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Background/purpose: Challenges exist regarding the bonding efficiency of polyaryletherketone (PAEK), a high-performance thermoplastic, attributed to its chemical inertness and hydrophobic surface, hindering effective bonding with resin-matrix cement. This research explored the impact of handheld nonthermal plasma (HNP), under varying operational parameters, on PAEK surface wettability and changes in bonding performance with cement. Materials and methods: Three types of disc-shaped PEAK specimens were prepared, with surface treatments categorized as grinding, airborne-particle abrasion (APB), and HNP. Surface wettability was analyzed using a contact angle analyzer (n = 10). Specimens were bonded with resin cement and subjected to artificial aging tests: distilled water bath (NA), thermocycling, and highly accelerated stress tests (n = 10 for each test). Shear bond strength (SBS) was measured, failure modes were analyzed, and statistical analyses were conducted. Results: The HNP markedly improved PAEK surface wettability, achieving superhydrophilicity (P

Background Hepatic macrophages play a vital role in the defense mechanisms and maintaining the internal environment stability of body, and are also major cellular components involved in liver injury and repair. Macrophages derived from hematopoietic stem cells exhibit distinct gene regulation patterns compared to resident macrophages in the liver. More than 90% of primary liver cancer occurs on the basis of cirrhosis, and the dynamic changes of macrophages in the progression of cirrhosis to hepatocellular carcinoma are worth exploring. Objective To analyze the transcriptomic differences of hepatic macrophages originating from diverse sources, analyze the dynamic pattern of macrophage changes in liver cirrhosis and liver cancer progression, and explore potential strategies for preventing the progression of liver cancer. Methods In this study, single-cell transcriptomics data of healthy, cirrhotic and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The healthy and liver fibrosis data were obtained from the GSE136103 dataset of the GEO database, which included samples from five healthy liver tissues and five liver cirrhosis tissues. The HCC data were obtained from the GSE149614 dataset of the GEO database, which consisted of 21 samples from ten HCC patients. Utilizing the Seurat package, a clustering analysis was conducted on the transcriptomic data derived from liver fibrosis and HCC samples to identify distinct cell types. Notably, three distinctive clusters of macrophage subtypes were identified within the fibrosis samples, from which the top 200 marker genes were extracted. Metascape online analysis software was applied to functionally analyze each subcluster-specific expressed gene. Subgroup-specific expressed genes in liver fibrosis were extracted, and the function of macrophages in cirrhosis was explored by KEGG functional analysis. The CellChat software package was utilized to analyze intercellular interactions within liver fibrosis and HCC single-cell transcriptome data, differences in macrophage communication between cirrhosis and HCC samples were compared. Additionally, normal, fibrotic and cancerous macrophages were extracted, and batch effect correction was performed using the Harmony package. Subsequently, the Monocle package was employed for pseudo-time analysis to construct the developmental trajectory of macrophages spanning from a healthy state to fibrosis and eventually to the HCC microenvironment. The limma package was utilized to find genes that are continuously up-regulated and down-regulated during the evolution of macrophages from healthy state to cirrhotic state and finally to HCC, and functional enrichment analysis was performed. Results Unsupervised clustering was performed, and a total of three macrophage subclusters (designated as Mac1, Mac2, Mac3) were identified based on the expression patterns of marker genes. Mac1 originates from tissue-resident macrophages (Kupffer cells). Mac2 and Mac3 derived from blood monocytes and their numbers were significantly increased in cirrhotic tissue. Mac1 in cirrhotic tissue showed up-regulation of adaptive immune system-related functions. Mac2 and Mac3 subgroups show down-regulation of phagosome-related functions and antigen presentation functions. There were significant differences in communication between macrophages and other cell types in cirrhotic tissue and HCC tissue. Certain intercellular communication occurs only in cirrhotic macrophages, including cell communication of signaling pathways such as IFN-Ⅱ and CD40. After batch effect correction, pseudo-time series analysis was performed on macrophages from healthy liver, liver cirrhosis and HCC, the results suggest that there is a specific temporal relationship between the three groups of macrophages. This study identified 81 genes that were continuously down-regulated during the process, however, no genes were identified that were continuously up-regulated during the evolution of healthy-cirrhotic-HCC macrophage. Functional analysis suggested that the continuously down-regulated genes are functionally enriched for immune responses to bacteria. Conclusion Cirrhotic macrophages can be divided into three subgroups, of which Mac1 derived from liver-resident Kupffer cells and Mac2 and Mac3 derive from blood monocytes. Many immune-related cell communications in liver cirrhosis, such as IFN-Ⅱ and CD40 pathways, disappear in HCC. There is a continuous down-regulation of immune responses to bacteria in the evolution of healthy -cirrhotic-HCC macrophages, which may exacerbate the destructive effect of portal hypertension-induced gut microbiota displacement. For patients with liver cirrhosis, early treatment of portal hypertension-induced intestinal leakage (leaky gut) may be an important treatment strategy.

Abstract It is crucial to precisely calculate temperature utilizing thermal models, which require the determination of thermal parameters that optimally align model outcomes with experimental data. In many instances, the refinement of these models is undertaken within space instruments. This paper introduces an optimization methodology for thermal network models, with the objective of enhancing the accuracy of temperature predictions for aerial cameras. The investigation of internal convective heat transfer coefficients for both cylindrical and planar structures provides an estimation of convective thermal parameters. Based on the identification of thermally sensitive parameters and the reliability evaluation of transient temperature data through the Monte-Carlo simulation, the genetic algorithm is employed to search for global optimal parameter values that minimize the root mean square error (RMSE) between calculated and measured node temperatures. As a result, the optimized model shows significantly improved accuracy in temperature prediction, attaining an RMSE of 1.07 ℃ and reducing the maximum relative error between predicted and experimental results from 33.8 to 3.1%. Furthermore, the flight simulation and thermal control experiments validate the robustness of the optimized model, demonstrating that discrepancies between the observed and predicted temperatures are within 2 °C after re-correcting the external convection heat transfer coefficient value.

Abstract Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most prevalent cause of preventable vision loss worldwide, imposing a significant economic and medical burden on society today, of which early identification is the cornerstones of the management. The diagnosis and severity grading of DR rely on scales based on clinical visualized features, but lack detailed quantitative parameters. Retinal non-perfusion area (NPA) is a pathogenic characteristic of DR that symbolizes retinal hypoxia conditions, and was found to be intimately associated with disease progression, prognosis, and management. However, the practical value of NPA is constrained since it appears on fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) as distributed, irregularly shaped, darker plaques that are challenging to measure manually. In this study, we propose a deep learning-based method, NPA-Net, for accurate and automatic segmentation of NPAs from FFA images acquired in clinical practice. NPA-Net uses the U-net structure as the basic backbone, which has an encoder-decoder model structure. To enhance the recognition performance of the model for NPA, we adaptively incorporate multi-scale features and contextual information in feature learning and design three modules: Adaptive Encoder Feature Fusion (AEFF) module, Multilayer Deep Supervised Loss, and Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling (ASPP) module, which enhance the recognition ability of the model for NPAs of different sizes from different perspectives. We conducted extensive experiments on a clinical dataset with 163 eyes with NPAs manually annotated by ophthalmologists, and NPA-Net achieved better segmentation performance compared to other existing methods with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.9752, accuracy of 0.9431, sensitivity of 0.8794, specificity of 0.9459, IOU of 0.3876 and Dice of 0.5686. This new automatic segmentation model is useful for identifying NPA in clinical practice, generating quantitative parameters that can be useful for further research as well as guiding DR detection, grading severity, treatment planning, and prognosis.

The fine modeling of the lunar gravity field is a fundamental task for establishing lunar altitude references, conducting research on lunar interior structure, and other scientific endeavors. The lunar gravity field model constructed solely based on spacecraft orbit data has limited spatial resolution, making it challenging to meet the demands of fine gravity field research. The acquisition of high-resolution terrain models presents new opportunities for the study of precise lunar gravity fields. This paper reviews the current status and advancements in fine lunar gravity field modeling, including research efforts and evaluation methods for global lunar gravity field models, principles and technologies for fine gravity field modeling, as well as related research outcomes. On this basis, this paper systematically summarizes the key theoretical issues and technical challenges in the theory of lunar gravity field modeling based on high-resolution terrain models. These include data updating, error correction in high-frequency gravity field modeling, calculation efficiency, and the series divergence problem in spherical harmonic analysis. In addition, future research directions are discussed. This work will provide references for gravity field research on the Moon and other terrestrial planets.

Abstract Purpose This study investigated the clinical and functional outcomes of children with distal both-bone forearm fractures treated by fixation of the radius only compared to fixation of both the radius and ulna. Methods A total of 71 patients from two centres with distal both-bone forearm fractures (30 in the ulna-yes group, 41 in the ulna-no group) who underwent closed reduction and percutaneous pinning treatment were retrospectively analysed. Operation duration, number of fluoroscopic exposures, loss of reduction rate and angulation based on radiographic assessment were compared between the two groups. Evaluation of wrist function including Gartland-Werley Score and Mayo Wrist Score were compared at the last follow-up. Results Ulna angulation upon bone healing on the posteroanterior and the lateral plane of ulna-no group (6.11 ± 1.56°; 6.51 ± 1.69°) was significantly greater than that of ulna-yes group (4.49 ± 1.30°; 5.05 ± 2.18°) (p 0.05). At last follow-up, no significant difference was found between the Gartland-Werley Scores of the ulna-yes group (1.83 ± 3.25, range: 0–16) and ulna-no group (1.85 ± 2.72, range: 0-11.5) (p > 0.05). No significant difference was found between the Mayo Wrist Scores of the ulna-yes group (92.60 ± 6.20) and ulna-no group (92.15 ± 7.58) (p > 0.05). Conclusions For distal both-bone forearm fractures in children, fixation of only the radius appears to be a viable method with equivalent clinical outcomes compared to fixation of both the radius and ulna.

Abstract Background Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) are both metabolic disorders that negatively impact the cardiovascular system. This study comprehensively analyzed the additive effect of MAFLD on left ventricular function and global strain in T2DM patients by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). Methods Data of 261 T2DM patients, including 109 with and 152 without MAFLD, as well as 73 matched normal controls from our medical center between June 2015 and March 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. CMR-derived parameters, including LV function and global strain parameters, were compared among different groups. Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were conducted to investigate the impact of various factors on LV function and global strain. Results Our investigation revealed a progressive deterioration in LV functional parameters across three groups: control subjects, T2DM patients without MAFLD, and T2DM patients with MAFLD. Statistically significant increases in left ventricular end-diastolic volume index (LVEDVI), left ventricular end-systolic volume index (LVESVI), left ventricular mass index (LVMI) were observed, along with decreases in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular global function index (LVGFI). Among these three groups, significant reductions were also noted in the absolute values of LV global radial, circumferential, and longitudinal peak strains (GRPS, GCPS, and GLPS), as well as in peak systolic (PSSR) and peak diastolic strain rates (PDSR). MAFLD was identified as an independent predictor of LVEF, LVMI, LVGFI, GRPS, GCPS, and GLPS in multivariate linear analysis. Besides, the incidence of late gadolinium enhancement was higher in MAFLD patients than in non-MAFLD patients (50/109 [45.9%] vs. 42/152 [27.6%], p = 0.003). Furthermore, escalating MAFLD severity was associated with a numerical deterioration in both LV function parameters and global strain values. Conclusions This study thoroughly compared CMR parameters in T2DM patients with and without MAFLD, uncovering MAFLD’s adverse impact on LV function and deformation in T2DM patients. These findings highlight the critical need for early detection and comprehensive management of cardiac function in T2DM patients with MAFLD.

Abstract Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs; also called giant viruses), constituting the phylum Nucleocytoviricota, can infect a wide range of eukaryotes and exchange genetic material with not only their hosts but also prokaryotes and phages. A few NCLDVs were reported to encode genes conferring resistance to beta‑lactam, trimethoprim, or pyrimethamine, suggesting that they are potential vehicles for the transmission of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the biome. However, the incidence of ARGs across the phylum Nucleocytoviricota, their evolutionary characteristics, their dissemination potential, and their association with virulence factors remain unexplored. Here, we systematically investigated ARGs of 1416 NCLDV genomes including those of almost all currently available cultured isolates and high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes from diverse habitats across the globe. We reveal that 39.5% of them carry ARGs, which is approximately 37 times higher than that for phage genomes. A total of 12 ARG types are encoded by NCLDVs. Phylogenies of the three most abundant NCLDV-encoded ARGs hint that NCLDVs acquire ARGs from not only eukaryotes but also prokaryotes and phages. Two NCLDV-encoded trimethoprim resistance genes are demonstrated to confer trimethoprim resistance in Escherichia coli. The presence of ARGs in NCLDV genomes is significantly correlated with mobile genetic elements and virulence factors.

The hands and face are the most important parts for expressing sign language morphemes in sign language videos. However, we find that existing Continuous Sign Language Recognition (CSLR) methods lack the mining of hand and face information in visual backbones or use expensive and time-consuming external extractors to explore this information. In addition, the signs have different lengths, whereas previous CSLR methods typically use a fixed-length window to segment the video to capture sequential features and then perform global temporal modeling, which disturbs the perception of complete signs. In this study, we propose a Multi-Scale Context-Aware network (MSCA-Net) to solve the aforementioned problems. Our MSCA-Net contains two main modules: (1) Multi-Scale Motion Attention (MSMA), which uses the differences among frames to perceive information of the hands and face in multiple spatial scales, replacing the heavy feature extractors; and (2) Multi-Scale Temporal Modeling (MSTM), which explores crucial temporal information in the sign language video from different temporal scales. We conduct extensive experiments using three widely used sign language datasets, i.e., RWTH-PHOENIX-Weather-2014, RWTH-PHOENIX-Weather-2014T, and CSL-Daily. The proposed MSCA-Net achieve state-of-the-art performance, demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach.

Abstract Functionalized mesoporous materials have become a promising carrier for enzyme immobilization. In this study, Santa Barbara Amorphous 15 (SBA-15) was modified by N-aminoethyl-γ-aminopropyl trimethoxy (R). R-SBA-15 was employed to purify and immobilize recombinant β-glucosidase from Terrabacter ginsenosidimutans (BgpA) in one step for the first time. Optimum pH of the constructed R-SBA-15@BgpA were 7.0, and it has 20 ℃ higher optimal temperature than free enzyme. Relative activity of R-SBA-15@BgpA still retained > 70% at 42 ℃ after 8-h incubation. The investigation on organic reagent resistance revealed that the immobilized enzyme can maintain strong stability in 15% DMSO. In leaching test and evaluation of storage stability, only trace amount of protein was detected in buffer of the immobilized enzyme after storage at 4 ℃ for 33 days, and the immobilized BgpA still maintained > 50% relative activity. It also demonstrated good reusability, with 76.1% relative activity remaining after fourteen successive enzymatic hydrolyses of epimedin A to sagittatoside A. The newly proposed strategy is an effective approach for the purification and immobilization of BgpA concurrently. In addition, R-SBA-15@BgpA was demonstrated to have high efficiency and stability in this application, suggesting its great feasibility and potential to produce bioactive compounds such as secondary glycosides or aglycones from natural products. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Background Patients with concomitant type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and aortic regurgitation (AR) can present with right ventricular (RV) dysfunction. The current study aimed to evaluate the impact of AR on RV impairment and the importance of ventricular interdependence using cardiac magnetic resonance feature tracking (CMR‑FT) in patients with T2DM. Methods This study included 229 patients with T2DM (AR−), 88 patients with T2DM (AR+), and 122 healthy controls. The biventricular global radial strain (GRS), global circumferential strain (GCS), and global longitudinal peak strain (GLS) were calculated with CMR‑FT and compared among the healthy control, T2DM (AR−), and T2DM (AR+) groups. The RV regional strains at the basal, mid, and apical cavities between the T2DM (AR+) group and subgroups with different AR degrees were compared. Backward stepwise multivariate linear regression analyses were performed to determine the effects of AR and left ventricular (LV) strains on RV strains. Results The RV GLS, LV GRS, LV GCS, LV GLS, interventricular septal (IVS) GRS and IVS GCS were decreased gradually from the controls through the T2DM (AR−) group to the T2DM (AR+) group. The IVS GLS of the T2DM (AR−) and T2DM (AR+) groups was lower than that of the control group. AR was independently associated with LV GRS, LV GCS, LV GLS, RV GCS, and RV GLS. If AR and LV GLSs were included in the regression analyses, AR and LV GLS were independently associated with RV GLS. Conclusion AR can exacerbate RV dysfunction in patients with T2DM, which may be associated with the superimposed strain injury of the left ventricle and interventricular septum. The RV longitudinal and circumferential strains are important indicators of cardiac injury in T2DM and AR. The unfavorable LV-RV interdependence supports that while focusing on improving LV function, RV dysfunction should be monitored and treated in order to slow the progression of the disease and the onset of adverse outcomes.

Abstract Background The adverse prognostic impact of diabetes on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is poorly understood. We sought to explore the underlying mechanisms in terms of structural and functional remodelling in HCM patients with coexisting diabetes (HCM-DM). Methods A total of 45 HCM-DM patients were retrospectively included. Isolated HCM controls (HCM patients without diabetes) were matched to HCM-DM patients in terms of maximal wall thickness, age, and gender distribution. Left ventricular (LV) and atrial (LA) performance were evaluated using cardiac magnetic resonance feature tracking strain analyses. The associations between diabetes and LV/LA impairment were investigated by univariable and multivariable linear regression. Results Compared with the isolated HCM controls, the HCM-DM patients had smaller end-diastolic volume and stroke volume, lower ejection fraction, larger mass/volume ratio and impaired strains in all three directions (all P

Abstract. Background:. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) plays an important role in the progression of gastric cancer (GC). Their involvement ranges from genetic regulation to cancer progression. However, the mechanistic roles of RP11-789C1.1 in GC are not fully understood. Methods:. We identified the expression of lncRNA RP11-789C1.1 in GC tissues and cell lines by real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction. A series of functional experiments revealed the effect of RP11-789C1.1 on the proliferation of GC cells. In vivo experiments verified the effect of RP11-789C1.1 on the biological behavior of a GC cell line. RNA pull-down unveiled RP11-789C1.1 interacting proteins. Western blot analysis indicated the downstream pathway changes of RP11-789C1.1, and an oxaliplatin dosing experiment disclosed the influence of RP11-789C1.1 on the drug sensitivity of oxaliplatin. Results:. Our results demonstrated that RP11-789C1.1 inhibited the proliferation of GC cells and promoted the apoptosis of GC cells. Mechanistically, RP11-789C1.1 inhibited checkpoint kinase 1 (CHK1) phosphorylation by binding ataxia-telangiectasia mutated and Rad3 related (ATR), a serine/threonine-specific protein kinase, promoted GC apoptosis, and mediated oxaliplatin sensitivity. Conclusion:. In general, we discovered a tumor suppressor molecule RP11-789C1.1 and confirmed its mechanism of action, providing a theoretical basis for targeted GC therapy.

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) missions have enabled consistent production of monthly gravity field solutions by international institutes, contributing to the International Centre for Global Earth Models. Each institute employs distinct processing strategies, yielding varied estimates of terrestrial water storage (TWS). In this study, we employ statistical collocation techniques (Total assessment ratio, TAR) to assess and compare the performance of GRACE TWS data products (2003.03 ~ 2014.03) and GRACE-FO TWS data (2018.06 ~ 2022.11). For GRACE TWS, the TAR values are as follows: COST-G (0.15), ITSG (0.83), APM-SYSU (0.85), CSR (0.91), JPL (0.93), GFZ (0.94), Tongji (0.96), HUST (1.08), SUST (1.18), CNES (1.37), and AIUB (1.41). Similarly, for GRACE-FO TWS, the TAR values are COST-G (0.15), JPL (0.81), ITSG (0.96), CSR (0.97), GFZ (1.06), and CNES (1.41). Furthermore, our comparison across basin sizes and climatic regions reveals that COST-G exhibits lower uncertainty and larger signal-to-noise ratios in TWS, making it particularly noteworthy for its utility. Conversely, other single solutions that depict long-term trends and annual amplitudes demonstrate comparable values across various basin sizes, climatic regions, and specific areas.

AbstractIntelligent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials with adaptively adjustable structure and performance under external stimuli hold great potential in developing new generation of intelligent EMI shielding materials. In this review, the latest and most impressive works of advanced materials for stimulus-responsive EMI shielding are highly focused on. Based on stimulating sources, the smart EMI materials are discussed in five categories: mechanical-, temperature-, electrical-, humidity-responsive and others. The key information, including structural design principle, EMI behavior, and structure-function relationship, is extracted and well organized with profundity and easy-to-understand approach. What’s more, the merit and demerit are revealed by comparison. Finally, a profound comment on the stimulus-responsive EMI materials as well as challenges are proposed, and the future directions are forecasted. Schematic illustration for stimulus-responsive EMI shielding, including mechanical-responsive (top left) (Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2021, Elsevier), temperature-responsive (top right) (Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2021, Elsevier; Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2022, The Authors, Elsevier), electrical-responsive (bottom right) (Reproduced with permission, Copyright 2015 Springer Nature), humidity-responsive (bottom) (Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2018, Elsevier), and others (bottom left) (Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2022, American Chemical Society; Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2020, Wiley-VCH).