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This research analyzes the clinical data, whole-exome sequencing results, and in vitro minigene functional experiments of a child with developmental delay and intellectual disability. The male patient, aged 4, began experiencing epileptic seizures at 3 months post-birth and has shown developmental delay. Rehabilitation training was administered between the ages of one and two. There were no other significant family medical histories. Through comprehensive family exome genetic testing, a hemizygous variant in the 11th exon of the OPHN1 gene was identified in the affected child: c.1025 + 1G > A. Family segregation analysis confirmed the presence of this variant in the patient's mother, which had not been previously reported. According to the ACMG guidelines, this variant was classified as a likely pathogenic variant. In response to this variant, an in vitro minigene functional experiment was designed and conducted, confirming that the mutation affects the normal splicing of the gene's mRNA, resulting in a 56 bp retention on the left side of Intron 11. It was confirmed that OPHN1: c.1025 + 1G > A is the pathogenic cause of X-linked intellectual disabilities in the child, with clinical phenotypes including developmental delay and seizures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article mainly studies the strong convergence properties for randomly weighted maximum partial sums of arrays of row-wise extended negatively dependent (END, for short) random variables, including the complete moment convergence and complete f-moment convergence. The results obtained in this paper extend the corresponding ones in the literature. As an application, we investigate the complete consistency of the estimators of nonparametric regression models based on END random errors by using the complete convergence that we established. Then we provide comprehensive simulation studies to demonstrate the validity of the theoretical results based on the finite sample performance. Finally, an application to a real data set is illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Dysthyroid optic neuropathy (DON) leads to vision loss. This study aimed to investigate a new method that can directly evaluate the change in muscle cone inner volume (MCIV) and distinguish DON orbits from non-DONs. Materials and methods: This study included 54 patients (108 orbits) who were diagnosed with thyroid eye disease and treated at the Beijing Tongren Hospital between December 2019 and September 2021. The extraocular muscle volume (EOMV), orbital fat volume (OFV), and bony orbit volume (BOV) of the patients were measured using three-dimensional reconstruction. MCIV was measured using artificially defined boundaries. The associations between these volumes and clinical indicators were studied, and the diagnostic efficacy of these volumes for DON was described using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: The ROC curve showed that the area under the curve of MCIV/BOV (%) combined with EOMV/BOV (%) reached 0.862 (p < 0.001), with a sensitivity of 85.7% and a specificity of 76.1%. Conclusion: The combination of MCIV/BOV (%) and EOMV/BOV (%) is a good indicator for the diagnosis of DON, which aids in the early detection and intervention of DON. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autonomous robot-based orchard operations will become an alternative solution in the field of precision agriculture. One of the keys to robotic work is to achieve autonomous navigation that is as accurate as possible to ensure the most accurate working effect. In this work, we propose an orchard path fitting and navigation method based on the fusion of improved A-Star algorithm and Support Vector Machine Regression (SVR) to meet the requirements of autonomous navigation crawler platform for autonomous navigation in orchard environment and ensure accuracy. In this study, the actual speed and turning radius of the left and right tracks of the crawler platform were collected under 5 different slopes and 400 sets of different theoretical speed combinations of left and right tracks through the design nesting test, and the motion model of the crawler platform was constructed based on SVR. Orchard point cloud data were obtained by 3D solid-state LiDAR, and the improved A-star algorithm was used to fit the navigation path and calculate the turning curvature radius. Taking this curvature radius as the optimal navigation target value, the motion model predicts the optimal theoretical speed of left and right tracks, which is used as a reference for autonomous navigation. The comparison experiment of autonomous navigation was carried out in two modes: traditional and improved A-Star algorithm. The results show that the average values of the maximum lateral and longitudinal deviation of the improved automatic navigation method between orchards row are 6.90 cm and 9.88 cm, respectively. Compared with the method combined with the traditional A-Star algorithm and SVR, the values were 8.94 cm and 10.88 cm and were optimized by 29.57% and 10.12%, respectively. The autonomous navigation method proposed in this paper can meet the needs of orchards rows autonomous navigation, and can be widely applied to different orchard site environments (slope, ground obstacles, bad surface conditions), which can provide reference for the production practices of unmanned orchards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employees suffer from low resources in the workplace because of multiple work roles in project-based organization (PBO). Based on the conservation of resources theory (COR), this study identifies both employee resilience and organizational support as critical personal and job resources. It then examines how servant leadership enhances employee work engagement in PBO through the mediating roles of employee resilience and organizational support. This study uses a questionnaire-based quantitative research design to collect data from 437 employees in PBO. The collected data were analyzed by partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test hypotheses. The research findings indicate that servant leadership positively affects work engagement. Additionally, the relationship between servant leadership and work engagement is mediated by employee resilience and organizational support. This study deepens the understanding of how servant leadership promotes work engagement in PBO by providing personal and job resources. The findings deepen our understanding of how servant leadership enhances work engagement in PBO. The findings also provide implications for PBO to enhance sustainable well-being at work and organizational productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To research the effect of hydrogen permeation on the friction characteristics of the seal materials on the hydrogen equipment, the molecular models of 10% PEEK/PTFE composites and its frictional models were established, respectively, and molecular dynamics (MDs) and giant canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) methods were used to simulate the diffusion coefficient, dissolution coefficient and permeability coefficient of the hydrogen in PEEK/PTFE composites. The effect of a different amount of hydrogen on the friction and wear of PEEK/PTFE composites was also studied. The results showed that few permeations of the hydrogen gas mainly demonstrated having a positive effect on the surface of the PEEK/PTFE composites, and the wear rate of the PEEK/PTFE composites showed a slight decreasing trend. The wear rate of the PEEK/PTFE composites gradually decreased when more hydrogen molecules penetrated the matrix. With the further penetration of the hydrogen molecules, the wear rate and friction coefficient of the PEEK/PTFE composites rapidly increased, showing a negative effect. With the further penetration of the hydrogen molecule, the friction coefficient of the composite displayed a small fluctuation and then a rapid decreasing trend. Meanwhile, effective improvement measures were proposed, and the introduction of the graphene was verified to be effective to reduce the negative effect of the hydrogen permeation, thereby improving the friction performance of the PEEK/PTFE composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key Clinical Message: The etiology of primary pulmonary angiosarcoma is still unknown. Here we report a case of primary pulmonary angiosarcoma originated from a tuberculous scar and presented as aggressive deterioration with uncontrolled bleeding from capillaries with angiodysplasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brucella, a zoonotic facultative intracellular pathogenic bacterium, poses a significant threat both to human health and to the development of the livestock industry. Alanine racemase (Alr), the enzyme responsible for alanine racemization, plays a pivotal role in regulating virulence in this bacterium. Moreover, Brucella mutants with alr gene deletions (Δalr) exhibit potential as vaccine candidates. However, the mechanisms that underlie the detrimental effects of alr knockouts on Brucella pathogenicity remain elusive. Here, initially, we conducted a bioinformatics analysis of Alr, which demonstrated a high degree of conservation of the protein within Brucella spp. Subsequent metabolomics studies unveiled alterations in amino acid pathways following deletion of the alr gene. Furthermore, alr deletion in Brucella suis S2 induced decreased resistance to stress, antibiotics, and other factors. Transmission electron microscopy of simulated macrophage intracellular infection revealed damage to the cell wall in the Δalr strain, whereas propidium iodide staining and alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase assays demonstrated alterations in cell membrane permeability. Changes in cell wall properties were revealed by measurements of cell surface hydrophobicity and zeta potential. Finally, the diminished adhesion capacity of the Δalr strain was shown by immunofluorescence and bacterial enumeration assays. In summary, our findings indicate that the alr gene that regulates amino acid metabolism in Brucella influences the properties of the cell wall, which modulates bacterial adherence capability. This study is the first demonstration that Alr impacts virulence by modulating bacterial metabolism, thereby providing novel insights into the pathogenic mechanisms of Brucella spp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Urinary incontinence is a urinary disorder in which urine leaks out involuntarily. This disorder seriously affects the quality of life of patients. For patients with mild incontinence, conservative treatment and medication may be the ideal treatment modality, but for patients with severe incontinence, an artificial urinary sphincter is currently a better treatment option. Methods: In order to design an ideal artificial urinary sphincter, this article first searched and collected literature based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses searched strategy by selecting specific subject terms and reviewed the artificial urinary sphincters that are currently in the research stage based on different activation methods. Results: In response to the deficiencies of the existing artificial urinary sphincter, this article discusses the future optimization of the artificial urinary sphincter from three aspects: individual improvement of the artificial urinary sphincter, engineering design elements, and optimization of the artificial urinary sphincter manufacturing process. Conclusions: The manufacture of an idealized artificial urinary sphincter capable of meeting clinical needs is of great importance to improve the quality of life of patients. However, this approach is a reasonable option to explore and should not be overestimated until further evidence is available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with hardware-dependent methods, light field (LF) reconstruction algorithms enable requiring the densely sampled light field (DSLF) more economical and convenient. Most of the current LF reconstruction methods either directly apply multiple convolutional layers to the input views to generate DSLF or warp the input views to novel viewpoints based on the estimated depth and then blend to obtain the DSLF. These two types of methods produce either blurry results in texture areas or distortions near the boundaries of depth discontinuities. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end learning-based approach, which combines the characteristics of the above two methods from a parallel and complementary perspective, to reconstruct a high-quality light field. Our method consists of three sub-networks, i.e., two parallel sub-networks termed as ASR-Net and Warp-Net, and the refine sub-network termed as Refine-Net. ASR-Net directly learns an intermediate DSLF through deep convolutional layers, and Warp-Net warps the input views based on the estimated depth to obtain other intermediate DSLFs that maintain high-frequency texture information. These intermediate DSLFs are adaptively fused through the learned attention maps, and a fusion DSLF with the advantages of two types of intermediate DSLFs is obtained. Finally, the residual map learned from the intermediate DSLFs is added to the fusion DSLF to get a better one. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method on several LF datasets compared with the state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalysis has attracted tremendous attention due to its great potential in environmental remediation, greener energy production and chemical synthesis. Developing highly efficient and easily recyclable photocatalysts is highly desirable for the practical applications. Herein, a novel macro-sized hierarchical porous titanosilicate (MHPTS) was prepared by the multi-template method to control the macroscopic shape and multiple levels of pore structures. MHPTS has uniform pass-through macropores, large pore volume, high specific surface area and mechanical strength, and the macropore wall is a continuous micro-mesoporous nanofilm. The in situ growth of nanocrystal TiO2 on the pore wall of MHPTS forms the macro-sized hierarchical nanostructured composite TiO2/MHPTS, which integrates the advantages of macro-sized macroporous materials and micro-mesoporous nanomaterials. MHPTS exhibits high photocatalytic degradation performance towards Rhodamine B (RhB) owing to its unique structure. On this basis, the incorporation of nano TiO2 into MHPTS remarkably improves the photocatalytic activity. This great improvement can be attributed to the highly dispersed TiO2 nanoparticles and the synergistic effect of MHPTS and TiO2 nanoparticles. The formation of Ti–O-Si bonds at the interface leads to the enhanced adsorption capacity for RhB and light absorption ability. The possible photodegradation mechanism is proposed according to the results of trapping experiments and photoelectrochemical tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Baculovirus infection induces apoptosis in host cells, and apoptosis significantly affects virus production. Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) can regulate apoptosis, but the regulatory mechanism is unclear. Here, we found that AcMNPV infection induced different apoptosis responses in different Spodoptera exigua cell lines. In the early stages of viral infection (1–6 h), Se-1 cells underwent severe apoptosis, while Se-3 cells underwent very slight apoptosis. In the late stages of viral infection (12–72 h), Se-1 cells continued to undergo apoptosis and formed a large number of apoptotic bodies, while the apoptosis of Se-3 cells was inhibited and no apoptotic bodies were formed. To determine the reasons for the apoptosis differences in the two cell lines, we measured the expression of the six S. exigua cysteine-dependent aspartate specific protease genes (SeCaspase-1 to -6) and the three AcMNPV antiapoptotic protein genes (iap1, iap2 and p35) during viral infection. We found that SeCaspase-1 to -6 were all activated in Se-1 cells and inhibited in Se-3 cells, whereas iap1, iap2 and p35 were all inhibited in Se-1 cells and normally expressed in Se-3 cells. And p35 was expressed earlier than iap1 and iap2 in Se-3 cells. Otherwise, Se-1 and Se-3 cells would all be apoptotic when infected with the recombinant p35 knockout AcMNPV, whereas only Se-1 cells were apoptotic, but Se-3 cells were not apoptotic when infected with the recombinant p35 repair AcMNPV. Combined with the fact that the expression of P35 protein is inhibited in Se-1 cells but normally expressed in Se-3 cells during the infection of recombinant p35 repair AcMNPV, we proposed that the different expression of P35 is an important reason for the apoptosis differences between the two cell lines. We also found that some genes associated with apoptosis can probably regulate the expression of P35. However, the major upstream regulators of P35 and their mechanisms are still unclear and will be studied in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous progress of remote sensing image object detection tasks in recent years, researchers in this field have gradually shifted the focus of their research from horizontal object detection to the study of object detection in arbitrary directions. It is worth noting that some properties are different from horizontal object detection during oriented object detection that researchers have yet to notice much. This article presents the design of a straightforward and efficient arbitrary-oriented detection system, leveraging the inherent properties of the orientation task, including the rotation angle and box aspect ratio. In the detection of low aspect ratio objects, the angle is of little importance to the orientation bounding box, and it is even difficult to define the angle information in extreme categories. Conversely, in the detection of objects with high aspect ratios, the angle information plays a crucial role and can have a decisive impact on the quality of the detection results. By exploiting the aspect ratio of different targets, this letter proposes a ratio-balanced angle loss that allows the model to make a better trade-off between low-aspect ratio objects and high-aspect ratio objects. The rotation angle of each oriented object, which we naturally embed into a two-dimensional Euclidean space for regression, thus avoids an overly redundant design and preserving the topological properties of the circular space. The performance of the UCAS-AOD, HRSC2016, and DLR-3K datasets show that the proposed model in this paper achieves a leading level in terms of both accuracy and speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Existing artificial anal sphincter studies have shown that biomechanical compatibility problem between artificial anal sphincter and rectum caused by long‐term morphological changes of the tissue surrounding the implanted prosthesis can lead to device failure or tissue ischemic necrosis. In this article, a mechanical artificial anal sphincter with constant force clamping is designed based on the superelasticity of shape memory alloys, which improved the biomechanical compatibility of implantable artificial anal sphincter. Methods: Firstly, the anatomical structure and the biomechanical properties of the rectum are analyzed to obtain the size parameters and material parameters of the rectal model. Secondly, a novel artificial anal sphincter with constant force is designed to improve the biomechanical compatibility between the artificial sphincter and the rectum. Thirdly, the static analysis of artificial anal sphincter is carried out by finite element analysis. Results: The simulation results show that the artificial anal sphincter can maintain a constant clamping force of 4 N within a certain variation range of intestinal tissue thickness, which verifies the constant force characteristic of the artificial anal sphincter. The constant clamping force of the artificial anal sphincter to the rectum is 4 N that is greater than the clamping force 3.99 N required to close the rectum, which verifies the effectiveness the artificial anal sphincter. The surface contact stress and the minimum principal stress of the rectum in the clamping state are less than the pressure threshold, which verifies the safety of the artificial anal sphincter. Conclusions: The novel artificial anal sphincter has better biomechanical compatibility and improves the mechanical match between artificial sphincter and intestinal tissue. This study may provide more reasonable and effective simulation data for in vivo experiments of artificial anal sphincter in future, which may provide theoretical and technical support for further research about clinical application of artificial anal sphincter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brucella suis, the causative agent of brucellosis, poses a significant public health and animal husbandry threat. However, the role of the alanine racemase (alr) gene, which encodes alanine racemase in Brucella, remains unclear. Here, we analyzed an alr deletion mutant and a complemented strain of Brucella suis S2. The knockout strain displayed an unaltered, smooth phenotype in acriflavine agglutination tests but lacked the core polysaccharide portion of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Genes involved in the LPS synthesis were significantly upregulated in the deletion mutant. The alr deletion strain exhibited reduced intracellular viability in the macrophages, increased macrophage-mediated killing, and upregulation of the apoptosis markers. Bcl2, an anti-apoptotic protein, was downregulated, while the pro-apoptotic proteins, Bax, Caspase-9, and Caspase-3, were upregulated in the macrophages infected with the deletion strain. The infected macrophages showed increased mitochondrial membrane permeability, Cytochrome C release, and reactive oxygen species, activating the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. These findings revealed that alanine racemase was dispensable in B. suis S2 but influenced the strain's rough features and triggered the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway during macrophage invasion. The deletion of the alr gene reduced the intracellular survival and virulence. This study enhances our understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying Brucella's survival and virulence and, specifically, how alr gene affects host immune evasion by regulating bacterial LPS biosynthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Urinary incontinence is a common clinical problem in the world today. Artificial urinary sphincter is a good treatment approach for severe urinary incontinence, which is designed to mimic the action of the human urinary sphincter and assist patients to regain urinary function. Methods: There are many control methods based on artificial urinary sphincter, such as hydraulic control, electromechanical control, magnetic control, and shape memory alloy control. In this paper, the literature was first searched and documented based on PRISMA search strategy for selected specific subject terms. Then, a comparison of artificial urethral sphincters based on different control methods was conducted, and the research progress of magnetically controlled artificial urethral sphincters was reviewed, and their advantages and disadvantages were summarized. Finally, the design factors for the clinical application of magnetically controlled artificial urinary sphincter are discussed. Results: As magnetic control allows for non‐contact force transfer and does not generate heat, it is proposed that magnetic control may be one of the more promising control methods. The design of future magnetically controlled artificial urinary sphincters will need a variety of considerations, including the structural design of the device, manufacturing materials, manufacturing costs, and convenience. In addition, validation of the safety and effectiveness of the device and device management are equally important. Conclusions: The design of an ideal magnetically controlled artificial urinary sphincter is of great importance to enhance patient treatment outcomes. However, there are still great challenges to be faced for the clinical application of such devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to compare the clinical efficacy of locking plate and intramedullary nail fixations in the treatment of patients with OTA/AO type 11C proximal humerus fractures. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data of patients with OTA/AO type 11C1.1 and 11C3.1 proximal humerus fractures who underwent surgery at our institution from June 2012 to June 2017. Perioperative indicators, postoperative morphological parameters of the proximal humerus, and Constant–Murley scores were evaluated and compared. Results: Sixty-eight patients with OTA/AO type 11C1.1 and 11C3.1 proximal humerus fractures were enrolled in this study. Overall, 35 patients underwent open reduction and plate screw internal fixation, and 33 patients underwent limited open reduction and locking of the proximal humerus with intramedullary nail internal fixation. The total cohort had a mean follow-up duration of 17.8 months. The mean operation time of the locking plate group was significantly longer than that of the intramedullary nail group (P < 0.05), while the mean bleeding volume was significantly higher in the locking plate group than that in the intramedullary nail group (P < 0.05). The initial neck–shaft angles, final neck–shaft angles, forward flexion ranges, or Constant–Murley scores did not show significant differences between the two groups (P > 0.05). Complications, including screw penetrations, acromion impingement syndrome, infection, and aseptic necrosis of the humeral head, occurred in 8 patients (8/35, 22.8%) in the locking plate group and 5 patients in the intramedullary nail group (5/33, 15.1%; including malunion and acromion impingement syndrome), with no significant difference between the groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Similar satisfactory functional results can be achieved with locking plates and intramedullary nailing for OTA/AO type 11C1.1 and 11C3.1 proximal humerus fractures, with no significant difference in the number of complications between these two techniques. However, intramedullary nailing has advantages over locking plates for OTA/AO type 11C1.1 and 11C3.1 proximal humerus fractures in terms of operation time and bleeding volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prosthetic socket is the key part connecting the prosthesis and the stump. It needs to be functional, safe, and comfortable at the same time. However, the volume fluctuation of the stump causes the incompatibility between the stump and the socket. This paper designs an adaptive prosthetic socket with rope-driven to fit stump volume fluctuation. The designed adaptive prosthetic socket with constant force characteristic using superelastic shape memory alloy may solve the problem of uneven pressure on the stump due to stump volume fluctuation and adapt stump volume. To obtain a good constant force range, the constant force characteristic of the socket is optimized and validated by finite element analysis. The experimental results show that the constant force mechanism using the C-shaped shape memory alloy sheets can obtain good constant force characteristics, and the socket can apply a constant force to the stump to solve the problem of uneven pressure distribution between the stump and the socket. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The in-situ formation mechanism of MgAl2O4 was introduced, focusing on the formation process by solid phase reaction and gas phase reaction as well as the phenomenon of secondary spinelization. The influencing factors of the in-situ MgAl2O4 formation and its effect on the microstructure and the properties of materials were systematically summarized for the Al2O3-MgO-MgAl2O4 system and the carbon-containing refractories systems. It was pointed out that the in-situ formation of MgAl2O4, including secondary spinelization, can regulate the microstructure and the service performance of materials. Its expansion effect can not only offset the shrinkage caused by sintering to improve the corrosion resistance of refractories, but also seriously restrict the reliability of functional refractories. The composition, the particle size, the atmosphere, and the temperature are important factors affecting the in-situ formation of MgAl2O4. In the carbon-containing materials systems, the solid-solid reaction and the gas-solid reaction coexist to produce MgAl2O4, which provides an effective way to further regulate the microstructure and the properties of materials through the reaction process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aims to explore the relationship between psychiatric disorders and the risk of epilepsy using Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. Methods: We collected summary statistics of seven psychiatric traits from recent largest genome‐wide association study (GWAS), including major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety disorder, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), bipolar disorder (BIP), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia (SCZ), and insomnia. Then, MR analysis estimates were performed based on International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) consortium data (ncase = 15,212 and ncontrol = 29,677), the results of which were subsequently validated in FinnGen consortium (ncase = 6260 and ncontrol = 176,107). Finally, a meta‐analysis was conducted based on the ILAE and FinnGen data. Results: We found significant causal effects of MDD and ADHD on epilepsy in the meta‐analysis of the ILAE and FinnGen, with corresponding odds ratios (OR) of 1.20 (95% CI 1.08–1.34, p =.001) and 1.08 (95% CI 1.01–1.16, p =.020) by the inverse‐variance weighted (IVW) method respectively. MDD increases the risk of focal epilepsy while ADHD has a risk effect on generalized epilepsy. No reliable evidence regarding causal effects of other psychiatric traits on epilepsy was identified. Conclusions: This study suggests that major depressive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may causally increase the risk of epilepsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although residual tetracycline, NH4+-N, and P in aquaculture wastewater have been frequently detected, their simultaneous removal has received little attention. The simultaneous and efficient removal of tetracycline, NH4+-N, COD, and P in aquaculture wastewater was achieved with a laboratory-scale moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) under different influent C/N ratios. The results suggested that tetracycline could be degraded efficiently without using an additional organic carbon source. Most of the tetracycline (>80%), NH4+-N (>73%), TN (>68%), TP (>59%), and COD (>78%) were synchronously removed under the higher C/N ratios. The electron transport system activity (ETSA), dissolved organic matter (DOM), and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) were evaluated for biofilm performance during aquaculture wastewater remediation. The results indicated that the protein (PN) and polysaccharide (PS) concentrations, and fluorescence intensities were significantly different because the influent C/N ratios changed the biofilm activity. The ETSA values were lowest when tetracycline was the sole carbon source, which suggested that tetracycline affected the nitrification activity of biofilms. Sphingobacteriia, Betaproteobacteria, and Alphaproteobacteria were identified as the dominant bacterial classes. This study provides a new strategy for the removal of tetracycline and nutrients from aquaculture wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease, with the characteristics of neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) and senile plaque (SP) formation. Although great progresses have been made in clinical trials based on relevant hypotheses, these studies are also accompanied by the emergence of toxic and side effects, and it is an urgent task to explore the underlying mechanisms for the benefits to prevent and treat AD. Herein, based on animal experiments and a few clinical trials, neuroinflammation in AD is characterized by long-term activation of pro-inflammatory microglia and the NOD-, LRR- and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasomes. Damaged signals from the periphery and within the brain continuously activate microglia, thus resulting in a constant source of inflammatory responses. The long-term chronic inflammatory response also exacerbates endoplasmic reticulum oxidative stress in microglia, which triggers microglia-dependent immune responses, ultimately leading to the occurrence and deterioration of AD. In this review, we systematically summarized and sorted out that exercise ameliorates AD by directly and indirectly regulating immune response of the central nervous system and promoting hippocampal neurogenesis to provide a new direction for exploring the neuroinflammation activity in AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Characteristic analysis and existence forms of corn fiber were reviewed. • Off-line and in-situ corn fiber conversion development was discussed. • Lessons learned from cellulosic ethanol process offer a new way to utilize corn fiber. • Future studies are needed to determine its economic feasibility. Due to the rising demand for green energy, bioethanol has attracted increasing attention from academia and industry. Limited by the bottleneck of bioethanol yield in traditional corn starch dry milling processes, an increasing number of studies focus on fully utilizing all corn ingredients, especially kernel fiber, to further improve the bioethanol yield. This mini-review addresses the technological challenges and opportunities on the way to achieving the efficient conversion of corn fiber. Significant advances during the review period include the detailed characterization of different forms of corn kernel fiber and the development of off-line and in-situ conversion strategies. Lessons from cellulosic ethanol technologies offer new ways to utilize corn fiber in traditional processes. However, the commercialization of corn kernel fiber conversion may be hampered by enzyme cost, conversion efficiency, and overall process economics. Thus, future studies should address these technical limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallic aerogels (MAs) are self-supported porous nanomaterials with excellent catalytic activity, which could be a promising candidate for high-performance nanozymes. The interface regulation by heteroatom and vacancies is an effective strategy for boosting the enzyme-mimicking activity. Herein, magnetic RuCo aerogels with doping of boron and oxygen vacancies were prepared by a one-pot spontaneous NaBH4 gelation method under a low temperature. The three-dimensional network structure with high specific surface area and interlinked pores of RuCo aerogels afford abundant active sites to facilitate the interaction with substrates. Moreover, the monolithic structure avoided conventional aggregation, thus enhancing stability during catalysis. Introducing elemtal boron and oxygen vacancies adjusted the electronic structure of RuCo aerogels to achieve enhanced enzyme-like performances. It is found that the RuCo aerogel nanozyme can mimic nature peroxidase, demonstrating their viable applications in the bioassay of H2O2 and glucose. The constructed glucose sensor possesses acceptable sensitivity and stability with a linear range of 0.002 ~ 5 mM and a low detection limit (1.66 μM). This work provides insights into the rational design of advanced nanozymes and paves the avenue for the applications of metallic aerogels in the bioassay field. A boron-doped RuCo bimetallic aerogel with rich oxygen vacancies was prepared by a facile self-assembly method under an ice bath. The unique physical and electronic structure of RuCo aerogel results in the improvement of the intrinsic peroxidaselike activity, and thus, a sensitive and robust colorimetric glucose sensor could be developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supercritical lens can create a sub-diffraction-limited focal spot in the far field, providing a promising route for the realization of label-free super-resolution imaging through the point scanning mechanism. However, all of the reported supercritical lenses have circular shape configurations, and produce isotropic sub-diffraction-limited focal spots in the focal plane. Here, we propose and experientially demonstrate a sub-diffraction transverse optical needle by using an elliptical supercritical lens. Through breaking the circular symmetry and introducing ellipticity to the lens, a uniform sub-diffractive transverse optical needle with lateral length and width of 6λ/NA and 0.45λ/NA, respectively, was successfully created in the focal plane. Further, elliptical sector-shape cutting with an optimized apex angle of 60 degrees can lead to suppressed subsidiary focusing for improved uniformity and condensed field intensity of the transverse optical needle. The demonstration of sub-diffractive transverse optical needle with a high aspect ratio (length to width ratio) of 13:1 may find potential applications in line-scanning microscopy for video-rate label-free super-resolution imaging, and also enable advances in the fields from laser manufacturing to optical manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light field (LF) spatial super-resolution (SR) aims to restore a high-resolution LF image from a degraded low-resolution one. However, due to the complexity of high-dimensional LF images, the existing LF spatial SR methods failed to fully incorporate the correlation between sub-aperture images of the LF. To mitigate this problem, we propose a hierarchical feature fusion network (LF-HFNet) for LF spatial SR with two novel components, namely feature interaction module and residual spatial and channel attention block. By cascading several residual spatial-angular separable convolution blocks with concatenation connections, the former can fully utilize the hierarchical and complementary information between SAIs. And the latter can adaptively rescale the feature responses for emphasizing informative features. Experimental results on both synthetic and real-world LF datasets demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods with higher PSNR/SSIM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing easily recyclable noble metal nanoparticle‐based heterogeneous catalysts is highly desirable for the practical applications. Herein, a millimeter‐sized hierarchical porous titanosilicate (HPTS) was prepared by the multi‐template method. Various characterization results reveal that HPTS combines the structural advantages of monolith materials and nanomaterials. HPTS is used as an advanced support to construct the Ag/HPTS catalysts via the Ag+ in situ reduction on its pore wall. Ag/HPTS shows high catalytic activity for 4‐nitrophenol (4‐NP) reduction with the TOF values of 3.91 min−1, which can be attributed to the ultrafine Ag NPs (2.04 nm) and the unique structure of HPTS. The 3D pass‐through macroporous channels facilitate mass transfer. The mesopores with ultra‐short channel remarkably enhance the accessibility of the active sites. The abundant mesopores and micropores effectively confine the Ag NPs size. Moreover, Ag/HPTS demonstrated good stability and recyclability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Abnormal lipid accumulation has been recognized as a key element of immune dysregulation in microglia whose dysfunction contributes to neurodegenerative diseases. Microglia play essential roles in the clearance of lipid-rich cellular debris upon myelin damage or demyelination, a common pathogenic event in neuronal disorders. Apolipoprotein E (apoE) plays a pivotal role in brain lipid homeostasis; however, the apoE isoform-dependent mechanisms regulating microglial response upon demyelination remain unclear. Methods: To determine how apoE isoforms impact microglial response to myelin damage, 2-month-old apoE2-, apoE3-, and apoE4-targeted replacement (TR) mice were fed with normal diet (CTL) or 0.2% cuprizone (CPZ) diet for four weeks to induce demyelination in the brain. To examine the effects on subsequent remyelination, the cuprizone diet was switched back to regular chow for an additional two weeks. After treatment, brains were collected and subjected to immunohistochemical and biochemical analyses to assess the myelination status, microglial responses, and their capacity for myelin debris clearance. Bulk RNA sequencing was performed on the corpus callosum (CC) to address the molecular mechanisms underpinning apoE-mediated microglial activation upon demyelination. Results: We demonstrate dramatic isoform-dependent differences in the activation and function of microglia upon cuprizone-induced demyelination. ApoE2 microglia were hyperactive and more efficient in clearing lipid-rich myelin debris, whereas apoE4 microglia displayed a less activated phenotype with reduced clearance efficiency, compared with apoE3 microglia. Transcriptomic profiling revealed that key molecules known to modulate microglial functions had differential expression patterns in an apoE isoform-dependent manner. Importantly, apoE4 microglia had excessive buildup of lipid droplets, consistent with an impairment in lipid metabolism, whereas apoE2 microglia displayed a superior ability to metabolize myelin enriched lipids. Further, apoE2-TR mice had a greater extent of remyelination; whereas remyelination was compromised in apoE4-TR mice. Conclusions: Our findings provide critical mechanistic insights into how apoE isoforms differentially regulate microglial function and the maintenance of myelin dynamics, which may inform novel therapeutic avenues for targeting microglial dysfunctions in neurodegenerative diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: MicroRNA (miRNA) is accepted as a critical regulator of cell differentiation. However, whether microRNA-223 (miR-223) could affect the osteogenic differentiation of periodontal ligament (PDL)-derived cells is still unknown. The aim of this study was to explore the mechanisms underlying the roles of miR-223 in the osteogenesis of PDL-derived cells in periodontitis.Methods: Microarray analysis and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to identify difference in miR-223 expression pattern between healthy and inflamed gingival tissue. The target genes of miR-223 were predicted based on Targetscan and selected for enrichment analyses based on Metascape database. The gain-and loss-of-function experiments were performed to discuss roles of miR-223 and growth factor receptor genes in osteogenic differentiation of PDL-derived cells. The target relationship between miR-223 and growth factor receptor genes was confirmed by a dual luciferase assay. Osteogenic differentiation of PDL-derived cells was assessed by Alizarin red staining, RT-PCR and western blot detection of osteogenic markers, including osteocalcin (OCN), osteopontin (OPN) and runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2).Results: MiR-223 was significantly increased in inflamed gingival tissues and down-regulated in PDL-derived cells during osteogenesis. The expression of miR-223 in gingival tissues was positively correlated with the clinical parameters in periodontitis patients. Overexpression of miR-223 markedly inhibited PDL-derived cells osteogenesis, which was evidenced by reduced Alizarin red staining and osteogenic markers expressions. Furthermore, two growth factor receptor genes, including fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) and transforming growth factor beta receptor 2 (TGFβR2), were revealed to be direct targets of miR-223 and shown to undergo up-regulation in PDL-derived cells during osteogenesis. Moreover, suppression of FGFR2 or TGFβR2 dramatically blocked PDL-derived cells osteogenic differentiation.Conclusions: Our study provides novel evidence that miR-223 can be induced by periodontitis and acts as a negative regulator of PDL-derived cells osteogenesis by targeting two growth factor receptors (TGFβR2 and FGFR2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seed traits play an important role in affecting seed preference and hoarding behaviors of small rodents. Despite greatly affected by seed traits, seed detectability of competitors represents pilfering risks and may also modify seed hoarding preference of animals. However, whether seed traits and seed detectability show consistent effects on seed hoarding preference of animals remain largely unknown. Here, we explored how seed traits and seed detectability correlate with seed hoarding preference of Leopoldamys edwardsi and Apodemus chevrieri in a subtropical forest. Despite the effects of seed coat thickness and caloric value on hoarding preference of L. edwardsi, we detected no significant effects of other seed traits on hording preference of the 2 rodent species. There was no correlation between larder‐hoarding preference and inter‐ or intra‐specific seed detectability of L. edwardsi; however, seed detectability of L. edwardsi was negatively correlated with its own scatter‐hoarding preference. Although scatter‐hoarding preference of A. chevrieri was not correlated with inter‐ and intra‐specific seed detectability, larder‐hoarding preference of A. chevrieri was positively correlated with intra‐specific seed detectability. Our study may provide evidence that intra‐specific seed detectability rather than seed traits and inter‐specific pilfering risks play an important role in modifying seed hoarding preference of rodents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: The efficacy and safety of amoxicillin‐vonoprazan (VA) dual therapy remained unclear. Methods: This systematic review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA 2009 guidelines. A systematic search of the Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane database was conducted using the combination of "Helicobacter pylori or H. pylori or Hp," "amoxicillin or penicillin," and "Vonoprazan or TAK‐438 or Takecab or (potassium AND competitive) or potassium‐competitive." The initial and secondary outcome of this meta‐analysis was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of VA dual therapy. Results: Three studies and 668 H. pylori infected patients were included in this meta‐analysis. The crude eradication rate of VA dual therapy was 87.5% and 89.6% by ITT and PP analysis, respectively. No significant differences were observed regarding the VA dual therapy and vonoprazan‐amoxicillin‐clarithromycin (VAC) triple therapy according to ITT (RR = 0.99, 95% CI, 0.93–1.05, P = 0.65) and PP (RR = 0.99, 95% CI, 0.94–1.05, P = 0.82) analysis. The side effect of VA dual therapy was 19.1% (95% CI, 5.9–32.4), which was lower than that of VAC triple therapy but there was no statistical significance (RR = 0.75, 95% CI, 0.59–1.06, P = 0.12). Conclusion: VA dual therapy shows acceptable efficacy, good safety and avoid unnecessary antibiotic use in the first‐line treatment for H. pylori infection. However, its application in other regions need to be further explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selective detection of hydrogen sulfide in physiological and pathological processes has gained substantial attention in recent years. However, the real-time detection of hydrogen sulfide remains an elusive goal. In this work, a new type of hemicyanidin-based fluorescent "turn-on" probe NTR-HS (Ex = 680 nm, Em = 760 nm) was developed to detected H2S in a very short time (3 min). The fluorescence quantum yield is 0.15 and accompanied with a noticeable color change from violet to blue that can be used to detect H2S in the range 1.04 × 10−7–4 × 10−5 M with a limit of detection of 1.04 x 10-7 M. The NTR-HS probe was also used for imaging of endogenous hydrogen sulfide and mitochondrial localization in HCT116 and HeLa cells. The detection mechanism was studied through fluorescence, UV–Vis, NMR, and mass analysis. Notably, the probe was successfully used to imaging H2S in mice and locating hydrogen sulfide in the large intestine of mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High angular resolution light field (LF) enables exciting applications such as depth estimation, virtual reality, and augmented reality. Although many light field angular super-resolution methods have been proposed, the reconstruction problem of LF with a wide-baseline is far from being solved. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end learning-based approach to achieve angular super-resolution of the light field with a wide-baseline. Our model consists of three components. We first train a convolutional neural network to predict the depth map for each sub-aperture view. Then the estimated depth maps are used to warp the input views. In the final component, we first use a convolutional neural network to fuse the initial warped light fields, and then we propose an edge-aware inpainting network to modify the inaccurate pixels in the near-edge regions. Accordingly, we design an EdgePyramid structure that contains multi-scale edges to perform the inpainting of near-edge pixels. Moreover, we introduce a novel loss function to reduce the artifacts and further estimate the similarity in near-edge regions. Experimental results on various light field datasets including large-baseline light field images show that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art light field angular super-resolution methods, especially in the terms of visual performance near edges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hibernation represents a state of fasting because hibernators cease eating in the torpid periods. Therefore, food deprivation during hibernation is expected to modify the gut microbiota of host. However, there are few reports of gut microbiota in food-storing hibernators that feed during the interbout arousals. Here we collected fecal samples of Siberian chipmunk T. sibiricus to character and examine changes in the gut microbiota at various stages relative to hibernation: pre-hibernation, early-hibernation, mid-hibernation, late-hibernation, and post-hibernation. Compared to the pre-hibernation state, alpha-diversity of gut microbiota was significantly increased during the interbout arousal periods. In addition, beta-diversity of the fecal communities from pre-hibernation and interbout arousal periods grouped together, and post-hibernation gut microbiota resembled the counterpart at late-hibernation. Hibernation significantly decreased the relative abundance of Firmicutes but increased Bacteroidetes, reflecting a shift of microbiota toward taxa in favor of host-derived substrates. The increased abundance of Ruminococcaceae_UCG-014, Lactobacillus, and Christensenellaceae_R-7_group in gut microbiota may help the chipmunks reduce intestinal inflammation and then maintain healthy bowel during hibernation. KEGG pathway indicated that hibernation altered the metabolic function of gut microflora of T. sibiricus. Our study provides evidence that the gut microbiota of food-storing hibernators, despite feeding during the interbout arousals, shows similar response to hibernation that has well documented in fat-storing counterparts, suggesting the potential for a core gut microbiota during hibernation of mammals. Importantly, these results will broaden our understanding of the effects of hibernation on gut microbiota of mammal hibernators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fecal incontinence caused by sphincter dysfunction is a difficult medical problem that has not been fully resolved. The artificial anal sphincter provides a new therapeutic strategy for fecal incontinence. In order to solve the biomechanical compatibility problem between the artificial anal sphincter and intestinal tissue in clinical application, a design of constant force artificial anal sphincter was assessed in this paper. Methods: The constant force properties and safety of this novel device were evaluated by an experiment conducted in pig intestines with various thicknesses. The constant force characteristic of the device was evaluated by the intestinal pressure of the pig intestine. The safety of the device was evaluated by the surface contact stress of the pig intestine clamped by an artificial anal sphincter. Results: The average measured value of the intestinal pressure of the pig intestines with three thicknesses is about 55.3 mm Hg, the maximum pressure difference is 1 mm Hg, and the fluctuation error of constant clamping load is about 1.8%. The constant clamping load fluctuation error of the four measuring points of the pig intestines with three thicknesses is less than 2%. Even if the thickness of the pig intestines is changed, the measured contact stress value is lower than 10 kPa, which may avoid bit damage for the intestinal tissue. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the novel artificial sphincter has constant force properties and safety, which prevent ischemic necrosis of soft tissues caused by excessive pressure. Therefore, this study raises the possibility of the long‐term efficacy of artificial anal sphincter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) enables simultaneous detection of actionable somatic variants and estimation of genomic signatures such as tumor mutational burden (TMB) or microsatellite instability (MSI) status, which empowers therapeutic decisions in clinical oncology. Objective: Our retrospective study investigated the clinical performance of somatic variant detection in paired tissue and blood samples using a large targeted gene panel, the OncoScreen Plus, which interrogates 520 cancer-related genes. Methods: We analyzed sequencing data derived from paired tissue and blood samples of 3005 patients spanning 20 solid tumor types, including lung (n = 1971), gastrointestinal (n = 625), breast (n = 120) and gynecological (n = 110), genitourinary (n = 38), and other cancers (n = 141). Results: Across tumor types, the OncoScreen Plus panel achieved a high tissue detection rate, with an average of 97.9%. The average plasma detection rate was 72.2%, with an average tissue concordance rate of 36.6%. Considering all variant types, the plasma assay yielded an average sensitivity/true positive rate of 45.7%, with a positive predictive value of 64.7% relative to tissue assay. Pearson correlation analysis revealed a strong correlation in TMB estimated from blood and tissue samples (correlation coefficient 0.845, R2 = 0.756). MSI-high status was identified in five tumor types, including endometrial cancer (28.6%), colorectal cancer (2.5%), ovarian cancer (2.0%), gastric cancer (1.5%), and lung adenocarcinoma (0.2%). Conclusion: Paired tumor and blood samples from a large cohort of patients spanning 20 tumor types demonstrated that the OncoScreen Plus is a reliable pan-cancer panel for the accurate detection of somatic variants and genomic signatures that could guide individualized treatment strategies to improve the care of patients with advanced cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Hair follicles are important accessory organs of the skin, and it is important for skin renewal and performs variety of important functions. Diabetes can cause several dermatoses; however, its effect on hair follicles is unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of type II diabetes (T2DM) on the hair follicles of mice. Methods. Seven-week-old male C57BL/6 littermate mice were divided into two groups. The treatment group was injected with streptozotocin (STZ) to induce T2DM, and the control group was parallelly injected with the same dose of buffer. Seven days after injection, the back is depilated to observe the hair follicle regeneration. Hair follicle regeneration was observed by naked eyes and HE staining. The proliferation of the skin cells was observed by PCNA and K14 staining. The altered genes were screened by RNA sequencing and verified by qRT-PCR. In addition, Lgr5 + GFP/mTmG transgenic mice were used to observe the effect of T2DM on Lgr5 hair follicle stem cells (HFSC). And the expression of WNT4 and WNT8A were measured by Western Blot. Results. T2DM inhibited hair follicle regeneration. Compared to control mice, T2DM mice had smaller hair follicles, reduced skin thickness, and less expression of PCNA and K14. RNA sequencing showed that the two groups had significant differences in cell cycle and proliferation-related pathways. Compared with the control mice, the mRNA expression of Lgr4, Lgr5, Wnt4, and Wnt8a was decreased in the T2DM group. Moreover, T2DM inhibited the activation of Lgr5 HFSC and the expression of WNT4 and WNT8A. Conclusions. T2DM inhibited hair follicle regeneration and skin cells proliferation by inhibiting WNT-dependent Lgr5 HFSC activation. This may be an important reason for the reduction of skin renewal ability and the formation of chronic wounds caused by diabetes. It is important for the treatment of chronic diabetic wounds and the development of tissue engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, characterized by progressive cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration. Extensive clinical and genomic studies have revealed biomarkers, risk factors, pathways, and targets of AD in the past decade. However, the exact molecular basis of AD development and progression remains elusive. The emerging single-cell sequencing technology can potentially provide cell-level insights into the disease. Here we systematically review the state-of-the-art bioinformatics approaches to analyze single-cell sequencing data and their applications to AD in 14 major directions, including 1) quality control and normalization, 2) dimension reduction and feature extraction, 3) cell clustering analysis, 4) cell type inference and annotation, 5) differential expression, 6) trajectory inference, 7) copy number variation analysis, 8) integration of single-cell multi-omics, 9) epigenomic analysis, 10) gene network inference, 11) prioritization of cell subpopulations, 12) integrative analysis of human and mouse sc-RNA-seq data, 13) spatial transcriptomics, and 14) comparison of single cell AD mouse model studies and single cell human AD studies. We also address challenges in using human postmortem and mouse tissues and outline future developments in single cell sequencing data analysis. Importantly, we have implemented our recommended workflow for each major analytic direction and applied them to a large single nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq) dataset in AD. Key analytic results are reported while the scripts and the data are shared with the research community through GitHub. In summary, this comprehensive review provides insights into various approaches to analyze single cell sequencing data and offers specific guidelines for study design and a variety of analytic directions. The review and the accompanied software tools will serve as a valuable resource for studying cellular and molecular mechanisms of AD, other diseases, or biological systems at the single cell level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gut is an important site to excreting uric acid (UA) in addition to the kidney. The gastrointestinal tract is constantly exposed to various potentially harmful substances, triggering intestinal oxidative damage. In the present study, the hypothesis that UA is can be synthesized to function as an antioxidant in the gut is evaluated. The synthesis and secretion of UA by enterocytes were analyzed in the presence of inosine, a precursor of UA, febuxostat (Fx), an inhibitor of xanthine oxidase (XOR), and H 2 O 2. The regulation of Nrf2 pathway on UA secretion and transport were evaluated in the present of agonist (TBHQ) and inhibitor (ML385) of Nrf2. The in vivo result showed that UA and its oxidation product allantoin were presented in gut contents along the gastrointestinal tract and the highest level of UA and allantoin were detected in duodenum and jejunum respectively. The genes in the de novo purine nucleotide synthesis and salvage-catabolism pathways, and UA transporters were expressed in the intestinal tract. In the in vitro cultured enterocytes and everted gut sacs, inosine stimulated UA synthesis and secretion. H 2 O 2 stimulated UA synthesis and secretion and meanwhile induced oxidative damage. UA attenuated H 2 O 2 -induced oxidative damage by Nrf2 pathway. UA secretion and transport were reduced by blocking Nrf2 with ML385, while increased by activating Nrf2 with TBHQ. This study provides new insights into the antioxidant effects if UA on intestinal lumen. The result suggests that activation of Nrf2 pathway is involved in the transportation and secretion of UA. [Display omitted] • Enterocytes synthesize and secrete UA into the intestinal lumen. • UA in the intestinal lumen protects enterocytes by acting as an antioxidant. • Secretion of UA into the intestinal lumen is a mechanism to protect the intestinal tract, rather than to excrete waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• • A systematic review about the SLM of particulate-reinforced Al-based MMCs is conducted. • • The design, manufacturing and analysis of MMCs are discussed in detail. • • A comprehensive analysis about the selection of SLM parameters is given. • • The mechanical properties, tribological properties and strengthening mechanism of MMCs are discussed in detail. In recent years, high performance complex precision parts manufactured by selective laser melting (SLM) have been applied in many fields, and particulate-reinforced Al-based metal matrix composites (PAMCs) are important materials because of their excellent performance, lightweight, low cost, and wide application. This paper presents a comprehension review of recent progress in SLM PAMCs, systematically covering the design, production, and analysis process of these materials. Specifically, selection of reinforced particles, raw material mixing method and the influence of process parameters such as laser power, scanning speed and layer thickness are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the mechanical properties and strengthening mechanisms of PAMCs been deeply analyzed and summarized, focusing mainly on the impact of reinforced particles on density, microhardness, tensile properties, and tribological properties. Finally, based on the research outcomes in this article, it summarizes the future research directions. This paper could present an overall process and theoretical guidance to acquire SLM-fabricated (SLMed) PAMCs with high-quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some biological small molecules such as hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) and hypochlorous acid (HClO), play pivotal roles in numerous biological and pathological processes and are associated with various diseases. The detection and monitoring them is of continued research interest. Here we report a sequential detection mode fluorescence probes that allow for the sensing of HS– and ClO–. The mixture of P and HS– constructs a specific sensing system S for ClO–. The substitution product S is stable in air, which also could be used independently. Mechanism studies demonstrate that HS– substitutes the Cl atom in P. Furthermore, the addition of ClO– facilitates a ring-forming reaction, resulting in the formation of a thiofuran ring within the product (T). Interestingly, P has a highly ordered steric packing and could self-assemble into a rice-spike-like structure. Upon the addition of HS–, the assemblies decompose into free molecules. After interaction with ClO–, these molecules further transform to T with strong assembled capacity, featuring a larger number of nanosheets. This study provides a novel mechanism for sensing HS– and ClO–, cell and living animal imaging further indicating the good application prospects of these probes in biosensing and bioimaging. [Display omitted] • Three fluorescent probes for detection HS– and ClO– in sequence were developed. • The responsiveness to ClO– is based on the thiofuran ring-forming reaction. • The self-assembly may play positive roles in the detection of HS– and ClO–. • These probes were applied as HS− and ClO− imaging in living cells and mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prediction of human-virus protein-protein interactions (human-virus PPIs) is significant for exploring the mechanisms of viral infection, making their prediction a necessary and practically valuable research topic. Since conventional methods for the determination of human-virus protein-protein interactions are very complex and expensive, the construction of models plays a crucial role. In this paper, we construct an interpretable model, ECA-PHV, to predict human-virus protein-protein interactions based on an effective channel attention mechanism. First, we utilize five coding modalities, namely AAC, DDE, MMI, CT, and GTPC, to extract the hidden biological information in protein sequences. Individual feature weights are then learned by using a differential evolutionary algorithm that employs weighted combinations to adequately represent various protein sequence information. Next, irrelevant features in multi-information fusion are removed by Group Lasso. Finally, the prediction model is constructed by combining effective channel attention, BiGRU, and 1D-CNN. Compared with existing models, the interpretability framework ECA-PHV proposed in this paper has competitive and stable predictive performance. This shows that our model can efficiently focus on important information about protein sequences. In conclusion, this study accelerates the exploration of human-virus protein-protein interactions and provides some insights of practical value for probing human-virus relationships. • A novel method (ECA-PHV) to predict human-virus protein-protein interactions (human-virus PPIs). • The AAC, DDE, CT, MMI, and GTPC methods are fused to extract protein sequence feature information. • We first constructed an interpretable deep learning framework that combines BiGRU, 1D-CNN, and efficient channel attention to predict human-virus protein-protein interactions. • ECA-PHV increases the prediction performance compared with other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Norepinephrine impart Pd aerogel with good biocompatibility for in vivo anti-bacteria. • The POD-like and OD-like activity of NE-Pd aerogels could eliminate the biofilm. • The GPX-like activity of NE-Pd aerogels deplete GSH to amplify the ROS generation. • Induced hyperthermia enhances intrinsic multienzyme-like activity of NE-Pd aerogels. Nanozymes have become promising alternatives to antibiotics for fighting bacteria owing to their broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, robust stability, and multifunctionality. However, the deficient activity of nanozymes and the overexpressed glutathione in the infectious microenvironments extensively hamper their antibacterial efficiency. Herein, we present a norepinephrine (NE) induced Pd metallic aerogel as a highly efficient hydrophilic nanozyme for photothermal-enhanced chemodynamic therapy for bacterial infections and wound healing. The prepared NE-Pd aerogels exhibit satisfactory peroxidase-like and oxidase-like activity, which could generate an amount of hydroxyl radical and superoxide anion radical to cause irreversible damage to bacteria and decompose biofilm components with no bacteria resistance. In addition, the glutathione peroxidase-like activity of NE-Pd aerogels could deplete glutathione to adjust the infectious microenvironments for intensifying the generation of ROS, thus boosting the chemodynamic therapeutic efficacy. Furthermore, the intrinsic photothermal effect of NE-Pd aerogels generates hyperthermia to impair bacteria and further substantially promotes the multienzyme-like activity to damage bacteria and their biofilms. Consequently, the animal skin-wound model results further denoted that NE-Pd aerogels could effectively cure methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infected wounds with excellent in vivo biocompatibility in either wound tissue or living organisms. This work demonstrates that NE-Pd aerogel nanozymes have tremendous potential as a synergistically photothermal-catalytic antibacterial agent for treating bacterial infection and accelerating wound healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the massive use and migration of chlorine-containing organics into the environment potentially threaten the natural environment and human health. Advanced oxidation technology based on photocatalysts is a promising approach for the degradation of chlorine-containing organic pollutants, but the development of stable and efficient photocatalysts remains a challenge. In this study, a new visible light-responsive photocatalyst based on F and Fe co-doped CeO 2 (FeFC) was synthesized by making full use of overall heating characteristic of microwaves. XRD, SEM-EDS, XPS, BET and DRS results showed that F and Fe was successfully co-doped into CeO 2 with increased BET surface and narrowed band gap. The degradation experiments showed that the co-doping of F and Fe significantly enhanced the photocatalytic activity of CeO 2 by enhancing visible light absorption and charge carriers separation. Moreover, CeO 2 material with both F and Fe doping of 10 % (FeFC-10) showed the highest removal (99.8%) and de-chlorination (89%) rates of 2,4,6-TCP within 4h, which was 3.8 and 3.2 times higher than that of pure CeO 2 prepared by microwave and muffle furnace, respectively. Free radical scavenging experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) tests finally demonstrated that the h+ and ·OH were the active species that played a catalytic redox role in this reaction system. Furthermore, the degradation intermediates of 2,4,6-TCP were identified by LC-MS and the possible reaction pathways were suggested. In this paper, the photocatalyst (FeFC-10) synthesized by microwave-hydrothermal method could not only save time and energy, but also efficiently degrade 2,4,6-TCP, which could provide the theory and practice for protecting water environment contaminated by chlorine-containing organics through the synthesis of CeO 2 based photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Metal clusters were used to form local electric fields on carbon foam. • An interface-local electric field can improve the electronic structure of metals. • This enhanced adsorption/desorption performance in ORR and OER. • The optimized electrocatalyst demonstrated outstanding performance for ZABs. Practical application of rechargeable zinc-air batteries is restricted by slow oxygen reaction kinetics of their bifunctional catalysts. This study is based on the ability of interface-localized electric fields to enhance charge transfer and accelerate electrochemical reactions. Fe and VN metal clusters formed on the foam carbon were used to form local electric field-orientated heterogeneous interfaces, which exhibited effective adsorption and catalytic performance for ORR/OER. Theoretical simulations and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy analysis have confirmed that an interface electric field close to the Fermi level can improve the electronic structure of metals, enhancing their adsorption/desorption performance in ORR and OER. The resulting Fe ACs -VN NCs (1:1) /NFC material exhibited "coupling-conversion" effect and demonstrated outstanding bifunctional ORR/OER activity (E 1/2 = 0.87 V, E j=10 = 1.476 V). The rechargeable zinc-air battery, assembled using the newly prepared catalyst, displayed a high specific capacity of 779 mAh g−1 and was stable after 3104 operation cycles. The study substantiates the possibility of ion diffusion and charge transfer acceleration by interface-localized electric fields induced in zinc-air battery electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to comprehensively evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of ultrasound imaging based on artificial intelligence algorithms in predicting lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients through a meta-analysis. We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library for literature published up to May 2023. The search terms included artificial intelligence, ultrasound, breast cancer, and lymph node. Studies meeting the inclusion criteria were selected, and data were extracted for analysis. The main evaluation indicators included sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and area under the curve (AUC). The heterogeneity was assessed using the Cochrane Q test combined with the I^2 statistic expressing the percentage of total effect variation that can be attributed to the effect variation between studies, as recommended by the Cochrane Handbook for heterogeneity quantification. A threshold p -value of 0.10 was considered to compensate for the low power of the Q test. Sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the stability of individual studies, and publication bias was determined with funnel plots. Additionally, fagan plots were used to assess clinical utility. Ten studies involving 4726 breast cancer patients were included in the meta-analysis. The results showed that ultrasound imaging based on artificial intelligence algorithms had high accuracy and effectiveness in predicting lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients. The pooled sensitivity was 0.88 (95% CI: 0.81–0.93; P < 0.001; I2 = 84.68), specificity was 0.75 (95% CI: 0.66–0.83; P < 0.001; I2 = 91.11), and AUC was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.86–0.91). The positive likelihood ratio was 3.5 (95% CI: 2.6–4.8), negative likelihood ratio was 0.16 (95% CI: 0.10–0.26), and diagnostic odds ratio was 23 (95% CI: 13–40). However, the combined sensitivity of ultrasound imaging based on non-AI algorithms for predicting lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients was 0.78 (95%CI: 0.63–0.88), the specificity was 0.76 (95%CI: 0.63–0.86), and the AUC was 0.84 (95%CI: 0.80–0.87). The positive likelihood ratio was 3.3 (95% CI: 1.9–5.6), the negative likelihood ratio was 0.29 (95% CI: 0.15–0.54), and the diagnostic odds ratio was 11 (95% CI: 4–33). Due to limited sample size (n = 2), meta-analysis was not conducted for the outcome of predicting lymph node metastasis burden. Ultrasound imaging based on artificial intelligence algorithms holds promise in predicting lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients, demonstrating high accuracy and effectiveness. The application of this technology helps in the diagnosis and treatment decisions for breast cancer patients and is expected to become an important tool in future clinical practice. • Ultrasound imaging based on artificial intelligence algorithms had high accuracy and effectiveness in predicting lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients. • The application of this technology helps in the diagnosis and treatment decisions for breast cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cellular senescence is a complex stress response that impacts cellular function and organismal health. Multiple developmental and environmental factors, such as intrinsic cellular cues, radiation, oxidative stress, oncogenes, and protein accumulation, activate genes and pathways that can lead to senescence. Enormous efforts have been made to identify and characterize senescence genes (SnGs) in stress and disease systems. However, the prevalence of senescent cells in healthy human tissues and the global SnG expression signature in different cell types are poorly understood. Methods: This study performed an integrative gene network analysis of bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data in non-diseased human tissues to investigate SnG co-expression signatures and their cell-type specificity. Results: Through a comprehensive transcriptomic network analysis of 50 human tissues in the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project (GTEx) cohort, we identified SnG-enriched gene modules, characterized SnG co-expression patterns, and constructed aggregated SnG networks across primary tissues of the human body. Our network approaches identified 51 SnGs highly conserved across the human tissues, including CDKN1A (p21)-centered regulators that control cell cycle progression and the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). The SnG-enriched modules showed remarkable cell-type specificity, especially in fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and immune cells. Further analyses of single-cell RNA-seq and spatial transcriptomic data independently validated the cell-type specific SnG signatures predicted by the network analysis. Conclusions: This study systematically revealed the co-regulated organizations and cell type specificity of SnGs in major human tissues, which can serve as a blueprint for future studies to map senescent cells and their cellular interactions in human tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sesame peptides could be used to treat underlying diseases and a suitable carrier of nutrients. In this study, sesame peptides were mainly prepared from SSM (sesame meal), and the chelating ability of different molecular weight sesame peptide components to calcium and the physical characterization of the chelates were investigated. After that, the molecular weights were verified by HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography), and the Zeta potential, PDI (polydispersity) of SSMP (sesame meal peptides) of different molecular weights were determined. In the SSMP-Ca chelates, the chelation rate of SSMP-2 (sesame meal peptide components 2) to calcium is 72.72 ± 0.17%. Fluorescence spectrum analysis found that the fluorescence intensity of chelates decreased, and the maximum absorption peak was red-shifted. FT-IR (Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy) research showed that the chelate vibration absorption wavelengths of the three characteristic peaks -NH2, COO−, and C = O had change, indicating that the amino and carboxyl groups in sesame peptide participated in the chelation reaction. SEM (scanning electron microscope) analysis showed that SSMP and calcium could form a chelate with specific stability. Most of its microstructures were encapsulated and adhered to each other to create a "bridging effect" and appear as aggregates. These results provided a basis for using sesame peptides in the food or pharmaceutical industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

S-Equol is an intestinal bacterial metabolite of the isoflavone daidzein. Racemic (±)-equol is used as a dietary estrogen supplement in menopausal women and is suggested to affect the female reproductive function and development, primarily controlled by the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis and gonadotropin-releasing hormone release. In this study, murine neurons were utilized to evaluate the effect and mechanism of (±)-equol on the secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone. The cells were treated with up to 20 µmol/L of (±)-equol to determine the influence on cell viability. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and Western-blotting analysis were used to investigate the impacts of (±)-equol on the secretion and transcription of gonadotropin-releasing hormone, and the transcription and translation of key neuromodulators. This study showed that (±)-equol could decrease cell viability, increase the ability to secrete gonadotropin-releasing hormone, and interfere with the expression of neurokinin B receptor, makorin ring finger protein 3, and silent information regulator 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Phosphorylation is one of the most studied post-translational modifications, which plays a pivotal role in various cellular processes. Recently, deep learning methods have achieved great success in prediction of phosphorylation sites, but most of them are based on convolutional neural network that may not capture enough information about long-range dependencies between residues in a protein sequence. In addition, existing deep learning methods only make use of sequence information for predicting phosphorylation sites, and it is highly desirable to develop a deep learning architecture that can combine heterogeneous sequence and protein–protein interaction (PPI) information for more accurate phosphorylation site prediction. Results We present a novel integrated deep neural network named PhosIDN, for phosphorylation site prediction by extracting and combining sequence and PPI information. In PhosIDN, a sequence feature encoding sub-network is proposed to capture not only local patterns but also long-range dependencies from protein sequences. Meanwhile, useful PPI features are also extracted in PhosIDN by a PPI feature encoding sub-network adopting a multi-layer deep neural network. Moreover, to effectively combine sequence and PPI information, a heterogeneous feature combination sub-network is introduced to fully exploit the complex associations between sequence and PPI features, and their combined features are used for final prediction. Comprehensive experiment results demonstrate that the proposed PhosIDN significantly improves the prediction performance of phosphorylation sites and compares favorably with existing general and kinase-specific phosphorylation site prediction methods. Availability and implementation PhosIDN is freely available at https://github.com/ustchangyuanyang/PhosIDN. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]