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Due to the rapid progress of transition metal photocatalysis, developing novel and effective ruthenium photocatalysts and their corresponding heterogeneous counterparts is highly in demand. In this study, we first prepared tetraiodo-substituted 2,6-bis(1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)pyridine ruthenium(II), and further used this complex to construct 2,6-bis(1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)pyridine ruthenium(II) embedded porous organic polymers (POP-Ru). The as-prepared Ru(II) complex was employed as a photocatalyst, which showed higher photocatalytic activity than those of the commercial Ru(II) counterparts, but lower than that of the corresponding polymers. In particular, the polymer POP-Ru-1 has been disclosed to be highly efficient for the photosyntheses of thiocarbomates and disulfides, exhibiting a broad substrate scope. After simple separation workups, the photocatalyst could be recycled and reused for 10 times without obvious loss of its catalytic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Endoscopic necrosectomy has become the first-line treatment option for infectious necrotizing pancreatitis (INP), especially walled-off necrosis. However, the problems, including operation-related adverse events (AEs) and the need for multiple endoscopic procedures, have not been effectively addressed. We sought to evaluate the clinical safety and efficacy of anhydrous ethanol-assisted endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided transluminal necrosectomy in INP. Methods: A single-center observational cohort study of INP patients was conducted in a tertiary endoscopic center. Anhydrous ethanol-assisted EUS-guided transluminal necrosectomy (modified group) and conventional endoscopic necrosectomy (conventional group) were retrospectively compared in INP patients. The technical and clinical success rates, operation time, perioperative AEs, postoperative hospital stay, and recurrent INP rates were analyzed, respectively. Results: A total of 55 patients were enrolled. No statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups regarding baseline characteristics. Compared to patients in the conventional group, patients in the modified group demonstrated significantly reduced times of endoscopic transluminal necrosectomies (1.96 ± 0.89 vs. 2.73 ± 0.98; P = 0.004) and comparable perioperative AEs (P = 0.35). Meanwhile, no statistically significant differences were observed in the technical and clinical success rates (P = 0.92), operation time (P = 0.59), postoperative hospital stay (P = 0.36), and recurrent INP rates (P = 1.00) between the two groups. Conclusion: Anhydrous ethanol-assisted EUS-guided transluminal necrosectomy seemed safe and effective in treating INP. Compared with conventional endoscopic transluminal necrosectomy, its advantage was mainly in reducing the number of endoscopic necrosectomies without increasing perioperative AEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photosynthetic diazotrophs expressing iron-only (Fe-only) nitrogenase can be developed into a promising biofertilizer, as it is independent on the molybdenum availability in the soil. However, the expression of Fe-only nitrogenase in diazotrophs is repressed by the fixed nitrogen of the soil, limiting the efficiency of nitrogen fixation in farmland with low ammonium concentrations that are inadequate for sustainable crop growth. Here, we succeeded in constitutively expressing the Fe-only nitrogenase even in the presence of ammonium by controlling the transcription of Fe-only nitrogenase gene cluster (anfHDGK) with the transcriptional activator of Mo nitrogenase (NifA*) in several different ways, indicating that the engineered NifA* strains can be used as promising chassis cells for efficient expression of different types of nitrogenases. When applied as a biofertilizer, the engineered Rhodopseudomonas palustris effectively stimulated rice growth, contributing to the reduced use of chemical fertilizer and the development of sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a malignant tumor that occurs in the epithelium and mucosal glands of the nasopharynx, and its pathological type is mostly poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Since the nasopharynx is located deep in the head and neck, early diagnosis and timely treatment are critical to patient survival. However, nasopharyngeal carcinoma tumors are small in size and vary widely in shape, and it is also a challenge for experienced doctors to delineate tumor contours. In addition, due to the special location of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, complex treatments such as radiotherapy or surgical resection are often required, so accurate pathological diagnosis is also very important for the selection of treatment options. However, the current deep learning segmentation model faces the problems of inaccurate segmentation and unstable segmentation process, which are mainly limited by the accuracy of data sets, fuzzy boundaries, and complex lines. In order to solve these two challenges, this article proposes a hybrid model WET-UNet based on the UNet network as a powerful alternative for nasopharyngeal cancer image segmentation. On the one hand, wavelet transform is integrated into UNet to enhance the lesion boundary information by using low-frequency components to adjust the encoder at low frequencies and optimize the subsequent computational process of the Transformer to improve the accuracy and robustness of image segmentation. On the other hand, the attention mechanism retains the most valuable pixels in the image for us, captures the remote dependencies, and enables the network to learn more representative features to improve the recognition ability of the model. Comparative experiments show that our network structure outperforms other models for nasopharyngeal cancer image segmentation, and we demonstrate the effectiveness of adding two modules to help tumor segmentation. The total data set of this article is 5000, and the ratio of training and verification is 8:2. In the experiment, accuracy = 85.2% and precision = 84.9% can show that our proposed model has good performance in nasopharyngeal cancer image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: To explore the discriminatory diagnostic value of multimodal ultrasound(US) combined with blood cell analysis (BCA) for Granulomatous Lobular Mastitis (GLM) and Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC) of the breast. METHODS: A total of 157 breast disease patients were collected and divided into two groups based on postoperative pathological results: the GLM group (57 cases with 57 lesions) and the IDC group (100 cases with 100 lesions). Differences in multimodal ultrasound features and the presence of BCA were compared between the two groups. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to calculate the optimal cutoff values, sensitivity, specificity, 95% confidence interval (CI), and the area under the curve (AUC) for patient age, lesion size, lesion resistive index (RI), and white blood cell (WBC) count in BCA. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, diagnostic accuracy, and AUC were calculated for different diagnostic methods. RESULTS: There were statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) observed between GLM and IDC patients in terms of age, breast pain, the factors in Conventional US (lesion size, RI, nipple delineation, solitary/multiple lesions, margin, liquefaction area, growth direction, microcalcifications, posterior echogenicity and abnormal axillary lymph nodes), the factors in CEUS (contrast agent enhancement intensity, enhancement pattern, enhancement range, and crab-like enhancement) and the factors in BCA (white blood cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes and monocytes). ROC curve analysis results showed that the optimal cutoff values for distinguishing GLM from IDC were 40.5 years for age, 7.15 cm for lesion size, 0.655 for lesion RI, and 10.525*109/L for white blood cells. The diagnostic accuracy of conventional US combined with CEUS (US-CEUS) was the highest (97.45%). The diagnostic performance AUCs for US-CEUS, CEUS, and US were 0.965, 0.921 and 0.832, respectively. CONCLUSION: Multifactorial analysis of multimodal ultrasound features and BCA had high clinical application value in the differential diagnosis of GLM and IDC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the advancement of high definition, 5G technologies, the Internet of Things, and Artificial Intelligence, the demand for optical networks has increased widely. Optical communication networks offer various metrics, including high transmission capacity, efficient anti-interference, minimum transmission loss and robustness, and so on, that offer opportunities for communication networks. To satisfy the optical network demands, effective network resource utilization is essential. Therefore, developing a tool with improved Quality of Transmission (QoT) accuracy in optical networks is necessary. Recently, Artificial intelligence (AI) approaches have provided various opportunities to resolve these issues and the deep learning (DL) algorithms offer improved performance over the conventional methods. This paper developed a novel DL-based cognitive QoT prediction model for Quantum optical communication networks. This proposed model predicts the QoT for the QoS (Quality of Service) setup using the DL model with the transmission computation. The proposed model utilized an optimized DL model called CNN-LSTM for the prediction process using the signal and link characteristics as input features. The DL model is trained using the transmission equations. The hyperparameters of the neural network are optimized using frog leap optimization to improve the predictive performance. The experimental results highlight the enhanced and improved version of the proposed model, and the results are compared with the conventional systems in terms of performance measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) still recurs or leads to distant metastasis in 10%–30% patients after standardized treatment, which increases the serious toxic side effects and treatment difficulty with recourse therapy. In this study, we found that the biological clock gene Period1(PER1) was expressed at low levels in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell (CNE2)and NPC tissues, and overexpression of PER1 decreased the invasion and migration ability of NPC cells and increased the expression of lipid peroxidation (LPO), Fe2+ and glutathione (GSH). The expression of glutathione peroxidase (GPX4) and solute carrier family 7 member 11 (SLC7A11) was found to be decreased in CNE2 cells and tissues of NPC. Our results suggest that PER1 may induce ferroptosis in CNE2 by inhibiting the expression of GPX4 and SLC7A11, thereby causing LPO and Fe2+ accumulation in CNE2 and finally inducing ferroptosis in CNE2. This novel mechanism may provide a new direction for the treatment of NPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct rotating hybrid axion-miniboson stars (RHABSs), which are asymptotically flat, stationary, axially symmetric solutions of (3+1)-dimensional Einstein–Klein–Gordon theory. RHABSs consist of an axion field (ground state) and a free complex scalar field (first excited state). The solutions of RHABSs have two types of nodes, including 1 S 2 S state and 1 S 2 P state. For different axion decay constants f a , we present the mass M of RHABSs as a function of the synchronized frequency, as well as the nonsynchronized frequency, and explore the mass M versus the angular momentum J for the synchronized frequency and the nonsynchronized frequency, respectively. Furthermore, we study the effect of axion decay constant f a and free scalar field mass μ f on the existence domain of the synchronized frequency ω . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the potential association between a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and lumbar bone mineral density (BMD) among premenopausal women, with an additional examination of the mediating role of serum total cholesterol (TC). Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1809 women aged 20–49 years with at least one live birth between 2011 and 2018, drawn from the NHANES dataset, were analyzed. GDM history was identified through questionnaires. Using weighted multiple linear regression, we assessed the relationship between GDM history and lumbar BMD. Additionally, mediation analysis was performed to investigate the potential mediating role of TC. Results: The fully adjusted linear regression model revealed a negative association between a history of GDM and lumbar BMD, indicating a reduction in lumbar BMD (β = -0.023, 95% CI: -0.043, -0.003, P = 0.0275). Subgroup analysis highlighted a more pronounced trend in individuals aged ≥ 35 years and with a body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m². Furthermore, mediation analysis demonstrated a significant direct effect of a history of GDM on lumbar BMD (P < 0.0001), with serum TC playing a partial mediating role in this interaction (5.33%, P = 0.028). Conclusions: In women aged 20–49 years within the United States, a history of GDM was associated with diminished lumbar BMD, potentially mediated through serum TC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A direct and ultra-sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) immunoassay method is introduced for the detection of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. This methodology is based on a sandwich-structured complex probe (SCP) mechanism, combined with target-induced strand displacement. Moreover, by leveraging the amplified SERS signal from gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) corresponding to an increase in bacterial count, we achieve quantitative determination. The SCP demonstrates remarkable specificity, sensitivity, and anti-interference capability in bacterial detection. The detection limits for both bacterial strains are as low as 10 CFU/mL. In our selectivity tests, all peak intensities had standard deviations (n = 3) below 6%. Recoveries in normal human serum were 101–110% for E. coli and 96–101% for S. aureus. In milk, the recoveries were 102–105% for E. coli and 100–105% for S. aureus, respectively, demonstrating a high level of accuracy and resistance to interference. In addition, the SCP offers a dual-detection capability, enabling simultaneous diagnosis of multiple targets, which greatly simplifies the testing procedure. The findings underscore that this immunoassay platform fulfills the demand for rapid and precise pathogenic bacterial diagnosis, holding substantial potential for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ag NPs were generated by reducing silver ions with sodium borohydride and then loaded into a zirconium-based MOF, PCN-222, resulting in a deep purple powder, PCN-222@AgNPs, which exhibited photocatalytic activity. The material was characterized and found to have Ag NPs uniformly dispersed in the pores of PCN-222, with a content of 6.0306%. PCN-222@AgNPs had rod-shaped structures of micrometer sizes with irregular spherical Ag NPs on their surfaces, as revealed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. In experiments on Ag NPs release and reactive oxygen species (ROS) detection, PCN-222@AgNPs effectively released Ag NPs into an aqueous solution and promote ROS generation. Finally, the antibacterial activities of PCN-222@AgNPs against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were assessed by in vitro experiments. Results indicated that PCN-222@AgNPs had lower minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) compared to PCN-222 in both light and dark environments. The MBC further decreased under light conditions due to the enhanced photocatalytic performance of the composite material and the promotion of Ag NPs release by ROS. These findings demonstrate that PCN-222@AgNPs have synergistic antibacterial effects under visible light irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) show increasing transmissibility and infectivity and induce substantial injuries to human health and the ecology. Therefore, it is vital to understand the related features for controlling infection. In this study, SARS-CoV-2 WIV04 (prototype) and five VOCs (Beta, Delta, Omicron BA.1, BA.2 and BA.5 variants) were inoculated in Vero cells to observe their growth activities. Apart from evaluating the environmental stability at different temperatures, residual virus titers and infectivity at different temperatures (4 °C, room temperature (RT) and 37 °C) were measured over 7 days. The experiment also assessed the infectivity for different incubation durations. The growth capacity assay suggested that the WIV04, Beta and Delta variants replicated efficiently in Vero cells compared with Omicron Variants, and BA.2 replicated more efficiently in Vero cells than BA.1 and BA.5. In addition, all variants exhibited longer survivals at 4 °C and could remain infectious after 7 days, compared to RT' survival after 5 days and at 37 °C after 1 day. The virus infection assay indicated that the Omicron variant had a weaker ability to infect cells compared to the WIV04, Beta and Delta strains, and a longer infection time was required for these strains, except for BA.2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the widespread use of Internet of things(IoT) devices, it generates an enormous volume of data, and it is a challenge to mine the IoT data value while ensuring security and privacy. Federated learning is a decentralized approach for training data located on edge devices, such as mobile phones and IoT devices, while keeping privacy, efficiency, and security. However, the Non-IID (non-independent and identically distributed) data, always greatly impacts the performance of the global model. In this paper, we propose a FedDynamic algorithm to solve the statistical challenge of federated learning caused by Non-IID. As Non-IID data can lead to significant differences in model parameters between edge devices, we set different weights for different devices during model aggregation to get a high-performance global model. We analyze and exact key indices (local model accuracy, local data quality, and model difference between local models and the global model), which can reflect the quality of the model, and calculate the aggregation weight for edge devices based on the key indices. Furthermore, we dynamically adjust aggregation weight based on accuracy's variety to solve weight staleness during the training process. Experiments on the MNIST, FMNIST, EMNIST, CINIC-10 and CIFAR-10 datasets show that the FedDynamic algorithm has better accuracy and convergence performance, compared to the FedAvg, FedProx and Scaffold algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how teacher leaders enact leadership practice across a regional learning network, Master Teacher Studios, an officially initiated teacher learning program in Shanghai. It investigates the leadership strategies that are employed for cross-boundary endeavors in the network. The concepts of boundary and boundary crossing, as expounded by Wenger and others, are used to guide an examination of the process of teacher leadership enactment across a network, which is elucidated as interpreting the boundaries, selecting/designing boundary objects, and participating in communities of practice. The paper fosters an understanding of teacher leadership practice as boundary work in a network context, and delineates a process of teacher leadership enactment, as well as the importance of teacher leader identity in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser ultrasonic testing (LUT) is a non-contact and non-destructive testing (NDT) technique which can detect the wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) component defect in hot state. However, the complex surface topography of the WAAM component induces a low signal to noise ratio (SNR) and a poor detection sensitivity. In this paper, a denoising method based on improved empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (ICEEMDAN) and Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT) was applied in the LUT of the WAAM component. All the signals in the LUT scan maps with low SNR were decomposed into a series of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) using ICEEMDAN. The Pearson correlation coefficient of the original signal and the IMFs were calculated. The high frequency (HF) and low frequency (LF) IMFs with correlation coefficients under the threshold were denoised using WPT and deleted, respectively. The denoised IMFs and the IMFs without processing were stacked up to compose the denoised signal and plot the denoised scan maps.   The denoising results show that the proposed method improved the LUT efficiency and sensitivity. Finally, the denoising method was applied and verified in the LUT of the WAAM nuclear power pipeline nozzle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim This study aimed to investigate the effects of substituting inorganic iron in the diet of weanling piglets with iron-rich Candida utilis on gut morphology, immunity, barrier, and microbiota. Methods and Results Seventy-two healthy 28-day-old Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire desexed male weanling piglets were randomly assigned to 2 groups (n  = 6), with 6 pens per group and 6 piglets in each pen. The control group was fed a basal diet containing ferrous sulfate (104 mg kg−1 iron), while the experimental group was fed a basal diet supplemented with iron-rich C. utilis (104 mg kg−1 iron). The results show that the growth performance of weanling piglets showed no significantly differences (P  > 0.05). Iron-rich C. utilis significantly elevated villus height and decreased crypt depth in the duodenum and jejunum (P  < 0.05). Additionally, there was a significant increase in SIgA content, a down-regulated of pro-inflammatory factors expression, and an up-regulated of anti-inflammatory factors expression in the jejunum and ileum of piglets fed iron-rich C. utilis (P  < 0.05). The mRNA expression levels of ZO-1, Claudin-1, Occludin , and Mucin2 in the jejunum were significantly increased by iron-rich C. utilis , and were significantly increased ZO-1 and Claudin-1 in the ileum (P  < 0.05). The colonic microbiota, however, was not significantly affected by iron-rich C. utilis (P  > 0.05). Conclusion Iron-rich C. utilis improved intestinal morphology and structure, as well as intestinal immunity and intestinal barrier function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing the physiological response of Phalaenopsis aphrodite leaves to CO2 enrichment, and exploring the application of CO2 fertilization in the greenhouse of Phalaenopsis aphrodite, it could provide theoretical and tech¬nical support for effectively improving the cultivation efficiency of Phalaenopsis aphrodite in greenhouse. The CO2 enrichment experiment was carried out with the 2. 5-inch cup seedlings of Phalaenopsis aphrodite Big Pepper as the materials, and the CO2 releasing time (2 levels) and CO2 concentration (4 levels) were taken as the investigation fac¬tors. A total of 8 treatments were set up according to the random block experiment. And the samples were taken on the 1 st, 3 rd, 8 th, 18 th and 30 th day after the treatment of CO2 enrichment to analyze the effects of CO2 enrich¬ment on the content of osmotic adjustment substance and antioxidant enzyme activity in the leaves of Phalaenopsis aphrodite. The results showed that: Whether at AM 8:00--11:00 or PM 19:00 -- 23:00, the MDA content, soluble protein content, total phenolic content, SOD activity, POD activity and CAT activity in the leaves of Phalaenopsis aphrodite showed a downward trend after 18 days when the the concentration of CO2 was 400, 600 and 800 jumol/ mol. However, when the concentration of CO2 enrichment was 1 000 jumol • mol-1, the content of soluble protein, POD activity and CAT activity in the leaves of Phalaenopsis aphrodite still showed an upward trend on the 30 th day. The results showed that the leaves of Phalaenopsis aphrodite began to adapt to the environmental conditions of CO2 enrichment after 18 days when the concentration of CO2 enrichment was below 800 jumol • mol-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cell cycle arrest markers tissue inhibitor metalloproteinases-2 (TIMP-2) and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) have been identified as potential biomarkers of acute kidney injury (AKI) in critically ill adults in intensive care units and cardiac surgery-associated AKI (CSA-AKI). However, the clinical impact on all-cause AKI remains unclear. Here, we report a meta-analysis performed to evaluate the predictive value of this biomarker for all-cause AKI. The PubMed, Cochrane, and EMBASE databases were systematically searched up to April 1, 2022. We used the Quality Assessment Tool for Diagnosis Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) to assess the quality. We extracted useful information from these studies and calculated the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). Twenty studies with 3625 patients were included in the meta-analysis. The estimated sensitivity of urinary [TIMP-2] × [IGFBP7] in the diagnosis of all-cause AKI was 0.79 (95% CI 0.72, 0.84), and the specificity was 0.70 (95% CI 0.62, 0.76). The value of urine [TIMP-2] × [IGFBP7] in the early diagnosis of AKI was assessed using a random effects model. The pooled positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were 2.6 (95% CI 2.1, 3.3), 0.31 (95% CI 0.23, 0.40), and 8 (95% CI 6, 13), respectively. The AUROC was 0.81 (95% CI 0.78–0.84). No significant publication bias was observed in eligible studies. Subgroup analysis indicated that the diagnostic value was related to the severity of AKI, time measurement, and clinical setting. This study shows that urinary [TIMP-2] × [IGFBP7] is a reliable effective predictive test for all cause-AKI. However, whether and how urinary [TIMP-2] × [IGFBP7] can be used in clinical diagnosis still requires further research and clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of causal discovery is especially challenging when the variables of interest cannot be directly measured. In measurement models, the measured variables were generated by latent causal variables that are causally related to each other, and by estimating the measurement model from measured data, one is able to recover the latent variables and their causal relations. In this paper, we provide precise sufficient identifiability conditions for the linear pure measurement model, and show what information of the causal structure can be recovered from observed data without prior knowledge of data distributions. In particular, we first show that, based on second-order statistics, although the pure measurement model is in general not fully identifiable under the assumption of two pure measurement variables, we can identify the set of all candidate measurement models. We then further prove that the pure measurement model can be identified uniquely based on higher-order statistics. Next, to address more general situations, we offer the identifiability conditions of linear measurement models with arbitrary noise distributions. We finally develop a unified method to learn pure measurement models from data. Experimental results on both synthetic and real-world data demonstrate the usefulness of our theory and the effectiveness of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyze the pregnancy outcomes of patients presenting with infertility solely due to diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) and treated by assisted reproductive technology (ART), including artificial insemination by husband (AIH) and in vitro fertilization (IVF). Methods: This was a retrospective study of subfertile patients due to DOR attending the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Guangzhou, China, between January 2010 and October 2015. Patients were assigned into either the AIH or IVF group. Within each group, these patients were further subgrouped based on their serum basal follicle-stimulating hormone (bFSH) level (10 ≤ bFSH ≤ 12IU/L and bFSH > 12IU/L) and age (20-30, 31-35, 36-40, and 41-45 years). The live birth rates were compared among these groups and subgroups. Results: A total of 1,003 patients with a median age of 38.91 (21-45) years were enrolled in the study. The live birth rate following AIH was 5.61% (25/446), which was significantly lower than that following IVF (25.13%; 140/557). In the subgroup analysis, the cumulative live birth rates in AIH group were significantly lower than those in the IVF groups (in the 10-12 IU/L bFSH subgroup, 13.74% vs. 41.13% (P<0.05) for patients aged ≤35 years, and 4.82% vs. 19.77% (P<0.05) for patients aged >35 years; in the >12 IU/L bFSH subgroup, 9.52% vs. 29.91% (P<0.05) for patients aged ≤35 years, and 5.71% vs. 20.55% (P<0.05) for patients aged >35 years). Longitudinal analysis showed that majority of live births, in AIH or IVF groups, were achieved in the first two cycles. Conclusions: In subfertile women with DOR, live birth rates following AIH were significantly lower than IVF, especially for the aged women. Considering the low efficacy of AIH and that majority of live births were achieved in the first two cycles, we suggest no more than two AIH treatment attempts for the aged women with DOR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: This research assessed the effect of organic iron made by Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast iron) on digestion, utilization, antioxidation and caecum microflora in weaned piglets. An amount of 20 piglets which had been weaned after 28 days were divided into 4 groups. The basal diet of these 4 groups contained, respectively, 104 mg/kg iron of ferric sulfate or 84 mg/kg, 104 mg/kg or 124 mg/kg iron of yeast iron. The results suggested that a diet containing 84 mg/kg iron of yeast iron has the same effect as a diet containing 104 mg/kg iron of ferric sulfate, and that a diet containing 104 or 124 mg/kg iron of yeast iron is superior to a diet containing 104 mg/kg iron of ferric sulfate. Organic iron is expected to replace inorganic iron used in diets as an iron source. Organic iron possesses high absorption efficiency and low fecal iron excretion. This study aims to study the effect of organic iron produced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast iron) on digestion, utilization, antioxidation and caecum microflora in weaned piglets. In total, 20 piglets that had been weaned after 28 days were divided into 4 groups, each of which followed a different basal diet. The basal diet of each of these 4 groups contained, respectively, 104 mg/kg iron (ferrous sulfate, CON), 84 mg/kg iron (yeast iron, LSC), 104 mg/kg iron (yeast iron, MSC) or 124 mg/kg iron (yeast iron, HSC). This experiment lasted 35 d. The apparent digestibility of iron in LSC, MSC and HMS was higher than that in CON (p < 0.01) and the fecal iron content in LSC, MSC and HMS was lower than that in CON (p < 0.01). Serum iron contents in LSC, MSC and HMS were higher than that in CON (p < 0.01). The iron contents of the heart, lungs, liver, kidney and left gluteus muscle in the MSC and HMS groups were higher than that in CON and LSC (p < 0.05). Serum catalase, glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase activity, superoxide anion, glutathione, hydroxyl free radical scavenging rate, total antioxidant capacity, and liver superoxide anion clearance rate and peroxidase in MSC and HMS were higher than that in CON and LSC (p < 0.05). The contents of nitric oxide and peroxide of the weaned piglets in MSC and HMS were lower than that in CON and LSC (p < 0.05). The abundance of Firmicutes, Blautia and Peptococcus in LSC, HSC and MSC was higher than that in CON (p < 0.01). The abundance of Lactobacillus in CON and LSC was higher than that in MSC and HSC (p < 0.01). The abundance of Acinetobacter, Streptococcus and Prevotella in LSC, MSC and HSC was lower than that in CON (p < 0.01). The results suggested that a diet containing 84 mg/kg iron of yeast iron has the same effect as a diet containing 104 mg/kg iron of ferric sulfate, and that a diet containing 104 or 124 mg/kg iron of yeast iron is superior to a diet containing 104 mg/kg iron of ferric sulfate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probiotics interfere with pathogenic microorganisms or reinstate the natural microbiome. Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans are well-known emerging pathogenic bacteria/fungi for dental caries. In this study, three probiotic Lactobacilli strains (Lactobacillus plantarum 8014, L. plantarum 14917, and Lactobacillus salivarius 11741) were tested on S. mutans and C. albicans clinical isolates using a multispecies biofilm model simulating clinical cariogenic conditions. The ten pairs of clinical isolates of S. mutans and C. albicans were obtained from children with severe early childhood caries. Our study findings show a remarkable inhibitory effect of L. plantarum 14917 on S. mutans and C. albicans clinical isolates, resulting in significantly reduced growth of S. mutans and C. albicans, a compromised biofilm structure with a significantly smaller microbial and extracellular matrix and a less virulent microcolony structure. FurTre, plantaricin, an antimicrobial peptide produced by L. plantarum, inhibited the growth of S. mutans and C. albicans. The mechanistic assessment indicated that L. plantarum 14917 had a positive inhibitory impact on the expression of S. mutans and C. albicans virulence genes and virulent structure, such as C. albicans hypha formation. Future utilization of L. plantarum 14917 and/or its antimicrobial peptide plantaricin could lead to a new paradigm shift in dental caries prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategies on the construction of enantiomerically pure silicon‐stereogenic silanes generally relies on desymmetrization of prochiral and symmetric substrates. However, dynamic kinetic asymmetric transformations of organosilicon compounds have remained underdeveloped and unforeseen owing to a lack of an effective method for deracemization of the static silicon stereocenters. Here we report the first Rh‐catalyzed dynamic kinetic asymmetric intramolecular hydrosilylation (DyKAH) with "silicon‐centered" racemic hydrosilanes that enables the facile preparation of silicon‐stereogenic benzosiloles in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities. The special rhodium catalyst controlled by non‐diastereopure‐type mixed phosphine‐phosphoramidite ligand with axial chirality and multiple stereocenters can induce enantioselectivity efficiently in this novel DyKAH reaction. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that the amide moiety in chiral ligand plays important role in facilitating the SN2 substitution of chloride ion to realize the chiral inversion of silicon center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategies on the construction of enantiomerically pure silicon‐stereogenic silanes generally relies on desymmetrization of prochiral and symmetric substrates. However, dynamic kinetic asymmetric transformations of organosilicon compounds have remained underdeveloped and unforeseen owing to a lack of an effective method for deracemization of the static silicon stereocenters. Here we report the first Rh‐catalyzed dynamic kinetic asymmetric intramolecular hydrosilylation (DyKAH) with "silicon‐centered" racemic hydrosilanes that enables the facile preparation of silicon‐stereogenic benzosiloles in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities. The special rhodium catalyst controlled by non‐diastereopure‐type mixed phosphine‐phosphoramidite ligand with axial chirality and multiple stereocenters can induce enantioselectivity efficiently in this novel DyKAH reaction. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that the amide moiety in chiral ligand plays important role in facilitating the SN2 substitution of chloride ion to realize the chiral inversion of silicon center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AI provides a new method for massive simulated data calculations in molecular dynamics, materials, and other scientific computing fields. However, the complex structures and large-scale parameters of neural network models make them difficult to develop and train. The automatic parallel technology based on graph algorithms is one of the most promising methods to solve this problem, despite the low efficiency in the design, implementation, and execution of distributed parallel policies for large-scale neural network models. In this paper, we propose an adaptive distributed parallel training method based on the dynamic generation of critical DAG (directed acyclic graph) paths, called FD-DPS, to solve this efficiency problem. Firstly, the proposed model splits operators with the dimension of the tensor, which can expand the space available for model parallelism. Secondly, a dynamic critical path generation method is employed to determine node priority changes in the DAG of the neural network models. Finally, the model implements the optimal scheduling of critical paths based on the priority of the nodes, thereby improving the performance of parallel strategies. Our experiments show that FD-DPS can achieve 12.76% and 11.78% faster training on PnasNet_mobile and ResNet_200 models, respectively, compared with the MP-DPS and Fast methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How multiple ovulations happen in prolific goats is still unknown even though studies on ovarian physiology and folliculogenesis have made extensive progress. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenous regulatory factors and regulate structural gene expression mainly at the post-transcriptional level. In this study, in the follicular phase, six large follicles were collected from prolific Dazu black goat and used to generate RNA libraries for RNA sequencing. Based on the litter size and average number of ovulatory follicles in Dazu black goats, the largest three follicles were sorted as ovulatory follicles, and the remaining as subordinate ones. In total, 418 known miRNAs and 110 novel miRNAs were found, and the expression of six randomly selected miRNAs was validated by quantitative PCR analysis. Nine miRNAs were differently expressed between the ovulatory and subordinate follicles (p < 0.01). Chi-miR-582-5p, novel-130, chi-miR-214-3p, and chi-miR-500-5p were upregulated in the ovulatory group, and chi-miR-383, chi-miR-130b-5p, chi-miR-92a-3p, chi-miR-125b-5p, and novel-9 were downregulated in the same group. Chi-miR-130b-5p and chi-miR-214-3p were predicted to target at LHR (XM_013967581.1), GDF9 (NM_001285708.1), BMP15 (NM_001285588.1), and CYP19A1 (XM_013967046.1). In conclusion, nine miRNAs were differently expressed between ovulatory and subordinate follicles, and chi-miR-130b-5p and chi-miR-214-3p were predicted to regulate the expression of genes involved in gonadotropin hormone signaling and oocyte-derived growth factors. Additional studies are needed to confirm these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: This research assessed dietary-accommodated pomelo peel powder (PPP) affected the growth performance, diarrhea, immunity, antioxidant capacity, ileum morphology, and colonic microflora of weaned piglets. Thirty piglets were weaned at day 28 and divided into three groups: basal diet (CON); CON accommodated with 75 mg/kg chlortetracycline; and CON accommodated with 8 g/kg PPP. These results showed that PPP increased growth performance, relieved diarrhea, and improved the intestinal microflora of weaned piglets. Therefore, PPP is expected to replace antibiotics as a feed additive to alleviate weaning stress and ensure the normal growth and development of piglets. This study provided a theoretical basis for PPP replacing antibiotics in weaned piglets' diet. This trial evaluated how dietary-accommodated pomelo peel powder (PPP) affected average daily feed intake (ADFI) and average daily gain (ADG), diarrhea, antioxidation, and colonic microbial in weaned piglets. Thirty piglets weaned at 28 d were divided into three groups: a basal diet (CON); a CON containing 75 mg/kg chlortetracycline (CTC); and a CON containing 8 g/kg (PPP). This trial had a period of 28 days. Piglets supplemented with PPP had higher ADFI and ADG than piglets in CTC and CON (p < 0.05). The diarrhea rate in PPP and CTC was lower than in CON in the 3rd and 4th weeks (p < 0.05). Serum superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase enzyme activities, and total antioxidant capacity in PPP were higher than those in CON (p < 0.05). Serum interleukin (IL)-4, insulin-like growth factor-I, immunoglobulin (Ig)A, and IgG concentrations in the PPP and CTC groups were higher than those in the CON group (p < 0.05). Serum IL-1β, IL-8, IL-17, and interferon (IFN)-γ concentrations and the cecal pH in PPP were lower than those in CON (p < 0.05). Serum IL-1β, IFN-γ, and IgA concentrations of piglets in PPP were lower than in CTC (p < 0.05). The villus height and villus height/crypt depth of the ileum of piglets in PPP and CTC were higher than those in CON (p < 0.05), but there was no difference between PPP and CTC (p > 0.05). The Firmicutes and Cyanobacteria relative abundances in PPP and CTC (p < 0.05) were lower than those in CON, whereas the Bacteroidetes relative abundances in PPP and CTC were higher than those in CON. The Prevotellaceae relative abundance in CTC was higher than in CON (p < 0.05), whereas the Lactobacillaceae relative abundance in CTC was lower than in CON (p < 0.05). The Ruminococcaceae relative abundance in PPP was higher than in CON (p < 0.05), whereas the Veillonellaceae relative abundance in PPP was lower than in CON (p < 0.05). PPP can improve ADFI and ADG, relieve diarrhea, and enhance the colonic microflora of weaned piglets. Therefore, PPP is expected to replace CTC as a feed additive to alleviate weaning stress and ensure normal growth and development of piglets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating artificial enzymes onto nanostructures target‐ and site‐specifically is still a challenge. Here we show that target miRNAs trigger the formation of DNAzyme site‐specifically at the tip of filamentous phage for detecting miRNA biomarkers. Through an antibody‐modified oligonucleotide, the tip of the phage with magnetic nanoparticles on the sidewall captures a target miRNA, inducing the formation of DNAzyme that extends from the phage tip through a hybridization chain reaction. After magnetic separation, the resultant complex catalyzes a colorimetric reaction with the signal correlated to target concentrations, leading to the quantification of miRNAs with a detection limit of 5.0 fM, about 103 folds lower than the phage‐free approach. Our approach can differentiate miRNA mutants and quantify miRNA in human plasma, tumor cells, and tissues with high sensitivity, suggesting that the target‐triggered integration of enzymes and phages holds promise for searching for new catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating artificial enzymes onto nanostructures target‐ and site‐specifically is still a challenge. Here we show that target miRNAs trigger the formation of DNAzyme site‐specifically at the tip of filamentous phage for detecting miRNA biomarkers. Through an antibody‐modified oligonucleotide, the tip of the phage with magnetic nanoparticles on the sidewall captures a target miRNA, inducing the formation of DNAzyme that extends from the phage tip through a hybridization chain reaction. After magnetic separation, the resultant complex catalyzes a colorimetric reaction with the signal correlated to target concentrations, leading to the quantification of miRNAs with a detection limit of 5.0 fM, about 103 folds lower than the phage‐free approach. Our approach can differentiate miRNA mutants and quantify miRNA in human plasma, tumor cells, and tissues with high sensitivity, suggesting that the target‐triggered integration of enzymes and phages holds promise for searching for new catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi pathogenic microorganisms determination method is reported using DNA composites encapsulated DNA silver nanocluster (AgNCs)/graphene oxide (GO)-based system through rolling cycle (RCA) amplification. Firstly, two different RCA-based DNA composites are assembled, coupled with thousands of DNA-stabilized AgNCs probe and ssDNA aptamer specific for two pathogen bacteria targets. GO was then introduced into the system to capture ssDNA aptamer of DNA composites and as a selective fluorescence quencher of DNA/AgNCs. Upon recognizing the target bacteria, ssDNA aptamer part would combine with bacteria and release from the surface of GO. Thus, DNA/AgNCs of RCA-based DNA composites can generate strong fluorescence signal. With the fluorescent report of RCADNA-AgNCs/530 and RCADNA-AgNCs/625, the assay successfully detect Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus at concentrations as low as 38 CFU/mL, and a highly selective and efficient sensing platform was achieved. Therefore, this RCA/DNA-AgNCs/GO-based platform shows excellent application in multi pathogenic microorganisms determination and potential clinic therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiphase flows are encountered in various industries, and the Coriolis flowmeter (CFM) is considered a high potential flowmeter for the metering of these flows. However, the decoupling effect and asymmetrical gas distribution in a CFM might decrease the accuracy of its multiphase flow metering The asymmetry of gas distribution in a CFM and its influence on the metering accuracy have only been qualitatively investigated in a few studies. The present paper quantitatively describes the gas distribution asymmetry in several CFMs under different flow conditions by numerical simulation. The simulation methodology is developed and validated by a results comparison with a conducted experiment and published data for bubbly, stratified and transitional flow regimes. U-shaped and triangle-shaped CFMs of different diameters are investigated at different gas volume fractions and flow rates. It is shown that the increase in the gas volume fraction and the reduction in the mixture flow rate lead to the increase in the gas distribution asymmetry. The strong correlation between the gas distribution asymmetry and the experimentally observed CFM error is demonstrated. The correction of the CFM error is proposed based on this correlation allowing the metering error to be decreased from 34% to 10% for the investigated conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AMH, KISS1R and GDF9 genes play a vital role in human and animal reproduction and might be used as the genetic markers for the reproduction traits selection. The aim of this study was to screen the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the AMH, KISS1R and GDF9 genes and to determine the correlations between these SNPs and the litter size in goats. Nine single SNPs within these genes were used for genotyping of the 190 Dazu black goat populations by SNaPshot technique. The polymorphisms of nine SNPs within these genes were detected in Dazu black goats. The significant correlation was observed between one SNP (g.89172108A > C) within the AMH gene and the litter size of second born in Dazu black goats (p < 0.05). The SNP was located in exon 4 (XM_018050765.1) of the AMH gene and was one nonsynonymous substitution, which resulted in a change of an amino acid from Glutamine to Proline (Gln38Pro). These results suggested that the nonsynonymous SNP g.89172108A > C of AMH gene could be used as a potential genetic marker for Marker-assisted selection (MAS) in goats breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vibrio harveyi is one of the most serious bacterial pathogens to aquatic animals worldwide. Evidence is mounting that coinfections caused by multiple pathogens are common in nature and can alter the severity of diseases in marine animals. However, bacterial coinfections involving V. harveyi have received little attention in mariculture. In this study, the results of pathogen isolation indicated that bacterial coinfection was a common and overlooked risk for hybrid groupers (♀ Epinephelus polyphekadion × ♂ E. fuscoguttatus) reared in an industrialized flow-through pattern in Hainan Province. The artificial infection in hybrid groupers revealed that coinfections with V. harveyi strain GDH11385 (a serious lethal causative agent to groupers) and other isolated pathogens resulted in higher mortality (46.67%) than infection with strain GDH11385 alone (33.33%), whereas no mortality was observed in single infection with other pathogens. Furthermore, the intestine, liver and spleen of hybrid groupers are target organs for bacterial coinfections involving V. harveyi. Based on the infection patterns found in this study, we propose that V. harveyi may have a specific spatiotemporal expression pattern of virulence genes when infecting the host. Taken together, bacterial coinfection with V. harveyi is a neglected high-risk lethal causative agent to hybrid groupers in the industrialized flow-through aquaculture systems in Hainan Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Campanula luzhijiangensis (Campanulaceae: Campanuleae) is described and illustrated as a new species from Yunnan, southwest China. The new species is mainly characterized by its relatively gracile stems polyphyllous, small and oblanceolate leaves, and flowers and fruits with small size within Chinese Campanula. It is only known from a single locality in the valley of the Luzhijiang River, usually occurring in the rock crevices, xerophilous scrubs or grasslands. A table of morphological characters comparing the new species with its closest relatives is provided along with a key to the species of Campanula from Yunnan Province, as well as a preliminary conservation assessment of C. luzhijiangensis under the IUCN criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to advancements in scientific research and technological innovation, as well as the proliferation of the Internet of things, the Internet, and big data, the general public has gradually become aware of a new type of intelligent nursing system model known as the smart nursing system. The smart nursing system is a sensing system and information platform for the elderly in their homes, communities, and institutions for elderly care. Based on this, it provides timely, efficient, and cost-effective elderly care services in real time. These services utilize the Internet of things and the Internet as well. Through the monitoring of video data, we are able to differentiate the visual motions of these elderly individuals and determine whether they are in a normal life state or a fall state. This has the potential to better meet the diverse and multifaceted needs of senior citizens, enhance the quality of life of senior citizens in their final years, and provide senior citizens with greater humanistic care and spiritual solace. Our team has developed an intelligent nursing system based on the visual action recognition algorithm, also known as the deep learning (DL) algorithm. As a result of our simulation tests, we discovered that the algorithm can accurately identify the living situations of elderly individuals at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate twin reversed arterial perfusion (TRAP) sequence for the prediction of TRAP‐related adverse pregnancy outcomes at the gestational age of 11–14 weeks. Methods: Pregnant women in the first trimester diagnosed with TRAP were recruited at West China Second University Hospital from January 2015 to June 2018. Systematic screening for the pump twin's crown‐rump length (CRL) and acardiac twin's upper pole‐rump length (URL) was conducted using ultrasonic detection. The (CRL – URL)/CRL and URL/CRL ratios were used to assess the pregnancy outcomes for the pump twin. Twenty‐one pregnant women aged 21–39 years with a gestation of 11–14 weeks were recruited. Results: TRAP was diagnosed on average (± standard deviation (SD)) at pregnancy week 13.1 ± 0.18. The pump twins' mean (± SD) CRL was 6.65 ± 1.1 cm. The incidence of intrauterine death for the pump twins was 19.0% (n = 4), the miscarriage rate was 14.3% (n = 3), and the live birth rate was 66.7% (n = 14). The (CRL – URL)/CRL ratios between the nonsurvival (intrauterine death and miscarriage) and survival groups significantly differed (0.33 ± 0.08 vs. 0.58 ± 0.08, p < 0.05). Similarly, the URL/CRL ratios between the nonsurvival and survival groups significantly differed (0.67 ± 0.08 vs. 0.42 ± 0.08, p < 0.05). Conclusion: The (CRL – URL)/CRL and URL/CRL ratios were valuable indicators for determining pregnancy outcomes of pump twins with TRAP at an early gestational age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • 10Ni-ZrO 2 exhibits high activity for the deoxygenation of methyl laurate. • 100% yield of alkanes and 87.6% selectivity to C 11 are obtained. • The Ni loading directs the formation of SOV and exposed lattice planes of t-ZrO 2. • The content of Ni0, SOV and Ni-O-Zr interfaces contribute to catalytic performance. • The exposed lattice planes of t-ZrO 2 play an important role in product distribution. A series of Ni-ZrO 2 catalysts with different Ni loading were prepared and evaluated for methyl laurate conversion. Characterizations show that the 10Ni-ZrO 2 bears the smallest Ni crystal size; the highest atomic content of surface Ni0, surface oxygen vacancy and Ni-O-Zr interfaces; then exhibits the highest activity and stability towards methyl laurate conversion with nearly 100% yield of alkanes and 87.6% selectivity to undecane at 280 °C, 2 MPa H 2. The t-ZrO 2 (1 1 2) lattice plane can motivate the deoxygenation while the t-ZrO 2 (0 0 2) promotes cracking reactions, resulting in low selectivity to undecane. Moreover, 10Ni-ZrO 2 performs wide applicability for transforming crude oils into alkanes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The GSCP (Gauss–Seidel based projection‐contraction) algorithm has been well established in solving elastoplastic mixed complementarity problems (MiCPs) or other problems which have similar mathematical form. However, the stability problems in the GSPC algorithm may cause nonconvergence or program crashes. Thus, the method of constructing and analyzing counterexamples is adopted to study the reasons for the instability of the GSPC algorithm. The R‐GSPC algorithm was developed by modifying the part of the GSPC algorithm that caused the crash to make the algorithm stable. In addition, this paper analyzes the convergence, compatibility, and initial value impact of R‐GSPC, and finds that the R‐GSPC algorithm greatly improves the robustness and stability without losing accuracy. This paper allows the GSPC algorithm to be better extended to more fields and to be suitabled for being introduced into commercial programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study circular orbits of spinning test particles in the background of a rotating boson star. Using the pole-dipole approximation and neglecting the back-reaction of the spinning test particle on the spacetime, the equation of motion of the spinning test particle is described by the Mathisson–Papapetrou–Dixon equation. We solve this equation under the Tulczyjew spin-supplementary condition and obtain the four-momentum and four-velocity of the spinning test particle. Quite different from the spinless particle, the effective potential of the spinning particle with zero orbital angular momentum goes to infinite at the center of the rotating boson star. This will lead to the fact that the spinning particle can not pass through the center of the boson star. However, when the spin angular momentum and orbital angular momentum satisfy 2 s ¯ + l ¯ = 0 , the effective potential is not divergent anymore and the spinning particle can pass through the center of the rotating boson star. We still investigate how the spin affects the structure of the circular orbits and we find that the spin will induce the larger or smaller regions of no circular orbits, unstable circular orbits, and stable circular orbits. Moreover, the radius and energy of the circular orbit will be decreased or increased by the particle spin. These results will have an important application in testing the gravitational waves in the boson star background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) is a non-invasive technique which could monitor tumor morphology, blood vessel dynamics, and micro-environmental changes. Purpose: To evaluate the value of DCE-MRI semi-quantitative parameters in monitoring the neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) response of osteosarcoma. Material and Methods: Twenty-five patients pathologically confirmed as osteosarcoma received four cycles of NAC followed by surgery. All patients underwent conventional and dynamic MRI twice, before starting chemotherapy and before surgical treatment. With a reference standard of histological response (tumor necrosis rate), semi-quantitative parameters were compared between good response group (TNR ≥ 90%) and non-response group (TNR < 90%). The differences between intra- and inter-group parameters before and after NAC were analyzed by Mann–Whitney U test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was generated to assess the parameters' efficacy in predicting the outcome of NAC. Results: The changes were statistically significant on slope, maximum signal intensity (SImax), time to peak (TTP), signal enhanced extent (SEE), peak percent enhancement (PPE), washout rate (WOR), and enhancement rate (ER) in the good response group (P < 0.05), while only SImax and SEE were different in the non-response group after NAC. The changes in Slope, SImax, TTP, SEE, WOR, and ER were markedly different (P < 0.05) between the two groups after NAC. Also, at the threshold values of 3.2%/s, 175 s, and 5.4% (slope, TTP, and ER), the sensitivity and specificity for predicting good response to chemotherapy were 83.3% and 92.3%, 91.7% and 69.2%, 84.6% and 75.0%, respectively. Conclusion: Slope, TTP, and ER values could be used to evaluate and predict the response to NAC in osteosarcoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endometriosis is a common and frequent disease in gynecology; its etiology and pathogenesis are partially understood and still not clear. The construction of suitable animal models is beneficial for basic research related to the disease. Currently, rodents have the advantages of low cost, fast reproduction, easy rearing, and a similar endometrial structure to humans. Depending on the purpose of the experiment, different molding methods have their advantages. In this paper, we describe the traditional methods of constructing endometriosis rodent models, compare their advantages and disadvantages, and introduce newly developed rodent models, such as cell line injection models, pain models, genetically engineered mouse models, fluorescent tracer models, iron overload models, chemical induction models, and methods of constructing rodent models of different subtypes of endometriosis. Fertility and treatment of endometriosis rodent models are also described. This study provides a reference for researchers in the selection of animal models for pathogenesis and drug treatment studies. • Different endometriosis rodent models have their own advantages. • Models of different subtypes contribute to the in-depth study of the pathogenesis. • Endometriosis in mouse models has reduced fertility in different ways. • Appropriate rodent model for endometriosis is conducive to exploring treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coping with the growing demand for data and parameters in complex neural network (NN) models of contemporary times typically involves distributing them across multiple devices, giving rise to the device placement problem. Several widely adopted solutions to this challenge leverage graph embedding schemes. However, the current graph embedding models employed for device placement suffer from several limitations, such as being highly time-consuming in the search for optimal parallelization strategies and yielding suboptimal parallel results. In this paper, we develop a novel graph embedding approach CP-GNNAK for efficient device placement. CP-GNNAK mainly depends on an efficient subgraph-based node embedding strategy, namely GNN as kernel, and a novel cosine phase position embedding scheme. CP-GNNAK goes beyond encoding only the immediate neighbors by deriving the representation of each node from the encoding of a surrounding subgraph. This expanded approach significantly enhances the efficiency of device placement through the integration of subgraph sampling strategies. Additionally, the cosine phase position embedding not only considers the positional information between nodes but also captures the directional information underlying the nodes. This adds richness to the node embeddings and improves the performance of device placement. The experimental results clearly indicate that the CP-GNNAK model achieves the state-of-the-art device placement results. Specifically, the experimental results reveal a remarkable 13.77% improvement in runtime when employing CP-GNNAK compared to Placeto. CP-GNNAK also outperforms GraphSAGE by 7.36% and P-GNN by 0.94%. Turning to computation time, CP-GNNAK exhibits a substantial speedup of 3.40 × over Placeto, 3.87 × over GraphSAGE, and 3.20 × over P-GNN. • A novel graph embedding approach, CP-GNNAK, was developed for optimizing device placement. • Enhanced processing speed and device placement performance through subgraph sampling strategy. • Developing a novel cosine-phase position embedding significantly enhances the expressiveness of node embedding. • Numerous experiments validate the superiority of CP-GNNAK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ectopic lipid deposition (ELD) and mitochondrial dysfunction are common causes of metabolic disorders in humans. Consuming too much fructose can result in mitochondrial dysfunction and metabolic disorders. 6-Gingerol, the main component of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe), has been proven to alleviate metabolic disorders. This study seeks to examine the effects of 6-gingerol on metabolic disorders caused by fructose and uncover the underlying molecular mechanisms. In this study, the results showed that 6-Gingerol ameliorated high-fructose-induced metabolic disorders. Moreover, it inhibited CD36 membrane translocation, increased CD36 expression in the mitochondria, and decreased the O-GlcNAc modification of CD36 and OGT expression in vitro and vivo. In addition, 6-Gingerol enhanced the performance of mitochondria in the skeletal muscle and boosted the respiratory capability of L6 myotubes. This study provides a theoretical basis and new insights for the development of lipid-lowering drugs in clinical practice. • Fructose and 6-gingerol did not affect the total amount of CD36 protein in vitro and vivo. • Fructose increased the content of CD36 protein in the cell membrane and decreased it in the cytoplasm, which was reversed by 6-gingerol. • Fructose increased the O-GlcNac modification level of CD36 protein and OGT protein in L6 myotubes, while 6-gingerol reduced the expression. • 6-gingerol ameliorated fructose-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in vitro and vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-temperature tensile and fatigue performance play a crucial role in the applications of repaired Ni-based superalloys by Laser directed energy deposition (LDED). This work investigates the effect of microstructure on the high temperature (650 °C) mechanical behaviors of GH4169 superalloys repaired by LDED with the microstructure characterizations and crystal plasticity modelling. Results indicate that the solution and aging heat treatment (STA) is necessary to homogenize the distributions of precipitations. Microstructure characterizations and crystal plasticity modelling imply that the plasticity deformations occur mainly in columnar dendrites of fusion area and twin grains of substrate, which enhance the tensile strength and elongation rate of repaired area and demonstrates comparable characteristics with the casting alloy. At the same time, the existence of the Laves phase and carbide cannot eliminate the dynamic strain aging phenomenon of repaired material. Similarly, under high stress levels (850– 950 MPa), the fatigue performance of repaired material is primarily influenced by the plastic deformation and exhibits similarity to that of the substrate; however, under low stress levels (650– 750 MPa), it is primarily influenced by the presence of defects, resulting in an obviously longer fatigue life for the substrate. • The effect of microstructure on the mechanical behaviors of Nickel-based superalloys repaired by L-DED have been investigated by microstructure characterizations and crystal plasticity modelling; • The plasticity deformations occur mainly in columnar dendrite and twin grains, which enhance the tensile strength and elongation rate of repaired materials; • Under high stress levels (850– 950 MPa), the fatigue performance of repaired material is primarily influenced by the plastic deformation of the grain and exhibits similarity to that of the substrate alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rare studies of cocrystal engineering have focused on improving carrier mobility of organic semiconductors mainly because of the generation of ambipolarity, the alteration of the charge carrier polarity or the reduction of electronic couplings. Herein, we utilize indolo[2,3‐a]carbazole (IC) as the model compound and 2,6‐diphenylanthraquinone (DPAO) and 9‐fluorenone (FO) as the coformers to construct IC2‐DPAO and IC‐FO cocrystals with 2 : 1 or 1 : 1 ratios, respectively, through hydrogen bonds and donor–acceptor interactions. Interestingly, the more appropriate packing structure, possessing not only enhanced electronic couplings but also increased intermolecular distances, is achieved in IC2‐DPAO, which shows an improved carrier mobility of 0.11 cm2 V−1 s−1 by four orders of magnitude relative to the IC crystal. These results suggest that non‐equal ratio cocrystal engineering opens up the possibility to develop organic semiconductors with enhanced charge transport behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rare studies of cocrystal engineering have focused on improving carrier mobility of organic semiconductors mainly because of the generation of ambipolarity, the alteration of the charge carrier polarity or the reduction of electronic couplings. Herein, we utilize indolo[2,3‐a]carbazole (IC) as the model compound and 2,6‐diphenylanthraquinone (DPAO) and 9‐fluorenone (FO) as the coformers to construct IC2‐DPAO and IC‐FO cocrystals with 2 : 1 or 1 : 1 ratios, respectively, through hydrogen bonds and donor–acceptor interactions. Interestingly, the more appropriate packing structure, possessing not only enhanced electronic couplings but also increased intermolecular distances, is achieved in IC2‐DPAO, which shows an improved carrier mobility of 0.11 cm2 V−1 s−1 by four orders of magnitude relative to the IC crystal. These results suggest that non‐equal ratio cocrystal engineering opens up the possibility to develop organic semiconductors with enhanced charge transport behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesoporous Mn‐Se/Al2O3 could be easily fabricated by calcining the selenium sources with the manganese and aluminum hydroxides. It was an efficient catalyst for alcohol oxidation using H2O2 as the clean oxidant, affording carbonyls in 58%–83% yields. The reaction of primary alcohols could produce aldehydes specifically, while no carboxylic acids were generated. The easily accessible features and low cost of Mn‐Se/Al2O3 may endow the material great potential in the industrial‐scale applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel of 40 pyrrolo[1,2‐a]thiazolo[5,4‐d]pyrimidinone derivatives were designed and synthesized as cholinesterase inhibitor agents. The in vitro enzyme assays proved that most of the compounds effectively inhibited cholinesterases in the micromolar range with little cytotoxicity. Compound G15 exhibited the best inhibitory activity against acetylcholinesterase with an IC50 of 2.69 ± 0.17 μM. Kinetic analysis and molecular modeling testified the competitive inhibition manner of G15 was more likely to bind to the active center of acetylcholinesterase. Thus, compound G15 can be considered as promising lead compounds or candidates for the development of novel drugs against Alzheimer's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]