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Purpose: To evaluate the association between serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) half-life (HL) and prognosis in prepubertal children with elevated AFP values 3 to 4 weeks after surgery for testicular yolk sac tumors (YST). Methods: Prepubertal patients with testicular YST treated with radical orchiectomy between January 2016 and December 2022 were retrospectively reviewed. Negative outcomes were defined as relapse, metastasis or death. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to select risk factors for negative outcomes. Results: A total of 42 patients were eventually enrolled into the study. Patients were divided into non-negative and negative outcomes groups, consisting of 35 and 7 patients, respectively. Thirty-five patients were stage I, two cases were stage II, and five cases were stage IV, according to the Children's Oncology Group staging system. The overall survival (OS) rate was 100%. Average AFP values significantly decreased after resection (P < 0.001). A significant positive correlation was shown between pre- and postoperative AFP values (r = 0.60, P < 0.001). Long AFP HL was considered as an independent risk factor for negative outcomes in YST patients underwent radical orchiectomy (P = 0.04). The cut-off value for AFP HL was 5.78 days, regardless of age division. Conclusion: Testicular YST is a relatively rare disease in children with an OS of 100%, and salvage chemotherapy is effective even in grade IV patients. The postoperative AFP HL was significantly associated with prognosis in prepubertal patients with testicular YST. The cut-off value for AFP HL is 5.78 days regardless of the effect of physiological AFP elevation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electron-phonon (el-ph) and phonon-phonon interactions play crucial roles in determining the electronic and thermal transport properties of materials. Using the group theory and ab-initio calculations, we have derived the full-landscape selection rules for intravalley and intervalley scattering for carriers in 2D silicon and germanium allotropes with low buckled (LB) and large honeycomb dumbbell (LHD) structures, showing dominant role of optical modes in total el-ph coupling in LHD Si/Ge due to most el-ph scattering channels via acoustic modes blocked by symmetries. Remarkably, we show that due to the relatively large optical phonon bandwidth and "bunching effect" of acoustic phonon bands, the selection rules of three-phonon interactions reveal the dominant ooo and aoo channels in LHD and LB Si/Ge, respectively, and the temprature-induced effects significantly increase the ratio between mode-resolved four-phonon interactions and three-phonon interactions in most of the phonon-frequency region, finally leading to the low thermal conductivities in both LB and LHD Si/Ge. Furthermore, we observe the anomalous temperature-dependent thermal conductivities in LHD Ge, resulted from the vanishing quasi-acoustic-optical phonon gap under the temperature-induced effects. By considering full el-ph coupling and higher-order anharmonic phonon-phonon interactions, the maximal thermoelectric figures of merits in LHD Si and LB Ge are found to reach 1.06 and 0.66 at 700 K, respectively, significantly surpassing their bulk counterparts. Our work is poised to stimulate wide-ranging exploration into phonon transport across diverse materials, and benefits both fundamental knowledge and advanced technologies of 2D Si/Ge allotropes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of logistics theory and logistics technology has made the government and enterprises gradually realize that the development of logistics has an important strategic role, which can effectively solve the changing needs of users, optimize resource allocation, improve the investment environment, and enhance the overall strength and overall competitiveness of the regional economy. This paper carries out matrix–vector multiplication operations and weight update operations, designs a perceptron neural network model, and realizes a simulation platform based on MLP neural network. Moreover, on the basis of the standard MLP neural network, this paper proposes to use the deep learning training mechanism to improve the MLP neural network, which provides effective technical support for the improvement of the prediction model. In addition, through the fusion of deep learning and MLP neural network, an MLP neural network with three hidden layers is determined. Finally, this paper builds a model based on the MLP neural network algorithm, selects the RBF kernel function as the kernel function of the model by referring to the relevant literature, and uses PSO to optimize the combination of parameters. It can be seen from the result of the evaluation index that each evaluation index is relatively small. The result shows that the prediction is accurate, and the empirical result shows the feasibility of the model to predict the demand for industrial logistics in Shanxi Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herpes simplex virus type I (HSV-1) infection causes inflammation in the cornea known as herpes simplex virus keratitis (HSK), a common but serious corneal disease. It is not entirely clear whether the virus during recurring infection comes from the trigeminal ganglia or the eye tissue, including the retina and ciliary ganglion. Because the tree shrew is closely related to primates and tree shrew eye anatomic structures are similar to humans, we studied HSV-1 corneal infection in the tree shrew. We found that HSK symptoms closely mimic those found in human HSK showing typical punctiform and dendritic viral keratitis during the acute infection period. Following the HSV-specific lesions, complications such as stromal scarring, corneal thickening (primary infection), opacity, and neovascularization were observed. In the tree shrew model, following ocular inoculation, the cornea becomes infected, and viral protein can be detected using anti-HSV-1 antibodies in the epithelial layer and retina neuronal ganglion cells. The HSV-1 transcripts, ICP0, ICP4, and LAT can be detected at 3 days post-infection (dpi), peaking at 5 dpi. After 2 weeks, ICP4 and ICP0 transcripts are reduced to a basal level, but the Latency Associated Transcripts (LATs) continue to accumulate. Interestingly, after the acute infection, we still detected abundant active HSV-1 in tree shrew eyes. Further, we found HSV-1 persistent in the ciliary ganglion and cornea. These findings are discussed in support of the tree shrew as a non-human primate HSK model, which could be useful for mechanistic studies of HSK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herpes Simplex Virus type I (HSV-1) latently infects peripheral nervous system (PNS) sensory neurons, and its reactivation leads to recurring cold sores. The reactivated HSV-1 can travel retrograde from the PNS into the central nervous system (CNS) and is known to be causative of Herpes Simplex viral encephalitis. HSV-1 infection in the PNS is well documented, but little is known on the fate of HSV-1 once it enters the CNS. In the murine model, HSV-1 genome persists in the CNS once infected through an ocular route. To gain more details of HSV-1 infection in the CNS, we characterized HSV-1 infection of the tree shrew ( Tupaia belangeri chinensis) brain following ocular inoculation. Here, we report that HSV-1 enters the tree shrew brain following ocular inoculation and HSV-1 transcripts, ICP0, ICP4, and LAT can be detected at 5 days post-infection (p.i.), peaking at 10 days p.i. After 2 weeks, ICP4 and ICP0 transcripts are reduced to a basal level, but the LAT intron region continues to be expressed. Live virus could be recovered from the olfactory bulb and brain stem tissue. Viral proteins could be detected using anti-HSV-1 antibodies and anti-ICP4 antibody, during the acute stage but not beyond. In situ hybridization could detect LAT during acute infection in most brain regions and in olfactory bulb and brain stem tissue well beyond the acute stage. Using a homogenate from these tissues' post-acute infection, we did not recover live HSV-1 virus, supporting a latent infection, but using a modified explant cocultivation technique, we were able to recover reactivated virus from these tissues, suggesting that the HSV-1 virus latently infects the tree shrew CNS. Compared to mouse, the CNS acute infection of the tree shrew is delayed and the olfactory bulb contains most latent virus. During the acute stage, a portion of the infected tree shrews exhibit symptoms similar to human viral encephalitis. These findings, together with the fact that tree shrews are closely related to primates, provided a valuable alternative model to study HSV-1 infection and pathogenesis in the CNS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Pulsatile delivery of proteins, in which release occurs over a short time after a period of little or no release, is desirable for many applications. This paper investigates the effect of biodegradable polymer shell thickness on pulsatile protein release from biodegradable polymer microcapsules. Methods: Using precision particle fabrication (PPF) technology, monodisperse microcapsules were fabricated encapsulating bovine serum albumin (BSA) in a liquid core surrounded by a drug-free poly(lactide- co-glycolide) (PLG) shell of uniform, controlled thickness from 14 to 19 μm. Results: When using high molecular weight PLG (Mw 88 kDa), microparticles exhibited the desired core-shell structure with high BSA loading and encapsulation efficiency (55-65%). These particles exhibited very slow release of BSA for several weeks followed by rapid release of 80-90% of the encapsulated BSA within 7 days. Importantly, with increasing shell thickness the starting time of the pulsatile release could be controlled from 25 to 35 days. Conclusions: Biodegradable polymer microcapsules with precisely controlled shell thickness provide pulsatile release with enhanced control of release profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the capacity of initial ranging (IR) users simultaneously accessing into network and enhance the performance of the IR, a novel IR algorithm is presented for the orthogonal frequency division multiple access systems with the smart antenna. The beamforming weight vectors provided by the antenna array are introduced for the IR users, and the procedures of the multiuser parameter estimation and the interference cancellation are designed. The proposed method can improve the accuracy of the channel estimation of active paths and efficiently reduce the residual multiple access interference. Simulation results show that the proposed method has a much better performance than the available successive multiuser detection and interference cancellation algorithm and accommodates more active ranging users simultaneously accessing into a cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]