Tunable Magnetism in Atomically Thin Itinerant Antiferromagnet with Room-Temperature Ferromagnetic Order.

Addressing the need for modulated spin configurations is crucial, as they serve as the foundational building blocks for next-generation spintronics, particularly in atomically thin structures and at room temperature. In this work, we realize intrinsic ferromagnetism in monolayer flakes and tunable ferro-/antiferromagnetism in (Fe0.56Co0.44)5GeTe2 antiferromagnets. Remarkably, the ferromagnetic ordering (≥1 L) and antiferromagnetic ordering (≥4 L) remain discernible up to room temperature. The TC (∼310 K) of the monolayer flakes sets a record high for known exfoliated monolayer van der Waals magnets. Within the framework of A-type antiferromagnetism, a notable odd-even layer-number effect at elevated temperatures (T = 150 K) is observed. Of particular interest is the strong ferromagnetic order in even-layer flakes at low temperatures. The intricate interplay among magnetic field strength, layer number, and temperature gives rise to a diverse array of phenomena, holding promise not only for new physics but also for practical applications.

Microbiota metabolites in bone: Shaping health and Confronting disease.

The intricate interplay between the gut microbiota and bone health has become increasingly recognized as a fundamental determinant of skeletal well-being. Microbiota-derived metabolites play a crucial role in dynamic interaction, specifically in bone homeostasis. In this sense, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), including acetate, propionate, and butyrate, indirectly promote bone formation by regulating insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) has been found to increase the expression of osteoblast genes, such as Runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) and bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2), thus enhancing osteogenic differentiation and bone quality through BMP/SMADs and Wnt signaling pathways. Remarkably, in the context of bone infections, the role of microbiota metabolites in immune modulation and host defense mechanisms potentially affects susceptibility to infections such as osteomyelitis. Furthermore, ongoing research elucidates the precise mechanisms through which microbiota-derived metabolites influence bone cells, such as osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Understanding the multifaceted influence of microbiota metabolites on bone, from regulating homeostasis to modulating susceptibility to infections, has the potential to revolutionize our approach to bone health and disease management. This review offers a comprehensive exploration of this evolving field, providing a holistic perspective on the impact of microbiota metabolites on bone health and diseases.

Biomechanical comparative study on external fixators of new configurations in the treatment of Tile C pelvic injury.

To compare the biomechanical properties of several anterior pelvic ring external fixators with two new configurations in the treatment of Tile C pelvic fractures, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the new configurations and provide a reference for their clinical application. A finite element model of a Tile C pelvic ring injury (unilateral longitudinal sacral fracture and ipsilateral pubic fracture) was constructed. The pelvis was fixed with iliac crest external fixator (IC), anterior inferior iliac spine external fixator (AIIS), combination of IC and AIIS, combination of anterior superior iliac spine external fixator (ASIS) and AIIS, and S1 sacroiliac screw in 5 types of models. The stability indices of the anterior and posterior pelvic rings under vertical longitudinal load, left-right compression load and anterior-posterior shear load were quantified and compared. In the simulated bipedal standing position, the results of the vertical displacement of the midpoint on the upper surface of the sacrum are consistent with the displacement of the posterior rotation angle, and the order from largest to smallest is IC, AIIS, ASIS + AIIS, IC + AIIS and S1 screw. The longitudinal displacement of IC is greater than that of the other models. The displacements of ASIS + AIIS and IC + AIIS are similar and the latter is smaller. In the simulated semi-recumbent position, the vertical displacement and posterior rotation angle displacement of the midpoint on the upper surface of the sacrum are also consistent, ranking from large to small: IC, AIIS, ASIS + AIIS, IC + AIIS and S1 screw. Under the simulated left-right compression load state, the lateral displacements of the highest point of the lateral sacral fracture end are consistent with the highest point of the lateral pubic fracture end, and the order from large to small is S1 screw, IC, AIIS, ASIS + AIIS and IC + AIIS, among which the displacements of S1 screw and IC are larger, and the displacements of ASIS + AIIS and IC + AIIS are similar and smaller than those of other models. The displacements of IC + AIIS are smaller than those of ASIS + AIIS. Under the simulated anterior-posterior shear load condition, the posterior displacements of the highest point of the lateral sacral fracture end and the highest point of the lateral pubic fracture end are also consistent, ranking from large to small: IC, AIIS, ASIS + AIIS, IC + AIIS and S1 screw. Among them, the displacements of IC and AIIS are larger. The displacements of ASIS + AIIS and IC + AIIS are similar and the latter are smaller. For the unstable pelvic injury represented by Tile C pelvic fracture, the biomechanical various stabilities of the combination of IC and AIIS are superior to those of the external fixators of conventional configurations. The biomechanical stabilities of the combination of ASIS and AIIS are also better than those of the external fixators of conventional configurations, and slightly worse than those of the combination of IC and AIIS. Compared with sacroiliac screw and conventional external fixators, the lateral stabilities of IC + AIIS and ASIS + AIIS are particularly prominent.

Dual-channel hypergraph convolutional network for predicting herb-disease associations.

Herbs applicability in disease treatment has been verified through experiences over thousands of years. The understanding of herb-disease associations (HDAs) is yet far from complete due to the complicated mechanism inherent in multi-target and multi-component (MTMC) botanical therapeutics. Most of the existing prediction models fail to incorporate the MTMC mechanism. To overcome this problem, we propose a novel dual-channel hypergraph convolutional network, namely HGHDA, for HDA prediction. Technically, HGHDA first adopts an autoencoder to project components and target protein onto a low-dimensional latent space so as to obtain their embeddings by preserving similarity characteristics in their original feature spaces. To model the high-order relations between herbs and their components, we design a channel in HGHDA to encode a hypergraph that describes the high-order patterns of herb-component relations via hypergraph convolution. The other channel in HGHDA is also established in the same way to model the high-order relations between diseases and target proteins. The embeddings of drugs and diseases are then aggregated through our dual-channel network to obtain the prediction results with a scoring function. To evaluate the performance of HGHDA, a series of extensive experiments have been conducted on two benchmark datasets, and the results demonstrate the superiority of HGHDA over the state-of-the-art algorithms proposed for HDA prediction. Besides, our case study on Chuan Xiong and Astragalus membranaceus is a strong indicator to verify the effectiveness of HGHDA, as seven and eight out of the top 10 diseases predicted by HGHDA for Chuan-Xiong and Astragalus-membranaceus, respectively, have been reported in literature.

The lncRNA H19/miR-29a-3p/SNIP1/c-myc regulatory axis is involved in pulmonary fibrosis induced by Nd2O3.

Some rare earth elements are occupational and environmental toxicants and can cause organ and systemic damage; therefore, they have attracted global attention. Neodymium oxide (Nd2O3) is a rare earth element that is refined and significantly utilized in China. The long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) H19 is encoded by the H19/IGF2 imprinted gene cluster located on human chromosome 11p15.5. H19 has become a research focus due to its ectopic expression leading to the promotion of fibrosis. However, the mechanisms by which it causes pulmonary fibrosis are elusive. This investigation indicates that biologically active Nd2O3 increases H19, SNIP1, and c-myc, decreases miR-29a-3p, accelerates macrophage M2 polarization, and causes pulmonary fibrosis in mice lung tissues. In macrophage-differentiated THP-1 cells, Nd2O3 (25 µg/ml) enhanced H19, SNIP1, and c-myc, reduced miR-29a-3p, accelerated macrophages M2 polarization, and stimulated fibrogenic cytokine (TGF-ß1) secretion. Furthermore, the coculturing of Nd2O3-treated macrophage-differentiated THP-1 cells. And human embryonic lung fibroblast cells activated lung fibroblast, which increases the levels of collagen I, α-SMA, p-Smad2/3, and Smad4, whereas H19 knockdown or miR-29a-3p upregulation in macrophages had opposite effects. Moreover, it was revealed that H19/miR-29a-3p/SNIP1/c-myc regulatory axis is involved in pulmonary fibrosis induced by Nd2O3. Therefore, this study provides new molecular insights into the mechanism of pulmonary fibrosis by Nd2O3.

Biomechanical effects of S1 sacroiliac screws versus S2 sacroiliac screws on sacroiliac screws combined with a lumbar iliac fixation in the treatment of vertical sacral fractures: a biomechanical finite element analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of sacroiliac screw position and length on the biomechanical properties of triangular osteosynthesis in treating unilateral vertical sacral fractures and provide a clinical reference. METHODS: Unilateral Denis type II sacral fractures were modelled using finite elements to represent Tile C pelvic ring injuries. Six sacroiliac screws were used with iliolumbar fixation patterns to fix the sacral fractures, and the sacral stability, maximum pressure, and stress distribution were compared among the internal fixation modalities. RESULTS: The best vertical stability of the internal fixation model was achieved when the S1 segment was fixed with lengthened sacroiliac screws, followed by when the S1 segment was fixed using normal sacroiliac screws. There was no significant difference in vertical stability between the S1 + S2 dual-segment fixation model and the S1-segment fixation model. The maximum pressure under a vertical force of 600 N showed a trend of L5LS1 < L5NS1 < L5LS12 < L5LS2 < L5NS2 < L5NS12. CONCLUSIONS: In unilateral vertical sacral fractures (Denis II) treated with triangular osteosynthesis using triangular jointing combined with unilateral iliolumbar + sacroiliac screw fixation, the use of a single lengthened sacroiliac screw for the S1 segment is recommended to achieve the best vertical stability of the sacrum with less maximum compression on the internal fixation components. If it is not possible to apply a lengthened sacroiliac screw, the use of a normal sacroiliac screw for the S1 segment is recommended. Adding an S2 screw does not significantly increase the vertical stability of the sacrum.

Dynamical approach to the atomic and electronic structures of the ductile semiconductor Ag2S.

Silver sulfide in monoclinic phase (α-Ag2S) has attracted significant attention owing to its metal-like ductility and promising thermoelectric properties near room temperature. However, first-principles studies on this material by density functional theory calculations have been challenging as both the symmetry and atomic structure of α-Ag2S predicted from such calculations are inconsistent with experimental findings. Here, we propose that a dynamical approach is imperative for correctly describing the structure of α-Ag2S. The approach is based on a combination of ab initio molecular dynamics simulation and deliberately chosen density functional considering both proper treatment of the van der Waals interaction and on-site Coulomb interaction. The obtained lattice parameters and atomic site occupations of α-Ag2S are in good agreement with experimental data. A stable phonon spectrum at room temperature can be obtained from this structure, which also yields a bandgap in accord with experimental measurements. The dynamical approach thus paves the way for studying this important ductile semiconductor in not only thermoelectric but also optoelectronic applications.

Mechanisms of neutrophil extracellular trap in chronic inflammation of endothelium in atherosclerosis.

Cardiovascular diseases are a primary cause of morbidity and mortality around the world. In addition, atherosclerosis (AS)-caused cardiovascular disease is the primary cause of death in human diseases, and almost two billion people suffer from carotid AS worldwide. AS is caused by chronic inflammation of the arterial vessel and is initiated by dysfunction of vascular endothelial cells. Neutrophils protect against pathogen invasion because they function as a component of the innate immune system. However, the contribution of neutrophils to cardiovascular disease has not yet been clarified. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) represent an immune defense mechanism that is different from direct pathogen phagocytosis. NETs are extracellular web-like structures activated by neutrophils, and they play important roles in promoting endothelial inflammation via direct or indirect pathways. NETs consist of DNA, histones, myeloperoxidase, matrix metalloproteinases, proteinase 3, etc. Most of the components of NETs have no direct toxic effect on endothelial cells, such as DNA, but they can damage endothelial cells indirectly. In addition, NETs play a critical role in the process of AS; therefore, it is important to clarify the mechanisms of NETs in AS because NETs are a new potential therapeutic target AS. This review summarizes the possible mechanisms of NETs in AS.

Biomechanical comparison of four triangular osteosynthesis fixations for unilateral vertical sacral fractures.

To compare the stability and biomechanical characteristics of four commonly used triangular osteosynthesis techniques to treat unilateral vertical sacral fractures and provide a clinical application reference. Finite element models of Tile C-type pelvic ring injury (unilateral Denis II sacral fracture) were produced. In four models, sacral fractures were fixed with a combination of unilateral L5, unilateral L4, and L5 iliac lumbar fixation with lengthened or normal sacroiliac screws. The biomechanical properties of the four fixation models were measured and compared under bipedal stance and lumbar rotation. The fixation stability of the model with the lengthened sacroiliac screw was excellent, and the fracture end was stable. The stability of fixation using unilateral L4 and L5 segments was close to that of unilateral L5 segment fixation. Triangular osteosynthesis transverse stabilization devices using lengthened sacroiliac screws can increase the vertical stability of the sacrum after internal fixation and increase the stability of the fracture. When triangular osteosynthesis lumbar fixation segments were selected, simultaneous fixation of L4 and L5 segments versus only L5 segments did not significantly enhance the vertical stability of the sacrum or the stability of the fracture end.

Plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 inhibits miR-515-5p function and modulates high mobility group B3 to promote the growth of prostate cancer cells.

AIM: This study is performed to analyze the role of long non-coding RNA plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 in prostate cancer. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Plasmacytoma variant translocation 1, miR-515-5p, and high mobility group B3 mRNA expressions were examined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry. After gain-of-function and loss-of-function models were established, the changes in cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were evaluated using cell counting kit-8 assay, 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine assay, and Transwell experiments. Validation of the targeting relationships between plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 and miR-515-5p, and between miR-515-5p and high mobility group B3 was conducted using bioinformatics prediction, a dual-luciferase reporter assay, and an RNA immunoprecipitation experiment. Moreover, the effects of plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 and miR-515-5p on high mobility group B3 protein expression were examined using Western blot. RESULTS: Plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 expression and high mobility group B3 expression were up-regulated in prostate cancer tissues and cell lines while miR-515-5p expression was down-regulated. Plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 knockdown restrained the proliferation, migration, and invasion of LNCaP and DU145 cells in vitro, and the transfection with miR-515-5p inhibitors reversed these effects. Mechanistically, plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 could repress the function of miR-515; high mobility group B3 was proved to be a target gene of miR-515-5p, and its expression could be indirectly positively modulated by plasmacytoma variant translocation 1. CONCLUSION: Plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 accelerates prostate cancer progression by repressing miR-515-5p's function to upregulate high mobility group B3 expression.

Breakage risk of different sacroiliac screws in unilateral sacral fractures a finite element analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the breakage risk of lengthened sacroiliac screws and ordinary sacroiliac screws to treat unilateral vertical sacral fractures and provide a reference for clinical application. METHODS: A finite element model of Tile C pelvic ring injury (unilateral type Denis II fracture of the sacrum) was produced. The sacral fractures were fixed with a lengthened sacroiliac screw and ordinary sacroiliac screw in 6 types of models. The maximal von Mises stresses and stress distributions of the two kinds of screws when standing on both feet were measured and compared. RESULTS: The maximal von Mises stress of the lengthened screw was less than that of the ordinary screw. Compared with ordinary screw, the stress distribution in the lengthened screw was more homogeneous. CONCLUSIONS: The breakage risk of screws fixed in double segments is lower than that of screws fixed in single segments, the breakage risk of lengthened screws is lower than that of ordinary screws, and the breakage risk of screws fixed in S2 segments is lower than that of screws fixed in S1 segments.

A geometric deep learning framework for drug repositioning over heterogeneous information networks.

Drug repositioning (DR) is a promising strategy to discover new indicators of approved drugs with artificial intelligence techniques, thus improving traditional drug discovery and development. However, most of DR computational methods fall short of taking into account the non-Euclidean nature of biomedical network data. To overcome this problem, a deep learning framework, namely DDAGDL, is proposed to predict drug-drug associations (DDAs) by using geometric deep learning (GDL) over heterogeneous information network (HIN). Incorporating complex biological information into the topological structure of HIN, DDAGDL effectively learns the smoothed representations of drugs and diseases with an attention mechanism. Experiment results demonstrate the superior performance of DDAGDL on three real-world datasets under 10-fold cross-validation when compared with state-of-the-art DR methods in terms of several evaluation metrics. Our case studies and molecular docking experiments indicate that DDAGDL is a promising DR tool that gains new insights into exploiting the geometric prior knowledge for improved efficacy.

Biomechanical comparison of three minimally invasive fixations for unilateral pubic rami fractures.

BACKGROUND: To compare the mechanical characteristics of a percutaneous superior pubic intramedullary screw, percutaneous bridging plate and percutaneous screw-rod system of the anterior ring for the treatment of unilateral vertical pubic fractures to provide a reference for clinical application. METHODS: A finite element model of pelvic anterior ring injury (unilateral vertical pubic fracture) was produced. The fractures were fixed with a percutaneous superior pubic intramedullary screw, percutaneous bridging plate and percutaneous screw-rod system of the anterior ring and their combinations in 5 types of models. The fracture stabilities under vertical, bilateral and anterior-posterior load were quantified and compared based on the displacement of the hip joints' midpoint as quantificational index of fracture stability. RESULTS: In the condition of bilateral and anterior-posterior load, the vertical, bilateral and anterior-posterior displacements of the hip joints' midpoint of different models were significantly different respectively. In general, the displacements of the 5 pelvic anterior ring fixations were ranked from maximum to minimum as follows: bridging plate, pelvic anterior screw-rod system, combination of bridging plate and pelvic anterior screw-rod system, superior pubic intramedullary screw and combination of superior pubic intramedullary screw and pelvic anterior screw-rod system. CONCLUSION: For the fixation in unilateral pubic fractures of pelvic ring injury, the percutaneous superior pubic intramedullary screw is optimal, the percutaneous pelvic anterior screw-rod system is the second choice, and percutaneous bridging plate ranks the third. The percutaneous pelvic anterior screw-rod system can significantly increase fixation stability of the percutaneous superior pubic intramedullary screw and the percutaneous bridging plate.

Suppressed polarization by epitaxial growth of SrTiO3 on BaTiO3 nanoparticles for high discharged energy density and efficiency nanocomposites.

In order to meet the increasing demand of integration and miniaturization of electronic components, capacitors with high energy density are urgently needed. In this work, a strategy of suppressing interfacial polarization for obtaining enhanced energy density and efficiency polymer based nanocomposites is proposed. This strategy is conducted by epitaxial growth of a SrTiO3 layer with a moderate dielectric constant on the surface of a BaTiO3 core to form a kind of novel filler and compositing with the P(VDF-HFP) matrix to prepare dielectric nanocomposites. The SrTiO3 shell could effectively confine the mobility of charge carriers to enhance the dielectric strength of the composites and improve the energy efficiency by reducing the Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars (MWS) interfacial polarization and space charge polarization between the BaTiO3@SrTiO3 fillers and the P(VDF-HFP) matrix due to their similar crystal structure and lattice parameter. The nanocomposite containing 1 vol% BaTiO3@SrTiO3 nanoparticles achieved a discharged energy density of 13.89 J cm-3 and an energy efficiency of 63% at 494.7 kV mm-1, which are superior to 9.96 J cm-3 and 50% of BaTiO3/P(VDF-HFP) nanocomposites with the same loading, respectively, and its discharged energy density is 69% higher than 8.2 J cm-3 of the neat P(VDF-HFP) at 401.5 kV mm-1. This work provides an effective way for nanocomposite capacitors with high energy density and efficiency.

Diagnostic accuracy of MRA and MRI for the bursal-sided partial-thickness rotator cuff tears: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Numerous quantitatively studies have focused on the diagnosis of bursal-sided partial-thickness rotator cuff tears (RCTs); however, the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and MR arthrography (MRA) remains inconclusive. This study was performed systematically to compare the diagnostic value of MRA and MRI for the bursal-sided partial-thickness RCTs. METHODS: Three electronic databases, PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library, were utilized to retrieve articles comparing the diagnostic value of MRA and MRI for detecting bursal-sided partial-thickness RCTs. After screening and diluting out the articles that met the inclusion criteria to be used for statistical analysis, the pooled evaluation indexes include sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). RESULTS: Twelve studies involving 1740 patients and 1741 shoulders were identified. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, DOR, and AUC of MRA to diagnose bursal-sided partial-thickness RCTs were 0.77 (95% CI, 0.67-0.85), 0.98 (95% CI, 0.95-0.99), 73.01 (95% CI, 35.01-152.26), and 0.88 (95% CI, 0.85-0.91), respectively. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, DOR, and AUC of MRI were 0.77 (95% CI, 0.66-0.86) and 0.96 (95% CI, 0.81-0.99), and 37.12 (95% CI, 8.08-170.64) and 0.82 (95% CI, 0.78-0.85), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis reveals that MRA and MRI have similar diagnostic value for the diagnosis of bursal-sided partial-thickness rotator cuff tears.

Effectiveness of 18F-FDG PET/CT in the diagnosis, staging and recurrence monitoring of Ewing sarcoma family of tumors: A meta-analysis of 23 studies.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the value of positron emission tomography (PET) and PET/computed tomography (CT) using fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG) in the diagnosis, staging, restaging and recurrence monitoring of Ewing sarcoma family of tumors (ESFTs), a meta-analysis was performed through systematically searching PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Central library to retrieve articles. METHODS: After screening and diluting out the articles that met inclusion criteria to be used for statistical analysis the pooled evaluation indexes including sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odd ratio (DOR) as well as the summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) were calculated involving diagnostic data (true positive, false positive, false negative, and true negative) extracted from original studies. RESULTS: Screening determined that out of 2007, 23 studies involving a total of 524 patients were deemed viable for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The results of the analysis showed that the sensitivity and specificity were at 86% and 80%, respectively. Additionally, a satisfactory accuracy of F-FDG PET and PET/CT was observed in detecting ESFT recurrence, lung metastasis, and osseous metastasis. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis suggests that F-FDG PET and PET/CT with an extremely high accuracy could be considered a valuable method for detecting distant metastasis and post-operational recurrence of ESFT, which might have a profound impact on the development of treatment protocols for ESFT.