Sodium-glucose cotransporter 1 promotes the biofunctions of perivascular preadipocytes mediated by Akt/mTOR/p70S6K signaling pathway.

The influence of SGLT-1 on perivascular preadipocytes (PVPACs) and vascular remodeling is not well understood. This study aimed to elucidate the role and mechanism of SGLT-1-mediated PVPACs bioactivity. PVPACs were cultured in vitro and applied ex vivo to the carotid arteries of mice using a lentivirus-based thermosensitive in situ gel (TISG). The groups were treated with Lv-SGLT1 (lentiviral vector, overexpression), Lv-siSGLT1 (RNA interference, knockdown), or specific signaling pathway inhibitors. Assays were conducted to assess changes in cell proliferation, apoptosis, glucose uptake, adipogenic differentiation, and vascular remodeling in the PVPACs. Protein expression was analyzed by Western blotting, immunocytochemistry, and/or immunohistochemistry. The methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay and Hoechst 33342 staining indicated that SGLT-1 overexpression significantly promoted PVPACs proliferation and inhibited apoptosis in vitro. Conversely, SGLT-1 knockdown exerted the opposite effect. Oil Red O staining revealed that SGLT-1 overexpression facilitated adipogenic differentiation, while its inhibition mitigated these effects. 3H-labeled glucose uptake experiments demonstrated that SGLT-1 overexpression enhanced glucose uptake by PVPACs, whereas RNA interference-mediated SGLT-1 inhibition had no significant effect on glucose uptake. Moreover, RT-qPCR, Western blotting, and immunofluorescence analyses revealed that SGLT-1 overexpression upregulated FABP4 and VEGF-A levels and activated the Akt/mTOR/p70S6K signaling pathway, whereas SGLT-1 knockdown produced the opposite effects. In vivo studies corroborated these findings and indicated that SGLT-1 overexpression facilitated carotid artery remodeling. Our study demonstrates that SGLT-1 activation of the Akt/mTOR/p70S6K signaling pathway promotes PVPACs proliferation, adipogenesis, glucose uptake, glucolipid metabolism, and vascular remodeling.NEW & NOTEWORTHY SGLT-1 is expressed in PVPACs and can affect preadipocyte glucolipid metabolism and vascular remodeling. SGLT-1 promotes the biofunctions of PVPACs mediated by Akt/mTOR/p70S6K signaling pathway. Compared with caudal vein or intraperitoneal injection, the external application of lentivirus-based thermal gel around the carotid artery is an innovative attempt at vascular remodeling model, it may effectively avoid the transfection of lentiviral vector into the whole body of mice and the adverse effect on experimental results.

Quantitative structure-activity relationship predicting toxicity of pesticides towards Daphnia magna.

Global pesticide usage reaching 2.7 million metric tons annually, brings a grave threat to non-target organisms, especially aquatic organisms, resulting in serious concerns. Predicting aquatic toxicity of pesticides towards Daphnia magna is significant. In this work, random forest (RF) algorithm, together with ten Dragon molecular descriptors, was successfully utilized to develop a quantitative structure-activity/toxicity relationship (QSAR/QSTR) model for the toxicity pEC50 of 745 pesticides towards Daphnia magna. The optimal QSTR model (RF Model I) based on the RF parameters of ntree = 50, mtry = 3 and nodesize = 5, yielded R2 = 0.877, MAE = 0.570, rms = 0.739 (training set of 596 pEC50), R2 = 0.807, MAE = 0.732, rms = 0.902 (test set of 149 pEC50), and R2 = 0.863, MAE = 0.602, rms = 0.774 (total set of 745 pEC50), which are accurate and satisfactory. The optimal RF model is comparable to other published QSTR models for Daphnia magna, although the optimal RF model possessed a small descriptor subset and dealt with a large dataset of pesticide toxicity pEC50. Thus, the investigation in this work provides a reliable, applicable QSTR model for predicting the toxicity pEC50 of pesticides towards Daphnia magna.

Ghost imaging lidar system for remote imaging.

Research towards practical applications of ghost imaging lidar system especially in longer sensing distance has been urgent in recent years. In this paper we develop a ghost imaging lidar system to boost an extension of remote imaging, where the transmission distance of the collimated pseudo-thermal beam can be improved hugely over long range and just shifting the adjustable lens assembly generates wide field of view suiting for short-range imaging. Based on the proposed lidar system, the changing tendency of illuminating field of view, energy density, and reconstructed images is analyzed and verified experimentally. Some considerations on the improvement of this lidar system are also discussed.

Fast focusing method in ghost imaging with a tracking trajectory.

The imaging environment is unstable for trembling disturbance, which is detrimental to object reconstruction. In this Letter, we experimentally investigated ghost imaging (GI) under a temporal trembling disturbance. The fast-focusing method based on imaging with small sampling measurements is proposed, and the theoretical model and algorithm are validated. It is demonstrated that the proposed method is effective to obtain a better-resolution image of the object under the strong trembling disturbance including a laboratory and a real trembling environment. The results provide a promising approach to deal with image degradation caused by an unstable environment and can find potential applications for ghost imaging in remote sensing.

A nomogram based on endothelial function and conventional risk factors predicts coronary artery disease in hypertensives.

BACKGROUND: There is currently a lack of a precise, concise, and practical clinical prediction model for predicting coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with essential hypertension (EH). This study aimed to construct a nomogram to predict CAD in patients with EH based on flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of brachial artery and traditional risk factors. METHODS: Clinical data of 1752 patients with EH were retrospectively collected. High-resolution vascular ultrasound was used to detect FMD in all patients at the Fujian Hypertension Research Institute, China. Patients were divided into two groups, i.e. training group (n = 1204, from August 2000 to December 2013) and validation group (n = 548, from January 2014 to May 2016) according to the time of enrollment. Independent predictors of CAD were analyzed by multivariable logistic regression in the training group, and a nomogram was constructed accordingly. Finally, we evaluated the discrimination, calibration, and clinical applicability of the model using the area under curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic analysis, calibration curve combined with Hosmer-Lemeshow test, and decision curve, respectively. RESULTS: There were 263 (21.8%) cases of EH combined with CAD in the training group. Multivariate logistic regression showed that FMD, age, duration of EH, waist circumference, and diabetes mellitus were independent influencing factors for CAD in EH patients. Smoking which was close to statistical significance (P = 0.062) was also included in the regression model to increase the accuracy. Ultimately, the nomogram for predicting CAD in EH patients was constructed according to above predictors after proper transformation. The AUC values of the training group and the validation group were 0.799 (95%CI 0.770-0.829) and 0.836 (95%CI 0.787-0.886), respectively. Calibration curve and Hosmer-Lemeshow test showed that the model had good calibration (training group: χ2 = 0.55, P = 0.759; validation group: χ2 = 1.62, P = 0.446). The decision curve also verified the clinical applicability of the nomogram. CONCLUSION: The nomogram based on FMD and traditional risk factors (age, duration of EH disease, smoking, waist circumference and diabetes mellitus) can predict CAD high-risk group among patients with EH.

Controlling beam dynamics with spectral quadratic phase modulation in the fractional Schrödinger equation.

The propagation dynamics of Gaussian beams and finite energy Airy beams with spectral quadratic phase modulation (QPM) modeled by the fractional Schrödinger equation (FSE) are numerically investigated. Compared with beam propagation in the standard Schrödinger equation, the focusing property of beams under FSE is influenced by the QPM coefficient and the Lévy index. For symmetric Gaussian beams, the focusing position increases and the focusing intensity decreases for the larger QPM coefficient or smaller Lévy index. For asymmetric Airy beams, multiple focusing positions occur, and the tendency of focusing intensity is opposite to that of Gaussian beams. Our results show the promising application of the FSE system for optical manipulation and optical splitting by controlling the QPM.

BER performance of an FSOC system over atmospheric turbulence channels based on computational temporal ghost imaging.

In a free space optical communication (FSOC) system, atmospheric turbulence will increase the bit error ratio (BER) and impair FSOC link reliability. Since computational temporal ghost imaging (CTGI) has anti-interference, we present an FSOC system over atmospheric turbulence based on CTGI. The simulation results show that the BER performance of CTGI is better than on-off keying under different atmospheric turbulence regimes. To improve the performance of the CTGI scheme, the influence of the number of transmission samples and code length is analyzed. It is shown that BER performance improves with the increment of the number of samples, while code length has no impact. This scheme provides an idea for reliable communication over atmospheric turbulence and an important reference for improving wireless optical communication in an extreme environment.

Highly accurate OAM mode detection network for ring Airy Gaussian vortex beams disturbed by atmospheric turbulence based on interferometry.

Atmospheric turbulence reduces the detection accuracy of orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes, which affects the performance of OAM optical communication. In this paper, we propose a method based on interferometry and a residual network (ResNet) to detect the OAM modes of ring Airy Gaussian vortex beams (RAGVBs) disturbed by atmospheric turbulence. The RAGVBs first interfere with spherical waves to obtain the sign features of the OAM modes, and then ResNet is employed to recognize OAM modes from the interferograms. The results demonstrate that the detection accuracy is higher than that of the OAM spectrum method under different turbulence strengths. The detection accuracy can even reach over 99% under strong fluctuations. Our research provides a reference for improving the performance of OAM optical communication through atmospheric turbulence.

Propagation dynamics and crosstalk of orbital angular momentum beams influenced by a supersonic wind-induced environmental disturbance.

Near field airflow induced by wind is an important factor influencing vortex beams propagation under airborne optical communication, and the cross-talk among different orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes occurs in OAM-based optical communication. In this paper, the propagation of vortex beams through a supersonic wind-induced random environment is investigated. The wind-induced phase model is firstly validated by wind tunnel experiment, with the phase model, vortex beams propagation under supersonic wind condition is analyzed, and the spiral spectrum distortion is discussed in detail. It is demonstrated that the larger wind velocity and boundary-layer thickness leads to the enhanced distortion and spiral spectrum expansion of OAM beams. The behavior of multiplexed vortex beams influenced by supersonic wind is also studied, and the effect of the topological charge interval is given. Our results may provide a powerful tool to estimate the effect of a random airflow environment on OAM-based communication performance under airborne condition.

Enhancing critical resolution of a ghost imaging system by using a vortex beam.

In an imaging system, resolution and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are two important indexes to characterize imaging quality. Ghost imaging is a novel imaging method whose imaging resolution and SNR are affected by the speckle size. In this paper, the relation between speckle size and resolution as well as that between speckle size and SNR in the GI system is analyzed in detail. It is shown that the critical resolution, resolvable minimum-separation between two adjacent objects, is approximately equal to the speckle size (speckle diameter). There exists an optimum SNR when the speckle size is larger than the object size. Based on our conclusion, we propose a scheme to enhance the critical resolution of the GI system by using a vortex beam, and the enhancement ability under different topological charges is clearly presented, which can be quantized by a simple formula.

Association between triglyceride glucose index, coronary artery calcification and multivessel coronary disease in Chinese patients with acute coronary syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Multivessel coronary disease (MVCD) is the common type of coronary artery disease in acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Coronary artery calcification (CAC) has been confirmed the strong predictor of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs). Several studies have validated that triglyceride glucose (TyG) index can reflect the degree of coronary calcification or predict MACEs. However, no evidence to date has elucidated and compared the predictive intensity of TyG index or/and coronary artery calcification score (CACS) on multi-vascular disease and MACEs in ACS patients. METHODS: A total of 935 patients, diagnosed with ACS and experienced coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) from August 2015 to March 2022 in the Second Hospital of Shandong University, were selected for retrospective analysis. The subjects were divided into TyG index quartile 1-4 groups (Q1-Q4 groups), non-multivessel coronary disease (non-MVCD) and multivessel coronary disease (MVCD) groups, respectively. The general data, past medical or medication history, laboratory indicators, cardiac color Doppler ultrasound, CACS, and TyG indexes were respectively compared among these groups. The ROC curve preliminarily calculated and analyzed the diagnostic value of TyG index, CACS, and the combination of the two indicators for MVCD. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis discriminated the independent hazard factors for forecasting MVCD. RESULTS: Compared with the lower TyG index and non-MVCD groups, the higher TyG index and MVCD groups had higher values of age, smoking history, waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C), fasting blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin, and CACS, but lower values of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C) (all P < 0.01). Coronary artery calcification is more common in the left anterior descending artery. Compared with non-MVCD, each unit increase in TyG index was associated with a 1.213-fold increased risk of MVCD. Logistic regression analysis adjusted for potential confounders indicated that TyG index is an independent risk factor for MVCD. With the increase of TyG index, the incidence of MACEs, apart from all-cause death, cardiac death, unexpected re-hospitalization of heart failure, recurrent ACS or unplanned revascularization, and non-fatal stroke in coronary artery increased (P log-rank < 0.001). CONCLUSION: TyG index could completely substitute for CACS as a reliable, practical, and independent indicator for predicting the severity and prognosis of MVCD in patients with ACS.

Propagation dynamics of Laguerre-Gaussian beams in the fractional Schrödinger equation with noise disturbance.

The evolution of Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams in the fractional Schrödinger equation (FSE) with Gaussian noise disturbance is numerically investigated. Without noise disturbance, the peak intensity of LG beams increases with the increment of radial or azimuthal indices, and the turning point of the peak intensity between different radial indices exists. As propagation distance gets longer, the intensity of the outermost sub-lobe exceeds that of the main lobe. When Gaussian noise is added, for a given noise level, the stability of peak intensity is enhanced as the Lévy index increases, while the center of gravity shows the opposite phenomenon. Moreover, the increment of the radial index can weaken the stability of the center of gravity. We also investigate the stability of the peak intensity of Airy beams in the FSE, and generally, the stability of LG beams is better than that of Airy beams. All these properties show that LG beams modeled by the FSE have potential applications in optical manipulation and communications.

Improving the signal-to-noise ratio of computational ghost imaging of a reflective object with a rough surface by Hadamard modulated light field.

We propose an optimization scheme to improve the reconstruction quality of computational ghost imaging (GI) of a reflective target with a rough surface by using the Hadamard modulation light field (HCGI). By comparison with computational GI with a traditional Gaussian light field (GCGI), the signal-to-noise ratio of GCGI is quite bad, and it is difficult to distinguish the imaging signal from the background when the surface roughness of the object is higher, while a ghost image with better quality can be obtained by HCGI. The difference is explained by comparing the distribution of the correlation coefficient. Additionally, it is found that HCGI has better noise robustness in comparison with GI with other random coded patterns.

Ghost imaging influenced by a supersonic wind-induced random environment.

Near field airflow induced by wind is an important factor influencing imaging quality when the imaging system is placed on a moving platform with high speed, such as airborne imaging. In this Letter, ghost imaging through an airflow environment is experimentally and numerically investigated. The experiment is performed with a wind tunnel, and imaging quality decreases with wind velocity. The simulation model of ghost imaging through this kind of environment is proposed, and simulation results match well with experiments. With the model, imaging results are extended into the supersonic wind region with the effects of airflow factors discussed in detail, and a comparison between airflow and atmosphere turbulence is presented. The results can find potential applications in optical imaging and may be a powerful tool to estimate the effect of airflow on performance of the imaging system.

Ghost imaging for detecting trembling with random temporal changing.

The imaging environment can be destabilized for moving objects and imaging platforms, thus leading the detection to be random trembling, which is detrimental to object reconstruction. In this Letter, we experimentally investigate ghost imaging for detecting trembling with random temporal changing, and an improvement method based on the temporal property of the imaging process is proposed. It is demonstrated that this method is effective in addressing image degradation due to the trembling disturbance and obtaining a higher-quality image of the object. The results provide a promising approach to deal with image degradation caused by an unstable environment and can find potential applications for ghost imaging in remote sensing.

Image transmission with binary coding for free space optical communications in the presence of atmospheric turbulence.

Understanding the influence of atmospheric turbulence on optical information transmission is important for free space optical communication. In this paper, the image transmission through a 1 km horizontal turbulent channel has been numerically investigated, and a simulation model including the process of image pixels encoding and decoding is given. The peak signal-to-noise ratio of the received image is evaluated, and the influences of the channel factors and detector noise are discussed in detail. The critical value of noise level and turbulence strength is given. Our results provide a simulation model for image transmission in a turbulent channel along with insight into the impacts of turbulence parameters and detector noise, which are useful for applications in optical communication.

FSP1 promotes the biofunctions of adventitial fibroblast through the crosstalk among RAGE, JAK2/STAT3 and Wnt3a/ß-catenin signalling pathways.

Emerging evidence indicates that fibroblast-specific protein 1 (FSP1) provides vital effects in cell biofunctions. However, whether FSP1 influences the adventitial fibroblast (AF) and vascular remodelling remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated the potential role and action mechanism of FSP1-mediated AF bioactivity. AFs were cultured and stimulated with FSP1 and siRNA-FSP1 in vitro. Viability assays demonstrated that siRNA-FSP1 counteracted AFs proliferative, migratory and adherent abilities enhanced with FSP1. Flow cytometry revealed that FSP1 increased AFs number in S phase and decreased cellular apoptosis. Contrarily, siRNA-FSP1 displayed the contrary results. RT-PCR, Western blotting and immunocytochemistry showed that FSP1 synchronously up-regulated the expression of molecules in RAGE, JAK2/STAT3 and Wnt3a/ß-catenin pathways and induced a proinflammatory cytokine profile characterized by high levels of MCP-1, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1. Conversely, FSP1 knockdown reduced the expression of these molecules and cytokines. The increased number of autophagosomes in FSP1-stimulated group and fewer autophagic corpuscles in siRNA-FSP1 group was observed by transmission electron microscope (TEM). Autophagy-related proteins (LC3B, beclin-1 and Apg7) were higher in FSP1 group than those in other groups. Conversely, the expression of p62 protein was shown an opposite trend of variation. Therefore, these pathways can promote AFs bioactivity, facilitate autophagy and induce the expression of the proinflammatory cytokines. Contrarily, siRNA-FSP1 intercepts the crosstalk of these pathways, suppresses AF functions, restrains autophagy and attenuates the expression of the inflammatory factors. Our findings indicate that crosstalk among RAGE, STAT3/JAK2 and Wnt3a/ß-catenin signalling pathways may account for the mechanism of AF functions with the stimulation of FSP1.

Investigation on the behavior of a laser propagating through a random environment induced by wind.

Wind is an important factor in environment disturbance, and the inhomogeneous distribution of wind velocity leads to random airflow, which severely affects beam propagation. In this paper, numerical and experimental studies have been performed to investigate the behavior of a laser propagating through a random environment induced by wind, and the main focus is the beam deflection evolution under the effect of the wind velocity. The experiment is performed with the wind tunnel, and the beam deviates from the center during propagation, a process in which the average beam deflection presents an increasing trend for the larger wind velocity and the airflow interval. The simulation model of beam propagation through this kind of environment is proposed, and the numerical simulation agrees with the experimental results. With the model, the average beam deflection results are extended into the high-speed region, and the comparison between the airflow and turbulence environment is also presented. The results can find potential applications in optical propagation and communication between two moving platforms with high speed.

Chemerin-induced angiogenesis and adipogenesis in 3 T3-L1 preadipocytes is mediated by lncRNA Meg3 through regulating Dickkopf-3 by sponging miR-217.

PURPOSE: Obesity is often caused by the excess adipogenesis and regulated by long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs). We performed this study to investigate the influence of Meg3 expression on adipogenesis and also the Meg3/miR-217/Dkk3 axis-mediated molecular mechanism in adipogenesis and angiogenesis. METHODS: 3 T3-L1 preadipocytes were incubated with chemerin and transfected with Meg3-overexpressing (OE-Meg3) and Dkk3-overexpressing (OE-Dkk3) plasmids, siRNAs, and miR-217 mimics, inhibitor and scrambled sequences for 48 h or 72 h. The changes in cell proliferation, adipogenesis and angiogenesis ability in 3 T3-L1 preadipocytes was detected by using the corresponding assay. The expressions of related proteins were detected via western blot. RESULTS: Chemerin decreased miR-217 expression and increased Meg3 expression, meanwhile promoted the proliferation, adipogenesis and angiogenesis in 3 T3-L1 preadipocytes. Besides, OE-Meg3 exerted the synergistic effect on 3 T3-L1 preadipocytes when co-treated with chemerin. The target interactions between Meg3 and miR-217 as well as between miR-217 and Dkk3 were validated using dual-luciferase reporter system. SiMeg3 antagonized chemerin-induced changes, while the addition of miR-217 inhibitor attenuated siMeg3-induced changes in 3 T3-L1 preadipocytes. The proliferation, adipogenesis and angiogenesis in 3 T3-L1 preadipocytes were suppressed by miR-217 mimics, while promoted by the OE-Dkk3 Chemerin promoted the expression of fatty acid binding protein 4 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) proteins, and decreased the expression of cyclin D1, c-Myc, and ß-catenin proteins. Meanwhile, these effects were further enhanced by OE-Meg3 or OE-Dkk3. However, the transfection of siMeg3, or miR-217 mimics, or siDkk3 reversed the previous changes. CONCLUSIONS: Meg3/miR-217/Dkk3 induced adipogenesis and angiogenesis in 3 T3-L1 preadipocytes via activating VEGF signaling pathway and inhibiting Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway.

Effect of the collection range of a bucket detector on ghost imaging through turbulent atmosphere.

A model of the collection range of a bucket detector is proposed to investigate ghost imaging through turbulent atmosphere. The influence of the collection range of a bucket detector on the quality of ghost imaging is discussed under different turbulence intensities. The numerical results show that the quality of ghost imaging increases with increment in the collection range of the bucket detector and with a decrease in turbulence intensity. Specifically, we give a critical collection range of a bucket detector, which is the minimum collection range for ghost imaging at different turbulence intensities. Additionally, a comparison of ghost imaging through turbulent atmosphere with ghost imaging through vacuum atmosphere is provided to show the effect of turbulent atmosphere on ghost imaging.