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Background/Aim: Activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) plays an important role in cancer via its homotypical and heterotypical interactions with ALCAM or other proteins and can also mediate cell-cell interactions. The present study investigated the expression of ALCAM in relation to epithelial–to–mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers and its downstream signal proteins including Ezrin-Moesin-Radixin (ERM), in clinical colon cancer and in the progression of the disease. Materials and Methods: Expression of ALCAM was determined in a clinical colon cancer cohort and assessed against the clinical pathological factors and outcome, together with the expression patterns of the ERM family and EMT markers. ALCAM protein was detected using immunohistochemistry. Cell line models, with ALCAM knock-down and over-expression, were established and used to test cells’ responses to drugs. Results: Tumours from patients who had distant metastasis and died of colon cancer had low levels of ALCAM. Dukes B and C tumours also had lower ALCAM expression than Dukes A tumours. Patients with high levels of ALCAM had a significantly longer overall and disease-free survival than those with lower ALCAM levels (p=0.040 and p=0.044). ALCAM is not only significantly correlated with SNAI1 and TWIST, also positively correlated with SNAI2. ALCAM enhanced the adhesiveness of colorectal cancer, an effect inhibited by both sALCAM and SRC inhibitors. Finally, high ALCAM expression rendered cells resistant, especially to 5-fluorouracil. Conclusion: Reduced expression of ALCAM in colon cancer is an indicator of disease progression and a poor prognostic indicator for patient’s survival. However, ALCAM can enhance the adhesion ability of cancer cells and render them resistant to chemotherapy drugs.

DC microgrid as a micro-scale power system, has drawn growing attention for its various applications which calls for good power quality, proper power sharing, and fast response property. However, the existing researches aren't yet able to achieve the purpose in a predefined time. In this paper, a new predefined-time secondary controller is proposed for DC microgrid to realize the objectives of both voltage regulation and current sharing among distributed generators within a predefined time. The controller is designed by employing a sign function and a $K^1$ function and by defining a new composite error, which does not need to sample the voltage of DC bus or the current of neighbors, but only the local current and voltage. The upper bound of the convergence time of both the voltage and current in the DC microgrid is just related to one parameter which can be predefined and is independent of initial error. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is verified by multiple simulations and experiments built on MATLAB/Simulink and a hardware-in-the-loop experimental platform. The conducted simulations and experiments include several typical scenarios together with a comparison, which illustrate the advantages of the proposed controller such as fast convergence rate and small overshoot.

Random flaps are widely used for wound repair. However, flap necrosis is a serious complication leading to the failure of operation. Our previous study demonstrated a great proangiogenic potential of hypoxia-treated adipose-derived stem cells-extracellular vesicles (HT-ASC-EVs). Thus, we aim to evaluate the effect of HT-ASC-EVs in the survival and angiogenesis of random skin flap in rats.Adipose-derived stem cells-extracellular vesicles were respectively isolated from adipose-derived stem cell culture medium of 3 donors via ultracentrifugation. The expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) and proangiogenic potential of HT-ASC-EVs and ASC-EVs were compared by co-culturing with human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Forty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 3 group (n = 10/group). A 9 × 3-cm random skin flap was separated from the underlying fascia with both sacral arteries sectioned on each rat. The survival and angiogenesis of flaps treated by ASC-EVs or HT-ASC-EVs were also compared. Laser Doppler flowmetry and immunohistochemistry were used to evaluate skin perfusion and angiogenesis of skin flaps on postoperative day 7.Hypoxia-treated adipose-derived stem cells-extracellular vesicles further improve the proliferation, migration, tube formation with upregulated HIF-1α, and VEGF expression of human umbilical vein endothelial cells in vitro, compared with ASC-EVs. In vivo, postoperatively injecting HT-ASC-EVs suppressed necrosis rate (29.1 ± 2.8% vs 59.2 ± 2.1%) and promoted the angiogenesis of skin flap including improved skin perfusion (803.2 ± 24.3 vs 556.3 ± 26.7 perfusion unit), increased number of CD31-positive cells, and upregulated expression of HIF-1α in vascular endothelium on postoperative day 7, compared with ASC-EVs.Intradermal injecting HT-ASC-EVs improve the survival of random skin flap by promoting HIF-1α-mediated angiogenesis in rat model.

There are two seismic gaps (Dayi seismic gap and Tianquan-Kangding seismic gap) on the Longmen Shan fault (LMSF), despite the successively occurrence of the 2008 Mw7.9 Wenchuan and 2013 Mw6.6 Lushan earthquakes. To analyze the effects of the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes on the LMSF (especially on seismic gaps along the LMSF) and regional seismic hazards, we calculate Coulomb stress changes caused by the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes based on a three-dimensional viscoelastic finite element model. We also calculate the spatial distribution of regional b value based on the instrumental seismic catalog before Wenchuan earthquake, and infer the regional background stress level according to the inverse correlation between b value and stress level. The results show that regional earthquakes (including the 2008 Mw7.9 Wenchuan earthquake, 2013 Mw6.6 Lushan earthquake, 2014 Mw6.1 Kangding earthquake, 2017 Mw6.5 Jiuzhaigou earthquake and 2022 Mw6.6 Luding earthquake) occurred in regions with low b value. Meanwhile, subsequent earthquakes occurred in regions where Coulomb stress changes caused by the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes are positive. This suggests that regions with both low b value and positive Coulomb stress changes may pose higher seismic hazards. There are five regions (southern Xianshuihe fault, southernmost segment of LMSF, Dongkunlun fault, northern Xiaojinhe fault, and Hanan-Qingshanwan fault) with both high Coulomb stress changes caused by the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes and low b value, which may indicate high-stress accumulation and high seismic hazard in the future. The results also show that Coulomb stress changes caused by the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes increased significantly in the Dayi seismic gap (+ 0.214 ~ + 2.606 MPa), and Tianquan-Kangding seismic gap (+ 0.016 ~ + 0.205 MPa), while the result of high b value for the Dayi seismic gap and the northern-central segment of Tianquan-Kangding seismic gap indicates less background stress accumulation. With tectonic loading continues, seismic hazards on both seismic gaps should cause our attention.

YME1L1, a mitochondrial metalloproteinase, is an Adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-dependent metalloproteinase and locates in the mitochondrial inner membrane. The protease domain of YME1L1 is oriented towards the mitochondrial intermembrane space, which modulates the mitochondrial GTPase optic atrophy type 1 (OPA1) processing. However, during embryonic development, there is no report yet about the role of YME1L1 on mitochondrial biogenesis and function in pigs. In the current study, the mRNA level of YME1L1 was knocked down by double strand RNA microinjection to the 1-cell stage embryos. The expression patterns of YME1L1 and its related proteins were performed by immunofluorescence and western blotting. To access the biological function of YME1L1, we first counted the preimplantation development rate, diameter, and total cell number of blastocyst on day-7. First, the localization of endogenous YME1L1 was found in the punctate structures of the mitochondria, and the expression level of YME1L1 is highly expressed from the 4-cell stage. Following significant knock-down of YME1L1, blastocyst rate and quality were decreased, and mitochondrial fragmentation was induced. YME1L1 knockdown induced excessive ROS production, lower mitochondrial membrane potential, and lower ATP levels. The OPA1 cleavage induced by YME1L1 knockdown was prevented by double knock-down of YME1L1 and OMA1. Moreover, cytochrome c, a pro-apoptotic signal, was released from the mitochondria after the knock-down of YME1L1. Taken together, these results indicate that YME1L1 is essential for regulating mitochondrial fission, function, and apoptosis during porcine embryo preimplantation development.

BackgroundPortal vein thrombosis (PVT) is an increasingly recognized complication of cirrhosis and possibly associated with mortality. This study aims to evaluate provoking factors for PVT, then establish a concise and efficient nomogram for predicting PVT presence among admitted cirrhotic patients.Materials and methodsAll cirrhotic patients admitted in Hunan Provincial People's Hospital between January 2010 and September 2020 were retrospectively reviewed, the clinical and laboratory data were collected. Multivariate logistic regression analysis and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression method were used for screening the independent predictors and constructing the nomogram. The calibration curve was plotted to evaluate the consistent degree between observed outcomes and predicted probabilities. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve was used to assess the discriminant performance. The decision curve analysis (DCA) was carried out to evaluate the benefits of nomogram.ResultsA total of 4,479 patients with cirrhosis were enrolled and 281 patients were identified with PVT. Smoking history, splenomegaly, esophagogastric varices, surgical history, red blood cell transfusion, and D-dimer were independent risk factors for PVT in cirrhosis. A nomogram was established with a good discrimination capacity and predictive efficiency with an the area under the curve (AUC) of 0.704 (95% CI: 0.664–0.745) in the training set and 0.685 (95% CI: 0.615–0.754) in the validation set. DCA suggested the net benefit of nomogram had a superior risk threshold probability.ConclusionA concise and efficient nomogram was established with good performance, which may aid clinical decision making and guide best treatment measures.

Supplementary Material 1

Slurry ratio is a crucial link in the construction of bored pile, which directly determines the quality of bored pile. In order to determine the key performance parameters of the slurry required to form piles in the deep sand layer, relying on Huizhou north station engineering, an orthogonal test of slurry proportioning was designed and carried out, and SPSS statistical analysis software was used to carry out bivariate correlation analysis and multivariate stepwise analysis of the test results, combined with the slurry performance index test regression equation and using MATLAB software optimization processing, slurry optimal mix ratio and verify, the research results show that: orthogonal test screening value, software calculation value, test value is not different. Conclusion: The results show that bentonite and CMC have significant influence on slurry indexes, while Na2CO3 and PHP can adjust slurry performance to meet the slurry use standard; the optimal mix ratio is 148 g bentonite, Na2CO3 5.2 g, CMC 3.5 g, PHP 0.05 g; the slurry ratio test analysis and treatment, and the optimization mix ratio is feasible and reasonable, class I pile proportion more than 98% to meet the actual engineering requirements.

The research and development for this dissertation focused on the VOC-free, biodegradable “green” polylactic acid (PLA) polymer for deriving tailored properties via thermal and ionizing radiation and targeted for the following three areas: (i) Deriving a first-of-kind wear-resistant distortion-free coating for luxury vinyl flooring tiles (to replace PVC), (ii) Deriving an ultra-low cost, rapid turnaround, and versatile gamma-neutron solid state detector-dosimeter (PLAD), and, (iii) for studying the possible use general purpose adhesion of various substrates at elevated temperatures. Collectively, the PLA based technology is referred to as PLATech. Polylactic acid (PLA) bio-renewable green polymer films were studied for their use as alternate to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for deployment as the wear layer (WL) for luxury vinyl tiles. The WL is to be adhesively bonded to a composite layer comprising a thin ~0.08mm print layer (PL) bonded onto a relatively thick ~2.5mm ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) backing layer (BL). Challenges included studying for: optimizing for the combinations of PLA polymer film types and thicknesses that are wear resistant enough, joined under hot press temperature, compression loading and time duration of compression for attaining key metric of adhesion related peel strength of over 354 N/mm (7 pli), with minimal (< 2% thickness) distortion of the PL-cum-BL for producing spatially uniform strength sizes ranging from 4”x4” towards 12”x12” LVT; additional challenges involved ensuring adequate WL abrasion resistance commensurate with residential and industrial uses, along with tensile strength and shrinkage similar to that for PVC. Abrasion resistance for the PLA WL varied with film thickness ranging from 450 cycles to over 4,500 cycles for film thicknesses of 0.075 mm and ~0.5mm, respectively. PLA WL tensile strength at failure was found to be 7x higher than that for PVC films of equal thickness (0.5 mm); however, the tensile elongation for PLA film at failure is ~12% versus ~200% for PVC film. High temperature-pressure (93-110℃; 1-3 MPa) combinations with press times ranging from 5 to 20 min. resulted in peel strengths ranging from 177 N/m (~3.5 pli) towards 810 N/m (16 pli). However, these parametric combinations resulted in significant PL disfigurement, BL melting and distortion with over 0.4mm thickness reductions. Peel strength variations were highly non-linear versus compression time, platen temperature/pressure and film thickness. Distortion-free, high peel strength 455-610 N/m(9-12 pli) adhesion and industrial grade WL abrasion resistance (>4,000 cycles) LVTs were successfully produced using 500 mm thick crystalline PLA film compressed onto PL-BL composite layers, with platens heated between 90.5-93℃, under 1 MPa loading, applied for ~5 min. duration. This combination of parameters also allowed scaling of sizes of the composite tiles from 0.1mx0.1m (4”x4”) to ~0.3mx0.3m (12”x12”). The onset of unacceptable distortion and thickness reduction occurs at/beyond ~ 95℃ and is attributed mainly to plastic deformation for the EVA-based base layer, and affirmed via DSC test results. Effects of PLA WL surface pre-treatment were studied for impact on peel strength of PLA-LVTs. Silicone layer coating nominally used by suppliers (and used for the bulk of the studies reported herein) did not lead to noticeable changes in bond strength when using a single PLA WL, but, surprisingly close to 100% increase was noted for PLA-LVTs produced using a double lap layer of non-silicone coated PLA films. Corona plasma discharge treated PLA WL surprisingly resulted in a significant (~90%) degradation of peel strength. Finally, sand paper roughened PLA WL showed no significant effect on resulting peel strength. PLAD related studies were motivated from observations that PLA resin responds well in terms of mechanical, thermal and rheological property variations when subject to ionizing radiation in the 1–100 kGy (100-10,000 kRad) range–of significant interest in biomedical and general nuclear industry applications. Co-60 was used as the mainstay source for gamma irradiation. It was found that PLA resin responds well in terms of rheology and porosity metrics with an absorbed gamma dose (Dg). In this work, rheological changes were ascertained via measuring the differential mass loss ratio (MLR) of irradiated PLA placed within PTFE-framed (40 mm × 20 mm × 0.77 mm) cavities bearing ~0.9 g of PLA resin and pressed for 12–16 min in a controlled force hot press under ~6.6 kN loading and platens heated to 227 °C for the low Dg range: 0–11 kGy (0-1,100 kRad); and to 193 °C for the extended Dg range: 11–120 kGy (1,100-12,000 kRad). MLR varied quadratically from 0.05 to ~0.2 (1σ ~0.007) in the 0–11 kGy (0-1,100 kRad) experiments, and from 0.05 to ~0.5 (1σ ~0.01) in the 0–120 kGy (0-12,000 kRad) experiments. Rheological changes from gamma irradiation were modeled and simultaneously correlated with void-pocket formations, which increase with Dg. A single PLA resin bead (~0.04 g) was compressed 5 min at 216 °C in 0–16 kGy (0-1,600 kRad) experiments, and compressed 2 min at 232 °C in the 16–114 kGy (1,600-14,000 kRad) experiments, to form sturdy ~100 µm thick wafers in the same press. Aggregate coupon porosity was then readily measurable with conventional optical microscope imaging and analyzed with standard image processing; this provided complementary data to MLR. Average porosity vs. dose varied quadratically from ~0 to ~15% in the 0–16 kGy (0-1,600 kRad) range and from ~0 to ~18% over the 16–114 kGy (1,600-14,000 kRad) range. These results provide evidence for utilizing “green”/renewable (under $0.01) PLA resin beads for rapid and accurate (+/-5–10%) gamma dosimetry over a wide 0–120 kGy (0-12,000 kRad) range, using simple to deploy mass and void measuring techniques using common laboratory equipment. In addition to Co-60 gamma irradiations alone, irradiation studies were also initiated using the Purdue University Reactor (PUR-1) irradiation capabilities in order to further develop and characterize PLAD technology. It was found that the afore-mentioned MLR and porosity metrics did not offer the ability to monitor for neutron dose; this was overcome in scoping studies with an alternate metric, Ratio of Mass Dissolved (RMD) of irradiated PLA in acetone at elevated temperatures. It was found that below ~54℃, PLA dissolution correlated very well with gamma irradiation dose. At and above ~54℃ the combined effect of neutron and gamma irradiation dose appears feasible to determine. The effect of gamma radiation induced crosslinking the adhesion bonding strength at room temperature and elevated temperatures were studied. For room temperature applications, IngeoTM 4043D semi-crystalline PLA was first used to bond steel dowels. Bonding strength enhancement of ~28% was obtained with the addition of 10wt% Triallyl Isocyanurate (TAIC) and cross-linked under 20 kGy (2,000 kRad) gamma irradiation dose. For elevated temperature assessments, IngeoTM 10361D amorphous PLA was then used to bond aluminum lap-joint shear samples as a control. For studying for application for elevated temperatures, tests were conducted with addition of 3wt% TAIC and 50 kGy (5,000 kRad) gamma dose. Under shear loading, an enhancement of ~30% working temperature improvement was attainable raising the temperature at failure from ~70℃ towards ~100℃. Alternative crosslinking agent Dicumyl peroxide (DCP) was also explored and indicated little to no benefits.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. a-b Venn diagram of target genes related to pyrotinib-induced diarrhea treated with SBP(a). Intertarget interaction network of SBP in the treatment of pyrotinib-induced diarrhea(b). Figure S2. (a, b) GO enrichment analysis was performed on potential targets of main active ingredients from SBP against diarrhea. BP, biological processes; CC, cellular component.

With the continuous development of social economy, film and television animation, as the spiritual needs of ordinary people, is more and more popular. Especially for the development of emerging technologies, the corresponding voice can be used to change AI expression. But at the same time, how to ensure the synchronization of language sound and facial expression is one of the difficulties in animation transformation. Relying on the compromised node detection of wireless sensor networks, this paper combs the synchronous traffic flow between the speech signals and facial expressions, finds the pattern distribution of facial motion based on unsupervised classification, realizes training and learning through neural networks, and realizes one-to-one mapping to facial expressions by using the rhyme distribution of speech features. It avoids the defect of robustness of speech recognition, improves the learning ability of speech recognition, and realizes the driving analysis of facial expression film and television animation. The simulation results show that the compromised node detection in wireless sensor networks is effective and can support the analysis and research of speech-driven facial expression film and television animation.

With the continuous development of the social economy, cartoon animation and other multimedia and streaming media forms are becoming more and more popular and are loved by all kinds of people, such as monkey king and Nezha. However, the multimedia of these cartoon animation needs to conform to mainstream values and transmit positive energy. In view of these needs and shortcomings, this study relies on the Bayesian sequence recommendation algorithm, combs the three-tier architecture diagram of multimedia character modeling, analyzes it, respectively, from the perspectives of hierarchy, behavior, and interactive process, and tries to build corresponding animation design management documents, so as to provide corresponding decision-making basis to produce animation and develop corresponding results, provide corresponding reference mode for cartoon animation multimedia character manufacturing, complete corresponding cartoon animation multimedia characters faster, and improve cartoon animation multimedia works and efficiency. The simulation results show that the Bayesian sequence recommendation algorithm is effective and can support the design and modeling of cartoon animation multimedia characters.

As the worldwide energy crisis worsens, renewable energy sources have undeniably opened new horizons for our society. It will offer an efficient solution to this severe energy crisis, environmental issues and fulfilling human energy needs. Therefore, six main criteria, social, economic, quality of energy, political, technical, environmental, and sixteen sub-criteria have been employed, and an assessment model is developed for prioritizing the most pertinent renewable energy sources for electricity generation in developing countries in which four major resources, solar energy, wind energy, hydropower, and biomass energy, are considered and their electricity generation potential. Furthermore, the integrated method with the analytical hierarchy process and VIekriterijumsko KOmpromisno Rangiranje are acquired for a comprehensive assessment. The results demonstrate that the economic criterion had the highest weight of (0.353) compared to the technical criterion, which took place second with a weight of (0.244) followed by environmental (0.205) and quality of energy with a weight (0.098), respectively. The political and social criteria have the lowest weights of (0.057) and (0.043). From the review, renewable resources seem to have sufficient potential to develop a sustainable electricity system. Likewise, the model priorities these resources, revealing that hydropower is the best renewable energy source option, followed by wind energy. Biomass energy and solar energy ranked third and fourth. The assessment performed in this study can help decision-makers in Pakistan to frame long-term energy policy directing for sustainability.

In this article, we propose an economic storage sharing framework for prosumers and energy storage providers (ESPs) to promote renewable energy utilization cooperatively. The optimal shared capacities of ESPs and the energy sharing profiles of prosumers are first derived via minimizing social energy costs. Then the storage sharing profits of ESPs and the energy sharing payments of prosumers are successively determined by the asymmetric bargaining-based benefits sharing model. Specifically, the prosumer group bargains with the ESPs with the nominal required capacity and the shared capacities as their bargaining power to share the storage sharing benefits. Then prosumers bargain with each other to share the energy sharing benefits with their bargaining power quantified by a nonlinear energy sharing mapping method. Therefore, the benefits sharing model based on the contributions of prosumers and ESPs is fair enough for the participants. Numerical simulation tests verify the efficiency of the proposed framework.

The Loess Plateau is one of the most eco-fragile regions in China, and therefore the scientific evaluation of its ecological vulnerability provides a premise for the effective implication of ecological protection and management practices. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the ecological vulnerability in a small region, which cannot reflect the overall picture of the ecological vulnerability in the Loess Plateau. Based on the "exposure-sensitivity-adaptation" framework, this study investigated the spatial-temporal patterns and their driving forces of the ecological vulnerability in the Loess Plateau from 2000 to 2015 through a combined use of the analytic hierarchy process, spatial principal component analysis, and Geodetector analysis. The results showed that the ecological vulnerability was overall at a moderate to high level, and the vulnerability was clearly higher in the northwestern part of the Loess Plateau than that in the southeastern counterparts. Additionally, the ecological vulnerability differed greatly by land use type. The ecological vulnerability decreased after an increase from 2000 to 2015 and in general decreased slightly throughout the study period. Therein, approximately 64% of the total land area experienced an upward or downward trend in the vulnerability. Vegetation coverage and precipitation were the two main factors contributing to the spatial-temporal variability in the ecological vulnerability, and there were significant interactions among all the used indicators. This study suggests that climate change and human activities may help reduce the ecological vulnerability over the Loess Plateau, although their contributions are limited.

Fetal membrane activation is seen as being one of the crucial triggering components of human parturition. Increased prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production, a common mediator of labor onset in virtually all species, is recognized as one of the landmark events of membrane activation. Fetal membranes are also equipped with a high capacity of cortisol regeneration by 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1 (11β-HSD1), and the cortisol regenerated potently induces PGE2 synthesis, an effect normally suppressed by progesterone during gestation. There is no precipitous decline of progesterone synthesis in human parturition. It is intriguing how this suppression is lifted in parturition. Here, we investigated this issue by using human amnion tissue and primary amnion fibroblasts which synthesize the most PGE2 in the fetal membranes. Results showed that the expression of 11β-HSD1 and aldo-keto reductase family 1 member C1 (AKR1C1), a progesterone-inactivating enzyme, increased in parallel in human amnion tissue with gestational age toward the end of gestation and at parturition. Cortisol induced AKR1C1 expression via the transcription factor CCAAT enhancer binding protein δ (C/EBPδ) in amnion fibroblasts. Inhibition of AKR1C1 not only blocked progesterone catabolism induced by cortisol, but also enhanced the suppression of cortisol-induced cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression by progesterone in amnion fibroblasts. In conclusion, our results indicate that cortisol regenerated in the fetal membranes triggers local progesterone withdrawal through enhancement of AKR1C1-mediated progesterone catabolism in amnion fibroblasts, so that the suppression of progesterone on the induction of COX-2 expression and PGE2 synthesis by cortisol can be lifted for parturition.

The present study investigates whether growth mindset buffers against the negative effect of social exclusion on self-regulation.

In this study, we will apply day reconstruction method to examine whether, how, and why trait grit relates to perseverance and passion for daily activities.

Recent studies have suggested that trait self-control is positively associated with motivational quality (i.e., autonomous motivation). For example, Converse et al. (2019) have shown that people high in trait self-control report more momentary experience of pleasure, fun, and enjoyment for task goals. Similarly, Holding et al. (2019) implemented a two-wave longitudinal design and found that trait self-control predicted increase in autonomous motivation for idiographic goals over time. The present study is an intensive longitudinal study. We aim to extend previous findings by testing if trait self-control relates to transformation and internalization of idiographic goals in a novel environment, namely the transition to college life. Specifically, we will implement weekly diary measures and track freshmen throughout the first semester to see how they go through the transition to college life during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a marker of inflammation, calprotectin has potential application value in a variety of inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis and bacterial infections. Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is an infectious disease that causes intestinal damage and inflammation. This systematic review aims to determine whether fecal calprotectin has application value in CDI. Nine databases were searched from inception to 6 June 2022, and 17 studies were included. These studies were divided into four groups according to their content. Generally speaking, fecal calprotectin is not an ideal indicator for the diagnosis and prognosis prediction of CDI but may serve as a potential indicator for assessing disease severity and as a readily detectable marker for CDI screening. In addition, patients in need of treatment or with detectable toxins in stool may tend to have higher levels of fecal calprotectin. In summary, fecal calprotectin has some potential application value in CDI. However, further studies are needed to verify these findings and determine the reliability of calprotectin as a biomarker for CDI.

BackgroundTreatments for patients with early‐stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) include liver transplantation (LT), liver resection (LR), radiofrequency ablation (RFA), and microwave ablation (MWA), are critical for their long-term survival. However, a computational model predicting treatment-independent prognosis of patients with HCC, such as overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS), is yet to be developed, to our best knowledge. The goal of this study is to identify prognostic factors associated with OS and RFS in patients with HCC and develop nomograms to predict them, respectively.MethodsWe retrospectively retrieved 730 patients with HCC from three hospitals in China and followed them up for 3 and 5 years after invasive treatment. All enrolled patients were randomly divided into the training cohort and the validation cohort with a 7:3 ratio, respectively. Independent prognostic factors associated with OS and RFS were determined by the multivariate Cox regression analysis. Two nomogram prognostic models were built and evaluated by concordance index (C-index), calibration curves, area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve, time-dependent area under the ROC curve (AUC), the Kaplan–Meier survival curve, and decision curve analyses (DCAs), respectively.ResultsPrognostic factors for OS and RFS were identified, and nomograms were successfully built. Calibration discrimination was good for both the OS and RFS nomogram prediction models (C-index: 0.750 and 0.746, respectively). For both nomograms, the AUC demonstrated outstanding predictive performance; the DCA shows that the model has good decision ability; and the calibration curve demonstrated strong predictive power. The nomograms successfully discriminated high-risk and low-risk patients with HCC associated with OS and RFS.ConclusionsWe developed nomogram survival prediction models to predict the prognosis of HCC after invasive treatment with acceptable accuracies in both training and independent testing cohorts. The models may have clinical values in guiding the selection of clinical treatment strategies.

This paper introduces a distributed compensation approach for the global optimization with separable objective functions and coupled constraints. By employing compensation variables, the global optimization problem can be solved without the information exchange of coupled constraints. The convergence analysis of the proposed algorithm is presented with the convergence condition through which a diminishing step-size with an upper bound can be determined. The convergence rate can be achieved at $O({lnT}/{\sqrt {T}})$ . Moreover, the equilibrium of this algorithm is proved to converge at the optimal solution of the global optimization problem. The effectiveness and the practicability of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by the parameter optimization problem in smart building.

Although tannins are widely distributed in broad beans and alfalfa, the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) can still destroy them. The ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporters participate in the metabolism of plant secondary metabolites and pesticides in insects. However, whether ABC transporter genes play a role in the metabolism of tannins in the pea aphid is unclear. Here, we found that verapamil (an ABC transporter inhibitor) significantly increased the mortality of tannic acid to pea aphid, which indicated that ABC transporter gene was related to the metabolism of tannic acid by pea aphid. Then, we identified 54 putative ABC transporter genes from the genome database of A. pisum. These genes were divided into eight subfamilies, ApABCA to ApABCH, of which subfamily G has the largest number of genes with 19, followed by the subfamily C with 14. RT-qPCR results show that the expression levels of ApABCA2, ApABCC7, ApABCG2, and ApABCG3 were highly expressed in the first instar, while those of ApABCA3, ApABCG6, ApABCG7, ApABCH3, and ApABCH4 were highly expressed in adults. Furthermore, transcription levels of many ABC transporter genes were induced by tannic acid. Especially, ApABCG17 and ApABCH2 were obviously induced after being exposed to tannic acid. Meanwhile, knockdown of ApABCG17 by RNA interference resulted in increased sensitivity of pea aphid to tannic acid. These results suggest that ApABCG17 may be involved in tannic acid metabolism in pea aphid. This study will help us to understand the mechanism of tannic acid metabolism in pea aphid, and provides a basis for further research on the physiological function of ABC transporter genes in pea aphid.

A reliable and rapid method employing QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe) pretreatment coupled with ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) was successfully developed and validated for the analysis of nine tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in human plasma. Biological samples were extracted with acetonitrile and salted out with 350 mg of anhydrous magnesium sulfate (MgSO4), followed by purification with 40 mg of ethyl enediamine-N-propylsilane (PSA) adsorbents. All analytes and internal standards (IS) were separated on the Hypersil GOLD VANQUISH C18 (2.1 mm × 100 mm, 1.9 μM) column using the mobile phases composed of acetonitrile (phase A) and 0.1% formic acid in water (phase B) for 8.0 min. Detection was performed by selection reaction monitoring (SRM) in the positive ion electrospray mode. Lenvatinib, sorafenib, cabozantinib, apatinib, gefitinib, regorafenib, and anlotinib rendered good linearity over the range of 0.1–10 ng/ml, and 1–100 ng/ml for tivantinib and galunisertib. All linear correlation coefficients for all standard curves were ≥ 0.9966. The limits of detection (LOD) and the limits of quantitation (LOQ) ranged from 0.003 to 0.11 ng/ml and 0.01–0.37 ng/ml, respectively. The method was deemed satisfactory with an accuracy of -7.34–6.64%, selectivity, matrix effect (ME) of 90.48–107.77%, recovery, and stability. The proposed method is simple, efficient, reliable, and applicable for the detection of TKIs in human plasma samples as well as for providing a reference for the clinical adjustment of drug administration regimen by monitoring the drug concentrations in the plasma of patients.

Background The human amnion is an intrauterine tissue which is involved in the initiation of parturition. In-depth understanding of gene expression signatures of individual cell types in the amnion with respect to membrane rupture at parturition may help identify crucial initiators of parturition for the development of specific strategies to prevent preterm birth, a leading cause of perinatal mortality. Results Six major cell types were revealed in human amnion including epithelial cells, fibroblasts and immunocytes as well as three other cell types expressing dual cell markers including epithelial/fibroblast, immune/epithelial and immune/fibroblast markers. The existence of cell types expressing these dual cell markers indicates the presence of epithelial-mesenchymal (EMT), epithelial-immune (EIT) and mesenchymal-immune (MIT) transitions in amnion at parturition. We found that the rupture zone of amnion exhibited some specific increases in subcluster proportions of immune and EMT cells related to extracellular matrix remodeling and inflammation in labor. The non-rupture zone exhibited some common changes in subcluster compositions of epithelial and fibroblast cells with the rupture zone in labor, particularly those related to oxidative stress and apoptosis in epithelial cells and zinc ion transport in fibroblasts. Moreover, we identified that C–C motif chemokine ligand 20 (CCL20) was among the top up-regulated genes in amnion epithelial cells, fibroblasts and immunocytes in the rupture zone at parturition. Studies in pregnant mice showed that administration of CCL20 induced immunocytes infiltration to tissues at the maternal–fetal interface and led to preterm birth. Conclusions Apart from the conventional epithelial, fibroblast and immunocytes, human amnion cells may undergo EMT, EIT and FIT in preparation for parturition. Intense inflammation and ECM remodeling are present in the rupture zone, while enhanced apoptosis and oxidative stress in epithelial cells and zinc ion transport in fibroblasts are present in amnion regardless of the rupture zones at parturition. CCL20 derived from the major cell types of the amnion participates in labor onset.

This article investigates the energy cooperation between photovoltaic prosumers and community energy storage (CES) to improve community energy efficiency. The optimal energy sharing profiles between prosumers and CES are firstly derived by solving the energy optimization problem minimizing social energy cost. To guarantee the incentives for prosumers and CES to participate in the energy cooperation, a Nash bargaining based benefits sharing model is presented to determine the energy sharing payments. Two implementation modes, i.e., Data-Centric and Prosumers-to-CES mode, are developed to protect privacy for both prosumers and CES. Cheating behaviors in benefits sharing, the critical yet challenging matter, are analyzed; a cheating equilibrium based solution is proposed and achieved by a relaxation algorithm for a stable cooperation. In addition, the alternating direction method of multipliers with adaptive parameter selection is introduced to solve the formulated problems in a distributed way. Numerical simulation tests show the efficiency of the novel models.