Nonlinear metasurface engineering with disordered gold nanorods on ITO: a cost-effective approach to broadband response, polarization-independence, and weak nonlinear index dispersion.

The strong coupling of epsilon-near-zero materials with nanoantennas has demonstrated enhanced nonlinear optical responses, yet practical challenges persist. Here, we propose an alternative: an ultrathin metasurface featuring broadband response with a weakly dispersive nonlinear index, achieved through a simple implementation. Our metasurface, comprising a disordered gold nanorod array on indium tin oxide, exhibits polarization-independent behavior and a large average nonlinear refractive index of 5 cm2/GW across a broad wavelength range (1000-1300 nm). Enhanced performance is attributed to the weak coupling between gold nanorods and indium tin oxide, offering a cost-effective method for nonlinear optical metasurfaces and a flexible design in nanophotonic applications.

Fibroblast growth factor 21 predicts arteriovenous fistula functional patency loss and mortality in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND: Arteriovenous fistula (AVF) dysfunction is a common complication in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). Elevated serum levels of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) are associated with atherosclerosis and cardiovascular mortality. However, its association with vascular access outcomes remains elusive. The present study evaluated the relationship of serum FGF21 levels with AVF dysfunction and all-cause mortality in patients undergoing MHD. METHODS: We included patients undergoing MHD using AVF from January 2018 to December 2019. FGF21 concentration was detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Patients were followed up to record two clinical outcomes, AVF functional patency loss and all-cause mortality. The follow-up period ended on April 30, 2022. RESULTS: Among 147 patients, the mean age was 58.49 ± 14.41 years, and the median serum level of FGF21 was 150.15 (70.57-318.01) pg/mL. During the median follow-up period of 40.83 months, the serum level of FGF21 was an independent risk factor for AVF functional patency loss (per 1 pg/mL increase, HR 1.002 [95% CI: 1.001-1.003, p = 0.003]). Patients with higher serum levels of FGF21 were more likely to suffer from all-cause mortality (per 1 pg/mL increase, HR 1.002 [95% CI: 1.000-1.003, p = 0.014]). The optimal cutoffs for FGF21 to predict AVF functional patency loss and all-cause mortality in patients undergoing MHD were 149.98 pg/mL and 146.43 pg/mL, with AUCs of 0.701 (95% CI: 0.606-0.796, p < 0.001) and 0.677 (95% CI: 0.595-0.752, p = 0.002), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Serum FGF21 levels were an independent risk factor and predictor for AVF functional patency loss and all-cause mortality in patients undergoing MHD.

Plasmapheresis compared with conventional treatment for hypertriglyceridemia-induced acute pancreatitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The treatment of acute pancreatitis (AP) induced by hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) remains controversial with regard to plasmapheresis vs conventional treatment. We reviewed relevant articles to explore the efficacy of plasmapheresis in the management of HTG-induced AP. METHODS: We systematically reviewed studies that compared plasmapheresis with conventional treatment for HTG-induced AP using three databases: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library, as well as relevant references. The primary outcomes were 24 h triglyceride reduction rate and in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: A total of 791 articles were retrieved. Finally, 15 observational studies (1080 participants) were included, most of which were historical cohort studies. Compared with conventional treatment, plasmapheresis assisted in the reduction of serum triglyceride (TG) levels in the first 24 h after hospital admission (standardized mean difference [SMD]: 0.58; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.17 to 0.99; P = 0.005). However, it resulted in increased hospitalization costs (thousand yuan) (weighted mean difference [WMD]: 24.32; 95% CI: 12.96 to 35.68; P < 0.001). With regard to in-hospital mortality, although the mortality rate in the plasmapheresis group was higher than that in the conventional treatment group (relative risk [RR]: 1.74; 95% CI: 1.03 to 2.94; P = 0.038), the result was disturbed by confounding factors as per the subgroup and sensitivity analysis, as well as trial sequential analysis (TSA). No significant differences were found in other outcomes, including systematic complications, local complications, the requirement for surgery, and hospitalization duration. CONCLUSION: The effect of plasmapheresis in HTG-induced AP is not superior to that of conventional treatment, even resulting in a greater economic burden to patients and health care system. High quality randomized control trials are required to obtain a more a definitive understanding of this issue.

Joint developmental trajectories and correlates of internalizing and externalizing problems among Chinese adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Internalizing and externalizing problems are the most prevalent health problems among adolescents. However, few studies have examined co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems from a longitudinal perspective. METHODS: A total of 1051 seventh-grade students from two junior high schools were recruited at baseline. Among them, 932 valid participants were reassessed 1 year and 2 years later. Data were analyzed using parallel-process latent class growth analysis and multinominal logistic regression. RESULTS: Four joint trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems were identified. Compared with the low-risk group, adolescents in the moderate and chronic co-occurring group had lower resilience, higher levels of insecure attachment, family conflicts, and academic pressure. Adolescents in the pure internalizing group had higher levels of family conflicts and academic pressure compared with the low-risk group. CONCLUSIONS: Co-occurrence of symptoms is very high in adolescents. More individualized intervention programs should be provided to these specific groups.

Comorbid trajectories of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and depressive symptoms in a 10-year cohort of Chinese Wenchuan earthquake survivors: Course, predictors, and consequences.

OBJECTIVES: Survivors may suffer mental health problems following disasters, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms. However, few studies have explored longitudinal processes of co-occurring PTSD and depressive symptoms among adolescent survivors and their associated predictors and consequences. The present study examines the codevelopment of both symptoms postearthquake using a 10-year cohort. METHOD: A total of 1,357 senior high school students reported PTSD and depressive symptoms at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Self-report measures were also used to evaluate earthquake exposure, negative life events, social support, and trait resilience. At the 10-year follow-up (T10y), 799 participants reported their quality of life (QoL) online and 744 of them provided available data. A parallel-process latent class growth analysis was used to identify trajectories. Multinominal logistic and linear regressions were used, respectively, to analyze the predictors and consequences of these trajectories. RESULTS: Three comorbid trajectories were found: a resilient group (56.7%), a vulnerable group (33.3%), and a chronic high-risk group (9.9%). Gender, injury/missing/killed of family members, witnessing of traumatic sciences, negative life events, social support, and trait resilience were significant predictors of vulnerable and chronic high-risk groups. Finally, adolescents in these two groups were more likely to experience poorer QoL in adulthood. CONCLUSION: The results highlight the heterogeneity of depression-PTSD comorbidities among adolescent survivors. They also emphasize PTSD-depression symptoms predictors and their adverse impacts on life outcomes in adulthood. Individualized interventions should be provided for adolescents affected by natural disasters, especially those in the vulnerable and higher risk groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The ELF3-regulated lncRNA UBE2CP3 is over-stabilized by RNA-RNA interactions and drives gastric cancer metastasis via miR-138-5p/ITGA2 axis.

LncRNAs play essential roles in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Pseudogene UBE2CP3 is an antisense intronic lncRNA. However, the biological function of UBE2CP3 in gastric cancer (GC) remains unknown. In this study, we revealed that lncRNA UBE2CP3 was aberrantly upregulated in multiple independent gastric cancer cohorts, and its overexpression was clinically associated with poor prognosis in GC. UBE2CP3 was mainly located in cytoplasm and promoted migratory and invasive capacities of GC cells in vitro and in vivo. Mechanismly, a novel dysregulated ceRNA network UB2CP3/miR-138-5p/ITGA2 was identified in GC by transcriptome sequencing. Furthermore, rescue assay further confirmed that UBE2CP3 mainly promoted GC progression through miR-138-5p/ITGA2 axis. More importantly, our data proved that UBE2CP3/IGFBP7 could form an RNA duplex, thereby directly interacting with the ILF3 protein. In turn, this RNA-RNA interaction between IGFBP7 mRNA and UBE2CP3 mediated by ILF3 protein plays an essential role in protecting the mRNA stability of UBE2CP3. In addition, transcription factor ELF3 was identified to be a direct repressor of lncRNA UBE2CP3 in GC. Taken together, overexpression of UBE2CP3 promotes tumor progression via cascade amplification of ITGA2 upregulation in GC. Our finding has revealed that the dysregulation of UBE2CP3 is probably due to the downregulation of ELF3 and/or the overexpression of IGFBP7 mRNA in GC. Our findings reveal, for the first time, that UBE2CP3 plays crucial a role in GC progression by modulating miR-138-5p/ITGA2 axis, suggesting that UBE2CP3 may serve as a potential therapeutic target in GC.

miRNA-194 predicts favorable prognosis in gastric cancer and inhibits gastric cancer cell growth by targeting CCND1.

MicroRNAs (MiRNAs) play critical roles in regulating target gene expression and multiple cellular processes in human cancer malignant progression. However, the function of miR-194 in gastric cancer (GC) remains unclear and controversial. In this study, we identified a series of miRNAs that can serve as prognostic biomarkers for GC by analysis of miRNA expression using The Cancer Genome Atlas data. Among them, miR-100, miR-125b, miR-199a, and miR-194 were the four most promising prognostic biomarkers in GC due to their significant associations with various clinical characteristics of patients. miR-100, miR-125b, and miR-199a predicted poor prognosis in GC, while miR-194 predicted favorable prognosis in GC. We also provide the first comprehensive transcriptome analysis of miR-194 in GC. Our data suggest that miR-194 tends to regulate target genes by binding to their 3' UTRs in a 7-mer-A1, 7-mer-m8, or 8-mer manner. KEGG pathway analysis showed that the cell cycle was one of the pathways most affected by miR-194 in GC. Moreover, CCND1 was shown to be a novel target gene of miR-194 in GC. Additionally, downregulation of CCND1 by miR-194 in GC further led to cell growth inhibition and cell cycle arrest. In conclusion, miR-100, miR-125b, miR-199a, and miR-194 may have potential as prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers for GC. miR-194 suppresses GC cell growth mainly through targeting CCND1 and induction of cell cycle arrest.

LncRNA MAGI2-AS3 Is Regulated by BRD4 and Promotes Gastric Cancer Progression via Maintaining ZEB1 Overexpression by Sponging miR-141/200a.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical roles in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. However, the biological function of most lncRNAs remains unknown in human gastric cancer. This study here aims to explore the unknown function of lncRNA MAGI2-AS3 in gastric cancer. First, bioinformatics analysis showed that lncRNA MAGI2-AS3 was overexpressed in gastric cancer tissues, and the overexpression of MAGI2-AS3 has been shown to be associated with poor prognosis in all three independent gastric cancer cohorts (The Cancer Genome Atlas stomach cancer [TCGA_STAD], GEO: GSE62254 and GSE15459). The multivariate analysis indicated that lncRNA MAGI2-AS3 was an independent prognostic factor for both overall survival and disease-free survival of gastric cancer patients. Moreover, MAGI2-AS3 was identified to be an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related lncRNA and was highly co-expressed with ZEB1/2 in both gastric cancer tissues and normal stomach tissues. Loss-of-function and gain-of-function studies showed that lncRNA MAGI2-AS3 could positively regulate ZEB1 expression and the process of cell migration and invasion in gastric cancer. Subcellular location assay showed that lncRNA MAGI2-AS3 was mainly located in the cytoplasm of gastric cancer cells. Bioinformatics analysis and functional experiments revealed that lncRNA MAGI2-AS3 was negatively correlated with miR-141/200a expression and negatively regulated miR-141/200a-3p expression in gastric cancer. Therefore, we speculate that lncRNA MAGI2-AS3 promotes tumor progression through sponging miR-141/200a and maintaining overexpression of ZEB1 in gastric cancer. Nevertheless, we identified that BRD4 is a transcriptional regulator of lncRNA MAGI2-AS3 in gastric cancer. Additionally, our findings highlight that lncRNA MAGI2-AS3 is an ideal biomarker and could be a potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer.

Effects of supplemental irrigation at the jointing stage on population dynamics, grain yield, and water-use efficiency of two different spike-type wheat cultivars.

To solve the problems of yield reduction and low water-use efficiency (WUE) of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) caused by winter and spring drought, a 2-year field experiment (2017-2019) was performed under movable shelter conditions with the large- and multispike cultivars Shannong 23 and 29, respectively, to explore the optimal supplemental irrigation regime. Three wetting layers were used for irrigation at the jointing stage: 0-10 cm (T2), 0-20 cm (T3) and 0-30 cm (T4). No irrigation at the jointing stage (T1) served as the control. Within a given cultivar, the soil water content in the 0-80 cm soil layers increased after irrigation, and the rate of tiller mortality decreased with increasing depth of the wetting layer used for irrigation at jointing. No significant differences were found between the T3 and T4 treatments in the photosynthetic rate (Pn) of the apical leaf of the main stem (O), the first primary tiller (I) and the fourth tiller (IV) after jointing. However, compared with the T3 treatment, the T4 treatment had a significantly higher transpiration rate (Tr) and lower instantaneous water-use efficiency (WUEleaf) of the apical leaf of the O and tillers I and IV. This eventually led to a decreasing WUE, although there was no significant change in the spike number or grain yield. These results indicated that moderate irrigation at jointing can effectively reduce the tiller mortality, improve the leaf Pn of the tillers, and increase the spike number and grain yield. However, excessive irrigation can significantly increase the leaf Tr of the tillers, lead to inefficient water consumption and significantly reduce the WUEleaf of the tillers and the WUE. Irrigation at the jointing stage brought the soil water content in the 0-20 cm profile to 100% of field capacity, making it the most suitable supplemental irrigation regime for both the large- and multispike cultivars in the North China Plain.

Understanding and predicting bed humidity in fluidized bed granulation.

Bed humidity is a critical parameter that needs to be controlled in a fluidized bed granulation to ensure reliability. To predict and control the bed humidity during the fluidized bed granulation process, a simple model based on the mass conservation of moisture was developed. The moisture mass balance model quantitatively simulates the effects of spray rate, binder solution concentration, airflow rate, inlet air temperature, and dew point on the bed humidity. The model was validated by a series of granulations performed in different scale granulators including Glatt GPCG-1, GPCG-15, and GPCG-60. Good agreement was observed between the theoretical prediction and the measured loss on drying (LOD). The model developed in the current work enables us to choose the appropriate parameters for the fluidized bed granulation and can be used as a valuable tool in process scaling-up.

Study growth kinetics in fluidized bed granulation with at-line FBRM.

In this study, a novel at-line focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM) technique was developed to investigate granule growth in a fluidized bed granulation (FBG). The chord length distribution (CLD) measured by the FBRM was used to represent granule particle size distribution (PSD). Through a systematic study, it was proved that the trends of the chord length measured by the at-line FBRM technique were identical to those measured by a laser diffraction instrument and sieve analysis in spite of different measurement mechanisms. The portable at-line FBRM technique was successfully applied to a granule growth kinetics study for a fluidized bed granulation performed in a Glatt GPCG-1 granulator. Granule size evolution was clearly exhibited by the at-line FBRM. Spray rate was found to be the most significant factor on the granule growth compared with the other two factors: binder solution concentration and intra- to extra-granular microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) ratio for the formulation studied in this work. The CLD evolution measured by the FBRM confirmed that the granule agglomeration was mainly dominated by the binder on the granule surface. The at-line FBRM enables us to select appropriate process parameters and effectively control the fluid bed granulation process.

Spectroelectrochemistry study on the electrochemical reduction of ethidium bromide.

The electrochemical reduction mechanism of ethidium bromide was first studied by spectroelectrochemistry. This reduction was proved to be a two-step process by cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry and spectroelectrochemistry, in which each step was proved to be a one-electron transfer process by a spectropotentiostatic fluorescence technique. Hydroethidine was confirmed to be the final product by comparing the spectrum of the product of the electrochemical reduction to that of the product of the chemical reduction of ethidium bromide, and a carbon-centered radical was concluded to be a reasonable intermediate product during the electrochemical reduction of ethidium bromide.