Salivary carbonic anhydrase II in winged aphid morph facilitates plant infection by viruses.

Aphids are the most common insect vector transmitting hundreds of plant viruses. Aphid wing dimorphism (winged vs. wingless) not only showcases the phenotypic plasticity but also impacts virus transmission; however, the superiority of winged aphids in virus transmission over the wingless morph is not well understood. Here, we show that plant viruses were efficiently transmitted and highly infectious when associated with the winged morph of Myzus persicae and that a salivary protein contributed to this difference. The carbonic anhydrase II (CA-II) gene was identified by RNA-seq of salivary glands to have higher expression in the winged morph. Aphids secreted CA-II into the apoplastic region of plant cells, leading to elevated accumulation of H+. Apoplastic acidification further increased the activities of polygalacturonases, the cell wall homogalacturonan (HG)-modifying enzymes, promoting degradation of demethylesterified HGs. In response to apoplastic acidification, plants accelerated vesicle trafficking to enhance pectin transport and strengthen the cell wall, which also facilitated virus translocation from the endomembrane system to the apoplast. Secretion of a higher quantity of salivary CA-II by winged aphids promoted intercellular vesicle transport in the plant. The higher vesicle trafficking induced by winged aphids enhanced dispersal of virus particles from infected cells to neighboring cells, thus resulting in higher virus infection in plants relative to the wingless morph. These findings imply that the difference in the expression of salivary CA-II between winged and wingless morphs is correlated with the vector role of aphids during the posttransmission infection process, which influences the outcome of plant endurance of virus infection.

SEM Electron-Beam-Induced Ultrathin Carbon Deposition Layer on Cu Substrate: Improved Dry Oxidation Protection Performance than CVD Single Layer Graphene.

An amorphous carbon deposition layer (CDL) with nanoscale thickness induced by scanning electron microscope (SEM) electron beam is studied as a carbon-based protective layer on copper (Cu). CDL is prepared by inducing the deposition of pollutants or hydrocarbons in the cavity of SEM through electron beam irradiation (EBI). Wrinkles and cracks will not form and the interfacial spacing of CDL/Cu is smaller than Graphene/Cu (Gr/Cu). The thickness and coverage of the interfacial oxide layer of CDL/Cu are all smaller than that of the Gr/Cu after the same oxidation conditions. Characterization of Raman mapping also demonstrates that CDL shows better oxidation inhibition effects than graphene. The structure of CDL is determined to be C = C and C = O, CH3 - and C-O can be loaded vertically on CDL. Density functional theory (DFT) is employed for demonstrating the smaller interfacial gap of CDL/Cu, less wrinkles and cracks and larger adsorbing energy of water/oxygen compared with Gr/Cu. Molecular dynamic (MD) simulation also indicates that the diffusion of water or oxygen into CDL/Cu is more difficult and the oxidation of Cu covered by CDL is well suppressed. This work provides a new approach for the study of carbon-based antioxidant materials on Cu.

PDI-Based Organic Small Molecule Regulated by Inter/Intramolecular Interactions for Efficient Solar Vapor Generation.

Organic small molecules with processing feasibility, structural diversity, and fine-tuned properties have the potential applications in solar vapor generation. However, the common defects of narrow solar absorption, low photothermal conversion efficiency, and photobleaching result in limited materials available and unsatisfactory evaporation performance. Herein, the perylene diimide (PDI) derivatives are exploited as stable sunlight absorbers for solar vapor generation. Particularly, the N,N'-bis(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (PDI-DTMA) is well-designed with donor-acceptor-donor configuration based on plane rigid PDI core. The efficient photothermal conversion is enabled through strong intermolecular π-π stacking and intramolecular charge transfer, as revealed by experimental demonstration and theoretical calculation. The PDI-DTMA with a narrow band gap of 1.17 eV exhibits expanded absorption spectrum and enhanced nonradiative transition capability. The 3D hybrid hydrogels (PPHs) combining PDI-DTMA and polyvinyl alcohol are constructed. With the synergistic effect of solar-to-heat conversion, thermal localization management, water activation, and unobstructed water transmission of PPHs, the high water evaporation rates can reach 3.61-10.07 kg m-2 h-1 under one sun. The hydrogels also possess great potential in seawater desalination and sewage treatment. Overall, this work provides valuable insights into the design of photothermal organic small molecules and demonstrates their potentials in solar water evaporation.

Advanced screening and tailoring strategies of pesticide aptamer for constructing biosensor.

The rapid development of aptamers has helped address the challenges presented by the wide existed pesticides contaminations. Screening of aptamers with excellent performance is a prerequisite for successfully constructing biosensors, while further tailoring of aptamers with enhanced activity greatly improved the assay performance. Firstly, this paper reviewed the advanced screening strategies for pesticides aptamers, including immobilization screening that preserves the native structures of targets, non-immobilized screening based on nanomaterials, capillary electrophoresis-systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (CE-SELEX), virtual screening in silico, high-throughput selection, and rational secondary library generation methods, which contributed significantly to improve the success rate of screening, reduce the screening time, and ensure aptamer binding affinity. Secondly, the precise tailoring strategies for pesticides aptamers were modularly elaborated, containing deletion, splitting, elongation, and fusion, which provided various advantages like cost-efficiency, enhanced binding affinity, and new derived functional motifs. Thirdly, the developed aptamer-based biosensors (aptasensors) for pesticide detection were systematically reviewed according to the different signal output modes. Finally, the challenges and future perspectives of pesticide detection are discussed comprehensively.

GEPIA2021: integrating multiple deconvolution-based analysis into GEPIA.

In 2017, we released GEPIA (Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis) webserver to facilitate the widely used analyses based on the bulk gene expression datasets in the TCGA and the GTEx projects, providing the biologists and clinicians with a handy tool to perform comprehensive and complex data mining tasks. Recently, the deconvolution tools have led to revolutionary trends to resolve bulk RNA datasets at cell type-level resolution, interrogating the characteristics of different cell types in cancer and controlled cohorts became an important strategy to investigate the biological questions. Thus, we present GEPIA2021, a standalone extension of GEPIA, allowing users to perform multiple interactive analysis based on the deconvolution results, including cell type-level proportion comparison, correlation analysis, differential expression, and survival analysis. With GEPIA2021, experimental biologists could easily explore the large TCGA and GTEx datasets and validate their hypotheses in an enhanced resolution. GEPIA2021 is publicly accessible at http://gepia2021.cancer-pku.cn/.

Deep learning for automatic segmentation of paraspinal muscle on computed tomography.

BACKGROUND: Muscle quantification is an essential step in sarcopenia evaluation. PURPOSE: To develop and evaluate an automated machine learning (ML) algorithm for segmenting the paraspinous muscles on either abdominal or lumbar (L) computed tomography (CT) scans. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A novel deep neural network algorithm for automated segmentation of paraspinous muscle was developed, CT scans of 504 consecutive patients conducted between January 2019 and February 2020 were assembled. The muscle was manually segmented at L3 vertebra level by three radiologists as ground truth, divided into training and testing subgroups. Muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) was recorded. Dice similarity coefficients (DSCs) and CSA errors were calculated to evaluate system performance. The degree of muscle fat infiltration (MFI) recording by percentage value was the fat area within the region of interest divided by the muscle area. An analysis of the factors influencing the performance of the V-net-based segmentation system was also implemented. RESULTS: The mean DSCs for paraspinous muscles were high for both the training (0.963, 0.970, 0.941, and 0.968, respectively) and testing (0.950, 0.960, 0.929, and 0.961, respectively) datasets, while the CSA errors were low for both training (1.9%, 1.6%, 3.1%, and 1.3%, respectively) and testing (3.4%, 3.0%, 4.6%, and 1.9%, respectively) datasets. MFI and muscle area index (MI) were major factors affecting DSCs of the posterior paraspinous and paraspinous muscle groups. CONCLUSION: The ML algorithm for the measurement of paraspinous muscles was compared favorably to manual ground truth measurements.

A unique self-truncation of bacterial GH5 endoglucanases leads to enhanced activity and thermostability.

BACKGROUND: ß-1,4-endoglucanase (EG) is one of the three types of cellulases used in cellulose saccharification during lignocellulosic biofuel/biomaterial production. GsCelA is an EG secreted by the thermophilic bacterium Geobacillus sp. 70PC53 isolated from rice straw compost in southern Taiwan. This enzyme belongs to glycoside hydrolase family 5 (GH5) with a TIM-barrel structure common among all members of this family. GsCelA exhibits excellent lignocellulolytic activity and thermostability. In the course of investigating the regulation of this enzyme, it was fortuitously discovered that GsCelA undergoes a novel self-truncation/activation process that appears to be common among GH5 enzymes. RESULTS: Three diverse Gram-positive bacterial GH5 EGs, but not a GH12 EG, undergo an unexpected self-truncation process by removing a part of their C-terminal region. This unique process has been studied in detail with GsCelA. The purified recombinant GsCelA was capable of removing a 53-amino-acid peptide from the C-terminus. Natural or engineered GsCelA truncated variants, with up to 60-amino-acid deletion from the C-terminus, exhibited higher specific activity and thermostability than the full-length enzyme. Interestingly, the C-terminal part that is removed in this self-truncation process is capable of binding to cellulosic substrates of EGs. The protein truncation, which is pH and temperature dependent, occurred between amino acids 315 and 316, but removal of these two amino acids did not stop the process. Furthermore, mutations of E142A and E231A, which are essential for EG activity, did not affect the protein self-truncation process. Conversely, two single amino acid substitution mutations affected the self-truncation activity without much impact on EG activities. In Geobacillus sp. 70PC53, the full-length GsCelA was first synthesized in the cell but progressively transformed into the truncated form and eventually secreted. The GsCelA self-truncation was not affected by standard protease inhibitors, but could be suppressed by EDTA and EGTA and enhanced by certain divalent ions, such as Ca2+, Mg2+, and Cu2+. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals novel insights into the strategy of Gram-positive bacteria for directing their GH5 EGs to the substrate, and then releasing the catalytic part for enhanced activity via a spontaneous self-truncation process.

Sustainable-Macromolecule-Assisted Preparation of Cross-linked, Ultralight, Flexible Graphene Aerogel Sensors toward Low-Frequency Strain/Pressure to High-Frequency Vibration Sensing.

Ultralight and highly flexible aerogel sensors, composed of reduced graphene oxide cross-linked by sustainable-macromolecule-derived carbon, are prepared via facile freeze-drying and thermal annealing. The synergistic combination of cross-linked graphene nanosheets and micrometer-sized honeycomb pores gives rise to the exceptional properties of the aerogels, including superior compressibility and resilience, good mechanical strength and durability, satisfactory fire-resistance, and outstanding electromechanical sensing performances. The corresponding aerogel sensors, operated at an ultralow voltage of 0.2 V, can efficiently respond to a wide range of strains (0.1-80%) and pressures (13-2750 Pa) even at temperatures beyond 300 °C. Moreover, the ultrahigh-pressure sensitivity of 10 kPa-1 and excellent sensing stability and durability are accomplished. Strikingly, the aerogel sensors can also sense the vibration signals with ultrahigh frequencies of up to 4000 Hz for >1 000 000 cycles, significantly outperforming those of other sensors. These enable successful demonstration of the exceptional performance of the cross-linked graphene-based biomimetic aerogels for sensitive monitoring of mechanical signals, e.g., acting as wearable devices for monitoring human motions, and for nondestructive monitoring of cracks on engineering structures, showing the great potential of the aerogel sensors as next-generation electronics.

Measurement of epicardial adipose tissue using non-contrast routine chest-CT: a consideration of threshold adjustment for fatty attenuation.

BACKGROUND: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is known as an important imaging indicator for cardiovascular risk stratification. The present study aimed to determine whether the EAT volume (EV) and mean EAT attenuation (mEA) measured by non-contrast routine chest CT (RCCT) could be more consistent with those measured by coronary CT angiography (CCTA) by adjusting the threshold of fatty attenuation. METHODS: In total, 83 subjects who simultaneously underwent CCTA and RCCT were enrolled. EV and mEA were quantified by CCTA using a threshold of (N30) (- 190 HU, - 30 HU) as a reference and measured by RCCT using thresholds of N30, N40 (- 190 HU, - 40 HU), and N45 (- 190 HU, - 45 HU). The correlation and agreement of EAT metrics between the two imaging modalities and differences between patients with coronary plaques (plaque ( +)) and without plaques (plaque ( -)) were analyzed. RESULTS: EV obtained from RCCT showed very strong correlation with the reference (r = 0.974, 0.976, 0.972 (N30, N40, N45), P < 0.001), whereas mEA showed a moderate correlation (r = 0.516, 0.500, 0.477 (N30, N40, N45), P < 0.001). Threshold adjustment was able to reduce the bias of EV, while increase the bias of mEA. Data obtained by CCTA and RCCT both demonstrated a significantly larger EV in the plaque ( +) group than in the plaque ( -) group (P < 0.05). A significant difference in mEA was shown only by RCCT using a threshold of N30 (plaque ( +) vs ( -): - 80.0 ± 4.4 HU vs - 78.0 ± 4.0 HU, P = 0.030). The mEA measured on RCCT using threshold of N40 and N45 showed no significant statistical difference between the two groups (P = 0.092 and 0.075), which was consistent with the result obtained on CCTA (P = 0.204). CONCLUSION: Applying more negative threshold, the consistency of EV measurements between the two techniques improves and a consistent result can be obtained when comparing EF measurements between groups, although the bias of mEA increases. Threshold adjustment is necessary when measuring EF with non-contrast RCCT.

Can the BMI-based dose regimen be used to reduce injection activity and to obtain a constant image quality in oncological patients by 18F-FDG total-body PET/CT imaging?

PURPOSE: PET image quality is influenced by the patient size according to the current guideline. The study aimed to propose an optimized dose regimen to yield a constant image quality independent of patient habitus to meet the clinical needs. METHODS: A first patient cohort of 78 consecutive oncological patients (59.7 ± 13.7 years) who underwent a total-body PET/CT scan were retrospectively enrolled to develop the regimen. The patients were randomly distributed in four body mass index (BMI) groups according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. The liver SNR (signal-to-noise ratio, SNRL) was obtained by manually drawing regions of interest (ROIs) and normalized (SNRnorm) by the product of injected activity and acquisition time. Fits of SNRnorm against different patient-dependent parameters were performed to determine the best correlating parameter and fit method. A qualitative assessment on image quality was performed using a 5-point Likert scale to determine the acceptable threshold of SNRL. Thus, an optimized regimen was proposed and validated by a second patient cohort consisted of prospectively enrolled 38 oncological patients. RESULTS: The linear fit showed SNRnorm had the strongest correlation (R2 = 0.69) with the BMI than other patient-dependent parameters and fit method. The qualitative assessment indicated a SNRL value of 14.0 as an acceptable threshold to achieve sufficient image quality. The optimized dose regimen was determined as a quadratic relation with BMI: injected activity (MBq) = 39.2 (MBq)/(- 0.03*BMI + 1.49)2. In the validation study, the SNRL no longer decreased with the increase of BMI. There was no significant difference of the image quality regarding the value of SNRL between different BMI groups (p > 0.05). In addition, the injected activity was reduced by 75.6 ± 2.9%, 72.1 ± 4.0%, 67.1 ± 4.4%, and 64.8 ± 3.5% compared with the first cohort for the four BMI groups, respectively. CONCLUSION: The study proposed a quadratic relation between the 18F-FDG injected activity and the patient's BMI for total-body 18F-FDG PET imaging. In this regimen, the image quality can maintain in a constant level independent of patient habitus and meet the clinical requirement with a reduced injected activity.

Image quality and lesion detectability in low-dose pediatric 18F-FDG scans using total-body PET/CT.

PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of dose reduction on image quality and lesion detectability of oncological 18F-FDG total-body PET/CT in pediatric oncological patients and explore the minimum threshold of administered tracer activity. METHODS: A total of 33 pediatric patients (weight 8.5-58.5 kg; age 0.8-17.6 years) underwent total-body PET/CT using uEXPLORER scanner with an 18F-FDG administered dose of 3.7 MBq/kg and an acquisition time of 600 s were retrospectively enrolled. Low-dose images (0.12-1.85 MBq/kg) were simulated by truncating the list-mode PET data to reducing count density. Subjective image quality was rated on a 5-point scale. Semi-quantitative uptake metrics for low-dose images were assessed using region-of-interest (ROI) analysis of healthy liver and suspected lesions and were compared with full-dose images. The micro-lesion detectability was compared among the dose-dependent PET images. RESULTS: Our analysis shows that sufficient subjective image quality and lesion conspicuity could be maintained down to 1/30th (0.12 MBq/kg) of the administered dose of 18F-FDG, where good image quality scores were given to 1/2- and 1/10- dose groups. The image noise was significantly more deranged than the overall quality and lesion conspicuity in 1/30- to 1/10-dose groups (all p < 0.05). With reduced doses, quantitative analysis of ROIs showed that SUVmax and SD in the liver increased gradually (p < 0.05), but SUVmax in the lesions and lesion-to-background ratio (LBR) showed no significant deviation down to 1/30-dose. One hundred percent of the 18F-FDG-avid micro-lesions identified in full-dose images were localized down to 1/15-dose images, while 97% of the lesion were localized in 1/30-dose images. CONCLUSION: The total-body PET/CT might significantly decrease the administered dose upon maintaining the image quality and diagnostic performance of micro-lesions in pediatric patients. Data suggests that using total-body PET/CT, optimal image quality could be achieved with an administered dose-reduction down to 1/10-dose (0.37 MBq/kg).

Diagnostic performance of corrected FFRCT metrics to predict hemodynamically significant coronary artery stenosis.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the diagnostic performance of the fractional flow reserve (FFR) derived from coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) (FFRCT) difference across the lesion (ΔFFRCT lesion) or the vessel (ΔFFRCT vessel) and the gradient of FFRCT for the identification of hemodynamically significant coronary stenosis. METHODS: From June 2016 to December 2018, 73 patients suspected of having coronary artery disease who underwent CCTA followed invasive coronary angiography (ICA) within 1 month were retrospectively included. ΔFFRCT lesion, ΔFFRCT vessel, and FFRCT gradient were calculated. Performance characteristics of different corrected FFRCT metrics in detecting ischemic stenosis were analyzed. Impacts of coronary calcification and lesion length on the corrected FFRCT metrics were also analyzed. RESULTS: The diagnostic sensitivities, specificities, and accuracies of 94.4%, 88.7%, and 91.0% with ΔFFRCT lesion, 57.1%, 72.3%, and 65.2% with ΔFFRCT vessel, and 50.0%, 85.1%, and 68.5% with FFRCT gradient, respectively, were detected. There was higher specificity, accuracy, and area under the curve (AUC) for ΔFFRCT lesion compared with CCTA (p < 0.05 for all). The specificity and AUC of FFRCT gradient and ΔFFRCT vessel were significantly higher than CCTA (p < 0.05 for all). Coronary calcification showed no impact on corrected FFRCT metrics. ΔFFRCT lesion for lesion length ratio (LLR) < 1/10 was significantly lower than that for LLR 1/10 to 3/10 and LLR > 3/10. CONCLUSIONS: ΔFFRCT lesion was significantly correlated with the hemodynamically significant coronary artery stenosis. ΔFFRCT lesion had the potential to be immediately used in real-world practice to discriminate ischemic coronary artery stenosis. KEY POINTS: • The difference of FFRCT across the lesion or the vessel and the gradient of FFRCT was related to the hemodynamically significant coronary artery stenosis. • The difference of FFRCT across the lesion showed the best diagnostic performance in detecting the hemodynamically significant coronary artery stenosis. • Coronary calcification showed no impact on corrected FFRCT metrics, while lesion length related to the difference of FFRCT across the lesion.

GEPIA2: an enhanced web server for large-scale expression profiling and interactive analysis.

Introduced in 2017, the GEPIA (Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis) web server has been a valuable and highly cited resource for gene expression analysis based on tumor and normal samples from the TCGA and the GTEx databases. Here, we present GEPIA2, an updated and enhanced version to provide insights with higher resolution and more functionalities. Featuring 198 619 isoforms and 84 cancer subtypes, GEPIA2 has extended gene expression quantification from the gene level to the transcript level, and supports analysis of a specific cancer subtype, and comparison between subtypes. In addition, GEPIA2 has adopted new analysis techniques of gene signature quantification inspired by single-cell sequencing studies, and provides customized analysis where users can upload their own RNA-seq data and compare them with TCGA and GTEx samples. We also offer an API for batch process and easy retrieval of the analysis results. The updated web server is publicly accessible at http://gepia2.cancer-pku.cn/.

Resection of Giant Tumor of Chest Wall under Cardiopulmonary Bypass after Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy: A Case Report.

Osteosarcoma, one of the most common sources of bone malignant tumors, often occurs at the epiphysis, such as in the distal femoral and proximal tibia, but seldom occurs at the costa. Here, we present the case of a 15-year-old girl with giant osteosarcoma on the chest wall. Osteosarcoma is extremely malignant and has a high death rate. We surgically resected the osteosarcoma using cardiopulmonary bypass and administered neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.

Prolyl hydroxylase 3 stabilizes the p53 tumor suppressor by inhibiting the p53-MDM2 interaction in a hydroxylase-independent manner.

Prolyl hydroxylase 3 (PHD3) has initially been reported to hydroxylase hypoxia-inducible factor α (HIFα) and mediate HIFα degradation. More recent studies have shown that, in addition to HIFα, PHD3 has also other substrates. Moreover, pHD3 is believed to act as a tumor suppressor, but the underlying mechanism remains to be elucidated. Here, we demonstrate that PHD3 stabilizes p53 in a hydroxylase-independent manner. We found that PHD3 overexpression increases and PHD3 knockdown decreases p53 levels. Mechanistically, PHD3 bound MDM2 proto-oncogene (MDM2) and prevented MDM2 from interacting with p53, thereby inhibiting MDM2-mediated p53 degradation. Interestingly, we found that PHD3 overexpression could enhance p53 in the presence of the prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor dimethyloxalylglycine, and the prolyl hydroxylase activity-deficient variant PHD3-H196A also inhibited the p53-MDM2 interaction and stabilized p53. Genetic ablation of PHD3 decreased p53 protein levels in mice intestinal epithelial cells, but a genetic knockin of PHD3-H196A did not affect p53 protein levels in vivo These results suggest that the prolyl hydroxylase activity of PHD3 is dispensable for its ability to stabilize p53. We found that both PHD3 and PHD3-H196A suppress the expression of the stem cell-associated gene NANOG and inhibited the properties of colon cancer stem cells through p53. Our results reveal an additional critical mechanism underlying the regulation of p53 expression and highlight that PHD3 plays a role in the suppression of colon cancer cell stemness in a hydroxylase-independent manner.

Covered versus uncovered stent insertion for malignant superior vena cava obstruction.

Purpose: To determine whether covered or uncovered stent insertion achieved better clinical efficacy when used to treat malignant superior vena cava (SVC) obstruction (SVCO).Material and methods: A total of 64 patients with malignant SVCO underwent stent insertion between January 2011 and March 2018 at our center. Of these, 34 were treated via uncovered stent insertion while 30 were treated via covered stent insertion. We compared the clinical effectiveness, patency of the stent, and overall survival between these two groups.Results: Both treatments achieved a 100% technical and clinical success rate, without any incidence of complications relating to the procedure. Stent dysfunction was found in one and six patients in the covered and uncovered groups during the follow-up period (1/30 vs. 6/34, p = .153), respectively. The covered stent patency period was significantly longer in the group treated with covered stents (374 vs. 317 days, p = .049), while median survival following stent insertion was 175 and 159 days, respectively, for the covered and uncovered groups (p = .784).Conclusion: Uncovered and covered stent insertion are both safe means of effectively treating patients with malignant SVCO, but covered stents achieve better patency for long-term periods than uncovered stents.

[Application Value of CT Metal Artifact Correction Technology (MAC TM) in CT Review after Total Hip Replacement].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the application value of CT metal artifact correction technology (MAC TM) in CT review after total hip replacement. METHODS: A total of 72 patients who underwent CT re-examination after total hip replacement from December 2018 to March 2020 were enrolled, and the original data were reconstructed by filter backup projection （FBP） and MAC. Select three identical levels in the two sets of reconstructed images and place the same ROI. The selected levels were the initial level, central level, and lower edge of acetabulum. Measure the CT and noise (SD) of metal high and low density artifacts of the three levels area, as well as metal hip joint space, metal para-bone tissue, muscle, bladder and subcutaneous fat, and calculate the average value. Subcutaneous fat value was used as a reference to calculate the SNR and CNR of metal implant para-bone tissue, muscle and bladder. Two radiologists scored the two groups of reconstructed images using blinded method, Kappa's test was used to compare the homogeneity. RESULTS: There were differences between the two groups of reconstructed images in high- and low-density artifact areas, joint gap CT values, and image noise. Compared with the FBP group, the CT value of the high-density area and the joint space of the MAC group decreased, the CT value of the low-density area increased, and the noise value of each area decreased. The SNR and CNR of metal adjacent bone tissue, muscle and bladder were higher in the MAC group than those in the FBP group, and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05). The difference in subjective scores between the two groups was statistically significant ( Z=-6.564, P<0.05). 2 radiologists had moderate consistency with Kappa value of 0.72 on FBP group, and good consistency with Kappa value of 0.85 on MAC group. CONCLUSION: MAC TM in CT review after total hip replacement can reduce metal artifacts, make the joint space more clear, and improve the quality of CT images.

GEPIA: a web server for cancer and normal gene expression profiling and interactive analyses.

Tremendous amount of RNA sequencing data have been produced by large consortium projects such as TCGA and GTEx, creating new opportunities for data mining and deeper understanding of gene functions. While certain existing web servers are valuable and widely used, many expression analysis functions needed by experimental biologists are still not adequately addressed by these tools. We introduce GEPIA (Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis), a web-based tool to deliver fast and customizable functionalities based on TCGA and GTEx data. GEPIA provides key interactive and customizable functions including differential expression analysis, profiling plotting, correlation analysis, patient survival analysis, similar gene detection and dimensionality reduction analysis. The comprehensive expression analyses with simple clicking through GEPIA greatly facilitate data mining in wide research areas, scientific discussion and the therapeutic discovery process. GEPIA fills in the gap between cancer genomics big data and the delivery of integrated information to end users, thus helping unleash the value of the current data resources. GEPIA is available at http://gepia.cancer-pku.cn/.

GE-mini: a mobile APP for large-scale gene expression visualization.

Summary: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) projects produced large-scale RNA sequencing data, which provides an opportunity for performing integrated expression analysis for all genes across tens of thousands of tumor and normal tissue specimens. Rapid access to and easy visualization of such valuable data could facilitate research in a wide biological area. Here, we present the GE-mini APP for smart phones, a mobile visualization tool for integrated gene expression data based on both TCGA and GTEx. This gene-centric expression viewer provides a convenient method for displaying expression profiles of all available tumor and tissue types, while allowing drilling down to detailed views for specific tissue types. Availability and Implementation: Both the iOS and Android APPs are freely available to all non-commercial users in App Store and Google Play. The QR codes of App store and Google play are also provided for scanning and download. The GE-mini web server is also available at http://gemini.cancer-pku.cn/ . Contacts: tangzefang@pku.edu.cn or huxueda@pku.edu.cn. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

The impact of balance-focused attitudes on job stress: Gender differences evidenced in American and Chinese samples.

Based on gender role expectations model, we examined how balance-focused attitudes would affect job stress by influencing individuals' perceptions of family interference with work (FIW), and investigated whether a gender difference would exist in the relationships among balance-focused attitudes, FIW and job stress. Using two independent samples from the United States and China, we found support for the indirect influence of balance-focused attitudes on job stress, through FIW. Participants with balance-focused attitudes experienced lower levels of job stress as they perceived less interference from family to work. As expected, such indirect effect was more pronounce among male participants, meaning that the male participants benefited more from having balance-focused attitudes. Discussion, theoretical and practical implications are provided.