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The dispersion characteristic of nanoparticles is of more interest in some engineering applications, including polymer filling, foam stability, chemical catalysis, and materials surface package. In this paper, the surface modification of SiO2 nanoparticles was carried out based on molecular dynamics simulation. The characteristics of aggregation and diffusion of SiO2 nanoparticles were explained by the radial distribution function (RDF), concentration profile, length distribution, mean squared displacement (MSD), and microscopic testing (MT). The results showed that the orbital provided by the three types of atoms (H, O, and Si) corresponding to the different bandwidths caused the energy alternation of state density. According to the results of RDF, the HO bond energy mainly provided by the water molecules showed the maximum bond energy with 463 kJ/mol. The results indicated that the bonds breakage and formation were accompanied by changes in total energy, kinetic energy, non‐bond energy, and potential energy. After the modification of SiO2 nanoparticles, the concentration profile of the water molecules decreased first at 1–8.5 Å and then increased at 8.5–17.2 Å, but the length distribution climbed to 15.7 at 0.975 Å. When the temperature reached 398 K, the peak value of the length distribution declined to 13.6 Å and the relative concentration profile of water molecules fluctuated around 1.0. With the increase of salinity, the peak value of length distribution reached 15.7 at 0.975 Å, but the concentration profile of water molecules at 3.1–9 Å decreased quickly and then gradually increased. The results of MSD and MT about water molecules presented the largest diffusion coefficient appeared at 398 K and had the best dispersion effect owing to the average kinetic energy among the molecules. Conversely, the diffusion coefficient decreased with the incremental solution salinity because the inhabitation of sodium for the motion of water molecules resulted in the ion bridging and hydrogen bonding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Methane (CH4), as one of the major energy sources, easily escapes from the supply chain into the atmosphere, because it exists in a gaseous state under ambient conditions. Compared to carbon dioxide (CO2), CH4 is 25 times more potent at trapping radiation; thus, the emission of CH4 to the atmosphere causes severe global warming and climate change. To mitigate CH4 emissions and utilize them effectively, the direct biological conversion of CH4 into liquid fuels, such as methanol (CH3OH), using methanotrophs is a promising strategy. However, supplying biocatalysts in an aqueous medium with CH4 involves high energy consumption due to vigorous agitation and/or bubbling, which is a serious concern in methanotrophic processes, because the aqueous phase causes a very large barrier to the delivery of slightly soluble gases. Results: An inverse membrane bioreactor (IMBR), which combines the advantages of gas-phase bioreactors and membrane bioreactors, was designed and constructed for the bioconversion of CH4 into CH3OH in this study. In contrast to the conventional membrane bioreactor with bacterial cells that are immersed in an aqueous phase, the filtered cells were placed to face a gas phase in the IMBR to supply CH4 directly from the gas phase to bacterial cells. Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath), a representative methanotroph, was used to demonstrate the bioconversion of CH4 to CH3OH in the IMBR. Cyclopropanol was supplied from the aqueous phase as a selective inhibitor of methanol dehydrogenase, preventing further CH3OH oxidation. Sodium formate was added as an electron donor to generate NADH, which is necessary for CH3OH production. After optimizing the inlet concentration of CH4, the mass of cells, the cyclopropanol concentration, and the gas flow rate, continuous CH3OH production can be achieved over 72 h with productivity at 0.88 mmol L−1 h−1 in the IMBR, achieving a longer operation period and higher productivity than those using other types of membrane bioreactors reported in the literature. Conclusions: The IMBR can facilitate the development of gas-to-liquid (GTL) technologies via microbial processes, allowing highly efficient mass transfer of substrates from the gas phase to microbial cells in the gas phase and having the supplement of soluble chemicals convenient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The power-voltage (P-V) characteristic curve of the centralized thermoelectric generation (TEG) system under nonuniform temperature distribution (NTD) exhibits multiple extreme point characteristics, and the traditional maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm is prone to fall into the local maximum power point (LMPP) and takes a long time to track. This paper designs a BP-IPSO algorithm based on back propagation neural network (BPNN) and improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) for MPPT. The algorithm firstly utilizes the good nonlinear function fitting ability of BPNN to obtain the fitting curve of the relationship between system control input and power output to establish the TEG array power prediction model. Then, the dynamic learning factor and weight coefficient are introduced into the traditional particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to search the output power prediction model and realize MPPT control. MATLAB/Simulink experiment results show that BP-IPSO algorithm can effectively avoid falling into LMPP, quickly and accurately track the global maximum power point (GMPP), and effectively suppress the oscillation of voltage and power during the tracking process. Especially in the start-up test experiment, compared with perturb and observe (P&O), PSO, and grey wolf optimizer (GWO), the energy generated by BP-IPSO increased by 12.84%, 3.18%, and 4.75%, respectively, which improved the system power generation efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search for organic matter on Mars is one of the major objectives of Mars exploration. However, limited detection of organic signals by Mars rovers to date demands further investigation on this topic. The Curiosity rover recently discovered numerous nodules in Gale Crater on Mars. These nodules have been considered to precipitate in the neutral-to-alkaline and saline diagenetic fluids and could be beneficial for organic preservation. Here, we examine this possibility by studying the carbonate nodules in the western Qaidam Basin, NW China, one of the terrestrial analog sites for Mars. Fourier transform infrared spectra of the carbonate nodules reveal that the aliphatic and aromatic molecules can be readily preserved inside nodules in Mars-like environments. The chain-branching index of the Qaidam nodules suggests that the diagenetic fluids where nodules precipitated were able to support diverse microbial communities that could vary with the water salinity. Findings of this study provide new perspectives on the astrobiological significance of nodules in Gale Crater and the further detection of organic matter on Mars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (LPD) may induce intense inflammatory response which might be related to the patient's outcomes. Clinical dexmedetomidine (DEX) has been widely used for opioid-sparing anesthesia and satisfactory sedation. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of DEX on inflammatory response and postoperative complications in LPD. Methods: Ninety-nine patients undergoing LPD were randomly assigned to two groups: normal saline (NS) and DEX. The primary outcome was the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) differences postoperatively within 48 h. Secondary outcomes were postoperative complications, the length of postoperative hospital stay and the incidence of ICU admission. Other outcomes included anesthetics consumption and intraoperative vital signs. Results: NLR at postoperative day 2 to baseline ratio decreased significantly in the DEX group (P = 0.032). Less major complications were observed in the DEX group such as pancreatic fistula, delayed gastric emptying and intra-abdominal infection (NS vs. DEX, 21.7% vs. 13.6%, P = 0.315; 10.9% vs. 2.3%, P = 0.226; 17.4% vs. 11.4%, P = 0.416, respectively) though there were no statistical differences. Three patients were transferred to the ICU after surgery in the NS group, while there was none in the DEX group (P = 0.242). The median postoperative hospital stay between groups were similar (P = 0.313). Both intraoperative propofol and opioids were less in the DEX group (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Intraoperative DEX reduced the early postoperative inflammatory response in LPD. It also reduced the use of narcotics that may related to reduced major complications, which need additional research further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early auxin responsive small auxin up-regulated RNA (SAUR) family is an important gene family in the auxin signal transduction pathway. This study focused on the regulatory mechanism of DlSAUR genes during early somatic embryogenesis (SE) and its response to hormone treatment and abiotic stress. Mining of the available Dimocarpus longan Lour. (D. longan) genome sequence yielded 68 putative SAUR genes. Transcript profiles based on RNA-seq data showed that most of the 24 detected DlSAUR genes were highly expressed in the globular embryos (GE) (10) and most of them responded to heat stress and 2,4-D treatment. The results of qRT-PCR showed that most of DlSAUR genes were up-regulated under auxin inhibitor N-1-naphthylphthalamic acid (NPA) and auxin indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) treatments. Moreover, NPA could promote longan SE. The assay for ATAC-seq data analysis showed that chromatin accessibility of 19 of the 24 DlSAUR genes were open during early SE, and most DlSAUR genes differentially expressed during early SE were not associated with H3K4me1 signal enrichment. The DlSAUR32 was selected for subcellular localization and RNA-seq analysis, which encode a cell nuclear-localized protein. Dual-luciferase assays and transient transformation showed that the transcription factors (TFs) DlWRKY75-1 and DlWRKY75-2 might bind to the DlSAUR32 promoters to inhibition gene transcription. Transient overexpression of DlWRKY75-1 and DlWRKY75-2 decreased IAA content in N. benthamiana leaves. Thus, the regulatory network composed of DlSAUR32 and its related TFs may regulate the early longan SE and be involved in the auxin response regulatory pathway of longan. • DlSAUR genes were sensitive to IAA and NPA treatments. • The regulatory network of transcription factors and DlSAUR genes was predicted. • DlWRKY75-1 and DlWRKY75-2 can significantly reduce the expression of DlSAUR32. • Overexpression of DlWRKY75-1 and DlWRKY75-2 decreased IAA content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the so-called "struggle for existence" competition, the venomous animals developed a smart and effective strategy, envenomation, for predation and defense. Biochemical analysis revealed that animal venoms are chemical pools of proteinase, peptide toxins, and small organic molecules with various biological activities. Of them, peptide toxins are of great molecular diversity and possess the capacity to modulate the activity of ion channels, the second largest group of drug targets expressed on the cell membrane, which makes them a rich resource for developing peptide drug pioneers. The spider Lycosa coelestis (L. coelestis) commonly found in farmland in China is a dominant natural enemy of agricultural pests; however, its venom composition and activity were never explored. Herein, we conducted cDNA library and transcriptomic sequencing of the venom gland of L. coelestis, which identified 1131 high-quality expressed sequence tags (ESTs), grouped into three categories denoted as toxin-like ESTs (597, 52.79%), cellular component ESTs (357, 31.56%), and non-matched ESTs (177, 15.65%). These toxin-like ESTs encode 98 non-reductant toxins, which are artificially divided into 11 families based on their sequence homology and cysteine frameworks (2–14 cysteines forming 1–7 disulfide bonds to stabilize the toxin structure). Furthermore, RP-HPLC purification combined with off-line MALDI-TOF analysis have detected 147 different peptides physically existing in the venom of L. coelestis. Electrophysiology analysis confirmed that the venom preferably inhibits the voltage-gated calcium channels in rat dorsal root ganglion neurons. Altogether, the present study has added a great lot of new members to the spider toxin superfamily and built the foundation for characterizing novel active peptides in the L. coelestis venom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of urban agglomerations in northwest arid and semiarid regions of China, the scope of the urban heat island (UHI) effect has gradually expanded and gradually connected, and has formed a regional heat island (RHI) with a larger range of impact to the regional environment. However, there are few studies on the heat island effect of urban agglomerations in arid and semiarid regions, so this paper selects the urban agglomeration of Hohhot, Baotou and Ordos (HBO) of Inner Mongolia, China as the study area. Based on the 8-day composite Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface temperature data (156 scenes in all) and land use maps for 2005, 2010, and 2015, we analyze the spatiotemporal distributions of regional heat (cool) islands (RH(C)I) and the responses of surface temperatures to land-use changes in the diurnal and interannual surface cities. The results showed that: 1) from 2005 to 2015, urban areas showed the cold island effect during the day, with the area of the cold island showing a shrinking feature; at night, they showed the heat island effect, with the area of the heat island showing a first decrease and then an increase. 2) From 2005 to 2015, the land development (unutilized land to building land) brings the greatest temperature increase (ΔT = 1.36°C) during the day, while the greatest temperature change at night corresponds to the conversion of cultivated land to building land (ΔT = 0.78°C) exhibited the largest changes at night. From 2010 to 2015, the land development (grassland to building land) bring the greatest temperature increase (ΔT = 0.85°C) during the day, while the great temperature change at night corresponds to the conversion of water areas to building land (ΔT = 1.38°C) exhibited the largest changes at night. Exploring the spatial and temporal evolution of surface urban heat (cool) islands in urban agglomerations in arid and semiarid regions will help to understand the urbanization characteristics of urban agglomerations and provide a reference for the formulation of policies for the coordinated and healthy development of the region and co-governance of regional environmental problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arrival of the dual-carbon era indicates that it is imperative to reduce industrial carbon emissions with high carbon emissions. The implementation of carbon emission reduction will inevitably have an impact on industrial development. Three different carbon emission scenarios were established. Based on the average annual carbon emission growth rate of the past decade, it is set as a medium carbon scenario. According to the economic development stage and actual social development situation of each region, the corresponding annual average carbon emission growth rate is increased and decreased to set up high carbon and low carbon scenarios. The adjacent accumulation gray multivariate model for industries is established based on different scenarios. The results indicate that the carbon emission scenarios most suitable for industrial development in various regions are different. Heavy industrial provinces and cities such as Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei have the highest industrial output value under high carbon scenarios; Provinces and cities with high levels of industrialization, such as Jiangsu, Shanghai, Guangdong and Chongqing have the highest industrial output value under low-carbon scenarios. The industrial output value of Hebei is expected to grow the fastest under the high carbon scenario, reaching 2.15 trillion yuan by 2030. The industrial output value of Guangdong achieves the greatest improvement under low-carbon scenario. It is expected that the industrial output value of which will reach 6.86 trillion yuan by 2030, ranking first in the country. Therefore, the setting of carbon emission scenarios needs to be tailored to local conditions, increase technological innovation efforts, and further promote industrial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation (DAMO) and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) simultaneously converts ammonium, methane, and oxidized nitrogen species (nitrite and nitrate) to harmless N2 and CO2. This integrated and complementary process achieves the nitrogen and carbon cycles in wastewater with the potential to be applied widely at full scale to realize energy-positive wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). In this review, we summarize the collaborative and competitive interactions of DAMO–Anammox microorganisms and systematically evaluate the challenges for the full-scale application of integrated DAMO–Anammox for wastewater treatment, including their extremely slow growth rate, low metabolic activity, and limited nitrogen and methene removal rate. We examine comprehensively the critical role of bioreactor design (attached, suspended, and granular sludge systems) for biomass retention and substrate transfer. The paper also discussed strategies involving trace elements (Cu(II) and Fe(II)), Zero Valent Iron (ZVI), and External Electrostatic Fields (EEFs) to enhance the DAMO–Anammox microbial activities. Further review is provided on the addition of Humics, quinone-compound anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate (AQDs), Fe(III), Mn(IV) as electron acceptors through extracellular electron transfer (EET) and couple with autotrophic denitrification (AuDen) (H2S and Fe(II)) to accelerate nitrogen and methane removal. Finally, a conceptual design of innovative WWTPs based on the integrated DAMO–Anammox was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To explore whether the combined analysis of motor and bulbar region of M1 on susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) can be a valid biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Methods: Thirty-two non-demented ALS patients and 35 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC) were retrospectively recruited. SWI and 3D-T1-MPRAGE images were obtained from all individuals using a 3.0-T MRI scan. The bilateral posterior band of M1 was manually delineated by three neuroradiologists on phase images and subdivided into the motor and bulbar regions. We compared the phase values in two groups and performed a stratification analysis (ALSFRS-R score, duration, disease progression rate, and onset). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were also constructed. Results: ALS group showed significantly increased phase values in M1 and the two subregions than the HC group, on the all and elderly level (p < 0.001, respectively). On all-age level comparison, negative correlations were found between phase values of M1 and clinical score and duration (p < 0.05, respectively). Similar associations were found in the motor region (p < 0.05, respectively). On both the total (p < 0.01) and elderly (p < 0.05) levels, there were positive relationships between disease progression rate and M1 phase values. In comparing ROC curves, the entire M1 showed the best diagnostic performance. Conclusions: Combining motor and bulbar analyses as an integral M1 region on SWI can improve ALS diagnosis performance, especially in the elderly. The phase value could be a valuable biomarker for ALS evaluation. Key Points: • Integrated analysis of the motor and bulbar as an entire M1 region on SWI can improve the diagnosis performance in ALS. • Quantitative analysis of iron deposition by SWI measurement helps the clinical evaluation, especially for the elderly patients. • Phase value, when combined with the disease progression rate, could be a valuable biomarker for ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To investigate the impact of family history of type 2 diabetes (T2D) on the clinical phenotypes of patients with idiopathic type 1 diabetes (T1D). Methods: In clinically diagnosed T1D cases, a total of 335 idopathic T1D patients were included in the study, after excluding autoimmune T1D using islet autoantibody testing and monogenic diabetes using a custom monogenic diabetes gene panel obtained from clinically diagnosed T1D cases. A semi‐structured questionnaire was used to collect information on the presence of T2D in first‐degree relatives. The demographic and metabolic markers of idiopathic T1D patients were analysed. Subgroup analysis was performed to investigate potential interactions between T2D family history and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genotypes. Results: A total of 18.2% of individuals with idiopathic T1D had a T2D family history, and these individuals were more likely to have features associated with T2D, such as older age of onset, higher body mass index at diagnosis, lower insulin dosage and better beta‐cell function, as indicated by higher levels of fasting C‐peptide and 2‐hour postprandial C‐peptide (all P < 0.05). Additionally, regardless of HLA susceptible genotypes, the impact of family history of T2D was consistently observed in idiopathic T1D patients. Multivariable analyses showed that T2D family history was negatively correlated with the risk of beta‐cell function failure in idiopathic T1D patients (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Family history of T2D may be implicated in the heterogeneity of idiopathic T1D patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object detection based on deep learning is one of the most important and fundamental tasks of computer vision. High-performance detection algorithms have been widely used in many practical fields. For the management of workers wearing helmets in construction scenarios, this paper proposes a framework model based on the YOLOv5 detection algorithm, combined with multi-object tracking algorithms, to monitor and track whether workers wear safety helmets in real-time video. The improved StrongSORT tracking algorithm of DeepSORT is selected to reduce the loss of the tracked object caused by the occlusion, trajectory blur, and motion scale of the object. The safety helmet dataset is trained with YOLOv5s, and the best result of training is used as the weight model in the StrongSORT tracking algorithm. The experimental results show that the mAP@0.5 of all classes in the YOLOv5s model can reach 95.1% in the validation dataset, mAP@0.5:0.95 is 62.1%, and the precision of wearing helmet is 95.7%. After the box regression loss function was changed from CIOU to Focal-EIOU, the mAP@0.5 increased to 95.4%, mAP@0.5:0.95 increased to 62.9%, and the precision of wearing helmet increased to 96.5%, which were increased by 0.3%, 0.8% and 0.8%, respectively. StrongSORT can update object trajectories in video frames at a speed of 0.05 s per frame. Based on the improved YOLOv5s combined with the StrongSORT tracking algorithm, the helmet-wearing tracking detection can achieve better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess the variation in left atrial (LA) and biventricular strain and its prognostic value in the course of suspected myocarditis, this retrospective study included 55 patients with clinically suspected myocarditis who underwent cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) examinations at baseline and follow-up periods. Cine images were used for feature tracking analysis. Paired Student's t test, McNemar's test, and Cox proportional hazard regression were used for statistical analysis. The LA total emptying fraction was the only functional index that showed a statistically significant improvement. The initial LA peak's late negative strain rate (SRa) was the only parameter with a significant predictive power of major adverse cardiac events under univariable (hazard ratio [HR] 2.396, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.044–5.498, p = 0.039) and multivariable Cox survival analysis when adjusted by LA strain parameters (HR 5.072, 95% CI 1.478–17.404, p = 0.010), LA strain and functional parameters (HR 7.197, 95% CI 1.679–30.846, p = 0.008), and LA and biventricular strain and functional parameters (HR 10.389, 95% CI 2.250–47.977, p = 0.003). Thus, our findings indicate that CMR strain is useful for monitoring LA and ventricular function in suspected myocarditis, that LA function may recover preceding ventricular function changes, and that LA strain may serve as an incremental tool to predict adverse outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the suitable regimens of induced termination of second-trimester pregnancy in women with prior cesareans. A total of 204 s-trimester pregnant women with prior cesareans at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2019 to December 2020 were included in this retrospective study. Group A included pregnant women who were administered mifepristone with misoprostol, Group B included those administering mifepristone with misoprostol as well as a transcervical Cook double-balloon catheter, Group C included those receiving mifepristone with an intra-amniotic injection of ethacridine lactate, and Group D included those receiving mifepristone, transcervical Cook double-balloon catheter, and intra-amniotic injection of ethacridine lactate. Their characteristics, clinical outcomes, and complications among the four groups were compared. All women had similar profiles in maternal age, gravidity, and previous cesarean delivery (p >.05). There was no significant difference in successful abortion among the four groups (p >.05). Group C had a significantly shorter induction-to-abortion interval than Group D (p <.01). The blood loss after abortion at 2 h in Group B was much less than Group A (p <.05). It made a significant difference between Group B and Group D regarding the blood loss after abortion at 2 h (p <.01). With regard to total incidences of adverse reactions, there were much fewer in the group B than the group A (p <.05). The four regimens are all effective for the termination of second-trimester pregnancy in women with prior cesareans. The use of transcervical Cook double-balloon could reduce the risks caused by misoprostol, and the combination of these is feasible to induce second-trimester pregnancy termination in women with prior cesareans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the optimization issue of electric vehicle charging station layout (EVCSL) for tourist attractions is addressed, and an improved PSO is used to solve the optimization issue. Specifically, the improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed to obtain an appreciative planning solution of EVCSL, and dynamic weight adjustment strategy and integration into the two-population genetic mode are proposed to improve the optimization quality for PSO. Simulation results show that the proposed improvement strategies can increase the optimization quality for PSO effectively so that a more appreciative planning solution of EVCSL can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cationic Ir(III) complex, Ir2, with a diphenylamino (DPA)-substituted 2-phenylbenzothiazole derivative as the cyclometalating ligand was designed and synthesized. Ir2 shows obvious aggregation-induced phosphorescent emission (AIPE) in H2O/CH3CN, compared with a non-DPA-substituted Ir1. The AIPE-active Ir2 demonstrates efficient detection of 2,4,6-trinitrophenol, providing a higher quenching constant (KSV = 2 644 330 M−1vs. 73 583 M−1 for Ir1) and a lower limit of detection (LOD = 2.23 nM vs. 50.17 nM for Ir1). High-resolution mass spectrometry analysis and density functional theory calculations demonstrate that photoinduced electron transfer may be responsible for the emission quenching. Immobilized in an ethyl cellulose film, Ir2 exhibits high oxygen sensitivity (K appSV = 0.0572 Torr−1vs. 0.0090 Torr−1 for Ir1) and excellent reversibility in 10 cycles. This work reveals that the DPA group plays an important role in tuning the AIPE properties and increasing the performances of the luminescent probes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chicken is rich in various proteins, fatty acids, polysaccharides, trace elements, and other human essential nutrients that contribute to its high nutritional value. In this study, the expression levels of nutrition‐related genes (acetyl‐CoA acyltransferase, ACAA) of native chicken breeds were investigated. The level of GgalACAA1‐2 transcripts expression in the liver of chicken was significantly higher than that of muscle and heart. Moreover, three protein extracts were isolated from the muscle, heart, and liver tissues from the chicken, and their nutritional function was evaluated in the present study. These protein extracts had excellent DPPH and hydroxyl radical scavenging capacities and exhibited significant superoxide anion scavenging ability. Moreover, the protein extracts of muscle tissue showed an important mouse splenocyte proliferation activity and could be used as an immunomodulator of natural origin. In addition, this report presented an automatic visual inspection of chicken viscera using the active contour algorithms and the image processing method for eviscerating by the parallel robot. The recognition and positioning rate of chicken viscera obtained by the proposed method could reach 96.45%. These methods provided basic data for automated poultry slaughter and segmentation, avoiding unnecessary health risks by a pathogenic microorganism, such as avian influenza, Newcastle disease virus, and coronavirus. Moreover, the internal organs of the chicken could be fully harvested by the image segmentation of automatic evisceration, which also facilitated the processing value of these internal organs as by‐products of poultry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Imatinib mesylate (IM) is highly effective in the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). However, the most of GISTs patients develop secondary drug resistance after 1–3 years of IM treatment. The aim of this study was to explore the IM-resistance mechanism via the multi-scope combined with plasma concentration of IM, genetic polymorphisms and plasma sensitive metabolites. Methods: This study included a total of 40 GISTs patients who had been regularly treated and not treated with IM. The plasma samples were divided into three experiments, containing therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), OCT1 genetic polymorphisms and non-targeted metabolomics. According to the data of above three experiments, the IM-resistant cell line, GIST-T1/IMR cells, was constructed for verification the IM-resistance mechanism. Results: The results of non-targeted metabolomics analysis suggested that the sphingophospholipid metabolic pathway including the SPK1/S1P axis was inferred in IM-insensitive patients with GISTs. A GIST cell line (GIST-T1) was immediately induced as an IM resistance cell model (GIST-T1/IMR) and we found that blocking the signal pathway of SPK1/S1P in the GIST-T1/IMR could sensitize treatment of IM and reverse the IM-resistance. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that IM secondary resistance is associated with the elevation of S1P, and blockage the signaling pathway of SPK1/S1P warrants evaluation as a potential therapeutic strategy in IM-resistant GISTs. The design of this study from blood management, group information collection, IM plasma concentration with different elements, identification of sphingolipid metabolism and lastly verification the function of SPK1/S1P in the IM-resistance GISTs cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New antimicrobial agents are urgently needed to address the increasing emergence and dissemination of multidrug-resistant bacteria. In the study, a chemically synthesized truncated peptide containing 22-amino acids derived from a C-type lectin homolog SpCTL6 of Scylla paramamosain was screened and found to exhibit broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, indicating that it is an antimicrobial peptide (AMP), named Sp-LECin. Sp-LECin possessed the basic characteristics of most cationic AMPs, such as positive charge (+4) and a relatively high hydrophobicity (45%). After treatment with Sp-LECin, the disruption of microbial membrane integrity and even leakage of cellular contents was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, Sp-LECin could bind lipopolysaccharide (LPS), increase the outer and inner membrane permeability and induce reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, ultimately leading to the death of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Furthermore, Sp-LECin exhibited potent anti-biofilm activity against P. aeruginosa during both biofilm formation and maturation. Notably, Sp-LECin had no obvious cytotoxicity and could greatly improve the survival of P. aeruginosa-infected zebrafish, by approximately 40% over the control group after 72 h of treatment. This study indicated that Sp-LECin is a promising antibacterial agent with the potential to be used against devastating global pathogen infections such as P. aeruginosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate a class of mean field games containing a large number of major and minor players. Each player minimizes a quadratic-tracking type risk-sensitive cost functional, where the reference signal is a function of the state average term of the major and minor players. To reduce the complexity for solving the problem, we design a sequence of decentralized strategies by the Nash certainty equivalence principle. Firstly, for the optimal control problems with quadratic type risk-sensitive cost functionals, we propose a new verification theorem. Secondly, we apply the two-layer state aggregation method to construct the fixed-point equations for the estimations of the state average terms and give the conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the fixed points. Then, we design a sequence of decentralized strategies by the estimations of the state average terms based on local information. It is shown that the estimations of the state average terms are consistent with the true values for the closed-loop systems, and the sequence of strategies designed is a decentralized asymptotic Nash equilibrium. Finally, the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis is demonstrated by a numerical example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Although the morphological assessment of melanoma is generally straightforward, diagnosis can be especially difficult when the significant morphological and immunohistochemical results overlap with those of benign and malignant melanocytic tumours and histological mimics. This study assessed the potential diagnostic utility of measuring PReferentially expressed Antigen in MElanoma (PRAME) immunohistochemically in naevi, melanomas and clear cell sarcomas (CCSs) in Chinese patients. Methods: We examined the immunohistochemical expression of PRAME in 317 melanocytic naevi, 178 primary melanomas, 72 metastatic melanomas and 19 CCSs and compared the sensitivity and specificity of PRAME immunohistochemistry (IHC) in the differential diagnosis of melanocytic tumours and histological mimics. Results: Of the 317 melanocytic naevi, 98.1%were completely negative for PRAME; six cases showed focal PRAME immunoreactivity in a minor population of lesional melanocytes. Diffuse nuclear immunoreactivity for PRAME was found in 89.9% of primary melanomas and 93.1% of metastatic melanomas. Regarding melanoma subtypes, PRAME was expressed in 100% of superficial spreading melanomas, 100% of melanomas arise in congenital naevus, 91.4% of nodular melanomas, 87.8% of acral lentigo melanomas, 80.0% of lentigo malignant melanomas, 60.0% of Spitz melanomas, 96.2% of mucosal melanomas and 80.0% of uveal melanomas. None of the two desmoplastic melanomas expressed PRAME. Of the 19 CCS cases, 89.5% were negative for PRAME and 10.5% showed focal weak PRAME immunoreactivity in a minor population of tumour cells. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that PRAME may be a useful marker to support a suspected diagnosis of melanoma. In addition, lack of PRAME expression is a valuable hint to CCS in a suspected case, and then molecular confirmation of the presence of EWSR1 rearrangement is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Genetic susceptibility is an important pathogenic mechanism in diabetic kidney disease (DKD). However, the specific gene variant associated with DKD susceptibility remains unclear. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR), an important indicator for the process of DKD, has a heritable component. This study aimed to explore whether these GFR-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were associated with DKD. Methods: GFR-related SNPs were collected from the Phenotype–Genotype Integrator (PheGenI) database. SNPs for population cohort analysis were selected following the criteria of complete records of eQTL and MAF > 5% in the Chinese Han population. Totally 498 subjects participated, including166 patients with DKD, 166 patients with T2DM, and 166 controls. The genotypes of SNPs were determined using a Sequenom MassARRAY system. Plink software was employed to analyze the SNP–SNP interactions. Results: By screening the GFR-related SNPs recorded in the PheGenI database, four SNPs (rs1260326, rs17319721, rs35716097, and rs6420094) were finally selected to investigate the association with DKD. It was shown that one of the four SNPs was related to DKD. The G allele of SLC34A1 rs6420094 was associated with a decreased risk of DKD in DKD and T2DM groups (OR 0.716; P = 0.049). Genetic model analysis revealed that rs6420094 was a protective factor for DKD in T2DM in a dominant model and an additive model (P = 0.03; P = 0.032, respectively). Although rs17319721 was not associated with the risk of DKD, the SNP–SNP interactions between rs17319721 and rs6420094 predicted a significantly decreased risk of DKD (OR 0.464; P = 0.047). Conclusion: SLC34A1 rs6420094 was associated with a decreased DKD risk in the Chinese Han population. SNP–SNP interaction between rs17319721 and rs6420094 was associated with a lower risk of DKD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of fish pre-treatment processing directly affected the production competitiveness of the fish industry. The removal of heads and tails is one of the key technologies in the fish processing. This study proposed an identification method of fish head and tail, and the original YOLOV3 model was improved by replacing the backbone feature extraction network of the YOLOV3 model with the lightweight neural network MobileNetv3. Firstly, a freshwater fish image dataset was created and divided into the training, validation and test sets with the assigned ratio of 6:2:2. Next, the freshwater fish dataset was trained using the target detector YOLOV3. Finally, the average accuracy mAP (mean of Average Precision) and the average image detection time were used as the accuracy and speed indexes to evaluate the detection effect of the model. In addition, the SSD-MobileNetv3 and SSD-VGG16 were introduced into present study and they were compared with the improved algorithm. The experimental results showed that the detection speed of the YOLOV3 model with MobileNetV3 was significantly improved. The mAP of YOLOV3-MobileNetv3 model was 98.36%, the inference speed was 28.2 ms, which was 5.09%, 4.24% and 2.07% higher than the mAP of other three models (SSD-VGG16, SSD-MobileNetv3 and YOLOV3-Darknet-53), and the average detection time shortened by 86%, 9.99% and 29%, respectively. Therefore, this experimental method of head and tail of freshwater fish could achieve real-time detection and recognition of various kinds of freshwater fish, which had the great advantages of high detection accuracy and fast detection speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The type II toxin-antitoxin (T-A) HicAB system is abundant in several bacteria and archaea, such as Escherichia coli, Burkholderia Pseudomallei, Yersinia pestis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Streptococcus pneumoniae. This system engages in stress response, virulence, and bacterial persistence. This study showed that the biofilm-forming ability of the hicAB deletion mutant was significantly decreased to moderate ability compared to the extra-intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) parent strain and the complemented strain, which are strong biofilm producers. Congo red assay showed that the hicAB mutant maintained the ability to form curli fimbriae. Using RNA-seq and comparative real-time quantitative RT-PCR, we observed the difference in gene expression between the hicAB mutant and the parent strain, which was associated with biofilm formation. Our data indicate that the HicAB type II T-A system has a key role in biofilm formation by ExPEC, which may be associated with outer membrane protein (OMP) gene expression. Collectively, our results indicate that the hicAB type II T-A system is involved in ExPEC biofilm formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sympathoadrenal system has been shown to stimulate the secretory activity of enteroendocrine cells, although the response is transient. Our aim was to investigate the effects of long-term catecholamine excess on circulating glucagon-likepeptide-1 (GLP-1) levels in patients with pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma (PPGL). Thirty patients diagnosed with PPGL were analyzed. A significant negative association was observed between fasting plasma GLP-1 levels and elevated plasma-free metanephrine (r = − 0.407 , p = 0.026). After adjustment for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), serum creatinine, and the presence of hyperglycemia, the negative association between plasma GLP-1 and metanephrine persisted by multiple linear regression analysis (β = − 0.493 , p = 0.013). Positive correlations between fasting glucose and plasma metanephrine (r = 0.380 , p = 0.038) and normetanephrine levels (r = 0.450 , p = 0.013) were also found. Mean fasting levels of total GLP-1 increased significantly from 25.81 to 39.01 pmol/L (p = 0.017) after PPGL resection. In conclusion, long-term overproduction of catecholamines appears to induce suppression of GLP-1 production compared to an acute response to a stress stimulus. Further studies are required to elucidate the mechanism of GLP-1 secretion with chronic exposure to catecholamine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The treatment of gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) is one of the success stories in medical oncology. GTN in the cesarean scar is a rare entity, but most cases need to be treated with hysterectomy or localized uterine lesion resection because of chemoresistant lesions and/or massive bleeding. We present a patient with post-molar GTN in the cesarean scar who was non-invasively treated with ultrasound-guided high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) to preserve the uterus and fertility. Case presentation: A 32-year-old woman was diagnosed with low-risk GTN (FIGO Stage I: 2 prognostic score) after partial hydatidiform mole. The 5th cycle of chemotherapy was interrupted because of persistent hepatic toxicity and impaired ovarian reserve function. However, the uterine lesion persisted (diameter of residual uterine lesion in the cesarean scar: 2.0 cm). Therefore, ultrasound-guided HIFU treatment was performed. A significant gray-scale change was observed during the HIFU treatment. Color Doppler ultrasonography and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) was performed to evaluate the ablation effectiveness. Color Doppler ultrasonography showed disappearance of the signal of vascularity and CEUS showed no perfusion in the lesion located in the cesarean scar. The uterine lesion was obviously shrunken one month after HIFU treatment. Menstrual cycle resumed 48 days after HIFU. HIFU treatment decreased the number of chemotherapy cycles and there was complete disappearance of the GTN lesion at 4-month follow-up. The patient has shown no signs of recurrence as of 58-month follow-up. Conclusion: Ultrasound-guided HIFU may be a useful alternative to lesion resection for GTN in the cesarean scar in patients who show chemoresistance or are not suitable for chemotherapy. It has the potential to ablate the residual uterine lesion noninvasively to preserve the uterus and fertility, avoiding perioperative risks of lesion resection, especially acute bleeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The treatment of gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) is one of the success stories in medical oncology. GTN in the cesarean scar is a rare entity, but most cases need to be treated with hysterectomy or localized uterine lesion resection because of chemoresistant lesions and/or massive bleeding. We present a patient with post-molar GTN in the cesarean scar who was non-invasively treated with ultrasound-guided high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) to preserve the uterus and fertility. Case presentation: A 32-year-old woman was diagnosed with low-risk GTN (FIGO Stage I: 2 prognostic score) after partial hydatidiform mole. The 5th cycle of chemotherapy was interrupted because of persistent hepatic toxicity and impaired ovarian reserve function. However, the uterine lesion persisted (diameter of residual uterine lesion in the cesarean scar: 2.0 cm). Therefore, ultrasound-guided HIFU treatment was performed. A significant gray-scale change was observed during the HIFU treatment. Color Doppler ultrasonography and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) was performed to evaluate the ablation effectiveness. Color Doppler ultrasonography showed disappearance of the signal of vascularity and CEUS showed no perfusion in the lesion located in the cesarean scar. The uterine lesion was obviously shrunken one month after HIFU treatment. Menstrual cycle resumed 48 days after HIFU. HIFU treatment decreased the number of chemotherapy cycles and there was complete disappearance of the GTN lesion at 4-month follow-up. The patient has shown no signs of recurrence as of 58-month follow-up. Conclusion: Ultrasound-guided HIFU may be a useful alternative to lesion resection for GTN in the cesarean scar in patients who show chemoresistance or are not suitable for chemotherapy. It has the potential to ablate the residual uterine lesion noninvasively to preserve the uterus and fertility, avoiding perioperative risks of lesion resection, especially acute bleeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Diabetes was commonly seen in chronic total occlusion (CTO) patients but data regarding the impact of successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on clinical outcome of CTO patients with diabetes was controversial. And importantly, no studies have compared quality of life (QOL) after CTO-PCI in patients with and without diabetes. Methods: Consecutive patients undergoing elective CTO-PCI were prospectively enrolled from Apr. 2018 to May 2021. Patients were subdivided into 2 groups: Diabetes and No Diabetes. Detailed baseline characteristics, assessment of symptoms and QOL, angiographic and procedural details, in-hospital complications, and 1 month and 1 year follow-up data were collected. These data were analyzed accordingly for risk predictors of clinical outcome in patients who have diabetes and received successful CTO-PCI. Results: A total of 1076 patients underwent CTO-PCI attempts. Diabetes was present in 374 (34.76%) patients, who had more hypertension, previous PCI and stroke. Regarding the coronary lesions, diabetic patients suffered more LCX lesion, multivessel disease, number of lesions per patient, blunt stump, calcification and higher J-CTO score (p < 0.05). In-hospital major adverse cardiac event (MACE) (4.13% vs. 5.35%; p = 0.362) was similar in the two groups. At 1 month and 1 year follow-up after successful CTO-PCI, the incidence of MACE and all-cause mortality were also similar in the two groups (p > 0.05). Number of lesions per patient was an independent risk factor of MACE and all-cause mortality (p < 0.001) 1 year after successful CTO-PCI. Symptom and QOL were markedly improved regardless of diabetes both at 1 month and 1 year follow-up, and importantly, patients with diabetes showed similar degrees of improvement to those without diabetes (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Successful CTO-PCI could represent an effective strategy improving clinical outcome, symptoms and QOL in CTO patients with diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypotension induced by spinal anaesthesia is a common clinical complication associated with multiple perioperative adverse events. We conducted a systemic review and meta-analysis to confirm whether ondansetron could alleviate hypotension following spinal anaesthesia. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched to identify eligible randomised controlled trials from their respective database inception dates to 30 September 2022. The primary outcome of the meta-analysis was the incidence of hypotension after spinal anaesthesia. The risk of bias in the included studies was evaluated using the revised Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomised trials (RoB 2.0). Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation was applied to assess the level of certainty. A total of 25 studies were included in this research. The meta-analysis revealed that ondansetron significantly decreased the incidence of hypotension (RR = 0.65, 95% CI 0.53–0.80, p < 0.01, I2 = 64%) and bradycardia. In addition, patients treated with ondansetron had a reduced need for vasopressors administration. This study suggests that ondansetron may be recommended as a prophylaxis for hypotension and bradycardia following spinal anaesthesia; the level of evidence was moderate with a high level of heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional watermarking, which embeds watermark information into images for copyright protection, cannot be effectively used in applications with high integrity requirements such as medical and military images, because watermark embedding will destroy original images. We propose a robust modified Zernike moments (MZMs)-based zero-watermarking algorithm for image copyright protection without changing the original image. In this paper, a new type of radial basis function of Zernike moments (ZMs) is designed, and based on this, MZMs are constructed, which effectively improves the performance of ZMs. Then a robust geometric-attack-resistant zero-watermarking algorithm based on MZMs is proposed for image lossless copyright protection. Experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm can effectively resist common image processing attacks and geometric attacks, with superior robustness to other state-of-the-art algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high frequency of chemotherapy resistance is ultimately responsible for clinical relapse in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Nevertheless, the molecular mechanism relevant to glucocorticoid (GC) resistance remains ambiguous. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot were performed to detect the expressions of paraoxonase 2 (PON2), Bcl-2 and Bax. shRNA was used to knockdown PON2 expression in SUP-B15 and REH cell. CCK-8 and flow cytometry assay were conducted to monitor the changes of proliferation and apoptosis in ALL cells. The growth of ALL REH cells in vivo was determined using transplanted tumor model. This study was designed to identify GC resistance-associated genes by means of the transcriptome chip from the public Gene Expression Omnibus database, and preliminarily investigation of dexamethasone (DEX)-resistance mechanism in ALL. We disclosed that PON2 expression was elevated in ALL patients and especially higher in DEX-resistance ALL patients. Then, cell apoptosis assay suggested that silencing of PON2 dramatically promoted in DEX-resistant ALL cells apoptosis and the activity of Caspase 3 induced by DEX administration. In xenograft tumor model, PON2 knockdown significantly reduced DEX-resistant ALL cells growth in immunodeficient mice. Collectively, inhibition of PON2 may represent a novel method to restore the sensitivity of treatment-resistant ALL to GC-induced cell death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

However, in the statement of Lemma 3 insufficient care was given to the support of the random variable I Y i with distribution HT ht appearing in (22) of [[2]]. It is known that HT ht , as stated in (34) of [[2]]. Let HT ht and HT ht be random variables with the extremal two-point cdf's HT ht and HT ht , respectively. [Extracted from the article]

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and liver fibrosis are associated with a high risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development. We assessed whether entecavir (ETV) plus Biejia-Ruangan compound (BRC), an anti-fibrotic traditional Chinese medicine, can further reduce the risk of HCC in treatment-naïve Chinese patients with CHB and an Ishak fibrosis score of ≥3 points derived from our parent double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial. After a 72-week comparison between ETV+BRC and ETV+placebo treatment, participants were eligible to enter an open-label treatment phase and were followed up every 6 months. The primary [secondary] endpoints were the incidence of HCC [liver-related deaths, non-HCC events, and non-liver-related deaths]. Modified intention-to-treat (mITT), intention-to-treat (ITT), and per-protocol (PP) populations were defined for the time-to-event analysis. A total of 1,000 patients were recruited; the median age was 42.0 years; 69.9% were male and 58.3% were HBeAg positive. In the mITT population, the 7-year cumulative incidence of HCC [liver-related deaths] was 4.7% [0.2%] for ETV+BRC, which was significantly lower than 9.3% [2.2%] for ETV monotherapy (p = 0.008 [ p = 0.030]). Notably, ETV+BRC treatment yielded a lower incidence of HCC in those who did not achieve regression of fibrosis at week 72 than ETV monotherapy (p = 0.018). There were no differences in the other 2 secondary endpoints or safety profiles between the groups. Multivariable Cox proportional regression analysis, including the treatment allocation as a parameter, also demonstrated that ETV+BRC treatment was associated with a reduced incidence of HCC. The ITT and PP analyses showed consistent results. ETV plus BRC combination treatment could further reduce the risk of HCC and liver-related deaths in patients with CHB and advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis, which may have important clinical implications for HCC prevention. Patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection are at an increased risk of developing liver cancer (specifically hepatocellular carcinoma [HCC]). While there are effective antiviral treatments that can suppress the virus in chronically infected patients, the risk of HCC remains. Herein, we show that adding a traditional Chinese medicine called Biejia-Ruangan compound to an antiviral reduced the risk of HCC in patients with chronic hepatitis B. [Display omitted] • This RCT-based prospective cohort study included 1,000 patients and lasted for 7 years. • Compared with ETV treatment, the combination of ETV + Biejia-Ruangan compound could further reduce the incidence of HCC. • Biejia-Ruangan compound in addition to ETV should be considered for patients with CHB and advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To compare the effects of aminosalicylic acid, glucocorticoids and immunosuppressants on the expression levels of multidrug resistance genes in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), with the aim of providing a theoretical and therapeutic basis for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of UC. Fresh colonic mucosal tissues or postoperative pathological biopsies from 148 UC patients were collected, and the distribution sites and morphology of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) were detected using immunohistochemical staining. RT-PCR was used to quantify the expression levels of multidrug resistance gene (MDR1) mRNA before and after the corresponding treatment, and the effects of aminosalicylic acid, glucocorticoids and immunosuppressive drugs on P-gp were compared. In addition, the effects of the three drugs on MDR1 mRNA were analyzed. Administration of 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) drugs did not correlate with MDR1 expression in UC, whereas administration of glucocorticoids and immunosuppressive drugs was positively correlated with MDR1 expression profile. The expression levels of MDR1 mRNA and its product P-gp were significantly upregulated in patients who did not respond to glucocorticoids and immunosuppressive drugs. 5-ASA had no effect on the expression levels of MDR1 and its product P-gp in patients with a confirmed diagnosis of UC. However, the use of glucocorticoids and immunosuppressants can increase the expression level of MDR1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The mesorectum surrounding the rectum provides an ideal substrate for tumour spread. However, preoperative risk assessment is still an issue. This study aimed to investigate the microstructural features of mesorectum with different prognostic statuses by intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted imaging (IVIM DWI).Methods: Patients with pathologically proven rectal adenocarcinoma underwent routine high-resolution rectal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and IVIM DWI sequences were acquired. The MRI-detected circumferential resection margin (mrCRM) and extramural vascular invasion (mrEMVI) were evaluated. IVIM parameters of the mesorectum adjacent to (MAT) and distant from (MDT) the tumour were measured and compared between and within the prognostic factor groups.Results: The positive mrCRM (pMAT < 0.001; pMDT = 0.013) and mrEMVI (pMAT = 0.001; pMDT < 0.001) groups demonstrated higher D values in the MAT and MDT than the corresponding negative groups. Conversely, the positive mrCRM (p = 0.001) and mrEMVI (p < 0.001) groups both demonstrated lower f values in the MAT. Similarly, in the self-comparison between the MAT and MDT in the above subgroups, D showed a significant difference in all subgroups (p < 0.001 for all), and f showed a significant difference in the positive mrCRM (p = 0.001) and mrEMVI (p = 0.002) groups. Moreover, the MAT displayed a higher D* in the positive mrCRM (p = 0.014), negative mrCRM (p = 0.009) and negative mrEMVI groups (p < 0.001).Conclusion: The microstructure of the mesorectum in patients with rectal cancer with poor prognostic status shows changes based on IVIM parameters. IVIM parameters might be promising imaging biomarkers for risk assessment of tumour spread in mesorectum preoperatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used to treat various diseases for thousands of years. However, the uncertainty of dosage as well as the lack of systemic evaluation of pharmacology and toxicology is one major reason why TCM remains mysterious and is not accepted worldwide. Hence, we aimed to propose an integrated dose–response metabolomics strategy based on both therapeutic effects and adverse reactions to guide the TCM dosage in treatment. Methods: The proposed methodology of integrated dose–response metabolomics includes four steps: dose design, multiple comparison of metabolic features, response calculation and dose–response curve fitting. By comparing the changes of all metabolites under different doses and calculating these changes through superposition, it is possible to characterize the global disturbance and thus describe the overall effect and toxicity of TCM induced by different doses. Rhubarb, commonly used for constipation treatment, was selected as a representative TCM. Results: This developed strategy was successfully applied to rhubarb. The dose–response curves clearly showed the efficacy and adverse reactions of rhubarb at different doses. The rhubarb dose of 0.69 g/kg (corresponding to 7.66 g in clinic) was selected as the optimal dose because it was 90% of the effective dose and three adverse reactions were acceptable in this case. Conclusion: An integrated dose–response metabolomics strategy reflecting both therapeutic effects and adverse reactions was established for the first time, which we believe is helpful to uncover the mysterious veil of TCM dosage. In addition, this strategy benefits the modernization and internationalization of TCM, and broadens the application of metabolomics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadmium (Cd) is a potential pathogenic factor in the urinary system that is associated with various kidney diseases. Microplastics (MPs), comprising of plastic particles less than 5 mm in diameter, are a major carrier of contaminants. We applied 10 mg/L particle 5 μm MPs and 50 mg/L CdCl2 in water for three months in vivo assay to assess the damaging effects of MPs and Cd exposure on the kidney. In vivo tests showed that MPs exacerbated Cd-induced kidney injury. In addition, the involvement of oxidative stress, autophagy, apoptosis, and fibrosis in the damaging effects of MPs and Cd on mouse kidneys were investigated. The results showed that MPs aggravated Cd-induced kidney injury by enhancing oxidative stress, autophagy, apoptosis, and fibrosis. These findings provide new insights into the toxic effects of MPs on the mouse kidney. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, high-performance 0.11 Pb(In 1/2 Nb 1/2)O 3 -0.89 Pb(Hf 0.47 Ti 0.53)O 3 -0.8Ta 2 O 5 (PIN-PHT-0.8Ta) ceramics are successfully synthesized. In addition, performance improvement is comprehensively analyzed from viewpoints of microstructure, phase structure and electrical properties. Experimental results reveal that the addition of Ta 2 O 5 changes phase structure of PIN-PHT ceramics from ferroelectric tetragonal phase to rhombohedral phase. This leads to the appearance of morphotropic phase boundaries (MPBs). At the same time, the addition of Ta 2 O 5 reduces grain size and enhances grain uniformity. Also, Ta 2 O 5 doping improves internal and external contribution of piezoelectric response, which greatly improves dielectric, piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties of PIN-PHT. Key performance parameters include d 33 , k p , T C , ε r and tan δ , which are found to be 630 pC/N, 0.73, 322.6 °C, 1917 and 1.55%, respectively. In particular, thermal stability of PIN-PHT-0.8Ta ceramics is found to be higher than PZT-based ceramics, as well as d 33 value and performance retention rate of PIN-PHT-0.8Ta are found to be 560 pC/N and 89% at 300 °C, respectively, which are far superior to commercial PZT-5 and PZT-8 ceramics. These properties indicate potential of PIN-PHT-0.8Ta ceramics in high-temperature applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the risk from environmental pollution caused by chloramphenicol (CAP) has emerged as a serious concern worldwide, especially for the co-selection of antibiotic resistance microorganisms simultaneously exposed to CAP and salts. In this study, the multistage contact oxidation reactor (MCOR) was employed for the first time to treat the CAP wastewater under the co-existence of CAP (10–80 mg/L) and salinity (0–30 g/L NaCl). The CAP removal efficiency reached 91.7% under the co-existence of 30 mg/L CAP and 10 g/L NaCl in the influent, but it fluctuated around 60% with the increase of CAP concentration and salinity. Trichococcus and Lactococcus were the major contributors to the CAP and salinity shock loads. Furthermore, the elevated CAP and salinity selection pressures inhibited the spread of CAP efflux pump genes, including cmlA, tetC, and floR, and significantly affected the composition and abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). As the potential hosts of CAP resistance genes, Acinetobacter, Enterococcus, and unclassified_d_Bacteria developed resistance against high osmotic pressure and antibiotic environment using the efflux pump mechanism. The results also revealed that shifting of potential host bacteria significantly contributed to the change in ARGs. Overall, the co-existence of CAP and salinity promoted the enrichment of core genera Trichococcus and Lactococcus; however, they inhibited the proliferation of ARGs. Key points: • Trichococcus and Lactococcus were the core bacteria related to CAP biodegradation • Co-existence of CAP and salinity inhibited proliferation of cmlA, tetC, and floR • The microorganism resisted the CAP using the efflux pump mechanism [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the deadliest cancer in the female reproductive system. Currently, there are no effective early detection methods for this disease, and the treatments for advanced stages of EOC have a low success rate. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are noncoding RNAs generated from the "back-splicing" of precursor messenger RNAs. Recent studies have shown that many circRNAs are aberrantly expressed in tumor tissues and/or plasma of EOC patients, and they regulate EOC cell activity and tumor growth. In this review, we provide an overview of EOC and circRNA biology. We then summarize circRNAs that are dysregulated and exert tumor-promoting or tumor-suppressive effects in EOC. We also discuss the possibility of using circRNAs as diagnostic/prognostic markers and therapeutic targets. Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal gynecological cancer, and more than 70% of patients are diagnosed at advanced stages. Despite the application of surgery and chemotherapy, the prognosis remains poor due to the high relapse rate. It is urgent to identify novel biomarkers and develop novel therapeutic strategies for EOC. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of noncoding RNAs generated from the "back-splicing" of precursor mRNA. CircRNAs exert their functions via several mechanisms, including acting as miRNA sponges, interacting with proteins, regulating transcription, and encoding functional proteins. Recent studies have identified many circRNAs that are dysregulated in EOC and may be used as diagnostic and prognostic markers. Increasing evidence has revealed that circRNAs play a critical role in ovarian cancer progression by regulating various cellular processes, including proliferation, apoptosis, metastasis, and chemosensitivity. The circRNA-based therapy may be a novel strategy that is worth exploring in the future. Here, we provide an overview of EOC and circRNA biogenesis and functions. We then discuss the dysregulations of circRNAs in EOC and the possibility of using them as diagnostic/prognostic markers. We also summarize the role of circRNAs in regulating ovarian cancer development and speculate their potential as therapeutic targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The difficulty of exposing active sites and easy recombination of photogenerated carriers have always been two critical problems restricting the photocatalytic activity of g-C3N4. Herein, a simple (NH4)2MoO4-induced one-step calcination method was successfully introduced to transform bulk g-C3N4 into g-C3N4/MoO2 composites with a large specific surface area. During the calcination, with the assistance of NH3 and water vapor produced by ammonium molybdate, the pyrolytical oxidation and depolymerization of a g-C3N4 interlayer were accelerated, finally realizing the exfoliation of the g-C3N4. Furthermore, another pyrolytical product of ammonium molybdate was transformed into MoO2 under an NH3 atmosphere, which was in situ loaded on the surface of a g-C3N4 nanosheet. Additionally, the results of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution under visible light show that the optimal g-C3N4/MoO2 composite has a high specific surface area and much improved performance, which is 4.1 times that of pure bulk g-C3N4. Such performance improvement can be attributed to the full exposure of active sites and the formation of abundant heterojunctions. However, with an increasing feed amount of ammonium molybdate, the oxidation degree of g-C3N4 was enhanced, which would widen the band gap of g-C3N4, leading to a weaker response ability to visible light. The present strategy will provide a new idea for the simple realization of exfoliation and constructing a heterojunction for g-C3N4 simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widespread application of 'two-line' hybrid rice, based on temperature- and photoperiod-sensitive genic male-sterile lines, plays an important role in ensuring global food security. Such lines are fertile in short-day/low-temperature conditions when used for self-breeding, and sterile in long-day/high-temperature conditions when used for hybrid seed production. However, fertility instability and low hybrid seed production of sterile lines are urgent problems. The aim of this study was to increase the stability of pollen sterility by studying the critical sterile-inducing temperature and stigma vitality of 97 newly selected male-sterile lines in China from 2017 to 2020. Sterility gene source analysis showed that 89.7% of the materials contained the tms5 sterile gene. After 6 days of treatment at 23.5°C during the reproductive period, 42 male-sterile lines were sterile. After 10 days of treatment at 23.5°C, the sterility of 12 sterile lines remained stable, indicating a high level of safety for hybrid seed production. After 10 days of low-temperature treatment at 19°C, the fertile pollen rate of 47 of the 97 sterile lines was >70%, indicating a high level of seed reproduction safety. Only six of these 47 male-sterile lines could maintain low fertility after 10 days of treatment at 23.5°C, indicating that they could be used safely for both hybrid seed production and sterile line reproduction. The results of delayed pollination showed that among the six lines, only Zhong 7S had high stigma vitality, and BYXA1S and H10S-2 had medium stigma vitality. Therefore, those three sterile lines have the potential for safe hybrid seed production and high-yield seed reproduction. Based on our research, we propose a new breeding standard of dual-purpose male-sterile lines to promote the development of two-line hybrid rice. 'Two-line' hybrid rice plays an important role in ensuring global food security. However, fertility instability and low hybrid seed production of sterile lines are urgent problems. In order to increase the stability of pollen sterility, we compared the low-temperature tolerance of fertile pollen development and outcrossing characteristics of new dual-purpose genic male-sterile lines and provide a new breeding standard of dual-purpose male-sterile lines which promotes the sustainable development of two-lines hybrid rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative filtering (CF) is a classical model for recommender systems. Though neural network-based CF models have been shown to perform well in some cases, they still suffer from the sparsity and cold-start issues. To address these issues, we propose a novel neural network-based CF model, termed the cross-domain explicit–implicit-mixed CF neural network (CEICFNet). The proposed model utilizes deep neural networks to learn latent factors not only from the explicit ratings and the implicit interactions but also in a cross-domain manner. In particular, domain-shared multilayer perception (MLP) networks are designed to learn the user rating latent factors and the user interaction latent factors from the explicit ratings and the implicit interactions, respectively, which act as bridges for transferring knowledge across domains. On the other hand, domain-specific MLP networks are designed to learn the item rating latent factors and the item interaction latent factors from the explicit ratings and the implicit interactions, respectively. Then, in each domain, based on the user rating latent factors and the item rating latent factors, the rating predictive representation for each user–item pair can be learned by an MLP. Similarly, the interaction predictive representation for each user–item pair can be learned. For integrating the explicit ratings and the implicit interactions, in each domain, a fully connected layer is used to automatically assign different weights to the rating predictive representations and the interaction predictive representations, based on which the final interaction probability can be generated. Extensive experiments are conducted on five datasets and the results have confirmed the effectiveness of our model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the water absorption, mechanical properties, and energy evolution characteristics of sandstone were examined through experimental and theoretical analysis. The P-wave velocity was found to initially decrease, then increased with immersion time and water content. The water absorption rates of three sandstone specimens decreased with immersion time and water content. The post-peak deformation of the sandstone changed from brittle failure to strain softening. With the increase in water content, the peak strength and loading Young's modulus per cycle decreased. The loading Young's modulus showed that the unloading stress and increment of unloading stress nonlinearly increased with the number of cycles and decreased before peak strength. With the increase in the number of cycles, residual strains of the sandstone specimens decreased slightly initially and then increased, while the elastic strains increased before peak strength and then decreased at the post-peak stage. With the increase in unloading stress, the energy densities nonlinearly increased. At the same unloading stress, an increase in water content led to an increase in the input energy density and energy ratios of the sandstone specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Metapelites of the Fenzishan Group were formed in a back-arc basin of an active continental margin. • Three age groups of detrital zircon: ∼ 3019–2816 Ma, 2761–2610 Ma and ∼ 2261–2128 Ma. • The minimum depositional age of metapelite precursor is ∼ 2261 – 2128 Ma. • Apatite U-Pb age ∼ 1923 – 1893 Ma reflects to the post peak collisional metamorphism. • Metapelites record the UHT metamorphism, showing an anticlockwise P-T path. Metapelites from the Fenzishan Group of the Zhengjiapo banded iron formation (BIF) iron mine studied have undergone high-pressure and ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) metamorphism. The rocks occur in the Changyi metallogenic belt that belongs to the Jiaobei terrane, Jiao-Liao-Ji Belt, North China Craton. P-T estimates using pseudosection modeling, mineral compositio isopleths and two-feldspar geothermometry of observed mesoperthite and antiperthite intergrowth textures of Bt-Grt-Mag-Amp gneisses, three different metamorphic stages were obtained: A prograde stage M1 at ∼ 600–610 °C/5.5–6.1 kbar, a peak metamorphic stage M2 at ∼ 899–1062 °C/8.6–9.15 kbar, an early retrograde stage M2́at 780–792 °C/8.6–9.15 kbar and a retrograde decompression stage M3 at 466–493 °C/4.5–5.8 kbar. Thus an anticlockwise trajectory can be defined indicating that granulite facies UHT-metamorphic peak conditions have been reached, followed by fast cooling during rapid exhumation. Geochemical characteristics of the metapelites indicate that the Fenzishan Group of the Zhengjiapo BIF iron mine was formed in a back-arc basin system of an active continental margin in a convergent/collisional geological setting.. Magmatic U-Pb ages (LA-ICP-MS) of detrital zircon from metapelites are ∼ 3096 – 2816 Ma and 2761 – 2610 Ma, indicating a source of the Archean basement which delivered clastic material for pelitic protolith. A zircon age of ∼ 2261 – 2128 Ma constrains the minimum depositional age of the metapelitic precursor, while an apatite U-Pb age of ∼ 1923 – 1893 Ma dating demonstrates a metamorphic age of ∼ 1923 – 1893 Ma, is indicated to represent a late Paleoproterozoic post peak metamorphic event that corresponds to the collision of the Jiao-Liao-Ji orogenic belt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find 132 face-on and low inclination galaxies with central star formation driven biconical gas outflows (FSFB) in the SDSS MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO) survey. The FSFB galaxies show either double peaked or broadened emission line profiles at their centres. The peak and maximum outflow velocities are 58 and 212 km s−1, respectively. The gas velocity dispersion reveals a mild dependence on the central star formation surface density compatible with models of gas dispersion powered by the Jeans instability in gas clumps or by gas turbulence dissipation. We estimate the gas outflow rate and conclude that the central gas depletion time does not depend on galactic mass. In turn, the ratio of the gas outflow rate to the gas consumption rate by the star formation is low in massive galaxies and high in low mass objects, while the star formation is a more rapid process of the gas consumption. We compare properties of the FSFB galaxies with a control sample of 375 comparison galaxies and find that the FSFB objects have high central concentration of star formation and also younger central stellar population with respect to their periphery. We analysed the environment of the galaxies and identified nearby satellites and elements of low surface brightness structure. We see that many tidal-enhanced features that can be assigned to early and intermediate stages of galactic interaction are much more frequent in the FSFB galaxies with respect to the comparison sample. We conclude that the gas should be replenished via the accretion from small satellites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high birth weight discordance (BWD) places twins at high risks of adverse perinatal outcomes; however, there is no commonly accepted definition of intertwin BWD. Given that gestational age (GA) is closely associated with both BWD and adverse neonatal outcomes, the aim of our study is to develop a measure that takes both BWD and GA into account to define BWD and explore the potentially optimal delivery time in dichorionic twins, with the balance against the risk of intrauterine demise and adverse neonatal outcomes. About 99,000 mixed gender twin pairs from the US matched multiple birth file from 1995 to 2000 were enrolled in our study. We set up a two-dimensional matrix model to select the BWD cutoff point related to outcomes. The optimal delivery time was identified based on the risks of adverse neonatal outcomes and fetal death by GA. The combination of BWD and GA had a higher predictive performance for adverse neonatal outcomes than BWD alone (area under ROC curve (AUC): 0.816 vs. 0.523, p <.001). When GA was controlled for, the growth discordant cutoff point was BWD at the 40% level. The optimal delivery time suggested in dichorionic twins with BWD higher than 40% was identified at 33–34 gestational weeks. The combination of BWD and GA was a better predictor for adverse neonatal outcomes than BWD alone. In dichorionic twins with BWD >40%, pregnancy may be continued till 33–34 gestation weeks if there is no indication for immediate delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is highly desired yet an enormous challenge to exploit efficient catalysts for epoxide cycloaddition with carbon dioxide to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. Herein, the novel heterogeneous catalysts of MIL-101-IL(RBr) (R = Et, Pr, Bu, and Pe) were synthesized by grafting polypyridyl-based ionic liquids (IL) into the nodes of MIL-101(Cr) through the post-synthetic modification of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). The octahedral MIL-101-IL(BuBr) with an average size of ca. 800 nm exhibited superior activity for catalyzing epichlorohydrin–CO2 cycloaddition into chloropropene carbonate, with an yield of 92% at 110 °C under 1.0 MPa CO2 without any cocatalyst and solvent. The excellent performance could be attributed to the nucleophilic nature of grafted ionic liquids in the MOF along with the effectiveness of mass transfer afforded by the MOF porosity. Moreover, MIL-101-IL(BuBr) presented a favorable versatility toward other epoxides and a satisfactory recyclability. In addition, a possible mechanism has been proposed for the catalytic reaction of epichlorohydrin–CO2 cycloaddition over MIL-101-IL(BuBr). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]