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[Display omitted] • Mutual effect of α-tocopherol and γ-oryzanol during in vitro digestion. • Addition of minor constituents affected the stability of digestion system and lipid hydrolysis. • Binary mixture attributed to the bioaccessibility of γ-oryzanol while impeded that of α-tocopherol. • Antioxidant activity of binary mixture was higher than that of the single addition group. Minor constituents ought to be digested before they enter the body to exert functional effect, the stability and antioxidant potential play an important role to evaluate the function of minor constituents. In this study, in order to know the stability and antioxidant potential of single and binary addition of α-tocopherol and γ-oryzanol at different concentrations during in vitro digestion, the physical characteristics of digestion system and concentration as well as oxygen radical absorption capacity of minor constituents were determined. Besides, cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) of micelles was detected to evaluated antioxidant potential of these two minor constituents after in vitro digestion from a biological aspect. The increase of particle size (from 184.5 nm to 274.6 nm) and the decrease of the absolute potential value (from −48.9 mV to −33.5 mV) in the initial emulsion caused by the addition of minor constituents, leading to the decrease of the lipolysis extent (from 92% to 62%). However, binary mixture attributed to the bioaccessibility of γ-oryzanol and impeded that of α-tocopherol. Oxygen radical absorption capacity performed well in small intestine and micelles, the maximum reached 477.94 ± 45.3 μmol TE/mL digests. Importantly, the antioxidant activity of the binary mixture group was higher than that of the single addition group. However, after in vitro digestion, the CAA results showed that these two minor constituents were hardly significantly different from control group (p > 0.05), indicating unsatisfactory antioxidant activity in cells. Moreover, the antioxidant activity of minor constituents depends greatly on the reaction system. This study provides a theoretical reference and research basis for the better usage of natural antioxidants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food protein-stabilized with nanoemulsions were prepared by ultra-high pressure homogenization under appropriate homogenization condition, so as to improve the poor water solubility and instability of sea buckthorn pulp oil (SBPO). SBPO nanoemulsions stabilized by sodium caseinate (SC) and whey protein isolates (WPI) suggested good microstructures and rheological properties. SC-stabilized SBPO nanoemulsions system showed smaller mean particle size (<260 nm), lower Ke value (6.3–20.4%) and higher absolute value of zeta potential (55.70–67.20mV) over various pH (3–9), salinity (0–200 mM), temperature (20–80 °C). The SC-stabilized SBPO nanoemulsions showed no significantly increase in droplet size over 30 days at 4 °C and 25 °C, which proved it has good stability. The antioxidant activity of SC-stabilized SBPO nanoemulsions was evaluated by employing cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) model and the results showed good antioxidant activity. This study implied that protein-stabilized nanoemulsions are a promising carrier for extending the applications of SBPO as nutraceutical or functional dairy beverage. • A sea buckthorn pulp oil nanoemulsion with great stability was successfully prepared. • The antioxidant activity of sea buckthorn pulp oil nanoemulsions was evaluated by biologic model. • These results provided new idea for extending the application of sea buckthorn pulp oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pointly-supervised learning is an important topic for scene parsing, as dense annotation is extremely expensive and hard to scale. The state-of-the-art method harvests pseudo labels by applying thresholds upon softmax outputs (logits). There are two issues with this practice: (1) Softmax output does not necessarily reflect the confidence of the network output. (2) There is no principled way to decide on the optimal threshold. Tuning thresholds can be time-consuming for deep neural networks. Our method, by contrast, builds upon uncertainty measures instead of logits and is free of threshold tuning. We motivate the method with a large-scale analysis of the distribution of uncertainty measures, using strong models and challenging databases. This analysis leads to the discovery of a statistical phenomenon called uncertainty mixture. Specifically speaking, for each independent category, the distribution of uncertainty measures for unlabeled points is a mixture of two components (certain v.s. uncertain samples). The phenomenon of uncertainty mixture is surprisingly ubiquitous in real-world datasets like PascalContext and ADE20k. Inspired by this discovery, we propose to decompose the distribution of uncertainty measures with a Gamma mixture model, leading to a principled method to harvest reliable pseudo labels. Beyond that, we assume the uncertainty measures for labeled points are always drawn from the certain component. This amounts to a regularized Gamma mixture model. We provide a thorough theoretical analysis of this model, showing that it can be solved with an EM-style algorithm with convergence guarantee. Our method is also empirically successful. On PascalContext and ADE20k, we achieve clear margins over the baseline, notably with no threshold tuning in the pseudo label generation procedure. On the absolute scale, since our method collaborates well with strong baselines, we reach new state-of-the-art performance on both datasets. • We identify the existence of a statistical phenomenon called uncertainty mixture. • We propose a threshold-free method to harvest pseudo labels. • We contribute a novel regularized Gamma mixture model. • We achieve state-of-the-art results on PascalContext and ADE20k. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hierarchical porous carbon framework with Zn, Co co-doped can efficiently accommodate Li to regular the deposited behavior for dendrite free anodes by hard template synthesis. [Display omitted] • Abundant pore structure appears in interspace of the PACF-ZC. • The different apertures can optimize the behavior of deposition, effectively. • Co and Zn elements have been co-doped in the PACF-ZC. • The symmetrical battery consisted of Li@PACF-ZC yields stable and ultra-long cycle life. • The full battery obtains a specific capacity of 125 mAh g−1 after 300 cycles. Li metal is regarded as the most potential anode material due to the high energy density, low redox potential and high theoretical specific capacity. However, the development of the Li metal battery is seriously restricted by dendrite and huge volume change. In this paper, a hierarchical porous carbon framework with Zn/Co co-doping (PACF-ZC) is prepared by hard template method. Due to the combined action of different porous structures, the interior space provides sufficient reduction place for Li+ plating, when the Li+ flux uniformly disperses on the surface of PACF-ZC. So, the huge volume and growth of dendritic Li can be repressed by the distinctive hierarchical porous structure, effectively. In addition, the co-doping of Zn and Co reduces the nucleation barrier and promotes the Li affinity of PACF-ZC. The pyridine N and pyrrolidine N in precursor can optimize the behavior of Li+ plating. Benefit from the synergistic effect of hierarchical porous structure and Zn, Co co-doping, the symmetrical battery with Li@PACF-ZC obtains an ultra-long cycle life (1800 h) at 1 mA cm−2 with a capacity of 1 mAh cm−2. Meanwhile, the full cell of Li@PACF-ZC||LiFePO 4 yields a high specific capacity of 128.8 mAh/g under 1C after 100 cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A lithiophilic Sn layer is prepared on the copper foam by the pre-electroplating. • The lithiophilic Sn layer can suppress the "tip effect" for stable plating/stripping. • The electroplating solution is recyclable and economical. • The copper foam provides enough space for deposited Li. • The symmetrical battery consisted of Li@SCF yields a cycle life of 1200 h. Lithium (Li) metal is expected to become the next generation anodes materials, owning to the irreplaceable advantages (high the theoretical specific capacity, high energy density, and low electrochemical potential). However, the huge volume exchange and dendritic Li growth hinder its development. In this paper, a recyclable method was put forward to relief the above issues for achieving stable Li metal anodes, where the uniform Sn layer was built on the surface of copper foam (SCF) by pre-electroplating. The porous structure of copper foam (CF) can accommodate deposited Li to relax the huge volume change. The Sn layer of SCF improves the lithiophilicity of structure, preventing the inhomogeneous deposition by the "tip effect". In view of the synergies of porous structure and lithiophilic Sn layer, the SCF shows good compatibility with Li metal anodes. During the preparation process of SCF, the electroplating solution is recyclable and the cost of energy is low, which prevents environmental pollution and resembles the initial target of secondary energy storage. Meanwhile, the symmetrical cells of SCF show longer life than CF and copper foil. After 550 cycles, the coulomb efficiency of SCF can be stable more than 98 % at 1 mA cm−2 with 1 mAh cm−2. The full cells of LFP||Li@SCF deliver satisfactory capacity (117.1 mAh/g) at 1C after 130 cycles. With further research, the pre-electroplating has the potential to be another way for the building of framework structure in the field of Li metal anodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tyrosinase is a biological macromolecule closely related to browning of fruit and vegetables, melanin production, and tyrosinase inhibitors are usually used to prevent browning and pigmentation. In this study, longan shell tannins (LSTs) were screened as tyrosinase inhibitors and their structures were proved to be mixtures of procyanidins (condensed tannins) and ellagitannins (hydrolyzed tannins). Enzymatic experiments verified that LSTs were efficient inhibitors, and the IC 50 values for monophenolase and bisphenolase were 176.04 ± 10 and 59.94 ± 5 μg mL−1, respectively. Fluorescence detections and molecular docking revealed that the combination of LSTs to tyrosinase was mainly driven by hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interaction, as well as van der Waals force, which changed the microenvironment of tyrosine and tryptophan residues as well as enzyme conformation. Circular dichroism and molecular dynamics simulation showed that LSTs affected secondary structures of tyrosinase, resulting in structural stretching and conformational modification of the enzyme. In addition, preservation studies demonstrated that LSTs owned the ability to delay the browning of fresh-cut apples by inhibiting phenolic metabolism, strengthening the antioxidant system, and reducing lipid peroxidation. This paper testified that LSTs are exteaordinary tyrosinase inhibitors, and offered a scientific foundation for the application of LSTs in food industry and medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning with noisy labels (LNL) has been extensively studied, with existing approaches typically following a framework that alternates between clean sample selection and semi-supervised learning (SSL). However, this approach has a limitation: the clean set selected by the Deep Neural Network (DNN) classifier, trained through self-training, inevitably contains noisy samples. This mixture of clean and noisy samples leads to misguidance in DNN training during SSL, resulting in impaired generalization performance due to confirmation bias caused by error accumulation in sample selection. To address this issue, we propose a method called Collaborative Sample Selection (CSS), which leverages the large-scale pre-trained model CLIP. CSS aims to remove the mixed noisy samples from the identified clean set. We achieve this by training a 2-Dimensional Gaussian Mixture Model (2D-GMM) that combines the probabilities from CLIP with the predictions from the DNN classifier. To further enhance the adaptation of CLIP to LNL, we introduce a co-training mechanism with a contrastive loss in semi-supervised learning. This allows us to jointly train the prompt of CLIP and the DNN classifier, resulting in improved feature representation, boosted classification performance of DNNs, and reciprocal benefits to our Collaborative Sample Selection. By incorporating auxiliary information from CLIP and utilizing prompt fine-tuning, we effectively eliminate noisy samples from the clean set and mitigate confirmation bias during training. Experimental results on multiple benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method in comparison with the state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atherosclerosis is a causative factor associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Over the past few decades, extensive research has been carried out on the relationship between the n-6/n-3 fatty acid ratio of ingested lipids and the progression of atherosclerosis. However, there are still many uncertainties regarding the precise nature of this relationship, which has led to challenges in providing sound dietary advice to the general public. There is therefore a pressing need to review our current understanding of the relationship between the dietary n-6/n-3 fatty acid ratio and atherosclerosis, and to summarize the underlying factors contributing to the current uncertainties. Initially, this article reviews the association between the n-6/n-3 fatty acid ratio and CVDs in different countries. A summary of the current understanding of the molecular mechanisms of n-6/n-3 fatty acid ratio on atherosclerosis is then given, including inflammatory responses, lipid metabolism, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol oxidation, and vascular function. Possible reasons behind the current controversies on the relationship between the n-6/n-3 fatty acid ratio and atherosclerosis are then provided, including the precise molecular structures of the fatty acids, diet-gene interactions, the role of fat-soluble phytochemicals, and the impact of other nutritional factors. An important objective of this article is to highlight areas where further research is needed to clarify the role of n-6/n-3 fatty acid ratio on atherosclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although growing evidence has shown independent links of long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) with cognitive impairment, the effects of its constituents remain unclear. This study aims to explore the associations of long-term exposure to ambient PM 2.5 constituents' mixture with cognitive impairment in Chinese older adults, and to further identify the main contributor. 15,274 adults ≥ 65 years old were recruited by the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Study (CLHLS) and followed up through 7 waves during 2000–2018. Concentrations of ambient PM 2.5 and its constituents (i.e., black carbon [BC], organic matter [OM], ammonium [NH 4 +], sulfate [SO 4 2-], and nitrate [NO 3 -]) were estimated by satellite retrievals and machine learning models. Quantile-based g-computation model was employed to assess the joint effects of a mixture of 5 PM 2.5 constituents and their relative contributions to cognitive impairment. Analyses stratified by age group, sex, residence (urban vs. rural), and region (north vs. south) were performed to identify vulnerable populations. During the average 3.03 follow-up visits (89,296.9 person-years), 4294 (28.1%) participants had developed cognitive impairment. The adjusted hazard ratio [HR] (95% confidence interval [CI]) for cognitive impairment for every quartile increase in mixture exposure to 5 PM 2.5 constituents was 1.08 (1.05–1.11). BC held the largest index weight (0.69) in the positive direction in the qg-computation model, followed by OM (0.31). Subgroup analyses suggested stronger associations in younger old adults and rural residents. Long-term exposure to ambient PM 2.5 , particularly its constituents BC and OM, is associated with an elevated risk of cognitive impairment onset among Chinese older adults. [Display omitted] • Exposure to PM 2.5 and its constituents has an adverse effect on cognitive impairment. • A qg-computation model assessed the joint effect and relative importance of PM 2.5 constituents. • BC and OM are the main PM 2.5 constituents contributing to cognitive impairment. • A roughly linear concentration-response association was found for PM 2.5. • Younger old adults and rural residents are more vulnerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Establishment of a dual-promoter-based reverse genetics system for Senecavirus A. • Rescue of SVA using eukaryotic and prokaryotic RNA polymerase systems. • The reverse genetics system was easily operated and was universally able to rescue all SVA strains. • Generating a recombinant virus with one step site-directed mutagenesis. Senecavirus A (SVA), a recently emerging picornavirus, poses a great threat to the swine industry because it causes swine idiopathic vesicular disease and epidemic transient neonatal losses. Thus far, the progress in SVA viral pathogenesis studies and vaccine development remains sluggish, and an available and convenient reverse genetics system would undoubtedly promote relevant research. Herein, we established an improved universal dual-promoter reverse genetics system with an SVA-specific hammerhead ribozyme and hepatitis delta virus ribozyme at both terminals of the viral genome; this system could be applied to rescue all SVA strains by both eukaryotic and prokaryotic RNA polymerase systems. The genome of the clone-derived Chinese field strain CH/HeN-2018 was assembled into the universal vector pcDNA-rSVAuni through the Gibson assembly technique. Moreover, two silent mutations, G6848C and C7163 G, were separately engineered into the full-length cDNA clone with one step site-directed mutagenesis to create a KpnI restriction enzyme site, which served as a unique genetic marker. The viruses, designated rCH/HeN-2018-T7, rCH/HeN-2018-CMV, rCH/HeN-2018-6484 m and rCH/HeN-2018-7163 m, were successfully rescued through both CMV- and T7-dependent pathways, and their biological properties were further evaluated. The results showed that all four viruses grew rapidly in PK-15 cells and exhibited viral titers and growth kinetics similar to those of parental wt CH/HeN-2018. The established reverse genetics system is easily operated and can be applied to rescue all SVA strains in a short time, which will be helpful for studying SVA biology, including viral pathogenesis, antiviral therapies and vaccine development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chimonanthus praecox (L.) Link kernel oil (LMO) has the potential to expand the variety of nutraceutical plant oils available and provide support for the application of functional food. This study aimed to assess the edible potential of LMO by examining its physicochemical characteristics, digestion behaviors, and nutraceutical properties. The results revealed that LMO has a high oil content of 40.84% and is particularly rich in linoleic acid (53.37-56.30%), oleic acid (22.04-25.08%) and triacylglycerol (TAG) of linoleic acid -palmitoleic acid- oleic acid (10.57-12.70%). The quality characteristics and phytochemical composition of LMO were found to be influenced by variety and extraction methods used. In simulated in vitro digestion tests, LMO showed a better lipid release rate and degree. Animal studies further demonstrated that LMO led to better TAG and cholesterol excretion compared to soybean oil and camellia oleifera oil. Overall, this study highlights the potential of LMO as a high-quality edible oil., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest No conflict of interest exits in the submission of this manuscript, and manuscript is approved by all authors for publication., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the malignant tumors responsible for high mortality and recurrence rates. Although liver transplantation (LT) is an effective treatment option for HCC, ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a contributor to HCC recurrence after LT. Moreover, prolonged cold ischemia time (CIT) is a risk factor for IRI during LT, and there is insufficient clinical evidence regarding the impact of CIT on HCC recurrence after LT., Patients and Methods: This retrospective study analyzed 420 patients who underwent LT for HCC between February 2015 and November 2020 at The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University. The duration of CIT was defined as the time from clamping of the donor aorta until portal reperfusion., Results: A total of 133 patients (31.7%) experienced tumor recurrence after LT, and CIT > 568 min was the independent risk factor for HCC recurrence (OR, 2.406; 95% CI [1.371-4.220]; p = 0.002). Multivariate Cox's regression analysis revealed that the recipients' gender, exceeding Milan criteria, poor differentiation, and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) ≥400 ng/ml in CIT > 568 min group were independent risk factors for disease-free survival. The peak 7-day postoperative alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level ( p  < 0.001), the peak 7-day postoperative aspartate aminotransferase (AST) level ( p  < 0.001), the peak 7-day postoperative peak total bilirubin (TBIL) level ( p  = 0.012), and the incidence of early allograft dysfunction (EAD) ( p  = 0.006) were significantly higher in the CIT > 568 min group compared to the CIT ≤ 568 min group. Moreover, the amount of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) infusion during the operation increased ( p  = 0.02), and the time of mechanical ventilation postoperative was longer ( p  = 0.045)., Conclusion: An effective strategy to improve the prognosis is to reduce CIT; this strategy lowers the recurrence of HCC in patients undergoing LT, especially those within the Milan criteria., Competing Interests: The authors declare there are no competing interests., (©2024 Yu et al.)

Functional mesoporous carbon nanomaterials with large pores and small particle sizes have broad accessibility, but remain challenging to achieve. This study proposed a dual-template synergistic assembly strategy to facilely synthesize extra-small nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon nanospheres with large pores in a low-cost manner. Directed by the synergistic effect of the combination of surfactants, sodium oleate (anionic surfactant) and triblock copolymer-P123 (nonionic surfactant) were selected as templates to construct nanomicelles (nanoemulsions), which were co-assembled with melamine-based oligomers to form composite nanomicelles, thus obtaining nitrogen-doped mesoporous polymer nanospheres (NMePS) and then nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon nanospheres (NMeCS). Based on Schiff base chemistry, the melamine-based oligomers with self-assembly capability were synthesized as precursors, which is different from the conventional synthetic route of melamine-formaldehyde resin. The key parameters involved in the route were investigated comprehensively and correlated with the characterization results. Furthermore, the 50 nm-scale particle size and the large mesoporous size of 5.5 nm of NMeCS can facilitate effective mass transport, coupled with their high nitrogen content (15.7 wt%), contributing to their excellent performance in lithium-ion batteries.

Background/aims: The shortage of donor liver hinders the development of liver transplantation. This study aimed to clarify the poor outcomes of functionally marginal liver grafts (FMLs) and provide evidence for the improvement of ischemia-free liver transplantation (IFLT) after FML transplantation., Methods: Propensity score matching was used to control for confounding factors. The outcomes of the control group and FML group were compared to demonstrate the negative impact of FMLs on liver transplantation patients. We compared the clinical improvements of the different surgical types. To elucidate the underlying mechanism, we conducted bioinformatic analysis based on transcriptome and single-cell profiles., Results: FMLs had a significantly greater hazard ratio (HR: 1.969, P=0.018) than did other marginal livers. A worse 90-day survival (Mortality: 12.3% vs. 5.0%, P=0.007) was observed in patients who underwent FML transplantation. Patients who received FMLs had a significant improvement in overall survival after IFLT (Mortality: 10.4% vs 31.3%, P=0.006). Pyroptosis and inflammation were inhibited in patients who underwent IFLT. The infiltration of natural killer cells was lower in liver grafts from these patients. Bulk transcriptome profiles revealed a positive relationship between IL-32 and Caspase 1 (R=0.73, P=0.01) and between IL-32 and Gasdermin D (R=0.84, P=0.0012)., Conclusion: FML is a more important negative prognostic parameter than other marginal liver parameters. IFLT might ameliorate liver injury in FMLs by inhibiting the infiltration of NK cells, consequently leading to the abortion of IL-32, which drives pyroptosis in monocytes and macrophages.

4,4-Dimethylsterols constitute a unique class of phytosterols responsible for regulating endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS) functions. However, precise mechanism through which 4,4-dimethylsterols affect fat metabolism and the linkage to the ECS remain unresolved. In this study, we identified that 4,4-dimethylsterols, distinct from 4-demethseterols, act as inhibitors of fatty acid amide hydrolases (FAAHs) both in vivo and in vitro. Genetic ablation of FAAHs ( faah-1 ) abolishes the effects of 4,4-dimethylsterols on fat accumulation and locomotion behavior in a Caenorhabditis elegans model. We confirmed that dietary intervention with 4,4-dimethylsterols in a high-fat diet (HFD) mouse model leads to a significant reduction in body weight (>11.28%) with improved lipid profiles in the liver and adipose tissues and increased fecal triacylglycerol excretion. Untargeted and targeted metabolomics further verified that 4,4-dimethylsterols influence unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis and elevate oleoyl ethanolamine levels in the intestine. We propose a potential molecular mechanism in which 4,4-dimethylsterols engage in binding interactions with the catalytic pocket (Ser241) of FAAH-1 protein due to the shielded polarity, arising from the presence of 2 additional methyl groups (CH 3 ). Consequently, 4,4-dimethylsterols represent an unexplored class of beneficial phytosterols that coordinate with FAAH-1 activity to reduce fat accumulation, which offers new insight into intervention strategies for treating diet-induced obesity., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 Tao Zhang et al.)

Introduction: Preservation fluid (PF) contaminations are common in conventional liver transplantation (CLT) and presumably originate from organ or PF exposures to the external environment in a non-strict sterile manner. Such exposures and PF contamination may be avoided in ischaemia-free liver transplantation (IFLT) because of the strict sterile surgical procedures. In this study, the authors evaluated the impact of IFLT on organ PF contamination., Methods: A post-hoc analysis using data from the first randomized controlled trial of IFLT was performed to compare the incidence, pathogenic spectrum of PF contamination, and incidence of early recipient infection between IFLT and CLT. Multivariable logistic regression was used to explore risk factors for PF contamination., Results: Of the 68 cases recruited in the trial, 64 were included in this post-hoc analysis. The incidence of culture-positive PF was 9.4% (3/32) in the IFLT group versus 78.1% (25/32) in the CLT group ( P <0.001). Three microorganisms were isolated from PF in the IFLT group, while 43 were isolated in the CLT group. The recipient infection rate within postoperative day 14 was 3.1% (1/32) in the IFLT group vs 15.6% (5/32) in the CLT group, although this difference did not reach statistical significance ( P =0.196). Multivariate analysis revealed that adopting IFLT is an independent protective factor for culture-positive PF., Conclusion: PF contamination is substantially decreased in IFLT, and IFLT application is an independent protective factor for PF contamination. Using rigorous sterile measures and effective antibiotic therapy during IFLT may decrease PF contamination., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Backpropagation (BP) is widely used for calculating gradients in deep neural networks (DNNs). Applied often along with stochastic gradient descent (SGD) or its variants, BP is considered as a de-facto choice in a variety of machine learning tasks including DNN training and adversarial attack/defense. Recently, a linear variant of BP named LinBP was introduced for generating more transferable adversarial examples for performing black-box attacks, by (Guo et al. 2020). Although it has been shown empirically effective in black-box attacks, theoretical studies and convergence analyses of such a method is lacking. This paper serves as a complement and somewhat an extension to Guo et al. (2020) paper, by providing theoretical analyses on LinBP in neural-network-involved learning tasks, including adversarial attack and model training. We demonstrate that, somewhat surprisingly, LinBP can lead to faster convergence in these tasks in the same hyper-parameter settings, compared to BP. We confirm our theoretical results with extensive experiments.

Dietary nutritional support for special populations is an effective and feasible method to improve the quality of life of patients and reduce medical pressure. Acer truncatum Bunge seed oil (ATSO) is widely recognized for its ability to promote nerve myelin regeneration. To evaluate the ameliorative effects of ATSO on chemotherapy-induced demyelination, a zebrafish model of chemotherapy-induced demyelination was established. The results showed that 100 μg mL -1 of ATSO reversed tail morphology damage, axon degeneration, touch response delay, ROS level upregulation and the expression of myelin basic protein decrease in chemotherapy-induced zebrafish. In addition, the expression of myelin markers (including sox10, krox20, and pmp22) in oxaliplatin-induced cells was markedly reversed by ATSO and its active components (gondoic acid, erucic acid, and nervonic acid). ATSO and its active components could reverse demyelination by ameliorating mitochondrial dysfunction. Conversely, linoleic acid and linolenic acid promoted demyelination by exacerbating mitochondrial dysfunction. Moreover, the Pink1/Parkin pathway was recognized as the main reason for ATSO and its active components improving mitochondrial function by activating mitophagy and restoring autophagic flow. Taken together, this study demonstrated that ATSO and its active components could be further developed as novel functional food ingredients to antagonize demyelination.

The surface resistivity of boroaluminosilicate display glasses, which may affect the downstream display panel manufacturing, varies with the relative humidity (RH) of the environment, but the origin of this RH dependence has not been well understood. We have measured the water adsorption behavior on Corning Eagle XG (Glass-E) and Lotus NXT (Glass-L) glass panels using Brewster angle transmission infrared spectroscopy. The IR spectra of adsorbed water were analyzed to obtain the effective thickness of adsorbed water, the distribution of hydrogen-bonding interactions among the adsorbed water molecules, and the isosteric heat of water adsorption. These characteristics were compared with the electrical conductivity (inverse of resistivity) of these two glasses [ Appl. Surf. Sci. 2015, 356, 1189]. This comparison revealed the correlation between the conductivity and the water layer structure, which could explain the surface resistivity difference between Glass-E and Glass-L as a function of RH. This study also disputed the previous hypothesis that the water adsorption isotherm would be governed by the areal density of the surface hydroxyl group; instead, it suggested that the network modifier ions may also play a critical role, especially in the intermediate RH regime.

Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects approximately 30% of individuals globally. Both serum glucose and albumin were demonstrated to be potential markers for the development of NAFLD. We hypothesized that the risk of NAFLD may be proportional to the glucose-to-albumin ratio (GAR)., Methods: Based on information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2018, it was determined that GAR was associated with an increased risk of NAFLD and liver fibrosis utilizing weighted multivariable logistic regression. Participants with a fatty liver index (FLI) over 60 were identified with NAFLD, and those with an NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS) >0.676 with evidence of NAFLD were labeled with advanced hepatic fibrosis (AHF). The liver biopsy was utilized to verify the relationship between GAR and FLD in our center cohort. Mendelian randomization analysis investigated the genetic relationship between GAR and NAFLD., Results: Of 15,534 eligible participants, 36.4% of participants were identified as NAFLD without AHF. GAR was positively correlated with the probability of NAFLD following full adjustment for possible variables (OR = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.39-1.67). It was confirmed that patients with NAFLD and AHF had an inferior prognosis. The relationship between GAR and NFS was favorable (R = 0.46, P< 0.0001), and NAFLD patients with a higher GAR tended to develop poor survival. In our center cohort, the association between GAR and NAFLD was verified., Conclusion: Among participants without diabetes, greater GAR was linked to higher risks of NAFLD. In addition, NAFLD patients with higher GAR tended to develop liver fibrosis and adverse outcomes., 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 © 2024 Wang, Lin, Zhu, Dong, Guo, Xie, He, Ju and Chen.)

Background: N 6 -methyladenosine (m 6 A) mRNA modification plays a critical role in various human biological processes. However, there has been no study reported to elucidate its role in hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). This study was aimed to explore the expression pattern together with the potential functions of m 6 A regulators in hepatic IRI., Methods: The gene expression data (GSE23649) of m 6 A regulators in human liver tissue samples before cold perfusion and within 2 h after portal vein perfusion from Gene Expression Omnibus database was analyzed. The candidate m 6 A regulators were screened using random forest (RF) model to predict the risk of hepatic IRI. The evaluation of infiltrating abundance of 23 immune cells was performed using single sample gene set enrichment analysis. Besides, quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assay was carried out to validate the expression of key m 6 A regulators in mouse hepatic IRI model., Results: The expressions of WTAP, CBLL1, RBM15, and YTHDC1 were found to be increased in liver tissues 2 h after portal vein perfusion; in contrast, the expressions of LRPPRC, FTO, METTL3, and ALKBH5 were decreased. Based on RF model, we identified eight m 6 A methylation regulators for the prediction of the risk of hepatic IRI. Besides, a nomogram was built to predict the probability of hepatic IRI. In addition, the levels of WTAP, ALKBH5, CBLL1, FTO, RBM15B, LRPPRC and YTHDC1 were correlated with the immune infiltration of activated CD4 T cell, activated dendritic cell (DC), immature DC, mast cell, neutrophil, plasmacytoid DC, T helper (Th) cell (type 1, 2, and 17), gamma delta T cell, T follicular helper (Tfh) cell, myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC), macrophage, natural killer cell, and regulatory Th cell. Among mouse hepatic IRI model, the mRNA level of CBLL1 and YTHDC1 was increased with statistical significance; however, the mRNA level of FTO and METTL3 was decreased among post-reperfusion liver samples compared with those in pre-reperfusion samples with statistical significance., Conclusions: The m 6 A regulators exerted a pivotal impact on hepatic IRI. The m 6 A patterns that found in this study might provide novel targets and strategies for the alleviation/treatment of hepatic IRI in the future., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background & Aims: Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) has thus far been considered as an inevitable component of organ transplantation, compromising outcomes, and limiting organ availability. Ischemia-free organ transplantation is a novel approach designed to avoid IRI, with the potential to improve outcomes., Methods: In this randomized-controlled clinical trial, recipients of livers from donors after brain death were randomly assigned to receive either an ischemia-free or a 'conventional' transplant. The primary endpoint was the incidence of early allograft dysfunction. Secondary endpoints included complications related to graft IRI., Results: Out of 68 randomized patients, 65 underwent transplants and were included in the analysis. 32 patients received ischemia-free liver transplantation (IFLT), and 33 received conventional liver transplantation (CLT). Early allograft dysfunction occurred in two recipients (6%) randomized to IFLT and in eight (24%) randomized to CLT (difference -18%; 95% CI -35% to -1%; p = 0.044). Post-reperfusion syndrome occurred in three recipients (9%) randomized to IFLT and in 21 (64%) randomized to CLT (difference -54%; 95% CI -74% to -35%; p <0.001). Non-anastomotic biliary strictures diagnosed with protocol magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography at 12 months were observed in two recipients (8%) randomized to IFLT and in nine (36%) randomized to CLT (difference, -28%; 95% CI -50% to -7%; p = 0.014). The comprehensive complication index at 1 year after transplantation was 30.48 (95% CI 23.25-37.71) in the IFLT group vs. 42.14 (95% CI 35.01-49.26) in the CLT group (difference -11.66; 95% CI -21.81 to -1.51; p = 0.025)., Conclusions: Among patients with end-stage liver disease, IFLT significantly reduced complications related to IRI compared to a conventional approach., Clinical Trial Registration: chictr.org. ChiCTR1900021158., Impact and Implications: Ischemia-reperfusion injury has thus far been considered as an inevitable event in organ transplantation, compromising outcomes and limiting organ availability. Ischemia-free liver transplantation is a novel approach of transplanting donor livers without interruption of blood supply. We showed that in patients with end-stage liver disease, ischemia-free liver transplantation, compared with a conventional approach, led to reduced complications related to ischemia-reperfusion injury in this randomized trial. This new approach is expected to change the current practice in organ transplantation, improving transplant outcomes, increasing organ utilization, while providing a clinical model to delineate the impact of organ injury on alloimmunity., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Astroviruses are a non-enveloped virus with large host range breadth. AstV-associated gastroenteritis in human and animal, nephritis in chicken, gout in gosling and hepatitis in duckling pose great threats to public health and poultry industry. Since early 2020, continuous emergence of fatal goose astrovirus (GAstV) infections characterized by articular and visceral gout was reported in China. Here, we described two outbreaks of emerging gout disease in two different goose farms of central China. Two virulent GAstV strains, designated as HNKF-1/China/2020 and HNSQ-6/China/2020, were isolated, and the fifth passage of the isolates could cause urate crystals accumulated in the allantoic fluid and even deposited around great vessels and embryo bodies. Meanwhile, the source of these GAstV outbreaks was tracked to goose hatcheries. The prevalence of GAstV in the goose embryos with hatch failure was confirmed, and embryo-origin HNXX-6/China/2020 was further isolated. The complete genome of these three newly isolates was then sequenced and analysed. The results showed that Chinese GAstVs have formed two distinct groups, and the three GAstV isolates, as well as most of the Chinese GAstVs, belong to the G-I group. There are several amino acid mutations in the three newly identified GAstVs, such as A520T, S535R, V555I and A782T in ORF1a and Q229P in ORF2, suggesting the field stains, HNKF-1/China/2020 and HNSQ-6/China/2020, might derive from the weak goose embryo via vertical transmission. Moreover, the phylogenetic analysis of the complete viral genome and individual viral proteins revealed that Chinese GAstV strains have been constantly evolving towards more complicated and various directions. Our study reported the recently emerging GAstV outbreaks in central China, and further analysed the genetic characteristics of three virulent G-I GAstV isolates from commercial goose farms and goose hatchery, indicating the diverse transmission of the virus and providing a basis for developing effective preventive measures and control strategies., (© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)