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Purpose: To investigate changes in corneal densitometry (CD) and visual quality following small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) and laser epithelial keratomileusis (LASEK) in patients with mild-to-moderate myopia., Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 24 and 25 patients (46 eyes each) who underwent SMILE and LASEK, respectively, for mild-to-moderate myopia. The visual quality and CD values were recorded. Using the Pentacam Scheimpflug system, CD values were collected in three concentric optical zones at the depths of the anterior, central, and posterior layers. Efficacy, safety, predictability, corneal wavefront aberrations, and QoV scores were measured to evaluate visual quality. A correlation analysis was performed between changes in CD and clinical characteristics., Results: There were no statistical differences in efficacy and safety indices between the two groups. At 3 months postoperatively, a pronounced reduction in several zones was observed in the LASEK group ( p < 0.05), whereas no obvious change was observed in the SMILE group. There were obvious changes in the CD values in several zones in the SMILE and LASEK groups ( p < 0.05) after 1 year. The magnitude of the CD changes in the anterior and central corneal layers was smaller in the SMILE group than in the LASEK group (all p < 0.05). Lower HOAs, spherical aberration, and horizontal comas of the anterior and whole corneal surfaces were observed in the SMILE group. QoV scores were similar between the two groups., Conclusion: CD decreased in the SMILE and LASEK groups after 1 year; there was a smaller reduction in SMILE than in LASEK. SMILE and LASEK did not differ significantly in terms of safety and effectiveness in correcting mild-to-moderate myopia., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Wenting Cai et al.)

With the increasing incidence and mortality of renal cancer, it is pressing to find new biomarkers and drug targets for diagnosis and treatment. However, as one negative upstream regulator of p53, the prognostic and immunological role of NFE2L3 in renal cancer is still barely known. We investigated the expression, prognostic value, and relevant pathways of NFE2L3 using the datasets from public databases, including The Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TCGA), Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx), Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE), and UALCAN. Furthermore, we analyzed the relationship between NFE2L3 expression and the immune microenvironment using distinct methods. We found that NFE2L3 was higher expressed in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) and kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma (KIRP) tissues than adjacent normal tissues. Additionally, we identified NFE2L3 as one survival-related factor for KIRC and KIRP. The enrichment analyses revealed that NFE2L3 was associated with a variety of immune-relevant pathways in KIRC and related to the infiltration ratios of 17 types of immune cells in KIRC patients. Ultimately, we demonstrated nine significantly enriched mutations, such as TP53 and MET, in NFE2L3-expression-changing groups. The elevated expression of NFE2L3 in renal cancerous tissues versus normal tissues is associated with poor outcomes in patients. Besides, NFE2L3 has a role in the regulation of the immune microenvironment in renal cancer patients. The findings of our study provide a potential prognostic biomarker and a new drug target for renal cancer., Competing Interests: All authors declared that this study was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships., (Copyright © 2022 Qian Zhang et al.)

Immunohistochemical staining is a common technique to study tissue morphology and in situ protein expression. With the rise of immunotherapy, more and more markers in the tumor microenvironment have been discovered. In this paper, the multiplex immunofluorescence staining method was used to stain paraffin sections of 35 cases of gastric adenocarcinoma tissue and 35 cases of colorectal adenocarcinoma tissue and its adjacent tissue. The infiltration of CD8+ T cells and CD103+CD8+ T cells in the slices was detected by using the slice scanner to form the map and CaseViewer2.0 software analysis. The experimental results in this paper showed that compared with adjacent tissues, the infiltration degree of CD8+ T cells in gastric adenocarcinoma tissue was significantly lower ( Z = 2.244, P = 0.025, P < 0.05), and the infiltration degree of cells was significantly lower ( Z = 2.785, P = 0.005, P < 0.05). In gastric adenocarcinoma tissue, the infiltration of CD8+ T cells was correlated with the tumor diameter of gastric adenocarcinoma ( P = 0.002). There was a statistically significant difference. The degree of CD103+CD8+ T cell infiltration was related to the survival of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma ( P = 0.002) and the degree of tumor differentiation ( P = 0.004). The infiltration of CD103+CD8+ T cells in gastric cancer tissue and colorectal cancer tissue is related to the survival of patients. CD103+CD8+ T cells are thought to play a role in the prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma and colorectal adenocarcinoma. Experiments have shown that the more the CD103+CD8+ T cells, the better the prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma and colorectal adenocarcinoma, so the prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma and colorectal adenocarcinoma can be improved by increasing CD103+CD8+ T cells., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article., (Copyright © 2022 Weisu Cai and Haitao Wang.)

Objective: Pendrin is encoded by SLC26A4, which is expressed in the apical membrane of inner ear epithelial cells and drives chloride reabsorption in the apical septum. In the inner ear, pendrin dysfunction and hypofunctional mutations lead to vestibular aqueduct (EVA) enlargement and sensory neural hearing loss. Mutations in SLC26A4 are a common reason of deafness. However, the underlying mechanisms of SLC26A4 mutants in hearing loss remain unknown., Methods: In the present study, pEGFP-N1 carrying wild-type and mutant SLC26A4 (c.85G>A, c.2006A>T, and c.853G>A) were transfected into HEK-293T cells. GFP fluorescence and GFP levels were determined. SLC26A4 mRNA levels were examined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Then, the expression of chloride intracellular channel 1 (CLIC1) and CLIC2 was measured by Immunofluorescence assay. Intracellular chloride concentration and apoptotic rate were analyzed by flow cytometry. The levels of membrane/cytoplasmic pendrin, apoptosis-associated proteins, and the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway members were determined by Western blot., Results: Constructed SLC26A4 mutant 1 (c.85G>A), SLC26A4 mutant 2 (c.2006A>T), and SLC26A4 mutant 3 (c.853G>A). The wild-type and 3 mutations were stably expressed in HEK-293T. SLC26A4 mRNA expression was significantly increased after transfection with wild-type SLC26A4 and mutant SLC26A4 compared with the untransfected vector group ( P < 0.01). Compared with the vector group, the expression levels of membrane pendrin, cytoplasmic pendrin, CLIC1, CLIC2, Bcl-2, p-PI3K, p-Akt, and p-mTOR were upregulated. Compared with the vector group, the chloride concentration, cell apoptotic rate, and the expression levels of caspase-3, caspase-9, and Bax were downregulated. Compared with the vector group, the above effects of SLC26A4 were reversed after the SLC26A4 mutant., Conclusion: After SLC26A4 mutation, pendrin was transferred from the membrane, the chloride intracellular channel function was reduced, and the excessive accumulation of chloride in the cytoplasm induced cell apoptosis by inhibited PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway phosphorylation., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Xiang Dai et al.)

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a multifactor disease, which is primarily characterized by retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell loss. Since the retina is the most metabolically active tissue, RPE cells are exposed to consistent oxidative environment. So, oxidation-induced RPE cell death has long been considered a contributor to the onset of AMD. Here, we applied a retinal degeneration (RD) rat model induced by blue light-emitting diode (LED) and a cell model constructed by H 2 O 2 stimulus to mimic the prooxidant environment of the retina. We detected that the expression of miR-27a was upregulated and the expression of FOXO1 was downregulated in both models. So, we furtherly investigated the role of miR-27a-FOXO1 axis in RPE in protesting against oxidants. Lentivirus-mediated RNA was injected intravitreally into rats to modulate the miR-27a-FOXO1 axis. Retinal function and histopathological changes were evaluated by electroretinography (ERG) analysis and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, respectively. Massive photoreceptor and RPE cell death were examined by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL). The damage to the retina was aggravated in the FOXO1 gene-knockdown and miR-27a-overexpression groups after exposure to LED but was alleviated in the FOXO1 gene-overexpression or miR-27a-knockdown groups. Dual luciferase assay was used to detect the binding site of miR-27a and FOXO1. Upregulated miR-27a inhibited the expression of FOXO1 by directly binding to the FOXO1 mRNA 3'UTR and decreased the autophagy activity of ARPE-19 cells, resulting in the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and decrease of cell viability. The results suggest that miR-27a is a negative regulator of FOXO1. Also, our data emphasize the prominent role of miR-27a/FOXO1 axis in modulating ROS accumulation and cell death in RPE cell model under oxidative stress and influencing the retinal function in the LED-induced RD rat model., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Chengda Ren et al.)

Health big data has already been the most important big data for its serious privacy disclosure concerns and huge potential value of secondary use. Measurements must be taken to balance and compromise both the two serious challenges. One holistic solution or strategy is regarded as the preferred direction, by which the risk of reidentification from records should be kept as low as possible and data be shared with the principle of minimum necessary. In this article, we present a comprehensive review about privacy protection of health data from four aspects: health data, related regulations, three strategies for data sharing, and three types of methods with progressive levels. Finally, we summarize this review and identify future research directions., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Dingyi Xiang and Wei Cai.)

Objective: To observe and compare the efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture and antidepressants in the treatment of poststroke depression (PSD) using a meta-analysis method., Methods: The VIP, CNKI, Wanfang, CMB, Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane databases were searched. All randomized controlled trials (RCT) on electroacupuncture treatment of PSD were searched and further screened. Meta-analysis was performed on electroacupuncture and western medicine for PSD to explore the difference in efficacy between electroacupuncture and western medicine for PSD., Results: Nineteen RCTs were included in the meta-analysis. Compared with the Western medicine group, the meta-analysis showed no significant changes in Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) scores between the electroacupuncture group and the antidepressant group ( P > 0.05). The number of adverse events in the electroacupuncture group was less than that in the antidepressant group., Conclusion: Compared with antidepressants, electroacupuncture is not less effective in improving depression symptoms in PSD patients with greater safety., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Xiafei Wang et al.)

Background: Body mass index, measured at colorectal cancer (CRC) diagnosis has been associated with recurrence and survival outcomes. Computed tomography- (CT-) defined body compositions accurately reflect body mass, but there was no consistent perspective on the influence of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and skeletal muscle mass (SM) on the prognosis of nonmetastasis CRC, especially in the patients underwent surgery and regularly standard chemotherapy., Methods: We investigated the associations of CT-quantified body composition (VAT and SM) with CRC patients successively underwent surgery and regular 8-12 of periods standard chemotherapy. All of the CT images were obtained at the level of the L3/4 spinal level. The prognostic value of the body compositions was analyzed using the Cox regression model, and precise clinical nomograms were established., Results: In XELOX-treated patients, progression-free survival (PFS) ( P = 0.025) and overall survival (OS) ( P = 0.032) were lower in the high-SM than in the low-SM group. The univariate analysis demonstrated that compared with low-SM patients, patients with high-SM showed a strikingly poor prognosis in both OS ( P = 0.0512) and PFS in the T4 subgroup ( P = 0.0417), while contrary to the T2-3 subgroup., Conclusions: CT-quantified body compositions have a significant influence on CRC patients successively underwent curative resection and regularly standard chemotherapy with the endpoints of 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year both OS and PFS. Patients with high-SM showed a strikingly poor prognosis in OS and PFS in the T4 subgroup; however, the prognosis role of body composition was opposite in T2-3 patients., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2021 Piaopaio Ying et al.)

Intrinsic cancer cells and the tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) recruited to the immune microenvironment define the malignant phenotype of lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC). Understanding more about the immune microenvironment of LUSC enables the selection of high-risk patients who would derive benefit from immunotherapy. Based on large public LUSC cohorts obtained from TCGA and GEO datasets, 22 types of infiltrating immune cell subgroups were evaluated by CIBERSORT. Meta-analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA), and hierarchical clustering analysis were used to evaluate specific immune responses of LUSC. The distribution of TIICs of LUSC was entirely different from normal. TIIC subpopulations were also found to be closely associated with clinical features and molecular subtypes. Unsupervised clustering analysis revealed that three distinct TIIC subgroups existed with different survival patterns. TIICs are extensively implicated in the pathogenesis and development of LUSC. Characterizing the composition of TIICs influences the metabolism, pathological stage, and survival of tumor patients. It is hoped that this immune landscape could provide a more accurate understanding of the development and immunotherapy of LUSC., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no conflict of interest exists., (Copyright © 2020 Jungang Zhao et al.)

KCNQ1OT1 exerts an important role in various cancers, but its role in osteosarcoma (OS) and the potential mechanism remain to be clarified. In the present research, we aimed to explore the effect of KCNQ1OT1 on osteosarcoma and further explore the special molecular mechanism. The expression of KCNQ1OT1 was analyzed in tumor and adjacent tissues of 30 patients with osteosarcoma by RT-PCR. Cell proliferation and invasion were explored using MTT and transwell assay, respectively. Luciferase reporter analysis and pull-down assay were performed to determine the binding activity of KCNQ1OT1 and miR-129-5p. The result revealed that KCNQ1OT1 was highly expressed in osteosarcoma tissues and cells. KCNQ1OT1-siRNA inhibited the proliferation, invasion, and drug resistance of osteosarcoma cells. The luciferase reporter assay and pull-down assay demonstrated that KCNQ1OT1 directly interact with miR-129-5p. In addition, miR-129-5p binds to LARP1 directly, and LARP1 promoted the proliferation, invasion, and drug resistance of osteosarcoma cells. What is more, KCNQ1OT1 promoted proliferation, invasion, and drug resistance via inhibiting the expression of miR-129-5p and further promoting the expression of miR-129-5p-mediated LARP1. Collectively, it suggests that downregulation of KCNQ1OT1 inhibits proliferation, invasion, and drug resistance by regulating miR-129-5p-mediated LARP1 in osteosarcoma cells., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interests., (Copyright © 2020 Yunfei Zhang et al.)

Objective: High-fat-diet- (HFD-) induced hepatic cell apoptosis is common in mice with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We aim to investigate the effect of Ginsenoside Rb1 (GRb1) on hepatocyte apoptosis., Methods: C57BL/6J mice with HFD were used to induce a liver-injured model with cell apoptosis. In addition, GRb1 was used to treat HFD-induced apoptosis in a liver with or without inhibitor of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPAR- γ )., Results: Compared with C57BL/6J mice with common chow, there are downregulated PPAR- γ but upregulated cell apoptosis in the liver of mice with HFD. Furthermore, GRb1 elevated the hepatic PPAR- γ level and suppressed hepatocytic apoptosis. However, GW9662 abolished the effects of GRb1 on apoptosis in the liver., Conclusions: GRb1 alleviated HFD-induced apoptosis of hepatocytes of mice via PPAR- γ ., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2020 Bing Song et al.)

Lung tissue is abundant with immune cells that form a powerful first defense against exotic particles and microbes. The malignant phenotype of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is defined not only by intrinsic tumor cells but also by tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) recruited to the immune microenvironment. Understanding more about the immune microenvironment of LUAD could function in sorting out patients more likely with high risk and benefit from immunotherapy. Twenty-two types of TIICs were estimated based on large public LUAD cohorts from the TCGA and GEO datasets using the CIBERSORT algorithm. Then principal component analysis (PCA), meta-analysis, and single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) were used to measure and evaluate the specific immune responses and relative mechanisms. Moreover, an immunoscore model based on the percent of immune cells was constructed via the univariate and multivariate Cox regression models, which provided an in-depth overview of the LUAD immune microenvironment and shed light on the immune regulatory mechanism. The differential expression genes (DEGs) were acquired based on the immunoscore model, and prognostic immune-related genes were further identified. GSEA and the protein-protein interaction network (PPI) further revealed that these genes were mostly enriched in many immune-related biological processes. It is hoped that this immune landscape could provide a more accurate understanding for LUAD development and tumor immune therapy., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no conflict of interest exists., (Copyright © 2020 Yanyan Li et al.)

Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to compare knee arthroplasty with patient-specific instrumentation (PSI) with the conventional instrumentation (CI)., Methods: RCTs were selected in PubMed and Embase from 2012 to 2018. Key data extracted included malalignment of mechanical axis, blood loss, surgical time, Oxford Knee Score (OKS), Knee Society Score (KSS), length of stay, and complications. Subgroup analysis was also performed regarding different PSI systems and different image processing methods., Results: 29 RCTs with 2487 knees were eligible for the meta-analysis. Results showed that PSI did not improve the alignment of the mechanical axis compared with CI, but MRI-based PSI and Visionaire-specific PSI decrease the risk of malalignment significantly ( P = 0.04 and P = 0.04 and P = 0.04 and P = 0.04 and P = 0.04 and., Conclusion: PSI reduced the blood loss and improved KSS. MRI-based PSI reduced operative time and risk of malalignment of mechanical axis compared with CT-based PSI. Moreover, Visionaire-specific PSI achieves better alignment result of the mechanical axis than other systems., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Yipeng Lin et al.)

Motor imagery brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have demonstrated great potential and attract world-spread attentions. Due to the nonstationary character of the motor imagery signals, costly and boring calibration sessions must be proceeded before use. This prevents them from going into our realistic life. In this paper, the source subject's data are explored to perform calibration for target subjects. Model trained on source subjects is transferred to work for target subjects, in which the critical problem to handle is the distribution shift. It is found that the performance of classification would be bad when only the marginal distributions of source and target are made closer, since the discriminative directions of the source and target domains may still be much different. In order to solve the problem, our idea comes that joint distribution adaptation is indispensable. It makes the classifier trained in the source domain perform well in the target domain. Specifically, a measure for joint distribution discrepancy (JDD) between the source and target is proposed. Experiments demonstrate that it can align source and target data according to the class they belong to. It has a direct relationship with classification accuracy and works well for transferring. Secondly, a deep neural network with joint distribution matching for zero-training motor imagery BCI is proposed. It explores both marginal and joint distribution adaptation to alleviate distribution discrepancy across subjects and obtain effective and generalized features in an aligned common space. Visualizations of intermediate layers illustrate how and why the network works well. Experiments on the two datasets prove the effectiveness and strength compared to outstanding counterparts., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Xianghong Zhao et al.)

Objectives: This study investigated the hearing loss characteristics among occupational noise exposure workers with hypertension and the link between hypertension and hearing loss when exposed to occupational noise., Methods: A total of 267,766 occupational noise-exposed workers were enrolled, including 29,868 workers with hypertension and 240,165 without hypertension. Hypertension was diagnosed according to WHO criteria. Hypertension was classified into four grades based on blood pressure. Assessment of hearing was performed through measurement of an unadulterated tone threshold at different frequencies, which ranged between 250 and 8,000 Hz., Results: A substantial link was observed to exist between hypertension and the increment in the hearing limit. The increase in the hearing threshold was substantially higher among those having grade 2 hypertension., Conclusion: The current investigation suggested patients with hypertension exhibit a substantial rise in hearing loss in comparison with patients without hypertension. The rise in hearing loss was significant in patients with grade 2 hypertension. Efficient and practicable measures are required to decrease the hearing loss in workers with hypertension and work-related noise exposure.

Background . Whether additional benefit can be achieved with the use of L-carnitine (L-C) in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) remains controversial. We therefore performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate the effects of L-C treatment in CHF patients. Methods . Pubmed, Ovid Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, Wanfang database, Chinese Biomedical (CBM) database, and Chinese Science and Technology Periodicals database (VIP) until September 30, 2016, were identified. Studies that met the inclusion criteria were systematically evaluated by two reviewers independently. Results . 17 RCTs with 1625 CHF patients were included in this analysis. L-C treatment in CHF was associated with considerable improvement in overall efficacy (OR = 3.47, P < 0.01), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (WMD: 4.14%, P = 0.01), strike volume (SV) (WMD: 8.21 ml, P = 0.01), cardiac output (CO) (WMD: 0.88 L/min, P < 0.01), and E/A (WMD: 0.23, P < 0.01). Moreover, treatment with L-C also resulted in significant decrease in serum levels of BNP (WMD: -124.60 pg/ml, P = 0.01), serum levels of NT-proBNP (WMD: -510.36 pg/ml, P < 0.01), LVESD (WMD: -4.06 mm, P < 0.01), LVEDD (WMD: -4.79 mm, P < 0.01), and LVESV (WMD: -20.16 ml, 95% CI: -35.65 to -4.67, P < 0.01). However, there were no significant differences in all-cause mortality, 6-minute walk, and adverse events between L-C and control groups. Conclusions . L-C treatment is effective for CHF patients in improving clinical symptoms and cardiac functions, decreasing serum levels of BNP and NT-proBNP. And it has a good tolerance.

Uric acid (UA) is a risk factor for endothelial dysfunction, a process in which inflammation may play an important role. UA increases high mobility group box chromosomal protein 1 (HMGB1) expression and extracellular release in endothelial cells. HMGB1 is an inflammatory cytokine that interacts with the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), inducing an oxidative stress and inflammatory response, which leads to endothelial dysfunction. In this study, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were incubated with a high concentration of UA (20 mg/dL) after which endothelial function and the expression of HMGB1, RAGE, nuclear factor kappa B (NF- κ B), inflammatory cytokines, and adhesion molecules were evaluated. UA inhibited endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression and nitric oxide (NO) production in HUVECs, increased intracellular HMGB1 expression and extracellular HMGB1 secretion, and upregulated RAGE expression. UA also activated NF- κ B and increased the level of inflammatory cytokines. Blocking RAGE significantly suppressed the upregulation of RAGE and HMGB1 and prevented the increase in DNA binding activity of NF- κ B and the levels of inflammatory cytokines. It also blocked the decrease in eNOS expression and NO production induced by UA. Our results suggest that high concentrations of UA cause endothelial dysfunction via the HMGB1/RAGE signaling pathway., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of icariin (ICA) on cardiac aging through its effects on the SIRT6 enzyme and on the NF-κB pathway. Investigating the effect of ICA on the enzymatic activity of histone deacetylase SIRT6 revealed a concentration of 10(-8) mol/L ICA had a maximum activating effect on histone deacetylase SIRT6 enzymatic activity. Western analysis showed that ICA upregulated SIRT6 protein expression and downregulated NF-κB (p65) protein expression in animal tissues and cell models. ICA upregulated the expression of SIRT6 and had an inhibitory effect on NF-κB inflammatory signaling pathways as shown by decreasing mRNA levels of the NF-κB downstream target genes TNF-α, ICAM-1, IL-2, and IL-6. Those effects were mediated directly or indirectly by SIRT6. We provided evidence that inflammaging may involve a novel link between the effects of ICA on SIRT6 (a regulator of aging) and NF-κB (a regulator of inflammation).

Conduct disorder (CD) is one of the most common behavior disorders in adolescents, such as impulsivity, aggression, and running from school. Males are more likely to develop CD than females, and two previous diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies have demonstrated abnormal microstructural integrity in the uncinate fasciculus (UF) in boys with CD compared to a healthy control group. However, little is known about changes in the UF in females with CD. In this study, the UF was illustrated by tractography; then, the fractional anisotropy (FA), axial diffusivity, mean diffusion, radial diffusivity (RD), and the length and number of the UF fiber bundles were compared between male and female patients with CD and between female patients with CD and female healthy controls, as well as between males with CD and healthy males. We found that males with CD showed significantly higher FA of the bilateral UF and significantly lower RD of the left UF when comparing with females with CD. Meanwhile, significantly higher FA and lower RD of the bilateral UF were also found in boys with CD relative to the male healthy controls. Our results replicated previous reports that the microstructural integrity of the UF was abnormal in boys with CD. Additionally, our results demonstrated significant gender effects on the UF of patients with CD, which may indicate why boys have higher rates of conduct problems than girls.

Audible sound (20-20000 Hz) widely exists in natural world. However, the interaction between audible sound and the growth of plants is usually neglected in biophysics research. Not much effort has been put forth in studying the relation of plant and audible sound. In this work, the effect of audible sound on germination and growth of mung bean (Vigna radiate) was studied under laboratory condition. Audible sound ranging 1000-1500 Hz, 1500-2000 Hz, and 2000-2500 Hz and intensities [80 dB (A), 90 dB (A), 100 dB (A)] were used to stimulate mung bean for 72 hours. The growth of mung bean was evaluated in terms of mean germination time, total length, and total fresh weight. Experimental results indicated that the sound wave can reduce the germination period of mung bean and the mung bean under treatments of sound with intensity around 90 dB and frequency around 2000 Hz and significant increase in growth. Audible sound treatment can promote the growth of mung bean differently for distinct frequency and intensity. The study provides us with a way to understand the effects and rules of sound field on plant growth and a new way to improve the production of mung bean.

Purpose: Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) was related to invasion and metastasis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients. This study was designed to investigate the role of EphA2 in VM formation of HNSCC., Methods: The SiRNA technique was used to knock down the expression of EphA2 in vitro. The ability of cell migration and invasion were measured by transwell and wound healing assays; three-dimensional culture was used to detect the ability of channel-like structure formation; Western blot was used to detect the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition- (EMT-) related molecules in vitro. Further semiquantitative real-time RT-PCR assays and immunohistochemistry were used to demonstrate expression of EphA2 and EMT-related molecules according to VM presence or not in human tissue., Results: Knocking down EphA2 in vitro leads to disabled channel-like structure formation, reduction of invasion and migration ability, and reverse of EMT-related markers. Both semiquantitative real-time RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry showed that expressions of EphA2, Twist, and Vimentin were higher in the VM-positive group than in the VM-negative group significantly, while expressions of E-cadherin, claudin4, and DSG-3 were reverse., Conclusions: EphA2 played a key role in VM formation of HNSCC through regulation of EMT.