Progress of uric acid in cardiovascular disease.

Due to the global prevalence of hyperuricemia (HUA), there is growing interest in research on uric acid (UA). HUA is a common condition that has various adverse consequences, including gout and kidney disease. However, recent studies have also implicated UA in the development of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) such as atrial fibrillation (AF) and coronary heart disease (CHD). Experimental and clinical research has extensively demonstrated the detrimental effects of elevated serum UA levels on cardiovascular health. Furthermore, serum UA levels have been identified as predictors of CVD outcomes following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and catheter ablation. Additionally, the use of UA-lowering therapy holds important implications for the management of CVD. This review aims to consolidate the current evidence on the relationship between serum UA and CVD.

Correlation of oxidative stress and vascular endothelial dysfunction with hippocampal perfusion in atrial fibrillation patients with cognitive impairment.

Objectives: To evaluate the correlation of oxidative stress and vascular endothelial dysfunction with hippocampal perfusion in patients with atrial fibrillation and cognitive impairment. Methods: In total, 41 atrial fibrillation patients with cognitive impairment were compared to 45 atrial fibrillation patients without cognitive impairment. Oxidative stress, vascular endothelial dysfunction, hippocampal perfusion, and cognitive function were measured. Results: Serum level of oxidized low-density lipoprotein was significantly higher in the atrial fibrillation + cognitive impairment group than in the atrial fibrillation group. Serum levels of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 were significantly higher, and nitric oxide was lower, in the atrial fibrillation + cognitive impairment group than in the atrial fibrillation group. The regional cerebral blood volume, mean transit time, and time to peak were significantly higher in the atrial fibrillation + cognitive impairment group than in the atrial fibrillation group. Moreover, regional cerebral blood flow was significantly lower in the atrial fibrillation + cognitive impairment group than in the atrial fibrillation group. Age, left atrial diameter, and regional cerebral blood volume were negatively correlated with the cognitive function score in the atrial fibrillation + cognitive impairment group. Serum levels of oxidized low-density lipoprotein, regional cerebral blood volume, regional cerebral blood flow, mean transit time, and time to peak were significantly correlated with cognitive impairment in atrial fibrillation patients after multivariate logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: Hippocampal perfusion and oxidative stress were significantly correlated with cognitive impairment in atrial fibrillation patients.

Analysis of the Distribution Pattern of Remaining Oil and Development Potential after Weak Gel Flooding in the Offshore LD Oilfield.

The LD oilfield is one of the representative offshore oilfields. After weak gel flooding, the recovery rate is significantly improved. However, the oilfield is then in a medium- to high-water content stage, presenting a complex distribution of the remaining oil. The measures for further enhanced oil recovery (EOR) are uncertain. As a result, it is necessary to clarify the distribution pattern and development potential of the remaining oil during the high-water content period after weak gel flooding. In this study, an online nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) oil displacement experiment and microscopic oil displacement experiment were conducted, and the mechanisms of weak gel flooding and the distribution pattern of the remaining oil were clarified in the LD oilfield. Additionally, high-multiple water flooding and numerical simulation experiments were conducted to analyze the development potential after weak gel flooding. The results show that the effect of weak gel flooding was more significant in the core of 1500 mD, with an increase in oil recovery of 9% compared to 500 mD. At a permeability of 500 mD, the degree of crude oil mobilization in micropores and small pores caused by weak gel flooding was improved by 29.64% and 23.48%, respectively, compared with water flooding. At 1500 mD, the degree of crude oil mobilization in small pores caused by weak gel flooding was increased by 37.79% compared to water flooding. After weak gel flooding, the remaining oil was primarily distributed in medium and large pores. Microscopically, the remaining oil was dominated by cluster residual oil, accounting for 16.49%, followed by columnar, membranous, and blind-end residual oil. High multiple water flooding experiments demonstrated that weak gel flooding could significantly reduce development time. The ultimate oil recovery efficiency of 500 mD and 1500 mD reached 71.85% and 80.69%, respectively. Numerical simulation results show that the ultimate oil recovery efficiency increased from 62.04% to 71.3% after weak gel flooding. This indicated that the LD oilfield still had certain development potential after weak gel flooding. The subsequent direction for enhanced oil recovery focuses mainly on mobilizing oil in medium pores or clustered remaining oil. This will play a crucial role in further exploring methods for utilizing the remaining oil and increasing the recovery rate.

Black carp ATG16L1 negatively regulates STING-mediated antiviral innate immune response.

The precise control of interferon (IFN) production is indispensable for the host to eliminate invading viruses and maintain a homeostatic state. In mammals, stimulator of interferon genes (STING) is a prominent adaptor involved in antiviral immune signaling pathways. However, the regulatory mechanism of piscine STING has not been thoroughly investigated. Here, we report that autophagy related 16 like 1 (bcATG16L1) of black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) is a negative regulator in black carp STING (bcSTING)-mediated signaling pathway. Initially, we substantiated that knockdown of bcATG16L1 increased the transcription of IFN and ISGs and enhanced the antiviral activity of the host cells. Subsequently, we identified that bcATG16L1 inhibited the bcSTING-mediated IFN promoter activation and proved that bcATG16L1 suppressed bcSTING-mediated antiviral ability. Furthermore, we revealed that bcATG16L1 interacted with bcSTING and the two proteins shared a similar subcellular distribution. Mechanically, we found that bcATG16L1 attenuated the oligomerization of bcSTING, which was a key step for bcSTING activation. Taken together, our results indicate that bcATG16L1 interacts with bcSTING, dampens the oligomerization of bcSTING, and negatively regulates bcSTING-mediated antiviral activity.

USP46 promotes the interferon antiviral signaling in black carp by deubiquitinating TBK1.

Ubiquitin-specific peptidase 46 (USP46) functions as a deubiquitinating enzyme, facilitating the removal of ubiquitin molecules attached to substrate proteins and playing a critical role in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. However, its function in innate antiviral immunity is unknown. In this study we cloned and identified bcUSP46, a homolog of USP46 from black carp. We discovered that overexpression of bcUSP46 enhanced the transcription of interferon (IFN) promoters and increased the expression of IFN, PKR, and Mx1. In addition, bcUSP46 knockdown significantly inhibited the expression of ISG genes, as well as the antiviral activity of the host cells. Interestingly, when bcUSP46 was co-expressed with the RLR factors, it significantly enhanced the activity of the IFN promoter mediated by these factors, especially TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1). The subsequent co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP) and immunofluorescence (IF) assay confirmed the association between bcUSP46 and bcTBK1. Noteworthily, co-expression of bcUSP46 with bcTBK1 led to an elevation of bcTBK1 protein level. Further analysis revealed that bcUSP46 stabilized bcTBK1 by eliminating the K48-linked ubiquitination of bcTBK1. Overall, our findings highlight the unique role of USP46 in modulating TBK1/IFN signaling and enrich our knowledge of the function of deubiquitination in regulating innate immunity in vertebrates.

Smartphone-assisted colorimetric biosensor for the determination of organophosphorus pesticides on the peel of fruits.

Nowadays, the widespread use of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) in agricultural production leads to varying degrees of residues in crops, which pose a potential threat to human health. Conventional methods used in national standard for the detection of OPs in fruits and vegetables require expensive instruments or cumbersome sample pretreatment steps for the analysis. To address these challenges, in this work, we took advantage of the peroxidase-like activity of PtCu3 alloy nanocrystals (NCs) for a colorimetric and smartphone assisted sensitive detection of OPs. With the assist of a smartphone, the concentration of OPs on the peel of fruits could be obtained by comparing the B/RG value (the brightness value of blue divided by those of red and green) of a test strip with a calibration curve. This work not only provides a facile and cost-effective method to detect pesticides but also makes a positive contribution to food safety warning.

Wall permeability on magnetic resonance imaging is associated with intracranial aneurysm symptoms and wall enhancement.

OBJECTIVES: Wall remodeling and inflammation accompany symptomatic unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs). The volume transfer constant (Ktrans) of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) reflects UIA wall permeability. Aneurysmal wall enhancement (AWE) on vessel wall MRI (VWI) is associated with inflammation. We hypothesized that Ktrans is related to symptomatic UIAs and AWE. METHODS: Consecutive patients with UIAs were prospectively recruited for 3-T DCE-MRI and VWI from January 2018 to March 2023. UIAs were classified as asymptomatic and symptomatic if associated with sentinel headache or oculomotor nerve palsy. Ktrans and AWE were assessed on DCE-MRI and VWI, respectively. AWE was evaluated using the AWE pattern and wall enhancement index (WEI). Spearman's correlation coefficient and univariate and multivariate analyses were used to assess correlations between parameters. RESULTS: We enrolled 82 patients with 100 UIAs (28 symptomatic and 72 asymptomatic). The median Ktrans (2.1 versus 0.4 min-1; p < 0.001) and WEI (1.5 versus 0.4; p < 0.001) were higher for symptomatic aneurysms than for asymptomatic aneurysms. Ktrans (odds ratio [OR]: 1.60, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.01-2.52; p = 0.04) and WEI (OR: 3.31, 95% CI: 1.05-10.42; p = 0.04) were independent risk factors for symptomatic aneurysms. Ktrans was positively correlated with WEI (Spearman's coefficient of rank correlation (rs) = 0.41, p < 0.001). The combination of Ktrans and WEI achieved an area under the curve of 0.81 for differentiating symptomatic from asymptomatic aneurysms. CONCLUSIONS: Ktrans may be correlated with symptomatic aneurysms and AWE. Ktrans and WEI may provide an additional value than the PHASES score for risk stratification of UIAs. CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT: The volume transfer constant (Ktrans) from DCE-MRI perfusion is associated with symptomatic aneurysms and provides additional value above the clinical PHASES score for risk stratification of intracranial aneurysms. KEY POINTS: • The volume transfer constant is correlated with intracranial aneurysm symptoms and aneurysmal wall enhancement. • Dynamic contrast-enhanced and vessel wall MRI facilitates understanding of the pathophysiological characteristics of intracranial aneurysm walls. • The volume transfer constant and wall enhancement index perform better than the traditional PHASES score in differentiating symptomatic aneurysms.

Cancer worry and its impact on self-reported depressive symptoms among adult males and females in the US: a nationwide sample study.

OBJECTIVE: With cancer the second deadliest disease in the world, worry about cancer can have mental health or psychiatric implications. This study examines the prevalence, differences, and influence of cancer worry (CW), its interaction effect with age, and other confounders on self-reported depressive symptoms (SRDS) among adult males and females in the US. METHODS: We utilized a nationally representative sample data of 2,950 individuals (males = 1,276; females = 1,674) from Cycle 4 of the Health Information National Trends Survey 5 (HINTS 5) 2020. Using frequencies, bivariate chi-square test, and multivariate logistic regression, we examined the prevalence, difference, and association of CW with SRDS, adjusting for confounders. RESULTS: The prevalence rate of SRDS was found to be 32% among females and 23.5% among males. Among individuals with CW, females had a higher prevalence of SRDS compared to males (40.5% vs. 35.1%). However, there was a significant difference in the likelihood of experiencing SRDS between males and females with CW, with males having 84% increased risk compared to females. Across all age groups, the multivariate analysis of the relationship between CW and SRDS revealed that both males and females showed a significantly decreased likelihood of SRDS compared to those aged 18-34 years. However, males aged 35 years or older exhibited an even more pronounced decrease in likelihood compared to females in the same age group. Nonetheless, when examining the interaction of age and CW, we observed a significantly increased likelihood of SRDS across all age groups. Males, in particular, had a higher increased likelihood of SRDS compared to females across all ages, except for those aged 75 years and older. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study highlight the significant influence of CW on individuals' SRDS and the modifying effect of age, particularly among males. These results are important for a better understanding of the risk of CW on mental health, which can be a preventive strategy or control mechanism.

Miniaturized and Portable Laser Gas Sensor for Standoff Methane Detection With Non-Cooperative Targets.

A standoff methane (CH4) sensor with actual hard topographic targets (usually called non-cooperative targets) is essential for natural gas pipeline leakage inspection and many other practical applications. To address this requirement, a miniaturized and low-power-consumption gas sensor was developed based on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy for standoff CH4 detection with a non-cooperative target. Wavelength modulation spectroscopy with a 1f normalized 2f detection method was employed for calibration-free CH4 measurement. A Kalman filter algorithm was used to improve the precision of the detection. The performance of the standoff CH4 sensor was evaluated comprehensively under various conditions, including different incident angles, different hard topographic targets, and different standoff distances. The results show that the measurement precision is 0.107% and the sensitivity is 4.08 parts per million per meter (ppm·m) with a time resolution of 1 s and a standoff distance of 40 m. The detection limit can achieve 1.24 ppm·m at an optimal integration time of 70 s. This sensor can be easily integrated into mobile platforms, which lays the foundation for intelligent leak inspection.

Enhanced vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging in the follow-up of intracranial aneurysms treated with flow diversion.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare the efficacy of enhanced 3D T1-weighted black-blood fast-spin-echo vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging (eVW-MRI) and time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography (TOF MRA) for follow-up evaluation of aneurysms treated with flow diversion (FD). METHODS: Our study enrolled 77 patients harboring 84 aneurysms treated with FD. Follow-up was by MRI (eVW-MRI and TOF MRA) and digital subtraction angiography (DSA). Two radiologists, blinded to DSA examination results, independently evaluated the images of aneurysm occlusion and parent artery patency using the Kamran-Byrne Scale. Interobserver diagnostic agreement and intermodality diagnostic agreement were acquired. Pretreatment and follow-up aneurysm wall enhancement (AWE) patterns were collected. RESULTS: Based on the Kamran-Byrne Scale, the intermodality agreement between eVW-MRI and DSA was better than TOF MRA versus DSA for aneurysm remnant detection (weighted ĸ = 0.891 v. 0.553) and parent artery patency (ĸ = 0.950 v. 0.221). Even with the coil artifact, the consistency of eVW-MRI with DSA for aneurysm remnant detection was better than that of TOF MRA (weighted ĸ = 0.891 v. 0.511). The artifact of adjunctive coils might be more likely to affect the accuracy in evaluating parent artery patency with TOF MRA than with eVW-MRI (ĸ = 0.077 v. 0.788). The follow-up AWE patterns were not significantly associated with pretreatment AWE patterns and aneurysm occlusion. CONCLUSIONS: The eVW-MRI outperforms TOF MRA as a reliable noninvasive and nonionizing radioactive imaging method for evaluating aneurysm remnants and parent artery patency after FD. The significance of enhancement patterns on eVW-MRI sequences needs more exploration. CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT: The application of enhanced vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging has proven to be a promising tool to depict aneurysm remnant and parent artery stenosis in order to tailor the antiplatelet therapy strategy in patients after flow diversion. KEY POINTS: • Enhanced vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging has an emerging role in depicting aneurysm remnant and parent artery patency after flow diversion. • With or without the artifact from adjunctive coils, enhanced vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging was better than TOF MRA in detecting aneurysm residual and parent artery stenosis by using DSA imaging as the standard. • Enhanced vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging holds potential to be used as an alternative to DSA for routine aneurysm follow-up after flow diversion.

Environmental Sustainability of π-Electron Donor-Based Deep Eutectic Solvents for Toluene Absorption: A Life-Cycle Perspective.

The novel π-electron donor-based deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been shown to be a promising type of absorbent with excellent performance on toluene absorption. However, their greenness or sustainability is still unclear. Thus, to bridge the gap and give a comprehensive evaluation for their industrialization potential, the life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to evaluate the potential environmental impacts incurred from their production and usage for absorbing toluene. The environmental profiles are also compared with that of popular choline chloride (ChCl) based DES, common organic solvent triethylene glycol (TEG) and ionic liquid ([EMIM][Tf2 N]). The results indicate that among the involved hydrogen bond acceptors (HBAs), TEBAC generally imparts lower environmental impacts than other HBAs but has higher impacts than ChCl. Although TEBAC-PhOH is not the most environmentally friendly absorbent during the production stage, its outstanding absorption performance minimizes the environmental impact when absorbing the same mass of toluene. Furthermore, the environmental impacts of the toluene absorption process using TEBAC-PhOH is significantly lower than that of [EMIM][Tf2 N], slightly lower than TEG. Therefore, considering both absorption performance and environmental impacts, TEBAC-PhOH can be used as a promising "green and sustainable" toluene absorbent to traditional absorbents and ionic liquids.

Tailoring chemical composition of solid electrolyte interphase by selective dissolution for long-life micron-sized silicon anode.

Micron-sized Si anode promises a much higher theoretical capacity than the traditional graphite anode and more attractive application prospect compared to its nanoscale counterpart. However, its severe volume expansion during lithiation requires solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) with reinforced mechanical stability. Here, we propose a solvent-induced selective dissolution strategy to in situ regulate the mechanical properties of SEI. By introducing a high-donor-number solvent, gamma-butyrolactone, into conventional electrolytes, low-modulus components of the SEI, such as Li alkyl carbonates, can be selectively dissolved upon cycling, leaving a robust SEI mainly consisting of lithium fluoride and polycarbonates. With this strategy, raw micron-sized Si anode retains 87.5% capacity after 100 cycles at 0.5 C (1500 mA g-1, 25°C), which can be improved to >300 cycles with carbon-coated micron-sized Si anode. Furthermore, the Si||LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 battery using the raw micron-sized Si anode with the selectively dissolved SEI retains 83.7% capacity after 150 cycles at 0.5 C (90 mA g-1). The selective dissolution effect for tailoring the SEI, as well as the corresponding cycling life of the Si anodes, is positively related to the donor number of the solvents, which highlights designing high-donor-number electrolytes as a guideline to tailor the SEI for stabilizing volume-changing alloying-type anodes in high-energy rechargeable batteries.

The Correlation of Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, and Hippocampal Perfusion in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is closely related to abnormal cerebral blood flow. Inflammation and oxidative stress have always been important factors in the pathophysiology of AF. It remains unknown whether inflammation and oxidative stress are correlated to hippocampal perfusion in patients with AF.Sixty-three patients with AF with normal hippocampal blood perfusion (NHBP) were compared to 71 patients with AF with abnormal hippocampal blood perfusion (AHBP) using a case-control study design. The serum levels of inflammation and oxidative stress were measured. The hippocampal perfusion was detected. (1) The serum levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) were statistically higher in the AHBP group than in the NHBP group. In the AHBP subgroup analysis, the serum levels of hs-CRP and IL-6 were statistically higher in patients with persistent AF than those with paroxysmal AF. (2) The relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV), mean transit time (MTT), and the time-to-peak (TTP) were statistically higher in the AHBP group than in the NHBP group. Moreover, cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was statistically lower in the AHBP group than in the NHBP group. (3) relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV), rCBF, MTT, and TTP were passively associated with serum hs-CRP and IL-6; rCBV, rCBF, and MTT were positively associated with ox-LDL. The serum levels of hs-CRP, IL-6, and ox-LDL were associated with AHBP in patients with AF after multivariate logistic regression analysis.Oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers were increased in patients with AF with AHBP, in which the serum levels of hs-CRP and IL-6 in the persistent AF group were statistically higher than those in the paroxysmal AF group. The serum levels of hs-CRP, IL-6, and ox-LDL were associated with AHBP in patients with AF.

Incidence and risk factors of unplanned retreatment following dental general anesthesia in children with severe early childhood caries.

Objective: This study aimed to retrospectively describe the unplanned retreatment of dental general anesthesia (DGA) in children with severe early childhood caries (S-ECC) and explore potential factors that may influence the outcome of DGA treatment. Methods: Medical records of children with S-ECC who received DGA treatment were screened, and necessary data were extracted. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards model were used to estimate the DGA survival rate and explore the potential factors affecting the success rate of DGA treatment. Results: Medical records of 852 children were included; 509 (59.7%) children with 1,212 (10.7%) teeth underwent unplanned retreatment. Restoration failure (30.12%) and new caries (29.46%) accounted for the most significant proportion of all failures. The median survival times were 510 and 1,911 days at the child and tooth levels, respectively. Unplanned retreatment risk was associated with the age of S-ECC children, frequency of follow-up, and fluoride application (hazard ratio = 0.97, 0.78, 0.69, P < 0.001). Conclusion: The treatment outcome of DGA administered to children with S-ECC was satisfactory at the tooth level from the perspective of the incidence of unplanned retreatment. Restoration failure was the main reason for the high unplanned retreatment rate. Strategies for a better outcome of DGA include improving the professional knowledge and skills of pediatric dentists and enhancing compliance of parents/patients. Health education and regular topical fluoride application may improve the success rate of DGA treatment.

Effect of sleep ambient music on sleep quality and mental health in college students: a self-controlled study.

To verify the effect of sleep ambient music intervention (SAMI) on sleep quality and mental status of college students, and to further explore the minimum effective duration of SAMI, this study was designed as a pre-and post-intervention self-controlled exploratory study. Participants were subjected to a one-week no-intervention test, then 4 weeks of music intervention followed. Subjective sleep quality data were collected using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); objective sleep quality data were collected with Actigraphy; and mental status data were collected using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Data were analyzed and processed using mixed-effects models and repeated measures. The results showed that compared with the no-intervention week, college students' subjective sleep quality, objective sleep onset latency (SOL), trait anxiety, and depression symptom were reduced at week 1; week 2; week 3; week 4 under SAMI; state anxiety of college students at week 3 and week 4 under SAMI were also reduced. And there were differences in sleep quality among college students of different genders too. Compared with females, males had worse sleep efficiency (SE), shorter total sleep time (TST), and more awaking times (AT). In addition, 3 days was the minimum effective length for SAMI to shorten objective SOL, and 2 days was the minimum effective length to shorten the subjective SOL of college students. The findings of this study suggest that SAMI can improve subjective sleep quality, shorten objective SOL, and reduce anxiety and depression in college students. Interventions for more than 3 days had a significant effect on shortening SOL and long-term effects seemed to emerge after 3 weeks.

Elevated cerebrospinal fluid YKL-40 levels in patients with anti-gamma-aminobutyric- acid-B receptor encephalitis.

OBJECTIVE: Anti-gamma-aminobutyric-acid-B receptor (GABAbR) encephalitis is a rare form of autoimmune encephalitis. Until now, there are few biomarkers that can indicate the severity and prognosis of patients with anti-GABAbR encephalitis. The objective of this study was to exam the changes of chitinase-3-like protein 1 (YKL-40) in patients with anti-GABAbR encephalitis. In addition, whether YKL-40 could indicate the disease severity was also evaluated. METHODS: The clinical features of 14 patients with anti-GABAbR encephalitis and 21 patients with anti-N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis were retrospectively studied. YKL-40 levels in serum and cerebral fluid (CSF) of patients were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The correlation of modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of encephalitis patients and YKL40 levels were analyzed. RESULTS: YKL-40 levels in CSF were significantly higher in patients with anti-GABAbR encephalitis or anti-NMDAR encephalitis than those in controls. YKL-40 levels between these two encephalitis groups were not different. Moreover, YKL-40 levels in CSF from patients with anti-GABAbR encephalitis were positively correlated with the mRS score at admission and at 6-month follow-up. CONCLUSION: YKL-40 level is elevated in CSF from patients with anti-GABAbR encephalitis at early disease stage. YKL-40 may be a potential biomarker indicating the prognosis of patients with anti-GABAbR encephalitis.

Dynamic Yarn-Tension Detection Using Machine Vision Combined with a Tension Observer.

Machine vision can prevent additional stress on yarn caused by contact measurement, as well as the risk of hairiness and breakage. However, the speed of the machine vision system is limited by image processing, and the tension detection method based on the axially moving model does not take into account the disturbance on yarn caused by motor vibrations. Thus, an embedded system combining machine vision with a tension observer is proposed. The differential equation for the transverse dynamics of the string is established using Hamilton's principle and then solved. A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is used for image data acquisition, and the image processing algorithm is implemented using a multi-core digital signal processor (DSP). To obtain the yarn vibration frequency in the axially moving model, the brightest centreline grey value of the yarn image is put forward as a reference to determine the feature line. The calculated yarn tension value is then combined with the value obtained using the tension observer based on an adaptive weighted data fusion method in a programmable logic controller (PLC). The results show that the accuracy of the combined tension is improved compared with the original two non-contact methods of tension detection at a faster update rate. The system alleviates the problem of inadequate sampling rate using only machine vision methods and can be applied to future real-time control systems.

DPDH-CapNet: A Novel Lightweight Capsule Network with Non-routing for COVID-19 Diagnosis Using X-ray Images.

COVID-19 has claimed millions of lives since its outbreak in December 2019, and the damage continues, so it is urgent to develop new technologies to aid its diagnosis. However, the state-of-the-art deep learning methods often rely on large-scale labeled data, limiting their clinical application in COVID-19 identification. Recently, capsule networks have achieved highly competitive performance for COVID-19 detection, but they require expensive routing computation or traditional matrix multiplication to deal with the capsule dimensional entanglement. A more lightweight capsule network is developed to effectively address these problems, namely DPDH-CapNet, which aims to enhance the technology of automated diagnosis for COVID-19 chest X-ray images. It adopts depthwise convolution (D), point convolution (P), and dilated convolution (D) to construct a new feature extractor, thus successfully capturing the local and global dependencies of COVID-19 pathological features. Simultaneously, it constructs the classification layer by homogeneous (H) vector capsules with an adaptive, non-iterative, and non-routing mechanism. We conduct experiments on two publicly available combined datasets, including normal, pneumonia, and COVID-19 images. With a limited number of samples, the parameters of the proposed model are reduced by 9x compared to the state-of-the-art capsule network. Moreover, our model has faster convergence speed and better generalization, and its accuracy, precision, recall, and F-measure are improved to 97.99%, 98.05%, 98.02%, and 98.03%, respectively. In addition, experimental results demonstrate that, contrary to the transfer learning method, the proposed model does not require pre-training and a large number of training samples.

Microvesicles with mitochondrial content are increased in patients with sepsis and associated with inflammatory responses.

BACKGROUND: Endothelial activation plays an important role in sepsis-mediated inflammation, but the triggering factors have not been fully elucidated. Microvesicles carrying mitochondrial content (mitoMVs) have been implicated in several diseases and shown to induce endothelial activation. AIM: To explore whether mitoMVs constitute a subset of MVs isolated from plasma of patients with sepsis and contribute to endothelial activation. METHODS: MVs were isolated from human plasma and characterized by confocal microscopy and flow cytometry. Proinflammatory cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule (sVCAM)-1 were detected by ELISA. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were stimulated with the circulating MVs to evaluate their effect on endothelial activation. RESULTS: MitoMVs were observed in plasma from patients with sepsis. Compared with those in healthy controls, expression of MVs, mitoMVs, proinflammatory cytokines and sVCAM-1 was increased. The number of mitoMVs was positively associated with TNF-α and sVCAM-1. In vitro, compared with MVs isolated from the plasma of healthy controls, MVs isolated from the plasma of patients with sepsis induced expression of OAS2, RSAD2, and CXCL10 in HUVECs. MitoMVs were taken up by HUVECs, and sonication of MVs significantly reduced the uptake of mitoMVs by HUVECs and expression of the above three type I IFN-dependent genes. CONCLUSION: MitoMVs are increased in the plasma of patients with sepsis, which induces elevated expression of type I IFN-dependent genes. This suggests that circulating mitoMVs activate the type I IFN signalling pathway in endothelial cells and lead to endothelial activation.

Survival Analysis and Risk Factors of Pulpectomy among Children with Severe Early Childhood Caries Treated under General Anesthesia: A Retrospective Study.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to retrospectively evaluate the survival rate of pulpectomy performed under dental general anesthesia (DGA) through long-term follow-up and to explore the risk factors associated with treatment failure. METHODS: The medical records of the children who were diagnosed with S-ECC and received pulpectomy treatment under general anesthesia (GA) from 1 August 2014 to 1 December 2019, in the Stomatological Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, were collected. Two dentistry postgraduates extracted the necessary information and filled in a predesigned excel form. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method. The shared frailty model was used to explore possible factors affecting the success rate of pulpectomy in primary teeth. RESULTS: A total of 381 children (mean age 3.49 ± 0.90) with S-ECC and 1220 teeth were included in the study, including 590 primary anterior teeth and 630 primary molars. The overall 35-month survival rate was 38.5%, which was 52.9% for anterior teeth and 31.1% for molars. The overall median survival time was 31 months, in which anterior teeth were 35 months and molars were 26 months. The older the children were, the greater the risk of treatment failure (HR 1.56, 95% CI 1.09, 2.24). The risk of pulpectomy failure of primary molars was 1.9 times that of primary anterior teeth (95% CI 1.36, 2.65) and the teeth with abnormal radiological findings before treatment was 1.41 times higher than that of teeth without imaging abnormalities (95% CI 1.74, 3.36). CONCLUSION: The survival rate of primary tooth pulpectomy is acceptable but decreased gradually with time. The failure rate of pulpectomy in primary molars is higher than that of primary anterior teeth. When the primary caries has extended to the pulp and resulted in a nonvital lesion, pulpectomy could be an option for maximum retention of the primary tooth.