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This paper uses cellular imaging analysis algorithms to assess and predict the condition of patients with acute lung injury. Given the unique optical properties of UCNPs, this paper designs a ratiometric upconversion fluorescent nanoprobe for the determination of nitric oxide (NO) content in living cells and tissues. To address the image degradation phenomenon of optical sections, this paper uses a blind deconvolution method to abate the degradation effect caused by the scattered focus surface, thus completing the image recovery. After that, grayscale and binarization are performed using the weighted average method and the Otsu method. In this paper, we propose a migration learning-based Resnet-50 network for the triple classification of unlabeled leukocytes based on the characteristics of cell images acquired by a miniaturized label-free microfluidic cell imaging detection device. The migration learning can rapidly optimize the network parameters, the short connection structure of Resnet-50 is more suitable for feature extraction of unlabeled leukocytes than the InceptionV3 model without a short connection structure, and the accuracy of the Resnet-50 network can reach 94% in the test set. In this paper, we propose two tracking algorithms based on the dynamic Gaussian mixture model and mathematical morphology-based algorithms suitable for cells of different shapes for cell tracking in microscopic images, neuronal cell labeling in fluorescent images, and cell segmentation in mice. These methods have the advantages of low cost, speed, reproducibility, and objectivity, and we hope that their elicitation will be useful for relevant cell biology research.

BACKGROUND Chickenpox is an old but easily neglected infectious disease. Although chickenpox is preventable by vaccines, vaccine breakthroughs often occur, and the chickenpox epidemic is on the rise. Chickenpox is not included in the list of regulated communicable diseases that must be reported and controlled by public and health departments; therefore, it is crucial to rapidly identify and report varicella outbreaks during the early stages. The Baidu index (BDI) can supplement the traditional surveillance system for infectious diseases, such as brucellosis and dengue, in China. The number of reported chickenpox cases and internet search data also showed a similar trend. BDI can be a useful tool to display the outbreak of infectious diseases. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to develop an efficient disease surveillance method that uses BDI to assist in traditional surveillance. METHODS Chickenpox incidence data (weekly from January 2017 to June 2021) reported by the Yunnan Province Center for Disease Control and Prevention were obtained to evaluate the relationship between the incidence of chickenpox and BDI. We applied a support vector machine regression (SVR) model and a multiple regression prediction model with BDI to predict the incidence of chickenpox. In addition, we used the SVR model to predict the number of chickenpox cases from June 2021 to the first week of April 2022. RESULTS The analysis showed that there was a close correlation between the weekly number of newly diagnosed cases and the BDI. In the search terms we collected, the highest Spearman correlation coefficient was 0.747. Most BDI search terms, such as “chickenpox,” “chickenpox treatment,” “treatment of chickenpox,” “chickenpox symptoms,” and “chickenpox virus,” trend consistently. Some BDI search terms, such as “chickenpox pictures,” “symptoms of chickenpox,” “chickenpox vaccine,” and “is chickenpox vaccine necessary,” appeared earlier than the trend of “chickenpox virus.” The 2 models were compared, the SVR model performed better in all the applied measurements: fitting effect, R2=0.9108, root mean square error (RMSE)=96.2995, and mean absolute error (MAE)=73.3988; and prediction effect, R2=0.548, RMSE=189.1807, and MAE=147.5412. In addition, we applied the SVR model to predict the number of reported cases weekly in Yunnan from June 2021 to April 2022 using the same period of the BDI. The results showed that the fluctuation of the time series from July 2021 to April 2022 was similar to that of the last year and a half with no change in the level of prevention and control. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicated that the BDI in Yunnan Province can predict the incidence of chickenpox in the same period. Thus, the BDI is a useful tool for monitoring the chickenpox epidemic and for complementing traditional monitoring systems.

Fungal pathogens secrete effector proteins that regulate host immunity and can suppress basal defence mechanisms against colonization in plants. Verticillium dahliae is a widespread and destructive soilborne fungus that can cause vascular wilt disease and reduces plant yields. However, little is currently known about how the effectors secreted by V. dahliae function. In this study, we analysed and identified 34 candidate effectors in the V. dahliae secretome and found that Vd424Y, a glycoside hydrolase family 11 protein, was highly upregulated during the early stages of V. dahliae infection in cotton plants. This protein was located in the nucleus and its deletion compromised the virulence of the fungus. The transient expression of Vd424Y in Nicotiana benthamiana induced BAK1‐ and SOBIR1‐dependent cell death and activated both salicylic acid and jasmonic acid signalling. This enhanced its resistance to the oomycetes Phytophthora capsici in a way that depended on its nuclear localization signal and signal peptides. Our results demonstrate that Vd424Y is an important effector protein targeting the host nucleus to regulate and activate effector‐triggered immunity in plants., Vd424Y is an important effector protein targeting the host nucleus to regulate and activate effector‐triggered immunity in plants.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Gemcitabine (Gem) has been a key chemotherapy agent for pancreatic cancer treatment by suppressing cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis. However, the overexpression of inhibitors of apoptosis (IAP) family of proteins during the carcinogenesis of pancreatic cancer can develop resistance to chemotherapy treatment and result in poor efficacy. To achieve the synergistic combinations of multiple strategies for this dismal disease, we developed a robust nanomedicine system, consisting of a photodynamic therapeutic agent (chlorine e6, Ce6) and a pro-apoptotic peptide-Gem conjugate. To have spatiotemporally controlled drug release, the pro-apoptotic peptide-Gem conjugate was designed to have a vinyldithioether linker that was sensitive to reactive oxygen species (ROS). The nanomedicine was fabricated by the direct self-assembly of the pro-apoptotic peptide-Gem conjugate with Ce6. After being delivered into tumors, the nanomedicine disassembled and rapidly released Gem, Ce6, and the pro-apoptotic peptide upon light illumination (660 nm). Both

To investigate intestinal endotoxemia (IETM), intestinal permeability (IP) and cytokine activity in patients with liver cirrhosis (LC).Twenty-nine patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), 28 with compensated LC, 33 with decompensated LC, 24 with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP), 26 with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF), and 24 with decompensated LC complicated by hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were recruited. Thirty-one healthy people were included as a control group. Plasma tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interferon (IFN)-γ, D-lactate, endotoxin, and claudin-3 levels were assayed. Data were compared using Pearson correlation testing and analysis of variance, with P 0.05 considered significant.TNF-α, claudin-3, and endotoxin levels were significantly increased (P 0.05) in the plasma of all patients with liver disease compared with that of controls, particularly in patients with decompensated LC, SBP, ACLF, or HCC (P 0.01). IFN-γ was significantly higher in HCC than in other liver diseases (P 0.01). Plasma D-lactate was significantly decreased in all liver diseases, except SBP (P 0.01). TNF-α, endotoxin, and claudin-3 levels were positively correlated (P 0.01), but correlations of IFN-γ with endotoxin or claudin-3 were not significant. The plasma D-lactate level did not significantly correlate with either TNF-α, endotoxin, or claudin-3 levels.Plasma claudin-3, but not D-lactate, was found to be a marker of IP in patients with liver diseases. Elevated plasma TNF-α in such patients was likely to have injured the intestinal barrier, leading to IETM, especially in end-stage LC.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the short-term effect of temperature on the risk of acute pancreatitis (AP) in southern China. We performed a time-series study of 2822 patients admitted with a first episode of AP in Nanchang between May 2014 and June 2017. A generalized additive model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model was applied to assess the association of temperature and AP. In subgroup analysis, according to different etiologies of pancreatitis, significant associations were found between daily average temperature and non-biliary pancreatitis hospitalization at lags of 0–7 days, but not for biliary pancreatitis or total AP. Higher daily average temperature tended to increase the occurrence of non-biliary pancreatitis at lags of 0–7 days. These findings suggest that high temperature is associated with higher non-biliary pancreatitis risk in Nanchang, China. In the context of global warming, the morbidity of non-biliary pancreatitis may increase.

Systemic amyloidosis is a rare disease involving multiple organs. It is difficult to establish diagnosis as the symptoms is diverse and non-specific. And without specific therapy the prognosis is very poor. We analyzed detailed clinical and laboratorial data of a 53-year-old male patient. The characteristic features included refractory pleural effusion, extraordinary hepatomegaly and cardiac failure. The illness lasted 9 months and therapy period spanned 4 months. Fine needle biopsy of liver, lung, heart, pancreas and kidney was performed. Immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, Congo staining and hematoxylin and eosin staining were performed. All specimens were stained pink with haematoxylin and eosin staining. Amorphous deposits of eosinophilic material were visible within the Congo red dye stained liver tissue whereas under cross-polarized light pathognomonic apple-green birefringence of amyloid deposits was visible. At last systemic AL amyloidosis diagnosis was confirmed. The report showed an unusual AL amyloidosis case in detail which would be helpful for physician in clinical work.

Paper spray mass spectrometry (PSMS) is a powerful analytical technique for direct analysis of human body fluids. Schirmer paper is commonly used to collect human tears in clinical examination. In this work, Schirmer paper was used for noninvasive sampling and storing of healthy and disease-infected human tears, and was then performed PSMS for direct tear analysis under both positive and negative detection modes. 24 healthy tear samples, 34 tear samples of meibomain gland dysfunction, 44 tear samples of senile cataract, and 32 tear samples of allergic conjunctivitis were investigated in this work. Screening potential biomarkers of different eye diseases were carried out by combining multivariate analysis methods. 41 positive ions and 53 negative ions were proposed to be potential biomarkers in this work. The capacity of Schirmer paper for storing tear sample at different temperatures was investigated. The present study shows that direct coupling Schirmer PSMS with multivariate analysis could be a simple, rapid, and in vivo method for screening the biomarkers from human tears that involved different eye diseases.

China became the country with the largest global carbon emissions in 2007. Cities are regional population and economic centers and are the main sources of carbon emissions. However, factors influencing carbon emissions from cities can vary with geographic location and the development history of the cities, rendering it difficult to explicitly quantify the influence of individual factors on carbon emissions. In this study, random forest (RF) machine learning algorithms were applied to analyze the relationships between factors and carbon emissions in cities using real-world data from Chinese cities. Seventy-three cities in three urban agglomerations within the Yangtze River Economic Belt were evaluated with respect to urban carbon emissions using data from regional energy balance tables for the years 2000, 2007, 2012, and 2017. The RF algorithm was then used to select 16 prototypical cities based on 10 influencing factors that affect urban carbon emissions while considering five primary factors: population, industry, technology levels, consumption, and openness to the outside world. Subsequently, 18 consecutive years of data from 2000 to 2017 were used to construct RFs to investigate the temporal predictability of carbon emission variation in the 16 cities based on regional differences. Results indicated that the RF approach is a practical tool to study the connection between various influencing factors and carbon emissions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from different perspectives. Furthermore, regional differences among the primary carbon emission influencing factors for each city were clearly observed and were related to urban population characteristics, urbanization level, industrial structures, and degree of openness to the outside world. These factors variably affected different cities, but the results indicate that regional emission reductions have achieved positive results, with overall simulation trends shifting from underestimation to overestimation of emissions.

In this study, by integrating Schottky heterojunction and electron relay into a ternary heterostructure, we demonstrate a visible light responsive photoanode of PbS/Au/ZnO sandwich nanotube arrays (NTAs) for photoelectrochemical water splitting. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of Au nanoparticles (NPs) and the superior visible light harvesting ability of PbS NPs enable the fabricated PbS/Au/ZnO sandwich NTAs exhibit substantially improved visible light absorption from 400 to 800 nm. Experimental measurements reveal that the PbS/Au/ZnO sandwich nanotube array photoanode presents significantly enhanced photoelectrochemical (PEC) capability for water splitting. The photocurrent density of the PbS/Au/ZnO sandwich NTAs increases by 6 and 2 times, respectively, in contrast with the Au/ZnO and PbS/ZnO nanotube array photoanodes. Furthermore, the photoconversion efficiency is 18 and 5 times that of the Au/ZnO and PbS/ZnO heterojunction nanotube array photoanodes, respectively. Comparative studies for the PEC water splitting apparently demonstrate that the Au NPs plays two crucial roles as a provider to inject hot electrons into the conduction band of ZnO and an electron relay to transfer the photoinduced electrons from PbS to ZnO within the PbS/Au/ZnO sandwich NTAs. The synergetic effects of the LSPR and electron relay of the Au nanoparticle enable the photoexcited electrons within the PbS/Au/ZnO sandwich NTAs to be effectively used to conduct water splitting reaction, leading to drastically enhanced PEC property.

A retrospective radiographic study.To explore the radiological parameters which correlated to postoperative immediately coronal imbalance in adult spinal deformity (ASD) and to determine whether preoperative coronal imbalance affects postoperative coronal imbalance following posterior multi-level fusion with instruments and osteotomy operation.There was paucity of literature paying attention to the postoperative immediately coronal imbalance after operation.The study included 67 consecutive patients with ASD who underwent posterior multi-level fusion with instruments and osteotomy operation. The radiological parameters, measured on the pre- and postoperative anteroposterior and lateral radiographs, were compared and analyzed. Patients were divided into three groups (group A, B, and C) according to preoperative coronal balance distance (pre-CBD) and the relation of cervical 7 plumb line (C7PL), and the convex of curvature. To analyze the radiological parameters of the three groups.Differences of the radiological parameters between pre- and postoperation concerning Cobb angles, degree of apical vertebra rotation, thoracic kyphosis (TK), thoracic lumber kyphosis (TLK), lumber lordosis (LL), sacral slope (SS), pelvic tilt (PT), and sagittal vertical axis (SVA), were significant (P 0.05). Pelvic incidence (PI), pre-CBD, and postoperative coronal balance distance (post-CBD) had no change (P 0.05). The ratio of coronal imbalance in pre- and postoperation was 31.34% (21/67) and 40.30% (27/67), respectively, which had significant difference (P = 0.02). Significant correlations were observed among post-CBD, pre-CBD (P 0.001), and d-Cobb (pre-Cobb - post-Cobb) (P = 0.002), post-CBD = -2.737 - 0.924*d-Cobb + 0.356*pre-CBD. The ratio of postoperative immediately coronal imbalance of the group C was much higher than other two groups (P = 0.01).The sagittal alignments in ASD patients would be improved effectively after posterior multi-level fusion with instruments and osteotomy operation. There were significant correlations among post-CBD, pre-CBD, and d-Cobb. Patients in group C may be at greater risk for immediate postoperative coronal imbalance after operation.3.

Background Ammonia and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) play important roles in the mechanisms of hepatic encephalopathy (HE). Rhesus glycoprotein C (Rhcg) is important for ammonia transport especially in the kidney. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of Rhcg in the brain in acute liver failure (ALF) and the effect of TNF-α on Rhcg expression. Methods ALF mouse models were generated by treatment with d-galactosamine (D-GalN) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS), or D-GalN and TNF-α. ALF induction was blocked by pretreatment with anti-TNF-α IgG. The levels of serum TNF-α were determined by ELISA. Blood ammonia and brain ammonia concentrations were detected using an ammonia assay kit. The expression and distribution of Rhcg in the brain tissues of ALF mice were examined by western blotting, real-time PCR, immunohistochemical, and immunofluorescence analyses. Results Serum TNF-α levels were increased in the LPS/D-GalN group. Blood and brain ammonia were increased in the LPS/D-GalN- and TNF-α/D-GalN-induced ALF groups. Rhcg mRNA and protein levels were elevated in both ALF groups, consistent with the increase in blood and brain ammonia. Rhcg was mainly expressed in vascular endothelial cells and astrocytes. Pretreatment with anti-TNF-α IgG antibody downregulated Rhcg in brain tissues in the LPS/D-GalN group, prevented the occurrence of ALF, and reduced blood and brain ammonia levels in the LPS/D-GalN group. Conclusion TNF-α promoted the transport of ammonia from the blood to brain tissues and exacerbated the toxic effects of ammonia by upregulating Rhcg.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the influence of Scoliosis Research Society (SRS)‐Schwab sagittal modifiers of pelvic incidence minus lumbar lordosis mismatch (PI‐LL) on clinical outcomes for adult degenerative scoliosis (ADS) after long posterior instrumentation and fusion. METHODS: This was a single‐institute, retrospective study. From 2012 to 2014, 44 patients with ADS who underwent posterior instrumentation and fusion treatment were reviewed. Radiological evaluations were investigated by standing whole spine (posteroanterior and lateral views) X‐ray and all radiological measurements, including Cobb’s angle, LL, PI, and the grading of vertebral rotation, were performed by two experienced surgeons who were blind to the operations. The patients were divided into three groups based on postoperative PI‐LL and the classification of the SRS‐Schwab: 0 grade PI‐LL (20°, n = 12). The clinical outcomes were assessed according to Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Lumbar Stiffness Disability Index (LSDI), and complications. Other characteristic data of patients were also collected, including intraoperative blood loss, operative time, length of hospital stay, complications, number of fusion levels, and number of decompressions. RESULTS: The mean operative time, blood loss, and hospital stay were 284.5 ± 30.2 min, 1040.5 ± 1207.6 mL, and 14.5 ± 1.9 day. At the last follow‐up (2.6 ± 0.6 years), the radiological and functional parameters, except the grading of vertebral rotation, were all significantly improved in comparison with preoperative results (P 0.05). A Pearson correlation analysis further demonstrated that LSDI was negatively associated with PI‐LL. Furthermore, the incidence rate of postoperative complications was lower in patients with + grade PI‐LL (1/19, 5.26%) than that in patients with 0 (2/13, 15.4%) and ++ grade PI‐LL (3/12, 25%). CONCLUSION: Our present study suggest that the ideal PI‐LL may be between 10° and 20° in ADS patients after long posterior instrumentation and fusion.

Persuasive information and communication technology has been used to persuade people to choose fuelefficient transportation (i.e., green transportation), for example, by sending messages to the public. Many factors may influence the effect of such messages. In this exploratory we report a social experiment, in which participants received persuasive messages from social and non-social approaches. To our surprise, results seem to show a negative impact on green transportation, meaning participants receiving the messages used less green transportation modes. This suggests that messages may not be as an effective way to persuade the public as many organizations’ practice assumes and other persuasive techniques such as real-time feedback and awareness raising techniques may be needed in causing the desired changes.