Search

Based on the laser flash method, the selection of experimental parameters on the accuracy of measurement results for measuring thermal diffusivity is investigated in this paper. High purity graphite is employed as the experimental material. Three experimental parameters are taken into consideration, including specimen thickness, laser pulse power, and laser pulse width. Firstly, the principle of the laser flash method is introduced. Then, a numerical simulation model is established and independence tests are performed. In order to investigate the impact of different experimental parameters to the precision of the measurement results using the laser flash method, six thicknesses of the specimens, five laser pulse powers, and five laser pulse widths are selected for numerical simulation and LFA 427 measurement experiments. Finally, an orthogonal design method with three-factor and three-level is constructed to investigate the influence degree of these three factors on the measurement results. It is found that the laser pulse width has the most significant influence, while the laser pulse power has the least impact. For high purity graphite specimens, it is required to choose a thicker specimen, a lower laser pulse power, and a smaller laser pulse width to ensure better measurement accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is characterized by hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia. Carvacrol (CAR) has demonstrated the potential to mitigate dyslipidemia. This study aims to investigate whether CAR can modulate blood glucose and lipid levels in a T2DM rat model by regulating short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and the GPR41/43 pathway. The T2DM rat model was induced by a high-fat diet combined with low-dose streptozocin injection and treated with oral CAR and/or mixed antibiotics. Fasting blood glucose, oral glucose tolerance, and insulin tolerance tests were assessed. Serum lipid parameters, hepatic and renal function indicators, tissue morphology, and SCFAs were measured. In vitro, high glucose (HG)-induced IEC-6 cells were treated with CAR, and optimal CAR concentration was determined. HG-induced IEC-6 cells were treated with SCFAs or/and GPR41/43 agonists. CAR significantly reduced blood lipid and glucose levels, improved tissue damage, and increased SCFA levels in feces and GPR41/43 expression in colonic tissues of T2DM rats. CAR also attenuated HG-induced apoptosis of IEC-6 cells and enhanced GPR41/43 expression. Overall, these findings suggest that CAR alleviates blood lipid and glucose abnormalities in T2DM rats by modulating SCFAs and the GPR41/43 pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amyloidogenic deposition of β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides in human brain involves not only the wild-type Aβ (wt-Aβ) sequences, but also posttranslationally modified Aβ (PTM-Aβ) variants. Recent studies hypothesizes that the PTM-Aβ variants may trigger the deposition of wt-Aβ, which underlies the pathology of Sporadic Alzheimer's disease. Among PTM-Aβ variants, the pyroglutamate-3-Aβ (pyroE3-Aβ) has attracted much attention becauseof their significant abundances and broad distributions in senile plaques and dispersible and soluble oligomers. pyroE3-specific antibodies are being tested as potential anti-Aβ drugs in clinical trials. However, evidence that support the triggering effect of pyroE3-Aβ on wt-Aβ in cells remain lacking, which diminishes its pathological relevance. We show here that cross-seeding with pyroE3-Aβ40 leads to accelerated extracellular and intracellular aggregation of wt-Aβ40 in different neuronal cells. Cytotoxicity levels are elevated through the cross-seeded aggregation, comparing with the self-seeded aggregation of wt-Aβ40 or the static presence of pyroE3-Aβ40 seeds. For the extracellular deposition in mouse neuroblastoma Neuro2a (N2a) cells, the cytotoxicity elevation correlates positively with the seeding efficiency. Besides aggregation rates, cross-seeding with pyroE3-Aβ40 also modulates the molecular level structural polymorphisms of the resultant wt-Aβ40 fibrils. Using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) spectroscopy, we identified key structural differences between the parent pyroE3/?E3 and wt-Aβ40 fibrils within their fibrillar cores. Structural propagation from seeds to daughter fibrils is demonstrated to be more pronounced in the extracellular seeding in N2a cells by comparing the ssNMR spectra from different seeded wt-Aβ40 fibrils, but less significant in the intracellular seeding process in human neuroblastoma SHSY5Y cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enhance the accuracy of mechanical simulation in the directional solidification process of turbine blades for heavy-duty gas turbines, a new constitutive model that employs machine learning methods was developed. This model incorporates incremental learning and transfer learning, thus improves the predictive accuracy and generalization performance. To account for the anisotropy of the directionally solidified alloy, a deformation direction parameter is added to the model, enabling prediction of the stress-strain relationship of the alloy under different deformation directions. The predictive capabilities of both models are evaluated using correlation coefficient (R), average relative error (δ), and value of relative error (RE). Compared to the traditional model, the machine learning constitutive model achieves higher prediction accuracy and better generalization performance. This offers a new approach for the establishment of flow constitutive models for other directionally solidified and single-crystal superalloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaria kills more than 500,000 people yearly, mainly affecting Africa and Southeast Asia. The disease is caused by the protozoan parasite from the genus Plasmodium, with Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum being the main species that cause the disease in humans. Although substantial progress has been observed in malaria research in the last years, the threat of the spread of Plasmodium parasites persists. Artemisinin-resistant strains of this parasite have been reported mainly in Southeast Asia, highlighting the urgent need to develop more effective and safe antimalarial drugs. In this context, natural sources, mainly from flora, remain underexplored antimalarial spaces. The present mini-review explores this space focusing on plant extracts and some of their isolated natural products with at least in vitro antiplasmodial effects reported in the literature comprising the last five years (2018–2022). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responses to sedatives, analgesics and muscle relaxants vary among patients under general anesthesia, which could be ascribed to the disparities of clinical characteristics and genetic factors of individuals. Accumulating researches have indicated that gene polymorphisms of the receptors, transporters and metabolizing enzymes associated with anesthetics play a considerable role in their efficacy. However, a systematically summarized study on the mechanisms of gene polymorphisms on pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of anesthetics is still lacking. In this paper, the recent researches on pharmacogenomics of sedatives, analgesics and muscle relaxants are comprehensively reviewed, and the contributions and mechanisms of polymorphisms to the differences of individual efficacy of these drugs are discussed, so as to provide guidance for the formulation of a rational anesthesia regimen for patients with various genotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About 10% of children with congenital heart disease (CHD) have pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). In this study, we explored the diagnostic values of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and Tei index for CHD-PAH in children. In order to complete the study, two hundred CHD children treated in our hospital from January 2015 to January 2017 were enrolled and divided into postoperative-PAH group (n=29) and no postoperative-PAH group (n=171) according to follow-up results. The peripheral blood was drawn after surgery, neutrophils and lymphocytes were measured by routine blood test, and NLR was calculated. Ventricular Tei index was determined by pulse Doppler, and the other basic data were compared. Factors affecting postoperative PAH were explored by multivariate analysis. The correlations of NLR and Tei index with N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and cardiac output/pulmonary blood flow (CO/Qp), were analyzed. The structural equation model of PAH was constructed. According to receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, the optimal cutoff values of NLR and Tei index for evaluating postoperative PAH were investigated. It has been found that NLR and Tei index are closely related to CHD-PAH in children, which indirectly reflect the severity and have high diagnostic values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the effect of modified Wenyang Buxin decoction and routine therapy on cardiac function and serum levels of heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP), cardiac troponin-1 (cTnI) and angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients. Methods: A total of 120 CHF patients admitted to Zhejiang Province Rongjun Hospital (from January 2019 - January 2020) were selected for this study. They were randomly but equally distributed into groups A and B. All patients were given routine therapy such as diuretic treatment and detumescence, while those in group A received 150 mL of modified Wenyang Buxin decoction daily, in addition to routine therapy. At 2 months after therapy, cardiac function indices, serum H-FABP, cTnI and Ang-2 levels, hemorheology indices, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome scores, and Chinese questionnaire of quality of life in cardiovascular patients (CQQC) scores of the two groups were evaluated. Results: After therapy, cardiac function indices, serum H-FABP, cTnI and Ang-2 levels, hemorheology indices as well as TCM syndrome score and CQQC score were significantly improved in group A, when compared with corresponding values in group B (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Modified Wenyang Buxin decoction and routine therapy improves serum biomarker levels, cardiac function and quality of life, and relieves clinical symptoms of CHF in patients. Therefore, this treatment approach may be useful in the management of CHF patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that chemical compositions and structural arrangements of materials have a great influence on their resultant properties. Diverse functional materials have been constructed by using either biomolecules (peptides, DNA, and RNA) in nature or artificially synthesized molecules (polymers and pillararenes). The relationships between traditional building blocks (such as peptides) have been widely investigated, for example how hydrogen bonds work in the peptide multistage assembly process. However, in contrast to traditional covalent bond-based building blocks-based assembly, suprastructures formed by noncovalent bonds are more influenced by specific bond features, but to date only a few results have been reported based on noncovalent bond-based building block multistage assembly. Here, three metal-organic cycles (MOCs) were used to show how coordination bonds influence the bimetallacycle conformation then lead to the topology differences of MOC multilevel ordered materials. It was found that the coordination linker (isophthalate-Pt-pyridine) is an important factor to tune the shape and size of the MOC-derived suprastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study on the fractional nonlocal equation with the logarithmic nonlinearity formed by... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that explores the loss of activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4) leads to functional aging-like attrition of adult hematopoietic stem cells . It mentions that aging of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) directly contributes to dysfunction of hematopoietic and immune systems due to aging-associated alterations in HSC features.

Netrin-1, a secreted protein recently characterized as a relevant cancer therapeutic target, is the antiapoptotic ligand of the dependence receptors deleted in colorectal carcinoma and members of the UNC5H family. Netrin-1 is overexpressed in several aggressive cancers where it promotes cancer progression by inhibiting cell death induced by its receptors. Interference of its binding to its receptors has been shown, through the development of a monoclonal neutralizing antinetrin-1 antibody (currently in phase II of clinical trial), to actively induce apoptosis and tumor growth inhibition. The transcription factor p53 was shown to positively regulate netrin-1 gene expression. We show here that netrin-1 could be a target gene of the N-terminal p53 isoform Δ40p53, independent of full-length p53 activity. Using stable cell lines, harboring wild-type or null-p53, in which Δ40p53 expression could be finely tuned, we prove that Δ40p53 binds to and activates the netrin-1 promoter. In addition, we show that forcing immortalized human skeletal myoblasts to produce the Δ40p53 isoform, instead of full-length p53, leads to the up-regulation of netrin-1 and its receptor UNC5B and promotes cell survival. Indeed, we demonstrate that netrin-1 interference, in the presence of Δ40p53, triggers apoptosis in cancer and primary cells, leading to tumor growth inhibition in preclinical in vivo models. Finally, we show a positive correlation between netrin-1 and Δ40p53 gene expression in human melanoma and colorectal cancer biopsies. Hence, we propose that inhibition of netrin-1 binding to its receptors should be a promising therapeutic strategy in human tumors expressing high levels of Δ40p53. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) continue to attract increasing interest with respect to their applications as luminescent materials. The ordered structure of the metal-organic complex facilitates the selective integration of PAHs that can be tuned to function cooperatively. Here, a unique highly twisted anthracene-based organoplatinum metallacycle was prepared via coordination-driven selfassembly. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the metallacycle was twisted through the cooperation of strong π···π stacking interactions and steric hindrance between two anthracenebased ligands. Notably, the intramolecular twist and aggregation behavior introduced restrictions to the conformational change of anthracenes, which resulted in increased emission intensity of the metallacycle in solution. The emission behaviors and suprastructures based on the highly twisted metallacycle can be modulated by the introduction of different solvents. This study demonstrates that this metallacycle with highly twisted structure is a promising candidate for sensing and bioimaging applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spectroscopic characteristics of Er-doped lead silicate glasses were investigated with respect to the effects of glass modifiers (Li+, Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Sr2+, and Ba2+)with various optical basicities. Using the absorption spectra of the glasses, the Judd--Ofelt parameters of the glasses were calculated and examined, with an emphasis on the glass emission intensity ratio at 1572 nm. The spectra of the samples at low temperatures were examined, and the Stark splitting of Er3+ was investigated. The McCumber method was used to determine the emission cross sections of glasses. The SPM glass exhibited high values of full width at half maximum (51.24 nm) and the emission cross section at 1572 nm (1.908 x 10-21 cm²), with potential applications for guiding component design of 1.5-μm fiber lasers and amplifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Receptor interacting protein kinase 2 (RIPK2) is involved in a variety of signaling pathway to produce a series of inflammatory cytokines in response to a diverse of bacterial, viral and protozoal pathogens. However, the underlying regulating of RIPK2 remain unknown. Transcriptome alterations in chicken HD11 cells following RIPK2 overexpression or silencing by shRNA were analyzed by next-generation sequencing. Both overexpression and knockdown of the RIPK2 gene caused wide-spread changes in gene expression in chicken HD11 cells. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) caused by altered RIPK2 gene expression were associated with multiple biological processes linked with biological regulation, response to stimulus, cell communication, and signal transduction etc. KEGG analysis revealed that many of the DEGs were enriched in VEGF signaling pathway, ECM-receptor interaction, Focal adhesion, TGF-beta signaling pathway etc. Moreover, we show that initiation genes, TGFB1 and TGFB3, in the TGF-beta signaling pathway are biological targets regulated by RIPK2 in chicken HD11 cells. This is the first transcriptome-wide study in which RIPK2-regulated genes in chicken cells have been screened. Our findings elucidate the molecular events associated with RIPK2 in chicken HD11 cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minimal residual disease (MRD) is one of the causes of leukemia recurrence. Previously, we developed anti-CD10 mAb conjugated to muramyl dipeptide immunoconjugate (MDP-Ab) for immune enhancement. The present study aimed to investigate anti-leukemia effect of MDP-Ab administered via different methods in leukemia ectopic graft nude mouse model. BALB/c nude mice were injected with Nalm-6 cells subcutaneously to establish leukemia xenografts in nude mice as a model. MDP-Ab or/and human lymphocytes (LYM) was injected into different sites of the nude mice. Immunohistochemistry staining of CDs in the bone marrow, liver and spleen was performed. IFN-γ was detected by ELISA. We detected the metastasis of leukemia cells to the liver, spleen and bone marrow in nude mouse leukemia model. MDP-Ab and LYM inhibited the growth of tumors, and simultaneous injection of MDP-Ab and LYM into the tumor inhibited the growth of tumors. IFN-γ levels in MDP-Ab (ca) + h-LYM (ca) group, MDP-Ab (ca) + h-LYM (ip) group, MDP-Ab (iv) + h-LYM (ip) group and PBS (ca) + h-LYM (ca) group were significantly higher than those in control group, while IFN-γ level in MDP-Ab (ca) + h-LYM (ca) group was the highest. Moreover, MDP-Ab and h-LYM promoted the expression of hCD4 and hCD8, with the highest expression in MDP-Ab (ca) + h-LYM (ca) group. In conclusion, MDP-Ab effectively promoted the production of IFN-γ, enhanced the antitumor immunity of T lymphocytes and inhibited leukemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential weight of accumulated snow on the roof of a structure has long been an important consideration in structure design. However, the historical approach of modeling the weight of snow on structures is incompatible for structures with surfaces and geometry where snow is expected to slide off of the structure, such as standalone solar panels. This paper proposes a "storm-level" adaptation of previous structure-related snow studies that is designed to estimate short-term, rather than season-long, accumulations of the snow water equivalent or snow load. One key development associated with this paper includes a climate-driven random forests model to impute missing snow water equivalent values at stations that measure only snow depth in order to produce continuous snow load records. Additionally, the paper compares six different approaches of extreme value estimation on short-term snow accumulations. The results of this study indicate that, when considering the 50-year mean recurrence interval (MRI) for shortterm snow accumulations across different weather station types, the traditional block maxima approach, the mean-adjusted quantile method with a gamma distribution approach, and the peak over threshold Bayesian approach tend to most often provide MRI estimates near the median of all six approaches considered in this study. Further, this paper also shows, via bootstrap simulation, that the peak over threshold extreme value estimation using automatic threshold selection approaches tend to have higher variance compared to the other approaches considered. The results suggest that there is no one-size-fits-all option for extreme value estimation of shortterm snow accumulations, but highlights the potential value from integrating multiple extreme value estimation approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing heavy-backbone object detection models overlook the crucial role of cross-level interactive fusion of feature information in pyramid networks, resulting in the inability to detect occluded objects or small objects in complex scenes. In this thesis, we present a new heavy-neck object detection model called POD-YOLO based on YOLOv5s. Firstly, we propose the POD-RepC3 module to increase the model's capability to obtain the multi-layer feature. Additionally, addressing the issue of large object size span, we propose a bidirectional partial dynamic fusion module (Bi-PDC) as the detection neck of the pyramid network. This module preserves the accurate positioning signals and facilitates cross-level interactive fusion of feature information. Finally, we design Reparameterized Bi-directional Dynamic Feature Pyramid Network (RepBi-DFPN), a deep feature fusion network that integrates contextual information and enhances both feature expression and fusion capabilities of our model. The experiment results suggest that the suggested method is positive on the PASCAL VOC dataset. The mAP@0.5 and mAP@0.5:0.95 performance reached 81.3% and 58.2%, respectively, which increased by 2.4% and 4.1% compared to original algorithm YOLOv5s. Furthermore, experiment results also demonstrate that model's performance can compete with SOTA object detection models. In this paper, the algorithm optimizes the feature fusion capability of the pyramid network to effectively decrease the false detection and missing detection of the model. The model's ability to accurately detect multi-scale targets is significantly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the effects of weed control on crop yield, quality and soil fertility have been increasingly investigated. However, soil microorganism diversity under weed control, especially for aromatic plants, is little studied. Mechanical weeding effects on soil fertility and microbial diversity in star anise plantations remain unknown, limiting improvements in crop quality and yield through weed control. Therefore, mechanical weeding (MW) and no weeding (NW) zones were randomly designed in the same star anise plantation to study the mechanical weeding impacts on soil biological properties and microbial diversity. The phosphatase activity of MW soil was significantly higher than that of NW soil; however, aminopeptidase activity was significantly lower than that under NW. There was no significant difference in ß-glucosidase activity between MWand NW. Moreover, soil microbial biomass C and N inMWsoil were significantly higher than those of NW, but soil microbial biomass P was significantly lower than that of NW. Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Planctomycetes, WPS-2, Firmicutes and Verrucomicrobia were the predominant bacterial phyla inMW and NW soils. Specifically, Bacteroidetes was enriched inMW soil, being the unique dominant bacteria. Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, unclassified_k_-Fungi, Rozellomycota and Mortierellomycota were the predominant fungi inMW and NW soils. The numbers of dominant bacterial genera (> 1%) were 26 and 23 for NW andMW soils, respectively. Among them, norank_f__norank_o__norank_c__Subgroup_6, 1921-2 and norank_f__norank_o__B12-WMSP1 went undetected inMWsoil. Moreover, the numbers of dominant fungi in soils of star anise plantations were 11 and 9 for NW and MW, respectively. Among them, only unclassified_f__Clavicipitaceae and Mortierella went undetected inMWsoils. Thus, soil microbial community structures are not significantly altered by mechanical weeding. The above results suggest that soil fertility can be improved and soil heath can be maintained by mechanical weeding in star anise plantations. Moreover, soilborne diseases maybe easily occurred under NW treatment in star anise plantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C16H30O5, monoclinic, P21 (no. 4), a = 5.6814(5) Å, b = 13.0181(12) Å, c = 22.833(2) Å, β = 96.473(2)°, V = 1677.9(3) Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.0508, wRref(F2) = 0.1346, T = 296(2) K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy levels, radiative rates, lifetimes, hyperfine structures and Landé gJ -factors for electric-dipole (E1), electric-quadrupole (E2), magnetic-dipole (M1), and magnetic-quadrupole (M2) transitions among the lowest 41 levels belonging to the n = 3 states (1s²2s²2p6)3s²3p³, 3s³p4, and 3s²3p²3d in Rb(XXIII) are calculated through the multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock method. High-accuracy calculations have been performed as benchmarks in the request for accurate treatments of relativity, electron correlation, and quantum electrodynamic effects in multi-valence-electron systems. The calculated energy levels are in excellent agreement with the experimental results and the theoretical ones, wherever available. The calculated values including core-valence correction are found to be in good agreement with other theoretical and experimental values. The present results are reported as benchmarks for future calculations and measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time of day strongly influences adaptive behaviors like long-term memory, but the correlating synaptic and molecular mechanisms remain unclear. The circadian clock comprises a canonical transcription-translation feedback loop (TTFL) strictly dependent on the BMAL1 transcription factor. We report that BMAL1 rhythmically localizes to hippocampal synapses in a manner dependent on its phosphorylation at Ser42 [pBMAL1(S42)]. pBMAL1(S42) regulates the autophosphorylation of synaptic CaMKIIa and circadian rhythms of CaMKIIa-dependent molecular interactions and LTP but not global rest/activity behavior. Therefore, our results suggest a model in which repurposing of the clock protein BMAL1 to synapses locally gates the circadian timing of plasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibiotics are among the most used weapons in fighting microbial infections and have greatly improved the quality of human life. However, bacteria can eventually evolve to exhibit antibiotic resistance to almost all prescribed antibiotic drugs. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) develops little antibiotic resistance and has become a promising strategy in fighting bacterial infection. To augment the killing effect of PDT, the conventional strategy is introducing excess ROS in various ways, such as applying high light doses, high photosensitizer concentrations, and exogenous oxygen. In this study, we report a metallacage-based PDT strategy that minimizes the use of ROS by jointly using gallium-metal organic framework rods to inhibit the production of bacterial endogenous NO, amplify ROS stress, and enhance the killing effect. The augmented bactericidal effect was demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. This proposed enhanced PDT strategy will provide a new option for bacterial ablation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the value of single or combined detection of procalcitonin (PCT), interleukin-6 (IL-6), serum amyloid A (SAA) and c-reactive protein (CRP) in the differential diagnosis of simple and strangulated intestinal obstruction. Methods: This retrospectively study collected 61 patients with intestinal obstruction. The patients were classified into the group of simple or strangulated intestinal obstruction according to operation. The age, sex, basic diseases, lesion sites and inflammatory indicators such as PCT, IL-6, SAA and CRP in two groups were collected and analyzed. The Students' T-test and the Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze normally and non-normally distributed data, respectively. The categorical variable was analyzed by the chi-square test. The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the area under the curve (AUC) were used to predict the differential diagnostic value of single and combined detection of the above clinical inflammatory indicators. Results: The serum levels of PCT, IL-6, SAA and CRP of the strangulated group were significantly higher than those of the simple group (p < .05). The areas under the ROC curve (AUC) were 0.907 for PCT, 0.712 for IL-6, 0.723 for SAA and 0.681 for CRP. With the cutoff values of PCT (0.24 ng/L), IL-6 (19.55 pg/L), SAA (282.50 mg/L) and CRP (63.00 mg/L), the sensitivity and specificity were 86.40% and 87.20% for PCT, 68.20% and 76.90% for IL-6, 59.10% and 87.20% for SAA, 63.60% and 87.20% for CRP, respectively. And the sensitivity and specificity were 86.40% and 89.70% for combined model. The differences between PCT and the combined model are tiny and neither clinically nor statistically significant. Conclusions: For discriminating strangulated intestinal obstruction from simple intestinal obstruction, PCT alone may be the preferred approach due to its simplicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protected grape cultivation develops rapidly because of huge economic benefits. However, adverse environmental conditions (insufficient sunlight, high temperature, etc.) in protected cultivation led to low-quality berries. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of berry thinning on the quality attributes of two table grape cultivars (Baoguang and Cuiguang) under linkage greenhouse conditions. Three treatments (L, light berry thinning; M, moderate berry thinning; H, heavy berry thinning) were compared with the control (C, no berry thinning). Berry thinning increased berry weight, total soluble solids (TSS), fructose, glucose, the ratio of TSS to titratable acidity (TA), anthocyanin contents, berry firmness, and mineral contents (Ca, Fe, Na, Mg). Conversely, TA and organic acid profiles were decreased by berry thinning. Cultivars showed significant effects on most of the berry quality parameters. The interaction of cultivars by berry-thinning treatments affected sugar and acid components, anthocyanin contents, and mineral elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional offline cable diagnosis methods need power outages during detection, affecting power supply reliability. Here, a hierarchical diagnosis method of cable aged segment based on transfer function is proposed. Firstly, the calculation model of cable transfer function with the aged segment is established; on this basis, the correlation between transfer function and cable aging is analysed. Then, a structure with combined sparse autoencoder and convolutional neural network is trained to estimate the aging location, and a hierarchical diagnosis model of distribution cable based on transfer function is proposed. The sensitivity and accuracy of aged segment detection are improved after hierarchical diagnosis. Finally, the simulation results show that the method proposed in this paper can effectively realize the online identification and location of the cable aged segment. The proposed method makes use of the advantage that the cable transfer function can be obtained online. Compared with the existing methods, this method does not need power outages in the diagnosis process, and the aged segment can be located without a lot of additional equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ruthenium (Ru) complexes are developed as latent emissive photosensitizers for cancer and pathogen photodiagnosis and therapy. Nevertheless, most existing Ru complexes are limited as photosensitizers in terms of short excitation and emission wavelengths. Herein, we present an emissive Ru(II) metallacycle (herein referred to as 1) that is excited by 808-nm laser and emits at a wavelength of ~1,000 nm via coordinationdriven self-assembly. Metallacycle 1 exhibits good optical penetration (~7 mm) and satisfactory reactive oxygen species production properties. Furthermore, 1 shows broadspectrum antibacterial activity (including against drug-resistant Escherichia coli) as well as low cytotoxicity to normal mammalian cells. In vivo studies reveal that 1 is employed in precise, second near-infrared biomedical window fluorescent imaging-guided, photo-triggered treatments in Staphylococcus aureus-infected mice models, with negligible side effects. This work thus broads the applications of supramolecular photosensitizers through the strategy of lengthening their wavelengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The BRAF inhibitor, vemurafenib, has been widely used in the treatment of patients with melanoma-bearing BRAFV600E mutations. While the initial response to vemurafenib is usually excellent, the majority of patients eventually develop resistance and metastatic disease. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains elusive. The objective of this study was therefore to identify additional molecular targets responsible for vemurafenib resistance. Methods: Western blots and immunohistochemistry analyses were used to evaluate expressions of PYK2 and p-PYK2 in cultured cells and melanoma tissue microarrays. The relationships of p-PYK2 with clinicopathological parameters were statistically analyzed. Invadopodia cell invasion, and a Ca2+ assay were used to determine the effect of vemurafenib resistance-induced p-PYK2 on melanoma progression. A mouse model was used to assess the effects of PYK2 on melanoma metastasis. Results: Elevated p-PYK2 levels were detected in vemurafenib-resistant melanoma cells, and PYK2 was shown to regulate invadopodia formation in melanoma cells. Vemurafenib triggered invadopodia formation by activation of PYK2. Inhibition of PYK2 with either shRNA or the small molecule inhibitor, PF562711, dramatically reduced vemurafenib-induced invadopodia formation. Furthermore, knockdown of PYK2 significantly reduced melanoma lung metastasis in vivo. Increased expressions of p-PYK2 in melanoma patients were positively correlated with advanced stage (P = 0.002), metastasis (P < 0.001), and Clark grade (P < 0.001), and were also associated with short overall survival [hazard ratio (HR) = 3.304, P = 0.007] and progression-free survival (HR = 2.930, P = 0.001). Conclusions: PYK2 mediated vemurafenib-induced melanoma cell migration and invasion. Inhibition of PYK2 resensitized melanoma cells to vemurafenib. Phospho-PYK2 was a prognostic biomarker in melanoma patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To systematically evaluate the application effect of endoscopic papillary balloon dilatation (EPBD) with different balloon dilatation duration for biliary duct calculi, and find the most appropriate dilatation duration for EPBD using a network meta-analysis. Materials and Methods: PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were searched for relevant randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published up to August 2020. Node split, consistency and inconsistency models analysis were all conducted in network meta-analysis. Results: Eighteen RCTs with 2256 participants were finally analysed. EPBD was divided into four categories based on balloon dilatation duration, including EPBD (P0.5), EPBD (>0.5, ≤1), EPBD (1, ≤2) and EPBD (>2, ≤5). Compared with EPBD (>0.5, ≤1), EPBD (>2, ≤5) had a lower risk of early complications (odds ratio [OR] = 0.23, 95% credible interval [CI] = 0.05-0.96) and post-endoscopic procedure pancreatitis (PEP) (OR = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.03-0.72). Endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST) tended to have less need for mechanical lithotripsy (OR = 0.37, 95% CI = 0.16-0.88) and PEP (OR = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.08-0.71) than EPBD (>0.5, ≤1). EPBD (>2, ≤5) was the safest endoscopic procedure with respect to early complications (surface area under cumulative ranking curves [SUCRA] = 79.0) and PEP (SUCRA = 85.3). In addition, EPBD (>2, ≤5) and EST had the highest probability of being the best (SUCRA = 82.6) and the worst (SUCRA = 10.8), respectively, regarding late complications. Conclusion: EPBD and EST are two methods used to treat uncomplicated choledocholithiasis (stone diameter <10 mm and stone number <3). The extension of balloon dilatation duration has no significant influence on successful stone removal in the first endoscopic session or preventing the need for mechanical lithotripsy. However, it can reduce the risk of early complications, especially PEP. What's more, EPBD seems to have less late complications compared with EST, and the effect of prolonged balloon dilatation duration on late complications still needs to be further explored. Therefore, 2-5 min is the recommended dilatation duration range for EPBD using balloon with ≤10 mm diameter. Further research based on a specific population and with a longer follow-up time are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has a large (;235 kb) genome with more than 200 predicted open reading frames that exploits numerous cellular factors to facilitate its replication. A key feature of HCMV-infected cells is the emergence of a distinctive membranous cytoplasmic compartment termed the virion assembly compartment (vAC). Here, we report that host protein WD repeat domain 11 (WDR11) plays a key role in vAC formation and virion morphogenesis. We found that WDR11 was upregulated at both mRNA and protein levels during HCMV infection. At the late stage of HCMV replication, WDR11 relocated to the vAC and colocalized with markers of the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and vAC. Depletion of WDR11 hindered HCMV-induced membrane reorganization of the Golgi and TGN, altered vAC formation, and impaired HCMV secondary envelopment and virion morphogenesis. Further, motifs critical for the localization of WDR11 in TGN were identified by alanine- scanning mutagenesis. Mutation of these motifs led to WDR11 mislocation outside the TGN and loss of vAC formation. Taken together, these data indicate that host protein WDR11 is required for efficient viral replication at the stage of virion assembly, possibly by facilitating the remodeling of the endomembrane system for vAC formation and virion morphogenesis. IMPORTANCE During the late phase of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection, the endomembrane system is dramatically reorganized, resulting in the formation of a unique structure termed the virion assembly compartment (vAC), which is critical for the assembly of infectious virions. The mechanism of HCMV-induced vAC formation is still not fully understood. In this report, we identified a host factor, WDR11, that plays an important role in vAC formation. Our findings argue that WDR11 contributes to the relocation of the Golgi and trans-Golgi network to the vAC, a membrane reorganization process that appears to be required for efficient virion maturation. The present work provides new insights into the vAC formation and HCMV virion morphogenesis and a potential novel target for antiviral treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) establishes a persistent/latent infection after primary infection, and the host factor(s) plays a key role in regulating HCMV infection status. The spread of reactivated HCMV via the hematogenous or neural route usually results in severe diseases in newborns and immunocompromised individuals. As the primary reservoirs in vivo, cells of myeloid lineage have been utilized extensively to study HCMV infection. However, the molecular mechanism of HCMV latency/ reactivation in neural cells is still poorly understood. We previously showed that HCMV-infected T98G cells maintain a large number of viral genomes and support HCMV reactivation from latency upon cAMP/IBMX treatment. Here, we employed an isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ)-based proteomics to characterize cellular protein changes during HCMV latency and reactivation in T98G cells. A total of 168 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified, including 89 proteins in latency and 85 proteins in reactivation. Bioinformatics analysis showed that a few biological pathways were associated with HCMV latency or reactivation. Moreover, we validated 16 DEPs by both mRNA and protein expression profiles and further evaluated the effects of ApoE and the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway on HCMV infection. ApoE knockdown reduced HCMV loads and virus release, whereas overexpressing ApoE hampered HCMV latent infection, indicating a role in HCMV latency establishment/maintenance. Blocking the PI3K pathway by LY294002, a PI3K inhibitor, induced HCMV reactivation from latency in T98G cells. Overall, this comparative proteomics analysis delineates the cellular protein changes during HCMV latency and reactivation and provides a road map to advance our understanding of the mechanism(s) in the context of neural cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: SCH-79797 was recently shown to be a broad-spectrum antibacterial agent with a dual-bactericidal mechanism. However, its anti-biofilm effect remains unknown. Purpose: To investigate the effect of SCH-79797 on the biofilm formation of the cariogenic Streptococcus mutans Methods and Results: Crystal violet staining, colony forming units count and MTT assays (for cell metabolic activity) revealed that S. mutans biofilm formation was significantly suppressed. In addition, virulence factors, including extracellular polysaccharides (investigated by bacterial/exopolysaccharide staining and the anthrone method) and acid production (investigated by lactic acid and supernatant pH detection) were also inhibited significantly. Moreover, the biofilm inhibitory effect of SCH-79797 was mediated through its repression of bacterial growth and not by a bactericidal effect, which was verified by growth curve and bacterial live/dead staining, respectively. Quantitative real-time PCR results disclosed that SCH-79797 affected bacterial acid production and tolerance, polysaccharide synthesis and remodeling, biofilm formation and quorum sensing-related gene expression. In addition, SCH-79797 showed good biocompatibility as determined by cytotoxicity assays. Conclusion: SCH-79797 had an anti-biofilm effect and showed application prospects in the control of dental caries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a severe cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to identify crucial microRNAs (miRNAs) and mRNAs in AMI by establishing a miRNA-mRNA network. The microarray datasets GSE31568, GSE148153, and GSE66360 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. We identified differentially expressed miRNAs (DE-miRNAs) and mRNAs (DE-mRNAs) in AMI samples compared with normal control samples. The consistently changing miRNAs in both GSE31568 and GSE148153 datasets were selected as candidate DE-miRNAs. The interactions between the candidate DE-miRNAs and DEmRNAs were analyzed, and a miRNA-mRNA network and a protein-protein interaction network were constructed, along with functional enrichment and pathway analyses. A total of 209 DE-miRNAs in the GSE31568 dataset, 857 DE-miRNAs in the GSE148153 dataset, and 351 DE-mRNAs in the GSE66360 dataset were identified. Eighteen candidate DE-miRNAs were selected from both the GSE31568 and GSE148153 datasets. Furthermore, miR-646, miR-127-5p, miR-509-5p, miR-509-3-5p, and miR-767-5p were shown to have a higher degree in the miRNA-mRNA network. THBS-1 as well as FOS was a hub gene in the miRNA-mRNA network and the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, respectively. CDKN1A was important in both miRNAmRNA network and PPI network. We established a miRNA-mRNA network in AMI and identified five miRNAs and three genes, which might be used as biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets for patients with AMI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prevalence of sleep apnea in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with occipitocervical lesions was 79%. Occipitocervical fusion (OCF) could incur sleep apnea or worsen this condition. Recent studies reported that this complication is caused by stenosis of the oropharyngeal airway accompanying a decrease in the occipitoaxial angle (O-C2a). However, there are several limitations to the application of the O-C2a, which decreases its effectiveness. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the association between a new radiologic parameter, the CVT/NSL angle (CVT: craniocervical inclination in the second and fourth vertebrae; NSL: Nasion-Sella line), and sleep apnea in RA patients accepting OCF.Methods: A total of 35 patients who underwent OCF due to upper cervical lesions secondary to RA and had sleep apnea before surgery were analyzed. Those who have a postoperative apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) < 15 and a ΔAHI ≥50% were considered "responders"; patients were otherwise considered "non-responders." They were analyzed whether pre- and postoperative radiologic parameters and their differences in plain lateral radiographs were correlated to the parameter related to sleep apnea.Results: The included patients have a mean AHI of 21.9 (range, 10 to 52) before surgery. The mean postoperative CVT/NSLa, ΔCVT/NSLa, andΔO-C2a in complete responders were significantly greater compared with non-responders (p < 0.05). Both the changes in the CVT/NSLa and O-C2a were linearly correlated within patients. However, the R2 value for the CVT/NSLa was greater compared with the O-C2a (0.403 vs. 0.203).Conclusions: The usefulness of the new craniovertebral angle, CVT/NSLa, as an intraoperative indicator during OCF, is more valuable in comparison with the conventional method of measuring the O-C2a. Measuring the craniovertebral angle is extremely important in the planning of surgical treatment for the development of sleep apnea in rheumatoid arthritis patients undergoing occipitocervical fusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]