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Nipah virus infection, one of the top priority diseases recognized by the World Health Organization, underscores the urgent need to develop effective countermeasures against potential epidemics and pandemics. Here, we identify a fully human single-domain antibody that targets a highly conserved cryptic epitope situated at the dimeric interface of the Nipah virus G protein (receptor binding protein, RBP), as elucidated through structures by high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). This unique binding mode disrupts the tetramerization of the G protein, consequently obstructing the activation of the F protein and inhibiting viral membrane fusion. Furthermore, our investigations reveal that this compact antibody displays enhanced permeability across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and demonstrates superior efficacy in eliminating pseudovirus within the brain in a murine model of Nipah virus infection, particularly compared to the well-characterized antibody m102.4 in an IgG1 format. Consequently, this single-domain antibody holds promise as a therapeutic candidate to prevent Nipah virus infections and has potential implications for vaccine development. The fully human single-domain antibody n425 aginst NiV targets a conserved cryptic epitope on G protein and inhibits membrane fusion by disrupting tetramerization. These insights advance neutralization mechanisms and effective countermeasure design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to elucidate the predictive role of an oxidative stress-related genes (OSRGs) model in colon cancer. Materials and methods: First, OSRGs that were differentially expressed between tumor and normal tissues were identified using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)—(Colorectal Adenocarcinoma) COAD dataset. Then, Lasso COX regression was performed to develop an optimal prognostic model patients were stratified into high- and low-risk groups based on the expression patterns of these genes. The model's validity was confirmed through Kaplan–Meier survival curves and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. Additionally, enrichment analyses were performed using Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) to uncover underlying mechanisms. Results: A totally of 115 differentially expressed OSRGs were identified within the TCGA cohort, with 17 significantly linked to overall survival. These 17 genes were used to formulate a prognostic model that differentiated patients into distinct risk groups, with the high-risk group demonstrating a notably inferior overall survival rate. The risk score, when integrated with clinical and pathological data, emerged as an independent prognostic indicator of colon cancer. Further analyses revealed that the disparity in prognostic outcomes between risk groups could be attributed to the reactive oxygen species pathway and the p53 signaling pathway. Conclusion: A new prediction model was established based on OSRGs. CYP19A1, NOL3 and UCN were found to be highly expressed in tumor tissues and substantial clinical predictive significance. These findings offer new insights into the role of oxidative stress in colon cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Unlike human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) amplification or exon 20 insertions, missense mutations in the extracellular domain (ECD), transmembrane domain (TMD), and intracellular domain (ICD) of the HER2 protein have been implicated as oncogenic in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, their molecular subtypes, structural disparities, and clinical responses to current medical treatments, particularly HER2-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), remain unclear in NSCLC and warrant investigation. Methods: A real-world observational ATLAS study was conducted to gather and analyze therapeutic outcomes of chemotherapy or TKIs for heterogeneous HER2 missense mutations in NSCLC. Computational models of typical ECD, TMD, and ICD mutations were utilized to explore their structural variances. Results: We screened 37 eligible patients with HER2-activating missense mutations, of which 35 patients who had received chemotherapy or HER2-targeted TKIs as first-line therapy were available for response assessment. The median progression-free survival (PFS) for chemotherapy was 4.43 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.77–5.10), with an objective response rate (ORR) of 26.1% (6/23) and a disease control rate (DCR) of 17/23 (73.9%). The administration of afatinib, dacomitinib, and pyrotinib, HER2-targeted TKIs, achieved a median PFS of 4.65 months, with an ORR of 33.3% (4/12) and a DCR of 83.3% (10/12). Molecular modeling and computational simulations of ECD, TMD, and ICD mutations revealed their distinct structural characteristics. Conclusion: In comparison to chemotherapy, HER2-targeted TKIs demonstrated similar activity and PFS benefits for HER2-activating missense mutations in NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Omicron subvariants BQ.1.1, XBB.1.5, and XBB.1.16 of SARS-CoV-2 are known for their adeptness at evading immune responses. Here, we isolate a neutralizing antibody, 7F3, with the capacity to neutralize all tested SARS-CoV-2 variants, including BQ.1.1, XBB.1.5, and XBB.1.16. 7F3 targets the receptor-binding motif (RBM) region and exhibits broad binding to a panel of 37 RBD mutant proteins. We develop the IgG-like bispecific antibody G7-Fc using 7F3 and the cross-neutralizing antibody GW01. G7-Fc demonstrates robust neutralizing activity against all 28 tested SARS-CoV-2 variants and sarbecoviruses, providing potent prophylaxis and therapeutic efficacy against XBB.1 infection in both K18-ACE and BALB/c female mice. Cryo-EM structure analysis of the G7-Fc in complex with the Omicron XBB spike (S) trimer reveals a trimer-dimer conformation, with G7-Fc synergistically targeting two distinct RBD epitopes and blocking ACE2 binding. Comparative analysis of 7F3 and LY-CoV1404 epitopes highlights a distinct and highly conserved epitope in the RBM region bound by 7F3, facilitating neutralization of the immune-evasive Omicron variant XBB.1.16. G7-Fc holds promise as a potential prophylactic countermeasure against SARS-CoV-2, particularly against circulating and emerging variants. In this study, the authors develop a potent bispecific antibody targeting two epitopes within the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain and showing robust prophylactic and therapeutic efficacy against XBB.1 infection in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garlic has long been used as an antimicrobial spice and herbal remedy. The aim of this study was to isolate the antimicrobial agent in garlic water extract against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and investigate its antimicrobial mechanism. By an activity-guided separation, garlic lectin-derived peptides (GLDPs) with main molecular weight of around 12 kDa were extracted by liquid nitrogen grinding and identified with high bactericidal activity toward S. aureus, and the MIC was determined as 24.38 μg/mL. In-gel digestion-based proteomic analysis indicated that the peptide sequences were highly identical to the B strain of garlic protein lectin II. Structure analysis suggested that the secondary structure was strongly affected by lyophilization and thus resulted in the inactivation of GLDPs (P < 0.05). Mechanism study revealed that treatment of GLDPs resulted in cell membrane depolarization in a dose-dependent manner, and the disruptions of the cell wall and membrane integrities were observed under electric microscopies. GLDPs could successfully dock with cell wall component lipoteichoic acid (LTA) via van der Waals and conventional bonds in molecular docking analysis. These results suggested that GLDPs were responsible for the S. aureus targeting activity and might be promising candidates for antibiotic development against bacterial infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models based on MLP-Mixer architecture are becoming popular, but they still suffer from adversarial examples. Although it has been shown that MLP-Mixer is more robust to adversarial attacks compared to convolutional neural networks (CNNs), there has been no research on adversarial attacks tailored to its architecture. In this paper, we fill this gap. We propose a dedicated attack framework called Maxwell's demon Attack (MA). Specifically, we break the channel-mixing and token-mixing mechanisms of the MLP-Mixer by perturbing inputs of each Mixer layer to achieve high transferability. We demonstrate that disrupting the MLP-Mixer's capture of the main information of images by masking its inputs can generate adversarial examples with cross-architectural transferability. Extensive evaluations show the effectiveness and superior performance of MA. Perturbations generated based on masked inputs obtain a higher success rate of black-box attacks than existing transfer attacks. Moreover, our approach can be easily combined with existing methods to improve the transferability both within MLP-Mixer based models and to models with different architectures. We achieve up to 55.9% attack performance improvement. Our work exploits the true generalization potential of the MLP-Mixer adversarial space and helps make it more robust for future deployments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current SARS-CoV-2 variants strikingly evade all authorized monoclonal antibodies and threaten the efficacy of serum-neutralizing activity elicited by vaccination or prior infection, urging the need to develop antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 and related sarbecoviruses. Here, we identified both potent and broadly neutralizing antibodies from a five-dose vaccinated donor who exhibited cross-reactive serum-neutralizing activity against diverse coronaviruses. Through single B-cell sorting and sequencing followed by a tailor-made computational pipeline, we successfully selected 86 antibodies with potential cross-neutralizing ability from 684 antibody sequences. Among them, PW5-570 potently neutralized all SARS-CoV-2 variants that arose prior to Omicron BA.5, and the other three could broadly neutralize all current SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, SARS-CoV and their related sarbecoviruses (Pangolin-GD, RaTG13, WIV-1, and SHC014). Cryo-EM analysis demonstrates that these antibodies have diverse neutralization mechanisms, such as disassembling spike trimers, or binding to RBM or SD1 to affect ACE2 binding. In addition, prophylactic administration of these antibodies significantly protects nasal turbinate and lung infections against BA.1, XBB.1, and SARS-CoV viral challenge in golden Syrian hamsters, respectively. Importantly, post-exposure treatment with PW5-5 and PW5-535 also markedly protects against XBB.1 challenge in these models. This study reveals the potential utility of computational process to assist screening cross-reactive antibodies, as well as the potency of vaccine-induced broadly neutralizing antibodies against current SARS-CoV-2 variants and related sarbecoviruses, offering promising avenues for the development of broad therapeutic antibody drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the whole life cycle theory, the carbon effect of three different sizes of high-standard basic farmland construction projects is measured and analysed. The results show that the carbon emissions generated during the construction of high-standard basic farmland projects and the carbon absorption capacity at the later stage are different for projects of different sizes. The carbon emissions of different scales of high-standard basic farmland projects will increase during the construction stage. The results of carbon effect changes in the later operation and management stage show that the high-standard basic farmland construction projects will help reduce the carbon emissions of the field ecosystem where the farmland is located and increase its carbon sink capacity after the completion of construction, which is more obvious in larger projects. The emission reduction and carbon sequestration capacity of the farmland after remediation are improved to different degrees, which is more conducive to the ecological development of agricultural production and ecological environmental protection in the relevant areas. The study contributes to the green development of farmland, which is of some significance for the sustainable development of agriculture in Tianjin and the whole country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T therapy requires autologous T lymphocytes from cancer patients, a process that is both costly and complex. Universal CAR-T cell treatment from allogeneic sources can overcome this limitation but is impeded by graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and host versus-graft rejection (HvGR). Here, we introduce a mutated calcineurin subunit A (CNA) and a CD19-specific CAR into the T cell receptor α constant (TRAC) locus to generate cells that are resistant to the widely used immunosuppressant, cyclosporine A (CsA). These immunosuppressant-resistant universal (IRU) CAR-T cells display improved effector function in vitro and anti-tumour efficacy in a leukemia xenograft mouse model in the presence of CsA, compared with CAR-T cells carrying wild-type CNA. Moreover, IRU CAR-T cells retain effector function in vitro and in vivo in the presence of both allogeneic T cells and CsA. Lastly, CsA withdrawal restores HvGR, acting as a safety switch that can eliminate IRU CAR-T cells. These findings demonstrate the efficacy of CsA-resistant CAR-T cells as a universal, 'off-the-shelf' treatment option. Although allogeneic chimaeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells can overcome manufacturing bottlenecks for cancer immunotherapy, immune rejection reduces the persistence and efficacy of allogeneic cells. Here, the authors demonstrate that CAR-T cells engineered to be resistant to cyclosporin A show improved engraftment and mediate robust tumour-specific responses in allogeneic recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, based on the experimental analysis of heat generation in deep groove ball bearings, the thermal nodes about the deep groove ball bearings is established by using heat network method. The temperature field of the bearing is simulated with finite element software, and the result obtained from the simulation is in good agreement with the comparison of the theoretical calculation results. The bearing test bench was used to analyze the bearing, and the experimental results again proved the effectiveness of the thermal network method. It was found that the bearing speed played a significant role in the working temperature of a bearing, which was consistent to the analysis of the thermal network method, verifying the feasibility of the thermal network method to solve bearing temperature, laying the foundation for the subsequent research on the heat transfer law of motor and rolling bearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) using the FOLFOX regimen (oxaliplatin plus fluorouracil and leucovorin) is a promising option for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (Ad-HCC). As identifying patients with Ad-HCC who would obtain objective response (OR) to HAIC preoperatively remains a challenge, we aimed to develop an automatic and non-invasive model for predicting HAIC response. Methods: A total of 458 patients with Ad-HCC who underwent HAIC were retrospectively included from three hospitals (310 for training, 77 for internal validation, and 71 for external validation). The deep learning and radiomic features were extracted from the automatically segmented liver region on contrast-enhanced computed tomography images. Then, a deep learning radiomic nomogram (DLRN) was constructed by integrating deep learning scores, radiomic scores, and significant clinical variables with multivariate logistic regression. Model performance was assessed by AUC and Kaplan-Meier estimator. Results: After automatic segmentation, only a few modifications were needed (less than 30 min for 458 patients). The DLRN achieved an AUC of 0.988 in the training cohort, 0.915 in the internal validation cohort, and 0.896 in the external validation cohort, respectively, outperforming other models in HAIC response prediction. Moreover, survival risk stratification was also successfully performed by the DLRN. The overall survival (OS) of the predictive OR group was significantly longer than that of the predictive non-OR group (median OS: 26.0 vs. 12.3 months, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The DLRN provided a satisfactory performance for predicting HAIC response, which is essential to identify Ad-HCC patients for HAIC and may potentially benefit personalized pre-treatment decision-making. Clinical relevance statement: This study presents an accurate and automatic method for predicting response to hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, and therefore help in defining the best candidates for this treatment. Key Points: • Deep learning radiomic nomogram (DLRN) based on automatic segmentation of CECT can accurately predict hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) response of advanced HCC patients. • The proposed prediction model can perform survival risk stratification and is an easy-to-use tool for personalized pre-treatment decision-making for advanced HCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thrombocytopenia is a major and fatal complication in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which results from disrupted megakaryopoiesis by leukemic niche and blasts. Our previous research revealed that elevated interleukin-4 (IL-4) in AML bone marrow had adverse impact on multiple stages throughout megakaryopoiesis including hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), but the specific mechanism remains unknown. In the present study, we performed single-cell transcriptome analysis and discovered activated oxidative stress pathway and apoptosis pathway in IL-4Rαhigh versus IL-4Rαlow HSCs. IL-4 stimulation in vitro led to apoptosis of HSCs and down-regulation of megakaryocyte-associated transcription factors. Functional assays displayed higher susceptibility of IL-4Rαhigh HSCs to tunicamycin and irradiation-induced apoptosis, demonstrating their vulnerability to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress injury. To clarify the downstream signaling of IL-4, we analyzed the transcriptomes of HSCs from AML bone marrow and found a remarkable down-regulation of the proteasome component Psmd13, whose expression was required for megakaryocytic-erythroid development but could be inhibited by IL-4 in vitro. We knocked down Psmd13 by shRNA in HSCs, and found their repopulating capacity and megakaryocytic differentiation were severely compromised, with increased apoptosis in vivo. In summary, our study uncovered a previous unrecognized regulatory role of IL-4-Psmd13 signaling in anti-stress and megakaryocytic differentiation capability of HSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has evolved rapidly and gained resistance to multiple therapeutics targeting the virus. Development of host-directed antivirals offers broad-spectrum intervention against different variants of concern. Host proteases, TMPRSS2 and CTSL/CTSB cleave the SARS-CoV-2 spike to play a crucial role in the two alternative pathways of viral entry and are characterized as promising pharmacological targets. Here, we identify compounds that show potent inhibition of these proteases and determine their complex structures with their respective targets. Furthermore, we show that applying inhibitors simultaneously that block both entry pathways has a synergistic antiviral effect. Notably, we devise a bispecific compound, 212-148, exhibiting the dual-inhibition ability of both TMPRSS2 and CTSL/CTSB, and demonstrate antiviral activity against various SARS-CoV-2 variants with different viral entry profiles. Our findings offer an alternative approach for the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 antivirals, as well as application for broad-spectrum treatment of viral pathogenic infections with similar entry pathways. TMPRSS2 and CTSL/CTSB, host proteases that facilitate SARS-CoV-2 entry, are promising drug targets. Here the authors simultaneously inhibit these host proteases and see synergistic antiviral effects, offering a broad-spectrum intervention against SARS-CoV-2 variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the application value of early standardized management in the delivery of neonates of pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Parturient diagnosed with GDM and their offspring were selected in our hospital from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2017 to underwent early standardized management. Non-GDM pregnant women and their offspring were selected as the control group. The growth and development of children aged 0–5 years in the two groups were longitudinally followed up, and the mixed linear model was used to evaluate and compare the growth trajectories. There was no significant difference in height and weight between the two groups at 1 year old (P > 0.05), but the BMI of the GDM group was significantly higher than that in the control group. After 1 year of age, both groups of offspring were similar in height, weight, and BMI, and these similarities persisted at 2, 3, 4, and 5 years of age. After controlling for covariates, the weight, length/height of the two groups of children were slightly different in the growth trajectories between 0–1 years old, 1–2 years old, 2–3 years old, 3–4 years old, and 4–5 years old with no statistical significance (P > 0.05). Although growth differences between the two groups of children were detected within 1 year of age, there were no significant differences in growth trajectories from 1 to 5 years between two groups, which proved that early standardized management has positive significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase (HMGCR) gene encodes rate-limiting enzyme in cholesterol biosynthesis, which is related to cell proliferation and mitochondrial function. The present study was designed to explore the expression of HMGCR in murine cochlear hair cells and HEI-OC1 cells and the possible mechanisms underpinning the actions of HMGCR in cisplatin-induced ototoxicity, with special attention given to p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activities in vitro. The expressions of HMGCR, p-p38, cleaved caspase-3 and LC3B was measured by immunofluorescence and western blot. JC-1 staining and MitoSOX Red were used to detect mitochondria membrane potential (MMP) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels respectively. The apoptosis of auditory cells was assessed by TUNEL staining and flow cytometry. Protein levels of bcl2/bax and beclin1 were examined by western blot. We found that HMGCR was widely expressed in the auditory cells, of both neonatal mice and 2-month-old mice, in cytoplasm, nucleus and stereocilia. Moreover, 30 μM cisplatin elicited the formation of ROS, which, in turn, led to HMGCR reduction, activating p38 kinase-related apoptosis and autophagy in auditory cells. Meanwhile, co-treatment with ROS scavenger at a concentration of 2 mM, N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), could alleviate the aforementioned changes. In addition, HMGCR silencing resulted in higher p38 MAPK-mediated apoptosis and autophagy under cisplatin injury. Taken together, we demonstrate that, for the first time, that HMGCR is expressed in the cochlear. Furthermore, HMGCR exerts protective benefit on auditory cells against cisplatin-mediated injury stimulated by ROS, culminating in regulation of p38 MAPK-dependent apoptosis and autophagy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, dextranase was immobilized on the surface of hydroxyapatite nanowires (HAPNWs) through covalent cross-linking method. The prepared HAPNWs-NH2-dextranase was characterized by FE-SEM, XRD, TGA and FT-IR spectroscopy. The results show that the dextranase was successfully immobilized on HAPNWs by covalent cross-linking method. The properties of HAPNWs-NH2-dextranase were studied and compared with free dextranase, such as catalytic activity, kinetic constants, thermal stability and pH stability. The loading capacity, storage stability and reusability of the immobilized enzymes were investigated. HAPNWs-NH2-dextranase demonstrated better enzyme activity at higher temperatures (92.28% vs 33.08% at 70 °C) and higher pH stability (93.17% vs 57.78% at pH 7.0) than free dextranase. The loading capacity of dextranase on HAPNWs-NH2-dextranase can reach up to 868.2 mg g−1. HAPNWs-NH2-dextranase retained 83.38% of its initial activity after 12 cycles, indicating that the HAPNWs-NH2-dextranase could have great performance in industry fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Syphilis testing uptake is low among men who have sex with men (MSM) around the world. Syphilis self-testing (SST) may complement facility-based testing; the distribution model is yet to be explored. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of peer distribution of syphilis self-testing on promoting syphilis testing. We conducted a three-arm, unblinded, parallel individually randomized controlled trial among MSM in three cities in Guangdong, China. Inclusion criteria were: men who were born biologically male, aged 18 or above, have ever had sex with a man, will refer the interventions to peers, and will take the three-month follow-up survey. Enrolled indexes were randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio into standard-of-care arm (SOC arm), standard SST delivery arm (S-SST arm), and a web-based referral link SST delivery arm (RL-SST arm). The primary outcome was the number of returned photograph-verified syphilis testing results per index. A total number of 300 indexes were enrolled, with 100 indexes in each arm. The number of verified syphilis tests per index conducted by alters was 0.05 in the control arm, 0.51 in the S-SST arm, and 0.31 in the RL-SST arm. The cost per alter tested was $760.60 for SOC, $83.78 for S-SST, and $93.10 for RL-SST. Minimal adverse event was reported among both indexes and alters during the study. This study showed that peer distribution of SST could improve syphilis testing uptake among MSM in China compared to facility-based testing. This approach warrants further consideration as part of expanding syphilis self-testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inorganic halide double perovskites A2B′B″X6 have gained significant interests for their diverse composition, stable physicochemical properties, and potential for photoelectric applications. The influences of trivalent and monovalent cations on the formation energy, decomposition energy, electronic structure and optical properties of cesium-based lead-free Cs2B′B″Br6 (B′ = Na+, In+ Cu+, or Ag+; B′= Bi3+, Sb3+, In3+) are systematically studied. In view of the analysis and results of the selected double perovskites, for the double perovskites with different B-site trivalent cation, the band gap increases in the order of Cs2AgInBr6, Cs2AgSbBr6 and Cs2AgBiBr6, with Cs2AgBiBr6 possessing the highest thermodynamic stability. Therefore, the Bi-based perovskites are further studied to elucidate the effect of monovalent cation on their stability and electronics. Results show that the thermodynamic stability rises in the sequence of Cs2NaBiBr6, Cs2InBiBr6, Cs2AgBiBr6 and Cs2CuBiBr6. Notably, Cs2CuBiBr6 exhibits a relatively narrow and appropriate band gap of 1.463 4 eV, together with the highest absorption coefficient than other compounds, suggesting that Cs2CuBiBr6 is a promising light absorbing material that can be further explored experimentally and be applied to optoelectronic devices. Our research offers theoretical backing for the potential optoelectronic application of cesium-based lead-free halide double perovskites in solar energy conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter to the editor responds to a study comparing different antibiotic prophylaxis regimens for transrectal prostate biopsy. The study found that a combination of two antibiotics, FMT and TMP/SMX, provided protection against post-intervention infections comparable to that of Ciprofloxacin. However, the letter raises concerns about the potential adverse effects of antibiotics, particularly renal toxicity, and suggests incorporating renal toxicity assessment into future studies. The letter also mentions that the risk of infection can be reduced by using transperineal prostate puncture biopsy instead of transrectal biopsy. The authors express gratitude for the study and declare no competing interests. [Extracted from the article]

This study constructs a mixed oligopoly model that includes a public enterprise and two private enterprises. Game theory was adopted to explore the effects of carbon emission reduction policies. In addition, this study analyzes the optimal carbon emission trading prices and privatization decisions. The results show that the proportion of state-owned shares and the equity efficiency gap affect the equilibrium results for different carbon emission policies. Privatization increases the profits of public firms but does not necessarily increase social welfare. Different carbon emission reduction policies have different effects on the equilibrium results. Moreover, the emission reduction target is not completely consistent with the maximum social welfare target and should be comprehensively considered. The government can intervene by setting carbon emission trading prices and making privatization decisions. Full and partial privatization may be optimal decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyse the safety and effectiveness of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in anal fistula patients. Methods: Online databases including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were searched from inception to December 5, 2022, for eligible studies about evaluating the efficacy of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in treating anal fistula. Literature search, screening, data extraction, and quality assessment were carried out by two independent investigators. The overall cure rate, the complete cure rate, the recurrence rate, and the adverse event rate with their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were the primary calculation indexes. Subgroup analyses were conducted primarily according to whether PRP was combined with other treatments. Softwares of MedCalc 18.2 and Review Manager 5.3 were used for meta-analysis. Results: A total of 14 studies with 514 patients were included in the meta-analysis. The overall cure rate of 14 studies was 72.11% (95% CI 0.64–0.79). The cure rate of PRP alone was 62.39% (95% CI 0.55–0.69). The combined cure rate of PRP with other treatments was 83.12% (95% CI 0.77–0.88). The cure rate of interventions involving PRP were superior to the cure rate of surgery methods without using PRP significantly in the 4 randomized controlled studies (RR = 1.30, 95% CI 1.10–1.54, p = 0.002). The complete cure rate of the 8 studies was 66.37% (95% CI 0.52–0.79). The recurrence rate of the 12 studies was 14.84% (95% CI 0.08–0.24). The adverse event rate of the 12 studies was 6.31% (95% CI 0.02–0.12). Conclusion: PRP showed favorable safety and effectiveness in the treatment of anal fistula, especially combined with other treatment procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dual-functional lanthanide-MOF nanocomposite probe was designed and constructed for the detection of ascorbic acid (AA). The magnetically functionalized hydroxyapatite nanowires are selected as the carriers and simultaneously loaded with ciprofloxacin (CIP) and terbium metal organic framework to form the internal reference fluorescence probe nanocomposite (Fe3O4-HAPNWs-Tb/MOF-CIP). This dual-functional lanthanide-MOF probe not only combines the respectively unique fluorescence properties of lanthanide MOFs and CIP, but also takes full advantage of the rapid separation properties of the magnetic component. Structural and spectroscopic characterization results have demonstrated the successful synthesis of probe material and the fluorescence mechanism. At a suitable excitation wavelength (295 nm), the probe can simultaneously emit characteristic fluorescence of CIP (445 nm) and Tb3+ (543 nm). In the presence of AA, the ratio of I543/I445 decreases rapidly with increasing of AA concentration. The linear range of determination is 0.3–40 μM with a detection limit of 20.4 nM. The contents of AA in vitamin C tablets and four fruit juice samples were detected by the composite probe. The spiked recoveries ranged from 82.6 to 104.2% with relative standard deviations (RSD) less than 2.1%, revealing the practical application value of the developed sensor in healthcare and food fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the low Mach number limit of the compressible Euler-Korteweg equations. It is justified rigorously that solutions of the compressible Euler-Korteweg equations converge to those of the incompressible Euler equations as the Mach number tends to zero. Furthermore, the desired convergence rates are also obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circumferential mass segregation of a blast furnace with parallel hopper has a negative impact on its smooth operation. To further clarify the cause of circumferential mass segregation, a three-dimensional model of the charging system of a blast furnace with parallel hoppers was established based on the discrete element method. The objective was to investigate the effects of the chute shape and the angle of Y-tube on the segregation. The results revealed that the differences in the collision point, deflection and width of the particle flow in the circumferential direction charged by a rectangular chute were greater than those charged by a circular chute. When charging by rectangular and circular chutes, the change in the main particle flow width and the relative movement of the particle flow were the main causes of circumferential mass segregation, respectively. The variance of the mass distribution charged by the circular chute was ten times than that charged by the rectangular chute, indicating that the rectangular chute was beneficial for uniform burden distribution. In addition, the movement and the segregation were unaffected by the angle of the Y-tube. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the expression of autophagy-related genes and prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods and Results: We selected three autophagy-related genes (ATG3, ATG7, and ATG9A) from gene expression data of liver cancer patients in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis, and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA). Human Protein Atlas (HPA) and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) databases were applied to testify the credibility of our results. The expression levels of ATG3, ATG7, and ATG9A were verified by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) in normal liver cells (L02) and three HCC cell lines (HepG2, Hep3b, and Li-7). Data analysis results from TCGA showed high ATG3, ATG7, ATG9A expression in HCC tumor tissues. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the survival rate of the high expression group of ATG3, ATG7, and ATG9A was all significantly lower than the low expression group. GSEA analysis showed that many signaling pathways (such as the regulation of autophagy, glycine serine and threonine metabolism, pathways in cancer, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, as well as P53 signaling pathway) were differentially enriched in HCCs with ATG3, ATG7, and ATG9A expression. GEPIA and RT-qPCR also identified that the mRNA expression level of ATG3, ATG7, and ATG9A in normal liver cells were significantly lower than in HCC cells. High protein expression of ATG3, ATG7, and ATG9A was displayed in HCCs from the HPA database. Conclusions: The ATG3, ATG7, ATG9A might be utilized as prognostic biomarkers for liver cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider block-transitive automorphism groups of a 3-design with small block size. Let G be a block-transitive automorphism group of a nontrivial 3- (v , k , λ) design D with k ≤ 6 . Then one of the following occurs: if G is point-primitive then G is of affine or almost simple type; if G is point-imprimitive then G has rank 3 or 4, and D is a 3- (16 , 6 , λ) design with λ ∈ { 4 , 8 , 12 , 16 , 24 , 28 , 32 , 48 , 56 , 64 , 80 , 84 , 96 , 112 , 128 , 140 , 160 }. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maximizing tendency is a central decision-making concept that has increasingly drawn attention from the scientific community. It refers to individuals' predisposition to look for the best option instead of settling for something that merely passes an internal threshold of acceptability. Although this maximizing strategy intuitively increases individual benefits, it also has been linked to various negative outcomes, including decreased well-being and low life satisfaction, and it varies considerably across populations. However, the neuroanatomical characteristics underlying this heterogeneity remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, a 13-item Maximization Scale and magnetic resonance imaging technique were respectively used in this study to estimate individual maximizing tendency and structural morphological information on a sample of healthy adults (n = 69). Furthermore, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis was conducted to investigate the associations between gray matter volume (GMV) and maximizing tendency through univariate and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA). Univariate analysis did not determine an association between maximizing tendency and whole-brain GMV; by contrast, MVPA revealed that maximizing tendency could be successfully predicted by the GMVs of the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), right insula, and right cerebellum. These findings suggest the critical role of the morphological characteristics of the cortical-subcortical circuitry in individuals' maximizing tendency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With advances in networks, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things, humanoid robots are rising in many areas, including elderly care, companion, education, and services in public sectors. Given their sensing and communication functionality, information leakage and unauthorized access will be of big concern. Very often, authentication techniques for service robots, especially those related to behavioral identification, have been developed, in which behavior models are created using raw data from sensors. However, behavioral-based authentication and re-authentication is still an open area for research, including cold start problems, accuracy, and uncertainty. This paper proposes a hierarchical implicit authentication system by joint built-in sensors and trust evaluation, coined sAuth, which exploits sensor data-based sliding window trust model to identify the service robot and its expected users. In order to mitigate the fluctuations of identification results in the real world environment, the trust evaluation is computed via combining the weighted intermediate identification probability of various small sliding windows. The performance of sAuth is evaluated under different scenarios where we show that (i) approximately 5–7% higher accuracy and 2–18% lower equal error rate can be achieved by our method compared to other works; and (ii) the hierarchical scheme with joint sensors and trust sliding windows improves the authentication accuracy significantly by comparing it with only sensor-based authentication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a classification of 2 -designs with gcd (r , λ) = 1 admitting flag-transitive automorphism groups. If G is a flag-transitive automorphism group of a non-trivial 2 -design D with gcd (r , λ) = 1 , then either (D , G) is one of the known examples described in this paper, or D has q = p d points with p prime and G is a subgroup of A Γ L 1 (q) . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a rich literature on sexualized drug use (i.e., drug use before or during sex) for men who have sex with men but less data from female sex workers (FSW), particularly from low- and middle-income countries. We describe the sexual and reproductive health outcomes in FSW reporting sexualized drug use. In 2019, we conducted a cross-sectional study in eight cities from seven provinces in China. We recruited FSW through community organizations working with sex workers and included those aged 18 years or above, exchanged sex at least once for money or goods in the past three months, and had traded sex for longer than a year. Multivariable logistic regression models were used. In total, 650 women participated: average age was 38.8 years (SD 10.2), 57.1% reported a monthly income over 5000 RMB ($USD 707), and 12.8% completed high school or above. Among participants, 65 (10.0%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 7.8–12.6) reported a history of sexualized drug use. Compared to FSW who never reported a history of sexualized drug use, FSW who reported a history of sexualized drug use had greater odds of working for a manager compared to being self-employed (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 4.04, 95% CI 2.12–7.69), work in a sauna (AOR 2.43, 95% CI 1.09–5.41), charging a higher price for vaginal sex (AOR 2.15, 95% CI 1.14–4.06), and ever diagnosed with STIs (AOR 4.51, 95% CI 2.61–7.80). One in ten FSW reported sexualized drug use. Although they had similar risk profiles in terms of consistency of condom use and reproductive health outcomes, these women were more likely to report past STIs than those who reported no sexualized drug use. Health workers who work with substance users should devote attention to the sexual practices of their clients to make sure that they have safer sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aneurysm wall permeability has recently emerged as an in vivo marker of aneurysm wall remodeling. We sought to study the spatial relationship between hemodynamic forces derived from 4D-flow MRI and aneurysm wall permeability by DCE-MRI in a region-based analysis of unruptured saccular intracranial aneurysms (IAs). We performed 4D-flow MRI and DCE-MRI on patients with unruptured IAs of ≥ 5 mm to measure hemodynamic parameters, including wall shear stress (WSS), oscillatory shear index (OSI), WSS temporal (WSSGt) and spatial (WSSGs) gradient, and aneurysm wall permeability (Ktrans) in different sectors of aneurysm wall defined by evenly distributed radial lines emitted from the aneurysm center. The spatial association between Ktrans and hemodynamic parameters measured at the sector level was evaluated. Thirty-one patients were scanned. Ktrans not only varied between aneurysms but also demonstrated spatial heterogeneity within an aneurysm. Among all 159 sectors, higher Ktrans was associated with lower WSS, which was seen in both Spearman's correlation analysis (rho = − 0.18, p = 0.025) and linear regression analysis using generalized estimating equation to account for correlations between multiple sectors of the same aneurysm (regression coefficient = − 0.33, p = 0.006). Aneurysm wall permeability by DCE-MRI was shown to be spatially heterogenous in unruptured saccular IAs and associated with local WSS by 4D-flow MRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MgO is crucial for improving the softening–melting properties of pellets. By considering primary slags of magnesium pellets with high FeO and SiO2 and moderate MgO contents, the effect of MgO/SiO2 and FeO contents on the softening–melting behaviors of a MgO-SiO2-FeO slag system were studied. Relevant mechanisms were clarified using FactSage 7.0, XRD, and EPMA. By increasing the MgO/SiO2 ratio from 0.3 to 0.9, the softening and melting temperatures of the slag increased by approximately 30°C. As the FeO content increased from 5% to 20%, the softening and melting temperatures of the slag decreased from 1368°C to 1271°C and 1395°C to 1342°C, respectively. The MgO/SiO2 and FeO contents had little effect on the permeation temperature. Increasing the MgO/SiO2 ratio improved the softening and melting temperatures of slag; however, increasing the FeO content decreased these temperatures owing to the substitution effect of Mg2+ on Fe2+. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional (2D) perovskite formed by introducing various organic spacer cations into 3D perovskite is considered to be one of the most effective methods to improve the humidity stability of perovskite materials. In order to solve the phase inhomogeneity and phase distribution nonuniformity of two-dimensional perovskites, additive engineering technique is widely used during their fabrication processes. Although many additives are proved to be effective in improving the quality of perovskite films, the mechanism of additive engineering has not been fully understood. In our work, we prepare 2D Ruddlesden–Popper perovskites based on 4-bromophenylethylammonium (BPEA) using a new additive of ionic liquids MAAc (methylammonium acetate). The (BPEA)2(MA)4Pb5I16 perovskite prepared with the assistance of MAAc exhibits a stable photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.47%, which is much higher than the one without MAAc additive (4.79%). Besides a nearly tenfold increase in electron mobility, the unencapsulated (BPEA)2(MA)4Pb5I16-based device with MAAc additive remains 88% of its initial efficiency after 960 h exposure to air with a humidity of 20 ± 5% at room temperature, while the device without additive decreases to 63% of its initial efficiency. Meanwhile, the interactions between PbI2 and MAAc at different temperatures and molar ratios are investigated and the formation mechanism of 2D perovskites in the presence of MAAc is proposed. It is found that an intermediate perovskite with distorted [PbI6−xAcx]4− octahedron is formed with the addition of MAAc, making the quality and photoelectric properties of the resultant films greatly enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the presence of the blood–brain barrier (BBB), the delivery of general drugs into the brain tissue remains to be a tricky problem. For patients with brain metastases from breast cancer, drug delivery systems must overcome this physical barrier. Targeted nano vehicles arise as a promising alternative to deliver drugs to brain tissues successively. Herein, a dual targeting micelle drug delivery system loaded with paclitaxel (PTX) and lapatinib (LPTN) was developed for combinational therapy of brain metastases. In our study, it was shown the micelles modified with Angiopep-2 had high loading efficiency of paclitaxel and lapatinib (Ang-MIC-PTX/LP). In addition, Ang-MIC-PTX/LP could transport across the in vitro BBB model and accumulate in breast cancer cells. After intravenous injection, Ang-MIC significantly accumulated in the brain metastasis. Ang-MIC-PTX/LP could also extend the life span of brain metastasis mouse models. Overall, this study provided a promising method for treatment of brain metastases from breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent malignancies in women worldwide. Early-stage breast cancer is considered a curable disease; however, once distant metastasis occurs, the 5-year overall survival rate of patients becomes significantly reduced. There are four distinct metastatic patterns in breast cancer: bone, lung, liver and brain. Among these, breast cancer brain metastasis (BCBM) is the leading cause of death; it is highly associated with impaired quality of life and poor prognosis due to the limited permeability of the blood-brain barrier and consequent lack of effective treatments. Although the sequence of events in BCBM is universally accepted, the underlying mechanisms have not yet been fully elucidated. In this review, we outline progress surrounding the molecular mechanisms involved in BCBM as well as experimental methods and research models to better understand the process. We further discuss the challenges in the management of brain metastases, as well as providing an overview of current therapies and highlighting innovative research towards developing novel efficacious targeted therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photo-oxidation of arsenite (As(III)) in solution containing Suwannee River fulvic acid (SRFA) under the ultraviolet A (UVA) irradiation (λmax = 365 nm) was studied. In a solution containing 100.0 μg·L−1 As(III) and 10.0 mg·L−1 SRFA at pH 3.0, SRFA induced As(III) photo-oxidation by producing the triplet excited state of SRFA (3SRFA*) and hydroxyl radical(HO˙). Approximately 82% of As(III) oxidation was attributed to HO˙ which depended strongly on HO2˙/O2˙−. The remaining 18% of As(III) oxidation was attributed to the direct reaction between As(III) and 3SRFA*. The photo-oxidation of As(III) was significantly affected by solution pH. Excess SRFA inhibited As(III) photo-oxidation. The addition of a low concentration of ferric ions retarded the photo-oxidation of As(III) due to the poor photo-activity of Fe(III)-SRFA complexes. In contrast, the addition of ferric ions at high concentration greatly accelerated As(III) photo-oxidation because of the high photo-activity of Fe(III)–OH complexes. The fractions of SRFA with different molecular weight showed different oxidizing capacities under UV irradiation which was possibly related to the different contents of phenolic OH groups. The findings have important environmental implications for the photo-transformation behavior of As(III) in natural surface waters containing dissolved organic matter, especially acidic waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the impact of promotion of electric vehicles on carbon emissions in China, this paper used the principal component analysis (PCA)-logistic regression model to predict the demand for traditional vehicles, and used the scenario analysis method to analyze the proportion of electric vehicles in traditional vehicles qualitatively. Then this paper calculated the carbon emissions during the power generation process based on the existing power structure. In addition, the IPCC carbon emission calculation method is used to compare the CO2 emissions produced by electric vehicles and fuel vehicles with similar vehicle quality while driving the same distance and consuming different energy sources. The results showed that the CO2 emissions of electric vehicles accounted for only 37.05% of fuel vehicles. By 2050, the annual electricity demand of electric vehicles will be 828.7, 776.9, and 752.1 billion kWh under the radical scenario, the reference scenario, and the negative scenario, respectively. According to the current power structure, the carbon emissions will be 1.2, 1.1, and 1 billion tons, respectively. The rapid growth of electric vehicles has a substantial impact on the grid load. Studying the changes in CO2 emissions from energy substitution is significant to formulate the development strategy of the automobile industry and adjust energy structure policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-world multi-agent tasks often involve varying types and quantities of agents. These agents connected by complex interaction relationships causes great difficulty for policy learning because they need to learn various interaction types to complete a given task. Therefore, simplifying the learning process is an important issue. In multi-agent systems, agents with a similar type often interact more with each other and exhibit behaviors more similar. That means there are stronger collaborations between these agents. Most existing multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) algorithms expect to learn the collaborative strategies of all agents directly in order to maximize the common rewards. This causes the difficulty of policy learning to increase exponentially as the number and types of agents increase. To address this problem, we propose a type-based hierarchical group communication (THGC) model. This model uses prior domain knowledge or predefine rule to group agents, and maintains the group's cognitive consistency through knowledge sharing. Subsequently, we introduce a group communication and value decomposition method to ensure cooperation between the various groups. Experiments demonstrate that our model outperforms state-of-the-art MARL methods on the widely adopted StarCraft II benchmarks across different scenarios, and also possesses potential value for large-scale real-world applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inter-temporal decision-making is ubiquitous in daily life and has been considered as a critical characteristic associated with an individual's success. Such decisions require us to tradeoff between short-term and long-term benefits. Prior studies have indicated that inter-temporal decision involves various brain regions that tend to occupy the central hubs. However, it is unclear whether the functional connectivities among hub as well as non-hub regions can predict discounting behaviors. Here, we combined with graph-theoretical algorithm and multivariate pattern analysis to explore whether voxel-wise functional connectivity strength in the whole brain could predict discounting rates (indexed as logk, based on the adaptive delay-discounting task) in a relatively large sample (n = 429) of young adults. Results revealed that short- and long-distance as well as all-range non-hub functional connectivity strength in the limbic system (i.e., medial orbitofrontal cortex and parahippocampus) were inversely associated with discounting rates. Furthermore, these results were robust and did not appear to be due to potential confounding factors. Above weight-based degree metric is commonly indicative of the communication pattern of local and global parallel information processing, and it therefore provides novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying inter-temporal decision-making from the perspective of human brain topological organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To investigate the clinical feasibility of preoperative routine clinical dynamic Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI alone to predict post-hepatectomy liver failure (PHLF) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: 116 patients with HCC who underwent liver resection in Southwest Hospital from 2014 through 2017 were selected in this retrospective cohort study. The remnant function (RF) of the liver RFUR and RFRE15 were calculated by the sum of the uptake rate (UR) or relative enhancement at 15 min (RE15) from dynamic Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MR images in the remnant liver regions, and standardized by standard liver volume (SLV) to generate sRFUR (standardized RFUR) and sRFRE15 (standardized RFRE15). Student's t test or Mann–Whitney U test, logistic regression, and ROC analyses were used to test the associations of preoperative RFUR, sRFUR, RFRE15, sRFRE15, the remnant liver volume (RLV)/SLV, ICG retention rate at 15 min (ICG R15) and sRFICG-K [ICG clearance rate (ICG-K) × RLV/SLV] with PHLF. Results: 28 patients were found to have PHLF, who showed lower RFUR, sRFUR, RFRE15, sRFRE15, RLV/SLV, sRFICG-K, and higher ICG R15 than patients without PHLF (p < 0.001 for all). After adjusting for clinical parameters, RFUR (p = 0.001), sRFUR (p = 0.001), RFRE15 (p = 0.002), or sRFRE15 (p = 0.003) was found to be independently significant indicator in multivariable logistic regression, respectively. RFUR (0.882) and sRFUR (0.882) had larger AUCs than RLV/SLV (0.731, p = 0.008; p = 0.005), ICG R15 (0.765, p = 0.039; p = 0.044) and sRFICG-K (0.767, p = 0.031; p = 0.023). RFRE15 (0.845) and sRFRE15 (0.839) had larger AUCs than RLV/SLV (0.731, p = 0.027; p = 0.025). Conclusions: The remnant liver function parameters preoperatively estimated from a routine clinical dynamic Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced MRI protocol can predict PHLF in patients with HCC, and may be better predictors than conventional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dragonflies (Order Odonata) often are considered to be biosentinels of environmental contamination, e.g., heavy metals and/or persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Dragonflies (n = 439) belonging to 15 species of 8 genera were collected from an abandoned mercury (Hg) mining region in China to investigate the bioaccumulation of total Hg (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg). THg and MeHg concentrations in dragonflies varied widely within ranges of 0.06–19 mg/kg (average: 1.5 ± 2.2 mg/kg) and 0.02–5.7 mg/kg (average: 0.75 ± 0.65 mg/kg), respectively. THg and MeHg were positively correlated with bodyweight (THg: r2 = 0.10, P = 0.000; MeHg: r2 = 0.09, P = 0.000). Significant variations were observed among species, with the highest MeHg value (in Orthetrum triangulare) was fivefold higher than the lowest (in Pantala flavescens). These variations were consistent with those of nitrogen isotope (δ15N) values, indicating that increased δ15N, i.e., trophic levels, may reflect increased exposure and uptake of biomagnifying MeHg in dragonflies. A toxicological risk assessment found hazard quotients for specialist dragonfly-consuming birds of up to 7.2, which is 2.4 times greater than the permissible limit of 3, suggesting a potential toxicological risk of exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glioma is the most frequent primary malignant brain tumor, which is characterized by high incidence and mortality, with a poor prognosis. Numerous studies have revealed the abnormal expression of long non-coding RNAs in gliomas. This study explored the effects and potential mechanism of LINC00663 in glioma. The LINC00663 levels and their prognostic values were analyzed from the GEO databases using bioinformatics. Also, LINC00663 expression in tissue samples and cell lines was measured using qRT-PCR. The roles of LINC00663 in glioma were confirmed using CCK8, EdU assay as well as Transwell tests. Moreover, the influences of LINC00663 on the AKT/mTOR signal cascades were detected using western blotting assay. LINC00663 expression was higher in both glioma tissues and cell lines than that in the normal brain tissues and human astrocytes. High expression of LINC00663 led to the low overall survival rate of patients with glioma. LINC00663 knockdown notably restrained cell proliferation, migration, and invasion abilities by decreasing the activation of AKT and mTOR. This study indicated that LINC00663 might have a cancer-promoting role in accelerating glioma development and progression through regulating AKT/mTOR pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]