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Abstract Objective We evaluated the interaction of urinary protein-to-creatinine ratio (UPCR) with diabetes on the risk of cardiovascular events in a cohort study. Methods The study population consisted of 639 participants with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 2–5, enrolled between 2010 and 2011 in Japan. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the independent and combined effects of the UPCR and diabetes on cardiovascular events. Results During a median follow-up of 3 years, 59 participants developed cardiovascular events during follow-up. A notably higher risk of cardiovascular events was found in participants with proteinuria [hazards ratio (HR): 2.16, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.17–3.97] compared to those without proteinuria at UPCR levels. In addition, the participants with diabetes had a higher risk of cardiovascular events (HR: 2.53, 95% CI: 1.49–4.30) than those without diabetes. Moreover, an interaction was found between UPCR and diabetes on cardiovascular events (P for interaction = 0.04). Participants with both proteinuria (UPCR ≥ 0.5 g/gCr) and diabetes had a 4.09 times higher risk of cardiovascular events (HR: 4.09, 95% CI: 1.97–8.47) compared with those without proteinuria (UPCR

Abstract Background Giant cell tumor of soft tissue is a low malignant uncommon neoplasm, with histologic features and immunophenotype similar to its bone counterpart. Primary giant cell tumor of soft tissue in the thyroid gland is considered an exceedingly rare entity. Case presentation We describe a case of primary thyroid giant cell tumor of soft tissue in a 69-year-old Chinese female patient. Neck ultrasonography showed a 19 mm × 12 mm × 5 mm nodule with heterogeneous echo and clear boundary located within the left thyroid. Histopathological examination revealed that the neoplasm was composed of two morphological components, mononuclear cells admixed with multinucleated osteoclast-like giant cells. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were positive for CD68 and vimentin, but were negative for epithelial membrane antigen, cytokeratin, and additional muscle markers. She underwent left unilateral thyroidectomy, and total thyroidectomy was performed for local recurrence 3 months later. The patient remained well without recurrence or metastasis following up for 12 months. Conclusion The significance of this case lies in its rarity, the challenge of preoperative clinical diagnosis, and the differential diagnosis with other malignancies.

As Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) become increasingly intelligent, facial expression recognition (FER) has become a significant requirement for the purpose of monitoring a driver’s emotional state as well as fatigue level. An automobile system with FER is very useful in improving transportation safety by recognizing the driver’s state to provide timely alerts and potentially reduce the likelihood of accidents. While deep neural networks (DNN) based systems have achieved high accuracy in FER in recent years based on data collected under good laboratory environments, recognizing real-world facial expressions remains challenging due to variations in lighting and head pose especially prevalent in the driving scenario. In this paper, we propose an attention-based multi-modal and multi-view fusion FER model that can accurately recognize facial expressions regardless of lighting conditions or head poses, using image data of various modalities including RGB, Near-infrared (NIR), and Depth Maps from different viewpoints. The model is developed on a novel facial expression dataset we collected that includes multiple modalities captured from multiple viewpoints, with varying lighting conditions and head poses. Our multi-modal and multi-view fusion approach shows superior performance compared with models that use data from a single modality/view. The model achieves an accuracy of over 95% when recognizing drivers’ facial expressions in real-world scenarios, even in poor lighting conditions and different head poses.

Facial action unit (AU) detection is a crucial step in the field of affective computing and plays a crucial role in applications such as human-computer interaction, psychology, and social robotics. Despite recent advances in the field, the problem of facial AU detection remains challenging, in particular in real-world scenarios with diverse lighting conditions and head poses. This paper first presents a new, realistically challenging multi-modal and multi-view AU dataset, captured in a real-world vehicle environment. Then we introduce a novel graph-based multi-modal multi-view fusion framework, tailored for challenging environments such as those encountered in Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS), which significantly enhances AU detection performance under these difficult conditions. Our fusion model showcases significant advancements over current single-modality methods, achieving a marked improvement in F1 scores across most AUs. Specifically, the fusion approach demonstrated a 9.0% improvement in overall average F1 scores over the best-performing single-modality model. The results validate that integrating multiple modalities and viewpoints substantially boosts the model’s robustness and accuracy under diverse conditions, offering a meaningful advancement over the state-of-the-art.

ObjectiveTo describe clinical and epidemiological characteristics of cases infected with novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant diagnosed during February – May, 2023 in a district of Beijing city for effective containment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic.MethodsThe surveyed cases were 110 laboratory-confirmed novel SARS-CoV-2 variant infections diagnosed in sampling inspection and surveillance at customs departments and medical institutions and reported to health agency of Chaoyang district of Beijing city during February – May, 2023. The collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. The novel SARS-CoV-2 variant refers to the SARS-CoV-2 strains not detected previously in the district (except for BA.5.2/ BF.7 and their sub-variants).ResultsThe 110 cases were consisted of 64 males and 46 females, with a median age of 32 years; compared to those in the local cases, significantly higher median age and proportions of COVID19 vaccination and secondary attack were observed in the 72 (65.45% of all the cases) imported cases (P < 0.05 for all). Among all the cases, 100 (90.91%) were identified as having infections of SARS-CoV-2 XBB variant and subvariants based on whole-genome sequencing analysis. The number of symptomatic cases was 100 (90.91% of all cases) and main clinic symptoms were fever (66.00% in proportion), sore throat (53.00%), and cough (52.00%); and 35.00% of the symptomatic cases could be diagnosed as influenza-like illness. Significantly more symptomatic cases were observed in initial infections than in the reinfections (P = 0.004). For all the cases, The duration of negative seroconversion of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid or antigen was 5.92 ± 2.95 days and the disease course of was 5.00 (percentile 25∶4.00, percentile 75∶8.75) days. Compared to the cases with initial infection, the cases with reinfection had significant shorter duration (5.08 ± 2.60 days vs. 6.49 ± 3.06 days) of negative seroconversion of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid or antigen (P = 0.026). Prevalence of clinical symptoms and the duration of negative seroconversion of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid or antigen were not significantly different between the cases with SARS-CoV-2 XBB variant infection and the cases with non-XBB infection (P > 0.05). The epidemiological survey among the 110 cases identified totally 252 intimately close contacts and the secondary attack rate in the close contacts was 12.70%; the secondary attack rate was higher in the contacts of non-XBB variant infections than in the contacts of XBB variant infections.ConclusionDuring February to May 2023 in a district of Beijing, the majority of reported novel SARS-CoV-2 variant cases were imported cases; most of the local cases were initial infections; the proportion of symptomatic cases was higher in initial infections than that in the reinfections but the initial infections had a longer duration of negative seroconversion of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid or antigen than the reinfections; the secondary attack rate was higher in the contacts of non-XBB variant infections than in the contacts of XBB variant infections.

Abstract Purpose In this study, we aimed to investigate the prognosis of invasive lung adenocarcinoma that manifests as pure ground glass nodules (pGGNs) and confirm the effectiveness of sublobectomy and lymph node sampling in patients with pGGN‐featured invasive adenocarcinoma (IAC). Materials and methods We retrospectively enrolled 139 patients with pGGN‐featured IAC, who underwent complete resection in two medical institutions between January 2011 and May 2022. Stratification analysis was conducted to ensure balanced baseline characteristics among the patients. The 5‐year overall survival (OS) and disease‐free survival (DFS) rates were compared between the groups using Kaplan–Meier survival curves and log‐rank test. Results The 5‐year OS and DFS rates for patients with IAC presenting as pGGNs after surgery were 96.5% and 100%, respectively. No lymph node metastasis or recurrence was observed in any of the enrolled patients. There was no statistically significant difference in the 5‐year OS between patients who underwent lobectomy or sublobectomy, along with lymph node resection or sampling. Conclusion IAC presented as pGGNs exhibited low‐grade malignancy and had a relatively good prognosis. Therefore, these patients may be treated with sublobectomy and lymph node sampling.

Abstract Background To comprehensively elucidate the genomic and mutational features of lung cancer cases, and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), it is imperative to conduct ongoing investigations into the genomic landscape. In this study, we aim to analyze the somatic mutation profile and assessed the significance of these informative genes utilizing a retrospective LUAD cohort. Methods A total of 247 Chinese samples were analyzed to exhibit the tumor somatic genomic alterations in patients with LUAD. The Cox regression analysis was employed to identify prognosis‐related genes and establish a predictive model for stratifying patients with LUAD. Results In the Dianjiang People's Hospital (DPH) cohort, the top five frequent mutated genes were (Epidermal growth factor receptor) EGFR (68%), TP53 (30%), RBM10 (13%), LRP1B (9%), and KRAS (9%). Of which, EGFR is a mostly altered driver gene, and most mutation sites are located in tyrosine kinase regions. Oncogene pathway alteration and mutation signature analysis demonstrated the RTK‐RAS pathway alteration, and smoking was the main carcinogenic factor of the DPH cohort. Furthermore, we identified 34 driver genes in the DPH cohort, including EGFR (68%), TP53 (30.4%), RBM10 (12.6%), KRAS (8.5%), LRP1B (8.5%), and so on, and 45 Clinical Characteristic‐Related Genes (CCRGs) were found to closely related to the clinical high‐risk factors. We developed a Multiple Parameter Gene Mutation (MPGM) risk model by integrating critical genes and oncogenic pathway alterations in LUAD patients from the DPH cohort. Based on publicly available LUAD datasets, we identified five genes, including BRCA2, Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), BRAF, EGFR, and Platelet‐Derived Growth Factor Receptor Alpha (PDGFRA), according to the multivariable Cox regression analysis. The MPGM‐low group showed significantly better overall survival (OS) compared to the MPGM‐high group (p

Abstract Background The fruits of Gardenia are rich in flavonoids and geniposides, which have various pharmacological effects such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer. In this study, we analyzed the transcriptome and metabolome of gardenia peel and kernel at different growth stages, revealed the regulatory network related to flavonoid synthesis, and identified the key regulatory genes. Results The results showed that in terms of flavonoid metabolic pathways, gardenia fruits mainly synthesized cinnamic acid through the phenylpropanoid pathway, and then synthesized flavonoids through the action of catalytic enzymes such as 4-coumaroyl-CoA ligase, chalcone synthase, chalcone isomerase and flavanol synthase, respectively. In addition, we found that the metabolomics data showed a certain spatial and temporal pattern in the expression of genes related to the flavonoid metabolism pathway and the relative content of metabolites, which was related to the development and ripening process of the fruit. Conclusions In summary, this study successfully screened out the key genes related to the biosynthesis metabolism of flavonoids in gardenia through the joint analysis of transcriptome and metabolome. This is of certain significance to the in-depth study of the formation mechanism of gardenia efficacy components and the improvement of quality.

Ramie (Boehmeria nivea (L.) Gaudich.) is a bast fiber crop that can be used in textiles, medicine, and feed and for environmental protection. Lignin plays an important role in plant defense and development, but lignin is a critical factor affecting the fiber and feed quality of ramie. Cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR) is a pivotal enzyme in plant lignin biosynthesis that catalyzes the synthesis of these common precursors. Here, eight CCR genes of ramie were identified based on sequence characteristics, gene structure, phylogenetic relationships, stress response to abiotic treatment, and the correlation of lignin and flavonoid contents with the expression level of genes. The eight CCR genes were cloned and divided into three groups with significant differences in their structures and sequence characteristics. BnCCR1 and BnCCR5 are involved in lignin biosynthesis. BnCCR4 plays a role in defense-related processes. It is worth noting that BnCCR2 is different from the structure and function of typical CCR, which is closely related to the synthesis of both lignin and flavonoids, and may play different roles in the xylem and phloem of ramie. The functions of the other genes require further investigation. These findings provide a basis for subsequent functional verification of CCR genes using genetic engineering.

Abstract Background Garlic is an entirely sterile crop with important value as a vegetable, condiment, and medicine. However, the evolutionary history of garlic remains largely unknown. Results Here we report a comprehensive map of garlic genomic variation, consisting of amazingly 129.4 million variations. Evolutionary analysis indicates that the garlic population diverged at least 100,000 years ago, and the two groups cultivated in China were domesticated from two independent routes. Consequently, 15.0 and 17.5% of genes underwent an expression change in two cultivated groups, causing a reshaping of their transcriptomic architecture. Furthermore, we find independent domestication leads to few overlaps of deleterious substitutions in these two groups due to separate accumulation and selection-based removal. By analysis of selective sweeps, genome-wide trait associations and associated transcriptomic analysis, we uncover differential selections for the bulb traits in these two garlic groups during their domestication. Conclusions This study provides valuable resources for garlic genomics-based breeding, and comprehensive insights into the evolutionary history of this clonal-propagated crop.

Highlights 1. Adsorption-photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants by biochar-based catalysts is summarized. 2. Adsorption-(photo)catalytic reduction-solidification of heavy metal ions is discussed. 3. Mechanism and active free radicals on the degradation/reduction of contaminants are compared and described. 4. The methods to improve the photocatalysis performance of biochar-based catalysts are introduced. 5. The challenges for the real application of biochar-based materials are provided.

IntroductionEarly screening and diagnosis of breast cancer can not only detect hidden diseases in time, but also effectively improve the survival rate of patients. Therefore, the accurate classification of breast cancer images becomes the key to auxiliary diagnosis.MethodsIn this paper, on the basis of extracting multi-scale fusion features of breast cancer images using pyramid gray level co-occurrence matrix, we present a Self-Attention Random Forest (SARF) model as a classifier to explain the importance of fusion features, and can perform adaptive refinement processing on features, thus, the classification accuracy can be improved. In addition, we use GridSearchCV technique to optimize the hyperparameters of the model, which greatly avoids the limitation of artificially selected parameters.ResultsTo demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, we perform validation on the breast cancer histopathological image-BreaKHis. The proposed method achieves an average accuracy of 92.96% and a micro average AUC value of 0.9588 for eight-class classification, and an average accuracy of 97.16% and an AUC value of 0.9713 for binary classification on BreaKHis dataset.DiscussionFor the sake of verify the universality of the proposed model, we also conduct experiments on MIAS dataset. An excellent average classification accuracy is 98.79% on MIAS dataset. Compared to other state-of-the-art methods, the experimental results demonstrate that the performance of the proposed method is superior to that of others. Furthermore, we can analyze the influence of different types of features on the proposed model, and provide theoretical basis for further optimization of the model in the future.

Abstract The study of atomically dispersed metal‐nitrogen electrocatalysts is still limited in terms of understanding their catalytic mechanism because of the inability to precisely regulate the coordination number and type of N in combination with the metal elements. Inspired by the high catalytic activity and selectivity of natural enzymes, herein, we have designed and fabricated ultrathin carbon nanosheet‐supported Mn single‐atom catalysts (SACs) with a precise pyrrole‐type Mn‐N4 (PT‐MnN4) configuration using a bio‐mimicking strategy. The PT‐MnN4 SACs display outstanding oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity, with a half‐wave potential (E1/2) of 0.88 V (vs. revisible hydrogen electrode [RHE]) and extremely high stability in alkaline media. Moreover, superior ORR activities are also obtained, E1/2 of 0.73 V and 0.63 V in acid and neutral electrolytes, respectively, indicating the efficient pH‐universal ORR performances. The assembled zinc–air battery using the PT‐MnN4 SACs as air cathodes exhibits a high peak power density (175 mW cm−2) and long‐term stability up to 150 h, implying its promising application in metal–air batteries. This study has paved the way toward the rational design and precise regulation of single‐atom electrocatalysts.

The KNOX transcription factor plays crucial roles in regulating fiber growth in plants. Although the genome of ramie, an important fiber crop in China, is available, knotted related homeobox (KNOX) genes have not been systematically explored in this crop. In this study, seven members of the KNOX gene from the ramie genome were identified and assigned to two groups, Class I and II. The intron–exon structure, conserved domain architecture, cis-regulating elements, and expression pattern showed distinct differences among the seven KNOX regulators. One of the genes, Bnt07G011994, encodes an ortholog of Arabidopsis fiber-growth-related KNAT7, and is differentially expressed among barks undergoing different stages of fiber growth. The overexpression of Bnt07G011994 dramatically decreases the fiber number in transgenic Arabidopsis, indicating a negative role played by this gene in modulating fiber growth. Further transcriptome analysis of transgenic Arabidopsis revealed that the overexpression of Bnt07G011994 resulted in an expression change in 14 pectin biosynthesis-/metabolism-related genes. These findings provide a useful foundation for further investigating the function of KNOX genes in ramie, and provide an important insight into the involvement of the ramie KNOX gene in fiber growth.

The problem of QR decomposition is considered one of the fundamental problems commonly encountered in both scientific research and engineering applications. In this paper, the QR decomposition for complex-valued time-varying matrices is analyzed and investigated. Specifically, by applying the zeroing neural dynamics (ZND) method, dimensional reduction method, equivalent transformations, Kronecker product, and vectorization techniques, a new continuous-time QR decomposition (CTQRD) model is derived and presented. Then, a novel eleven-instant Zhang et al discretization (ZeaD) formula, with fifth-order precision, is proposed and studied. Additionally, five discrete-time QR decomposition (DTQRD) models are further obtained by using the eleven-instant and other ZeaD formulas. Theoretical analysis and numerical experimental results confirmed the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed continuous and discrete ZND models.

Background: Long intergenic noncoding RNA regulator of reprogramming (linc-ROR) is a novel long noncoding RNA that exhibits significant effects on cancer progression. This research presented that linc-ROR had a crucial part in promoting biological characteristics associated with worse prognosis in colon cancer. Method: Bioinformatics analysis was performed to predict signaling pathways related to linc-ROR. In addition, western blot, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, RNA-pulldown, cell proliferation assays, colony formation assays, wound healing assays, and transwell assays were applied to detect the role and regulation of particular molecules. Results: Our results showed that the knockdown of linc-ROR reduced cell invasion, proliferative ability, and migration in colon cancer. Further evaluation verified that downregulating linc-ROR inhibited the activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling. In addition, cbl-b, a kind of E3 ubiquitin ligase that increases the degradation of EGFR, was found to be a potential linc-ROR target. Conclusions: Based on our findings, it was presented that linc-ROR served a role as a tumor-promoting factor via repressing the ubiquitination and degradation of EGFR signaling, which indicated that it could be a possible prognostic marker and therapeutic target for colon cancer.

Ni- and Fe-based metal-organic frameworks (NiFe-MOFs) have abundant valence states and have the potential to be used as bifunctional electrode materials. However, unannealed NiFe-MOFs are still not widely used in electrode materials, including electrochemical sensing, supercapacitors, and overall water splitting. In addition, the direct growth of active material on a conductive carrier has been developed as a binder-free strategy for electrode preparation. This strategy avoids the use of insulating binders and additional electrode treatments, simplifies the preparation process of the NiFe-MOFs, and improves the conductivity and mechanical stability of the electrode. Therefore, in this study, we employed a simple solvothermal method combined with an in situ growth technique to directly grow NiFe-MOF-X (X = 4, 8, 12) nanomaterials of different sizes and morphologies on nickel foam at low reaction temperatures and different reaction times. The NiFe-MOF-8 electrode exhibited high capacitive properties, with an area-specific capacitance of 5964 mF cm−2 at 2 mA cm−2 and excellent durability. On the other hand, NiFe-MOF-12 exhibited strong catalytic activity in electrocatalytic tests performed in a 1 M KOH aqueous solution, demonstrating hydrogen evolution reaction (η10 = 150 mV) and oxygen evolution reaction (η50 = 362 mV) activities. The electrochemical sensing tests demonstrated a good response to BPA. Overall, our results suggest that the direct growth of NiFe-MOFs on nickel foam using a simple solvothermal method combined with an in situ growth technique is a promising strategy.

Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression level of soluble LOX-1 (sLOX-1) in the serum of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and its correlation with lipid metabolism. Methods. 99 inpatients with NSCLC and 81 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. The levels of serum sLOX-1 were compared between the two groups, and the correlation of sLOX-1 with clinicopathological characteristics, blood lipid indices, and carcinoembryonic antigen was analyzed. Results. Compared with the healthy controls, sLOX-1, low-density lipoprotein, triglyceride, and carcinoembryonic antigen in the patients with NSCLC were significantly higher (p

Abstract Background Marsdenia tenacissima extract (MTE) is a phytochemical widely used as complementary therapy in cancer care. This systematic review was conducted to investigate the anticancer and detoxification effects of MTE, as an adjuvant therapy to chemotherapy, for treating gastric cancer. Methods Ten databases were searched to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing oral or injectable MTE plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone for treating gastric cancer up to May 1, 2019. In meta-analyses, proportional odds ratios (PORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled for the ordinal outcomes using the generalized linear model, and risk ratios (RRs) with 95% CIs were pooled for dichotomous outcomes using the Mantel-Haenszel method. Results Seventeen RCTs with 1329 individuals were included, with a moderate to high risk of selection and performance bias. Compared to chemotherapy alone, MTE adjuvant therapy significantly improved the response to anticancer treatment (POR 2.01, 95% CI 1.60–2.53) and patients’ performance status (POR 3.15, 95% CI 2.22–4.48) and reduce the incidences of chemotherapy-induced leukopenia (RR 0.66, 95% CI 0.56–0.78), thrombocytopenia (RR 0.64, 95% CI 0.48–0.86), anemia (RR 0.89, 95% CI 0.72–1.10), nausea/vomiting (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.69–0.91), hepatic injury (RR 0.77, 95% CI 0.61–0.96), and peripheral neurotoxicity (RR 0.77, 95% CI 0.59–1.01). However, MTE did not significantly alleviate anemia, diarrhea, constipation, kidney injury, and oral mucosal lesions after chemotherapy. Incidence of nausea/vomiting was lower in patients receiving oral MTE than those receiving injectable MTE (RR 0.47 vs. 0.82, interaction P = 0.04). Heterogeneity was generally low among these outcomes. Three out of five RCTs that reported survival data supported the effects of MTE for prolonging progression-free and/or overall survival. No studies reported safety outcomes of MTE. Conclusions The current evidence with limitations of risk of selection and performance bias suggests that MTE, as an adjuvant therapy to chemotherapy, is effective for inhibiting cancer growth and reducing incidences of multiple chemotherapy side effects. Oral MTE may be a better choice. Uncertainty remains regarding the effects of MTE on survival endpoints and the subgroup differences between acute and chronic use of MTE and between different chemotherapy regimens.

The atmospheric resistance and solar radiation pressure are the main sources of non-gravitational perturbations in orbit determination and prediction of non-cooperative earth-orbiting objects. The calculation of both perturbation accelerations involves the satellite’s surface-mass ratio. Another factor affecting the accuracy of orbit determination and prediction is the sparse observation. In this paper, we examine the sensitivity of orbit prediction accuracy and orbit decay rate relative to surface-mass ratio. The influence of the space-based angle data to orbit determination was also analyzed. The results show that the error of orbit prediction is multiplied by the change of surface–mass ratio. The orbital error determined by using 7-minutes single-station ground-based radar data and 15-minutes double-space-based angle measurements is 63.77 m lower than that only determined by using single-station ground-based radar data. The space-based angle information greatly improves the observation geometry of the non-cooperative target and improves the precision of orbit determination. The position error of the inclined geosynchronous satellite determined by 3-days ground-based radar data is 323.49 m and the prediction error of 1-7 days is less than 1.0 km. Using 3-days ground-based radar data and single spaced-based angle measurement to determine the orbit of the medium-orbit satellite with an altitude of about 1000 km, the orbital accuracy is 14.66 m and the prediction error of 1-7 days is less than 50.00 m. To determine the orbit of the 280 km height satellite with, 1.5-days ground-based radar data and single space-based angle data, the position error is 270.37 m and the prediction error of 1-day is 1.70 km.

Milk and fish are two important nutrient rich foods that have shown to possess positive effects in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Recent evidence from several interventional studies in humans have demonstrated the beneficial effects of bioactive proteins, peptides, and fatty acids derived from fish and milk sources in the prevention and management of T2DM. The anti-diabetic compounds present in the fish are proteins, peptides, and ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), while milk bioactive compounds are casein, casein derived peptides, whey proteins, and whey protein derived peptides. Fish and milk derived bioactive proteins, peptides and fatty acids exhibited anti-diabetic effects through several mechanisms. This review mainly focuses on the recent studies related to the anti-diabetic activities of fish and milk derived bioactive compounds (proteins, peptides, fatty acids) in humans, animals and in vitro, and mechanisms of action of these bioactive compounds in the management of T2DM.

Repetitive motion planning and control (RMPC) of redundant robot manipulators is a fundamental and important problem widely existing in industrial manufacturing. In this paper, the acceleration-level RMPC (ALRMPC) is studied and solved in a discrete-time manner. For solving this problem, a new ALRMPC scheme with feedback control term is derived and presented at first. Then, by adopting Lagrange's undetermined multipliers method and zeroing neural dynamics (ZND), a continuous-time ZND model, which is based on the new ALRMPC scheme, is developed and proposed. Besides, an eight-instant general formula with high precision is constructed, proposed and analyzed. By using this eight-instant general formula and other multiple-instant Zhang et al discretization (ZeaD) formulas to discretize the continuous-time ZND model, four discrete-time ZND (DTZND) models for solving ALRMPC are thus obtained. Finally, theoretical analyses and computer simulation experiment results further substantiate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed DTZND models.

Abstract Background Tumor suppressor epigenetic silencing plays an important role in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) development and progression. Previously, the expression of speckle-type POZ protein (SPOP) has been found to be significantly inhibited in NSCLC. Our research aimed to investigate the molecular mechanisms, clinical significance and epigenetic alteration of SPOP in NSCLC. Materials and methods Bisulfite sequencing PCR and methylation-specific PCR were performed to test gene methylation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) was performed to detect transcription factor C/EBPα combinations and the promoter of the SPOP gene. Furthermore, we evaluated the effects of C/EBPα siRNA on SPOP expression, tumor cell migration and proliferation via MTT and Transwell assays in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. The relationship between the methylation status of the SPOP gene and clinicopathologic characteristics was investigated. Results Hypermethylation was found in the CpG island of the SPOP gene promoter in NSCLC tissues, and this methylation was found to be correlated with SPOP expression. SPOP promoter methylation was associated with the pathology grade. The transcriptional activities were significantly inhibited by the hypermethylation of specific CpG sites within the SPOP gene promoter, while 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine significantly increased SPOP gene expression. C/EBPα also played a key role in SPOP regulation. Five C/EBPα binding sites in the CpG island of the SPOP gene promoter were identified by ChIP. Inhibition of C/EBPα significantly reduced SPOP expression. SPOP mediated the C/EBPα-regulated suppression of invasion, migration and proliferation in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. Conclusions SPOP function and expression in NSCLS were regulated by DNA methylation and C/EBPα transcriptional regulation combination effects, indicating that the SPOP promoter methylation status could be utilized as an epigenetic biomarker and that the C/EBPα-SPOP signaling pathway could be a potential therapeutic target in NSCLC.

The widespread use of cyclophosphamide (CP) in medical treatment had caused ubiquitous contamination in the environment. To data, many studies have been carried out on the toxic effect of CP. However, among these toxic effects of CP, which are the most sensitive remains unclear. Present study aimed to investigate the toxicity of CP on mice and evaluate the sensitivity of physiological-biochemical parameters upon exposure of mice to CP. Results showed that as compared with the control group, CP caused significant reduction in body weight (p leukocyte density > ALT in kidney > spleen coefficient; while among the stimulated parameters, the sensitivity was ranked as MDA (liver) > Cr (kidney) > ALT (liver). Overall, the most sensitive parameters to CP toxicity may be associated with growth, immune system and the normal function of liver and kidney.

Objective: Our study aimed to investigate the expression level and clinical significance of serum and exhaled breath condensate miR-186 and IL-1β in non-small cell lung cancer patients. Methods: The serum and exhaled breath condensate specimens of 62 non-small cell lung cancer patients and 60 healthy controls were collected to detect miR-186 expression levels by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay was applied to examine IL-1β concentration. Statistical analyses were used to evaluate the correlation between miR-186 and IL-1β in serum and clinicopathological features, traditional serum tumor markers, and inflammatory markers. The diagnostic efficacy of miR-186 and IL-1β for non-small cell lung cancer was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The correlation between miR-186 and IL-1β was determined. Results: ① The relative expression level of miR-186 was greatly reduced in the serum and EBC of patients with non-small cell lung cancer, and the miR-186 expression level was reduced in different TNM stages of non-small cell lung cancer, from the early to later stages. ② The IL-1β concentration in serum and exhaled breath condensate of patients with non-small cell lung cancer was increased. ③ Serum miR-186 and IL-1β levels were closely related to lymph node metastasis, and the low expression of serum miR-186 and the high concentration of IL-1β were associated with higher serum carcinoembryonic antigen, C-reactive protein, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate levels. ④ ROC curve analysis showed that exhaled breath condensate miR-186 had higher area under the curve than serum miR-186, and the combined detection showed higher diagnostic efficacy than the separate detection. In addition, the combined detection of IL-1β and miR-186 has a larger AUC than the separate detection of both. ⑤ The correlation between serum miR-186 and IL-1β was negative. Conclusion: miR-186 and IL-1β are expected to be potential diagnostic biomarkers for non-small cell lung cancer.

Abstract This study provided the first attempt of grafting hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane with hydrophilic hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) monomer via a radiation grafting method. This grafted membrane showed an enhanced hydrophilicity (10° decrease of water contact angle), water content ratio, settling ability and wettability compared to the control membrane. Interestingly, filtration tests showed an improved dependence of water flux of the grafted membrane on the solution pH in the acidic stage. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis provided in-situ evidence that the reduced surface pore size of the grafted membrane with the solution pH governed such a dependence. It was proposed that, the reduced surface pore size was caused by the swelling of the grafted chain matrix, with the pH increase due to the chemical potential change. It was found that the grafted membrane showed a lower relative flux decreasing rate than the control membrane. Moreover, flux of the bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution was noticeably larger than that of pure water for the grafted membrane. Higher BSA flux than water flux can be explained by the effects of electric double layer compression on the polymeric swelling. This study not only provided a pH-sensitive PVDF membrane potentially useful for various applications, but also proposed novel mechanisms underlying the enhanced performance of the grafted membrane.

Ramie (Boehmeria nivea L. Gaud) is a highly versatile herbaceous plant which is widely cropped in southern China. The success of this herbaceous plant relies on wide use in modern industry. Understanding the profiling of expressed genes in phloem and xylem of ramie is crucial for improving its industrial performance. Herein, we uncover the transcriptome profile in phloem and xylem in present study. Using Illumina paired-end sequencing technology, 57 million high quality reads were generated. De novo assembly yielded 87,144 unigenes with an average length of 635 bp. By sequence similarity searching for public databases, a total of 32,541 (41.77%) unigenes were annotated for their function. Among these genes, 57,873 (66.4%) and 28,678 (32.9%) unigenes were assigned to categories of Gene Ontology and Orthologous Groups database, respectively. By searching against the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Pathway database (KEGG), 18,331 (21.0%) unigenes were mapped to 125 pathways. The metabolic pathways were assigned the most unigene (4,793, 26.2%). Furthermore, Pol II and Pol III subunits as well as the genes of Galactose metabolism pathway had higher expression in phloem compared to xylem. In addition, fatty acid metabolism pathway genes showed more abundant in xylem than phloem. These results suggest that high activities of RNA synthesis and Galactose metabolism pathway promises fiber synthesis in phloem. The present study is the initial exploration to uncover the fiber biosynthesis difference between phloem and xylem in ramie through the analysis of deep sequencing data.

Observational studies of the relationship between hyperuricemia and the incidence of hypertension are controversial. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the association and consistency between uric acid levels and the risk of hypertension development.We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CBM (Chinese Biomedicine Database) through September 2013 and reference lists of retrieved studies to identify cohort studies and nested case-control studies with uric acid levels as exposure and incident hypertension as outcome variables. Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed study quality using Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Extracted information included study design, population, definition of hyperuricemia and hypertension, number of incident hypertension, effect sizes, and adjusted confounders. Pooled relative risks (RRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between hyperuricemia and risk of hypertension were calculated using a random-effects model.We included 25 studies with 97,824 participants assessing the association between uric acid and incident hypertension in our meta-analysis. The quality of included studies is moderate to high. Random-effects meta-analysis showed that hyperuricemia was associated with a higher risk of incident hypertension, regardless of whether the effect size was adjusted or not, whether the data were categorical or continuous as 1 SD/1 mg/dl increase in uric acid level (unadjusted: RR = 1.73, 95% CI 1.46∼2.06 for categorical data, RR = 1.22, 95% CI 1.03∼1.45 for a 1 SD increase; adjusted: RR = 1.48, 95% CI 1.33∼1.65 for categorical data, RR = 1.15, 95% CI 1.06∼1.26 for a 1 mg/dl increase), and the risk is consistent in subgroup analyses and have a dose-response relationship.Hyperuricemia may modestly increase the risk of hypertension incidence, consistent with a dose-response relationship.