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Chrysanthemum 'Bai Tian Xing', 'Huang Ching Chin', 'Pink Pearl', and 'NCHU-001' plants were preheated at 35℃ for 24 hours to induce heat tolerance. The recently fully expanded leaves were detached, kept in a moist Ziploc bag, and then subjected to 35, 40, 45, 47.5, 50, 52.5, 55, 60, or 65℃ for 20 minutes. After darkacclimatized at room temperature for 30 minutes, leaves were measured for Fv/Fm value with a chlorophyll fluorescence parameter. Results showed that 'Bai Tian Xing' had the highest critical (Tcrit) and midpoint temperature (Tmid). Mean Tcrit and Tmid were shown to be 47 and 50℃, respectively, and Tmid gave greater distinguishment of Fv/Fm value among cultivars. Plants of four cultivars were acclimatized at 15 to 40℃ for 3 days and 35℃ being the most effective temperature to induce a heat-tolerant response in chrysanthemum. Required inducing time to reach a stable leaf Fv/Fm value ranged from 4.6 to 11.1 hours among cultivars. All cultivars had similar required time to reach visible bud between summer and autumn crops (except NCHU-001), but all had delayed flowering in the summer crop. There is a negative linear relationship between flowering heat delay and leaf Fv/Fm value (R² = 0.93). Progenies from reciprocal crossing of 'Bai Tian Xing' × 'NCHU-001' and 'Huang Ching Chin' × 'Pink Pearl' were also subjected to treatments for Fv/Fm measurements and observed for time to flowering in the summer crop. All combinations showed negative linear relationship between time to flowering and leaf Fv/Fm value (R² = 0.70-0.87). Two plants, 109-W001Y and 109-W003Pi, showed early flowering habit and good flower performance under heat conditions were selected. All four cultivars and the two selected lines were measured for photosynthetic parameters under day/night temperatures of 35/30 or 25/20℃ in growth chambers. All cultivars and lines showed decreased net photosynthetic rate and dark respiration rate under 35/30℃ when compared with 25/20℃. Relatively higher net photosynthetic rate and lower dark respiration rate in 'Bai Tian Xing', '109-W001Y', and '109-W003Pi' under 35/30℃, when compared with the other three cultivars, might have contributed to better flowering performance in the summer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) interacts with various extracellular matrix proteins in tissues. Elevated COMP levels recently linked to worse overall survival in multiple cancer types. COMP's significance in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) remains uncertain. Here we report a retrospective study to explore COMP's impact on iCCA outcomes. We collected 182 patients' iCCA tumor tissues. COMP overexpression was associated with adverse factors like R1 resection (p = 0.008), advanced T stage (p < 0.001), large duct type (p = 0.004), and poorly differentiated histology (p = 0.002). COMP overexpression correlates with poorer DFS (HR, 3.651; p = 0.001), OS (HR, 1.827; p = 0.023), LRFS (HR, 4.077; p < 0.001), and MFS (HR, 3.718; p < 0.001). High COMP expression ties to worse overall survival (p = 0.0001), DSS (p < 0.0001), LRFS (p < 0.0001), and MFS (p < 0.0001). In conclusion, COMP overexpression links to poor prognosis and pathological features in iCCA, indicating its potential as a biomarker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) interacts with various extracellular matrix proteins in tissues. Elevated COMP levels recently linked to worse overall survival in multiple cancer types. COMP's significance in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) remains uncertain. Here we report a retrospective study to explore COMP's impact on iCCA outcomes. We collected 182 patients' iCCA tumor tissues. COMP overexpression was associated with adverse factors like R1 resection (p = 0.008), advanced T stage (p < 0.001), large duct type (p = 0.004), and poorly differentiated histology (p = 0.002). COMP overexpression correlates with poorer DFS (HR, 3.651; p = 0.001), OS (HR, 1.827; p = 0.023), LRFS (HR, 4.077; p < 0.001), and MFS (HR, 3.718; p < 0.001). High COMP expression ties to worse overall survival (p = 0.0001), DSS (p < 0.0001), LRFS (p < 0.0001), and MFS (p < 0.0001). In conclusion, COMP overexpression links to poor prognosis and pathological features in iCCA, indicating its potential as a biomarker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] In recent years, small interfering RNA (siRNA) has been widely used in the treatment of human diseases, especially tumors, and has shown great appeal. However, the clinical application of siRNA faces several challenges. Insufficient efficacy, poor bioavailability, poor stability, and lack of responsiveness to a single therapy are the main problems affecting tumor therapy. Here, we designed a cell-penetrating peptide (CPP)-modified metal organic framework nanoplatform (named PEG-CPP33@ORI@survivin siRNA@ZIF-90, PEG-CPP33@NPs) for targeted co-delivery of oridonin (ORI), a natural anti-tumor active ingredient) and survivin siRNA in vivo. This can improve the stability and bioavailability of siRNA and the efficacy of siRNA monotherapy. The high drug-loading capacity and pH-sensitive properties of zeolite imidazolides endowed the PEG-CPP33@NPs with lysosomal escape abilities. The Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-conjugated CPP (PEG-CPP33) coating significantly improved the uptake in the PEG-CPP33@NPs in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that the co-delivery of ORI and survivin siRNA greatly enhanced the anti-tumor effect of PEG-CPP33@NPs, demonstrating the synergistic effect between ORI and survivin siRNA. In summary, the novel targeted nanobiological platform loaded with ORI and survivin siRNA presented herein showed great advantages in cancer therapy, and provides an attractive strategy for the synergistic application of chemotherapy and gene therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Predators drive prey trait diversification and promote ecological speciation. The impacts of predation are not only on the final state of antipredation traits, but also on the development of antipredation traits. Species of the dragonfly genus Leucorrhinia are distributed in both habitats dominated by predatory fish (fish lakes) and habitats dominated by predatory invertebrates (invertebrate lakes). In larval dragonflies, the spine is one of the most efficient traits deterring gape-limited fish predators. However, the spine is not useful in invertebrate lakes. In this study, we compared the developmental patterns of spines in both habitats. We constructed the scaling relationship between spine length and body size and compared the inflexion point on those curves in five species of Leucorrhinia dragonfly larvae. Here, we found that fish-lake Leucorrhinia species kept a higher spine growth rate than species from invertebrate lakes, and Leucorrhinia species from fish lakes displayed accelerated spine growth rate at larger body size compared to invertebrate-lake species. Our results highlight that development patterns, as well as the final states of antipredator traits, are essential to understanding predator–prey interactions. Predation is a major factor driving prey trait diversification and promoting ecological speciation. Consequently, antipredator traits are widely studied among prey species. However, comparative studies that examine how different predators shape the ontogenetic growth of antipredator traits are scarce. In larval dragonflies, abdominal spines are effective traits against predatory fish in fish lakes, which prefer larger prey. However, defensive spines increase mortality in habitats dominated by invertebrate predators (invertebrate lakes), which prefer smaller prey. Thus, species from fish lakes may accelerate spine growth at a later body size compared to species from invertebrate lakes when growing into the preferred prey size range of predatory fish. In this study, we constructed the allometric relationship between spine length and body size and compared the inflexion point of those growth curves in five species of Leucorrhinia dragonfly larvae. We found that fish-lake Leucorrhinia species accelerated spine growth at a larger body size than congenerics from invertebrate lakes. Further, rather than extending spine length constantly through development, fish-lake species rapidly accelerated spine growth at a larger body size. This is likely to be adaptive for avoiding invertebrate predation at an early life stage, which are also present in fish lakes, though in smaller numbers. Our results highlight that comparative studies of ontogenetic patterns in antipredator traits might be essential to develop an integrated understanding of predator–prey interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial-dependent-propagation (SDP) model with a nearby source works well to reproduce the coevolving features of both cosmic-ray (CR)-nuclei spectra and anisotropy. However, it is well known that the Sun is actually deviating from the galactic disk. This will lead to a dominating anisotropy in the direction perpendicular to the galactic disk, which is discrepant with current observations. Thus, it is necessary to further investigate the effect of the solar offset on anisotropy. In this work, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the combined studies of the solar offset, nuclei spectra, and anisotropy have been performed based on the SDP model. As a result, to reproduce CR spectra and anisotropy, the thickness of the inner halo (Z I H) needs to increase linearly with the displacement of the Sun. We also know that the PeV anisotropy could be used to estimate the value of the diffusion coefficient, thus breaking the degeneracy between the diffusion coefficient and halo thickness. Therefore, it is a good approach to constrain the halo thickness. Moreover, the anisotropy in the PeV energy region, as a new probe, might also shed new light on constraining the solar offset. It is hoped that the anisotropy of the energies from ∼TeV to PeV can be finely measured with the LHAASO experiment, leading to a better understanding of the thick halo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHCC) is the second most common malignant neoplasm of the liver. In spite of the increasing incidence worldwide, it is relatively rare in Western countries. IHCC is relatively common in Eastern and Southeastern Asia. Patients with IHCC are usually diagnosed at an advanced stage, therefore, the clinical outcome is dismal. Dysregulation of urea cycle metabolic enzyme expression is found in different types of cancers. Nevertheless, a comprehensive evaluation of genes related to the urea cycle (i.e., GO:0000050) has not been conducted in IHCC. By performing a comparative analysis of gene expression profiles, we specifically examined genes associated with the urea cycle (GO:0000050) in a publicly accessible transcriptomic dataset (GSE26566). Interestingly, CPS1 was identified as the second most prominently down-regulated gene in this context. Tumor tissues of 182 IHCC patients who underwent curative-intent hepatectomy were enrolled. The expression level of CPS1 protein in our IHCC cohort was assessed by immunohistochemical study. Subsequent to that, statistical analyses were carried out to examine the expression of CPS1 in relation to various clinicopathological factors, as well as to assess its impact on survival outcomes. We noticed that lower immunoreactivity of CPS1 in IHCC was associated with tumor progression (pT status) with statistical significance (p = 0.003). CPS1 underexpression was not only negatively correlated to overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), local recurrence-free survival (LRFS) and metastasis-free survival (MeFS) in univariate analysis but also an independent prognosticator to forecast poorer clinical outcome for all prognostic indices (OS, DFS, LRFS and MeFs) in patients with IHCC (all p ≤ 0.001). These results support that CPS1 may play a crucial role in IHCC oncogenesis and tumor progression and serve as a novel prognostic factor and a potential diagnostic and theranostic biomarker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) is an indicator of renal function and catabolic status in human body. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a major microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) and a serious threat to the vision of diabetic patients. We included 426 type 2 diabetic patients who visited the endocrinology department of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and received an ophthalmology consultation from December 2017 to November 2018. The outcome was the probability of DR in participants. Multivariable logistics analysis was used to confirm the relationship between BUN and the probability of DR. And interaction tests were conducted to find the effects of DM duration on their association. A total of 167 of 426 patients with type 2 diabetes had DR, with a probability of 39.20%. After adjusting for potential confounders, a positive association between BUN and the probability of DR (OR = 1.12; 95% CI 1.03–1.21; P = 0.0107). And a test for interaction between DM duration and BUN on the probability of DR was significant (P = 0.0295). We suggested that in patients with type 2 diabetes, BUN was positively associated with the probability of DR and the association was influenced by DM duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores complex-valued inertial neural networks (CVINNs) with distributed delays (DDs). By constructing two new feedback controllers, some novel results on fixed-time stabilization (FTS) and preassigned-time stabilization (PTS) of CVINNs are established. Unlike most of the previous works, FTS and PTS obtained here are explored without dividing the original complex-valued system into two separate real valued subsystems. Eventually, to verify the effectiveness and reliability of the results of this article, we provide several numerical examples. The FTS and PTS of CVINNs are successfully implemented at T = 6, 5.5, and 5, and the settling time is not affected by system parameters and initial values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are commonly found at the centres of most massive galaxies. Measuring SMBH mass is crucial for understanding the origin and evolution of SMBHs. Traditional approaches, on the other hand, necessitate the collection of spectroscopic data, which is costly. We present an algorithm that weighs SMBHs using quasar light time series information, including colours, multiband magnitudes, and the variability of the light curves, circumventing the need for expensive spectra. We train, validate, and test neural networks that directly learn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 light curves for a sample of 38 939 spectroscopically confirmed quasars to map out the non-linear encoding between SMBH mass and multiband optical light curves. We find a 1σ scatter of 0.37 dex between the predicted SMBH mass and the fiducial virial mass estimate based on SDSS single-epoch spectra, which is comparable to the systematic uncertainty in the virial mass estimate. Our results have direct implications for more efficient applications with future observations from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Our code, AGNet , is publicly available at https://github.com/snehjp2/AGNet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apis laboriosa is the largest honeybee that lives mainly on cliff faces, with strong migratory ability. In this study, we firstly sequenced and assembled two complete mitochondrial genomes of A. laboriosa isolated from two distant locations in China (Chongqing and Shangri‐La regions). Combined with the published mitochondrial genome of A. laboriosa from Nepal, comparative genomic analyses were conducted to gain insight into the genetic diversity of giant honeybees from different geographical distributions. The mitochondrial genomes of A. laboriosa from Chongqing and Shangri‐La regions were 15,579 and 15,683 bp in length, respectively, both larger than that from Nepal with the length of 15,510 bp. Three mitochondrial genomes all harbor 37 common genes and present the same AT bias and the frequency of codon usage. However, the fragments including COX1, SSUrRNA, LSUrRNA, and the AT‐rich region of the mitochondrial genome from Shangri‐La region demonstrate distinctive insertions and deletions compared to those from Chongqing and Nepal regions. Phylogenetic trees of mitochondrial genomes show that A. laboriosa from Chongqing is most closely related to that from Nepal, rather than to Shangri‐La. Genetic distance between Shangri‐La and Chongqing or Nepal was even larger than that between the various subspecies of Apis mellifera. Overall, these results unmark that A. laboriosa in different geographical distributions can exhibit high genetic diversity at the mitochondrial genomic level, and therein, A. laboriosa from Shangri‐La may be the subspecies. All these studies will contribute to our understanding of the geographical distribution and genetic differentiation of black giant honeybee in Asian region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retrospective cohort study. To validate computed tomography (CT) radiodensity in Hounsfield units (HU) as a prognostic marker for pedicle screw loosening or cage subsidence in minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MI-TLIF). The retrospective study involved 198 patients treated with MI-TLIF. Screw loosening (SL), cage subsidence (CS), and fusion status were assessed by plain radiographs. The risk factors of SL and CS were identified using logistic regression. A total of 258 levels and 930 screws were analyzed. During a 2-year follow-up, 16.2% and 24.7% of patients had CS and SL respectively. The cut-off value of L1 HU for predicting SL or CS was 117. The L1 HU < 117 and BMI ≥ 25 were two independent risk factors. The risk of SL or CS was 4.1 fold in patients L1 HU < 117 and 2.6 fold in patients with BMI ≥ 25. For patients concurrently having BMI ≥ 25 and pre-op L1 HU < 117, the risk was 4.3 fold. Fusion rate and clinical outcome were comparable in patients with SL or CS. L1 HU < 117 and BMI > 25 were two independent risk factors that can be screened preoperatively for preventing SL or CS and lead to better management of patients undergoing MI-TLIF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammatory regulation induced by macrophage polarization is essential for cardiac repair after myocardial infarction (MI). Berberin (BBR) is an isoquinoline tetrasystemic alkaloid extracted from plants. This study analyzes the most likely mechanism of BBR in MI treatment determined via network pharmacology, showing that BBR acts mainly through inflammatory responses. Because platelets (PLTs) can be enriched in the infarcted myocardium, PLT membrane-coated polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) nanoparticles (BBR@PLGA@PLT NPs) are used, which show enrichment in the infarcted myocardium to deliver BBR sustainably. Compared with PLGA nanoparticles, BBR@PLGA@PLT NPs are more enriched in the infarcted myocardium and exhibit less uptake in the liver. On day three after MI, BBR@PLGA@PLT NPs administration significantly increases the number of repaired macrophages and decreases the number of inflammatory macrophages and apoptotic cells in infarcted rat myocardium. On the 28th day after MI, the BBR@PLGA@PLT group exhibits a protective effect on cardiac function, reduced cardiac collagen deposition, improved scar tissue stiffness, and an excellent angiogenesis effect. In addition, BBR@PLGA@PLT group has no significant impact on major organs either histologically or enzymologically. In summary, the therapeutic effect of BBR@PLGA@PLT NPs on MI is presented in detail from the perspective of the resolution of inflammation, and a new solution for MI treatment is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prenylated flavonol glycosides in Epimedium plants, as key medicinal components, are known to have great pharmaceutical activities for human health. Among the main prenylated flavonol glycosides, the modification mechanism of different sugar moieties is still not well understood. In the current study, a novel prenylated flavonol rhamnoside xylosyltransferase gene (EpF3R2″XylT) was cloned from E. pubescens, and the enzymatic activity of its decoding proteins was examined in vitro with different prenylated flavonol rhamnoside substrates and different 3-O-monosaccharide moieties. Furthermore, the functional and structural domains of EpF3R2″XylT were analyzed by bioinformatic approaches and 3-D protein structure remodeling. In summary, EpF3R2″XylT was shown to cluster with GGT (glycosyltransferase that glycosylates sugar moieties of glycosides) through phylogenetic analysis. In enzymatic analysis, EpF3R2″XylT was proven to transfer xylose moiety from UDP-xylose to prenylated flavonol rhamnoside at the 2″-OH position of rhamnose. The analysis of enzymatic kinetics showed that EpF3R2″XylT had the highest substrate affinity toward icariin with the lowest Km value of 75.96 ± 11.91 mM. Transient expression of EpF3R2″XylT in tobacco leaf showed functional production of EpF3R2″XylT proteins in planta. EpF3R2″XylT was preferably expressed in the leaves of E. pubescens, which is consistent with the accumulation levels of major prenylflavonol 3-O-triglycoside. The discovery of EpF3R2″XylT will provide an economical and efficient alternative way to produce prenylated flavonol trisaccharides through the biosynthetic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a discrete-time dynamic-decoupled current controller for an LCL-equipped high-speed permanent magnet synchronous machine with only the motor currents measured. The controller is designed in the synchronous coordinate based on a complex $\boldsymbol{z}$ -domain transfer function. The main contribution of the proposed current controller is the robust dynamic decoupling performance to achieve better transient behavior. Moreover, an effective coefficient selection method is developed to acquire sufficient phase margin and gain margin, even with the system parameters varying $\boldsymbol{\pm 50\%}$. Additionally, the stable region of the LCL resonance with the proposed method is discussed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by driving the tested motor to 100 kr/min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This meta-analysis investigated the efficacies of intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC) plus intravesical chemotherapy (IVC) versus IVC alone in patients with non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), and preoperative IAC versus preoperative intravenous chemotherapy (IV) in patients with bladder cancer. We also assessed the adverse reactions (ARs) of IAC. We searched the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases for English articles published before April 2021. The qualities of cohort studies and randomized controlled trials were analyzed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale and Cochrane risk-of-bias tool, respectively. Effect outcomes were computed by random-effects and fixed-effects models. Statistical analyses were conducted using Stata 16.0 and RevMan v5.3.0. A total of seven articles were included. The analysis revealed that IAC plus IVC significantly prolonged recurrence-free survival (RFS) (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.40–0.76, I2 = 0%) and progression-free survival (PFS) (HR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.37–0.97, I2 = 0%) compared with IVC alone in NMIBC patients after transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT), but had no effect on overall survival (OS), tumor recurrence interval, or tumor-specific death rate. Preoperative IAC had no significant OS benefit compared with preoperative IV in bladder cancer patients. Regarding ARs, patients treated with IAC were significantly more likely to develop grade 1–2 ARs, including nausea/vomiting (odds ratio [OR] = 26.38, 95% CI = 1.88–370.79, I2 = 78%), neutropenia (OR = 10.15, 95% CI = 3.01–34.24, I2 = 0%), hypoleukemia (OR = 5.49, 95% CI = 1.38–21.82, I2 = 26%), and increased alanine aminotransferase (OR = 12.28, 95% CI = 2.24–67.43, I2 = 0%), but there was no significant difference between grade 1–2 ARs and grade 3–4 ARs in terms of increased creatinine in patients treated with IAC. Therefore, administration of IAC plus IVC after TURBT improved RFS and PFS compared with IAC alone in patients with NMIBC. IAC was associated with mild ARs and was well tolerated by most patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The n-type Ce:ZnO (NL) grown using a hydrothermal method was deposited on a p-type boron-doped nanoleaf diamond (BDD) film to fabricate an n-Ce:ZnO NL/p-BDD heterojunction. It shows a significant enhancement in photoluminescence (PL) intensity and a more pronounced blue shift of the UV emission peak (from 385 nm to 365 nm) compared with the undoped heterojunction (n-ZnO/p-BDD). The prepared heterojunction devices demonstrate good thermal stability and excellent rectification characteristics at different temperatures. As the temperature increases, the turn-on voltage and ideal factor (n) of the device gradually decrease. The electronic transport behaviors depending on temperature of the heterojunction at different bias voltages are discussed using an equilibrium band diagram and semiconductor theoretical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a two-stage power converter with novel control methods for pulsed load applications. The first stage is an isolated converter that transfers only average power to the second stage, which dramatically reduces the input filter size and components’ current rating. The second stage is a buck converter designed for a fast response during pulsed load transients. A flexible intermediate voltage is implemented to reduce the size of the midpoint energy storage capacitor that is responsible for compensating the instantaneous power difference between the two stages. A novel digital input feed-forward controller is proposed for the second stage to eliminate the poor line regulation issue caused by the flexible intermediate voltage. To verify the effectiveness of the two-stage power supply and the control methods, a full-scale 800 W (average)/4 kW (peak) converter prototype is built and tested. The results prove the feasibility of the proposed topology as well as control methods and demonstrate the advantages over traditional concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This work proposes a new method for the rapid preparation of MXenes. • It takes only 3 h to etch the MAX phase by the HIUE method to obtain MXene. • Ti 3 C 2 T x etched by the method can be used as an effective nanocomposite substrate. • Ti 3 C 2 T x etched by the method show good selectivity and excellent response to NH 3. MXenes are widely studied two-dimensional materials and have been attracting increasing research attention on exploring their applications. However, the preparation for MXene materials is still cumbersome and time-consuming, significantly limiting their utilization. In this work, a high-intensity ultrasonic exfoliation (HIUE) environment is constructed for efficient preparation of the Ti 3 C 2 T x -MXene, which drastically shortens the etching time to 3 h with a yield of more than 90 % after adjusting the temperature, dosage, and ultrasonic power. The delamination of the MXene occurs during etching due to the ultrasound, which promotes the yield of few-layered MXenes of 20 % in one step after centrifuging. The characteristics of the HIUE-prepared MXenes are compared with those obtained by conventional wet etching methods. The feasibility of the proposed HIUE method is further verified by constructing MXene-based nanocomposites and exploring their gas-sensing applications. The as-prepared Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene obtained by the proposed rapid preparation method show good selectivity and an excellent response of 21.1 % to 100 ppm NH 3. In contrast, the MXene/MoS 2 nanocomposites obtained by the rapid preparation method also exhibit enhanced gas-sensing performance. Such experiments demonstrate the efficiency and the excellent potential for rapid preparation and compositing of MXene-based materials by the proposed HIUE method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel 3D lattice material with enhanced stiffness and multiple negative properties is proposed. • Analytical formulations for the thermoelastic constants of the material are derived. • The lattice material can exhibit auxeticity, negative compressibility in a direction or specific areas, as well as negative thermal expansion in a direction, certain areas, or throughout the entire volume. • These exotic properties are widely tunable, incorporating both negative and positive values, allowing for a multitude of diverse combinations. This manuscript presents a pioneering three-dimensional lattice structure that can simultaneously exhibit negative Poisson's ratio (NPR), negative compressibility (NC), and negative thermal expansion (NTE). The coexistence of the three negative indexes, whether in natural materials or in artificial structures, is extremely rare. The lattice unit cell integrates an auxetic egg-rack structure with a non-auxetic cage-like structure. Analytical expressions for the elastic constants of the unit cell are derived by using Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and subsequently validated through finite element simulations. The analytical results show that the lattice exhibits not only NPR, but also NC in a direction or specific areas as well as NTE in a direction, certain areas, or even throughout the entire volume when appropriately tailored geometries and constituent materials are employed. Furthermore, parametric analysis revealed that these properties can be adjusted within a broader range, encompassing negative and positive values, enabling diverse combinations. Metamaterials that possess multiple and adjustable negative properties enable the development of multifunctional devices capable of adapting to mechanical loads, hydrostatic pressures, and temperature fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of metabolic diseases has progressively increased, which has a negative impact on human health and life safety globally. Due to the good efficacy and limited side effects, there is growing interest in developing effective drugs to treat metabolic diseases from natural compounds. Kaempferol (KMP), an important flavonoid, exists in many vegetables, fruits, and traditional medicinal plants. Recently, KMP has received widespread attention worldwide due to its good potential in the treatment of metabolic diseases. To promote the basic research and clinical application of KMP, this review provides a timely and comprehensive summary of the pharmacological advances of KMP in the treatment of four metabolic diseases and its potential molecular mechanisms of action, including diabetes mellitus, obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and atherosclerosis. According to the research, KMP shows remarkable therapeutic effects on metabolic diseases by regulating multiple signaling transduction pathways such as NF-κB, Nrf2, AMPK, PI3K/AKT, TLR4, and ER stress. In addition, the most recent literature on KMP's natural source, pharmacokinetics studies, as well as toxicity and safety are also discussed in this review, thus providing a foundation and evidence for further studies to develop novel and effective drugs from natural compounds. Collectively, our manuscript strongly suggested that KMP could be a promising candidate for the treatment of metabolic diseases. [Display omitted] ● Dietary sources, pharmacokinetics and toxicity of kaempferol. ● Kaempferol has the potential to prevent and treat several metabolic diseases. ● Diabetes, obesity, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease/ non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, atherosclerosis. ● NF-κB, Nrf2, AMPK, PI3K/AKT, TLR4, and ER stress. ● Future perspectives of kaempferol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to examine whether the efficacy of the risk of poor prognosis in patients with coronary artery disease is jointly affected by total cholesterol and baseline serum albumin in a secondary analysis of previous study. We analyzed the data of 204 patients from October 2014 to October 2017 for newly diagnosed stable CAD. The outcome was major adverse cardiac events (MACE; defined as all cause mortality, non fatal myocardial infarction, and non fatal stroke). The median duration of follow-up was 783 days. Multivariable COX model was performed to revalidate the relationship between the sALB and MACE and interaction tests were conducted to find the effects of total cholesterol on their association. A total of 28 MACE occurred among the 204 participants. The risk of MACE varied by baseline serum albumin and total cholesterol. Specifically, lower serum albumin indicated higher risk of MACE (HR 3.52, 95% CI 1.30–9.54), and a test for interaction between baseline serum albumin and total cholesterol on MACE was significant (P = 0.0005). We suggested that baseline serum albumin and total cholesterol could interactively affect the risk of poor prognosis of patients with coronary artery diseases. Our findings need to be confirmed by further randomized trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have already shown that Raman spectroscopy can be used in the encoding of suspension array technology. However, almost all existing convolutional neural network-based decoding approaches rely on supervision with ground truth, and may not be well generalized to unseen datasets, which were collected under different experimental conditions, applying with the same coded material. In this study, we propose an improved model based on CyCADA, named as Detail constraint Cycle Domain Adaptive Model (DCDA). DCDA implements the classification of unseen datasets through domain adaptation, adapts representations at the encode level with decoder-share, and enforces coding features while leveraging a feat loss. To improve detailed structural constraints, DCDA takes downsample connection and skips connection. Our model improves the poor generalization of existing models and saves the cost of the labeling process for unseen target datasets. Compared with other models, extensive experiments and ablation studies show the superiority of DCDA in terms of classification stability and generalization. The model proposed by the research achieves a classification with an accuracy of 100% when applied in datasets, in which the spectrum in the source domain is far less than the target domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) describes a biological process in which polarized epithelial cells are converted into highly motile mesenchymal cells. It promotes cancer cell dissemination, allowing them to form distal metastases, and also involves drug resistance in metastatic cancers. Transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) is a multifunctional cytokine that plays essential roles in development and carcinogenesis. It is a major inducer of the EMT. The MIR31 host gene (MIR31HG) is a newly identified long non-coding (lnc)RNA that exhibits ambiguous roles in cancer. In this study, a cancer genomics analysis predicted that MIR31HG overexpression was positively correlated with poorer disease-free survival of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients, which was associated with upregulation of genes related to TGFβ signaling and the EMT. In vitro evidence demonstrated that TGFβ induced MIR31HG expression in PDAC cells, and knockdown of MIR31HG expression reversed TGFβ-induced EMT phenotypes and cancer cell migration. Therefore, MIR31HG has an oncogenic role in PDAC by promoting the EMT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This meta-analysis evaluated surgical outcomes following endoscopic or conventional discectomy for recurrent lumbar disc herniation. Methods: Medline, Cochrane, EMBASE, and Google Scholar were search until October 16, 2016 using these terms: recurrent lumbar disc herniation, endoscopic surgery, and discectomy. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), prospective, retrospective, and cohort studies were eligible for inclusion. Pooled difference in mean (PDM) with 95% confidence interval (CIs) or relative risks (RRs) were calculated using fixed-effects methods. Results: One RCT and 15 studies were included with a total of 820 patients. Patients received endoscopic surgery experienced shorter operation time than those received conventional surgery (PDM: −52.01, 95% CI: −76.84 to −27.18, P < 0.001). A significantly lower risk in complication was displayed in patients received endoscopic surgery compared to those received conventional surgery (RR: 0.209, 95% CI: 0.076–0.581, P = 0.003). No significant difference in the improvement in VAS (PDM: −2.19, 95% CI: −5.78 to 1.39, P = 0.231), length of stay (PDM: −6.44, 95% CI: −13.76 to 0.89, P = 0.085) and re-recurrence rate (PDM: 0.88, 95% CI: 0.22–3.50, P = 0.861) between groups. Conclusions: Endoscopic and conventional discectomy reduced patient pain comparably, but endoscopic discectomy had significantly lower operation time and lower risk in complications, which may impact other outcomes such as recovery and healthcare costs. More studies are needed to confirm our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydrothermal approach has been used to fabricate a heterojunction of n-aluminum-doped ZnO nanorods/p-B-doped diamond (n-Al:ZnO NRs/p-BDD). It exhibits a significant increase in photoluminescence (PL) intensity and a blue shift of the UV emission peak when compared to the n-ZnO NRs/p-BDD heterojunction. The current voltage (I-V) characteristics exhibit excellent rectifying behavior with a high rectification ratio of 838 at 5 V. The n-Al:ZnO NRs/p-BDD heterojunction shows a minimum turn-on voltage (0.27 V) and reverse leakage current (0.077 μA). The forward current of the n-Al:ZnO NRs/p-BDD heterojunction is more than 1300 times than that of the n-ZnO NRs/p-BDD heterojunction at 5 V. The ideality factor and the barrier height of the Al-doped device were found to decrease. The electrical transport behavior and carrier injection process of the n-Al:ZnO NRs/p-BDD heterojunction were analyzed through the equilibrium energy band diagrams and semiconductor theoretical models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locality-preserving projection (LPP) has been widely used in feature extraction. However, LPP does not use data category information and uses the ${L}_{2}$ -norm for distance measurement, which is highly sensitive to outliers. In this paper, we consider the LPP weight matrix from a supervised perspective and combine the low-rank regression method to propose a new model to discover and extract features. By using the ${L}_{2,1}$ -norm to constrain the loss function and the regression matrix, not only is the sensitivity to outliers reduced but the low-rank condition of the regression matrix is also restricted. Then, we propose a solution to the optimization problem. Finally, we apply the method to a series of face databases, handwriting digital datasets and palmprint datasets to test the performance, and the experimental results show that this method is effective compared with some existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this meta-analysis is to determine the survival benefits and pathological outcomes of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) combined with radical cystectomy (RC) administered to patients with cT2 or cT3-4N0M0 muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched for comparing the use of NAC in combination with RC and RC alone in patients with different MIBC stages. A fixed effects model was used to calculate hazard ratio (HR) and odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and the I 2 statistic was used to assess heterogeneity. Moreover, we determined possible sources of heterogeneity by subgroup and sensitivity analyses. Fifteen studies were finally selected. For cT2 bladder cancer, NAC combined with RC significantly increased the rates of pathological complete response (pCR) (OR = 4.84 , 95% CI: 1.18–19.92, p = 0.029) but did not improve overall survival (OS) (HR = 0.86 , 95% CI: 0.72–1.02, p = 0.078) across six studies. Regarding cT3-4 bladder cancer, NAC has a significantly improved effect on OS (HR = 0.69 ; 95% CI: 0.59–0.81, p < 0.001 , across seven studies and 5726 patients) and pCR (pooled OR = 4.80 ; 95% CI: 2.06–11.23, p < 0.001 , across two studies) than RC alone. Most studies were randomized prospective trials (level 1 evidence), and all the effects were irrespective of the type of study design and did not vary between subgroups of patients. In conclusion, NAC combined with RC is recommended for patients with T3-4aN0M0 but not for patients with T2N0M0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Localized prostate cancer can be treated with several radiotherapeutic approaches. Proton therapy (PT) can precisely target tumors, thus sparing normal tissues and reducing side-effects without sacrificing cancer control. However, PT is a costly treatment compared with conventional photon radiotherapy, which may undermine its overall efficacy. In this review, we summarize current data on the dosimetric rationale, clinical benefits, and cost of PT for prostate cancer. An extensive literature review of PT for prostate cancer was performed with emphasis on studies investigating dosimetric advantage, clinical outcomes, cost-effective strategies, and novel technology trends. PT is safe, and its efficacy is comparable to that of standard photon-based therapy or brachytherapy. Data on gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and sexual function toxicity profiles are conflicting; however, PT is associated with a low risk of second cancer and has no effects on testosterone levels. Regarding cost-effectiveness, PT is suboptimal, although evolving trends in radiation delivery and construction of PT centers may help reduce the cost. PT has several advantages over conventional photon radiotherapy, and novel approaches may increase its efficacy and safety. Large prospective randomized trials comparing photon therapy with proton-based treatments are ongoing and may provide data on the differences in efficacy, toxicity profile, and quality of life between proton- and photon-based treatments for prostate cancer in the modern era. PT provides excellent physical advantages and has a superior dose profile compared with X-ray radiotherapy. Further evidence from clinical trials and research studies will clarify the role of PT in the treatment of prostate cancer, and facilitate the implementation of PT in a more accessible, affordable, efficient, and safe way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a novel dynamic-decoupled active damping current controller is proposed for an LCL-equipped high-speed permanent magnet synchronous machine. Compared with the conventional stationary current-control method for the LCL-type system, the proposed method is established in the synchronous rotating frame for improving the current transient performance. When taking the controller into the synchronous coordinate, there are two following challenges: first, the synchronous resonance frequency varying in a wide range because of the synchronous coordinate transformation, and second, eliminating the coupling between the ${dq}$ coordinate. To address these issues, an improved synchronous capacitor-current-feedback active damping method is designed based on arbitrary pole assignment and is significantly effective for the LCL resonance within the Nyquist frequency. Moreover, a novel dynamic-decoupled motor-current controller is proposed to eliminate the coupling between the ${dq}$ -axis motor current. The gain selection method is discussed to acquire sufficient phase margin and gain margin. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by driving the tested motor to 72 kr/min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to the common thermodynamic systems, systems with long-range interaction may cause non-concavity of s (ε) curves. In this paper, we propose a long-range interacting Ising chain in a staggered magnetic field model which has a non-concave entropy part. In this model, the first phase transition is accompanied by the phenomenon of temperature jump in microcanonical ensemble when proper magnetic field intensity is met, while this jump cannot be observed in canonical ensemble, which shows the non-equivalence of different ensembles. To exhibit the cross-over process from microcanonical to canonical, the cross-over phase transition properties are exhibited recently by putting the chain in thermal contact with an adjustable two-level heat reservoir. In this paper, we introduce a different method by employing Gaussian ensemble to show the cross-over process reversely, i.e., from canonical to microcanonical ensembles. As shown in this paper, by adjusting the parameters of the supporting parabolas in the Gaussian ensemble, one can observe the caloric curve of the system in any Gaussian ensemble. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ternary Pt/rGO(20%)/TpPa-1-COF hybrid material synthesized by one-pot reaction for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light irradiation. [Display omitted] Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been recognized as a new type of promising visible-light-driven photocatalysts for H 2 evolution, while it still is a key point to facilitate the separation and transfer of photoinduced charges for further enhancing their activities. In this work, we fabricated a new type of ternary Pt/rGO/COF photocatalysts with Pt cocatalyst precisely anchored on rGO serving as electron collector for largely enhanced H 2 evolution. A series of ternary hybrid materials were obtained via one-pot photoreduction of Pt4+ and GO under visible-light irradiation in a solution the same as photocatalytic H 2 evolution reaction and simultaneous self-assembling of rGO/COF heterostructure. No need isolation, the synthetic system could be further used for photocatalytic H 2 evolution reaction and the results show the H 2 evolution rate of Pt/rGO(20%)/TpPa-1-COF hybrid material is 19.59 mmol·g−1·h−1, 6.51 times higher than that of Pt/TpPa-1-COF. The essential role of the exclusively distributed Pt nanoparticles on rGO to the high H 2 evolution activity was confirmed by various comparisons of activity for the samples with diverse Pt distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strain after rolling plays an important role in the prediction of the microstructure and properties and plate deformation permeability. So, it is necessary to establish a more accurate theoretical strain model for the rolling process. This paper studies the modeling method of the equivalent strain based on the upper bound principle and the stream function method. The rolling deformation region is divided into three zones (inlet rigid zone, plastic zone, and outlet rigid zone) according to the kinematics. The boundary conditions of adjacent deformation zones are modified according to the characteristics of each deformation zone. A near-real kinematics admissible velocity field is established by the stream function method on this basis. The geometric boundary conditions of the deformation region are obtained. The deformation power, friction power, and velocity discontinuous power are calculated according to the redefined geometric boundary conditions. On this basis, the generalized shear strain rate intensity is calculated according to the minimum energy principle. Finally, the equivalent strain model after rolling is obtained by integrating the generalized shear strain rate in time. The plate rolling experiments of AA1060 and the numerical simulations are carried out with different rolling reductions to verify the analytic model precision of the equivalent strain. The results show that the minimum and the maximum relative equivalent strain deviation between the analytic model and the experiment is 0.52% and 9.96%, respectively. The numerical calculation and experimental results show that the model can accurately calculate the strain along the plate thickness. This model can provide an important reference for the rolling process setup and the microstructure and properties prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a sliding-mode position estimation method for high-speed surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous machines with LCL filter. The implementation of the LCL filter aims at smoothing the motor current and reducing the iron loss caused by the harmonic currents. First, the discrete-time model of the LCL-filtered motor drive system is developed. Based on the developed model, the sliding-mode observer is proposed with more robustness against the parameter variation to estimate the back EMF, which contains the information of the rotor speed and position. Because of the elimination of the capacitor voltage sensors, the augmented sliding surface is designed to achieve arbitrary pole placement with only output feedback. Besides, considering the analog-to-digital scaling error and pulsewidth modulation harmonics, a reaching law with enhanced chattering suppression ability is proposed. Compared with the conventional methods, the chattering problem is well alleviated and thus the speed estimation ripple is much reduced. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method, even with the mismatched parameters adopted is validated at 100 kr/min with the sampling frequency 20 kHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a compensation method of position estimation error for high-speed surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motors based on robust inductance estimation. The proposed method relies on the variation of the estimated $\delta$ -axis back back-electromotive force when a small current is injected into the $\gamma$ axis. The inductance estimation error is limited within ${\bf \pm \!5\%}$ when the nominal resistance and inductance vary $\bf \pm 30\%$ of their real values. With the estimated inductance, the position estimation error can be well compensated. Compared with the conventional current-injection method, the proposed method has enhanced robustness against the system noises. Benefiting from this, it is effective to estimate the inductance with a small injected current ($ \bf 0.5\%$ of the rated current), where the conventional methods fail. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by simulation and experiment results on a 100 kr/min (1.67 kHz) high-speed permanent magnet synchronous machines accurately with 10-kHz sampling frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalysis has emerged as a prevailing and clean technology for water purification. In this work, we developed a facile approach for fabricating in-plane carbon/carbon nitride heterojunctions (CN-PDs) that induced 100 % photodegradation of naproxen under visible light irradiation in a nonradical manner. Experimental and simulation results collectively revealed that the incorporated carbon rings in carbon nitride (CN) significantly accelerate the charge dynamics of excitons, leading to a higher concentration of hot carriers. In addition, a lower intersystem crossing energy barrier was observed for the unique nanostructure compared to pristine CN, enabling an efficient energy-transfer-mediated oxygen activation to selectively generate singlet oxygen. An optimized composition of carbon rings (CN-PDs 0.1) enhanced the photodegradation of naproxen compared to CN. This study established the structure-activity relationships in selective photooxidation. The findings will benefit advanced design of high-performance nonmetal photocatalysts for organic wastewater treatment. [Display omitted] • Polymer dots was employed to implant carbon rings into carbon nitride matrix. • A 100 % nonradical pathway was evidenced in the photodegradation of naproxen. • Carbon rings in CN-PDs can expedite the dynamics of photo-excited charge carriers. • Intersystem crossing was facilitated in CN-PDs for more singlet oxygen generations. • The optimized nonradical pathway on CN-PDs 0.1 led to an efficient naproxen removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric aerosol particles are frequently mixtures of inorganic and organic species, both of which can contribute to aerosol water uptake and determine the particles' ability to scatter and absorb light. While water uptake of purely inorganic aerosol is well represented in current regional and global chemical transport models, it is challenging to represent it for particles that are mixtures of organic and inorganic species. Here we quantified the growth factor for aerosols that consist of mixed organic-inorganic particles using an accurate lattice-based adsorption isotherm model (Ad-iso) as a benchmark. We then determined the error in the growth factor and resulting optical properties for simplifying assumptions that are commonly made in current chemical transport models. The systems studied here are representative of ambient atmospheric aerosols, consisting of model water-soluble inorganic-organic mixtures, with and without a core of absorbing black carbon, under conditions of relative humidity larger than 85%. The assumption of completely neglecting the water uptake by organic components, for particles with an organic mass fraction of 50%, led to errors of up to 7% in growth factor and up to 3.5% in single scattering albedo. Larger errors occurred for larger organic mass fractions. Approximating the organic water uptake with a constant hygroscopicity parameter, for organic mass fractions between 45 and 65%, the errors remained within 3% for the growth factor and 0.6% for the single scattering albedo. For organic mass fractions smaller than 45% or larger than 65%, the errors increased up to 6% for the single scattering albedo. The magnitudes of these errors underscore the importance of considering organic/inorganic mixtures for estimating direct aerosol radiative forcing. Copyright © 2021 American Association for Aerosol Research [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cedar virus (CedV) is a nonpathogenic member of the Henipavirus (HNV) genus of emerging viruses, which includes the deadly Nipah (NiV) and Hendra (HeV) viruses. CedV forms syncytia, a hallmark of henipaviral and paramyxoviral infections and pathogenicity. However, the intrinsic fusogenic capacity of CedV relative to NiV or HeV remains unquantified. HNV entry is mediated by concerted interactions between the attachment (G) and fusion (F) glycoproteins. Upon receptor binding by the HNV G head domain, a fusion-activating G stalk region is exposed and triggers F to undergo a conformational cascade that leads to viral entry or cell-cell fusion. Here, we demonstrate quantitatively that CedV is inherently significantly less fusogenic than NiV at equivalent G and F cell surface expression levels. We then generated and tested six headless CedV G mutants of distinct C-terminal stalk lengths, surprisingly revealing highly hyperfusogenic cell-cell fusion phenotypes 3- to 4-fold greater than wild-type CedV levels. Additionally, similarly to NiV, a headless HeV G mutant yielded a less pronounced hyperfusogenic phenotype compared to wild-type HeV. Further, coimmunoprecipitation and cell-cell fusion assays revealed heterotypic NiV/CedV functional G/F bidentate interactions, as well as evidence of HNV G head domain involvement beyond receptor binding or G stalk exposure. All evidence points to the G head/stalk junction being key to modulating HNV fusogenicity, supporting the notion that head domains play several distinct and central roles in modulating stalk domain fusion promotion. Further, this study exemplifies how CedV may help elucidate important mechanistic underpinnings of HNV entry and pathogenicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and progressive fibrosing interstitial lung disease. The effects of emphysema on mortality in IPF remains unclear. Methods: MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were searched. Studies were included if they compared mortality in IPF patients with and without emphysema. In included studies, the diagnosis with IPF or IPF combined emphysema was according to the ATS and ERS statements. From eligible studies, we extracted HR and 95% CI, if HRs were not reported, they were extracted based on Kaplan–Meier curves. Results: A total of 2605 patients across 15 cohort studies were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. Emphysema was associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality with a pooled HR 1.37 (95% CI, 1.04-1.80) and I 2 = 64%. However, the level of evidence was 'very low' according to GRADE criteria. Subgroup analysis according to IPF with emphysema patients revealed that DLCO%pre<40 (HR 1.75 (95% CI, 1.02-3.01) and I 2 = 74%), FVC%pre<80 (HR 1.81 (95% CI, 1.24-2.64) and I 2 = 61%), location on North America and Europe (HR 2.00 (95% CI, 1.09-3.67) and I 2 = 76%), and Smoking Pack-years<40 (HR 1.38 (95% CI, 1.02-1.87) and I 2 = 15%) were risk factors for all-cause mortality. Sensitivity analysis revealed that one study had a disproportional effect on the pooled rate. Conclusions: Our findings suggested emphysema increased the risk of all-cause mortality in patients with IPF. This conclusion should be re-evaluated by a large-scale randomized controlled trial. Trial Registration: PROSPERO: CRD42022378699; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Ischnura senegalensis, a beneficial insect predator in the paddy fields, is perilously confronted with the survival challenges posed by insecticide application. In this study, we delved into the toxicity of indoxacarb on the larvae of I. senegalensis. Through behavioral experiments and transcriptome analyses, we uncovered that indoxacarb caused abnormal body movements and locomotory impairments, thereby posing a threat to larval survival. Notably, genes related to muscle function were significantly impacted. While lower concentrations of indoxacarb may be mitigated by the cytochrome P450 gene, higher concentrations significantly diminished the larvae's sensory abilities and hampered toxicity degradation. Our findings highlight the importance of meticulously considering the impact of insecticides on non-target predatory insects before their widespread application. Ischnura senegalensis, which widely spreads in paddy fields, has the potential to be used as a natural predator of insect pests. However, the application of insecticides in the field could pose a threat to the survival of I. senegalensis. Among these pesticides, indoxacarb, an oxadiazine insecticide, is renowned for its broad-spectrum efficacy against numerous insect pests. In this study, we examined the toxicity of indoxacarb towards the larvae of I. senegalensis. Behavioral experiments and transcriptome analyses were conducted under indoxacarb treatments. Results revealed that indoxacarb induced abnormal body gestures and significant locomotory impairments, which could ultimately reduce the survival rate of the larvae in their natural habitat. Moreover, transcriptome analyses indicated that genes related to muscle function were significantly affected. Interestingly, at lower concentrations of indoxacarb (0.004 mg/L), the larvae seem to detoxify the indoxacarb with the aid of the cytochrome P450 gene. However, under higher concentrations (0.4 mg/L), the sensory abilities of the larvae were significantly diminished, and they were unable to degrade the toxicity of indoxacarb. Our study underscores the importance of carefully evaluating the impact of insecticides on non-target predatory insects before their widespread application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we address technical difficulties that arise when applying Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to hierarchical models designed to perform clustering in the space of latent parameters of subject‐wise generative models. Specifically, we focus on the case where the subject‐wise generative model is a dynamic causal model (DCM) for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and clusters are defined in terms of effective brain connectivity. While an attractive approach for detecting mechanistically interpretable subgroups in heterogeneous populations, inverting such a hierarchical model represents a particularly challenging case, since DCM is often characterized by high posterior correlations between its parameters. In this context, standard MCMC schemes exhibit poor performance and extremely slow convergence. In this article, we investigate the properties of hierarchical clustering which lead to the observed failure of standard MCMC schemes and propose a solution designed to improve convergence but preserve computational complexity. Specifically, we introduce a class of proposal distributions which aims to capture the interdependencies between the parameters of the clustering and subject‐wise generative models and helps to reduce random walk behaviour of the MCMC scheme. Critically, these proposal distributions only introduce a single hyperparameter that needs to be tuned to achieve good performance. For validation, we apply our proposed solution to synthetic and real‐world datasets and also compare it, in terms of computational complexity and performance, to Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC), a state‐of‐the‐art Monte Carlo technique. Our results indicate that, for the specific application domain considered here, our proposed solution shows good convergence performance and superior runtime compared to HMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, both cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and autophagy have been proven to play an important role in tumor development, including bladder cancer (BCa). However, the real mechanisms remain largely unclear. Here, we reconstruct a mimic tumor microenvironment to explore the interaction between CAFs and the BCa cell line T24 using a coculture system. Autophagy in CAFs was induced or inhibited by rapamycin or siRNA, respectively. After coculture with CAFs, T24 cell proliferation, invasion, and aerobic glycolysis were tested in vitro. Rapamycin induced and siAtg5 inhibited autophagy in CAFs. Enhanced autophagy in CAFs promoted cell proliferation and invasion in T24 cells in vitro, while there was no significant difference between the autophagy-inhibited group and the controls. Lactate concentration was elevated in both rapamycin-treated and siAtg5-treated groups compared with the control group. In addition, the expression levels of MCT1, MCT4, HK2, SLC2A1, and MMP-9 were all increased in T24 cells in the autophagy-enhanced group. Our results indicated that CAFs could regulate BCa invasion and metabolic phenotypes through autophagy, providing us with new alternative treatments for BCa in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We sought to compare the prognostic significance of different preoperative complete blood count cell ratios in patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) treated with surgery and postoperative radiotherapy (PORT). Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 890 patients with OSCC who were treated with surgery and PORT. The following preoperative complete blood count cell ratios were collected: neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and lymphocyte‐to‐monocyte ratio (LMR). Overall survival (OS), local control, regional control, and distant control (DC) served as the main outcomes of interest. Results: The results of multivariate analysis in the entire study cohort revealed that a low NLR was the only independently favorable marker of both OS (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 0.794, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.656–0.961, bootstrap p = 0.028) and DC (adjusted HR: 0.659, 95% CI: 0.478–0.909, bootstrap p = 0.015). Both LMR and PLR were not retained in the model as independent predictors. Subgroup analyses in high‐risk patients (i.e., those bearing T4 disease, N3 disease, or poor differentiation) revealed that a high NLR was a significant adverse risk factor for both OS and DC (all p < 0.03)—with a borderline significance being evident for DC in patients with T4 disease (p = 0.058). Conclusions: A high pretreatment NLR was an independent unfavorable risk factor for both OS and DC in patients with OSCC who underwent surgery and PORT. No other preoperative complete blood count parameters and cell ratios were found to have prognostic significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of patients with oncologic and cardiologic comorbidities is increasing. A growing number of evidence shows an inextricable link between cancer, atrial fibrillation, and atrial cardiomyopathy. Cancer itself and resultant inflammation, anticancer treatment, and other comorbidities lead to atrial remodeling and fibrosis, which increases the tendency to develop atrial cardiomyopathy and atrial fibrillation. The scarcity of current literature and ambiguous results make its relationship difficult to fully understand. In this review, we will summarize existing evidence of the relationships and interactions among cancer, atrial cardiomyopathy, and atrial fibrillation and discuss the underlying mechanisms, and provide better information for the management of these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1), a monomeric heme-containing enzyme, catalyzes the first and rate-limiting step in the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism, which plays an important role in immunity and neuronal function. Its implication in different pathophysiologic processes including cancer and neurodegenerative diseases has inspired the development of IDO1 inhibitors in the past decades. However, the negative results of the phase III clinical trial of the would-be first-in-class IDO1 inhibitor (epacadostat) in combination with an anti-PD1 antibody (pembrolizumab) in patients with advanced malignant melanoma call for a better understanding of the role of IDO1 inhibition. In this review, the current status of the clinical development of IDO1 inhibitors will be introduced and the key pre-clinical and clinical data of epacadostat will be summarized. Moreover, based on the cautionary notes obtained from the clinical readout of epacadostat, strategies for the identification of reliable predictive biomarkers and pharmacodynamic markers as well as for the selection of the tumor types to be treated with IDO1inhibitors will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Numerical model of perforating operation was established and verified by engineering data. • High perforation density increased the effective stress in the middle of the perforation holes. • Low perforation phase angle increased risk of casing structure deformation. Perforation operation is critical in bridging completion and production enhancement operations. At the same time, the perforation parameters also affect the structural integrity of the casing. Still, there are fewer studies on the stress distribution of the casing under the blast transient impact loading of multi-hole perforation. To address this, considering the engineering application of helical perforation in unconventional oil and gas reservoirs, a three-dimensional numerical model of perforating charge-casing-cement sheath-formation is established, and the Holmquist-Johnson-Cook (HJC) rock dynamics material model, as well as the fluid–solid coupling and Arbitrary Lagrange-Euler (ALE) algorithms. On this basis, the variation rule and distribution characteristics of the effective stress in the double-perforation holes stress superposition area under different perforation density, phase angle, and geostress conditions are analyzed with the casing strength safety threshold as the optimization judgment condition of perforation parameters. The research results show that the numerical simulation result has good consistency in the results of engineering practice, perforation aperture diameter error is 3.04%, and jet head velocity error is 6.85%. The variation rule of perforation density and phase angle has a significant effect on the effective stress distribution in the stress superposition area around the hole: with the decreasing perforation density or increasing phase angle, the casing stress superposition area in the middle part of the neighboring perforation holes is gradually narrowed down, and when the perforation density is more than 9 P/m and 51°, the casing stress in the stress superposition area between the perforated holes is lower than the safety threshold value. With the increasing ground stress, the stress in the middle of the neighboring perforated holes increases continuously, showing a quadratic function change trend. The perforation density should be appropriately reduced, and the phase angle should be increased when the geostress is high to ensure the integrity of the casing structure after the perforation operation. The research results can provide a practical reference for conducting perforation engineering operations and optimizing perforation parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodegradable plastics have been regarded as promising candidates in the struggle against plastic pollution. However, the aging and dynamic leaching process of biodegradable and conventional plastics under photooxidation is still unclear. Herein, three types of non-biodegradable plastics (polypropylene, polyethylene, and polyethylene terephthalate), and two types of biodegradable plastics (polylactic acid and cornstarch-based plastics) were treated with 21 days of photooxidation followed by 13 days of dark conditions. Scanning electron microscopy was applied to display the morphological changes. Also, the carbonyl index, oxygen-to-carbon ratio, and contact angle were utilized to characterize the aging degree of the plastic surface. Unexpectedly, biodegradable plastics did not always display a greater aging degree than non-biodegradable plastics. Moreover, the dissolved organic carbon during the leaching process was identified using excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy. The findings suggested that biodegradable plastics showed the potential to release more dissolved organic carbon. Particularly, the polylactic acid plastic displayed higher concentrations and more types of dissolved organic carbon release than that of conventional plastics in our experiment. This research highlights the necessity for monitoring the aging process of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable plastics and the non-negligible ecological risk of leached organic pollutants due to plastic degradation. • Aging process of biodegradable and conventional plastics under photooxidation were studied. • Biodegradable plastics did not always display greater aging degree over non-biodegradable plastics. • PLA displayed higher concentrations and more types of dissolved organic carbon. • Monitoring the aging process of both biodegradable plastics and non-biodegradable plastics is necessary. • Leached dissolved organic carbon could bring ecological risks to the already complicated plastic issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]