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Abstract To analyse the effectiveness of resistance training on secondary sarcopenia, we conducted a meta-analysis to elucidate the effects of resistance training (RT) on muscle strength (handgrip strength [HGS]), muscle mass (Skeletal muscle mass index [SMI]), and physical function (Gait speed [GS]) in patients with secondary sarcopenia. All studies published between 2015 and January 2024 on the effects of resistance training on patients with secondary sarcopenia were retrieved from 6 electronic databases: PubMed, Web of Science Core Collection, Embase, the Cochrane Library, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) Core journals and the Wanfang Database. Two researchers independently extracted and evaluated studies that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Finally, 12 randomized controlled trials were included. Pooled analyses of baseline data and results were performed using Review Manager 5.3 with standardized mean variance (SMD) and random effects model. The study included 12 randomized controlled trials involving 639 patients (mean age 57.28 ± 2.66 to 79.6 ± 5.4 years). There are five types of complications among the patients: obesity, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, hemodiaysis, and pancreatic cancer. Compared with the control group, RT effectively improved HGS [SMD = 2.47, 95% CI (1.50, 3.43), p

Using strong electromagnetic fields generated by lasers to interact with electrons for precise diagnosis and manipulation of electron beams represents a recent focal point in accelerator technology. This approach surpasses the limitations of conventional RF technology, such as low electric field gradients and timing jitters, effectively enhancing the accuracy of ultrafast electron beam diagnostics and manipulations. As demands for precision continue to rise, the precise diagnosis of crucial parameters of ultrafast electron beams remains challenging. This study delves into the electromagnetic behavior of THz-driven devices and proposes an all-optical method utilizing single-cycle THz radiation to compress and characterize a 3 MeV electron beam. Particle tracking simulations demonstrate an astonishing compression effect, reducing the bunch length from 54.0 fs to 4.3 fs, and achieving sub-femtosecond bunch length measurement resolution. Moreover, when combined with an orthogonal THz streak camera, this method shows even greater potential in multi-bunch scenarios.

Introduction Sarcopenia is a condition that occurs more frequently in older adults. Although many types of exercise have been used in the treatment of sarcopenia, few studies have been conducted on different interventional environments for sarcopenia. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of aquatic exercise and land-based exercise on the body composition and function of participants with sarcopenia.Methods and analysis This randomised, controlled, single-blinded trial will enrol 45 participants (≥ 65 years) following the diagnostic criteria set by the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019. Participants will be randomised and assigned to one of three groups (aquatic exercise group, land-based exercise group and control group). Assessments will be conducted four times: initially (before intervention), after 8 weeks (intermediate), after 16 weeks (final) and 16 weeks after the end of intervention (follow-up). The primary outcomes are appendicular skeletal muscle index and handgrip strength, while the secondary outcomes include the Short Physical Performance Battery, 6-minute walk test and the Chinese version of the 36-item short-form of health-related quality of life.Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Chengdu Sport University, with permission number CDSUEC2023-125. This study has been registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2300077457). All participants will provide written informed consent.Trial registration number Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2300077457.

Though emerging novel theranostics based intelligent nanomaterials for cancers are promising ways to solve the disadvantages of traditional therapeutic methods, poor targeting of these nanomaterials and the presence of blood–brain barrier (BBB) in glioblastoma (GBM) seriously reduces the efficacy of GBM treatment. Herein, an intelligent nanoparticle consisting of macrophage membrane coated hollow manganese dioxide loading ce6 (MM-HMnO2@Ce6) was prepared, which could be used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guided sonodynamic therapy (SDT)-immunotherapy of in situ GBM. Comparing to early reports, MM-HMnO2@Ce6 could target intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) receptors on endothelial cells of GBM, and cross BBB, which enhanced the efficiency of GBM treatment. What’s more, the as-prepared nanoparticle also monitored the process of targeting and crossing BBB by MRI due to its tumour microenvironment (TME) responsive feature. What’s more, the detailed therapeutic mechanisms were also determined to be by generating reactive oxygen species (ROS), activating immature DCs and activating the cGAS (cyclic GMP-AMP synthase)-STING (stimulator of interferon genes) pathway. Overall, this work showcases a remarkable synergistic anticancer effect of SDT-immunotherapy, and also proposes new avenues for research in utilizing MnO2 nanomaterials for GBM treatment.

BackgroundUnder the backdrop of the national innovation-driven development strategy, the increasing occupational stress and job burnout among employees are noteworthy for their impact on employees' subjective well-being. ObjectiveTo clarify the status, distribution characteristics, and the relationship between subjective well-being, occupational stress, and job burnout of employees in research and development (R&D) enterprises, in order to improve their subjective well-being. MethodsA total of 3366 employees from R&D departments at 7 enterprises in Minhang District of Shanghai were selected. The well-being level of the research subjects was investigated by using the World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5) that yielded total scores from 0 to 25, and a higher total score indicated a higher well-being level; the levels of occupational stress and job burnout were investigated by using the Chinese version of the Job Content Questionnaire, and the Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS). The scores of WHO-5, JDC, and MBI-GS were incorporated into structural equation modeling (SEM) as numerical variables to analyze their relationship. ResultsThe scores of subjective well-being, occupational stress, and job burnout of employees in the R&D enterprises were 13.30±6.09, 1.12±0.45, and 2.18±1.12, respectively. The positive rates of occupational stress and job burnout were 44.4% and 70.9% respectively, and the positive rate of severe job burnout was 11.7%. There were statistically significant differences in the score of subjective well-being among the participants by gender, age, educational level, marital status, registered residence, working seniority, and jobs (P

Abstract This paper focuses on the intelligent detection of prohibited items in X‐ray images during the security checking process. An intelligent semantic segmentation model of prohibited items in X‐ray images is proposed based on the attention‐based object localization method. Based on the pre‐trained CNN classification framework, the attention mechanism can map the high‐layer semantic information of objects into the input space, while generating energy saliency maps to locate the prohibited items. In order to make the obtained attention maps discriminative, the lateral and contrastive inhibition strategies are introduced and combined together which can highlight the responses of activated neurons. Under the guidance of attention responses, two traditional image segmentation algorithms are employed to achieve the semantic segmentation results for the prohibited items detection in X‐ray images. The proposed semantic segmentation model relies on weakly supervised learning mechanism, and only depends on the category labels of prohibited items, which greatly avoids the work cost of data semantic annotation. The experimental results based on the public SIXray baseline and the self‐built X‐ray image database demonstrate the proposed method can achieve about 65% IoU localization precise averagely. In addition, comparison experiments were carried out with the state‐of‐the‐arts and ablation experiments to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model.

Heart disease, including myocardial infarction, heart failure, cardiac hypertrophy, and cardiomyopathy, remains a leading cause of mortality worldwide. The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a centrally regulated kinase that governs key cellular processes, including growth, proliferation, metabolism, and survival. Notably, mTOR plays a pivotal role in cardiovascular health and disease, particularly in the onset and progression of cardiac conditions. In this review, we discuss mTOR’s structure and function as well as the regulatory mechanisms of its associated signaling pathways. We focus on the molecular mechanisms by which mTOR signaling regulates cardiac diseases and the potential of mTOR inhibitors and related regulatory drugs in preventing these conditions. We conclude that the mTOR signaling pathway is a promising therapeutic target for heart disease.

BackgroundMetabolic dysregulation following sepsis can significantly compromise patient prognosis by altering immune-inflammatory responses. Despite its clinical relevance, the exact mechanisms of this perturbation are not yet fully understood.MethodsSingle-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) was utilized to map the immune cell landscape and its association with metabolic pathways during sepsis. This study employed cell-cell interaction and phenotype profiling from scRNA-seq data, along with pseudotime trajectory analysis, to investigate neutrophil differentiation and heterogeneity. By integrating scRNA-seq with Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) and machine learning techniques, key genes were identified. These genes were used to develop and validate a risk score model and nomogram, with their efficacy confirmed through Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The model’s practicality was further reinforced through enrichment and immune characteristic studies based on the risk score and in vivo validation of a critical gene associated with sepsis.ResultsThe complex immune landscape and neutrophil roles in metabolic disturbances during sepsis were elucidated by our in-depth scRNA-seq analysis. Pronounced neutrophil interactions with diverse cell types were revealed in the analysis of intercellular communication, highlighting pathways that differentiate between proximal and core regions within atherosclerotic plaques. Insight into the evolution of neutrophil subpopulations and their differentiation within the plaque milieu was provided by pseudotime trajectory mappings. Diagnostic markers were identified with the assistance of machine learning, resulting in the discovery of PIM1, HIST1H1C, and IGSF6. The identification of these markers culminated in the development of the risk score model, which demonstrated remarkable precision in sepsis prognosis. The model’s capability to categorize patient profiles based on immune characteristics was confirmed, particularly in identifying individuals at high risk with suppressed immune cell activity and inflammatory responses. The role of PIM1 in modulating the immune-inflammatory response during sepsis was further confirmed through experimental validation, suggesting its potential as a therapeutic target.ConclusionThe understanding of sepsis immunopathology is improved by this research, and new avenues are opened for novel prognostic and therapeutic approaches.

This study explored the potential of Paeonia japonica (Makino) Miyabe & Takeda (P. japonica) as a natural treatment for diabetes. A methanol extract of the root of P. japonica and its fractions were investigated for their antioxidant and antidiabetic properties. The ethyl acetate (EtOAc) fraction was the most potent, displaying strong antioxidant activity and inhibiting enzymes that break down carbohydrates (α-amylase and α-glucosidase), which could reduce blood sugar levels. Furthermore, the EtOAc fraction inhibited glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 cells and stimulated the gene responsible for cellular glucose uptake (GLUT4), suggesting improved insulin sensitivity. It also effectively reduced the formation of harmful advanced glycation end products linked to diabetic complications. The isolation of bioactive compounds from the EtOAc fraction revealed the presence of 4-O-methylgallic acid and ellagic acid, which potentially contributed to the observed antidiabetic effects. Overall, this study highlights the EtOAc fraction of P. japonica as a promising source for developing natural diabetes therapies. The findings suggest its potential for regulating various diabetic pathways, warranting further research for drug development.

In the current global cooperative production environment, modern industries are confronted with intricate production plans, demanding the adoption of contemporary production scheduling strategies. Within this context, distributed manufacturing has emerged as a prominent trend. Manufacturing enterprises, especially those engaged in activities like automotive mold production and welding, are facing a significant challenge in managing a significant amount of small-scale tasks characterized by short processing times. In this situation, it becomes imperative to consider the transportation time of jobs between machines. This paper simultaneously considers the transportation time of jobs between machines and the start-stop operation of the machines, which is the first time to our knowledge. An improved memetic algorithm (IMA) is proposed to solve the multi-objective distributed flexible job shop scheduling problem (MODFJSP) with the goal of minimizing maximum completion time and energy consumption. Then, a new multi-start simulated annealing algorithm is proposed and integrated into the IMA to improve the exploration ability and diversity of the algorithm. Furthermore, a new multiple-initialization rule is designed to enhance the quality of the initial population. Additionally, four improved variable neighborhood search strategies and two energy-saving strategies are designed to enhance the search ability and reduce energy consumption. To verify the effectiveness of the IMA, we conducted extensive testing and comprehensive evaluation on 20 instances. The results indicate that, when faced with the MODFJSP, the IMA can achieve better solutions in almost all instances, which is of great significance for the improvement of production scheduling in intelligent manufacturing.

Biochar is the carbon-rich product obtained when biomass is anaerobically heated. In this study, different materials (corn straw and peanut shell) and pyrolysis temperatures (350, 450 and 550 °C) affect the elemental composition, surface structure, and biochar properties. The results showed that the carbon (C) content in biochar increased as the temperature increased, but hydrogen (H) and nitrogen (N) did not change. The alkane overpressure of corn straw and peanut shell increased first and then decreased with the increased temperature; the fatty alkyl chain disappeared, but the ash content increased at 550 °C. At high temperatures, the aromaticity (H/C ratio) and hydrophobicity (O/C ratio) of biochar become "carbon-rich particles", while the polarity (O + N)/C decreases significantly. The pore wall of biochar became thinner with the increase in pyrolysis temperature, the internal pore structure became larger, and a large number of micropores appeared in biochar. Biochar pyrolysed at 550 °C has much higher C, ash content, pore, and stronger buffering capacity, and thus is more promising to improve soil health.

BackgroundA novel risk scoring system, predicated on DNA damage response (DDR), was developed to enhance prognostic predictions and potentially inform the creation of more effective therapeutic protocols for sepsis.MethodsTo thoroughly delineate the expression profiles of DDR markers within the context of sepsis, an analytical approach utilizing single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) was implemented. Our study utilized single-cell analysis techniques alongside weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to pinpoint the genes that exhibit the most substantial associations with DNA damage response (DDR). Through Cox proportional hazards LASSO regression, we distinguished DDR-associated genes and established a risk model, enabling the stratification of patients into high- and low-risk groups. Subsequently, we carried out an analysis to determine our model’s predictive accuracy regarding patient survival. Moreover, we examined the distinct biological characteristics, various signal transduction routes, and immune system responses in sepsis patients, considering different risk categories and outcomes related to survival. Lastly, we conducted experimental validation of the identified genes through in vivo and in vitro assays, employing RT-PCR, ELISA, and flow cytometry.ResultsBoth single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and bulk transcriptomic analyses have demonstrated a strong correlation between DNA damage response (DDR) levels and sepsis prognosis. Specific cell subtypes, including monocytes, megakaryocytes, CD4+ T cells, and neutrophils, have shown elevated DDR activity. Cells with increased DDR scores exhibited more robust and numerous interactions with other cell populations. The weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and single-cell analyses revealed 71 DDR-associated genes. We developed a four-gene risk scoring system using ARL4C, CD247, RPL7, and RPL31, identified through univariate COX, LASSO COX regression, and log-rank (Mantel-Cox) tests. Nomograms, calibration plots, and decision curve analyses (DCA) regarding these specific genes have provided significant clinical benefits for individuals diagnosed with sepsis. The study suggested that individuals categorized as lower-risk demonstrated enhanced infiltration of immune cells, upregulated expression of immune regulators, and a more prolific presence of immune-associated functionalities and pathways. RT-qPCR analyses on a sepsis rat model revealed differential gene expression predominantly in the four targeted genes. Furthermore, ARL4C knockdown in sepsis model in vivo and vitro caused increased inflammatory response and a worse prognosis.ConclusionThe delineated DDR expression landscape offers insights into sepsis pathogenesis, whilst our riskScore model, based on a robust four-gene signature, could underpin personalized sepsis treatment strategies.

ObjectiveThe primary objective of this study was to examine the levels of serum EZH2 in patients diagnosed with bladder cancer, and subsequently evaluate its potential as a biomarker for both the diagnosis and prognosis of bladder cancer.MethodsBlood samples were obtained from 115 bladder cancer patients and 115 healthy persons. We measured the EZH2 concentrations in the serum of these subjects via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). To assess the diagnostic performance of serum EZH2 in detecting bladder cancer, we plotted receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and calculated their corresponding area under the curve (AUC). We also used the Cox regression model and log-rank test to investigate the correlation between EZH2 levels and clinicopathological characteristics, and survival rates of bladder cancer patients.ResultsSerum EZH2 levels were significantly higher in bladder cancer patients when compared to those in healthy persons. Serum EZH2 levels exhibited a significant correlation with TNM stage, lymph node metastasis, muscle invasion, and tumor size. At a cutoff value of 8.23 ng/mL, EZH2 was able to differentiate bladder cancer patients from healthy persons, with an AUC of 0.87, a sensitivity of 81.31%, and a specificity of 78.42%. High EZH2 levels correlated with poor overall survival rates and progression-free survival rates of bladder cancer patients.ConclusionsSerum EZH2 levels were elevated in bladder cancer patients, and patients with higher serum EZH2 levels exhibited a poorer prognosis. This indicates that serum EZH2 could be a novel biomarker for bladder cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Such findings could improve the prognosis of bladder cancer patients by facilitating early detection and continuous monitoring.

Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is an autoimmune cholangiopathy characterized by chronic inflammation of the biliary epithelium and periductal fibrosis, with no curative treatment available, and liver transplantation is inevitable for end-stage patients. Human placental mesenchymal stem cell (hpMSC)-derived exosomes have demonstrated the ability to prevent fibrosis, inhibit collagen production and possess immunomodulatory properties in autoimmune liver disease. Here, we prepared hpMSC-derived exosomes (ExoMSC) and further investigated the anti-fibrotic effects and detailed mechanism on PSC based on Mdr2−/− mice and multicellular organoids established from PSC patients. The results showed that ExoMSC ameliorated liver fibrosis in Mdr2−/− mice with significant collagen reduction in the preductal area where Th17 differentiation was inhibited as demonstrated by RNAseq analysis, and the percentage of CD4+IL-17A+T cells was reduced both in ExoMSC-treated Mdr2−/− mice (Mdr2−/−-Exo) in vivo and ExoMSC-treated Th17 differentiation progressed in vitro. Furthermore, ExoMSC improved the hypersecretory phenotype and intercellular interactions in the hepatic Th17 microenvironment by regulating PERK/CHOP signaling as supported by multicellular organoids. Thus, our data demonstrate the anti-fibrosis effect of ExoMSC in PSC disease by inhibiting Th17 differentiation, and ameliorating the Th17-induced microenvironment, indicating the promising potential therapeutic role of ExoMSC in liver fibrosis of PSC or Th17-related diseases.

BackgroundPast research indicates that occupational stress negatively predicts health-related productivity. Simultaneously, sleep problem among workers may stem from job stress, subsequently leading to a decline in sleep quality and resulting in reduced health productivity. Therefore, this study aims to idenitify whether the sleep quality of employees functions as a mediator in the process through which job stress impacts health productivity.ObjectivesThis study aimed to assess the status and analyze differences in quality of sleep, job stress, and health-related productivity loss (HRPL) among workers in research and development (R&D) enterprises in Minhang District, Shanghai. We also assessed the mediating effect of sleep quality on the relationship between job stress and HRPL.MethodsA total of 3,216 workers in R&D firms aged between 18 and 60 years participated in this study (mean age 35.15 years; standard deviation 8.44; male-to-female ratio≈2:1). The Nakata Insomnia Questionnaire, the Chinese version of the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire revised edition, and the Chinese version of the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire were used in this study. And the Kruskal–Wallis test, Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis, and Path Analysis were utilized for data analysis in this study.ResultsThere were significant differences in the positive detection rate of insomnia among participants according to age, educational level, marital status, position, length of service, and level of financial difficulties (all P < 0.05). We also found significant differences in the positive detection rate of HRPL among participants according to age, marital status, length of service, and level of financial difficulties (all P < 0.05); participants with insomnia scored higher for HRPL than those without insomnia (6.00 vs. 4.20, P < 0.001). Additionally, participants with job stress problems had higher HRPL than those without these issues (7.00 vs. 4.20, P < 0.001). Our findings suggest that sleep quality plays a mediating role between job stress and HRPL (all P < 0.05).ConclusionsOccupational health professionals must pay particular attention to job stress, sleep quality, and their influencing factors to positively influence the wellbeing of workers while improving productivity.

Lane detection under extreme conditions presents a highly challenging task that requires capturing each crucial pixel to predict the complex topology of lane lines and differentiate the various lane types. Existing methods predominantly rely on deep feature extraction networks with substantial parameters or the fusion of multiple prediction modules, resulting in large model sizes, embedding difficulties, and slow detection speeds. This article proposes a Proportional Feature Pyramid Network (P-FPN) through fusing the weights into the FPN for lane detection. For obtaining a more accurately detecting result, the cross refinement block is introduced in the P-FPN network. The cross refinement block takes the feature maps and anchors as inputs and gradually refines the anchors from high to low level feature maps. In our method, the high-level features are explored to predict lanes coarsely while local-detailed features are leveraged to improve localization accuracy. Extensive experiments on two widely used lane detection datasets, The Chinese Urban Scene Benchmark for Lane Detection (CULane) and the TuSimple Lane Detection Challenge (TuSimple) datasets, demonstrate that the proposed method achieves competitive results compared with several state-of-the-art approaches.

BackgroundAt present, domestic research on job burnout and health-related productivity is limited to medical workers, and the impact of job burnout on health-related productivity of enterprise staff deserves attention. ObjectiveTo explore the association between job burnout and health-related productivity loss among enterprise staff. MethodsA cross-sectional online questionnaire survey was conducted among enterprise staff who were selected from seven enterprises in Minhang District of Shanghai. The Chinese version of Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) was used to assess job burnout, and a questionnaire based on and modified from the WHO Health and Work Performance Questionnaire was used to assess the loss of health-related productivity. Logistic regression was used to analyze the impact of job burnout on health-related productivity under the control of selected demographic characteristics, socio-economic factors, and occupational factors. ResultsA total of 3489 questionnaires were recovered, and 3156 valid questionnaires were included in the statistical analysis. Among the 3156 valid questionnaires, 2228 (70.8%) respondents were assessed as suffering from job burnout, in which 1858 (59.0%) were mild to moderate job burnout, and 370 (11.7%) were severe job burnout; the median score (interquartile range) of MBI-GS was 2.18（2.69）, the median rates (interquartile range) of absenteeism and presenteeism were 0.00% (0.00%) and 20.00% (50.00%), respectively. The prevalence of presenteeism significantly varied by gender, education, marital status, working years, job category, exhaustion, cynicism, professional efficacy, and job burnout (P

Abstract The human finger is the essential carrier of biometric features. The finger itself contains multi‐modal traits, including fingerprint and finger‐vein, which provides convenience and practicality for finger bi‐modal fusion recognition. The scale inconsistency and feature space mismatch of finger bi‐modal images are important reasons for the fusion effect. The feature extraction method based on graph structure can well solve the problem of feature space mismatch for the finger bi‐modalities, and the end‐to‐end fusion recognition can be realised based on graph convolutional neural networks (GCNs). However, this fusion recognition strategy based on GCNs still has two urgent problems: first, lack of stable and efficient graph fusion method; second, over‐smoothing problem of GCNs will lead to the degradation of recognition performance. A novel fusion method is proposed to integrate the graph features of fingerprint (FP) and finger‐vein (FV). Furthermore, we analyse the inner relationship between the information transmission process and the over‐smoothing problem in GCNs from an optimisation perspective, and point out that the differentiated information between neighbouring nodes decreases as the number of layers increases, which is the direct reason for the over‐smoothing problem. A modified deep graph convolution neural network is proposed, aiming to alleviate the over‐smoothing problem. The intuition is that the differentiated features of the nodes should be properly preserved to ensure the uniqueness of the nodes themselves. Thus, a constraint term to the objective function of the GCN is added to emphasise the differentiation features of the nodes themselves. The experimental results show that the proposed fusion method can achieve more satisfied performance in finger bi‐modal biometric recognition, and the proposed constrained GCN can well alleviate the problem of over‐smoothing.

ABSTRACT Vanadium dioxide (VO2) material, known for changing physical properties due to metal-insulator transition (MIT) near room temperature, has been reported to undergo a phase change depending on the strain. This fact can be a significant problem for nanoscale devices in VO2, where the strain field covers a large area fraction, spatially non-uniform, and the amount of strain can vary during the MIT process. Direct measurement of the strain field distribution during MIT is expected to establish a methodology for material phase identification. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of geometric phase analysis (GPA), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy techniques, and transmission electron diffraction (TED). The GPA images show that the nanoregions of interest are under tensile strain conditions of less than 0.4% as well as a compressive strain of about 0.7% (Rutile phase VO2[100] direction), indicating that the origin of the newly emerged TED spots in MIT contains a triclinic phase. This study provides a substantial understanding of the strain-temperature phase diagram and strain engineering strategies for effective phase management of nanoscale VO2.

Miscommunications between air traffic controllers (ATCOs) and pilots in air traffic control (ATC) may lead to catastrophic aviation accidents. Thanks to advances in speech and language processing, automatic speech recognition (ASR) is an appealing approach to prevent misunderstandings. To allow ATCOs and pilots sufficient time to respond instantly and effectively, the ASR systems for ATC must have both superior recognition performance and low transcription latency. However, most existing ASR works for ATC are primarily concerned with recognition performance while paying little attention to recognition speed, which motivates the research in this article. To address this issue, this article introduces knowledge distillation into the ASR for Mandarin ATC communications to enhance the generalization performance of the light model. Specifically, we propose a simple yet effective lightweight strategy, named Target-Swap Knowledge Distillation (TSKD), which swaps the logit output of the teacher and student models for the target class. It can mitigate the potential overconfidence of the teacher model regarding the target class and enable the student model to concentrate on the distillation of knowledge from non-target classes. Extensive experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed TSKD in homogeneous and heterogeneous architectures. The experimental results reveal that the generated lightweight ASR model achieves a balance between recognition accuracy and transcription latency.

Abstract Exposure to heavy metals (HMs) is a threat to human health. Although probiotics can detoxify HMs in animals, their effectiveness and mechanism of action in humans have not been studied well. Therefore, we conducted this randomized, double-blind, controlled trial on 152 occupational workers from the metal industry, an at-risk human population, to explore the effectiveness of probiotic yogurt in reducing HM levels. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups: one consumed probiotic yogurt containing the HM-resistant strain Pediococcus acidilactici GR-1 and the other consumed conventional yogurt for 12 weeks. Analysis of metal contents in the blood revealed that the consumption of probiotic yogurt resulted in a higher and faster decrease in copper (34.45%) and nickel (38.34%) levels in the blood than the consumption of conventional yogurt (16.41% and 27.57%, respectively). Metagenomic and metabolomic studies identified a close correlation between gut microbiota (GM) and host metabolism. Significantly enriched members of Blautia and Bifidobacterium correlated positively with the antioxidant capacities of GM and host. Further murine experiments confirmed the essential role of GM and protective effect of GR-1 on the antioxidative role of the intestine against copper. Thus, the use of probiotic yogurt may be an effective and affordable approach for combating toxic metal exposure through the protection of indigenous GM in humans. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: ChiCTR2100053222

The combined application of manure and chemical fertilizers has been recognized as a critical factor driving significant changes in crop yield and nutrient use efficiency, holding the potential to optimize agricultural management to achieve high yields. In this 40-year study, we investigated the effect of manure amendment on soybean and maize yields, water and nitrogen use efficiencies (WUE and NUE), and water and mineral N storage at 0–100 cm soil depths from 2017 to 2018 to explore the optimization of fertilization management strategies for soybean and maize production in Northeast China. To elucidate the impact of chemical fertilizers and manure, twelve treatments—control (CK); single N fertilizer at a low rate (N1) and that at a high rate (N2); N1, phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) fertilizer (N1PK); manure alone at 13.5 and 27 t ha−1 (M1 and M2); and those combined with N, P, or K fertilizer (M1N1, M1N2, and M1N1PK and M2N1, M2N2, and M2N1PK)—were selected and studied. The results showed that long-term amendment with manure significantly increased crop biomass and yield in the soybean–maize–maize rotation system. Combining with manure increased the WUE, the partial factor productivity of N fertilizer (PFPN), and N physiological efficiency (PEN) in both the soybean and maize seasons; conserved soil water (mainly at 40–60 cm); and increased soil N retention (in the upper 60 cm layer), which reduced the risk of N leaching, with a better effect being observed after the application of 13.5 t ha−1 manure. These results provide insight into the potential of using fertilization management strategies that include amendment with 13.5 t ha−1 manure in combination with N, P, and K fertilizer in the maize season and only chemical fertilizer in the soybean season, as these results indicate that such strategies can achieve high yields and be used to implement agricultural sustainable development in brown soil regions in Northeast China.

Depression and macrovascular diseases are globally recognized as significant disorders that pose a substantial socioeconomic burden because of their associated disability and mortality. In addition, comorbidities between depression and macrovascular diseases have been widely reported in clinical settings. Patients afflicted with coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease or peripheral artery disease exhibit an elevated propensity for depressive symptoms. These symptoms, in turn, augment the risk of macrovascular diseases, thereby reflecting a bidirectional relationship. This review examines the physiological and pathological mechanisms behind comorbidity while also examining the intricate connection between depression and macrovascular diseases. The present mechanisms are significantly impacted by atypical activity in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. Elevated levels of cortisol and other hormones may disrupt normal endothelial cell function, resulting in vascular narrowing. At the same time, proinflammatory cytokines like interleukin-1 and C-reactive protein have been shown to disrupt the normal function of neurons and microglia by affecting blood–brain barrier permeability in the brain, exacerbating depressive symptoms. In addition, platelet hyperactivation or aggregation, endothelial dysfunction, and autonomic nervous system dysfunction are important comorbidity mechanisms. Collectively, these mechanisms provide a plausible physiological basis for the interplay between these two diseases. Interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial for future research aiming to reveal the pathogenesis of comorbidity and develop customised prevention and treatment strategies.

Photothermal therapy (PTT) has been widely investigated as a regimen for superficial tumors. However, conventional PTT strategies usually require photothermal temperatures above 50 °C to achieve significant therapeutic efficacy, which in effect would lead to injury to adjacent normal tissues and meanwhile, the heat generated by the photothermal effect would induce inflammation owing to the damage to cytoplasmic components. In order to reduce the toxicity of photothermal therapy and increase the efficiency of photothermal tumor destruction, novel strategies are prerequisite for targeted regimen and surveillance of photothermal therapy in real time. In this paper, we reported a concave mesoporous polydopamine-targeting nanotherapeutic agent. We employed B-MPDA as the carrier and encapsulated CQ and ASP to yield B-MPDA/CQ/ASP which was loaded with autophagy inhibitors and anti-inflammatory agents and coated uniformly with MnO2 Nanosheet. With HA functionalizing MnO2 Nanosheet, B-MPDA/CQ/ASP@MnO2-HA was constituted. The yielded nanoparticles were identified to be advantageous for good biocompatibility, potent targeting and low toxicity. In anti-tumor regimens, the nanoparticles can be applied to hyaluronic acid targeting, mesoporous polydopamine thermotherapy, and autophagy inhibitor sensitization thermotherapy, and simultaneously eliminate the inflammatory effects induced by photothermal therapy. Furthermore, in combination with the anti-inflammatory effect of targeting tumor, this agent can effectively induce apoptosis of cancer cells and significantly improve the efficiency of mild photothermal killing of cancer cells, which provides insight into the development of nanoparticles and application to mild photothermal therapy in the clinical scenario.

Abstract Background Hypertension is currently the leading modifiable cause of global morbidity and mortality, leading to substantial health and financial burdens. Although multiple studies of management models and innovative therapeutic strategies for hypertension have been conducted, there are still gaps in the field, with a poor control rate reflecting a lack of novel, effective, clinically translated medication or intervention options. Recent animal and human studies repeatedly confirmed a link between the microbiota and hypertension. Of note is our previous study establishing a cause-and-effect relationship between the gut microbiota and blood pressure elevation. A hypothesis of gut microbiota intervention for treating hypertension is thus postulated, and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from healthy donors was performed. Methods A multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, blinded clinical trial will be performed in 120 grade 1 hypertensive patients for 3 months. All recruited patients will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to take oral FMT capsules or placebo capsules on day 1, day 7, and day 14 and will be followed up on day 30, day 60, and day 90. The primary outcome is the change in office systolic blood pressure from baseline to day 30. The main secondary outcomes are BP indicators, including changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure from office and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring; assessments of ankle-branchial index and pulse wave velocity; profiling of fecal microbial composition and function; profiling of fecal and serum metabolome; changes in levels of blood glucose, blood lipids, and body mass index; and assessment of adverse events as a measure of safety. Discussion Expanding upon our previous research on the role of the gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of hypertension, this study serves as a clinical translation advancement and explores the potential of fecal microbiota transplantation for treating hypertension. The underlying mechanisms, particularly the roles of specific microorganisms or their postbiotics in blood pressure amelioration, will also be investigated via multiple approaches, such as metagenomic sequencing and metabolomic profiling. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04406129 . Registered on May 28, 2020

Long-landing Events (LLEs) can occur as a result of pilot’s improper operation, resulting in shorter available runways and higher operating costs. The LLE can be effectively pinpointed by analyzing data from the Quick Access Recorder (QAR), which records all of the pilot’s operations during takeoff and landing. Traditionally, domain experts inspect LLEs by manually setting thresholds on uni-dimensional data. However, they cannot detect effectively the defects caused by the pilot’s maneuvering technique because the potential mutual information between different features in the large amount of data is not considered. This paper proposes a data-driven LLE detection and causation analysis workflow, which can automatically mine and analyze the mutual information, to overcome the existing problems. Firstly, a dataset is established based on the extracted QAR data from 2002 flights, considering the landing phase of the aircraft. Subsequently, this paper proposes a Hybrid Feature Selection (HFS) method for selecting features that are highly correlated with LLEs in both supervised and unsupervised ways. A categorical Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LGBM) with a Bayesian optimization (LGBMBO) model is used to determine the performance improvement. Furthermore, the model is visualized to analyze the marginal effect of key parameters for the LLEs by using SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). The experimental results demonstrate that our model reduces computational cost and achieves better performance. Additionally, this paper demonstrates that LLEs can be avoided during the landing phase by maintaining the appropriate descent speed, aircraft altitude, and descent angle.

Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury (HIRI) is defined as liver tissue damage and cell death caused by reperfusion during liver transplantation or hepatectomy. Oxidative stress is one of the important mechanisms of HIRI. Studies have shown that the incidence of HIRI is very high, however, the number of patients who can get timely and efficient treatment is small. The reason is not hard to explain that invasive ways of detection and lack of timely of diagnostic methods. Hence, a new detection method is urgently needed in clinic application. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are markers of oxidative stress in the liver, could be detected by optical imaging and offer timely and effective non-invasive diagnosis and monitoring. Optical imaging could become the most potential tool of diagnosis of HIRI in the future. In addition, optical technology can also be used in disease treatment. It found that optical therapy has the function of anti-oxidative stress. Consequently, it has possibility to treat HIRI caused by oxidative stress. In this review, we mainly summarized the application and prospect of optical techniques in oxidative stress-induced by HIRI.

Although breakthroughs have been made in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, there are only a few choices for advanced-stage or recurrent lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) patients. In our study, we identified 7 major cell types in thedepicted the immunolandscape of LUSC microenvironment using single-cell RNA sequencing. We found that an immunosuppressive receptor, T cell immunoglobulin and immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif domain (TIGIT), was highly expressed by regulatory T cells (Tregs) and exhausted CD8+T cells, suggesting that upregulation of TIGIT might promote an immunosuppressive microenvironment and inhibit the cytotoxic ability of CD8+T cells. We also identified tumor-associated neutrophil (TAN), characterized by CXCR2, CSF3R and CXCL8, in the tumor region, and TANs upregulated the expression of interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL1RN) which suggested that TAN might exert an immunosuppressive role via expressing IL1RN. Furthermore, the number of SPP1+ macrophages(SPP1+M) significantly increased in tumor microenvirnment, which was correlated with the poor survival of patients. Additionally, regulatory networks based on SPP1+M revealed that the disparities of several ligand-receptor pairs existed between tumor and normal tissues. Among these pairs, SPP1-CD44 showed the most interactions between SPP1+M and other cell types. Our results provided deep insight into the immune landscape of LUSC and an essential resource for drug discovery in the future.

Global awareness of the need to enhance crop production and reduce environmental issues associated with nitrogen (N) fertilizer has increased. However, studies on how the N fate changed with manure addition are still limited. To explore efficient fertilization management for an improved grain yield, N recovery efficiency, and reduced N residual in the soil or that unaccounted for, a field 15N micro-plot trial in a soybean–maize–maize rotation was conducted to evaluate the effect of fertilization regimes on soybean and maize yields and the fertilizer N fate in the plant–soil system during 2017–2019 within a 41-year experiment in Northeast China. Treatments included chemical N alone (N), N and phosphorus (NP), N, P, and potassium (NPK), and those combined with manure (MN, MNP, and MNPK). Application of manure increased grain yield, on average, by 153% for soybean (2017) and 105% and 222% for maize (2018 and 2019) compared to no manure, with the highest at MNPK. Crop N uptake and that from labeled 15N-urea also benefited from manure addition, mainly partitioned to grain, and the average 15N-urea recovery was 28.8% in the soybean season with a reduction in the subsequent maize seasons (12.6%, and 4.1%). Across the three years, the fertilizer 15N recovery ranged from 31.2–63.1% (crop) and 21.9–40.5% (0–40 cm soil), with 14.6–29.9% unaccounted for, including N losses. In the two maize seasons, manure addition significantly increased the residual 15N recovery in crop attributed to the enhancing 15N remineralization, and reduced that in soil and unaccounted for compared to single chemical fertilizer, with MNPK performing the best. Therefore, applying N, P, and K fertilizers in the soybean season and NPK combined with manure (13.5 t ha–1) in the maize seasons is a promising fertilization management strategy in Northeast China and similar regions.

Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a biliary disease accompanied by chronic inflammation of the liver and biliary stricture. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are used to treat liver diseases because of their immune regulation and regeneration-promoting functions. This study was performed to explore the therapeutic potential of human placental MSCs (hP-MSCs) in PSC through the Takeda G protein-coupled receptor 5 (TGR5) receptor pathway. Liver tissues were collected from patients with PSC and healthy donors (n = 4) for RNA sequencing and intrahepatic cholangiocyte organoid construction. hP-MSCs were injected via the tail vein into Mdr2−/−, bile duct ligation (BDL), and 3,5-diethoxycarbonyl-1,4-dihydrocollidine (DDC) mouse models or co-cultured with organoids to confirm their therapeutic effect on biliary cholangitis. Changes in bile acid metabolic profile were analyzed by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Compared with healthy controls, liver tissues and intrahepatic cholangiocyte organoids from PSC patients were characterized by inflammation and cholestasis, and marked downregulation of bile acid receptor TGR5 expression. hP-MSC treatment apparently reduced the inflammation, cholestasis, and fibrosis in Mdr2−/−, BDL, and DDC model mice. By activating the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase/extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase pathway, hP-MSC treatment promoted the proliferation of cholangiocytes, and affected the transcription of downstream nuclear factor κB through regulation of the binding of TGR5 and Pellino3, thereby affecting the cholangiocyte inflammatory phenotype.

The primary objective of this study was to elucidate the chemical composition, antioxidant properties, and antiproliferative activities of Eclipta prostrata extracts. Two flavonoids, 3′-O-methylorobol and apigenin 7-sulfate, were isolated from the ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extract of E. prostrata. The total phenolic and flavonoid contents of the E. prostrata extracts, as well as their overall antioxidant activities as measured using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and reducing power assays, were investigated. The E. prostrata EtOAc extract exhibited significantly greater antioxidant activities in both assays and higher phenol and flavonoid contents than the other extracts. The potential antiproliferative properties of the E. prostrata extracts and isolated compounds were investigated in vitro against the AGS, A549, and HT-29 cancer cell lines and the normal human HEK-293 cell line using the MTT assay. Annexin V-FITC/PI staining analysis and quantitative real-time PCR were used to assess AGS cell apoptosis. At a concentration of 100 µg/mL, the EtOAc extract of E. prostrata reduced AGS cell viability and proliferation by inducing apoptosis through the alteration of gene expression in the apoptotic cascade. These results highlight E. prostrata as a promising source of anticancer compounds.

Introduction COVID-19 has posed a serious threat to people worldwide, especially the older adults, since its discovery. Tai Chi as a traditional Chinese exercisethat belongs to traditional Chinese medicine has proven its effectiveness against COVID-19. However, no high-quality evidence is found on the dose–response relationships between Tai Chi and clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. This study will evaluate and determine the clinical evidence of Tai Chi as a treatment in elderly patients with COVID-19.Methods and analysis The following electronic bibliographical databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP Database and Wanfang Database will be screened from their inception date to 30 June 2022. All eligible randomised controlled trials or controlled clinical trials related to Tai Chi for elderly patients with COVID-19 will be included. The primary outcomes are forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) and FEV1/FVC ratio (FEV1%). The secondary outcomes are the time of main symptoms disappearance, length of hospital stay, serum levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1b and tumour necrosis factor-α, and adverse event rate. Two independent reviewers will select the studies, extract the data, and analyse them on EndNote V.X9.0 and Stata V.12.1. The robust error meta-regression model will be used to establish the dose–response relationships between Tai Chi and clinical outcomes. The heterogeneity and variability will be analysed by I2 and τ2 statistics. Risk of bias, subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis will also be performed. The quality of evidence will be assessed by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation, and the risk of bias will be evaluated by using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database Scale.Ethics and dissemination This study will review published data; thus, obtaining ethical approval and consent is unnecessary. The results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications.PROSPERO registration number CRD42022327694.

Chitosan and Chitooligosaccharides can serve as prominent food materials with high biological activities, of which the intestinal flora regulation is critical to probiotic regulation as reported by increasing studies. However, no such review has summarized their regulation about intestinal flora and the molecular mechanisms on the intestinal part. In this review, their intestinal manipulating mechanisms on healthy, obese, diabetic individuals and those with other diseases are mainly summarized. In sum, they improve the intestinal villi on healthy individuals by up-regulating Bifidobacteri and Lactobacill and reducing the lipids absorption in the obese intestine by up-regulating weight reducing bacteria (e.g., Coprobacillus cateniformis and Clostridium leptum). Moreover, they inhibit the intestinal absorption of glucose and regulate certain diabetes-related bacteria, reducing intestinal inflammation and up-regulating the tight junction protein expression in epithelial cells of their anti-diabetic effects. This review is aiming to provide some mechanism study of chitosan and chitooligosaccharides as food materials.

General linear modeling (GLM) has been widely employed to estimate the hemodynamic changes observed by functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology, which are found to be nonlinear rather than linear, however. Therefore, GLM might not be appropriate for modeling the hemodynamic changes evoked by cognitive processing in developmental neurocognitive studies. There is an urgent need to identify a better statistical model to fit into the nonlinear fNIRS data. This study addressed this need by developing a quadratic equation model to reanalyze the existing fNIRS data (N = 38, Mage = 5.0 years, SD = 0.69 years, 17 girls) collected from the mixed-order design Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task and verified the model with a new set of data with the Habit-DisHabit design. First, comparing the quadratic and cubic modeling results of the mixed-order design data indicated that the proposed quadratic equation was better than GLM and cubic regression to model the oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) changes in this task. Second, applying this quadratic model with the Habit-DisHabit design data verified its suitability and indicated that the new design was more effective in identifying the neural correlates of cognitive shifting than the mixed-order design. These findings jointly indicate that Habit-DisHabit Design with a quadratic equation might better model the hemodynamic changes in preschoolers during the DCCS task.

Dendrobium loddigesii has long been used in traditional folk medicine. The purpose of this study was to optimize the culture conditions for its protocorm-like bodies (PLBs) and explore their biological activities. The use of an air-lift bioreactor demonstrated superior PLB proliferation compared to agitated and solid culture methods. The optimal inoculum quantity of 30 g/vessel, cultured for 28 days in the bioreactor, yielded the highest PLB biomass production. Analysis of PLB extracts revealed that the ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extract exhibited the highest levels of flavonoids and alkaloids, as well as potent antioxidant activity demonstrated by DPPH free radical scavenging assay and reducing power. Furthermore, the antiproliferative effects of the PLB extracts were assessed using MTT assays, and the EtOAc extract showed significant efficacy by reducing cell viability by over 60% in the human colon carcinoma cell line SW620 at the highest tested concentration (200 μg/mL). Mechanistic analysis revealed the downregulation of key regulatory apoptosis genes, including survivin, p53, caspase-3, and caspase-9. These results demonstrate the potential of the bioreactor culture method for the efficient production of D. loddigesii PLBs and the biological activities of the EtOAc extract, suggesting its therapeutic potential.

Chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) is a process that rapidly degrades proteins labeled with KFERQ-like motifs within cells via lysosomes to terminate their cellular functioning. Meanwhile, CMA plays an essential role in various biological processes correlated with cell proliferation and apoptosis. Previous studies have shown that CMA was initially found to be procancer in cancer cells, while some theories suggest that it may have an inhibitory effect on the progression of cancer in untransformed cells. Therefore, the complex relationship between CMA and cancer has aroused great interest in the application of CMA activity regulation in cancer therapy. Here, we describe the basic information related to CMA and introduce the physiological functions of CMA, the dual role of CMA in different cancer contexts, and its related research progress. Further study on the mechanism of CMA in tumor development may provide novel insights for tumor therapy targeting CMA. This review aims to summarize and discuss the complex mechanisms of CMA in cancer and related potential strategies for cancer therapy.

Soil microorganisms play crucial roles in nutrient cycling and determining soil quality and fertility; thus, they are important for agricultural production. However, the impacts of long-term fertilization on soil microbial community remain ambiguous due to inconsistent results from different studies. The objective of this study was to characterize changes in bacterial and fungal diversity and community structures after 12 years of different fertilization in aeolian sandy soil by analyzing 16S rRNA and ITS rRNA gene sequences and the soil properties to discover the driving factors. Eight different fertilizer treatments have been set up since 2009: no fertilizer (CK), chemical N fertilizer (N), chemical N and P fertilizer (NP), chemical N, P and K fertilizer (NPK), pig manure only (M), pig manure plus chemical N fertilizer (MN), pig manure plus chemical N and P fertilizer (MNP), pig manure plus chemical N, P, and K fertilizer (MNPK). The results indicated that the long-term application of chemical fertilizer reduced soil pH, whereas the addition of pig manure alleviated a decrease in soil pH value. Chemical fertilizer plus pig manure significantly improved soil available nutrients and soil organic carbon. Long-term MNPK fertilization resulted in changes in bacterial diversity due to effects on specific bacterial species; by contrast, all fertilization treatments resulted in changes in fungal diversity due to changes in soil properties. Principal component analysis indicated that fertilization had a significant effect on soil microbial community structure, and the effect of chemical fertilizer combined with pig manure was greater than that of chemical fertilizer alone. Soil available phosphorus, total phosphorus, and pH were the most important factors that influenced bacterial taxa, whereas soil pH, total phosphorus, organic carbon, ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen were the most important factors influencing fungal taxa after 12 years of fertilization in aeolian sandy soil.

Person re-identification plays an important role in the construction of the smart city. A reliable person re-identification system relieves users from the inefficient work of identifying the specific individual from enormous numbers of photos or videos captured by different surveillance devices. The most existing methods either focus on local discriminative features without global contextual information or scatter global features while ignoring the local features, resulting in ineffective attention to irregular pedestrian zones. In this article, a novel Transformer-CNN Coupling Network (TCCNet) is proposed to capture the fluctuant body region features in a heterogeneous feature-aware manner. We employ two bridging modules, the Low-level Feature Coupling Module (LFCM) and the High-level Feature Coupling Module (HFCM), to improve the complementary characteristics of the hybrid network. It is significantly helpful to enhance the capacity to distinguish between foreground and background features, thereby reducing the unfavorable impact of cluttered backgrounds on person re-identification. Furthermore, the duplicate loss for the two branches is employed to incorporate semantic information from distant preferences of the two branches into the resulting person representation. The experiments on two large-scale person re-identification benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed TCCNet achieves competitive results compared with several state-of-the-art approaches. The mean Average Precision (mAP) and Rank-1 identification rate on the MSMT17 dataset achieve 66.9% and 84.5%, respectively.

BackgroundAn increasing proportion of patients with diabetic kidney disease (DKD) has been observed among incident hemodialysis patients in large cities, which is consistent with the continuous growth of diabetes in the past 20 years.PurposeIn this multicenter retrospective study, we developed a deep learning (DL)-based automatic segmentation and radiomics technology to stratify patients with DKD and evaluate the possibility of clinical application across centers.Materials and MethodsThe research participants were enrolled retrospectively and separated into three parts: training, validation, and independent test datasets for further analysis. DeepLabV3+ network, PyRadiomics package, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator were used for segmentation, extraction of radiomics variables, and regression, respectively.ResultsA total of 499 patients from three centers were enrolled in this study including 246 patients with type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and 253 patients with DKD. The mean intersection-over-union (Miou) and mean pixel accuracy (mPA) of automatic segmentation of the data from the three medical centers were 0.812 ± 0.003, 0.781 ± 0.009, 0.805 ± 0.020 and 0.890 ± 0.004, 0.870 ± 0.002, 0.893 ± 0.007, respectively. The variables from the renal parenchyma and sinus provided different information for the diagnosis and follow-up of DKD. The area under the curve (AUC) of the radiomics model for differentiating between DKD and T2DM patients was 0.674 ± 0.074 and for differentiating between the high and low stages of DKD was 0.803 ± 0.037.ConclusionIn this study, we developed a DL-based automatic segmentation, radiomics technology to stratify patients with DKD. The DL technology was proposed to achieve fast and accurate anatomical-level segmentation in the kidney, and an ultrasound-based radiomics model can achieve high diagnostic performance in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with DKD.

Abstract Background Cholangiocyte senescence is an important pathological process in diseases such as primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). Stem cell/induced pluripotent stem cell-derived exosomes have shown anti-senescence effects in various diseases. We applied novel organoid culture technology to establish and characterize cholangiocyte organoids (cholangioids) with oxidative stress-induced senescence and then investigated whether human placenta mesenchymal stem cell (hPMSC)-derived exosomes exerted a protective effect in senescent cholangioids. Methods We identified the growth characteristics of cholangioids by light microscopy and confocal microscopy. Exosomes were introduced concurrently with H2O2 into the cholangioids. Using immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence staining analyses, we assessed the expression patterns of the senescence markers p16INK4a, p21WAF1/Cip1, and senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) and then characterized the mRNA and protein expression levels of chemokines and senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) components. Results Well-established cholangioids expressed cholangiocyte-specific markers. Oxidative stress-induced senescence enhanced the expression of the senescence-associated proteins p16INK4a, p21WAF1/Cip1, and SA-β-gal in senescent cholangioids compared with the control group. Treatment with hPMSC-derived exosomes delayed the cholangioid aging progress and reduced the levels of SASP components (i.e., interleukin-6 and chemokine CC ligand 2). Conclusions Senescent organoids are a potential novel model for better understanding senescence progression in cholangiocytes. hPMSC-derived exosomes exert protective effects against senescent cholangioids under oxidative stress-induced injury by delaying aging and reducing SASP components, which might have therapeutic potential for PSC or PBC.

The precision agriculture wireless sensor network (PAWSN) is a new research field.PAWSN is related to the development process of the smart agriculture,which has attracted the attention of scholars in the smart agriculture field.The key technology of PAWSN was analyzed,and then was classified according to its nature and characteristics,with detailed description of the merit and demerit of MAC layer protocol and routing protocol which was the most important network protocol of PAWSN key technology based on the classification framework.Finally,the problems needed to be solved and the solution ideas of PAWSN network protocol were pointed out.This study was aimed to make a cross-layer integrated optimization design for the PAWSN network protocol,improve the whole performance and the utilization ratio of PAWSN in smart agriculture,and promote the development of smart agriculture.

The application of organic fertiliser is a commonly used method to improve the utilisation efficiency of phosphorus (P) fertiliser. However, long-term over-fertilisation will cause environmental pollution. This study analysed a field test was conducted to study the impacts of P forms in soil under long-term (40 years) rotation fertilisation, to evaluate the contribution of different fertilisation to the available P form, to clarify how to apply pig manure to improve the concentration of available P forms. The results show that the main P compounds were orthophosphate and phosphate monoester. The combination of a high amount of manure and NPK fertilisers can increase the content of orthophosphate that can be absorbed and utilised by crops, the orthophosphate was 477.2 mg/kg, and phosphate monoester was 190.4 mg/kg. The long-term addition of nitrogen fertiliser significantly reduced the pH value of soil, and the addition of manure slowed down the trend of pH reduction. Furthermore, manure in combination with NPK fertiliser, can extremely increase the total P extracted by NaOH-EDTA by changing soil pH. The NaHCO3-soluble P (Ca2-P), NH4Ac-soluble P (Ca8-P), NH4F-soluble P (Al-P), and occluded-P (O-P) were positively correlated with orthophosphate, while middle stable and high stable organic P was positively correlated with monophosphate.

Abstract Background Immune system disorders play important roles in acute lung injury (ALI), and mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) treatment can reduce inflammation during ALI. In this study, we compared the changes in lung B cells during MSC treatment. Methods We investigated the effects of MSCs on lung B cells in a mouse model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI. MSCs were administered intratracheally 4 h after LPS. As vehicle-treated controls, mice were treated with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) containing 2% C57BL/6 (PBS group). Histopathological changes, survival rate, inflammatory factor levels, and the number of neutrophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were determined. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) analysis was performed to evaluate the transcriptional changes in lung B cells between the PBS, LPS, and LPS/MSC groups on days 3 and 7. Results MSC treatment ameliorated LPS-induced ALI, as indicated by the reductions in mortality, the levels of chemokines and cytokines in BALF, and the severity of lung tissue histopathology in ALI mice. Lung B cells in the PBS group remained undifferentiated and had an inhibitory phenotype. Based on our scRNA-Seq results, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in lung B cells in both the PBS group and LPS group were involved in chemotaxis processes and some proinflammatory pathways. MSC treatment inhibited the expression of chemokine genes that were upregulated by LPS and were related to the recruitment of neutrophils into lung tissues. Immunoglobulin-related gene expression was decreased in lung B cells of mice treated with LPS/MSC for 7 days. The DEGs regulated by MSCs were enriched in biological processes, including humoral immune response and apoptotic signaling. Conclusions Lung B cells played an important role in the effects of treatment of ALI with MSCs. These observations provide new insights into the mechanisms underlying the effects of MSC treatment for ALI.

Abstract Background Surgery-related pain and opioids might exacerbate immune defenses in immunocompromised cancer patients which might affect postoperativd overall survival. Sufentanil is a good postoperative pain control drug,the present study aimed to figure out whether it effect T cell immunity in rat hepatocellular carcinoma surgical model. Methods A rat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) models was established by N-nitrosodiethylamine. Forty-eight of them were randomly divided into 3 equal groups: surgery without postoperative analgesia (Group C), surgery with morphine postoperative analgesia (Group M), surgery with sufentanil postoperative analgesia (Group S). Each animal underwent a standard left hepatolobectomy, and intraperitoneally implanted with osmotic minipumps filled with sufentanil, morphine or normal saline according to the different group. The food and water consumptions, body weight changes, locomotor activity and mechanical pain threshold (MPT) were observed. The ratio of CD4+/CD8+, proportions of Th1, Th2, Th17 and Treg cells in blood were detected using flow cytometry. The liver function and the rats’ survival situation of each group were observed. Results The food and water consumption, locomotor activity and MPT of group C declined than those of group S and M on d1, d2, d3 (P

Abstract Patients who have refractory cancer pain suffer both physically and psychologically. Cancer pain management has improved over the past few decades. However, the treatment of refractory cancer pain is still challenging all over the world. Intraspinal analgesia has become an effective strategy to treat refractory pain in patients with cancer. In this report, we present a patient receiving a large dose of intrathecal opioids for refractory cancer pain, and who is also afflicted with pain-induced depression. Dexmedetomidine (DEX) was used as part of a multimodal analgesic regimen that successfully alleviated both the patient’s pain and depression. An intrathecal infusion of DEX may serve as an adjuvant drug in the treatment of cancer pain and pain-related depression.

Photosynthetically derived carbon (C) is allocated belowground, allowing plants to obtain nutrients. However, less is known about the amount of nutrients acquired relative to the C allocated belowground, which is referred to as C efficiency for nutrient acquisition (CENA). Here, we examined how C efficiency for nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) acquisition varied between ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and clover (Trifolium repens) with and without P fertilization. A continuous 13C-labeling method was applied to track belowground C allocation. Both species allocated nearly half of belowground C to rhizosphere respiration (49%), followed by root biomass (37%), and rhizodeposition (14%). With regard to N and P, CENA was higher for clover than for ryegrass, which remained higher after accounting for relatively low C costs associated with biological N2 fixation. Phosphorus fertilization increased the C efficiency for P acquisition but decreased the C efficiency for N acquisition. A higher CENA for N and P in clover may be attributed to the greater rhizosphere priming on soil organic matter decomposition. Increased P availability with P fertilization could induce lower C allocation for P uptake but exacerbate soil N limitation, thereby making N uptake less C efficient. Overall, our study revealed that species-specific belowground C allocation and nutrient uptake efficiency depend on which nutrient is limited.

Rhodotorula glutinis, as a member of the family Sporidiobolaceae, is of great value in the field of biotechnology. However, the evolutionary relationship of R. glutinis X-20 with Rhodosporidiobolus, Sporobolomyces, and Rhodotorula are not well understood, and its metabolic pathways such as carotenoid biosynthesis are not well resolved. Here, genome sequencing and comparative genome techniques were employed to improve the understanding of R. glutinis X-20. Phytoene desaturase (crtI) and 15-cis-phytoene synthase/lycopene beta-cyclase (crtYB), key enzymes in carotenoid pathway from R. glutinis X-20 were more efficiently expressed in S. cerevisiae INVSc1 than in S. cerevisiae CEN.PK2-1C. High yielding engineered strains were obtained by using synthetic biology technology constructing carotenoid pathway in S. cerevisiae and optimizing the precursor supply after fed-batch fermentation with palmitic acid supplementation. Genome sequencing analysis and metabolite identification has enhanced the understanding of evolutionary relationships and metabolic pathways in R. glutinis X-20, while heterologous construction of carotenoid pathway has facilitated its industrial application.

The outbreak of COVID-19 poses a serious threat to global health. Musculoskeletal (MSK) pain is the most frequent symptom in patients with COVID-19 besides fever and cough. There are limited studies addressing MSK symptoms in patients with COVID-19. This review aims to provide an overview of current studies related to MSK pain in patients with COVID-19, summarize the possible mechanisms of myalgia, and describe the current management options. In addition to acute respiratory manifestations, COVID-19 might also affect neurological systems which include skeletal manifestations and muscular injury. A possible mechanism of MSK pain and myalgia in COVID-19 may be related to the distribution of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) and the occurrence of cytokine storms. ACE-2 has been shown to be the receptor of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV2). Moreover, studies have shown that inflammatory cytokines could cause myalgia by inducing prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production. In addition, it was also found that the plasma levels of IL2, IL7, IL10, IL-6, TNFα, and e lymphopenia were higher in patients with COVID-19. In general, the treatment of MSK pain in patients with COVID-19 falls into pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. Various treatments of each have its own merits. The role of vaccination is irreplaceable in the efforts to prevent COVID-19 and mitigates its subsequent symptoms.

Abstract Genome‐wide association studies have identified 3p21.1 as a robust risk locus for schizophrenia. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here a functional regulatory variant (rs2535629) is identified that disrupts CTCF binding at 3p21.1. It is confirmed that rs2535629 is also significantly associated with schizophrenia in Chinese population and the regulatory effect of rs2535629 is validated. Expression quantitative trait loci analysis indicates that rs2535629 is associated with the expression of three distal genes (GLT8D1, SFMBT1, and NEK4) in the human brain, and CRISPR‐Cas9‐mediated genome editing confirmed the regulatory effect of rs2535629 on GLT8D1, SFMBT1, and NEK4. Interestingly, differential expression analysis of GLT8D1, SFMBT1, and NEK4 suggested that rs2535629 may confer schizophrenia risk by regulating SFMBT1 expression. It is further demonstrated that Sfmbt1 regulates neurodevelopment and dendritic spine density, two key pathological characteristics of schizophrenia. Transcriptome analysis also support the potential role of Sfmbt1 in schizophrenia pathogenesis. The study identifies rs2535629 as a plausibly causal regulatory variant at the 3p21.1 risk locus and demonstrates the regulatory mechanism and biological effect of this functional variant, indicating that this functional variant confers schizophrenia risk by altering CTCF binding and regulating expression of SFMBT1, a distal gene which plays important roles in neurodevelopment and synaptic morphogenesis.

Various environmental factors and anthropogenic practices can affect the Fe biogeochemical cycles in soils. Nitrogen and carbon states are closely associated with Fe dynamics. However, we still have a limited understanding of the complex response of Fe biogeochemical processes to long–term nitrogen– and organic–fertilization regimes. This study investigated the Fe fraction and distribution, as well as the link between Fe and nitrogen/carbon, in bulk soil and in soil aggregates. The results showed that the long–term application of the nitrogen fertilizer increased the contents of water–soluble iron (Ws–Fe) and carbonate–bound iron (Ca–Fe) in the bulk soil and various sizes of aggregates, as well as the iron contents in soybeans. The decreased pH and enhanced Feammox reaction in response to the nitrogen–fertilizer treatments were responsible for the increase in the Ws–Fe and Ca–Fe fractions. By contrast, the long–term application of the organic fertilizer decreased the contents of Ws–Fe and Ca–Fe, while it increased the contents of Ox–Fe and Or–Fe. Moreover, the contents of Ox–Fe and Or–Fe were positively correlated with the organic–carbon contents in the micro–aggregates of 0.053–0.25 mm and