More potential uses of specific perforator flaps in the calf - A cadaveric study on the subdermal vascular structure of the lower leg.

BACKGROUND: The perforator flap has garnered significant interest since its inception due to its advantage of not needing a vascular network at the deep fascial level. Perforator flaps are commonly utilized in different flap transplant surgeries, and the thigh flap is presently the most widely used perforator flap. Is it possible for the calf to replace the thigh as a more suitable site for harvesting materials? Currently, there is a lack of relevant anatomical research. This study aims to address this question from an anatomical and imaging perspective. METHODS: This study used cadavers to observe the branches and courses of perforators on the calf and the distribution of skin branches using microdissection techniques, digital X-ray photography, and micro-computed tomography techniques. RESULTS: The perforators had three main branches: the vertical cutaneous branch, the oblique cutaneous branch, and the superficial fascial branch. The superficial fascial branch traveled in the superficial fascia and connected with the nearby perforators. The vertical and oblique cutaneous branches entered the subdermal layer and connected with each other to create the subdermal vascular network. CONCLUSIONS: We observed an intact calf cutaneous branch chain between the cutaneous nerve and the perforator of the infrapopliteal main artery at the superficial vein site. Utilizing this anatomical structure, the calfskin branch has the potential to serve as a substitute for thigh skin flap transplantation and may be applied to perforator flap transplantation in more locations.

The immunometabolic landscape of bone marrow cells in multiple sclerosis.

In multiple sclerosis (MS), the bone marrow hematopoietic system supplies immune cells to orchestrate central nervous system (CNS) inflammation and autoimmunity. Understanding the metabolic processes within the bone marrow is essential for unraveling the phenotype and function of immune cells. However, a comprehensive exploration of the metabolic landscape and its association with systemic immune response in MS at the single-cell level has yet to be elucidated. Herein, we conducted an analysis of 70 289 bone marrow cells obtained from seven patients with MS and seven health controls (referenced as HRA001783) to address this question. Our focus was primarily on investigating the metabolic preferences of diverse immune cell populations and delineating their metabolic manifestations in the bone marrow microenvironment of MS. Through our analysis, we observed the activation of carbohydrate and amino acid metabolic pathways in the bone marrow cells of MS patients. Notably, we discovered significant metabolic alterations in cell-cell communication within the plasma cell population in the MS bone marrow. These findings shed light on the complex metabolic landscape within the bone marrow niche during MS and highlight the distinctive metabolic characteristics of plasma cells in this context, which may provoke novel understanding of MS pathogenesis and promote future design of immune therapies.

Herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid interferes with MAP kinase signaling in Fusarium graminearum and is inhibitory to fungal growth and pathogenesis.

Plant hormones are important for regulating growth, development, and plant-pathogen interactions. Some of them are inhibitory to growth of fungal pathogens but the underlying mechanism is not clear. In this study, we found that hyphal growth of Fusarium graminearum was significantly reduced by high concentrations of IAA and its metabolically stable analogue 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Besides inhibitory effects on growth rate, treatments with 2,4-D also caused significant reduction in conidiation, conidium germination, and germ tube growth. Treatments with 2,4-D had no obvious effect on sexual reproduction but significantly reduced TRI gene expression, toxisome formation, and DON production. More importantly, treatments with 2,4-D were inhibitory to infection structure formation and pathogenesis at concentrations higher than 100 µM. The presence of 1000 µM 2,4-D almost completely inhibited plant infection and invasive growth. In F. graminearum, 2,4-D induced ROS accumulation and FgHog1 activation but reduced the phosphorylation level of Gpmk1 MAP kinase. Metabolomics analysis showed that the accumulation of a number of metabolites such as glycerol and arabitol was increased by 2,4-D treatment in the wild type but not in the Fghog1 mutant. Transformants expressing the dominant active FgPBS2S451D T455D allele were less sensitive to 2,4-D and had elevated levels of intracellular glycerol and arabitol induced by 2,4-D in PH-1. Taken together, our results showed that treatments with 2,4-D interfere with two important MAP kinase pathways and are inhibitory to hyphal growth, DON biosynthesis, and plant infection in F. graminearum.

Evidence for marine sedimentary rocks in Utopia Planitia: Zhurong rover observations.

Decades of research using remotely sensed data have extracted evidence for the presence of an ocean in the northern lowlands of Mars in the Hesperian (∼3.3 Ga), but these claims have remained controversial due to the lack of in situ analysis of the associated geologic unit, the Vastitas Borealis Formation (VBF). The Tianwen-1/Zhurong rover was targeted to land within the VBF near its southern margin and has traversed almost 2 km southward toward the interpreted shoreline. We report here on the first in situ analysis of the VBF that reveals sedimentary structures and features in surface rocks that suggest that the VBF was deposited in a marine environment, providing direct support for the existence of an ancient (Hesperian) ocean on Mars.

IMU/UWB Fusion Method Using a Complementary Filter and a Kalman Filter for Hybrid Upper Limb Motion Estimation.

Motion capture systems have enormously benefited the research into human-computer interaction in the aerospace field. Given the high cost and susceptibility to lighting conditions of optical motion capture systems, as well as considering the drift in IMU sensors, this paper utilizes a fusion approach with low-cost wearable sensors for hybrid upper limb motion tracking. We propose a novel algorithm that combines the fourth-order Runge-Kutta (RK4) Madgwick complementary orientation filter and the Kalman filter for motion estimation through the data fusion of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and an ultrawideband (UWB). The Madgwick RK4 orientation filter is used to compensate gyroscope drift through the optimal fusion of a magnetic, angular rate, and gravity (MARG) system, without requiring knowledge of noise distribution for implementation. Then, considering the error distribution provided by the UWB system, we employ a Kalman filter to estimate and fuse the UWB measurements to further reduce the drift error. Adopting the cube distribution of four anchors, the drift-free position obtained by the UWB localization Kalman filter is used to fuse the position calculated by IMU. The proposed algorithm has been tested by various movements and has demonstrated an average decrease in the RMSE of 1.2 cm from the IMU method to IMU/UWB fusion method. The experimental results represent the high feasibility and stability of our proposed algorithm for accurately tracking the movements of human upper limbs.

JAG1 enhances angiogenesis in triple-negative breast cancer through promoting the secretion of exosomal lncRNA MALAT1.

Despite significant improvements in five-year survival rates due to early diagnosis and combination therapy, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) treatment remains a major challenge. Finding new and effective targets for diagnosis and drug therapy is urgent for TNBC patients. Jagged-1 (JAG1), one of the canonical ligands of the Notch signaling pathway, is involved in vascular budding and is a poor prognostic factor of TNBC. In this study, combined with quantitative real-time PCR, database analysis, animal experiments, and other means, JAG1 was confirmed to be related to the poor prognosis of TNBC patients. JAG1 was highly expressed in MDA-MB-231 Bone (231B) cells, with stronger invasion and metastasis ability than MDA-MB-231 (231) cells. Treatment of human vascular endothelial cells (HUVEC) with TNBC conditioned medium showed that TNBC JAG1 promoted the angiogenesis of HUVEC. Next, we detected the exosomes extracted from TNBC conditioned medium and found that JAG1 promoted the exosome secretion from 231 cells via ALIX-RAB11A/RAB35. In addition, we also found that the exosomes from JAG1 overexpressed TNBC cells contained more long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) MALAT1, and MALAT1 promoted angiogenesis of HUVEC by targeting miR-140-5p. Finally, the angiogenesis-promoting effect of JAG1 in TNBC was further investigated by matrix gel assay. In conclusion, we reveal that JAG1 has a pro-invasion effect on TNBC and is involved in microenvironment angiogenesis by promoting exosome secretion and the MALAT1-miR-140-5p-JAG1/VEGFA pathway.

Pannexin1 Channel-Mediated Inflammation in Acute Ischemic Stroke.

Emerging evidence suggests that inflammation mediated by the pannexin1 channel contributes significantly to acute ischemic stroke. It is believed that the pannexin1 channel is key in initiating central system inflammation during the early stages of acute ischemic stroke. Moreover, the pannexin1 channel is involved in the inflammatory cascade to maintain the inflammation levels. Specifically, the interaction of pannexin1 channels with ATP-sensitive P2X7 purinoceptors or promotion of potassium efflux mediates the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, triggering the release of pro-inflammatory factors such as IL-1 and IL-18, exacerbating and sustaining inflammation of brain. Also, increased release of ATP induced by cerebrovascular injury activates pannexin1 in vascular endothelial cells. This signal directs peripheral leukocytes to migrate into ischemic brain tissue, leading to an expansion of the inflammatory zone. Intervention strategies targeting pannexin1 channels may greatly alleviate inflammation after acute ischemic stroke to improve this patient population's clinical outcomes. In this review, we sought to summarize relevant studies on inflammation mediated by the pannexin1 channel in acute ischemic stroke and discussed the possibility of using brain organoid-on-a-chip technology to screen miRNAs that exclusively target the pannexin1 channel to provide new therapeutic measures for targeted regulation of pannexin1 channel to reduce inflammation in acute ischemic stroke.

Performance Enhancement of INS and UWB Fusion Positioning Method Based on Two-Level Error Model.

In GNSS-denied environments, especially when losing measurement sensor data, inertial navigation system (INS) accuracy is critical to the precise positioning of vehicles, and an accurate INS error compensation model is the most effective way to improve INS accuracy. To this end, a two-level error model is proposed, which comprehensively utilizes the mechanism error model and propagation error model. Based on this model, the INS and ultra-wideband (UWB) fusion positioning method is derived relying on the extended Kalman filter (EKF) method. To further improve accuracy, the data prefiltering algorithm of the wavelet shrinkage method based on Stein's unbiased risk estimate-Shrink (SURE-Shrink) threshold is summarized for raw inertial measurement unit (IMU) data. The experimental results show that by employing the SURE-Shrink wavelet denoising method, positioning accuracy is improved by 76.6%; by applying the two-level error model, the accuracy is further improved by 84.3%. More importantly, at the point when the vehicle motion state changes, adopting the two-level error model can provide higher computational stability and less fluctuation in trajectory curves.

A Smartphone Healthcare Application, CALO mama Plus, to Promote Weight Loss: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Mobile applications are increasingly used in healthcare. We have developed a smartphone healthcare application, CALO mama Plus, that can register daily diet, exercise, mood, and sleep quality, calculate dietary intake, and provide advice using artificial intelligence technology. This 3-month randomized controlled trial tested the hypothesis that CALO mama Plus could promote body weight reduction in Japanese adults with overweight or obesity. We recruited office workers as participants. The key eligibility criteria were an age of 20-65 years and a body mass index of 23-40 kg/m2. The primary outcome was body weight change over 3 months. We enrolled 141 participants and randomly assigned them to the intervention (n = 72) and control (n = 69) groups. The intervention group used CALO mama Plus, and the control group did not receive any intervention. The change in body weight was -2.4 ± 4.0 kg and -0.7 ± 3.3 kg in the intervention and control groups, respectively. An analysis of covariance adjusted for related variables showed a significant between-group difference in body weight change (-1.60 kg; 95% confidence interval -2.83 to -0.38; p = 0.011). The present study suggests that CALO mama Plus effectively promotes weight loss.

Integrated computer analysis and a self-built Chinese cohort study identified GSTM2 as one survival-relevant gene in human colon cancer potentially regulating immune microenvironment.

According to a recent report by GLOBOCAN, colorectal cancer is the third most common and second most deadly cancer in 2020. In our previous proteomic study, we found that the expression of GSTM2 in colon tissues was significantly lower than that in para-cancer tissues, and its lower expression was associated with reduced overall survival rate of patients, suggesting that this gene might play a role in the occurrence of colon cancer. As a member of the detoxifying enzyme family, GSTM2 is likely to play an important role in the initiation of tumors. Whereas, the functions of GSTM2 in colon cancer are barely known. In this study, using the RNA-Seq datasets of colon cancer patients from public database (ntumor = 457, nnormal = 41), we confirmed the reduced expression of GSTM2 and its prognostic value in colon cancer. Furthermore, we used our own Chinese cohort (ntumor = 100, nnormal = 72) verified the lower GSTM2 expression in colon cancer, and also its effects on patient prognosis. Subsequently, we uncovered two potential reasons for the lower expression of GSTM2 in colon cancer tissues, including the deep deletion of GSTM2 on genome, and the up-regulation of RAD21 or SP1. Moreover, we disclosed that GSTM2 might be involved in several immune-related pathways in colon cancer, such as chemokine signaling and leukocyte transendothelial migration. Finally, we revealed that the GSTM2 expression was closely related to the immune-related scores of colon cancer and the infiltration ratios of various immune cells, suggesting that GSTM2 might regulate the development of colon cancer by modulating immune microenvironment. In conclusion, we uncovered the prognostic value of GSTM2 based on the public data and our own data, revealed its potential regulatory role in tumor immune microenvironment, and disclosed the probable reasons for its lower expression in colon cancer. The findings of our study provide a potential prognostic biomarker and drug target for clinical diagnosis and treatment of colon cancer.

User Authentication Method Based on Keystroke Dynamics and Mouse Dynamics with Scene-Irrelated Features in Hybrid Scenes.

In order to improve user authentication accuracy based on keystroke dynamics and mouse dynamics in hybrid scenes and to consider the user operation changes in different scenes that aggravate user status changes and make it difficult to simulate user behaviors, we present a user authentication method entitled SIURUA. SIURUA uses scene-irrelated features and user-related features for user identification. First, features are extracted based on keystroke data and mouse movement data. Next, scene-irrelated features that have a low correlation with scenes are obtained. Finally, scene-irrelated features are fused with user-related features to ensure the integrity of the features. Experimental results show that the proposed method has the advantage of improving user authentication accuracy in hybrid scenes, with an accuracy of 84% obtained in the experiment.

How does UV-B stress affect secondary metabolites of Scutellaria baicalensis in vitro shoots grown at different 6-benzyl aminopurine concentrations?

Ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation is one of the abiotic stresses that can significantly affect the secondary metabolite accumulation in in vitro tissue cultures of medicinal plants. The present study investigated the effects of UV-B radiation on the secondary metabolites and antioxidant activities of Scutellaria baicalensis in vitro shoots grown at different concentrations of 6-benzyl aminopurine (6-BA), which is the cytokinin most widely used in plant tissue culture. The UV-B radiation caused significant increases in lipid peroxidation, total phenolic, and flavonoid contents, and antioxidant activities in the in vitro shoots grown at lower 6-BA concentrations (0 and 1 mg L-1 ), while it did not cause any significant changes in those grown at higher 6-BA concentrations (2 and 3 mg L-1 ). However, the UV-B radiation significantly altered the contents of main individual flavonoids at both lower and higher 6-BA concentrations. Upon UV-B radiation, aglycones (including baicalein, wogonin, and scutellarein) increased, while glucuronides such as baicalin and wogonoside decreased; this was more evident at higher 6-BA concentrations. This study demonstrated that the effects of UV-B radiation on the secondary metabolites of S. baicalensis in vitro shoots highly depended on the 6-BA concentration in the culture medium.

In vitro production of atractylon and ß-eudesmol from Atractylodes chinensis by adventitious root culture.

Atractylodes chinensis is a medicinal plant widely used for the treatment of gastric disorders, and its main bioactive compounds are atractylon and ß-eudesmol. This study was purposed to establish the adventitious root culture system of A. chinensis for in vitro production of atractylon and ß-eudesmol. The main parameters in the adventitious root induction and suspension cultures were optimized to maximize the culture efficiency. Adventitious roots were induced most efficiently from leaf explants on Murashige and Skoog (MS) solid medium containing 1.5 mg/L naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and 30 g/L sucrose with the highest root induction rate of approximately 92% and 12.9 roots per explant. During the adventitious root suspension culture, the root biomass and the accumulated content of the target compounds simultaneously increased to reach the maximum values after 8 weeks of culture. The maximum yield of the target compounds (total concentration 3.38 mg/g DW, total yield 2.66 mg) was achieved in the roots cultured in ½ MS liquid medium supplemented with 2.0 mg/L IBA, 3.2 mg/L NAA, and 40 g/L sucrose with the inoculum density of 8 g/L. Through the central composite design experiment, it was found that the combined use of different types of auxins in the suspension culture could further improve root growth and metabolite accumulation than the application of only one type of auxin. This work provides a new possibility to have a promising candidate for the industrial production of A. chinensis pharmaceuticals without relying on wild resources or field cultivation. KEY POINTS: • The induction culture was optimized for efficient root induction. • Suspension culture was optimized for the atractylon and ß-eudesmol production. • Combined use of different auxins improves root growth and metabolite accumulation.

Novel Antimycin Analogues with Agricultural Antifungal Activities from the Sponge-Associated Actinomycete Streptomyces sp. NBU3104.

Phytopathogenic fungi could affect the growth of agricultural products and result in serious economic losses. To develop novel and potent fungicides, secondary metabolites of an oceanic mesophotic zone Streptomyces sp. NBU3104 was isolated by metabolomics and genomics, which led to the discovery of eight novel antimycins I-P (1-8), including antimycin I (1), six rare acetylated actimycins J-N (2-6), P (8), and an unusual deformylated antimycin O (7). The chemical structures of these metabolites were identified using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic analysis, high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HRESIMS) data, and the known reported metabolites in the literature. Their absolute configurations were elucidated by comparison of coupling constant and experimental electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra. Among them, compound 1 exhibited excellent inhibitory activities against phytopathogenic fungi, such as Candida albicans, Penicillium expansum, Penicillium citrinum, and Botrytis cinerea. Furthermore, compound 1 could effectively control gray mold of apple in vivo (minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) = 8 µg/mL). The structure-activity relations of antimycins I-P (1-8) suggested that the aldehyde group in 3-formamidosalicylate unit moiety should be the key factor in their antifungal activities.

Marine natural products and their synthetic analogs as promising antibiofilm agents for antibiotics discovery and development.

Biofilm is a complex microbial consortium that are embedded in a membrane structure of the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). As a major form of microorganisms in nature, biofilm has evolved complex and diverse resistance mechanisms to numerous known antibiotics, posing a major threat to human health. The biofilm formation of pathogens including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans, etc. has become the most commonly reasons for clinically chronic and incurable infectious diseases, which urges the development of effective antibiofilm agents. The adaptation of marine organisms and microorganisms to their unique habitats has led to the formation of natural products with charming chemical diversity and biological activity, providing a rich reservoir for the development of antibiofilm agents. According to chemical classification, 129 marine-derived natural products and their synthetic analogs with antibiofilm activity were systematically reviewed, and the related mechanisms and efficacy were discussed as well, aiming to find and develop new and effective antibiofilm agents.

Personality Privacy Protection Method of Social Users Based on Generative Adversarial Networks.

Obscuring or otherwise minimizing the release of personality information from potential victims of social engineering attacks effectively interferes with an attacker's personality analysis and reduces the success rate of social engineering attacks. We propose a text transformation method named PerTransGAN using generative adversarial networks (GANs) to protect the personality privacy hidden in text data. Making use of reinforcement learning, we use the output of the discriminator as a reward signal to guide the training of the generator. Moreover, the model extracts text features from the discriminator network as additional semantic guidance signals. And the loss function of the generator adds a penalty item to reduce the weight of words that contribute more to personality information in the real text so as to hide the user's personality privacy. In addition, the semantic and personality modules are designed to calculate the semantic similarity and personality distribution distance between the real text and the generated text as a part of the objective function. Experiments show that the self-attention module and semantic module in the generator improved the content retention of the text by 0.11 compared with the baseline model and obtained the highest BLEU score. In addition, with the addition of penalty item and personality module, compared with the classification accuracy of the original data, the accuracy of the generated text in the personality classifier decreased by 20%. PerTransGAN model preserves users' personality privacy as found in user data by transforming the text and preserving semantic similarity while blocking privacy theft by attackers.

Molecular Networking-Driven Discovery of Antibacterial Perinadines, New Tetracyclic Alkaloids from the Marine Sponge-Derived Fungus Aspergillus sp.

Two rare tetracyclic skeleton alkaloids named perinadines B and C (1 and 2) were isolated as mixtures of epimers from the marine-derived Aspergillus sp. LS116 driven by molecular networking. The planar structures of 1 and 2 were characterized by comprehensive spectroscopic data. Additionally, compounds 1 and 2 showed moderate in vitro antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis with minimum inhibitory concentration values of 32 and 64 µg/mL, respectively. Besides, both of the compounds were evaluated for anti-inflammatory activities in an in vivo zebra fish model.

Nardosinane-related antimicrobial terpenoids from Lemnalia sp. soft coral.

Ten nardosinane-related terpenoids, including five unreported nardosinane-type sesquiterpenoids, parathyrsoidins H-J and linardosinenes D-E, two unusual condensed nardosinanes, named nardosinoids A and B, together with three known related compounds, were isolated from the Xisha soft coral Lemnalia sp. Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis and comparison of experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism data. Nardosinoids A and B are the first condensates of two nardosinanes. All these compounds were evaluated for antimicrobial activity in vitro. Nardosinane-type sesquiterpenoids parathyrsoidin I and linardosinene E showed inhibitory effects against influenza A virus H1N1 (IC50 7.1 and 1.1 µM, respectively). In addition, nardosinoids A and B exhibited antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis (MIC 4-8 µg/mL).

Optimization of ultrasound-assisted enzymatic pretreatment for enhanced extraction of baicalein and wogonin from Scutellaria baicalensis roots.

It is of great theoretical interest and industrial significance to improve the extraction efficiency of baicalein and wogonin from Scutellaria baicalensis roots because of their high pharmacological activities. The present study was aimed to establish the optimized ultrasound-assisted enzymatic pretreatment (UAEP) process by which ultrasound irradiation and the exogenous enzyme were simultaneously applied to efficiently transform baicalin and wogonoside into baicalein and wogonin, enhancing their extraction efficiency. Single-factor experiment and Box-Behnken design were used to optimize the main UAEP conditions to maximize the total extraction yield of baicalein and wogonin. The optimized UAEP conditions were cellulase concentration of 1.1%, pH of 5.5, UAEP temperature of 56.5 °C, UAEP time of 39.4 min, and ultrasonic power of 200 W with the total extraction yield of 82.51 ± 0.85 mg/g DW. The comparison of the established technique with the reference method based on the enzymatic pretreatment revealed that the productive efficiency was significantly improved with the transformation rates nearly doubled. These results suggest that the optimized UAEP process has the potential to be applied for the green, simple, and efficient extraction of baicalein and wogonin in the pharmaceutical and food industry.

Effectiveness and Components of Web-Based Interventions on Weight Changes in Adults Who Were Overweight and Obese: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analyses.

Overweight and obesity have reached epidemic proportions worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increased need for remote implementation of weight-loss interventions; therefore, the effectiveness of web-based interventions needed to be assessed. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of web-based interventions and their potency in facilitating weight changes in adults who were overweight or obese. We searched PubMed and Ichu-shi Web from the first year of inclusion in each database until the search date (30 September 2020). Among 1466 articles retrieved from the two databases and manual search, 97 were selected to undergo qualitative analysis and 51 articles were subjected to quantitative analysis. Qualitative analysis of 97 articles demonstrated that articles showing significant effectiveness mostly used the following components: social support, self-monitoring for behavior, self-monitoring for the outcome (weight), behavioral goal setting, information about health consequences, and outcome goal setting. Quantitative analysis of 51 articles showed a significant effectiveness of web-based intervention (standardized mean difference, -0.57; 95% confidence interval, -0.75 to -0.40). This study demonstrated the effectiveness of web-based interventions on weight change in adults with overweight and obesity. Subgroup meta-analyses identified personalized information provision and expert advice to be remarkably effective components.