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Background: Postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMO) is a chronic condition characterized by decreased bone strength. This study aims to investigate the effects and mechanisms of the combination of Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum (Bp) and 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (3-HAA) on PMO. Methods: The effects of Bp and 3-HAA on PMO were evaluated in ovariectomized (OVX) rats by assessing stereological parameters, femur microstructure, and autophagy levels. The T helper (Th) 17/Regulatory T (Treg) cells of rats were detected using flow cytometric analysis. Furthermore, the impact of Bp and 3-HAA on the gut microbiota of rats was assessed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The correlation between the gut microbiota of rats and Th17/Treg immune factors, as well as femoral stereo parameters, was separately assessed using Spearman rank correlation analysis. Results: Bp and 3-HAA treatments protected OVX rats by promoting osteogenesis and inhibiting autophagy. Compared to the Sham group, OVX rats showed an increase in Th17 cells and a decrease in Treg cells. Bp and 3-HAA reversed these changes. Enterorhabdus and Pseudomonas were significantly enriched in OVX rats. Bp and 3-HAA regulated the gut microbiota of OVX rats, enriching pathways related to nutrient metabolism and immune function. There was a correlation between the gut microbiota and the Th17/Treg, as well as femoral stereo parameters. The concurrent administration of Bp and 3-HAA medication facilitated the enrichment of gut microbiota associated with the improvement of PMO. Conclusion: The combination therapy of Bp and 3-HAA can prevent PMO by modulating the gut microbiota and restoring Th17/Treg immune homeostasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is useful for the diagnosis of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), but is limited by subjective interpretation. Studies on artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted diagnosis are under development. Here, we used a meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic performance of AI in the diagnosis of GISTs using EUS images. Methods: PubMed, Ovid Medline, Embase, Web of science, and the Cochrane Library databases were searched for studies based on the EUS using AI for the diagnosis of GISTs, and a meta-analysis was performed to examine the accuracy. Results: Overall, 7 studies were included in our meta-analysis. A total of 2431 patients containing more than 36,186 images were used as the overall dataset, of which 480 patients were used for the final testing. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive, and negative likelihood ratio (LR) of AI-assisted EUS for differentiating GISTs from other submucosal tumors (SMTs) were 0.92 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.89–0.95), 0.82 (95% CI 0.75–0.87), 4.55 (95% CI 2.64–7.84), and 0.12 (95% CI 0.07–0.20), respectively. The summary diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and the area under the curve were 64.70 (95% CI 23.83–175.69) and 0.950 (Q* = 0.891). Conclusions: AI-assisted EUS showed high accuracy for the automatic endoscopic diagnosis of GISTs, which could be used as a valuable complementary method for the differentiation of SMTs in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Liuwei Dihuang Pill (LP) was verified to alleviate postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) development. Nevertheless, the major constituent of LP and the related network pharmacology study remain unexplored. Methods: Protein–protein interaction was established to identify the downstream target of LP in PMOP, and the related signaling pathway was investigated by bioinformatics analysis. MC3T3-E1 cells were added to ferric ammonium citrate (FAC) to mimic osteoporosis in vitro. The osteoblasts were identified by Alizarin red staining. Western blot was applied to evaluate protein levels. In addition, Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8) assay was applied to assess cell viability, and cell apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometry. Results: Quercetin was the major constituent of LP. In addition, quercetin significantly reversed FAC-induced inhibition of osteogenic differentiation in MC3T3-E1 cells. In addition, quercetin notably abolished the FAC-induced upregulation of Bax, Caspase-3, FOS, JUN, TGFB1 and PPARD. In contrast, Bcl-2, p-mTOR/mTOR, p-AKT/AKT and p-PI3K/PI3K levels in MC3T3-E1 cells were reduced by FAC, which was restored by quercetin. Meanwhile, FAC notably inhibited the viability of MC3T3-E1 cells via inducing apoptosis, but this impact was abolished by quercetin. Furthermore, quercetin could reverse pcDNA3.1-FOS-mediated growth of FAC-treated osteoblasts by mediating PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling. Conclusion: Quercetin alleviated the progression of PMOP via activation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling. Hence, this study would shed novel insights into discovering new methods against PMOP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the rheological behavior and thermoplastic deformation of Zr 61.88 Cu 18 Ni 10.12 Al 10 bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) in the supercooled liquid region (SCLR) were studied by high temperature compression tests and a processing map was constructed. The results indicated that the flow stress of present alloy in the SCLR is very sensitive to temperature and strain-rate. The flow stress decreases with increasing temperature and decreasing strain-rate. The viscosity coefficient of the present alloy ranges from 10 11  Pa.s to 10 9  Pa.s and decreases with increasing temperature and strain-rate. When the strain-rate is greater than 5 × 10 −3  s −1 , the Zr 61.88 Cu 18 Ni 10.12 Al 10 alloy undergoes a transition from Newtonian fluid to non-Newtonian fluid. The surface profile exhibited a similar shape of the letter ‘N' after high temperature compression in the deeply SCLR. The optimum hot processing region of Zr 61.88 Cu 18 Ni 10.12 Al 10 alloy is 688 K–708 K with a low strain-rate and 708 K–723 K with a high strain-rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose A population-based matched-pair comparison was performed to compare the efficacy of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) versus surgery for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods All the eligible studies were searched by PubMed, Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. The meta-analysis was performed to compare odds ratios (OR) for overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), disease-free survival (DFS), local control (LC), and distant control (DC). Results Six studies containing 864 matched patients were included in the meta-analysis. The surgery was associated with a better long-term OS in patients with early-stage NSCLC. The pooled OR and 95% confidence interval (CI) for 1-year, 3-year OS were 1.31 [0.90, 1.91] and 1.82 [1.38, 2.40], respectively. However, the difference in 1-year and 3-year CSS, DFS, LC and DC was not significant. Conclusions This systematic review found a superior 3-year OS after surgery compared with SBRT, which supports the need to compare both treatments in large prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this study, Fe-based amorphous coatings on 304 stainless steel surfaces were fabricated by high velocity oxy-fuel. The microhardness of the coatings was about 3.5 times than that of the substrate. Furthermore, the effect of the holding time on the creep deformation behavior of Fe-based amorphous coatings was investigated by performing nanoindentation creep experiments. Experimental results demonstrate that compared with holding time the creep deformation more sensitive to the applied peak load. At the same holding time, the stress exponent(n) at the high peak load is smaller than lower one, the stress exponent value decreases at the same peak load with the prolonging of holding time, higher stress exponent value indicates amorphous coatings have more resistance to creep deformation in the condition of smaller peak and holding time. Highlights • Compared with holding time creep deformation more sensitive to applied peak load. • The smaller peak and holding time is, the more resistance to creep deformation is. • The coating is all amorphous, with high hardness and small porosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal compression tests of (Zr0.6336Cu0.1452Ni0.1012Al0.12)97.4Er2.6 bulk metallic glass (BMG) were performed at temperature of 410, 420, 430 and 440 °C and strain rates of 5 × 10−4, 10−3, 5 × 10−3 and 10−2 s−1, and a thermal processing map was constructed in the supercooled liquid region. The results indicate that in low strain rate regions (5 × 10−4-10−3 s−1), the processing efficiency range is 70-85% and stress range is 70-120 MPa with temperatures of 410 and 420 °C, and the samples can be thermally processed under relatively small stress and show better fluidity, so temperatures of 410 and 420 °C and the strain rate range of 5 × 10−4-10−3 s−1 are optional thermal processing parameters. When the temperature is 430 °C and the strain rate range is 5 × 10−4-10−2 s−1, the processing efficiency range is 75-85%, and the stress range is 16-106 MPa. The (Zr0.6336Cu0.1452Ni0.1012Al0.12)97.4Er2.6 BMG can be thermoformed under smaller flow stress and shows excellent fluidity; therefore, 430 °C and 5 × 10−4-10−2 s−1 also are optional thermal processing parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we propose a novel data-driven regression model for aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieval. First, we adopt a low-rank representation (LRR) model to learn a powerful representation of the spectral response. Then, a graph regularization is incorporated into the LRR model to capture the local structure information and the non-linear property of the remote-sensing data. Since it is easy to acquire the rich results retrieved by satellite, we use them as a baseline to construct the graph. Finally, the learned feature representation is fed into Support Vector Machines (SVMs) to retrieve AOD. Experiments are conducted on two widely used data sets acquired by different sensors, and the experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve superior performance compared to the physical models and other state-of-the-art empirical models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel low-molecular-weight organic gelators (LMOGs) with propeller-shaped triphenylamine as a 'core' and tiny methyl acrylate groups as 'tails,' are developed, which would not be thought to be a candidate for gel formation due to the absence of planar rigid aromatic building blocks and long-chain alkyls. The sensitive gel-sol transformation can be easily achieved upon heating or cooling accompanied by molecular aggregation or disaggregation. H-H 2D NOESY is employed to prove that the π-π stacking between the interlaced tiny 'tails' and the interaction between the superimposed phenyl and carbonyl groups of adjacent mole­cules are the dominant interaction forces. What is more, this soft interaction model can be regarded as a powerful tool in the design and construction of supramolecular structures in the future. At present, tris(4-methyl cinnamate)amine synthesized by a single step, but with a gel-formation ability and an aggrega­tion-induced fluorescence emission property, has great potential application as functional soft matter in amorphous materials, photoelectric materials, and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The goal of the study described here was to assess the performance of real-time elastography (RTE) in the detection of prostate cancers using a meta-analysis. A literature search of PubMed, Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Library was conducted. Published studies that evaluated the diagnostic performance of RTE in the diagnosis of prostate cancer and using the histopathology of the radical prostatectomy specimen as a reference standard were included. Sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and area under the curve were calculated to examine the accuracy of RTE. A total of seven studies that included 508 patients were analyzed. The pooled sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of prostate cancer by RTE were 0.72 (95% confidence interval: 0.70–0.74) and 0.76 (0.74–0.78), respectively. The summary diagnostic odds ratio was 12.59 (7.26–21.84), and the area under the curve was 0.841 (Q* = 0.773). In conclusion, RTE imaging has high accuracy in the detection of prostate cancers using the histopathology of the radical prostatectomy specimen as the reference standard and may reduce the number of core biopsies in the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this study, different peak loads and varying cooling rates on creep behavior of (Zr 0.6336 Cu 0.1425 Ni 0.1012 Al 0.12) 97.4 Er 2.6 bulk metallic glass were studied by nanoindentation tester and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results show that the change of different load and cooling rate has a great influence on the creep behavior of the alloy. Under high peak load conditions, the increasing of the creep displacement and the stress exponent (n) show strong indentation size effect. The hardness of the specimen without rare earth element is 5 times larger than the specimen with rare earth element. With the increase of the cooling rate, the creep displacement of the specimen is increasing and the time to enter the steady state creep is prolonging. The hardness and elastic modulus of the material are sensitive to the cooling rate relative to the load change. • The hardness of specimen without adding Er is 5 times larger than specimen adding Er. • Creep behavior of materials is more sensitive to changes in cooling rates than loads. • The influence upon the creep behavior becomes slighter with the peak load decreasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]