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Purpose. One subtype of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), with cytokeratin 19 expression (CK19+), has shown to be more aggressive and has a poor prognosis. However, CK19+ is determined by immunohistochemical examination using a surgically resected specimen. This study is aimed at establishing a radiomics signature based on preoperative gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI for predicting CK19 status in HCC. Patients and Methods. Clinicopathological and imaging data were retrospectively collected from patients who underwent hepatectomy between February 2015 and December 2020. Patients who underwent gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI and had CK19 results of histopathological examination were included. Radiomics features of the manually segmented lesion during the arterial, portal venous, and hepatobiliary phases were extracted. The 10 most reproducible and robust features at each phase were selected for construction of radiomics signatures, and their performance was evaluated by analyzing the area under the curve (AUC). The goodness of fit of the model was assessed by the Hosmer-Lemeshow test. Results. A total of 110 patients were included. The incidence of CK19(+) HCC was 17% (19/110). Alpha fetoprotein was the only significant clinicopathological variable different between CK19(-) and CK19(+) groups. A majority of the selected radiomics features were wavelet filter-derived features. The AUCs of the three radiomics signatures based on arterial, portal venous, and hepatobiliary phases were 0.70 (95% CI: 0.56-0.83), 0.83 (95% CI: 0.73-0.92), and 0.89 (95% CI: 0.82-0.96), respectively. The three radiomics signatures were integrated, and the fusion signature yielded an AUC of 0.92 (95% CI: 0.86-0.98) and was used as the final model for CK19(+) prediction. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the fusion signature was 0.84, 0.89, 0.88, 0.62, and 0.96, respectively. The Hosmer-Lemeshow test showed a good fit of the fusion signature (p > 0.05). Conclusion. The established radiomics signature based on preoperative gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI could be an accurate and potential imaging biomarker for HCC CK19(+) prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ship's propulsion shafting is one of the main sources of ship vibration and noise. The shafting, whirling vibrations, and alignment are important factors that affect the comfort, stability, and reliability during a ship's navigation. However, the mechanism of the interacting of the both factors is not fully revealed. In this paper, the effect of shafting alignment on whirling vibration and the bearing temperature response is studied by experiment. The test scheme is designed reasonably according to the theoretical analysis. The results show that the horizontal component of the shafting whirling vibration can be effectively reduced by adjusting the shafting alignment state while the vertical component is not. The shafting axis balancing position (SABP) slightly moves upward in high speed, which should be considered in the dynamic alignment design of the shafting, especially for the high-speed shafting. Little ABSB (the angle between the shafting centre line and the No. 1 bearing centre line) is beneficial to the stable operation of shafting, while appropriately increasing the ABSB and bearing load is beneficial to reducing the shafting whirling vibration. By balancing the relationship between bearing load and ABSB, the performance of whirling vibration and bearing temperature response can be optimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Currently available PDE2 inhibitors have poor brain penetration that limits their therapeutic utility in the treatment of depression. Hcyb1 is a novel selective PDE2 inhibitor that was introduced more lipophilic groups with polar functionality to the scaffold pyrazolopyrimidinone to improve the blood-brain barrier (BBB) penetration. Our previous study suggested that Hcyb1 increased the neuronal cell viability and exhibited antidepressant-like effects, which were parallel to the currently available PDE2 inhibitor Bay 60-7550. Objectives: The present study investigated whether Hcyb1 protected HT-22 cells against corticosterone-induced neurotoxicity and produced antidepressant-like effects in behavioral tests in stressed mice. Methods: The neuroprotective effects of Hcyb1 against corticosterone-induced cell lesion were examined by cell viability (MTS) assay. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunoblot analysis were used to determine the levels of cAMP or cGMP and expression of pCREB or BDNF, respectively, in the corticosterone-treated HT-22 cells. The antidepressant-like effects of Hcyb1 were determined in the tail suspension and novelty suppressed feeding tests in stressed mice. Results: In the cell-based assay, Hcyb1 significantly increased cell viability of HT-22 cells against corticosterone-induced neurotoxicity in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Hcyb1 also rescued corticosterone-induced decreases in both cGMP and cAMP levels, pCREB/CREB and BDNF expression. These protective effects of Hcyb1 were prevented by pretreatment with either the PKA inhibitor H89 or the PKG inhibitor KT5823. Moreover, Hcyb1 reversed acute stress–induced increases in immobility time and the latency to feed in the tail suspension and novelty suppressed feeding tests, respectively, which were prevented by pretreatment with H89 or KT5823. Conclusion: These findings provide evidence that the neuroprotective effects of Hcyb1 are mediated by PDE2-dependent cAMP/cGMP signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A coculture system of two Bacillus strains and Anoectochilus was established. • The combined group exerted the most obvious effect on promoting growth. • The combined group was more conducive to the accumulation of active components. • The two Bacillus helped improve soil fertility and could secrete IAA and zeatin. • Adding two Bacillus strains could regulate rhizosphere microbial community. The potentiality of PGPR and biocontrol bacteria in agriculture is steadily increased as it offers an attractive way to replace the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other supplements. This study aimed to investigate the effects and potential mechanism of inoculation with two Bacillus velezensis strains on the growth and quality improvement of Anoectochilus roxburghii (Wall.) Lindl. (MRH) and Anoectochilus formosanus (Wall.) Lindl. (YYB). The control treatment was non-inoculated (CK) and the coculture treatments were inoculated with Bacillus velezensis D2WM (D2), Bacillus velezensis ZJ-11 (ZJ-11), Bacillus velezensis D2WM and Bacillus velezensis ZJ-11 (D2+ZJ-11). The fresh weight, plant length, amount of active compounds, as well as chlorophyll content were significantly increased under D2, ZJ-11, and D2+ZJ-11 treatments compared with MRH and YYB plants in CK. In particular, D2+ZJ-11 treatment resulted in the greatest growth promotion. In MRH and YYB plants, the fresh weight increased by 82.6 % and 106.6 %, the kinsenoside content increased by 9.33 % and 21.65 % per gram, and the flavonoid content increased by 44.70 % and 21.07 % per gram, respectively. D2WM and ZJ-11 were capable of secreting siderophore, phytase, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), and zeatin to promote plant nutrient assimilation and growth. Moreover, when D2WM and ZJ-11 were both inoculated with Anoectochilus roxburghii , the rhizosphere soil enzyme activities of urease, phosphatase, and invertase were significantly higher than control, thus helped to provide more nutrients to Anoectochilus. Further, the analysis of microbial community diversity indicated the increase of abundance of beneficial microorganisms, such as nitrogen-fixing bacteria, Basidiomycota and Ascomycota both of which are known to fuel their plant partners with mineral nutrients from the soil. Additionally, the abundance of pathogens belonging to Xanthobacteraceae as well as Cladophialophora and Penicillium were reduced. Hence, coculture with beneficial microorganisms can improve the growth and quality of Anoectochilus plants via promoting nutrient assimilation and regulating rhizosphere microbial community. This technique is of great application value in promoting the efficient cultivation and production of high-quality plant materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]