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The demand for American ginseng, a famous traditional medicine and high-grade healthy food, has increased dramatically over recent years. However, only the main root is popular among consumers, whereas other parts of American ginseng are rarely available in the market. In this study, the contents of 5 major ginsenosides (Re, Rc, Rg1, Rd, and Rb1) were determined through high-performance liquid chromatography. Our study showed that all these 5 major ginsenosides are found in different parts of American ginseng plants, and the total content in different parts varied significantly in the following order: fibrous root > flower > branch root > main root > leaf > stem. Interestingly, the total content in the fibrous root was approximately 2.24 times higher than that in the main root. Further research indicated that the ginsenoside content in American ginseng with abnormal characteristics (physical deformity caused by disease and discolouration) is similar to that in the normal plant. Interestingly, a positive correlation was observed between the main root diameter and total ginsenoside content, whereas a negative correlation was observed between the main root length and total ginsenoside content. Our comprehensive study revealed that all parts of American ginseng, including the main root with abnormal characteristics, possess medicinal or economic value. Therefore, our results provide feasible evidence to further explore the potential application of American ginseng. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficiency and safety of a combination of thalidomide and chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) for treating esophageal cancer (EC). Eligible patients received two cycles of chemotherapy using paclitaxel liposome and cisplatin concurrently with three-dimensional radiotherapy. Following radiotherapy, two cycles of maintenance chemotherapy were performed. Patients with elevation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) during radiotherapy were randomly divided into: i) a test group (n=31), who received a combination of CRT and thalidomide; and ii) a control group (n=30), who received CRT only. Patients with locally advanced EC in the test group demonstrated a significantly improved 3-year overall survival (OS) rate, progression-free survival (PFS) rate, local control and median PFS time compared with the control group (P<0.05). Multivariate analysis indicated that Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) stage was associated with the OS time, while TNM stage and the residence of cancer cells following radiotherapy were associated with PFS time. The present data indicate that thalidomide contributes to an improvement of prognosis for patients with locally advanced EC with elevated serum VEGF levels during radiotherapy. In addition, the toxicities induced by thalidomide were demonstrated to be tolerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To compare dual energy CT iodine imaging and standardized iodine concentration before and after chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for esophageal cancer and evaluate the efficacy of CRT for EC by examining DECT iodine maps and standard CT values.Methods: The clinical data of 45 patients confirmed by pathology with newly diagnosed esophageal cancer who underwent concurrent CRT from February 2012 to January 2017 in our department of radiology were collected. All patients underwent dual-source dual-energy CT (DECT) before and after CRT. Normalized iodine concentration (NIC) and normalized CT (NCT) corresponding to the overall cancer lesion and its maximum cross-sectional area were observed and compared. Additionally, 30 healthy individuals were compared as control group. After treatment, the patients were divided into two groups according to RECIST1.1: treatment effective group and ineffective group.Results: There were 33 patients (CR 9, PR 24) in the effective group and 12 patients (SD 12, PD 0) in the ineffective group. There was no significant difference in the NIC-A, NIC-V, NCT-A and NCT-A indexes between the effective group (B group) and the ineffective group (C group) before treatment (P > 0.05). After the treatment, the above-mentioned indexes in the effective group of patients were significantly lower than before treatment, and compared with the ineffective group, the NIC-A, NIC-V, NCT-A and NCT-V values of the effective group were significantly lower than those of ineffective group (P < 0.05). After treatment, the NIC-V and NCT-V in the ineffective group were lower than before treatment, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). However, their NIC-A and NCT-A were not statistically different from those before treatment (P > 0.05).Conclusion: Using DECT iodine map, the changes of NIC and NIC before and after CRT in patients with esophageal cancer can evaluate the effect of CRT, and does not increase the radiation dose, so it is suitable for clinical use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consistent individual behavioral differences from other members of local populations are called animal personality, and a suite of these correlated behaviors generates a behavioral syndrome. Differential selection patterns among personality types can be largely influenced by predatory behavior. Prey has a large arsenal of antipredator behaviors at their disposal; However, how closely these behaviors are linked to personality is almost unknown. Using a social model species, the Great Tit, Parus major, we investigated whether antipredator behavior in response to predators is correlated with personality. First, we determined if individual differences in exploratory behavior were consistent across trials, that is, whether they were repeatable. Second, we looked into how antipredator behavior was correlated to personality. Individuals were subjected to two repeated trials of standard personality assays followed by an alternative control (Rock Pigeon, Columba livia domestica) and predator display (Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus) treatment. We found that exploratory behavior was repeatable across trials and had a greater tendency for positive correlation with antipredator behavior when a predator model was displayed. Individuals that swiftly explored novel environments were slower to react to predators than those who explored the novel room slowly. As a result, our findings provide some of the first experimental evidence for a link between exploratory and antipredator behavior, suggesting that personality traits may impact individual fitness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low sulfur utilization and poor cycling stability are two major factors that currently impede the wide-spread commercialization of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Herein, sulfur-rich side chains are anchored onto Schiff-base copolymer of thiourea aldehyde resin (cp (S-TAR)) nanosheets via inverse vulcanization to form a large number of intermolecular crosslinkers as well as mesopores. Application of the resultant copolymer as a cathode material in Li-S batteries can not only provide abundant porous channels for Li + diffusion but also significantly alleviate the dissolution of polysulfides by chemical confinement through the covalent bonds between sulfur-rich side chains and TAR. With this novel polymer cathode, a Li-S battery prototype is constructed which can operate at 1 C for over 500 charge-discharge cycles at nearly 99% coulombic efficiency, showing an ultralow cyclic fading rate of 0.045% per cycle, and an outstanding high-rate response of up to 5 C. The present strategy demonstrates the great potential of using highly crosslinked organosulfur copolymers as high-performance polymer cathode materials for low-cost, high-energy density Li-S batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a cuckoo algorithm (GFCS) based on the global feedback strategy and innovatively introduces a "re-fly" mechanism. In GFCS, the process of the algorithm is adjusted and controlled by a dynamic global variable, and the dynamic global parameter also serves as an indicator of whether the algorithm has fallen into a local optimum. According to the change of the global optimum value of the algorithm in each round, the dynamic global variable value is adjusted to optimize the algorithm. In addition, we set new formulas for the other main parameters, which are also adjusted by the dynamic global variable as the algorithm progresses. When the algorithm converges prematurely and falls into a local optimum, the current optimum is retained, and the algorithm is initialized and re-executed to find a better value. We define the previous process as "re-fly." To verify the effectiveness of GFCS, we conducted extensive experiments on the CEC2013 test suite. The experimental results show that the GFCS algorithm has better performance compared to other algorithms when considering the quality of the obtained solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3D mesh denoising is a crucial pre-processing step in many graphics applications. However, existing data-driven mesh denoising models, primarily trained on synthetic white noise, are less effective when applied to real-world meshes with the noise of complex intensities and distributions. Moreover, how to comprehensively capture information from input meshes and apply suitable denoising models for feature-preserving mesh denoising remains a critical and unresolved challenge. This paper presents a rotation-Equivariant model-based Mesh Denoising (EMD) model and a Realistic Mesh Noise Generation (RMNG) model to address these issues. Our EMD model leverages rotation-equivariant features and self-attention weights of geodesic patches for more effective feature extraction, thereby achieving SOTA denoising results. The RMNG model, based on the Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) architecture, generates massive amounts of realistic noisy and noiseless mesh pairs data for data-driven mesh denoising model training, significantly benefiting real-world denoising tasks. To address the smooth degradation and loss of sharp edges commonly observed in captured meshes, we further introduce varying levels of Laplacian smoothing to input meshes during the paired training data generation, endowing the trained denoising model with feature recovery capabilities. Experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed method in preserving fine-grained features while removing noise on real-world captured meshes. • Introduced an EMD method using rotation-equivariant features for SOTA mesh denoising. • Developed an RMNG model to create realistic noisy-clean pairs, enhancing real-world denoising. • Proposed a method to add smoothing degradation in data generation, improving feature recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This study aimed to develop a novel ferroptosis-related gene-based prognostic signature for esophageal carcinoma (ESCA). Methods. The TCGA-ESCA gene expression profiles and corresponding clinical data were downloaded from the TCGA database. Ferroptosis-related genes were identified from the literature and public databases, which were intersected with the differentially expressed genes between ESCA and normal samples. After univariate Cox regression and random forest analyses, several ferroptosis-related feature genes were identified and used to construct a prognostic signature. Then, the prognostic value of the complex value and the correlation of the complex value with immune cell infiltration were analyzed. Moreover, function analysis, mutation analysis, and molecular docking on the ferroptosis-related feature genes were performed. Results. Based on the TCGA dataset and ferroptosis pathway genes, 1929 ferroptosis-related genes were preliminarily selected. Following univariate Cox regression analysis and survival analysis, 14 genes were obtained. Then, random forest analysis identified 10 ferroptosis key genes. These 10 genes were used to construct a prognostic complex value. It was found that low complex value indicated better prognosis compared with high complex value. In different ESCA datasets, there were similar differences in the proportion of immune cell distribution between the high and low complex value groups. Furthermore, TNKS1BP1, AC019100.7, KRI1, BCAP31, and RP11-408E5.5 were significantly correlated with ESCA tumor location, lymph node metastasis, and age of patients. KRI1 had the highest mutation frequency. BCAP31 had the strongest binding ability with small molecules DB12830, DB05812, and DB07307. Conclusion. We constructed a novel ferroptosis-related gene signature, which has the potential to predict patient survival and tumor-infiltrating immune cells of ESCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

KIF26B has been identified as an oncogene in several tumors; however, its utility as a prognostic indicator for various cancers has not yet been comprehensively evaluated. Here, we first examined how KIF26B intervenes in thirty-three cancers within the TCGA database, including potential immunological functions, and how it affects the prognosis. Based on the open databases TCGA, TIMER2, GEPIA2, GTEx, CPTAC, and HPA, we found that, when compared with normal tissues, KIF26B is overexpressed in 22 tumor tissues. Following a survival analysis, a relationship between the expression of KIF26B and the prognosis of various cancers was observed. Among the genetic alterations assessed, mutations were the most frequent. On the contrary, high phosphorylation levels of S977 were detected in breast cancer, KIRC, LUAD, and UCEC. We also found positive or negative correlations between KIF26B and the immune infiltration of endothelial cells and cancer-associated fibroblast infiltration. This could imply that patients may benefit from immunotherapy. Finally, KEGG pathways and GO enrichment analyses were implemented to identify the molecular mechanisms of KIF26B. This study illustrates the function of KIF26B from a pan-cancer perspective and offers a new horizon for cancer prognostic and immunotherapeutic investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Network pharmacology method was performed to analyze the mechanisms of BuYangHuanWu decoction on atherosclerosis. • Cytokines including IL1β, TGFB1, TNF-α, IL-6 are proved to be key pharmacological targets. • AS animal model was bulit and BuYangHuanWu decoction was determined to be effective in treating atherosclerosis. • NF-κB signaling pathway was blocked by BYHWD. Atherosclerosis (AS) is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease and has a high rate of morbidity and mortality. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) supplied many therapies for AS treatment for centuries. Among these treatments, BuYangHuanWu decoction (BYHWD) is a classic prescription. In this study, we analyzed the mechanisms of BYHWD in the treatment of AS by using a network pharmacology method. Our results revealed the mechanisms of BYHWD in treating AS, which is highly related to inflammation and apoptosis pathways, moreover, the genes including IL1β, TGFB1, TNF, IL6, NFκB1 are proved to be the key pharmacological targets for the treatment of AS. Furthermore, an AS rat model was established and the rats in the treatment group received different amounts of BYHWD. Serum lipid levels (TC/TG/HDL-C/LDL-C) and tissue oxidative stress levels (SOD, GSH-Px, CAT and MDA) were ameliorated in a dose-dependent manner. The morphology of the aortic intima in the BYHWD -treated groups was improved. Real-time PCR and Western blot analysis results indicated that inflammatory cytokines were suppressed and that the NF-κB signaling pathway was blocked by BYHWD. All of this evidence suggested that BYHWD is an ideal prescription for treating AS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine the radiosensitizing effect of apatinib on esophageal cancer cells, and to preliminarily investigate the underlying mechanism, KYSE-150 cells were treated with apatinib, x-ray or apatinib combined with x-ray, and compared with a blank control. It was observed that apatinib significantly inhibited vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) secretion and the proliferation of KYSE-150 cells in a dose-dependent manner. As the concentration of apatinib increased, the radiobiological parameters inactivation dose (D0), quasi domain does (Dq) and survival fraction (SF2) of KYSE-150 cells decreased, while the sensitization enhancement ratio SERD0 increased. The rate of apoptosis in cells treated with apatinib and x-ray was markedly higher compared with those of the blank control, x-ray and apatinib alone groups (P<0.05). The proportion of cells in the G2/M phase was significantly increased in the apatinib, x-ray and combination groups compared with the blank control group (P<0.05). Compared with the control and x-ray groups, combination treatment did not significantly alter the expression level of polyADP-ribose polymerase (PARP), although it significantly increased the expression of cleaved-PARP (P<0.05). Moreover, the expression of cell serine/threonine-protein kinase-2 (CHK2) was downregulated (P<0.05), whilst expression of the phosphorylated form, pCHK2, was significantly increased (P<0.05) in the combination group when compared with the control and x-ray groups. In conclusion, the present study suggested that apatinib increases the radiosensitivity of KYSE-150 esophageal cancer cells by inhibiting VEGF secretion and cell proliferation, and promoting apoptosis and cell cycle redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the primary challenges to apply the access control policy language XACML is the performance problem of the policy decision point (PDP), particularly when the PDP experience a great number of policies. The research on improving the PDP evaluation performance is of great significance. By combining with automaton theory an efficient policy decision engine is constructed in this paper, and attribute bitmaps are established statically for each subject, resource and action attribute of policies loaded by the policy decision engine. In evaluating access requests, the policy decision engine dynamically analyzes the requests and extracts the required attribute bitmaps to enforce the AND operation. According to the result of the AND operation, the policy decision engine matches the policies rapidly and gives out an authorization decision. The time that the policy decision engine takes to complete the evaluation of one access request is within 0.5 microsecond. This method not only greatly saves the storage space of policies, but also significantly reduces the time that the PDP takes to match the policies and evaluate access requests. Comparisons of the evaluation time taken by the policy decision engine with that taken by the Sun PDP, as well as XEngine and SBA-XACML, are made under different numbers of access requests. Experimental results show that the evaluation performance of the policy decision engine has a great improvement over that of the Sun PDP, XEngine and SBA-XACML. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aim to investigate the effects of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) transplantation on irradiation-induced skeletal muscle fibrosis. Sixty-four rabbits were randomly divided into ASCs group and PBS group followed by irradiation at unilateral hip with a single dose of 80 Gy. Nonirradiated side with normal skeletal muscle served as normal control. Skeletal muscle tissues were collected from eight rabbits in each group at 1 w, 4 w, 8 w, and 26 w after irradiation. Migration of ASCs was observed in the peripheral tissues along the needle passage in the injured muscle. The proportion of the area of collagen fibers to the total area in sections of ASCs group was lower than those of PBS groups at 4 w, 8 w, and 26 w after irradiation. Significant decrease was noted in the integrated optimal density of the transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) in the ASCs group compared with those of PBS group at 4 w, 8 w, and 26 w after irradiation. Moreover, the expression of TGF-β1 was lower in the ASCs group compared to those of the PBS group at each time point determined by Western blot analysis. ASCs transplantation could alleviate irradiation fibrosis by suppressing the level of TGF-β1 in the irradiated skeletal muscle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aim to investigate the effects of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) transplantation on irradiation-induced skeletal muscle fibrosis. Sixty-four rabbits were randomly divided into ASCs group and PBS group followed by irradiation at unilateral hip with a single dose of 80 Gy. Nonirradiated side with normal skeletal muscle served as normal control. Skeletal muscle tissues were collected from eight rabbits in each group at 1 w, 4 w, 8 w, and 26 w after irradiation. Migration of ASCs was observed in the peripheral tissues along the needle passage in the injured muscle. The proportion of the area of collagen fibers to the total area in sections of ASCs group was lower than those of PBS groups at 4 w, 8 w, and 26 w after irradiation. Significant decrease was noted in the integrated optimal density of the transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) in the ASCs group compared with those of PBS group at 4 w, 8 w, and 26 w after irradiation. Moreover, the expression of TGF-β1 was lower in the ASCs group compared to those of the PBS group at each time point determined by Western blot analysis. ASCs transplantation could alleviate irradiation fibrosis by suppressing the level of TGF-β1 in the irradiated skeletal muscle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]