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The reterritorialisation of agricultural activities (RAA) consists of reinforcing local food production and its diversification activities oriented toward local consumers. RAA helps shape the local food system, which is an increasingly studied topic in the planning field. However, institutional impacts on planning approaches for RAA remain unknown. This study examines this question by comparing land-use and food planning in Dutch and French cases, where France defines food planning via national law and the Netherlands does not. Through analysis of planning documents and semi-structured interviews, we identified planning goals and instruments, and analysed governance models. We then linked these three components to understand institutional impacts. Our empirical findings reveal that regarding planning policies on RAA, there are differences between the two countries in terms of focused action fields, planning instruments, and links between land-use and food planning. Our results show that the dominance of state-local relationships in France and civil society-government relationships in the Netherlands has a significant effect on planning approaches. This study supports the need for an emphasis on institutional design for effective planning for RAA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperspectral (HS) satellite data have been widely applied in many fields due to its numerous bands. Along with the advantages of high spectral resolution, HS satellite data are still limited by some disadvantages of high acquisition cost, low revisiting capability, and low spatial resolution. Compared with HS satellites, multispectral (MS) satellites have a large number, large width, strong coverage, and high spatial resolution. Therefore, MS data can be used as the input to the spectral reconstruction (SR) to obtain HS data with high temporal resolution. Better HS data can be obtained by spectral reconstructing with these continuous multitemporal data than with single-temporal data. A multitemporal spectral reconstruction network (MTSRN) is proposed in this article, which is used to reconstruct HS images from multitemporal MS images. The proposed MTSRN comprises multiple single-temporal spectral reconstruction networks (STSRN) for extracting temporal features and a multitemporal fusion network (MTFN). The parallel component alternative (PA) post-processing method enhances the physical plausibility of reconstructed HS data. To demonstrate performance of the proposed method in aspects of multitemporal reconstruction, experiments are conducted on four multitemporal HS and MS satellite datasets. The experimental results prove that the proposed MTSRN obtains better SR results compared with the SR method based on single-temporal information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hamartoma refers to the excessive focal growth of cells and tissues in organs, which is between malformation and benign tumor. Hamartomas are commonly seen in the lung, but rare in the retroperitoneum. Main text: Angiomyolipoma was also called hamartoma in the early years. Hamartoma was not separated from the concept of angiomyolipoma until perivascular epithelioid cells were found in angiomyolipoma. We reported a case of retroperitoneal hamartoma, which was suspected to be angiomyolipoma in the initial imaging findings and pathological frozen section, but the paraffin section was finally diagnosed as hamartoma. Due to the fusion of the tumor with the right psoas major muscle, it may need to be cut off for complete resection of tumor, which may damage the sacrococcygeal nerve and affect the postoperative activity function, so the tumor was just partially removed. After 6 and 22 months of follow-up, the patient was in good condition. CT re-examinations showed that the epibiotic right retroperitoneal mass size was 40 × 42 × 72 mm3 (6 months, length × width × height) and 40 × 45 × 81 mm3 (22 months, length × width × height). We describe this case and review the literature. Conclusions: In conclusion, retroperitoneal hamartoma is rare and difficult to differentiate from angiomyolipoma, in which perivascular epithelial cells could be found on pathological paraffin sections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of observation technology in remote sensing (RS), large-area multispectral (MS) images can be easily obtained. However, due to the limitation of imaging devices, only a limited range of hyperspectral (HS) images with higher spectral resolution can be obtained. This article mainly focuses on how to use limited HS images to improve the classification performance of MS images. In order to solve this problem, this article proposes an MS–HS image collaborative classification method, which integrates coupled dictionary learning and distance preserved probability distribution. First, image reconstruction based on coupled dictionary learning is performed, in which sparse representation and dictionary learning are used to generate HS images from MS images through spectral superresolution, so that the spectral features of the MS data and HS data are converted to the same feature space for feature space alignment. Second, the probability distribution is adapted, in which the marginal and conditional probabilities are adapted to further narrow the difference between the real HS data and the generated HS data. At the same time, the consistency of the data structure of the source domain before and after the mapping is maintained, so that the same class of data is more compact after the mapping and reduces the spacing within the same class. Compared with the state-of-the-art methods, this article conducts the experiments on three MS–HS RS datasets, which demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An air-fluid level within a gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is unusual and indicates the presence of a fistula within the lumen of the GI tract. Until recently, the optimal management of such patients was not clear-cut. This retrospective study investigated the clinicopathological characteristics, surgical procedures, pre-and post-operative management, and prognosis of patients with GIST containing an air-fluid level. Data of GIST patients, spanning 5 years, including 17 GIST patients with air-fluid levels in the experimental group and 34 GIST patients without air-fluid levels in the control group, were retrieved from two hospitals in China. The clinicopathological characteristics, types of surgery, management, and clinical outcomes of GIST patients were compared between the two groups. GISTs containing air-fluid levels were significantly different from GISTs without air-fluid levels regarding tumor morphology, NIH risk category, invasion of adjacent organs, and necrosis or ulceration. Most GIST patients with air-fluid levels (14/17, 82.4%) received open surgery, significantly higher than the 20.6% in the control group. Targeted therapy with Imatinib mesylate (IM) was implemented in all GIST patients in the experimental group (17/17, 100%); markedly higher than those (3/34, 8.8%) in the control group. During follow-up, recurrence and death rates (5.9% and 5.9%) in the experimental group were higher than those (2.9% and 0%) in the control group. Open surgery is commonly performed in GIST patients with air-fluid levels who also require targeted therapy with IM. The Torricelli-Bernoulli sign could be a risk factor, adversely affecting the patient's prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing acquisition ability of hyperspectral remote sensing images, unsupervised cross-temporal classification (UCTC) of hyperspectral images (HSIs) has attracted more and more attention. In this paper, we focus on cross-temporal HSI classification, i.e., using one labeled HSI to classify the other unlabeled HSI. A multiple geodesic flow kernel learning (MGFKL) framework is proposed to exploit both spatial and spectral features for UCTC with bitemporal HSIs and called S2-MGFKL. The proposed S2-MGFKL method first extracts extended multi-attribute profiles (EMAPs) from the original bitemporal HSIs. The spatial features of the bitemporal HSIs obtained by the same attribute filter are paired up, so are the original spectral features. Second, each pair of features from both source and target domains are used to construct multiple geodesic flows. According to the original definition of GFK, we can obtain the construction of Gaussian base GFKs. The base kernels consist of two parts, the spectral part is obtained base on the same geodesic flow (which is constructed on the bitemporal spectral features) by tuning the kernel scale, while the spatial part is obtained under the same kernel scale but different geodesic flows constructed on different spatial feature pairs. After that, the mean rule is adopted to acquire the combined kernel, which is fed into the supervised vector machine (SVM) to implement the cross-temporal classification task. Experiments are conducted on two real HSI data sets, and the results compared with several well-known methods demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tendon injury is one of the most common disorders of the musculoskeletal system, with a higher likelihood of occurrence in elderly individuals and athletes. In posthealing tendons, two undesirable consequences, tissue fibrosis and a reduction in mechanical properties, usually occur, resulting in an increased probability of rerupture or reinjury; thus, it is necessary to propose an appropriate treatment. Currently, most methods do not sufficiently modulate the tendon healing process and restore the function and structure of the injured tendon to those of a normal tendon, since there is still inadequate information about the effects of multiple cellular and other relevant signaling pathways on tendon healing and how the expression of their components is regulated. microRNAs are vital targets for promoting tendon repair and can modulate the expression of biological components in signaling pathways involved in various physiological and pathological responses. miRNAs are a type of noncoding ribonucleic acid essential for regulating processes such as cell proliferation, differentiation, migration and apoptosis; inflammatory responses; vascularization; fibrosis; and tissue repair. This article focuses on the biogenesis response of miRNAs while presenting their mechanisms in tendon healing with perspectives and suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, many studies on hyperspectral image classification have shown that using multiple features can effectively improve the classification accuracy. As a very powerful means of learning, multiple kernel learning (MKL) can conveniently be embedded in a variety of characteristics. This paper proposes a class-specific sparse MKL (CS-SMKL) framework to improve the capability of hyperspectral image classification. In terms of the features, extended multiattribute profiles are adopted because it can effectively represent the spatial and spectral information of hyperspectral images. CS-SMKL classifies the hyperspectral images, simultaneously learns class-specific significant features, and selects class-specific weights. Using an L1-norm constraint (i.e., group lasso) as the regularizer, we can enforce the sparsity at the group/feature level and automatically learn a compact feature set for the classification of any two classes. More precisely, our CS-SMKL determines the associated weights of optimal base kernels for any two classes and results in improved classification performances. The advantage of the proposed method is that only the features useful for the classification of any two classes can be retained, which leads to greatly enhanced discriminability. Experiments are conducted on three hyperspectral data sets. The experimental results show that the proposed method achieves better performances for hyperspectral image classification compared with several state-of-the-art algorithms, and the results confirm the capability of the method in selecting the useful features. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we propose a novel multiple kernel learning (MKL) framework to incorporate both spectral and spatial features for hyperspectral image classification, which is called multiple-structure-element nonlinear MKL (MultiSE-NMKL). In the proposed framework, multiple structure elements (MultiSEs) are employed to generate extended morphological profiles (EMPs) to present spatial–spectral information. In order to better mine interscale and interstructure similarity among EMPs, a nonlinear MKL (NMKL) is introduced to learn an optimal combined kernel from the predefined linear base kernels. We integrate this NMKL with support vector machines (SVMs) and reduce the min–max problem to a simple minimization problem. The optimal weight for each kernel matrix is then solved by a projection-based gradient descent algorithm. The advantages of using nonlinear combination of base kernels and multiSE-based EMP are that similarity information generated from the nonlinear interaction of different kernels is fully exploited, and the discriminability of the classes of interest is deeply enhanced. Experiments are conducted on three real hyperspectral data sets. The experimental results show that the proposed method achieves better performance for hyperspectral image classification, compared with several state-of-the-art algorithms. The MultiSE EMPs can provide much higher classification accuracy than using a single-SE EMP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study is to investigate if polymerase I and transcript release factor (PTRF) acts as a modulator in glioblastoma (GBM) chemoresistance. Methods: Multidrug resistant (MDR) GBM cell line U251AR was established by exposing the U251 cell line to imatinib. The 2D-DIGE and MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS were performed on U251 and U251AR cell lines to screen MDR-related proteins. The expression of PTRF was determined by Western blot and quantitative RT-PCR analyses. Results: When compared with the parental U251 cells, expression of 21 proteins was significantly altered in U251AR cells. Among the 21 differentially expressed proteins, the expression of PTRF was up-regulated by 2.14 folds in U251AR cells when compared with that in the parental U251 cells. Knockdown of PTRF in GBM cell lines significantly increased chemosensitivity of cells to various chemical drugs and decreased the expression levels of caveolin1, a major structural component of caveolae. Expression levels of PTRF and caveolin1 were significantly up-regulated in the relapsed GBM patients. The mRNA level of PTRF and caveolin1 showed a positive correlation in the same GBM specimens. Conclusions: Our results indicate that PTRF acts as a modulator in GBM chemoresistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Our previous studies have demonstrated a protective role of Zhilong Huoxue Tongyu capsule in atherosclerosis (AS); however, the molecular mechanisms are unclear. Methods. Human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAECs) were induced with oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) to obtain cellular AS models. Then, the medicated serum of Zhilong Huoxue Tongyu capsule was obtained and used for treatment with ox-LDL-induced HCAECs. The cell viability was detected by CCK-8 assay. Besides, the binding between miR-30b-5p and NLRP3 was determined by the dual-luciferase reporter gene system assay. Furthermore, ox-LDL-induced HCAECs were transfected with miR-30b-5p mimic or miR-30b-5p inhibitor. The pyroptosis of HCAECs was assessed by flow cytometry, LDH content detection, and qRT-PCR assays. Results. 10% medicated serum of Zhilong Huoxue Tongyu capsule was the maximum nontoxic concentration and it was used in subsequent assays. The rate of pyroptosis, LDH content, and the mRNA expression level of pyroptosis-related genes including NLRP3, ASC, Caspase 1, IL-1β, and IL-18 were prominently enhanced after HCAECs were induced by ox-LDL, which were markedly rescued with medicated serum of Zhilong Huoxue Tongyu capsule. In addition, the medicated serum of Zhilong Huoxue Tongyu capsule significantly enhanced the ox-LDL-induced reduction of miR-30b-5p level. NLRP3 could bind to miR-30b-5p and was negatively corrected with miR-30b-5p. Moreover, all the rates of pyroptosis, LDH content, and the mRNA expression levels of pyroptosis-related genes including NLRP3, ASC, Caspase 1, IL-1β, and IL-18 were further observably decreased after ox-LDL-induced HCAECs treated with medicated serum were transfected with miR-30b-5p mimic, while these were significantly rescued with transfection of miR-30b-5p inhibitor. Conclusion. Zhilong Huoxue Tongyu capsule alleviated the pyroptosis of vascular endothelial cells induced by ox-LDL through miR-30b-5p/NLRP3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of spectral and 3-D elevation information provided by hyperspectral images (HSIs) and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) has gained increased attention in the remote sensing field and enabled numerous applications. While various methods have been proposed to fuse these two data streams in pixel, feature, or decision level, a deeper view into the intrinsic relation of surface geometry, material reflectance, and environment illumination is still lacking. In this article, we present a novel supervoxel-based joint intrinsic decomposition framework for HSIs and LiDAR. First, we proposed a novel intrinsic scene model for HSIs and LiDAR point cloud, which tells how we can map LiDAR point cloud into HSI pixels with point-cloud-level normals, reflectance, and incident light direction. Then, we extract supervoxels from the LiDAR point cloud using a graph-based supervoxel method. Finally, we formulate the intrinsic decomposition problem within a supervoxel-based framework which can be optimized effectively and efficiently. The outputs of the proposed model are intrinsic scene properties like incident light direction and point-cloud-level hyperspectral reflectance, with which we can then generate intrinsic hyperspectral point cloud (IHSPC) where each point possesses not only 3-D coordinates and normals but also the reflectance over each wavelength. The performance of our approach is demonstrated with both synthetic and real data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperspectral (HS) data, encompassing hundreds of spectral channels for the same area, offer a wealth of spectral information and are increasingly utilized across various fields. However, their limitations in spatial resolution and imaging width pose challenges for precise recognition and fine classification in large scenes. Conversely, multispectral (MS) data excel in providing spatial details for vast landscapes but lack spectral precision. In this article, we proposed an adaptive learning-based mapping model, including an image fusion module, spectral super-resolution network, and adaptive learning network. Spectral super-resolution networks learn the mapping between multispectral and hyperspectral images based on the attention mechanism. The image fusion module leverages spatial and spectral consistency in training data, providing pseudo labels for spectral super-resolution training. And the adaptive learning network incorporates spectral response priors via unsupervised learning, adjusting the output of the super-resolution network to preserve spectral information in reconstructed data. Through the experiment, the model eliminates the need for the manual setting of image prior information and complex parameter selection, and can adjust the network structure and parameters dynamically, eventually enhancing the reconstructed image quality, and enabling the fine classification of large-scale scenes with high spatial resolution. Compared with the recent dictionary learning and deep learning spectral super-resolution methods, our approach exhibits superior performance in terms of both image similarity and classification accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To provide insight into the biological characteristics of the healthy cervix by defining intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted imaging (IVIM-DWI) parameters across the menstrual cycle. Forty-three females of reproductive age (18–45 years old) were included in this prospective study. Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and IVIM-DWI scans were performed at multiple time-points across the menstrual cycle: T 1 (menses), T 2 (follicular phase), T 3 (luteal phase). Intra- and interobserver repeatability of the IVIM-DWI values were evaluated with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), and D* was excluded from the analyses due to poor repeatability. Differences in each IVIM-DWI parameter among T 1 , T 2 , and T 3 were explored. Subjects were stratified by age and parity for subgroup analyses (younger [18 - < 30 years] vs. older [≥30–45 years]; parity 0 vs. parity 1 and 2). Correlations between subject age and IVIM-DWI parameters were assessed. The overlap for each IVIM-DWI parameter among T 1 , T 2 , and T 3 was evaluated. ADC and D values of the cervix were significantly lower at T 3 compared with T 1 (p = 0.02 and 0.03) or T 2 (p < 0.01 and < 0.01). In younger subjects (n = 26), ADC and D values were significantly lower at T 3 compared with T 1 (p < 0.01 and p = 0.02) or T 2 (p = 0.03 and p = 0.04). In older subjects (n = 17), ADC values were significantly higher at T 2 compared with T 1 (p = 0.01) or T 3 (p = 0.01). There were significant differences in ADC values at T 1 in subgroup analyses stratified by age and parity (both p < 0.01). There was a moderate correlation between age and ADC values at T 1. Overlap for IVIM-DWI parameters across the menstrual cycle was >50%. ADC and D values of the heathy cervix differed across the menstrual cycle. Age and parity may influence the ADC value. • There were statistical differences in IVIM-DWI of the healthy cervix. • Studies of IVIM-DWI and cervix should scan in the same stage of menstrual cycle. • IVIM-DWI held potential as a method for studying the cervical physiological cycle. • ADC values decrease progressively with age. • Subgroup analysis may be necessary if study involved childbearing age & cervix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Machine learning algorithms used to classify cystic renal masses (CRMs) nave not been applied to unenhanced CT images, and their diagnostic accuracy had not been compared against radiologists. Method: This retrospective study aimed to develop radiomics models that discriminate between benign and malignant CRMs in a triple phase computed tomography (CT) protocol and compare the diagnostic accuracy of the radiomics approach with experienced radiologists. Predictive models were established using a training set and validation set of unenhanced and enhanced (arterial phase [AP] and venous phase [VP]) CT images of benign and malignant CRMs. The diagnostic capabilities of the models and experienced radiologists were compared using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: On unenhanced, AP and VP CT images in the validation set, the AUC, specificity, sensitivity and accuracy for discriminating between benign and malignant CRMs were 90.0 (95%CI: 81–98%), 90.0%, 90.5% and 90.2%; 93.0% (95%CI: 86–99%), 86.7%, 95.2% and 88.3%; and 95.0% (95%CI: 90%-100%), 93.3%, 90.5% and 92.1%, respectively, for the radiomics models. Diagnostic accuracy of the radiomics models differed significantly on unenhanced images in the training set vs. each radiologist (p = 0.001 and 0.003) but not in the validation set (p = 0.230 and 0.590); differed significantly on AP images in the validation set vs. each radiologist (p = 0.007 and 0.007) but not in the training set (p = 0.663 and 0.663); and there were no differences on VP images in the training or validation sets vs. each radiologist (training set: p = 0.453 and 0.051, validation set: p = 0.236 and 0.786). Conclusions: Radiomics models may have clinical utility for discriminating between benign and malignant CRMs on unenhanced and enhanced CT images. The performance of the radiomics model on unenhanced CT images was similar to experienced radiologists, implying it has potential as a screening and diagnostic tool for CRMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective phenol hydrogenation to cyclohexanone is an important process in both the chemical industry and renewable feedstock processing. However, the direct hydrogenation of phenol to cyclohexanone at mild conditions remains challenging. Here, we report an easily manufactured catalyst, alkali–metal-promoted Pd/TiO2, achieves 99% phenol conversion and 99% cyclohexanone selectivity at mild conditions of 80 °C and an extremely low H2 pressure of 0.06 MPa in water. By contrast, only about 18–36% phenol conversion is achieved using Pd/TiO2 that without addition of alkali metal at the same conditions. The kinetic studies and TOF values indicate that K or Na metals indeed promote the phenol conversion without changing cyclohexanone selectivity. Further studies suggest that the change of electronic structures over Pd NPs that induced by alkali metal is the main reason for enhanced phenol conversion. This result, combined with DFT calculations, suggest that phenol hydrogenation occurs both along the direct hydrogenation pathway and the dissociation and hydrogenation pathway over Pd/TiO2, and that the main pathway over alkali–metal-promoted Pd/TiO2 catalysts is the dissociation and hydrogenation pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study is to investigate the association between intravenous tirofiban and symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (SICH) in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) secondary to large vessel occlusion (LVO) receiving endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) within 24 h of time last known well (LKW). Methods: Patients with AIS-LVO who were randomly assigned to receive intravenous tirofiban or placebo before EVT within 24 h of time LKW and had follow-up brain non-contrast computed tomography within 24 h after stopping tirofiban treatment were derived from "RESCUE BT": a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. All eligible patients were divided into SICH and NO-SICH groups. Subgroup analyses were performed to explore for heterogeneity. Results: Of 945 patients included in this cohort, there were 76 (8.0%) in the SICH group and 869 (92.0%) in the NO-SICH group. The incidence of SICH was not higher in patients receiving intravenous tirofiban compared with placebo (adjusted risk ratio (RR), 1.51; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.97–2.36; P = 0.07). Subgroup analyses showed that age greater than 67-year-old (adjusted RR, 2.18; 95% CI 1.18–4.00), NIHSS greater than 16 (adjusted RR, 1.88; 95% CI 1.06–3.34), and cardioembolism (adjusted RR, 3.73; 95% CI 1.66–8.35) were associated with increased SICH risk. Conclusions: In patients with acute large vessel occlusion stroke, intravenous tirofiban before EVT within 24 h of time from last known well is not associated with increased risk of SICH. Patients who are older, have more severe neurological deficits, or with cardioembolism are at higher risk of SICH with intravenous tirofiban. Trial registration number: URL: http://www.chictr.org.cn; Unique identifier: ChiCTR-INR-17014167. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tendon injuries are one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders for which patients seek medical aid, reducing not only the quality of life of the patient but also imposing a significant economic burden on society. The administration of growth factors at the wound site is a feasible solution for enhancing tendon healing. Platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) has a well-defined safety profile compared to other growth factors and has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The purpose of this review is to summarize the role of PDGF-BB in tendon healing through a comprehensive review of the published literature. Experimental studies suggest that PDGF-BB has a positive effect on tendon healing by enhancing inflammatory responses, speeding up angiogenesis, stimulating tendon cell proliferation, increasing collagen synthesis and increasing the biomechanics of the repaired tendon. PDGF-BB is regarded as a promising candidate in tendon healing. However, in order to realize its full potential, we still need to carefully consider and study key issues such as dose and application time in the future, so as to explore further applications of PDGF-BB in the tendon healing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: miRNAs are crucial regulators of angiogenesis, but there have been no detailed studies on the role of miR-191-5p in cerebral infarct angiogenesis. Here, we investigated the role of miR-191-5p in regulating cerebral infarction angiogenesis.Material and Methods: Mice were injected intracerebroventricularly with antagomir negative control (NC-antagomir), miR-191-5p antagomir, or pcDNA-BDNF 2 h before middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), followed by neurobehavioral score and foot-fault test. The cerebral infarct volume was performed by TTC staining. The microvessel density was detected by FITC-dextran. RT-qPCR was used to detect the levels of miR-191-5p and its target gene BDNF. Western blotting was applied to detect the protein levels of BDNF. The luciferase reporter assay verified that miR-191-5p targeted BDNF.Results: We found an increased level of miR-191-5p in the brain tissue of mice to MCAO. Down-regulation of miR-191-5p reduced the infarct volume and ameliorated neurological deficits in MCAO mice. Further investigation showed that miR-191-5p directly targeted BDNF and that the protective effect of miR-191-5p inhibition in angiogenesis was achieved by regulating BDNF.Conclusions: Our results indicated that miR-191-5p disturbed the angiogenesis in the mouse models of cerebral infarction by inhibiting BDNF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) – short non-coding RNA molecules – post-transcriptionally regulate gene expressions and play crucial roles in diverse biological processes such as development, differentiation, apoptosis and proliferation. In order to investigate the possible role of miRNAs in the development of multi-drug resistance (MDR) in human glioblastoma, we first detected (by Western blotting, real-time polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR] and immunohistochemistry) the expression of miR-296-3p and ether-à-go-go (EAG1 or KCNH1) in U251 cells, U251/imatinib mesylate (U251AR cells) and clinical specimens. The results showed that miR-296-3p was down-regulated in U251AR cells, concurrent with the up-regulation of EAG1 protein, compared with the parental U251 cell line. In vitro drug sensitivity assay demonstrated that over-expression of miR-296-3p sensitised glioblastoma (GBM) cells to anticancer drugs, whereas down-expression using antisense oligonucleotides conferred MDR. Ectopic expression of miR-296-3p reduced EAG1 expression and suppressed cell proliferation drug resistance, and the luciferase activity of an EAG1 3′-untranslated region-based reporter construct in U251AR cells, whereas EAG1 over-expression rescued the suppressive effect of miR-296-3p in U251AR cells. We also found that EAG1 was widely over-expressed and inversely correlated with miR-296-3p in clinical specimens. Taken together, our findings suggest that miR-296-3p may play a role of MDR in glioblastoma at least in part by targeting EAG1. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: There was no "gold standard" to assess the success or failure of thoracic paravertebral block (TPVB). Measurement of skin temperature with infrared thermography (IT) would be a reliable method to evaluate the effectiveness of regional blocks. This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using skin temperature difference (Td) determined by IT between the blocked and unblocked side to predict the spread of TPVB. Methods: Sixty-one patients undergoing elective unilateral breast or thoracoscopic surgery were enrolled in this prospective observational study. TPVB was performed at T4 and T5 under real-time ultrasound guidance with 10 mL of 0.4% ropivacaine for each patient, respectively. Td between the blocked and unblocked side were measured with IT from T2 to T10 at the anterior chest wall before TPVB and 5 min, 10 min, 15 min and 20 min after TPVB. Pinprick test was performed at 20 min after TPVB. Successful TPVB was defined as no sensation to pinprick in 3 or more adjacent dermatomes corresponding to the site of injection at 20 min after TPVB. Td was compared to pinprick test for evaluating its effectiveness in predicting the success of TPVB. The sensitivity, specificity, and cut-off value of Td for predicting successful TPVB were determined by receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: Compared with the baseline value before block, Td from T2 to T10 were significantly increased at each time point in successful blocks. In failed blocks, Td was not increased in any dermatome. The increase of Td at T4-T7 was more than 1 °C 20 min after successful TPVB. Fifteen minutes after block, Td increase at T4 had the greatest potential to predict block success. The area under the ROC curve was 0.960 at a cut-off value of 0.63 °C with a sensitivity of 83.3% and a specificity of 100.0%. Conclusions: This study suggested that the increase of Td at T4 dermatome determined by IT between the blocked and unblocked side is an early, quantitative, and reliable predictor of successful TPVB. Trial registration: Clinical trial registration: NCT04078347. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

VS-5584 is a small-molecular compound that showed equivalent activity against mTOR and all class I PI3K isoforms and demonstrated preclinical activity in diverse cancer cell lines and xenograft tumor model, and rational combination of VS-5584 and other target therapies achieved promising outcomes in oncology. In the present study, we established and validated a simple and sensitive UPLC-MS/MS method for the determination of VS-5584 in plasma samples. VS-5584 was separated via an Acquity UPLC BEH C18 column, with a mobile phase composed of acetonitrile and 0.2% formic acid in water (40 : 60). The calibration curve displayed a good linearity in the range of 1.0–1000 ng/mL, with satisfactory accuracy (−13.6% < RE% < 8.8%) and precision (CV%, less than 9.2%). The validated method was then applied to a pharmacokinetic study in rats. After administration of 10 mg/kg, VS-5584 was absorbed quickly and reached a peak concentration of 473.2 ± 72.0 ng/mL after 20 min. The established method allows for the quantification of VS-5584 in rat plasma in detail and can be utilized to successfully describe the pharmacokinetic profile of VS-5584. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thanks to the rapid development of hyperspectral sensors, hyperspectral videos (HSV) can now be collected with high temporal and spectral resolutions and utilized to handle invisible dynamic monitoring missions, such as chemical gas plume tracking. However, using such sequential large-scale data effectively is challenged, because the direct process of these data requires huge demands in terms of computational loads and memory. This paper presents a key-frame and target-detecting algorithm based on cumulative tensor CANDECOMP/PARAFAC (CP) factorization (CTCF) to select the frames where the target shows up, and a novel super-resolution (SR) method using sparse-based tensor Tucker factorization (STTF) is used to improve the spatial resolution. In the CTCF method, the HSV sequence is seen as cumulative tensors and the correlation of adjacent frames is exploited by applying CP tensor approximation. In the proposed STTF-based SR method, we consider the HSV frame as a third-order tensor; then, HSV frame super-resolution problem is transformed into estimations of the dictionaries along three dimensions and estimation of the core tensor. In order to promote sparse core tensors, a regularizer is incorporated to model the high spatial-spectral correlations. The estimations of the core tensor and the dictionaries along three dimensions are formulated as sparse-based Tucker factorizations of each HSV frame. Experimental results on real HSV data set demonstrate the superiority of the proposed CTCF and STTF algorithms over the comparative state-of-the-art target detection and SR approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly active and stable bifunctional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting are important for clean and renewable energy technologies. The development of energy-saving electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by replacing the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with a thermodynamically favorable electrochemical oxidation (ECO) reaction has attracted increasing attention. In this study, a self-supported, hierarchical, porous, nitrogen-doped carbon (NC)@CuCo2N x/carbon fiber (CF) is fabricated and used as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for both HER and OER in alkaline solutions with excellent activity and stability. Moreover, a two-electrode electrolyzer is assembled using the NC@CuCo2N x/CF as an electrocatalyst at both cathode and anode electrodes for H2 production and selective ECO of benzyl alcohol with high conversion and selectivity. The excellent electrocatalytic activity is proposed to be mainly due to the hierarchical architecture beneficial for exposing more catalytic active sites, enhancing mass transport. Density functional theoretical calculations reveal that the adsorption energies of key species can be modulated due to the synergistic effect between CoN and CuN. This work provides a reference for the development of high-performance bifunctional electrocatalysts for simultaneous production of H2 and high-value-added fine chemicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Post-stroke hyperglycemia appears to be associated with poor outcome from stroke, greater mortality, and reduced functional recovery. Focal cerebral ischemia data support that neural stem cells (NSCs) play an important role in post-ischemic repair. Here we sought to evaluate the negative effects of hyperglycemia on the cellular biology of NSCs following anoxia, and to test whether high glucose affects NSC recovery from ischemic injury.Results: In this study, we used immortalized adult neural stem cells lines and we induced in vitro ischemia by 6 h oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) in an anaerobic incubator. Reperfusion was performed by returning cells to normoxic conditions and the cells were then incubated in experimental medium with various concentrations of glucose (17.5, 27.75, 41.75, and 83.75 mM) for 24 h. We found that high glucose (≥27.75 mM) exposure induced apoptosis of NSCs in a dose-dependent manner after exposure to OGD, using an Annexin V/PI apoptosis detection kit. The cell viability and proliferative activity of NSCs following OGD in vitro, evaluated with both a Cell Counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and a 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) incorporation assay, were inhibited by high glucose exposure. Cell cycle analysis showed that high glucose exposure increased the percentage of cells in G0/G1-phase, and reduced the percentage of cells in S-phase. Furthermore, high glucose exposure was found to significantly induce the activation of c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase (JNK) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and suppress extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) activity.Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that high glucose induces apoptosis and inhibits proliferation of NSCs following OGD in vitro, which may be associated with the activation of JNK/p38 MAPK pathways and the delay of G1-S transition in the cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]