Search

The incidence of ulcerative colitis (UC) has increased globally. As a complex disease, the genetic predisposition for UC could be estimated by the polygenic risk score (PRS), which aggregates the effects of a large number of genetic variants in a single quantity and shows promise in identifying individuals at higher lifetime risk of UC. Here, based on a cohort of 2869 UC cases and 2900 controls with genotype array datasets, we used PRSice-2 to calculate PRS, and systematically analyzed factors that could affect the power of PRS, including GWAS summary statistics, population stratification, and impact of variants. After leveraging a stepwise condition analysis, we eventually established the best PRS model, achieving an AUC of 0.713. Meanwhile, samples in the top 20% of the PRS distribution had a risk of UC more than ten times higher than samples in the lowest 20% (OR = 10.435, 95% CI 8.571–12.703). Our analyses demonstrated that including population-enriched, more disease-associated SNPs and using GWAS summary statistics from similar ethnic background can improve the power of PRS. Strictly following the principle of focusing on one population in all aspects of generating PRS can be a cost-effective way to apply genotype-array-derived PRS to practical risk estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate prediction of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is essential for comprehensive drug safety evaluation. Pre-trained deep chemical language models have emerged as powerful tools capable of automatically learning molecular structural features from large-scale datasets, showing promising capabilities for the downstream prediction of molecular properties. However, the performance of pre-trained chemical language models in predicting ADRs, especially idiosyncratic ADRs induced by marketed drugs, remains largely unexplored. In this study, we propose MoLFormer-XL, a pre-trained model for encoding molecular features from canonical SMILES, in conjunction with a CNN-based model to predict drug-induced QT interval prolongation (DIQT), drug-induced teratogenicity (DIT), and drug-induced rhabdomyolysis (DIR). Our results demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms conventional models applied in previous studies for predicting DIQT, DIT, and DIR. Notably, an analysis of the learned linear attention maps highlights amines, alcohol, ethers, and aromatic halogen compounds as strongly associated with the three types of ADRs. These findings hold promise for enhancing drug discovery pipelines and reducing the drug attrition rate due to safety concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study mainly focuses on the development of the Arctic region and the difficulties it faces in the new situation. Finding a suitable development path for low-carbon environmental protection and sustainable development has gradually become the focus of attention in all countries. The secret contest of strength is also becoming increasingly fierce. The escalation of the arms race has virtually made the ambitious Russian Arctic plan more radical. This article will use the "ANP-SWOT" strategic analysis method to reveal the possible damage to the environment of the Arctic region and its unsustainable side behind Russia's grand development plan in the Arctic region. At the same time, it will list the views and contradictions of the countries in the region for the proposals on the resolution of conflicts, broaden the perspective to the global scope, take the common interests of all mankind as the starting point, combine the views and contradictions of all parties, and put forward proposals that are truly beneficial to the development of the Arctic region, thereby promoting inter-regional cooperation and developing a new Arctic strategy that prioritizes global progress and prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have examined the sex differences in left ventricle (LV) structure and physiology from early life stages. We aimed to assess the role of sex and overweight/obesity on left ventricular mass (LVM) and LV volume in Chinese children without preexisting cardiovascular risk factors. We selected 934 healthy children aged 6–8 years from an existing cohort in Beijing, China. Linear regression models were used to regress body mass index (BMI), fat mass, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, waist circumference, and visceral fat area (VFA) with LVM, left ventricle end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) and end-systolic volume (LVESV). Higher BMI, fat mass, waist circumference, VFA, and stroke volume (SV) predicted higher LVM, LVEDV, and LVESV in both sexes. Multivariable analysis showed that boys with an elevated BMI had greater LV hypertrophy. LVEDV and LVESV were higher among boys than among girls and increased with higher BMI in both boys and girls. LVEDV and LVESV were associated with VFA in boys. We observed sex differences in LVM, LVESV, and LVEDV among prepubertal children, independent of obesity, with higher values observed in boys. Sex differences in cardiac structure in children may help explain the higher incidence of cardiovascular disease in male adults. Whether interventions to reduce childhood obesity can improve the trajectory of cardiac dynamics is worth investigating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Change regulation of the physical properties of fluid is key to accurately predicting multiphase fluid flow in the production wellbore of CO2 flooding reservoirs. Given the characteristics of significant changes in pressure, temperature, and CO2 content in the whole wellbore of production wells in CO2 flooding reservoirs, this paper systematically studied the change rules of volume factor, viscosity, density, and solubility of well fluid for pressure 5~30 MPa, temperature 20~120 °C, and CO2 content 10~90% through single degassing PVT experiments. According to the experimental results, the volume factor of crude oil increases first and then decreases with the pressure increase. At the bubble point pressure (20 MPa), the volume factor of crude oil can reach 1.89 at high temperatures. The volume factor can be increased from 1.28 to 1.44 at 8 MPa when the temperature increases from 20 °C to 120 °C. Under the bubble point pressure, the increase in pressure increases the solubility of CO2, and the viscosity of crude oil decreases rapidly. In contrast, above the saturation pressure, the increase in pressure increases the viscosity of crude oil. Under the freezing point temperature (24 °C), the viscosity of crude oil decreases sharply with increase in temperature. In contrast, above the freezing point temperature, the viscosity change of crude oil is not sensitive to temperature. The wellbore temperature has a significant impact on the density of the well fluid. At 5 MPa, the temperature increases from 20 °C to 120 °C, which can reduce the density of high CO2 crude oil from 0.93 g/cm3 to 0.86 g/cm3. The solubility of CO2 in crude oil is sensitive to pressure. When the pressure increases from 5 MPa to 15 MPa at 20 °C, the solubility increases by 36.56 cm3/cm3. The results of this paper support the multiphase fluid flow law prediction of CO2 flooding production wells with a high gas–liquid ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roof weighting failures of pre-driven recovery rooms may cause huge economic losses and even casualties. The excessive dynamic load from the sliding of the broken main roof rock block causes the recovery room roof and inner supports to lose their support capacity during the last weighting. Discrete element software UDEC was used to investigate the surrounding rock deformation of the pre-driven recovery room with the main roof break at different positions. The results show that when the recovery room's length from the main roof rock layer's fracture region is short, the immediate roof is subjected to high deviatoric stress and the occurrence of horizontal stress concentration due to the deflection of the fractured rocks, and eventually the roof supports fail owing to the development of macroscopic shear crack zones. In this research, the hydraulic fracturing technique was applied to pretreat the main roof (fine-grained sandstone) of the 31108 panel at Huoluowan Coal Mine. Field observations suggest that the strength and duration of the periodic weighting after hydraulic fracturing treatment are both significantly reduced, effectively maintaining the bearing layer performance of the roof of the recovery room and coal pillar walls. The proposed fracturing design offers an effective method of ground control to the coal mines facing roof weighting failures of recovery rooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the existing medical knowledge graphs, there are problems concerning inadequate knowledge discovery strategies and the use of single sources of medical data. Therefore, this paper proposed a research method for multi-data-source medical knowledge graphs based on the data, information, knowledge, and wisdom (DIKW) system to address these issues. Firstly, a reliable data source selection strategy was used to assign priorities to the data sources. Secondly, a two-step data fusion strategy was developed to effectively fuse the processed medical data, which is conducive to improving the quality of medical knowledge graphs. The proposed research method is for the design of a multi-data-source medical knowledge graph based on the DIKW system. The method was used to design a set of DIK three-layer knowledge graph architectures according to the DIKW system in line with the medical knowledge discovery strategy, employing a scientific method for expanding and updating knowledge at each level of the knowledge graph. Finally, question and answer experiments were used to compare the two different ways of constructing knowledge graphs, validating the effectiveness of the two-step data fusion strategy and the DIK three-layer knowledge graph. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problems of inaccurate quality inspection and poor safety maintenance of traditional overhead cranes, this study has developed a prediction system for overhead cranes based on digital twin technology. First, interworking of the data flow between the control port of the overhead crane and the digital twin system is realized. Then, finite element technology is exploited to calculate the stress of the crane bridge, thereby performing stress rendering of the digital twin system. Next, the life of bridge cranes is predicted by the stress and strain of their main girders. Finally, synchronous overhead-crane communication combines the virtual twin system and the actual control system of the crane. The study results provide a reference for developing crane software based on digital twins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In pharmaceutical treatment, many non-cardiac drugs carry the risk of prolonging the QT interval, which can lead to fatal cardiac complications such as torsades de points (TdP). Although the unexpected blockade of ion channels has been widely considered to be one of the main reasons for affecting the repolarization phase of the cardiac action potential and leading to QT interval prolongation, the lack of knowledge regarding chemical structures in drugs that may induce the prolongation of the QT interval remains a barrier to further understanding the underlying mechanism and developing an effective prediction strategy. In this study, we thoroughly investigated the differences in chemical structures between QT-prolonging drugs and drugs with no drug-induced QT prolongation (DIQT) concerns, based on the Drug-Induced QT Prolongation Atlas (DIQTA) dataset. Three categories of structural alerts (SAs), namely amines, ethers, and aromatic compounds, appeared in large quantities in QT-prolonging drugs, but rarely in drugs with no DIQT concerns, indicating a close association between SAs and the risk of DIQT. Moreover, using the molecular descriptors associated with these three categories of SAs as features, the structure–activity relationship (SAR) model for predicting the high risk of inducing QT interval prolongation of marketed drugs achieved recall rates of 72.5% and 80.0% for the DIQTA dataset and the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) dataset, respectively. Our findings may promote a better understanding of the mechanism of DIQT and facilitate research on cardiac adverse drug reactions in drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the working face below shallow and close coal seams, there are residual pillars. The mine's ability to operate safely is constrained by the coal pillars' vulnerability to sudden instability and powerful ground pressure disasters during withdrawal. This paper uses the 31,106 working face of the Huoluowan coal mine as its research backdrop and employs field observation, theoretical analysis, and numerical simulation to examine the strong dynamic load mechanism of the overlying coal pillars. According to the analysis, the residual pillar's stress diffusion angle is 29 degrees after mining the working face above it, which has an impact on the main roof's stability above the working face's retracement roadway. The main roof is impacted by the excavation disturbance and the remaining pillars during the working face's final mining phase, displaying a complex stress superposition state. The retracement roadway is significantly deformed as a result of the plastic zone of the surrounding rock changing from small-scale damage to extensive damage. The proposed "hydraulic roof cutting + reinforcement support" prevention technology is based on the prevention idea of weakening important rock strata, changing the stress transmission path, and strengthening adjacent rock. Field testing shows how hydraulic fracturing reinforces the roof structure, lessens the heavy dynamic load on the supporting pillars of overlying residual coal, reduces rock deformation in the retracement roadway, and ensures the stability of the working face during withdrawal. The study's findings are significant for the secure removal of a working face under similar circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traffic scheduling mechanism in Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is the key to guaranteeing the deterministic transmission of traffic. However, when time-sensitive traffic and non-time-sensitive traffic are transmitted together, traffic scheduling conflicts are easy to occur in TSN. As a result, the deterministic transmission of time-sensitive traffic will be disrupted, and non-time-sensitive traffic may be preempted for a long time. To optimize the performance of multi-type hybrid traffic scheduling in TSN, we firstly establish a collaborative scheduling framework that incorporates Time Aware Shaping (TAS) and Cyclic Queuing and Forwarding (CQF) mechanisms. We then design a traffic shaping method in this framework based on Least Laxity First (LLF), which considers traffic characteristics to dynamically arrange the time slot injection sequence for different types of traffic. Finally, the traffic schedulability is evaluated based on the scheduling constraints of different types of traffic. Compared with the existing scheduling strategies, the proposed hybrid traffic scheduling strategy can schedule more non-time-sensitive traffic and achieve better delay performance of rate-constrained traffic in different hybrid traffic scenarios. When the number of flows is 100, the time slot injection ratio is increased by 24.3% compared with the LLF_TAS method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abnormally high lymphocyte counts are seen in persons with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Gut microbiota dysbiosis is a risk factor for NAFLD. We assessed the gut microbiota of 63 healthy children and 63 children with NAFLD using 16S rRNA gene and metagenomic sequencing to explore the relationships. Compared with healthy children (HC group), the Bacteroidetes, Verrucomicrobia, and Akkermansia were less abundant, while the Actinobacteria were more abundant in children with NAFLD (FLD group). To understand the effect of lymphocytes on the gut microbiota of children with NAFLD, we compared the microbiota of 41 children with NAFLD and high numbers of lymphocytes (FLD_HL group) and 22 children with NAFLD and low numbers of lymphocytes (FLD_LL group). The abundances of Bacteroidetes, Verrucobacterium, and Akkermansia increased and Actinobacteria decreased in the FLD_LL group compared to the FLD_HL group. Akkermansia was negatively correlated with lymphocyte count. NAFLD may disturb the gut microbiota in children through reducing the abundance of Akkermansia and increasing the abundance of proinflammatory bacteria, such as Escherichia-Shigella. Conclusions: High lymphocyte counts are associated with disturbances of gut microbiota and emergence of opportunistic pathogens in children with NAFLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional signal processing methods such as Principle Component Analysis (PCA) focus on the decomposition of signals in the 2D time–frequency domain. Parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) is a novel method used to decompose multi-dimensional arrays, which focuses on analyzing the relevant feature information by deleting the duplicated information among the multiple measurement points. In the paper, a novel hybrid intelligent algorithm for the fault diagnosis of a mechanical system was proposed to analyze the multiple vibration signals of the centrifugal pump system and multi-dimensional complex signals created by pressure and flow information. The continuous wavelet transform was applied to analyze the high-dimensional multi-channel signals to construct the 3D tensor, which makes use of the advantages of the parallel factor decomposition to extract feature information of the complex system. The method was validated by diagnosing the nonstationary failure modes under the faulty conditions with impeller blade damage, impeller perforation damage and impeller edge damage. The correspondence between different fault characteristics of a centrifugal pump in a time and frequency information matrix was established. The characteristic frequency ranges of the fault modes are effectively presented. The optimization method for a PARAFAC-BP neural network is proposed using a genetic algorithm (GA) to significantly improve the accuracy of the centrifugal pump fault diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthy diet patterns have a positive effect on chronic non-communicable diseases in the pediatric population, but the evidence is limited on the association between kidney impairment and adherence to a Mediterranean diet. We aim to determine the associations between Mediterranean diet adherence and longitudinal tubular and glomerular impairment in children. Based on four waves of urine assays conducted from October 2018 to November 2019, we assayed urinary β2-microglobulin (β2-MG) and microalbumin (MA) excretion to determine transient renal tubular and glomerular impairment during the follow-up of the child cohort (PROC) study in Beijing, China. We assessed Mediterranean diet adherence using the 16-item Mediterranean Diet Quality Index in children and adolescents (KIDMED) among 1914 primary school children. Poor, intermediate, and good adherence rates for the Mediterranean diet were 9.0% (KIDMED index 0–3), 54.4% (KIDMED index 4–7) and 36.5% (KIDMED index 8–12), respectively. A short sleep duration was more prevalent in children with lower Mediterranean diet adherence, with no significant differences presenting in the other demographic and lifestyle covariates. The results of linear mixed-effects models showed that a higher urinary MA excretion was inversely associated with a higher KIDMED score (β = −0.216, 95%CI: −0.358, −0.074, p = 0.003), after adjusting for sex, age, BMI z-score, SBP z-score, screen time, sleep duration and physical activity. Furthermore, in generalized linear mixed-effects models, consistent results found that transient renal glomerular impairment was less likely to develop in children with intermediate Mediterranean diet adherence (aOR = 0.68, 95%CI: 0.47, 0.99, p = 0.044) and in children with good Mediterranean diet adherence (aOR = 0.60, 95%CI: 0.40, 0.90, p = 0.014), taking poor Mediterranean diet adherence as a reference. We visualized the longitudinal associations between each item of the KIDMED test and kidney impairment via a forest plot and identified the main protective eating behaviors. Children who adhere well to the Mediterranean diet have a lower risk of transient glomerular impairment, underscoring the necessity of the early childhood development of healthy eating patterns to protect kidney health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Emergency cesarean section (EMCS) and breastfeeding difficulties increase the risk of postpartum depressive (PPD) symptoms. Early initiation of breastfeeding (EIBF) may not only alleviate PPD symptoms but also facilitate subsequent breastfeeding success. EMCS is a risk factor for not practicing EIBF. Therefore, it is important to understand the relationship between EMCS, EIBF, and PPD symptoms. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study in three areas of China. At baseline, a total of 965 mothers completed electronic questionnaires within 72 h postpartum. Women were screened for PPD symptoms using the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS). Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify the determinants of PPD symptoms. Mediation analysis was used to determine if EIBF mediated the relationship between delivery mode or breastfeeding education source and PPD symptoms. Results: The prevalence of EIBF was 40.6%; 14% of 965 mothers experienced EMCS, and 20.4% had PPD symptoms. The risk factors for developing PPD symptoms were excessive gestational weight gain (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.55, confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.03–2.33, p = 0.037) and EMCS (aOR = 2.05, 95% CI: 1.30–3.25, p = 0.002). The protective factors for developing PPD symptoms were monthly household income over CNY 10000 (aOR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.47–0.97, p = 0.034), EIBF (aOR = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.34–0.72, p < 0.001), and prenatal breastfeeding education from nurses (aOR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.29–0.73, p = 0.001). EIBF indirectly affected PPD symptoms in patients who had undergone EMCS (percentage mediated [PM] = 16.69, 95% CI: 7.85–25.25, p < 0.001). The source of breastfeeding education through EIBF also affected PPD symptoms (PM = 17.29, 95% CI: 3.80–30.78, p = 0.012). Conclusion: The association between EMCS on PPD symptoms was mediated by EIBF. By providing breastfeeding education, nurses could also help alleviate PPD symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a widely-used method of digging roadways in China, gob-side entry driving features specific advantages, such as a high recovery rate and good isolation effects. However, under the condition of hard overburden, the excessive bearing pressure of small coal pillars will easily cause serious internal damage in the coal and the run-through of the plastic zone, leading to harmful gas leakage in the goaf. Therefore, based on the engineering background of small coal pillars in the 18506 working face of Xiqu Coal Mine, this paper comprehensively adopts theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, industrial tests, and other methods, analyzes the evolution mechanism of isolated bearing and plastic fracture areas of small coal pillar under hard overburden, studies the influence law of hard overburden cutting parameters on the isolation and stability of small coal pillars, and puts forward the technology of actively cutting the top to weaken the stress concentration of coal pillars under hard overburden. With the reasonable cutting parameters determined, the controllable mechanism of hydraulic fracturing cutting under hard overburden further revealed, and the hydraulic fracturing cutting technology with "controllable cutting orientation of hydraulic fracturing with local stress field intervention" formed as the basic core, the stress situation on the roof is improved, realizing the stability control of the coal pillars for the roadway protection, and avoiding gas leakage and other disasters caused by small coal pillar destruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insufficient fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) and low potassium intake are associated with many non-communicable diseases, but the association with early renal damage in children is uncertain. We aimed to identify the associations of early renal damage with insufficient FVI and daily potassium intake in a general pediatric population. We conducted four waves of urine assays based on our child cohort (PROC) study from October 2018 to November 2019 in Beijing, China. We investigated FVI and other lifestyle status via questionnaire surveys and measured urinary potassium, β2-microglobulin (β2-MG), and microalbumin (MA) excretion to assess daily potassium intake and renal damage among 1914 primary school children. The prevalence of insufficient FVI (<4/d) was 48.6% (95% CI: 46.4%, 50.9%) and the estimated potassium intake at baseline was 1.63 ± 0.48 g/d. Short sleep duration, long screen time, lower estimated potassium intake, higher β2-MG and MA excretion were significantly more frequent in the insufficient FVI group. We generated linear mixed effects models and observed the bivariate associations of urinary β2-MG and MA excretion with insufficient FVI (β = 0.012, 95% CI: 0.005, 0.020; β = 0.717, 95% CI: 0.075, 1.359), and estimated potassium intake (β = −0.042, 95% CI: −0.052, −0.033; β = −1.778, 95% CI: −2.600, −0.956), respectively; after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, SBP, sleep duration, screen time and physical activity. In multivariate models, we observed that urinary β2-MG excretion increased with insufficient FVI (β = 0.011, 95% CI: 0.004, 0.018) and insufficient potassium intake (<1.5 g/d) (β = 0.031, 95% CI: 0.023, 0.038); and urinary MA excretion increased with insufficient FVI (β = 0.658, 95% CI: 0.017, 1.299) and insufficient potassium intake (β = 1.185, 95% CI: 0.492, 1.878). We visualized different quartiles of potassium intake showing different renal damage with insufficient FVI for interpretation and validation of the findings. Insufficient FVI and low potassium intake aggravate early renal damage in children and underscores that healthy lifestyles, especially adequate FVI, should be advocated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, development and regulatory evaluations have been accelerated for vaccines, authorizing emergency use. To anticipate vaccine preparedness in adolescents, we studied COVID-19 vaccination awareness and willingness to vaccinate before the vaccine became available. We conducted a cross-sectional survey among 9153 (4575 boys, 50%) students with a mean age of 14.2 years old in four cities in China to collect information on demographic characteristics and their COVID-19 vaccination concerns. Multinomial logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of vaccine hesitancy ("not sure") and resistance ("do not want it"). The results showed that 2891 (31.6%) were hesitant and 765 (8.4%) were resistant to being vaccinated. Additionally, multivariable analyses showed that vaccine hesitancy and vaccine resistance were associated with living in the Beijing area (OR = 1.62; 95% CI: 1.40–1.88; OR = 1.81; 95% CI: 1.44–2.28), lack of influenza vaccination experience (OR = 1.33; 95% CI: 1.14–1.55; OR = 1.57; 95% CI: 1.25–1.98), no perceived susceptibility (OR = 1.72; 95% CI: 1.50–1.97; OR = 3.57; 95% CI: 2.86–4.46), and perceiving no cues to action (OR = 3.24; 95% CI: 2.56–4.11; OR = 27.68; 95% CI: 21.81–35.13). Postulating a highly effective vaccine (OR = 0.84; 95% CI: 0.72–0.98; OR = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.52–0.83) decreased both vaccine hesitancy and resistance. Vaccine hesitancy alone was associated with girls (OR = 1.21; 95% CI: 1.09–1.36) and was less common among students boarding at school (OR = 0.79; 95% CI: 0.68–0.92), postulating convenient vaccine access (OR = 0.84; 95% CI: 0.73–0.96), and having doctors' recommendation (OR = 0.86; 95% CI: 0.76–0.98). In conclusion, the results of the study showed that vaccine hesitancy among students in China was associated with limited health literacy and lower risk awareness. Our findings in China suggest that educating youth regarding COVID-19 and the safety and effectiveness of immunization help reduce concerns and increase vaccine confidence and acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dehydration is common in children for physiological and behavioral reasons. The objective of this study was to assess changes in hydration status and renal impairment across school weekdays. We conducted a longitudinal study of three repeated measures of urinalysis within one week in November 2019 in a child cohort in Beijing, China. We measured urine specific gravity (USG) to determine the dehydration status, and the concentration of β2-microglobulin (β2-MG) and microalbumin (MA) to assess renal function impairment among 1885 children with a mean age of 7.7 years old. The prevalence of dehydration was 61.9%, which was significantly higher in boys (64.3%). Using chi-square tests and linear mixed-effects regression models, we documented the trends of the renal indicators' change over time among different hydration statuses. Compared to Mondays, there were apparent increases of β2-MG concentrations on Wednesdays (β = 0.029, p < 0.001) and Fridays (β = 0.035, p < 0.001) in the dehydrated group, but not in the euhydrated group. As for the MA concentrations, only the decrease on Fridays (β = −1.822, p = 0.01) was significant in the euhydrated group. An increased trend of elevated β2-MG concentration was shown in both the euhydrated group (Z = −3.33, p < 0.001) and the dehydrated group (Z = −8.82, p < 0.001). By contrast, there was a decreased trend of elevated MA concentrations in the euhydrated group (Z = 3.59, p < 0.001) but not in the dehydrated group. A new indicator ratio, β2-MG/MA, validated the consistent trends of renal function impairment in children with dehydration. Renal impairment trends worsened as a function of school days during the week and the dehydration status aggravated renal impairment during childhood across school weekdays, especially tubular abnormalities in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most important post-translational modifications (PTMs), phosphorylation refers to the binding of a phosphate group with amino acid residues like Ser (S), Thr (T) and Tyr (Y) thus resulting in diverse functions at the molecular level. Abnormal phosphorylation has been proved to be closely related with human diseases. To our knowledge, no research has been reported describing specific disease-associated phosphorylation sites prediction which is of great significance for comprehensive understanding of disease mechanism. In this work, focusing on three types of leukemia, we aim to develop a reliable leukemia-related phosphorylation site prediction models by combing deep convolutional neural network (CNN) with transfer-learning. CNN could automatically discover complex representations of phosphorylation patterns from the raw sequences, and hence it provides a powerful tool for improvement of leukemia-related phosphorylation site prediction. With the largest dataset of myelogenous leukemia, the optimal models for S/T/Y phosphorylation sites give the AUC values of 0.8784, 0.8328 and 0.7716 respectively. When transferred learning on the small size datasets, the models for T-cell and lymphoid leukemia also give the promising performance by common sharing the optimal parameters. Compared with other five machine-learning methods, our CNN models reveal the superior performance. Finally, the leukemia-related pathogenesis analysis and distribution analysis on phosphorylated proteins along with K-means clustering analysis and position-specific conversation profiles on the phosphorylation site all indicate the strong practical feasibility of our easy-to-use CNN models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-cell ATAC-seq (scATAC-seq), as the updating of ATAC-seq, provides a novel method for probing open chromatin sites. Currently, research of scATAC-seq is faced with the problem of high dimensionality and the inherent sparsity of the generated data. Recently, several works proposed the use of an autoencoder–decoder, a symmetry neural network architecture, and non-negative matrix factorization methods to characterize the high-dimensional data. To evaluate the performance of multiple methods, in this work, we performed a multiple comparison for characterizing scATAC-seq based on four kinds of auto-encoders known as a symmetry neural network, and two kinds of matrix factorization methods. Different sizes of latent features were used to generate the UMAP plots and for further K-means clustering. Using a gold-standard data set, we practically explored the performance among the methods and the number of latent features in a comprehensive way. Finally, we briefly discuss the underlying difficulties and future directions for scATAC-seq characterizing. As a result, the method designed for handling the sparsity outperforms other tools in the generated dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A robust vehicle speed measurement system based on feature information fusion for vehicle multi-characteristic detection is proposed in this paper. A vehicle multi-characteristic dataset is constructed. With this dataset, seven CNN-based modern object detection algorithms are trained for vehicle multi-characteristic detection. The FPN-based YOLOv4 is selected as the best vehicle multi-characteristic detection algorithm, which applies feature information fusion of different scales with both rich high-level semantic information and detailed low-level location information. The YOLOv4 algorithm is improved by combing with the attention mechanism, in which the residual module in YOLOv4 is replaced by the ECA channel attention module with cross channel interaction. An improved ECA-YOLOv4 object detection algorithm based on both feature information fusion and cross channel interaction is proposed, which improves the performance of YOLOv4 for vehicle multi-characteristic detection and reduces the model parameter size and FLOPs as well. A multi-characteristic fused speed measurement system based on license plate, logo, and light is designed accordingly. The system performance is verified by experiments. The experimental results show that the speed measurement error rate of the proposed system meets the requirement of the China national standard GB/T 21555-2007 in which the speed measurement error rate should be less than 6%. The proposed system can efficiently enhance the vehicle speed measurement accuracy and effectively improve the vehicle speed measurement robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method to integrate and package an accelerometer within a textile to create an electronic textile (e-textile). The smallest commercially available accelerometer sensor (2 mm × 2 mm × 0.95 mm) is used in the e-textile and is fully integrated within the weave structure of the fabric itself, rendering it invisible to the wearer. The e-textile forms the basis of a wearable woven sleeve which is applied to arm and knee joint bending angle measurement. The integrated e-textile based accelerometer sensor system is used to identify activity type, such as walking or running, and count the total number of steps taken. Performance was verified by comparing measurements of specific elbow joint angles over the range of 0° to 180° with those obtained from a commercial bending sensor from Bend Labs and from a custom-built goniometer. The joint bending angles, measured by all three sensors, show good agreement with an error of less than ~1% of reading which provides a high degree of confidence in the e-textile sensor system. Subsequently, knee joint angles were measured experimentally on three subjects with each being tested three times on each of three activities (walking, running and climbing stairs). This allowed the minimum and maximum knee joint angles for each activity to be determined. This data is then used to identify activity type and perform step counting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate pufferfish accumulation, elimination, and distribution of tetrodotoxin (TTX), Takifugu obscurus was fed with wild TTX-containing gastropod Nassarius semiplicata to simulate the natural food chain. Three-month-old non-poisonous T. obscurus was fed with wild toxic N. semiplicata at three exposure dose for 28 days, and later, with toxin-free food until day 67. Three fish individuals from each treatment were sampled, and the distribution of TTX in different tissues was measured. The results showed that the accumulation ratio of TTX in the three exposure dose groups ranged from 35.76% to 40.20%. The accumulation ratio in the skin and liver was the highest amongst all tissues, accounting for more than 85% of the total TTX, whereas that in the kidney and gallbladder was the lowest (0.11–0.78%). Studies on the kinetic of TTX accumulation and elimination revealed that the skin was the tissue with the highest accumulation speed constant (8.06), while the liver, kidney, and intestinal tract showed the highest speed of TTX elimination. The time required for TTX reduction to reach the safety limit could be predicted by using standard elimination equations. Qualitative analysis by UPLC-MS/MS revealed the occurrence of seven TTX derivatives in T. obscurus; of these TTX, 5-deoxy TTX, 11-deoxy TTX, 4,9-anhydro TTX were found in all tested tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]