Study of the Prediction of Vibrations in Soft Soil Foundations Based on Field Tests.

To explore the prediction of vibrations in soft soil foundations, in light of the construction of laboratories with microvibration requirements on soft soil foundations which are subject to the limitations of urban land planning, field testing was conducted, and the soil surface vibration responses were recorded at different distances from a road under various highway traffic loads. By analyzing the data which summarize the characteristics of soft soil foundations, it is clarified that the vibration response of soft soil foundations mainly occurs at low frequencies, and the vibration response under road traffic loads is prone to resonance at the natural frequency of soft soil foundations. Subsequently, a new vibration prediction method based on the vibration transmission ratio is proposed, and its effectiveness and accuracy based on transmissibility are verified. This research study provides a reference for laboratories constructed on soft soil and for surrounding traffic planning.

Endothelial phosphoinositide 3-kinase-ß inactivation confers protection from immune-mediated vascular injury.

Heart transplant and recipient survival are limited by immune cell-mediated injury of the graft vasculature. We examined the role of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase-ß (PI3Kß) isoform in endothelial cells (EC) during coronary vascular immune injury and repair in mice. In minor histocompatibility-antigen mismatched allogeneic heart grafts, a robust immune response was mounted to each wild-type, PI3Kß inhibitor-treated, or endothelial-selective PI3Kß knockout (ECßKO) graft transplanted to wild-type recipients. However, microvascular EC loss and progressive occlusive vasculopathy only developed in control, but not PI3Kß-inactivated hearts. We observed a delay in inflammatory cell infiltration of the ECßKO grafts, particularly in the coronary arteries. Surprisingly, this was accompanied by an impaired display of proinflammatory chemokine and adhesion molecules by the ECßKO ECs. In vitro, tumor necrosis factor α-stimulated endothelial ICAM1 and VCAM1 expression was blocked by PI3Kß inhibition or RNA interference. Selective PI3Kß inhibition also blocked tumor necrosis factor α-stimulated degradation of inhibitor of nuclear factor kappa Bα and nuclear translocation of nuclear factor kappa B p65 in EC. These data identify PI3Kß as a therapeutic target to reduce vascular inflammation and injury.

Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes carrying miR-1827 downregulate SUCNR1 to inhibit macrophage M2 polarization and prevent colorectal liver metastasis.

microRNA-1827 (miR-1827) is proposed to be enriched in exosomes from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs-Exos). A recent study has addressed the suppressive effect of exosomes from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs-Exos) on colorectal cancer (CRC) metastasis. Hence, our study aims at investigating whether hUC-MSCs-Exos can modulate the liver metastasis in CRC by mediating miR-1827. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) were used to identify hUC-MSCs-Exos. Using gain- and loss-of-function approaches, the expression of miR-1827 and succinate receptor 1 (SUCNR1) was altered. Consequently, the biological functions of CRC cells were assessed by CCK-8 and Transwell assays and macrophage M2 polarization was assayed by flow cytometry. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was applied to clarify interaction between miR-1827 and SUCNR1. CRC cells were incubated with hUC-MSCs-Exos and tumor-bearing mice were injected with hUC-MSCs-Exos to examine the effects on CRC cell growth and metastasis. SUCNR1, lowly expressed in CRC, could promote CRC cell growth and macrophage M2 polarization. miR-1827 could target SUCNR1 and hence suppress the progression and metastasis of CRC. hUC-MSCs-Exos carried miR-1827 to inhibit M2 macrophage polarization by downregulating SUCNR1 expression, and inhibited proliferating, migrating and invading properties of CRC cells. Furthermore, hUC-MSCs-Exos carrying miR-1827 blocked CRC liver metastasis in vivo. These findings indicate hUC-MSCs-Exos as an inhibitor of M2 macrophage polarization and liver metastasis in CRC through inducing miR-1827-targeted inhibition of SUCNR1. This provides a theoretical basis for understanding the mechanisms underlying Exos-based target therapy for CRC.

Downregulation of Perilipin1 by the Immune Deficiency Pathway Leads to Lipid Droplet Reconfiguration and Adaptation to Bacterial Infection in Drosophila.

Lipid droplets (LDs), the highly dynamic intracellular organelles, are critical for lipid metabolism. Dynamic alterations in the configurations and functions of LDs during innate immune responses to bacterial infections and the underlying mechanisms, however, remain largely unknown. In this study, we trace the time-course morphology of LDs in fat bodies of Drosophila after transient bacterial infection. Detailed analysis shows that perilipin1 (plin1), a core gene involved in the regulation of LDs, is suppressed by the immune deficiency signaling, one major innate immune pathway in Drosophila During immune activation, downregulated plin1 promotes the enlargement of LDs, which in turn alleviates immune reaction-associated reactive oxygen species stress. Thus, the growth of LDs is likely an active adaptation to maintain redox homeostasis in response to immune deficiency activation. Therefore, our study provides evidence that plin1 serves as a modulator on LDs' reconfiguration in regulating infection-induced pathogenesis, and plin1 might be a potential therapeutic target for coordinating inflammation resolution and lipid metabolism.

Feature Analysis in High-Dimensional Data: Structure-Activity Relationships of Lewis Acid-Transition-Metal Complex-Catalyzed H2 Activation.

Lewis acid-transition metal (LA-TM) catalysts have been proven to have an advantage in catalyzing hydrogen activation. Herein, a high-dimensional structure-activity relationship study is performed for LA-TM-catalyzed hydrogen activation by density functional theory calculations. The DPB-Ni complex is taken as the representative catalyst, and the explored Lewis acid sites and transition-metal centers include B, Al, Ga and Ni, Pd, Pt, respectively. Totally, four general hydrogen activation mechanisms are systematically studied among the nine catalytic systems. The Ga-Ni system undergoes the lowest free energy of activation (11.0 kcal/mol), which is considered to be the optimal combination of the Lewis acid site and transition-metal center. Furthermore, more than 100 parameters are used to analyze the structure-activity relationship, including the physical structure, the bond order, the atom charge, and many other properties. Key parameters of important structures are dug out to show a high correlation with the activity of the LA-TM systems, including the M-H2 distance, the H-H bond length, the second-order perturbation stabilization energy of M-H2, the bond order of the LA-TM, and so on. The multivariable analysis indicates that the feature related to the basic elemental properties and the global feature codetermine the activity of the catalyst. In the LA-TM system, the combination of IpLA/IpTM (Ip, the first ionization energy, the feature related to basic elemental properties) and the chemical hardness (the global feature) can better explain the activity of the catalyst. The IpLA/IpTM reflects the difficulty of breaking the LA-TM bond, affecting the reaction site of activating hydrogen. The hardness reflects the stability and reactivity of LA-TM-RC complexes. The above two features with the addition of the LA-TM bond length (the local feature) can better reflect the activity of the LA-TM system-catalyzed H2 activation. The feature combinations and the method of multidimensional data analysis should be informative guidance for the rational design of efficient LA-TM catalysts for H2 activation.

Brain functional activity of swallowing: A meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging.

BACKGROUND: Swallowing is one of the most important activities in our life and serves the dual roles of nutritional intake and eating enjoyment. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to investigate the brain activity of swallowing. METHODS: Studies of swallowing using functional magnetic resonance imaging were reviewed in PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database (VIP) and Wan Fang before 30 November 2021. Two authors analysed the studies for eligibility criteria. The final inclusion of studies was decided by consensus. An activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of these studies was performed with GingerALE, including 16 studies. RESULTS: For swallowing, clusters with high activation likelihood were found in the bilateral insula, bilateral pre-central gyrus, bilateral post-central gyrus, left transverse temporal gyrus, right medial front gyrus, bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and bilateral cingulate gyrus. For water swallowing, clusters with high activation likelihood were found in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and the left pre-central gyrus. For saliva swallowing, clusters with high activation likelihood were found in the bilateral cingulate gyrus, bilateral pre-central gyrus, left post-central gyrus and left transverse gyrus. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis reflects that swallowing is regulated by both sensory and motor cortex, and saliva swallowing activates more brain areas than water swallowing, which would promote our knowledge of swallowing and provide some direction for clinical and other research.

The Power of Positive Reporting: Examining China's Anti-Epidemic National Image in Mainstream Media.

Covid-19 out broke gave an extreme impact to the globe, imposing a challenge to health publicly and causing social interruptions. As a result, the role of mainstream media in promoting anti-epidemic measures and disseminating national images has become increasingly important. In this study, we examine the anti-epidemic reports in 2020 from three types of international news sources, identifying 566 samples for content and text analysis. Through our analysis, we found that each component of the anti-epidemic report has a clear focus, and that these reports presented China's national image of anti-epidemic in four dimensions. Notably, the European version of People's Daily exhibited a positive reporting tendency, accounting for 86% of the total, with only 8% of reports being negative. This indicates a relatively comprehensive national image construction and communication strategy amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, our research reveals the important role of media in shaping a nation's image during a global crisis. The positive reporting tendency of the European version of People's Daily reflects an effective strategy for promoting a positive national image, thereby dispelling misunderstandings and prejudices towards China's anti-epidemic measures. Our findings provide inspiration for the dissemination of national images in times of crisis, highlighting the importance of comprehensive and well-coordinated communication strategies to promote a positive image.

Stereoselective Unsymmetrical 1,1-Diborylation of Alkynes with a Neutral sp2 -sp3 Diboron Reagent.

The incorporation of two distinct boryl groups at the same carbon center in organic molecules has attracted growing research interest due to its potential for facilitating controlled, precise synthesis through stepwise dual carbon-boron bond transformations. Here we report a method to access unsymmetrical 1,1-diborylalkene (UDBA) stereoselectively via the reaction of readily available alkynes with a neutral sp2 -sp3 diboron reagent (NHC)BH2 -Bpin (NHC=N-heterocyclic carbene). Attributing to the chemically easily distinguishable nature of the sp2 and sp3 boryl moieties, controllable stepwise derivatization of the resultant UDBAs is realized. This process leads to various multifunctionalized olefins and organoborons, such as acylboranes, which are difficult to prepare by other methods.

Effects of focus training on heart rate variability in post-stroke fatigue patients.

OBJECTIVE: This study discusses the effects of focus training on heart rate variability (HRV) in post-stroke fatigue (PoSF) patients. METHODS: Self-generate physiological coherence system (SPCS) was used for the focus training of PoSF patients for 12 weeks. Then, fatigue severity scale (FSS), Hamilton depression scale (HAMD), HRV and satisfaction scale (SASC-19) before and after the training were assessed. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, FSS score, HAMD score, RMSSD, PNN50% were significantly lower in the research group at the end of the intervention (P < 0.05); SDNN, SDANN, LF, HF, LF/HF intervention satisfaction rate increased significantly in the research group at the end of the intervention (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The use of SPCS software during the focus training of PoSF patients reduced the fatigue and depression, meanwhile improved the HRV of the patients. Therefore, these patients were greatly satisfied with the intervention.

Fast aerial image model for EUV lithography using the adjoint fully convolutional network.

The effects of thick-mask and oblique incidence in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system make the aerial image calculation a challenging task. This paper develops a fast EUV lithography aerial image model based on a new kind of deep learning framework called adjoint fully convolutional network (AFCN). The AFCN consists of two adjoint data paths to respectively recover the real part and imaginary part of the complex mask diffraction-near-field (DNF). The feature-swapping technique is introduced to exchange the information between the real and imaginary data paths. The AFCN is trained based on a pre-calculated rigorous thick-mask DNF dataset. Given the estimated thick-mask DNF, the Abbe's method is used to calculate the aerial image of the partially coherent lithography system. Compared to the traditional non-parametric kernel regression method, the proposed model reduces the error by more than 80% and achieves 25-fold improvement in computational efficiency.

BMAL1 induces colorectal cancer metastasis by stimulating exosome secretion.

BACKGROUND: To adapt to daily changes in the external environment, organisms have developed circadian rhythm systems with a period of approximately 24 h. Many studies have reported that both circadian rhythms and exosomes play important roles in the development and metastasis of tumors. However, whether circadian clock genes can affect the progression of tumors by regulating exosomes remains unclear. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study, we isolated exosomes from the supernatant of human colorectal cancer (CRC) cells, including SW480, SW620, and HCT116 cells, by differential centrifugation and characterized exosomes by transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticle tracking analysis, and Western blot analysis. Then, we found that exosomes derived from SW480, SW620 and HCT116 cells could promote the migration of HCT116 and human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Exosomes derived from SW620 cells showed increased stimulating effects when we increased the expression of BMAL1, a core circadian protein. In contrast, exosomes derived from SW480 and HCT116 cells showed decreased stimulating effects when we knocked down the expression of BMAL1. Furthermore, we discovered that BMAL1 promotes the release of exosomes by HCT116 and SW620 cells. In addition, by luciferase assay, we confirmed that BMAL1 transcriptionally regulates the expression of Rab27a, a key molecule related to the secretion of exosomes. CONCLUSIONS: Our data reveal a new mechanism by which BMAL1 induces CRC metastasis by stimulating exosome secretion. This finding may help further clarify the role of circadian rhythm in the progression of CRC.

PARP inhibitor Olaparib overcomes Sorafenib resistance through reshaping the pluripotent transcriptome in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common human malignancies worldwide with very poor prognosis. Resistance to targeted therapeutic drugs such as sorafenib remains one of the major challenges in clinical treatment. In the present study, PARP1 was found to be highly expressed in human embryonic stem cells, but progressively decreased upon specified hepatic differentiation. Reactivation of PARP1 expression was also detected in HCC residual tumors after sorafenib treatment in xenograft mouse model, indicating the potential important roles of PARP1 in stem cell pluripotency and HCC sorafenib treatment resistance. Overexpression of PARP1 was frequently observed in HCC patients, and closely associated with poor clinical outcome. Treatment of Sorafenib induced activation of DNA damage repair signaling, which is highly active and essential for maintenance of stem cell pluripotency in HCC residual tumors. PARP inhibitor Olaparib extensively suppressed the DNA damage repair signaling, and significantly inhibited the global pluripotent transcriptional network. The repression of key pluripotent transcriptional factors and DNA damage repair signaling by Olaparib was mainly through CHD1L-mediated condensation of the chromatin structure at their promotor regions. The global reshaping of the pluripotent transcriptome by Olaparib might reinforce Sorafenib in eliminating HCC residual tumors and enhance therapeutic efficiency.

Anti-CD52 blocks EAE independent of PD-1 signals and promotes repopulation dominated by double-negative T cells and newly generated T and B cells.

Lymphocyte depletion using anti-CD52 antibody effectively reduces relapses of multiple sclerosis (MS). To begin to understand what mechanisms might control this outcome, we examined the effect of a murine-CD52-specific mAb on the depletion and repopulation of immune cells in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model of MS. We tested whether the tolerance-promoting receptor programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) is required for disease remission post anti-CD52, and found that PD-1-deficient mice with a more severe EAE were nevertheless effectively treated with anti-CD52. Anti-CD52 increased the proportions of newly generated T cells and double-negative (DN) T cells while reducing newly generated B cells; the latter effect being associated with a higher expression of CD52 by these cells. In the longer term, anti-CD52 caused substantial increases in the proportion of newly generated lymphocytes and DN T cells in mice with EAE. Thus, the rapid repopulation of lymphocytes from central lymphoid organs post anti-CD52 may limit further disease. Furthermore, these data identify DN T cells, a subset with immunoregulatory potential, as a significant hyperrepopulating subset following CD52-mediated depletion.

Desensitization using imlifidase and EndoS enables chimerism induction in allosensitized recipient mice.

Mixed hematopoietic chimerism induction as a way to foster tolerance to donor organs in recipients who have been sensitized to donor antigens is challenging. Donor-specific antibodies (DSA) are a dominant barrier toward successful donor bone marrow engraftment. Although desensitization methods are routinely used in recipients with allosensitization for allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, engraftment is frequently unsuccessful. To overcome the barrier of prior sensitization we tested enzymatic desensitization of donor-specific IgG using imlifidase and endoglycosidase of Streptococcus pyogenes (EndoS), which both partially block the function of DSA in mice, as a novel approach to improve murine bone marrow engraftment in primed hosts. We found that EndoS was capable of inhibiting antibody-mediated killing of donor cells in vivo. Furthermore, the effect of EndoS depended on the titer of DSA and the genetic background of the recipients. In combination with imlifidase, EndoS improved the survival of donor bone marrow cells. Together with cyclophosphamide, bortezomib, T cell depletion, and nonlethal irradiation, imlifidase in combination with EndoS allowed allogeneic bone marrow engraftment in sensitized recipients. We conclude that enzymatic inactivation of DSA, using the combination of imlifidase and EndoS, can be used for inducing donor hematopoietic chimerism in allosensitized recipient mice in combination with other desensitization strategies.

A Fluorescent "Turn-off" Probe for the Determination of Curcumin Using Upconvert Luminescent Carbon Dots.

This work established a novel and simple method for quantitative determination of curcumin by developing a "turn-off" fluorescence probe based on upconvert luminescent carbon dots (p-CDs). The carbon dots were synthesized with p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) and ethanol by solvothermal method and had specific up-conversion luminescence properties which could be applied in other sensing fields. The sensing mechanism of this fluorescent probe was based on the inter filter effect (IFE) between p-CDs and curcumin. As the concentration of curcumin increased, the fluorescence of p-CDs could be selectively quenched. Under the optimal conditions, the fluorescence quenching intensity of p-CDs had a good linear relationship with curcumin in the range of 0.4-45 µΜ and the detection limit was 0.133 µM. In addition, the fluorescent "turn-off" probe constructed with p-CDs exhibited high accuracy and recovery in the analysis of real sample curry powder, indicating that the fluorescence "turn-off" probe had potential application for the detection of curcumin in the complex matrixes.

Automatic surface inspection for S-PVC using a composite vision-based method.

Appearance defect inspection is crucial for quality control in the context of Industry 4.0. This research introduces a joint surface defect inspection and classification framework for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe based on the low-cost visual sensors and high-efficiency computer vision algorithms. First, we build a robust imaging system to acquire the surface of PVC (S-PVC) by considering its characteristics and the illumination condition into the modeling process. Second, we adopt the region of interest method to eliminate the background interference captured in the S-PVC imaging and design an efficient S-PVC defect inspection and classification method. Third, we build an automatic machine prototype to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed method. Experimental results demonstrate that our framework has the advantages of low latency, high precision, and robustness.

Fast extreme ultraviolet lithography mask near-field calculation method based on machine learning.

Near-field calculation for a three-dimensional (3D) mask is a fundamental task in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography simulations. This paper develops a fast 3D mask near-field calculation method based on machine learning for EUV lithography. First, the training libraries of rigorous mask near fields are built based on a set of representative mask samples and reference source points. In the testing stage, the mask under consideration is first segmented into a set of non-overlapped patches. Then the local near field of each patch is calculated based on the non-parametric regression and data fusion techniques. Finally, the entire mask near field is synthesized based on the image stitching and data fitting methods. The proposed method is shown to achieve higher accuracy compared to the traditional domain decomposition method. In addition, the computational efficiency is improved up to an order of magnitude compared to the rigorous electromagnetic field simulator.

Learning-based compressive sensing method for EUV lithographic source optimization.

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography emerges as a promising technique to fabricate next-generation integrated circuits. In order to improve the lithography imaging fidelity, source optimization (SO) technique is widely used to compensate for the imaging distortion. This paper develops an efficient learning-based SO approach for EUV lithography under the compressive sensing (CS) framework. The dimensionality of EUV-SO problem is significantly reduced by sparsely sampling the layout pattern. Then, the EUV-SO is formulated as an l1-norm inverse reconstruction problem based on the sparse prior of source patterns. The cost function is established based on a rigorous imaging model to take into account the characteristic effects in EUV lithography systems. In addition, a learning-based method is proposed to jointly optimize the source dictionary and projection matrix according to the sparsity and incoherence conditions in CS theory. The optimal source dictionary and projection matrix can be learned from a set of training samples collected from typical layout features in advance. Then, the optimized dictionary and projection matrix can be repetitively used in the following SO algorithms. Based on a set of simulations, the proposed SO method is proved to achieve good performance in both imaging fidelity and computational efficiency.

MicroRNA-197 Promotes Metastasis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Activating Wnt/ß-Catenin Signaling.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: MicroRNA-197 (miR-197) has been shown to play roles in epithelialmesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis. The Wnt/ß-catenin pathway is associated with EMT, but whether miR-197 regulatesWnt/ß-catenin remains unclear. This study was to demonstrate the role of miR-197 on the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of miR-197 in 105 HCC specimens and 15 HCC cell lines. We tested the predicted target gene of miR-197 using a genetic report system. The role of miR-197 in HCC cell invasion and migration (wound healingand cell invasion and migrationby Transwell assays) and in an HCC xenograft modelwas analyzed. RESULTS: Using a miRNA microarray analysis of HCC specimens and compared with non-metastatic HCC, miR-197 was identified as one of the most upregulated miRNAs in metastatic HCC. miR-197 expression was positively associated with the invasiveness of HCC cell lines. Metastatic HCC cells with high miR-197 expression had Wnt/ß-catenin signaling activation. High levels of miR-197 expression also promoted EMT and invasionHCC cells in vitro and in vivo. miR-197 directly targeted Axin-2, Naked cuticle 1 (NKD1), and Dickkopf-related protein 2 (DKK2), leading to inhibition of Wnt/ß-catenin signaling. High miR-197 expression was found in HCC specimens from patients with portal vein metastasis;high miR-197 expression correlated to the expression of Axin2, NKD1, and DKK2. CONCLUSION: miR-197 promotes HCC invasion and metastasis by activating Wnt/ß-catenin signaling. miR-197 could possibly be used as a prognostic marker and therapeutic target for HCC.

KPNA2 is a potential diagnostic serum biomarker for epithelial ovarian cancer and correlates with poor prognosis.

This study aimed to determine whether serum karyopherin alpha 2 levels can be used as a diagnostic biomarker for epithelial ovarian carcinoma. Karyopherin alpha 2 protein was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in serum samples from 162 epithelial ovarian carcinoma patients and 48 healthy controls. Serum karyopherin alpha 2 levels in epithelial ovarian carcinoma patients were significantly higher than in healthy controls ( p < 0.001). When a karyopherin alpha 2 serum level of 2.52 µg/mL was used as a cut-off, the sensitivity and specificity of the assay for diagnosing epithelial ovarian carcinoma were 71.4% and 81.2%, respectively. High serum karyopherin alpha 2 levels (>485 µg/mL) correlated with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage ( p < 0.0001), lymphatic metastasis ( p = 0.045), overall survival ( p = 0.001), and disease-free progression ( p = 0.006). Serum karyopherin alpha 2 represents a potential diagnostic biomarker for epithelial ovarian carcinoma.