Measuring the Boundary Gapless State and Criticality via Disorder Operator.

The disorder operator is often designed to reveal the conformal field theory (CFT) information in quantum many-body systems. By using large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulation, we study the scaling behavior of disorder operators on the boundary in the two-dimensional Heisenberg model on the square-octagon lattice with gapless topological edge state. In the Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki phase, the disorder operator is shown to hold the perimeter scaling with a logarithmic term associated with the Luttinger liquid parameter K. This effective Luttinger liquid parameter K reflects the low-energy physics and CFT for (1+1)D boundary. At bulk critical point, the effective K is suppressed but it keeps finite value, indicating the coupling between the gapless edge state and bulk fluctuation. The logarithmic term numerically captures this coupling picture, which reveals the (1+1)D SU(2)_{1} CFT and (2+1)D O(3) CFT at boundary criticality. Our Letter paves a new way to study the exotic boundary state and boundary criticality.

Stratified control of chemical crystallization in a pellet fluidized bed for pH-Adjusted fluoride and phosphate reduction: An experimental study.

Chemical crystallization granulation in a fluidized bed offers an environmentally friendly technology with significant promise for fluoride removal. This study investigates the impact of stratified pH control in a crystallization granulation fluidized bed for the removal of fluoride and phosphate on a pilot scale. The results indicate that using dolomite as a seed crystal, employing sodium dihydrogen phosphate (SDP) and calcium chloride as crystallizing agents, and controlling the molar ratio n(F):n(P):n(Ca) = 1:5:10 with an upflow velocity of 7.52 m/h, effectively removes fluoride and phosphate. Stratified pH control-maintaining weakly acidic conditions (pH = 6-7) at the bottom and weakly alkaline conditions (pH = 7-8) at the top-facilitates the induction of fluoroapatite (FAP) and calcium phosphate crystallization. This approach reduces groundwater fluoride levels from 9.5 mg/L to 0.2-0.6 mg/L and phosphate levels to 0.1-0.2 mg/L. Particle size analysis, scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction physical characterizations reveal significant differences in crystal morphology between the top and bottom layers, with the lower layer primarily generating high-purity FAP crystals. Further analysis shows that dolomite-induced FAP crystallization offers distinct advantages. SDP not only dissolves on the dolomite surface to provide active sites for crystallization but also, under weakly acidic conditions, renders both dolomite and FAP surfaces negatively charged. This allows for the effective adsorption of PO43-, HPO42-, and F- anions onto the crystal surfaces. This study provides supporting data for the removal of fluoride from groundwater through induced FAP crystallization in a chemical crystallization pellet fluidized bed.

Comparison of genes involved in brain development: insights into the organization and evolution of the telencephalic pallium.

The mechanisms underlying the organization and evolution of the telencephalic pallium are not yet clear.. To address this issue, we first performed comparative analysis of genes critical for the development of the pallium (Emx1/2 and Pax6) and subpallium (Dlx2 and Nkx1/2) among 500 vertebrate species. We found that these genes have no obvious variations in chromosomal duplication/loss, gene locus synteny or Darwinian selection. However, there is an additional fragment of approximately 20 amino acids in mammalian Emx1 and a poly-(Ala)6-7 in Emx2. Lentiviruses expressing mouse or chick Emx2 (m-Emx2 or c-Emx2 Lv) were injected into the ventricle of the chick telencephalon at embryonic Day 3 (E3), and the embryos were allowed to develop to E12-14 or to posthatchling. After transfection with m-Emx2 Lv, the cells expressing Reelin, Vimentin or GABA increased, and neurogenesis of calbindin cells changed towards the mammalian inside-out pattern in the dorsal pallium and mesopallium. In addition, a behavior test for posthatched chicks indicated that the passive avoidance ratio increased significantly. The study suggests that the acquisition of an additional fragment in mammalian Emx2 is associated with the organization and evolution of the mammalian pallium.

Cuproptosis: Mechanism, role, and advances in urological malignancies.

Prostate, bladder, and kidney cancers are the most common malignancies of the urinary system. Chemotherapeutic drugs are generally used as adjuvant treatment in the middle, late, or recurrence stages after surgery for urologic cancers. However, traditional chemotherapy is plagued by problems such as poor efficacy, severe side effects, and complications. Copper-containing nanomedicines are promising novel cancer treatment modalities that can potentially overcome these disadvantages. Copper homeostasis and cuproptosis play crucial roles in the development, adaptability, and therapeutic sensitivity of urological malignancies. Cuproptosis refers to the direct binding of copper ions to lipoylated components of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, leading to protein oligomerization, loss of iron-sulfur proteins, proteotoxic stress, and cell death. This review focuses on copper homeostasis and cuproptosis as well as recent findings on copper and cuproptosis in urological malignancies. Furthermore, we highlight the potential therapeutic applications of copper- and cuproptosis-targeted therapies to better understand cuproptosis-based drugs for the treatment of urological tumors in the future.

Knockdown of KIF15 suppresses proliferation of prostate cancer cells and induces apoptosis through PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common malignancies in men, which has been considered a public health threat. KIF15 is a kind of driver protein, and its abnormal expression is closely related to the occurrence and development of malignant tumors. The purpose of the study was to explore the significance and role of KIF15 in prostate cancer and to show some potential value for prostate cancer. Immunohistochemistry analysis showed that KIF15 was highly expressed in prostate cancer tissues, which was also positively correlated with T Infiltrate. The loss-of-function and gain-of-function assays based on prostate cancer cells indicated that the change in KIF15 expression could significantly affect cell proliferation, tumorigenesis, migration, and cell apoptosis. The inhibition of prostate cancer development by KIF15 knockdown was also assured in vivo. The Human Apoptosis Antibody Array showed that CD40L, cytoC, DR6, and p21 were up-regulated upon KIF15 knockdown, while IGF-I and Survivin were down-regulated. Moreover, the involvement of the PI3K/Akt pathway in the KIF15-mediated regulation of prostate cancer was preliminarily proved. In summary, KIF15 was identified to play an important role in the development or biological progress of prostate cancer and is considered to possess the potential to be used as a therapeutic target.

Outcome comparison of radical prostatectomy versus seed brachytherapy for clinically localized prostate cancer using two biochemical recurrence definitions.

OBJECTIVE: We compared the outcome of radical prostatectomy (RP) with seed brachytherapy (BT) in clinically localized prostate cancer (LPCa) using two different biochemical recurrence (BCR) definitions. METHODS: Clinical data of 1117 patients with non-metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) treated with either RP or BT as the basis of the multimodal therapy from a single tertiary hospital between 2007 and 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. 843 LPCa patients (RP = 737, BT = 106) with at least one prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test after treatment were finally included. The BCR survival was evaluated by direct comparison and one-to-one propensity score matching (PSM) analysis using surgical definition (PSA ≥ 0.2ng/ml) for RP and surgical/Phoenix definition (PSA nadir + 2ng/ml ) for BT. The propensity score (PS) was calculated by multivariable logistic regression based on the clinicopathological parameters. RESULTS: Median follow-up was 43 months for RP patients and 45 months for BT patients. Kaplan-Meier analysis did not show any statistically significant differences in terms of BCR-free survival (BFS) between the two groups when using Phoenix definition for BT (P > 0.05). Similar results were obtained in all D'Amico risk groups when stratified analyses were conducted. However, RP achieved improved BFS compared to BT in the whole cohort and all risk groups with the surgical definition for BT(P < 0.05). After adjusting PS, 192 patients were divided into RP and BT groups (96 each). RP presented a better BFS than BT when using the surgical definition (P < 0.001), but no significant difference was found when using the Phoenix definition (P = 0.609). CONCLUSION: Inconsistent BCR-free survival outcomes were acquired using two different BCR definitions for BT patients. RP provided comparable BFS with BT using the Phoenix definition but better BFS using the surgical definition, regardless of whether the PSM was performed. Our findings indicated that an exact BCR definition was critical for prognostic assessment. The corresponding results will assist physicians in pretreatment consultation and treatment selection.

MRI-derived radiomics models for diagnosis, aggressiveness, and prognosis evaluation in prostate cancer. / MRIç›¸å ³å½±åƒç»„å­¦æ¨¡åž‹ç”¨äºŽå‰åˆ—è ºç™Œè¯Šæ–­ã€ä¾µè¢­æ€§å’Œé¢„åŽè¯„ä¼°.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a pernicious tumor with high heterogeneity, which creates a conundrum for making a precise diagnosis and choosing an optimal treatment approach. Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mp-MRI) with anatomical and functional sequences has evolved as a routine and significant paradigm for the detection and characterization of PCa. Moreover, using radiomics to extract quantitative data has emerged as a promising field due to the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and image data processing. Radiomics acquires novel imaging biomarkers by extracting imaging signatures and establishes models for precise evaluation. Radiomics models provide a reliable and noninvasive alternative to aid in precision medicine, demonstrating advantages over traditional models based on clinicopathological parameters. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of related studies of radiomics in PCa, specifically around the development and validation of radiomics models using MRI-derived image features. The current landscape of the literature, focusing mainly on PCa detection, aggressiveness, and prognosis evaluation, is reviewed and summarized. Rather than studies that exclusively focus on image biomarker identification and method optimization, models with high potential for universal clinical implementation are identified. Furthermore, we delve deeper into the critical concerns that can be addressed by different models and the obstacles that may arise in a clinical scenario. This review will encourage researchers to design models based on actual clinical needs, as well as assist urologists in gaining a better understanding of the promising results yielded by radiomics.

MRI-Derived Radiomics Model to Predict the Biochemical Recurrence of Prostate Cancer Following Seed Brachytherapy.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the predictive value of imaging features derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and develop a radiomics model predicting the biochemical recurrence-free survival (BFS) in prostate cancer (PCa) patients treated with seed brachytherapy (seed-BT). METHODS: The data of 272 patients with PCa treated with seed-BT at Peking University Third Hospital from 2007 to 2019 was retrospectively investigated. Based on the eligibility criteria, 83 patients were finally included in our study. The cohort was divided into two groups in a ratio of 8:2 (training set: n = 67, test set: n = 16). The Cox survival model combined with the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) algorithm was applied to select the radiomics features from T2WI of pretreatment MRI. A radiomics model with selected features was established to predict the BFS. RESULTS: Nineteen patients experienced biochemical recurrence (BCR) during a median follow-up period of 46 months. Three features with non-zero coefficients were selected from 1598 features and used to construct a radiomics model for BCR prediction. The model accurately predicted the BCR in both the training and test groups, for which the concordance index (C-index) were 0.83 and 0.78, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of the test set was conducted to assess the prediction accuracy. The model achieved a high area under the operator curve (AUC) performance for BCR prediction in the test cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed the considerable potential of a radiomics model based on MRI-derived imaging features in BCR prediction of PCa patients after seed-BT. Radiomics provides a new perspective to clinicians assessing the outcome of radiotherapy, facilitating accurate prognostic evaluation and preoperative consultation for PCa patients followed by seed-BT.

MRI-derived tumor volume as a predictor of biochemical recurrence and adverse pathology in patients after radical prostatectomy: a propensity score matching study.

PURPOSE: To investigate the predictive value of MRI-derived tumor volume (TV) of biochemical recurrence (BCR) and adverse pathology (AP) in patients following radical prostatectomy (RP). METHODS: The data of 565 patients receiving RP in a single institution between 2010 and 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. All suspicious tumor foci were delineated manually using ITK-SNAP software as the regions of interest (ROIs). The sum of the TV of all lesions was calculated automatically based on the voxel in the ROIs to acquire the final TV parameter. TV was categorized as low-volume (≤ 6.5 cm3) and high-volume (> 6.5 cm3) based on the cut-off value. Univariate and multivariate Cox and logistic regression analyses were performed to identify independent predictors of BCR and AP. The Kaplan-Meier with the log-rank test was conducted to compare the BCR-free survival (BFS) between the low and high-volume groups. RESULTS: All the included patients were divided into the low-volume group (n = 337) and the high-volume group (n = 228). The TV was an independent predictor of BFS in the multivariate Cox regression analysis (Hazard Ratio (HR) [95% CI]: 1.550 [1.066-2.256], P = 0.022). The Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that low volume was associated with a better BFS than high volume before propensity score matching (PSM) (P < 0.001). One hundred and fifty-eight pairs were obtained by 1:1 PSM to balance the baseline parameters between the two groups. After the PSM, low-volume remained to be associated with a better BFS than high-volume (P = 0.006). TV as a categorical variable was an independent factor of AP in multivariate logistic regression analysis (Odd ratio (OR) [95% CI]: 1.821 [1.064-3.115], P = 0.029). After balancing the potential factors influencing AP by 1:1 PSM, 162 new pairs were identified. The high-volume group had a higher AP rate than the low-volume group after PSM (75.9 vs. 64.8%, P = 0.029). CONCLUSION: We adopted a novel approach to acquiring the TV on preoperative MRI. TV was significantly associated with BFS and AP of patients undergoing RP, which was further illustrated by PSM analysis. MRI-derived TV may serve as a predictive marker for assessing BFS and AP in further studies, which will facilitate clinical decision-making and patient counseling.

Development of Prognostic Biomarkers by TMB-Guided WSI Analysis: A Two-Step Approach.

The rapid development of computational pathology has brought new opportunities for prognosis prediction using histopathological images. However, the existing deep learning frameworks lack exploration of the relationship between images and other prognostic information, resulting in poor interpretability. Tumor mutation burden (TMB) is a promising biomarker for predicting the survival outcomes of cancer patients, but its measurement is costly. Its heterogeneity may be reflected in histopathological images. Here, we report a two-step framework for prognostic prediction using whole-slide images (WSIs). First, the framework adopts a deep residual network to encode the phenotype of WSIs and classifies patient-level TMB by the deep features after aggregation and dimensionality reduction. Then, the patients' prognosis is stratified by the TMB-related information obtained during the classification model development. Deep learning feature extraction and TMB classification model construction are performed on an in-house dataset of 295 Haematoxylin & Eosin stained WSIs of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). The development and evaluation of prognostic biomarkers are performed on The Cancer Genome Atlas-Kidney ccRCC (TCGA-KIRC) project with 304 WSIs. Our framework achieves good performance for TMB classification with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.813 on the validation set. Through survival analysis, our proposed prognostic biomarkers can achieve significant stratification of patients' overall survival (P 0.05) and outperform the original TMB signature in risk stratification of patients with advanced disease. The results indicate the feasibility of mining TMB-related information from WSI to achieve stepwise prognosis prediction.

Metabolic syndrome and its components predict the biochemical recurrence and adverse pathological features of patients following radical prostatectomy: a propensity score matching study.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the predictive value of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components in biochemical recurrence (BCR) and adverse pathological features of patients with prostate cancer (PCa) after radical prostatectomy (RP). METHODS: A total of 525 PCa patients who underwent RP between 2010 and 2019 at Peking University Third Hospital were analyzed retrospectively. The Kaplan-Meier method was performed to assess BCR-free survival (BCRFS). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression models and multivariate logistic regression models were conducted to identify the predictive factors of BCRFS and adverse pathological features respectively before and after propensity score matching (PSM). RESULTS: Enrolled patients were allocated into MetS group (n = 136) and non-MetS group (n = 389) according to the presence or absence of MetS, and 127 new matched pairs were identified to balance the baseline characteristics after 1:1 PSM. In propensity matched patients, the Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that MetS (P = 0.020), hyperglycemia (P = 0.015) and hypertriglyceridemia (P = 0.001) were significantly associated with worse BCRFS; the results of multivariate Cox analyses showed that hyperglycemia (P = 0.040), hypertriglyceridemia (P = 0.017), percentage of positive biopsy cores (P = 0.041) and prostate specific antigen (P = 0.019) were identified as independent prognostic factors for BCRFS. In addition, hypertriglyceridemia was independently associated with non-organ confined disease (NOCD) (P = 0.010), extra-capsular extension (ECE) (P = 0.010) and upgrading (P = 0.017) in the multivariate logistic analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Hyperglycemia and hypertriglyceridemia are the two effective MetS components both identified as independent risk factors for worse BCRFS after RP, while hypertriglyceridemia was independently associated with NOCD, ECE and upgrading as well.

Experimental study on the effects of different factors on the crystallization rate and products of Mn-Ca co-crystallization.

Calcium and manganese are common ions that pollute drinking water and, therefore, ingestion may seriously harm human health. However, despite its importance, few studies into the synergistic removal of calcium and manganese have been reported. Calcium and manganese have similar chemical properties and, consequently, can be removed by co-crystallization, as the exact crystalline phase formed by this process and the process rate depend on the pH, the dissolved oxygen (DO) content, and the concentrations of the component ions. In this work, we experimentally studied the co-crystallization of Mn and Ca using an automatic potentiometric titrator. We found that the concentration of Mn2+ can be reduced from 3.0 to <0.1 mg/L by the co-crystallization of Mn and Ca at pH 10.5 and a DO content of 8.5 mg/L. In addition, the crystallizations of Ca and Mn are mutually inhibitory; the crystallization process of Mn is obviously divided into two stages: crystal nucleation and crystal growth. Increasing the pH, decreasing the DO content, and decreasing the Mn ion concentration increase the rate of CaCO3 crystallization, whereas the opposite changes increase the rate of Mn crystallization. Furthermore, Mn-Ca co-crystallization leads to the formation of various substances, including single crystals (CaCO3/MnCO3), mixed crystals (CaMnCO3), and Mn oxides (MnxOy/Mn(OH)O). Our findings regarding the effects, precipitation rates, and precipitation mechanisms of Mn-Ca co-crystallization serve as an important guide for the optimization and control of Mn-Ca co-crystallization processes.

Ultrasonic Microbubble Cavitation Enhanced Tissue Permeability and Drug Diffusion in Solid Tumor Therapy.

Chemotherapy has an essential role not only in advanced solid tumor therapy intervention but also in society's health at large. Chemoresistance, however, seriously restricts the efficiency and sensitivity of chemotherapeutic agents, representing a significant threat to patients' quality of life and life expectancy. How to reverse chemoresistance, improve efficacy sensitization response, and reduce adverse side effects need to be tackled urgently. Recently, studies on the effect of ultrasonic microbubble cavitation on enhanced tissue permeability and retention (EPR) have attracted the attention of researchers. Compared with the traditional targeted drug delivery regimen, the microbubble cavitation effect, which can be used to enhance the EPR effect, has the advantages of less trauma, low cost, and good sensitization effect, and has significant application prospects. This article reviews the research progress of ultrasound-mediated microbubble cavitation in the treatment of solid tumors and discusses its mechanism of action to provide new ideas for better treatment strategies.

Prognostic Value of Tumor Size in Patients with Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Context: The role of tumor size in predicting prognosis in upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) patients remains poorly defined. Objective: To assess the prognostic value of tumor size in patients with UTUC through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Evidence acquisition: A comprehensive literature search of the PubMed and Embase databases were performed to identify all relevant articles published up to December 2021 according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) statement. Available hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were analyzed to evaluate the association between tumor size and survival outcomes. Evidence synthesis: A total of 35 articles representing 32 292 patients met the eligibility criteria and were finally included for the meta-analysis. Tumor size was significantly associated with poor outcomes in terms of overall survival (HR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.28-1.58), cancer-specific survival (HR = 1.66, 95% CI = 1.47-1.88), recurrence-free survival (HR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.13-1.38), and intravesical recurrence (HR = 1.12, 95% CI = 1.04-1.20). There was between-study heterogeneity in the effect of tumor size on all these meta-analyses, with p < 0.10 and I2 generally >50%. Subgroup analyses illustrated that the association of tumor size with adverse prognosis in UTUC patients is not affected by treatment modalities. Segmental resection of ureter, whether receiving lymph node dissection, cutoff of tumor size, and region of population were potential sources of heterogeneity. The funnel plot test indicated no significant publication bias in the meta-analysis of survival outcomes. Conclusions: This study shows that larger tumor size is associated with an increased risk of overall and cancer-specific mortality, and disease recurrence in UTUC. Integration of tumor size with other prognostic indicators may help in risk stratification and individualized treatment of UTUC. Patient summary: Through a systematic review and meta-analysis, this study found that larger tumor size is associated with an increased risk of overall and cancer-specific mortality, and disease recurrence in patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma.

Fabrication and Performance of Phase Change Thermoregulated Fiber from Bicomponent Melt Spinning.

High thermostability of phase change materials is the critical factor for producing phase change thermoregulated fiber (PCTF) by melt spinning. To achieve the production of PCTF from melt spinning, a composite phase change material with high thermostability was developed, and a sheath-core structure of PCTF was also developed from bicomponent melt spinning. The sheath layer was polyamide 6, and the core layer was made from a composite of polyethylene and paraffin. The PCTF was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal analysis (TG), Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and fiber strength tester. The results showed that the core material had a very high thermostability at a volatilization temperature of 235 °C, the PCTF had an endothermic and exothermic process in the temperature range of 20-30 °C, and the maximum latent heat of the PCTF reached 20.11 J/g. The tenacity of the PCTF gradually decreased and then reached a stable state with the increase of temperature from -25 °C to 80 °C. The PCTF had a tenacity of 343.59 MPa at 0 °C, and of 254.63 MPa at 25 °C, which fully meets the application requirements of fiber in textiles.

Preoperative Metabolic Syndrome and HDL-C Level Predict the Prognosis of Patients Following Radical Cystectomy: A Propensity Score Matching Study.

Objective: To investigate the prognostic significance of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components in patients with bladder cancer (BCa) treated with radical cystectomy (RC). Methods: A total of 335 BCa patients who underwent RC between 2004 and 2019 at Peking University Third Hospital (PUTH) were analyzed retrospectively. The Kaplan-Meier method with the log-rank test was performed to assess overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were conducted to identify the prognostic factors of OS and PFS before and after propensity score matching (PSM). Results: Enrolled patients were allocated into two groups according to the presence or absence of MetS (n=84 MetS vs n=251 non-MetS), and 82 new matched pairs were identified to balance the baseline characteristics after 1:1 PSM. In the Kaplan-Meier analysis, MetS was associated with better OS (P=0.031) than the group without MetS. In addition, a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 was associated with better OS (P=0.011) and PFS (P=0.031), while low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was associated with worse OS (P=0.033) and PFS (P=0.010). In all patients, multivariate Cox analysis showed that hemoglobin, pathologic tumor stage and lymph node status were identified as independent prognostic factors for both OS and PFS, while age, MetS and HDL-C were independent prognostic factors only for OS. Reproducible results of multivariate analysis can still be observed in propensity matched patients. The results of further subgroup analysis revealed that the association of MetS with increased OS (P=0.043) and BMI ≥25 with increased OS (P=0.015) and PFS (P=0.029) was observed in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients. Conclusions: MetS was independently associated with better OS in BCa patients after RC, and HDL-C was the only component of MetS that was independently associated with worse OS. MetS and HDL-C may become reliable prognostic biomarkers of OS in BCa patients after RC to provide individualized prognostication and assist in the formulation of clinical treatment strategies.

A Study of Response Inhibition in Overweight/Obesity People Based on Event-Related Potential.

Objective: To investigate the characteristics of response inhibition of overweight/obese people, using behavior experiments combine with neural electrophysiological technology and discussing the difference in impulse level between obesity/overweight and normal-weight people through EEG data, questionnaire, and behavior experiment. Method: (1) All participants completed the Go/Nogo task; meanwhile, behavior data and 64 channel EEG data were recorded. (2) Participants completed the Stop-Signal task and behavior date was recorded. Results: (1) During Go/Nogo task, no significant differences were found in reaction time, omission errors of the Go task between the two groups, while commission errors of the Nogo task of the control group were significantly greater than the overweight/obesity group. (2) About SSRT during the Stop-Signal Task, the interaction of stimulus type (high-calorie food picture, low-calorie food picture) and group (control group, overweight/obesity group) was significant (p = 0.008). (3) No significant differences were found between the two groups in amplitude and latency of N2. About the amplitude of P3, the interaction of task type (Go task, Nogo task), electrode point (Cz, CPz, Pz), and groups were significant (p = 0.041), the control group P3 amplitude was significantly greater than overweight/obesity group during the Nogo task. Regarding about latency of P3, the interaction of group and electrode point were not significant (p = 0.582), but the main effect of task type was significant (p = 0.002). Conclusion: (1) In terms of behavioral outcomes, overweight-obese subjects had lower dominant response inhibition and response cessation compared to normal-weight subjects. (2) In terms of EEG results, overweight-obese subjects showed no difference in processing speed and level of conflict monitoring for early inhibitory processing compared to normal-weight subjects, but there was a deficit in behavioral control for late inhibitory processing.

Ultrasound-mediated microbubbles cavitation enhanced chemotherapy of advanced prostate cancer by increasing the permeability of blood-prostate barrier.

Although chemotherapy is an important treatment for advanced prostate cancer, its efficacy is relatively limited. Ultrasound-induced cavitation plays an important role in drug delivery and gene transfection. However, whether cavitation can improve the efficacy of chemotherapy for prostate cancer remains unclear. In this study, we treated RM-1 mouse prostate carcinoma cells with a combination of ultrasound-mediated microbubble cavitation and paclitaxel. Our results showed that combination therapy led to a more pronounced inhibition of cell viability and increased cell apoptosis. The enhanced efficacy of chemotherapy was attributed to the increased cell permeability induced by cavitation. Importantly, compared with chemotherapy alone (nab-paclitaxel), chemotherapy combined with ultrasound-mediated microbubble cavitation significantly inhibited tumor growth and prolonged the survival of tumor-bearing mice in an orthotopic mouse model of RM-1 prostate carcinoma, indicating the synergistic effects of combined therapy on tumor reduction. Furthermore, we analyzed tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and found that during chemotherapy, the proportions of CTLA4+ cells and PD-1+/CTLA4+ cells in CD8+ T cells slightly increased after cavitation treatment.

Nocardiopsis yanglingensis sp. nov., a thermophilic strain isolated from a compost of button mushrooms.

A strain named A18 was recovered from a compost of button mushrooms. It was characterized using a polyphasic approach. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence comparison, it belonged to the genus Nocardiopsis and was most closely related to the type strains of Nocardiopsis flavescens (sequence similarity 98.0%), Nocardiopsis prasina (97.5%), Nocardiopsis metallicus (97.4%), Nocardiopsis alba (97.3%). The combination of phylogenetic analysis, DNA-DNA hybridization, phenotypic characteristics and chemotaxonomic data supported the proposal that strain A18 represents a new species of the genus Nocardiopsis, for which the name Nocardiopsis yanglingensis sp. nov. was proposed (type strain A18(T) = KCTC 19723(T) = CCTCC 209063(T)).