Mid-term Clinical Outcomes of "Light Bulb" Core Decompression with Arthroscopic Assistance in Peri-collapse Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head: A Retrospective Comparative Study

OBJECTIVE

Nontraumatic osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is commonly encountered in orthopedics. Without early clinical intervention, most patients with peri-collapse of the ONFH will develop femoral head necrosis and eventually require hip replacement surgery. The aim of this study is to evaluate clinical outcomes in patients with ONFH who underwent "light bulb" core decompression (CD) with arthroscopic assistance and to compare them with the outcomes of those treated with traditional procedures.

METHODS

A retrospective review of patients with Stage II and IIIA (Peri-collapse) radiographic findings based on the Association Research Circulation Osseous (ARCO) stage for ONFH who underwent "light bulb" CD with or without arthroscopic assistance by a single-surgeon team between March 2014 and December 2018 was performed. All patients were followed up for a minimum of 2 years. The visual analogue scale (VAS) pain score, Harris hip score (HHS), and radiological imaging were evaluated. The categorical parameters were analyzed by chi-square test and the continuous variables conforming to a normal distribution were analyzed by Student's t-test.

RESULTS

The study included a total of 39 patients (18 and 21 patients in the with and without arthroscopic assistance groups, respectively), with a mean age of 40.3 years and a mean follow-up of 22.2 months. Overall, there was a better VAS score in the arthroscopic assistance group than in the control group (p < 0.05), There was a significant difference in HHS (80.1 ± 9.2 vs 75.1 ± 12.7) at the last follow-up (p < 0.05). The rate of good and excellent outcomes was 94%. Similarly, there was no significant difference in the total rate of complications or conversion to THA.

CONCLUSION

With arthroscopic assistance, "light bulb" CD could be achieved via hip arthroscopy with less trauma, and it offered the opportunity for more precise evaluation and monitoring for therapy and yielded better VAS scores after surgery and better hip function outcomes at the last follow-up.

Effects of Geo-Stress and Natural Fracture Strength on Hydraulic Fracture Propagation in a Deep Fractured Tight Sandstone Reservoir

Hydraulic fracturing technology has been widely used in the tight reservoir reconstruction. Unfortunately, with the deepening of mining depth and the increase of geo-stress, the propagation mechanism of medium-pressure fractures in the reservoir is significantly different from that of conventional shallow reservoirs. Based on the combined finite discrete element method, this paper conducts numerical simulation research on deep tight sandstone reservoirs in the west. The discrete fracture network modeling method is used to establish a tight sandstone reservoir model with natural bedding, and the influence of geo-stress difference and natural fracture strength on hydraulic fracture propagation law in a high geo-stress environment is discussed in detail. The results show that the difference between geo-stress and the strength of natural fractures has a significant effect on the shape and expansion of hydraulic fractures under the high geo-stress conditions. The greater the difference in ground stress, the more obvious the tendency of the main fractures of the reservoir, and the shorter the branch fractures. With the increase of natural fracture strength, the changes in propagation pressure, fracture length, area, and width, which can be fitted with a linear function with a goodness of fit as high as 0.99. In addition, the morphological results of hydraulic fractures in the simulation are not only affected by the constitutive parameters of the model but also may be affected by the randomness of the natural fracture network, thus, showing a certain degree of dispersion. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to build a reservoir fracturing model in a specific area based on more detailed geological monitoring data to guide actual construction. The above achievements have certain reference significance for the field operation of deep tight sandstone reservoirs.

Proxy Importance Based Haptic Retargeting With Multiple Props in VR

In virtual reality applications, in addition to visual feedback, real objects can be used as props for virtual objects to provide passive haptic feedback, which greatly enhances user immersion. Usually, real object props are not one-to-one correspondence with virtual objects. Haptic retargeting technique is proposed to establish the virtual-real correspondence by introducing an offset between the virtual hand and the real hand. Sometimes, the offset is too large to cause user discomfort, and it is necessary to introduce a reset between two haptic retargeting operations to force the virtual hand and the real hand to coincide in order to eliminate the offset. However, too many resets can interfere with this immersion. To address this problem, we propose a haptic retargeting method based on proxy importance calculation using multiple props in virtual reality. The concept of proxy importance for props is introduced first, and then a proxy importance based prop selection and placement method for moving virtual objects are proposed. We also improve the performance of our method by using the props' weighted proxy importance strategy for multi-user collaboration. Compared to the state-of-the-art methods, our method significantly reduces the number of resets, the task completion time, hand movement distances, and task load without the cost of cybersickness in the single-user task. In the multi-user collaborative task, our method also achieves significant improvement using the strategy that weights the proxy importance of the props.

Experimental analysis and safety assessment of thermal runaway behavior in lithium iron phosphate batteries under mechanical abuse

Mechanical abuse can lead to internal short circuits and thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries, causing severe harm. Therefore, this paper systematically investigates the thermal runaway behavior and safety assessment of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries under mechanical abuse through experimental research. Mechanical abuse experiments are conducted under different conditions and battery state of charge (SOC), capturing force, voltage, and temperature responses during failure. Subsequently, characteristic parameters of thermal runaway behavior are extracted. Further, mechanical abuse conditions are quantified, and the relationship between experimental conditions and battery characteristic parameters is analyzed. Finally, regression models for battery safety boundaries and the degree of thermal runaway risk are established. The research results indicate that the extracted characteristic parameters effectively reflect internal short circuit (ISC) and thermal runaway behaviors, and the regression models provide a robust description of the battery's safety boundaries and thermal runaway risk degree. This work sheds light on understanding thermal runaway behavior and safety assessment methods for lithium-ion cells under mechanical abuse.

Using firefly algorithm to optimally size a hybrid renewable energy system constrained by battery degradation and considering uncertainties of power sources and loads

In this paper, the planning of a hybrid system of wind turbine units, photovoltaic panels, and battery storage is presented by taking into account the limitation of the storage degradation. The scheme minimizes the construction and maintenance cost of power sources and storage equipment. The constraints of the problem include the operating model of the mentioned elements, the limitation of the number of the mentioned elements, the limitation of the storage degradation, and the power balance in the hybrid system. This scheme is subject to uncertainties of the demand and output power generation of wind turbines and photovoltaics, which are modeled using a scenario-based stochastic optimization. The problem has a mixed-integer non-linear structure, and the paper adopts the firefly algorithm to solve the problem. The contributions of the paper include considering the degradation model of the battery, presenting a stochastic modelling for planning the islanded system, and taking into account the uncertainties of load and renewable power. Finally, based on the numerical results, a low planning cost is obtained for the hybrid system in the case of using renewable resources. Batteries are capable of providing flexibility for the hybrid system so that they can cover oscillations of renewable power with respect to the load. The firefly algorithm can find a reliable optimal solution. Stochastic modeling raises the planning cost of the islanded system in comparison to the deterministic model, but it yields a more reliable solution. The battery degradation model incurs no additional costs in system planning, although it offers a far more precise representation of the battery's behavior.

Mohawk protects against tendon damage via suppressing Wnt/β-catenin pathway

Degenerative tendon injuries are common clinical problems associated with overuse or aging, and understanding the mechanisms of tendon injury and regeneration can contribute to the study of tendon healing and repair. As a transcription factor, Mohawk (Mkx) is responsible for tendons development, yet, the roles of which in tendon damage remain mostly elusive. In this study, using Mkx overexpressed mice on long treadmill as an in vivo model and MkxOE Achilles tenocytes stimulated by equiaxial stretch as an in vitro model, we anaylsed the effects of Mkx overexpression on the tendon. Mkx and tendon tension strength were decreased after the expose to excessive mechanical forces, and Mkx overexpression protected the tendon from damage. Moreover, we revealed that the Wnt/β-catenin activation, inflammation, and Runx2 expression were increased at the injured Achilles tendon, upregulated Mkx significantly reversed the increased Wnt/β-catenin pathway, Tnf-α, Il-1β, and Il-6 levels, and reduced tendon cell damage. However, Wnt3a, IWR and BIO had not significantly affected the Mkx expression in achilles tenocytes. In conclusion, Mkx is involved in tendon healing and protects the tendon from damage through suppressing Wnt/β-catenin pathway, suggesting Mkx/Wnt/β-catenin pathway may be potential therapeutic targets for tendon damage.

Interpretable conservation laws as sparse invariants

Discovering conservation laws for a given dynamical system is important but challenging. In a theorist setup (differential equations and basis functions are both known), we propose the sparse invariant detector (SID), an algorithm that autodiscovers conservation laws from differential equations. Its algorithmic simplicity allows robustness and interpretability of the discovered conserved quantities. We show that SID is able to rediscover known and even discover new conservation laws in a variety of systems. For two examples in fluid mechanics and atmospheric chemistry, SID discovers 14 and 3 conserved quantities, respectively, where only 12 and 2 were previously known to domain experts.

UTDNet: A unified triplet decoder network for multimodal salient object detection

Image Salient Object Detection (SOD) is a fundamental research topic in the area of computer vision. Recently, the multimodal information in RGB, Depth (D), and Thermal (T) modalities has been proven to be beneficial to the SOD. However, existing methods are only designed for RGB-D or RGB-T SOD, which may limit the utilization in various modalities, or just finetuned on specific datasets, which may bring about extra computation overhead. These defects can hinder the practical deployment of SOD in real-world applications. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end Unified Triplet Decoder Network, dubbed UTDNet, for both RGB-T and RGB-D SOD tasks. The intractable challenges for the unified multimodal SOD are mainly two-fold, i.e., (1) accurately detecting and segmenting salient objects, and (2) preferably via a single network that fits both RGB-T and RGB-D SOD. First, to deal with the former challenge, we propose the multi-scale feature extraction unit to enrich the discriminative contextual information, and the efficient fusion module to explore cross-modality complementary information. Then, the multimodal features are fed to the triplet decoder, where the hierarchical deep supervision loss further enable the network to capture distinctive saliency cues. Second, as to the latter challenge, we propose a simple yet effective continual learning method to unify multimodal SOD. Concretely, we sequentially train multimodal SOD tasks by applying Elastic Weight Consolidation (EWC) regularization with the hierarchical loss function to avoid catastrophic forgetting without inducing more parameters. Critically, the triplet decoder separates task-specific and task-invariant information, making the network easily adaptable to multimodal SOD tasks. Extensive comparisons with 26 recently proposed RGB-T and RGB-D SOD methods demonstrate the superiority of the proposed UTDNet.

First Report of Root-knot Nematode, Meloidogyne enterolobii on Passiflora edulis in Yulin, China

Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis), a medicinal plant, was introduced into China in the early 19th century, is mainly cultivated in southern provinces (Liang et al. 2019). During March 2023, a survey was carried out and 167 samples were taken from passion fruit cultivated area in Yulin (22.6570263°E; 110.1765019°N) apart from the planting base appeared yellow leaves, stunted growth, and distinctive galls on the roots. Within the galls, Meloidogyne sp. females and egg masses were observed. From the rhizosphere soil, second-stage juveniles (J2) were extracted, and population density was 105/500 g soil. The species was determined to be Meloidogyne enterolobii based on morphological characteristics, including female perineal pattern, and genetic analyses. Female (n = 10) perineal patterns showed oval shape, with coarse and smooth striae, dorsal arch rounded to square, and lateral lines not distinct. The male head cap was high and rounded, with the head region only slightly set off from the body, knobs large, ovoid to rounded. The measurements of males (n = 10) included body length, 1,230.7 ± 244.94 (997 to 1,569) µm; a, 38.58 ± 7.8 (33.45 to 47.05) µm; c, 113.03 ± 26.22 (80.82 to 144.23) µm; stylet, 15.68 ± 1.1 (14.5 to 17.4) µm; spicules, 31.83 ± 2.84 (28.69 to 36.1) µm; tail, 11.09 ± 1.72 (8.02 to 13.38) µm; and gubernaculum length, 8.34 ± 0.28 (8.11 to 8.98) µm. Measurements of J2 (n = 20) included body length, 455.75 ± 44.94 (381 to 512) µm; a, 26.32 ± 3.89 (18.18 to 32.70) µm; c, 8.56 ± 1.2 (6.36 to 10.80) µm; stylet, 12.44 ± 0.76 (11.2 to 13.8) µm; DGO, 3.65 ± 0.54 (2.84 to 4.68) µm; tail, 53.89 ± 6.36 (39.8 to 62.2) µm; and hyaline tail terminus, 11.77 ± 2.83 (7.14 to 16.2) µm. These morphological characteristics are similar to those reported in the original description of M. enterolobii (Yang and Eisenback 1983). The sequences of the partial ITS region was amplified with V5367 (5'-TTGATTACGTCCCTGCCCTTT-3') and 26S (5'-TTTCACTCGCCGTTACTAAGG-3') primers (Vrain et al. 1992). The region between cytochrome oxidase subunit II (COII) and the 16S rRNA mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA COII) was also amplified with the primers C2F3 (5'-GGTCAATGTTCAGAAATTTGTGG-3') (Powers and Harris 1993) and MRH106 (5'-AATTTCTAAAGACTTTTCTTAGT-3') (Stanton et al. 1997). The ITS region yielded a fragment of 757 bp (OR072957) and mtDNA COII of 706 bp (OR078415). A BLAST search indicated the sequences were 100% identical to several sequences of M. enterolobii (MT406250, MH756127 and AY831967, MN269940, respectively). To confirm pathogenicity, 20 passion fruit (P. edulis Sim. f. flavicarpa) 30-day-old seedlings were transplanted into pots with an autoclaved mixture of sand and field soil (3:1) and maintained in the glasshouse at 25 ± 2°C with 65 ± 5% relative humidity. After eight weeks, fifteen plants were inoculated with 500 J2/pot (nematode culture collected from the original field), and another five uninoculated plants served as a control. Two months later, aboveground symptoms were similar to those observed in the field. Nematode reproduction occurred and root galls were observed. The reproduction factor (nematode final population density/initial population density) was 4.8. The disease caused by M. enterolobii was severe in Yulin city of Guangxi. Guangxi is an important area for passion fruit culture, with about 2000 ha, which is responsible for two-thirds of China production (Xing et al. 2020). This is the first record of P. edulis natural infection with M. enterolobii in the Yulin City of Guangxi, China.

The Distal Fascicle of the Anterior Inferior Tibiofibular Ligament: A Potential Landmark for Lateral Ankle Ligament Reconstruction

BACKGROUND

A reliable landmark and precise distances from the ligament attachments are needed for lateral ankle stabilization surgery. The distal fascicle of the anterior inferior tibiofibular ligament (AITFL) has been used to locate the anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) or calcaneofibular ligament (CFL) centers on the fibula. However, there is no anatomic study to validate the distal fascicle of the AITFL as a landmark of lateral ankle ligament stabilization, and more importantly, the exact distances from the ATFL or CFL attachments to the distal fascicle of the AITFL are unknown.

METHODS

Sixteen frozen cadaveric specimens (8 paired specimens) with no previous history of ankle injury were used in this study. Whether the distal fascicle of AITFL was present in each specimen was confirmed. Then, the distances from the most distal insertion of the AITFL's distal fascicle to the footprint centers of the ATFL and CFL on the fibula were measured. All measurements were performed by 2 observers, and the intraobserver and interobserver reliabilities were analyzed by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs).

RESULTS

The distal fascicle of the AITFL was found in all specimens (100%). The mean distance from the most distal insertion of the AITFL's distal fascicle to the footprint centers of the ATFL, CFL, and the intersection center of the 2 ligaments on the fibula was 6.0 to 7.1 mm, 11.5 to 13.2 mm, and 9.0 to 10.0 mm, respectively. Excellent interobserver and intraobserver agreement (all ICCs > 0.9, P < .01) was shown in the anatomic measurements of these distances.

CONCLUSION

In this cadaveric study, we found that the distal fascicle was a constant structure of the AITFL in the lateral ankle. The distances from the most distal insertion of the AITFL's distal fascicle to the ligamentous footprint centers were reliable and may be used to identify the origins of the ATFL and CFL for lateral ankle ligament reconstruction.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

This anatomic study validates the AITFL's distal fascicle as a potential landmark and, more importantly, determines the range of distances from AITFL's distal fascicle to the attachment centers of lateral ankle ligaments by anatomic measurements. The data may be used to identify the ATFL and CFL for lateral ankle stabilization surgery and become particularly valuable for endoscopic or arthroscopic techniques.

Seeing Is Believing: Brain-Inspired Modular Training for Mechanistic Interpretability

We introduce Brain-Inspired Modular Training (BIMT), a method for making neural networks more modular and interpretable. Inspired by brains, BIMT embeds neurons in a geometric space and augments the loss function with a cost proportional to the length of each neuron connection. This is inspired by the idea of minimum connection cost in evolutionary biology, but we are the first the combine this idea with training neural networks with gradient descent for interpretability. We demonstrate that BIMT discovers useful modular neural networks for many simple tasks, revealing compositional structures in symbolic formulas, interpretable decision boundaries and features for classification, and mathematical structure in algorithmic datasets. Qualitatively, BIMT-trained networks have modules readily identifiable by the naked eye, but regularly trained networks seem much more complicated. Quantitatively, we use Newman's method to compute the modularity of network graphs; BIMT achieves the highest modularity for all our test problems. A promising and ambitious future direction is to apply the proposed method to understand large models for vision, language, and science.

Harnessing Transfer Learning for Dementia Prediction: Leveraging Sex-Different Mild Cognitive Impairment Prognosis

This paper presents a machine learning-based prediction for dementia, leveraging transfer learning to reuse the knowledge learned from prediction of mild cognitive impairment, a precursor of dementia. We also examine the impacts of temporal aspects of longitudinal data and sex differences. The methodology encompasses key components such as setting the duration window, comparing different modeling strategies, conducting comprehensive evaluations, and examining the sex-specific impacts of simulated scenarios. The findings reveal that cognitive deficits in females, once detected at the mild cognitive impairment stage, tend to deteriorate over time, while males exhibit more diverse decline across various characteristics without highlighting specific ones. However, the underlying reasons for these sex differences remain unknown and warrant further investigation.

Corrigendum to "Improving cooperativity of transcription activators by oligomerization domains in mammalian cells" [Synth Syst Biotechnol 8 (1) (2023) 114-120]

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.synbio.2022.12.003.].

Phillyrin ameliorates influenza a virus-induced pulmonary inflammation by antagonizing CXCR2 and inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation

Influenza is an acute viral respiratory illness with high morbidity rates worldwide. Excessive pulmonary inflammation is the main characteristic of lethal influenza A virus (IAV) infections. Therapeutic options for managing influenza are limited to vaccines and some antiviral medications. Phillyrin is one of the major bioactive components of the Chinese herbal medicine Forsythia suspensa, which has the functions of sterilization, heat clearing and detoxification. In this work, the effect and mechanism of phillyrin on H1N1 influenza (PR8)-induced pneumonia were investigated. We reported that phillyrin (15 mg/kg) treatment after viral challenge significantly improved the weight loss, ameliorated pulmonary inflammation and inhibited the accumulation of multiple cytokines and chemokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid on 7 days post infection (dpi). In vitro, phillyrin suppressed influenza viral replication (Matrixprotein and nucleoprotein messenger RNA level) and reduced influenza virus-induced cytopathic effect (CPE). Furthermore,chemokine receptor CXCR2 was confirmed to be markedly inhibited by phillyrin. Surface plasmon resonance results reveal that phillyrin exhibits binding affinity to CXCR2, having a binding affinity constant (KD) value of 1.858e-5 M, suggesting that CXCR2 is a potential therapeutic target for phillyrin. Moreover, phillyrin inhibited the mRNA and protein expression levels of Caspase1, ASC and NLRP3 in the lungs of mice with H1N1-induced pneumonia.This study reveals that phillyrin ameliorates IAV-induced pulmonary inflammation by antagonizing CXCR2 and inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation partly.

[Mitochondrial pyruvate carrier deficiency: 3 cases report and literature review]

Objective: To analyze the clinical and genetic features of patients with mitochondrial pyruvate carrier deficiency (MPYCD). Methods: This was a case series research. The clinical data, genetic characteristics, and glutamine treatment efficacy of 3 patients diagnosed with MPYCD at the Department of Neurology, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University and Department of Pediatrics, Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital, from August 2019 to June 2023 were retrospectively collected. A literature search with "MPC1 gene" "MPC2 gene and" "mitochondrial pyruvate carrier deficiency" as keywords was conducted at the Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and PubMed (up to June 2023). Clinical and genetic characteristics of patients with MPYCD were summarized. Results: Case 1 was a 3 years and 11 months old boy, while case 2 was a 4 years and 10 months old boy and case 3 was an 8 years and 9 months old girl. Case 2 and case 3 were siblings from one consanguineous family. All 3 patients presented with general developmental delay, growth failure and elevated serum lactate. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed subtle bilateral symmetrical T2 signal hyperintensity in basal ganglia and thalamus in case 1, but normal in case 2 and 3. Trio-WES revealed case 1 harboring compound heterozygous missense variants c.208G>A (p.Ala70Thr) and c.290G>A (p.Arg97Gln) in MPC1 gene, while case 2 and 3 revealed a homozygous variant c.290G>A (p.Arg97Gln) in the same gene. All 3 cases were diagnosecl as MPYCD. Clinical symptoms including motor ability, cognition and activity endurance were improved in these 3 patients after taking glutamine for 2 years. A total of 5 articles published in English were reviewed, and no Chinese literature was found. Including these 3 cases, 15 cases were enrolled for analysis. Eleven patients carried MPC1 gene variants and 4 cases carried MPC2 gene variants. Except for 3 cases died during prenatal period, 9 of 12 enrolled born cases were onset before 6 months old. The most common clinical symptoms were mental and motor general developmental delay, microcephaly, growth failure and hypotonia. All patients had elevated blood lactate and pyruvate, but the ratio of lactate/pyruvate was normal. Seven patients performed cranial MRI, 3 exhibited non-specific changes, 2 showed bilateral symmetrical T2 signal hyperintensity in basal ganglia and thalamus, and 3 were normal. A total of 5 MPC1 gene missense variants and 2 MPC2 gene variants were identified in 15 cases. Conclusions: Onset age of patients with MPYCD is usually within 6 months. The main clinical characteristics are developmental delay, microcephaly and growth failure, accompanied by increased serum lactate and pyruvate. Glutamine supplement could lead to clinical improvements.

[Safety of double and a half layered esophagojejunal anastomosis in radical gastrectomy: A prospective, multi-center, single arm trial]

Objective: To evaluate the safety of double and a half layered esophagojejunal anastomosis in radical gastrectomy. Methods: This prospective, multi-center, single-arm study was initiated by the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University in June 2021 (CRAFT Study, NCT05282563). Participating institutions included Nanyang Central Hospital, Zhumadian Central Hospital, Luoyang Central Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Henan Polytechnic University, First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University, Luohe Central Hospital, the People's Hospital of Hebi, First People's Hospital of Shangqiu, Anyang Tumor Hospital, First People's Hospital of Pingdingshan, and Zhengzhou Central Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University. Inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) gastric adenocarcinoma confirmed by preoperative gastroscopy;(2) preoperative imaging assessment indicated that R0 resection was feasible; (3) preoperative assessment showed no contraindications to surgery;(4) esophagojejunostomy planned during the procedure; (5) patients volunteered to participate in this study and gave their written informed consent; (6) ECOG score 0-1; and (7) ASA score I-III. Exclusion criteria were as follows: (1) history of upper abdominal surgery (except laparoscopic cholecystectomy);(2) history of gastric surgery (except endoscopic submucosal dissection and endoscopic mucosal resection); (3) pregnancy or lactation;(4) emergency surgery for gastric cancer-related complications (perforation, hemorrhage, obstruction); (5) other malignant tumors within 5 years or coexisting malignant tumors;(6) arterial embolism within 6 months, such as angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, and cerebrovascular accident; and (7) comorbidities or mental health abnormalities that could affect patients' participation in the study. Patients were eliminated from the study if: (1) radical gastrectomy could not be completed; (2) end-to-side esophagojejunal anastomosis was not performed during the procedure; or (3) esophagojejunal anastomosis reinforcement was not possible. Double and a half layered esophagojejunal anastomosis was performed as follows: (1) Open surgery: the full thickness of the anastomosis is continuously sutured, followed by embedding the seromuscular layer with barbed or 3-0 absorbable sutures. The anastomosis is sutured with an average of six to eight stitches. (2) Laparoscopic surgery: the anastomosis is strengthened by counterclockwise full-layer sutures. Once the anastomosis has been sutured to the right posterior aspect of the anastomosis, the jejunum stump is pulled to the right and the anastomosis turned over to continue to complete reinforcement of the posterior wall. The suture interval is approximately 5 mm. After completing the full-thickness suture, the anastomosis is embedded in the seromuscular layer. Relevant data of patients who had undergone radical gastrectomy in the above 12 centers from June 2021 were collected and analyzed. The primary outcome was safety (e.g., postoperative complications, and treatment). Other studied variables included details of surgery (e.g., surgery time, intraoperative bleeding), postoperative recovery (postoperative time to passing flatus and oral intake, length of hospital stay), and follow-up conditions (quality of life as assessed by Visick scores). Result: [1] From June 2021 to September 2022,457 patients were enrolled, including 355 men and 102 women of median age 60.8±10.1 years and BMI 23.7±3.2 kg/m2. The tumors were located in the upper stomach in 294 patients, mid stomach in 139; and lower stomach in 24. The surgical procedures comprised 48 proximal gastrectomies and 409 total gastrectomies. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was administered to 85 patients. Other organs were resected in 85 patients. The maximum tumor diameter was 4.3±2.2 cm, number of excised lymph nodes 28.3±15.2, and number of positive lymph nodes five (range one to four. As to pathological stage,83 patients had Stage I disease, 128 Stage II, 237 Stage III, and nine Stage IV. [2] The studied surgery-related variables were as follows: The operation was successfully completed in all patients, 352 via a transabdominal approach, 25 via a transhiatus approach, and 80 via a transthoracoabdominal approach. The whole procedure was performed laparoscopically in 53 patients (11.6%), 189 (41.4%) underwent laparoscopic-assisted surgery, and 215 (47.0%) underwent open surgery. The median intraoperative blood loss was 200 (range, 10-1 350) mL, and the operating time 215.6±66.7 minutes. The anastomotic reinforcement time was 2 (7.3±3.9) minutes for laparoscopic-assisted surgery, 17.6±1.7 minutes for total laparoscopy, and 6.0±1.2 minutes for open surgery. [3] The studied postoperative variables were as follows: The median time to postoperative passage of flatus was 3.1±1.1 days and the postoperative gastrointestinal angiography time 6 (range, 4-13) days. The median time to postoperative oral intake was 7 (range, 2-14) days, and the postoperative hospitalization time 15.8±6.7 days. [4] The safety-related variables were as follows: In total, there were 184 (40.3%) postoperative complications. These comprised esophagojejunal anastomosis complications in 10 patients (2.2%), four (0.9%) being anastomotic leakage (including two cases of subclinical leakage and two of clinical leakage; all resolved with conservative treatment); and six patients (1.3%) with anastomotic stenosis (two who underwent endoscopic balloon dilation 21 and 46 days after surgery, the others improved after a change in diet). There was no anastomotic bleeding. Non-anastomotic complications occurred in 174 patients (38.1%). All patients attended for follow-up at least once, the median follow-up time being 10 (3-18) months. Visick grades were as follows: Class I, 89.1% (407/457); Class II, 7.9% (36/457); Class III, 2.6% (12/457); and Class IV 0.4% (2/457). Conclusion: Double and a half layered esophagojejunal anastomosis in radical gastrectomy is safe and feasible.

A preliminary study for the clinical effect of one combinational physiotherapy and its potential influence on gut microbial composition in children with Tourette syndrome

Introduction

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a chronic neuropsychiatric disorder with unknown causes and inadequate therapies. Inspired by the important roles of gut microbiota in some mental illnesses, the interactions between gut microbiota and TS via the gut-brain axis have gained more and more attention. This study aimed to characterize the gut microbial profiles in children with TS, and explore the clinical effects of one combinational physiotherapy and its potential influence on gut microbial composition.

Methods

The gut microbial profiles were depicted based on the sequence data of 32 patients and 29 matched health children by 16S rDNA amplicon pyrosequencing. Thirty of thirty-two patients underwent uninterrupted two 10-day courses of combinational physiotherapy, which included a 60-minute cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) training followed by a 30-minute biofeedback training per session, 2 sessions a day.

Results

Our results indicated that the gut microbial composition in children with TS was different from that in healthy controls. Multiple GBM neurotransmitter modules obtained through Picrust2 functional predictive analysis were significantly increased in patients, including Histamine degradation, Dopamine degradation, and DOPAC synthesis. Moreover, this combinational physiotherapy could significantly diminish tic activity, whose positive effects were first reported in children with TS. Lastly, different gut microbial compositions and predictive metabolic pathways were also observed between patients before and after this treatment, with lower abundances of the genera (e.g., Dorea) and significant decreases of GBM neurotransmitter modules (e.g. dopamine degradation) in patients after this treatment, indicating that improved clinical symptoms might be accompanied by an improvement of intestinal microenvironment.

Discussion

Children with TS showed a cognizable gut microbial profile, and certain enriched bacteria with pro-inflammatory potential might induce neuroinflammatory responses. This combinational physiotherapy could significantly diminish tic activity, and the gut microbial compositions in patients after this treatment were different from those without any treatment, indicating the existence of bidirectional communication of the gut-brain axis in TS. But studies on the gut microbial characteristics in TS patients, the influences of gut microbiota on tic severity, the efficacy and safety of this treatment, and the bidirectional regulatory mechanism between brain signals and gut microbiota in TS still need to be explored.

Interlocking Evaluation of Mesoscopic Skeleton with the Compaction Degree of Hot-Mix Asphalt

Asphalt mixtures are multi-phase composites composed of aggregates, bitumen, mineral powders, and voids, and various structures are intertwined during the compaction process. Most of the traditional research focuses on the macro-scale domain, and it is difficult to obtain the internal structure of asphalt mixture in different compaction processes. With the continuous development of digital image technology, the influence of the meso-structure of the asphalt mixture on the compaction quality of the asphalt mixture has become a new means to evaluate the performance of the asphalt mixture. In this paper, different numbers of compactions are selected to represent different stages in the compaction process, the digital images of specimens in different compaction stages are obtained by industrial CT scanning technology. Then, the images are processed and reconstructed in three dimensions using improved image segmentation methods, and the position characteristics and geometric information of coarse aggregate are obtained by combining the Oriented Bounding Box (OBB). The meso-response characteristics of the skeleton structure of the asphalt mixture during compaction were studied. The influence of the internal structure of the mixture on the compaction quality of the mixture was obtained, which is of great significance for the study of improving the durability of the pavement. The results show that the "effective coordination number" (the number of aggregate particles that can transmit force in the skeleton structure) is greatly related to the aggregate size. With the compaction process, the centroid of coarse aggregate in the upper layer of the specimen reflects the overall downward movement trend. The inclination angle of the aggregate spindle tends to be in the range of 80°~100°; the anisotropic amplitude of the xy plane increases, and the direction of the aggregate spindle becomes more and more consistent. With the increase in the number of rotational compactions, these four parameters showed obvious rules, indicating that this meso-characteristic index could well characterize the compaction quality of the asphalt mixture in the compaction process.

Exosomal miR-200b-3p induce macrophage polarization by regulating transcriptional repressor ZEB1 in hepatocellular carcinoma

PURPOSE

Accumulating evidence has elucidated that the interaction between cancer cells and M2 macrophages plays an important role in the tumorigenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the mechanism connecting tumor-derived exosomes, M2 polarization of macrophages, and liver metastasis remain unclear. Therefore, it is necessary to explore their influence on the tumor microenvironment of HCC.

METHODS

Transmission electron microscopy, nanometer particle testing, and special biomarker analysis were utilized to characterize exosomes, while the differential expression of microRNAs was evaluated using high-throughput sequencing technology. The functions of miR-200b-3p exosomes were confirmed using in vitro and in vivo assays. The interactions between microRNAs and ZEB1 as well as cancer cells and macrophages were measured using RNA pull-down and luciferase gene reporter assays.

RESULTS

Using in silico analysis, we identified high levels of miR-200b-3p exosome expression in patients with HCC, particularly with relapsed HCC. We demonstrated that HCC cell-derived miR-200b-3p exosomes were internalized by M0 macrophages and induced M2 polarization by downregulating ZEB1 and upregulating interleukin-4. As a result, the JAK/STAT signaling pathway was activated in M2 macrophages, leading to increased PIM1 and VEGFα expression. These cell factors accelerated the proliferation and metastasis of HCC, resulting in a feedback loop between HCC cells and M2 macrophages.

CONCLUSION

The study illustrates that HCC cell-derived miR-200b-3p exosomes facilitate the proliferation and polarization of macrophages by modulating cytokine secretion and the JAK/STAT signaling pathway, leading to the metastasis of HCC. These findings demonstrate the existence of a novel feedback loop between cancer cells and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment, presenting a new concept in cancer research.

Scientific discovery in the age of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being increasingly integrated into scientific discovery to augment and accelerate research, helping scientists to generate hypotheses, design experiments, collect and interpret large datasets, and gain insights that might not have been possible using traditional scientific methods alone. Here we examine breakthroughs over the past decade that include self-supervised learning, which allows models to be trained on vast amounts of unlabelled data, and geometric deep learning, which leverages knowledge about the structure of scientific data to enhance model accuracy and efficiency. Generative AI methods can create designs, such as small-molecule drugs and proteins, by analysing diverse data modalities, including images and sequences. We discuss how these methods can help scientists throughout the scientific process and the central issues that remain despite such advances. Both developers and users of AI toolsneed a better understanding of when such approaches need improvement, and challenges posed by poor data quality and stewardship remain. These issues cut across scientific disciplines and require developing foundational algorithmic approaches that can contribute to scientific understanding or acquire it autonomously, making them critical areas of focus for AI innovation.

Insights into thermal hydrolysis pretreatment temperature for enhancing volatile fatty acids production from sludge fermentation: Performance and mechanism

To reveal the impact of thermal hydrolysis pretreatment (THP) temperature on the unclear mechanisms of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production, four groups were established with different temperatures (100, 120, 140 and 160 °C), and high throughput sequencing technology was utilized. The results indicated that the optimal VFAs production occurred at 140 °C. Moreover, as the THP temperature increased, the proportion of acetic acid also increased, accounting for 10.8% to 26.7% of the VFAs, compared to only 4.9% in the control group. Mechanism investigations revealed that THP facilitated the hydrolysis and release of biodegradable organic matter. Moreover, the abundance of VFAs production and hydrolytic microorganisms and related metabolic functional genes expression were evidently improved by THP. Overall, this study deepens the understanding of the mechanisms through which different THP temperatures stimulate the production of VFAs through acidogenic fermentation, providing technical support for future THP application in sludge treatment.

Scoping review update on somatic symptom disorder that includes additional Chinese data

Somatic symptom disorder (SSD) is a new diagnosis introduced into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), which is expected to solve the diagnostic difficulties of patients with medically unexplained symptoms. Based on the previous work, this review aims to comprehensively synthesise updated evidence related to SSD from recent years in English publications and, more extensively, from data published in Chinese language journals. The scoping review update was based on an earlier scoping review and included Chinese language publication data from China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI), WANFANG and WEIPU between January 2013 and May 2022 and data from PubMed, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Library between June 2020 and May 2022. Initially, 2 984 articles were identified, of which 63 full texts were included for analysis. In China, SSD is mainly applied in scientific research, but it also shows good predictive validity and clinical application potential. The mean frequency of SSD was 4.5% in the general population, 25.2% in the primary care population and 33.5% in diverse specialised care settings. Biological factors, such as brain region changes and heart rate variability, are associated with the onset of SSD. Psychological impairment related to somatic symptoms is the best predictor of prognosis. While adolescent SSD was significantly associated with family function, SSD overall is associated with an increased dysfunction of cognition and emotion, decreased quality of life, and high comorbidity with anxiety and depressive disorders. Further research is needed on suicide risk and cultural and gender-related issues. Updating the data of Chinese language studies, our research enriches the evidence-based findings related to the topics addressed in the text sections of the SSD chapter of DSM-5. However, research gaps remain about SSD reliability, population-based prevalence, suicide risk, and cultural and gender-related issues.

[Clinical characteristics and short-term prognosis of 22 cases with SARS-CoV-2 infection associated acute encephalopathy]

Objective: To investigate the clinical features and short-term prognosis of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection associated acute encephalopathy (AE). Methods: Retrospective cohort study. The clinical data, radiological features and short-term follow-up of 22 cases diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection associated AE in the Department of Neurology, Beijing Children's Hospital from December 2022 to January 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into cytokine storm group, excitotoxic brain damage group and unclassified encephalopathy group according to the the clinicopathological features and the imaging features. The clinical characteristics of each group were analyzed descriptively. Patients were divided into good prognosis group (≤2 scores) and poor prognosis group (>2 scores) based on the modified Rankin scale (mRS) score of the last follow-up. Fisher exact test or Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the two groups. Results: A total of 22 cases (12 females, 10 males) were included. The age of onset was 3.3 (1.7, 8.6) years. There were 11 cases (50%) with abnormal medical history, and 4 cases with abnormal family history. All the enrolled patients had fever as the initial clinical symptom, and 21 cases (95%) developed neurological symptoms within 24 hours after fever. The onset of neurological symptoms included convulsions (17 cases) and disturbance of consciousness (5 cases). There were 22 cases of encephalopathy, 20 cases of convulsions, 14 cases of speech disorders, 8 cases of involuntary movements and 3 cases of ataxia during the course of the disease. Clinical classification included 3 cases in the cytokine storm group, all with acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE); 9 cases in the excitotoxicity group, 8 cases with acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion (AESD) and 1 case with hemiconvulsion-hemiplegia syndrome; and 10 cases of unclassified encephalopathy. Laboratory studies revealed elevated glutathione transaminase in 9 cases, elevated glutamic alanine transaminase in 4 cases, elevated blood glucose in 3 cases, and elevated D-dimer in 3 cases. Serum ferritin was elevated in 3 of 5 cases, serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurofilament light chain protein was elevated in 5 of 9 cases, serum cytokines were elevated in 7 of 18 cases, and CSF cytokines were elevated in 7 of 8 cases. Cranial imaging abnormalities were noted in 18 cases, including bilateral symmetric lesions in 3 ANE cases and "bright tree appearance" in 8 AESD cases. All 22 cases received symptomatic treatment and immunotherapy (intravenous immunoglobulin or glucocorticosteroids), and 1 ANE patient received tocilizumab. The follow-up time was 50 (43, 53) d, and 10 patients had a good prognosis and 12 patients had a poor prognosis. No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of epidemiology, clinical manifestations, biochemical indices, and duration of illness to initiate immunotherapy (all P>0.05). Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 infection is also a major cause of AE. AESD and ANE are the common AE syndromes. Therefore, it is crucial to identify AE patients with fever, convulsions, and impaired consciousness, and apply aggressive therapy as early as possible.

First Report of Root-Knot Nematode Meloidogyne enterolobii on Antirrhinum majus in China

Antirrhinum majus L. is a medicinal and ornamental herb commonly grown in China. In October 2022, A. majus plants were observed stunted in growth with yellowish leaves and containing a large number of galls on roots in a field in Nanning, Guangxi, China (N22°47'23.35″, E108°23'4.26). Ten samples were collected randomly from rhizosphere soil and roots of A. majus. Second-stage juveniles (J2) were isolated from fresh soil with a Baermann funnel, and a mean of 36 ± 2.9 per 500 cm3 of soil was recorded. Gall roots were dissected using a microscope, where 2+ 0.42 males per sample were recovered. The species was determined to be Meloidogyne enterolobii based on morphological characteristics, including the female perineal pattern, and DNA studies. Female perineal patterns and morphometric data were similar to the original description of M. enterolobii Yang and Eisenback 1983 from Enterolobium contortisilquum (Vell.) Morong in China (Yang and Eisenback 1983). The measurements of males (n = 10) included body length, 1600.7 ± 55.32 (1421.3 to 1924.3) µm; body diameter = 41.3 ± 0.80 (37.8 to 45.4) µm, stylt length = 20.5 ± 0.40 (19.1 to 22.2) µm, spicules length = 30.0 ± 0.47 (28.2 to 32.0) µm and DGO = 4.5 ± 0.3 (3.8 to 5.2) µm. Measurements of J2 (n = 20) included body length, 441.9 ± 5.42 (403.2 to 493.3) µm; body diameter = 16.6 ± 0.30 (14.4 to 8.7) µm, a = 26.8 ± 0.54 (21.9 to 31.2), c = 8.7 ± 0.27 (6.4 to 10.8), stylet length = 12.6 ± 0.17 (11.2 to 14.3) µm, DGO = 3.8 ± 0.10 (2.9 to 4.8) µm, tail length = 51.6 ± 1.27 (42.3 to 63.1) µm and hyaline tail terminus length = 11.7 ± 0.15 (10.2 to 13.1) µm. These morphological characteristics are similar to the original description of M. enterolobii (Yang and Eisenback 1983). Pathogenicity tests were conducted on A. majus 'Taxiti' plants directly germinated from seeds in a 10.5-cm-diameter pot filled with 600 ml of sterilized peat moss/sand (1:1, v/v) soil in the glasshouse. After 1 week, fifteen plants were inoculated with 500 J2/pot (nematode culture collected from the original field) and five uninoculated plants served as a control. After 45 days, aboveground parts of all inoculated plants showed symptoms similar to those observed in the field. No symptoms were observed on control plants. The RF value of the inoculated plants was determined by the method of Belair and Benoit (1996) 60 days after inoculation, and the average was 14.65. J2 were used in this test and sequenced on 28S rRNA-D2/D3, ITS, COII -16SrRNA 3 region and confirmed to be M. enterolobii. Species identification was confirmed by using polymerase chain reaction primers D2A/D3B (De Ley et al. 1999), F194/5368r (Ferris et al. 1993), C2F3/1108 (Powers and Harris, 1993). The sequences obtained GenBank accession numbers OP897743 (COII), OP876758 (rRNA) and OP876759 (ITS) were 100% similar to other M. enterolobii populations from China (MN269947), (MN648519) and (MT406251). M. enterolobii is a highly pathogenic species and has been reported in vegetables, ornamental plants, guava (Psidium guajava L.), and weeds in China, Africa and America (Brito et al. 2004; Xu et al. 2004; Yang and Eisenback 1983). The medicinal plant Gardenia jasminoides J. Ellis was also infected by M. enterolobii in China (Lu et al. 2019). Of concern is its ability to develop on crop genotypes carrying RKN resistance genes in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.), sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.), and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). Consequently, this species was added to the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization A2 Alert List in 2010. This is the first natural infection report of M. enterolobii in Guangxi, China on the medicinal and ornamental herb A. majus. Acknowledgments This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31860492), Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi (2020GXNSFAA297076), and Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences Fund, China (2021YT062, 2021JM14, 2021ZX24). References: Azevedo de Oliveira, S., et al. 2018. PLoS One 13:e0192397. Belair, G., and Benoit, D. L. 1996. J. Nematol. 28:643. Brito, J. A., et al. 2004. J. Nematol. 36:324. De Ley, P., et al. 1999. Nematol. 1:591-612. Ferris, V. R., et al. 1993. Fundam. Appl. Nematol. 16:177-184. Lu, X. H., et al. 2019. Plant Dis. 103:1434. Powers, T. O. and Harris, T. S. 1993. J. Nematol. 25:1-6 Vrain, T. C., et al. 1992. Fundam. Appl. Nematol. 15:563. Yang, B. and Eisenback, J. D. 1983. J. Nematol. 15:381.

Long-term sevoflurane exposure resulted in temporary rather than lasting cognitive impairment in Drosophila

Sevoflurane is the primary inhaled anesthetic used in pediatric surgery. It has been the focus of research since animal models studies found that it was neurotoxic to the developing brain two decades ago. However, whether pediatric general anesthesia can lead to permanent cognitive deficits remained a subject of heated debate. Therefore, our study aims to determine the lifetime neurotoxicity of early long-time sevoflurane exposure using a short-life-cycle animal model, Drosophila melanogaster. To investigate this question, we measured the lifetime changes of two-day-old flies' learning and memory abilities after anesthesia with 3 % sevoflurane for 6 h by the T-maze memory assay. We evaluated the apoptosis, levels of ATP and ROS, and related genes in the fly head. Our results suggest that 6 h 3 % sevoflurane exposure at a young age can only induce transient neuroapoptosis and cognitive deficits around the first week after anesthesia. But this brain damage recedes with time and vanishes in late life. We also found that the mRNA level of caspases and Bcl-2, ROS level, and ATP level increased during this temporary neuroapoptosis process. And mRNA levels of antioxidants, such as SOD2 and CAT, increased and decreased simultaneously with the rise and fall of the ROS level, indicating a possible contribution to the recovery from the sevoflurane impairment. In conclusion, our results suggest that one early prolonged sevoflurane-based general anesthesia can induce neuroapoptosis and learning and memory deficit transiently but not permanently in Drosophila.

Precise programming of multigene expression stoichiometry in mammalian cells by a modular and programmable transcriptional system

Context-dependency of mammalian transcriptional elements has hindered the quantitative investigation of multigene expression stoichiometry and its biological functions. Here, we describe a host- and local DNA context-independent transcription system to gradually fine-tune single and multiple gene expression with predictable stoichiometries. The mammalian transcription system is composed of a library of modular and programmable promoters from bacteriophage and its cognate RNA polymerase (RNAP) fused to a capping enzyme. The relative expression of single genes is quantitatively determined by the relative binding affinity of the RNAP to the promoters, while multigene expression stoichiometry is predicted by a simple biochemical model with resource competition. We use these programmable and modular promoters to predictably tune the expression of three components of an influenza A virus-like particle (VLP). Optimized stoichiometry leads to a 2-fold yield of intact VLP complexes. The host-independent orthogonal transcription system provides a platform for dose-dependent control of multiple protein expression which may be applied for advanced vaccine engineering, cell-fate programming and other therapeutic applications.

Impact of age on the rotenone-induced sporadic Parkinson's disease model using Drosophila melanogaster

Rotenone, a naturally occurring toxin, has been used to induce sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD) in Drosophila melanogaster for decades. However, the age of flies varies considerably between studies in this model. To investigate the impact of age on the rotenone-induced PD model, we collected male flies at the age of 1, 5, 7, and 10 days post-eclosion, respectively. Then, flies were immediately exposed to a feeding medium supplemented with 250 μM rotenone for seven days. The motor ability of Drosophila was detected by negative geotaxis assay, and the number of dopamine (DA) neurons and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression levels were evaluated. The results showed that both the motor deficits and mortality increased with age. The flies older than five days showed typical PD features, including the loss of DA neurons, decreased TH expression levels, and decreased locomotive ability. However, 1-day-old flies displayed an unstable motor deficit and little TH expression changes after seven days of rotenone exposure. Lastly, after 7 days of exposure to rotenone, the death rate of flies rapidly increased with increasing starting age. The death rates of 1-, 5-, 7-, and 10-days old flies were 10.0%, 22.8%, 41.5%, and 50.4%, respectively. The findings of this study suggest that age is a crucial factor impacting the Drosophila PD model. This information provides a reference for the age selection to use this model for future studies.

A Probabilistic Formulation for Meta-Weight-Net

In the last decade, deep neural networks (DNNs) have become dominant tools for various of supervised learning tasks, especially classification. However, it is demonstrated that they can easily overfit to training set biases, such as label noise and class imbalance. Example reweighting algorithms are simple and effective solutions against this issue, but most of them require manually specifying the weighting functions as well as additional hyperparameters. Recently, a meta-learning-based method Meta-Weight-Net (MW-Net) has been proposed to automatically learn the weighting function parameterized by an MLP via additional unbiased metadata, which significantly improves the robustness of prior arts. The method, however, is proposed in a deterministic manner, and short of intrinsic statistical support. In this work, we propose a probabilistic formulation for MW-Net, probabilistic MW-Net (PMW-Net) in short, which treats the weighting function in a probabilistic way, and can include the original MW-Net as a special case. By this probabilistic formulation, additional randomness is introduced while the flexibility of the weighting function can be further controlled during learning. Our experimental results on both synthetic and real datasets show that the proposed method improves the performance of the original MW-Net. Besides, the proposed PMW-Net can also be further extended to fully Bayesian models, to improve their robustness.

Improving cooperativity of transcription activators by oligomerization domains in mammalian cells

Cooperative activation is critical for the applications of synthetic biology in mammalian cells. In this study, we have developed cooperative transcription factor by fusing oligomerization domain in mammalian cells. Firstly, we demonstrated that two oligomerized domains (CI434 and CI) successfully improved transcription factor cooperativity in bacterial cells but failed to increase cooperativity in mammalian cells, possibly because the additional mammalian activation domain disrupted their oligomerization capability. Therefore, we chose a different type of oligomerized domain (CarHC), whose ability to oligomerize is not dependent on its C-terminal domains, to fuse with a transcription factor (RpaR) and activation domain (VTR3), forming a potential cooperative transcription activator RpaR-CarH-VTR3 for mammalian regulatory systems. Compared with RpaR-VTR3, the cooperativity of RpaR-CarH-VTR3 was significantly improved with higher Hill coefficient and a narrower input range in the inducible switch system in mammalian cells. Moreover, a mathematical model based on statistical mechanics model was developed and the simulation results supported the hypothesis that the tetramer of the CarH domain in mammalian cells was the reason for the cooperative capacity of RpaR-CarH-VTR3.

[Retracted] Metformin exerts anticancer effects through the inhibition of the Sonic hedgehog signaling pathway in breast cancer

Following the publication of this paper, it was drawn to the Editor's attention by concerned readers that several of the cellular images shown in Figs. 6A and 8A, the scratch‑wound assay images shown in Fig. 5A, the western blotting data in Figs. 2C and 7A and the Matrigel invasion assays in Fig. 5C were strikingly similar to data appearing in different form in other articles by different authors. Owing to the fact that the contentious data in the above article had already been published elsewhere, or were already under consideration for publication, prior to its submission to International Journal of Molecular Medicine, the Editor has decided that this paper should be retracted from the Journal. The authors were asked for an explanation to account for these concerns, but the Editorial Office did not receive a reply. The Editor apologizes to the readership for any inconvenience caused. [International Journal of Molecular Medicine 36: 204‑214, 2015; DOI: 10.3892/ijmm.2015.2217].

Precision Machine Learning

We explore unique considerations involved in fitting machine learning (ML) models to data with very high precision, as is often required for science applications. We empirically compare various function approximation methods and study how they scale with increasing parameters and data. We find that neural networks (NNs) can often outperform classical approximation methods on high-dimensional examples, by (we hypothesize) auto-discovering and exploiting modular structures therein. However, neural networks trained with common optimizers are less powerful for low-dimensional cases, which motivates us to study the unique properties of neural network loss landscapes and the corresponding optimization challenges that arise in the high precision regime. To address the optimization issue in low dimensions, we develop training tricks which enable us to train neural networks to extremely low loss, close to the limits allowed by numerical precision.

DANet: Semi-supervised differentiated auxiliaries guided network for video action recognition

Video Action Recognition (ViAR) aims to identify the category of the human action observed in a given video. With the advent of Deep Learning (DL) techniques, noticeable performance breakthroughs have been achieved in this study. However, the success of most existing DL-based ViAR methods heavily relies on the existence of a large amount of annotated data, i.e., videos with corresponding action categories. In practice, obtaining such a desired number of annotations is often difficult due to expensive labeling costs, which may lead to significant performance degradation for these methods. To address this issue, we propose an end-to-end semi-supervised Differentiated Auxiliary guided Network (DANet) to best use a few annotated videos. Except for the common supervised learning on a few annotated videos, the DANet also involves the knowledge of multiple pre-trained auxiliary networks to optimize the ViAR network in a self-supervised way on the unannotated data by removing the annotations. Considering the tight connection between video action recognition and classical static image-based visual tasks, the abundant knowledge from the pre-trained static image-based models can be used for training the ViAR model. Specifically, the DANet is a two-branch architecture, which includes a target branch of the ViAR network, and an auxiliary branch of multiple auxiliary networks (i.e., referring to diverse off-the-shelf models of relevant image tasks). Given a limited number of annotated videos, we train the target ViAR network end-to-end in a semi-supervised way, namely, with both the supervised cross-entropy loss on annotated videos, and the per-auxiliary weighted self-supervised contrastive losses on the same videos but without using annotations. Besides, we further explore different weighted guidance of the auxiliary networks to the ViAR network to better reflect different relationships between the image-based models and the ViAR model. Finally, we conduct extensive experiments on several popular action recognition benchmarks in comparison with existing state-of-the-art methods, and the experimental results demonstrate the superiority of DANet over most of the compared methods. In particular, the DANet obviously suppresses state-of-the-art ViAR methods even with very fewer annotated videos.

Protein PDK4 Interacts with HMGCS2 to Facilitate High Glucoseinduced Myocardial Injuries

OBJECTIVES

As a distinct type of cardiomyopathy, diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is featured as diastolic or systolic cardiac dysfunction in diabetic patients. In order to broaden the understanding of molecular mechanisms in DCM, we intended to explore the mechanism of the interaction between PDK4 protein and Hmgcs2 in high glucose (HG)-induced myocardial damage.

METHODS

PDK4 and Hmgcs2 expression in the myocardium of diabetes mellitus (DM) model rats and HG-incubated cardiomyocyte line H9C2 was analyzed by western blot analysis. Echocardiography and TUNEL assay were utilized for respective assessment of cardiac structure and function and cardiomyocyte apoptosis in DM rats after silencing PDK4 or/and Hmgcs2. In vitro, the impact of PDK4 and Hmgcs2 on HG-induced cardiomyocyte injuries was identified with cell counting kit-8 and flow cytometry assays, along with detection of LDH release, caspase-3/7 activities, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. Moreover, a coimmunoprecipitation assay was utilized to test the interaction between PDK4 and Hmgcs2.

RESULTS

Both PDK4 and Hmgcs2 were highly expressed in the myocardial tissues of DM rats. Mechanistically, PDK4 interacted with Hmgcs2 to upregulate Hmgcs2 expression in HG-induced H9C2 cells. Silencing PDK4 improved cardiac function and reduced cardiomyocyte apoptosis in DM rats. In HG-induced H9C2 cells, PDK4 or Hmgcs2 silencing enhanced cell viability and reduced LDH release, caspase-3/7 activities, cell apoptosis, and ROS and MDA levels, and these trends were further promoted by the simultaneous silencing of PDK4 and Hmgcs2.

CONCLUSION

In summary, the silencing of PDK4 and Hmgcs2 alleviated HG-induced myocardial injuries through their interaction.

The temperature of internet: Internet use and depression of the elderly in China

Introduction

Depression has become one of the most prevalent mental illnesses affecting the elderly in aging countries, i. e., in countries of the world whose population is slowly aging. It has become an important topic for scientists and policymakers to analyze how best to improve the elderly's mental health and save them from depression. The aim of this paper was to investigate whether and to what extent internet use may affect depression in the elderly. The heterogeneous effects of internet use on the elderly's depression across age, gender, and occupation were also investigated.

Methods

The data used in the present study were gathered from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study that was conducted in 2018. The propensity score matching technique and the endogenous switch regression model were employed in this study to address potential endogeneity caused by both observed and unobserved factors.

Results

The results of the present study show that the elderly who are relatively young, male, well educated, live in an urban area, or have a small family are more likely to use the internet. The elderly who have healthy eyes or good eyesight, those who are not employed in the agricultural sector, or those who are retired, and those who are not eligible to receive any subsistence allowance or drink wine have a higher probability of using the internet. We also find that internet use significantly reduces the elderly's depression status by 3.370 points, which is roughly equivalent to a reduction of 37.19%. Heterogeneity analysis on internet use reveals that the health effect is particularly effective for agricultural workers, female, or the older elderly.

Conclusion

The results of the present study highlight the significant welfare effects brought about by the development of internet infrastructure. To improve the mental health of the elderly, the government should encourage them to adopt the internet. In particular, the needs of the elderly who are older, female, or have agricultural work should be paid more attention to motivate them to use the internet more to alleviate depression.

AI-ASSISTED METHODS FOR ASSESSING AFFECT AND BEHAVIORAL SYMPTOMS IN DEMENTIA: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Negative affect and neurobehavioral symptoms occur in most people with dementia and significantly impact their health outcomes and sense of wellbeing. Detecting these symptoms in this population is challenging due to associated cognitive impairment and communication difficulties. Innovative technology and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted tools are emerging for assessing affect and neurobehavioral symptoms in individuals with dementia. This review synthesizes research evidence to identify existing AI-assisted measurement tools and evaluate their accuracy in assessing affect and symptoms in people with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched. Eight articles were identified. Multiple machine learning (ML) models were developed to assess affect, apathy, anxiety, depression, agitation, and wandering. One ML model detected positive and negative affect via facial expression with an overall accuracy of 86%. One ML model detected apathy based on speech and achieved an area under curve (AUC) accuracy of 0.77–0.88. Another speech-based ML model, based on paralinguistic markers, predicted apathy, anxiety, and depression by ≥0.3 points. Another model detected wandering based on activity monitoring data and showed 98% sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, multiple ML models were developed to detect agitation using multi-modal sensors with AUC ranging from 0.50–0.82. Findings suggest that AI-assisted tools are a promising approach to detecting affect and neurobehavioral symptoms, yet the evidence is limited. More research is needed to develop comprehensive, accurate models to detect neurobehavior symptoms. The results have significant implications for supporting research and clinical practice to promote quality of care for people with dementia.

Tumour-derived exosomal lncRNA SNHG16 induces telocytes to promote metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma via the miR-942-3p/MMP9 axis

BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell-derived exosomal LncRNA SNHG16 is highly expressed and associated with poor overall survival of patients. Telocytes (TCs), as novel interstitial cells, have been reported to promote HCC metastasis. Therefore, in our study, we investigated whether a molecular interaction occurred between exosomal LncSNHG16 and TCs in the tumor microenvironment.

METHODS

LncSNHG16 expression in HCC tissues and cell lines was measured, and bioinformatics analysis was performed. Exosomes were isolated and purified from HCC cells with LncSNHG16 overexpression/knockdown vectors and cocultured with TCs. Then, markers of the LncSNHG16/miR-942-3p/MMP9 axis were tested in TCs. Transwell assays and cell wound healing assays were designed to examine the invasion and migration of HCC cells after coincubation with TCs. RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays and dual-luciferase gene reporter assays were performed to verify the binding effect of LncSNHG16, miR-942-3p, and MMP9 mRNA. In vivo, experimental animal models were established to confirm the effect of exosomal LncSNHG16-induced MMP9 expression on HCC metastasis.

RESULTS

Exosomal LncSNHG16 was phagocytized by TCs and downregulated miR-942-3p, which induced targeted MMP9 upregulation, and it had specific binding sites with miR-942-3p in TCs to facilitate the migration of HCC cells in vitro and in vivo. Exosomal LncSNHG16 was found to act as a competing endogenous RNA of the miR-942-3p/MMP9 axis in TCs.

CONCLUSION

Tumour-derived exosomal LncSNHG16 modulates MMP9 via competitively binding to miR-942-3p in TCs, thus promoting the metastasis of HCC.

Green Financial Reform and Corporate ESG Performance in China: Empirical Evidence from the Green Financial Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone

Does the establishment of pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations in 2017 have an impact on the Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) scores of enterprises? This paper selects data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2014-2020 and uses the differences-in-differences (DID) model to analyze the impact of green financial reform on the ESG scores of enterprises. The study shows that the establishment of the Green Financial Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone (GFPZ) policy helps enterprises to obtain higher ESG scores through environmental, social and governance mechanisms. When ESG is measured using environmental, social and governance data, our results suggest that the contribution of green finance reforms to ESG scores is primarily driven by social responsibility scores. The adjustment effect analysis shows that for large enterprises in the GFPZ, the above effects have stronger influence, but there is no significant difference between heavily polluting and non-heavily polluting firms in the GFPZ. Expansive analysis shows that the improvement in ESG scores of enterprises in the GFPZ not only contributes to the green performance of enterprises, but also to their financial performance.

The role of fiscal expenditure on science and technology in carbon reduction: Evidence from provincial data in China

Environmental problems caused by carbon emissions have negative impacts on human life and society. It is therefore important to identify potential approaches to carbon emission reduction. In this study, we analyze the impact fiscal expenditure on science and technology has on carbon emissions using a panel dataset from 2007 to 2016 at Chinese provincial levels. An instrumental variable approach is employed to address the potential endogeneity of fiscal expenditure. Our results show that fiscal expenditure on science and technology has a significant and negative effect on carbon emissions by improving green innovation, economic structure upgrade, energy consumption structure, and energy efficiency. A one hundred RMB yuan increase in fiscal expenditure on science and technology would lower carbon emissions by 0.654 tons. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the carbon reduction effects of fiscal expenditure on science and technology are larger in regions where internet coverage and the share of industry in the economy are high. Our results highlight the significant role of fiscal expenditure on science and technology in carbon reduction.

Machine learning conservation laws from differential equations

We present a machine learning algorithm that discovers conservation laws from differential equations, both numerically (parametrized as neural networks) and symbolically, ensuring their functional independence (a nonlinear generalization of linear independence). Our independence module can be viewed as a nonlinear generalization of singular value decomposition. Our method can readily handle inductive biases for conservation laws. We validate it with examples including the three-body problem, the KdV equation, and nonlinear Schrödinger equation.

The effects of social media addiction on reading practice: a survey of undergraduate students in China

Purpose

The prevalence of digital reading and the widespread use of social media among young people demands systematic exploration of the effects of social media addiction on students' reading practice. This paper aims to explore the effects of social media addiction on reading preferences, in-depth reading and sustained attention.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey and analysis methods are employed.

Findings

For many, social media provides an ideal platform of connection and expression; however, prolonged social media use holds the danger of becoming a behavioral addiction that threatens to undermine one's reading practice. Social media use tends to have a more significant impact on leisure reading than on academic reading. Obsessive engagement with social media hurts reading concentration and in-depth reading. While a majority (70.4%) of those surveyed believed that chronic social media use carries more harm than good on their learning, only half (50.1%) agreed or strongly agreed that today's students are too indulged in social media and need forceful control of it.

Originality/value

Implications of the effects of social media on reading practice are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested. It is likely that social media will continue to be seductive, attracting new generations of young people. Future research should explore prevention strategies.

[Outcomes at discharge of preterm infants born <34 weeks' gestation]

Objective: To investigate the incidence and trend of short-term outcomes among preterm infants born <34 weeks' gestation. Methods: A secondary analysis of data from the standardized database established by a multicenter cluster-randomized controlled study "reduction of infection in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) using the evidence-based practice for improving quality (REIN-EPIQ) study". This study was conducted in 25 tertiary NICU. A total of 27 192 infants with gestational age <34 weeks at birth and admitted to NICU within the first 7 days of life from May 2015 to April 2018 were enrolled. Infants with severe congenital malformation were excluded. Descriptive analyses were used to describe the mortality and major morbidities of preterm infants by gestational age groups and different admission year groups. Cochran-Armitage test and Jonckheere-Terpstra test were used to analyze the trend of incidences of mortality and morbidities in 3 study-years. Multiple Logistic regression model was constructed to analyze the differences of outcomes in 3 study-years adjusting for confounders. Results: A total of 27 192 preterm infants were enrolled with gestational age of (31.3±2.0) weeks at birth and weight of (1 617±415) g at birth. Overall, 9.5% (2 594/27 192) of infants were discharged against medical advice, and the overall mortality rate was 10.7% (2 907/27 192). Mortality for infants who received complete care was 4.7% (1 147/24 598), and mortality or any major morbidity was 26.2% (6 452/24 598). The incidences of moderate to severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia, sepsis, severe intraventricular hemorrhage or periventricular leukomalacia, proven necrotizing enterocolitis, and severe retinopathy of prematurity were 16.0% (4 342/27 192), 11.9% (3 225/27 192), 6.8% (1 641/24 206), 3.6% (939/25 762) and 1.5% (214/13 868), respectively. There was a decreasing of the overall mortality (P<0.001) during the 3 years. Also, the incidences for sepsis and severe retinopathy of prematurity both decreased (both P<0.001). However, there were no significant differences in the major morbidity in preterm infants who received complete care during the 3-year study period (P=0.230). After adjusting for confounders, infants admitted during the third study year showed significantly lower risk of overall mortality (adjust OR=0.62, 95%CI 0.55-0.69, P<0.001), mortality or major morbidity, moderate to severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia, sepsis and severe retinopathy of prematurity, compared to those admitted in the first study year (all P<0.05). Conclusions: From 2015 to 2018, the mortality and major morbidities among preterm infants in Chinese NICU decreased, but there is still space for further efforts. Further targeted quality improvement is needed to improve the overall outcome of preterm infants.

Sparstolonin B inhibits pancreatic adenocarcinoma through the NF-κB signaling pathway

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is a highly lethal malignant gastrointestinal tumor. Sparstolonin B is an isocoumarin whose anticancer activity has recently received increasing attention. This study aimed to investigate Sparstolonin B's potential antitumor effect on pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The effect of Sparstolonin B on pancreatic cancer target genes and molecular mechanism was predicted via network pharmacology; Sparstolonin B significantly decreased Panc-1 and SW1990 cell viability and effectively suppressed the proliferation, migration, and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells as shown by CCK-8, colony formation, and Transwell assays. Flow cytometry showed that it induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Sparstolonin B also upregulated Bax levels but decreased those of MMP2 and Bcl-2, downregulated IκBα expression, and upregulated p65 and IκBα phosphorylation; however, it had no effect on total NF-κB p65 levels. The NF-κB pathway inhibitor QNZ reversed these effects. The treatment group (26 μmol/L) had reduced graft volume and weight and fewer Ki-67-positive cells than the control group. Therefore, Sparstolonin B can inhibit the growth and induce the apoptosis of pancreatic cancer cells via the NF-κB signaling pathway and may be a potential novel drug for pancreatic cancer treatment.

Nisin Variants Generated by Protein Engineering and Their Properties

Nisin, a typical lantibiotic, has robust antimicrobial activity combined with limited cytotoxicity, and the development of resistance to it is slow. These properties make nisin a promising antimicrobial agent to control pathogenic microorganisms in dairy foods. However, its low solubility, poor stability and short half-life at neutral pH limit its application within the dairy industry. Protein engineering technology has revealed the potential of modifying nisin to improve its properties, and many valuable variants have emerged. This review summarizes progress in the generation of nisin variants for the dairy industry and for other purposes. These nisin variants with additional modification have improved properties and can even expand the inhibition spectrum range of nisin. Nisin, as the most thoroughly studied lantibiotic, and its variants can also guide the modification of other lantibiotics.

Machine Learning Hidden Symmetries

We present an automated method for finding hidden symmetries, defined as symmetries that become manifest only in a new coordinate system that must be discovered. Its core idea is to quantify asymmetry as violation of certain partial differential equations, and to numerically minimize such violation over the space of all invertible transformations, parametrized as invertible neural networks. For example, our method rediscovers the famous Gullstrand-Painlevé metric that manifests hidden translational symmetry in the Schwarzschild metric of nonrotating black holes, as well as Hamiltonicity, modularity, and other simplifying traits not traditionally viewed as symmetries.

Relapsed boyhood tibia polymicrobial osteomyelitis linked to dermatophytosis: a case report

Background

Relapsed childhood polymicrobial osteomyelitis associated with dermatophytosis has not been reported in the literature.

Case presentation

Here we report on a case of a 45-year-old man who had left tibial osteomyelitis for 29 years, accompanied by skin fungal infection of the ipsilateral heel for 20 years, and underwent a second operation due to recurrence of polymicrobial infection 6 years ago. The patient had a history of injury from a rusty object, which penetrated the anterior skin of the left tibia middle segment causing subsequent bone infection, but was asymptomatic after receiving treatments in 1983. The patient was physically normal until dermatophytosis occurred on the ipsilateral heel skin in 1998. The patient complained that the dermatophytosis was gradually getting worse, and the tibial wound site became itchy, red, and swollen. The left tibial infection resurged in May 2012, leading to the patient receiving debridement and antibiotic treatment. H&E and Gram-stained histology was performed on biopsy specimens of sequestrum and surrounding inflammatory tissue. Tissue culture and microbiology examination confirmed polymicrobial infection with Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Corynebacterium and a fungus. Additionally, the patient also received potassium permanganate for dermatophytosis when he was admitted into the hospital.

Conclusions

Together with longitudinal follow-up of medical history, surgical findings, histopathological and microbiology culture evidence, we conclude that boyhood tibia polymicrobial osteomyelitis with S. aureus and Corynebacterium occurred in this patient, and the fungal activation of dermatophytosis may have led to osteomyelitis relapse.