Advances in membrane-tethered NAC transcription factors in plants

Transcription factors are central components in cell signal transduction networks and are critical regulators for gene expression. It is estimated that approximately 10% of all transcription factors are membrane-tethered. MTFs (membrane-bound transcription factors) are latent transcription factors that are inherently anchored in the cellular membrane in a dormant form. When plants encounter environmental stimuli, they will be released from the membrane by intramembrane proteases or by the ubiquitin proteasome pathway and then were translocated to the nucleus. The capacity to instantly activate dormant transcription factors is a critical strategy for modulating diverse cellular functions in response to external or internal signals, which provides an important transcriptional regulatory network in response to sudden stimulus and improves plant survival. NTLs (NTM1-like) are a small subset of NAC (NAM, ATAF1/2, CUC2) transcription factors, which contain a conserved NAC domain at the N-terminus and a transmembrane domain at the C-terminus. In the past two decades, several NTLs have been identified from several species, and most of them are involved in both development and stress response. In this review, we review the reports and findings on NTLs in plants and highlight the mechanism of their nuclear import as well as their functions in regulating plant growth and stress response.

Flexible Piezoresistive Sensors Based on PPy Granule-Anchored Multilayer Fibrous Membranes with a Wide Operating Range and High Sensitivity

The employment of flexible piezoresistive sensors has sparked growing interest within the realm of wearable electronic devices, specifically in the fields of health detection and e-skin. Nevertheless, the advancement of piezoresistive sensors has been impeded by their limited sensitivity and restricted operating ranges. Consequently, it is imperative to fabricate sensors with heightened sensitivity and expanded operating ranges through the utilization of the appropriate methodologies. In this paper, piezoresistive sensors were fabricated utilizing electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride/polyacrylonitrile/polyethylene-polypropylene glycol multilayer fibrous membranes anchored with polypyrrole granules as the sensing layer, while electrospun thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) fibers were employed as the flexible substrate. The sensitivity of the sensor is investigated by varying the fiber diameter of the sensing layer. The experimental findings reveal that a concentration of 14 wt % in the spinning solution exhibits high sensitivity (996.7 kPa-1) within a wide working range (0-10 kPa). This is attributed to the favorable diameter of the fibers prepared at this concentration, which facilitates the uniform in situ growth of pyrrole. The highly deformable TPU flexible fibers and multilayer sensing layer structure enable different linear responses across a broad pressure range (0-1 MPa). Furthermore, the sensor demonstrates good cyclic stability and can detect human movements under different pressures. These results suggest that the piezoresistive sensor with a wide operating range and high sensitivity has significant potential for future health monitoring and artificial intelligence applications.

Identifying changes in dynamic plantar pressure associated with radiological knee osteoarthritis based on machine learning and wearable devices

BACKGROUND

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is an irreversible degenerative disease that characterized by pain and abnormal gait. Radiography is typically used to detect KOA but has limitations. This study aimed to identify changes in plantar pressure that are associated with radiological knee osteoarthritis (ROA) and to validate them using machine learning algorithms.

METHODS

This study included 92 participants with variable degrees of KOA. A modified Kellgren-Lawrence scale was used to classify participants into non-ROA and ROA groups. The total feature set included 210 dynamic plantar pressure features captured by a wearable in-shoe system as well as age, gender, height, weight, and body mass index. Filter and wrapper methods identified the optimal features, which were used to train five types of machine learning classification models for further validation: k-nearest neighbors (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), AdaBoost, and eXtreme gradient boosting (XGBoost).

RESULTS

Age, the standard deviation (SD) of the peak plantar pressure under the left lateral heel (f_L8PPP_std), the SD of the right second peak pressure (f_Rpeak2_std), and the SD of the variation in the anteroposterior displacement of center of pressure (COP) in the right foot (f_RYcopstd_std) were most associated with ROA. The RF model with an accuracy of 82.61% and F1 score of 0.8000 had the best generalization ability.

CONCLUSION

Changes in dynamic plantar pressure are promising mechanical biomarkers that distinguish between non-ROA and ROA. Combining a wearable in-shoe system with machine learning enables dynamic monitoring of KOA, which could help guide treatment plans.

Production of ultra-high-molecular-weight poly-γ-glutamic acid by a newly isolated Bacillus subtilis strain and genomic and transcriptomic analyses

Poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) is a microbial-derived polymer with molecular weight (Mw) from 104 to 107 Da, and the high-Mw (> 7.0 × 105 Da) or ultra-high-Mw (> 5.0 × 106 Da) γ-PGA has important application value as a tissue engineering material, as a flocculant, and as a heavy metal remover. Therefore, how to produce these high-Mw γ-PGAs with low cost and high efficiency has attracted wide attention. In this study, a γ-PGA producer was isolated from the natural environment, and identified and named Bacillus subtilis GXD-20. Then, the ultra-high-Mw (> 6.0 × 106 Da) γ-PGA produced by GXD-20 was characterized. Interestingly, GXD-20 could produce γ-PGA at 42°C, and exhibited a γ-PGA titer of up to 22.29 ± 0.59 g L-1 in a 5-L fermenter after optimization of the fermentation process. Comparative genomic analysis indicated that the specific protein sequence and subcellular localization of PgdS (a γ-PGA-degrading enzyme) were closely related to the ultra-high-Mw of γ-PGA. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that the high γ-PGA titer at 42°C was mainly related to the high expression of genes encoding enzymes for sucrose transportation and utilization, nitrogen transportation, endogenous glutamate synthesis, and γ-PGA synthesis. These results provide new insights into the production of ultra-high-Mw γ-PGA by Bacillus at high temperatures.

Organoids derived from patients provide a new opportunity for research and individualized treatment of malignant peritoneal mesothelioma

BACKGROUND

Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPM) is an extremely rare and highly invasive tumor. Due to the lack of accurate models that reflect the biological characteristics of primary tumors, studying MPM remains challenging and is associated with an exceedingly unfavorable prognosis. This study was aimed to establish a new potential preclinical model for MPM using patient-derived MPM organoids (MPMOs) and to comprehensively evaluate the practicality of this model in medical research and its feasibility in guiding individualized patient treatment.

METHODS

MPMOs were constructed using tumor tissue from MPM patients. Histopathological analysis and whole genome sequencing (WGS) were employed to determine the ability of MPMOs to replicate the original tumor's genetic and histological characteristics. The subcutaneous and orthotopic xenograft models were employed to assess the feasibility of establishing an in vivo model of MPM. MPMOs were also used to conduct drug screening and compare the results with retrospective analysis of patients after treatment, in order to evaluate the potential of MPMOs in predicting the effectiveness of drugs in MPM patients.

RESULTS

We successfully established a culture method for human MPM organoids using tumor tissue from MPM patients and provided a comprehensive description of the necessary medium components for MPMOs. Pathological examination and WGS revealed that MPMOs accurately represented the histological characteristics and genomic heterogeneity of the original tumors. In terms of application, the success rate of creating subcutaneous and orthotopic xenograft models using MPMOs was 88% and 100% respectively. Drug sensitivity assays demonstrated that MPMOs have different medication responses, and these differences were compatible with the real situation of the patients.

CONCLUSION

This study presents a method for generating human MPM organoids, which can serve as a valuable research tool and contribute to the advancement of MPM research. Additionally, these organoids can be utilized as a means to evaluate the effectiveness of drug treatments for MPM patients, offering a model for personalized treatment approaches.

SFDA: Domain Adaptation With Source Subject Fusion Based on Multi-Source and Single-Target Fall Risk Assessment

In cross-subject fall risk classification based on plantar pressure, a challenge is that data from different subjects have significant individual information. Thus, the models with insufficient generalization ability can't perform well on new subjects, which limits their application in daily life. To solve this problem, domain adaptation methods are applied to reduce the gap between source and target domain. However, these methods focus on the distribution of the source and the target domain, but ignore the potential correlation among multiple source subjects, which deteriorates domain adaptation performance. In this paper, we proposed a novel method named domain adaptation with subject fusion (SFDA) for fall risk assessment, greatly improving the cross-subject assessment ability. Specifically, SFDA synchronously carries out source target adaptation and multiple source subject fusion by domain adversarial module to reduce source-target gap and distribution distance within source subjects of same class. Consequently, target samples can learn more task-specific features from source subjects to improve the generalization ability. Experiment results show that SFDA achieved mean accuracy of 79.17 % and 73.66 % based on two backbones in a cross-subject classification manner, outperforming the state-of-the-art methods on continuous plantar pressure dataset. This study proves the effectiveness of SFDA and provides a novel tool for implementing cross-subject and few-gait fall risk assessment.

Characteristics of Gram-positive cocci infection and the therapeutic effect after liver transplantation

OBJECTIVES

Gram-positive cocci is the main pathogen responsible for early infection after liver transplantation (LT), posing a huge threat to the prognosis of liver transplant recipients. This study aims to analyze the distribution and drug resistance of Gram-positive cocci, the risk factors for infections and efficacy of antibiotics within 2 months after LT, and to guide the prevention and treatment of these infections.

METHODS

In this study, data of pathogenic bacteria distribution, drug resistance and therapeutic efficacy were collected from 39 Gram-positive cocci infections among 256 patients who received liver transplantation from donation after citizens' death in the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University from January 2019 to July 2022, and risk factors for Gram-positive cocci infection were analyzed.

RESULTS

Enterococcus faecium was the dominant pathogenic bacteria (33/51, 64.7%), followed by Enterococcus faecalis (11/51, 21.6%). The most common sites of infection were abdominal cavity/biliary tract (13/256, 5.1%) and urinary tract (10/256, 3.9%). Fifty (98%) of the 51 Gram-positive cocci infections occurred within 1 month after LT. The most sensitive drugs to Gram-positive cocci were teicoplanin, tigecycline, linezolid and vancomycin. Vancomycin was not used in all patients, considering its nephrotoxicity. Vancomycin was not administered to all patients in view of its nephrotoxicity.There was no significant difference between the efficacy of daptomycin and teicoplanin in the prevention of cocci infection (P>0.05). Univariate analysis indicated that preoperative Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score >25 (P=0.005), intraoperative red blood cell infusion ≥12 U (P=0.013) and exposure to more than 2 intravenous antibiotics post-LT (P=0.003) were related to Gram-positive cocci infections. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that preoperative MELD score >25 (OR=2.378, 95% CI 1.124 to 5.032, P=0.024) and intraoperative red blood cell transfusion ≥ 12 U (OR=2.757, 95% CI 1.227 to 6.195, P=0.014) were independent risk factors for Gram-positive cocci infections after LT. Postoperative Gram-positive cocci infections were reduced in LT recipients exposing to more than two intravenous antibiotics post-LT (OR=0.269, 95% CI 0.121 to 0.598, P=0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Gram-positive cocci infections occurring early after liver transplantation were dominated by Enterococcus faecalis infections at the abdominal/biliary tract and urinary tract. Teicoplanin, tigecycline and linezolid were anti-cocci sensitive drugs. Daptomycin and teicoplanin were equally effective in preventing cocci infections due to Gram-positive cocci. Patients with high preoperative MELD score and massive intraoperative red blood cell transfusion were more likely to suffer Gram-positive cocci infection after surgery. Postoperative Gram-positive cocci infections were reduced in recipients exposing to more than two intravenous antibiotics post-LT.

[Synchronization isolation method for multiple types of cells from mouse liver]

Objective: To explore a simple and feasible method for the isolation and purification of hepatocytes, hepatic stellate cells (HSC), and lymphocytes from mice. Methods: The cell suspension was obtained from male C57bl/6 mice by hepatic perfusion through the portal vein digestion method and then isolated and purified by discontinuous Percoll gradient centrifugation. Trypan blue exclusion was used to determine cell viability. Glycogen staining, cytokeratin 18, and transmission electron microscopy were used to identify hepatic cells. Immunofluorescence was used to detect α-smooth muscle actin combined with desmin in HSCs. Flow cytometry was used to analyze lymphocyte subsets in the liver. Results: After isolation and purification, about 2.7×10(7) hepatocytes, 5.7×10(5) HSCS, and 4.6×106 hepatic mononuclear cells were obtained from the liver of mice with a body weight of about 22g. The cell survival rate in each group was > 95%. Hepatocytes were apparent in glycogen deposited purple-red granules and cytokeratin 18. Electron microscopy showed that there were abundant organelles in hepatocytes and tight junctions between cells. HSC had expressed α-smooth muscle actin and desmin. Flow cytometry showed hepatic mononuclear cells, including lymphocyte subsets such as CD4, CD8, NKs, and NKTs. Conclusion: The hepatic perfusion through the portal vein digestion method can isolate multiple primary cells from the liver of mice at once and has the features of simplicity and efficiency.

Plantar pressure and falling risk in older individuals: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Falls are commonplace among elderly people. It is urgent to prevent falls. Previous studies have confirmed that there is a difference in plantar pressure between falls and non-falls in elderly people, but the relationship between fall risk and foot pressure has not been studied. In this study, the differences in dynamic plantar pressure between elderly people with high and low fall risk were preliminarily discussed, and the characteristic parameters of plantar pressure were determined.

METHODS

Twenty four high-fall-risk elderly individuals (HR) and 24 low-fall-risk elderly individuals (LR) were selected using the Berg Balance Scale 40 score. They wore wearable foot pressure devices to walk along a 20-m-long corridor. The peak pressure (PP), pressure time integral (PTI), pressure gradient (maximum pressure gradient (MaxPG), minimum pressure gradient (MinPG), full width at half maximum (FWHM)) and average pressure (AP) of their feet were measured for inter-group and intra-group analysis.

RESULTS

The foot pressure difference comparing the high fall risk with low fall risk groups was manifested in PP and MaxPG, concentrated in the midfoot and heel (p < 0.05), while the only time parameter, FWHM, was manifested in the whole foot (p < 0.05). The differences between the left and right foot were reflected in all parameters. The differences between the left and right foot in LR were mainly reflected in the heel (p < 0.05), while it in the HR was mainly reflected in the forefoot (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The differences comparing the high fall risk with low fall risk groups were mostly reflected in the midfoot and heel. The HR may have been more cautious when landing. In the intra-group comparison, the difference between the right and left foot of the LR was mainly reflected during heel striking, while it was mainly reflected during pedalling in the HR. The sensitivity of PP, PTI and AP was lower and the newly introduced pressure gradient could better reflect the difference in foot pressure between the two groups. The pressure gradient can be used as a new foot pressure parameter in scientific research.

A dual-task-embedded virtual reality system for intelligent quantitative assessment of cognitive processing speed

Introduction

Processing speed is defined as the ability to quickly process information, which is generally considered as one of the affected cognitive functions of multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia. Paper-pencil type tests are traditionally used in the assessment of processing speed. However, these tests generally need to be conducted under the guidance of clinicians in a specific environment, which limits their application in cognitive assessment or training in daily life. Therefore, this paper proposed an intelligent evaluation method of processing speed to assist clinicians in diagnosis.

Methods

We created an immersive virtual street embedded with Stroop task (VR-Street). The behavior and performance information was obtained by performing the dual-task of street-crossing and Stroop, and a 50-participant dataset was established with the label of standard scale. Utilizing Pearson correlation coefficient to find the relationship between the dual-task features and the cognitive test results, and an intelligent evaluation model was developed using machine learning.

Results

Statistical analysis showed that all Stroop task features were correlated with cognitive test results, and some behavior features also showed correlation. The estimated results showed that the proposed method can estimate the processing speed score with an adequate accuracy (mean absolute error of 0.800, relative accuracy of 0.916 and correlation coefficient of 0.804). The combination of Stroop features and behavior features showed better performance than single task features.

Discussion

The results of this work indicates that the dual-task design in this study better mobilizes participants' attention and cognitive resources, and more fully reflects participants' cognitive processing speed. The proposed method provides a new opportunity for accurate quantitative evaluation of cognitive function through virtual reality.

The pyruvate decarboxylase activity of IpdC is a limitation for isobutanol production by Klebsiella pneumoniae

Background

Klebsiella pneumoniae contains an endogenous isobutanol synthesis pathway. The ipdC gene annotated as an indole-3-pyruvate decarboxylase (Kp-IpdC), was identified to catalyze the formation of isobutyraldehyde from 2-ketoisovalerate.

Results

Compared with 2-ketoisovalerate decarboxylase from Lactococcus lactis (KivD), a decarboxylase commonly used in artificial isobutanol synthesis pathways, Kp-IpdC has an 2.8-fold lower K_m for 2-ketoisovalerate, leading to higher isobutanol production without induction. However, expression of ipdC by IPTG induction resulted in a low isobutanol titer. In vitro enzymatic reactions showed that Kp-IpdC exhibits promiscuous pyruvate decarboxylase activity, which adversely consume the available pyruvate precursor for isobutanol synthesis. To address this, we have engineered Kp-IpdC to reduce pyruvate decarboxylase activity. From computational modeling, we identified 10 amino acid residues surrounding the active site for mutagenesis. Ten designs consisting of eight single-point mutants and two double-point mutants were selected for exploration. Mutants L546W and T290L that showed only 5.1% and 22.1% of catalytic efficiency on pyruvate compared to Kp-IpdC, were then expressed in K. pneumoniae for in vivo testing. Isobutanol production by K. pneumoniae T290L was 25% higher than that of the control strain, and a final titer of 5.5 g/L isobutanol was obtained with a substrate conversion ratio of 0.16 mol/mol glucose.

Conclusions

This research provides a new way to improve the efficiency of the biological route of isobutanol production.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13068-022-02144-8.

Kp-IpdC is more efficient than KivD for 2-ketoisovalerate decarboxylation.

Pyruvate decarboxylase activity is a limitation of Kp-IpdC.

T290L variant exhibits a decreased pyruvate decarboxylase activity.

Isobutanol production by K. pneumoniae T290L was improved.

[Effect of dyslipidemia on clinical outcome of infertility patients receiving donor eggs]

Objective: To explore the effect of dyslipidemia on the clinical outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection-embryo transfer (ICSI-ET) in infertility patients receiving donor eggs. Methods: A total of 118 patients were selected to receive egg donors and ICSI-ET at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University between April 2007 and December 2020. According to the levels of triacylglycerol, serum cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL), and low density lipoprotein, they were divided into dyslipidemia group (35 cases) and normal blood lipids group (83 cases). The influence of body mass index (BMI) and age was adjusted by 1∶1 propensity score matching, and the general condition and clinical outcome of the two groups were analyzed retrospectively. Finally, the relationship between lipid composition and clinical outcome was analyzed according to patients' age and BMI. Results: (1) Comparing the pre-matching dyslipidemia group with the normal blood lipids group, the BMI of the dyslipidemia group was significantly higher than that of the normal blood lipids group [(23.5±2.4) vs (22.4±2.7) kg/m²], and the embryo implantation rate was significantly lower than that of the normal blood lipids group [13.6% (8/59) vs 27.3% (36/132)], the differences were statistically significant (both P<0.05). (2) There were no significant differences in years of infertility, number of pregnancies, number of abortions, number of transplanted embryos, protocol of endometrial preparation, endometrial thickness on transplantation day and high quality embryo rate between the two groups, through propensity score matching (all P>0.05). The biochemical pregnancy rate [28.6% (10/35)], embryo implantation rate [13.6% (8/59)] and live birth rate [20.0% (7/35)] in dyslipidemia group were significantly lower than those in the normal blood lipids group (P<0.05). The clinical pregnancy rate was lower than that of the normal blood lipids group (P>0.05). (3) The results of stratified analysis showed that the level of HDL in the clinically non-pregnant group was significantly lower than that in the pregnant group in patients ≤ 35 years old [(1.5±0.3) vs (1.8±0.5) mmol/L; P<0.05]. In the overweight recipient patients, the level of HDL of the clinically non-pregnant group was lower than that of the pregnant group (P>0.05). Conclusions: Dyslipidemia significantly reduces the biochemical pregnancy rate, embryo implantation rate and live birth rate in patients with receiving donor eggs. Especially in patients aged ≤35 years old, the reduction of HDL is closely related to adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Fall Risk Assessment for the Elderly Based on Weak Foot Features of Wearable Plantar Pressure

The high fall rate of the elderly brings enormous challenges to families and the medical system; therefore, early risk assessment and intervention are quite necessary. Compared to other sensor-based technologies, in-shoe plantar pressure sensors, effectiveness and low obtrusiveness are widely used for long-term fall risk assessments because of their portability. While frequently-used bipedal center-of-pressure (COP) features are derived from a pressure sensing platform, they are not suitable for the shoe system or pressure insole owing to the lack of relative position information. Therefore, in this study, a definition of "weak foot" was proposed to solve the sensitivity problem of single foot features and facilitate the extraction of temporal consistency related features. Forty-four multi-dimensional weak foot features based on single foot COP were correspondingly extracted; notably, the relationship between the fall risk and temporal inconsistency in the weak foot were discussed in this study, and probability distribution method was used to analyze the symmetry and temporal consistency of gait lines. Though experiments, foot pressure data were collected from 48 subjects with 24 high risk (HR) and 24 low risk (LR) ones obtained by the smart footwear system. The final models with 87.5% accuracy and 100% sensitivity on test data outperformed the base line models using bipedal COP. The results and feature space shown the novel features of wearable plantar pressure could comprehensively evaluate the difference between HR and LR groups. Our fall risk assessment models based on these features had good generalization performance, and showed practicability and reliability in real-life monitoring situations.

High-efficiency adsorption of Cd(II) and Co(II) by ethylenediaminetetraacetic dianhydride-modified orange peel as a novel synthesized adsorbent

The treatment of heavy metal (HM) wastewater is a critical and considerable challenge. Fruit peel-based HM adsorption is a promising way for the water pollution control and the reuse of agricultural waste. In this study, a novel adsorbent based on orange peel was synthesized for the first time by introducing abundant -COO groups with ethylenediaminetetraacetic dianhydride (EDTAD) to eliminate Cd(II) and Co(II) of sewage solution. The synthesized adsorbent displayed excellent adsorption capacity of 51.020 and 40.486 mg/g for Cd(II) and Co(II), respectively, and the adsorption equilibrium was achieved within 5 min, following the Langmuir isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order model. Surface characterization of adsorbents by scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed that ion exchange, complexation, and physical adsorption could occur during the adsorption process. The rapid and highly efficient adsorption performance suggests EDTAD-modified synthesized orange peel possesses great potential for HM removal from sewage systems.

Blocking the 2,3-butanediol synthesis pathway of Klebsiella pneumoniae resulted in L-valine production

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a 2,3-butanediol producing bacterium. Nevertheless, a design and construction of L-valine production strain was studied in this paper. The first step of 2,3-butanediol synthesis and branched-chain amino acid synthesis pathways share the same step of α-acetolactate synthesis from pyruvate. However, the two pathways are existing in parallel and do not interfere with each other in the wild-type strain. A knockout of budA blocked the 2,3-butanediol synthesis pathway and resulted in the L-valine production. The budA coded an α-acetolactate decarboxylase and catalyzed the acetoin formation from α-acetolactate. Furthermore, blocking the lactic acid synthesis by knocking out of ldhA, which is encoding a lactate dehydrogenase, improved the L-valine synthesis. 2-Ketoisovalerate is the precursor of L-valine, it is also an intermediate of the isobutanol synthesis pathway, while indole-3-pyruvate decarboxylase (ipdC) is responsible for isobutyraldehyde formation from 2-ketoisovalerate. Production of L-valine has been improved by knocking out of ipdC. On the other side, the ilvE, encoding a transaminase B, reversibly transfers one amino group from glutamate to α-ketoisovalerate. Overexpression of ilvE exhibited a distinct improvement of L-valine production. The brnQ encodes a branched-chain amino acid transporter, and L-valine production was further improved by disrupting brnQ. It is also revealed that weak acidic and aerobic conditions favor L-valine production. Based on these findings, L-valine production by metabolically engineered K. pneumonia was examined. In fed-batch fermentation, 22.4 g/L of L-valine was produced by the engineered K. pneumoniae ΔbudA-ΔldhA-ΔipdC-ΔbrnQ-ilvE after 55 h of cultivation, with a substrate conversion ratio of 0.27 mol/mol glucose.

A star-nose-like tactile-olfactory bionic sensing array for robust object recognition in non-visual environments

Object recognition is among the basic survival skills of human beings and other animals. To date, artificial intelligence (AI) assisted high-performance object recognition is primarily visual-based, empowered by the rapid development of sensing and computational capabilities. Here, we report a tactile-olfactory sensing array, which was inspired by the natural sense-fusion system of star-nose mole, and can permit real-time acquisition of the local topography, stiffness, and odor of a variety of objects without visual input. The tactile-olfactory information is processed by a bioinspired olfactory-tactile associated machine-learning algorithm, essentially mimicking the biological fusion procedures in the neural system of the star-nose mole. Aiming to achieve human identification during rescue missions in challenging environments such as dark or buried scenarios, our tactile-olfactory intelligent sensing system could classify 11 typical objects with an accuracy of 96.9% in a simulated rescue scenario at a fire department test site. The tactile-olfactory bionic sensing system required no visual input and showed superior tolerance to environmental interference, highlighting its great potential for robust object recognition in difficult environments where other methods fall short.

Isotherm, kinetics, and adsorption mechanism studies of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid-modified banana/pomegranate peels as efficient adsorbents for removing Cd(II) and Ni(II) from aqueous solution

Two novel absorbents were synthesized for the first time by banana and pomegranate peels using diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) modification to eliminate Cd(II) and Ni(II) of sewage. The DTPA-modified peels performed significantly higher adsorption capacity than unmodified materials. The maximum adsorption capacities of DTPA-modified banana/pomegranate peel were 46.729/46.296 mg/g for Cd(II), and 29.240/16.611 mg/g for Ni(II). Adsorption isotherm and kinetics models were simulated to determine their removal efficiency and potential for recovery of these two heavy metals. As the results, the adsorption reached equilibrium within 5 min and was well described by the pseudo-second order model and Langmuir isotherm. The surface morphology analysis of the synthetic materials by Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, implied that ion exchange, complexation, and physical adsorption may together contribute to Cd(II) and Ni(II) loading on DTPA-modified peels. This study demonstrates the feasibility of waste peels as cost-efficient bio-absorbents to remove Cd(II) and Ni(II) in sewage systems, and discovers potential adsorption mechanism of efficiency improvements after DTPA modification.

1,2-Propanediol production from glycerol via an endogenous pathway of Klebsiella pneumoniae

Klebsiella pneumoniae is an important microorganism and is used as a cell factory for many chemicals production. When glycerol was used as the carbon source, 1,3-propanediol was the main catabolite of this bacterium. K. pneumoniae ΔtpiA lost the activity of triosephosphate isomerase and prevented glycerol catabolism through the glycolysis pathway. But this strain still utilized glycerol, and 1,2-propanediol became the main catabolite. Key enzymes of 1,2-propanediol synthesis from glycerol were investigated in detail. dhaD and gldA encoded glycerol dehydrogenases were both responsible for the conversion of glycerol to dihydroxyacetone, but overexpression of the two enzymes resulted in a decrease of 1,2-propanediol production. There are two dihydroxyacetone kinases (I and II), but the dihydroxyacetone kinase I had no contribution to dihydroxyacetone phosphate formation. Dihydroxyacetone phosphate was converted to methylglyoxal, and methylglyoxal was then reduced to lactaldehyde or hydroxyacetone and further reduced to form 1,2-propanediol. Individual overexpression of mgsA, yqhD, and fucO resulted in increased production of 1,2-propanediol, but only the combined expression of mgsA and yqhD showed a positive effect on 1,2-propanediol production. The process parameters for 1,2-propanediol production by Kp ΔtpiA-mgsA-yqhD were optimized, with pH 7.0 and agitation rate of 350 rpm found to be optimal. In the fed-batch fermentation, 9.3 g/L of 1,2-propanediol was produced after 144 h of cultivation, and the substrate conversion ratio was 0.2 g/g. This study provides an efficient way of 1,2-propanediol production from glycerol via an endogenous pathway of K. pneumoniae.Key points• 1,2-Propanediol was synthesis from glycerol by a tpiA knocked out K. pneumoniae• Overexpression of mgsA, yqhD, or fucO promote 1,2-propanediol production• 9.3 g/L of 1,2-propanediol was produced in fed-batch fermentation.

Relaxation Degree Analysis Using Frontal Electroencephalogram Under Virtual Reality Relaxation Scenes

Increasing social pressure enhances the psychological burden on individuals, and the severity of depression can no longer be ignored. The characteristics of high immersion and interactivity enhance virtual reality (VR) application in psychological therapy. Many studies have verified the effectiveness of VR relaxation therapy, although a few have performed a quantitative study on relaxation state (R-state). To confirm the effectiveness of VR relaxation and quantitatively assess relaxation, this study confirmed the effectiveness of the VR sightseeing relaxation scenes using subjective emotion scale and objective electroencephalogram (EEG) data from college students. Moreover, some EEG features with significant consistent differences after they watched the VR scenes were detected including the energy ratio of the alpha wave, gamma wave, and differential asymmetry. An R-state regression model was then built using the model stacking method for optimization, of which random forest regression, AdaBoost, gradient boosting (GB), and light GB were adopted as the first level, while linear regression and support vector machine were applied at the second level. The leave-one-subject-out method for cross-validation was used to evaluate the results, where the mean accuracy of the framework achieved 81.46%. The significantly changed features and the R-state model with over 80% accuracy have laid a foundation for further research on relaxation interaction systems. Moreover, the VR relaxation therapy was applied to the clinical treatment of patients with depression and achieved preliminary good results, which might provide a possible method for non-drug treatment of patients with depression.

Emerging role of lncRNA DANCR in progenitor cells: beyond cancer

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important participants in biological processes including cell proliferation, differentiation and death, as well as pathogenesis of various diseases. LncRNA differentiation antagonizing non-protein coding RNA (DANCR) is an emerging regulator in cell metabolism and many diseases besides cancers. DANCR is negative in epidermal, osteoblastic and endoderm differentiation, but positive in chondrogenic differentiation of progenitor cells. It is protective for calcification of the ligamentum flavum, stroke, acute myocardial infarction and arterial calcification, but a risk factor for bone loss, fracture healing and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. In addition, DANCR is a potential target for improving tissue regeneration. Mechanically, DANCR, a cytoplasmic lncRNA, sponges corresponding microRNAs or interacts with various proteins. This review aims to summarize the role of DANCR in progenitor cells and provide perspectives for further studies.

Redirection of the central metabolism of Klebsiella pneumoniae towards dihydroxyacetone production

Background

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a bacterium that can be used as producer for numerous chemicals. Glycerol can be catabolised by K. pneumoniae and dihydroxyacetone is an intermediate of this catabolism pathway. Here dihydroxyacetone and glycerol were produced from glucose by this bacterium based a redirected glycerol catabolism pathway.

Results

tpiA, encoding triosephosphate isomerase, was knocked out to block the further catabolism of dihydroxyacetone phosphate in the glycolysis. After overexpression of a Corynebacterium glutamicum dihydroxyacetone phosphate dephosphorylase (hdpA), the engineered strain produced remarkable levels of dihydroxyacetone (7.0 g/L) and glycerol (2.5 g/L) from glucose. Further increase in product formation were obtained by knocking out gapA encoding an iosenzyme of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase. There are two dihydroxyacetone kinases in K. pneumoniae. They were both disrupted to prevent an inefficient reaction cycle between dihydroxyacetone phosphate and dihydroxyacetone, and the resulting strains had a distinct improvement in dihydroxyacetone and glycerol production. pH 6.0 and low air supplement were identified as the optimal conditions for dihydroxyacetone and glycerol production by K, pneumoniae ΔtpiA-ΔDHAK-hdpA. In fed batch fermentation 23.9 g/L of dihydroxyacetone and 10.8 g/L of glycerol were produced after 91 h of cultivation, with the total conversion ratio of 0.97 mol/mol glucose.

Conclusions

This study provides a novel and highly efficient way of dihydroxyacetone and glycerol production from glucose.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12934-021-01608-0.

The association between overweight/obesity and vertebral fractures in older adults: a meta-analysis of observational studies

A meta-analysis of observational studies was conducted to assess the relationship between overweight/obesity and vertebral fractures in older adults. We found that overweight was related to a decreased risk of vertebral fractures in female and non-Asian populations, while obesity failed to be associated with vertebral fracture risks based on the present data.

INTRODUCTION

Recent investigations suggest that the influence of overweight/obesity on fracture risks is site-specific, while conflicting data were reported related to vertebral fracture. This meta-analysis was performed to qualitatively assess the relationship between overweight/obesity and the risk of vertebral fracture.

METHODS

MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane were searched for relevant observational articles assessing the vertebral fracture risk of the overweight or obese population compared to normal population. Two independent reviewers conducted data extraction and quality assessment. Relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were pooled using a random effect model.

RESULTS

Eleven studies including 1,078,094 participants were extracted from 1645 records. Pooled RR showed that decreased risk of vertebral fractures was observed in the overweight older adults (RR: 1.16; 95% CI: 1.07-1.26; I²: 51.8%), but not in the obese populations (RR: 0.98; 95% CI: 0.82-1.17; I²: 92.1%). In the subgroup analysis, we found a significant inverse association between overweight and risk of vertebral fracture in women (RR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.85-1.00; I²: 0.0%), non-Asian areas (RR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.80-0.99; I²: 40.7%), sample size > 2000 (RR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.80-0.94; I²: 4.9%), and quality score > 7 (RR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.79-0.95; I²: 21.9%). Furthermore, pooled studies of sample size > 2000 (RR: 0.66; 95% CI: 0.76, 0.89; I²: 52.1%) and quality score > 7 (RR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.62, 0.91; I²: 68.1%) showed that the people with obesity had a significantly lower prevalence of vertebral fracture.

CONCLUSIONS

Overweight aged adults tend to have a lower vertebral fracture risk. When gender and ethnicity were taken into consideration, the inverse relationship between overweight and vertebral fracture risk were only observed in female and non-Asian populations. Besides, there is insufficient data to conclude the relationship between obesity and the risk of vertebral fractures, and thus, further studies are needed.

Distinct Kondo Screening Behaviors in Heavy Fermion Filled Skutterudites with 4f^{1} and 4f^{2} Configurations

CeOs_{4}Sb_{12} (COS) and PrOs_{4}Sb_{12} (POS) are two representative compounds that provide the ideal vantage point to systematically study the physics of multi-f-electron systems. COS with Ce 4f^{1}, and POS with Pr 4f^{2} configurations show distinct properties of Kondo insulating and heavy fermion superconductivity, respectively. We unveiled the underlying microscopic origin by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy studies. Their eV-scale band structure matches well, representing the common characters of conduction electrons in ROs_{4}Sb_{12} systems (R=rare earth). However, f electrons interact differently with conduction electrons in COS and POS. Strong hybridization between conduction electrons and f electrons is observed in COS with band dependent hybridization gaps, and the development of a Kondo insulating state is directly revealed. Although the ground state of POS is a singlet, finite but incoherent hybridization exists, which can be explained by the Kondo scattering with the thermally excited triplet crystalline electric field state. Our results help us to understand the intriguing properties in COS and POS, and provide a clean demonstration of the microscopic differences in heavy fermion systems with 4f^{1} and 4f^{2} configurations.

Electrical Resistance of Stainless Steel/Polyester Blended Knitted Fabrics for Application to Measure Sweat Quantity

Skin wetness and body water loss are important indexes to reflect the heat strain of the human body. According to ISO 7933 2004, the skin wetness and sweat rate are calculated by the evaporative heat flow and the maximum evaporative heat flow in the skin surface, etc. This work proposes the soft textile-based sensor, which was knitted by stainless steel/polyester blended yarn on the flat knitting machine. It investigated the relationship between electrical resistance in the weft/warp directions and different water absorption ratio (0-70%), different sample size (2 cm × 2 cm, 2 cm × 4 cm, 2 cm × 6 cm and 2 cm × 8 cm). The hydrophilic treatment effectively improved the water absorption ratio increasing from 40% to 70%. The weft and warp direction exhibited different electrical behaviors when under dry and wet conditions. It suggested the weft direction of knitted fabrics was recommended for detecting the electrical resistance due to its stable sensitivity and linearity performance. It could be used as a flexible sensor integrated into a garment for measuring the skin wetness and sweat rate in the future instead of traditional measurements.

A Novel Low-Cost Wireless Footwear System for Monitoring Diabetic Foot Patients

Diabetic foot is one of the main complications of diabetes with the characteristics of high incidence and difficulty in treatment. Diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy may develop foot ulcers, and in severe cases amputations are required and some may even die. Plantar pressure can be used to assess the risk of developing diabetic foot, but the existing plantar pressure monitoring methods are not suitable for long-term monitoring in daily life. This study presents a novel low-cost shoe system for daily monitoring of plantar pressure in diabetics. It includes an insole with pressure sensor array, which can dynamically monitor the plantar pressure and display the changes of plantar pressure in real time in the mobile phone to provide early warning for patients with high risk of diabetic foot. As for the sensor, copper and carbon black were adopted as the electrode and conductive filler respectively, enabling a mass production with low price. It was soft and bendable, meeting the performance needs of daily plantar pressure monitoring. All devices were encapsulated in shoes, and the data was transmitted wirelessly through Bluetooth, which did not affect the user's walking. After using random forest for feature selection, five classifiers were used to classify the plantar pressure of healthy people, diabetic patients without peripheral neuropathy, and diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy collected by this system. The experimental results showed that the accuracy of the random forest classifier was the highest, reaching 94.7%, which indicated that the system could be useful for daily plantar pressure monitoring of diabetic patients.

Predicting future dynamics from short-term time series using an Anticipated Learning Machine

Predicting time series has significant practical applications over different disciplines. Here, we propose an Anticipated Learning Machine (ALM) to achieve precise future-state predictions based on short-term but high-dimensional data. From non-linear dynamical systems theory, we show that ALM can transform recent correlation/spatial information of high-dimensional variables into future dynamical/temporal information of any target variable, thereby overcoming the small-sample problem and achieving multistep-ahead predictions. Since the training samples generated from high-dimensional data also include information of the unknown future values of the target variable, it is called anticipated learning. Extensive experiments on real-world data demonstrate significantly superior performances of ALM over all of the existing 12 methods. In contrast to traditional statistics-based machine learning, ALM is based on non-linear dynamics, thus opening a new way for dynamics-based machine learning.

Imaging characteristics of the mandible and upper airway in children with Robin sequence and relationship to the treatment strategy

Some patients with Robin sequence (RS) may respond to conservative therapy, while others require surgery; however, there are currently no objective anatomical criteria to gauge surgical indication. The purpose of this study was to explore the imaging characteristics of the mandible and upper respiratory tract in children with RS and examine how individual morphometric parameters influence the treatment strategy. Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images were obtained from 57 children with RS. Twenty parameters were measured as potential surgical indicators. The children were divided into two groups according to surgical requirement: a non-surgical group (26 children) and a surgical group (31 children who underwent mandibular osteodistraction). Differences in the imaging parameters were compared between the groups. The mandibular ramus was shorter bilaterally (left, P = 0.047; right, P = 0.027) and the mandibular body was longer bilaterally (left, P = 0.030; right, P = 0.025) in the surgical group when compared to the non-surgical group. In addition, the mandibular angle bilaterally (left, P = 0.023; right, P = 0.003) and the cross-sectional area at the epiglottis tip (P = 0.010) were smaller in the surgical group. Compared to RS patients receiving conservative treatment, children requiring surgery have specific anatomical features of the mandible and upper airway that can be used as surgical indications.

Smart Textile-Integrated Microelectronic Systems for Wearable Applications

The programmable nature of smart textiles makes them an indispensable part of an emerging new technology field. Smart textile-integrated microelectronic systems (STIMES), which combine microelectronics and technology such as artificial intelligence and augmented or virtual reality, have been intensively explored. A vast range of research activities have been reported. Many promising applications in healthcare, the internet of things (IoT), smart city management, robotics, etc., have been demonstrated around the world. A timely overview and comprehensive review of progress of this field in the last five years are provided. Several main aspects are covered: functional materials, major fabrication processes of smart textile components, functional devices, system architectures and heterogeneous integration, wearable applications in human and nonhuman-related areas, and the safety and security of STIMES. The major types of textile-integrated nonconventional functional devices are discussed in detail: sensors, actuators, displays, antennas, energy harvesters and their hybrids, batteries and supercapacitors, circuit boards, and memory devices.

Wearable Emotion Recognition Using Heart Rate Data from a Smart Bracelet

Emotion recognition and monitoring based on commonly used wearable devices can play an important role in psychological health monitoring and human-computer interaction. However, the existing methods cannot rely on the common smart bracelets or watches for emotion monitoring in daily life. To address this issue, our study proposes a method for emotional recognition using heart rate data from a wearable smart bracelet. A 'neutral + target' pair emotion stimulation experimental paradigm was presented, and a dataset of heart rate from 25 subjects was established, where neutral plus target emotion (neutral, happy, and sad) stimulation video pairs from China's standard Emotional Video Stimuli materials (CEVS) were applied to the recruited subjects. Normalized features from the data of target emotions normalized by the baseline data of neutral mood were adopted. Emotion recognition experiment results approved the effectiveness of 'neutral + target' video pair simulation experimental paradigm, the baseline setting using neutral mood data, and the normalized features, as well as the classifiers of Adaboost and GBDT on this dataset. This method will promote the development of wearable consumer electronic devices for monitoring human emotional moods.

Podocalyxin-like, targeted by miR-138, promotes colorectal cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT

OBJECTIVE

Emerging evidence has shown that Podocalyxin-like (PODXL) plays an important role in the development and progression of several tumors, including colorectal cancer (CRC). However, its potential role in CRC is still not documented. The present study aimed to explore biological functions and molecular mechanisms in CRC development.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Microarray data were downloaded from TCGA datasets and statistically analyzed. RT-PCR was performed to detect the expression of PODXL and miR-138. Lost-function assay was used to explore the roles of PODXL on CRC behavior. Bioinformatics tools were used to identify the upstream miRNAs and the relationship between PODXL and miR-138 was detected via Dual-Luciferase assay, Western blot and rescue experiments.

RESULTS

PODXL expression was significantly up-regulated in both CRC tissues and cell lines. In vitro experiments showed the knockdown of PODXL suppressed reduces CRC tumor growth, metastasis and EMT, and promoted apoptosis. Moreover, PODXL was predicted and confirmed to be a target of miR-138. In addition, ectopic expression of PODXL significantly reversed the suppression of cell proliferation and metastasis caused by the miR-138 over-expression.

CONCLUSIONS

We provided important evidence that PODXL, targeted by miR-138, acted as a tumor promoter in CRC by suppressing CRC cells proliferation and metastasis, which may provide a novel potential target for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in CRC.

Quantum Criticality of the Ising-like Screw Chain Antiferromagnet SrCo_{2}V_{2}O_{8} in a Transverse Magnetic Field

The quantum criticality of an Ising-like screw chain antiferromagnet SrCo_{2}V_{2}O_{8}, with a transverse magnetic field applied along the crystalline a axis, is investigated by ultralow temperature NMR measurements. The Néel temperature is rapidly and continuously suppressed by the field, giving rise to a quantum critical point (QCP) at H_{C_{1}}≈7.03  T. Surprisingly, a second QCP at H_{C_{2}}≈7.7  T featured with gapless excitations is resolved from both the double-peak structure of the field-dependent spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/^{51}T_{1} at low temperatures and the weakly temperature-dependent 1/^{51}T_{1} at this field. Our data, combined with numerical calculations, suggest that the induced effective staggered transverse field significantly lowers the critical fields, and leads to an exposed QCP at H_{C_{2}}, which belongs to the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising universality.

SAE+LSTM: A New Framework for Emotion Recognition From Multi-Channel EEG

EEG-based automatic emotion recognition can help brain-inspired robots in improving their interactions with humans. This paper presents a novel framework for emotion recognition using multi-channel electroencephalogram (EEG). The framework consists of a linear EEG mixing model and an emotion timing model. Our proposed framework considerably decomposes the EEG source signals from the collected EEG signals and improves classification accuracy by using the context correlations of the EEG feature sequences. Specially, Stack AutoEncoder (SAE) is used to build and solve the linear EEG mixing model and the emotion timing model is based on the Long Short-Term Memory Recurrent Neural Network (LSTM-RNN). The framework was implemented on the DEAP dataset for an emotion recognition experiment, where the mean accuracy of emotion recognition achieved 81.10% in valence and 74.38% in arousal, and the effectiveness of our framework was verified. Our framework exhibited a better performance in emotion recognition using multi-channel EEG than the compared conventional approaches in the experiments.

Organophosphorus Flame Retardants Impair Intracellular Lipid Metabolic Function in Human Hepatocellular Cells

Organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs), a replacement for brominated flame retardants, have gradually been accepted as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Recently, evidence has shown that these EDCs could cause chronic health problems, such as obesity, and referred to as metabolic disruptors. However, the disturbance to lipid metabolism caused by OPFRs remains poorly understood, especially at biological molecular levels. Herein, we used the human hepatocellular cells (HepG2) to study the lipid metabolism disruption caused by nine OPFRs (halogenated-, aryl-, and alkyl-containing). All the tested OPFRs, excluding the long carbon chain alkyl-OPFRs, could cause intracellular triglyceride (TG) and/or total cholesterol (TC) accumulation. In detail, aryl-OPFRs (TPhP and TCP) induced both TC and TG deposition. Halogenated-OPFRs (TCEP, TBPP, TDCPP, and TCPP) induced intracellular TG accumulation, and only TDCPP also induced TC accumulation. Furthermore, TPhP induced lipid accumulation through regulation genes encoding proteins involved in fatty acid β-oxidation, lipid, and fatty acid synthesis. All the halogenated-OPFRs cause TG accumulation only, enacted through β-oxidation rather than lipid synthesis. TPhP and TDCPP induced TC accumulation through both PPARγ and srebp2 signaling. Mitochondrial dysfunction including decreased oxygen consumption rate and ATP content may also contribute to lipid metabolic disruption by the tested OPFRs. Our data indicated that halogenated- and aryl-OPFRs may not be safe candidates, and further information should be made available as potential for, as well as the mechanism of, metabolic disruption. And long carbon chain alkyl-OPFRs may be safer than the other two groups.

[Risk factors associated with systemic inflammatory response syndrome after flexible ueteroscopic lithotripsy based on enhanced recovery after surgery]

Objective: To investigate the risk factors of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in patients undergoing flexible ureteroscopic lithotripsy based on enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS). Methods: The clinical data of 243 kidney stone cases who underwent flexible ureteroscopic lithotripsy based on ERAS in the First Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College from January 2016 to December 2017 were analyzed retrospectively. The cases were divided into two groups according to whether they had SIRS after surgery: SIRS group (26 cases) and non-SIRS group (217 cases). The age, gender, laterality of kidney stone, history of previous kidney stone surgery, degree of hydronephrosis, multiple kidney stones, length of operation time, white blood cell count of preoperative urine routine, result of preoperative urine culture, use of preoperative antibiotics, diabetes and other chronic diseases in the groups were collected and analyzed. Results: SIRS occurred in 26 cases in this study, which accounted for 10.7% (26/243). Multivariate analysis found that, moderate and severe hydronephrosis (OR=6.711, P=0.008), stone burden ≥2 cm (OR=10.353, P<0.001), length of operation time ≥ 60 min (OR=5.583, P=0.011), white blood cell count of preoperative urine routine ≥25×10(6)/L (OR=6.195, P=0.005), positive preoperative urine culture (OR=4.216, P=0.011), diabetes and other chronic diseases (OR=4.532, P=0.006) were the independent risk factors for postoperative SIRS (P<0.05). Conclusions: The occurrence of SIRS after flexible ureteroscopic lithotripsy based on ERAS is closely correlated with hydronephrosis, stone burden, length of operation time, white blood cell count of preoperative urine routine, positive preoperative urine culture, diabetes and other chronic diseases.

Correction to: Identification of an intracellular metabolic signature impairing beta cell function in the rat beta cell line INS-1E and human islets

As part of an institutional investigation by University of Bremen, the work carried out by Kathrin Maedler's laboratory has been reviewed.

A Review of Emotion Recognition Using Physiological Signals

Emotion recognition based on physiological signals has been a hot topic and applied in many areas such as safe driving, health care and social security. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review on physiological signal-based emotion recognition, including emotion models, emotion elicitation methods, the published emotional physiological datasets, features, classifiers, and the whole framework for emotion recognition based on the physiological signals. A summary and comparation among the recent studies has been conducted, which reveals the current existing problems and the future work has been discussed.

[Cumulative live birth rates per oocytes retrieved cycle: evaluation of clinical outcomes of IVF/ICSI]

Objective: Using of cumulative live birth rate (CLBR) per oocytes retrieved cycle, to assess the clinical outcomes of in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) , and to explore impact factors on CLBR following utilization of all fresh and frozen embryos in one complete IVF/ICSI cycle using gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist, GnRH-antagonist and clomiphene mild stimulation protocols. Methods: Of the patients who underwent IVF/ICSI from January 1st, 2014 to December 31st, 2015 in the First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, a total of 6 142 oocytes retrieved cycles were included. The clinical and laboratory parameters of different ovarian stimulation protocols, and the effects of the age, number of oocytes retrieved and number of embryos available on the CLBR of each oocytes retrieved cycle were analyzed. Results: The CLBR was 69.0% (2 004/2 906) in the GnRH-agonist protocol versus 67.4% (644/955) in the GnRH-antagonist protocol (P>0.05); the CLBR of clomiphene mild stimulation protocol was 53.2% (1 215/2 281) , significantly lower than those of the other two protocols (all P<0.05). The CLBR significantly decreased with age increased. When divided into four groups according to the patients' age, we found that CLBR were not statistically significant using three different protocols in the 20-25 years old group (all P>0.05). There was a strong association between the number of oocytes retrieved and embryos available on CLBR. CLBR rose significantly with an increasing number of oocytes up to 6, then the rising trend slowed down. Patients were categorized into four groups according to the number of oocytes retrieved, CLBR was significantly higher using GnRH-antagonist protocol (50.0%) than mild stimulation protocol (37.0%) in low ovarian responder (0-4 oocytes) group (P<0.05) . The CLBR were no significant difference among three protocols in normal (10-15 oocytes) and high responders (≥15 oocytes) group (all P>0.05) . The incidence rate of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome in GnRH-agonist protocols (5.2%, 152/2 906) were significantly higher than those of GnRH-antagonist (4.4%, 42/955) and clomiphene mild stimulation protocols (1.5%, 34/2 281; all P<0.05) . Conclusions: CLBR is an important index to assess the clinical outcomes of IVF/ICSI. Age, number of oocytes retrieved and embryos available could affect CLBR obviously. According to the different age and ovarian response of patients, we should design ovarian stimulation protocols based on target oocytes number in order to get higher CLBR and reduce complications.