Search

The emergence of COVID-19 dramatically changed social behavior across societies and contexts. Here we study whether social norms also changed. Specifically, we study this question for cultural tightness (the degree to which societies generally have strong norms), specific social norms (e.g. stealing, hand washing), and norms about enforcement, using survey data from 30,431 respondents in 43 countries recorded before and in the early stages following the emergence of COVID-19. Using variation in disease intensity, we shed light on the mechanisms predicting changes in social norm measures. We find evidence that, after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, hand washing norms increased while tightness and punishing frequency slightly decreased but observe no evidence for a robust change in most other norms. Thus, at least in the short term, our findings suggest that cultures are largely stable to pandemic threats except in those norms, hand washing in this case, that are perceived to be directly relevant to dealing with the collective threat. Tightness-looseness theory predicts that social norms strengthen following threat. Here the authors test this and find that, after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, hand washing norms increased, but no evidence was observed for a robust change in most other norms.

Qing Zhang,1,* Wenjun Hu,1,* Mingxue Guo,1 Xinyu Zhang,1 Qin Zhang,1 Fengqi Peng,1 Liwen Yan,1 Zucheng Hu,1 Jakkree Tangthianchaichana,2 Yan Shen,3 Haiyan Hu,4 Shouying Du,1 Yang Lu1 1School of Chinese Pharmacy, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 102488, People’s Republic of China; 2Chulabhorn International College of Medicine, Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, 12120, Thailand; 3School of Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, 210009, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Pharmacy, Beijing Health Vocational College, Beijing, 101100, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Haiyan Hu, School of Pharmacy, Beijing Health Vocational College, Beijing, 101100, People’s Republic of China, Email yxyhhy@163.com Yang Lu, School of Chinese Pharmacy, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 102488, People’s Republic of China, Email luyang@bucm.edu.cnIntroduction: Responsive drug delivery systems hold great promise for tumor treatment as they focus on therapeutic agents directly, thus minimizing systemic toxicities and drug leakage. In this study, we covalently bound a matrix metalloproteinases-2 (MMP-2) enzyme-sensitive peptide to a tissue-penetrating peptide to rationally design a MMP-2 responsive multifunctional peptide hydrogel platform (aP/IR@FMKB) for cancer photothermal-chemo-immunotherapy. The constructed aP/IR@FMKB with bufalin (BF) loaded in trimethyl chitosan nanoparticles (TB NPs), photothermal agent IR820, and immune checkpoint inhibitor aPD-L1 by self-assembly could be dissociated in the presence of MMP-2 enzyme, triggering content release.Methods: TB NPs, IR820, and aPD-L1 were encapsulated by intermolecular self-assembly and enzyme-sensitive nanogels (aP/IR@FMKB) were constructed. The in vitro cytotoxicity of the blank gels and their ability to induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) in aP/IR@FMKB were evaluated using 4T1 cells. The promotion of dee

Fuel starvation during the fuel cell operation inevitably leads to high potential anodes, which causes carbon corrosion and catalyst layer collapse and poses a challenge to the durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Herein, Ti4O7 with a high specific surface area was synthesized facilely and utilized to replace carbon as the anode catalyst support. Previously, the initial performance of the Ti4O7-supported catalyst was obstructed by the disadvantaged electrical conductivity of Ti4O7. This work obtains a comparable polarization performance after optimizing the Ti4O7-supported anode catalyst layer parameters by shortening the electron transfer pathway and increasing metal coverage. Meanwhile, reversal-tolerant anodes (RTAs) were fabricated by the traditional IrO2 addition and core–shell structured Ir@IrOx to validate the applicability of the Ti4O7 support. Typically, the Ir@IrOx/Pt/Ti4O7-fabricated RTA with low Ir loading displays an approximately ten times longer reversal time (6 hours) and two orders of magnitude lower degradation rate than a conventional carbon-supported counterpart. The degradation origin of the Ti4O7-supported anodes was also studied by postmortem characterizations, pointing to the Pt oxidation caused by the formation of TiOx thin layers on the Pt surface. The study aims to promote the development of carbon-free anodes and provide a bright perspective for practical high-performance, low-degradation, and cost-friendly RTA fabrication.

Shuping Ruan,* Xiaoqing Yuan,* Juan Liu, Qing Zhang, Xinhua Ye Department of Endocrinology, The Affiliated Changzhou No. 2 People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou Medical Center, Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Qing Zhang; Xinhua Ye, Email 1034173982@qq.com; Endocrine1314@163.comPurpose: This study aims to investigate cardiovascular risk factors in nonobese patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and to determine whether they might be used to predict high-risk individuals effectively.Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 245 nonobese patients with T2DM who underwent FibroTouch in the National Metabolic Management Center of the Affiliated Changzhou No. 2 People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2021 to December 2022. All individuals were divided into NAFLD and non-NAFLD groups. Patients with NAFLD were further grouped by UAP tertiles (T1, T2 and T3). We created a Cardiovascular Score (total scale: 0– 5 points; ≥ 3 points was defined as high-risk individual) based on baPWV, carotid ultrasound, and urinary microalbumin creatinine ratio (UA/CR) to assess the risk of cardiovascular disease in non-obese T2DM patients with NAFLD. Risk factors were evaluated using univariate and multivariate analysis. The performance of risk factors was compared according to the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.Results: Atherogenic index of plasma (AIP), atherosclerosis index (AI), prevalence of hypertension, body mass index (BMI) and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were higher in the NAFLD group compared to the non-NAFLD group. In T3 group, AIP, AI, BMI and HOMA-IR were higher than those of T1 group. Multivariate logistic regression showed that age, systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein-choleste

Bai-Bing Gao,1,2,* Qing-qing Zhang,1,* Shu-qin Dong,1,2 Fei Gao,1,2 Xia Liu,3 Jing Wei,3 Yu Lu1 1Department of Endocrinology, The Affiliated Taizhou People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Taizhou School of Clinical Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Taizhou, 225300, People’s Republic of China; 2Dalian Medical University, Dalian, Liaoning, 116044, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Affiliated Taizhou People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Taizhou School of Clinical Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Taizhou, 225300, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yu Lu; Jing Wei, Email luyu_666@126.com; qlm_weijin@163.comAim: We investigate the association of mammalian sterile line 20-like kinase 1 (MST1) in the first trimester with the risks of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and adverse pregnancy outcomes.Methods: Pregnancies were recruited during their first antenatal care visit between 8 and 12 gestational weeks. These pregnancies underwent an oral glucose tolerance test between 24 and 28 gestational weeks and were followed up until delivery. Serum MST1 levels at 8– 12 gestational weeks and 24– 28 gestational weeks were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between MST1 levels in the first trimester and the risks of GDM and adverse pregnancy outcomes.Results: This cohort study enrolled a total of 231 pregnancies. GDM was present in 42 (18.18%) women. Compared to the normal glucose tolerance (NGT) group, the GDM group had higher levels of FPG, HOMA-IR, and MST1 both in the first and second trimesters, but had lower HOMA-β levels only in the second trimester. Then participants were classified according to the median MST1 value in the first trimester. Incidences of GDM, composite adverse pregnancy outcomes, preterm birth, and mac

Qing-Lai Zhang,* Yue Zhang,* Li-Li Lin, Fei Meng, Li Yan Department of Nephrology, Hemodialysis Center, Chaoyang Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100020, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Qing-Lai Zhang, Department of Nephrology, Hemodialysis center, Chaoyang Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, No. 8 of Gongti South Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100020, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 13601303598 ; +86 85231952, Fax +86 65935007, Email qinglaiz3069@163.comBackground: Maintenance haemodialysis (MHD) has been one of the most important renal replacement therapies for patients with end-stage renal disease in recent years. Continuous nursing is considered a prerequisite for high-quality healthcare and is crucial for medical staff, patients and their families. Providing continuous nursing services for patients with chronic diseases via mobile medical means can effectively improve the quality of life of medical staff.Objective: To summarise the application of various mobile device intervention methods for medical patients receiving MHD to provide a reference for the development of mobile health in the continuous nursing of patients undergoing this procedure.Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search in the following databases: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and CNKI. The literature on the application of various mobile medical methods for nursing patients receiving MHD, both domestic and international, is retrospectively reviewed. The current research results and the existing problems are summarised.Results: A total of 18 studies were reviewed, which showed that Chinese researchers have preliminarily explored the relevant problems of applying mobile healthcare to the continuous nursing of patients receiving haemodialysis and have achieved some effective applications. Based on the “Internet+” medical concept, providing follow-up

Bifilms have been proposed to be critical for forming casting defects. The reduced pressure test (RPT) and bifilm index (BI) have been widely studied and used in industry for melt quality assessment. However, the BI remains challenged in predicting the mechanical properties. This work investigated the usage of RPT for elongation prediction by analyzing the melt in two foundries. The results showed that the BI could be valid when the bifilms exist as fully inflated pores. In reality, bifilms present as pores with various morphology and distribution, generating local stress concentrations under tension. Consequently, the parameter areaeff, which considers the pores’ morphology and distribution, was proposed, and the resultant f eff showed a good correlation with the elongation of the castings. These results guide the foundry to predict the elongation of the final castings and give directions for further research on the bifilm defects.

Ziyi Dong,1,2 Xinyu Zhang,1 Qing Zhang,1 Jakkree Tangthianchaichana,1,3 Mingxue Guo,1 Shouying Du,1 Yang Lu1 1Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Chinese Materia Medica, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Research and Development Centre in Beijing, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Limited, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 3Chulabhorn International College of Medicine, Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, ThailandCorrespondence: Yang Lu; Shouying Du, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Number 11 East Section of the North Third Ring Road, Beijing, 100029, People’s Republic of China, Tel + 86-10-84738615, Email luyang@bucm.edu.cn; dumenzidi123@163.comAbstract: Traditional chemotherapy is one of the main methods of cancer treatment, which is largely limited by severe side effects and frequent development of multi-drug resistance by cancer cells. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) with high efficiency and low toxicity, as one of the most promising new drugs to replace chemoradiotherapy, have become a current research hotspot, attracting the attention of worldwide researchers. AMPs are natural-source small peptides from the innate immune system, and certain AMPs can selectively kill a broad spectrum of cancer cells while exhibiting less damage to normal cells. Although it involves intracellular mechanisms, AMPs exert their anti-cancer effects mainly through membrane destruction effect; thus, AMPs also hold unique advantages in fighting drug-resistant cancer cells. However, the poor stability and hemolytic toxicity of peptides limit their clinical application. Fortunately, functionalized nanoparticles have many possibilities in overcoming the shortcomings of AMPs, which provides a huge prospect for better application of AMPs. In this paper, we briefly introduce the characteristics and different sources of AMPs, review and summarize the mechanisms of action and the research status of AMPs used as an anticancer th

XiaoLiang Wang,1,* XiaoDong Ni,1,* YanYan Wei,1 LiHua Xu,1 XiaoChen Tang,1 HaiChun Liu,2 ZiXuan Wang,3 Tao Chen,4,5 JiJun Wang,1 Qing Zhang,1 TianHong Zhang1 1Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Psychological Evaluation and Intervention, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Psychology, Shanghai Xinlianxin Psychological Counseling Center, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 4Big Data Research Lab, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; 5Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: TianHong Zhang; Qing Zhang, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, 600 Wanping Nan Road, Shanghai, 200030, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-21-34773065, Fax +86-21-64387986, Email zhang_tianhong@126.com; qing.zhang@smhc.org.cnIntroduction: Despite numerous studies investigating personality disorder (PD) and childhood maltreatment (CM) characteristics in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ), there remains a scarcity of research focusing on sex differences in PD and CM within large samples of SZ patients.Methods: A total of 592 participants (257 males, 335 females) were consecutively sampled from patients diagnosed with SZ at the psychiatric and psycho-counseling clinics at Shanghai Mental Health Center. PDs were assessed using a self-reported personality diagnostic questionnaire and a structured clinical interview, while CMs were evaluated using the Chinese version of the Child Trauma Questionnaire Short Form.Results: Male patients exhibited a prominent self-reported trait of antisocial PD (t=1.972, p=0.049), while female patients demonstrated a notable emphasis on histr

Supramolecular chirality typically originates from either chiral molecular building blocks or external chiral stimuli. Generating chirality in achiral systems in the absence of a chiral input, however, is non-trivial and necessitates spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking. Achiral nematic lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals have been reported to break mirror symmetry under strong surface or geometric constraints. Here we describe a previously unrecognised mechanism for creating chiral structures by subjecting the material to a pressure-driven flow in a microfluidic cell. The chirality arises from a periodic double-twist configuration of the liquid crystal and manifests as a striking stripe pattern. We show that the mirror symmetry breaking is triggered at regions of flow-induced biaxial-splay configurations of the director field, which are unstable to small perturbations and evolve into lower energy structures. The simplicity of this unique pathway to mirror symmetry breaking can shed light on the requirements for forming macroscopic chiral structures.

Improving the long-term cycling stability and energy density of all-solid-state lithium (Li)-metal batteries (ASSLMBs) at room temperature is a severe challenge because of the notorious solid–solid interfacial contact loss and sluggish ion transport. Solid electrolytes are generally studied as two-dimensional (2D) structures with planar interfaces, showing limited interfacial contact and further resulting in unstable Li/electrolyte and cathode/electrolyte interfaces. Herein, three-dimensional (3D) architecturally designed composite solid electrolytes are developed with independently controlled structural factors using 3D printing processing and post-curing treatment. Multiple-type electrolyte films with vertical-aligned micro-pillar (p-3DSE) and spiral (s-3DSE) structures are rationally designed and developed, which can be employed for both Li metal anode and cathode in terms of accelerating the Li+ transport within electrodes and reinforcing the interfacial adhesion. The printed p-3DSE delivers robust long-term cycle life of up to 2600 cycles and a high critical current density of 1.92 mA cm−2. The optimized electrolyte structure could lead to ASSLMBs with a superior full-cell areal capacity of 2.75 mAh cm−2 (LFP) and 3.92 mAh cm−2 (NCM811). This unique design provides enhancements for both anode and cathode electrodes, thereby alleviating interfacial degradation induced by dendrite growth and contact loss. The approach in this study opens a new design strategy for advanced composite solid polymer electrolytes in ASSLMBs operating under high rates/capacities and room temperature. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2024, The Author(s).

Chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer hampers cure rates, with cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) playing a pivotal role. Despite their known impact on cancer progression and chemotherapy resistance, the specific mechanism by which CAFs regulate the tumor inflammatory environment remains unclear. This study reveals that cisplatin facilitates DNA transfer from ovarian cancer cells to CAFs, activating the CGAS-STING-IFNB1 pathway in CAFs and promoting IFNB1 release. Consequently, this reinforces cancer cell resistance to platinum drugs. High STING expression in the tumor stroma was associated with a poor prognosis, while inhibiting STING expression enhanced ovarian cancer sensitivity. Understanding the relevance of the CGAS-STING pathway in CAFs for platinum resistance suggests targeting STING as a promising combination therapy for ovarian cancer, providing potential avenues for improved treatment outcomes.

Human avatar has become a novel type of 3D asset with various applications. Ideally, a human avatar should be fully customizable to accommodate different settings and environments. In this work, we introduce NECA, an approach capable of learning versatile human representation from monocular or sparse-view videos, enabling granular customization across aspects such as pose, shadow, shape, lighting and texture. The core of our approach is to represent humans in complementary dual spaces and predict disentangled neural fields of geometry, albedo, shadow, as well as an external lighting, from which we are able to derive realistic rendering with high-frequency details via volumetric rendering. Extensive experiments demonstrate the advantage of our method over the state-of-the-art methods in photorealistic rendering, as well as various editing tasks such as novel pose synthesis and relighting. The code is available at https://github.com/iSEE-Laboratory/NECA., Comment: Accepted to CVPR 2024

Current makeup transfer methods are limited to simple makeup styles, making them difficult to apply in real-world scenarios. In this paper, we introduce Stable-Makeup, a novel diffusion-based makeup transfer method capable of robustly transferring a wide range of real-world makeup, onto user-provided faces. Stable-Makeup is based on a pre-trained diffusion model and utilizes a Detail-Preserving (D-P) makeup encoder to encode makeup details. It also employs content and structural control modules to preserve the content and structural information of the source image. With the aid of our newly added makeup cross-attention layers in U-Net, we can accurately transfer the detailed makeup to the corresponding position in the source image. After content-structure decoupling training, Stable-Makeup can maintain content and the facial structure of the source image. Moreover, our method has demonstrated strong robustness and generalizability, making it applicable to varioustasks such as cross-domain makeup transfer, makeup-guided text-to-image generation and so on. Extensive experiments have demonstrated that our approach delivers state-of-the-art (SOTA) results among existing makeup transfer methods and exhibits a highly promising with broad potential applications in various related fields.

We tackle the problem of single-image Human Mesh Recovery (HMR). Previous approaches are mostly based on a single crop. In this paper, we shift the single-crop HMR to a novel multiple-crop HMR paradigm. Cropping a human from image multiple times by shifting and scaling the original bounding box is feasible in practice, easy to implement, and incurs neglectable cost, but immediately enriches available visual details. With multiple crops as input, we manage to leverage the relation among these crops to extract discriminative features and reduce camera ambiguity. Specifically, (1) we incorporate a contrastive learning scheme to enhance the similarity between features extracted from crops of the same human. (2) We also propose a crop-aware fusion scheme to fuse the features of multiple crops for regressing the target mesh. (3) We compute local cameras for all the input crops and build a camera-consistency loss between the local cameras, which reward us with less ambiguous cameras. Based on the above innovations, our proposed method outperforms previous approaches as demonstrated by the extensive experiments.

This article focuses on the Na2O-Ga2O3-TiO2 system, which is barely explored in the study of transparent conductive oxides (TCOs). NaxGa4+xTin−4−xO2n−2 (n = 5, 6, and 7 and x ≈ 0.7–0.8) materials were characterized using neutron powder diffraction and aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. Activation energy, as a function of different structures depending on tunnel size, shows a significant improvement in Na+ ion conduction from hexagonal to octagonal tunnels. New insights into the relationship between the crystal structure and the transport properties of TCOs, which are crucial for the design and development of new optoelectronic devices, are provided., Depto. de Química Inorgánica, Fac. de Ciencias Químicas, TRUE, pub

Without human annotations, a typical Unsupervised Video Anomaly Detection (UVAD) method needs to train two models that generate pseudo labels for each other. In previous work, the two models are closely entangled with each other, and it is not known how to upgrade their method without modifying their training framework significantly. Second, previous work usually adopts fixed thresholding to obtain pseudo labels, however the user-specified threshold is not reliable which inevitably introduces errors into the training process. To alleviate these two problems, we propose a novel interleaved framework that alternately trains a One-Class Classification (OCC) model and a Weakly-Supervised (WS) model for UVAD. The OCC or WS models in our method can be easily replaced with other OCC or WS models, which facilitates our method to upgrade with the most recent developments in both fields. For handling the fixed thresholding problem, we break through the conventional cognitive boundary and propose a weighted OCC model that can be trained on both normal and abnormal data. We also propose an adaptive mechanism for automatically finding the optimal threshold for the WS model in a loose to strict manner. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed UVAD method outperforms previous approaches.

We propose a novel optimization-based human mesh recovery method from a single image. Given a test exemplar, previous approaches optimize the pre-trained regression network to minimize the 2D re-projection loss, which however suffer from over-/under-fitting problems. This is because the ``exemplar optimization'' at testing time has too weak relation to the pre-training process, and the exemplar optimization loss function is different from the training loss function. (1) We incorporate exemplar optimization into the training stage. During training, our method first executes exemplar optimization and subsequently proceeds with training-time optimization. The exemplar optimization may run into a wrong direction, while the subsequent training optimization serves to correct the deviation. Involved in training, the exemplar optimization learns to adapt its behavior to training data, thereby acquires generalibility to test exemplars. (2) We devise a dual-network architecture to convey the novel training paradigm, which is composed of a main regression network and an auxiliary network, in which we can formulate the exemplar optimization loss function in the same form as the training loss function. This further enhances the compatibility between the exemplar and training optimizations. Experiments demonstrate that our exemplar optimization after the novel training scheme significantly outperforms state-of-the-art approaches.

Video recognition remains an open challenge, requiring the identification of diverse content categories within videos. Mainstream approaches often perform flat classification, overlooking the intrinsic hierarchical structure relating categories. To address this, we formalize the novel task of hierarchical video recognition, and propose a video-language learning framework tailored for hierarchical recognition. Specifically, our framework encodes dependencies between hierarchical category levels, and applies a top-down constraint to filter recognition predictions. We further construct a new fine-grained dataset based on medical assessments for rehabilitation of stroke patients, serving as a challenging benchmark for hierarchical recognition. Through extensive experiments, we demonstrate the efficacy of our approach for hierarchical recognition, significantly outperforming conventional methods, especially for fine-grained subcategories. The proposed framework paves the way for hierarchical modeling in video understanding tasks, moving beyond flat categorization.

Macrophages play an important role in the progression of sporadic acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD). The aim of this study was to characterize the cellular heterogeneity of macrophages in ATAAD tissues by scRNA-seq. Ascending aortic wall tissue from six ATAAD patients and three heart transplant donors was assessed by scRNA-seq and then analyzed and validated by various bioinformatic algorithms and histopathology experiments. The results revealed that the proportion of macrophages in ATAAD tissues (24.51%) was significantly higher than that in normal tissues (13.69%). Among the six macrophage subclusters, pro-inflammatory macrophages accounted for 14.96% of macrophages in the AD group and 0.18% in the normal group. Chemokine- and inflammation-related genes (CCL2, CCL20, S100A8, and S100A9) were expressed more intensively in macrophages in ATAAD tissue than in those in normal tissue. Additionally, intercellular communication analysis and transcription factor analysis indicated the activation of inflammation and degradation of the extracellular matrix in ATAAD tissue. Finally, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and Western blot experiments confirmed the overexpression of macrophage marker genes (CD68 and CD163) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP9 and MMP2) in ATAAD tissue. Collectively, our study provides a preliminary evaluation of the role of macrophages in ATAAD, and the results could aid in the development of therapeutic options in the future.

The metal source and ore precipitation mechanism of orogenic gold mineralization are not yet well understood, partly because ore metals may be derived from different sources. Pyrite is a dominant Au-hosting mineral in the Ashawayi orogenic gold deposit in the southwestern Tianshan orogen, western China. Petrographic features of pyrite in host rocks and orebodies define four generations: diagenetic preore (Py1), hydrothermal early-ore (Py2), main-ore (Py3), and late-ore (Py4) pyrites. Trace element abundances were analyzed in situ by femtosecond laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (fs-LA-ICP-MS) to unravel the pyrite formation history. Preore Py1 contains the lowest Cu, Mo, Se, Au and As contents, consistent with a diagenetic origin. Py2 has higher Au and As contents than Py1 and may have formed by the reaction between hydrothermal fluid and preexisting Py1, as indicated by diagenetic pyrite-like As/Ni and Bi/Au ratios but lower hydrothermal pyrite-like Sb/Au ratios in Py2. Hydrothermal pyrite (Py3) contains more abundant As (1723–65182 ppm) and Au (0.32–107 ppm) but lower Co and Ni contents than Py2, suggesting a greater hydrothermal fluid contribution. Oscillatory zoning and abundant mineral inclusions (e.g., arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite) in porous Py3 indicate that fluid boiling was responsible for gold deposition during the main-ore stage. Py4 is a relict of hydrothermal pyrite (Py3) but not diagenetic pyrite, as supported by Py4 and Py3 clustering into a class based on hierarchical cluster analysis. The application of a machine learning method (i.e., artificial neural network) to the syn-ore pyrite indicates that the Ashawayi gold deposit has affinity to those from orogenic-type gold deposits worldwide. Our study, therefore, highlights that ore metals in orogenic gold deposits may originate from different sources, such as Au and As, which are largely sourced from metamorphic fluids, while Co and Ni are mainly released from preore sedimen

Feima Wu, Guangchao Li, Huijuan Shen, Jing Huang, Zhi Liu, Yangmin Zhu, Qi Zhong, Ruiming Ou, Qing Zhang, Shuang Liu Department of Hematology, Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Shuang Liu, Department of Hematology, Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, XinGangZhong Road 466#, Haizhu Distict, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510317, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-20-89169214, Email liush@gd2h.org.cnBackground: Centromere protein I (CENPI) has been shown to affect the tumorigenesis of breast and colorectal cancers. However, its biological role and prognostic value in other kinds of cancer, especially adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), remained to be further investigated.Methods: Various bioinformatics tools were adopted for exploring the significance of differential expression of CENPI in several malignant tumors from databases such as Depmap portal, GTEx, and TCGA. ACC was selected for further analyzed, and information such as clinicopathological features, the prognostic outcome of diverse subgroups, differentially expressed genes (DEGs), co-expression genes, as well as levels of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIIC), was extracted from multiple databases. To verify the possibility of CENPI as a therapeutic target in ACC, drug sensitivity assay and si-RNA mediate knockdown of CENPI were carried out.Results: The pan-cancer analyses showed that the CENPI mRNA expression levels differed significantly among most cancer types. Additionally, a high precision in cancer prediction and close relation with cancer survival indicated that CENPI could be a potential candidate biomarker to diagnose and predict cancer prognosis. In ACC, CENPI was closely related to multiple clinical characteristics, such as pathological stage and primary therapy outcome. High CENPI levels predicted poor overall survival (OS), progression-free interval (PFI), and disease-specific survival (DSS) of ACC pa

Yanqi Song,1 Yeqing Gu,2 Honglei Guo,3 Honghao Yang,4– 6 Xuena Wang,4– 6 Hongmei Wu,4– 6 Aidi Wang,1 Mengxiao Wang,7 Haijin Wang,1 Qing Zhang,8 Li Liu,8 Ge Meng,6,8– 10 Baoshan Liu,1 Kaijun Niu4– 6 1Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Radiation Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 3Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Public Health of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 5School of Integrative Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 6Nutritional Epidemiology Institute and School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 7Binzhou Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; 8Health Management Centre, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 9Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environment, Nutrition and Public Health, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 10Department of Toxicology and Sanitary Chemistry, School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Kaijun Niu; Baoshan Liu, Nutritional Epidemiology Institute and School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, 22 Qixiangtai Road, Heping District, Tianjin, 300070, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-22-83336613, Email nkj0809@gmail.com; niukaijun@tmu.edu.cn; lbs-cd@163.comPurpose: This study aimed to prospectively investigate the association between mean platelet volume (MPV) levels and risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in a general Chinese adult male population, and assessed this association in metabolic syndrome (MetS) patients.Patients and methods: This study included

The surface liquid segregation (SLS) layer in semisolid casting presents higher hardness than the surface of specimens cast using high-pressure die casting (HPDC). Bending fatigue tests showed that semisolid castings present better fatigue properties at higher stress, and this improvement disappears when the applied stress is lower than a critical load. This is because HPDC and SSM castings share the same surface deformation at low stress. More significant deformation is observed for HPDC castings when the stress exceeds the critical load. The presence of surface defects enlarges the difference in deformation at high stress and reduces the critical load., QC 20230810

Yanqi Song,1 Yeqing Gu,2 Honglei Guo,3 Honghao Yang,4– 6 Xuena Wang,4– 6 Hongmei Wu,4– 6 Aidi Wang,1 Haijin Wang,1 Quan Zhang,1 Qing Zhang,7 Li Liu,7 Ge Meng,6 Baoshan Liu,1 Kaijun Niu4– 6 1Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Radiation Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Graduate, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Public Health, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 5School of Integrative Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 6Nutritional Epidemiology Institute, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 7Health Management Centre, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Kaijun Niu, Nutritional Epidemiology Institute, Tianjin Medical University, 22 Qixiangtai Road, Heping District, Tianjin, 300070, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-22-83336613, Email nkj0809@gmail.com; niukaijun@tmu.edu.cn Baoshan Liu, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, 154 Anshan Road, Heping District, Tianjin, 300052, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-22-60362808, Email lbs-cd@163.comPurpose: The prevalence of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in the general Chinese adult male population has risen sharply over the past few decades. Increasing evidence suggests that inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of BPH. To better understand the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of BPH, we can use the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) because it is a simple and effective marker of inflammation and immunity. This study aims to prospectively investigate

As a promising non-thermal physical technology, ultrasound has attracted extensive attention in recent years, and has been applied to many food processing operation units, such as involving filtration, freezing, thawing, sterilization, cutting, extraction, aging, etc. It is also widely used in the processing of meat products, fruits and vegetables, and dairy products. With regard to its application in winemaking, most of the studies available in the literature are focused on the impact of ultrasound on a certain characteristic of wine, lacking of systematic sorting of these literatures. This review systematically summarizes and explores the current achievements and problems of the application of ultrasound to the different stages of winemaking, including extraction, fermentation, aging and sterilization. Summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of ultrasound application in winemaking and its development in future development.

Timely and accurate primary tumor diagnosis is critical, and misdiagnoses and delays may cause undue health and economic burden. To predict primary tumor types based on genomics data from a de-identified US nationwide clinico-genomic database (CGDB), the XGBoost-based Clinico-Genomic Machine Learning Model (XC-GeM) was developed to predict 13 primary tumor types based on data from 12,060 patients in the CGDB, derived from routine clinical comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) testing and chart-confirmed electronic health records (EHRs). The SHapley Additive exPlanations method was used to interpret model predictions. XC-GeM reached an outstanding area under the curve (AUC) of 0.965 and Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) of 0.742 in the holdout validation dataset. In the independent validation cohort of 955 patients, XC-GeM reached 0.954 AUC and 0.733 MCC and made correct predictions in 77% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), 86% of colorectal cancer, and 84% of breast cancer patients. Top predictors for the overall model (e.g. tumor mutational burden (TMB), gender, and KRAS alteration), and for specific tumor types (e.g., TMB and EGFR alteration for NSCLC) were supported by published studies. XC-GeM also achieved an excellent AUC of 0.880 and positive MCC of 0.540 in 507 patients with missing primary diagnosis. XC-GeM is the first algorithm to predict primary tumor type using US nationwide data from routine CGP testing and chart-confirmed EHRs, showing promising performance. It may enhance the accuracy and efficiency of cancer diagnoses, enabling more timely treatment choices and potentially leading to better outcomes.

A common mRNA modification is 5-methylcytosine (m5C), whose role in gene-transcript processing and cancer remains unclear. Here, we identify serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 2 (SRSF2) as a reader of m5C and impaired SRSF2 m5C binding as a potential contributor to leukemogenesis. Structurally, we identify residues involved in m5C recognition and the impact of the prevalent leukemia-associated mutation SRSF2P95H. We show that SRSF2 binding and m5C colocalize within transcripts. Furthermore, knocking down the m5C writer NSUN2 decreases mRNA m5C, reduces SRSF2 binding, and alters RNA splicing. We also show that the SRSF2P95H mutation impairs the ability of the protein to read m5C-marked mRNA, notably reducing its binding to key leukemia-related transcripts in leukemic cells. In leukemia patients, low NSUN2 expression leads to mRNA m5C hypomethylation and, combined with SRSF2P95H, predicts poor outcomes. Altogether, we highlight an unrecognized mechanistic link between epitranscriptomics and a key oncogenesis driver., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Multi-model ensembles are becoming increasingly accepted for the estimation of agricultural carbon-nitrogen fluxes, productivity and sustainability. There is mounting evidence that with some site-specific observations available for model calibration (with vegetation data as a minimum requirement), median outputs assimilated from biogeochemical models (multi-model medians) provide more accurate simulations than individual models. Here, we evaluate potential deficiencies in how model ensembles represent (in relation to climatic factors) the processes underlying biogeochemical outputs in complex agricultural systems such as grassland and crop rotations including fallow periods. We do that by exploring the correlation of model residuals. We restricted the distinction between partial and full calibration to the two most relevant calibration stages, i.e. with plant data only (partial) and with a combination of plant, soil physical and biogeochemical data (full). It introduces and evaluates the trade-off between (1) what is practical to apply for model users and beneficiaries, and (2) what constitutes best modelling practice. The lower correlations obtained overall with fully calibrated models highlight the centrality of the full calibration scenario for identifying areas of model structures that require further development.

Aluminum castings have been widely used in the automotive industry to reduce the vehicle's weight. However, the existence of casting defects significantly limits its application. The most common and detrimental defects in aluminum castings are porosity and oxides. The formation of the pores comes from the solute hydrogen and volumetric reduction during the solidification process, resulting in the gas and shrinkage pores, respectively. The oxides can be introduced by either the operation during the process or the originally existing oxides in the melt. To reduce these defects, optimizing the casting process and controlling the melt quality is essential. In this work, the Semisolid Metal (SSM) process was used as it can significantly reduce the formation of shrinkage pores. The main focuses were on the influence of stirring intensity on the formation of casting defects and, thus, the resultant mechanical properties. In addition, to control the original melt quality, particularly the amount of oxides, efforts were made to develop proper methods for the melt quality assessment. The results show that the slurry-making process, mainly through stirring intensity, can affect the casting defects significantly. On the one hand, the increasing stirring intensity can distribute the primary Al particles more homogeneously, reducing the pores in terms of size and number by increasing the permeability during the solidification process. On the other hand, the increasing stirring intensity can affect the size of oxides differently, depending on the composition, for instance, the Mg content. For the alloys with sufficient Mg, the oxides would be MgAl2O4, which are small films with numerous cracks. Under intensive stirring, the oxides can break down into small oxide particles. As a result, intensive stirring can improve ductility by reducing the formation of big pores. However, the oxides would mainly be Al2O3 films for alloys with low Mg content. In this case, the current stirring in, Aluminiumgjutgods har använts i stor utsträckning inom bilindustrin för att minska fordonets vikt. Förekomsten av gjutningsdefekter begränsar emellertid dess tillämpning avsevärt. De vanligaste och mest skadliga defekterna i aluminiumgjutgods är porositet och oxider. Bildandet av porerna kommer från löst väte och volymetrisk reduktion under stelningsprocessen, vilket resulterar i att gasporerna respektive krymperporerna. Oxiderna kan införas antingen genom operationen under processen eller de ursprungligen existerande oxiderna i smältan. För att minska mängden av dessa defekter måste gjutningsprocessen optimeras och smältkvaliteten måste kontrolleras kritiskt samtidigt. I detta arbete användes Semisolid Metal (SSM)-processen. Fokus ligger på inverkan av omrörningsintensiteten på bildandet av gjutdefekter och de resulterande mekaniska egenskaperna. För att kontrollera den ursprungliga smältkvaliteten, särskilt mängden oxider, gjordes ansträngningar för att utveckla lämpliga metoder för bedömning av smältkvaliteten. Resultaten visar att slurrytillverkningsprocessen påverkar gjutdefekterna avsevärt. Å ena sidan kan den ökande omrörningsintensiteten fördela de primära Al-partiklarna mer homogent, vilket minskar porerna vad gäller storlek och antal genom att öka permeabiliteten under stelningsprocessen. Å andra sidan kan den ökande omrörningsintensiteten påverka storleken på oxider olika beroende på sammansättningen, till exempel Mg-halten. För legeringar med tillräckligt med Mg skulle oxiderna vara MgAl2O4, som existerar som små filmer med många sprickor. Under intensiv omrörning kan oxiderna brytas ner till små oxidpartiklar. Som ett resultat kan intensiv omrörning förbättra duktiliteten genom att minska bildningen av stora porer. För legeringarna med lågt Mg-innehåll är emellertid oxiderna huvudsakligen Al2O3-filmer. I detta fall är den aktuella omrörningsintensiteten inte tillräcklig för att bryta oxidfilmerna, utan fler oxidfilmer kan införas i smältan. Följaktligen

Xue Gu,1,* Xiaoli Li,1,* Xue Zhang,2,* Li Tong,3 Ran Feng,1 Lei Liu,1 Hui Sun,1 Qing Zhang,1 Tingting Bian,1 Jianguo Zhang,1 Lihua Gao,2 Chenxi Zhang,4 Jian Liu,2 Yifei Liu1 1Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Dalian Medical University, Nantong, 226001, People’s Republic of China; 4Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yifei Liu; Jian Liu, Email liuyifei@ntu.edu.cn; tdfylj68915@sina.comBackground: There is growing evidence showing that 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase (PFKFB3) plays crucial roles in different types of human cancers, including LUAD; however, the specific mechanism by which PFKFB3 plays a role in LUAD remains unclear.Methods: We investigated the expression of PFKFB3 and explored the underlying mechanism as well as the correlation with immune markers using several online datasets, such as Tumor Immune Estimate Resource (TIMER), UALCAN, and the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases, miRWalk, Targetscan, MiRDB and starBase database. Western blot and immunohistochemistry analysis were performed to verify the corresponding outcomes.Results: It was shown that the mRNA expression of PFKFB3 was lower in LUAD than in the normal tissues, while its protein expression was not consistent with the mRNA level. The expression of PFKFB3 was correlated with clinicopathological parameters and several signaling pathways. The potential long chain (lnc)RNA/microRNA/PFKFB3 axis and the possible mechanism by which tumor progression in LUAD is promoted was predicted. We obtained the LINC01798/LINC02086/AP000845.

The influence of Na-Based flux on the melt quality assessment was studied using Density index (DI), bifilm index (BI) and tensile test. The melt was prepared with scrap and ingot with and/or without the addition of Na-based flux. The results show that the addition of Na-based flux decreases the accuracy of the correlation between BI/DI and the hydrogen content due to the increased shrinkage pores. The addition of flux promotes the formation of shrinkage pores by either altering the eutectic solidification behavior or generating more and bigger oxide films which leads to insufficient feeding. Moreover, the addition of flux improves the ductility of specimens by modifying the eutectic phase rather than improving the melt quality.

Jinghui Zhang,1 Chuanmei Dong,2 Yue Jiang,1 Qing Zhang,1 Hui Li,1– 3 Yan Li1 1Shanghai Institute of Early Childhood Education, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Macquarie School of Education, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia; 3Faculty of Education and Human Development, the Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Yan Li, Shanghai Institute of Early Childhood Education, Shanghai Normal University, 100 Guilin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, Email liyan@shnu.edu.cnIntroduction: Parental phubbing refers to the act of parents using mobile phones in the presence of their children instead of engaging with them. With increasing smartphone use in many households, parental phubbing is a potential threat to children’s healthy development. This meta-analysis synthesized the existing evidence on the impact of parental phubbing on children’s social-emotional development to examine the effect sizes and identify the moderators.Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic search across multiple electronic databases (Web of Science, EBSCO, ProQuest, Springer, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure) from 2012 to May 2023. Our search included both English and Chinese literature, encompassing published journal articles as well as thesis. To assess the risk of bias, we utilized the Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. Publication bias was evaluated using funnel plot interpretation and Egger’s regression intercept.Results: Our comprehensive search identified 42 studies with 56,275 children and 59 effect sizes. A random-effects meta-analysis revealed that parental phubbing was positively associated with children’s internalizing problems (r =  0.270; 95% CI [0.234, 0.304]) and externalizing problems (r =  0.210; 95% CI [0.154, 0.264]), while negatively correlated with childre

Menggege Liu,1,2 Qing Zhang,1,3 Juan Liu,1 Huiling Bai,1 Ping Yang,1 Xinhua Ye,1,3 Xiaoqing Yuan1,3 1Department of Endocrinology, The Affiliated Changzhou No. 2 People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Second Clinical College, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, People’s Republic of China; 3Changzhou Medical Center, The Affiliated Changzhou No. 2 People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Xiaoqing Yuan; Xinhua Ye, Email adiposeyy@126.com; Endocrine1314@163.comObjective: To analyze the relationship between leg skeletal muscle mass index (LSMI) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the ability of LSMI to predict NAFLD.Methods: Two hundred patients with T2DM and NAFLD treated at Changzhou Second People’s Hospital Affiliated with Nanjing Medical University and the National Metabolic Management Center from June 2022 to June 2023 were divided into four LSMI quartiles. The clinical information from the four patient groups was compared, and the relationship between type 2 diabetes and LSMI and NAFLD was examined. We used receiver operating characteristic curves to determine how well the LSMI predicts NAFLD in T2DM.Results: The lowest quartile (Q1) had a higher prevalence of NAFLD than group Q4 (P < 0.05). LSMI was negatively associated with body mass index, LS, CAP, and other markers (P < 0.05). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis LSMI predicted NAFLD with an ideal critical value of 0.64 and an area under the curve of 70.9%. The combined predictive value of the LSMI and the appendicular skeletal muscle mass index was more significant.Conclusion: Reduced LSMI is associated with NAFLD.Keywords: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, LSMI, ASMI

Recommendation systems aim to predict users' feedback on items not exposed to them yet. Confounding bias arises due to the presence of unmeasured variables (e.g., the socio-economic status of a user) that can affect both a user's exposure and feedback. Existing methods either (1) make untenable assumptions about these unmeasured variables or (2) directly infer latent confounders from users' exposure. However, they cannot guarantee the identification of counterfactual feedback, which can lead to biased predictions. In this work, we propose a novel method, i.e., identifiable deconfounder (iDCF), which leverages a set of proxy variables (e.g., observed user features) to resolve the aforementioned non-identification issue. The proposed iDCF is a general deconfounded recommendation framework that applies proximal causal inference to infer the unmeasured confounders and identify the counterfactual feedback with theoretical guarantees. Extensive experiments on various real-world and synthetic datasets verify the proposed method's effectiveness and robustness. © 2023 ACM.

Plant kingdoms are facing increasingly harsh environmental challenges marked by the coexposure of salinity and pollution in the pedosphere and elevated CO2 and temperature in the atmosphere due to the rapid acceleration of industrialization and global climate change. In this study, we deployed a hydroponics-based experiment to explore the individual and mutual effects of different temperatures (low temperature, T1: 23°C; high temperature, T2: 27°C) and CO2 concentrations (ambient CO2: 360 ppm; medium CO2: 450 ppm; high CO2: 700 ppm) on the uptake and translocation of sodium chloride (NaCl, 0.0, 0.2, 0.6, and 1.1 g Na/L) and cadmium nitrate (Cd(NO3)2·4H2O, 0.0, 0.2, 1.8, and 5.4 mg Cd/L) by rice seedlings. The results indicated that Cd and Na exposure significantly (P< 0.05) inhibited plant growth, but T2 and medium/high CO2 alleviated the effects of Cd and Na on plant growth. Neither significant synergistic nor antagonistic effects of Cd and Na were observed, particularly not at T1 or high CO2. At increasing temperatures, relative growth rates increased despite higher concentrations of Cd and Na in both rice roots and shoots. Similarly, higher CO2 stimulated the growth rate but resulted in significantly lower concentrations of Na, while the Cd concentration was highest at medium CO2. Coexposure experiments suggested that the concentration of Cd in roots slightly declined with additional Na and more at T2. Overall, our preliminary study suggested that global climate change may alter the distribution of mineral and toxic elements in rice plants as well as the tolerance of the plants.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and safety of employing a visual Eustachian tube endoscope (VETE) with a supporting balloon as a viable treatment and examination option for patients with Eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD). Methods: A study involving 9 fresh human cadaver heads was conducted to investigate the potential of balloon dilation Eustachian tuboplasty (BET) utilizing the supporting balloon catheter, and the ET cavity was examined using VETE during the procedure, which involved the dilation of the cartilaginous portion of the ET with the supporting balloon catheter. Results: The utilization of VETE in conjunction with the supporting balloon catheter demonstrated technical ease during the procedure, with no observed damage to essential structures, particularly the ET cavity. Conclusion: This newly introduced method of dilation and examination of the ET cavity using VETE and the supporting balloon is a feasible, safe procedure.

In this paper, the well-known graduated cylindrical shell (GCS) model is slightly revised by introducing longitudinal and latitudinal deflections of prominences originating from active regions (ARs). Subsequently, it is applied to the three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of an eruptive prominence in AR 13110, which produced an M1.7 class flare and a fast coronal mass ejection (CME) on 2022 September 23. It is revealed that the prominence undergoes acceleration from $\sim$246 to $\sim$708 km s$^{-1}$. Meanwhile, the prominence experiences southward deflection by 15$\degr$$\pm$1$\degr$ without longitudinal deflection, suggesting that the prominence erupts non-radially. Southward deflections of the prominence and associated CME are consistent, validating the results of fitting using the revised GCS model. Besides, the true speed of the CME is calculated to be 1637$\pm$15 km s$^{-1}$, which is $\sim$2.3 times higher than that of prominence. This is indicative of continuing acceleration of the prominence during which flare magnetic reconnection reaches maximum beneath the erupting prominence. Hence, the reconstruction using the revised GCS model could successfully track a prominence in its early phase of evolution, including acceleration and deflection., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in RAA

Recent learning-based shadow removal methods have achieved remarkable performance. However, they basically require massive paired shadow and shadow-free images for model training, which limits their generalization capability since these data are often cumbersome to obtain and lack of diversity. To address the problem, we present Self-ShadowGAN, a novel adversarial framework that is able to learn to remove shadows in an image by training solely on the image itself, using the shadow mask as the only supervision. Our approach is built upon the concept of histogram matching, by constraining the deshadowed regions produced by a shadow relighting network share similar histograms to the original shadow-free regions via a histogram-based discriminator. In order to speed up the single image training, we define the shadow relighting network to be lightweight multi-layer perceptions (MLPs) that estimate spatially-varying shadow relighting coefficients, where the parameters of the MLPs are predicted from a low-resolution input by a fast convolutional network and then upsampled back to the original full-resolution. Experimental results show that our method performs favorably against the state-of-the-art shadow removal methods, and is effective to process previously challenging shadow images.

Anode cell reversal, which is caused by fuel starvation, poses a great threat to the durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Commercially, iridium oxide or iridium is applied to boost oxygen evolution reaction, which alleviates carbon corrosion and protects the catalyst layer structure. However, the key factors that affect the anti-reversal ability and the interaction between Pt, Ir, and carbon support are still unclear. Hence, we systematically studied the performance using three typical carbon supports with three metal contents and different metal deposition orders by experiments and model calculations. A new parameter, “relative metal coverage”, is put forward to evaluate and predict the anti-reversal ability, showing higher relative metal coverage results in a longer reversal time and lower polarization performance degradation rate. Typically, only a 15.5% polarization performance loss after 1700 mins reversal time when the relative metal coverage of high metal content Ir/Pt/Super P anode is one. The results suggest that increasing relative metal coverage is a practical approach to improve reversal tolerance and provide new insights into the reversal tolerant anodes design.

Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) mounted on the Cassini spacecraft has taken a lot of images, which provides an important source of high-precision astrometry of some planets and satellites. However, some of these images are degraded by trailed stars. Previously, these degraded images cannot be used for astrometry. In this paper, a new method is proposed to detect and compute the centers of these trailed stars automatically. The method is then performed on the astrometry of ISS images with trailed stars. Finally, we provided 658 astrometric positions between 2004 and 2017 of several satellites that include Enceladus, Dione, Tethys, Mimas and Rhea. Compared with the JPL ephemeris SAT427, the mean residuals of these measurements are 0.11 km and 0.26 km in right ascension and declination, respectively. Their standard deviations are 1.08 km and 1.37 km, respectively. The results show that the proposed method performs astrometric measurements of Cassini ISS images with trailed stars effectively.

You-Fan Peng, Qing-Song Zhang, Wei-Gui Luo Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The Affiliated Hospital of Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities, Baise, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Wei-Gui Luo, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The Affiliated Hospital of Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities, No. 18 Zhongshan Er Road, Baise, Guangxi, 533000, People’s Republic of China, Email weiguiluo@sina.comAim: We investigated the clinical usefulness of mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) in patients with pneumoconiosis.Methods: We retrospectively investigated the medical records from 52 patients with pneumoconiosis, and erythrocyte parameters were analyzed in pneumoconiosis patients with different stages.Results: Here, we found that the values of MCHC were significantly lower in III stage pneumoconiosis than those with I/II stage (p = 0.024), and there was no significantly difference in MCHC between smoking pneumoconiosis patients and non-smoking pneumoconiosis patients. A negatively correlation between MCHC and disease stage was observed in patients with pneumoconiosis (r = − 0.298, p = 0.032). In multiple linear regression analysis, the MCHC was found to be independently associated with advanced pneumoconiosis in patients with pneumoconiosis (p=0.011). The results of logistic regression analysis indicated that decreased MCHC was an independent risk factor of advanced pneumoconiosis in patients with pneumoconiosis (OR: 0.936, CI95%: 0.877– 0.999, p = 0.046). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the optimal cutoff value of MCHC was 330 g/L to identify advanced pneumoconiosis with the area under the curve of 0.694 (CI95%:0.550– 0.839, p = 0.018).Conclusion: The decreased MCHC is associated with advanced pneumoconiosis, and MCHC may be used as a monitoring marker for follow-up of pneumoconiosis patients.Keywords: pneumoconiosis, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentratio

Specular highlight detection is an essential task with various applications in computer vision. This paper aims to detect specular highlights in single high-resolution images using deep learning while avoiding excessive GPU memory consumption. To achieve this, we present a high-resolution specular highlight detection dataset with manual annotations of specular highlights. Given our dataset, we propose a patch-level bidirectional refinement network for high-resolution specular highlight detection. The main idea is to utilize both the pathway from small-scale patch to large-scale patch and its reverse pathway to progressively refine the detection results of adjacent-scale specular highlight patches. Moreover, based on our detection network, we propose a modified inpainting framework for specular highlight removal as an application. Lastly, we provide ten potential research directions for specular highlight detection, inspiring researchers for further study.

Fanghui Li,1,2,&ast; Dongze Li,1,&ast; Jing Yu,1 Yu Jia,3 Jirui Wen,4 Wentao Li,2 Yao Tong,2 Jiang Wu,4 Zhi Wan,1 Yu Cao,1 Qing Zhang,2 Rui Zeng1,2 1Department of Emergency Medicine, Laboratory of Emergency Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Cardiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of General Practice and National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics, International Medical Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 4Deep Underground Space Medical Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Rui Zeng; Qing Zhang, Department of Cardiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, 37 Guoxue Road, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-28-85423248, Fax +86-28-85582944, Email zengrui_0524@126.com; qzhang2000cn@163.comBackground: The plasma lipidome profile is likely to improve risk stratification in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and predict cardiovascular events for secondary disease prevention. Ceramides are involved in the initiation or acceleration of several key pathophysiological processes in atherosclerosis. This study evaluated whether plasma ceramide levels at admission was associated with one-year mortality in patients with ACS.Methods: In total, 826 patients with ACS from a prospective multicenter study for early evaluation of acute chest pain were enrolled. High-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS) was used to measure the plasma levels of eleven ceramides (C16–C26). The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, and the secondary outcome was cardiac mortality during the one-year follow-up. The relationship between the ceramide levels and mortality was evaluated by Cox regression analysis. The

Jin Yu Gu,1 Fei Han,2 Si-Yu Chen,2 Qing Zhang1 1Department of Orthopaedic, The Hospital of Wang Jing, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Orthopaedic, The Hospital of Guang An Men, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Qing Zhang, Department of Orthopaedic, The Hospital of Wang Jing, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Huajiadi Street, Chao Yang District, Beijing, 100102, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-13911570607, Email 3219040781@stu.cpu.edu.cnPurpose: Clinical treatment of knee osteoarthritis has gained great interest, and numerous clinical studies have been reported. Few studies have described the detailed characterizations of clinical trials on knee osteoarthritis. This study is to identify, visualize, and characterize the clinical trials in knee osteoarthritis research.Design and Methods: Articles published in recent two decades were extracted from the Web of Science core collection database using a query based on MeSH terms and topics of knee osteoarthritis and clinical trial. Basic characteristics of publications were analyzed based on the publication year, authors, institutions, counties, and keywords covered in the article. CiteSpace and VOS viewer were used for data visualization. The data were retrieved on May 28, 2022.Results: A total of 1972 trials on knee osteoarthritis were identified. The number of publications has experienced rapid growth in the past two decades. America, England, and China had strong contributions in publication. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases and American Journal of Sports Medicine were highly cited and bellwether journals. Clustering mapping of the collaborative network, co-citation, and co-occurrence analyses showed that the research hotspots are mainly focused on disease-modifying medications, intra-articular injections, physical therapy for symptom control, lifest

High-fat diet (HFD) has been recognized as a primary factor in the risk of chronic disease. Obesity, diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and cardiovascular diseases have long been known as chronic diseases with high worldwide incidence. In this review, the influences of gut microbiota and their corresponding bacterial metabolites on the mechanisms of HFD-induced chronic diseases are systematically summarized. Gut microbiota imbalance is also known to increase susceptibility to diseases. Several studies have proven that HFD has a negative impact on gut microbiota, also exacerbating the course of many chronic diseases through increased populations of Erysipelotrichaceae, facultative anaerobic bacteria, and opportunistic pathogens. Since bile acids, lipopolysaccharide, short-chain fatty acids, and trimethylamine N-oxide have long been known as common features of bacterial metabolites, we will explore the possibility of synergistic mechanisms among those metabolites and gut microbiota in the context of HFD-induced chronic diseases. Recent literature concerning the mechanistic actions of HFD-mediated gut microbiota have been collected from PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus. The aim of this review is to provide new insights into those mechanisms and to point out the potential biomarkers of HFD-mediated gut microbiota. © 2023 The Authors. iMeta published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of iMeta Science.