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Abstract Exploring ancient Chinese artifacts is crucial for analyzing East Asian technological development, with bronze vessel being the critical element. Bronze vessels, typically featuring intricate carvings, hold historical significance and provide valuable insights into past civilizations. However, identifying bronze patterns can be challenging for human vision, and most RGB-domain methods fail to capture periodic designs. Addressing these issues, we propose the Siamese Fourier Networks (SFN), a parallel network model designed for few-shot regular pattern classification. The Siamese network can differentiate between intricate shapes, while Fourier features enable the extraction of regular textures. To optimize parallel networks, we combine the BCE loss and focal contrastive loss, balancing positive and negative samples. Moreover, we introduce the Bronze Vessel Dataset, featuring 527 samples with diverse shapes and unbalanced distributions. Extensive experiments with advanced few-shot methods demonstrate the superiority of SFN and focal mechanism, significantly improving accuracy.

Abstract Background Total endovascular technique with fenestrated endovascular graft might be hampered for the late dilatation of proximal landing zone, which may cause endografts migration. We describe a successful urgent hybrid procedure for extent III thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm with aortic intramural hematoma. Case Presentation A 55-year-old female with thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm was considered at high surgical risk and unfit for open repair due to multiple comorbidities. Therefore, a hybrid procedure of surgeon-modified fenestrated endovascular graft combined with thoracoscope-assisted Transaortic epicardial fixation of endograft was finally chosen and performed in the endovascular operating room. A 3-port technique was performed through a left video-assisted thoracoscopic approach. After the first tampering stent-graft was deployed, a double-needle suture was penetrated both the aortic wall and stent-graft to fixate it in the proximal descending aorta. Then the second endograft, which had been fenestrated on table, was introduced and oriented extracorporeally by rotating superior mesenteric artery and left renal artery fenestration radiopaque markers and deployed with perfect apposition between the fenestrations and target visceral artery. Each vessel was sequentially stented using Viabahn self-expandable stent to finish target vessel stenting. An Ankura cuff stent was deployed in the distal abdominal aortic artery. Conclusion Surgeon-modified fenestrated endovascular graft combined with thoracoscope-assisted fixation may be an innovative and viable alternative for selected high-risk patients with extent III thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm. A longer follow-up is needed to ascertain the success of this approach.

This article proposes an advanced classification algorithm for bronze drinking utensils, taking into account the complexity of their cultural characteristics and the challenges of dynasty classification. The SSA-CBAM-GNNs algorithm integrates the Sparrow Search Algorithm (SSA), Spatial and Spectral Attention (CBAM) modules, and Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). The CBAM module is essential for optimizing feature extraction weights in graph neural networks, while SSA enhances the weighted network and expedites the convergence process. Experimental results, validated through various performance evaluation indicators, illustrate the outstanding performance of the improved SSA-CBAM-GNNs algorithm in accurately identifying and classifying cultural features of bronze drinking utensils. Comparative experiments confirm the algorithm's superiority over other methods. Overall, this study proposes a highly efficient identification and classification algorithm, and its effectiveness and excellence in extracting and identifying cultural features of bronze drinking utensils are experimentally demonstrated.

Abstract Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most prevalent malignancies in men. Understanding molecular characteristics via studying signaling pathways has made tremendous breakthroughs in BC therapies. Thus, targeted therapies including immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs), and tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) have markedly improved advanced BC outcomes over the last few years. However, the considerable patients still progress after a period of treatment with current therapeutic regimens. Therefore, it is crucial to guide future drug development to improve BC survival, based on the molecular characteristics of BC and clinical outcomes of existing drugs. In this perspective, we summarize the applications and benefits of these targeted drugs and highlight our understanding of mechanisms of low response rates and immune escape of ICIs, ADCs toxicity, and TKI resistance. We also discuss potential solutions to these problems. In addition, we underscore the future drug development of targeting metabolic reprogramming and cancer stem cells (CSCs) with a deep understanding of their signaling pathways features. We expect that finding biomarkers, developing novo drugs and designing clinical trials with precisely selected patients and rationalized drugs will dramatically improve the quality of life and survival of patients with advanced BC.

PurposeSpermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are essential for maintaining reproductive function in males. B-lymphoma Mo-MLV insertion region 1 (BMI1) is a vital transcription repressor that regulates cell proliferation and differentiation. However, little is known about the role of BMI1 in mediating the fate of mammalian SSCs and in male reproduction. This study investigated whether BMI1 is essential for male reproduction and the role of alpha-tocopherol (α-tocopherol), a protective agent for male fertility, as a modulator of BMI1 both in vitro and in vivo.MethodsMethyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) and 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EDU) assays were used to assess the effect of BMI1 on the proliferative ability of the mouse SSC line C18-4. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), western blotting, and immunofluorescence were applied to investigate changes in the mRNA and protein expression levels of BMI1. Male mice were used to investigate the effect of α-tocopherol and a BMI1 inhibitor on reproduction-associated functionality in vivo.ResultsAnalysis revealed that BMI1 was expressed at high levels in testicular tissues and spermatogonia in mice. The silencing of BMI1 inhibited the proliferation of SSCs and DNA synthesis and enhanced the levels of γ-H2AX. α-tocopherol enhanced the proliferation and DNA synthesis of C18-4 cells, and increased the levels of BMI1. Notably, α-tocopherol rescued the inhibition of cell proliferation and DNA damage in C18-4 cells caused by the silencing of BMI1. Furthermore, α-tocopherol restored sperm count (Ctrl vs. PTC-209, p = 0.0034; Ctrl vs. PTC-209 + α-tocopherol, p = 0.7293) and normalized sperm malformation such as broken heads, irregular heads, lost and curled tails in vivo, as demonstrated by its antagonism with the BMI1 inhibitor PTC-209.ConclusionAnalysis demonstrated that α-tocopherol is a potent in vitro and in vivo modulator of BMI1, a transcription factor that plays an important role in in SSC proliferation and spermatogenesis. Our findings identify a new target and strategy for treating male infertility that deserves further pre-clinical investigation.

BackgroundLeft subclavian artery (LSA) revascularization during thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) is necessary to reduce postoperative complications in patients with Stanford type B aortic dissection and an insufficient proximal anchoring area. However, the efficacy and safety of different LSA revascularization strategies remain unclear. Here, we compared these strategies to provide a clinical basis for selecting an appropriate LSA revascularization method.MethodsIn this study, we included 105 patients with type B aortic dissection who were treated using TEVAR combined with LSA reconstruction in the Second Hospital of Lanzhou University from March 2013 to 2020. They were divided into four groups according to the method used for LSA reconstruction, namely, carotid subclavian bypass (CSB; n = 41), chimney graft (CG; n = 29), single-branched stent graft (SBSG; n = 21), and physician-made fenestration (PMF; n = 14) groups. Finally, we collected and analyzed the baseline, perioperative, operative, postoperative, and follow-up data of the patients.ResultsThe treatment success rate was 100% in all the groups, and CSB + TEVAR was the most commonly used procedure in emergency settings compared with the other three procedures (P 0.05) The median follow-up time of CSB, CG, SBSG, and PMF groups was significantly different (P

Heterofullerenes are an important synthetic target for organic chemists. Here, the authors demonstrate a fully conjugated azacorannulene dimer starting from a bifunctional polycyclic aromatic azomethine ylide, providing a powerful method for the bottom-up synthesis of large multiazafullerene fragments

ABSTRACT: Pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 (PPMV-1), a variant of Newcastle disease virus (NDV), causes severe Newcastle disease (ND) in pigeons. However, there is no PPMV-1 vaccine available worldwide. In this study, a strain of PPMV-1 was isolated from outbreaks in a vaccinated racing pigeon (Columbia livia) loft in China, namely, PPMV-1/pigeon/Gansu/China/02/2020 (GS02). Experimental infection with GS02 showed mortality rates of 100% and 87.50% in 4- and 12-week-old pigeons, respectively, suggesting that GS02 is virulent and more sensitive to young pigeons. The whole genome of GS02 determined the fusion (F) protein possessing virulence cleavage site 112RRQKRF117. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that GS02 was a subgenotype VI.2.1.1.2.2 (VIk) of Class II NDV and more closely related to the JS/06/20/Pi (MW271791) strain, but it was far from the genetic distance from the commercial vaccine chicken-origin La Sota strain. Using inactivated GS02 as a vaccine candidate and inactivated vaccine La Sota to immunize the pigeons, both of them provided complete protection against GS02 challenge. The GS02 vaccine candidate induced higher antibody titers than the La Sota vaccine, and cross-reactivity testing showed antigenically slight differences between GS02 and La Sota. These results indicated that the GS02 candidate could be a potential pigeon-derived vaccine for the prevention and control of PPMV-1 in pigeons.

In data science, there are still a variety of uncertainty attributes of objects which can’t be accurately represented numerically, under which case, fuzzy mathematics provides technologies and theoretical guarantee for the representations of their uncertain attributes. So far, fuzzy representation and fuzzy set theory have been widely used in decision support systems and fuzzy reasoning, and fuzzy graph is an effective approach for the structured representation of fuzzy data. The coloring of fuzzy graph plays an irreplaceable role in task allocation and conflict coordination. This work summarizes various existing definitions of fuzzy coloring, analyzes the extant fuzzy fractional coloring which is currently proposed, and gives a new definition of fuzzy fractional coloring in terms of a different version of fuzzy coloring.

The difference of Zagreb indices of a graph G is defined as ΔM(G)=∑u∈V(G)(d(u))2−∑uv∈E(G)d(u)d(v), where d(x) denotes the degree of a vertex x in G. A Halin graph G is a graph that results from a plane tree T without vertices of degree two and with at least one vertex of degree at least three such that all leaves are joined through a cycle C in the embedded order. In this paper, we establish both lower and upper bounds on the difference of Zagreb indices for general Halin graphs and some special Halin graphs with fewer inner vertices. Furthermore, extremal graphs attaining related bounds are found.

Blackberries have high nutritional value and strong biological activities, such as antiproliferative activity. Anthocyanins are important functional components in blackberries. We collected 25 kinds (lines) of blackberries from our nursery to investigate antiproliferative agents in natural foods. Among them, the Shuofeng variety had the highest anthocyanin content, with 2.54 mg/g of fresh fruit, which increased to 357.75 mg/g of dried powder through ultrasound-assisted solvent extraction and macroporous resin adsorption. Additional experiments showed that Shuofeng’s anthocyanin content had high anti-HepG2 activity in vitro and in vivo, as well as activity against Hela (68.62 μg/mL), HepG2 (55.85 μg/mL), MCF-7 (181.21 μg/mL), and A549 cells (82.01 μg/mL), as determined by MTT assay. It also had no apparent toxic effects. The combination of DDP and DOX significantly enhanced the antiproliferative activity of the four cell lines. The IC50 value of Shuofeng’s anthocyanin content combined with DOX in HepG2 cells was the lowest at only 0.08 μg/mL, indicating that the combination of drugs had additive and synergistic effects. Shuofeng’s anthocyanin content might intercalate into DNA and alter or destroy DNA, causing apoptosis and inhibiting cell proliferation. Our results show that blackberry anthocyanins can inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells and their possible mechanisms. However, we must study the deeper mechanism and explore its targeting effects in the future.

Blueberries are rich in flavonoids, anthocyanins, phenolic acids, and other bioactive substances. Anthocyanins are important functional components in blueberries. We collected 65 varieties of blueberries to investigate their nutritional and functional values. Among them, Gardenblue had the highest anthocyanin content, with 2.59 mg/g in fresh fruit. After ultrasound-assisted solvent extraction and macroporous resin absorption, the content was increased to 459.81 mg/g in the dried powder. Biological experiments showed that Gardenblue anthocyanins (L1) had antiproliferative effect on cervical cancer cells (Hela, 51.98 μg/mL), liver cancer cells (HepG2, 23.57 μg/mL), breast cancer cells (MCF-7, 113.39 μg/mL), and lung cancer cells (A549, 76.10 μg/mL), and no apparent toxic effects were indicated by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay, especially against HepG2 cells both in vitro and in vivo. After combining it with DDP (cisplatin) and DOX (doxorubicin), the antiproliferative effects were enhanced, especially when combined with DOX against HepG2 cells; the IC50 value was 0.02 μg/mL. This was further evidence that L1 could inhibit cell proliferation by inducing apoptosis. The detailed mechanism might be L1 interacting with DNA in an intercalation mode that changes or destroys DNA, causing apoptosis and inhibiting cell proliferation. The findings of this study suggest that L1 extract can be used as a functional agent against hepatoma carcinoma cells.

The acyclic chromatic index χa′(G) of a graph G is the smallest k for which G is a proper edge colorable using k colors. A 1-planar graph is a graph that can be drawn in plane such that every edge is crossed by at most one other edge. In this paper, we prove that every 1-planar graph G has χa′(G)≤Δ+36, where Δ denotes the maximum degree of G. This strengthens a result that if G is a triangle-free 1-planar graph, then χa′(G)≤Δ+16.

Many symmetric properties are well-explored in graph theory, especially in graph coloring, such as symmetric graphs defined by the automorphism groups, symmetric drawing of planar graphs, and symmetric functions which are used to count the number of specific colorings of a graph. This paper is devoted to studying the star edge coloring of 1-planar graphs. The star chromatic index χst′(G) of a graph G is defined as the smallest k for which the edges of G can be colored by using k colors so that no two adjacent edges get the same color and no bichromatic paths or cycles of length four are produced. A graph G is called 1-planar if it can be drawn in the plane such that each edge crosses at most one other edge. In this paper, we prove that every 1-planar graph G satisfies χst′(G)≤7.75Δ+166; and moreover χst′(G)≤⌊1.5Δ⌋+500 if G contains no 4-cycles, and χst′(G)≤2.75Δ+116 if G is 3-connected, or optimal, or NIC-planar.

The strong chromatic index χs′(G) of a graph G is the minimum number of colors needed in a proper edge-coloring so that every color class induces a matching in G. It was proved In 2013, that every outerplanar graph G with Δ≥3 has χs′(G)≤3Δ−3. In this paper, we give a characterization for an outerplanar graph G to have χs′(G)=3Δ−3. We also show that if G is a bipartite outerplanar graph, then χs′(G)≤2Δ; and χs′(G)=2Δ if and only if G contains a particular subgraph.

In the field of nanoscience, there are a large number of new nanomaterials produced in the laboratory every year. These nanomaterials need to go through a lot of tests in engineering application before, to determine their physical, chemical and nanomedicine properties. The work demands a large number of experimental personnel, equipment and reagents, and it’s time-consuming as well. In the theoretical nanoscience, the various features can be obtained through the computation of topological index on nano molecular structures. In this paper, we study the fourth multiplicative atom-bond connectivity indices of some special molecular structures which commonly appeared in the compound of nanomaterials, and their specific expressions are given. The results yielded in this work will be a guidance for the practical nanoscience applications. Keywords: Theoretical nanoscience, Molecular structure, Fourth multiplicative atom-bond connectivity index, Dendrimer

In the field of medicine, there are a large number of new drugs synthesis every year. Before entering the clinical stage, it needs a lot of work on drug testing of the various properties. Due to the lack of a large number of laboratory technician, laboratory equipment and reagents, the drug testing of many biochemical properties are not completed. Theoretical medicine provides a theoretical way for medical researchers to obtain the pharmaceutical properties of compounds by calculation tricks. In this paper, the first multiplication atom-bond connectivity index of several common drugs structure are studied, and the accurate expressions are determined. These theoretical conclusions provide practical guiding significance for pharmaceutical engineering. Keywords: Theoretical medicine, Molecular graph, Multiplicative atom-bond connectivity index, Dendrimer

This paper reports on a high-voltage vertical GaN Schottky barrier diode (SBD) using fluorine (F) ion implantation treatment. Compared with the GaN SBD without F implantation, this SBD effectively enhanced the breakdown voltage from 155V to 775V and significantly reduced the reverse leakage current by 105 times. These results indicate that the F-implanted SBD showed improved reverse capability. In addition, a high Ion/Ioff ratio of 108 and high Schottky barrier height of 0.92 eV were also achieved for this diode with F implantation. The influence of F ion implantation in this SBD was also discussed in detail. It was found that F ion implantation to GaN could not only create a high-resistant region as effective edge termination but be employed for adjusting the carrier density of the surface of GaN, which were both helpful to achieve high breakdown voltage and suppress reverse leakage current. This work shows the potential for fabricating high-voltage and low-leakage SBDs using F ion implantation treatment.

As an efficient theoretical tool, graph theory is widely used in computing chemistry. In terms of index computation on molecular graphs, the researchers can learn the potential properties of chemical compounds, including drugs, materials, and organics. In this paper, by means of distance computation, we study the eccentric version indices of cycloalkanes which occur quite frequently in the chemical drugs and other compounds. The promising prospects of the application for the physical, chemical, medical, and pharmacy engineering are illustrated by theoretical conclusions obtained in this article.

It is found from the earlier studies that the structure-dependency of total π-electron energy Eπ heavily relies on the sum of squares of the vertex degrees of the molecular graph. Hence, it provides a measure of the branching of the carbon-atom skeleton. In recent years, the sum of squares of the vertex degrees of the molecular graph has been defined as forgotten topological index which reflects the structure-dependency of total π-electron energy Eπ and measures the physical-chemical properties of molecular structures. In this paper, in order to research the structure-dependency of total π-electron energy Eπ, we present the forgotten topological index of some important molecular structures from mathematical standpoint. The formulations we obtained here use the approach of edge set dividing, and the conclusions can be applied in physics, chemical, material, and pharmaceutical engineering.

Numerous studies indicate that there is strong inherent relationship between the chemical characteristics of chemical compounds and drugs (e.g., boiling point and melting point) and their molecular structures. Topological indices defined on these chemical molecular structures can help researchers better understand the physical features, chemical reactivity, and biological activity. Thus, the study of the topological indices on chemical structure of chemical materials and drugs can make up for lack of chemical experiments and can provide a theoretical basis for the manufacturing of drugs and chemical materials. In this paper, we focus on the family of smart polymer which is widely used in anticancer drugs manufacturing. Several topological indices are determined in view of edge dividing methods, and these results remedy the lack of chemical and medicine experiments thus providing the theoretical basis for pharmaceutical engineering.