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Abstract This study aimed to systematically investigate the value of the pre-treatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in prognosticating the outcome of patients with advanced cancer receiving immunotherapy. We searched Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library to identify studies about cancer patients with immunotherapy until November 29, 2024. Retrospective or prospective cohort studies with pretreatment NLR data were included. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to evaluate the predictive value of NLR in prognosis and immunotherapy efficacy. The random effect model was applied for meta-analysis and the risk of bias was assessed by Egger test and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) method. A total of 129 articles involving 18780 cases were finally selected. Most cases were advanced cancers with the median follow-up period ranged 2–48.6 months. The high pretreatment NLR level was associated with the significantly reduced OS (HR (95%CI) = 2.26 (2.03, 2.53)), PFS (HR (95% CI) = 1.83 (1.69, 1.98)), ORR (OR (95%CI) = 0.53 (0.46, 0.61)) and DCR (OR (95% CI) = 0.36 (0.29, 0.43)) in patients with advanced cancer receiving immunotherapy. The quality of evidence was low, attributed to the serious risk of bias and incon¬sistency. An elevated NLR before immunotherapy was significantly associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients with advanced cancer.

Abstract This study aims to develop a super-resolution (SR) algorithm tailored specifically for enhancing the image quality and resolution of early cervical cancer (CC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. The proposed method is subjected to both qualitative and quantitative analyses, thoroughly investigating its performance across various upscaling factors and assessing its impact on medical image segmentation tasks. The innovative SR algorithm employed for reconstructing early CC MRI images integrates complex architectures and deep convolutional kernels. Training is conducted on matched pairs of input images through a multi-input model. The research findings highlight the significant advantages of the proposed SR method on two distinct datasets at different upscaling factors. Specifically, at a 2× upscaling factor, the sagittal test set outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in the PSNR index evaluation, second only to the hybrid attention transformer, while the axial test set outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in both PSNR and SSIM index evaluation. At a 4× upscaling factor, both the sagittal test set and the axial test set achieve the best results in the evaluation of PNSR and SSIM indicators. This method not only effectively enhances image quality, but also exhibits superior performance in medical segmentation tasks, thereby providing a more reliable foundation for clinical diagnosis and image analysis.

Cortisol is the major glucocorticoid, which is considered to be a key factor linking the environmental stress and sex differentiation in teleosts. In the present study, we explored the possible role of cortisol in sex differentiation in a protogynous hermaphroditic swamp eel, Monopterus albus. We cloned and characterized the full-length cDNA sequences of glucocorticoid receptor genes, gr1 and gr2. A novel alternative splicing variant (gr1b) was also discovered, which lacked a 27-bp nucleotide insertion in gr1, resulting in a nine-amino-acid deletion in GR1. Real-time PCR indicated that swamp eel gr1a mainly expressed in the brain; gr1b mainly in the spleen, head kidney, kidney and muscle; gr2 mainly in the muscle. During female-to-male sex reversal, the expression levels of gr1a and gr1b decreased significantly at the stage of ovotestis III, and gr2 showed a trend of increase, and increased significantly in the testis. In the brain, acute heat stress up-regulated significantly the expression of gr1a and gr1b, while had no significant effect on gr2. However, in the ovary, heat stress only up-regulated significantly the expression of gr1b at 12 h. Serum cortisol concentration increased significantly by heat stress at 1 h, and returned to normal levels at 6 and 12 h. Cortisol injection up-regulated significantly the expression levels of gr1b and gr2, while had no significant effect on gr1a in the ovary. At the same time, cortisol injection down-regulated significantly the expression of cyp19a1a, and only decreased significantly the expression of foxl2 at 6 and 12 h. Cortisol injection up-regulated significantly the expression of dmrt1a at 6, 24 and 48 h, while only increased the expression of gsdf at 6 h. The results indicate that cortisol and GRs may play roles in sex differentiation by the regulation of gonadal differentiation-related gene expression in swamp eel.

Roots are fundamental to the growth, development, and survival of plants. Beyond anchoring the plant, roots absorb water and nutrients, supporting the plant’s ability to grow and function normally. Root systems, originating from the apical meristem, exhibit significant diversity depending on the plant species. ROS are byproducts of aerobic metabolism, present in both above- and below-ground plant tissues. While ROS were once considered merely harmful byproducts of oxygen metabolism, they are now recognized as critical signaling molecules that regulate plant growth and development. Under stress conditions, plants produce elevated levels of ROS, which can inhibit growth. However, moderate ROS levels act as signals that integrate various regulatory pathways, contributing to normal plant development. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive and systematic research on how ROS precisely regulate root growth and development. This review provides an overview of ROS production pathways and their regulatory mechanisms in plants, with a particular focus on their influence on root development.

This review provides a comprehensive summary of the latest international research on detection methods for glucosinolates in cruciferous plants. This article examines various analytical techniques, including high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and capillary electrophoresis (CE), while highlighting their respective advantages and limitations. Additionally, this review delves into recent advancements in sample preparation, extraction, and quantification methods, offering valuable insights into the accurate and efficient determination of glucosinolate content across diverse plant materials. Furthermore, it underscores the critical importance of the standardization and validation of these methodologies to ensure reliable glucosinolate analyses in both scientific research and industrial applications.

The clinical application and biological function of interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF1) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients undergoing chemoimmunotherapy remain elusive. The aim of this study was to investigate the predictive and prognostic significance of IRF1 in NSCLC patients. We employed the cBioPortal database to predict frequency changes in IRF1 and explore its target genes. Bioinformatic methods were utilized to analyze the relationship between IRF1 and immune regulatory factors. Retrospective analysis of clinical samples was conducted to assess the predictive and prognostic value of IRF1 in chemoimmunotherapy. Additionally, A549 cells with varying IRF1 expression levels were constructed to investigate its effects on NSCLC cells, while animal experiments were performed to study the role of IRF1 in vivo. Our findings revealed that the primary mutation of IRF1 is deep deletion and it exhibits a close association with immune regulatory factors. KRAS and TP53 are among the target genes of IRF1, with interferon and IL-2 being the predominantly affected pathways. Clinically, IRF1 levels significantly correlate with the efficacy of chemoimmunotherapy. Patients with high IRF1 levels exhibited a median progression-free survival (mPFS) of 9.5 months, whereas those with low IRF1 levels had a shorter mPFS of 5.8 months. IRF1 levels positively correlate with PD-L1 distribution and circulating IL-2 levels. IL-2 enhances the biological function of IRF1 and recapitulates its role in vivo in the knockdown group. Therefore, IRF1 may possess predictive and prognostic value for chemoimmunotherapy in NSCLC patients through the regulation of the IL-2 inflammatory pathway.

Abstract Background Chest computed tomography (CT) image quality impacts radiologists’ diagnoses. Pre-diagnostic image quality assessment is essential but labor-intensive and may have human limitations (fatigue, perceptual biases, and cognitive biases). This study aims to develop and validate a deep learning (DL)-driven multi-view multi-task image quality assessment (M $$^2$$ 2 IQA) method for assessing the quality of chest CT images in patients, to determine if they are suitable for assessing the patient’s physical condition. Methods This retrospective study utilizes and analyzes chest CT images from 327 patients. Among them, 1613 images from 286 patients are used for model training and validation, while the remaining 41 patients are reserved as an additional test set for conducting ablation studies, comparative studies, and observer studies. The M $$^2$$ 2 IQA method is driven by DL technology and employs a multi-view fusion strategy, which incorporates three scanning planes (coronal, axial, and sagittal). It assesses image quality for multiple tasks, including inspiration evaluation, position evaluation, radiation protection evaluation, and artifact evaluation. Four algorithms (pixel threshold, neural statistics, region measurement, and distance measurement) have been proposed, each tailored for specific evaluation tasks, with the aim of optimizing the evaluation performance of the M $$^2$$ 2 IQA method. Results In the additional test set, the M $$^2$$ 2 IQA method achieved 87% precision, 93% sensitivity, 69% specificity, and a 0.90 F1-score. Extensive ablation and comparative studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms and the generalization performance of the proposed method across various assessment tasks. Conclusion This study develops and validates a DL-driven M $$^2$$ 2 IQA method, complemented by four proposed algorithms. It holds great promise in automating the assessment of chest CT image quality. The performance of this method, as well as the effectiveness of the four algorithms, is demonstrated on an additional test set.

Background The purpose of our study was to construct a prognostic model based on ferroptosis-related gene signature to improve the prognosis prediction of lung squamous carcinoma (LUSC).

Abstract Objective This study aimed to explore the efficacy and safety of combining epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) with ZiLongJin Tablet (ZLJT) in delaying acquired resistance in advanced EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients. Furthermore, we employed network pharmacology and molecular docking techniques to investigate the underlying mechanisms. Methods A retrospective comparative study was conducted on stage IIIc/IV LUAD patients treated with EGFR-TKIs alone or in combination with ZLJT at the Second Affiliated Hospital of the Air Force Medical University between January 1, 2017, and May 1, 2023. The study evaluated the onset of TKI resistance, adverse reaction rates, safety indicators (such as aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and creatinine), and inflammatory markers (neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio) to investigate the impact of EGFR-TKI combined with ZLJT on acquired resistance and prognostic indicators. Additionally, we utilized the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform, the Bioinformatics Analysis Tool for Molecular Mechanism of Traditional Chinese Medicine, PubChem, UniProt, and Swiss Target Prediction databases to identify the active ingredients and targets of ZLJT. We obtained differentially expressed genes related to EGFR-TKI sensitivity and resistance from the Gene Expression Omnibus database using the GSE34228 dataset, which included sensitive (n = 26) and resistant (n = 26) PC9 cell lines. The "limma" package in R software was employed to detect DEGs. Based on this, we constructed a protein‒protein interaction network, performed gene ontology and KEGG enrichment analyses, and conducted pathway network analysis to elucidate the correlation between the active ingredients in ZLJT and signaling pathways. Finally, molecular docking was performed using AutoDockVina, PYMOL 2.2.0, and Discovery Studio Client v19.1.0 software to simulate spatial and energy matching during the recognition process between predicted targets and their corresponding compounds. Results (1) A total of 89 patients were included, with 40 patients in the EGFR-TKI combined with ZLJT group (combination group) and 49 patients in the EGFR-TKI alone group (monotherapy group). The baseline characteristics of the two groups were comparable. There was a significant difference in the onset of resistance between the combination group and the monotherapy group (P 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in serum AST, ALT, CREA, TBIL, ALB and BUN levels between the two groups after medication (P > 0.05). (3) Regarding inflammatory markers, there were no statistically significant differences in the changes in neutrophil-to-lymphocyte Ratio(NLR) and Platelet-to-lymphocyte Ratio(PLR) values before and after treatment between the two groups (P > 0.05). (4) Network pharmacology analysis identified 112 active ingredients and 290 target genes for ZLJT. From the GEO database, 2035 differentially expressed genes related to resistant LUAD were selected, and 39 target genes were obtained by taking the intersection. A "ZLJT-compound-target-disease" network was successfully constructed using Cytoscape 3.7.0. GO enrichment analysis revealed that ZLJT mainly affected biological processes such as adenylate cyclase-modulating G protein-coupled receptor. In terms of cellular components, ZLJT was associated with the cell projection membrane. The molecular function primarily focused on protein heterodimerization activity. KEGG enrichment analysis indicated that ZLJT exerted its antitumor and anti-drug resistance effects through pathways such as the PI3K-Akt pathway. Molecular docking showed that luteolin had good binding activity with FOS (-9.8 kJ/mol), as did tanshinone IIA with FOS (-9.8 kJ/mol) and quercetin with FOS (-8.7 kJ/mol). Conclusion ZLJT has potential antitumor progression effects. For patients with EGFR gene-mutated non-small cell LUAD, combining ZLJT with EGFR-TKI treatment can delay the occurrence of acquired resistance. The underlying mechanisms may involve altering signal transduction pathways, blocking the tumor cell cycle, inhibiting tumor activity, enhancing cellular vitality, and improving the bioavailability of combination therapy. The combination of EGFR-TKI and ZLJT represents an effective approach for the treatment of tumors using both Chinese and Western medicine.

Lung cancer is a major threat to human health and a leading cause of death. Accurate localization of tumors in vivo is crucial for subsequent treatment. In recent years, fluorescent imaging technology has become a focal point in tumor diagnosis and treatment due to its high sensitivity, strong selectivity, non-invasiveness, and multifunctionality. Molecular probes-based fluorescent imaging not only enables real-time in vivo imaging through fluorescence signals but also integrates therapeutic functions, drug screening, and efficacy monitoring to facilitate comprehensive diagnosis and treatment. Among them, near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging is particularly prominent due to its improved in vivo imaging effect. This trend toward multifunctionality is a significant aspect of the future advancement of fluorescent imaging technology. In the past years, great progress has been made in the field of NIR fluorescence imaging for lung cancer management, as well as the emergence of new problems and challenges. This paper generally summarizes the application of NIR fluorescence imaging technology in these areas in the past five years, including the design, detection principles, and clinical applications, with the aim of advancing more efficient NIR fluorescence imaging technologies to enhance the accuracy of tumor diagnosis and treatment.

Abstract Background Both low‐carbohydrate (LC) and calorie-restricted (CR) diets have been shown to have metabolic benefits. However, the two regimens have yet to be thoroughly compared. We conducted a 12-week randomized trial to compare the effects of these diets separately and in combination on both weight loss and metabolic risk factors in overweight/obese individuals. Methods A total of 302 participants were randomized to LC diet (n = 76), CR diet (n = 75), LC + CR diet (n = 76), or normal control (NC) diet (n = 75) using a computer-based random number generator. The primary outcome was the change in body mass index (BMI). The secondary outcomes included body weight, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, body fat, and metabolic risk factors. All participants attended health education sessions during the trial. Results A total of 298 participants were analyzed. BMI change over 12 weeks was − 0.6 (95% CI, − 0.8 to − 0.3) kg/m2 in NC, − 1.3 (95% CI, − 1.5 to − 1.1) kg/m2 in CR, − 2.3 (95% CI, − 2.6 to − 2.1) kg/m2 in LC, and − 2.9 (95% CI, − 3.2 to − 2.6) kg/m2 in LC + CR. LC + CR diet was more effective than LC or CR diet alone at reducing BMI (P = 0.001 and P

As nonassociative fuzzy logic connectives, it is important to study fuzzy rough set models using overlap functions that replace the role of t-norms. Overlap functions and t-norms are logical operators with symmetry. Recently, intuitionistic fuzzy rough set and multi-granulation fuzzy rough set models have been proposed based on overlap functions. However, some results (that contain five propositions, two definitions, six examples and a proof) must be improved. In this work, we improved the existing results. Moreover, to extend the existing fuzzy rough sets, a new fuzzy covering rough set model was constructed by using the generalized overlap function, and it was applied to the diagnosis of medical diseases. First, we improve some existing results. Then, in order to overcome the limitations of the fuzzy covering rough set model based on overlap functions, a fuzzy β-covering rough set model based on generalized overlap functions was established. Third, some properties of the fuzzy β-covering rough set model based on generalized overlap functions are discussed. Finally, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method of the fuzzy β-covering rough set based on generalized overlap functions was proposed. Taking medical disease diagnosis as an example, the comparison with other methods shows that the proposed method is feasible and effective.

Based on the textual data of the resumes of 499 high-level talents, this study attempts to explore the factors affecting the selection and funding of high-level talents in western China. From the empirical analysis, we found that (1) the western Chinese government tends to favor the young and native talents, with a high initial academic degree (the degree obtained before working) and final academic degree (the highest degree obtained); (2) the talents with more experience, higher education, national talent titles, and participation in national projects are more likely to receive higher levels of funding; (3) it is easier for talents in universities and research institutes to be entitled as high-level talents and to gain funding than those in enterprises; and (4) talents in the fields of medicine, agronomy, and basic sciences are more likely to be entitled as high-level talents than those in other professional fields.

Rice field eel (Monopterus albus), a protogynous hermaphrodite fish, is a good model for the research of sex determination and gonadal differentiation in teleosts. In this study, we cloned the full-length cDNA sequence of trh, which encoded a predicted protein with 270 amino acids. Trh mainly expressed in the brain, followed by the ovary, testis, muscle and pituitary, and had low levels in other peripheral tissues. During natural sex reversal, trh mRNA expression levels exhibited a significant increase at the late intersexual stage in the hypothalamus. In the gonad, trh mRNA expression levels showed a trend of increase followed by decrease, and only increased significantly at the middle intersexual stage. No matter static incubation or intraperitoneal (IP) injection, TRH had no significant effect on trh and thyroid-stimulating hormone βsubunit (tshβ) mRNA expression levels, and serum T3, T4 and TRH release. After static incubation of ovarian fragments by TRH, the expression of gonadal soma derived factor (gsdf) was up-regulated significantly at both the doses of 10 and 100 nM. IP injection of TRH stimulated the expression of gsdf, and inhibited the expression of ovarian aromatase gene (cyp19a1a), accompanied by the increase of serum 11-KT levels. The results indicated that TRH may play a novel role in gonadal differentiation by the regulation of gonadal differentiation-related gene expression and sex steroid hormone secretion in rice field eel.

Problem:: Modernizing and standardizing place names and addresses is a key challenge in the development of smart cities. Purpose:: This paper proposes a solution to address matching challenges, such as incomplete descriptions, reversed word order, and the diverse descriptions often found in Chinese addresses. Method:: Leveraging the hierarchical structure of Chinese addresses, this study introduces the interactive address matching graph attention model (IAMGAM). In the IAMGAM, an attention-based feature interaction method (AFIM) is employed. To reflect the hierarchical nature of address elements, a directed graph is used to model the address data, and the model is trained and tested using a graph attention mechanism. Results:: Experiments demonstrate that the IAMGAM achieves an accuracy and F1-score of 99.61%. Compared with the existing address matching methods, the IAMGAM improves the accuracy by 0.66% to 2.57%, and the F1-score by 0.68% to 2.55%, outperforming baseline models. Additionally, ablation experiments confirm the effectiveness of each component within the model. Furthermore, when fine-tuned using ChatGLM2-6B, the results show that the IAMGAM still outperforms ChatGLM2-6B. Conclusion:: IAMGAM demonstrates excellent performance in Chinese address matching tasks, and the Large Language Model (LLM)-based methods, such as ChatGLM2-6B, show great potential for future development in this area.

Hyperthermia as an anticancer method has been paid increasing attention in recent years. Several studies have shown that hyperthermia can kill tumor cells by inducing apoptosis. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of hyperthermia-induced apoptosis are largely unknown. To investigate the effects and molecular mechanism of hyperthermia on the apoptosis in renal carcinoma 786-O cells, we firstly examined apoptosis and Ku expression in 786-O cell line treated with heat exposure (42°C for 0-4 h). The results showed that hyperthermia induced apoptosis of 786-O cells, and suppressed significantly Ku80 expression, but not Ku70 expression. Next, we knock-down Ku80 in 786-O cells, generating stable cell line 786-O-shKu80, and detected apoptosis, cell survival and cell cycle distribution. Our data showed higher apoptotic rate and lower surviving fraction in the stable cell line 786-O-shKu80 compared with those in control cells, exposed to the same heat stress (42°C for 0-4 h). Moreover, the results also showed suppression of Ku80 led to G2/M phase arrest in the stable cell line 786-O-shKu80 following heat treatment. Together, these findings indicate that Ku80 may play an important role in hyperthermia-induced apoptosis and heat-sensitivity of renal carcinoma cells through influencing the cell cycle distribution.

Cardiac hypertrophy is a well-established risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Activation of G(q/11)-mediated signaling is required for pressure overload-induced cardiomyocyte (CM) hypertrophy to develop. We previously showed that among Regulators of G protein Signaling, RGS2 selectively inhibits G(q/11) signaling and its hypertrophic effects in isolated CM. In this study, we generated transgenic mice with CM-specific, conditional RGS2 expression (dTG) to investigate whether RGS2 overexpression can be used to attenuate G(q/11)-mediated signaling and hypertrophy in vivo. Transverse aortic constriction (TAC) induced a comparable rise in ventricular mass and ANF expression and corresponding hemodynamic changes in dTG compared to wild types (WT), regardless of the TAC duration (1-8 wks) and timing of RGS2 expression (from birth or adulthood). Inhibition of endothelin-1-induced G(q/11)-mediated phospholipase C β activity in ventricles and atrial appendages indicated functionality of transgenic RGS2. However, the inhibitory effect of transgenic RGS2 on G(q/11)-mediated PLCβ activation differed between ventricles and atria: (i) in sham-operated dTG mice the magnitude of the inhibitory effect was less pronounced in ventricles than in atria, and (ii) after TAC, negative regulation of G(q/11) signaling was absent in ventricles but fully preserved in atria. Neither difference could be explained by differences in expression levels, including marked RGS2 downregulation after TAC in left ventricle and atrium. Counter-regulatory changes in other G(q/11)-regulating RGS proteins (RGS4, RGS5, RGS6) and random insertion were also excluded as potential causes. Taken together, despite ample evidence for a role of RGS2 in negatively regulating G(q/11) signaling and hypertrophy in CM, CM-specific RGS2 overexpression in transgenic mice in vivo did not lead to attenuate ventricular G(q/11)-mediated signaling and hypertrophy in response to pressure overload. Furthermore, our study suggests chamber-specific differences in the regulation of RGS2 functionality and potential future utility of the new transgenic model in mitigating G(q/11) signaling in the atria in vivo.

This study investigated the effect of ellagic acid on autophagy in cisplatin-resistant human epithelial ovarian cancer cells. After the autophagy double-labeled mred fluorescence protein, green fluorescence protein, light chain 3 carrying adenovirus infected cisplatin-resistant human epithelial ovarian cancer cells, the changes of autophagy flux and autophagy-related proteins were detected. Cell counting kit-8 assay was employed to detect the viability of cisplatin-resistant human epithelial ovarian cancer cells. The results showed that the number of autophagosomes and autolysosomes in the ellagic acid group increased significantly in comparison with the in cisplatin-resistant human epithelial ovarian cancer group. With the increase in ellagic acid concentration, light chain 3-II/I ratio and Beclin1 expression increased, p62 expression and cell viability decreased, and caspase-3 activated, in cisplatin-resistant human epithelial ovarian cancer cells. Conversely, 3-methyladenine inhibited ellagic acid-induced autophagy and activated caspase-3 and enhanced the cell viability. Similarly, chloroquine significantly increased cell survival rate, light chain 3-II/I ratio, and activated caspase-3, but decreased p62 expression in the ellagic acid group. In conclusion, ellagic acid can induce autophagy to inhibit the proliferation of cisplatinresistant human epithelial ovarian cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many oil fields in the Bohai Oilfield are currently in the stage of high water cut and low recovery. Thus, it is urgent to conduct in-depth research on the potential of these oil fields to maintain stable production. After 20 years of directional well development, Bohai B Oilfield has developed a set of layers with combined production and strong injection, resulting in severe interlayer interference and difficulties in tapping the potential of the remaining oil. Owing to the limited resolution of existing seismic data, it is not possible to identify the reservoir structure inside the braided river composite sand body, including the vertical and horizontal distribution of the interlayer and thin sand body. Therefore, directional well development is currently mainly used. Here, the seismic signal harmonic frequency enhancement technology is proposed, which directly uses the fundamental component of seismic data to predict harmonic and subharmonic information, and then adds it to the original seismic data to expand the high-frequency and low-frequency seismic information, achieving the purpose of frequency enhancement. This method overcomes the limitations of traditional convolutional models, eliminating the need of well information and to estimate seismic wavelets and assume sparse stratigraphic reflection coefficients, thereby reducing the human subjective factors. The research results, verified through dynamic and static information, showed that the seismic signal harmonic frequency enhancement technology can effectively and finely identify the internal structure of braided river sand bodies, help to transform directional wells into horizontal wells for development, avoid interlayer interference, and promote efficient extraction of the remaining oil.

The tumor suppressor p53 is a transcription factor involved in a variety of crucial cellular functions, including cell cycle arrest, DNA repair and apoptosis. Still, a growing number of studies indicate that p53 plays multiple roles in spermatogenesis, as well as in the occurrence and development of male infertility. The representative functions of p53 in spermatogenesis include the proliferation of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), spermatogonial differentiation, spontaneous apoptosis, and DNA damage repair. p53 is involved in various male infertility-related diseases. Innovative therapeutic strategies targeting p53 have emerged in recent years. This review focuses on the role of p53 in spermatogenesis and male infertility and analyses the possible underlying mechanism involved. All these conclusions may provide a new perspective on drug intervention targeting p53 for male infertility treatment.

Automatic crop mapping is essential for various agricultural applications. Although fully convolutional networks (FCNs) have shown effectiveness in crop mapping, they rely on labor-intensive pixel-level annotations. Weakly supervised semantic segmentation (WSSS) methods offer a solution by enabling pixel-level segmentation with less costly annotations, such as point, bounding box (bbox), and image-level annotations. However, these weak annotations often lack complete object information, leading to reduced accuracy. Moreover, there is limited exploration of WSSS methods in medium-resolution satellite imagery, such as Sentinel-2. Therefore, this study proposes SAMWS, a WSSS method based on the Segment Anything Model (SAM) for crop mapping using Sentinel-2 time series images. Leveraging SAM, our method can generate high-quality pseudo labels and accommodate various weak annotations without extensive adjustments. SAMWS comprises three stages: 1) finetuning SAM with adapters; 2) generating pseudo labels using weak annotations and finetuned SAM; and 3) training a segmentation network using pseudo labels for crop mapping. Experiments conducted on PASTIS and Munich datasets demonstrate the superiority of our approach. After SAM was finetuned with adapters, the F1-scores for parcel segmentation using point and bbox prompts increased by 75.0 % and 14.4 %, respectively, reaching 0.880 and 0.931. Additionally, our method achieves classification results closest to fully supervised learning when using point, bbox, and image-level annotations, with F1-scores of 0.810, 0.817, and 0.779, respectively. Our approach offers valuable insights into leveraging foundation models in the remote sensing domain and contains significant potential for crop monitoring. The relevant code will be made publicly available at https://github.com/Nick0317Sun/SAMWS.

Binderless tungsten carbide possesses superior wear/oxidation/corrosion resistance, high-temperature performance and polishing characteristics in comparison with traditional WC-Co cemented carbide. However, the poor sinterability coupled with intrinsic brittleness has become the twin problem restricting the development of binderless tungsten carbide especially for application specifically at the harsh conditions. Herein, we systemically investigated the effects of hybrid carbide and oxide ceramic binder, SiC whisker and graphene on the densification, microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of tungsten carbide prepared through two-step spark plasma sintering. These results demonstrate that ceramic binder together with SiC whisker performed effectively on improving the densification of WC, while graphene was the optimum reinforcement for WC-SiCw based nanocomposites. Excellent mechanical properties were achieved for SG0.15 samples with a hardness of 23.21 GPa, a flexural strength of 1207.2 MPa as well as a SENB fracture toughness of 10.66 MPa m1/2. This study could provide reference to develop high-performance binderless tungsten carbide matrix composites, further advancing the application of binderless tungsten carbide.

Abstract Breast cancer is a major threat to safety and health of women. The breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) have multi-drug resistance to chemotherapy drugs, which leads to chemotherapy failure. We proposed a strategy of delivery of tumor-killing drugs and a resistance reversal agent, to enhance inhibition of BCSCs. Here, schisandrin B (SchB)/AP NPs are constructed using acid-grafted-poly (β-amino ester) (ATRA-g-PBAE, AP) grafted polymer nanoparticle encapsulated SchB, with pH-sensitive release function. This drug delivery system has good pharmacological properties and can increase the SchB release with the decrease of pH. The NPs showed cytotoxic effects in reversing ATRA resistance to BCSCs. Lysosomal escape was achieved when the nanoparticles were taken up by BCSCs. In addition, we found that NPs may reverse MDR by inhibiting the expression of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and affecting the energy supply of drug efflux. This study provides a nanodelivery therapy strategy that reverses BCSCs multidrug resistance (MDR) and demonstrates that it did so by interfering with cancer cell energy metabolism. Therefore, the co-delivery strategy of ATRA and SchB provides a new option for the treatment of breast cancer.

Large-scale crop mapping not only requires high-quality remote sensing data, but also has high requirements for multisource data organization and interpretation. How to make full use of multisource remote sensing data and combine it with artificial intelligence algorithms has become a key solution for current crop mapping. To solve the above problems, this study proposed a spatiotemporal data cubes approach, which could organize multisource remote sensing data in a unified manner and inherit the deep learning methods. Based on the spatiotemporal data cubes, an innovative sample expansion mechanism was designed, which will effectively solve the problem of sample scarcity in ground surveys. The Attention-based Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory network was used with a late-fusion strategy as a classifier on each cube cell to further enhance the incorporation of multisource information. In this study, experiments toward winter wheat and garlic were conducted in the Henan Province of China (approximately 167 000 km2). The approach was verified via comparing with random forest and early-fusion strategy, which demonstrated competitive performance, achieving a weighted-average F1 score of 0.888, with individual F1 scores of 0.919, 0.854, and 0.846 for winter wheat, garlic, and others classes, respectively. The analysis also examined the impact of data availability and found that the temporal distribution of observations was more important than the absolute quantity of available data. Overall, the spatiotemporal data cubes approach proposed in this article has the potential to be extended to a national, intercontinental, or even global scale, and can provide a reference for large-scale crop mapping.

Taraxaci herba, as a traditional Chinese medicine, is the name of the Taraxacum genus in the Asteraceae family. Documented in the Tang Herbal Medicine (Tang Dynasty, AD 657–659), its medicinal properties cover a wide range of applications such as acute mastitis, lung abscess, conjunctival congestion, sore throat, damp-heat jaundice, and vision improvement. In the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (Edition 2020), more than 40 kinds of China-patented drugs containing Taraxaci herba were recorded. This review explores the evolving scientific understanding of Taraxaci herba, covering facets of ethnopharmacology, botany, phytochemistry, pharmacology, artificial cultivation, and quality control. In particular, the chemical constituents and pharmacological research are reviewed. Taraxaci herba has been certified as a traditional medicine plant, and its flavonoids, phenolic acids, and terpenoids have been identified and separated, which include Chicoric acid, taraxasterol, Taraxasteryl acetate, Chlorogenic acid, isorhamnetin, and luteolin; they are responsible for anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-tumor, and anti-cancer activities. These findings validate the traditional uses of Taraxaci herba and lay the groundwork for further scientific exploration. The sources used in this study include Web of Science, Pubmed, the CNKI site, classic monographs, the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, the Chinese Medicine Dictionary, and doctoral and master’s theses.

Abstract Cancer has always posed a significant threat to human health, prompting extensive research into new treatment strategies due to the limitations of traditional therapies. Starvation therapy (ST) has garnered considerable attention by targeting the primary energy source, glucose, utilized by cancer cells for proliferation. Glucose oxidase (GOx), a catalyst facilitating glucose consumption, has emerged as a critical therapeutic agent for ST. However, mono ST alone struggles to completely suppress tumor growth, necessitating the development of synergistic therapy approaches. Metal catalysts possess enzyme-like functions and can serve as carriers, capable of combining with GOx to achieve diverse tumor treatments. However, ensuring enzyme activity preservation in normal tissue and activation specifically within tumors presents a crucial challenge. Nanodelivery systems offer the potential to enhance therapy effectiveness by improving the stability of therapeutic agents and enabling controlled release. This review primarily focuses on recent advances in the mechanism of GOx combined with metal catalysts for synergistic tumor therapy. Furthermore, it discusses various nanoparticles (NPs) constructs designed for synergistic therapy in different carrier categories. Finally, this review provides a summary of GOx-metal catalyst-based NPs (G-M) and offers insights into the challenges associated with G-M therapy, delivery design, and oxygen (O2) supply.

The current study applies towards investigate the sintering behavior, microstructure as well as mechanical properties of SiC whisker (SiCw) and multi-layer graphene (MLG) reinforced cemented TiB2 nano-composites fabricated through two-step sintering (TSS), highlighting the critical roles of SiCw and MLG as exceptional strengthening/toughening phases. The sinterability of TiB2–TiC–Ni was somewhat improved as a function of MLG or SiCw incorporation. The addition of SiCw resulted in the grain growth of matrix grains, whereas MLG addition significantly impeded the grain growth of TiB2. TSS is effective in suppressing the grain growth coupled with improving the densification in comparison with conventional sintering (CS). The major toughening mechanisms for SiCw/TiB2–TiC–Ni are SiCw bridging, crack deflection and branching. The major toughening mechanisms for MLG/TiB2–TiC–Ni are MLG bridging/pullout as well as crack deflection/branching/arresting. MLG is a superior reinforcement in comparison with SiCw.

Sorafenib is an important treatment strategy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Unfortunately, drug resistance has become a major obstacle in sorafenib application. In this study, whole transcriptome sequencing (WTS) was conducted to compare the paired differences between non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), including long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), circular RNAs (circRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and mRNAs, in sorafenib-resistant and parental cells. The overlap of differentially expressed ncRNAs (DENs) between the SMMC7721/S and Huh7/S cells and their parental cells was determined. 2 upregulated and 3 downregulated lncRNAs, 2 upregulated and 1 downregulated circRNAs, as well as 10 upregulated and 2 downregulated miRNAs, in both SMMC7721/S and Huh7/S cells, attracted more attention. The target genes of these DENs were then identified as the overlaps between the differentially expressed mRNAs achieved using the WTS analysis and the predicted genes of DENs obtained using the “co-localization” or “co-expression,” miRanda, and RNAhybrid analysis. Consequently, the potential regulatory network between overlapping DENs and their target genes in both SMMC7721/S and Huh7/S cells was explored. The “lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA” and “circRNA-miRNA-mRNA” networks were constructed based on the competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) theory using the Cytoscape software. In particular, lncRNA MED17-203-miRNA (miR-193a-5p, miR-197-3p, miR-27a-5p, miR-320b, miR-767-3p, miR-767-5p, miR-92a-3p, let-7c-5p)-mRNA,” “circ_0002874-miR-27a-5p-mRNA” and “circ_0078607-miR-320b-mRNA” networks were first introduced in sorafenib-resistant HCC. Furthermore, these networks were most probably connected to the process of metabolic reprogramming, where the activation of the PPAR, HIF-1, Hippo, and TGF-β signaling pathways is governed. Alternatively, the network “circ_0002874-miR-27a-5p-mRNA” was also involved in the regulation of the activation of TGF-β signaling pathways, thus advancing Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). These findings provide a theoretical basis for exploring the mechanisms underlying sorafenib resistance mediated by metabolic reprogramming and EMT in HCC.