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Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing has emerged as a promising technique for high-resolution additive manufacturing, but the frequency limits and optimal operating ranges for drop-on-demand EHD printing remain elusive. This lack of clarity has significant implications for printing efficiency and accuracy. Here, we present a theoretical model based on the Lagrange equation to calculate the eigenfrequency in EHD printing. Our study elucidates the dynamic relationships between the eigenfrequency and key process parameters (e.g., voltage, meniscus diameter, and center angle), and reveals the intrinsic relationship between the jetting frequency and the oscillation eigenfrequency, demonstrating that the jetting frequency is limited by the eigenfrequency. This conclusion has significant implications for the design of high frequency EHD printing systems; it highlights opportunities to increase the eigenfrequency by optimizing parameters such as meniscus radius/center angle. In addition, it is interesting to note that the high-order-mode jetting phenomenon can be utilized to break through the traditional frequency limit of the low-order mode. This work can serve as an instructive benchmark of the EHD printing frequency, which provides a basis for designing a high-frequency EHD printing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phenol-formaldehyde resins combined with polymers have a wide range of industrial applications as plugging agents for profile control and enhanced oil recovery. Due to the structural resemblance between lignin and phenol, there are possibilities for environmentally friendly phenol-formaldehyde resin manufacturing. Sulfonated lignin–based phenol-formaldehyde resin was synthesized by partially replacing phenol with lignin, which improved the utilization rate of lignin and achieved the purpose of environmental preservation and resource conservation. Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide is the most widely used polymer in chemical methods for enhanced oil recovery. However, the stability of reservoirs with high salt and high temperatures is weak under these conditions. To solve the problem of low oil recovery in high-salt reservoir environments, polymer flooding is adopted, which utilizes high-molecular-weight polymers to raise the viscosity of injected fluids, thereby improving sweep efficiency and altering mobility ratio between oil and injected fluid. We focus on the stability study of different molecular weights partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide combined with sulfonated lignin – based phenol-formaldehyde resins in metal ions and surfactants. The zeta potential and hydrodynamic diameter of the partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide – sulfonated lignin – based phenol-formaldehyde resin system in Ca2+ were measured by dynamic light scattering and static light scattering, and the dispersion stability was analyzed. The interfacial energy – modified DLVO theory was introduced to evaluate the stability of its colloidal solution, which made it possible to predict the aggregation behavior of sulfonated lignin – based phenol-formaldehyde resin and the co-migration process of metal cations in real time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is widely recognized as an effective treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, few patients are able to receive CBT. Internet-based CBT (ICBT) may be able to overcome this problem. In this study, we aimed to compare the efficacy of CBT, therapist-guided ICBT (TG-ICBT), unguided ICBT (UG-ICBT), and none therapist-guided ICBT (NTG-ICBT) by a network meta-analysis. The primary outcome was the mean change in OCD severity measured by the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) or the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS). The secondary outcomes included the severity of depressive symptoms, side effects, and cost-effectiveness. A total of 25 trials with 1642 participants were included. We found that the efficacy of CBT was superior to that of TG-ICBT. The mean improvement in Y-BOCS/CY-BOCS scores was higher in CBT group than in UG-ICBT group, but this difference was not statistically significant. The efficacy did not differ significantly between TG-ICBT and UG-ICBT. CBT, TG-ICBT, and UG-ICBT were all more effective than the psychological placebo, waiting list, and pill placebo. In terms of efficacy, CBT combined with drug therapy was better than CBT, TG-ICBT, and UG-ICBT. Sensitivity analyses supported these findings. Based on the current evidence, we recommend TG-ICBT when CBT is not available. However, it is undeniable that UG-ICBT also has the potential to be an effective alternative to CBT. More evidence is needed to support this possibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modified National Institutes of Health (NIH) risk criteria for gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) have some limitations and need to be improved. Patients who underwent radical resection of primary GIST were retrospectively reviewed. Peripheral blood indices including the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and prognostic nutritional index (PNI) were analysed. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) was calculated and compared. Multivariate analysis was conducted. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was calculated. A total of 492 patients were enrolled. Tumour size, mitotic index (MI), tumour location and PNI were independent prognostic factors. The modified NIH criteria could not distinguish among very low-, low- and intermediate-risk patients, and PNI was the only independent prognostic factors for them. The five-year RFS rate in the high risk (HR) group was significantly lower. A further modification to the NIH risk criteria was proposed (the 'NIH-PNI stratification'). Non-high risk (NHR) patients were divided into the NHR-PNI-H group (PNI > 48.05) and the NHR-PNI-L group (PNI ≤ 48.05), respectively. HR patients were divided according to tumour size and MI: the HR1, HR2 and HR3 groups. The five-year RFS rates of the NHR-PNI-H, NHR-PNI-L, HR1, HR2 and HR3 groups were 97.3%, 93.5%, 74.1%, 61.7% and 24.4%, respectively (p <.001). The area under the curve (AUC) for the NIH-PNI stratification, modified NIH criteria, NIH criteria (2002), AFIP criteria and nomogram were 0.857, 0.807, 0.817, 0.843 and 0.831, respectively. The proposed NIH-PNI stratification was able to distinguish among five groups in terms of risk of recurrence. A further modification to the NIH risk criteria for GISTs was proposed ('NIH-PNI stratification'). Non-high risk (NHR) patients were divided into NHR-PNI-H and NHR-PNI-L groups. High risk (HR) patients were divided to HR1, HR2 and HR3 groups. The five-year RFS rates were 97.3%, 93.5%, 74.1%, 61.7% and 24.4%, respectively (p <.001). The AUC for the NIH-PNI stratification, modified NIH criteria, NIH criteria (2002), AFIP criteria and nomogram were 0.857, 0.807, 0.817, 0.843 and 0.831. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insulin resistance (IR), designated as the blunted response of insulin target tissues to physiological level of insulin, plays crucial roles in the development and progression of diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and other diseases. So far, the distinct mechanism(s) of IR still needs further exploration. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is a class of non-protein coding RNA molecules with a length greater than 200 nucleotides. LncRNAs are widely involved in many biological processes including cell differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis and metabolism. More recently, there has been increasing evidence that lncRNAs participated in the pathogenesis of IR, and the dysregulated lncRNA profile played important roles in the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases including obesity, diabetes and NAFLD. For example, the lncRNAs MEG3, H19, MALAT1, GAS5, lncSHGL and several other lncRNAs have been shown to regulate insulin signaling and glucose/lipid metabolism in various tissues. In this review, we briefly introduced the general features of lncRNA and the methods for lncRNA research, and then summarized and discussed the recent advances on the roles and mechanisms of lncRNAs in IR, particularly focused on liver, skeletal muscle and adipose tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The role of JAM3 in different tumors is controversial. The epigenetic regulation and the mechanism of JAM3 remain to be elucidated in human esophageal cancer (EC). Methods: Eleven EC cell lines, 49 cases of esophageal intraepithelial neoplasia (EIN) and 760 cases of primary EC samples were employed. Methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry, MTT, western blot and xenograft mouse models were applied in this study. Results: The inverse association between RNA expression and promoter region methylation of JAM3 was found by analyzing 185 cases of EC samples extracted from the TCGA database (p < 0.05). JAM3 was highly expressed in KYSE450, KYSE520, TE1 and YES2 cells, low level expressed in KYSE70 cells and unexpressed in KYSE30, KYSE150, KYSE410, KYSE510, TE13 and BIC1 cells. JAM3 was unmethylated in KYSE450, KYSE520, TE1 and YES2 cells, partial methylated in KYSE70 cells and completely methylated in KYSE30, KYSE150, KYSE410, KYSE510, TE13 and BIC1 cells. The expression of JAM3 is correlated with methylation status. The levels of JAM3 were unchanged in KYSE450, KYSE520, TE1 and YES2 cells, increased in KYSE70 cells and restored expression in KYSE30, KYSE150, KYSE410, KYSE510, TE13 and BIC1 cells after 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine treatment, suggesting that the expression of JAM3 is regulated by promoter region methylation. JAM3 was methylated in 26.5% (13/49) of EIN and 51.1% (388/760) of primary EC, and methylation of JAM3 was associated significantly with tumor differentiation and family history (all p < 0.05). Methylation of JAM3 is an independent prognostic factor of poor 5-year overall survival (p < 0.05). JAM3 suppresses cell proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion and induces G1/S arrest and apoptosis in EC. Further study demonstrated that JAM3 suppressed EC cells and xenograft tumor growth by inhibiting Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Conclusion: JAM3 is frequently methylated in human EC, and the expression of JAM3 is regulated by promoter region methylation. JAM3 methylation is an early detection and prognostic marker of EC. JAM3 suppresses EC growth both in vitro and in vivo by inhibiting Wnt signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing is a promising micro/nanofabrication technique, due to its ultra-high resolution and wide material applicability. However, it suffers from low printing efficiency which urgently calls for a high density and addressable nozzle array. This paper presents a nozzle array chip made of a silicon plate and polymer nozzle structure, where the large silicon plate is conducive to a uniform spatial electric field distribution, and the polymer SU8 nozzle can inhibit tip discharge due to its insulating character and liquid flooding as SU8 is hydrophobic. By carefully designing the nozzle array structure via simulation, and fabricating it through MEMS technology, a high-density nozzle array chip has been achieved which can generate very uniform dots without crosstalk. Meanwhile, by adding extractors underneath the nozzle array, and utilizing a digital switch array to tune their on/off state, addressable printing has been realized. This novel printhead design has solved the discharge, liquid flooding, and crosstalk behavior in EHD nozzle arrays, and is compatible with traditional silicon-based MEMS technology, which will promote the practical applications of EHD printing in micro/nanoelectronics, biomedical/energy devices, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) jetting is a promising technique with ultra-high resolution, broad compatibility with various inks, and tunable printing modes. However, it suffers from poor efficiency, which urgently calls for an addressable multi-nozzle printhead. Unlike traditional EHD printing which treats the liquid inside the printhead as an equal potential body, this work has proposed to realize addressable jetting by tuning the potential drop between the non-triggered nozzles (connected to a resistor and then grounded) and the triggered nozzles (connected to a high-voltage) through voltage division principle. We present an equivalent circuit model to predict the potential drop within the printhead, which largely depends on the liquid conductivity, channel character, and external auxiliary resistors, and these results match well with experiments and simulations. Besides, we further investigate the jet deflection behavior of the printhead, finding that 1.5 < H / d n < 3 (the ratio of printing height to the nozzle diameter) and 0.6 < k < 0.8 (the ratio of the non-triggered nozzles to the triggered nozzles) are preferred working area for addressable and precise EHD printing. This addressable design does not need a complex extractor underneath the nozzle, which is promising for future high-density and large-scale EHD printheads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurodegenerative diseases represent a large group of neurological disorders including Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease. Although this group of diseases show heterogeneous clinical and pathological phenotypes, they share important pathological features characterized by the age-dependent and progressive degeneration of nerve cells that is caused by the accumulation of misfolded proteins. The association of genetic mutations with neurodegeneration diseases has enabled the establishment of various types of animal models that mimic genetic defects and have provided important insights into the pathogenesis. However, most of genetically modified rodent models lack the overt and selective neurodegeneration seen in the patient brains, making it difficult to use the small animal models to validate the effective treatment on neurodegeneration. Recent studies of pig and monkey models suggest that large animals can more faithfully recapitulate pathological features of neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we discuss the important differences in animal models for modeling pathological features of neurodegenerative diseases, aiming to assist the use of animal models to better understand the pathogenesis and to develop effective therapeutic strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To explore the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) expression pattern of congenital lung malformations on a genome-wide scale and investigate their potential biological function in four subtypes of congenital lung malformations. Methods: We obtained both lesions and normal lung control tissues from the patients diagnosed with CPAM-I, CPAM-II, ILS, and ILS-CPAM, and underwent lobectomy (i.e., surgical removal of the whole lobe which contains the localized lesion as well as normal lung tissue). Then, we performed lncRNA transcriptome profiling in these tissues by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). A comprehensive bioinformatics analysis was conducted to characterize the expression profiles and relevant biological functions and for multiple comparisons of lncRNA expression in the different subtypes of congenital lung malformation tissues. Furthermore, the lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network was constructed, and dysregulated mRNAs were functionally analyzed. Finally, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to predict the potential molecular mechanism of the identified lncRNAs. Results: A total of 5921 lncRNA transcripts were identified between congenital lung malformations tissues and normal lung control tissues. Compared with normal lung control, 481of these expressed lncRNAs were upregulated and 142 were downregulated in CPAM-I, 91 were upregulated and 14 were downregulated in CPAM-II, 39 were upregulated and 38 were downregulated in ILS, and 201 were upregulated and 38 were downregulated in ILS-CPAM. Unsupervised clustering and principal component analysis of the expressed lncRNAs visualized the differences between normal lung control and different subtypes of congenital lung malformations samples. We also confirmed significant differences in the composition of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and the differentially expressed lncRNAs (DE lncRNAs) between CPAM-I and other subtypes of congenital lung malformations, as well as in normal lung control tissues, and observed enrichment of DEGs in the regulation of the immune system, cell projection organization, and inflammatory pathways. Finally, we identified the lncRNA FLJ26850 might be related to congenital lung malformations via ZNF473. Conclusions: Significant differences in lncRNAs expression patterns were observed between different subtypes of congenital lung malformations and normal control. The lncRNA FLJ26850 might be related to congenital lung malformations via ZNF473. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To examine the association between the MSCT quantitative measurements of congenital lung malformations (CLM) and the selection of surgical approaches (lobectomy vs. lung-sparing surgery).Methods: This retrospective study evaluated CLM surgical cases at our institution from 2016 to 2018. MSCT quantitative measurements were generated by a semi-automated approach: the volume of the lesion (Vlesion), the volume of the lesion-involved lobe (Vlobe), the volume of the lesion-involved lung (Vlung) and the volume of the total lung (Vtotal lung). The proportions of Vlesion to Vlobe (Plesion/lobe), Vlesion to Vlung (Plesion/lung), and Vlesion to V total lung (Plesion/total lung) were calculated. We used Logistics regression to examine whether quantitative measurements were associated with the selection of surgical approaches.Results: 151 patients were included (median age at surgery 6 months). 82 patients underwent lung-sparing surgery, and 69 patients underwent lobectomy. Vlesion (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.09-2.07), Plesion/lobe (OR 1.78, 95% CI 1.16-2.72), Plesion/lung (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.13-2.35), and Plesion/total lung (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.12-2.22) were positively associated with the selection of lobectomy.Conclusion: The application of quantified MSCT analysis may provide insight into the quantitative characteristics of CLM, which could be potentially useful for surgical approach selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate multi-mode oscillation and ejection behavior in pulsed electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing in this paper. The results show that multi-mode oscillation is determined by the damping ratio of the meniscus, while the phase difference between meniscus oscillation and the electric field governs whether jetting can occur. High-order-mode jetting can occur around the corresponding resonant frequency of a low damping ratio system. This enhances the frequency limit to approximately 2.62 times that of traditional pulsed EHD printing, providing an efficient approach to high-frequency EHD printing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rock burst of key working faces under the thick hard rock in deep mine significantly threatens the mining safety of deep mine. In this study, the key working faces under typical deeply buried thick magmatite were adopted as the engineering background. The mine pressure characteristics during the mining in key working faces under thick magmatite in deep mine were measured and analyzed. Then, the evolution of overburden strata structure under the control of thick magmatite was explored based on the theory of mine pressure to conclude that the horizontal "carrier" load of broken rock beam, the vertical "loader" load, and the shock bump load from thick magmatite fracture are main sources of force behind the burst. Finally, the mechanism of rock burst was studied on the basis of the balanced relationship between loading and bearing. According to the results of research, the burst in key working faces under thick magmatite in deep mine was actually the instability burst of the key working face block. The bearing capacity and load of key working face block were constantly changing during the unstable movement of thick magmatite. The rock burst would occur in the event of any instability during the dynamic confrontation of "loading-bearing". As per different burst sources, it could be divided into flexural loading burst of thick magmatite and shock bump burst of thick magmatite fracture. The mechanical conditions for each of the two bursts and the width calculation formula for the key working face free from overall instability burst were deduced. The research results were applied to key working face 12310. Meanwhile, the purpose of safe production following the principle of "No disaster in bumps, no harm under burst" was realized by implementing the "Four Keys" comprehensive prevention and control measures of "key monitoring + key speed reduction + key pressure relief + key support". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most multi-modal biometric systems use multiple devices to capture different traits and directly fuse multi-modal data while ignoring correlation information between modalities. In this paper, finger skin and finger vein images are acquired from the same region of the finger and therefore have a higher correlation. To represent data efficiently, we propose a novel Finger Disentangled Representation Learning Framework (FDRL-Net) that is based on a factorization concept, which disentangles each modality into shared and private features, thereby improving complementarity for better fusion and extracting modality-invariant features for heterogeneous recognition. Besides, to capture as much finger texture as possible, we utilize three-view finger images to reconstruct full-view multi-spectral finger traits, which increases the identity information and the robustness to finger posture variation. Finally, a Boat-Trackers-based multi-task distillation method is proposed to migrate the feature representation ability to a lightweight multi-task network. Extensive experiments on six single-view multi-spectral finger datasets and two full-view multi-spectral finger datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. • FDRL-Net is the first disentangled representation learning method on finger traits. • A direct Boat-Trackers-based multi-task distillation method is proposed. • Extensive experiments shows the superiority of our proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite claims that finger-vein biometrics can detect aliveness, recent research has shown that current systems can be fooled by forged vein patterns printed on a distinctive paper, raising considerable security concerns regarding the identification authenticity of these systems. Additionally, finger-vein identification exhibits low accuracy rates in real-world applications due to the inferior image quality caused by varied finger thicknesses and vein pattern variations caused by finger axial rotation. To address these issues, we propose a lightweight convolutional neural network (CNN) called the Finger-Vein Recognition and AntiSpoofing Network (FVRAS-Net), which integrates the recognition task and the antispoofing task into a unified CNN model by utilizing a multitask learning (MTL) approach and achieves high security and strong real-time performance. Then, a multi-intensity illumination strategy is introduced into the embedded biometric system to automatically select the most informative image for finger-vein identification, which can effectively improve the recognition performance of the real system. Finally, a challenging finger-vein database with images depicting severe axial finger rotation is built for more rigorous validation of the proposed system, which enriches the database resources for the finger-vein recognition community. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed FVRAS-Net achieves excellent performance in both recognition and antispoofing tasks on public data sets, especially on challenging databases with images depicting axial rotation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So far, the mechanism that links mitochondrial dysfunction to PDX1 inhibition in the pathogenesis of pancreatic β cell dysfunction under diabetic condition remains largely unclear. This study determined the role of mitochondrial protein FAM3A in regulating PDX1 expression in pancreatic β cells using gain‐ and loss‐of function methods in vitro and in vivo. Within pancreas, FAM3A is highly expressed in β, α, δ, and pp cells of islets. Islet FAM3A expression was correlated with insulin expression under physiological and diabetic conditions. Mice with specific knockout of FAM3A in islet β cells exhibited markedly blunted insulin secretion and glucose intolerance. FAM3A‐deficient islets showed significant decrease in PDX1 expression, and insulin expression and secretion. FAM3A overexpression upregulated PDX1 and insulin expressions, and augmented insulin secretion in cultured islets and β cells. Mechanistically, FAM3A enhanced ATP production to elevate cellular Ca2+ level and promote insulin secretion. Furthermore, FAM3A‐induced ATP release activated CaM to function as a co‐activator of FOXA2, stimulating PDX1 gene transcription. In conclusion, FAM3A plays crucial roles in controlling PDX1 and insulin expressions in pancreatic β cells. Inhibition of FAM3A will trigger mitochondrial dysfunction to repress PDX1 and insulin expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physiological and pathophysiological differences exist between the left and right kidneys; however, the molecular bases for these differences remain unknown. Since miRNAs are involved in kidney function and the development of kidney diseases, we examined their differential expression through miRNA profiling of the left and right kidneys of normal mice. We find that 36 miRNAs exhibit higher expression, whereas 22 miRNAs show lower expression in the left than the right kidneys in mice under physiological condition. Ten miRNAs were further examined by quantitative PCR assays, and four of them with high expression level were confirmed by Northern blot. Through bioinformatic analysis, we dissected the function and network of the differentially expressed miRNAs, providing insights into the physiological and pathophysiological differences between the left and the right kidneys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The majority of available data on the clinical efficacy of sunitinib in patients with imatinib-resistant or -intolerant gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) are from studies of western populations. We investigated the clinical outcomes of imatinib dose escalation versus sunitinib in first-line imatinib-failure Asian GIST patients to further guide clinical treatment. Methods: Patients received imatinib dose escalation and a shift to sunitinib (Group A) or a direct shift to sunitinib (Group B). The objective tumour response was assessed according to Choi's criteria. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were calculated. The relationship between genetic mutation and survival was analysed. Results: In total, 40 patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were recruited. The differences in survival between Group A and Group B were not significant for PFS (p = .776) or OS (p = .219). For patients with KIT exon 11 mutation, a trend towards a better PFS was found in Group B (p = .122), OS of Group B was better than Group A (p = .013). The median PFS and OS of sunitinib treatment were 8 and 24 months, respectively, and a clinical benefit was observed in 80%. Patients with KIT exon 11 mutations had better PFS compared to those with KIT exon 9 mutations or wild-type GISTs (p = .017, p = .040, respectively). Conclusions: Both imatinib dose escalation and sunitinib were optional in Asian patients after failure of first-line imatinib, and patients with KIT exon 11 mutation benefited more from a direct shift to sunitinib. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to investigate the value of combined detection of serum carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 and cyclooxygenase- 2 (COX-2) in the diagnosis of colorectal cancer. A total of 50 patients with colorectal cancer were selected as Group A and 50 healthy subjects as the control group. A sample of 2 ml fasting venous blood was drawn from patients in each group, and serum CEA, CA19-9 and COX-2 were detected using electrochemiluminescence analyzer and ELISA. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed on analyze the sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic methods for colorectal cancer patients at different stages. The expression levels of CEA, CA199 and COX-2 in the cancer patients group were significantly higher than those in the healthy group (P<0.05). The coincidence rates of CEA, CA199, COX-2 and combined detection were 56.0, 64.0, 62.0 and 88.0%, respectively. The coincidence rate of combined detection was significantly higher than that of diagnosis using a single factor (P<0.05). Sensitivity of combined detection of colorectal cancer patients with stage I, II, III and IV were 82.9, 85.3, 86.4 and 88.7%, respectively. The specificities were 65.3, 68.7, 57.8 and 58.6%, respectively. Thus, CEA, CA199 and COX-2 in serum are highly expressed in colorectal cancer patients, and may useful as effective indicators for the early diagnosis of colorectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cervical cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in females worldwide and the second leading cause of mortality among women. Estrogenic signals can regulate the progression of cervical cancer, however, little is known about the mono-2-ethyhexyl phthalate (MEHP), an environmental xenoestrogen, on the development of cervical cancers. Our present data showed that nanomolar concentrations of MEHP can trigger the proliferation, while not invasion, of cervical cancer HeLa and SiHa cells, which was confirmed by the results that MEHP can also increase the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). MEHP treatment can increase the phosphorylation and nuclear localization of Akt, while had no effect on the activation of ERK1/2 or p65. Targeted inhibition of Akt via its specific siRNA or inhibitor can reverse MEHP induced cell proliferation. In addition, the inhibitor of G protein coupled estrogen receptor (GPER), while not estrogen receptor α (ERα), can abolish MEHP induced phosphorylation of Akt and cell proliferation, suggesting that GPER is involved in MEHP induced activation of Akt. Collectively, our data showed that MEHP can trigger the progression of cervical cancer via activation of GPER/Akt. It suggested that MEHP exposure is also an important risk factor for development and progression of cervical cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Summary of the structure and upstream regulatory mechanisms of BMI1. • Underlying role of BMI1 in EC and in chemoradiotherapy resistance of other cancers. • Summary of current drugs targeting BMI1 and the treatment application limitations. Endometrial cancer (EC) is the third leading gynecological malignancy, and its treatment remains challenging. B cell-specific Moloney murine leukemia virus integration site-1 (BMI1) is one of the core members of the polycomb group (PcG) family, which plays a promoting role in the occurrence and development of various tumors. Notably, BMI1 has been found to be frequently upregulated in endometrial cancer (EC) and promote the occurrence of EC through promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and AKT/PI3K pathways. This review summarizes the structure and upstream regulatory mechanisms of BMI1 and its role in EC. In addition, we focused on the role of BMI1 in chemoradiotherapy resistance and summarized the current drugs that target BMI1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a phase erasure and format conversion of phase-shift keying (PSK) to conventional on-off keying (OOK) is proposed and demonstrated theoretically and experimentally. Using a single-pump nondegenerate phase sensitive amplification process in a highly nonlinear fiber, the 0 and 1-bits of the PSK signal obtain different gains through amplification and de-amplification. As a result, the modulation information is transferred onto the amplitude. With an optimized input power difference between the signal and idler, the signal phase information is erased with wavelength preservation after the PSA. The output constellation and eye diagrams show an effective phase erasure and format conversion of PSK to conventional OOK. The error vector magnitude is utilized to evaluate the scheme performance. The proposed scheme provides the flexibility and resiliency for future photonic networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutin is an extracellular lipid polymer that contributes to protective cuticle barrier functions against biotic and abiotic stresses in land plants. Glycerol has been reported as a component of cutin, contributing up to 14% by weight of total released monomers. Previous studies using partial hydrolysis of cuticle-enriched preparations established the presence of oligomers with glycerol-aliphatic ester links. Furthermore, glycerol-3-phosphate 2- O -acyltransferases ( sn -2-GPATs) are essential for cutin biosynthesis. However, precise roles of glycerol in cutin assembly and structure remain uncertain. Here, a stable isotope-dilution assay was developed for the quantitative analysis of glycerol by GC/MS of triacetin with simultaneous determination of aliphatic monomers. To provide clues about the role of glycerol in dicarboxylic acid (DCA)-rich cutins, this methodology was applied to compare wild-type (WT) Arabidopsis cutin with a series of mutants that are defective in cutin synthesis. The molar ratio of glycerol to total DCAs in WT cutins was 2:1. Even when allowing for a small additional contribution from hydroxy fatty acids, this is a substantially higher glycerol to aliphatic monomer ratio than previously reported for any cutin. Glycerol content was strongly reduced in both stem and leaf cutin from all Arabidopsis mutants analyzed ( gpat4 / gpat8 , att1-2 and lacs2-3 ). In addition, the molar reduction of glycerol was proportional to the molar reduction of total DCAs. These results suggest “glycerol-DCA-glycerol” may be the dominant motif in DCA-rich cutins. The ramifications and caveats for this hypothesis are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Endocrine-disrupting chemicals may alter glucose homeostasis, especially during pregnancy. Biomonitoring studies suggest ubiquitous human exposure to organophosphate esters (OPEs), chemicals with endocrine-disrupting capabilities. Few studies have examined the association between maternal exposure to OPEs and blood glucose during pregnancy.Methods: With data from 301 pregnant women in the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study, a prospective pregnancy and birth cohort in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, we examined whether OPE concentrations were associated with changes in blood glucose. We quantified four OPE metabolites in maternal spot urine samples collected at 16- and 26-weeks pregnancy. We extracted results from the glucose challenge test (GCT) and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) via medical chart review. Women with GCT ≥ 140 mg/dL or any abnormal values in OGTT (≥ 95 mg/dL fasting glucose, ≥ 180 mg/dL 1-h glucose, ≥ 155 mg/dL 2-h glucose, ≥ 140 mg/dL 3-h glucose) were defined as having elevated glucose levels. We used linear regression and Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) to estimate the associations of individual OPE metabolites and OPE mixtures with blood glucose levels during pregnancy. We used modified Poisson regression to estimate the associations of OPE metabolite concentrations with elevated glucose levels. We further examined effect measure modification by maternal characteristics (age, pre-pregnancy body mass index [BMI], and race/ethnicity).Results: Diphenyl phosphate (DPHP) had the highest geometric mean concentration of the urinary OPE metabolites (1.83 μg/L at 16 weeks, 1.24 μg/L at 26 weeks). Thirty women (10.0%) had elevated glucose levels. Individual OPE metabolites or their mixtures were not significantly associated with continuous GCT results. We did not observe effect measure modification by maternal age, pre-pregnancy BMI categories, or race/ethnicity. Compared with women in the 1st tertile of average DPHP of 16- and 26 weeks of pregnancy, women in the 3rd tertile tended to have a reduced risk of elevated glucose levels (RR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.16-1.06, p for trend = 0.06).Conclusion: In this cohort, maternal urinary OPE metabolite concentrations were weakly associated with blood glucose levels during pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The moisture content of cigar leaves during drying is an important indicator for controlling the management of drying rooms. At present, the determination of cigar leaf moisture content is mainly dependent on traditional destructive detection methods, which are inefficient and damaging to plants. In this study, a Convolution Neural Network method consisting of digital images for monitoring the moisture content of cigar leaves during the drying process was proposed. In this study, the Convolution Neural Network model was trained to learn the relationship between the images and the corresponding moisture content using the extracted colour, shape, and texture features as input factors. In order to compare the Convolution Neural Network estimation results, a widely used traditional machine learning algorithm was applied. The results demonstrated that the estimated value of Convolution Neural Network agreed with the predicted value; the R² was 0.9044, and the average accuracy was 87.34%. These results were better than those produced by traditional machine learning methods. The generalization test of the proposed method was conducted using varieties of cigar leaves in other drying rooms. The results showed that Convolution Neural Network is a viable method for an accurate estimation of the moisture content, the R² was 0.8673 and the average accuracy was 86.81%. The Convolution Neural Network established by the features extracted from digital images could accurately estimate the moisture content of cigar leaves during drying and was therefore shown to be an effective monitoring tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have examined the association between maternal exposure to organophosphate esters (OPEs) and systolic/diastolic blood pressure (SBP/DBP) during pregnancy. We analyzed data from 346 women with a singleton live birth in the HOME Study, a prospective birth cohort in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. We quantified four OPE metabolites in maternal spot urine samples collected at 16 and 26 weeks pregnancy, standardized by specific gravity. We calculated intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). We extracted the first two recorded BP measurements (<20 weeks), the two highest recorded BP measurements (≥20 weeks), and diagnoses of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) via chart review. Women with two BP measurements ≥140/90 mmHg or HDP noted in the chart at ≥20 weeks pregnancy were defined as HDP cases. We used linear mixed models and modified Poisson regression with covariate adjustment to estimate associations between OPE concentrations as continuous variables or in tertiles with maternal BP and HDP. ICCs of OPEs were 0.17–0.45. Diphenyl phosphate (DPHP) had the highest geometric mean concentration among OPE metabolites. Increasing the average bis(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (BCEP) concentrations were positively associated with two highest recorded DBP ≥20 weeks pregnancy. Compared with women in the 1st DPHP tertile, women in the 3rd tertile at 16 weeks pregnancy had 1.72 mmHg (95% CI: -0.01, 3.46) higher DBP <20 weeks pregnancy, and women in the 3rd tertile of the average DPHP concentrations had 2.25 mmHg (95% CI: 0.25, 4.25) higher DBP ≥20 weeks pregnancy. 33 women (9.5%) were identified with HDP. Di-n-butyl phosphate (DNBP) concentrations at 16 weeks were positively associated with HDP, with borderline significance (RR = 2.98, 95% CI 0.97–9.15). Other OPE metabolites were not significantly associated with HDP. Maternal urinary BCEP and DPHP concentrations were associated with increased BP during pregnancy. Maternal urinary DNBP concentrations were associated with HDP, with borderline significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnesium is the major intracellular divalent cation and is involved in many physiological processes. Magnesium deficiency may lead to osteoporosis. However, magnesium supplementation may promote bone growth and prevent osteoporosis. This paper reviews the progress on the mechanism of magnesium-stimulated bone growth and bone metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Dynamic oils gels are constructed by 1,2-dithiolane-containing telechelic polymers. • Representative nanoparticles can be homogeneously dispersed into the oil gels. • The nanoparticle-based gels have long-term colloidal stability at least for one year. • The composite oil gels exhibit excellent lubricating properties. • The lubricating mechanism is due to the formation of 60–100 nm thick tribofilms. Lubricant additives even performing slightly better in machinery systems would lead in total to the marked reduction of harmful emissions and the significant improvement of fuel economy. Although nanoparticles have demonstrated great potentiality as better lubricant additives, their practical applications have been seriously impeded by their poor colloidal dispersion in base oils. In this work, structurally dynamic gels have been constructed for the first time in base oils by the reversible ring opening reaction of 1,2-dithiolane-containing telechelic polymers. Representative nanoparticles such as MS 2 (M = Mo, W), Ag, and Cu can be homogeneously dispersed into the oil gels through strong coordinating interactions with the 1,2-dithiolane groups. Vial inversion experiments displayed that the resulting polymer-inorganic composite gels have long-term colloidal stability at least for one year. As revealed by SRV-IV oscillating reciprocating tribological tests, the coefficient of friction and wear volume of the composite gels drop significantly up to 56% and 99%, respectively. Moreover, the MoS 2 based composite gels exhibit a superior load-bearing capacity of > 1000 N. The mechanism behind such excellent lubricating properties is due to the formation of 60–100 nm thick tribofilms containing Fe-oxide compounds and MoS 2 nanoparticles on the worn steel surface. This composite-gel concept not only represents a generalized strategy to fully disperse nanoparticles in base oils but also opens a new avenue to developing high-performance lubricant additives for better friction and wear reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: We summarized and cataloged the E3 ligases involved in endometrial carcinoma (EC) and cervical cancer (CC). Finally, an overview of the current drugs that target the ubiquitination process to rescue patients with EC and CC is presented to provide researchers with important research ideas that can be applied to clinical treatment. Endometrial (EC) and cervical (CC) cancers are the most prevalent malignancies of the female reproductive system. There is a global trend towards increasing incidence and mortality, with a decreasing age trend. E3 ligases label substrates with ubiquitin to regulate their activity and stability and are involved in various cellular functions. Studies have confirmed abnormal expression or mutations of E3 ligases in EC and CC, indicating their vital roles in the occurrence and progression of EC and CC. This paper provides an overview of the E3 ligases implicated in EC and CC and discusses their underlying mechanism. In addition, this review provides research advances in the target of ubiquitination processes in EC and CC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Hypoxia in pregnancy may induce fetal growth restriction and cause functional abnormalities during development. The present study determined the long-term influence of hypoxia in fetal life on dipsogenic behavior linked to central angiotensin (Ang) network in the offspring rats. Fetal blood pO2 and body weight were decreased by hypoxia during pregnancy, followed by a postnatal “catch-up” growth. Subcutaneous hypertonic saline or intracerebroventricular Ang II significantly increased salt intake in the offspring prenatally exposed to hypoxia, while water intake was the same between the two groups. Ang II-induced c-fos expression was detected in the paraventricular nuclei, median preoptic nuclei, supraoptic nuclei, and subfornical organ in the brain, in association with reduced forebrain AT2 receptor protein abundance in the offspring prenatally exposed to hypoxia. Levels of central AT1 receptor protein were not changed between the two groups. Hypoxia during pregnancy could be linked to developmental problems related to behavioral dysfunctions in body fluid regulations in later life, in association with the change in central angiotensin II-mediated neural activation and expression of the Ang II receptor in the brain. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The utilization of optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) multi-source data to obtain better land classification results has received increasing research attention. However, there is a large property and distributional difference between optical and SAR data, resulting in an enormous challenge to fuse the inherent correlation information to better characterize land features. Additionally, scale differences in various features in remote sensing images also influence the classification results. To this end, an optical and SAR Siamese semantic segmentation network, OPT-SAR-MS2Net, is proposed. This network can intelligently learn effective multi-source features and realize end-to-end interpretation of multi-source data. Firstly, the Siamese network is used to extract features from optical and SAR images in different channels. In order to fuse the complementary information, the multi-source feature fusion module fuses the cross-modal heterogeneous remote sensing information from both high and low levels. To adapt to the multi-scale features of the land object, the multi-scale feature-sensing module generates multiple information perception fields. This enhances the network's capability to learn contextual information. The experimental results obtained using WHU-OPT-SAR demonstrate that our method outperforms the state of the art, with an mIoU of 45.2% and an OA of 84.3%. These values are 2.3% and 2.6% better than those achieved by the most recent method, MCANet, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The histone chaperone SET encoded by the SET gene, which is also known as template-activating factor Iβ (TAF-Iβ), is a multifunctional molecule that is involved in many biological phenomena such as histone binding, nucleosome assembly, chromatin remodelling, replication, transcription and apoptosis. A truncated SET/TAF-IβΔN protein that lacked the first 22 residues of the N-terminus but contained the C-terminal acidic domain and an additional His6 tag at the C-terminus was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and crystallized by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method using sodium acetate as precipitant at 283 K. The crystals diffracted to 2.7 Å resolution and belonged to space group P43212. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is unclear whether cadmium (Cd) exposure during fetal brain development is associated with child neurobehavior. To examine the potential associations between Cd exposure during pregnancy and neurobehavior among children. We used data from 276 children in the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study, a well-established prospective pregnancy and birth cohort. We measured maternal urinary Cd concentrations at 26 weeks of gestation. For cognitive function, we assessed Mental Development Index (MDI) and Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ) using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scales of Intelligence-III, or the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-IV at ages 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 years. We assessed child behaviors using the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 at ages 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8 years, yielding four composite measures: Externalizing Problems, Internalizing Problems, Behavioral Symptoms Index, and Adaptive Skills. We used linear mixed models with covariate adjustment to estimate the associations between maternal urinary Cd concentrations and child neurobehavior. We categorized study participants into three groups based on maternal urinary Cd concentrations (Group 1: < limit of detection (LOD), Group 2: 0.06-0.22 μg/g creatinine, Group 3: ＞0.22 μg/g creatinine). In linear mixed models adjusting for maternal and child characteristics, maternal urinary Cd levels were not significantly associated with cognitive function at ages 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 years or with behavioral composite measures at 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8 years. No significant associations were observed between maternal urinary Cd and cognitive or behavioral measures in children at 1–8 years of age in this study. • Low levels of prenatal cadmium exposure were found in maternal urine • Repeated neurobehavioral assessments were conducted between age 1–8 years • Maternal urinary cadmium was not adversely associated with child cognitive function • Prenatal cadmium exposure was not adversely associated with behavioral measurements [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate the clinical and prognostic characteristics of primary gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). Patients who underwent resection for primary gastric GIST between January 2002 and December 2017 were included. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) was calculated by Kaplan–Meier analysis, and Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify independent prognostic factors. Altogether, 653 patients were enrolled. The median patient age was 59 years (range 15-86 years). Open, laparoscopic, and endoscopic resections were performed in 394 (60.3%), 105 (16.1%), and 154 (23.6%) patients, respectively. According to the modified NIH consensus classification, 132 (20.2%), 245 (37.5%), 166 (25.4%), and 88 (13.5%) patients were categorized into very low-, low-, intermediate-, and high-risk, respectively. A total of 136 (20.8%) patients received adjuvant imatinib treatment. The median follow-up time was 78 months (range 4–219 months), and the estimated 5-year RFS rate was 93.0%. In all patients, tumor size and rupture, mitotic counts, and adjuvant imatinib treatment were independent prognostic factors. The prognosis of gastric GIST treated with endoscopic resection was not significantly different from that of laparoscopic or open resection after adjusting for covariates using propensity score matching (log-rank p =.558). Adjuvant imatinib treatment (HR = 0.151, 95%CI 0.055–0.417, p <.001) was a favorable prognostic factor for high-risk patients, but was not associated with prognosis in intermediate-risk patients. Patients with small gastric GISTs who successfully underwent endoscopic resection may have a favorable prognosis. Adjuvant imatinib treatment improve the prognosis of high-risk gastric GISTs, however, its use in intermediate-risk patients remains controversial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finger vein, as an intrinsic trait, has received increasing attention from academia and industry for its liveness detection ability and high security. However, the principle of vein imaging and its contact-less mode results in low contrast of finger vein image, where especially the vein texture is susceptible to factors, such as scattering in skin and tissue, ambient illumination, and finger posture variation. To extract discriminative features from low contrast images, in this article, we propose an attention mechanism, namely, joint attention (JA) module, which enables dynamic adjustment and information aggregation in the spatial and channel dimensions of feature maps to focus on fine-grained details, thus enhancing the contribution of vein patterns to extract identity features. Besides, we embed a generalized mean (GeM) pooling layer into our network to reduce the dimensionality of feature maps and output a compact and highly expressive feature representation. Finally, we build a new finger vein authentication architecture, called JA finger vein network (JAFVNet), with competitive experimental results on multiple public and self-built datasets: 0.35% EER for SDUMLA-HMT, 0.08% EER for MMCBNU-6000, 0.34% EER for FV-USM, and 0.49% EER for FV-SCUT. Numerous ablation experiments further illustrate the effectiveness of each component in the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetically modified rodent models have been valuable for investigating the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Based on the fact that mutations in the PINK1 gene cause autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism, a number of mouse models with deletion of the PINK1 gene were generated. However, these PINK1 knockout mouse models fail to recapitulate the selective and overt neurodegeneration seen in PD patient brains. Recently, we generated a non-human primate model with PINK1 deletion using CRISPR/Cas9. This monkey model shows robust neurodegeneration in various brain regions, different from late-onset neurodegeneration in PD patients. Because of the limited pathological data available from humans carrying PINK1 mutations, the PINK1 mutant monkeys provide us with an important animal model to discuss the unique function of PINK1 that is essential for neuronal survival in primate brains. We also propose that the impairment of this unique function by PINK1 mutations in humans may account for the age-dependent and progressive neurodegeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first-line treatment for recurrent or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) is imatinib, but the benefit of surgical intervention has not been determined. Surgery combined with long-term imatinib treatment (> 10 years) has rarely been reported. Patients with recurrent or metastatic GISTs who received surgery combined with long-term imatinib treatment (> 10 years) were included in this study. The demographic, surgical, and clinicopathologic data were retrospectively collected and analyzed. Five patients (three men and two women) with a median age of 47 (range 37–72) years were included. The primary tumor was located in the stomach and small intestine in three and two patients, respectively. Four patients who received complete resection (R0) had a single recurrent tumor. The remaining patient had more than two recurrent lesions, and the operation was done with gross residual disease (R2 resection, > 90% of the tumor bulk removed). All patients received more than 10 (median 13.50, range 12.30–13.67) years of imatinib treatment after resection of recurrent tumors. Two patients received a reduced dose of imatinib, and the remaining received 400 mg/day. The median follow-up was 17.0 (range 14.58–20.17) years since the primary tumor was resected. Two patients developed a tumor recurrence after 11.58 and 12.0 years of imatinib treatment, respectively. Surgical intervention may be beneficial when combined with long-term imatinib treatment for selected patients with recurrent or metastatic GISTs but should be further investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Procedural sedation is essential for optimizing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, particularly in high-risk patients with multiple underlying diseases. Respiratory and circulatory complications present significant challenges for procedural sedation in this population. This non-inferiority randomized controlled trial aims to investigate the safety and comfort of remimazolam compared to propofol for procedural sedation during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in high-risk patients. Methods: A total of 576 high-risk patients scheduled to undergo upper gastrointestinal endoscopy are planned to be enrolled in this study and randomly allocated to either the remimazolam or propofol group. The primary outcome measure is a composite endpoint, which includes (1) achieving a Modified Observer's Alertness/Sedation scale (MOAA/S) score ≤ 3 before endoscope insertion, (2) successful completion of the endoscopic procedure, (3) the absence of significant respiratory instability during the endoscopy and treatment, and (4) the absence of significant circulatory instability during the examination. The noninferiority margin was 10%. Any adverse events (AEs) that occur will be reported. Discussion: This trial aims to determine whether remimazolam is non-inferior to propofol for procedural sedation during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in high-risk patients, regarding success rate, complication incidence, patient comfort, and satisfaction. Trial registration {2a and 2b}: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ClinicalTrials.gov ChiCTR2200066527. Registered on 7 December 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhanced oil recovery research focuses on the phenol–formaldehyde resin (PFR) solution (EOR). We studied PFR's morphology and aggregation kinetics at various pH levels. A hydrated layer formed on the surface of PFR as a result of hydrogen bonding between the hydroxyl and phenolic hydroxyl groups and water molecules. We quantitatively quantified the impact of pH on the morphology and aggregation kinetics of PFR by incorporating the hydrated force into the DLVO (Derjaguin Landau Verwey Overbeek) theory. We were able to predict the situation of aggregates plugging into the reservoir by altering the size of PFR aggregates in a capillary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arrangement of measuring points has a great impact on the uniqueness and accuracy of the back analysis of displacement. To explore the arrangement method of measuring points in the anisotropic rock mass, the principle of maximum displacement is applied to study the optimization of measuring points layout around a tunnel in the transversely isotropic rock mass. Firstly, the criterion of maximum displacement is deduced. Secondly, the variations of displacement with angle and radius are analyzed, respectively, and two key lateral pressure coefficients are obtained. Thirdly, some principles of measuring points arrangement are summarized according to the criterion of maximum displacement. Finally, an example is given to prove the correctness of these principles. These principles can be used to guide the arrangement of displacement measuring points in the transversely isotropic rock mass, especially suitable for shaft excavation in horizontal sedimentary rock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liver ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a major complication of hemorrhagic shock, liver transplantation, and other liver surgeries. It is one of the leading causes for post-surgery hepatic dysfunction, always leading to morbidity and mortality. Several strategies, such as low-temperature reperfusion and ischemic preconditioning, are useful for ameliorating liver IRI in animal models. However, these methods are difficult to perform in clinical surgeries. It has been reported that the activation of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) protects the liver against IRI, but with unidentified direct target gene(s) and unclear mechanism(s). Recently, FAM3A, a direct target gene of PPARγ, had been shown to mediate PPARγ’s protective effects in liver IRI. Moreover, noncoding RNAs, including LncRNAs and miRNAs, had also been reported to play important roles in the process of hepatic IRI. This review briefly discussed the roles and mechanisms of several classes of important molecules, including PPARγ, FAM3A, miRNAs, and LncRNAs, in liver IRI. In particular, oral administration of PPARγ agonists before liver surgery or liver transplantation to activate hepatic FAM3A pathways holds great promise for attenuating human liver IRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the role of childhood experiences in the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, the influence of childhood experiences on personality, behavior, and perceived stress may vary between OCD patients and healthy individuals. The objective of this study was to use network analysis to explore the relationship between childhood trauma, personality, perceived stress, and symptom dimensions, thus finding the difference between patients' and healthy people's network. 488 patients with OCD and 210 healthy volunteers were recruited. All of them were assessed with the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory - Revised (OCI-R), the Perceived Stress Scale-10, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory and the Early Trauma Inventory Self-Report Short Form. Network analysis was conducted and the centrality indices were calculated. Network comparison test was performed. In patients' network, the Obsession and the Ordering behavior were the most important nodes among the OCI-R. The perceived stress showed the strongest strength centrality of all nodes and positive correlation with the Obsession and Neuroticism. Network comparison test results indicated a statistically significant difference between network structure, and post-hoc analysis found five edges significantly differed between patients and healthy controls, mainly on Obsession and Washing behaviors. Emotional abuse was considered significant in both networks due to its higher strength centrality. Meanwhile, perceived stress was found to be more significant in the patient network and exhibited stronger associations with obsession. The obsessive thoughts and washing behavior were different among patients and healthy controls, which brought new understanding to the pathopsychological mechanisms of OCD. • Emotional abuse was considered significant in both networks. • The perceived stress and the obsession are the core nodes of OCD. • Neuroticism indicates dynamic changes related to various anxiety/mood disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CRISPR-Cas9 is a powerful new tool for genome editing, but this technique creates mosaic mutations that affect the efficiency and precision of its ability to edit the genome. Reducing mosaic mutations is particularly important for gene therapy and precision genome editing. Although the mechanisms underlying the CRSIPR/Cas9-mediated mosaic mutations remain elusive, the prolonged expression and activity of Cas9 in embryos could contribute to mosaicism in DNA mutations. Here we report that tagging Cas9 with ubiquitin-proteasomal degradation signals can facilitate the degradation of Cas9 in non-human primate embryos. Using embryo-splitting approach, we found that shortening the half-life of Cas9 in fertilized zygotes reduces mosaic mutations and increases its ability to modify genomes in non-human primate embryos. Also, injection of modified Cas9 in one-cell embryos leads to live monkeys with the targeted gene modifications. Our findings suggest that modifying Cas9 activity can be an effective strategy to enhance precision genome editing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The exact shape of the dose-response relationship between maternal body mass index (BMI) and the risk of congenital heart defects (CHDs) in infants has not been clearly defined yet. This study aims to further clarify the relationship between maternal obesity and the risk of CHDs in infants by an overall and dose-response meta-analysis. Methods. PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases were searched to identify all related studies. The studies were limited to human cohort or case-control studies in English language. Random-effect models and dose-response meta-analysis were used to synthesize the results. Heterogeneity, subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, and publication bias were also assessed. Results. Nineteen studies with 2,416,546 participants were included in our meta-analysis. Compared with the mothers with normal weight, the pooled relative risks (RRs) of infants with CHDs were 1.08 (95% CI=1.03-1.13) in overweight and 1.23 (95% CI=1.17-1.29) in obese mothers. According to the findings from the linear meta-analysis, we observed an increased risk of infants with CHDs (RR=1.07, 95% CI=1.06-1.08) for each 5 kg/m2 increase in maternal BMI. A nonlinear relationship between maternal BMI and risk of infants with CHDs was also found (p=0.012). Conclusion. The results from our meta-analysis indicate that increased maternal BMI is related to increased risk of CHDs in infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stability of phenol–formaldehyde resin (nHAP) in the oil displacement process influences its flooding and profile control capabilities. There aren't many studies that compare how various surfactants affect PFR stability. The surfactants CTAB, Tween 60, and SDS were selected as representative ones. To look at the changes in stability, spectral turbidity and dynamic light scattering experiments were employed. It was found that the cationic surfactant CTAB can connect with the surface of PFR, just as metal cations, lowering electrostatic repulsion and facilitating the aggregation of PFR composite molecules. Anionic and nonionic surfactants both have some degree of system stability stabilizing properties. When Tween 60 and SDS adsorbed on the surface of the PFR molecule formed a hydrogen bond network with the hydroxymethyl or phenolic hydroxyl group, for example by hydrogen bond interaction, the PFR molecule's dispersion stability was increased. The Tween 60 and PFR composite systems have bigger particle sizes in addition to being more stable. Additionally, the energy barrier of the Tween 60/PFR composite system is determined using the modified DLVO theory for Lewis acid–base hydration, and it is discovered to be consistent with the experimental findings. The findings demonstrate that the stability of the composite system can be impacted by changes in the hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of the composite system. The findings demonstrate that the stability of the composite system can be impacted by changes in the hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of the composite system. Understanding the co-migration of PFR and surface activity during oil displacement depends heavily on the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palygorskite (Pal), a natural non-toxic silicate clay mineral with abundant resource reserve on the Earth, has received increasing attention in animal nutrition either as an efficient and safe feed additive or ingredient to promote the growth of animals. The current study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Pal supplementation on the growth performance and digestive function of broilers. 144 one-day-old Arbor Acres broiler chicks were allocated into 3 dietary treatments consisting of 6 replicates with 8 chicks each. Birds in the 3 treatments were given a basal diet supplemented with 0, 0.5 mass% and 1.0 mass% of Pal for 42 days, respectively. The broilers fed diets containing either 0.5 mass% or 1.0 mass% Pal showed similar growth performance to those given the basal diet. Compared with the control group, the relative weight of the pancreas was increased by Pal inclusion at 42 days. 1.0 mass% Pal supplementation increased nitrogen retention and organic matter digestibility of broilers during 32 to 34 days. Similarly, 0.5 mass% Pal inclusion significantly enhanced pancreatic and jejunal lipase activity at 21 days. In addition, birds fed diet supplemented with 1.0 mass% Pal showed a higher level of jejunal trypsin activity at 42 days compared with the control group. The results indicated that dietary Pal supplementation could enhance relative weight of pancreas, nitrogen retention and organic matter digestibility (1.0 mass% Pal only), and the activities of digestive enzymes of broilers, which may account for the similar growth performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of organophosphate esters (OPEs) as flame retardants, which has increased over the past two decades, raises concerns that OPEs may be harmful to humans, especially children. Animal studies and some human studies have reported that OPEs may adversely impact brain development, but few human studies evaluated OPE exposure during early childhood and neurodevelopmental outcomes. We aimed to fill this knowledge gap with the present study on urinary OPE metabolite concentrations at ages 1–5 years and cognitive abilities at 8 years. We used data of 223 children from the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study, a prospective pregnancy and birth cohort in Cincinnati, Ohio. The point estimates for bis-2-chloroethyl-phosphate (BCEP) and bis(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl)-phosphate (BDCIPP) in association with IQ tended to be small and positive, while the point estimates for diphenyl-phosphate (DPHP) were small and negative, with 95% CIs including the null. However, we did find that socioeconomic status (SES) variables modified associations between OPEs and child IQ, with adverse OPE-IQ associations being stronger in socioeconomically disadvantaged children than in others. We identified an additional 1- to 2-point decrease in Full Scale IQ for every log-unit increase in BDCIPP, BCEP, and DPHP among those with lower maternal education, non-white race, lower income, or living in more deprived neighborhoods. We observed similar results for the Perceptual Reasoning, Verbal Comprehension, and Working Memory Index Scores. We suspect that there is residual confounding related to socioeconomic disadvantage, which was not captured with the available SES variables typically used in epidemiologic studies. • This cohort study examines OPEs at ages 1–5 years and cognition at age 8 years. • In child urine, BCEP was detected at 90–95%, BDCIPP at 99%, and DPHP at 99–100%. • Point estimates for OPEs and cognition were small, and 95% CIs included the null. • SES variables modified associations; disadvantaged children have worse outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]