Effects of secondary cross-linking on the physicochemical properties of sodium alginate-hydrogel and in vitro release of anthocyanins.

To enhance the physicochemical properties and extend the release duration of sodium alginate (SA) hydrogels, this study explored the impact of acidifier type and the number of cross-linking on the physicochemical characteristics and in vitro anthocyanin release from SA hydrogels, utilizing calcium carbonate as the cross-linking agent. The findings revealed that the utilization of gluconolactone (GDL) as an acidifying agent in the preparation of SA hydrogels, as opposed to hydrochloric acid, resulted in a deceleration of the hydrolysis process of calcium carbonate. This deceleration led to the strengthening of hydrogen-bonding interactions and the development of a more compact network structure within the SA hydrogels. Consequently, there was a noticeable enhancement in the hardness, relaxation time, and anthocyanin encapsulation efficiency of the gels. Additionally, the release of anthocyanins in simulated intestinal fluid was delayed. Secondary cross-linking was found to facilitate ionic interactions between SA and Ca2+, further intensifying the denseness of the network structure and enhancing the physicochemical characteristics of the SA hydrogels. Overall, SA hydrogels processed with GDL as the acidifier and subjected to secondary cross-linking exhibited improved physicochemical properties, delayed release effects, and proved to be an efficient system for the delayed release of anthocyanins.

Construction and evaluation of immune-related diagnostic model in patients with heart failure caused by idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to construct the potential diagnostic model of immune-related genes during the development of heart failure caused by idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. METHOD: GSE5406 and GSE57338 were downloaded from the GEO website ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/ ). CIBERSORT was used for the evaluation of immune infiltration in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) of GSE5406. Differently expressed genes were calculated by the limma R package and visualized by the volcano plot. The immune-related genes were downloaded from Immport, TISIDB, and InnateDB. Then the immune-related differential genes (IRDGs) were acquired from the intersection. Protein-protein interaction network (PPI) and Cytoscape were used to visualize the hub genes. Three machine learning methods such as random forest, logical regression, and elastic network regression model were adopted to construct the prediction model. The diagnostic value was also validated in GSE57338. RESULTS: Our study demonstrated the obvious different ratio of T cell CD4 memory activated, T cell regulatory Tregs, and neutrophils between DCM and control donors. As many as 2139 differential genes and 274 immune-related different genes were identified. These genes were mainly enriched in lipid and atherosclerosis, human cytomegalovirus infection, and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction. At the same time, as many as fifteen hub genes were identified as the IRDGs (IFITM3, IFITM2, IFITM1, IFIT3, IFIT1, HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, ADAR, STAT1, SAMHD1, RSAD2, MX1, ISG20, IRF2). Moreover, we also discovered that the elastic network and logistic regression models had a higher diagnostic value than that of random forest models based on these hub genes. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated the pivotal role of immune function during the development of heart failure caused by DCM. This study may offer new opportunities for the detection and intervention of immune-related DCM.

Composite formation of whey protein isolate and OSA starch for fabricating high internal phase emulsion: A comparative study at different pH and their application in biscuits.

The composites formed by whey protein isolate (WPI) and octenyl succinate anhydride (OSA)-modified starch were characterized with a focus on the effect of pH, and their potential in fabricating high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) as fat substitutes was evaluated. The particles obtained at pH 3.0, 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0 presented a nanosized distribution (122.04 ± 0.84 nm-163.24 ± 4.12 nm) while those prepared at pH 4.0 and 5.0 were remarkably larger. Results from the shielding agent reaction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) showed that the interaction between WPI and OSA starch was mainly hydrophobic at pH 3.0-5.0, while there was a strong electrostatic repulsion at pH 6.0-8.0. A quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) study showed that remarkably higher ΔD and lower Δf/n were observed at pH 3.0-5.0 after successive deposition of WPI and OSA starch, whereas slight changes were noted for those made at higher pH values. The WPI-OSA starch (W-O) composite-based HIPEs made at pH 3.0 and 6.0-8.0 were physically stable after long-term storage, thermal treatment, or centrifugation. Incorporation of HIPE into the biscuit formula yielded products with a desirable sensory quality.

Effects of wheat protein on hot-extrusion 3D-printing performance and the release behaviours of caffeic acid-loaded wheat starch.

In this study, the effects of wheat protein (WP) on the hot-extrusion 3D-printing (HE-3DP) performance of wheat starch (WS) gels, as well as effects of such gels on the encapsulation of caffeic acid, were investigated for the first time. The HE-3DP results show that the addition of WP can reduce print-line width and improve printing accuracy and fidelity, and the best printing results were achieved when using gels with 10 % WP. The rheological results show that WP reduced the gels' linear viscoelastic region (LVR), yield stress (τy), flow stress (τf) and consistency factor (K) but increased their structural recovery rate, which facilitated smooth extrusion during 3D printing and, thus, improved printing accuracy. The analysis of X-ray diffraction and small-angle X-ray scattering indicates that adding WP to WS could increase the mass fractal dimension and lead to denser gel network structures. The results regarding release kinetics demonstrate that the maximum release of caffeic acid from gels decreased by 28 % with the addition of WP, indicating slow-release behaviour. This study provided valuable information about processing wheat products via 3D printing.

An occluded cherry tomato recognition model based on improved YOLOv7.

The typical occlusion of cherry tomatoes in the natural environment is one of the most critical factors affecting the accurate picking of cherry tomato picking robots. To recognize occluded cherry tomatoes accurately and efficiently using deep convolutional neural networks, a new occluded cherry tomato recognition model DSP-YOLOv7-CA is proposed. Firstly, images of cherry tomatoes with different degrees of occlusion are acquired, four occlusion areas and four occlusion methods are defined, and a cherry tomato dataset (TOSL) is constructed. Then, based on YOLOv7, the convolution module of the original residual edges was replaced with null residual edges, depth-separable convolutional layers were added, and jump connections were added to reuse feature information. Then, a depth-separable convolutional layer is added to the SPPF module with fewer parameters to replace the original SPPCSPC module to solve the problem of loss of small target information by different pooled residual layers. Finally, a coordinate attention mechanism (CA) layer is introduced at the critical position of the enhanced feature extraction network to strengthen the attention to the occluded cherry tomato. The experimental results show that the DSP-YOLOv7-CA model outperforms other target detection models, with an average detection accuracy (mAP) of 98.86%, and the number of model parameters is reduced from 37.62MB to 33.71MB, which is better on the actual detection of cherry tomatoes with less than 95% occlusion. Relatively average results were obtained on detecting cherry tomatoes with a shade level higher than 95%, but such cherry tomatoes were not targeted for picking. The DSP-YOLOv7-CA model can accurately recognize the occluded cherry tomatoes in the natural environment, providing an effective solution for accurately picking cherry tomato picking robots.

Calculation of excited states of monolayer TPPA-COF based on first principles.

Two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have always been a hot topic in condensed matter physics. Herein, the first 100 excited states of the TPPA-COF are calculated to investigate the optical absorption properties of the materials in the interval. The stable molecular structure of monolayer TPPA-COF is obtained by first-principles calculation, which can be regarded as a hexagon with an aperture size of 18.25 Å. By means of the band structure and density of state analysis, it is found that the monolayer band gap width of the TPPA-COF is 1.52 eV. All excited states of the TPPA-COF exhibit obvious pi → pi* (delocalized π to anti π) local excitation characteristics through analysing the spatial distribution of the electron-hole pairs of the 10 excited states with the highest oscillator strength among the first 100 excited states. In addition, the simulated UV-vis spectra show that the maximum absorption intensity of the TPPA-COF is about 357 684 mol-1 cm-1, indicating that the TPPA-COF is a potential light-absorbing material.

Detection and attribution of the start of the growing season changes in the Northern Hemisphere.

Global climate change has led to significant changes in land surface phenology. At present, research on the factors influencing the start of the growing season (SOS) mainly focuses on single factor effects, such as temperature and precipitation, ignoring the combined action of multiple factors. The impact of multiple factors on the spatial and temporal patterns of the SOS in the Northern Hemisphere is not clear, and it is necessary to combine multiple factors to quantify the degrees of influence of different factors on the SOS. Based on the GIMMS3g NDVI dataset, CRU climate data and other factor data, we used geographic detector model, random forest regression model, multiple linear regression, partial correlation analysis and Sen + Mann-Kendall trend analysis to explore the variation of the SOS in the Northern Hemisphere to reveal the main driving factors and impact threshold of 17 influencing factors on the SOS. The results showed that (1) during the past 34 years (1982-2015), the SOS in Europe and Asia mainly showed an advancing trend, whereas the SOS in North America mainly showed a delaying trend. (2) The SOS was mainly controlled by frost frequency, temperature and humidity. Increasing frost frequency inhibited the advancement of the SOS, and increasing temperature and humidity promoted the advancement of the SOS. (3) There were thresholds for the influences of the driving factors on the SOS. Outside the threshold ranges, the response mechanism of the SOS to driving factors changed. The results are important for understanding the response of the SOS to global climate change.

A cluster randomized trial of a comprehensive intervention nesting family and clinic into school centered implementation to reduce myopia and obesity among children and adolescents in Beijing, China: study protocol.

BACKGROUND: Myopia and obesity in children and adolescents have become serious public health problems that endanger public health, especially in China. Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors are environmental drivers of both myopia and obesity. This protocol describes a study to evaluate the effectiveness of "22510SS", that is 2 h of daytime outdoor activities ('2'); Limit screen time to no more than 2 h per day ('2'); Consume at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily ('5'); Attain 1 h of physical activity daily ('1'); Consume 0 sugar-sweetened beverages ('0'); Reasonable sleep duration ('S'); Regular supervision ('S'). A school-based, multifaceted intervention strategy for myopia and obesity prevention, and to assess and explore the implementation of "22510SS" with regards to acceptability, feasibility, adoption, usage and maintenance. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This study aims to develop a comprehensive intervention strategy "22510SS" based on the socio-ecological model, and A two-arm cluster randomized trial with a parallel-group of a 1:1 allocation ratio in 36 primary and secondary schools to test its evidence-based intervention programs on the effects and implementation of myopia and obesity epidemics in children and adolescents in grades 4 and 7. The primary outcomes will include differences in visual acuity, body mass index, outdoor activity indicators, screen time, fruit and vegetable intake, high-quality protein intake, sugar-sweetened beverage intake, sleep duration, and level of monitoring among children and adolescents. Secondary outcomes will assess the acceptability, feasibility, uptake, use, and maintenance of the intervention. Effects on the primary and secondary outcomes will be analyzed using linear and logistic regression analyses, as well as difference-in-difference analysis, taking into account cluster effects and possible confounding factors. Process assessments will also be conducted through quantitative and qualitative analyses, including acceptability, feasibility, gender, adoption, implementation, and sustainability. DISCUSSION: This study will evaluate the effectiveness of "22510SS" and examine its implementation in the school-based network nesting family and clinic. Following this intervention study, the integrated intervention program focused on myopia and obesity among children and adolescents have great potential to be implemented in China to promote and support healthy lifestyle behavior change and reduce the risk of myopia and obesity in children and adolescents. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT05275959. Registered 23 Mach 2022.

Identification of Key Genes Related to Immune Cells in Patients with COVID-19 Via Integrated Bioinformatics-Based Analysis.

COVID-19 has spread all over the world which poses a serious threat to social economic development and public health. Despite enormous progress has been made in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, the specific mechanism and biomarker related to disease severity or prognosis have not been clarified yet. Our study intended to further explore the diagnostic markers of COVID-19 and their relationship with serum immunology by bioinformatics analysis. The datasets about COVID-19 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) dataset. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were selected via the limma package. Then, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was conducted to identify the critical module associated with the clinic status. The intersection DEGs were processed for further enrichment analysis. The final diagnostic genes for COVID-19 were selected and verified through special bioinformatics algorithms. There were significant DEGs between the normal and COVID-19 patients. These genes were mainly enriched in cell cycle, complement and coagulation cascade, extracellular matrix (ECM) receptor interaction, and the P53 signaling pathway. As much as 357 common intersected DEGs were selected in the end. These DEGs were enriched in organelle fission, mitotic cell cycle phase transition, DNA helicase activity, cell cycle, cellular senescence, and P53 signaling pathway. Our study also identified CDC25A, PDCD6, and YWAHE were potential diagnostic markers of COVID-19 with the AUC (area under curve), 0.958 (95% CI 0.920-0.988), 0.941(95% CI 0.892-0.980), and 0.929 (95% CI 0.880-0.971). Moreover, CDC25A, PDCD6, and YWAHE were correlated with plasma cells, macrophages M0, T cells CD4 memory resting, T cells CD8, dendritic cells, and NK cells. Our study discovered that CDC25A, PDCD6, and YWAHE can be used as diagnostic markers for COVID-19. Moreover, these biomarkers were also closely associated with immune cell infiltration, which plays a pivotal role in the diagnosis and progression of COVID-19.

Evaluation of the detection rate of high­grade gastric intraepithelial neoplasia using linked color imaging and white light imaging.

As an endoscopic technology for the enhancement of images, linked color imaging (LCI) performs well when used for the early detection and diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancer. However, literature data are lacking for LCI in the detection of high-grade gastric intraepithelial neoplasia. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of LCI compared with traditional white light imaging (WLI) in the detection of high-grade gastric intraepithelial neoplasia via the comparison of detection rates between senior and junior endoscopists using both techniques. Overall, 84 lesions from 81 patients with high-grade gastric intraepithelial neoplasia diagnosed between January 2017 and December 2017 were considered. Following the exclusion of three patients with two lesions, 78 patients who had only one lesion were enrolled. The two types of endoscopy, WLI and LCI, were performed in the same patients under the same conditions. Four senior and four junior endoscopists retrospectively compared the images. The detection rate of high-grade gastric intraepithelial neoplasia was significantly higher with LCI than with WLI when performed by senior and junior endoscopists. With WLI, the detection rate obtained by senior endoscopists was significantly higher than that obtained by junior endoscopists. However, for LCI, the detection rates for junior and senior endoscopists were comparable. Interobserver agreement was good to satisfactory. These findings indicate that LCI is superior to WLI in the detection and identification of gastric cancer and provides highly accurate diagnostic results from endoscopic examinations, regardless of the experience of the endoscopist. LCI may be used to narrow the gap in the detection rate of high-grade gastric intraepithelial neoplasia between junior and senior endoscopists.

Comparison of missed adenomas in deep-sedated and unsedated colonoscopy: A multicenter retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Deep-sedated colonoscopy with propofol is widely used in China. However, its impact on quality metrics remains controversial. We aimed to investigate the effects of deep-sedated colonoscopy on missed adenomas, specifically in each colorectal segment. METHODS: Data of 3710 individuals from seven hospitals in China who underwent an initial colonoscopy with or without propofol sedation and a second colonoscopy without sedation within six months for surveillance or polypectomy by endoscopist of the same level between October 2020 and September 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 1113 missed adenomas in 3710 patients were evaluated. The adenoma miss rate (AMR) was significantly higher in deep-sedated colonoscopy than in unsedated colonoscop [19.14% (578/3020) vs. 16.15% (535/3313), P < 0.05]. The risk of missing adenomas in deep-sedated colonoscopy was 1.229 times higher than in unsedated colonoscopy (OR, 1.229; 95% CI: 1.080-1.399). AMRs of the splenic flexure (26.02% [96/369] vs. 16.04% [47/293], P < 0.05) and descending colon (20.86% [102/489] vs. 13.37% [54/404], P < 0.05) were significantly higher in deep-sedated colonoscopy than in unsedated colonoscopy when performed by middle-level endoscopists rather than high-level endoscopists (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: AMR was higher in deep-sedated colonoscopy than in unsedated colonoscopy. Furthermore, adenomas in the splenic flexure and descending colon were more frequently missed in deep-sedated colonoscopy than in unsedated colonoscopy, particularly when performed by less experienced endoscopists.

Preparation and characterization of debranched starches: Influence of botanical source and debranching time.

The influence of botanical source (waxy corn, glutinous rice, tapioca and potato), either based on crystallization or morphology, and the debranching time (6-48 h) on the physicochemical properties of debranched starches (DBSs) were systematically investigated. The divergence of depolymerization among different botanical sources within same hydrolysis time suggested that the debranching treatment was not only depending on the molecular profile and crystalline structure, but also related with the granular size and morphology of native starches. Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) suggested that long-term debranching reaction produced DBSs with improved degree of crystallization and reduced iodine binding capacity. Simulated in-vitro digestion assay showed that the proportion of digestive fractions from different botanical originated DBSs differed greatly. Additionally, prolonging the debranching time yielded increased level of resistant starch. The study may provide guidance for exploring DBSs with various molecular weight to fulfill their tailored applications.

YAP1 silencing attenuated lung injury/fibrosis but worsened diaphragmatic function by regulating oxidative stress and inflammation response in mice.

Oxidative stress is a crucial mechanism in the pathophysiology of lung injury/fibrosis and diaphragmatic dysfunction. Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) is a key oxidative stress response regulator. However, how lung injury/fibrosis and the subsequent YAP1 silencing treatment affect diaphragmatic function remains largely uncharacterized. In this study, mice models of acute lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and paraquat exposure were used to establish acute lung injury and chronic pulmonary fibrosis. AT2 and C2C12 cells were co-cultured under LPS and paraquat challenge. YAP1 was interfered with shRNA given in vivo and verteporfin administration in vitro. Pulmonary histology, contractile properties, and cross-sectional areas (CSAs) of the diaphragm and gastrocnemius were evaluated. Histological and biochemical analyses were performed for targeted biomarker determination. We found that LPS and paraquat caused significant lung injury/fibrosis and significantly reduced the diaphragmatic-specific force and CSAs compared with the control. YAP1 silencing alleviated inflammatory cell infiltration or collagen deposition in the lungs yet worsened the already impaired diaphragmatic function by increasing inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and TNF-α), mitochondrial reactive oxidative species (ROS) emission, protein degradation (Murf-1, atrogin-1, and calpain), and decreasing antioxidant capabilities (superoxide dismutase 2 and glutathione peroxidase). No significant improvements were observed in diaphragmatic function by transient YAP1 knockdown in the gastrocnemius. In vitro, LPS- or paraquat-caused cytotoxicity in AT2 cells was mostly alleviated by verteporfin in a concentration that was 20-fold higher than that in C2C12 cells (20 and 1 µg/mL, respectively). Finally, 0.5 µg/mL of verteporfin significantly ameliorated hydrogen peroxide-induced proteolytic activity and antioxidant enzyme suppression in C2C12 cells, whereas 2 µg/mL of verteporfin deteriorated the same. Collectively, lung injury/fibrosis adversely affects the diaphragm. YAP1 inhibition alleviates lung injury/fibrosis but worsens diaphragmatic function potentially by enhancing inflammatory cytokines and ROS-mediated protein degradation. This disparity might be attributed to differences in susceptibility to YAP1 inhibition between muscles and the lungs.

Retrieving the Motion of Beaufort Sea Ice Using Brightness Temperature Data from FY-3D Microwave Radiometer Imager.

Sea ice is an important marine phenomenon in the Arctic region, and it is of great importance to study the motion of Arctic sea ice in the present day when its melting is accelerated by global warming. This study proposes a method to retrieve the motion of sea ice based on the maximum cross-correlation (MCC) and the successive correction method (SCM). The proposed method can apply different scales of search ranges to template matching according to the location of sea ice in the Arctic area. In addition, the data assimilation method can assign different weights to different data. We used 36.5 GHz and 89 GHz brightness temperature (Tb) data from the microwave radiometer imager (MWRI) aboard the Fengyun-3D (FY-3D) satellite, for the first time in the literature, to retrieve the sea ice motion in the Beaufort Sea from January to April 2019. The retrieved sea ice motion results were in good agreement with those obtained from the motion of the buoys. Compared with the data from the buoys, the root mean-squared error (RMSE) of the sea ice motion retrieved from FY-3D/MWRI Tb data was 1.1418 cm/s in the zonal direction and 1.0481 cm/s in the meridional direction, and the mean absolute error (MAE) between them was 0.7166 cm/s in the zonal direction and 0.6777 cm/s in the meridional direction. The RMSE between the sea ice motion obtained from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and the motion of the buoys was 0.9515 cm/s in the zonal direction and 0.67003 cm/s in the meridional direction, and the MAE between them was 0.6576 cm/s in the zonal direction and 0.4922 cm/s in the meridional direction. The RMSE of daily average velocity from the FY-3D/MWRI results and NSIDC data product was 2.2726 cm/s in zonal and 1.9270 cm/s in meridional, and the MAE was 1.5103 cm/s in zonal and 1.1071 cm/s in zonal. The density of the merged data was higher than that obtained from a single polarization or frequency in this paper. The results indicate that FY-3D/MWRI Tb data can retrieve the sea ice motion successfully.

Comparison of laboratory parameters, clinical symptoms and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 and influenza in pediatric patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: New and more severe clinical manifestations associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are emerging constantly in the pediatric age group. Patients in this age group are also primary carriers of the influenza virus and are at a higher risk of developing severe infection. However, studies comparing influenza and COVID-19 to show which condition causes a more severe form of disease amongst the pediatric age group are scarce. AIM: To compare the laboratory results, clinical symptoms and clinical outcomes in pediatric patients with COVID-19 and influenza. METHODS: A systematic and comprehensive search was carried out in databases and search engines, including EMBASE, Cochrane, MEDLINE, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar from 1964 until January 2022. A meta-analysis was carried out using a random-effects model and pooled odds ratio (OR) or standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95%CI. RESULTS: A total of 16 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria. Pediatric COVID-19 patients had a significantly reduced risk of cough (pooled OR = 0.16; 95%CI: 0.09 to 0.27), fever (pooled OR = 0.23; 95%CI: 0.12 to 0.43), and dyspnea (pooled OR = 0.54; 95%CI: 0.33 to 0.88) compared to influenza patients. Furthermore, total hemoglobin levels (pooled SMD = 1.22; 95%CI: 0.29 to 2.14) in COVID-19 patients were significantly higher as compared to pediatric influenza patients. There was no significant difference in symptoms such as sore throat, white blood cell count, platelets, neutrophil and lymphocytes levels, and outcomes like mortality, intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation or length of hospital stay. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 is associated with a significantly lower rate of clinical symptoms and abnormal laboratory indexes compared to influenza in the pediatric age group. However, further longitudinal studies of the outcomes between influenza and COVID-19 pediatric patients are needed.

Comparison of adenoma detection in different colorectal segments between deep-sedated and unsedated colonoscopy.

To investigate if deep-sedated colonoscopy affects adenoma detection in certain colorectal segment. Review of colonoscopy reports, electronic images and medical records of individuals underwent screening colonoscopy with or without propofol sedation between October 2020 and March 2021 from seven hospitals in China. A total of 4500 individuals were analyzed. There was no significant difference in ADR between deep-sedated colonoscopy and unsedated colonoscopy [45.4% vs. 46.3%, P > 0.05]. The APP of deep-sedated colonoscopy was lower than unsedated colonoscopy (1.76 ± 0.81 vs. 2.00 ± 1.30, P < 0.05). Both average number of adenomas and luminal distention score of splenic flexure and descending colon were lower in deep-sedated colonoscopy (P < 0.05), and average number of adenomas was positively correlated with an improved distension score in splenic flexure and descending colon (splenic flexure r = 0.031, P < 0.05; descending colon r = 0.312, P < 0.05). Linear regression model showed deep-sedated colonoscopy significantly affected luminal distention of splenic flexure and descending colon as well as average number of adenomas detected in splenic flexure (P < 0.05). Deep-sedated colonoscopy decreased adenoma detection in splenic flexure and the luminal distention of splenic flexure and descending colon compared with unsedated colonoscopy.

Micro-RNAs from Plasma-Derived Small Extracellular Vesicles as Potential Biomarkers for Tic Disorders Diagnosis.

Tic disorders (TDs) are a series of childhood neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by involuntary motor and/or vocal tics and commonly comorbid with several other psychopathological and/or behavioral disorders (e.g., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder), which indeed aggravate clinical symptoms and complicate diagnosis and treatment. Micro-RNAs (miRNAs) derived from small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) have been recognized as novel circulating biomarkers of disease. To identify specific miRNAs derived from plasma sEVs for TDs' diagnosis and prognosis, we used official EV isolation and purification methods to characterize the plasma-derived EV miRNAs from children with different types of TDs. Nanoparticle tracking analysis, transmission electron microscopy, and immunoblot analysis of EV surface markers were applied to confirm the features and quality of sEVs. The RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) approach was adapted to identify novel circulating sEVs-derived miRNAs with altered expression levels in paired comparisons of TDs versus healthy controls (HCs), transient tic disorder (TTD) versus chronic motor or vocal tic disorder (CTD), and TTD versus Tourette Syndrome (TS). GO term and KEGG pathway were performed for functional analysis and the receiver operator curve analysis was followed to test the diagnosis efficacy of differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) derived from plasma sEVs among paired groups, namely, TDs versus HCs, TTD versus CTD, and TTD versus TS. As a result, 10 miRNAs (hsa-let-7a, hsa-let-7b, hsa-let-7c, hsa-let-7e, hsa-let-7f, hsa-miR-25-3p, hsa-miR-29a-3p, hsa-miR-30b-5p, hsa-miR-125b-5p, and hsa-miR-1469) have demonstrated a significantly different expression signature in the TDs group compared to HCs with excellent area under curve (AUC) values of 0.99, 0.973, 0.997, 1, 0.99, 0.997, 0.987, 0.993, 0.977, and 0.997, respectively, and the diagnostic efficacy of miRNAs was also estimated for discriminating TTD from CTD or TS. In our research, we finally obtained several potential sEVs-derived miRNA biomarkers to assess the diagnosis and prognosis of TDs.

A comparative evaluation of biomedical similar article recommendation.

BACKGROUND: Biomedical sciences, with their focus on human health and disease, have attracted unprecedented attention in the 21st century. The proliferation of biomedical sciences has also led to a large number of scientific articles being produced, which makes it difficult for biomedical researchers to find relevant articles and hinders the dissemination of valuable discoveries. To bridge this gap, the research community has initiated the article recommendation task, with the aim of recommending articles to biomedical researchers automatically based on their research interests. Over the past two decades, many recommendation methods have been developed. However, an algorithm-level comparison and rigorous evaluation of the most important methods on a shared dataset is still lacking. METHOD: In this study, we first investigate 15 methods for automated article recommendation in the biomedical domain. We then conduct an empirical evaluation of the 15 methods, including six term-based methods, two word embedding methods, three sentence embedding methods, two document embedding methods, and two BERT-based methods. These methods are evaluated in two scenarios: article-oriented recommenders and user-oriented recommenders, with two publicly available datasets: TREC 2005 Genomics and RELISH, respectively. RESULTS: Our experimental results show that the text representation models BERT and BioSenVec outperform many existing recommendation methods (e.g., BM25, PMRA, XPRC) and web-based recommendation systems (e.g., MScanner, MedlineRanker, BioReader) on both datasets regarding most of the evaluation metrics, and fine-tuning can improve the performance of the BERT-based methods. CONCLUSIONS: Our comparison study is useful for researchers and practitioners in selecting the best modeling strategies for building article recommendation systems in the biomedical domain. The code and datasets are publicly available.

Transcriptome-Wide N6-Methyladenosine Methylome Alteration in the Rat Spinal Cord After Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury.

Recent studies showed that RNA N6-methyladenosine (m6A) plays an important role in neurological diseases. We used methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeRIP-Seq) technology to generate the m6A modification map after traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI). A total of 2,609 differential m6A peaks were identified after TSCI. Our RNA sequencing results after TSCI showed 4,206 genes with significantly altered expression. Cross-link analysis of m6A sequencing results and RNA sequencing results showed that 141 hyper-methylated genes were upregulated, 53 hyper-methylated genes were downregulated, 57 hypo-methylated genes were upregulated, and 197 hypo-methylated genes were downregulated. Among these, the important inflammatory response factor Tlr4 and the important member of the neurotrophin family Ngf were both upregulated and hyper-methylated after TSCI. This study provides that in the future, the epigenetic modifications of the genes could be used as an indicator of TSCI.

Translation and validation of the Chinese version of Patient-completed Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire and its implementation in patient education.

Background: Poor control of asthma results from many factors, partly due to inadequate knowledge towards asthma among patients. It is necessary to know patients' knowledge level before education. However, there is no accepted instrument to evaluate knowledge of asthma in Chinese patients with asthma. The study aims to develop a Chinese version of Patient-completed Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire (PAKQ) to assess its reliability, validity, and responsiveness for testing its clinical application in Chinese adult patients with asthma. Methods: After translation, back-translation, and cross-cultural adaptation of the PAKQ into Chinese version, a survey of patients with asthma (n=464) in China was conducted. Demographics and clinical data were collected in addition to questionnaires concerning cognition of asthma, education, history, and asthma control test score. The PAKQ was then completed. 14±4 days after the initial assessment, the participants completed the retested questionnaire and again completed the questionnaire immediately after education. The reliability and the construct validity were evaluated. The optimal cut-off points for predicting disease knowledge among asthma patients were determined using the Youden index method. Results: The Chinese version of PAKQ showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha =0.888) at baseline and an acceptable 2-week test-retest reliability (ICC =0.932, r=0.874). On the basis of large modification indices (>10), this four-factor questionnaire was found to fit the data satisfactorily (χ2/df =1.695, RMSEA =0.039, GFI =0.856, CFI =0.885, and SRMR =0.058). Paired t-tests showed significant changes on pre-educational and post-educational tests (t=22.83, df=463, P<0.0001). The optimal cut-off value of the PAKQ total score for assessing patients' knowledge level was 35 points (AUC =0.757). Conclusions: The Chinese version of the PAKQ questionnaire was developed and validated in terms of reliability and validity as an effective instrument for the insight into asthma knowledge of adult patients with asthma in China. Future research will evaluate the utility of the instrument in clinical practice.