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This paper verifies the fluctuation on thermal parameters and ampacity of the high-voltage cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cables with different insulation conditions and describes the results of a thermal aging experiment on the XLPE insulation with different operating years in different laying modes guided by Comsol Multiphysics modeling software. The thermal parameters of the cables applied on the models are detected by thermal parameter detection control platform and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurement to assure the effectivity of the simulation. Several diagnostic measurements including Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), DSC, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and breakdown field strength were conducted on the treated and untreated specimens in order to reveal the changes of properties and the relationship between the thermal effect and the cable ampacity. Moreover, a new estimation on cable ampacity from the perspective on XLPE insulation itself has been proposed in this paper, which is also a possible way to judge the insulation condition of the cable with specific aging degree in specific laying mode for a period of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) ranks as the second most common malignancy in clinical practice and poses a significant threat to public health due to its high malignancy. In this study, we aimed to explore potential biomarkers and molecular mechanisms of cSCC., Methods: Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from GSE66359 and GSE117247 datasets were identified using R software. We conducted enrichment analyses and screened hub genes through protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). To assess the diagnostic performance of these genes, we generated ROC curves using both internal and external datasets (GSE45164) and validated the expression levels of these genes in cSCC tissues through immunohistochemistry. Subsequently, we predicted the target miRNAs and lncRNAs for hub genes using online databases and constructed competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks., Results: In total, we identified 505 upregulated DEGs and 522 downregulated DEGs. Through PPI and WGCNA analyses, we identified four hub genes exhibiting robust diagnostic performance in internal and external datasets (AUC > 0.9) and selected three previously unreported genes for further analysis. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated significantly elevated CCNA2, CCNB2, and UBE2C expression in cSCC tissues compared to normal skin tissues. Finally, we constructed three ceRNA networks, namely NEAT1/H19-hsa-miR-148a-3p-CCNA2 and NEAT1-hsa-miR-140-3p-UBE2C., Conclusion: In conclusion, we have identified CCNA2, CCNB2, and UBE2C as novel biomarkers for cSCC, and the NEAT1/H19-hsa-miR-148a-3p-CCNA2 and NEAT1-hsa-miR-140-3p-UBE2C ceRNA networks may represent molecular mechanisms under-lying cSCC progression. The findings of this study offer new diagnostic and therapeutic options for cSCC patients., Competing Interests: The author(s) report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2024 Qi et al.)

Background: Immune escape is an important feature of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The overall response rate of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in HCC is still limited. Revealing the immune regulation mechanisms and finding new immune targets are expected to further improve the efficacy of immunotherapy. Our study aims to use CRISPR screening mice models to identify potential targets that play a critical role in HCC immune evasion and further explore their value in improving immunotherapy., Methods: We performed CRISPR screening in two mice models with different immune backgrounds (C57BL/6 and NPG mice) and identified the immunosuppressive gene Gsk3a as a candidate for further investigation. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the impact of Gsk3a on immune cell infiltration and T-cell function. RNA sequencing was used to identify the changes in neutrophil gene expression induced by Gsk3a and alterations in downstream molecules. The therapeutic value of the combination of Gsk3a inhibitors and anti-programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) antibody was also explored., Results: Gsk3a , as an immune inhibitory target, significantly promoted tumor growth in immunocompetent mice rather than immune-deficient mice. Gsk3a inhibited cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) function by inducing neutrophil chemotaxis. Gsk3a promoted self-chemotaxis of neutrophil expression profiles and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) formation to block T-cell activity through leucine-rich α-2-glycoprotein 1 (LRG1). A significant synergistic effect was observed when Gsk3a inhibitor was in combination with anti-PD-1 antibody., Conclusions: We identified a potential HCC immune evasion target, Gsk3a , through CRISPR screening. Gsk3a induces neutrophil recruitment and NETs formation through the intermediate molecule LRG1, leading to the inhibition of CTLs function. Targeting Gsk3a can enhance CTLs function and improve the efficacy of ICIs., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Introduction: Despite numerous treatment options for nail lichen planus (NLP), a validated method for measuring the severity of NLP and therapeutic response in clinical trials is absent. The aim of the study was to develop and validate a measurement instrument, Typical Nail Lichen Planus Severity Index (tNLPSI), for typical NLP that could be used in clinical trials., Methods: A total of 48 patients pathologically confirmed with typical NLP were enrolled in this study. Five dermatologists were trained to use the tNLPSI activity scale and the Physician's Global Assessment (PGA) scale to score samples independently to estimate inter-rater and intra-rater reliability across two sessions. In addition, tNLPSI activity scores were compared with PGA scores to assess the construct validity., Results: The tNLPSI activity scale had excellent internal consistency and inter-rater reliability (Cronbach's alpha 0.990; ICC = 0.954; 95% CI = 0.930-0.971), and the correlations between the different graders' scores indicate good consistency (rp = 0.934-0.968). In addition, the tNLPSI activity scale demonstrated high intra-rater reliability (ICC = 0.996; 95% CI = 0.993-0.998), showing good reproducibility. And tNLPSI activity scores and PGA scores showed good construct validity (Spearman's rho = 0.941 and Spearman's rho = 0.903-0.935, respectively; p < 0.01)., Conclusion: The tNLPSI activity scale was demonstrated to be consistent, reliable, reproducible, and feasible, making it a potential valuable tool for evaluating the treatment response in typical NLP clinical trials., (© 2024 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Greed personality trait (GPT), characterized by the desire to acquire more and the dissatisfaction of never having enough, has been hypothesized to link with negative emotion/affect characteristics and aggressive behaviors. To describe its emotion-related features, we utilized a series of scales to measure corresponding emotion/affect and aggression (n = 411) and collected their neuroimaging data (n = 330) to explore underlying morphological substrates. Correlational analyses revealed that greedy individuals show more negative symptoms (e.g. depression, loss of interest, negative affect), lower psychological well-being and more aggression. Mediation analyses further demonstrated that negative symptoms and psychological well-being mediated greedy individuals' aggression. Moreover, exploratory factor analysis extracted factor scores across three factors (negative psychopathology, happiness, and motivation) from the measures scales. Negative psychopathology and happiness remained robust mediators. Importantly, these findings were replicated in an independent sample (n = 68). Voxel-based morphometry analysis also revealed that gray matter volumes (GMVs) in the prefrontal-parietal-occipital system were associated with negative psychopathology and happiness, and GMVs in the frontal pole and middle frontal cortex mediated the relationships between GPT and aggressions. These findings provide novel insights into the negative characteristics of dispositional greed, and suggest their mediating roles on greedy individuals' aggression and underlying neuroanatomical substrates., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune disease with the typical symptom of a low platelet count in blood. ITP demonstrated age and sex biases in both occurrences and prognosis, and adult ITP was mainly induced by the living environments. The current diagnosis guideline lacks the integration of molecular heterogenicity. This study recruited the largest cohort of platelet transcriptome samples. A comprehensive procedure of feature selection, feature engineering, and stacking classification was carried out to detect the ITP biomarkers using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) transcriptomes. The 40 detected biomarkers were loaded to train the final ITP detection model, with an overall accuracy 0.974. The biomarkers suggested that ITP onset may be associated with various transcribed components, including protein-coding genes, long intergenic non-coding RNA (lincRNA) genes, and pseudogenes with apparent transcriptions. The delivered ITP detection model may also be utilized as a complementary ITP diagnosis tool. The code and the example dataset is freely available on http://www.healthinformaticslab.org/supp/resources.php., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2022 The Author(s).)

Background: Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is commonly expressed in activated stromal fibroblasts in various epithelial tumours. Recently, 68 Ga-FAPI-04 has been used for tumour imaging in positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). This study aimed to compare the diagnostic performances of 68 Ga-FAPI-04 PET/CT and 18 F-FDG PET/CT in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and to assess factors associated with 68 Ga-FAPI-04 uptake in HCC., Materials and Methods: Twenty-nine patients with suspiciously HCC who received both 18 F-FDG and 68 Ga-FAPI-04 PET/CT were included in this retrospective study. The results were interpreted by two experienced nuclear medicine physicians independently. The maximum and mean standardized uptake values (SUV max and SUV mean ) were measured in the lesions and liver background, respectively. The tumour-to-background ratio (TBR) was then calculated as lesion's SUV max divided by background SUV mean ., Results: A total of 35 intrahepatic lesions in 25 patients with HCC were finally involved in the statistical analysis. 68 Ga-FAPI-04 PET/CT showed a higher sensitivity than 18 F-FDG PET/CT in detecting intrahepatic HCC lesions (85.7% vs . 57.1%, P = 0.002), including in small (≤ 2 cm in diameter; 68.8% vs . 18.8%, P = 0.008) and well- or moderately-differentiated (83.3% vs . 33.3%, P = 0.031) tumors. SUV max was comparable between 68 Ga-FAPI-04 and 18 F-FDG (6.96 ± 5.01 vs . 5.89 ± 3.38, P > 0.05), but the TBR was significantly higher in the 68 Ga-FAPI-04 group compared with the 18 F-FDG group (11.90 ± 8.35 vs . 3.14 ± 1.59, P < 0.001). SUV max and the TBR in 68 Ga-FAPI-04 positive lesions were associated with tumour size (both P < 0.05), but not the remaining clinical and pathological features (all P > 0.05)., Conclusions: 68 Ga-FAPI-04 PET/CT is more sensitive than 18 F-FDG PET/CT in detecting HCC lesions, and 68 Ga-FAPI-04 uptake is correlated mainly with tumour size., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Wang, Zhu, Ren, Kong, Huang, Zhao, Guan, Jia, Chen, Lu, Xie and Qin.)

Objectives: To investigate volume changes of subcortical structures in patients with post-hepatitis B cirrhosis., Methods: Thirty patients with post-hepatitis B cirrhosis (the cirrhosis group) and 24 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (the control group) were enrolled in this prospective study. All subjects underwent neuropsychological tests, blood biochemical determinations, and cerebral MRI. Volumes of 18 selected subcortical structures were automatically segmented and analyzed by the FreeSurfer. In the cirrhosis group, the relationships between abnormal subcortical volumes and clinical index or neurocognitive performance were investigated. The relationships between globus pallidus volumes and pallidal hyperintensity were also examined., Results: Compared with the healthy controls, patients with post-hepatitis B cirrhosis displayed smaller bilateral putamen, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens volumes and larger bilateral globus pallidus volumes ( P <0.001 or P =0.001). In the cirrhosis group, the volumes of left putamen and amygdala were negatively correlated with the number connection test-A (NCT-A)(left putamen r =-0.410, P =0.034; left amygdala r =-0.439, P =0.022), and the volumes of bilateral globus pallidus were positively correlated with pallidal index (PI) (left globus pallidus r =0.889, P <0.001; right globus pallidus r =0.900, P <0.001)., Conclusions: Abnormalities of subcortical volumes appear bilaterally symmetrical in patients with post-hepatitis B cirrhosis. Atrophy of left putamen and amygdala might contribute to poor neurocognitive performance, and the manganese deposition might contribute to the increased globus pallidus volumes in patients with post-hepatitis B cirrhosis.

Sorafenib is considered to be the first-line therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It significantly delays tumor progression time; however, it increases the invasive and metastatic potential of HCC. Recent studies have shown that aspirin is effective in preventing and treating tumors, and the combination treatment of aspirin and sorafenib significantly suppresses sorafenib-induced intrahepatic metastasis. However, the mechanism through which aspirin suppresses the sorafenib-induced intrahepatic metastasis is still unclear. In this study, we find that sorafenib markedly increases stromal-derived factor 1-alpha (SDF1-α) expression in paratumor and intratumor tissues, and aspirin attenuates sorafenib-induced increase of SDF1-α expression in paratumor and intratumor tissues. Further studies show that SDF1-α improves cell invasion potential of HCC cells, and that AMD3100, a specific inhibitor of SDF1-α receptor CXCR4, suppresses the elevated intrahepatic metastatic potential of HCC induced by sorafenib in vivo. Collectively, this study reveals that the sorafenib-induced increase of SDF1-α expression in paratumor and intratumor microenvironments is suppressed by aspirin, which is associated with aspirin-mediated suppression of the pro-metastasis effect of sorafenib in HCC., (© The Author 2015. Published by ABBS Editorial Office in association with Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences.)

To overcome the present limitations of passive biochip, based on the basic principle of antigen-antibody reaction, we develop an antigen-antibody reaction model of solid-phase surface and design a novel active biochip system according to this model, which introduces the negative pressure and controlling devices to control the immunoreactions on the nitrocellulose (NC) membrane. From the computer simulation results, this is a rapid, stable, robust and practicable system, which can be used to increase the efficiency of immunoreactions and improve the reproducibility and accuracy of biochip analysis.