High-performance electrolyte-gated amorphous InGaZnO field-effect transistor for label-free DNA sensing.

Accurate, convenient, label-free, and cost-effective biomolecules detection platforms are currently in high demand. In this study, we showcased the utilization of electrolyte-gated InGaZnO field-effect transistors (IGZO FETs) featuring a large on-off current ratio of over 106 and a low subthreshold slope of 78.5 mV/dec. In the DNA biosensor, the modification of target DNA changed the effective gate voltage of IGZO FETs, enabling an impressive low detection limit of 0.1 pM and a wide linear detection range from 0.1 pM to 1 µM. This label-free detection method also exhibits high selectivity, allowing for the discrimination of single-base mismatch. Furthermore, the reuse of gate electrodes and channel films offers cost-saving benefits and simplifies device fabrication processes. The electrolyte-gated IGZO FET biosensor presented in this study shows great promise for achieving low-cost and highly sensitive detection of various biomolecules.

Neurodevelopmental toxicity of a ubiquitous disinfection by-product, bromoacetic acid, in Zebrafish (Danio rerio).

Disinfection of public drinking water and swimming pools is crucial for preventing waterborne diseases, but it can produce harmful disinfection by-products (DBPs), increasing the risk of various diseases for those frequently exposed to such environments. Bromoacetic acid (BAA) is a ubiquitous DBP, with toxicity studies primarily focused on its in vitro cytotoxicity, and insufficient research on its neurodevelopmental toxicity. Utilizing zebrafish as a model organism, this study comprehensively explored BAA's toxic effects and uncovered the molecular mechanisms through neurobehavioral analysis, in vivo two-photon imaging, transcriptomic sequencing, pharmacological intervention and molecular biological detection. Results demonstrated BAA induced significant changes on various indicators in the early development of zebrafish. Furthermore, BAA disrupted behavioral patterns in zebrafish larvae across locomotion activity, light-dark stimulation, and vibration stimulation paradigms. Subsequent investigation focused on larvae revealed BAA inhibited neuronal development, activated neuroinflammatory responses, and altered vascular morphology. Transcriptomic analysis revealed BAA-stressed zebrafish exhibited downregulation of visual transduction-related genes and activation of ferroptosis and cellular apoptosis. Neurobehavioral disorders were recovered by inhibiting ferroptosis and apoptosis. This study elucidates the neurodevelopmental toxicity associated with BAA, which is crucial for understanding health risks of DBPs and for the development of more effective detection methods and regulatory strategies.

EXPAR for biosensing: recent developments and applications.

Emerging as a promising novel amplification technique, the exponential amplification reaction (EXPAR) offers significant advantages due to its potent exponential amplification capability, straightforward reaction design, rapid reaction kinetics, and isothermal operation. The past few years have witnessed swift advancements and refinements in EXPAR-based technologies, with numerous high-performance biosensing systems documented. A deeper understanding of the EXPAR mechanism has facilitated the proposal of novel strategies to overcome limitations inherent to traditional EXPAR. Furthermore, the synergistic integration of EXPAR with diverse amplification methodologies, including the use of a CRISPR/Cas system, metal nanoparticles, aptamers, alternative isothermal amplification techniques, and enzymes, has significantly bolstered analytical efficacy, aiming to enhance specificity, sensitivity, and amplification efficiency. This comprehensive review presents a detailed exposition of the EXPAR mechanism and analyzes its primary challenges. Additionally, we summarize the latest research advancements in the biomedical field concerning the integration of EXPAR with diverse amplification technologies for sensing strategies. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future prospects of EXPAR technology in the realms of biosensing and clinical applications.

Combination of Brucea javanica oil emulsion and Aidi injection associated with the long­term survival of a patient with colon cancer and lung metastases post­chemotherapy: A case report.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) ranks as the third most frequently diagnosed cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Treatment options for patients with advanced CRC recurrence and metastases remain limited, particularly for those unable to withstand chemotherapy. Bruscea javanica oil emulsion (BJOE) and Aidi injection (ADI) are two plant-derived products that have antitumor effects. The current report presents the case of a patient with colon cancer and resectable lung metastases. Despite the surgical removal of the metastatic lesions, tumor recurrence was not prevented. The patient underwent three chemotherapy regimens following lung metastasis surgery, namely XELOX, single-agent irinotecan and single-agent tegafur-gimeracil-oteracil potassium capsule, but experienced intolerable adverse reactions with each, and disease progression was observed during subsequent follow-up. Nonetheless, the patient achieved a progression-free survival of >5 years under BJOE + ADI treatment and continues to receive BJOE + ADI treatment to date. Although further research is required to understand the effectiveness of this treatment combination, the present case may instill hope in the treatment of future patients.

Developing Machine Learning-Based Predictive Models for Hallux Valgus Recurrence Based on Measurements From Radiographs.

BACKGROUND: Machine learning (ML) is increasingly used to predict the prognosis of numerous diseases. This retrospective analysis aimed to develop a prediction model using ML algorithms and to identify predictors associated with the recurrence of hallux valgus (HV) following surgery. METHODS: A total of 198 symptomatic feet that underwent chevron osteotomy combined with a distal soft tissue procedure were enrolled and analyzed from 2 independent medical centers. The feet were grouped according to nonrecurrence or recurrence based on 1-year follow-up outcomes. Preoperative weightbearing radiographs and immediate postoperative nonweightbearing radiographs were obtained for each HV foot. Radiographic measurements (eg, HV angle and intermetatarsal angle) were acquired and used for ML model training. A total of 9 commonly used ML models were trained on the data obtained from one institute (108 feet), and tested on the other data set from another independent institute (90 feet) for external validation. Optimal feature sets for each model were identified based on a 2000-resample bootstrap-based internal validation via an exhaustive search. The performance of each model was then tested on the external validation set. The area under the curve (AUC), classification accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of each model were calculated to evaluate the performance of each model. RESULTS: The support vector machine (SVM) model showed the highest predictive accuracy compared to other methods, with an AUC of 0.88 and an accuracy of 75.6%. Preoperative hallux valgus angle, tibial sesamoid position, postoperative intermetatarsal angle, and postoperative tibial sesamoid position were identified as the most selected features by several ML models. CONCLUSION: ML classifiers such as SVM could predict the recurrence of HV (an HVA >20 degrees) at a 1-year follow-up while identifying associated predictors in a multivariate manner. This study holds the potential for foot and ankle surgeons to effectively identify individuals at higher risk of HV recurrence postsurgery.

Chinese Herbal Medicine Combined With Liuzijue Exercise in Physiological Rehabilitation After Video-assisted Lung Lobectomy for Cancer: A Prospective Propensity Score Matching Study.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the clinical efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine combined with Liuzijue exercise on the physiological symptoms and quality of life (QoL) in postoperative patients with early-stage lung cancer. METHODS: One hundred and eighty-three lung cancer patients who underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) were categorize into either a traditional Chinese medicine treatment group (CM) or a control group (non-traditional Chinese medicine treatment, NC), among whom 73 underwent Chinese herbal medicine and Liuzijue therapy, while 110 underwent no comprehensive treatment with traditional Chinese medicine. The propensity score matching (PSM) method with a 1:2 ratio was used to balance the baseline characteristics and evaluate the efficacy of CM in improving postoperative symptoms and QoL. RESULTS: Cough, dyspnea, chest pain, and fatigue were the most common clinical symptoms after VATS. Except for chest pain, they were all correlated with the scope of operation (P < .05). After PSM, 165 patients were identified in the matched cohort, and the covariates of gender, age, operative site, and scope of operation were balanced between the 2 groups (P > .05). In the domain of global health status, the improvement in QoL in CM was greater than that in NC (6.06 ± 15.83 vs -1.06 ± 14.68, P = .005). In terms of symptoms, improvements in cough (1.69 ± 3.15 vs 0.38 ± 2.63, P = .006), dyspnea during climbing stairs (-10.30 ± 16.82 vs -1.82 ± 17.97, P = .004), and pain (-0.76 ± 1.32 vs -0.08 ± 1.31, P = .002) in CM were better than in NC. CONCLUSION: Comprehensive treatment with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can provide therapeutic benefits in physiological rehabilitation after VATS for cancer.

A comparative study on the gel and structural characteristics of starch from three rice varieties when combined with Mesona chinensis polysaccharides.

Mesona chinensis polysaccharide (MCP) has excellent gel-forming characteristic, previous studies showed that MCP could affect the gelling and structural properties of rice starch, but the effect of MCP on rice starch from different types is not clarified. In this study, the effects of MCP on the pasting, rheological, and structural characteristics of glutinous rice starch (GRS), japonica rice starch (JRS), and indica rice starch (IRS) were investigated. The results showed that GRS-MCP has the best viscosity, its peak and final viscosities are higher than JRS-MCP and IRS-MCP. The gel network structure was enhanced by MCP in the order of IRS > JRS > GRS, which was reflected by greater elasticity, higher gel strength and hardness, and less free water in JRS-MCP and IRS-MCP. MCP also enhanced the ordered structure and thermal stability of the three starch gels, which is conducive to their application in the market. These findings provide new theoretical insights to produce rice starch-based foods.

The interplay between the tumor microenvironment and tumor-derived small extracellular vesicles in cancer development and therapeutic response.

The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays an essential role in tumor cell survival by profoundly influencing their proliferation, metastasis, immune evasion, and resistance to treatment. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small particles released by all cell types and often reflect the state of their parental cells and modulate other cells' functions through the various cargo they transport. Tumor-derived small EVs (TDSEVs) can transport specific proteins, nucleic acids and lipids tailored to propagate tumor signals and establish a favorable TME. Thus, the TME's biological characteristics can affect TDSEV heterogeneity, and this interplay can amplify tumor growth, dissemination, and resistance to therapy. This review discusses the interplay between TME and TDSEVs based on their biological characteristics and summarizes strategies for targeting cancer cells. Additionally, it reviews the current issues and challenges in this field to offer fresh insights into comprehending tumor development mechanisms and exploring innovative clinical applications.

Predicting the mechanism of action of YQYYJD prescription in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer using transcriptomics analysis.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The efficacy of the herbal formula Yiqi Yangyin Jiedu (YQYYJD) in the treatment of advanced lung cancer has been reported in clinical trials. However, the key anti-lung cancer herbs and molecular mechanisms underlying its inhibition of lung cancer are not well-understood. AIM OF THE STUDY: To identify the key anti-lung cancer herbs in the YQYYJD formula and investigate their therapeutic effect and potential mechanism of action in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using transcriptomics and bioinformatics techniques. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A mouse Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) subcutaneous inhibitory tumor model was established with 6 mice in each group. Mice were treated with the YQYYJD split formula: Yiqi Formula (YQ), Yangyin Formula (YY), and Ruanjian Jiedu Formula (RJJD) for 14 days. The tumor volume and mouse weight were recorded, and the status of tumor occurrence was further observed by taking photos. The tumor was stained with hematoxylin-eosin to observe its histopathological changes. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of the proliferation marker Ki67 and the apoptotic marker Caspase-3 in tumor tissues. Flow cytometry was used to detect the number of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and cytokines interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) in the spleen and tumor tissues. The differential genes of key drugs against tumors were obtained by transcriptome sequencing of tumors. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed on differential genes to obtain pathways and biological processes where targets were aggregated. TIMER2.0 and TISIDB databases were used to evaluate the impact of drugs on immune cell infiltration and immune-related genes. The binding activity of the key targets and compounds was verified by molecular docking. RESULTS: YQ, YY, and RJJD inhibited the growth of subcutaneous transplanted tumors in LLC mice to varying degrees and achieved antitumor effects by inhibiting the expression of tumor cell proliferation, apoptosis, and metastasis-related proteins. Among the three disassembled prescriptions, YQ better inhibited the growth of subcutaneous transplanted tumors in LLC mice, significantly promoted tumor necrosis, significantly increased the expression of Caspase-3 protein in tumor tissue, and significantly decreased the expression of Ki-67 (P < 0.05), thereby increasing the infiltration of CD8+ T cells. YQ significantly increased the expression of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in tumor and splenic tissues of tumor-bearing mice and up-regulated the expression of IL-2 and IFN-γ. Transcriptome sequencing and bioinformatics results showed that after YQ intervention, differentially expressed genes were enriched in more than one tumor-related pathway and multiple immune regulation-related biological functions. There were 12 key immune-related target genes. CONCLUSION: YQ was the key disassembled prescription of YQYYJD, exerting significant antitumor effects and immune regulation effects on NSCLC. It may have relieved T cell exhaustion and regulated the immune microenvironment to exert antitumor effects by changing lung cancer-related targets, pathways, and biological processes.

Structural and functional abnormalities in the medial prefrontal cortex were associated with pain and depressive symptoms in patients with adhesive capsulitis.

Introduction: Chronic pain and depression have been shown to coexist in patients with adhesive capsulitis (AC). Recent studies identified the shared brain plasticity between pain and depression; however, how such neuroplasticity contributes to AC remains unclear. Here, we employed a combination of psychophysics, structural MRI, and functional MRI techniques to examine the brain's structural and functional changes in AC. Methods: Fifty-two patients with AC and 52 healthy controls (HCs) were included in our study. Voxelwise comparisons were performed to reveal the differences in grey matter volume (GMV) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) between AC and HCs. Furthermore, region of interest to whole brain functional connectivity (FC) was calculated and compared between the groups. Finally, Pearson correlation coefficients were computed to reveal the association between clinical data and brain alterations. Mediation analyses were performed to investigate the path association among brain alterations and clinical measures. Results: Three main findings were observed: (1) patients with AC exhibited a higher depression subscale of hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS-D) score correlating with the GMV within the right medial prefrontal cortices (mPFC) compared with HCs; (2) relative to HCs, patients with AC exhibited lower ReHo within the right mPFC, which largely overlapped with the structural abnormalities; (3) the impact of pain duration on HADS-D score was mediated by ventral part of medial prefrontal cortices (vmPFC) GMV in patients with AC. Conclusion: In summary, our current findings suggest that vmPFC alterations correlate with both the pain duration and the emotional comorbidities experienced by patients with AC. Our research provides an enhanced comprehension of the underlying mechanisms of AC, thereby facilitating the development of more effective treatment approaches for AC.

Exploring the Sheep MAST4 Gene Variants and Their Associations with Litter Size.

The economic efficiency of sheep breeding can be improved by enhancing sheep productivity. A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) unveiled the potential impact of the MAST4 gene on prolificacy traits in Australian White sheep (AUW)). Herein, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from 26 different sheep breeds worldwide (n = 1507), including diverse meat, wool, milk, or dual-purpose sheep breed types from China, Europe, and Africa, were used. Moreover, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) genotyping of the MAST4 gene polymorphisms in (n = 566) Australian white sheep (AUW) was performed. The 3 identified polymorphisms were not homogeneously distributed across the 26 examined sheep breeds. Findings revealed prevalent polymorphisms (P3-ins-29 bp and P6-del-21 bp) with varying frequencies (0.02 to 0.97) across 26 breeds, while P5-del-24 bp was presented in 24 out of 26 breeds. Interestingly, the frequency of the P3-ins-29 bp variant was markedly higher in Chinese meat or dual-purpose sheep breeds, while the other two variants also showed moderate frequencies in meat breeds. Notably, association analysis indicated that all InDels were associated with AUW sheep litter size (p < 0.05). These results suggest that these InDels within the MAST4 gene could be useful in marker-assisted selection in sheep breeding.

Upconversion-Powered Photoelectrochemical Bioanalysis for DNA Sensing.

In this work, we report a new concept of upconversion-powered photoelectrochemical (PEC) bioanalysis. The proof-of-concept involves a PEC bionanosystem comprising a NaYF4:Yb,Tm@NaYF4 upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) reporter, which is confined by DNA hybridization on a CdS quantum dots (QDs)/indium tin oxide (ITO) photoelectrode. The CdS QD-modified ITO electrode was powered by upconversion absorption together with energy transfer effect through UCNPs for a stable photocurrent generation. By measuring the photocurrent change, the target DNA could be detected in a specific and sensitive way with a wide linear range from 10 pM to 1 µM and a low detection limit of 0.1 pM. This work exploited the use of UCNPs as signal reporters and realized upconversion-powered PEC bioanalysis. Given the diversity of UCNPs, we believe it will offer a new perspective for the development of advanced upconversion-powered PEC bioanalysis.

Synthesizing Knowledge-Enhanced Features for Real-World Zero-Shot Food Detection.

Food computing brings various perspectives to computer vision like vision-based food analysis for nutrition and health. As a fundamental task in food computing, food detection needs Zero-Shot Detection (ZSD) on novel unseen food objects to support real-world scenarios, such as intelligent kitchens and smart restaurants. Therefore, we first benchmark the task of Zero-Shot Food Detection (ZSFD) by introducing FOWA dataset with rich attribute annotations. Unlike ZSD, fine-grained problems in ZSFD like inter-class similarity make synthesized features inseparable. The complexity of food semantic attributes further makes it more difficult for current ZSD methods to distinguish various food categories. To address these problems, we propose a novel framework ZSFDet to tackle fine-grained problems by exploiting the interaction between complex attributes. Specifically, we model the correlation between food categories and attributes in ZSFDet by multi-source graphs to provide prior knowledge for distinguishing fine-grained features. Within ZSFDet, Knowledge-Enhanced Feature Synthesizer (KEFS) learns knowledge representation from multiple sources (e.g., ingredients correlation from knowledge graph) via the multi-source graph fusion. Conditioned on the fusion of semantic knowledge representation, the region feature diffusion model in KEFS can generate fine-grained features for training the effective zero-shot detector. Extensive evaluations demonstrate the superior performance of our method ZSFDet on FOWA and the widely-used food dataset UECFOOD-256, with significant improvements by 1.8% and 3.7% ZSD mAP compared with the strong baseline RRFS. Further experiments on PASCAL VOC and MS COCO prove that enhancement of the semantic knowledge can also improve the performance on general ZSD. Code and dataset are available at https://github.com/LanceZPF/KEFS.

Organic Electrochemical Transistors for Biomarker Detections.

The improvement of living standards and the advancement of medical technology have led to an increased focus on health among individuals. Detections of biomarkers are feasible approaches to obtaining information about health status, disease progression, and response to treatment of an individual. In recent years, organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have demonstrated high electrical performances and effectiveness in detecting various types of biomarkers. This review provides an overview of the working principles of OECTs and their performance in detecting multiple types of biomarkers, with a focus on the recent advances and representative applications of OECTs in wearable and implantable biomarker detections, and provides a perspective for the future development of OECT-based biomarker sensors.

Divergent thinking benefits from functional antagonism of the left IFG and right TPJ: a transcranial direct current stimulation study.

Divergent thinking is assumed to benefit from releasing the constraint of existing knowledge (i.e. top-down control) and enriching free association (i.e. bottom-up processing). However, whether functional antagonism between top-down control-related and bottom-up processing-related brain structures is conducive to generating original ideas is largely unknown. This study was designed to investigate the effect of functional antagonism between the left inferior frontal gyrus and the right temporoparietal junction on divergent thinking performance. A within-subjects design was adopted for three experiments. A total of 114 participants performed divergent thinking tasks after receiving transcranial direct current stimulation over target regions. In particular, cathodal stimulation over the left inferior frontal gyrus and anodal stimulation over the right inferior frontal gyrus (Experiment 1), anodal stimulation over the right temporoparietal junction (Experiment 2), and both cathodal stimulation over the left inferior frontal gyrus and anodal stimulation over the right temporoparietal junction (Experiment 3) were manipulated. Compared with sham stimulation, the combination of hyperpolarization of the left inferior frontal gyrus and depolarization of the right temporoparietal junction comprehensively promoted the fluency, flexibility, and originality of divergent thinking without decreasing the rationality of generated ideas. Functional antagonism between the left inferior frontal gyrus (hyperpolarization) and right temporoparietal junction (depolarization) has a "1 + 1 > 2" superposition effect on divergent thinking.

Large-Area Fabrication of Hexaazatrinaphthylene-Based 2D Metal-Organic Framework Films for Flexible Photodetectors and Optoelectronic Synapses.

2D conjugated metal-organic frameworks (c-MOFs) have emerged as promising materials for (opto)electronic applications due to their excellent charge transport properties originating from the unique layered-stacked structures with extended in-plane conjugation. The further advancement of MOF-based (opto)electronics necessitates the development of novel 2D c-MOF thin films with high quality. Cu-HHHATN (HHHATN: hexahydroxyl-hexaazatrinaphthylene) is a recently reported 2D c-MOF featuring high in-plane conjugation, strong interlayer π-π stacking, and multiple coordination sites, while the production of its thin-film form has not yet been reported. Herein, large-area Cu-HHHATN thin films with preferential orientation, high uniformity, and smooth surfaces are realized by using a convenient layer-by-layer growth method. Flexible photodetectors are fabricated, showing broadband photoresponse ranging from UV to short-wave infrared (370 to 1450 nm). The relatively long relaxation time of photocurrent, which arises from the trapping of photocarriers, renders the device's synaptic plasticity similar to that of biological synapses, promising its use in neuromorphic visual systems. This work demonstrates the great potential of Cu-HHHATN thin films in flexible optoelectronic devices for various applications.

Abnormal preoperative fMRI signal variability in the pain ascending pathway is associated with the postoperative axial pain intensity in degenerative cervical myelopathy patients.

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: The moment-to-moment variability of resting-state brain activity has been suggested to play an active role in chronic pain. PURPOSE: To investigate preoperative alterations in regional blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal variability (BOLDsv) and inter-regional dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) in individuals with degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM), and their potential association with postoperative axial pain severity. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PATIENT SAMPLE: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was obtained in 42 migraine individuals and 40 healthy controls (HCs). OUTCOME MEASURES: We calculated the standard deviation (SD) of the BOLD time-series at each voxel and the SD and mean of the dynamic conditional correlation between the brain regions which showed significant group differences in BOLDsv. METHODS: A group comparison was conducted using whole-brain voxel-wise analysis of the standard deviation (SD) of the BOLD time-series which was a measure of the BOLDsv. The brain areas displaying notable group discrepancies in BOLDsv were utilized to outline regions of interest (ROIs). To determine the strength/variability of the dFC, the mean and SD of the dynamic conditional correlation were calculated within these ROIs. Moreover, the postoperative axial pain (PAP) severity of patients was evaluated. RESULTS: Our results revealed that DCM patients with postoperative axial pain (PAP) demonstrated considerably increased BOLDsv in the bilateral thalamus and right insular, but significantly lower BOLDsv in the right S1. By applying dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) analysis, we found that DCM patients with PAP exhibited greater fluctuation of dFC in the thalamo-cortical pathway (specifically, thalamus-S1), when compared to HCs and patients without PAP (nPAP). Lastly, we established that dysfunctional BOLDsv and dFC in the ascending pain pathway were positively associated with the severity of PAP in DCM patients. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate a potential correlation between impaired pain ascending pathway and postoperative axial pain in DCM patients. These findings could potentially spark novel treatment approaches for individuals experiencing preoperative axial pain.

Effects of three different polysaccharides on the sol gel-behavior, rheological, and structural properties of tapioca starch.

The sol-gel behavior of tapioca starch (TS) plays a crucial role in the processing and quality control of flour-based products. However, natural tapioca starch has low gel strength and poor viscosity, which tremendously limits its application. To solve this problem, this study investigated the effects of κ-carrageenan (KC), konjac gum (KGM), and Mesona chinensis Benth polysaccharide (MCP) on the pasting behavior, rheological, and structural properties of tapioca starch. KC, KGM, and MCP significantly increased the viscosity of TS. With the exception of high-concentration KGM (0.5 %), all other blending systems showed decrease in setback. This may be attributed to the stronger effect of the high-concentration KC (0.5 %) and MCP (0.5 %) functional groups interacting with starch. KC, KGM, and MCP effectively improved the dynamic modulus (G' and G") of TS gel and were effective in increasing the gel strength and hardness of TS. The FT-IR analysis indicated that the short-range order of TS was mainly influenced by polysaccharides through non-covalent bonding interactions. Furthermore, it was confirmed that three polysaccharides could form dense structures by hydrogen bonding with TS. Similarly, more stable structure and pore size were observed in the microstructure diagram.

Developing predictive models for surgical outcomes in patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy: a comparison of statistical and machine learning approaches.

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Machine learning (ML) is widely used to predict the prognosis of numerous diseases. PURPOSE: This retrospective analysis aimed to develop a prognostic prediction model using ML algorithms and identify predictors associated with poor surgical outcomes in patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM). STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective study. PATIENT SAMPLE: A total of 406 symptomatic DCM patients who underwent surgical decompression were enrolled and analyzed from three independent medical centers. OUTCOME MEASURES: We calculated the area under the curve (AUC), classification accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of each model. METHODS: The Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) score was obtained before and 1 year following decompression surgery, and patients were grouped into good and poor outcome groups based on a cut-off value of 60% based on a previous study. Two datasets were fused for training, 1 dataset was held out as an external validation set. Optimal feature-subset and hyperparameters for each model were adjusted based on a 2,000-resample bootstrap-based internal validation via exhaustive search and grid search. The performance of each model was then tested on the external validation set. RESULTS: The Support Vector Machine (SVM) model showed the highest predictive accuracy compared to other methods, with an AUC of 0.82 and an accuracy of 75.7%. Age, sex, disease duration, and preoperative JOA score were identified as the most commonly selected features by both the ML and statistical models. Grid search optimization for hyperparameters successfully enhanced the predictive performance of each ML model, and the SVM model still had the best performance with an AUC of 0.93 and an accuracy of 86.4%. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the study demonstrated that ML classifiers such as SVM can effectively predict surgical outcomes for patients with DCM while identifying associated predictors in a multivariate manner.

Transcriptional correlates of frequency-dependent brain functional activity associated with symptom severity in degenerative cervical myelopathy.

BACKGROUND: Neuroimaging techniques provide insights into the brain abnormalities secondary to degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) and their association with neurological deficits. However, the neural correlates underlying the discrepancy between symptom severity and the degree of spinal cord compression, as well as the transcriptional correlates of these cortical abnormalities, remain unknown in DCM patients. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, which collected resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) images and the Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) score, enrolled 104 participants (54 patients and 50 healthy controls). The frequency-dependent amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) was obtained for all participants. We investigated the ALFF differences between mild-symptom DCM patients and severe-symptom DCM patients while carefully matching the degree of compression between these two groups via both univariate comparison and searchlight classification for three frequency bands (e.g., Slow-4, Slow-5, and Full-band). Additionally, we identified genes associated with symptom severity in DCM patients by linking the spatial patterns of gene expression of Allen Human Brain Atlas and brain functional differences between mild symptom and severe symptom groups. RESULTS: (1) We found that the frequency-specific brain activities within the sensorimotor network (SMN), visual network (VN), and default mode network (DMN) were associated with the varying degrees of functional impairment in DCM patients; (2) the frequency-specific brain activity within the SMN correlated with the functional recovery in patients with DCM; (3) a spatial correlation between the brain-wide expression of genes involved in neuronal migration and the brain functional activities associated with symptom severity was identified in DCM patients. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our study bridges gaps between genes, cell classes, biological processes, and brain functional correlates of DCM. While our findings are correlational in nature, they suggest that the neural activities of sensorimotor cortices in DCM are associated with the severity of symptoms and might be associated with neuronal migration within the brain.