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In this study, we investigated the status and influencing factors of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A questionnaire on COVID-19 vaccination in patients with COPD was developed. The clinical characteristics, COVID-19 vaccination status, other relevant vaccinations, and vaccination status of the patients with COPD were collected anonymously. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the factors influencing COVID-19 vaccination in patients with COPD. There were 1898 returned questionnaires, of which 1874 were valid. The proportion of patients who completed the COVID-19 vaccination program was 78.60%. Factors influencing the COVID-19 vaccination rate were: the age of individuals who were 75–85 years old and > 85 years old, acute exacerbation 3–4 times in the previous year, comorbid cardiovascular and endocrine system diseases, failure to take regular medication for COPD, application of non-invasive ventilation machines, believing that their current health condition has deteriorated, believing that the current COVID-19 vaccine is not safe, medical staff not specifying whether they would recommend vaccination against COVID-19, medical staff not recommending the COVID-19 vaccine, and fear of adverse reactions and aggravation of COPD. Patients with COPD had a high COVID-19 vaccination rate in China, whereas patients with pneumonia, influenza, and herpes zoster had a low vaccination rate. Improving the patients' understanding of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine and promoting effective communication between medical staff and patients would help increase the vaccination rate of patients with COPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tobacco carcinogens metabolism-related genes (TCMGs) could generate reactive metabolites of tobacco carcinogens, which subsequently contributed to multiple diseases. However, the association between genetic variants in TCMGs and bladder cancer susceptibility remains unclear. In this study, we derived TCMGs from metabolic pathways of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and tobacco-specific nitrosamines, and then explored genetic associations between TCMGs and bladder cancer risk in two populations: a Chinese population of 580 cases and 1101 controls, and a European population of 5930 cases and 5468 controls, along with interaction and joint analyses. Expression patterns of TCMGs were sourced from Nanjing Bladder Cancer (NJBC) study and publicly available datasets. Among 43 TCMGs, we observed that rs7087341 T > A in AKR1C2 was associated with a reduced risk of bladder cancer in the Chinese population [odds ratio (OR) = 0.84, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.72–0.97, P = 1.86 × 10–2]. Notably, AKR1C2 rs7087341 showed an interaction effect with cigarette smoking on bladder cancer risk (Pinteraction = 5.04 × 10–3), with smokers carrying the T allele increasing the risk up to an OR of 3.96 (Ptrend < 0.001). Genetically, rs7087341 showed an allele-specific transcriptional regulation as located at DNA-sensitive regions of AKR1C2 highlighted by histone markers. Mechanistically, rs7087341 A allele decreased AKR1C2 expression, which was highly expressed in bladder tumors that enhanced metabolism of tobacco carcinogens, and thereby increased DNA adducts and reactive oxygen species formation during bladder tumorigenesis. These findings provided new insights into the genetic mechanisms underlying bladder cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the absence of externally applied mechanical loading, it would seem counterintuitive that a solid particle sitting on the surface of another solid could not only sink into the latter, but also continue its rigid-body motion towards the interior, reaching a depth as distant as thousands of times the particle diameter. Here, we demonstrate such a case using in situ microscopic as well as bulk experiments, in which diamond nanoparticles ~100 nm in size move into iron up to millimeter depth, at a temperature about half of the melting point of iron. Each diamond nanoparticle is nudged as a whole, in a displacive motion towards the iron interior, due to a local stress induced by the accumulation of iron atoms diffusing around the particle via a short and easy interfacial channel. Our discovery underscores an unusual mass transport mode in solids, in addition to the familiar diffusion of individual atoms. It has long been believed that diffusion as individual atoms is the primary way for carbon to enter Fe crystals from outside. Here, the authors report an unusual mass transport way in solids, through which diamond nanoparticles can enter Fe spontaneously and translate inward for a long distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MYBL1 is a strong transcriptional activator involved in the cell signaling. However, there is no systematic study on the role of MYBL1 in atherosclerosis. The aim of this study is to elucidate the role and mechanism of MYBL1 in atherosclerosis. GSE28829, GSE43292 and GSE41571 were downloaded from NCBI for differentially expressed analysis. The expression levels of MYBL1 in atherosclerotic plaque tissue and normal vessels were detected by qRT-PCR, Western blot and Immunohistochemistry. Transwell and CCK-8 were used to detect the migration and proliferation of HUVECs after silencing MYBL1. RNA-seq, Western blot, qRT-PCR, Luciferase reporter system, Immunofluorescence, Flow cytometry, ChIP and CO-IP were used to study the role and mechanism of MYBL1 in atherosclerosis. The microarray data of GSE28829, GSE43292, and GSE41571 were analyzed and intersected, and then MYBL1 were verified. MYBL1 was down-regulated in atherosclerotic plaque tissue. After silencing of MYBL1, HUVECs were damaged, and their migration and proliferation abilities were weakened. Overexpression of MYBL1 significantly enhanced the migration and proliferation of HUVECs. MYBL1 knockdown induced abnormal autophagy in HUVEC cells, suggesting that MYBL1 was involved in the regulation of HUVECs through autophagy. Mechanistic studies showed that MYBL1 knockdown inhibited autophagosome and lysosomal fusion in HUVECs by inhibiting PLEKHM1, thereby exacerbating atherosclerosis. Furthermore, MYBL1 was found to repress lipid accumulation in HUVECs after oxLDL treatment. MYBL1 knockdown in HUVECs was involved in atherosclerosis by inhibiting PLEKHM1-induced autophagy, which provided a novel target of therapy for atherosclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 0.5 mm TC4/1 mm 6061/2 mm AZ31B/1 mm 6061/0.5 mm TC4 five-layer riveted plates were heated to 450 and 500 °C, respectively, and insulated for 12 min, then the Ti/Al/Mg/Al/Ti five-layer symmetric clad sheets were successfully prepared through the hot rolling process, and the effects of rolling reductions and rolling temperatures on the mechanical characteristics and microstructure of the sheets were investigated. The results show that when rolling temperature is 450 °C and the rolling reduction is between 28 and 43%, all layers in the clad sheets are well bound and there are no obvious holes and voids at each bonding interface, and no intermediate compounds are generated. At this temperature, with the increase in rolling reduction, the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and yield strength (YS) of clad sheets increase, while the elongation (EL) increases first and then decreases. When the rolling reduction is 33%, with the increase in rolling temperature, the thickness of the element diffusion layer at each bonding interface of clad sheets increases, and the UTS, YS and EL all decrease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of thermal energy storage materials applied in various fields has been attracting considerable attention in recent years. In this paper, a series of 1,6-hexanediol (HDL)/silicon dioxide (SiO2) form-stable composite phase change materials (fs-CPCMs) with various mass percentage of HDL loadings were made through sol–gel technique. For HDL/SiO2 fs-CPCMs, HDL was served as PCM, and silica gel was acted as the supporting matrix to keep a stable state without leakage of the composites even the temperature was over 85 °C. The results from form-stability test and DSC measurements showed that the as-prepared fs-CPCM with the mass fraction of HDL at 70 wt% presented good form-stability, suitable melting point (43.5 °C), and reasonable fusion enthalpy of 130.9 J/g. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy indicated that only physical adsorption existed between the HDL and silica gel. Moreover, the thermal performance tests showed that the thermal energy storage and release rates of the as-prepared HDL/SiO2 fs-CPCM was enhanced compared to pure HDL. In summary, the as-prepared fs-CPCMs exhibit reasonable latent heats, good thermal stabilities, and reliability, which are promising candidates for energy-saving construction materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals often make decisions in a social environment where social influence can impact on people's decision-making domains such as online purchasing, political voting and voluntary vaccine uptake. Social influence can be recognised as the intentional or unintentional change in an individual's belief, perception, or behaviours caused by an information diffusion process embedded in a social network. However, there is limited research on how this diffusion process is shaped by the topology or structure of the social network. This work provides an exploratory and systematic analysis of how decision-making outcomes in a population can be affected by both the structure of the social network and the starting node of where new information starts to diffuse. Simulation results considering three common network structures highlight how social networks with clear community structures lead to a larger absolute impact on decision-making outcomes and networks where the social connections follow a preferential attachment rule show the largest relative impact than the others. The results also suggest scenarios in which introducing new pieces of information to the social network can facilitate the information diffusion process and produce a more significant impact in terms of the overall population decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macrophages are critical components of the immune system and play vital roles in pathogen defense, immune regulation, and tissue repair. These cells exhibit different polarization states depending on environmental signals, and the M1/M2 paradigm is a useful tool for comprehending these states. This review article comprehensively presents the underlying mechanisms of M1 and M2 macrophage polarization and examines their polarization in various skin diseases. Additionally, this paper discusses therapeutic strategies that target M1 and M2 macrophage polarization in skin diseases. A more profound understanding of macrophage polarization in skin diseases could provide valuable insights for the development of innovative therapeutic strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated data-driven and hypothesis-driven dietary patterns and their association to plasma metabolite profiles and subsequent colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in 680 CRC cases and individually matched controls. Dietary patterns were identified from combined exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis. We assessed association to LC–MS metabolic profiles by random forest regression and to CRC risk by multivariable conditional logistic regression. Principal component analysis was used on metabolite features selected to reflect dietary exposures. Component scores were associated to CRC risk and dietary exposures using partial Spearman correlation. We identified 12 data-driven dietary patterns, of which a breakfast food pattern showed an inverse association with CRC risk (OR per standard deviation increase 0.89, 95% CI 0.80–1.00, p = 0.04). This pattern was also inversely associated with risk of distal colon cancer (0.75, 0.61–0.96, p = 0.01) and was more pronounced in women (0.69, 0.49–0.96, p = 0.03). Associations between meat, fast-food, fruit soup/rice patterns and CRC risk were modified by tumor location in women. Alcohol as well as fruit and vegetables associated with metabolite profiles (Q2 0.22 and 0.26, respectively). One metabolite reflecting alcohol intake associated with increased CRC risk, whereas three metabolites reflecting fiber, wholegrain, and fruit and vegetables associated with decreased CRC risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of form-stable polyethylene glycol/activated carbon (AC) composites were prepared via a vacuum-assisted infiltration method, where polyethylene glycol (PEG) was used as an organic phase change material (PCM) and AC was used as an inorganic supporting matrix to prevent the leakage of the PCM during phase change period. The chemical structural, thermal properties, thermal stability, and reliability of PEG/AC composite PCMs (CPCMs) with various mass loadings of PEG2000 was investigated by N2 adsorption analyzer, Fourier transformation infrared (FT–IR) spectrometer, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), respectively. The form stability and thermal energy storage and release properties of PEG/AC CPCMs were also experimentally studied. The results showed that PEG/AC CPCM with 80 mass% PEG2000 loading displayed reasonable latent heat, suitable phase transition temperature, good thermal reliability, enhanced thermal conductivity, and thermal energy storage and release performances, as well as excellent form stability, which are suitable for the practical applications of PCMs for thermal energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial processing of kelp generates large amounts of kelp-soaking wastewater (KSW), which contains a large amount of nutrient-containing substances. The plant growth-promoting effect might be further improved by combined application of growth-promoting bacteria and the nutrient-containing KSW. Here, a greenhouse experiment was conducted to determine the effect of the mixture of KSW and Bacillus methylotrophicus M4-1 (MS) vs. KSW alone (SE) on wheat seedlings, soil properties and the microbial community structure in wheat rhizosphere soil. The available potassium, available nitrogen, organic matter content and urease activity of MS soil as well as the available potassium of the SE soil were significantly different (p < 0.05) from those of the CK with water only added, increased by 39.51%, 36.25%, 41.61%, 80.56% and 32.99%, respectively. The dry and fresh weight of wheat seedlings from MS plants increased by 166.17% and 50.62%, respectively, while plant height increased by 16.99%, compared with CK. Moreover, the abundance and diversity of fungi in the wheat rhizosphere soil were significantly increased (p < 0.05), the relative abundance of Ascomycetes and Fusarium spp. decreased, while the relative abundance of Bacillus and Mortierella increased. Collectively, the combination of KSW and the plant growth-promoting strain M4-1 can promote wheat seedlings growth and improve the microecology of rhizosphere microorganisms, thereby solving the problems of resource waste and environmental pollution, ultimately turning waste into economic gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently studies aiming for the comprehensive metabolomics profiling of measured total fat (%) as well as fat distribution in both sexes are lacking. In this work, bioimpedance analysis was applied to measure total fat (%) and fat distribution (trunk to leg ratio). Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based untargeted metabolomics was employed to profile the metabolic signatures of total fat (%) and fat distribution in 3447 participants from three Swedish cohorts (EpiHealth, POEM and PIVUS) using a discovery-replication cross-sectional study design. Total fat (%) and fat distribution were associated with 387 and 120 metabolites in the replication cohort, respectively. Enriched metabolic pathways for both total fat (%) and fat distribution included protein synthesis, branched-chain amino acids biosynthesis and metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism and sphingolipid metabolism. Four metabolites were mainly related to fat distribution: glutarylcarnitine (C5-DC), 6-bromotryptophan, 1-stearoyl-2-oleoyl-GPI (18:0/18:1) and pseudouridine. Five metabolites showed different associations with fat distribution in men and women: quinolinate, (12Z)-9,10-dihydroxyoctadec-12-enoate (9,10-DiHOME), two sphingomyelins and metabolonic lactone sulfate. To conclude, total fat (%) and fat distribution were associated with a large number of metabolites, but only a few were exclusively associated with fat distribution and of those metabolites some were associated with sex*fat distribution. Whether these metabolites mediate the undesirable effects of obesity on health outcomes remains to be further investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sediments have a stagnation effect on contaminants. Currently, studies of tributary sediment dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) area are scarce. In this paper, the composition, source, and reservoir water storage in the Yangtze River basin are discussed based on three typical deposits and pore water samples collected from the TGR. The following results were noted: (1) The source of contamination mainly consists of four fluorescent components, and the contribution rates of fluorescence intensity of the components are the following: Humus-like component C1 is 28~38%, Humus-like component C2 is 26~35%, protein-like component C3 is 16~27%, and Humus-like component C4 is 12~19%. (2) The total fluorescence intensity of the sediment DOM tends to increase and then decrease towards the west, indicating that the storage area has a strong stagnation effect on the contaminants. (3) From the data of fluorescence index (FI = 1.79~2.58), humification index (HIX = 3.13~8.71) and biogenic index (BIX = 0.59~1.23), it can be seen that the DOM of the sediments in the TGR area was affected by biogenic and terrestrial sources. The joint influence of the input, among which the terrigenous characteristics were obvious, shows strong humification characteristics, indicating that the sediments in the TGR area have a certain contamination risk, and that the water body may have a certain eutrophication trend. (4) Results of Pearson correlation analysis, cluster analysis and redundancy analyses (RDA) show that there is a strong correlation between pH, -N and the fluorescence intensity of sediment DOM. The -N and pH of the water body both show a high correlation with HIX, indicating that the humification index of the DOM components is closely related to the eutrophication degree of the water body. The results of this study will provide a scientific basis for cleaning up the sediments, solving the water eutrophication problem, and developing ecological environmental protection, evaluation, and governance plans in the TGR area in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sensitive molecularly imprinted ratiometric fluorescence sensor was constructed for the first time to visually detect tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA). The blue fluorescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) were coated with SiO2 through the reverse microemulsion method to obtain a stable internal reference signal CQDs@SiO2. The ratiometric fluorescence sensor was finally prepared using red fluorescent CdTe QDs as the response signal in the presence of CQDs@SiO2. When the molecularly imprinted polymers were combined with TBBPA, the fluorescence of CdTe QDs (Ex = 365 nm, Em = 665 nm) was rapidly quenched, while that of CQDs (Ex = 365 nm, Em = 441 nm) remained stable, resulting in a noticeable fluorescence color change. Moreover, the fluorescence intensity ratio (I665/I441)0/(I665/I441) of the sensor showed a linear response to TBBPA in the concentration range 0.1 to 10 μM with a low detection limit of 3.8 nM. The prepared sensor was successfully applied to detect TBBPA in water samples. The recoveries were in the range 98.2–103%, with relative standard deviations lower than 2.5%. Furthermore, a fluorescent test strip for visual monitoring of TBBPA was constructed to streamline the procedure. The excellent results demonstrate that the prepared test strip has a broad prospect for the offline detection of pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tobacco smoking is one of the most important environmental risk factors involving bladder tumorigenesis. However, smoking-related genes in bladder carcinogenesis and corresponding genetic effects on bladder cancer risk remain unclear. Weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) underlying transcriptome of bladder cancer tissues was applied to identify smoking-related genes. The logistic regression model was utilized to estimate genetic effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in smoking-related genes on bladder cancer risk in the Chinese and European populations with a total of 6510 cases and 6569 controls, as well as the interaction with smoking status. Transcriptome of cells and tissues was used to profile the expression pattern of candidate genes and their genetic variants. Our results demonstrated that a total of 24 SNPs in 14 smoking-related genes were associated with the risk of bladder cancer, of which rs9348451 in CDKAL1 exhibited an interaction with smoking status (ORinteraction = 1.38, Pinteraction = 1.08 × 10−2) and tobacco smoking might combine with CDKAL1 rs9348451 to increase the risk of bladder cancer (Ptrend = 4.27 × 10−4). Moreover, rs9348451 was associated with CDKAL1 expression in bladder cancer, especially in smokers (P < 0.001). Besides, CDKAL1 was upregulated in bladder cancer compared to normal adjacent tissues, as well as upregulated via treatment of cigarette smoke extracts. This study highlights the important role of nurture and nature, as well as their interaction on tumorigenesis, which provides a new way to decipher the etiology of bladder cancer with smoking status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major advances have been made over the past few decades in identifying and managing disorders of consciousness (DOC) in patients with acquired brain injury (ABI), bringing the transformation from a conceptualized definition to a complex clinical scenario worthy of scientific exploration. Given the continuously-evolving framework of precision medicine that integrates valuable behavioral assessment tools, sophisticated neuroimaging, and electrophysiological techniques, a considerably higher diagnostic accuracy rate of DOC may now be reached. During the treatment of patients with DOC, a variety of intervention methods are available, including amantadine and transcranial direct current stimulation, which have both provided class II evidence, zolpidem, which is also of high quality, and non-invasive stimulation, which appears to be more encouraging than pharmacological therapy. However, heterogeneity is profoundly ingrained in study designs, and only rare schemes have been recommended by authoritative institutions. There is still a lack of an effective clinical protocol for managing patients with DOC following ABI. To advance future clinical studies on DOC, we present a comprehensive review of the progress in clinical identification and management as well as some challenges in the pathophysiology of DOC. We propose a preliminary clinical decision protocol, which could serve as an ideal reference tool for many medical institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is the foundation of the national economy, and achieving high-quality agricultural development is an important support for strong economic development in the post-pandemic era. Based on the new development philosophy of the Chinese government, this study constructs an evaluation framework of "innovation-coordination-green-openness-sharing" for high-quality agricultural development, and quantitatively assesses the level of high-quality agricultural development in China's Yangtze River Economic Belt with a systematic integration model, and explores the spatial evolution characteristics and obstacles of the level of high-quality agricultural development in Yangtze River Economic Belt. It reveals that the level of high-quality agricultural development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt shows a fluctuating upward trend in general, but there is variability among regions. The green dimension has the fastest development rate, followed by innovation and sharing. In terms of spatial characteristics, it gradually shows a pattern dominated by high levels and shows the characteristics of agglomeration, but the spatial correlation is not high. In terms of obstacle factors, openness and coordination are the main obstacle factors. Considering the different agricultural development models, it is suggested that international cooperation, new agricultural cooperation, and differentiated policies can be considered to promote high-quality agricultural development. This study provides a more complete evaluation framework for government policy-making authorities to measure the level of regional agricultural development and help regional agriculture achieve sustainable development at a higher quality level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outdoor thermal environment is an important factor when measuring the livability of a city. Residents will avoid intense heat by reducing their outdoor activities, which decreases the vitality of a city and increases the energy consumed for air conditioning. Outdoor thermal comfort has a great impact on outdoor activities; therefore, we need to evaluate and design the urban outdoor thermal environments in cold regions to improve the outdoor thermal comfort level. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey to assess the outdoor thermal comfort and adaptive thermal comfort in four different urban forms in Xi'an during July 2019, and measuring meteorological parameters, such as the temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and black bulb temperature. The results are showed as follows. (1) In the cold study area, urban residents generally perceived the outdoor climate as relatively hot during the summer. (2) The participants exhibited psychological and physical adaptations in terms of their thermal comfort. In particular, when the PET was 30 °C, the MTCV was about 1.25 points higher in the later summer period than the early summer period. (3) The neutral PET differs among regions, and it is affected by the climate zone and latitude. Comparisons of our results with thermal comfort studies in different regions such as Singapore and Umeå in north Sweden showed that the thermal comfort is correlated with the regional climate and latitude. The neutral PET is higher in tropical regions. Our findings support the theoretical understanding of adaptive thermal comfort in cold regions and they provide a reference for formulating policies related to adaptive thermal comfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The planar waveguide has been fabricated in the PTR glass by the He+ implantation with an energy of 0.4 MeV and a fluence of 6 × 1016 ions·cm−2. The SRIM 2013 was used to simulate the range of the He+ ions into the PTR glass and the energy loss profile. The end surface appearance of the waveguide was observed with a metallurgical microscope. The effective refractive indices of the guided modes on the PTR glass waveguide were measured by the prism coupling method. The refractive index profiles of the PTR glass waveguide under different annealing conditions were reconstructed by using the reflectivity calculation method. The propagation characteristics of 0.6328-μm light in the as-implanted waveguide structure were calculated by the finite-difference beam propagation method. Our work provides useful reference value for forming compact integrated optical devices on the PTR glass waveguides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 22 May 2021, the Maduo Earthquake occurred on a branch fault of the East Kunlun fault in the Bayan Har Block, which provides opportunity to constrain fault geometry and strain accumulation and release for assessment of earthquake hazards. We processed the Sentinal-1A/B SAR images acquired before and after the earthquake, with which we constrained a finite fault model to best fit to the combined data set of downsampled InSAR image and GPS displacements. The inversion indicates that the Maduo event ruptured a 160 km long section striking 286.5° and a dipping 81.39° with rake angle of 4.62°. The model suggests three compact rupture areas with the slip amplitude exceeding 4 m on the main rupture section and the largest slip region is in the east of the epicenter with a slip of approximately 4.6 m below the surface, in a good agreement with the field geological survey. The total geodetic moment is 1.67 × 1020 N·m equivalent to Mw7.44, slightly larger than estimate of the USGS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To develop and validate a radiomic prediction model using initial noncontrast computed tomography (CT) at admission to predict in-hospital mortality in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).Methods: A total of 379 TBI patients from three cohorts were categorized into training, internal validation, and external validation sets. After filtering the unstable features with the minimum redundancy maximum relevance approach, the CT-based radiomics signature was selected by using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) approach. A personalized predictive nomogram incorporating the radiomic signature and clinical features was developed using a multivariate logistic model to predict in-hospital mortality in patients with TBI. The calibration, discrimination, and clinical usefulness of the radiomics signature and nomogram were evaluated.Results: The radiomic signature consisting of 12 features had areas under the curve (AUCs) of 0.734, 0.716, and 0.706 in the prediction of in-hospital mortality in the internal and two external validation cohorts. The personalized predictive nomogram integrating the radiomic and clinical features demonstrated significant calibration and discrimination with AUCs of 0.843, 0.811, and 0.834 in the internal and two external validation cohorts. Based on decision curve analysis (DCA), both the radiomic features and nomogram were found to be clinically significant and useful.Conclusion: This predictive nomogram incorporating the CT-based radiomic signature and clinical features had maximum accuracy and played an optimized role in the early prediction of in-hospital mortality. The results of this study provide vital insights for the early warning of death in TBI patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Evidences about the gut microbiota role in weight loss after bariatric surgery (BS) are growing. The objective of this study was to observe the changes of gut microbiota after sleeve gastrectomy (SG) and SG plus truncal vagotomy (SG-TV) and identify specific microbes that may contribute to the improvement of obesity after surgeries. Materials and Methods: Forty high-fat diet-induced obesity (DIO) mice were randomized to SG, SG-TV, or sham operation (SH) groups. Body weight (BW) and fast blood glucose (FBG) were measured before and 1, 2, 4, 8, and 12 weeks post-operatively. Fecal samples were collected before and at post-operative week 12 and profiled using 16S rRNA relative and absolute quantitative sequencing. Results: After the surgery, the SG and SG-TV surgeries significantly reduce BW and FBG levels compared with SH, and the SG-TV achieved better effects than SG. A decreasing trend in alpha diversity of gut microbiota and significant changes in taxonomic composition were observed after surgeries. Then, we identified a set of microbes and pathways significantly different in abundance after BS. The genus Parabacteroides and one pathway (polyketide sugar unit biosynthesis) increased in SG-TV group specially, which was also negatively correlated with BW and FBG. Conclusion: SG and SG-TV indeed achieve effects of weight loss, but TV could enhance the efficacy of SG. The identified different microbes and pathways, like Parabacteroides, polyketide sugar unit biosynthesis, may partly mediate the beneficial effects of BS, and thus possibly contribute to the development of novel bacteria-based therapeutic approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cystinuria is a genetic disorder of cystine transport that accounts for 1–2% of all cases of renal lithiasis. It is characterized by hyperexcretion of cystine in urine and recurrent cystine lithiasis. Defective transport of cystine into epithelial cells of renal tubules occurs because of mutations of the transport heterodimer, including protein b0,+AT (encoded by SLC7A9) and rBAT (encoded by SLC3A1) linked through a covalent disulfide bond. Study generated a novel type B cystinuria rat model by artificially deleting 7 bp of Slc7a9 gene exon 3 using the CRISPR-Cas9 system, and those Slc7a9-deficient rats were proved to be similar with cystinuria in terms of genome, transcriptome, translation, and biologic phenotypes with no off-target editing. Subsequent comparisons of renal histopathology indicated model rats gained typical secondary changes as medullary fibrosis with no stone formation. A total of 689 DEGs (383 upregulated and 306 downregulated) were differentially expressed in the renal cortex of cystinuria rats. In accordance with the functional annotation of DEGs, the potential role of glutathione metabolism processes in the kidney of cystinuria rat model was proposed, and KEGG analysis results showed that knock-out of Slc7a9 gene triggered more biological changes which has not been studied. In short, for the first time, a rat model and its transcriptional database that mimics the pathogenesis and clinical consequences of human type B cystinuria were generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sugarcane is one of the most important crops in the world and rich in polyphenols. In this study, quercetin, apigenin, luteolin, tricin and p-coumaric acid, the major polyphenols in sugarcane, were used to evaluate the antiproliferative activities toward MCF-7 human breast cancer cells independently and in combination. These five polyphenols all showed inhibitory effects against MCF-7 cells within different dose ranges. The combinations of luteolin and three polyphenols (quercetin, apigenin, p-coumaric acid) were studied. p-Coumaric acid together with luteolin exhibited synergistic effects at all concentrations tested: the CI (Combination Index) values at 50%, 75% and 90% inhibition of MCF-7 cell growth were 0.68 ± 0.06, 0.70 ± 0.08 and 0.83 ± 0.09, respectively. Although the two-way combination of luteolin and apigenin showed moderate antagonistic effect (CI, 1.26 ± 0.24) at EC50, the CI value dropped as the inhibition rate increased, showing a synergistic effect at the inhibition rate above 70%. The combination of luteolin and quercetin indicated antagonistic effect at the inhibition rate above 50% (Fa0.5, CI = 1.10 ± 0.05). p-Coumaric acid with quercetin exhibited antagonistic actions (Fa0.5, CI = 1.62 ± 0.22) at all concentrations tested. In addition, the EC50 values of luteolin and quercetin against MCF-7 cells decreased by 1.91 and 2.62-fold after combining with 20 µM tricin. The results provide evidence of synergistic relation among polyphenols present in sugarcane in inhibition of cancer cell growth and of their potential clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate atrophy patterns in hypothalamic subunits at different stages of ALS and examine correlations between hypothalamic subunit volume and clinical information. Methods: We used the King's clinical staging system to divide 91 consecutive ALS patients into the different disease stages. We investigated patterns of hypothalamic atrophy using a recently published automated segmentation method in ALS patients and in 97 healthy controls. We recorded all subjects' demographic and clinical information. Results: Compared with healthy controls, we found significant atrophy in the bilateral anterior–superior subunit and the superior tubular subunit, as well as a reduction in global hypothalamic volume in ALS patients. When we used the King's clinical staging system to divide patients into the different disease stages, we found neither global nor specific subunit atrophy until King's stage 3 in the hypothalamus. Moreover, specific subunit volumes were significantly associated with body mass index. Conclusions: In a relatively large sample of Chinese patients with ALS, using a recently published automated segmentation method for the hypothalamus, we found the pattern of hypothalamic atrophy in ALS patients differed greatly across King's clinical disease stages. Moreover, specific hypothalamic subunit atrophy may play an important role in energy metabolism in ALS patients. Thus, our findings suggest that hypothalamic atrophy may have potential phenotypic associations, and improved energy metabolism may become an important component of individualised therapy for ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to elaborate the roles of anthocyanins and antioxidant activity of Chinese purple rice, and examined the changes of color characteristics and antioxidant activities in purple rice wine during storage. As a Chinese unique alcoholic beverage, purple rice wine is quite popular with high nutritional value. To better understand the different factors of rice wine materials, the anthocyanins composition, total phenolics content (TPC), total flavonoids content (TFC), procyanidins content and antioxidant activity of Chinese purple rice and white glutinous rice were evaluated. Two anthocyanins C3G (Cyanidin-3-O-glucoside) and P3G (Peonidin-3-O-glucoside) were identified and quantified by UPLC-PDA-MS, C3G was the most abundant anthocyanins, taking up 90.46% of the total anthocyanins in average. The total anthocyanins was from 110.30 to 1610.14 mg C3GE/100 g DW in purple rice. Purple rice contained more bioactive components and exhibited stronger antioxidant activity compared with white glutinous rice. In addition, the anthocyanins content was highly correlated with these antioxidant activities. Principal component analysis divided samples into purple and white rice groups. Further, the changes of color characteristics, anthocyanins content and antioxidant activities during purple rice wine storage were evaluated. The content of anthocyanins decreases occurred simultaneously with the wine color changes (based on CIE-Lab values) during storage. Storing with low-temperature and protect form light was an effective means to overcome this phenomenon. Additionally, antioxidant activities were also affected but the decrease was modest. As a result, purple rice contained a supply of high-value bioactive compounds, which provided a reference for the functional products development with purple rice as raw materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skeleton-based human interaction recognition is a formidable challenge that demands the capability to discern spatial, temporal, and interactive features. However, current research still faces some limitations in identifying spatial, temporal, and interaction features. Methods based on graph convolutional networks often prove to be insufficient in capturing interactive features and structural semantic information of skeletons. In order to solve this problem, we construct a Mutual-semantic Adjacency Matrix (MAM) by amalgamating the relative semantic attention of two skeleton sequences. This MAM was then integrated with the convolution of residual graphs to enhance the extraction of spatial and interaction features. We propose a novel interactive semantics neural network (ISNN) for skeleton-based human interaction recognition to hierarchically fuse MAM and structural semantic information. In addition, integrating the bone stream, we propose a two-stream Interactive Semantics Neural Network (2 s-ISNN). Experiments conducted with our models on two interaction datasets, NTU-RGB+D (mutual) and NTU-RGB+D 120 (mutual), demonstrate significantly improved recognition capabilities in comprehending human interactions. The source code is available at: https://github.com/czant1977/ISNN-master//. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Centrosomal proteins are necessary components of the centrosome, a conserved eukaryotic organelle essential to the reproductive process. However, few centrosomal proteins have been genetically linked to fertility. Herein we identify a homozygous missense variant of CEP128 (c.665 G > A [p.R222Q]) in two infertile males. Remarkably, male homozygous knock-in mice harboring the orthologous CEP128R222Q variant show anomalies in sperm morphology, count, and motility. Moreover, Cep128 knock-out mice manifest male infertility associated with disrupted sperm quality. We observe defective sperm flagella in both homozygous Cep128 KO and KI mice; the cilia development in other organs is normal—suggesting that CEP128 variants predominantly affected the ciliogenesis in the testes. Mechanistically, CEP128 is involved in male reproduction via regulating the expression of genes and/or the phosphorylation of TGF-β/BMP-signalling members during spermatogenesis. Altogether, our findings unveil a crucial role for CEP128 in male fertility and provide important insights into the functions of centrosomal proteins in reproductive biology. CEP128 is a centrosomal protein important for the organization of centriolar microtubules. Here, the authors show that a CEP128 variant observed in human male siblings causes reduced sperm counts and morphologically abnormal sperm when modeled in mice, suggesting a role for CEP128 in male fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term monocultures have severely inhibited the cultivation of Chinese peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.). In this study, the effects of continuous cropping on soil chemical properties and microbial communities were investigated in peanut fields that had been in crop rotation for 10 years and in monoculture for 10 years. The results found that long-term monoculture increased the activities of available potassium, available phosphorus, available nitrogen, soil organic matter, urease, acid phosphatase and catalase; while decreasing the activity of catalase. The diversity and abundance of soil bacteria and fungi is higher under continuous peanut cultivation. At the genus level, the relative abundance of potentially beneficial microflora genera was higher in the rhizosphere soil of rotational cropping than in continuous cropping, while the opposite was true for the relative abundance of potentially pathogenic fungal genera. Principal coordinates and cluster analysis indicated that continuous cropping altered the structure of the microbial community. The results of the functional predictions showed significant differences in the functioning of the rhizosphere microbial community between continuous and rotational cropping. In conclusion, long-term continuous cropping changed the chemical properties of the soil, altered the structure and function of the soil bacterial and fungal communities in peanut rhizosphere, which to some extent reduced the relative abundance of potentially beneficial microbial genera and increased the relative abundance of potentially pathogenic fungal genera, thus increasing the potential risk of soil-borne diseases and reducing the yield and quality of peanut. Therefore, in the actual production process, attention should be paid not only to the application of chemical fertilizers, but also to crop rotation and the application of microbial fertilizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autophagy plays a critical role in cancer, since it can either suppress tumorigenesis by inhibiting cancer cell survival, or facilitate tumorigenesis by promoting cancer cell proliferation and tumor growth. However, the role of genetic variants of autophagy-regulated key genes for bladder cancer risk remained unclear. Here, we aimed to explore the association of bladder cancer with genetic variants on genes involved in autophagy pathway. Gene-based analysis was performed with multi-marker analysis of genomic annotation (MAGMA) in 580 bladder cancer cases and 1101 controls. The logistic regression model was used to calculate the SNP effects on bladder cancer susceptibility. Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis was conducted by the genotype-tissue expression (GTEx) project. Gene expression was evaluated based on the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Three potentially functional SNPs RPS6KB1 rs1292038, PIK3R1 rs34303, and rs56352616 were demonstrated to be associated with risk of bladder cancer (OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.61–0.82, P = 7.88 × 10−6 for rs1292038; OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.09–1.45, P = 2.11 × 10−3 for rs34303; OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.62–0.90, P = 2.47 × 10−3 for rs56352616). An increasing number of risk genotypes of these three SNPs were associated with a higher risk of developing bladder cancer. Besides, rs1292038 exhibited an eQTL effect for RPS6KB1 in whole blood (P = 3.90 × 10−7). Furthermore, the higher expression of RPS6KB1 and lower expression of PIK3R1 were both significantly associated with bladder cancer risk. Our findings indicated that genetic variants in autophagy pathway genes RPS6KB1 and PIK3R1 confer bladder cancer susceptibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The computational speed in the feature selection of Mahalanobis-Taguchi system (MTS) using standard binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO) is slow and it is easy to fall into the locally optimal solution. This paper proposes an MTS variable optimization method based on chaos quantum-behavior particle swarm. In order to avoid the influence of complex collinearity on the distance measurement results, the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization method is first used to calculate the Mahalanobis distance (MD) value. Then, the optimal threshold point of the system classification is determined through the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve; the misclassification rate and the selected variables are defined; the multi-objective mixed programming model is built. The chaos quantum-behavior particle swarm optimization (CQPSO) algorithm is proposed to solve the optimization combination, and the algorithm performs binary coding on the particle based on probability. Using the optimized combination of variables, a new Mahalanobis-Taguchi metric based prediction system is established to complete the task of precise discrimination. Finally, a fault diagnosis for the steel plate is taken as an example. The experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively enhance the iterative speed and optimization precision of the particles, and the prediction accuracy of the optimized MTS is significantly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the study of the effects of partially non-submerged rigid vegetation on the free-surface confluence flow in a curved open channel, a numerical simulation is carried out by using the Volume of Fluid model combined with the porous media model with the software OpenFOAM. The model is first validated by using available experimental measurement data with a good agreement. Then, the characteristics of the separation zone generated by the centrifugal forces and the confluence flow are analyzed. Due to the resistance created by the vegetation, the velocities in the separation zone are more chaotic and the separation zone becomes smaller and more irregular. The reduction of the separation zone area of the vegetated flow in the convex bank is more significant than that in the concave bank. The velocities in the vegetated region become much smaller and remains so in the downstream flow after the vegetation region. Meanwhile, the vegetation compresses and divides the circulations in the flow area, rebuilding a structure with smaller circulations in the main flow and unclear circulations in the vegetation region. In addition, the bed wall shear stresses are significantly smaller in the vegetation region and the separation zone compared to the non-vegetated flow. This implies that the vegetation can have the effect of protecting the river bed from erosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive study on a 350-cm long sediment core revealed rich geochemical information in an interesting location of Xiangxi He (river) in TGR. The vertical profiles of trace metals (TMs) and nutrients displayed an irregular pattern, fluctuating around their background values, and no gradual increase was detectable. For TMs, average concentrations were Cd: 0.35 ± 0.21, Co: 21.91 ± 3.30, Cr: 27.06 ± 5.03, Cu: 27.09 ± 4.96, Ni: 34.08 ± 5.23, Pb: 20.58 ± 5.84 and Zn: 80.18 ± 69.16, all in μg/g (n = 61). For most of TMs, their bioavailable forms were only a minor fraction. Therefore, the conventional total metal concentrations will inevitably overestimate their potential risk to ecosystem. For nutrients, average concentrations were total phosphorus (TP): 0.81 ± 0.14, total nitrogen (TN): 1.46 ± 0.28, total sulfur (TS): 0.54 ± 0.19, total carbon (TC): 32.02 ± 8.35, total organic carbon (TOC): 20.90 ± 7.5, all in g·kg−1 (n = 61), and appeared somewhat higher than the "lowest effect level", which seems to explain the repeated observations of algal blooms in this relatively stagnant section of the river in TGR. The mineralogical composition identified by XRD agreed well with that obtained by chemical analyses. The study revealed that the Xiangxi sediment core (XX06) was remarkably heterogeneous in mineralogical composition, probably caused by natural processes and the dam management. The increased sedimentation rate within TGR should induce a mass dilution effect, thus decreasing the concentrations of pollutants. Large sampling scale and a universally accepted and uniformed analytical sampling and method, together with more vigorous analytical quality control, must be practiced and a solid database be built to facilitate the ecosystem assessment of TGR area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SET domain group (SDG) proteins have been identified to be involved in histone modification and participate in diverse biological processes. Rice contains 41 SDG genes, however, most of which have not been functionally characterized. Here, we report the identification and functional investigation of rice SDG712 gene. Phylogenic analysis revealed that SDG712 belongs to the H3K9-specific SDG subclade. SDG712 is highly expressed in leaves during reproductive growth stage with obvious circadian rhythmic pattern. Mutation of SDG712 promotes rice flowering, while overexpression of SDG712 delays rice flowering. Gene expression analysis suggested that SDG712 acts downstream of Hd1, while acts upstream of Ehd1, Hd3a and RFT1. Subcellular localization assay demonstrated that SDG712 is localized in the nucleus. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay showed that the H3K9me2 levels at Hd3a and RFT1 loci were increased in SDG712 overexpression transgenic plants, indicating that SDG712 may mediate the H3K9 di-methylation on these loci to repress rice flowering. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that SDG712 is a negative flowering regulatory gene in rice, and it delays flowering through repressing key flowering regulator gene Ehd1 and the florigen genes Hd3a and RFT1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permanently submerged sediment samples (SS) were collected in the center stream of eleven tributaries of Changjiang (Yangtze River) and at eight confluence zones in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) in May and December of 2017. The work showed that aqua regia digestion is a simpler, more reliable and robust method compared to total digestion with hydrofluoric acid (HF) for the determination of trace metals (TMs) in sediment for risk assessment purpose. Our study revealed a remarkable accumulation of TMs at the confluence zones and a trend of their gradual increase toward this zone. The presence of iron and manganese (oxy)hydroxides combined with hydrodynamic conditions created by the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) and its operation are believed to play a crucial role. This work also found that concentrations of NH 4 + − N in May sediment were significantly higher than those in December, which could have been caused by both the cyclic hydrodynamic conditions and the warmer water. TOC and TP were both very low in the sediment. Although TN was 2 times higher than the Lowest Effect Level suggested by the Ontario Ministry of Environment, it is uncertain if it reflects a natural background level or due to anthropogenic activities. A critical discussion is made by comparing the conclusions obtained when using different TMs risk assessment models. Necessary precautions are highly recommended when performing this exercise. In this study, no significant risk from either TMs or nutrients was identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tanezumab administered as a fixed dosing regimen in patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis. Randomized controlled phase III trials (RCTs) that evaluated the efficacy and safety associated with tanezumab for knee or hip OA were systematically identified by searching electronic databases, including Cochrane Library, PubMed, and Embase, for 30 years from December 1990 up to July 2020. Ten relevant studies were included in our meta-analysis. The research was reported based on the preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to ensure the reliability and verity of results. Our study showed that the tanezumab groups were more effective than the placebo groups in terms of mean change from the baseline in Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) pain (P <.00001), WOMAC physical functional (P <.00001), and patient's global assessment (PGA) (P <.00001). Discontinued due to adverse events (AEs) (P <.00001), serious AEs (P =.02), abnormal peripheral sensations (both P <.00001), and peripheral neuropathy (P <.002) in tanezumab groups were significantly higher than that in control groups. Compared with placebo, tanezumab can effectively relieve pain and improve WOMAC physical function and patient's global assessment (PGA) in knee and hip osteoarthritis. Meanwhile, adverse events are transient in nature and generally well-tolerated. However, we still need large-sample, high-quality studies to investigate the long-term safety of tanezumab to give the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determination of whether multidrug nanocarriers can deliver and release loaded drugs at a predefined synergistic ratio to target cancer cells is crucial. Although there are many successful applications for delivery of multiple drugs, most current carriers are unable to achieve coordinated loading and release, leading to a drug release ratio that disagrees with the predefined loading ratio. In this work, a simple dual-drug delivery system with a flexible and controllable drug release ratio was constructed to deliver two anticancer drugs, doxorubicin (DOX) and curcumin (CUR). The drug ratio of DOX and CUR can be easily tuned for an enhanced synergistic effect, and the drugs can be released at predesigned ratios due to synchronous drug activation and nanoparticle collapse. Drug release at predefined ratios for synergistic anticancer therapy was demonstrated via in vitro and in vivo experiments. Therefore, the dual drug delivery system developed here provides a simple and efficient strategy for combination chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medium-Mn steels have attracted immense attention for automotive applications owing to their outstanding combination of high strength and superior ductility. This steel class is generally characterized by an ultrafine-grained duplex microstructure consisting of ferrite and a large amount of austenite. Such a unique microstructure is processed by intercritical annealing, where austenite reversion occurs in a fine martensitic matrix. In the present study, austenite reversion in a medium-Mn alloy was simulated by the multiphase-field approach using the commercial software MICRESS® coupled with the thermodynamic database TCFE8 and the kinetic database MOBFE2. In particular, a faceted anisotropy model was incorporated to replicate the lamellar morphology of reversed austenite. The simulated microstructural morphology and phase transformation kinetics (indicated by the amount of phase) concurred well with experimental observations by scanning electron microscopy and in situ synchrotron high-energy X-ray diffraction, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copper (Cu) is one of the environmental contaminations which can pose significant risks for organisms. The current study explores the effects of Cu exposure on the growth, intestinal histology and microbial ecology in Bufo gargarizans. The results revealed that 0.5–1 μM Cu exposure induced growth retardation (including reduction of total body length and wet weight) and intestinal histological injury (including disordered enterocyte, changes in the villi and vacuoles) of tadpoles. Also, high-throughput sequencing analysis showed that Cu exposure caused changes in richness, diversity and structure of intestinal microbiota. Moreover, the composition of intestinal microbiota was altered in tadpoles exposed to different concentrations of Cu. At the phylum level, we observed the abundance of proteobacteria was increased, while the abundance of fusobacteria was decreased in the intestinal microbiota of tadpoles exposed to 1 μM Cu. At the genus level, a reduced abundance of kluyvera and aeromonas was observed in the intestinal microbiota of tadpoles under the exposure of 0–0.5 μM Cu. Finally, functional predictions revealed that tadpoles exposed to copper may be at a higher risk of developing metabolic disorders or diseases. Above all, our results will develop a comprehensive view of the Cu exposure in amphibians and will yield a new consideration for sublethal effects of Cu on aquatic organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe and analyze the status quo of cardiovascular clinical practice guidelines or expert consensuses including both Chinese medicine (CM) and integrative medicine, through systematic literatures searching and quality assessment. Methods: Data bases including Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, China Science and Technology Journal Database were searched for published CM or integrative cardiovascular clinical practice guidelines or expert consensuses. The website www. medlive.cn was also retrieved as supplementary. The clinical practice evaluation tool AGREE II was used to assess the quality of included guidelines or consensuses. Results: A total of 31 relevant clinical practice guidelines or expert consensuses were included, covering diagnosis, treatment, Chinese patent and patient fields. Common cardiovascular diseases like coronary heart diseases, heart failure and arrhythmia were also involved. Through analysis it was found that both the quantity and quality of included guidelines have been improved year by year. A total of 4 evidence-based clinical practice guideline has been found, one of which was a guideline project plan. Except that, the remaining 27 reports were all consensus-based guidelines. The scores of each field, from highest to lowest, were clarity of presentation (58%), scope and purpose (54%), stakeholder involvement (28%), rigor of development (21%), applicability (13%) and editorial independence (8%). Conclusions: Although clinical practice guidelines in cardiovascular domain of Chinese have gained increasing concern, with both quantity and quality improved, there is still huge gap in methodology and reporting standards between CM guidelines and international ones. On the one hand, it is essential to improve and standardize the methodology of developing CM guidelines. On the other hands, the evaluation system of evidence and recommendation with CM characters should be developed urgently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dysregulation of Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK pathway governs occurrence and progression of cancers. In previous studies, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple gene loci related to gastric cancer. However, a great many genetic loci have been missed due to multiple statistical comparisons of GWAS. In this study, Multi-marker Analysis of GenoMic Annotation (MAGMA) was applied to analyze genes in Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK pathway and their single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) based on Chinese GWAS including 1625 gastric cancer cases and 2100 controls. The SNP effects on gastric cancer susceptibility were calculated on the basis of a logistic regression model. Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis was performed based on the genotype-tissue expression (GTEx) project. We identified that three SNPs in MAP2K1, rs4287513, rs76906202 and rs11631448 were markedly associated with gastric cancer risk (rs4287513: OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.10–1.54, P = 1.92 × 10–3; rs76906202: OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.79–0.96, P = 3.72 × 10–3; rs11631448: OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.05–1.39, P = 6.74 × 10–3). All the loci were eQTLs for MAP2K1 in normal gastric samples. Moreover, the low expression of MAP2K1 was significantly associated with poor survival in gastric cancer patients. Thus, MAP2K1 might represent a key gene related to gastric cancer in Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK pathway, whereas SNPs in MAP2K1 confer gastric cancer susceptibility by having biological effects on the MAP2K1 expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, diabetes is one of the most common, chronic, and, due to some complications, deadliest diseases in the world. The early detection of diabetes is very important for its timely treatment since it can stop the progression of the disease. The proposed method can help not only to predict the occurrence of diabetes in the future but also to determine the type of the disease that a person experiences. Considering that type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes have many differences in their treatment methods, this method will help to provide the right treatment for the patient. By transforming the task into a classification problem, our model is mainly built using the hidden layers of a deep neural network and uses dropout regularization to prevent overfitting. We tuned a number of parameters and used the binary cross-entropy loss function, which obtained a deep neural network prediction model with high accuracy. The experimental results show the effectiveness and adequacy of the proposed DLPD (Deep Learning for Predicting Diabetes) model. The best training accuracy of the diabetes type data set is 94.02174%, and the training accuracy of the Pima Indians diabetes data set is 99.4112%. Extensive experiments have been conducted on the Pima Indians diabetes and diabetic type datasets. The experimental results show the improvements of our proposed model over the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular biomarkers play an increasing crucial role in evaluating and predicting toxicity of metals. Expressions patterns of genes related to oxidative stress, apoptosis, immune and inflammation response in the Bufo gargarizans embryo exhibited a development dependent manner. The genes related to oxidative stress (HSP, GPx and SOD) are the first response in the development of embryo, followed by the apoptosis (Bax, BCLAF1 and TRAIL) and inflammation and immune response (SOCS3, IL-27 and IL-17D), respectively. Then, we have verified the HSP, Bax and SOCS3 IL-27 (expressed highest in their respective processes) exhibited the most significant changes in Cd–Pb mixed group compared with control. In addition, we found exposure of Cd–Pb mixed metals causes greater adverse effects than Cd, Pb alone on development and morphology of embryo. Overall, our results provide a useful tool to use the sensitive molecular biomarkers as indicators of developmental toxicity in amphibian embryo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To systematic review the effect of Chinese medicine (CM) on no or slow reflow after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in myocardial infarction (MI) patients. Methods: The PubMed, EMBASE databases, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese BioMedical Literature Database (CBM), Wanfang Knowledge Service Platform (Wanfang Database) and Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP) were searched up to December 2017. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which evaluated the effect of CM therapies on no or slow reflow after PCI in MI patients were included. The primary outcome was the effect of reperfusion. Secondary outcomes were left ventricular ejection fraction, incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events and adverse effect. Results: Ten RCTs covering 814 patients were included. Two studies revealed that the incidence of no or slow reflow was less in Shenmai Injection (参麦注射液) group than in the control group measured by thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) ⩽ 2 (risk ratio=0.55, 95% confidence interval 0.38 to 0.81, P=0.003, I2=37%). Two studies indicated that Salvianolate Injection showed no additional benefit on no or slow reflow measured by corrected TIMI frame count compared with the conventional treatment (mean difference −4.24, 95% confidence interval −13.03 to 4.54, P=0.34, I2=86%). In addition, Tongxinluo Capsules (通心络胶囊), Danhong Injection (丹红注射液) and Xuesaitong Injection (血塞通注射液) may have the potential to reduce no or slow reflow measured during or after PCI in individual studies. Conclusions: Current evidence from RCTs are not sufficient to evaluate the effect of CM adjuvant therapies on no or slow reflow after PCI for MI patients. The included studies are limited by small sample size and unclear baseline conditions. Further rigorously designed researches and verification studies with sufficient number of patients are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are an intriguing class of regulatory RNAs involved in the tumorigenesis of many cancers, including colorectal cancer. Mechanistically, circRNAs sponge microRNAs (miRNAs) with specific miRNA response elements (MREs) and compete for regulatory target genes downstream. However, the genetic effects of MREs on colorectal cancer susceptibility remain unclear. The MREs of colorectal cancer-associated circRNAs (CRC-circRNAs) and corresponding single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified by the transcriptome of cancer cells and the 1000 Genomes Project. The association between candidate SNPs and colorectal cancer risk was evaluated in a Chinese population (1150 cases and 1342 controls) and two European populations (9023 cases and 386,896 controls) using logistic regression analysis. Among the 197 candidate SNPs within MREs of 186 CRC-circRNAs, rs25497 in circTUBB was significantly associated with colorectal cancer risk in a Chinese population after false discovery rate (FDR) correction [odds ratio (OR) = 1.78, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.44–2.21, P = 1.42 × 10–7, PFDR = 2.80 × 10–5] and even reached significance in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) under the dominant model (P = 1.28 × 10–8). Similar results were found in the European populations (ORmeta = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.10–1.53). Both stratification and interaction analyses revealed that rs25497 interacting with smoking affected the colorectal cancer risk (Pinteraction = 1.48 × 10–2). Here, we first comprehensively identified genetic variants in MREs of CRC-circRNAs and evaluated their effects on colorectal cancer risk in both Chinese and European populations. These findings provide basis for a comprehensive understanding of colorectal cancer etiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]