Search

Skeletal muscle density (SMD) is a valuable prognostic indicator in various conditions such as cancer, liver cirrhosis. Yet, the connection between SMD and intra-abdominal infection in individuals who have suffered abdominal injuries is still unclear. The purpose of this research is to examine how well SMD can predict intra-abdominal infection in patients who have suffered abdominal trauma. Participants with abdominal injuries were included in this research from January 2015 to April 2023. Based on the sex-specific cut off values of SMD, the entire population was split into two categories. Prognostic factors were identified through logistic regression analysis. ROC was used to assess the predictive accuracy of SMD and its combinations with other biomarkers for clinical outcomes. A total of 220 patients were ultimately included in the study. Patients in the group with low SMD exhibited a higher incidence of intra-abdominal infection, longer hospital stays, and increased hospital costs. In patients with abdominal trauma, low SMD was identified as a significant independent predictor of intra-abdominal infection (OR 2.397; 95 % CI 1.117–5.141, p = 0.025). Low SMD had a higher area under the curve (AUC) in ROC analysis compared to TRF, NRS2002 score, and APACHEII score for predicting intra-abdominal infection (AUC 0.70, 95 % CI 0.61–0.78, p = 0.002). Moreover, low SMD showed associations with clinical outcomes such as hospital stay length and costs (p < 0.01). Low SMD is recognized as an independent risk factor for predicting intra-abdominal infections in this patient population. Notably, SMD is emerging as a novel predictor of abdominal infections in patients with abdominal trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crack detection is crucial for the maintenance of civil infrastructure, and semantic segmentation methods based on deep learning have greatly promoted its development in recent years. However, convolutional neural networks have limited capabilities in long-range modeling, while transformer fails to capture local detail information. To address these challenges, we combine large kernel attention (LKA) field with channel attention to construct dual-branch attention transformer (DBAT), and propose a multi-scale dual-encoding fusion network (DefNet) for crack segmentation. Particularly, we integrate multi-scale receptive field with the LKA to construct a transformer, serving as the foundation block to adaptively capture contextual information. Meanwhile, we combine the distillation mechanism with depthwise separable convolutions of different kernels as a CNN encoding branch to extract local detail features. Moreover, we construct a multi-scale feature enhancement module through shifted convolution with large kernel effects, to adaptively aggregate and enhance different features in spatial and channel dimensions with different receptive fields. Eventually, we evaluate the performance of our proposed DefNet by extensive experiments on public crack segmentation datasets. Experimental results indicate the DefNet achieves the best F1-score (64.96%, 80.04% and 85.57%) and mean intersection over union (71.97%, 82.77% and 86.28%) on three datasets (CrackLS315, CrackTree260 and DeepCrack537), outperforming state-of-the-art crack segmentation networks in various scenarios. • Multi-scale dual-encoding fusion network aggregates CNN and transformer. • Convolutional distillation modules capture multi-scale local crack features. • Transformer integrates global dependencies of feature channel and spatial dimensions. • Feature enhancement modules promote the fusion of global and local features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affected by intense shock boundary layer interference and a complex three-dimensional effect, the unstart mode of dual-separation on both body and lip (DSBL) widely exists in hypersonic inlets which are integrated with the body. This flow mode is different from normal unstart (large separation on body-side, or 'LSB') and does not concern over-rated conditions. Currently, few studies have been performed concerning the DSBL flow mode. In this research, mutual transformation processes between normal unstart and DSBL unstart were observed in our experiments, from which the flow mechanism of DSBL was revealed. The details are as follows: When the inlet unstarts, whether the DSBL flow mode appears depends on the confrontation of the ability to generate and maintain large-scale separation between the lip-side and body-side. When the ability of the lip-side is stronger, the DSBL flow mode appears easily, otherwise, the LSB flow mode appears easily. According to this theory, because sideboards affect the broadwise spillage window for body-side separation, this is regarded as an important effect factor of the DSBL flow mode. The flow characteristics of an inlet with five groups of sideboards were investigated through our experiments. We found that, the larger the broadwise spillage window is (which is more unfavorable for body-side separation), the more easily DSBL appears and is maintained; the correctness of the aforementioned flow mechanism was verified based on this finding. We hope that the above research will enrich the theory of the flow problems of hypersonic inlet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • E/I imbalance is contributing to the CNS diseases. • The GABAergic system plays pivotal roles in many neuronal processes. • The GABAergic system participates in the pathogenesis of the CNS disorders. It is well known that the central nervous system (CNS) is a complex neuronal network and its function depends on the balance between excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Disruption of the excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) balance is the main cause for the majority of the CNS diseases. In this review, we will discuss roles of the inhibitory system in the CNS diseases. The GABAergic system as the main inhibitory system, is essential for the appropriate functioning of the CNS, especially as it is engaged in the formation of learning and memory. Many researchers have reported that the GABAergic system is involved in regulating synaptic plasticity, cognition and long-term potentiation. Some clinical manifestations (such as cognitive dysfunctions, attention deficits, etc.) have also been shown to emerge after abnormalities in the GABAergic system accompanied with concomitant diseases, that include Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Schizophrenia, etc. The GABAergic system consists of GABA, GABA transporters, GABAergic receptors and GABAergic neurons. Changes in any of these components may contribute to the dysfunctions of the CNS. In this review, we will synthesize studies which demonstrate how the GABAergic system participates in the pathogenesis of the CNS disorders, which may provide a new idea that might be used to treat the CNS diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the reproducibility of tissue attenuation imaging (TAI) and tissue scatter distribution imaging (TSI) measurements in adults with suspected metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) between radiologists with varying experience. Participants with suspected MASLD were prospectively recruited. TAI and TSI were performed for each participant by two radiologists with different levels of experience. Interoperability reliability was assessed on the basis of Bland-Altman analysis and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). The study determined and compared the diagnostic performance of TAI and TSI with clinical prediction models using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) as a reference. A total of 180 participants (women, n = 56; men, n = 124, mean age, 46.98 ± 14.92 years; mean BMI, 25.81 ± 4.47) were enrolled from August 2022 to September 2022. Bland-Altman plots showed only slight deviation in the TAI and TSI results of the two radiologists; there was good interoperator reproducibility for TAI (ICC = 0.92) and TSI (ICC = 0.86). Senior and junior radiologists performed examinations labeled as TAI-1 and TSI-1, and TAI-2 and TSI-2, respectively. The areas under the curves (AUCs) of TAI-1, TAI-2, TSI-1, and TAI-2 for the detection of ≥5 % hepatic steatosis were 0.90, 0.96, 0.91 and 0.96, respectively. According to ROC analysis, the diagnostic performance of both radiologists for TAI and TSI was statistically similar and superior to that of the clinical prediction model. TAI and TSI have good reproducibility between radiologists with different levels of experience. Meanwhile, both TAI and TSI demonstrated good diagnostic performance for hepatic steatosis (≥5%), surpassing that of clinical prediction models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemotherapy and targeted drugs-induced senescent ovarian cancer cells that accumulate in peritoneal adipose tissue contribute significantly to chronic inflammation, disrupt homeostasis, and may fuel various aspects of cancer progression. However, the pro-senescence effects of chemotherapy and targeted drugs on adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) within peritoneal adipose tissue remain poorly understood. In this study, we show that the first-line chemotherapy and targeted drugs can induce the cellular senescence of ADSCs in vitro and increase the aging of peritoneal adipose tissue in vivo. These treatments significantly promoted the dysregulation of glucose and lipid metabolism, including insulin resistance and liver lipid accumulation. Our study shows that dasatinib and quercetin, as senolytics, effectively restore glucose homeostasis in mice with ovarian cancer and significantly reduce adipose tissue aging. Importantly, combining these drugs with Carboplatin or Olaparib results in a marked decrease in both peritoneal and adipose tissue metastasis of ovarian cancer cells. Mechanistically, we revealed that there is crosstalk between ovarian cancer cells and senescent ADSCs. The crosstalk increases inflammatory cytokines and chemokines production in ADSCs and notably upregulates chemokine receptors on cancer cells. Collectively, these data indicate that senescent ADSCs induced by chemotherapy and targeted therapy drugs impair adipose tissue function. However, the senolytic drugs dasatinib and quercetin, can significantly ameliorate organ aging and damage induced by these treatments. Notably, dasatinib and quercetin combined with Carboplatin or Olaparib reduced the peritoneal and adipose tissue metastasis of ovarian cancer, ultimately benefiting the mice undergoing chemotherapy and targeted therapy. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]