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As the only part of human body being in contact with the ground, foot collaborates with spine and plays a crucial role in supporting the weight. Additionally, it is responsible for maintaining balance during standing, walking, and various intricate movements. Any abnormalities in the structure and function of the foot’s arch can significantly impact overall bodily equilibrium and physical well-being. Furthermore, it is important to note that ballet training places heightened demands on both strength and stability within the foot’s arch. Consequently, any deviations from its functional state can lead to more severe acute or chronic injuries during ballet training sessions or performances. Such impairments hinder dancers’ skill development while also affecting their artistic pursuits. This article aims to explore how acquired flatfoot influences daily life as well as ballet training, proposing corresponding preventive measures alongside corrective strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robust face clustering enjoys a wide range of applications for gate passes, surveillance systems and security analysis in embedded sensors. Nevertheless, existing algorithms have limitations in finding accurate clusters when data contain noise (e.g., occluded face clustering and recognition). It is known that in subspace clustering, the ℓ 1 - and ℓ 2 -norm regularizers can improve subspace preservation and connectivity, respectively, and the elastic net regularizer (i.e., the mixture of the ℓ 1 - and ℓ 2 -norms) provides a balance between the two properties. However, existing deterministic methods have high per iteration computational complexities, making them inapplicable to large-scale problems. To address this issue, this paper proposes the first accelerated stochastic variance reduction gradient (RASVRG) algorithm for robust subspace clustering. We also introduce a new momentum acceleration technique for the RASVRG algorithm. As a result of the involvement of this momentum, the RASVRG algorithm achieves both the best oracle complexity and the fastest convergence rate, and it reaches higher efficiency in practice for both strongly convex and not strongly convex models. Various experimental results show that the RASVRG algorithm outperformed existing state-of-the-art methods with elastic net and ℓ 1 -norm regularizers in terms of accuracy in most cases. As demonstrated on real-world face datasets with different manually added levels of pixel corruption and occlusion situations, the RASVRG algorithm achieved much better performance in terms of accuracy and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Since the 1990s, the golden cuttlefish (Sepia esculenta) has become the dominant cuttlefish fisheries target in the seas around China. In this paper, we aim to determine the current resource status and spatio-seasonal variation in the population in the East China Sea region. We found more juveniles at latitudes of 27.50–28.00° N and 29.00° N and more subadult individuals at 28.50° N in autumn, exhibiting different growth rates and resource densities. In addition, we found the majority of the catches were composed of parent groups in spring, while in autumn, the majority of the catches were composed of juvenile groups. We concluded that the subadult groups might have dispersed widely for feeding and growth along the latitude of 30.00° N and to the south in summer, and the southern area of the Yangtze River extending north was the spawning ground in spring. The groups of S. esculenta preferred to stay in areas with a stable water temperature of ~20.00 °C, and many S. esculenta juveniles might have adapted to endure the negative influence of the low oxygen content in summer. The depth range of the S. esculenta population was 10.00–133.00 m from spring to autumn, but this shrank to 66.00–107.00 m in winter. The golden cuttlefish (Sepia esculenta) is an important cephalopod species with a lifespan of approximately one year. The species plays a crucial role in marine ecological support services and is commercially valuable in fisheries. In the seas around China, this species has emerged as the main target for cuttlefish fisheries, replacing Sepiella maindroni since the 1990s. Variations in oceanographic conditions associated with global warming could significantly impact the temporal-spatial distribution of the species. In this study, we performed bottom trawling surveys with four cruises during 2018–2019 in the East China Sea region to determine the current resource status and seasonal-spatial variations in S. esculenta. We found that the average individual weight (AIW) values were 4.87 and 519.00 g/ind at stations located at 30.50° N, 124.00° E and 30.50° N, 124.50° E, respectively, with the aggregation of larvae and parent groups in spring. The species was not distributed north of 32.00° N in summer. The catch per unit effort by weight (CPUEw) value decreased in the order of 2772.50→2575.20→503.29→124.36 g/h, corresponding to latitudes of 34.50° N→34.00° N→33.50° N→32.50° N 121.50° E in autumn. The most suitable fishing areas were the south of the East China Sea region in spring; the south of the East China Sea region extending to the center and outer parts of the East China Sea region in summer; the south of the Yellow Sea close to the Haizhou Bay fishing ground and the forbidden fishing line region of the Lusi and Dasha fishing grounds in autumn; and the south and center of the East China Sea region in winter. The most suitable sea bottom temperature (SBT) values from spring to winter were 14.76–20.53 °C, 19.54–22.98 °C, 11.79–17.64 °C, and 16.94–20.36 °C, respectively. The most suitable sea bottom salinity (SBS) values were 31.53–34.80‰ in spring, 32.95–34.68‰ in summer, 31.51–34.77‰ in autumn, and 33.82–34.51‰ in winter. We concluded the following: (1) the southern and northern areas of the East China Sea region are spawning and nursery grounds, respectively, in spring; (2) the central distribution is located at a latitude of 28.00° N in autumn and winter; and (3) the southern area of the Yangtze River to the north is a spawning ground in spring, and the areas located at 29.00–34.50° N, 124.00–124.50° E, and 28.00–30.50° N, 125.50–126.50° E are nursery grounds. The results of this study provide useful guidance for appropriate fisheries management, thereby avoiding a collapse in the S. esculenta population, which has been experienced in other species in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Papilloma of the lung is a rare benign entity and can be solitary or multiple. Solitary papilloma is subclassified into three categories: squamous papilloma, glandular papilloma, and mixed squamous and glandular papilloma. Glandular papilloma is the rarest subtype among them and occurs mostly in the sixth decade without any relation to smoking, syndrome, or infection. Histology is characterized by mixture of pseudostratified, columnar, nonciliated, mucinous epithelium-lined papillary fronds without any mitoses, necrosis, or atypia. The differential diagnosis can be broad depending upon the histologic features present in a particular case and may include both benign and malignant entities. We present here a patient with glandular endobronchial papilloma showing unusual clinical history and atypical histologic features, which required extensive immunohistochemical evaluation to establish a final diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims/Introduction: Thrombospondin‐1 (TSP‐1) participates in a series of physiological and pathological processes by binding to various receptors regulating cell proliferation, adhesion and apoptosis. Elevated circulating TSP‐1 is linked with diabetic vascular complications (DVC). This study aimed to determine the relationship between circulating TSP‐1 levels and DVC. Materials and Methods: A comprehensive search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and CNKI databases was carried out. A meta‐analysis was carried out to compare circulating TSP‐1 levels between diabetes patients without vascular complications (DNVC), diabetes patients with DVC and non‐diabetes patients. The correlation between TSP‐1 and metabolic parameters was also analyzed. Subgroup analysis was carried out according to complication type, defined as diabetic retinopathy, diabetic nephropathy and diabetic cardiovascular disease (DCVD). Results: A total of eight studies were included. Compared with non‐diabetes patients, diabetic patients, including DNVC and DVC, had significantly higher circulating TSP‐1 levels (standardized mean difference [SMD] 2.660, 95% CI 1.17–4.145, P = 0.000). DNVC had significantly higher circulating TSP‐1 levels than non‐diabetes patients (SMD 3.613, 95% CI 1.607–5.619, P = 0.000). DVC had significantly higher TSP‐1 levels than DNVC (SMD 0.568, 95% CI 0.100–1.036, P = 0.017). TSP‐1 was significantly positively correlated with fasting plasma glucose (overall Fisher's z = 0.696, 95% CI 0.559–0.833) and HbA1c (overall Fisher's z = 0.849, 95% CI 0.776–0.923). Conclusions: Elevated circulating TSP‐1 levels are closely related to DVC, especially in diabetic nephropathy and diabetic cardiovascular disease. Circulating TSP‐1 detection might be helpful in the timely diagnosis and treatment of DVC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the prognostic impact of a previous late miscarriage (LM) on the subsequent pregnancy outcomes of women with infertility. Method: This retrospective cohort study included couples who had experienced LM following their first embryo transfer during an in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle from January 2008 to December 2020. Subgroup analysis and binary logistic regression were performed to evaluate the associations between LM due to different causes and subsequent pregnancy outcomes. Results: A total of 1072 women who had experienced LM were included in this study, comprising 458, 146, 412, and 56 women with LM due to unexplained factors (unLM), fetal factors (feLM), cervical factors (ceLM; i.e. cervical incompetence), and trauma factors (trLM), respectively. Compared with the general IVF (gIVF) population, the early miscarriage rate was significantly higher in the unLM group (8.28% vs. 13.47%, adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.60, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.12–2.28; P = 0.01). Furthermore, women in the unLM and ceLM groups had a dramatically increased risk of recurrent LM (unLM: 4.24% vs. 9.43%, aOR 1.91, 95% CI 1.24–2.94; P = 0.003; ceLM: 4.24% vs.15.53%, aOR 2.68, 95% CI 1.82–3.95; P < 0.001) and consequently a reduced frequency of live birth (unLM: 49.96% vs. 43.01%, aOR 0.75, 95% CI 0.61–0.91; P = 0.004; ceLM: 49.96% vs. 38.59%, aOR 0.61, 95% CI 0.49–0.77; P < 0.001) compared with the gIVF population. Conclusion: A previous LM due to an unexplained factor or cervical incompetence was significantly associated with a higher risk of miscarriage and a lower live birth rate after subsequent embryo transfer. Synopsis: Women with late miscarriage due to unexplained or cervical factors following their first embryo transfer had a significantly poor pregnancy prognosis after subsequent embryo transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neural Architecture Search (NAS) is a highly challenging task that requires consideration of search space, search efficiency, and adversarial robustness of the network. In this paper, to accelerate the training speed, we reformulate NAS as a multi-armed bandit problem and present Anti-Bandit NAS (ABanditNAS) method, which exploits Upper Confidence Bounds (UCB) to abandon arms for search efficiency and Lower Confidence Bounds (LCB) for fair competition between arms. Based on the presented ABanditNAS, the adversarially robust optimization and architecture search can be solved in a unified framework. Specifically, our proposed framework defends against adversarial attacks based on a comprehensive search of denoising blocks, weight-free operations, Gabor filters, and convolutions. The theoretical analysis on the rationality of the two confidence bounds in ABanditNAS are provided and extensive experiments on three benchmarks are conducted. The results demonstrate that the presented ABanditNAS achieves competitive accuracy at a reduced search cost compared to prior methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Scutellaria baicalensis leaf (SLE), the above-ground part of the traditional Chinese medicine Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, is rich in resources and contains a large number of flavonoids with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and neuroprotective functions. The present study evaluated the ameliorative effects and related mechanisms of SLE on d-gal-induced ageing rats, providing a theoretical basis for the exploitation of SLE. Methods: This experiment investigated the mechanism of SLE for anti-ageing by non-targeted metabonomics technology combined with targeted quantitative analysis and molecular biology technology. Key findings: Non-targeted metabonomics analysis showed that 39 different metabolites were screened out. Among them, 38 metabolites were regulated by SLE (0.4 g/kg), and 33 metabolites were regulated by SLE (0.8 g/kg). Through enrichment analysis, glutamine–glutamate metabolic pathway was identified as the key metabolic pathway. Subsequently, the results of targeted quantitative and biochemical analysis displayed that the contents of key metabolites and the activities of enzymes in glutamine-glutamate metabolic pathway and glutathione synthesis could be regulated by SLE. Furthermore, the results of Western blotting indicated that SLE significantly modulated the expression of Nrf2, GCLC, GCLM, HO-1, and NQO1 proteins. Conclusion: To sum up, the anti-ageing mechanism of SLE was related to glutamine-glutamate metabolism pathway and Nrf2 signalling pathway. Graphical Abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibacterial elements and non‐contact heating abilities have been proven effective for antibacterial and antibiofilm activities, but it remains a challenge to integrate both within one material. Herein, assisted by the high‐entropy effect, FeNiTiCrMnCux high‐entropy alloy nanoparticles (HEA‐NPs) with excellent photothermal heating properties for boosting antibacterial and antibiofilm performances are synthesized. Benefitting from the synergetic effect of copper ions released and thermal damage by the HEA‐NPs, more reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated, leading to the rupture of the cell membranes and the eradication of the biofilms. As a result, the antibiofilm efficiency (400 µg mL−1) of the mostly optimized FeNiTiCrMnCu1.0 HEA‐NPs in the marine nutrient medium, which is the worst‐case scenario for the antimicrobial material, can be improved from 81% to 97.4% under 30 min solar irradiation (1 sun). The present study demonstrates a new strategy for effectively treating marine microorganisms that cause biofouling and microbial corrosion using HEA‐NPs with photothermal heating characteristics as an antibacterial auxiliary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The development of novel protein sources plays an important role in improving the economic benefit of aquatic products. The Chlorella vulgaris (C. vulgaris) powder is a novel non-grain single-cell protein with a high reproductive rate, short growth cycle, strong environmental tolerance and easy artificial cultivation. In this experiment, grass carps (initial weight: 20.13 ± 0.09 g) were fed diets by replacing 0% (SM), 25% (X25), 50% (X50), 75% (X75) and 100% (X100) of SM with C. vulgaris for 8 weeks. In conclusion, the C. vulgaris powder replacement of 50% soybean meal was recommended as feed for grass carp. However, the positive effects were apparently weakened when the soybean meal was replaced with high levels of C. vulgaris powder. Chlorella vulgaris (C. vulgaris) powder is a novel non-grain single-cell protein with enormous potential to be a protein source. However, it is poorly studied in aquatic animals. The purpose of the present study was to explore the optimum replacement ratio of C. vulgaris powder and the influence of the substitution of soybean meal with C. vulgaris on grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) in terms of growth performance, intestinal integrity and the microbial community. Five isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets were formulated by replacing 0% (SM, containing 30% soybean meal), 25% (X25), 50% (X50), 75% (X75) and 100% (X100) soybean meal with C. vulgaris. The feeding trial period lasted 8 weeks. At the end of the experimental trial, the X50 group showed higher FW, WGR and PER than the SM group (p < 0.05). The feed conversion ratio (FCR) of the X50 group was significantly lower than that of the SM group (p < 0.05). The X50 group showed the highest value of the goblet cell number, intestinal amylase and trypsin activities when compared with the SM group (p < 0.05). Replacing 50% soybean meal with C. vulgaris improved the intestinal barrier integrity, as evidenced by upregulating zo-1, zo-2 and occluding transcript (p < 0.05), and alleviated oxidative stress by an increased SOD enzymatic activity and transcript level, probably mediated through the Nrf2-keap1 signaling pathway (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the X50 group enhanced intestinal immunity, as manifested by increased ACP and LZM activities (p < 0.05), and downregulated the tlr-4, tlr-7, tlr-8 and il-6 through the tlr pathway (p < 0.05). The functionally predicting pathways related to the nitrate respiration and nitrogen respiration were observably activated in the X50 group (p < 0.05). The X50 group improved the biological barrier, as manifested by increased Firmicutes and Rhodobacter (p < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary C. vulgaris powder could promote the growth performance of grass carp by restoring intestinal morphology, increasing digestive enzyme activities, improving antioxidant properties and immunity and optimizing the microflora structure. A C. vulgaris powder replacement of 50% soybean meal was recommended as feed for grass carp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, corticosteroids are commonly used in clinical practice to treat radiation-immunotherapy-related pneumonitis, but they may affect the anti-tumor efficacy of drugs [[4]]. [Extracted from the article]

An excellent passivation technique is a crucial factor for obtaining high efficiency of solar cells. Our previous work demonstrated that a novel material strategy, using poly(4-styrenesulfonic acid) (PSS) polymer thin film, possesses high-quality passivation effect which can rival the record level of high-temperature (1000 °C) annealed SiO2. However, the thermal budget of the PSS thin film and its subsequent failure mechanism have not been reported yet. Here, PSS thin film maintains a superb passivation effect with the annealed temperatures up to 200 °C and hardly presents passivation effect with the annealed temperatures beyond 250 °C, which is similar to the thermal behavior of the industry's champion passivation material hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). To explain the failure mechanism, on the macro level, the surface morphology, optical and electrical performance, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) are investigated, and on the micro level, chemical composition and vibrational bands characteristic of the molecular of the PSS thin films are studied. This low temperature, vacuum-free and high passivation effect of silicon surfaces passivation technique has been a candidate for flexible photovoltaics, which holds great potential for reducing cost and integrating perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, multiple spark ignition has received great attention since it helps to increase thermal efficiency and to reduce misfire in engines. Multiple spark ignition also affects the combustion duration and thereby it can be used for knock control. However, previous studies reported opposite trends in terms of how multiple spark ignition affects engine knock. This work aims to assess and interpret the influence of flame propagation direction induced by different ignition configurations on combustion duration and end-gas autoignition/engine knock. Two simplified and idealised ignition configurations are studied theoretically and numerically. One is with infinite number of sparks at side circular wall, which induces an inwardly propagating flame (IPF); and the other is with a single central spark, which induces an outwardly propagating flame (OPF). In the asymptotic theoretical analysis, the canonical 1D formulations for IPF and OPF are reduced to 0D model. Based on the 0D model, OPF and IPF at different initial temperatures are studied and compared. Counterintuitively, it is found that the combustion duration of OPF is shorter than that of IPF when there is no end-gas autoignition. On the other hand, the combustion duration of IPF is shorter than that of OPF when end-gas autoignition occurs. Furthermore, end-gas autoignition is found to be more prone to occur in IPF than OPF. These interesting observations are interpreted through assessing the ignition delay time and different components of the absolute flame propagation speed. The theoretical results are validated by transient simulations considering detailed chemistry and transport which are conducted for IPF and OPF in an iso-octane/air mixture at different initial temperatures and pressures. Both theoretical and numerical results suggest that compared to infinite number of ignition sparks at side wall, the single central ignition has the advantages in shortening the combustion duration and reducing the tendency of end-gas autoignition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Endometrial carcinoma (EC) is a common malignant tumor of the female reproductive system, often accompanied by lymph node metastasis. Artificial vascular implantation is a common surgical treatment for mediastinal tumors and abdominal aortic aneurysms but is rarely used in gynecological surgery. Case presentation: A 54-year-old female patient was first admitted to the hospital in January 2018 due to “irregular vaginal bleeding over 3 months”. CT showed a mass in the uterine cavity, and several swollen lymph nodes in the retroperitoneum and pelvic cavity. The initial diagnosis was an endometrial malignant tumor. We performed radical endometrial cancer surgery with parallel resection of inferior vena cava, abdominal aorta, bilateral common iliac arteries, bilateral external iliac arteries, and artificial vessel replacement, which was successful, with good postoperative recovery and no lesion progression at 3 years postoperative follow-up. Conclusion: This is an early case of gynecological clinical use of prostheses. Through multidisciplinary cooperation, the surgical resection rate of patients with EC in radical surgery was improved without serious fatal complications and achieved a high long-term postoperative survival rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that low birth weight (LBW) individuals are at higher risk of glucose metabolism disorders compared with normal birth weight (NBW) individuals under overnutrition conditions, but the mechanism remains unclear. To explore the underlying mechanism of glucose metabolism disorders induced by LBW under overnutrition in adulthood, the prenatal malnutrition method was applied to ICR mice to establish the LBW mice model and high-fat diets were used to mimic overnutrition conditions. Then the mechanism was further explored on Hepg2 cells treated with nutritional deprivation plus palmitic acid. The results showed that LBW plus high-fat interventions will cause glucose metabolism disorders and inhibit autophagy flux in adulthood. Moreover, the expression of TRPC5-regulated AMPK/mTOR autophagy pathway was downregulated by LBW with high-fat interventions. Collectively, LBW plus high-fat intervention increased the risk of glucose metabolism disorders, which may be related to the alteration of TRPC5 expression level and its regulation of the AMPKα/mTOR autophagy pathway. This study may provide a fundamental basis for the molecular mechanism of glucose metabolism disorders induced by LBW with high-fat diets in adulthood and a new target for the treatment of metabolic diseases in LBW individuals. • LBW mice induced by a high-fat diet are more prone to glucose metabolic disorders in adulthood. • The LBW mice model was established by the prenatal malnutrition method with a high-fat diet to explore the possible mechanism of metabolic disorders induced by LBW. • The mechanism was further explored on Hepg2 cells treated with nutritional deprivation plus palmitic acid. • Glucose metabolic disorders induced by LBW may be related to the alteration of TRPC5 expression level and its regulation of the CaMKKβ/AMPKα/mTOR autophagy pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Accurate prognostic prediction plays a crucial role in the clinical setting. However, the TNM staging system fails to provide satisfactory individual survival prediction for stage III non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The performance of the deep learning network for survival prediction in stage III NSCLC has not been explored. Objectives: This study aimed to develop a deep learning‐based prognostic system that could achieve better predictive performance than the existing staging system for stage III NSCLC. Methods: In this study, a deep survival learning model (DSLM) for stage III NSCLC was developed based on the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database and was independently tested with another external cohort from our institute. DSLM was compared with the Cox proportional hazard (CPH) and random survival forest (RSF) models. A new prognostic system for stage III NSCLC was also proposed based on the established deep learning model. Results: The study included 16,613 patients with stage III NSCLC from the SEER database. DSLM showed the best performance in survival prediction, with a C‐index of 0.725 in the validation set, followed by RSF (0.688) and CPH (0.683). DSLM also showed C‐indices of 0.719 and 0.665 in the internal and real‐world external testing datasets, respectively. In addition, the new prognostic system based on DSLM (AUROC = 0.744) showed better performance than the TNM staging system (AUROC = 0.561). Conclusion: In this study, a new, integrated deep learning‐based prognostic model was developed and evaluated for stage III NSCLC. This novel approach may be valuable in improving patient stratification and potentially provide meaningful prognostic information that contributes to personalized therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calcium signalling in platelets through store operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) or receptor-operated Ca2+ entry (ROCE) mechanisms is crucial for platelet activation and function. Orai1 proteins have been implicated in platelet's SOCE. In this study we evaluated the contribution of Orai1 proteins to these processes using washed platelets from adult mice from both genders with platelet-specific deletion of the Orai1 gene (Orai1flox/flox; Pf4-Cre termed as Orai1Plt-KO) since mice with ubiquitous Orai1 deficiency show early lethality. Platelet aggregation as well as Ca2+ entry and release were measured in vitro following stimulation with collagen, collagen related peptide (CRP), thromboxane A2 analogue U46619, thrombin, ADP and the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) inhibitor thapsigargin, respectively. SOCE and aggregation induced by Thapsigargin up to a concentration of 0.3 µM was abrogated in Orai1-deficient platelets. Receptor-operated Ca2+-entry and/or platelet aggregation induced by CRP, U46619 or thrombin were partially affected by Orai1 deletion depending on the gender. In contrast, ADP-, collagen- and CRP-induced aggregation was comparable in Orai1Plt-KO platelets and control cells over the entire concentration range. Our results reinforce the indispensability of Orai1 proteins for SOCE in murine platelets, contribute to understand its role in agonist-dependent signalling and emphasize the importance to analyse platelets from both genders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bupleurum chinense is an important medicinal plant in China; however, little is known regarding how this plant transcribes and synthesizes saikosaponins under drought stress. Herein, we investigated how drought stress stimulates the transcriptional changes of B. chinense to synthesize saikosaponins. Short-term drought stress induced the accumulation of saikosaponins, especially from the first re-watering stage (RD_1 stage) to the second re-watering stage (RD_2 stage). Saikosaponin-a and saikosaponin-d increased by 84.60% and 75.13%, respectively, from the RD_1 stage to the RD_2 stage. Drought stress also stimulated a rapid increase in the levels of the hormones abscisic acid, salicylic acid, and jasmonic acid. We screened 49 Unigenes regarding the terpenoid backbone and triterpenoid biosynthesis, of which 33 differential genes were significantly up-regulated during drought stress. Moreover, one P450 and two UGTs are possibly involved in the synthesis of saikosaponins, while some transcription factors may be involved in regulating the expression of key enzyme genes. Our study provides a reference for the cultivation of B. chinense and a practical means to ensure the quality (safety and effectiveness) of B. chinense for medicinal use, as well as insights into the modernization of the China Agriculture Research System. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, single-crystal PbMoO4 nanorods and nanowires were synthesized via a simple sonochemical process without any templates or surfactants for the first time. The samples were analyzed by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and electron diffraction (ED). Experimental results indicated that the obtained PbMoO4 nanowires were single-crystal in structure and the aspect ratio was about 200. The pH value and precursor were found to be critical factors to the controlled preparation of PbMoO4 nanorods and nanowires. The possible mechanism for the synthesis of PbMoO4 nanorods and nanowires was also discussed and other one-dimensional nanomaterials can also be successfully prepared by the present method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen is an attractive alternative fuel which may play an important role in the reduction of carbon dioxide emission. The widespread use of hydrogen raises concerns on safety issues such as fires and explosions related to the storage, transportation and utilization of liquid hydrogen. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the combustion properties of hydrogen at cryogenic temperatures. In this study, we conduct two-dimensional simulations of circular expanding hydrogen/air flame in an open space and investigate the flame morphology evolution and self-acceleration processes. Stoichiometric hydrogen/air mixtures with near-unity Lewis number at cryogenic temperature (100 K) and normal temperature (300 K) are considered so that the flame propagation is mainly affected by the Darrieus-Landau instability (DLI, or hydrodynamic instability) instead of the diffusional-thermal instability (DTI). The flame morphology, flame propagation speed pulsation, development and evolution of cellular structure, and self-acceleration are investigated. Since the thermal expansion increases greatly with the decrease in the initial temperature, the DLI at cryogenic temperature becomes much stronger than that at normal temperature, which results in significant increase in flame propagation speed, total heat release rate, acceleration exponent as well as violent cell evolution including cell growth, splitting and merging. The stronger DLI at lower initial temperature leads to larger cell number, smaller mean cell size and longer mean cell depth. Analyses on cell statistics show that the intermittent characteristic of flame propagation speed is mainly caused by cell evolution. Interestingly, the integral heat release rate and flame propagation speed at cryogenic temperature can be comparable to those at normal temperature. Such counterintuitive observation is important for fire safety control and risk assessment of cryogenic hydrogen storage and utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The silkworm's Cat L-like gene, which encodes a lysosomal cathepsin L-like cysteine protease, is thought to be part of the insect's innate immunity via an as-yet-undetermined mechanism. Assuming that the primary function of Cat L-like is microbial degradation in mature phagosomes, we hypothesise that the suppression of the Cat L-like gene expression would increase Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) bacteraemia and toxicity in knockdown insects. Here, we performed a functional analysis of Cat L-like in larvae that were fed mulberry leaves contaminated with a commercial biopesticide formulation based on Bt kurstaki (Btk) (i.e., Dipel) to investigate its role in insect defence against a known entomopathogen. Exposure to sublethal doses of Dipel resulted in overexpression of the Cat L-like gene in insect haemolymph 24 and 48 h after exposure. RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated suppression of Cat L-like expression significantly increased the toxicity of Dipel to exposed larvae. Moreover, Btk replication was higher in RNAi insects, suggesting that Cat L-like cathepsin may be involved in a bacterial killing mechanism of haemocytes. Finally, our results confirm that Cat L-like protease is part of the antimicrobial defence of insects and suggest that it could be used as a target to increase the insecticidal efficacy of Bt-based biopesticides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of high-performance and cost-effective earth-abundant transition metal-based electrocatalysts is of major interest for several key energy technologies, including water splitting. Herein, we report the synthesis of ultrathin CoMoP nanosheets through a simple ion etching and phosphorization method. The obtained catalyst exhibits outstanding electrocatalytic activity and stability towards oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions (OER and HER), with overpotentials down to 273 and 89 mV at 10 mA cm−2, respectively. The produced CoMoP nanosheets are also characterized by very small Tafel slopes, 54.9 and 69.7 mV dec−1 for OER and HER, respectively. When used as both cathode and anode electrocatalyst in the overall water splitting reaction, CoMoP-based cells require just 1.56 V to reach 10 mA cm−2 in alkaline media. This outstanding performance is attributed to the proper composition, weak crystallinity and two-dimensional nanosheet structure of the electrocatalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influenza A virus (IAV) infection causes acute and often lethal inflammation in the lung. The role of macrophages in this adverse inflammation is partially understood. The surfactant protein A receptor 210 (SP-R210) consists of two isoforms, a long (L) SP-R210 L and a short (S) SP-R210 S isoform encoded by alternative splicing of the myosin 18A gene. We reported that disruption of SP-R210 L enhances cytosolic and endosomal antiviral response pathways. Here, we report that SP-R210 L antagonizes type I interferon β (IFNβ), as depletion of SP-R210 L potentiates IFNβ secretion. SP-R210 antibodies enhance and attenuate IFNβ secretion in SP-R210 L replete and deficient macrophages, respectively, indicating that SP-R210 isoform stoichiometry alters macrophage function intrinsically. This reciprocal response is coupled to unopposed and restricted expression of viral genes in control and SP-R210 L -deficient macrophages, respectively. Human monocytic cells with sub-stoichiometric expression of SP-R210 L resist IAV infection, whereas alveolar macrophages with increased abundance of SP-R210 L permit viral gene expression similar to murine macrophages. Uptake and membrane binding studies show that lack of SP-R210 isoforms does not impair IAV binding and internalization. Lack of SP-R210 L , however, results in macropinocytic retention of the virus that depends on both SP-R210 S and interferon-inducible transmembrane protein-3 (IFITM3). Mass spectrometry and Western blot analyses indicate that SP-R210 isoforms modulate differential recruitment of the Rho-family GTPase RAC1 and guanine nucleotide exchange factors. Our study suggests that SP-R210 isoforms modulate RAC-dependent macropinosomal sorting of IAV to discrete endosomal and lysosomal compartments that either permit or prevent endolysosomal escape and inflammatory sensing of viral genomes in macrophages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Lidocaine is a local anesthetic that wildly used in surgical treatment and postoperative medical care for lung cancers. We hypothesized that lidocaine at clinical plasma concentration can inhibit CXCL12/CXCR4 axis-regulated cytoskeletal remodeling thereby reduce the migration of Non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLC) cells. METHODS: We determined the effect of lidocaine at clinical plasma concentration on CXCL12-induced cell viability, apoptosis, cell death, monolayer cell wound healing rate, individual cell migration indicators, expression of CXCR4, CD44, and ICAM-1, intracellular Ca 2 + level, and filamentous actin level alteration of NSCLC cells A549 and CXCR4-knocked down A549 cells using CCK-8, Bcl-2 ELISA, Cell death ELISA, wound healing assay, chemotaxis assay, western blotting, QPCR, Fura-2-based intracellular Ca 2 + assay, and Fluorescein Phalloidin staining respectively. RESULTS: Lidocaine did not affect cell viability, apoptosis, and cell death but inhibited CXCL12-induced migration, intracellular Ca 2 + releasing, and filamentous actin increase. Lidocaine decreased expression of CXCR4, increased CD44, but had no effect on ICAM-1. CXCL12 induced the increase of CD44 and ICAM-1 but did not affect CD44 in the presence of lidocaine. The knockdown of CXCR4 eliminated all the effects of lidocaine. The overexpression of CXCR4 promoted migration but the migration was inhibited by lidocaine. CONCLUSION: Lidocaine at clinical plasma concentrations inhibited CXCL12-induced CXCR4 activation, thereby reduced the intracellular Ca 2 + -dependent cytoskeleton remodeling, resulting in slower migration of A549 cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between subclinical thyroid dysfunction and uric acid was not well established. This study aimed to determine if subclinical thyroid dysfunction is associated with hyperuricemia risk and to evaluate the levels of uric acid in patients with different forms of subclinical thyroid dysfunction. A systematic search was conducted in 4 databases to obtain relevant studies on subclinical thyroid dysfunction (subclinical hyperthyroidism and subclinical hypothyroidism) and uric acid. The standardized mean difference (SMD) or odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were used for evaluation, and the sensitivity analysis was conducted. Publication bias was estimated by funnel plot, Egger's test, and Begg's test. A total of 73 studies were included in this meta-analysis. The results demonstrated that serum levels of uric acid in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism were significantly higher than those of controls and patients with subclinical hyperthyroidism. Patients with subclinical thyroid dysfunction had a higher prevalence of hyperuricemia compared with normal clinical thyroid function. Subclinical thyroid dysfunction was associated with the prevalence of hyperuricemia. Different types of subclinical thyroid dysfunction had varied effects on serum levels of uric acid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light activation is an effective way to impart spatiotemporal control over oligonucleotide probes that are widely applied for gene expression regulation and target function investigation. Among the major oligonucleotide caging strategies, cyclization with a photocleavable linker is an elegant design, which affords both atom efficiency and stability in many biological environments. Here, we introduce an improved protocol for circular oligonucleotide synthesis requiring only one round of HPLC purification. With a series of poly‐U oligonucleotide strands of different sizes and backbone modifications, the pre‐photolysis caging stability and post‐photolysis target binding affinity were studied through a denaturing gel assay and melting temperature measurements. A 14 U 2'‐OMe RNA probe was selected, with strong potential application in transcriptome in vivo analysis (TIVA) for mRNA isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in both men and women and is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States. The development of drug resistance to commonly used chemotherapeutics in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) poses significant health risks and there is a dire need to improve patient outcomes. In this study, we report the use of RNA nanotechnology to display ligand on exosome that was loaded with small interfering RNA (siRNA) for NSCLC regression in animal trials. Cholesterol was used to anchor the ligand targeting epidermal growth factor receptor on exosomes that were loaded with siRNA to silence the antiapoptotic factor survivin. The cytosolic delivery of siRNA overcame the problem of endosome trapping, leading to potent gene knockdown, chemotherapy sensitization, and tumor regression, thus achieving a favorable IC50 of 20 nmol/kg siRNA encapsulated by exosome particles in the in vivo gene knockdown assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A portable smartphone device is reported that uses 3D printing technology for the primary diagnosis of diseases by detecting acetone. The key part of the device consists of red carbon dots (RCDs), which are used as internal standards, and a sensing reagent (3-N,N-(diacethydrazide)-9-ethylcarbazole (2-HCA)) for acetone. With an excitation wavelength of 360 nm, the emission wavelengths of 2-HCA and RCDs are 443 nm and 619 nm, respectively. 2-HCA effectively captures acetone to form a nonfluorescent acylhydrazone via a condensation reaction occurring in aqueous solution, resulting in obvious color changes from blue-violet to dark red. The detection limit for acetone is 2.62 μM (~ 0.24 ppm). This is far lower than the ketone content in normal human blood (≤ 0.50 mM) and the acetone content in human respiratory gas (≤ 1.80 ppm). The device has good recovery rates for acetone detection in blood and exhaled breath, which are 90.56–109.98% (RSD ≤ 5.48) and 92.80–108.00% (RSD ≤ 5.07), respectively. The method designed here provides a reliable way to provide health warnings by visually detecting markers of ketosis/diabetes in blood or exhaled breath. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lilium davidii var. unicolour Salisb is an important edible and medicinal plant. In vitro plantlet regeneration in L. davidii var. unicolour Salisb and identification of genetic stability are the premises of large-scale cultivation, and also a way to meet the increasing global demand. The purpose of this study is to establish an efficient, rapid plant propagation process for L. davidii var. unicolour Salisb, and to define the genetic stability of its regenerants in vitro under optimised conditions. The effects of different concentrations of 6-benzyladenine (6-BA) and thidiazuron (TDZ) on shoot multiplication and growth of L. davidii var. unicolour Salisb were investigated individually, or in combination with α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), using Murashige and Skoog (MS) solid or liquid medium. Inter-sample sequence repeat markers were used to assess genetic fidelity among plantlets. The results were that we achieved efficient and reliable regeneration, using scales as explants for shoot induction. The highest mean number (16.8) of shoots was differentiated de novo from the lower portion of the outer scales. After 4 weeks of incubation, superior multiplication rates (9.8%), mean shoot number (3.38), and length (5.46 cm) were achieved using MS liquid medium supplemented with TDZ. Auxins, such as indole butyric acid (IBA) and NAA, were employed for in vitro root induction, and the maximum rooting rate (100%) was observed when samples were cultured on half-strength MS medium supplemented with NAA. In vitro rooted plantlets of L. davidii var. unicolour Salisb were acclimatised in a greenhouse and plants grew well with a 90% survival rate. Inter-sample sequence repeat markers were used to assess genetic fidelity among plantlets, the best ISSR primer UBC 808 had the highest number of reproducible bands and produced 15 distinct bands and all micropropagated plants and the mother plant could be grouped in a single cluster with a 94% similarity level, indicating a low level of genetic polymorphism in micropropagated plants. The developed protocol described herein is simple and reliable for large-scale production of L. davidii var. unicolour Salisb, which provides a good technical support for large-scale cultivation of L. davidii var. unicolour Salisb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unreliable durability of high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFCs) is one of the restriction factors upon the commercialization process. In this paper, 600-h accelerated stress tests (ASTs) were performed on HT-PEMFCs to investigate the performance degradation under start/stop, load cycling (0.2–0.8 A cm−2 and 0.04–0.2 A cm−2) conditions. The activation, ohmic and mass transport polarization losses were determined in combination with the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Tafel slope analysis, and the degradation modes such as carbon corrosion, catalyst degradation, acid loss and membrane degradation were analyzed by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterization. The polarization curves of ASTs show that load cycling between 0.04 and 0.2 A cm−2 extensively aggravates performance degradation, indicating that high-potential operation has the greatest detrimental impact on the durability. By comparing the changes of the activation, ohmic and mass transport polarization losses, it can be found that the activation polarization is the dominant factor leading to performance degradation in the 600-h test, and the ohmic polarization has little effect on the performance degradation. After the test at load cycling between 0.2 and 0.8 A cm−2, the membrane is seriously degraded and the ohmic resistance increases significantly, and the severe acid loss becomes critical issue in the long-term durability of HT-PEMFC. • Activation, ohmic and mass transfer polarization losses are determined. • Activated polarization accounts for the largest proportion in the short term test. • Acid loss seriously affects the long term durability of HT-PEMFC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dots (CDs) as a remarkable fluorescent nanomaterial have the advantages of easy preparation, good photostability and high sensitivity. However, the poor aqueous solution stability of carbon dots largely limited their practical application due to the characteristic of easily forming precipitation for long time storage. Here, a kind of cationic fluorescent carbon dots CDs-P(Ph) 3 was designed by introducing a cationic compound, (4-carboxybutyl) triphenyl phosphonium bromide, to construct an electrostatic shell outside the dots. Such electrostatic shell could highly improve carbon dots stability in an aqueous solution to make CDs-P(Ph) 3 stable for long-term storage with negligible aggregation. Meanwhile, the sensitivity of CDs-P(Ph) 3 for hypochlorous acid (HClO) was also enhanced on the basis of the electron-withdrawing effect of cationic substituents on the surface of carbon dots. The limit of detection of CDs-P(Ph) 3 for HClO was as low as ∼0.32 μM. Additionally, the fluorescence of CDs-P(Ph) 3 could be rapid quenched by HClO with a quenching efficiency of more than 80% within 30 s. The excellent stability of CDs-P(Ph) 3 in an aqueous solution made it suitable for on-site detecting HClO in real samples, such as tap, well and lake water. Such designed fluorescent nanomaterial would provide a practical application pathway for optical sensing detection in environmental samples. [Display omitted] • The cationic fluorescence carbon dots were easily obtained by one-step synthesis. • Utilize the electrostatic repulsion of cation groups modified on surface of CDs to highly enhance its stability in aqueous. • The strong electron-withdrawing inductive effect of cation groups made CDs having higher sensitivity for HClO. • Real-time assessment and in-situ inspections of drinking water safety in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of efficient fluorescence-based detection tools with high contrast and accuracy in cancer diagnosis has recently attracted extensive attention. Changes in the microenvironments between cancer and normal cells provide new biomarkers for precise and comprehensive cancer diagnosis. Herein, a dual-organelle-targeted probe with multiple-parameter response is developed to realize cancer detection. We designed a tetraphenylethylene (TPE)-based fluorescent probe TPE-PH-KD connected with quinolinium group for simultaneous detection of viscosity and pH. Due to the restriction on the double bond's rotation, the probe respond to viscosity changes in the green channel with extreme sensitivity. Interestingly, the probe exhibited strong emission of red channel in acidic environment, and the rearrangement of ortho-OH group occurred in the basic form with weak fluorescence when pH increased. Additionally, cell colocalization studies revealed that the probe was located in the mitochondria and lysosome of cancer cells. Following treatment with carbonyl cyanide m -chloro phenylhydrazone (CCCP), chloroquine, and nystatin, the pH or viscosity changes in the dual channels are also monitored in real-time. Furthermore, the probe TPE-PH-KD could effectively discriminate cancer from normal cells and organs with high-contrast fluorescence imaging, which sparked more research on an efficient tool for highly selectively visualizing tumors at the organ level. [Display omitted] • A novel TPE-based fluorescent probe for detection of pH/viscosity in dual channels was developed. • Probe could monitor pH/viscosity fluctuation upon stimulation with CCCP, chloroquine and nystatin. • Probe could distinguish tumor and normal cells and tissues in high contrast by fluorescent imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High oxygen transport resistance in the cathode is a main cause of the low performance of high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC), and therefore to determine the contribution of different mass transport processes to the oxygen transport resistance is beneficial to the subsequent research work. In this paper, the molecular diffusion resistance (R M) in the cathode was successfully calculated by measuring the limiting currents with using different diluent gases. And the oxygen transport resistance in phosphoric acid (R P A ) was analyzed by changing the humidity and temperature. It was found that the total oxygen transport resistance (R t o t a l ) increased obviously with the increase of the humidify, and the variation of R t o t a l under different conditions was mainly related to the change of R P A . Combined with the phenomenon that the experimental value of R M was less than the calculated value at high humidity, but higher than that at high operation temperature, we speculate that the cause of that R P A increased obviously at high humidity is the occupancy or blockage of gas phase transport channel in catalyst layer (CL) by phosphoric acid due to the water absorption of phosphoric acid in CL and the swelling of membrane. This consequence indicates that it is the change of phosphoric acid distribution that dominate C i s the R t o t a l at high humidity. Image 1 • The separation of molecular diffusion resistance from the total mass transport resistance of HT-PEMFC cathode was realized. • The relationship between the oxygen transport resistance in phosphoric acid and operating conditions was obtained. • The cause of the variation of oxygen transport resistance at different operating conditions was preliminarily analyzing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Progestin resistance is a critical obstacle for endometrial conservative therapy. Therefore, studies to acquire a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms are urgent. However, the pivotal molecules are still unexplored. Materials and Methods: We downloaded GSE121367 from the GEO database. The "limma" R language package was applied to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). We conducted Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) and Gene Set Variation Analysis (GSVA). Protein–protein interaction was constructed by STRING and visualized in Cytoscape. The tumor immune microenvironment was explored by the TISIDB database. Methylation validation and overall survival analysis were conducted by the TCGA database. In addition, the upstream modulators of hub genes were predicted by miRTarBase and Network Analyst databases. The expression levels of candidate genes were validated by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), Western blot, and immunohistochemical assay (IHC). Cell growth, clone formation, migration, invasion, and wound healing assays were studied to explore the role of MSX1 in progestin resistance in vitro. Results: A total of 3,282 DEGs were identified and they were mostly enriched in the cell adhesion pathway. We screened out ten hub genes whose genomic alteration rates were low based on the current endometrial carcinoma sample sets. Has-miR-335-5p, has-miR-124-3p, MAZ, and TFDP1 were the most prominent upstream regulators. The methylation status of CDH1, JAG1, EPCAM, and MSX1 was decreased, corresponding to their high protein expression, which also predicted better overall survival. The homeobox protein of MSX1 showed significant tissue specificity and better prognostic value and its knockdown inhibited epithelial–mesenchymal transitions (EMT) and enhanced progesterone efficacy. Conclusion: Our study identified that the gene of MSX1 promised to be the specific indicator and therapeutic target for progestin resistance. This would shed new light on the underlying biological mechanism to overcome progestin resistance of endometrial cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial nanorobots that can recognize molecular triggers and respond with programable operations provide an inspiring proof‐of‐principle for personalized theragnostic applications. We have constructed an intelligent DNA nanorobot for autonomous blood anticoagulation in human plasma. The DNA nanorobot comprises a barrel‐shaped DNA nanostructure as the framework and molecular reaction cascades embedded as the computing core. This nanorobot can intelligently sense the concentration of thrombin in the local environment and trigger an autonomous anticoagulation when excess thrombin is present. The triggering concentration of thrombin at which the nanorobot responds can be tuned arbitrarily to avoid possible side effects induced by excess thrombin. This makes the nanorobot useful for autonomous anticoagulation in various medical scenarios and inspires a more efficient and safer strategy for future personalized medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial nanorobots that can recognize molecular triggers and respond with programable operations provide an inspiring proof‐of‐principle for personalized theragnostic applications. We have constructed an intelligent DNA nanorobot for autonomous blood anticoagulation in human plasma. The DNA nanorobot comprises a barrel‐shaped DNA nanostructure as the framework and molecular reaction cascades embedded as the computing core. This nanorobot can intelligently sense the concentration of thrombin in the local environment and trigger an autonomous anticoagulation when excess thrombin is present. The triggering concentration of thrombin at which the nanorobot responds can be tuned arbitrarily to avoid possible side effects induced by excess thrombin. This makes the nanorobot useful for autonomous anticoagulation in various medical scenarios and inspires a more efficient and safer strategy for future personalized medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depressive and anxiety symptoms are common psychiatric disorders among cancer patients. Among the 137 patients with NMIBC (Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder cancer), 101 patients who provided answers to the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ) completed the 12-month longitudinal study. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the interactions between psychiatric problems and illness perceptions (IPs). Patients with NMIBC displayed less positive IPs and more negative IPs. IPs have explained 42.0% and 39.5% of the variance in anxiety at 3 and 12 months of follow-up. IPs have explained 41.4% and 45.5% of the variance in depressive symptoms at 3 and 12 months of follow-up. The results demonstrated IPs are significantly associated with psychological distress and taken as the potential predictor of psychological distress in patients with NIMBC. Interventions focusing on the modification of poor IPs may be feasible and effective in improving psychiatric disorders and quality of life among patients with NIMBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stoichiometric ratio and flow channel geometry play a vital role in the performance of high temperature proton exchange membrane (HT-PEM) fuel cells. Because of the high cost of experiments or simulations, most analyses and optimization of the stoichiometric ratio and flow channel geometry are limited to several points in the entire design domain. In this study, an analysis and optimization method for HT-PEM fuel cells based on the surrogate model was proposed. Surrogate models were constructed using some of the available budgets of samples to analyze and optimize the entire design domain. With this method, it was indicated that the effect of the cathode stoichiometric ratio is more significant to the cell performance than the anode stoichiometric ratio and there are significant nonlinear interactions among the flow channel geometry parameters. At the fixed operating voltage, the flow channel geometry with the maximum current density and that with the maximum real power were obtained. Compared with the base design, the designs obtained by the surrogate model improve the current density and real power by 10.54% and 3.93%, respectively. Thus, this analysis and optimization method is demonstrated to be helpful and deserves attention in future research. Image 1 • It is proved that the effect of cathode stoichiometric ratio was more significant. • The design obtained by the surrogate model improve current density by 10.54%. • The design obtained by the surrogate model improve real power by 3.93%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel Ru-based phosphorescent probe was designed for the detection of thiophenol using 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonate as a sensing unit. The probe exhibited a remarkable off–on type of phosphorescent response towards thiophenol over other commonly encountered metal ions, anions, and aliphatic thiols. The probe was able to work in pure water medium and instantaneously responded to thiophenol with a 36-fold enhancement in 30 seconds. This probe displayed a large Stokes shift (216 nm) and long luminescence lifetime, and the detection limit reached as low as 30 nM. Moreover, detection of thiophenol is based on the thiol-induced cleavage of a sulfonamide linkage to generate a strongly phosphorescent species, Ru-NH2, which showed obvious AIEE activity. Furthermore, the potential for practical applications of this probe has been successfully demonstrated in monitoring thiophenol in real water samples and on test paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internal reforming methanol fuel cell (IRMFC) has potential applications in portable or stationary power supply system, but currently performance of the IRMFC is limited by the low hydrogen production of its reformer. In order to produce more hydrogen with less volume, in this paper a single channel serpentine packed bed reformer was designed, and its bed size was optimized by experiment and numerical simulation to enhance heat transfer and increase catalyst utilization. It was found that with the bed diameter from 5.8 mm down to 3.8 mm, the reformer temperature distribution was more uniform but the bed pressure drop increased a lot. Considering performance and pressure drop, the reformer of 5 mm was optimal, per milliliters of which could supply 9.8 mL/min hydrogen at 453 K, almost twice as much as that by A. Mendes et al with one‐third of their catalyst loading. The reformer was quite stable, and less than 10% decline in methanol conversion was observed during the 100 hours period at 473 K. When incorporated into an IRMFC single cell, power density of the single cell reached 0.45‐0.55 W/cm2 at 453‐473 K under CH3OH solution and air feed, the highest in existing reports. The main drawback has to do with low stability of the IRMFC single cell at high current density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Drastic changes in soil water content can activate the short-term high expression of key enzyme-encoding genes involved in secondary metabolite synthesis thereby increasing the content of secondary metabolites. Bupleurum chinense DC. is a traditional medicinal herb that is famous for its abundant saikosaponins. In the current study, the effects of drought–re-watering–drought on the photosynthesis physiology and biosynthesis of saikosaponins were investigated in 1-year-old B. chinense. The results showed that alterations in soil moisture altered the photosynthesis physiological process of B. chinense. The dry weight and fresh weight of the roots, photosynthesis capacity, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, and SOD, POD and CAT activities were significantly reduced, and the contents of SP, soluble sugars, PRO and MDA increased. There were strong correlations between different physiological stress indices. All indices promoted and restricted each other, responded to soil moisture changes synergistically, maintained plant homeostasis and guaranteed normal biological activities. It was found that RW and RD_1 were the key stages of the water-control experiment affecting the expression of saikosaponin-related genes. At these two stages, the expression of multiple genes was affected by changes in soil moisture, with their expression levels reaching several-fold higher than those at the previous stage. We noticed that the expression of saikosaponin synthesis genes (which were rapidly upregulated at the RW and RD_1 stages) did not coincide with the rapid accumulation of saikosaponins (at the RD-2 stage), which were found to correspond to each other at the later stages of the water-control experiment. This finding indicates that there is a time lag between gene expression and the final product synthesis. Rapid changes in the external environment (RW to RD_1) have a short-term promoting effect on gene expression. This study reveals that short-term stress regulation may be an effective way to improve the quality of medicinal materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Immunotherapy has significantly improved survival of esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) patients, however the clinical benefit was limited to only a small portion of patients. This study aimed to perform a deep learning signature based on H&E-stained pathological specimens to accurately predict the clinical benefit of PD-1 inhibitors in ESCC patients. Methods: ESCC patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors from Shandong Cancer Hospital were included. WSI images of H&E-stained histological specimens of included patients were collected, and randomly divided into training (70%) and validation (30%) sets. The labels of images were defined by the progression-free survival (PFS) with the interval of 4 months. The pretrained ViT model was used for patch-level model training, and all patches were projected into probabilities after linear classifier. Then the most predictive patches were passed to RNN for final patient-level prediction to construct ESCC-pathomics signature (ESCC-PS). Accuracy rate and survival analysis were performed to evaluate the performance of ViT-RNN survival model in validation cohort. Results: 163 ESCC patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors were included for model training. There were 486,188 patches of 1024*1024 pixels from 324 WSI images of H&E-stained histological specimens after image pre-processing. There were 120 patients with 227 images in training cohort and 43 patients with 97 images in validation cohort, with balanced baseline characteristics between two groups. The ESCC-PS achieved an accuracy of 84.5% in the validation cohort, and could distinguish patients into three risk groups with the median PFS of 2.6, 4.5 and 12.9 months (P < 0.001). The multivariate cox analysis revealed ESCC-PS could act as an independent predictor of survival from PD-1 inhibitors (P < 0.001). A combined signature incorporating ESCC-PS and expression of PD-L1 shows significantly improved accuracy in outcome prediction of PD-1 inhibitors compared to ESCC-PS and PD-L1 anlone, with the area under curve value of 0.904, 0.924, 0.610 for 6-month PFS and C-index of 0.814, 0.806, 0.601, respectively. Conclusions: The outcome supervised pathomics signature based on deep learning has the potential to enable superior prognostic stratification of ESCC patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors, which convert the images pixels to an effective and labour-saving tool to optimize clinical management of ESCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Immunotherapy has significantly improved survival of esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) patients, however the clinical benefit was limited to only a small portion of patients. This study aimed to perform a deep learning signature based on H&E-stained pathological specimens to accurately predict the clinical benefit of PD-1 inhibitors in ESCC patients. Methods: ESCC patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors from Shandong Cancer Hospital were included. WSI images of H&E-stained histological specimens of included patients were collected, and randomly divided into training (70%) and validation (30%) sets. The labels of images were defined by the progression-free survival (PFS) with the interval of 4 months. The pretrained ViT model was used for patch-level model training, and all patches were projected into probabilities after linear classifier. Then the most predictive patches were passed to RNN for final patient-level prediction to construct ESCC-pathomics signature (ESCC-PS). Accuracy rate and survival analysis were performed to evaluate the performance of ViT-RNN survival model in validation cohort. Results: 163 ESCC patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors were included for model training. There were 486,188 patches of 1024*1024 pixels from 324 WSI images of H&E-stained histological specimens after image pre-processing. There were 120 patients with 227 images in training cohort and 43 patients with 97 images in validation cohort, with balanced baseline characteristics between two groups. The ESCC-PS achieved an accuracy of 84.5% in the validation cohort, and could distinguish patients into three risk groups with the median PFS of 2.6, 4.5 and 12.9 months (P < 0.001). The multivariate cox analysis revealed ESCC-PS could act as an independent predictor of survival from PD-1 inhibitors (P < 0.001). A combined signature incorporating ESCC-PS and expression of PD-L1 shows significantly improved accuracy in outcome prediction of PD-1 inhibitors compared to ESCC-PS and PD-L1 anlone, with the area under curve value of 0.904, 0.924, 0.610 for 6-month PFS and C-index of 0.814, 0.806, 0.601, respectively. Conclusions: The outcome supervised pathomics signature based on deep learning has the potential to enable superior prognostic stratification of ESCC patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors, which convert the images pixels to an effective and labour-saving tool to optimize clinical management of ESCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Desmocollin 3 (DSC3) is a transmembrane adhesion protein of desmosomes and involved in carcinogenesis in various cancer types. Downregulation of DSC3 has been reported in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the function of DSC3 in CRC has not yet been elucidated. In this study, we performed cell-based functional analysis after DSC3 overexpression by stable transfection and knockdown by siRNA in CRC cells. It turned out that overexpression of DSC3 reduced cell proliferation, colony forming ability, induced G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and promoted apoptosis. Further pathway analysis showed that overexpression of DSC3 significantly inhibited the activity of AKT pathway and increased the expression of E-cadherin as well as p53 and p21. In contrast, siRNA-mediated knockdown of DSC3 increased cell proliferation and colony formation, activated the AKT pathway and decreased the expression of E-cadherin as well as p53 and p21. Additionally, in primary CRC patient samples, the expression of DSC3 protein was significantly related to the expression of desmocollin 1 (DSC1) and desmocollin 2 (DSC2) as well as E-cadherin (p < 0.001 respectively). Taken together, our data reveal that DSC3 suppresses CRC cell growth through inhibition of AKT pathway and regulation of E-cadherin. DSC3 may serve as a novel therapeutic target for CRC. Highlights • Desmocollin 3 inhibits colorectal carcinoma cell proliferation, induces cell cycle arrest and enhances apoptosis. • Desmocollin 3 acts as a tumor suppressor through inhibition of Akt pathway and regulation of E-cadherin. • Desmocollin 3 expression is correlated to desmocollin 1 and 2 as well as E-cadherin in primary colorectal carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Catalyst poisoning from the impurities in the industrial grade methanol is a major challenge for the large-scale application of direct methanol fuel cells in low cost. In this work, we systematically investigate the impurities influencing on cell performance, and confirm that the adsorption of carbonyl containing intermediate species derived from the partial electro-oxidation of the impurities is a crucial factor leading to performance degradation. Hence, an on-line alleviation strategy by intermittently applying pulse potential (reduction potential on the anode or oxidation potential on the cathode) is proposed. The applied potential will bring a reductive condition on the anode, which releases the active sites via the reduction of carbonyl containing species adsorbed on platinum-ruthenium electro-catalysts. Based on this strategy, the adsorption of carbonyl containing intermediate species are effectively suppressed, and the decay rate declines by nearly two orders of magnitude than that of a single cell under traditional operation, which paves a way for the practical application of direct methanol fuel cells with industrial grade methanol feed. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Performance/durability of DMFCs with low-cost IG methanol worsen due to impurities. • The effects of impurities on cell performance is systematically investigated. • An electro-reduction route by pulse potential is proposed to recover performance. • Based on the strategy, the decay rate decreased by nearly two orders of magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study of a 68-year-old man who history of noncreative hepatitis B, hepatitis C, alcohol abuse and intact liver function treated with sorafenib. The article discusses radiation therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma, ionizing radiation generating reactive oxygen species and DNA damage.

In this work, a hafnium (Hf) thin film is introduced for the first time as the rear metallization scheme between the rear side of n‐type crystalline silicon (n‐Si) and Ag electrode in the poly (3, 4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly (styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) polymer/Si hybrid solar cell. Hf thin films are uniformly deposited at room temperature by sputtering technology, showing its advantages of stable electrical sheet resistance at the atmosphere with the relative humidity of 40%. The insertion of Hf thin film reduced interfacial carrier recombination and contact resistance loss, leading to a significant improvement in the open circuit voltage (Voc) and the fill factor (FF) of the polymer/Si hybrid solar cell. Eventually, compared with the reference device (only Ag back metallization), a higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) is obtained. This efficacy could be attributed to low work function of Hf thin film to ensure the highly transparent to electrons at the rear side of the hybrid solar cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adaptive multiclass correlation filters (AMCF) method is proposed to exploit different kinds of features and information in a unified framework for recognition. Theoretical investigation into AMCF shows that it obtains a closed-form subsolution to constrain the optimization objective, simplifying the entire inference mechanism in the multiclass classification. The time series recognition problems, such as human action recognition and radar behavior recognition, are important yet challenging tasks. However, it is still time-consuming to acquire enough labeled training samples. AMCF is capable to exploit different kinds of features to solve the time series recognition problem. With this new correlation filters-based method, we extend the original signals and handle the insufficient training set effectively. Experiments are done on the depth image based action recognition and radar behavior recognition with a small number of training examples, including MSRAction3D, MSRGesture3D, UTD-MHAD, and radar behavior datasets. Particularly, we demonstrate that the proposed action recognition system is based on the completed local binary patterns and AMCF, and successfully achieves superior performances over the state-of-the-arts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a key signaling molecule in the cytoprotection, vascular mediation and neurotransmission of living organisms. In-depth understanding of its production, trafficking, and transformation in cells is very important in the way H2S mediates cellular signal transductions and organism functions; it also motivates the development of H2S probes and imaging technologies. A fundamental challenge, however, is how to engineer probes with sensitivity and cellular penetrability that allow detection of spontaneous production of H2S in the entire cell space and live animals. Here, we report a rationally designed molecular switch capable of accessing all intracellular compartments, including the nucleus, lysosomes and mitochondria, for H2S detection. Our probe comprised three functional domains (H2S sensing, fluorescence, and biomembrane penetration), could enter almost all cell types readily, and exhibit a rapid and ultrasensitive response to H2S (≤120-fold fluorescence enhancement) for the dynamic mapping of spontaneously produced H2S as well as its distribution in the whole cell. In particular, the probe traversed blood/tissue/cell barriers to achieve mapping of endogenous H2S in metabolic organs of a live Danio rerio (zebrafish). These results open-up exciting opportunities to investigate H2S physiology and H2S-related diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To evaluate the association between androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and depression and to identify the risk factors for depressive symptoms among prostate cancer (PCa) patients who received ADT.Methods: We conducted a prospective, longitudinal, controlled study and assessed 3 groups of older patients: the ADT group (men who were presented with maximum androgen block); the radical prostatectomy (RP) group (PCa control group: men who underwent RP without ADT); and the benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) group (men who had BPH). All patients completed the demographic questionnaire at baseline and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) at pretreatment baseline, 1 month, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months and 15 months.Results: A total of 146 patients completed the study during the 15-month follow-up. The Self-Rating Depression Scale scores of the 3 groups showed significant differences at 1 month (P < .001), 6 months (P = .009), 9 months (P < .001), 12 months (P < .001), and 15 months (P < .001). At 9 months, 12% of the men in the ADT group, 4.3% in the RP group, and 2% in the BPH group showed depressive symptoms, and there were no significant differences (P = .095). However, there were significant differences among the 3 groups relative to the incidence of depressive symptoms at 12 and 15 months (P < .001, P = .007, respectively). The analysis of the ADT subgroup indicated that alcohol consumption (odds ratio = 6.868; P = .046; 95% CI, 1.038-45.443) and smoking (odds ratio = 13.661; P = 0.013; 95% CI, 1.722-108.386) increased the risk for developing depressive symptoms.Conclusions: Androgen deprivation therapy use does significantly increase the depressive scores and enhance the incidence of depression among PCa patients who received ADT. Smoking and alcohol consumption are associated with depressive symptoms among PCa patients receiving ADT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]