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Aim: New‐onset diabetes mellitus is a frequent and severe complication arising after liver transplantation (LT). We aimed to identify the risk factors for new‐onset diabetes mellitus after liver transplantation (NODALT) and to develop a risk prediction score system for relevant risks. Methods: We collected and analyzed data from all recipients who underwent liver transplantation at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University. The OR derived from a multiple logistic regression predicting the presence of NODALT was used to calculate the risk prediction score. The performance of the risk prediction score was externally validated in patients who were from the CLTR (China Liver Transplant Registry) database. Results: A total of 468 patients met the outlined criteria and finished the follow‐up. Overall, NODALT was diagnosed in 115 (24.6%) patients. Age, preoperative impaired fasting glucose (IFG), postoperative fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and the length of hospital stay were significantly associated with the presence of NODALT. The risk prediction score includes age, preoperative IFG, postoperative FPG, and the length of hospital stay. The risk prediction score of the area under the receiver operating curve was 0.785 (95% CI: 0.724–0.846) in the experimental population and 0.782 (95% CI: 0.708–0.856) in the validation population. Conclusions: Age at the time of transplantation, preoperative IFG, postoperative FPG, and length of hospital stay were independent predictive factors of NODALT. The use of a simple risk prediction score can identify the patients who have the highest risk of NODALT and interventions may start early. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The added value of candidate predictors for risk modeling is routinely evaluated by comparing the performance of models with or without including candidate predictors. Such comparison is most meaningful when the estimated risk by the two models are both unbiased in the target population. Very often data for candidate predictors are sourced from nonrepresentative convenience samples. Updating the base model using the study data without acknowledging the discrepancy between the underlying distribution of the study data and that in the target population can lead to biased risk estimates and therefore an unfair evaluation of candidate predictors. To address this issue assuming access to a well-calibrated base model, we propose a semiparametric method for model fitting that enforces good calibration. The central idea is to calibrate the fitted model against the base model by enforcing suitable constraints in maximizing the likelihood function. This approach enables unbiased assessment of model improvement offered by candidate predictors without requiring a representative sample from the target population, thus overcoming a significant practical challenge. We study theoretical properties for model parameter estimates, and demonstrate improvement in model calibration via extensive simulation studies. Finally, we apply the proposed method to data extracted from Penn Medicine Biobank to inform the added value of breast density for breast cancer risk assessment in the Caucasian woman population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The objective of this study was to develop a predictive nomogram for intermediate-risk differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients after fixed 3.7GBq (100mCi) radioiodine remnant ablation (RRA). Methods: Data from 265 patients who underwent total thyroidectomy with central lymph node dissection (CND) and received RRA treatment at a single institution between January 2018 and March 2023 were analyzed. Patients with certain exclusion criteria were excluded. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify risk factors for a non-excellent response (non-ER) to RRA. A nomogram was developed based on the risk factors, and its performance was validated using the Bootstrap method with 1,000 resamplings. A web-based dynamic calculator was developed for convenient application of the nomogram. Results: The study included 265 patients with intermediate-risk DTC. Significant differences were found between the ER group and the non-ER group in terms of CLNM>5, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, sTg level, TgAb level (P < 0.05). CLNM>5 and sTg level were identified as independent risk factors for non-ER in multivariate analysis. The nomogram showed high accuracy, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.833 (95% CI = 0.770-0.895). The nomogram's predicted probabilities aligned closely with actual clinical outcomes. Conclusions: This study developed a predictive nomogram for intermediate-risk DTC patients after fixed 3.7GBq (100mCi) RRA. The nomogram incorporates CLNM>5 and sTg levels as risk factors for a non-ER response to RRA. The nomogram and web-based calculator can assist in treatment decision-making and improve the precision of prognosis information. Further research and validation are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The covalently cross‐linked network gives thermosets superior thermal, mechanical, and electrical properties, which, however, squarely makes the large residual stress that is inevitably induced during preparation hardly relieved in the glassy state. In this work, an incredible reduction in residual stress is successfully achieved in bulk thermosets in the glassy state through introducing highly dynamic thiocarbamate bonds by "click" reactions of thiols and isocyanates. Due to the excellent dynamic behaviors of thiocarbamate bonds, local network rearrangement is achieved through thermal stimulation, while the strong 3D cross‐linked network is well maintained. Ultimately, a decrease by 44% in residual stress is detected by simply annealing samples at 30 °C below glass transition temperature (Tg), during which they could well maintain more than 98.4% of the storage modulus. After the annealing, more uniform residual stress distribution is also observed, showing a 32% decline in sample standard deviation. However, the residual stress of epoxy resin, a typical thermoset as a reference, changes little even after annealing at Tg. The results prove it a feasible strategy to reduce residual stress in bulk thermosets in the glassy state by introducing proper dynamic covalent bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a nested semiparametric model to analyze a case‐control study where genuine case status is missing for some individuals. The concept of a noncase is introduced to allow for the imputation of the missing genuine cases. The odds ratio parameter of the genuine cases compared to controls is of interest. The imputation procedure predicts the probability of being a genuine case compared to a noncase semiparametrically in a dimension reduction fashion. This procedure is flexible, and vastly generalizes the existing methods. We establish the root‐n$$ n $$ asymptotic normality of the odds ratio parameter estimator. Our method yields stable odds ratio parameter estimation owing to the application of an efficient semiparametric sufficient dimension reduction estimator. We conduct finite sample numerical simulations to illustrate the performance of our approach, and apply it to a dilated cardiomyopathy study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) is associated with various malignancies and infects >90% of the global population. EBV latent proteins are expressed in numerous EBV‐associated cancers and contribute to carcinogenesis, making them critical therapeutic targets for these cancers. Thus, this study aims to develop mRNA‐based therapeutic vaccines that express the T‐cell‐epitope‐rich domain of truncated latent proteins of EBV, including truncatedlatent membrane protein 2A (Trunc‐LMP2A), truncated EBV nuclear antigen 1 (Trunc‐EBNA1), and Trunc‐EBNA3A. The vaccines effectively activate both cellular and humoral immunity in mice and show promising results in suppressing tumor progression and improving survival time in tumor‐bearing mice. Furthermore, it is observed that the truncated forms of the antigens, Trunc‐LMP2A, Trunc‐EBNA1, and Trunc‐EBNA3A, are more effective than full‐length antigens in activating antigen‐specific immune responses. In summary, the findings demonstrate the effectiveness of mRNA‐based therapeutic vaccines targeting the T‐cell‐epitope‐rich domain of EBV latent proteins and providing new treatment options for EBV‐associated cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for cardio-cerebral vascular diseases, which brings a heavy economic burden to society and becomes a major public health problem. At present, the pathogenesis of hypertension is unclear. Increasing evidence has proven that the pathogenesis of hypertension is closely related to the dysbiosis of gut microbiota. We briefly reviewed relevant literature on gut microbiota and hypertension to summarize the relationship between gut microbiota and hypertension, linked the antihypertension effects of drugs with their modulation on gut microbiota, and discussed the potential mechanisms of various gut microbes and their active metabolites to alleviate hypertension, thus providing new research ideas for the development of antihypertension drugs. Methods: The relevant literature was collected systematically from scientific database, including Elsevier, PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Baidu Scholar, as well as other literature sources, such as classic books of herbal medicine. Results: Hypertension can lead to gut microbiota imbalance and gut barrier dysfunction, including increased harmful bacteria and hydrogen sulfide and lipopolysaccharide, decreased beneficial bacteria and short-chain fatty acids, decreased intestinal tight junction proteins and increased intestinal permeability. Gut microbiota imbalance is closely related to the occurrence and development of hypertension. At present, the main methods to regulate the gut microbiota include fecal microbiota transplantation, supplementation of probiotics, antibiotics, diet and exercise, antihypertensive drugs, and natural medicines. Conclusions: Gut microbiota is closely related to hypertension. Investigating the correlation between gut microbiota and hypertension may help to reveal the pathogenesis of hypertension from the perspective of gut microbiota, which is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known concerning the associations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and its constituents with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). A total of 31,162 participants enrolled from the Henan Rural Cohort were used to specify associations of PM2.5 and its constituents with ASCVD. Hybrid machine learning was utilized to estimate the 3-year average concentration of PM2.5 and its constituents (black carbon [BC], nitrate [NO3−], ammonium [NH4+], inorganic sulfate [SO42−], organic matter [OM], and soil particles [SOIL]). Constituent concentration, proportion, and residual models were utilized to examine the associations of PM2.5 constituents with 10-year ASCVD risk and to identify the most hazardous constituent. The isochronous substitution model (ISM) was employed to analyze the substitution effect between PM2.5 constituents. We found that each 1 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5, BC, NH4+, NO3−, OM, SO42−, and SOIL was associated with a 3.5%, 49.3%, 19.4%, 10.5%, 21.4%, 14%, and 28.5% higher 10-year ASCVD risk, respectively (all p < 0.05). Comparable results were observed in proportion and residual models. The ISM found that replacing BC with other constituents will generate the greatest health benefits. The results indicated that long-term exposure to PM2.5 and its constituents were associated with increased risks of ASCVD, with BC being the most attributable constituent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous improvement of people's income level and consumption level, the demand for fresh products is driven by the strong demand, and at the same time, low-carbon and green development puts forward new requirements for the cold chain logistics industry. Starting from the perspective of considering the green cost, by constructing a distribution path optimization model of fresh cold chain products considering green cost with the optimal total distribution cost as the research objective, energy saving and emission reduction are integrated into the path optimization problem so that we can explore how to protect the environment while realizing the benefits of the enterprise, and the model is solved by using the ant colony algorithm. By observing the cold chain logistics distribution path arrangement before and after optimization, it is found that the fresh cold chain product distribution path optimization considering green cost can effectively reduce the transportation cost, refrigeration cost, carbon emission cost, and cargo damage cost in the distribution process. Under the optimal distribution strategy, the total cost is reduced by about 16.6% compared to the original route, and the environmental cost is reduced while reducing the distribution cost. It shows that this strategy can improve transportation efficiency and customer satisfaction while saving resources and protecting the environment. And this study comprehensively considers the actual operation of logistics enterprises, so this study has a certain significance of reference value for the green transformation of enterprises. It further promotes the sustainable development of the cold chain industry and reduces the distribution costs of cold chain logistics companies. It also provides a certain degree of inspiration and reference for other cold chain logistics companies to realize the unification of economic and environmental benefits in actual operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spent residuum hydroprocessing (RHDP) catalysts are hazardous waste bearing high-content vanadium and large amounts of oily pollutants. In this paper, a process featuring a Fenton-like reaction and alkaline leaching was proposed to recover vanadium from spent RHDP catalysts. In the first step, a Fenton-like reaction using peroxide was conducted to degrade the oily pollutants and make the surface of the spent catalyst becomes hydrophilic. In the second step, the vanadium-containing deposit on the catalyst was leached with 0.5 M Na2S2O8 at 70 °C for transforming vanadium sulfide to oxide in 5 h. In the last step, alkaline leaching was employed to dissolve vanadium from the oxidizing residue at 80 °C for 1 h. It was found that the accumulated leaching efficiency of vanadium can reach up to 90.92%, and only a small part of aluminum and sulfur was dissolved. These results indicated that this combined process can extract vanadium selectively from spent residuum hydroprocessing catalysts under a relatively mild condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypertension has become one of the major public health problems in the world. At present, the pathogenesis of hypertension has still not been completely elucidated. In recent years, an increasing evidence shows that intestinal microecology is closely related to hypertension, which provides a new thinking for the prevention and treatment of hypertension. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has unique advantages in the treatment of hypertension. Taking intestinal microecology as the target, it is possible to interpreting the scientific connotation of TCM prevention and treatment of hypertension by updating the treatment concept of hypertension, so as to improve the therapeutic effect. In our study, the clinical evidence for TCM treatment of hypertension was systematicly summarized. And the relationship among TCM, intestinal microecology and hypertension was analyzed. In addition, the methods by which TCM regulates intestinal microecology to prevent and treat hypertension were presented, to provide new research ideas for prevention and treatment of hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lactococcus lactis, a lactic acid bacterium with a typical fermentative metabolism, can also use oxygen as an extracellular electron acceptor. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, that L. lactis blocked in NAD+ regeneration can use the alternative electron acceptor ferricyanide to support growth. By electrochemical analysis and characterization of strains carrying mutations in the respiratory chain, we pinpoint the essential role of the NADH dehydrogenase and 2‐amino‐3‐carboxy‐1,4‐naphtoquinone in extracellular electron transfer (EET) and uncover the underlying pathway systematically. Ferricyanide respiration has unexpected effects on L. lactis, e.g., we find that morphology is altered from the normal coccoid to a more rod shaped appearance, and that acid resistance is increased. Using adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE), we successfully enhance the capacity for EET. Whole‐genome sequencing reveals the underlying reason for the observed enhanced EET capacity to be a late‐stage blocking of menaquinone biosynthesis. The perspectives of the study are numerous, especially within food fermentation and microbiome engineering, where EET can help relieve oxidative stress, promote growth of oxygen sensitive microorganisms and play critical roles in shaping microbial communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene, with its excellent properties and unique structure, has been extensively studied in the context of modifiable cement-based materials. However, a systematic summary of the status of numerous experimental results and applications is lacking. Therefore, this paper reviews the graphene materials that improve the properties of cement-based materials, including workability, mechanical properties, and durability. The influence of graphene material properties, mass ratio, and curing time on the mechanical properties and durability of concrete is discussed. Furthermore, graphene's applications in improving interfacial adhesion, enhancing electrical and thermal conductivity of concrete, absorbing heavy metal ions, and collecting building energy are introduced. Finally, the existing issues in current study are analyzed, and the future development trends are foreseen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) infection is prevalent in global population and associated with multiple malignancies and autoimmune diseases. During the infection, EBV‐harbored or infected cell‐expressing antigen could elicit a variety of antibodies with significant role in viral host response and pathogenesis. These antibodies have been extensively evaluated and found to be valuable in predicting disease diagnosis and prognosis, exploring disease mechanisms, and developing antiviral agents. In this review, we discuss the versatile roles of EBV antibodies as important biomarkers for EBV‐related diseases, potential driving factors of autoimmunity, and promising therapeutic agents for viral infection and pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground coal gasification without shaft is a technology that uses directional drilling technology to gasify deeply buried coal. The technology first needs to ignite the coal seam during drilling, but as the depth of the coal seam (drilling) increases, it is very difficult to ignite the underground coal seam. In order to ignite the underground coal seam more safely and effectively, the forced oxidation ignition technology has been developed; that is, the coal seam is heated by hot oxygen, and the coal seam is rapidly oxidized and released to ignite the coal seam. Due to the complex confidential environment, it is challenging to ignite underground coal seams. To ignite the underground coal seams more safely and effectively, this paper used a self‐made reactor to simulate the forced convection heating of the bituminous coal under different oxygen flow rates with hot oxygen and used a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer flue gas analyzer to detect the outlet gas, used ATR‐FTIR spectrometer to analyze the solid residues in different areas, and recorded the time and maximum temperature of coal ignition under other processes. The results showed that low‐flow high‐temperature oxygen could quickly burn coal seams. When the oxygen flow rate was 2.5 m3/h, and the coal seam was ignited when heated to 130°C for 170 min. Through GC‐MS analysis of nine flammable components in the tar components under different processes, the content of short‐chain aliphatic hydrocarbons in the tar decreases, and the content of benzene series tends to increase. Through ATR‐FTIR analysis, the solid sample near the gas injection port contained fewer oxygen functional groups; the middle of the furnace body included the most oxygen functional groups; near the gas outlet contained more oxygen functional groups than the raw coal. CO2 would rise to 3% when coal was about to ignite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Post-dural puncture headache (PDPH) is a major complication of neuraxial anesthesia. PDPH usually occurs after Caesarean section in obstetric patients. The efficacy of prophylactic pharmacological therapies remains controversial. Methods: Seven pharmacological therapies (aminophylline (AMP), dexamethasone, gabapentin/pregabalin (GBP/PGB), hydrocortisone, magnesium, ondansetron (OND), and propofol (PPF)), were studied in this Bayesian network meta-analysis. The primary outcome was the cumulative incidence of PDPH within 7 days. Secondary outcomes included the incidence of PDPH at 24 and 48 h postoperatively, the severity of headache in PDPH patients (24, 48, and 72 h postoperatively), and postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). Results: Twenty-two randomized controlled trials with 4,921 pregnant women (2,723 parturients received prophylactic pharmacological therapies) were included. The analyses demonstrated that PPF, OND, and AMP were efficient in decreasing the cumulative incidence of PDPH during the follow-up period compared to the placebo group (OR = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.05 to 0.70; OR = 0.37, 95% CI: 0.16 to 0.87; OR = 0.40, 95% CI: 0.18 to 0.84, respectively). PPF and OND had the lower incidence of PONV compared to the placebo group (OR = 0.07, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.30; and OR = 0.12, 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.63). No significant difference in other outcomes was found among different therapies. Conclusions: Based on available data, PPF, OND, and AMP may have better efficacy in decreasing the incidence of PDPH compared to the placebo group. No significant side effects were revealed. Better-designed studies are requested to verify these conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid recognition of rainstorm-induced emergencies (e.g., building and road inundation, facility damage, and trapped citizens) is vital to timely disaster response. One big challenge that limits the performance of emergency recognition is the data imbalance between different emergency domains. The present study aims to develop an effective cross-domain transfer learning framework for rainstorm-induced emergency recognition based on the text reports provided by citizens. The critical component of the framework is the use of joint distribution adaption (JDA) analysis embedded in a discriminative feature mapping procedure, which transfers rich knowledge learned from large-scale datasets to the learning task from small emergence data. Considering the feature incompleteness that is caused by short text length, a basic probability assignment function is constructed and applied to extract important spatial features for rainstorm emergency recognition, with an improved marginal Fisher analysis being adopted to optimize cross-domain text feature representation. The proposed scheme is validated using the empirical data of ten emergency classes from Wuhan City, China. Our experimental results show that the proposed method could significantly address data imbalance and thus help achieve high recognition performance through domain knowledge complementation. Meanwhile, the use of various spatial features is proved to be effective in tackling missing features. This scheme can be further developed into smart systems for rainstorm disaster response with reasonable performance and imbalanced sample sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better guide microbial risk management and control, growth kinetic models of Salmonella with the coexistence of two other dominant background bacteria in pork were constructed. Sterilized pork cutlets were inoculated with a cocktail of Salmonella Derby (S. Derby), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), and Escherichia coli (E. coli), and incubated at various temperatures (4–37 °C). The predictive growth models were developed based on the observed growth data. By comparing R2 of primary models, Baranyi models were preferred to fit the growth curves of S. Derby and P. aeruginosa, while the Huang model was preferred for E. coli (all R2 ≥ 0.997). The secondary Ratkowsky square root model can well describe the relationship between temperature and μmax (all R2 ≥ 0.97) or Lag (all R2 ≥ 0.98). Growth models were validated by the actual test values, with Bf and Af close to 1, and MSE around 0.001. The time for S. Derby to reach a pathogenic dose (105 CFU/g) at each temperature in pork was predicted accordingly and found to be earlier than the time when the pork began to be judged nearly fresh according to the sensory indicators. Therefore, the predictive microbiology model can be applied to more accurately predict the shelf life of pork to secure its quality and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this communication, two polarization selective partial reflective decoupling layers (PRDLs) are utilized to mitigate at least two kinds of mutual couplings between two closely spaced dual-polarized dipole antennas. The PRDL is a large-scale model of an actual dielectric board, obtained by arranging a large number of identical conducting obstacles in a regular two-dimensional pattern. The two PRDLs are designed at proper distances from the antenna aperture with well-engineered dielectric constants for two preset polarizations. Each layer is selective to only one polarization by appropriately designing the dimension of the unit cells. Consequently, the two dominant couplings between the two dual-polarized antennas are reduced significantly. The measured isolation between all ports of the two antennas are increased to more than 21 dB, while their reflection coefficients can still maintain in satisfactory status. The radiation patterns, total efficiencies, and envelop correlation coefficients of the proposed antenna, as well as its counterpart without any decoupling measures, are also obtained through measurement, showing significant and reasonable improvements, which further indicates that it has great potential to be extended and applied to 5G MIMO arrays in both base stations and wireless routers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Thyroid carcinoma (THCA) is the most common endocrine-related malignant tumor. Despite the good prognosis, some THCA patients may deteriorate into more aggressive diseases, leading to poor survival. This may be alleviated by developing a novel model to predict the risk of THCA, including recurrence and survival. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent, oxidative, non-apoptotic form of cell death initially described in mammalian cells, and plays an important role in various cancers. To explore the potential prognostic value of ferroptosis in THCA, ferroptosis-related long non-coding RNAs (FRLs) were used to construct model for risk prediction of THCA. Methods: RNA-sequencing data of THCA patients and ferroptosis-related genes were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and FerrDb, respectively. A total of 502 patients with complete data were randomly separated into a training cohort and a validation cohort at the ratio of 2:1. The Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the correlation between ferroptosis-related genes (FRGs) and the corresponding lncRNAs, and those meeting the screening conditions were defined as FRLs. Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and qRT-PCR were used to verify the expression level of FRLs in THCA tissues. Univariate and multivariate cox regression analysis were performed to construct a FRLs signature based on lowest Akaike information criterion (AIC) value in the training cohort, then further tested in the validation cohort and the entire cohort. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and functional enrichment analysis were used to analyze the biological functions and signal pathways related to differentially expressed genes between the high-risk and low-risk groups. Finally, the relative abundance of different tumor-infiltrating immune cells were calculated by CIBERSORT algorithm. Results: The patients were divided into high-risk group and low-risk group based on a 5-FRLs signature (AC055720.2, DPP4-DT, AC012038.2, LINC02454 and LINC00900) in training cohort, validation cohort and entire cohort. Through Kaplan–Meier analysis and area under ROC curve (AUC) value, patients in the high-risk group exhibited worse prognosis than patients in the low-risk group. GEO database and qRT-PCR confirmed that LINC02454 and LINC00900 were up-regulated in THCA. Univariate and multivariate cox regression analyses showed that the risk score was an independent prognostic indicator. GSEA and functional enrichment analysis confirmed that immune-related pathways against cancer were significantly activated in the low-risk THCA patients. Further analysis showed that the immune cells such as plasma cells, T cells CD8 and macrophages M1, and the expression of immune checkpoint molecules, including PD-1, PD-L1, CTLA4, and LAG3, were remarkably higher in the low-risk group. Conclusion: Our study used the TCGA THCA dataset to construct a novel FRLs prognostic model which could precisely predict the prognosis of THCA patients. These FRLs potentially mediate anti-tumor immunity and serve as therapeutic targets for THCA, which provided the novel insight into treatment of THCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Exercise boosts the health of some brain parts, such as the hippocampus and hypothalamus. Several studies show that long-term exercise improves spatial learning and memory, enhances hypothalamic leptin sensitivity, and regulates energy balance. However, the effect of exercise on the hippocampus and hypothalamus is not fully understood. The study aimed to find epigenetic modifications or changes in gene expression of the hippocampus and hypothalamus due to exercise.Methods: Male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into sedentary and exercise groups. All mice in the exercise group were subjected to treadmill exercise 5 days per week for 1 h each day. After the 12-week exercise intervention, the hippocampus and hypothalamus tissue were used for RNA-sequencing or molecular biology experiments.Results: In both groups, numerous differentially expressed genes of the hippocampus (up-regulated: 53, down-regulated: 49) and hypothalamus (up-regulated: 24, down-regulated: 40) were observed. In the exercise group, increased level of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) was observed in the hippocampus and hypothalamus (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the fat mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO) of the hippocampus and hypothalamus were down-regulated in the exercise group (p < 0.001). In addition, the Fto co-expression genes of the mouse brain were studied and analyzed using database to determine the potential roles of exercise-downregulated FTO in the brain.Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that long-term exercise might elevates the levels of m6A-tagged transcripts in the hippocampus and hypothalamus via down-regulation of FTO. Hence, exercise might be an effective intervention for epigenetic modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object detection can be formulated as a point matching problem when objects are modeled by point sets. Moments, which have been widely used for point matching, are limited to affine transformations as their support point sets cannot keep invariant. To address this problem, we developed an affine invariant centroid tree (AICT) to obtain a rigorous affine invariant support point set (SPS). The algorithm is constructed by a recursive process: the point set is first divided by the vector from the certain point to the centroid of the point set, and the centroids of subsets are used to generate vectors for renewed partitions. In addition, the centroids of the subsets are stored to form an AICT. The AICT represents the inherent structure of the point set. It is highly tolerant to noise and outliers due to the partitions on the whole point set. More importantly, it is affine invariant owing to the affine invariance of partition. Therefore, we can get rigorous affine invariant descriptors while moments are combined with AICT. The experimental results on synthesized and real data verify that our proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art point matching methods including shape context, iterative closet point, and the method adopting thin plate spline for rigid robust point matching (TPS-RPM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Various methods are used for cervical ripening during the induction of labor. Mechanical and pharmacological methods are commonly used for cervical ripening. A double-balloon catheter was specifically developed to ripen the cervix and induce labor; however, the efficacy of the double-balloon catheter in cervical ripening compared to other methods is unknown.Methods: We searched five databases and performed a Bayesian network meta-analysis. Six interventions (double-balloon catheter, Foley catheter, oral misoprostol, vaginal misoprostol, dinoprostone, and double-balloon catheter combined with oral misoprostol) were included in the search. The primary outcomes were cesarean delivery rate and time from intervention-to-birth. The secondary outcomes were as follows: Bishop score increment; achieving a vaginal delivery within 24 h; uterine hyperstimulation with fetal heart rate changes; need for oxytocin augmentation; instrumental delivery; meconium staining; chorioamnionitis; postpartum hemorrhage; low Apgar score; neonatal intensive care unit admission; and arterial pH.Results: Forty-eight randomized controlled trials involving 11,482 pregnant women were identified. The cesarean delivery rates of the cervical ripening with a double-balloon catheter and oral misoprostol, oral misoprostol, and vaginal misoprostol were significantly lower than cervical ripening with a Foley catheter (OR = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.23-0.96; OR = 0.74, 95% CI: 0.58-0.93; and OR = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.64-0.97, respectively; all P < 0.05). The time from intervention-to-birth of vaginal misoprostol was significantly shorter than the other five cervical ripening methods. Vaginal misoprostol and oral misoprostol increased the risk of uterine hyperstimulation with fetal heart rate changes compared to a Foley catheter. A double-balloon catheter with or without oral misoprostol had similar outcomes, including uterine hyperstimulation with fetal heart rate changes compared to a Foley catheter.Conclusion: Double-balloon catheter did not show superiority when compared with other single method in primary and secondary outcomes of labor induction. The combination of double-balloon catheter with oral misoprostol was significantly reduced the rate of cesarean section compared to Foley catheter without increased risk of uterine hyperstimulation with fetal heart rate changes, which was shown in oral or vaginal misoprostol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, titled "[Retracted] Reduced miR-202 levels enhanced oral cancer development via targeting Sp1," was published in the journal Experimental & Therapeutic Medicine in 2019. However, it has since been retracted due to concerns raised by a reader. The reader pointed out that certain data in the article appeared to be similar to data from other articles published by different authors at different research institutes. After discussing the matter with the authors, the editor decided to retract the paper. The editor apologizes for any inconvenience caused. [Extracted from the article]

Coronary microvascular disease (CMVD) is common in patients with cardiovascular risk factors and is associated with an increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events. Although the study of CMVD in modern medicine is ongoing, there is still no effective treatment for it. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has some clinical advantages based on syndrome differentiation and individualized treatment. In this review, we review the clinical significance, pathogenesis, and current treatments of CMVD and systematically summarize the clinical efficacy and potential action mechanisms of TCM for CMVD. In addition, the scientific problems that need to be solved urgently and the research strategy of TCM for CMVD are described. CMVD has great clinical significance, but there are still many gaps in the related research. This review aims to attract the attention of clinicians to CMVD and promote research on CMVD in TCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A compact phased array with extended beam steering characteristics for the millimeter-waveband of the fifth-generation (5G) applications is presented in this communication. An E-shaped patch antenna placed on an electromagnetic bandgap ground (EBGG) with operating bandwidth of 24.2–27.5 GHz is used as the basic building block of the eight-element linear array. The array utilizes both the in-phase reflection characteristic for broad element radiation pattern and the bandgap characteristic for mutual coupling reduction for limited inter-element spacing of the proposed array. The existence of the EBGG enables a compact array with the inter-element spacing of around 0.4 wavelengths at the center frequency, yet the isolation between each element is still above 17 dB within the whole band of interest, which also helps to increase the array directivity at large scanning angles. The scanning angle of the array with the electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structure ranges from −75° to 75° at 26 GHz within 3 dB scanning loss. The proposed EBGG extends the antenna array’s spatial coverage and enables a compact size of the array, which is very attractive for 5G millimeter-wave (mm-wave) application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this communication, a circularly polarized (CP) dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) based on quasi-self-complementary metasurface (MS) has been proposed. Due to the quasi-self-complementary characteristic of the proposed MS, the phase difference of the transmission coefficients between two orthogonal linear polarizations is 90° in the frequency band from 25.5 to 26.5 GHz. The DRA with the proposed MS can realize the transformation from linear polarization to circular polarization at 25.6–25.99 GHz. The proposed MS significantly increases the gain and CP bandwidth of the DRA. The working bandwidth of the proposed antenna is included in the New Radio FR2 frequency band totally, which is considered as the follow-up expansion frequency of fifth-generation (5G) communication. The proposed MS-based antenna has realized the linear-to-circular polarization transformation in millimeter frequency band without additional substrate, which has not been researched yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have detected the correlation of polymorphisms in regulatory T cells associated genes FOXP3 and CTLA-4 with pre-eclampsia (PE) risk, but the results are inconsistent among studies. Eligible studies were retrieved in several database. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were utilised to evaluate the relationship between FOXP3 rs3761548, FOXP3 rs2232365, CTLA-4 rs231775 polymorphisms, and PE susceptibility in the genetic models. The subgroup analysis and trial sequential analysis were performed. Twelve studies with a total of 4658 participants were included. There was a statistically significant association between FOXP3 rs3761548 polymorphism and PE within the recessive model in Asian (OR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.34–0.86). Trial sequential analysis indicated sufficient proof of such association in the Asian population. This meta-analysis provides sufficient statistical evidence indicating an association between FOXP3 rs3761548 polymorphism and PE risk in Asian. What is already known on this subject?FOXP3 and CTLA4 are markers of regulatory T cells which play a crucial role during a preeclamptic pregnancy. What do the results of this study add? Eleven studies with a total of 4658 participants were included. There was a statistically significant association between FOXP3 rs3761548 polymorphism and pre-eclampsia (PE) within the recessive model in Asian (OR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.34–0.86). Trial sequential analysis indicated sufficient proof of such association in the Asian population. However, there was no enough evidence could proof significant association between FOXP3 rs2232365 or CTLA-4 rs231775 polymorphism and PE. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? This meta-analysis provides sufficient statistical evidence indicating an association between FOXP3 rs3761548 polymorphism and PE risk in Asian. The findings in this study may provide a basis for the further study on FOXP3 rs3761548 polymorphism in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Process mining tools can help discover and improve the business processes of urban community services from historical service event records. However, for the community service domains with small datasets, the effects of process mining are generally limited due to process incompleteness and data noise. In this paper, a cross-domain knowledge transfer method is proposed to help service process discovery with small datasets by making use of rich knowledge in similar domains with large datasets. Design/methodology/approach: First, ontology modeling is used to reduce the effects of cross-domain semantic ambiguity on knowledge transfer. Second, association rules (of the activities in the service processes) are extracted with Bayesian network. Third, applicable association rules are retrieved using an applicability assignment function. Further, the retrieved association rules in domains with large datasets are mapped to those with a small dataset using a linear programming method, with a heuristic miner being adopted to generate the process model. Findings: The proposed method is verified based on the empirical data of 10 service domains from Beidaihe, China. Results show that process discovery performance of all 10 domains were improved with the overall robustness score, precision, recall and F1 score increased by 13%, 13%, 17% and 15%, respectively. For the domains with only small datasets, the cross-domain knowledge transfer method outperforms popular state-of-the art methods. Originality/value: The limitations of sample sizes are greatly reduced. This scheme can be followed to establish business process management systems of community services with reasonable performance and limited sample sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the bio-based epoxy nanocomposites (GER/DOPO-POSS) were prepared, and AE-POSS was synthesized and used as compatibilizer for GER/DOPO-POSS nanocomposites. The effects of AE-POSS content on mechanical properties, thermal stability, compatibility and flame retardancy of GER/DOPO-POSS nanocomposites were discussed. The results showed that the addition of AE-POSS significantly improved the dispersity of DOPO-POSS in gallic epoxy matrix. AE-POSS can improve both the thermal stability and flame retardancy of GER/DOPO-POSS nanocomposites. When 6.0 wt % AE-POSS was added in GER/DOPO-POSS, the limiting oxygen index of it was 25.6%, and the initial thermal degradation temperature of it was 36 °C higher than that without AE-POSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant auxin is essential in plant growth and development. However, the molecular mechanisms of auxin involvement in plant immunity are unclear. Here, we addressed the function of the cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) miR393-TIR1 module in plant defense against Verticillium dahliae infection via auxin perception and signaling. GhTIR1 was directedly cleaved by ghr-miR393 according to mRNA degradome data, 5′-RACE analysis, and a GUS reporter assay. Ghr-miR393 knockdown significantly increased plant susceptibility to V. dahliae compared to the control, while ghr-miR393 overexpression and GhTIR1 knockdown significantly increased plant resistance. External indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) application significantly enhanced susceptibility to V. dahliae in ghr-miR393 knockdown and control plants compared to mock treatment, and only slightly increased susceptibility in overexpressing ghr-miR393 and GhTIR1-silenced plants. Application of external PEO-IAA (an auxin antagonist) had a contrary trend with IAA application. Based on yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays, GhTIR1 interacted with GhIAA14 in the nucleus, and GhIAA14 knockdown reduced plant resistance to V. dahliae infection. The results suggested that the ghr-miR393-GhTIR1 module regulates plant defense via auxin perception and signaling. Additionally, simultaneous knockdown of GhTIR1 and GhICS1 significantly increased plant susceptibility to V. dahliae compared to the control, indicating that salicylic acid (SA) accumulation is vital for the ghr-miR393-GhTIR1 module to regulates plant resistance. Transcriptome data also demonstrated that GhTIR1 knockdown significantly downregulated expression of auxin-related genes and upregulated expression of SA-related genes. Overall, the ghr-miR393-GhTIR1 module participates in plant response to V. dahliae infection via IAA perception and signaling partially depending on the SA defense pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pork is one of the most common foods causing microbial foodborne diseases. Since pork directly enters the market after slaughtering, the control of microbial contamination in the slaughtering processes is the key to ensuring the quality and safety of pork. The contamination level of Escherichia coli , a health-indicator bacterium, can reflect the risk level of potential pathogens. In order to assess the E. coli exposure risk of pork during slaughtering and to identify the key control points, we established an E. coli quantitative exposure assessment model for swine-slaughtering processes in slaughterhouses of different sizes. The model simulation data indicated the E. coli contamination pattern on the surfaces of swine carcasses during slaughtering. The changes in E. coli contamination were analyzed according to the simulation data of each slaughtering process. It was found that the number of E. coli after trimming in big and small slaughterhouses increased to the maximum values for the whole processes, which were 3.63 and 3.52 log10 CFU/100 cm2, respectively. The risk contribution of each slaughtering process to the E. coli contamination on the surface of terminal swine carcasses can be determined by correlation analysis. Because the absolute value of correlation coefficient during the trimming process was maximum (0.49), it was regarded as the most important key control point. This result can be further proved via the multilocus sequence typing of E. coli. The dominant sequence type before trimming processes was ST10. ST1434 began to appear in the trimming process and then became the dominant sequence type in the trimming and pre-cooling processes. The model can provide a theoretical basis for microbial hygiene supervision and risk control in swine-slaughtering processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate smoking behaviors and nicotine exposure levels of cigarette smokers after switching to using heated tobacco products, 50 volunteers who regularly smoked cigarettes were recruited and randomly divided into two groups, one switched to a heated tobacco product known as IQOS and the other group to a domestic heated tobacco product M. Their general smoking characteristics were collected via questionnaires and their smoking parameters were recorded by a CReSS pocket analyzer. The contents of nicotine exposure biomarker in the volunteers'urine samples before and after switching were determined by HPLC-MS/MS. The results showed that: 1) The smoking behaviors of the smokers were basically unchanged after switching to the heated tobacco products, the puffing volume and duration did not change significantly. However, the puffing interval of the two groups significantly shortened from (14.3±8.0) s and (15.3±9.0) s to (9.8±8.3) s and (9.7± 5.4) s, respectively. 2) The contents of total nicotine metabolites and nicotine exposure biomarkers (i.e. cotinine) in the volunteers'urine samples did not change significantly after switching to the heated tobacco products. 3) There was no significant difference of the smoking behaviors between the volunteers switched to IQOS and those to M, and the levels of total nicotine metabolites and cotinine in the urine samples of the two groups were also quite similar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Front Cover: Residual stresses in thermosets are hardly relieved in the glassy state. In article 2300735, however, Kangning Wu, Chenhui Cui, Jianying Li, and co‐workers demonstrate incredible residual stress reduction in polythiourethane incorporated with dynamic covalent bonds by simply annealing below the glass transition temperature (Tg), during which excellent properties gifted by the highly cross‐linked network of thermosets are well maintained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Front Cover: Residual stresses in thermosets are hardly relieved in the glassy state. In article 2300735, however, Kangning Wu, Chenhui Cui, Jianying Li, and co‐workers demonstrate incredible residual stress reduction in polythiourethane incorporated with dynamic covalent bonds by simply annealing below the glass transition temperature (Tg), during which excellent properties gifted by the highly cross‐linked network of thermosets are well maintained..By Kangning Wu; Dongxu An; Zhuolin Zhang; Ge Zhao; Chenhui Cui; Fusheng Zhou and Jianying LiReported by Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author [Extracted from the article]

Flavonoids isolated from medicinal herbs have been utilized as valuable health-care agents due to their virous biological applications. Alpinetin is a natural flavonoid that emerges in many widely used medicinal plants, and has been frequently applied in Chinese patent drugs. Accumulated evidence has demonstrated that alpinetin possesses a broad range of pharmacological activities such as antitumor, antiinflammation, hepatoprotective, cardiovascular protective, lung protective, antibacterial, antiviral, neuroprotective, and other properties through regulating multiple signaling pathways with low systemic toxicity. However, pharmacokinetic studies have documented that alpinetin may have poor oral bioavailability correlated to its extensive glucuronidation. Currently, the reported pharmacological properties and pharmacokinetics profiles of alpinetin are rare to be scientifically reviewed. In this article, we aimed to highlight the mechanisms of action of alpinetin in various diseases to strongly support its curative potentials for prospective clinical applications. We also summarized the pharmacokinetics properties and proposed some viable strategies to convey an appreciable reference for future advances of alpinetin in drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant-based dairy alternatives are gaining increasing interest, e.g. alternatives to yoghurt, cheese, and butter. In all these products butter flavor (diacetyl + acetoin) plays an important role. We previously have reported efficient butter flavor formation from low value dairy side streams using a dairy isolate of Lactococcus lactis deficient in lactate dehydrogenase. Here, we have tested the ability of this strain, RD1M5, to form butter flavor in plant milks based on oat and soy. We found that oat milk, with its high sugar content, supported more efficient production of butter aroma, when compared to soy milk. When supplemented with glucose, efficient butter aroma production was achieved in soy milk as well. We also carried out an extended adaptive laboratory evolution of the dairy strain in oat milk. After two months of adaptation, we obtained a strain with enhanced capacity for producing butter aroma. Despite of its high sugar content, RD1M5 and its adapted version only metabolized approximately 10% of the fermentable sugars available in the oat milk, which we found was due to amino acid starvation and partly starvation for vitamins. The study demonstrates that dairy cultures have great potential for use in plant-based fermentations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cortical information has great importance to reflect the deep brain stimulation (DBS) effects for Parkinson's disease patients. Using cortical activities to feedback is an available closed-loop idea for DBS. Previous studies have demonstrated the pathological beta (12–35 Hz) cortical oscillations can be suppressed by appropriate DBS settings. Thus, here we propose to close the loop of DBS based on the beta oscillations in cortex. By modify the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic neural loop model, more biologically realistic underlying the Parkinsonian phenomenon is approached. Stimulation results show the proposed closed-loop DBS strategy using cortical beta oscillation as feedback information has more profound roles in alleviating the pathological neural abnormality than the traditional open-loop DBS. Additionally, we compare the stimulation effects with subthalamic nucleus feedback strategy. It is shown that using cortical beta information as the feedback signals can further enlarge the control parameter space based on proportional-integral control structure with a lower energy expenditure. This work may pave the way to optimizing the DBS effects in a closed-loop arrangement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of liver, intestine, lung and other organ chips and multi-organ chip models were summarized in this paper. The chip design and specific applications of these chip models in drug toxicity assessment and environmental toxicological evaluations were introduced emphatically, and the existing researches and application potentials of organ chips in the risk assessment of tobacco products were also discussed. This work provides the insights and ideas for the application of microfluidic organ chips in in vitro toxicological studies of tobacco products and other environmental exposures. In vitro toxicology evaluation plays an important role in the health risk assessment of tobacco products, the simulation of the physiological microenvironment and biological function in organ chips is of great significance in the construction of in vitro models. The application of microfluidic organ chips to in vitro toxicology of tobacco products could provide an innovative experimental platform for studying the formation mechanisms of tobacco-related diseases, and realize the multi-dimensional life analysis on the micro and nano scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cross-region transfer learning method is proposed to identify community (e.g. car parks, public spaces and shopping centers) fire hazards based on text input provided by community members. The key component of the method, which also accounts for data imbalance, is an improved transfer component analysis that is embedded with a local discriminant analysis to transfer non-local rich knowledge to the fire hazard identification of local communities with an insufficient number of samples. In addition, a fire hazard knowledge map is established and applied to supplement the missing key features for fire hazard identification, and ontology modeling is applied to standardize the text features and reduce the effect of semantic ambiguity brought by cross-region knowledge transfer. The proposed method is verified based on the text data of nine fire hazard classes from Lanzhou and Beidaihe in China. Machine learning experiments show that fire hazard identification performance of all nine classes were improved with the overall accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score and AUC increased by 12%, 15%, 16%, 15% and 15%, respectively. Under data imbalance scenarios, the proposed method outperforms the state of the art methods, such as sampling-based methods, FastText and ULMFiT. The results also show that the proposed method can achieve desired performance with only half of the training samples. These findings illustrate that the proposed method can assist regions by improving fire identification results significantly through knowledge transfer. The proposed approach can be followed to build smart systems for community fire risk management with reasonable performance and high efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]