Effects of different Chinese traditional exercises on sleep quality and mental health of adults: systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of traditional Chinese exercises on sleep quality and mental health in adults with different health statuses. METHOD   : This review was registered a priori (CRD42023382188) and executed according to PRISMA statement guidelines. We searched the databases CNKI, China Biology Medicine disc (CBM), Wangfang, PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase from the date of database creation to March 2023. Two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted the data, evaluated the methodological quality of the included literature, and then used Revman 5.4 and Stata 17.0 for the corresponding statistical analysis and graphing. RESULTS: Thirty-four randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included, with a total sample of 2563 adults (1276 in the experimental group and 1287 in the control group). The meta-analysis results showed that traditional Chinese exercise significantly improved sleep quality in different groups [WMD = - 1.58, 95% CI = - 2.17, - 1.00, P < 0.00001] and that Badaanjin was better than Taijiquan in improving sleep quality. For mental health, traditional Chinese exercise had good effects on anxiety [WMD = - 1.66, 95% CI = - 2.64, - 0.69, P = 0.0009] and depression [WMD = - 1.67, 95% CI = - 3.23, - 0.11, P = 0.04]. CONCLUSION: Traditional Chinese exercises can improve the quality of sleep and mental health in different groups of people and are highly recommended for good health effects.

LncRNA SNHG12 regulated by WTAP aggravated the oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion-induced injury in bEnd.3 cell.

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have identified abnormal expression of lncRNA SNHG12 in ischemic stroke, but the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Through database predictions, m6A methylation sites were found on SNHG12, suggesting post-transcriptional modification. To further elucidate the role of SNHG12 and m6A methyltransferase WTAP in oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R)-induced damage in cerebral microvascular endothelial cells, we conducted investigations. Additionally, we examined the impact of m6A methyltransferase WTAP on SNHG12 expression. RESULTS: Overexpressing SNHG12 in bEnd.3 cells was found to inhibit cell proliferation and promote apoptosis, as well as activate the production of reactive oxygen species and inflammatory cytokines (E-selectin, IL-6 and MCP-1), along with angiogenic proteins (VEGFA and FGFb). Conversely, SNHG12 knockdown alleviated OGD/R-induced damage to BEnd.3 cells, resulting in improved cell proliferation, reduced apoptosis, decreased ROS and LDH production, as well as diminished expression of inflammatory cytokines (E-selectin, IL-6 and MCP-1) and angiogenic proteins (VEGFA and FGFb). Furthermore, WTAP was found to positively regulate SNHG12 expression, and WTAP knockdown in bEnd.3 cells under the OGD/R conditions inhibited cell proliferation, promoted apoptosis, and increased ROS and LDH production. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that WTAP may play a crucial role in SNHG12-mediated OGD/R-induced damage in bEnd.3 cells. More molecular experiments are needed to further analyze its mechanism. Overall, our study helps to enrich our understanding of the dysregulation of SNHG12 in ischemic stroke.

Reducing airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by an upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation system in a hospital isolation environment.

Upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) technology can potentially inhibit the transmission of airborne disease pathogens. There is a lack of quantitative evaluation of the performance of the upper-room UVGI for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) airborne transmission under the combined effects of ventilation and UV irradiation. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the performance of the upper-room UVGI system for reducing SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission in a hospital isolation environment. Computational fluid dynamics and virological data on SARS-CoV-2 were integrated to obtain virus aerosol exposure in the hospital isolation environment containing buffer rooms, wards and bathrooms. The UV inactivation model was applied to investigate the effects of ventilation rate, irradiation flux and irradiation height on the upper-room UVGI performance. The results showed that increasing ventilation rate from 8 to 16 air changes per hour (ACH) without UVGI obtained 54.32% and 45.63% virus reduction in the wards and bathrooms, respectively. However, the upper-room UVGI could achieve 90.43% and 99.09% virus disinfection, respectively, with the ventilation rate of 8 ACH and the irradiation flux of 10 µW cm-2. Higher percentage of virus could be inactivated by the upper-room UVGI at a lower ventilation rate; the rate of improvement of UVGI elimination effect slowed down with the increase of irradiation flux. Increase irradiation height at lower ventilation rate was more effective in improving the UVGI performance than the increase in irradiation flux at smaller irradiation height. These results could provide theoretical support for the practical application of UVGI in hospital isolation environments.

Number of positive lymph nodes combined with the logarithmic ratio of positive lymph nodes predicts long-term survival for patients with node-positive parotid gland carcinoma after surgery: a SEER population-based study.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the prognostic value of the number of positive lymph nodes (NPLN), the ratio of positive lymph nodes (pLNR), and the logarithmic ratio of positive lymph nodes (LODDS) in patients with parotid gland carcinoma. On this basis, establishing and validating an optimal nomogram. METHODS: A total of 895 patients with T1-4N1-3M0 parotid gland carcinoma were included in our study from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Patients' data were randomly assigned to the training cohort and the validation cohort by a ratio of 7:3. Univariate and multivariate COX regression analysis were used to explore the relationship between the study factors and the prognosis of parotid gland carcinoma, including overall survival (OS) and cause-specific survival (CSS). The Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) was used to evaluate model fit. Harrell's concordance index (C-index), integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), and net reclassification index (NRI) were used to evaluate the predictive ability of these models. The decision curve analysis was used to evaluate the clinical benefit of the nomograms compared with the TNM stage. RESULTS: NPLN, pLNR, and LODDS are independent risk factors for the prognostic of PGC. According to the AIC, C index, IDI, and NRI, the models combined with NPLN and LODDS were the best. The decision curves suggested that our nomograms had good predictive abilities for the prognosis of parotid gland carcinoma. CONCLUSION: The two nomograms which contained NPLN and LODDS had the potential to predict OS and CSS in patients with parotid gland carcinoma.

Between-Class Adversarial Training for Improving Adversarial Robustness of Image Classification.

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have been known to be vulnerable to adversarial attacks. Adversarial training (AT) is, so far, the only method that can guarantee the robustness of DNNs to adversarial attacks. However, the robustness generalization accuracy gain of AT is still far lower than the standard generalization accuracy of an undefended model, and there is known to be a trade-off between the standard generalization accuracy and the robustness generalization accuracy of an adversarially trained model. In order to improve the robustness generalization and the standard generalization performance trade-off of AT, we propose a novel defense algorithm called Between-Class Adversarial Training (BCAT) that combines Between-Class learning (BC-learning) with standard AT. Specifically, BCAT mixes two adversarial examples from different classes and uses the mixed between-class adversarial examples to train a model instead of original adversarial examples during AT. We further propose BCAT+ which adopts a more powerful mixing method. BCAT and BCAT+ impose effective regularization on the feature distribution of adversarial examples to enlarge between-class distance, thus improving the robustness generalization and the standard generalization performance of AT. The proposed algorithms do not introduce any hyperparameters into standard AT; therefore, the process of hyperparameters searching can be avoided. We evaluate the proposed algorithms under both white-box attacks and black-box attacks using a spectrum of perturbation values on CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, and SVHN datasets. The research findings indicate that our algorithms achieve better global robustness generalization performance than the state-of-the-art adversarial defense methods.

Human Endogenous Retrovirus, SARS-CoV-2, and HIV Promote PAH via Inflammation and Growth Stimulation.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a pulmonary vascular disease characterized by the progressive elevation of pulmonary arterial pressures. It is becoming increasingly apparent that inflammation contributes to the pathogenesis and progression of PAH. Several viruses are known to cause PAH, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), human endogenous retrovirus K(HERV-K), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), in part due to acute and chronic inflammation. In this review, we discuss the connections between HERV-K, HIV, SARS-CoV-2, and PAH, to stimulate research regarding new therapeutic options and provide new targets for the treatment of the disease.

Surgical management of broad-based sessile vocal cord polyps: Transnasal vocal fold polypectomy versus microlaryngoscopic surgery: Our experience in 159 cases.

OBJECTIVES: In this study, we retrospectively reviewed and compared the treatment outcomes and complications of office transnasal vocal fold polypectomy (TVFP) with those of microplarygoscopic surgery (MLS) for different clinical and histopathological features of broad-based sessile vocal fold polyps. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 159 consecutive patients with broad-based sessile vocal fold polyps treated by TVFP or MLS. The differences in efficacy and complication between these two surgical techniques were compared according to the different types of vocal fold polyps. RESULTS: Satisfactory outcomes of both TVFP and MLS treatments were reported in patients with oedematous, gelatinous and vascular types of vocal fold polyps (p > .05). The efficacy of TVFP was slightly worse than MLS in fibrous polyps group (p < .05). The TVFP-treated patients did not exhibit obvious complications, whereas several MLS-treated patients had suffered different complications. CONCLUSION: The therapeutic effects of both TVFP and MLS on the treatment of broad-based sessile vocal cord polyps are related to their clinical characteristics and histological types. Satisfactory outcomes are achieved in oedematous, gelatinous, and vascular types of polyps after either surgical procedure. TVFP has fewer surgical complications than MLS which can be a preferred option for the treatment of broad-based sessile vocal cord polyps at outpatient setting. TVFP also can be an alternative surgery option for patients who could not tolerate general anaesthesia or laryngeal suspension. In contrast, MLS has proven to be a particularly advantageous treatment in patients who have fibrous type of polyps.

Transoral CO2 laser-modified posterior cordotomy combined with plasma ablation subtotal arytenoidectomy for bilateral vocal fold paralysis: A retrospective study.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of transoral CO2 laser-modified posterior cordotomy combined with plasma ablation subtotal arytenoidectomy for bilateral vocal fold paralysis (BVFP). DESIGN: A retrospective study with medical records from 2017 to 2021 in our hospital. SETTING: A single-centre study. PARTICIPANTS: This retrospective study included 22 patients with BVFP. They underwent transoral CO2 laser-modified posterior cordotomy combined with plasma ablation subtotal arytenoidectomy in our hospital from 2017 to 2021. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Preoperative and postoperative swallowing and phonation functions were evaluated in all patients. RESULTS: All 22 patients with a tracheostomy were successfully decannulated within 6 months after surgery without subsequent revision operations, and the width of the posterior glottis was more than 3.9 mm in all patients when they inspired. The statistical analysis showed that there was no difference in vocal function and swallowing function in all patients compared to preoperative (p > .05). CONCLUSION: Transoral CO2 laser-modified posterior cordotomy combined with plasma ablation subtotal arytenoidectomy enlarges the posterior glottis in patients with BVFP, which maintains airway patency without significant worsening in voice and swallowing function.

A Novel Compute-and-Forward Relaying Method for Multi-Antenna Wireless Relay Networks.

Compute-and-Forward (CoF) is an innovative physical layer network coding strategy, designed to enable receivers in wireless communications to effectively utilize interference. The key idea of CoF is to implement integer combinations based on the codewords from multiple transmitters, rather than decoding individual source codewords. Although CoF is widely used in wireless relay networks, there are still some problems to be solved, such as rank failure, single antenna reception, and the shortest vector problem. In this paper, we introduce a successive extended CoF (SECoF) as a pioneering solution tailored for multi-source, multi-relay, and multi-antenna wireless relay networks. First, we analyze the traditional CoF, and design a SECoF method combining the concepts of matrix projection and successive interference cancellation, which overcomes the problem of CoF rate tending to zero and rank failure and improves the network performance. Secondly, we obtain an approximate solution to the integer-value coefficient vectors by using the LLL lattice-based resolution algorithm. In addition, we deduce the corresponding concise formulas of SECoF. Simulation results show that the SECoF has strong robustness and the approaches outperform the state-of-the-art methods in terms of computation rate, rank failure probability, and outage probability.

Exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides and their characteristic metabolites: Association with human liver cancer.

Neonicotinoid insecticides (NEOs) are commonly applied for pest control in China and around the world. Previous studies reported that NEOs are hepatotoxic to mammals. However, limited studies have explored the associations between NEOs exposure and liver disease. In the present study, we detected six parent NEOs (p-NEOs), including acetamiprid, thiacloprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam, and five characteristic metabolites (m-NEOs), including 5-hydroxy-imidacloprid, olefin-imidacloprid, N-desmethyl-acetamiprid, 1-methyl-3-(tetrahydro-3-furylmethyl) guanidine and 1-methyl-3-(tetrahydro-3-furyl methyl) urea, in blood samples collected from healthy donors (n = 100; females vs. males: 45 vs. 55; age: 22-91 years) and liver cancer patients (n = 274; females vs. males: 118 vs. 156; age: 11-88 years) in one hospital from Guangzhou city, South China. NEOs were frequently detected (61%-94%) in blood samples, with median concentrations ranging from 0.19 ng/mL to 1.28 ng/mL and 0.20 ng/mL to 2.03 ng/mL for healthy and liver cancer populations, respectively. olefin-imidacloprid was the most abundant NEOs in healthy and liver cancer populations, accounting for 23.4% and 20.7%, respectively. Significant positive correlations among most m-NEOs concentrations were found, and associations between m-NEOs and their corresponding p-NEOs were positively correlated. These findings indicated that the sources of m-NEOs were both endogenous and exogeneous. Females had higher median concentrations of NEOs and their metabolites than males. Moreover, the α-fetoprotein values and blood concentrations of target analytes (r = 0.428-0.601, p < 0.05) were positively correlated. Meanwhile, associations between the concentrations of p-NEOs and m-NEOs and liver cancer were found (odds ratio = 2.33-9.02, 95% confidence interval = 0.31-22.7, p < 0.05), indicating that human exposure to NEOs and their metabolites might increase the odds of liver cancer prevalence. Our work provided a new insight into the hepatotoxicity of NEOs and their metabolites, and human health risks of exposure to these pollutants warranted further studies.

Serum concentrations of neonicotinoids and their characteristic metabolites in elderly population from South China: Association with osteoporosis.

Neonicotinoids (NEOs) are extensively applied in global agricultural production for pest control but have adverse effects on human health. In this study, the concentrations of six NEOs and three characteristic metabolites were investigated by collecting 200 serum samples from an elderly population in China. Results showed that the NEOs and their metabolites were widely detected (89%-98 %) in the serum samples from the osteoporosis (OP) (n = 120) and non-OP (n = 80) population, and their median concentrations ranged from 0.04 ng/mL to 5.99 ng/mL and 0.01 ng/mL to 2.02 ng/mL, respectively. N-desmethyl-acetamiprid (ACE-dm) was the most abundant NEOs in the serum samples. Gender-related differences were found in concentrations of most NEOs and their metabolites in serum, with males having higher target analytes than females. Significantly (p < 0.05) positive correlations were observed among most NEO concentrations, suggesting that exposure source of these substances is common or related. However, associations between the concentrations of characteristic metabolites and their corresponding NEOs were insignificant, probably because the exogenous intake are the primary sources of metabolites of NEOs instead of the internal biotransformation. The associations between NEO concentrations (i.e., ACE-dm, dinotefuran, and olefin-imidacloprid) and OP (OR = 2.33-6.92, 95 % CI = 0.37-16.9, p-trend < 0.05) indicate that NEO exposure is correlated with increased odds of prevalent OP. This study is the first to document the profiles of NEOs and their metabolites in serum samples collected from an elderly population in South China and examine the relationships between NEO exposure and OP.

A Robust and Low Computational Cost Pitch Estimation Method.

Pitch estimation is widely used in speech and audio signal processing. However, the current methods of modeling harmonic structure used for pitch estimation cannot always match the harmonic distribution of actual signals. Due to the structure of vocal tract, the acoustic nature of musical equipment, and the spectrum leakage issue, speech and audio signals' harmonic frequencies often slightly deviate from the integer multiple of the pitch. This paper starts with the summation of residual harmonics (SRH) method and makes two main modifications. First, the spectral peak position constraint of strict integer multiple is modified to allow slight deviation, which benefits capturing harmonics. Second, a main pitch segment extension scheme with low computational cost feature is proposed to utilize the smooth prior of pitch more efficiently. Besides, the pitch segment extension scheme is also integrated into the SRH method's voiced/unvoiced decision to reduce short-term errors. Accuracy comparison experiments with ten pitch estimation methods show that the proposed method has better overall accuracy and robustness. Time cost experiments show that the time cost of the proposed method reduces to around 1/8 of the state-of-the-art fast NLS method on the experimental computer.

Automatic Speech Recognition Performance Improvement for Mandarin Based on Optimizing Gain Control Strategy.

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is an essential technique of human-computer interactions; gain control is a commonly used operation in ASR. However, inappropriate gain control strategies can lead to an increase in the word error rate (WER) of ASR. As there is a current lack of sufficient theoretical analyses and proof of the relationship between gain control and WER, various unconstrained gain control strategies have been adopted on realistic ASR systems, and the optimal gain control with respect to the lowest WER, is rarely achieved. A gain control strategy named maximized original signal transmission (MOST) is proposed in this study to minimize the adverse impact of gain control on ASR systems. First, by modeling the gain control strategy, the quantitative relationship between the gain control strategy and the ASR performance was established using the noise figure index. Second, through an analysis of the quantitative relationship, an optimal MOST gain control strategy with minimal performance degradation was theoretically deduced. Finally, comprehensive comparative experiments on a Mandarin dataset show that the proposed MOST gain control strategy can significantly reduce the WER of the experimental ASR system, with a 10% mean absolute WER reduction at -9 dB gain.

Disruption of rat deep cerebellar perineuronal net alters eyeblink conditioning and neuronal electrophysiology.

The perineuronal net (PNN) is a specialized type of extracellular matrix found in the central nervous system. The PNN forms on fast spiking neurons during postnatal development but the ontogeny of PNN development has yet to be elucidated. By studying the development and prevalence of the PNN in the juvenile and adult rat brain, we may be able to understand the PNN's role in development and learning and memory. We show that the PNN is fully developed in the deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN) of rats by P18. By using enzymatic digestion of the PNN with chondroitinase ABC (ChABC), we are able to study how digestion of the PNN affects cerebellar-dependent eyeblink conditioning in vivo and perform electrophysiological recordings from DCN neurons in vitro. In vivo degradation of the PNN resulted in significant differences in eyeblink conditioning amplitude and area. Female animals in the vehicle group demonstrated higher levels of conditioning as well as significantly higher post-probe conditioned responses compared to males in that group, differences not present in the ChABC group. In vitro, we found that DCN neurons with a disrupted PNN following exposure to ChABC had altered membrane properties, fewer rebound spikes, and decreased intrinsic excitability. Together, this study further elucidates the role of the PNN in cerebellar learning in the DCN and is the first to demonstrate PNN degradation may erase sex differences in delay conditioning.

Occurrence and distribution of neonicotinoids and characteristic metabolites in paired urine and indoor dust from young adults: Implications for human exposure.

Neonicotinoid insecticides (NEOs) are widely used for pest control worldwide. The profile of NEOs in paired urine and indoor dust has not yet been reported in China. In this study, 40 paired samples (i.e., 160 urine and 40 indoor dust) were collected from university students and dormitories from Guangzhou City of China to measure the concentrations of six NEOs and their three metabolites. Target analytes were frequently detected in paired urine (81%-98%) and indoor dust (75%-95%) samples, with median concentrations ranging from 0.02 [specific gravity (SG) adjusted: 0.02] to 2.08 (SG-adjusted: 2.38) ng/mL in urine and from 0.05 to 2.74 ng/g in indoor dust. 5-Hydroxy-imidacloprid was predominant in urine, while N-desmethyl acetamiprid was predominant in indoor dust samples, accounting for 56% and 37%, respectively. 1-Methyl-3-(tetrahydro-3-furylmethyl) urea, a dinotefuran degradate, was measured for the first time in indoor dust, with the median level of 1.02 ng/g. Significant gender-related differences (p < 0.05) in the urinary concentrations of most NEOs were found. We calculated the estimated daily intake (EDI) of target compounds from urine and indoor measurements. The EDIs of target analytes varied among all urine and indoor dust samples, with median values ranging from 0.51 (SG-adjusted: 0.56) to 51.6 (SG-adjusted: 52.8) ng/kg bw/day and from 0.04 to 2.10 pg/kg bw/day, respectively. Moreover, the median EDIsurine of most target analytes in females were significantly higher than (p < 0.05) those in males. The median EDIsdust of target compounds in dust from female dormitories were slightly higher than that in dust from male dormitories. These findings indicated that females were more exposed to NEO than males. Thus, the potential health risks of exposure to NEOs and their metabolites in female adults should be addressed in future studies. To our knowledge, this study is the first to report the profiles of NEOs and their metabolites in paired urine and indoor dust samples from young adults in China.

Experimental study on the effect of defect curvature on the impact fracture behavior of structures using the real-virtual caustics method.

Defects have significant influence on the impact fracture behavior of structures. In this paper, the real-virtual caustics method is used to study the impact fracture behavior of structures with elliptical arc defects under impact loading of the drop hammer, and the impact loading process is simultaneously analyzed. The research results show that impact loading of the drop hammer in this experiment is a multi-period dynamic loading process, and the fracture of specimens under impact loading of the drop hammer is an energy-controlled process. The running crack initiates under impact loading and propagates toward the elliptical arc defect. After reaching the end of the elliptical arc defect, the running crack arrests and accumulates energy, and then it initiates again and propagates toward the loading position. The greater the end curvature of the elliptical arc defect, the shorter the time for the running crack to stagnate and accumulate energy at the defect end, and the earlier the time for the running crack to initiate again at the defect end, the smaller the impact loading stress of the drop hammer and the dynamic stress intensity factor of running crack tip when the running crack initiates again at the defect end.

Changes in membrane properties of rat deep cerebellar nuclear projection neurons during acquisition of eyeblink conditioning.

Previous studies have shown changes in membrane properties of neurons in rat deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN) as a function of development, but due to technical difficulties in obtaining viable DCN slices from adult animals, it remains unclear whether there are learning-related alterations in the membrane properties of DCN neurons in adult rats. This study was designed to record from identified DCN cells in cerebellar slices from postnatal day 25-26 (P25-26) rats that had a relatively mature sensory nervous system and were able to acquire learning as a result of tone-shock eyeblink conditioning (EBC) and to document resulting changes in electrophysiological properties. After electromyographic electrode implantation at P21 and inoculation with a fluorescent pseudorabies virus (PRV-152) at P22-23, rats received either four sessions of paired delay EBC or unpaired stimulus presentations with a tone conditioned stimulus and a shock unconditioned stimulus or sat in the training chamber without stimulus presentations. Compared with rats given unpaired stimuli or no stimulus presentations, rats given paired EBC showed an increase in conditioned responses across sessions. Whole-cell recordings of both fluorescent and nonfluorescent DCN projection neurons showed that delay EBC induced significant changes in membrane properties of evoked DCN action potentials including a reduced after-hyperpolarization amplitude and shortened latency. Similar findings were obtained in hyperpolarization-induced rebound spikes of DCN neurons. In sum, delay EBC produced significant changes in the membrane properties of juvenile rat DCN projection neurons. These learning-specific changes in DCN excitability have not previously been reported in any species or task.

Prognostic nomogram based on immune scores for laryngeal squamous cell cancer.

PURPOSE: Immune scores have been used as a prognostic factor for various types of cancer. However, the association between immune scores and the prognosis of laryngeal squamous cell cancer (LSCC) has not yet been investigated. This study aimed to explore the prognostic significance of immune scores and construct a clinical nomogram to predict the survival of patients with LSCC. METHODS: The clinicopathological characteristics and immune scores of 102 patients with LSCC were obtained from TCGA database and a nomogram was developed. C-index and calibration curves were applied to assess the performance of the model. RESULTS: Patients with higher immune scores had significantly better overall survival (OS). The prognostic nomogram presented a good performance in survival prediction. CONCLUSIONS: High immune scores are correlated with improved OS in patients with LSCC. In addition, the nomogram developed for this study may assist clinicians in the prognostic evaluation of patients with LSCC.

Adversarial Gaussian Denoiser for Multiple-Level Image Denoising.

Image denoising is a challenging task that is essential in numerous computer vision and image processing problems. This study proposes and applies a generative adversarial network-based image denoising training architecture to multiple-level Gaussian image denoising tasks. Convolutional neural network-based denoising approaches come across a blurriness issue that produces denoised images blurry on texture details. To resolve the blurriness issue, we first performed a theoretical study of the cause of the problem. Subsequently, we proposed an adversarial Gaussian denoiser network, which uses the generative adversarial network-based adversarial learning process for image denoising tasks. This framework resolves the blurriness problem by encouraging the denoiser network to find the distribution of sharp noise-free images instead of blurry images. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework can effectively resolve the blurriness problem and achieve significant denoising efficiency than the state-of-the-art denoising methods.

Identification of core biomarkers associated with pathogenesis and prognostic outcomes of laryngeal squamous-cell cancer using bioinformatics analysis.

PURPOSE: Despite advances in the treatment of laryngeal squamous-cell carcinoma (LSCC), the survival rate of LSCC remains poor. Thereby, it is urgent to identify novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for LSCC. The study aimed to identify potential core genes associated with the pathogenesis and prognosis of LSCC. METHODS: Differentially expressed genes between LSCC and normal laryngeal tissue samples were screened by an integrated analysis of data from GEO and TCGA databases. Core genes related to the pathogenesis and prognosis of LSCC were identified by employing protein-protein interaction network and Cox proportional hazards model analyses. RESULTS: Ten hub genes (AURKA, AURKB, CDC45, KIF2C, NDC80, EXO1, TYMS, RAD51AP1, ITGA3, and UBE2T) that might be highly related to the pathogenesis of LSCC were identified. An eight-gene prognostic signature consisted of ZG16B, STATH, RTN4R, MSRA, CBX8, SLC5A1, EFNB1 and CNTFR was constructed with a good performance in predicting overall survivals. CONCLUSION: Our findings might shed some new light on the pathogenesis of LSCC and help identify new therapeutic targets of LSCC.