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Breast cancer (BCa) is a prevalent form of tumor, necessitating the development of more effective therapeutic drugs to improve patient prognosis. Taraxasterol (TAX), derived from the dandelion plant, has demonstrated significant physiological and pharmacological activity, but its role in BCa and underlying mechanism remains unexplored. In this study, we investigate the effects of TAX on the growth, motility and apoptosis of BCa cells in vitro to determine its mechanistic actions. Our results demonstrate that TAX significantly reduces both the proliferation and motility of BCa cells and induces apoptosis in BCa cells, as confirmed through flow cytometry (FCM). This apoptotic effect was further supported by JC-1 staining, which showed alterations in mitochondrial membrane potential in BCa cells after TAX treatment. Mechanistically, TAX suppresses the phosphatidylinositide 3-kinases/protein kinase B (PI3K/AKT) and EGFR pathways and impedes BCa progression. Collectively, TAX stimulates BCa cell apoptosis by inhibiting the PI3K/AKT and EGFR pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Currently, there is no consensus on the most appropriate anastomotic site, anastomotic line, and direction for Billroth-II reconstruction with Braun anastomosis (B-II-B anastomosis) during totally laparoscopic distal gastrectomy (TLDG). Herein, the authors presented a novel anastomotic technique called R anastomosis for B-II-B anastomosis and compared it with the conventional B-II-B anastomosis technique to assess its feasibility, safety, and effectiveness. Methods: Between March 2019 and September 2022 in our centre, R anastomosis was performed on 123 patients undergoing TLDG for distal gastric cancer. A retrospective review of a prospectively collected database identified patients who underwent TLDG between January 2010 and September 2022. Patients who underwent R anastomosis were matched in a 1:1 ratio with patients who underwent conventional anastomosis using a propensity score based on age, sex, preoperative BMI, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, and the history of abdominal surgery. Surgical and postoperative outcomes and clinicopathological data were analyzed for both groups. Results: During the study period, 246 patients were included, 123 in each group. No intraoperative complications associated with digestive tract reconstruction and no cases of conversion to open surgery were reported in either group; furthermore, no incidences of perioperative mortality were noted in either group. The R group had a significantly reduced anastomotic time compared to the control group (30 ± 4.1 vs. 36 ± 5.3 min, P < 0.001). Perioperatively, the incidences of Clavien-Dindo grade II or higher complications were 6.5% (8/123) and 12.2% (15/123) in the R and control groups with no significant difference between the two groups. Postoperative gastric emptying dysfunction was found in five and one patient in the control and R groups, respectively. Conclusion: R anastomosis is a safe and effective technique for B-II-B anastomosis following TLDG. This novel technique enhances the convenience of performing anastomosis and can reduce postoperative gastric emptying dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the results from an onshore seismic refraction and wide-angle reflection profile, conducted in 2015, across the coastal plain and eastern Piedmont provinces of North Carolina. We use forward modeling to create 1D synthetic seismogram models and then invert first break picks to create 2D P- and S-wave velocity models. The crustal thickness is 38 km beneath the Piedmont and central coastal plain, but it thins to 32 km at the coastline. The average thickness of the upper crust is 11 km with an average P-wave velocity (VP) of 6.0 km/s and S-wave velocity (VS) of 3.5 km/s. A prominent seismic low-velocity zone (LVZ) (VP<6.0 and VS<3.6 km/s) exists between the depths of 6 and 11 km, beneath the western third of the seismic profile. The middle crust varies greatly in thickness, increasing from 3 km in the west (eastern Piedmont) to 13 km in the east (coastal plain), with seismic velocities of 6.5 km/s for VP and 3.8 km/s for VS. The lower crust thins significantly toward the rifted Atlantic margin, decreasing from 24 km thick in the west (Piedmont) to 8 km at the coastline, with velocities of approximately 6.9 km/s for VP and 3.9 km/s for VS. We estimate the composition of the crust by comparing the measured values of VP and Poisson's ratio with laboratory measurements. The upper and middle crusts are in agreement with a felsic composition, while the lower crustal composition is predominately felsic to intermediate. The LVZ in the upper crust is associated with thin layers of the mylonitic rocks involved in the top and the bottom of thrusting, and the top of the lower crust could be the master detachment fault during the thin-skinned Alleghanian orogeny. The eastward thinning of the lower crust is consistent with crustal extension during the Mesozoic rifting of the Atlantic margin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the primary challenges for proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers is the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode, which requires the use of precious metals or metal oxides, such as iridium (Ir) or iridium oxide (IrOx), as the OER catalyst. This study introduces a one-pot surfactant-free polyol reduction method to disperse iridium nanoparticles on a tungsten doped titanium oxide (WxTi1-xO2) support. The polyol reduction approach for the Ir/WxTi1-xO2 catalyst synthesis was systematically investigated to determine the influence of synthesis parameters on the catalyst's physical properties and its electrochemical activity and durability. The most promising synthesized catalyst with 38 wt% Ir (Ir38%/WxTi1-xO2) demonstrated five times higher mass activity than an Ir-black baseline (the industry standard catalyst) based on rotating-disk electrode (RDE) studies. When tested in a real water electrolyzer system, the synthesized catalyst enabled the Ir loading to be lowered by an order of magnitude while retaining a similar electrolyzer performance found for the baseline Ir-black catalyst. The Ir38%/WxTi1-xO2 catalyst also demonstrated remarkable stability, e.g., only small voltage (<20 mV) increase was observed during a 1200-hour durability test at a constant current density of 1500 mA/cm2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iridium oxide is one of the most common anode catalysts in commercial proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers because of its strong mix of high activity and stability under oxygen evolution reaction (OER) conditions. Unfortunately, benchmarking iridium oxide OER catalysts has proven difficult since IrO2 cannot undergo proton underpotential deposition like platinum and other transition metal eletrocatalysts, making it difficult to estimate the electrochemically active surface area (ECSA), as well as OER specific and mass activity. In this work, we propose a method to calculate the ECSA of iridium oxide in an operating PEM electrolyzer. A universal constant, 596 (±21) µC/cm², was obtained from the correlation of pseudocapacitive charge and ECSA of iridium oxide. In the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), the calculated ECSA (1.81 (±0.065) m² over a 25-cm² geometric area) showed an iridium oxide catalyst utilization of ~93%. Additionally, the IrO2 OER specific and mass activities at 80°C, 1.6 V in an operating PEM electrolyzer were 0.401 (±0.014) mA/cm² and 132 mA/mg, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) integrates the cyberspace with the physical space. With the rapid development of IoT, large amounts of IoT services are provided by various IoT middleware solutions. So, discovery and selecting the adequate services becomes a time-consuming and challenging task. This paper proposes a novel similarity-measurement for computing the similarity between services and introduces a new personalized recommendation approach for real-world service based on collaborative filtering. In order to evaluate the performance of proposed recommendation approach, large-scale of experiments are conducted, which involves the QoS-records of 339 users and 5825 real web-services. The experiments results indicate that the proposed approach outperforms other compared approaches in terms of accuracy and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fusarium wilt, caused by Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht. emend. Snyd. Hans. f. sp. cucumerinum, is one of the major constraints on cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) production worldwide. We previously isolated and identified a novel strain of Streptomyces bikiniensis, HD-087, which had anti-fungal activity against F. oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum. Here, we have applied four rounds of genome shuffling (GS) to S. bikiniensis strain HD-087 to enhance its bio-control activity. An improved strain, HD-087-18, was obtained, with a zone of growth-inhibition against E oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum up to 30.52 mm in diameter, substantially greater than that of the parental strain (24.30 ram). The antibiotics present in the culture broth of HD-087-18 which were active against F. oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum were water-soluble and stable under UV light for 13 h, although they were de-activated by heating to 100°C for 10 min, or by exposure to pH 11.0. Soaking cucumber seeds in broth of the genome-shuffled strain resulted in an improved bio-control effect (67.5%) that was statistically significant compared to 61.2% for broth of the wild-type strain, and its plant growth-promoting activity was also enhanced relative to that of the wild-type strain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to solve gas limitation of the upper corner of working face of the protective seam. According to the actual situation of the 12nd Mine of the Ping Dingshan Mining Group Corporation (hereinafter referred to 12nd Mine), the technology of progressive and large diameter buried drainage pipe by crossing-hole was put forward, by the way of numerical simulation and field tests. The best reasonable distance and drainage hole diameter of the buried drainage pipe was obtained through the FLUENT simulation, and in accordance with the actual site, the protective seam Ji 14-31010 and Ji 15-31010 have implemented the buried drainage pipe in the site layout, and effective analysis was carried out. It''s known by the actual performance that the technology can solve the problem of the gas limitation in the upper corner effectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: View of the high stress, high gas coal seam characteristics and the current process of regional gas control problems, regional gas control method, based on drilling-blasting-fracturing-extracting integration technology were investigated by theoretical research, numerical simulation and field testing. Composite sealing technology has been carried out in the domestic relevant mine. The application results show that the technique obviously enhance the drill effective range, reduced the quantity of drills, shortened the gas extraction time and eliminated the outburst risk of coal mines which implied a broad industrial application prospect. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents a historical cohort study that determined the effect of tissue necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors on peripheral neuropathy induced by rheumatoid arthritis. It reviews peripheral neuropathies related to TNF inhibitor therapy. The findings suggest that risks of having peripheral neuropathy rises with the use of TNF inhibitors under uncontrolled settings and it warrants further controlled studies to better evaluate the clinical findings.