enzymatic mechanism for the Legionella effector VipF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon nanomaterials are unique with excellent functionality and diverse structures. However, agglomerated structures are commonly formed because of small‐size effects and surface effects. Their hierarchical assembly into micro particles enables carbon nanomaterials to break the boundaries of classical Geldart particle classification before stable fluidization under gas‐solid interactions. Currently, there are few systematic reports regarding the structural evolution and fluidization mechanism of carbon nano agglomerations. Based on existing research on carbon nanomaterials, this article reviews the fluidized structure control and fluidization principles of prototypical carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as well as their nanocomposites. The controlled agglomerate fluidization technology leads to the successful mass production of agglomerated and aligned CNTs. In addition, the self‐similar agglomeration of individual ultralong CNTs and nanocomposites with silicon as model systems further exemplify the important role of surface structure and particle‐fluid interactions. These emerging nano agglomerations have endowed classical fluidization technology with more innovations in advanced applications like energy storage, biomedical, and electronics. This review aims to provide insights into the connections between fluidization and carbon nanomaterials by highlighting their hierarchical structural evolution and the principle of agglomerated fluidization, expecting to showcase the vitality and connotation of fluidization science and technology in the new era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Doppler ultrasonography is useful in monitoring intra‐operative PV flow in LDLT. A retrospective cohort study included 550 pediatric recipients (<18 years) who underwent LDLT from October 2006 to August 2016 in our hospital. A total of 33 recipients (incidence 6%) were found to have insufficient intra‐operative PV flow after PV reperfusion. The treatments included intra‐operative stent placement (n=25), anticoagulation (n=3), thrombectomy and re‐anastomosis (n=2), graft repositioning (n=1), collateral ligation (n=1), and replaced PV (n=1). The peak PV velocity, HAPSV, HARI, and HV velocity before and after the interventions were significantly improved 0(0,5.5) cm/s vs. 37.36±15.30 cm/s, 38.68±8.92 cm/s vs. 62.30±16.97 cm/s, 0.55±0.08 vs. 0.76±0.10, and 32.37±10.33 cm/s vs. 40.94±15.01 cm/s, respectively (P<.01). Insufficient PV flow and decreased HARI are two significant criteria indicating need for intra‐operative PV management. Dramatic changes in the hepatic hemodynamics were detected after proper treatment. Immediate resolution of PV flow is feasible in pediatric LDLT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Termites have physiological and behavioral immunities that make them highly resistant to pathogen infections, which complicates biocontrol efforts. However, the stimuli that trigger the pathogen‐avoidance behaviors of termites are still unclear. Our study shows that workers of Coptotermes formosanus exposed to the conidia of Metarhizium anisopliae exhibited a significantly higher frequency and longer duration of allogrooming behaviors compared with untreated termites. Volatile compounds in the cuticle of control termites and termites previously exposed to a suspension of M. anisopliae conidia were analyzed and compared using a gas chromatography‐mass spectrometer (GC‐MS). Our results showed that the amount of ergosterol differed between the fungus‐exposed and control termites. Choice tests showed that termites significantly preferred to stay on filter paper treated with ergosterol (0.05, 0.1, or 1.0 mg/mL) compared with control filter paper. In addition, termites exposed to ergosterol followed by M. anisopliae conidia were allogroomed at a significantly higher frequency and for a longer duration than termites exposed to alcohol (the solvent used with the ergosterol in the ergosterol trials) alone followed by M. anisopliae conidia. These results showed that ergosterol may enhance the allogrooming behavior of termites in the presence of entomopathogenic fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium (Li) metal is considered as the most promising anode material for rechargeable high‐energy batteries. Nevertheless, the practical implement of Li anodes is significantly hindered by the growth of Li dendrites, which can cause severe safety issues. To inhibit the formation of Li dendrites, coating an artificial layer on the Li metal anode has been shown to be a facile and effective approach. This review mainly focuses on recent advances in artificial layers for stable Li metal anodes. It summarizes the progress in this area and discusses the different types of artificial layers according to their mechanisms for Li dendrite inhibition, including regulation of uniform deposition of Li metal and suppression of Li dendrite growth. By doing this, it is hoped that this contribution will provide instructional guidance for the future design of new artificial layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug metabolites (DMs) are critical in pharmacology research areas, such as drug metabolism pathways and drug‐drug interactions. However, there is no terminology dictionary containing comprehensive drug metabolite names, and there is no named entity recognition (NER) algorithm focusing on drug metabolite identification. In this article, we developed a novel NER system, DrugMetab, to identify DMs from the PubMed abstracts. DrugMetab utilizes the features characterized from the Part‐of‐Speech, drug index, and pre/suffix, and determines DMs within context. To evaluate the performance, a gold‐standard corpus was manually constructed. In this task, DrugMetab with sequential minimal optimization (SMO) classifier achieves 0.89 precision, 0.77 recall, and 0.83 F‐measure in the internal testing set; and 0.86 precision, 0.85 recall, and 0.86 F‐measure in the external validation set. We further compared the performance between DrugMetab and whatizitChemical, which was designed for identifying small molecules or chemical entities. DrugMetab outperformed whatizitChemical, which had a lower recall rate of 0.65. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims/Introduction This study was to assess the association between serum osteocalcin level and glucose metabolism in a Chinese male population. Materials and Methods We carried out a cross-sectional study with a cohort of participants from the Fangchenggang Area Male Health and Examination Survey. The cross-sectional study was carried out among 2,353 men, including 2,139 participants with normal glucose tolerance, 148 with impaired fasting glucose and 66 with type 2 diabetes. A subsample of 1,109 men with measurement of osteocalcin was observed in the cohort. After a 4-year follow-up period, 1,049 non-diabetic and 983 participants with normal glucose tolerance who submitted the available information were enrolled in the cohort. Participants were divided into group-H (≥23.33 ng/ mL) and group-L (<23.33 ng/mL) by osteocalcin level. Results In the cross-sectional study, osteocalcin levels were highest in participants with normal glucose tolerance, followed by those with impaired fasting glucose and type 2 diabetes ( P < 0.001). In partial correlation analysis adjusted for age, serum osteocalcin level was related to glucose level ( r = −0.082, P < 0.001), insulin level ( r = −0.079, P < 0.001) and insulin resistance ( r = −0.065, P = 0.002). Compared with group-H, group-L was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes (odds ratio 2.107, 95% confidence interval 1.123-3.955), impaired fasting glucose (odds ratio 2.106; 95% CI 1.528-2.902), and insulin resistance (odds ratio 1.359, 95% confidence interval 1.080-1.710) adjusted for age, education levels, cigarette smoking and lipid profiles. In the cohort study, the increased risk of impaired fasting glucose was significant in group-L vs group-H (3.3% vs 1.2%, P = 0.026). Conclusions Low serum osteocalcin level was a risk factor for impaired glucose metabolism and subsequent type 2 diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

R3734 --> 659.1 --> Neuroinflammation has proven to play an important role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases by encouraging the expression and maturation of pro‐inflammatory regulators. Studies have shown the upregulation of pro‐inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)‐1β and IL‐18 in neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple sclerosis (MS), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and many more. The NLRP3 (NOD‐, LRR‐ and pyrin domain‐containing protein 3) inflammasome is the key regulator in the maturation and release of these inflammatory cytokines and is therefore an attractive target for suppressing inflammation. Upon assembly and activation of the multimeric NLRP3 inflammasome complex comprised of NLRP3, ASC protein, and pro‐caspase‐1, autoproteolytic cleavage of pro‐caspase‐1 occurs. Activated caspase‐1 is then able to cleave pro‐IL‐1β and pro‐IL‐18 and release their biologically active forms, IL‐1β and IL‐18, consequently leading to an inflammatory cell death known as pyroptosis (Figure 1). Our recent medicinal chemistry campaign has led to a series of novel small molecule inhibitors that are suggested to selectively target NLRP3 and show both in vitro and in vivo activity to inhibit the release of IL‐1β and IL‐18 with sub‐micromolar potencies. Through various assays and photoaffinity labeling experiments using a chemical probe, we have revealed and validated the mechanisms and binding of our lead compound, YQ128, to NLRP3. YQ128 is able to inhibit caspase‐1 and GSDMD cleavage as well as ASC speck formation in mouse macrophages; however, it has no effect on the NLRP3 expression, suggesting its target is upstream of ASC speck and caspase‐1 but downstream of priming. Through target identification studies using a photoaffinity labeling (PAL) technique, we found that YQ128 specifically interacts with NLRP3, but not other components of the NLRP3 inflammasome complex. Competition studies with the parent compound and other known NLRP3 inhibitors suggested the specific and unique binding of YQ128 to NLRP3. The results from other biological assays proposed its binding to the NACHT domain of NLRP3. Using our chemical probe in a pull‐down assay, we also discovered other potential targets within the inflammasome pathway, including a protein that was recently termed "undruggable". These results suggest a novel mechanism of inhibition by our compounds and further studies are currently underway to improve these inhibitors as potential therapeutics for neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used Doppler US to evaluate the changes in hepatic arterial hemodynamics that occur following LDLT in pediatric recipients, with a view to assessing the utility of these parameters in predicting early HAT. A retrospective review of 144 pediatric recipients (73 males, 71 females) who underwent routine Doppler US in the first week after LDLT was undertaken, and changes in hepatic arterial hemodynamics were assessed. The HARI and HAPSV were compared in patients with early HAT (defined as occurring in the first postoperative week) and a control group, and the utility of these parameters in predicting early HAT after LDLT was determined. A total of 11 pediatric recipients experienced early HAT, being diagnosed on average four and a half days after LDLT. HARI and HAPSV values were significantly different between the early HAT group and controls. HARI values <0.6 on the day before the onset of early HAT were able to predict HAT development with a sensitivity of 81.8% and specificity of 95.2%. This provides evidence for routine Doppler US examination in these patients and supports consideration of more intensive anticoagulation in these high-risk patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a large number of designer drugs sold as 'Bath Salts' have appeared on the market. In July of 2011, Raving Dragon Novelty Bath Salts was obtained over the Internet. This product became unavailable in October of that year coinciding with the DEA issuing a temporarily schedule of mephedrone, methylone, and MDPV. Four months later in February of 2012, a new product was released from the same company under the new name Raving Dragon Voodoo Dust. The contents of both products were identified using spectroscopy methods: nuclear magnetic resonance, infrared, UV-visible, tandem mass spectrometry, and high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry. It was determined that Raving Dragon Novelty Bath Salts contained methylone. The replacement product Raving Dragon Voodoo Dust contained the unscheduled drug pentedrone. The Raving Dragon brand of products illustrates the rapid change of ingredients in these products to circumvent laws restricting availability, distribution, and use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To examine the association of endogenous sex hormones and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) with C-reactive protein ( CRP) in Chinese men. Design and participants The study population comprised 1989 men at baseline recruitment of a population-based cohort in China. Participant information on risk factors was collected by a face-to-face interview and clinical examination. All subjects in the study were without taking any kind of medication for anti-inflammation purpose or treatment of hypogonadism and with CRP value less than 10 mg/l. Data were analysed using linear regression analyses. Results Higher levels of total testosterone ( TT, β = −0·114, 95% CI, −0·162 to −0·065), free testosterone (β = −0·059, 95% CI, −0·106 to −0·012) and SHBG (β = −0·116, 95% CI, −0·169 to −0·063) were statistically significantly related to lower levels of CRP, after adjustment for age, waist circumference ( WC), triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting glucose, insulin, smoking status, hypertension, diabetes and family history of hypertension or diabetes. In the subgroup of men with body mass index ≥ 27·5 kg/m2 or with metabolic syndrome, findings for TT and SHBG were more pronounced, whereas the associations of TT with CRP were attenuated and nonstatistically significant among subjects with WC ≥ 90 cm or with insulin resistance. No associations were observed between estradiol, luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and CRP. Conclusions We have confirmed the association of androgens with reduced inflammation as measured by CRP in Chinese men. This is independent of conventional cardiovascular risk factors and is explained in part by markers of central obesity and insulin resistance, rather than metabolic syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: artificial layers; lithium dendrites; lithium metal batteries; mechanical suppressing; uniform deposition EN artificial layers lithium dendrites lithium metal batteries mechanical suppressing uniform deposition 1 1 1 04/03/20 20200401 NES 200401 B The practical application of Li anodes is significantly hindered b by the growth of Li dendrites that may cause severe safety issues. To inhibit the Li dendrites, coating an artificial layer on the Li metal anode has been proved as a facile and effective approach. Different types of artificial layers according to their mechanisms for Li dendrite inhibition, including regulation of uniform deposition of Li metal and suppression of Li dendrite growth, are discussed. [Extracted from the article]

Optimized conditions are elaborated for the preparation of various symmetrical and unsymmetrical title compounds, which are of interest in drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]