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Abstract Critical-sized bone defects are usually accompanied by bacterial infection leading to inflammation and bone nonunion. However, existing biodegradable materials lack long-term therapeutical effect because of their gradual degradation. Here, a degradable material with continuous ROS modulation is proposed, defined as a sonozyme due to its functions as a sonosensitizer and a nanoenzyme. Before degradation, the sonozyme can exert an effective sonodynamic antimicrobial effect through the dual active sites of MnN4 and Cu2O8. Furthermore, it can promote anti-inflammation by superoxide dismutase- and catalase-like activities. Following degradation, quercetin-metal chelation exhibits a sustaining antioxidant effect through ligand-metal charge transfer, while the released ions and quercetin also have great self-antimicrobial, osteogenic, and angiogenic effects. A rat model of infected cranial defects demonstrates the sonozyme can rapidly eliminate bacteria and promote bone regeneration. This work presents a promising approach to engineer biodegradable materials with long-time effects for infectious bone defects.

Abstract Excessive exercise is an etiological factor of intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD). Engineered extracellular vesicles (EVs) exhibit excellent therapeutic potential for disease-modifying treatments. Herein, we fabricate an exercise self-powered triboelectric-responsive microneedle (MN) assay with the sustainable release of optogenetically engineered EVs for IVDD repair. Mechanically, exercise promotes cytosolic DNA sensing-mediated inflammatory activation in senescent nucleus pulposus (NP) cells (the master cell population for IVD homeostasis maintenance), which accelerates IVDD. TREX1 serves as a crucial nuclease, and disassembly of TRAM1-TREX1 complex disrupts the subcellular localization of TREX1, triggering TREX1-dependent genomic DNA damage during NP cell senescence. Optogenetically engineered EVs deliver TRAM1 protein into senescent NP cells, which effectively reconstructs the elimination function of TREX1. Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) harvests mechanical energy and triggers the controllable release of engineered EVs. Notably, an optogenetically engineered EV-based targeting treatment strategy is used for the treatment of IVDD, showing promising clinical potential for the treatment of degeneration-associated disorders.

An interbody fusion cage is crucial in spine fusion procedures, serving to restore physiological vertebral alignment and reestablish spinal stability. However, conventional fusion cages often face challenges related to insufficient osteointegration and the requirement for substantial bone grafting, which may result in incomplete fusion and prolonged recovery periods. In this study, we harnessed the osteointegration advantages of tantalum (Ta), in conjunction with advanced 3D printing technology, to develop a novel non-window-type Ta cage. The mechanical and biological characteristics of the cage were comprehensively evaluated through mechanical testing, in vitro cellular assays, and in vivo sheep anterior cervical discectomy and fusion models. The results indicated that the 3D-printed porous tantalum (3D-pTa) cage, with mechanical properties analogous to those of trabecular bone, exhibited superior bone ingrowth and osseointegration performance, achieving excellent intervertebral fusion without the need for bone grafting, thereby enhancing cervical vertebra stability. Moreover, we performed a pilot clinical trial to assess the performance of non-window-type 3D-pTa cages in single-level posterior lumbar interbody fusion. The results demonstrated that 3D-pTa achieved favorable clinical outcomes up to the 12-month follow-up period. These results highlight the significant clinical potential of the 3D-pTa cage for spinal fusion applications.

The aim of this study was to explore the effects of twin-screw extrusion combined with exogenous protein on interaction between starch and protein of the compound potato powder thereby contributing to better structural characterization and functional properties of whole potato flour lack of gluten. The results showed that the heat-moisture extrusion increased the relative crystallinity of starch. Meanwhile, the exogenous protein introduced (-SHfree) under the action of extrusion to form (-S-S-) in the compound system and furtherly promoted the construction of the network structure of the protein. Additionally, WAC, OAC, solubility, the thermal properties and the thermal stability of the compound potato powder were improved. The content of bound water was increased, thereby increasing water migration in the dough. The results confirmed effectiveness of using extrusion combining with exogenous protein to improve the physicochemical properties of potato flour.

Abstract The complexity of repairing large segment defects and eradicating residual tumor cell puts the osteosarcoma clinical management challenging. Current biomaterial design often overlooks the crucial role of precisely regulating innervation in bone regeneration. Here, we develop a Germanium Selenium (GeSe) co-doped polylactic acid (PLA) nanofiber membrane-coated tricalcium phosphate bioceramic scaffold (TCP-PLA/GeSe) that mimics the bone-periosteum structure. This biomimetic scaffold offers a dual functionality, combining piezoelectric and photothermal conversion capabilities while remaining biodegradable. When subjected to ultrasound irradiation, the US-electric stimulation of TCP-PLA/GeSe enables spatiotemporal control of neurogenic differentiation. This feature supports early innervation during bone formation, promoting early neurogenic differentiation of Schwann cells (SCs) by increasing intracellular Ca2+ and subsequently activating the PI3K-Akt and Ras signaling pathways. The biomimetic scaffold also demonstrates exceptional osteogenic differentiation potential under ultrasound irradiation. In rabbit model of large segment bone defects, the TCP-PLA/GeSe demonstrates promoted osteogenesis and nerve fibre ingrowth. The combined attributes of high photothermal conversion capacity and the sustained release of anti-tumor selenium from the TCP-PLA/GeSe enable the synergistic eradication of osteosarcoma both in vitro and in vivo. This strategy provides new insights on designing advanced biomaterials of repairing large segment bone defect and osteosarcoma.

Fluid dynamic noise produced by eddy disturbances and friction along pipe walls poses a significant challenge in natural gas transmission and distribution stations. (K)TS control valves are widely used in natural gas transmission and distribution stations across Southwest China and are among the primary sources of noise in these facilities. In this study, a 3D geometric model of the (K)TS valve was developed, and the gas flow characteristics were simulated to analyze the gas flow field and sound field within the valve under varying pipeline flow velocities, outlet pressures, and valve openings. The results demonstrate that accurate calculations of the 3D valve model can be achieved with a grid cell size of 3.6 mm and a boundary layer set to 3. The noise-generating regions of the valve are concentrated around the throttle port, valve chamber, and valve inlet. The primary factors contributing to the aerodynamic noise include high gas flow velocity gradients, intense turbulence, rapid turbulent energy dissipation, and vortex formation and shedding within the valve. An increase in inlet flow velocity intensifies turbulence and energy dissipation inside the valve, while valve opening primarily influences the size of vortex rings in the valve chamber and throttle outlet. In contrast, outlet pressure exerts a relatively weak effect on the flow field characteristics within the valve. Under varying operating conditions, the noise directivity distribution remains consistent, exhibiting symmetrical patterns along the central axis of the flow channel and forming six-leaf or four-leaf flower shapes. As the distance from the monitoring point to the valve increases, noise propagation becomes more concentrated in the vertical direction of the valve. These findings provide a theoretical basis for understanding the mechanisms of aerodynamic noise generation within (K)TS control valves during natural gas transmission, and can also offer guidance for designing noise reduction solutions for valves.

BackgroundMany patients with constipation also suffer from varying degrees of malnutrition, and the relationship between the two conditions is a vicious cycle. Surgery is the final step in the treatment of constipation, with a success rate of up to 95%. This study aims to investigate the effects of surgical treatment on the nutritional status of patients with chronic constipation and malnutrition.MethodsA total of 60 patients with chronic constipation and various degrees of malnutrition who underwent surgery in our department from January 2020 to March 2023 were included in this study. Biochemical tests including BMI, albumin, total protein, hemoglobin, cholesterol and lymphocyte count were conducted, as well as measurements of inflammatory markers such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Interleukin-8 (IL-8), and C-reactive protein (CRP). Additionally, multiple nutritional risk screening scales (NRS2002, MUST, NRI, and MNA) and the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) were used to assess the nutritional status of patients before surgery, as well as at 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months post-surgery. Finally, we analyzed the factors influencing postoperative recovery outcomes in patients.ResultsCompared to pre-operation, the BMI of patients significantly increased at 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after the operation, with statistically significant differences (p

Achieving superior ductility, microstructure, and strength simultaneously in tailor-welded blanks remains challenging. To address this, pre-aging blanks before friction stir welding was proposed. Systematic studies were conducted on the microstructure, ductility, and post-aging strength of pre-aged 2219 aluminium alloy after friction stir welding. Uniaxial tensile tests evaluated the ductility of tailor-welded blanks at room and cryogenic temperatures, along with their mechanical properties after artificial aging. Microstructural characterization and Vickers hardness measurements elucidated the strengthening mechanisms between the welded region and base material. No abnormal grain growth was observed in the welded region post pre-aging welding; instead, a finer grain structure prevailed. Ductility of the tailor-welded blanks initially increased and then decreased with increasing rotational speed. Excellent elongations, 27.8% at room temperature and 32.4% at cryogenic temperatures, were obtained at a rotational speed of 1300 rpm, reaching 91.5% of the base material. This attributed to the finer grain boundary strengthening in the welded regions. After artificial aging, a joint efficiency of 93.5% was achieved, owing to effective compensation of the reduction in precipitation strengthening caused by the welded heat input through finer grain strengthening. This approach represents a novel method for preparing ultrawide blanks for forming integral large-sized aluminum alloy components.

Zeolite P1, a significant conversion product of fly ash, is predominantly utilized for the removal of metal ions, adsorption of carbon dioxide, and capture of aromatic compounds. Despite its diverse applications, its role as a catalyst remains underexplored in the scientific community. Traditionally, mordenite (MOR) zeolites are considered typical dimethyl ether (DME) carbonylation catalysts, whose Brønsted acid sites located on the 8-membered rings (8-MR) are the key active sites for this reaction. This conventional approach underscores the importance of specific zeolite structures in facilitating catalytic processes. H–P1 zeolite was synthesized through a template-free approach in this paper. When applied to DME carbonylation, this zeolite exhibited an impressive selectivity of up to 93% for methyl acetate (MA), suggesting its potential as a highly effective catalyst. This promising outcome hints at a new frontier for the application of the P1 zeolite, potentially revolutionizing its role in catalysis and expanding its utility beyond traditional adsorption processes. The findings suggest that the P1 zeolite could be a versatile material in the realm of catalytic chemistry, offering new pathways and methodologies for various chemical reactions.

Temperature and pressure have a significant impact on friction in aluminum alloy ultra-low temperature forming. In this paper, cryogenic strip drawing test (CSDT), morphologies analysis and microstructure characterization were used for friction mechanism investigation of aluminum alloy under different temperatures and pressures. The findings indicated that the coefficient of friction (COF) first increased and then decreased as pressure increased. From 2 to 10 MPa, the lowest COF was observed at −190 °C. The formation of fine deformation microstructure enhanced surface material plasticity and resistance to deformation leading to reduced adhesive friction or plowing friction, resulting in low COF at high-pressure and ultra-low temperature. Furthermore, higher temperatures and pressures increased the adhesion, which was detrimental to prolonging the service life of die.

Abstract Background Most bone defects caused by bone disease or trauma are accompanied by infection, and there is a high risk of infection spread and defect expansion. Traditional clinical treatment plans often fail due to issues like antibiotic resistance and non-union of bones. Therefore, the treatment of infected bone defects requires a strategy that simultaneously achieves high antibacterial efficiency and promotes bone regeneration. Results In this study, an ultrasound responsive vanadium tetrasulfide-loaded MXene (VSM) Schottky junction is constructed for rapid methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) clearance and bone regeneration. Due to the peroxidase (POD)-like activity of VS4 and the abundant Schottky junctions, VSM has high electron–hole separation efficiency and a decreased band gap, exhibiting a strong chemodynamic and sonodynamic antibacterial efficiency of 94.03%. Under the stimulation of medical dose ultrasound, the steady release of vanadium element promotes the osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs). The in vivo application of VSM in infected tibial plateau bone defects of rats also has a great therapeutic effect, eliminating MRSA infection, then inhibiting inflammation and improving bone regeneration. Conclusion The present work successfully develops an ultrasound responsive VS4-based versatile sonosensitizer for robust effective antibacterial and osteogenic therapy of infected bone defects.

In today’s network environments, vulnerable to cyber threats such as hackers and viruses, intrusion detection technology is considered the most effective means of detection and defense. Deep neural networks are commonly used in intrusion detection technology. However, improving the model’s ability to extract feature information and reducing computational space while retaining local feature information are critical challenges that need to be addressed. To tackle these issues, this paper proposes a model named BBO-CFAT, which combines the Biogeography-Based Optimization algorithm (BBO) for feature selection and an improved Transformer model for preserving context information and reducing computational space. Specifically, the BBO-CFAT model employs a roulette selection method to control the operations of migration and mutation operators. It utilizes feature information entropy to weight updates of adaptive variables in these operators, thereby enhancing the credibility of feature selection. Furthermore, the Transformer framework is hierarchically designed to facilitate the acquisition of context information. Additionally, depthwise separable convolutions are employed to reduce computational space, thereby improving computational efficiency and training speed. Experimental evaluations using the CIC-IDS2017 and NSL-KDD datasets demonstrate promising accuracies for BBO-CFAT on both datasets, achieving 99.1% and 97.5% accuracy, respectively, surpassing the performance of comparative experiments. Overall, the BBO-CFAT model provides a comprehensive solution to the challenges of intrusion detection, effectively balancing feature preservation, computational efficiency, and training accuracy.

Objective Conventional correction techniques were challenging and of high risk of neurological complications for the correction of severe and rigid kyphoscoliosis. A new technical note we developed and named as sequential correction, was used to treat severe and rigid kyphoscoliosis. The present study was to compare the clinical outcomes of sequential correction versus conventional correction for the treatment of severe and rigid kyphoscoliosis. Methods This is a respectively case–control study. Between January 2014 and December 2019, 36 adults underwent the surgical correction of severe and rigid kyphoscoliosis and were included in the present study. Among them, 20 adults underwent conventional correction, 16 adults underwent sequential correction. Major curve Cobb angle, kyphotic angle, coronal imbalance, and sagittal vertical axis were compared between two groups. The patient‐reported health‐related quality of life outcomes, including the Oswestry disability index score, and SRS‐22 questionnaire, were recorded. Independent samples t‐test, Mann–Whitney U test, and Wilcoxon signed‐rank test, were used to compare the differences between two groups according to the results of normal distribution test. Results In conventional correction group, the mean major curve Cobb angle was 122.50° preoperatively, 40.35° immediately after surgery, and 43.95° at final follow‐up postoperatively; the mean kyphotic angle was 97.45° preoperatively, 34.45° immediately after surgery, and 38.30° at final follow‐up postoperatively. In the sequential correction group, the mean major angle was 134.44° preoperatively, 44.56° immediately after surgery, and 46.25° at final follow‐up postoperatively; the mean kyphotic angle was 112.31° preoperatively, 39.00° immediately after surgery, and 40.38° at final follow‐up postoperatively. The mean major curve Cobb angle and kyphotic angle of both groups were improved significantly, while there were no significant differences between two groups (p > 0.001). Improved self‐reported quality of life scores were achieved postoperatively and at final follow‐up postoperatively, and there were no significant differences between the two groups. The total complication rate of the patients underwent conventional correction was 55%, and the total complication rate of the patients underwent sequential correction was 43.75%. The complication rate of the two groups showed no significant difference. Conclusions Sequential correction is an excellent and safe treatment for severe and rigid kyphoscoliosis in adults, with similar clinical outcomes with conventional correction. The total complication rate of the patients who underwent sequential correction was slightly lower than conventional correction.

Abstract The monkeypox virus (MPXV) is a zoonotic DNA virus that belongs to the poxvirus family. Conventional laboratory methods for detecting MPXV are complex and expensive, making them unsuitable for detecting the virus in regions with limited resources. In this study, we using the Helicase dependent amplification (HDA) method and the Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) technique in combination with the lateral flow test (LFT), together with a self-designed qPCR technique for the detection of the MPXV specific conserved fragment F3L, to compare the sensitivity and specificity of the three assays. By analyzing the sensitivity detection results using Probit, it can be seen that the limit of detection (LOD) of the HDA-LFT detection target is 9.86 copies/µL (95% confidence interval, CI 7.52 copies/µL lower bound), the RPA-LFT detection target is 6.97 copies/µL (95% CI 3.90 copies/µL lower bound), and the qPCR detection target is 479.24 copies/mL (95% CI 273.81 copies/mL lower bound). The specificity test results showed that the specificity of the three methods mentioned above was higher than 90% in detecting pseudoviruses of the same genus of MPXV. The simple, highly sensitive, and specific MPXV assay developed in this study is anticipated to provide a solid foundation for future applications in the early screening, diagnosis, and evaluation of the efficacy of MPXV. This is the first time the HDA-LFT assay has been utilized to detect MPXV infection.

Abstract Covalent organic framework (COF) materials have aroused tremendous interest in photocatalytic applications due to their tunable pore structure and photoelectric properties. The regular nanopore of COF itself presents a strongly confinement effect, which provides a unique regulatory effect for photons, electrons, protons, and other quantum‐scale reaction groups. However, due to the weak surface electron coupling and transfer ability between the reactive groups and basic elements of its structural units, the activity of pure COFs photocatalyst is still not satisfactory. Therefore, the confinement modification strategy of confining low‐dimension entities within COFs has been proposed, thus realizing new active sites construction and band structure regulation has been intensively studied, but yet to be summarized systematically. In this paper, the semi‐conductivity of COFs is discussed dialectically based on photocatalytic thermodynamics, and the influence of internal linkage motifs and stacking behaviors on the band structure is collected. Then, the basic understanding of confinement characteristics and their influence on photocatalytic performance in dynamics is further explained according to the spatial dimension classification of low‐dimension entities. And the application and mechanism of these COF‐based confined catalysts in energy conversion reactions are discussed in detail. Lastly, the current challenges and development prospects of COF‐based confined hetero‐photocatalysts are discussed.

Abstract Metal‐organic frameworks recently have been burgeoning and used as precursors to obtain various metal–nitrogen–carbon catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Although rarely studied, Mn–N–C is a promising catalyst for ORR due to its weak Fenton reaction activity and strong graphitization catalysis. Here, we developed a facile strategy for anchoring the atomically dispersed nitrogen‐coordinated single Mn sites on carbon nanosheets (MnNCS) from an Mn‐hexamine coordination framework. The atomically dispersed Mn–N4 sites were dispersed on ultrathin carbon nanosheets with a hierarchically porous structure. The optimized MnNCS displayed an excellent ORR performance in half‐cells (0.89 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in base and 0.76 V vs. RHE in acid in half‐wave potential) and Zn–air batteries (233 mW cm−2 in peak power density), along with significantly enhanced stability. Density functional theory calculations further corroborated that the Mn–N4–C12 site has favorable adsorption of *OH as the rate‐determining step. These findings demonstrate that the metal‐hexamine coordination framework can be used as a model system for the rational design of highly active atomic metal catalysts for energy applications.

Pregabalin is the first-line treatment for neuropathic pain. Cases of cutaneous hypersensitivity reactions caused by pregabalin generally occur within 2 weeks of initiating medication. We report a rare case of a delayed cutaneous hypersensitivity reaction caused by pregabalin, which was confirmed by a drug provocation test. A 72-year-old man with severe herpes zoster neuralgia developed maculopapular drug eruption covering 80% to 90% of his total body surface area after 40 days of combined multidrug analgesia. A drug provocation test for pregabalin was positive. The time interval between initiating medication and the onset of the patient’s rash was the longest and he also had the largest area of skin affected compared with patients with a similar condition in previous related reports. Remaining vigilant for possible adverse cutaneous hypersensitivity reactions during treatment is important because of the long-term course of pregabalin treatment for neuropathic pain.

Abstract Objective The present study is to evaluate the clinical outcomes of the sequential correction of severe and rigid kyphoscoliosis. Methods Between January 2014 and December 2020, 27 adults with severe and rigid kyphoscoliosis underwent sequential correction combined with posterior grade 4 or grade 5 spinal osteotomy. Radiological parameters, including the major curve Cobb angle, kyphotic angle, coronal imbalance, and sagittal vertical axis (SVA), were compared. Patient self-reported health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scores were used to evaluate clinical outcomes. Results The mean major curve Cobb angle improved from 134.30 ± 13.24° to 44.48 ± 9.34° immediately after surgery and to 46.11 ± 8.94° at the final follow-up. The mean kyphotic angle improved from 112.15 ± 20.28° to 38.63 ± 15.00° immediately after surgery and to 39.85 ± 14.92° at the final follow-up. The mean preoperative major curve Cobb angle of grade 5 spinal osteotomy group was higher than that of grade 4 spinal osteotomy group. Coronal imbalance and SVA slightly improved. The patient self-reported HRQOL scores improved postoperatively and at the final follow-up. Activity, appearance and total scores of the SRS-22 of the grade 5 spinal osteotomy group at the final follow-up were significantly better than those of the grade 4 spinal osteotomy group. Conclusions Sequential correction combined with posterior grade 4 or grade 5 spinal osteotomies is an excellent and safe treatment for severe and rigid kyphoscoliosis in adults. Sequential correction combined with posterior grade 5 spinal osteotomies can be used to correct severe and rigid kyphoscoliosis with higher major curve Cobb angle.

Abstract Broad use of lightweight aluminium alloy parts in automobile manufacturing, aerospace, electronic communication, and rail transit is mainly formed through deep drawing process. Deep drawing friction is a key boundary condition for controlling the forming quality of aluminium alloy parts. However, due to the oxidation and adhesion tendency of aluminium alloys, the tribological situations of aluminium alloy deep drawing (AADD) system is more complicated than those of traditional deep drawing of steel sheets. Therefore, the study of AADD friction is essential for manufacturing high-performance aluminium alloy parts. Herein, aiming to provide a valuable reference for researchers in related fields, a comprehensive review of AADD friction is provided, including friction mechanism, influencing factors, friction measurement, friction model, friction simulation, and lubrication-free friction control. Finally, a brief conclusion and several current challenges were discussed.

PURPOSETo conduct a meta-analysis comparing the efficacy and safety of two types of iodine-125 (I-125) seed delivery with metal stents (the study group) versus conventional metal stents (the control group) in patients with malignant biliary obstruction (MBO).METHODSOur team systematically searched the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases for relevant studies published from January 2012 up to July 2021. Survival time and stent dysfunction were the primary measured outcomes. Subgroup analyses were conducted according to the type of I-125 seed delivery.RESULTSEleven studies, including 1057 patients in total, were pooled for stent dysfunction. The study group showed a lower risk of stent dysfunction than the control group [odds ratio (OR): 0.61, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.46–0.81, P = 0.001]. The pooled results of six studies reporting overall survival (OS) showed that the study group had a better survival outcome than the control group [hazard ratio (HR): 0.34, 95% CI: 0.28–0.42, P < 0.001]. In the subgroup analyses, the I-125 seed stent group had significantly less stent dysfunction than the control group (OR: 0.49, 95% CI: 0.31–0.76, P = 0.002). Meanwhile, the metal stents + I-125 radioactive seed strand group showed significantly more improvement in OS than the control group (HR: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.26–0.42, P < 0.001). Moreover, our analysis suggests that using I-125 seeds did not result in increasing related adverse events compared with using metal stents alone (all P > 0.05). The study group was significantly superior to the control group, with better survival and decreased stent dysfunction. Meanwhile, the delivery of I-125 seeds did not increase adverse events.CONCLUSIONThe delivery of I-125 with metal stents may be considered a preferable technique for MBO.

Abstract Background Several previous studies demonstrated that the combination of self-expandable metallic stents (SEMS) and 125I seed implantation might prolong stent patency and obtain survival benefits for malignant obstructive jaundice (MOJ) patients. However, these studies rarely mentioned a comparison between CT-guided intratumoral 125I seed implantation and intraluminal 125I seed strand insertion combined with stenting for the management of MOJ. This study aimed to further evaluate the safety and efficacy of SEMS combined with 125I brachytherapy in the management of unresectable MOJ. Methods Fifty-nine patients with unresectable MOJ were retrospectively included from March 2018 to June 2021. The main therapeutic outcomes were evaluated in terms of stent patency, and overall survival. Cumulative stent patency and overall survival rates were calculated by Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. Both clinical and treatment factors associated with survival were analyzed. Results Technical success was achieved in all patients. The clinical success rate was 94% (32/34) in the seeds group and 92% (23/25) in the control group, no significant difference was found (p =1.000). The median duration of stent patency was significantly longer in the 125I brachytherapy group compared with the control group (289 days vs. 88 days, respectively, p =0.001). The 125I brachytherapy group demonstrated a significantly better median overall survival rate than the control group (221 days vs. 78 days, respectively, p =0.001). In multivariate analysis, stents with 125I brachytherapy (p =0.004) was a significant favorable prognostic factor that affected patient survival. No significant difference was observed between CT-guided 125I seed implantation and 125I seed strand insertion in stent patency (p =0.268), and overall survival (p =0.483). Conclusion SEMS combined with 125I brachytherapy is safe and effective for treating MOJ. 125I brachytherapy may help to maintain stent patency and prolong overall survival. There was no significant difference between CT-guided 125I seed implantation with SEMS and 125I seed strand insertion with SEMS in stent patency and overall survival.

Abstract Purpose To explore clinical outcomes of percutaneous stent implantation using volumetric criteria for unresectable malignant hilar biliary obstruction (MHBO). Additionally, aimed to identify the predictors of patients' survival. Methods Seventy‐two patients who were initially diagnosed with MHBO between January 2013 to December 2019 in our center were retrospectively included. Patients were stratified according to the drainage achieved ≥50%,

Abstract Background The prevalence of preterm birth has been rising, and there is a paucity of nationwide data on the perinatal characteristics and neonatal outcomes of twin deliveries of very preterm infants (VPIs) in China. This study compared the perinatal characteristics and outcomes of singletons and twins admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in China. Methods The study population comprised all infants born before 32 weeks in the Chinese Neonatal Network (CHNN) between January 2019 and December 2019. Three-level and population-average generalized estimating equation (GEE)/alternating logistic regression (ALR) models were used to determine the association of twins with neonatal morbidities and the use of NICU resources. Results During the study period, there were 6634 (71.2%) singletons and 2680 (28.8%) twins, with mean birth weights of 1333.70 g and 1294.63 g, respectively. Twins were significantly more likely to be delivered by caesarean section (p

Abstract Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common tumors worldwide and the leading cause of tumor-related mortality. Endoscopy and serological tumor marker testing are currently the main methods of GC screening, and treatment relies on surgical resection or chemotherapy. However, traditional examination and treatment methods are more harmful to patients and less sensitive and accurate. A minimally invasive method to respond to GC early screening, prognosis monitoring, treatment efficacy, and drug resistance situations is urgently needed. As a result, liquid biopsy techniques have received much attention in the clinical application of GC. The non-invasive liquid biopsy technique requires fewer samples, is reproducible, and can guide individualized patient treatment by monitoring patients' molecular-level changes in real-time. In this review, we introduced the clinical applications of circulating tumor cells, circulating free DNA, circulating tumor DNA, non-coding RNAs, exosomes, and proteins, which are the primary markers in liquid biopsy technology in GC. We also discuss the current limitations and future trends of liquid biopsy technology as applied to early clinical biopsy technology.

Compressive stress, a DC bias magnetic field, and an AC excitation field significantly affect hysteresis characteristics and magnetic energy losses of magnetostrictive materials. Therefore, studying high frequency magnetic losses of magnetostrictive materials under coupling of these three conditions is of great importance for improving the output performance of high power magnetostrictive transducers. In this paper, a magnetic property testing system for magnetostrictive materials has been constructed. It enables the magnetic property testing of Terfenol-D alloy rods under the simultaneous application of stress and DC bias at high frequency excitation (a maximum AC magnetic flux density of 0.5 T at an excitation frequency of 9 kHz). Based on Bertotti separation theory and experimental data, considering the coupling effect of stress and DC bias, a computational model for the high frequency magnetic losses of Terfenol-D materials is proposed. The model incorporates relevant parameters of stress and DC bias to modify loss coefficients, and the expressions for loss coefficients are identified using the symbolic regression method. A comparative analysis between experimental data and model calculation shows good agreement, with the maximum and average errors of 4.68% and 1.74%, respectively.

Straw returning has been shown to improve farmland soil, increase crop yield, and reduce global warming. This study investigated the models of six rice straw-returning techniques based on the life cycle assessment method. Compared to the direct modes, the indirect ones showed a greater environmental impact; up to 20.56 times in acidification and emission potentials. There was no significant difference in climate change among the six types. Except for the burning effect, all other modes showed improvement in soil fertility; phosphorus and organic matter content increased by 66.66% and 30.85%, respectively, microbial biomass carbon content doubled (105%), the four organic carbon components increased by >50%, crop morbidity was reduced, and diversity of soil fungus was improved. Feeding, as an indirect method for enhancing soil fertility and economic benefits, is set to emerge as a leading practice in China’s straw management. However, straw-returning technology is limited by cost, greenhouse gases, and increased risk of diseases and pests. There is an urgent need for further improvement and development of carbon sequestration and emission reduction in China’s agriculture.

Abstract Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of sequential correction using satellite rod in patients with severe rigid spinal deformity undergoing posterior-only PVCR. Methods 19 patients with severe rigid spinal deformity who underwent PVCR at our center from January 2014 to December 2019 were reviewed. Radiographic measurements, including major coronal Cobb angle, kyphotic curve angle, coronal and sagittal balance were measured. Clinical results were noted, including the SRS-22 questionnaire, the Oswestry Disability Index score, and complications. Results Total 19 patients were followed at least 2 years. The mean coronal Cobb angle decreased from 122.7° ± 13.17° to 57.89° ± 8.65° postoperatively, and to 58.42° ± 8.98° at final follow-up. Correction rate is 52.8%. The kyphotic curve angle improved from 102.2° ± 17.05° preoperatively to 39.68° ± 13.67° postoperatively, and to 37.74° ± 12.14° at final follow-up. Correction rate is 61.2%. Compared to preoperative results, apex vertebral translation, ODI and SRS-22 were significantly improved at the final follow-up. Conclusions For patients with severe rigid spinal deformities, sequential correction with an auxiliary satellite rod can effectively reduce surgical difficulty and improve correction rate.

Nanotopographical cues endow biomaterials the ability to guide cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation. Cellular mechanical memory can maintain the cell status by retaining cellular information obtained from past mechanical microenvironments. Here, we propose a new concept “morphology memory of small extracellular vesicles (sEV)” for bone regeneration. We performed nanotopography on titanium plates through alkali and heat (Ti8) treatment to promote human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) differentiation. Next, we extracted the sEVs from the hMSC, which were cultured on the nanotopographical Ti plates for 21 days (Ti8-21-sEV). We demonstrated that Ti8-21-sEV had superior pro-osteogenesis ability in vitro and in vivo. RNA sequencing further confirmed that Ti8-21-sEV promote bone regeneration through osteogenic-related pathways, including the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, focal adhesion, and extracellular matrix-receptor interaction. Finally, we decorated the Ti8-21-sEV on a 3D printed porous polyetheretherketone scaffold. The femoral condyle defect model of rabbits was used to demonstrate that Ti8-21-sEV had the best bone ingrowth. In summary, our study demonstrated that the Ti8-21-sEV have memory function by copying the pro-osteogenesis information from the nanotopography. We expect that our study will encourage the discovery of other sEV with morphology memory for tissue regeneration.

In light of the significance of regulatory authorities and the rising demand for information disclosure, a vast amount of information on food safety news reports is readily accessible on the Internet. The extraction of such information for precise classification and provision of appropriate safety alerts based on their respective categories has emerged as a challenging problem for academic research. Given that most food safety-related events in news reports comprise lengthy text, the pre-trained language models currently employed for text analysis are generally limited in their capability to handle long documents. This paper proposes a long-text classification model utilising hierarchical Transformers. We categorise information in long documents into two distinct types: (1) multiple text chunks meeting the length constraint and (2) essential sentences within long documents, such as headings, paragraph start and end sentences, etc. Initially, our proposed model utilises the text chunks as input to the BERT model. Then, it concatenates the output of the BERT model with the important sentences from the document and use them as input to the Transformer model for feature transformation. Finally, we utilise a classifier for food safety news classification. We conducted several comparative experiments with various commonly used text classification models on a dataset constructed from publicly available information on food regulatory websites. Our proposed method outperforms existing methods, establishing itself as the leading approach in terms of performance.

Abstract Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is the pathological reason of back pain and the therapeutic approaches are still unsatisfactory. Recently, mesenchymal stem cell-derived small extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as the novel regenerative method for IDD. In this study, we intensively investigated the therapeutic mechanism of small EVs, and found that vasorin protein enriched in EVs promoted the proliferation and extracellular matrix anabolism of nucleus pulposus cells via the Notch1 signaling pathway. Then, we fabricated a thermoresponsive gel which composed of Pluronic F127 and decellularized extracellular matrix (FEC) for the delivery and sustained release of EVs. Besides, ex vivo and in vivo results showed that EVs embedded in FEC (EVs@FEC) ameliorate the disc degeneration efficiently and achieve better therapeutic effects than one-off EVs delivery. Collectively, these findings deepen the understanding of EVs mechanism in treating intervertebral disc degeneration, and also illustrate the promising capacity of sustained EVs release system for intervertebral disc regeneration.

Open wounds are prone to infection and difficult to heal, which even threatens the life of patients because bacterial infections can induce other lethal complications without prompt treatment. The commonly used antibiotics treatment for bacterial infections has been reported to cause globally bacterial resistance and even the occurrence of superbacteria. The highly effective and antibiotic-independent therapeutic strategies are urgently needed for treating various kinds of bacteria-infected diseases. In this work, we synthesized an eco-friendly nanohybrid material (ZnDMZ) consisting of a kind of biodegradable metal organic framework (MOF, ZIF-8) combined with Zn-doped MoS2 (Zn–MoS2) nanosheets, which exhibited great ability to kill bacteria and promote the healing of bacteria-infected wounds under 660 nm light irradiation. The underlying mechanism is that besides the local hyperthermia, the nanohybrid material exhibits enhanced photocatalytic performance than single component in it, i.e., it can also be excited by 660 nm light to produce more oxygen radical species (ROS) due to the following factors. On one hand, the Zn doping can reduce the work function and the band gap of MoS2, which promotes the movement of photoexcited electrons to the surface of the material. On the other hand, the combination between Zn–MoS2 and MOF induces the formation of a built-in electric field due to their work function difference, thus accelerating the separation of photoexcited electron-hole pairs. Because of the synergy of photocatalytic effect, photothermal effect and the released Zn ions, the synthesized ZnDMZ possessed a highly effective antibacterial efficacy of 99.9% against Staphylococcus aureus under 660 nm light irradiation for 20 min without cytotoxicity. In vivo tests showed that this nanohybrid material promoted the wound healing due to the released Zn ions. This nanohybrid will be promising for rapid and portable treatment of bacteria-infected open wounds in pathogenic bacteria contaminated environments.

The redox potential plays a critical role in sustaining the stability of gut microbiota. This study measured the fecal redox potential in healthy and diarrheal pigs using direct and dilution methods and investigated their correlation with microbiota. The results showed that the fluctuations in the redox potential of healthy pig feces were consistent using two different methods and the two methods are equivalent based on an equivalence test. The redox potential was positively correlated with the number of fungi and negatively related to the total bacteria. The relative or absolute abundances of many bacteria at the phyla and genus levels were associated with redox potential. In diarrheal pigs, the potentiometric trends of the two methods demonstrated an opposing pattern and the correlation with total bacteria was reversed. Precipitously elevated redox potential was detected post-diarrhea using dilution methods. The absolute abundance of Escherichia-Shigella and Fuurnierella was positively correlated with redox potential, while both relative and absolute abundances of Limosilactobacillus were positively correlated. These results suggest that both methods are suitable for detecting gut redox potential in healthy pigs, while the dilution method is more suitable for diarrheal pigs. The findings on the correlation of Limosilactobacillus, Prevotella, and Escherichia-Shigella with redox potential offer novel insights for targeted modulation of intestinal health.

Steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is a common and devastating bone disorder, which often results in progressive collapse of the femoral head and subsequent osteoarthritis. The proliferation ability and osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) play critical roles in maintaining the structural and functional integrity of the femoral head to prevent ONFH. Until now, little has been known about the underlying mechanism of BMSCs differentiation disorder during ONFH progression. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are considered to be vital non-coding RNAs functionally involved in various human diseases. However, whether and how circRNA regulates the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs in ONFH remain unclear. In this study, we analyzed the circRNA expression profile of five samples of BMSCs in ONFH and five samples of control by using circRNA microarray assays. We identified 182 differentially expressed circRNAs, among which 108 circRNAs were upregulated. We further investigated the effects of a significantly upregulated circRNA, circHGF, on the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs in vitro. Results showed that circHGF suppressed the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs in ONFH by targeting miR-25-3p/SMAD7 axis. Our findings provided a potential diagnostic and therapeutic strategy for ONFH.

Abstract Background To evaluate the incidence and risk factors of postoperative distal adding-on in patients with Lenke 5C adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). More accurate selection criteria for the lower instrumented vertebra (LIV) should be confirmed to prevent distal adding-on. Methods Forty-six patients with Lenke 5C AIS who underwent posterior fusion were enrolled in the study. Patients were allocated into adding-on and no adding-on groups. Demographic data, clinical data, and radiographic parameters were recorded and compared. Results Postoperative distal adding-on occurred in eight patients (17.4%) during follow-up. Demographic data, clinical data, and baseline radiographic parameters of the two groups were not significantly different. The postoperative thoracolumbar (TL) or lumbar (L) Cobb angle, LIV translation, and LIV + 1 translation were higher in the adding-on group than those in the no adding-on group, while the postoperative coronal imbalance of the adding-on group was lower than that of the no adding-on group. The level difference of last barely touched vertebra (LBTV) and last substantial touched vertebra (LSTV) with LIV were higher in the adding-on group than in the no adding-on group. Conclusion Postoperative TL/L curve, postoperative LIV translation, postoperative LIV + 1 translation, and postoperative coronal imbalance were determined as risk factors for postoperative distal adding-on in patients with Lenke 5C AIS. Moreover, LIV selection of LBTV-1 or LSTV-1 may cause a higher risk of postoperative distal adding-on.

Summary: Ever since the catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) circuit has been highlighted as a powerful nucleic acid detection tool, nucleic acid detection methods based on CHA have been widely studied. However, the detection sensitivity of CHA-based methods is insufficient. The relatively high background signals resulting from the spontaneous reaction between the two hairpin probes is one of the major reasons for limiting the sensitivity of CHA. In this study, we established that the addition of deoxynucleotide triphosphates (dNTPs) to the reaction system can significantly reduce the background leakage of CHA. The dNTPs-CHA, coupled with a fluorescence lateral flow assay strip, is used for the rapid and highly sensitive detection of miRNA. It is capable of reliably detecting miRNA in serum samples down to a limit of 100 aM, which is an improvement in the lower detection limit by nearly five orders of magnitude compared to that of the pure CHA.

The development of nanomedicine has recently achieved several breakthroughs in the field of cancer treatment; however, biocompatibility and targeted penetration of these nanomaterials remain as limitations, which lead to serious side effects and significantly narrow the scope of their application. The self-assembly of intermediate filaments with arginine–glycine–aspartate (RGD) peptide (RGD-IFP) was triggered by the hydrophobic cationic molecule 7-amino actinomycin D (7-AAD) to synthesize a bifunctional nanoparticle that could serve as a fluorescent imaging probe to visualize tumor treatment. The designed RGD-IFP peptide possessed the ability to encapsulate 7-AAD molecules through the formation of hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions by a one-step method. This fluorescent nanoprobe with RGD peptide could be targeted for delivery into tumor cells and released in acidic environments such as endosomes/lysosomes, ultimately inducing cytotoxicity by arresting tumor cell cycling with inserted DNA. It is noteworthy that the RGD-IFP/7-AAD nanoprobe tail-vein injection approach demonstrated not only high tumor-targeted imaging potential, but also potent antitumor therapeutic effects in vivo. The proposed strategy may be used in peptide-driven bifunctional nanoparticles for precise imaging and cancer therapy.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is the leading cause of low back pain and Nucleus pulposus cell senescence contributes a lot to its progression. Here, the authors reveal WTAP-mediated m6A modification of lncRNA NORAD promotes IVDD.

Reduction process is a key step to fabricate metal zeolite catalysts, but existing reduction technologies are always energy intensive and inevitably cause the agglomeration of metallic particles or destroy zeolite structure. Here the authors find that zeolites after ion exchange of ammonium display an interesting and unexpected self-reducing feature.

Abstract Purpose This review aimed to describe the preoperative management and postoperative complications associated with transoral decompression of the upper cervical spine, and to clarify the risk factors, related issues and complication management. Methods Studies on transoral decompression for the upper cervical spine were reviewed systematically. The preoperative management and postoperative complications associated with transoral decompression for upper cervical deformities were analyzed. Results Evidence suggests that preoperative management in patients undergoing transoral decompression for the upper cervical spine is closely related to the occurrence of postoperative complications. Hence, preoperative surgical planning, preoperative preparation, and oral nursing care should be seriously considered in these patients. Moreover, while being established as an effective and safe method, transoral decompression is associated with several postoperative complications, which could be prevented by elaborate preoperative management, improved surgical skills, and appropriate precautionary measures. Conclusions The effectiveness and safety of transoral decompression has been improved by the constant development of operative techniques and advanced auxiliary diagnostic and therapeutic methods, with the understanding of the anatomical structure of the craniocervical joint. Therefore, the incidence rates of postoperative complications have decreased. The application of individualized anterior implants and less-invasive endoscopic endonasal approach has improved the effectiveness of transoral decompression and reduced the associated complications.

The deformation and effective die quenching are critical to ensure the final dimensional accuracy and strength of the thick-walled curved components in hot forming-quenching integrated process. The deformation behavior of an Al–Cu–Mg alloy plate during bending-quenching process was thus analyzed at different temperatures and die clearances. The strengthening behavior along thickness and radial directions was evaluated under different heating and die quenching conditions. The strengthening mechanism was revealed by microstructure observation. It is found that the smaller die clearance and higher heating temperature contribute to improve the dimensional accuracy. The water-cooled die quenching can ensure the effective quenching of a bended specimen with 25 mm in thickness, being at the strengthening level of peak aging. And, the effective quenching thickness reaches 50 mm at least. Dynamic recovery is the main restoration mechanism in the integrated process. The hardness reduces while air cooling due to the formation of coarse S precipitates with average size exceeding 750 nm. Finally, a large-size tapered thick plate component with superior dimensional accuracy was successfully fabricated under the guidance of the obtained results.

Purpose: Proximal tibial fractures are common, but the current available internal fixation strategies remain debatable, especially for comminuted fractures. This study aimed to compare the biomechanical stability of three internal fixation strategies for extra-articular comminuted proximal tibial fractures.Methods: A total of 90 synthetic tibiae models of simulated proximal tibial fractures with segmental bone defects were randomly divided into three groups: Single lateral plating (LP), double plating (DP) and intramedullary nailing (IN). Based on the different number of fixed screws, the above three groups were further divided into nine subgroups and subjected to axial compression, cyclic loading and static torsional testing.Results: The subgroup of intramedullary nailing with five proximal interlocking screws showed the highest axial stiffness of 384.36 ± 35.00 N/mm. The LP group obtained the lowest axial stiffness performance with a value of 96.59 ± 16.14 N/mm. As expected, the DP group offered significantly greater biomechanical stability than the LP group, with mean static axial stiffness and mean torque increasing by approximately 200% and 50%, respectively. According to static torsional experiments, the maximum torque of the DP subgroup was 3,308.32 ± 286.21 N mm, which outperformed all other groups in terms of torsional characteristics.Conclusion: Utilizing more than four distal screws did not provide improved biomechanical stability in the LP or DP groups, while a substantial increase in the biomechanical stability of DP was obtained when an additional medial plate was used. For the intramedullary nailing group, increasing the number of proximal interlocking screws could significantly improve biomechanical stability, and the intramedullary nailing with three proximal interlocking screws had similar static and cyclic stiffness as the DP group. The intramedullary nailing with five proximal screws had better axial stability, whereas DP had better torsional stability.

The hybridization chain reaction (HCR) is widely used for biosensing. However, HCR does not provide the required sensitivity. In this study, we reported a method to improve the sensitivity of HCR by dampening the cascade amplification. First, we designed a biosensor based on HCR, and an initiator DNA was used to trigger the cascade amplification. Optimization of the reaction was then performed, and the results showed that the limit of detection (LOD) for the initiator DNA was about 2.5 nM. Second, we designed a series of inhibitory DNAs to dampen the HCR cascade amplification, and DNA dampeners (50 nM) were applied in the presence of the DNA initiator (50 nM). One of the DNA dampeners (D5) showed the best inhibitory efficiency of greater than 80%. This was further applied at concentrations ranging from 0 nM to 10 nM to prohibit the HCR amplification caused by a 2.5 nM initiator DNA (the limit of detection for this initiator DNA). The results showed that 0.156 nM of D5 could significantly inhibit the signal amplification (p

The development of adsorption methods for the remediation of antibiotics pollution in water is hindered by the lack of high-performance sorbents. In this study, a nanofiber carbon aerogel was prepared using bacterial cellulose and its adsorption performances for three common antibiotics (norfloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, and chloramphenicol) in water were evaluated. The as-prepared nanofiber carbon aerogel showed a higher adsorption capacity toward target antibiotics compared to other adsorbents reported in the literature. The maximum adsorption capacities for norfloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, and chloramphenicol were 1,926, 1,264, and 525 mg/g, respectively at 298 K. Notably, the nanofiber carbon aerogel was able to adsorb 80% of the equilibrium adsorption capacity within 1 min and reach equilibrium within 15 min. After five regeneration cycles, the adsorption capacity still reached 1,166, 847, and 428 mg/g for norfloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, and chloramphenicol, respectively. The characterization results showed that the carbon aerogel exhibited a high specific surface area (1,505 m2/g) and a layered porous network structure. Furthermore, the mechanistic study reveals that the enhanced antibiotic adsorption by the as-prepared nanofiber carbon aerogel was attributed to the pore filling effect, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic effect, electrostatic interaction, and π-π interactions. Overall, these results imply that low-cost and green nanofiber carbon aerogels may be promising adsorbents for the remediation of antibiotic-contaminated wastewater. The materials prepared from natural and readily available bacterial cellulose can adsorb antibiotics efficiently, which provides a reference for the development of adsorbent materials using natural substances. HIGHLIGHTS The porous carbon aerogel precursor is green, natural and readily available.; Rapid rate and high antibiotics adsorption capacity was observed.; The comprehensive adsorption mechanism of porous carbon aerogel was explored.;

Abstract Background Osteoporosis (OP) is a systemic skeletal disease marked by bone mass reduction and bone tissue destruction. Hormone replacement therapy is an effective treatment for post-menopausal OP, but estrogen has poor tissue selectivity and severe side effects. Results In this study, we constructed a poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles (NPs)-based drug delivery system to co-load 17β estradiol (E2) and iron oxide (Fe3O4) together, modified with alendronate (AL) to achieve bone targeting and realize a magnetically remote-controllable drug release. The NPs were fabricated through the emulsion solvent diffusion method. The particle size was approximately 200 nm while the encapsulation efficiency of E2 was 58.34 ± 9.21%. The NPs were found to be spherical with a homogenous distribution of particle size. The NPs showed good stability, good biocompatibility, high encapsulation ability of E2 and excellent magnetic properties. The NPs could be effectively taken up by Raw 264.7 cells and were effective in enriching drugs in bone tissue. The co-loaded NPs exposed to an external magnetic field ameliorated OVX-induced bone loss through increased BV/TV, decreased Tb.N and Tb.Sp, improved bone strength, increased PINP and OC, and downregulated CTX and TRAP-5b. The haematological index and histopathological analyses displayed the NPs had less side effects on non-skeletal tissues. Conclusions This study presented a remote-controlled release system based on bone-targeted multifunctional NPs and a new potential approach to bone-targeted therapy of OP. Graphic abstract

The performance of the salient object detection of strip surface defects has been promoted largely by deep learning based models. However, due to the complexity of strip surface defects, the existing models perform poorly in the challenging scenes such as noise disturbance, and low contrast between defect regions and background. Meanwhile, the detection results of existing models often suffer from coarse boundary details. Therefore, we propose a novel saliency model, namely an Edge-aware Multi-level Interactive Network, to detect the defects from the strip steel surface. Concretely, our model adopts the U-shape architecture where the two crucial points are the interactive feature integration and the edge-guided saliency fusion. Firstly, except the skip connection that combines the same stage of encoder and decoder, we deploy another connection, where the features from adjacent levels of encoder are transferred to the same stage of decoder. By this way, we are able to provide an effective fusion of multi-level deep features, yielding a well depiction for defects. Secondly, to give well-defined boundaries for prediction results, we add the edge extraction branch after each decoder block, where the progressive feature aggregation endows the edge with precise details and complete object cues. Meanwhile, together with the edge extraction branches, we deploy the saliency prediction branch at each decoder stage. After that, coupled with the fine edge information, we fuse all outputs of saliency prediction branches into the final saliency map, where the edge cue steers the saliency result to pay more attention to the boundary details. Following this way, we can provide a high-quality saliency map which can accurately locate and segment the defects. Extensive experiments are performed on the public dataset, and the results prove the effectiveness and robustness of our model which consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art models.

Recently, the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 (PVT1) was reported to be involved in the pathogenesis of several cancers, including human colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the molecular basis for cancer initiation, development, and progression remains unclear. In this study, we observe that upregulated PVT1 is associated with poor prognosis and bad clinicopathological features of CRC patients. In vitro means of PVT1 loss in a CRC cell line inhibit cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Furthermore, dual-luciferase reporter and RNA pull-down assays indicated that PVT1 binds to miR-16-5p, which has been shown to play strong tumor suppressive roles in CRC. Targeted loss of miR-16-5p partially rescues the suppressive effect induced by PVT1 knockdown. Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA), a direct downstream target of miR-16-5p, was suppressed by PVT1 knockdown in CRC cells. Overexpression of VEGFA is known to modulate the AKT signaling cascade by activating vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 (VEGFR1). We, therefore, show that PVT1 loss combined with miR-16-5p overexpression reduces tumor volume maximally when propagated within a mouse xenograft model. We conclude that the PVT1-miR-16-5p/VEGFA/VEGFR1/AKT axis directly coordinates the response in CRC pathogenesis and suggest PVT1 as a novel target for potential CRC therapy.

Affective understanding of language is an important research focus in artificial intelligence. The large-scale annotated datasets of Chinese textual affective structure (CTAS) are the foundation for subsequent higher-level analysis of documents. However, there are very few published datasets for CTAS. This paper introduces a new benchmark dataset for the task of CTAS to promote development in this research direction. Specifically, our benchmark is a CTAS dataset with the following advantages: (a) it is Weibo-based, which is the most popular Chinese social media platform used by the public to express their opinions; (b) it includes the most comprehensive affective structure labels at present; and (c) we propose a maximum entropy Markov model that incorporates neural network features and experimentally demonstrate that it outperforms the two baseline models.