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To assess the correlation between preoperative neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and risk of postoperative delirium (POD) in older patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Scopus were systematically retrieved from inception until February 2023. Two authors independently conducted the selection of literature, data extraction and statistical analysis. In this meta‐analysis, Review Manager 5.4 was used for statistical analysis, and the mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of preoperative NLR between the POD group and non‐POD group were calculated. We utilised the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) to evaluate the quality of literature. Further, our meta‐analysis used a random‐effects model, and publication bias was evaluated by conducting a funnel plot. The correlation between preoperative NLR and POD was the primary outcome, and the secondary outcome was the association of other prognostic factors with the risk of POD. This meta‐analysis included seven studies with 2424 patients, of whom 403 were diagnosed with POD with an incidence of 16.63%. Results indicated a positive correlation between preoperative NLR and the risk of POD (MD = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.64–1.49; P < 0.001). Further, our results found that neutrophil counts, advanced age, longer surgery time, diabetes, and elevated C‐reactive protein were significantly associated with POD (MD = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.40–1.56; P = 0.001; MD = 4.20, 95% CI: 2.90–5.51; P < 0.001; MD = 0.15, 95% CI: 0.05–0.25; P < 0.01; OR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.08–1.86; P = 0.01; MD = 1.26, 95% CI: 0.36–2.16; P < 0.01). Other factors including lymphocyte counts, hypertension and male gender were not significantly associated with POD (MD = −0.11, 95% CI: −0.27 to 0.05; P > 0.05; OR = 1.20, 95% CI: 0.91–1.58, P > 0.05; OR = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.00–1.63; P = 0.05). Our meta‐analysis indicated a positive correlation between preoperative NLR and the risk of POD in older noncardiac surgery patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of cross‐border information and production resources is facilitated by information globalization through the transfer of fresh ideas, products, technologies, and business models. This encourages information globalization's potential to achieve environmental and other technological advancements in the meantime and helps to make greener production possible through value‐added trade. Prior research, however, largely ignored this aspect of globalization in global value chains' studies. In order to anticipate carbon emissions (CO2) in BRICS economies, this novel study aims to assess the significance of participation in global value chains (GVCs) and information globalization (ING). The innovative research uses nonparametric causality‐in‐quantiles techniques on quarterly data from 1995Q1 to 2018Q4 to quantify for causality‐in‐variance and causality‐in‐mean because there might not be any causation at the first stage but there might be higher‐order interdependencies. The results show that GVC and ING had high predictive capability for carbon emissions, indicating asymmetry regarding environmental sustainability. Additionally, GVC and information globalization asserted that there is a significant interaction effect when it comes to forecasting pollution levels in chosen nations. The provision of financial and R&D assistance for energy efficiency and green production, as well as the use of mass and social media to raise awareness among the firms participating in global value chains, may assist in achieving SDG 13 and Cope26's goal of reducing pollution by 2030. The finding contributes crucial insights for policymakers and enhances the discourse on sustainable hones inside GVCs. The study proposes prioritizing information transparency, worldwide measures, and motivations for eco‐friendly advances to improve environmental sustainability in GVCs. Policymakers are encouraged to foster public–private associations for cohesive global endeavors in diminishing CO2 emanations inside GVCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal introduces a novel CRISPR/Cas9 system called the fluorescence marker and pollen killer-assisted CRISPR/Cas9 system (FMPKC) for efficient isolation of transgene-free edited plants in rice. The FMPKC system utilizes a DsRed2 fluorescence marker and a pollen killer to distinguish transgenic offspring and increase the proportion of non-transgenic seeds. The system was used to edit the internode length gene EUI1 and pollen fertility gene PTC1 in rice, resulting in the production of transgene-free plants. The FMPKC system shows promise for multi-target or multi-gene editing and has potential applications in rice functional genomics and breeding improvement. The study was supported by various funding sources. [Extracted from the article]

The rampant spread of explicit content across social media can leave a damaging mark on our society. Hence, the need to be vigilant in detecting and curtailing sexually explicit content cannot be overstated. As such, it becomes paramount to discern and manage sexually explicit material to curb its dissemination and safeguard our digital communities from its harmful effects. In this article, we propose a unique technique entitled attention‐enabled pooling (ABP) embedded Swin transformer‐based YOLOv3 (ASYv3) for the detection of obscene areas present in the images with a bounding box around the offensive regions. ASYv3 employs a unique two‐step approach for enhanced performance in obscene detection. In the first step, a scalable and efficient Swin transformer block is integrated, utilizing self‐attention and model parallelism to train massive models effectively. In the second phase, the embedding layer of the Swin transformer is replaced with ABP, mitigating disruption of feature context. ABP allows for the projection of raw‐valued features into linear form with proper attention to feature context information at specified locations, resulting in optimized feature extraction. The proposed ABP embedded Swin transformer‐based YOLOv3 (ASYv3) was trained with annotated obscene images (AOI) dataset. The proposed ASYv3 model surpassed the state‐of‐the‐art methods by achieving 97% testing accuracy, 96.62% precision, 97.40% sensitivity, 3.48% FPR rate, 97.37% NPV values, and 95.59% mAP values, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a hearing disorder, sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) can be effectively detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, the manual detection of MRI scanning is subjective, time‐consuming, and unpredictable. An accurate and automatic computer‐aided diagnosis system is proposed for SNHL detection, providing reliable references for professionals. The system first employs a wavelet entropy layer to extract features of MRI images. Then, a neural network layer is proposed as the classifier consisting of a feedforward neural network (FNN) and an adaptive‐probability PSO (APPSO) algorithm. The authors prove the rotation‐variant property of the basic particle swarm optimization (PSO) by the algebraic property of matrix transformation. The property is unsuitable for optimising parameters of neural networks. Thus, in APPSO, the authors integrate the new update rules based on all‐dimensional variation and adaptive‐probability mechanism into the basic PSO, which can improve its searching ability without losing population diversity. The authors compare APPSO‐NN with FNN trained by five popular evolutionary algorithms. The simulation results show that APPSO performs best in training FNN. The method also compares with six state‐of‐the‐art methods. The simulation results show that the best performance in sensitivity and overall accuracy of hearing loss classification, which proves that the method is effective and promising for SNHL detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countless cybercrime instances have shown the need for detecting and blocking obscene material from social media sites. Deep learning methods (DLMs) outperformed in recognizing obscene content flooded on many online platforms. However, these contemporary DLMs primarily treat the recognition of obscene content as a simple task of binary classification, rather than focusing on the labelling of obscene areas. Hence, many of these methods could not pay attention to the fact that misclassification samples are so diverse. Therefore, this paper focuses on two aspects (i) developing a deep learning model that could classify and label the obscene portion, and (ii) generating a labelled obscene image dataset with a wide variety of obscene samples to minimize the risks of inaccurate recognition. We have proposed a method named S3Pooling based bottleneck attention module (BAM) embedded MobileNetV2‐YOLOv3 (SBMYv3) for automatic detection of obscene content using an attention mechanism and a suitable pooling strategy. The key contributions of our article are: (i) generation of a well‐labelled obscene image dataset with a variety of augmentation strategies using Pix‐2‐Pix GAN (ii) modifications to the backend architecture of YOLOv3 using MobileNetV2 and BAM to ensure focused and accurate feature extraction, and (iii) selection of an optimal pooling strategy, that is, S3Pooling strategy, while taking the design of the feature extractor into account. The proposed SBMYv3 model outperformed other state‐of‐the‐art models with 99.26% testing accuracy, 99.39% recall, 99.13% precision, and 99.13% IoU values respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, a comparative study for the effect of nanoparticle networks on rheological behavior, electrical conductivity, and electromagnetic wave (EMW) shielding effectiveness (SE) is carried in conductive polymer composites (CPC). Two different polymers, that is, poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) and isotactic polypropylene (iPP), which have different dispersion of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), are used as polymer matrices. A transmission electron microscope (TEM) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) are employed to determine the dispersion of MWCNTs in different polymer matrices. A rotational rheometer and a vector network analyzer are used to evaluate the percolation thresholds of storage modulus, complex viscosity and EMW SE, respectively. The results indicate that the EMW SE percolation thresholds are much larger than the electrical and rheological percolation thresholds. Specifically, the percolation thresholds of storage modulus and complex viscosity are 0.39 and 0.33 vol% for the MWCNT/PCL samples, and 1.57 and 1.57 vol% for the MWCNT/iPP samples, respectively. The electrical and EMW SE percolation thresholds are 0.33 and 1.99 vol%, 1.24 and 5.41 vol% for the MWCNT/PCL and MWCNT/iPP nanocomposites, respectively. The electrical and rheological percolation may happen in the samples with a sparse MWCNT network, while EMW SE percolation may require a dense MWCNT network in the samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Fruit category classification is important in factory packing and transportation, price prediction, dietary intake, and so forth. Methods: This study proposed a novel artificial intelligence system to classify fruit categories. First, 2D fractional Fourier entropy with rotation angle vector grid was used to extract features from fruit images. Afterwards, a five‐layer stacked sparse autoencoder was used as the classifier. Results: Ten runs on the test set showed our method achieved a micro‐averaged F1 score of 95.08% for an 18‐category fruit dataset. Conclusion: Our method gives better micro‐averaged F1 score than 10 state‐of‐the‐art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid‐state fluorescent materials play a critical role in the manufacture of light‐emitting diodes, laser dyes, storage materials, and fluorescence sensors. However, it remains challenging to produce solid‐state fluorescent materials using traditional organic dyes since most are subject to aggregation‐caused quenching (ACQ) in the solid state. Here, a macrocycle‐derived crystalline framework is reported that captures various cationic test‐ACQ dyes (e.g., Basic Red 2 (BR2)) and stabilizes them in a fluorescent form. Cyclo[3](1,3‐benzene)[3](4,6‐benzene)(1,3‐dicarboxylic acid), CA‐3, is used as the core macrocyclic building block. When allowed to coordinate with Zn(NO3)2•6H2O or Cd(NO3)2•4H2O, crystalline sponge (CS‐Zn or CS‐Cd) is obtained. In the case of CS‐Zn, nano‐sized cavities are observed in the solid state that serve as containers to capture the cationic ACQ dye BR2 with loading yields up to 14.6 wt% and emission enhancements up to 41× of those seen for solid BR2. The resulting dye‐containing material, CS‐Zn@BR2, displays high stability in water or selected organic solvents at room temperature or under reflux, or when heated at 300 °C for 1 h open to the air, or in the presence of sodium hypochlorite solution (3.0 mm). This study highlights a new strategy for rendering fluorescent ACQ dyes in the solid state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Workplace social capital refers to relationship networks formed by individuals in an organization through long‐term mutually beneficial interactions and cooperation with members. These relationship networks can create value and resources for organizations and individuals. This current study aimed to explore the potential impact of workplace social capital on the association between perceived stress and professional identity in clinical nurses during the COVID‐19 outbreak. Methods: In this cross‐sectional study, 308 Chinese clinical nurses filled out the Chinese Workplace Social Capital Scale, the Chinese Perceived Stress Scale, and the Chinese Nurse's Professional Identity Scale. Descriptive analysis, independent samples t test, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analyses, and bootstrap method were performed to analyze the data. Results: Perceived stress was negatively correlated with professional identity (r = −0.455, p <.001). Workplace social capital was not found to moderate the relationship between perceived stress and professional identity (95% CI −0.03 to− 0.06, p =.47 >.05). Instead, it mediated that relationship (95% CI −0.61 to −0.19, p <.05), and its mediating effect was −0.37. Conclusions: In the early stages of the COVID‐19 outbreak, workplace social capital among the investigated clinical nurses failed to buffer the negative impact of perceived stress on professional identity, but it did play a part in mediating perceived stress and professional identity. A healthy workplace should be provided to clinical nurses to improve their professional identity, while lowering perceived stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: 9-Phenanthrol, known as a specific inhibitor of the transient receptor potential melastatin 4 (TRMP4) channel, has been shown to modulate cardiac electrical activity and exert antiarrhythmic effects. However, its pharmacological effects remain to be fully explored. Here, we tested the hypothesis that cardiac sodium current inhibition contributes to the cardioprotective effect of 9-phenanthrol.Experimental Approach: Single ventricular myocytes (VMs) and Purkinje cells (PCs) were enzymatically isolated from rabbits. Arterially perfused rabbit wedge preparations were also used, and transmural electrocardiogram and endocardial action potentials (APs) were simultaneously recorded. Wild-type and mutated human recombinant SCN5A were expressed in HEK293 cells. Anemonia toxin II (ATX-II) was used to amplify the late sodium current (INaL ) and induce arrhythmias. Whole-cell patch clamp technique was used to record APs and ionic currents.Key Results: 9-Phenanthrol (10-50 μM) stabilized ventricular repolarization and abolished arrhythmias induced by ATX-II in both isolated VMs, PCs and wedge preparations. Further study revealed that 9-phenanthrol modulated the gating properties of cardiac sodium channels and dose-dependently inhibited INaL and peak sodium current (INaP ) in VMs with an IC50 of 18 and 71.5 μM respectively. Its ability to inhibit INaL was further confirmed in PCs and HEK293 cells expressing SCN5A mutations.Conclusions and Implications: Our results indicate that 9-phenanthrol modulates the gating properties of cardiac sodium channels and inhibits INaL and INaP , which may contribute to its antiarrhythmic and cardioprotective effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sitodiplosis mosellana, a periodic but devastating wheat pest, relies on wheat spike volatiles as a cue in selecting hosts for oviposition. Insect odorant‐binding proteins (OBPs) are thought to play essential roles in filtering, binding and transporting hydrophobic odorant molecules to specific receptors. To date, the molecular mechanisms underlying S. mosellana olfaction are poorly understood. Here, three S. mosellana antenna‐specific OBP genes, SmosOBP11, 16 and 21, were cloned and bacterially expressed. Binding properties of the recombinant proteins to 28 volatiles emitted from wheat spikes were investigated using fluorescence competitive binding assays. Sequence analysis suggested that these SmosOBPs belong to the Classic OBP subfamily. Ligand‐binding analysis showed that all three SmosOBPs preferentially bound alcohol, ester and ketone compounds, and SmosOBP11 and 16 also selectively bound terpenoid compounds. In particular, the three SmosOBPs had high binding affinities (Ki < 20 μmol/L) to 3‐hexanol and cis‐3‐hexenylacetate that elicited strong electroantennogram (EAG) response from female antennae. In addition, SmosOBP11 displayed significantly higher binding (Ki < 8 μmol/L) than SmosOBP16 and 21 to 1‐octen‐3‐ol, D‐panthenol, α‐pinene and heptyl acetate which elicited significant EAG response, suggesting that SmosOBP11 plays a major role in recognition and transportation of these volatiles. These findings have provided important insight into the molecular mechanism by which S. mosellana specifically recognizes plant volatiles for host selection, and have facilitated identification of effective volatile attractants that are potentially useful for pest monitoring and trapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LINKED CONTENT: This article is linked to Tong et al papers. To view these articles, visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.17263 and https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.17319 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction and utilization of new maize (Zea mays L.) germplasm from sources, such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), can be valuable for broadening the genetic base of breeding populations through the introgression of new alleles. Twenty-five inbred lines, derived from CIMMYT breeding populations, were selected on the basis of grain color, resistance to turcicum leaf blight, and per se line performance in Yunnan. To use the lines effectively, information on their performance in hybrid combinations and on general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) needed to be obtained. The objectives of this study were (i) to evaluate these lines for grain yield (GY) in hybrid combinations and determine GCA of parental lines and SCA of crosses between the 25 introduced lines and six testers using North Carolina Design II; and (ii) to classify the lines into different maize heterotic groups. The field testing at three locations identified crosses with lines from Cateto and Population 147 (P147) as having significantly higher GY than those from SA3 and other introduced populations, and the high GY was largely attributable to their high positive GCA effects. Lines from the same population were not necessarily classified into same maize heterotic group. Lines selected at S4 or a later generation would be expected to have more stable GCA effects than lines selected in earlier generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paradoxical observations have been made regarding the role of caveolin-1 (Cav-1) during cellular senescence. For example, caveolin-1 deficiency prevents reactive oxygen species-induced cellular senescence despite mitochondrial dysfunction, which leads to senescence. To resolve this paradox, we re-addressed the role of caveolin-1 in cellular senescence in human diploid fibroblasts, A549, HCT116, and Cav-1 −/− mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Cav-1 deficiency (knockout or knockdown) induced cellular senescence via a p53-p21-dependent pathway, downregulating the expression level of the cardiolipin biosynthesis enzymes and then reducing the content of cardiolipin, a critical lipid for mitochondrial respiration. Our results showed that Cav-1 deficiency decreased mitochondrial respiration, reduced the activity of oxidative phosphorylation complex I ( CI), inactivated SIRT1, and decreased the NAD+/ NADH ratio. From these results, we concluded that Cav-1 deficiency induces premature senescence via mitochondrial dysfunction and silent information regulator 2 homologue 1 ( SIRT1) inactivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early diagnosis of skin cancer through clinical methods reduces the human mortality rate. The manual screening of dermoscopic images is not an efficient procedure; therefore, researchers working in the domain of computer vision employed several algorithms to classify the skin lesion. The existing computerized methods have a few drawbacks, such as low accuracy and high computational time. Therefore, in this work, we proposed a novel deep learning and Entropy‐Normal Distribution Optimization Algorithm with extreme learning machine (NDOEM)‐based architecture for multiclass skin lesion classification. The proposed architecture consists of five fundamental steps. In the first step, two contrast enhancement techniques including hybridization of mathematical formulation and convolutional neural network are implemented prior to data augmentation. In the second step, two pre‐trained deep learning models, EfficientNetB0 and DarkNet19, are fine‐tuned and retrained through the transfer learning. In the third step, features are extracted from the fine‐tuned models and later the most discriminant features are selected based on novel Entropy‐NDOELM algorithm. The selected features are finally fused using a parallel correlation technique in the fourth step to generate the result feature vectors. Finally, the resultant features are again down‐sampled using the proposed algorithm and the resultant features are passed to the extreme learning machine (ELM) for the final classification. The simulations are conducted on three publicly available datasets as HAM10000, ISIC2018, and ISIC2019 to achieving an accuracy of 95.7%, 96.3%, and 94.8% respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT To classify brain images into pathological or healthy is a key pre-clinical state for patients. Manual classification is tiresome, expensive, time-consuming, and irreproducible. In this study, we aimed to present an automatic computer-aided system for brain-image classification. We used 90 T2-weighted images obtained by magnetic resonance images. First, we used weighted-type fractional Fourier transform (WFRFT) to extract spectrums from each magnetic resonance image. Second, we used principal component analysis (PCA) to reduce spectrum features to only 26. Third, those reduced spectral features of different samples were combined and were fed into support vector machine (SVM) and its two variants: generalized eigenvalue proximal SVM and twin SVM. A 5 × 5-fold cross-validation results showed that this proposed 'WFRFT + PCA + generalized eigenvalue proximal SVM' yielded sensitivity of 99.53%, specificity of 92.00%, precision of 99.53%, and accuracy of 99.11%, which are comparable with the proposed 'WFRFT + PCA + twin SVM' and better than the proposed 'WFRFT + PCA + SVM.' Besides, all three proposed methods were superior to eight state-of-the-art algorithms. Thus, WFRFT is effective, and the proposed methods can be used in practical. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 25, 317-327, 2015 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pituitary stalk interruption syndrome (PSIS) in female patients is mainly characterized by short stature, primary amenorrhea, absent or incomplete sexual maturation, and infertility. Successful pregnancies among these patients are rare. In this report, we describe a successful pregnancy and delivery in a 28‐year‐old Chinese woman with PSIS following in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. The patient exhibited typical symptoms, including multiple pituitary hormone deficiency, typical triad signs in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), undetectable serum gonadotropins and estradiol levels, and invisible antral follicles in both ovaries. During the first attempted controlled ovarian hyperstimulation cycle, 14 oocytes were retrieved and six embryos were acquired. Artificial endometrial preparation and frozen–thawed embryo transfer were performed, resulting in a clinical pregnancy after the transfer of a day 5 blastocyst. The patient was closely monitored throughout the pregnancy and multiple hormone dosages were modulated accordingly. She delivered a healthy boy by elective cesarean section, and the newborn developed normally during a 1‐year follow‐up period. This is the first report of a successful live birth in a woman with PSIS achieved through in vitro fertilization and frozen–thawed embryo transfer. A literature review on this topic is also presented. Synopsis: We report a case of successful pregnancy and delivery in a female with pituitary stalk interruption syndrome following in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on the C/O-regioselectivity in electrophilic fluoromethylations of ß-ketoesters based on thermodynamics with the help of Ab initio calculations. Topics covered include the electronic character of trifluoromethyl sulfoxinium salt 1a, the geometries of anion 3 complexed with fluoromethyl radicals and plausible schematic reaction mechanisms for trifluoromethylation and monofluoromethylation.

Understanding the interactions between proteins and ligands is critical for protein function annotations and drug discovery. We report a new sequence-based template-free predictor (TargetATPsite) to identify the Adenosine-5′-triphosphate (ATP) binding sites with machine-learning approaches. Two steps are implemented in TargetATPsite: binding residues and pockets predictions, respectively. To predict the binding residues, a novel image sparse representation technique is proposed to encode residue evolution information treated as the input features. An ensemble classifier constructed based on support vector machines (SVM) from multiple random under-samplings is used as the prediction model, which is effective for dealing with imbalance phenomenon between the positive and negative training samples. Compared with the existing ATP-specific sequence-based predictors, TargetATPsite is featured by the second step of possessing the capability of further identifying the binding pockets from the predicted binding residues through a spatial clustering algorithm. Experimental results on three benchmark datasets demonstrate the efficacy of TargetATPsite. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of combination treatment with aqueous chlorine dioxide (C1O2) and ultraviolet-C (UV-C) on the quality of yams were examined. Yam samples were treated with distilled water, 50 ppm aqueous CIO2, 5 kJ m-2 UV-C or a combination of 50 ppm aqueous C1O2 and 5 kJ mT2 UV-C. The microbiological analysis of the yams after aqueous C102 treatment, UV-C irradiation or combination treatment indicated significant reductions in the populations of pre-existing microorganisms. In particular, the combination treatment reduced the populations of total aerobic bacteria, yeast and mould, and coliform bacteria in the yams by 3.2, 3.4 and 3.8 log CFU g-1, respectively. The combination treatment also maintained the colour of the yams during storage. Sensory evaluation results indicated that the qualities of the yams treated with the combination of aqueous C1O2 and UV-C were better than those of the other treatments. These results clearly indicate that combination treatment with aqueous C1O2 and UV-C could be useful in improving the microbial safety and extending the shelf life of the yams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Background and objective: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Mycoplasma pneumoniae is one of the major causative pathogens of CAP. Early diagnosis of M. pneumoniae pneumonia is crucial for initiating appropriate antibiotic therapy. The aim of this study was to determine whether the Japanese Respiratory Society (JRS) guidelines on CAP are effective for diagnosing M. pneumoniae pneumonia. Methods: Between August 2008 and July 2009, adult outpatients with CAP were consecutively enrolled. The aetiology of CAP was determined by culture and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods to detect M. pneumoniae, urine antigen tests to detect Streptococcus pneumoniae and Legionella pneumoniae, blood and sputum culture for bacteria and real-time PCR for eight common respiratory viruses. The predictive value of the JRS guidelines for differentiating M. pneumoniae pneumonia from typical bacterial and viral pneumonias was determined. Results: Data from 215 adult CAP outpatients was analyzed. An aetiological diagnosis was made for 105 patients (48.8%), including 62 patients with M. pneumoniae pneumonia, 17 patients with typical bacterial pneumonia and 23 patients with viral pneumonia. According to the JRS criteria for differential diagnosis of atypical pneumonia, 55 of 62 patients were correctly diagnosed with M. pneumoniae pneumonia (sensitivity 88.7%), and 31 of 40 patients with bacterial and viral pneumonia were correctly excluded (specificity 77.5%). Conclusions: The JRS guidelines on CAP provide a useful tool for the identification of M. pneumoniae pneumonia cases and differentiating these from cases of typical bacterial or viral pneumonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new type of FeTiTaO6 ceramics with a high density was synthesized by the solid-state method. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy patterns indicate that the specimens exhibit a rutile structure and the mean particle size was about 200–300 nm. The heterovalent substitutions of Fe3+ and Ta5+ at Ti4+ site drive the incipient ferroelectric to the relaxor behavior, and a strong dispersion of the maximum dielectric permittivity appears around Tm, which shifts towards higher temperatures with the increasing frequency. The variation of Tm with frequency follows the Vogel–Fulcher relationship well, wherein Ea=0.068 eV, Tf=508 K, and f0=109 Hz. These results indicate that the nonperovskite-type FeTiTaO6 ceramic is a promising candidate for lead-free relaxor ferroelectrics in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have suggested that VSMC (vascular smooth muscle cell) apoptosis plays a key role in destabilization and rupture of atherosclerotic plaques. Therefore protection for VSMCs from apoptosis is a promising approach to stabilize 'vulnerable' lesions. However, the mechanisms as to why VSMCs in the fibrous cap often appear as profilerated in early stages, but turn apoptotic in advanced stages, are still unknown. In the present study, using RNAi (RNA interference) technology and a CaN (calcineurin) antagonist, the correlation between CaN and RANTES (regulated upon activation, normal T-cell expressed and secreted) in cultured rat apoptotic VSMCs stimulated by IFNγ (interferon γ; 20 ng/ml) and CD40L (CD40 ligand; 100 ng/ml) was investigated. RANTES released from VSMCs in each group was measured by ELISA and its mRNA in VSMCs was determined by RT (reverse transcription)-PCR. The total activity and expression of CaN in VSMCs were detected by the zymochemistry method and Western blot analysis respectively. From the results of the present study it can be hypothesized that an elevated CaN concentration in endochylema, by the CD40-CD40L signal pathway, induces VSMC apoptosis accomplished by the overexpression of RANTES. Therefore RANTES is a potential target for treating vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques owing to its crucial downstream regulating role in CaN-dependent VSMC apoptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The equilibrium defect chemistry of polycrystalline, undoped, and acceptor-doped BaPbO3 was studied by measurement of the equilibrium electrical conductivity as a function of temperature, 800°–900°C, and oxygen activity, 10−18–1 atm. Both equilibrium electrical conductivity data of undoped and acceptor-doped samples were quantitatively fit to a defect model involving only doubly ionized oxygen vacancies, lead vacancies, holes, and acceptor impurities. The results in low and midrange of oxygen activity are dominated by acceptor impurities, whether deliberately added or not. Only in the highly oxidized condition is the conductivity independent of impurity content, confirming that this region represents the intrinsic behavior of BaPbO3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sol–gel–hydrothermal processing of (Na0.8K0.2)0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NKBT) nanowires as well as their densification behavior were investigated. The morphology and structure analyses indicated that the sol–gel–hydrothermal route led to the formation of phase-pure perovskite NKBT nanowires with diameters of 50–80 nm and lengths of 1.5–2 μm, and the processing temperature was as low as 160°C, but the conventional sol–gel route tended to lead to the formation of NKBT agglomerated porous structured nanopowders, and the processing temperature was higher than 650°C. It is believed that the gel precursor and hydrothermal environment play an important role in the formation of the nanowires at a low temperature. Owing to the better packing efficiency and therefore a good sinterability of the freestanding nanowhiskers, the pressed pellets made by NKBT nanowires showed >98% theoretical density at 1100°C for 2 h. The sol–gel–hydrothermal-derived ceramics have typical characteristics of relaxor ferroelectrics, and the piezoelectric properties were better than the ceramics prepared by the conventional sol–gel and solid-state reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The entorhino-hippocampal pathway is the major excitatory input from neurons of the entorhinal cortex on both ipsilateral and contralateral hippocampus/dentate gyrus. This fiber tract consists of the alvear path, the perforant path and a crossed commissural projection. In this study, the histogenesis and development of the various subsets of the entorhino-hippocampal projection have been investigated. DiI, DiO, Fast Blue tracing and calretinin immunocytochemistry as well as were carried out with pre and postnatal rats at different developmental stages. The alvear path and the commissural pathway start to develop as early as embryonic day E16, while the first perforant afferents reach the stratum lacunosum-moleculare of the hippocampus at E17 and at outer molecular layer of the denate gyrus at postnatal day 2. Retrograde tracing with DiI identifies entorhinal neurons in layer II–IV as the developmental origin of the entorhino-hippocampal pathway. Furthermore, calretinin immunocytochemistry revealed transitory Cajal-Retzius cells in the stratum lacunosum-moleculare of the hippocampus from E16. DiI labeling of entorhinal cortex fibers and combined calretinin-immunocytochemistry reveal a close relationship between Cajal-Retzius cells and entorhinal afferents. This temporal and spatial relationship suggests that Cajal-Retzius cell serves as a guiding cue for entorhinal afferents at early cortical development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Aim:: It is imperative to explore some ways to gain the functional hepatocytes for hepatocyte transplantation. Bone marrow stem cells can differentiate into hepatocytes in vivo and in vitro. We select fibroblast growth factor-4 (FGF-4), oncostatin M (OSM), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and epithermal growth factor (EGF) as differentiation factors, and design the appropriate directed differentiation medium in order to gain hepatocytes through directed differentiation of bone marrow stem cells. Methods:: Bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMCs) were cultured in the directed differentiation media including FGF-4, OSM, HGF and EGF. In the course of cell differentiation, cell morphology was observed, and the expression patterns of some genes of the hepatocyte were validated and confirmed by RT-PCR. The ALB-, and CK18-expressed cells were gone further step to be confirmed by Western blot analysis, immunofluorescence and flow cytometric analysis. Hepatocyte functional activity, including glycogen synthesis and urea production, were confirmed by periodic acid-Shiff (PAS) staining and urea assay. Results:: Some epithelial-like cells or polygonal cells appeared in the directed differentiation medium within 12 days, and the number and sizes of colonies of epithelial-like cells or polygonal cells increased in the course of the cell directed differentiation. AFP, HNF-3ß, ALB and CK18 mRNA expressions first appeared within day 7, and lasted throughout the later directed differentiation. TTR, G-6-P and TAT mRNA expressions could be detected within day 14, and their expressions lasted in the course of the later directed differentiation. ALB and CK18 were confirmed to exist in the differentiated BMMCs by Western blot analysis. ALB was found in the cytoplasm and cell membrane, while CK18 scattered in the cytoplasm by immunofluorescent staining. On day 21,the ratio of ALB-positive cells was 69.45%, and the ratio of CK18-positive cells was 67.36%. The accumulation of glucogen was detected in the cytoplasm of the differentiated cells. The directed differentiated BMMCs produced urea 3 days later, and they produced urea in a time-dependent manner. Conclusions:: BMMCs could differentiate into hepatocytes or hepatocyte-like cells in the differentiation media including HGF, FGF-4, EGF, and OSM. These hepatocyte-like cells were identified at the gene level and protein level. Furthermore, these hepatocyte-like cells had some hepatocellular synthesis and metabolism functions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Textile‐based generators that can convert low‐grade energy from the human body or environment into sustainable electricity have generated immense scientific interest in self‐powered wearable applications. However, their low power density and environmental suitability have extremely restricted their portable applications in complex and mutable environments. Herein, an asymmetric sandwich structure between molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)‐carbonized silks (MCs) and MoS2/MXene–Cottons (MMCs) to construct efficient thermo–hydroelectric generators (THEGs) that synergistically harvest heat‐moisture energy to generate considerable electricity is rationally designed. Notably, the large surface area of MoS2/MXene van der Waals heterojunctions (vdWhs) enables efficient charge collection, and the vertical MoS2 nanosheet arrays supply abundant nanochannels for a highly efficient hydration effect, generating an output power density of 32.26 µW cm−2 after wetting with deionized water. Combined with the sensitive temperature recognition ability with a Seebeck coefficient of 23.5 µV K−1, the application possibilities of these prepared THEGs in the mutual conversion of fingertip temperature/language, and the monitoring of the human physiological state is foresee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to prepare epoxy/polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)/glass fiber (GF) composites (EPGs) with the unique characteristics of low friction and high wear resistance based on triglycidyl isocyanurate (TGIC). The tribological properties of composites with different filler ratios under different working conditions were systematically studied. At the maximum filler content of 40 wt% PTFE, the minimum coefficient of friction (COF) and wear rate reached 0.079 and 0.45 - 10°6 mm³/N-m. The hardness decreased by 44.2% and the density increased by 18.3%. The worn surfaces and transfer films were observed and analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The increasing tendency of velocity and amplitude is beneficial to reduce the carbon-rich region and further enhance the formation of transfer films. It is proved that the tribological properties of TGIC-based epoxy composites are higher than those of other types of epoxy composites. This study offers great insight into the tribological applications of TGIC-based epoxy composites. Highlights • Epoxy/PTFE/GF composites (EPGs) were prepared using TGIC as the base material. • EPGs have good mechanical and tribological properties. • The COF of EPG3 reaches 0.079 and the wear rate becomes 0.45 x 10°6 mm3/(N-m). • The increasing tendency of velocity and amplitude is beneficial to reduce the carbon-rich region and further enhance the formation of transfer films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The dosage of ovalbumin (OVA) during the sensitization stage is considered a crucial factor in the development of airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR). However, the inconsistent dosages of sensitizing OVA used in current studies and the lack of research on their impact on AHR are notable limitations. Methods: We examined the impact of increasing sensitizing doses of OVA in a murine asthma model, which entailed initial sensitization with OVA followed by repeated exposure to OVA aerosols. BALB/c mice were primed with doses of OVA (0, 10, 20, 50, and 100 μg) plus 1 mg Alum on Days 0 and 7, and were challenged with OVA aerosols (10 mg/mL for 30 min) between Days 14 and 17. Antigen‐induced AHR to methacholine (MCh), as well as histological changes, eosinophilic infiltration, and epithelial injury were assessed. Results: The result indicated that there are striking OVA dose‐related differences in antigen‐induced AHR to MCh. The most intense antigen‐induced AHR to MCh was observed with sensitization at 50 μg, while weaker responses were seen at 10, 20, and 100 μg. Meanwhile, there was a significant increase in eosinophil count with sensitization at 50 μg. The changes of AHR were correlated with total cells count, lymphocytes count, eosinophils count, and basophils count in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid; however, it did not correlate with histological changes such as cellular infiltration into bronchovascular bundles and goblet cell hyperplasia of the bronchial epithelium. Conclusion: Overall, this study demonstrated that sensitization with 50 μg of OVA resulted in the most significant AHR compared to other dosages. These findings may offer valuable insights for future research on mouse asthma modeling protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution by particulate matter (PM) in the air including PM1.0, PM2.5, and PM10, which are categorized by particle size, is a critical global environmental issue, harming the climate, ecosystems, and human health. Especially, ultrafine dust including PM1.0 and PM2.5 poses significant human health risks. Commercial fabric‐based filters effectively trap PMs but cause high‐pressure drop and limited filter capacity and reusability. Electrospun nanofiber filters address some issues but have low mechanical strength, toxic exposure risks, long fabrication times, and restrained reusability. Herein, a reusable and transparent impaction‐based PM filter using a UV‐curable polymeric stencil with micro apertures is proposed. The polymeric stencil filters achieve high filter efficiency (68–94%), superior filter capacity, and low‐pressure drop (<64 Pa). The polymeric stencil filters can be easily cleaned with water or ethanol and remain stable under extreme temperatures (−196 to 450 °C) with slight shrinkage (0–7%). The polymeric stencil filters can be broadly utilized for not only industrial, indoor, and vehicle filters but also transparent and flexible facial health masks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although heptagons are widely found in graphenic materials, the precise synthesis of nanocarbons containing heptagons remains a challenge, especially for the nanocarbons containing multiple‐heptagons. Herein, we show that photo‐induced radical cyclization (PIRC) can be used to synthesize multi‐heptagon‐embedded nanocarbons. Notably, a nanographene containing six heptagons (1) was obtained via a six‐fold cascade PIRC reaction. The structure of 1 was clearly validated and showed a Monkey‐saddle‐shaped conformation. Experimental bond analysis and theoretical calculations indicated that the heptagons in 1 were non‐aromatic, whereas the peripheral rings were highly aromatic. Compared to planar nanographene with the same number of π electrons, 1 had a similar optical gap due to a compromise between the decreased conjugation in the wrapped structure and enhanced electronic delocalization at the rim. Electrochemical studies showed that 1 had low‐lying oxidation potentials, which was attributed to the nitrogen‐doping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although heptagons are widely found in graphenic materials, the precise synthesis of nanocarbons containing heptagons remains a challenge, especially for the nanocarbons containing multiple‐heptagons. Herein, we show that photo‐induced radical cyclization (PIRC) can be used to synthesize multi‐heptagon‐embedded nanocarbons. Notably, a nanographene containing six heptagons (1) was obtained via a six‐fold cascade PIRC reaction. The structure of 1 was clearly validated and showed a Monkey‐saddle‐shaped conformation. Experimental bond analysis and theoretical calculations indicated that the heptagons in 1 were non‐aromatic, whereas the peripheral rings were highly aromatic. Compared to planar nanographene with the same number of π electrons, 1 had a similar optical gap due to a compromise between the decreased conjugation in the wrapped structure and enhanced electronic delocalization at the rim. Electrochemical studies showed that 1 had low‐lying oxidation potentials, which was attributed to the nitrogen‐doping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is a clinical syndrome of ovarian dysfunction characterized by cessation of menstruation occurring before the age of 40 years. The genetic causes of idiopathic POI remain unclear. Here we recruited a POI patient from a consanguineous family to screen for potential pathogenic variants associated with POI. Genetic variants of the pedigree were screened using whole‐exome sequencing analysis and validated through direct Sanger sequencing. A homozygous variant in TUFM (c.524G>C: p.Gly175Ala) was identified in this family. TUFM (Tu translation elongation factor, mitochondrial) is a nuclear‐encoded mitochondrial protein translation elongation factor that plays a critical role in maintaining normal mitochondrial function. The variant position was highly conserved among species and predicted to be disease causing. Our in vitro functional studies demonstrated that this variant causes decreased TUFM protein expression, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and impaired autophagy activation. Moreover, we found that mice with targeted Tufm variant recapitulated the phenotypes of human POI. Thus, this is the first report of a homozygous pathogenic TUFM variant in POI. Our findings highlighted the essential role of mitochondrial genes in folliculogenesis and ovarian function maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitogen‐activated protein kinases (MPKs) play essential roles in guard cell signaling, but whether MPK cascades participate in guard cell ethylene signaling and interact with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), nitric oxide (NO), and ethylene‐signaling components remain unclear. Here, we report that ethylene activated MPK3 and MPK6 in the leaves of wild‐type Arabidopsis thaliana as well as ethylene insensitive2 (ein2), ein3, nitrate reductase1 (nia1), and nia2 mutants, but this effect was impaired in ethylene response1 (etr1), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase AtrbohF, mpk kinase1 (mkk1), and mkk3 mutants. By contrast, the constitutive triple response1 (ctr1) mutant had constitutively active MPK3 and MPK6. Yeast two‐hybrid, bimolecular fluorescence complementation, and pull‐down assays indicated that MPK3 and MPK6 physically interacted with MKK1, MKK3, and the C‐terminal region of EIN2 (EIN2 CEND). mkk1, mkk3, mpk3, and mpk6 mutants had typical levels of ethylene‐induced H2O2 generation but impaired ethylene‐induced EIN2 CEND cleavage and nuclear translocation, EIN3 protein accumulation, NO production in guard cells, and stomatal closure. These results show that the MKK1/3–MPK3/6 cascade mediates ethylene‐induced stomatal closure by functioning downstream of ETR1, CTR1, and H2O2 to interact with EIN2, thereby promoting EIN3 accumulation and EIN3‐dependent NO production in guard cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In conclusion, our study identified two novel loci for hypertension, including SNP rs2064453 in the promoter of I GGT7 i and SNP rs10847208 in lncRNA gene I LINC00943 LINC00944 i . A genome-wide association study identifies novel association between genetic variants in GGT7 and LINC00944 and hypertension Dear Editor, Hypertension affects one billion people in the world.1 Half of the Chinese population aged from 35 to 75 years is also affected with hypertension.2 Genetic factors contribute to hypertension. To determine how risk allele T of rs2064453 increases the expression level of I GGT7 i , we cloned a 2 kb I GGT7 i promoter and regulatory region containing either the C allele or T allele of rs2064453 into the pGL3-basic luciferase reporter vector (Figure 2E). [Extracted from the article]

Methyl 4-nitro­phenyl ketone was brominated by copper(II) bromide in methanol; the ketone reacts with the solvent in situ to yield the title compound, C10H12BrNO4, which exists as a monomeric mol­ecule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new kind of broadband dielectric resonator antenna with a lattice structure is presented. The top dielectric resonator broken up into a lattice structure is adopted to achieve a wide operating bandwidth in a compact size, which makes it suitable to be arrayed. A backed cavity based on substrate integrated waveguide technology is introduced to reduce the unwanted radiation from the surface wave. The antenna is excited through a slot feeding structure. Measured results show that the prototype can achieve an impedance bandwidth of 39% and a peak gain of 9.6 dBi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The competitive segmentation of fuzzy clustering is utilized in a greater manner to deal with the local spatial information of input medical images. Fuzzy clustering favours lesions and tumour identification through the segmentation process where less accuracy attainment and time complexity might be instigated for the identification of oddities. To rectify the above‐said problems, a novel methodology that encapsulates the combination of unsupervised neural network and fuzzy clustering processes, which effortlessly distinguishes the lesion and tumour region in MR brain images is developed through this study. The initial process of the proposed algorithm employs the histogram‐based feature extraction of the input images; whereof, a feature vector selection is made for the operation of self‐organizing map (SOM), which is a neural network functionary that progresses through the mapping process. Modification regarding the membership function of fuzzy entropy clustering (MFEC) is done based on the entropy value of the input image that results in quicker convergence. Finally, the updated objective function of MFEC algorithm augments the SOM result. It is found that the proposed SOM based MFEC algorithm is superior to other traditional segmentation algorithms, which have rendered the better visible understanding of the image. Further, the end‐results of the algorithm are verified through the evaluation of quantity metrics using ground truth of the brain MR images. The proposed SOM based MFEC algorithm precisely provides 82.26% of Jaccard value and 90.05% of Dice Overlap Index value, and these values prove better brain slices segmentation and provide enormous help to radiologists during patient diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adult gliomas are divided into isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) wild‐type and IDH mutant subtypes according to the new 2021 World Health Organization classification system. However, the local and systemic effects of IDH mutations on primary glioma patients are not well illustrated. Retrospective analysis, immune‐cell infiltration analysis, meta‐analysis, and immunohistochemistry assay were applied in the present study. The results from our cohort showed that IDH mutant gliomas own a lower proliferating rate compared to that in wild‐type gliomas. Patients with mutant IDH exhibited a higher frequency of seizures in both our cohort and the cohort from the meta‐analysis. Mutations in IDH result in lower levels of intra‐tumour but higher levels of circulating CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. Levels of neutrophils in both intra‐tumour and circulating blood were lower in IDH mutant gliomas. Moreover, IDH mutant glioma patients receiving radiotherapy in combination with chemotherapy exhibited better overall survival with respect to radiotherapy alone. Mutations in IDH alters the local and circulating immune microenvironment, and increases the sensitivity of tumour cell to chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented which addresses the impact that playing the game kick shuttlecock can have on the estrogen levels, bone mineral density, and postural balance of postmenopausal women, and it mentions the prevalence of osteoporosis in older Chinese women.

Background and Purpose: This study investigates the antifibrotic activities and potential mechanisms of costunolide (COS), a natural sesquiterpene compound.Experimental Approach: Rats subjected to bile duct ligation and mice challenged with CCl4 were used to study the antifibrotic effects of COS in vivo. Mouse primary hepatic stellate cells (pHSCs) and human HSC line LX-2 also served as an in vitro liver fibrosis models. The expression of fibrogenic genes and signaling proteins in the neurogenic locus notch homologue protein 3 (Notch3)-hairy/enhancer of split-1 (HES1) pathway was examined using western blot and/or real-time PCR. Notch3 degradation was analysed using immunofluorescence and coimmunoprecipitation.Key Results: In animals, COS administration attenuated hepatic histopathological injury and collagen accumulation and reduced the expression of fibrogenic genes. COS time- and dose-dependently suppressed the levels of fibrotic markers in LX-2 cells and mouse pHSCs. Mechanistic studies showed COS destabilized Notch3 and subsequently inhibited the Notch3-HES1 pathway, thus inhibiting HSC activation. Furthermore, COS blocked the WW domain-containing protein 2 (WWP2)/protein phosphatase 1G (PPM1G) interaction and enhanced the effect of WWP2 on Notch3 degradation.Conclusions and Implications: COS exerted potent antifibrotic effects in vitro and in vivo by disrupting the WWP2/PPM1G complex, promoting Notch3 degradation and inhibiting the Notch3/HES1 pathway. This indicates that COS may be a potential therapeutic candidate for the treatment of liver fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liver cancer is the most common cancer and is the epitome of a recalcitrant cancer. Increasing evidence shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) were associated with cancer‐related death and could function as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA). To explore regulatory roles and potential prognostic biomarkers of lncRNA for liver cancer, RNA‐sequencing expression data were downloaded from the TCGA database and GEO database. A total of 357 patients were randomly divided into a discovery group and a validation group, of which 313 patients can obtain clinical data. In discovery phrase, 58 lncRNAs, 16 miRNAs, and 34 mRNAs were screened to construct the ceRNA network based on 252 patients employed from discovery group. Univariate and multivariate Cox hazard regression analysis model revealed that five lncRNAs (AATK‐AS1, C10orf91, LINC00162, LINC00200, and LINC00501) from 58 lncRNAs were formulated to predict the overall survival (OS). We used the value of gene expression and regression coefficients to construct a risk score based on the five lncRNAs. Next, we validated our model in the GSE116174 dataset (n = 64) and the validation group (n = 94) from TCGA database. Subgroup analysis suggest that the five lncRNAs played critical parts in early stage in cancer from both discovery and validation groups. The five lncRNAs were also found to be associated with immune cells infiltration including CD4+ memory activated, NK cells activated and mast cells activated, then the results were also validated according to the validation group. Furthermore, KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that these nine coexpressed modules using the method of WGCNA, and many of these pathways are associated with the development and progression of disease. At last, the transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) of the five lncRNAs were predicted, which help us to understand the potential mechanism that the TFBS adjusted the ceRNA network. In summary, the ceRNA regulatory network may contribute to a better understanding of liver cancer mechanism and provide potential prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LINKED CONTENT: This article is linked to Tong et al papers. To view these articles, visithttps://doi.org/10.1111/apt.17263 and https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.17409 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resonant tunnelling diode photodetectors with a 600 nm In0.53Ga0.47As absorption layer were fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy. The current–voltage characteristics of devices with different mesa diameters were tested and the negative differential resistance was observed in all devices. The responsivity of the detector was measured to be 4.19 × 105 A/W at 77 K and 1.92 × 104 A/W at room temperature under incident light with a power of 3.1 nW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pulsed muon facility (the so-called EMuS) at the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) has been studied since 2007. It aims for multidisciplinary applications but with a focus on those based on muon spin rotation/relaxation/resonance techniques. As a standalone facility, EMuS will take about 5% or 25 kW of the total beam power (500 kW) from the CSNS-II accelerator complex. Two schemes have been designed: the baseline scheme is based on an inner conical target in graphite and superconducting solenoids for the capture and transport of pions and muons; the simplified scheme is based on a conventional thick target and room-temperature magnets for transport. With the former, multiple kinds of muon beams can be provided, from surface muons, decay muons, negative muons, to lowenergy muons. Mainly surface muons are available with the simplified scheme. With a number of novel design concepts such as forward capture of pions/muons from a target station based on superconducting solenoids and triple spatial beam splitting of a muon beam, the design aspects of EMuS are presented here. The wide application potential and the R&D progress are also included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate whether visceral metastases have a significant impact on survival in patients with metastasis‐related spinal cord compression (MSCC), and to determine the difference in prognosis between patients with and without visceral metastases. Methods: Three institutional databases were searched to identify all patients who had undergone spinal surgery for spinal metastases between March 2002 and June 2010. Data on patient characteristics including pre‐ and post‐operative medical conditions, were collected from medical records or by telephone follow‐up. Survival data were obtained either from medical records or by searching a governmental cancer registry. Results: The mean age of study patients was 59.6 ± 10.5 years (range, 18–84 years), of whom 102 were male and 67 female. The median and mean postoperative survival times were 7.0 ± 0.5 (95% CI 6.0–8.0) months and 12.6 ± 1.2 (95% CI 10.1–15.0) months, respectively, in all patients, being 5.0 ± 0.5 (95% CI 4.0–6.0) months and 10.8 ± 2.4 (95% CI 6.1–15.5) months, respectively, for patients with visceral metastases and 7.0 ± 0.8 (95% CI 5.4–8.6) months and 13.0 ± 1.4 (95%CI 10.3–15.6) months, respectively, for patients without visceral metastases (P = 0.87). These survival times did not differ significantly between groups. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard regressions showed that visceral metastases had no statistically significant association with survival (P = 0.277), whereas rate of growth of primary tumor (P = 0.003), preoperative Karnofsky performance status (KPS) (P < 0.001), change in KPS (P < 0.001), and Frankel grade (P = 0.091) were independent prognostic factors in the whole cohort (P = 0.005). Changes in KPS (P = 0.001) and major complications (P = 0.003) were significantly associated with survival in patients with visceral metastases, whereas rate of growth of primary tumor (P = 0.016), change in KPS (P = 0.001), and preoperative KPS (P < 0.001) were significantly associated with survival in patients without visceral metastases. Conclusions: Visceral metastases do not appear to predict the prognosis of patients with MSCC; thus, more aggressive surgery should be considered in patients with MSCC who have visceral metastases. Additionally, prognostic factors differ according to visceral metastases status in these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]