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OBJECTIVE: Our research sought to investigate the relationship between initial ablation ratio (IAR) and internal composition of benign thyroid nodules treated by microwave ablation (MWA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients who underwent MWA at the Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University from January 2018 to December 2022 were enrolled in our research. All the patients were followed up for at least one year. We analyzed the relationship between IAR at 1 month of solid nodules (solid >90%), predominantly solid nodules (90% >solid > 75%), mixed solid alongside cystic nodules (75% >solid > 50%) as well as volume reduction rate (VRR) at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months follow-up. OBJECTIVE: The mean IAR of the solid nodules (solid >90%) was 94.32±7.87%,#x0025;, that of the predominantly solid nodules (90% >solid > 75%) and mixed solid alongside cystic nodules (75% >solid > 50%) were 86.51±6.66% and 75.19±4.97%,#x0025;, respectively. Almost all the thyroid nodules were significantly decreased in size after MWA. After 12 months of MWA treatment, the average volume of the aforementioned thyroid nodules decreased from 8.69±8.79 to 1.84±3.11 ml, 10.94±9.07 to 2.58±3.34 ml, 9.92±6.27 to 0.25±0.42 ml, respectively. The mean symptom and cosmetic scores of the nodules showed significant (p < 0.000) improvement. The rates of the complications or side effects of MWA against the above-mentioned nodule types were 8.3% (3/36), 3.2% (1/31) and 0% (0/36), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The application of the IAR to quantify the success rate of thyroid nodule microwaves in the short term demonstrated that IAR was related to the internal components of the nodule. Although the IAR was not high when the thyroid component was mixed solid and cystic nodules (75% >solid > 50%), the final therapeutic effect was still satisfactory.

Objectives: Pain is one of the most common and distressing symptoms co-occurring with cancer progression and treatment, and medication adherence plays an important role in achieving good pain control. However, research on medication adherence and influential factors among individuals with cancer pain (CP) is limited in China. The present study aimed to investigate the adherence to analgesics in patients with CP in China and to identify factors that may influence adherence. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2020 to February 2021. Study instruments consisted of a set of validated questionnaires, 5 measurement instruments including the numerical rating scale (NRS), ID-Pain, Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-Chinese validated version (MMAS-C), Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ) – Specific, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results: A total of 141 participants with CP including 71 males (50.4%), aged 54.5±15.5 years were surveyed in this study. Overall, 83 patients (58.9%) showed adherence, but 58 patients (41.1%) showed non-adherence to analgesics. The univariate analysis showed that analgesic adherence was associated with pain duration of>3 months, outbreaks of pain in the last 24 hours, presence of side effects, getting analgesics in time, presence of neuropathic pain, stopping analgesics or adjusting dosage by themselves, presence of anxiety and depression, and beliefs about medicines. Moreover, the multivariate logistic regression showed that getting analgesic drugs in time (odds ratio [OR]=5.218, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.691-16.100) and high BMQ-Necessity (OR=1.907, 95% CI 1.418-2.565) were associated with high adherence, stopping analgesics or adjusting dosage by themselves (OR=7.958, 95% CI 2.443-25.926) and high BMQ-Concern (OR=0.760, 95% CI 0.600-0.964) were more likely to be associated with non-adherence. Conclusion: In view of our findings, it may be critical for individuals to have a better understanding and strong beliefs about their prescribed analgesic drugs. Pain education, counseling and follow-up of patients and their caregivers, and removal of barriers to accessing analgesic drugs could be considered in further intervention strategies.

The continuous upsurge of tourism consumption activities has promoted economic development, but at the same time, it has also produced numerous problems, such as low-quality service and high admission prices at scenic spots, which are not conducive to the sustainable development of tourism. In this paper, in view of the phenomenon of low-quality service of scenic spots, a three-party evolutionary game model of scenic spots, tourists, and government is constructed under the participation of tourists and the reward-subsidy mechanism and punishment mechanism, and a simulation analysis is performed using the NetLogo platform. The results show that, under the reward-subsidy and punishment mechanisms, the service strategy selection of scenic spots will eventually evolve to provide high-quality services, tourists will eventually choose the no-complaint strategy, and the government will eventually evolve to provide active supervision.

Polyadenylate-binding protein cytoplasmic 1 (PABPC1) is dysregulated in malignancies, which is considered as a potential therapeutic target for many cancer types. By alternative splicing (AS) for gastric cancer (GC), we described PABPC1-modulated AS events in this study. PABPC1 expression was analyzed in 408 GC tissues from The Cancer Genome Altas (TCGA) database. Human gastric adenocarcinoma (AGS) cells were transfected with PABPC1-specific small interfering RNA (siPABPC1) with siCtrl as a negative control. Quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was done for the determination of transcripts. To detect the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 10 different types of AS events, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed. DEGs were analyzed for functional categories including gene ontology, and the Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathway were analyzed for DEGs. GC displayed an elevated expression of PABPC1. PABPC1 was efficiently knocked down in AGS cells. Here, we excavated 1234 PABPC1-regulated DEGs, among which 502 were down-regulated and 732 were up-regulated compared to the siCtrl group. A total of 94 DEGs were involved in inflammation and immune response. Results from qRT-PCR validated the up-regulation of 10 immune and inflammation-related DEGs in the siPABPC1 group. PABPC1 deficiency causes 1304 AS events differentially occurred in AGS cells. The most common type of AS events regulated by PABPC2 is alternative 5′ splice sites. qRT-PCR confirmed the transcription level of five immune-related genes, in which AS events were detected in the siPABPC1 group. PABPC1 knockdown mediates AS events and thus the transcript level of immune and inflammation-related genes in AGS cells. PABPC1-regulated oncogenic AS events display potential as targets for therapeutic development.

Enterprises thrive on a good product performance. In that case, most of them shift focus on establishing a quality management system, thus enabling a string of quality controls to safeguard product quality. System constructions of certain companies, however, belie actual practices, resulting in modest improvements and even minus effect, no matter what management mode is adopted. This paper expounds feasible paths of enhancing product performance by making the best of quality control works, ground on an assumed well-functioning quality management system.

Purpose This study aims to develop and examine a cross-level model of the link between shared leadership and hotel employees’ proactive customer service performance (PCSP) by investigating employees’ harmonious passion as a mediator and employees’ traditionality as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical linear modeling based on multilevel data from 353 frontline service employees in 148 teams across 10 Chinese hotels. Findings The results revealed that shared leadership promoted frontline service employees’ PCSP by enhancing their harmonious passion. Moreover, when employees traditionality was high, harmonious passion was less influenced by shared leadership. When employees traditionality was low, shared leadership exerted a more positive influence on harmonious passion. In addition, harmonious passion mediated the interactive effect of shared leadership and traditionality on frontline service employees’ PCSP. Practical implications The findings suggest that organizations should cultivate shared leadership to promote frontline service employees’ PCSP. Organizations should also seek to enhance employees’ harmonious passion and foster a low-traditionality environment with the aim of maximizing the positive influence of shared leadership. Originality/value First, this research expands the leadership-PCSP literature by shifting the research focus from vertical leadership to shared leadership. Second, it offers a novel framework based on self-determination theory to clarify the influence of shared leadership on PCSP. Finally, the focus on the moderating impact of traditionality identifies a new contextual factor that influences the effectiveness of shared leadership.

Objective: To investigate the effects of Linggui Zhugan Decoction on mitochondrial and oxidative damage in rats with chronic heart failure after myocardial infarction and the related mechanisms.Methods: Chronic heart failure after myocardial infarction was established by coronary artery ligation. Heart failure rats were randomly divided into three groups: Model group (n = 11), Linggui Zhugan Decoction group (n = 12), and captopril group (n = 11). Rats whose coronary arteries were only threaded and not ligated were sham group (n = 11). Cardiac function, superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA) contents, soluble growth-stimulating expression factor (ST2), and N-terminal B-type brain natriuretic peptide precursor (NTproBNP) levels were analyzed after treatment. Moreover, the level of mitochondrial membrane potential was detected by JC-1 staining, the ultrastructural of myocardial mitochondria were observed by transmission electron microscopy. The related signal pathway of silent information regulator factor 2-related enzyme 1 (SIRT1), adenylate activated protein kinase (AMPK), phosphorylated adenylate activated protein kinase (p-AMPK), and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α) is an important pathway to regulate mitochondrial energy metabolism, and to initiate mitochondrial biogenesis. The expression level was detected by Western blot and reverse transcription to explore the mechanism of the decoction.Results: Compared with the model rats, Linggui Zhugan Decoction significantly improved cardiac function (p < 0.05), reduced MDA production (p < 0.01), increased SOD activity (p < 0.05), reduced ST-2(p < 0.01), and NT-proBNP(p < 0.05) levels, increased mitochondrial membrane potential, and improved mitochondria function. In addition, Linggui Zhugan Decoction upregulated the expression of SIRT1, p-AMPK, PGC-1α protein, and mRNA in cardiac myocytes.Conclusion: Linggui Zhugan Decoction can improve the cardiac function of heart failure rats by enhancing myocardial antioxidant capacity and protecting the mitochondrial function, the mechanism is related to activating SIRT1/AMPK/PGC-1α signaling pathway.

In recent years, freeform surfaces have been widely used in various industries with the rapid development of manufacturing technology. However, the complex 3D structures and other surface properties of the freeform surface products challenge current visual inspection systems. To deal with the problem and meet the demand, we propose a novel, deep learning-based defect detection method for complex freeform surface structures in the injection industry. We first design a system of Multi-Lights Multi-Cameras with Polarizer, in which polarization is used to eliminate glare caused by freefrom surfaces and multi-illumination is used to enhance the visibility of certain defects. Then a convolutional neural network model based on YOLOv5 is utilized to detect small defects in images. Particularly, we raise several effective and easily-implemented strategies and improve the performance of the model significantly. Experimental results on our self-made dataset show that the improved model achieves a mean average precision (mAP) of 86.2% with 5.1% higher than the Baseline. Moreover, testing on the production line shows our detection system can benefit the related factory. Our work provides a promising approach to facilitate the development of visual inspection for products with complex freeform surfaces.

Introduction Sepsis has the characteristics of high incidence, high mortality of ICU patients. Early assessment of disease severity and risk stratification of death in patients with sepsis, and further targeted intervention are very important. The purpose of this study was to develop machine learning models based on sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) components to early predict in-hospital mortality in ICU patients with sepsis and evaluate model performance. Methods Patients admitted to ICU with sepsis diagnosis were extracted from MIMIC-IV database for retrospective analysis, and were randomly divided into training set and test set in accordance with 2:1. Six variables were included in this study, all of which were from the scores of 6 organ systems in SOFA score. The machine learning model was trained in the training set and evaluated in the validation set. Six machine learning methods including linear regression analysis, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), Logistic regression analysis (LR), Gaussian Naive Bayes (GNB) and support vector machines (SVM) were used to construct the death risk prediction models, and the accuracy, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), Decision Curve Analysis (DCA) and K-fold cross-validation were used to evaluate the prediction performance of developed models. Result A total of 23,889 patients with sepsis were enrolled, of whom 3659 died in hospital. Three feature variables including renal system score, central nervous system score and cardio vascular system score were used to establish prediction models. The accuracy of the LR, GNB, SVM were 0.851, 0.844 and 0.862, respectively, which were better than linear regression analysis (0.123) and LASSO (0.130). The AUROCs of LR, GNB and SVM were 0.76, 0.76 and 0.67, respectively. K-fold cross validation showed that the average AUROCs of LR, GNB and SVM were 0.757 ± 0.005, 0.762 ± 0.006, 0.630 ± 0.013, respectively. For the probability threshold of 5–50%, LY and GNB models both showed positive net benefits. Conclusion The two machine learning-based models (LR and GNB models) based on SOFA components can be used to predict in-hospital mortality of septic patients admitted to ICU.

Dan Zhao,1,2 Rui Zhang,1,2 Xuemei Liu,1,2 Xiaoyun Li,1,2 Mengyu Xu,1,2 Xianju Huang,1,2 Xincai Xiao1,2 1School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China; 2National Demonstration Center for Experimental Ethnopharmacology Education (South-Central University for Nationalities), Wuhan, 430065, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Dan Zhao, Tel +1 806 208 4690, Email wqzhdpai@163.comIntroduction: Pathogenic bacteria, especially the ones with highly organized, systematic aggregating bacteria biofilm, would cause great harm to human health. The development of highly efficient antibacterial and antibiofilm functional fluorescent nanomaterial would be of great significance.Methods: This paper reports the preparation of a series of antibacterial functional carbon dots (CDs) with chitosan (CS) and its derivatives as raw materials through one-step route, and the impact of various experiment parameters upon the optical properties and the antibacterial abilities have been explored, including the structures of the raw materials, excipients, and solvents.Results: The CDs prepared by quaternary ammonium salt of chitosan (QCS) and ethylenediamine (EDA) exhibit multiple antibacterial effects through membrane breaking, DNA and protein destroying, and the production of singlet oxygen. The CDs showed excellent broad-spectrum inhibitory activity against a variety of bacteria (Gram-positive and negative bacteria), in particular, to the biofilm of Staphylococcus aureus with minimum inhibitory concentration at 10 μg/mL, showing great potential in killing bacteria and biofilms. The biocompatibility experiments proved that QCS-EDA-CDs are non-toxic to human normal hepatocytes and have low haemolytic effect. Furthermore, the prepared QCS-EDA-CDs have been successfully used in bacterial and biofilm imaging thanks to their excellent optical properties.Conclusion: This paper explored the preparation and application of functional CDs, which can be used as the visual probe and therapeutic agents in the treatment of infections caused by bacteria and biofilm.Graphical Abstract: Keywords: carbon dots, antibacterial activity, bacterial imaging, anti-biofilm, antibacterial mechanism

This paper is devoted to studying the following fractional $L^2$-critical nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation $$(-\Delta)^{s} u(x)+V(x)u(x)-a|x|^{-b}|u|^{\frac{4s-2b}{N}}u(x) = \mu u(x)\,\ \hbox{in}\,\ \mathbb{R}^N,$$ where $\mu\in\mathbb{R}$, $a>0$, $s\in(\frac{1}{2},1)$, $N>2s$, $00$ such that (1.4) has minimizers for $0a^*$. For the case of $a=a^*$, it gives a fact that the existence and non-existence of minimizers depend strongly on the value of $V(0)$. Especially for $V(0)=0$, we prove that minimizers occur blow-up behavior and the mass of minimizers concentrates at the origin as $a\nearrow a^*$. Applying implicit function theorem, the uniqueness of minimizers is also proved for $a>0$ small enough.

In recent years, calcium peroxide (CaO2) has attracted widespread attention in the medical community due to its excellent antitumor and antibacterial properties, and has gradually become a hot research topic in the biomedical field. CaO2 reacts with water (H2O) to produce calcium ion (Ca2+), oxygen (O2), and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), where Ca2+ is suitable for calcium death caused by calcium overload, O2 is suitable for O2-dependent anticancer therapy, and H2O2 is suitable for H2O2-dependent anticancer therapy. In addition, H2O2 can also be used in the antibacterial field to treat bacterial infections. All these make the CaO2 to become a kind of excellent antitumor and antibacterial drug. This study mainly reviews the preparation and surface modification of CaO2, probes into the latest progress about CaO2 nanoparticles in the field of tumor treatment and antimicrobial therapy. Finally, the challenges that CaO2 still faces in the future research field are clarified, and its prospects are forecasted.

Purpose Pregnant women are predisposed to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Based on the fact that OSA is an independent risk factor for hypertension among the general population, we hypothesized that chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH), as a feature of OSA, may lead to preeclampsia. Methods Pregnant and non-pregnant C57BL/6 J mice were exposed to two conditions of chronic intermittent hypoxia: CIH1 (21-5% O2 alternations), CIH2 (21-10% O2 alternations), and room air until day 19. Results In non-pregnant mice, compared with their respective baseline values, systolic blood pressure (SBP) started to rise from day 14 in the CIH1 group, and SBP rose until day 19 in the CIH2 group. Compared with the pregnant mice exposed to room air, pregnant mice exposed to CIH1 maintained elevated SBP from day 14, accompanied by proteinuria, fetal and placental growth restriction, and a reduction in the number of fetuses. An imbalance between proangiogenic and antiangiogenic factors and impairment of vascular remodeling existed in the placenta of pregnant mice exposed to CIH1. Maternal serum levels of the soluble form of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 were also significantly increased. Pregnant mice exposed to CIH2 seemed to have milder changes than pregnant mice exposed to CIH1. Conclusion Our results demonstrated that gestational CIH may induce gestational hypertension, proteinuria, fetal and placental growth restriction as well as impairments in placental angiogenesis and vascular remodeling.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to Identify genes associated with adipose precursor cells(APCs), and apply machine learning methods, such as the minimum absolute contraction and selection operator (LASSO) and SVM recursive feature elimination (SVM-rfe), to find large obesity markers. Method: We obtained a single-cell RNA sequencing dataset GSE133486 and three APCs RNA chip datasets GSE 24883, GSE25401 and GSE156906 from GEO.The R package was applied to find common differential genes, and key genes were obtained by LASSO with SVM-ref. Results: THBS2, VASN, VCAN, ALDH1A3,GLUL, SLC4A4 take participate in the formation of APCs. Conclusion: This study found that changes in different genes can regulate the occurrence and development of obesity, and discusses the possibility of these genes in the clinic.

SummaryManipulating molecular processes governing physiological functions has significant potential for clinical therapeutics and is an important approach to elucidate the cellular basis of physiological functions. Here, we designed a Odourgenetic system co-expressedDrosophilaodorant receptor system (DORs) consisting of OR35a and OR83b, which were exclusively activated by their odor ligand, 2-pentanone. Applying 2-pentanone to DOR-expressing cells or tissues induced calcium influx and membrane depolarization. By inhalation of 2-pentanone, we successfully applied DORs to manipulate behaviour, control insulin secretion and regulate blood glucose and manipulate muscle contraction and associated limb movement. Because 2-pentanone rapidly enters the blood upon inhalation and leaves the body by exhalation, this odorant can be used with DORs to manipulate cellular function, and the manipulation can be terminated at any time. Such feature approach significantly improves the safety and controllability of DORs used in the clinic. Thus, the present study developed a non-invasive, controllable, fast on/off method to manipulate cellular activity and behaviour on a time scale of minutes.

In this paper, we report a microcapsule embedded PNIPAN in P (TPC-EDA) shell and it can be regarded as an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) structure, which can accelerate the penetration of oily substances at a certain temperature, and the microcapsules are highly monodisperse and dimensionally reproducible. The proposed microcapsules were fabricated in a three-step process. The first step was the optimization of the conditions for preparing oil in water emulsions by microfluidic device. In the second step, monodisperse polyethylene terephthaloyl-ethylenediamine (P(TPC-EDA)) microcapsules were prepared by interfacial polymerization. In the third step, the final microcapsules with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)-based interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) structure in P(TPC-EDA) shells were finished by free radical polymerization. We conducted careful data analysis on the size of the emulsion prepared by microfluidic technology and used a very intuitive functional relationship to show the production characteristics of microfluidics, which is rarely seen in other literatures. The results show that when the IPN-structured system swelled for 6 h, the adsorption capacity of kerosene was the largest, which was promising for water–oil separation or extraction and separation of hydrophobic drugs. Because we used microfluidic technology, the products obtained have good monodispersity and are expected to be produced in large quantities in industry.

The increase in electromagnetic wave pollution at high frequency (gigahertz band) has led to an increasing demand for more effective microwave absorption materials (MAMs). This study aims to investigate magneto-crystalline anisotropy materials as MAMs. Magnetic and microwave absorption properties of Y2Co17−xFex (x = 0, 5, 9, 13, 17) are reported in this study. As the Fe content increases, the magneto-crystalline anisotropy of Y2Co17−xFex changes from planar anisotropy to axis, then to cone, and eventually to plane. Meanwhile, the variation trend of the magnetization (Ms) value increases first and then decreases, reaching a maximum at x = 9. The Y2Co17−xFex/paraffin composites (x = 0, 13, 17) with the planar anisotropy show stronger reflection loss (RL) than that composite (x = 5) with the uniaxial anisotropy. The strongest RL value is achieved for the conical anisotropy composites (x = 9). This composite, with conical anisotropy and highest Ms, exhibits the highest gigahertz frequency permeability, which is advantageous for improving the impedance matching and attenuation abilities of microwave absorption. The Y2Co8Fe9/paraffin composite exhibits a reflection loss value of − 46.9 dB and effective absorption bandwidth (EAB, RL < − 10 dB) of 4.74 GHz with a thickness of 2.0 mm at 10.2 GHz, suggesting its applicability as an efficient microwave absorbent in the gigahertz frequency.

Mengjie Tu,1 Yafei Guo,2 Xincai Zhang,3 Quanlei Yu1,4 1School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA; 3Fuyang City No.11 Middle School, Anhui, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Quanlei Yu Email yulei19881987@mail.ccnu.edu.cnBackground: Parent-child facial resemblance, as an important cue of paternal uncertainty, may impact fathers’ parenting behaviors and further affect children’s academic performance. However, mothers are almost 100% confident of the blood relationship with their child and care less about the facial resemblance cues.Methods: To test these hypotheses, the present study recruited 122 junior high school students and measured the perceived facial resemblance with their parents, the parents’ parenting style, academic performance, and demographic variables.Results: The results showed that the perceived father-child facial resemblance rather than the mother-child facial resemblance significantly influenced adolescents’ academic performance. Further, fathers’ caring parenting style mediated the relationship between the perceived father-child facial resemblance and academic performance.Conclusion: These findings not only supported the paternal uncertainty hypothesis but also extended the parental investment theory.Keywords: perceived father–child facial resemblance, academic performance, caring parenting, paternal uncertainty

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials with ultrathin, flexible, superior mechanical and thermal management properties are highly desirable for smart and wearable electronics. Here, ultrathin and flexible Ni/Cu/metallic glass/Cu/Ni (Ni/Cu/MG) multilayer composite with alternate magnetic and electrical structures was designed via facial electroless plating of Cu and Ni on an Fe-based metallic glass. The resultant 0.02 mm-thick Ni/Cu/MG composite displays a superior EMI shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) of 35 dB and a great EMI SE/t of 1750 dB/mm, which is greater than those of composites with monotonous multilayer or homogeneous structures. The improved EMI SE originates from the massive ohmic losses, the enhanced internal reflection/absorption, and the abundant interfacial polarization loss. Particularly, Ni/Cu/MG exhibits a high tensile strength of up to 1.2 GPa and outstanding mechanical stability, enabling the EMI SE remains unchanged after 10,000 times of bending. Moreover, Ni/Cu/MG has excellent Joule heating characteristics and thermal stability, which is very suitable for heating components of wearable hyperthermia devices.

Multifunctional carbon dots have drawn considerable attention due to their potential biomedical application value. We report the preparation of blue-green fluorescence-emitting, multifunctional, nitrogen-and-sulfur co-doped carbon dots (N, S-CDs) synthesized via a one-step process using 1-thioglycerol as a sulfur source, glucose and citric acid as carbon sources, and polyethyleneimine as a nitrogen source. Because of abundant amino and sulfur content, the CDs exhibited high sensibility and selectivity for detecting Cu2+ (detection limit: 0.01 μM, linear range: 0.025 to 50 μM). Fast and sensitive detection of tiopronin was also achieved on the basis of the fluorescence “off-on” mode considering the strong affinity between tiopronin and Cu2+. The N, S-CDs exhibited good biocompatibility as determined by fluorescence imaging using onion epidermal cells and gram-positive bacteria. The CDs also exhibited excellent antimicrobial ability against the gram-positive bacteria. Our results indicate that these novel N, S-CDs could be ideal candidates for several biochemical applications such as antibacterial treatment and detection of small biomolecules.

BackgroundBreast malignant adenomyoepithelioma (MAME) after breast augmentation has never been reported.Case summaryWe reported a case of a 55-year-old woman who was diagnosed with breast MAME 16 years after breast augmentation. Breast augmentation was performed on the patient with two 200 ml round textured prostheses in the subpectoral plane through axillary incisions in 2004. However, a breast ultrasound in 2020 revealed a suspicious malignant lump in the right breast, which was finally confirmed as MAME by pathology. Skin-sparing modified radical mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction with expander implantation were performed. Subsequently, the patient received three cycles of chemotherapy with the regimen of anthracycline and cyclophosphamide. In the following nearly 2 years of follow-up, no tumor recurrence and metastasis were found, and the overall treatment was satisfactory for the patient.ConclusionHere, we present a unique case in which a patient was diagnosed with breast MAME after breast augmentation. Skin-sparing modified radical mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction with expander implantation are feasible approaches that yield at least short-term oncological safety and acceptable aesthetic results. However, whether there is a potential relationship between MAME and breast implants remains to be further explored. Meanwhile, due to the rarity of breast MAME, more authoritative strategies considering both oncological safety and aesthetics to seek better long-term therapeutic effects are needed.

This study aims to evaluate the effects of the spatiotemporal patterns of land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes on the dynamics of carbon storage in a tropical region of China by linking the trajectory analysis of LULC changes and the InVEST model. Based on remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS) and change trajectories, the spatiotemporal evolution of LULC changes was explored. This evolution could be coupled with the spatiotemporal LULC change trajectories and the InVEST model for the quantitative study of the spatial distribution and temporal variation in regional carbon stocks. The results showed that during the 2000–2020 period, the built-up land continually increased to 206.05 km2 through urban expansion, and forestland became the dominant type of land, with an area of 357.39 km2. In addition to the change in land use, the carbon storage in the study region increased by 4.87 Tg C. The anaphasic trajectory had the largest area ratio at 7.05% in the total area, while the prophasic trajectory contributed to the largest increase in carbon storage, 5.87 Tg C. Moreover, the repetitive trajectories had no impact on carbon sinks and sources, whereas the anaphasic trajectory and the continual trajectory imposed passive impacts on carbon storage. These advances in research underpin scientific efforts to improve the understanding of the relationship between the optimization of land-use structure and patterns and the carbon storage service in the Nandu River Basin.

Preterm birth (PTB) occurs in around 11% of all births worldwide, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality for both mothers and offspring. Identification of pregnancies at risk of preterm birth in early pregnancy may help improve intervention and reduce its incidence. However, there exist few methods for PTB prediction developed with large sample size, high throughput screening and validation in independent cohorts. Here, we established a large-scale, multi-center, and case-control study that included 2,590 pregnancies (2,072 full-term and 518 preterm pregnancies) from three independent hospitals to develop a preterm birth classifier. We implemented whole-genome sequencing on their plasma cfDNA and then their promoter profiling (read depth spanning from −1 KB to +1 KB around the transcriptional start site) was analyzed. Using three machine learning models and two feature selection algorithms, classifiers for predicting preterm delivery were developed. Among them, a classifier based on the support vector machine model and backward algorithm, named PTerm (Promoter profiling classifier for preterm prediction), exhibited the largest AUC value of 0.878 (0.852–0.904) following LOOCV cross-validation. More importantly, PTerm exhibited good performance in three independent validation cohorts and achieved an overall AUC of 0.849 (0.831–0.866). Taken together, PTerm could be based on current noninvasive prenatal test (NIPT) data without changing its procedure or adding detection cost, which can be easily adapted for preclinical tests.

Background: Linking genotypic changes to phenotypic traits based on machine learning methods has various challenges. In this study, we developed a workflow based on bioinformatics and machine learning methods using transcriptomic data for sepsis obtained at the first clinical presentation for predicting the risk of sepsis. By combining bioinformatics with machine learning methods, we have attempted to overcome current challenges in predicting disease risk using transcriptomic data.Methods: High-throughput sequencing transcriptomic data processing and gene annotation were performed using R software. Machine learning models were constructed, and model performance was evaluated by machine learning methods in Python. The models were visualized and interpreted using the Shapley Additive explanation (SHAP) method.Results: Based on the preset parameters and using recursive feature elimination implemented via machine learning, the top 10 optimal genes were screened for the establishment of the machine learning models. In a comparison of model performance, CatBoost was selected as the optimal model. We explored the significance of each gene in the model and the interaction between each gene through SHAP analysis.Conclusion: The combination of CatBoost and SHAP may serve as the best-performing machine learning model for predicting transcriptomic and sepsis risks. The workflow outlined may provide a new approach and direction in exploring the mechanisms associated with genes and sepsis risk.

BackgroundPathological complete response (pCR) is considered a surrogate for favorable survival in breast cancer (BC) patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT), which is the goal of NACT. This study aimed to develop and validate a nomogram for predicting the pCR probability of BC patients after NACT based on the clinicopathological features.MethodsA retrospective analysis of 527 BC patients treated with NACT between January 2018 and December 2021 from two institutions was conducted. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to select the most useful predictors from the training cohort (n = 225), and then a nomogram model was developed. The performance of the nomogram was evaluated with respect to its discrimination, calibration, and clinical usefulness. Internal validation and external validation were performed in an independent validation cohort of 96 and 205 consecutive BC patients, respectively.ResultsAmong the 18 clinicopathological features, five variables were selected to develop the prediction model, including age, American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) T stage, Ki67 index before NACT, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and hormone receptor (HR) status. The model showed good discrimination with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.825 (95% CI, 0.772 to 0.878) in the training cohort, and 0.755 (95% CI, 0.658 to 0.851) and 0.79 (95% CI, 0.724 to 0.856) in the internal and external validation cohorts, respectively. The calibration curve presented good agreement between prediction by nomogram and actual observation, and decision curve analysis (DCA) indicated that the nomogram had good net benefits in clinical scenarios.ConclusionThis study constructed a validated nomogram based on age, AJCC T stage, Ki67 index before NACT, HER2, and HR status, which could be non-invasively applied to personalize the prediction of pCR in BC patients treated with NACT.

Digital transformation is a crucial strategy for enterprises to achieve improvements in quality, efficiency, and dynamism. It represents the key direction for enterprise innovation and reform, and it is also of great significance for promoting high-quality economic development. While the previous research has shown that digital transformation can affect business efficiency, performance, and corporate governance, there is a lack of literature clearly linking digital transformation to internal control. To determine whether enterprise digital transformation impacts the constructions and implementation of internal control, we analyze data from Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies between 2012 and 2019. Our study found that the extent of digital transformation in enterprises has a positive impact on the establishment and effectiveness of internal control. Furthermore, we examine the role of market competition in the relationship between the digital transformation and internal control. We found that the impact of digital transformation on internal control is limited in enterprises with relatively mild market competition, while in more fiercely competitive markets, the positive impact of digital transformation on internal control is more pronounced.

Abnormal functional brain networks of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients with structural abnormalities may partially reflect structural lesions rather than either TLE per se or functional compensatory processes. In this study, we sought to investigate the brain-network properties of intractable TLE patients apart from the effects of structural abnormalities. The brain network properties of 20 left and 23 right MRI-negative TLE patients and 22 healthy controls were evaluated using magnetoencephalographic recordings in six main frequency bands. A slowing of oscillatory brain activity was observed for the left or right TLE group vs. healthy controls. The TLE groups presented significantly increased functional connectivity in the delta, theta, lower alpha and beta bands, and significantly greater values in the normalized clustering coefficient and path length, and significantly smaller values in the weighted small-world measure in the theta band when compared to healthy controls. Alterations in global and regional band powers can be attributed to spectral slowing in TLE patients. The brain networks of TLE patients displayed abnormally high synchronization in multi-frequency bands and shifted toward a more regular architecture with worse network efficiency in the theta band. Without the contamination of structural lesions, these significant findings can be helpful for better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanism of TLE. The theta band can be considered as a preferred frequency band for investigating the brain-network dysfunction of MRI-negative intractable TLE patients.