Evolution-strengthened knowledge graph enables predicting the targetability and druggability of genes.

Identifying promising targets is a critical step in modern drug discovery, with causative genes of diseases that are an important source of successful targets. Previous studies have found that the pathogeneses of various diseases are closely related to the evolutionary events of organisms. Accordingly, evolutionary knowledge can facilitate the prediction of causative genes and further accelerate target identification. With the development of modern biotechnology, massive biomedical data have been accumulated, and knowledge graphs (KGs) have emerged as a powerful approach for integrating and utilizing vast amounts of data. In this study, we constructed an evolution-strengthened knowledge graph (ESKG) and validated applications of ESKG in the identification of causative genes. More importantly, we developed an ESKG-based machine learning model named GraphEvo, which can effectively predict the targetability and the druggability of genes. We further investigated the explainability of the ESKG in druggability prediction by dissecting the evolutionary hallmarks of successful targets. Our study highlights the importance of evolutionary knowledge in biomedical research and demonstrates the potential power of ESKG in promising target identification. The data set of ESKG and the code of GraphEvo can be downloaded from https://github.com/Zhankun-Xiong/GraphEvo.

A Novel Robotic Bronchoscopic Surgical System / 中国医疗器械杂志

Transbronchil biopsy has the characteristic of less trauma and quick recovery compared to percutaneous aspiration biopsy. In order to automate this procedure, it requires the development of a robotic surgical system that combines electromagnetic navigation and flexible endoscope. The robotic surgical system introduced herein consists of flexible endoscope, remote-control handle, electromagnetic navigation and dexterous manipulators. The robotic system supports lung bronchial model segmentation and reconstruction, automatic bronchial path planning, real-time navigation and visual biopsy. In the control of the endoscopic catheter, an elasticity compensation algorithm was proposed to improve the location accuracy of the catheter and operational efficiency. Clinical trials proved that the robotic system had high positioning accuracy, was intuitive to operate, and could improve the biopsy efficiency, shorten the learning time, reduce the burden of surgical operations, and lower radiation exposure and infection rate.

Square-root-like higher-order topological states in three-dimensional sonic crystals.

The square-root descendants of higher-order topological insulators were proposed recently, whose topological property is inherited from the squared Hamiltonian. Here we present a three-dimensional (3D) square-root-like sonic crystal by stacking the 2D square-root lattice in the normal (z) direction. With the nontrivial intralayer couplings, the opened degeneracy at theK-Hdirection induces the emergence of multiple acoustic localized modes, i.e., the extended 2D surface states and 1D hinge states, which originate from the square-root nature of the system. The square-root-like higher order topological states can be tunable and designed by optionally removing the cavities at the boundaries. We further propose a third-order topological corner state in the 3D sonic crystal by introducing the staggered interlayer couplings on each square-root layer, which leads to a nontrivial bulk polarization in thezdirection. Our work sheds light on the high-dimensional square-root topological materials, and have the potentials in designing advanced functional devices with sound trapping and acoustic sensing.

Symmetry-protected hierarchy of anomalous multipole topological band gaps in nonsymmorphic metacrystals.

Symmetry and topology are two fundamental aspects of many quantum states of matter. Recently new topological materials, higher-order topological insulators, were discovered, featuring bulk-edge-corner correspondence that goes beyond the conventional topological paradigms. Here we discover experimentally that the nonsymmorphic p4g acoustic metacrystals host a symmetry-protected hierarchy of topological multipoles: the lowest band gap has a quantized Wannier dipole and can mimic the quantum spin Hall effect, whereas the second band gap exhibits quadrupole topology with anomalous Wannier bands. Such a topological hierarchy allows us to observe experimentally distinct, multiplexed topological phenomena and to reveal a topological transition triggered by the geometry transition from the p4g group to the C4v group, which demonstrates elegantly the fundamental interplay between symmetry and topology. Our study demonstrates that classical systems with controllable geometry can serve as powerful simulators for the discovery of novel topological states of matter and their phase transitions.

Experimental Study on Foci Development in Mortar Using Seawater and Sand.

Mortar using seawater and sand was the material studied here. The mortar specimens, in particular, were cured in natural seawater. The foci development in the mortar was the principal interest in this study. The on-line damage detection experiment art, including dynamically global MSHCT (Multi-Slices Helical Computer Tomography) scan and the local detection of EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectrometer), SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), and XRD (X-ray Diffraction) was designed to research the foci development in the mortar specimen. The mortar specimens with 70-day age were produced and investigated by the on-line damage detection experiments. The experiment results indicated that the mortar using seawater and sand offered appreciable strength at the early age, at least, although some saline minerals were generated during the preparation. The residual strength of the mortar was above 13 MPa, which helped to prevent the sharp damage of engineering bodies. The micro-interfacial behavior and the parental foci development controlled the damage evolution in the mortar using seawater and sand, the performance of which was still the adjustable one by composition optimization.

Clinical efficacy of percutaneous nephrolithotomy with all-seeing needle system in treatment of upper urinary calculi in children / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

Objective@#To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of percutaneous nephrolithotomy(PCNL) with the all-seeing needle system(Microperc)for the treatment of upper urinary calculi in children.@*Methods@#Retrospective analysis of 25 cases of upper urolithiasis treated with Microperc from November 2016 to January 2018 in Guizhou Provincial People′s Hospital was performed, including 18 boys and 7 girls.The age of patients was (6.4±3.9) years(10 months-14 years), and 4 cases were less than 3 years old.Among them, 3 cases had upper ureteral calculi and 22 cases had renal calculi.The mean stone size was 14.5 mm(8-20 mm). Stone fragmentation was performed by using a 200 μm holmium(YAG laser fiber).@*Results@#All patients were successfully treated in stage I. In 6 patients, access was achieved through the 4.8Fr all-seeing needle method.Conversion to mini-PCNL (10-12Fr) was required in 19 patients due to intraoperative bleeding and high stone burden.The duration of operation time was (60.8±15.1) min (40-100 min). The mean postoperative drop in hemoglobin was (7.5±5.4) g/L, and no patient required blood transfusion.The hospital stay was (4.9±1.2) days (3-6 days). There were residual fragments in 3 patients, and the overall stone-free rate at 4 weeks was 88%(22/25 cases). Four cases had a fever(Clavien grade Ⅰ) complications, while no grade Ⅱ and grade Ⅲ complications were observed.@*Conclusions@#Microperc can establish a surgical channel through visual images quickly and safely, and it greatly reduces the risk and difficulty in doing operation.This technology is not only suitable for learner of surgery, but also for patients with mild hydronephrosis and children with calculus.

Clinical efficacy of percutaneous nephrolithotomy with all-seeing needle system in treatment of upper urinary calculi in children / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of percutaneous nephrolithotomy(PCNL) with the all-seeing needle system (Microperc) for the treatment of upper urinary calculi in children.Methods Retrospective analysis of 25 cases of upper urolithiasis treated with Microperc from November 2016 to January 2018 in Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital was performed,including 18 boys and 7 girls.The age of patients was (6.4 ± 3.9) years (10 months-14 years),and 4 cases were less than 3 years old.Among them,3 cases had upper ureteral calculi and 22 cases had renal calculi.The mean stone size was 14.5 mm(8-20 rmm).Stone fragmentation was performed by using a 200 μm holmium (YAG laser fiber).Results All patients were successfully treated in stage I.In 6 patients,access was achieved through the 4.8Fr all-seeing needle method.Conversion to mini-PCNL (10-12Fr) was required in 19 patients due to intraoperative bleeding and high stone burden.The duration of operation time was (60.8 ± 15.1) min (40-100 rain).The mean postoperative drop in hemoglobin was (7.5 ± 5.4) g/L,and no patient required blood transfusion.The hospital stay was (4.9 ± 1.2) days (3-6 days).There were residual fragments in 3 patients,and the overall stone-free rate at 4 weeks was 88％ (22/25 cases).Four cases had a fever(Clavien grade Ⅰ) complications,while no grade Ⅱ and grade Ⅲ complications were observed.Conclusions Microperc can establish a surgical channel through visual images quickly and safely,and it greatly reduces the risk and difficulty in doing operation.This technology is not only suitable for learner of surgery,but also for patients with mild hydronephrosis and children with calculus.

Topological light-trapping on a dislocation.

Topological insulators have unconventional gapless edge states where disorder-induced back-scattering is suppressed. In photonics, such edge states lead to unidirectional waveguides which are useful for integrated photonic circuitry. Cavity modes, another type of fundamental component in photonic chips, however, are not protected by band topology because of their lower dimensions. Here we demonstrate that concurrent wavevector space and real-space topology, dubbed as dual-topology, can lead to light-trapping in lower dimensions. The resultant photonic-bound state emerges as a Jackiw-Rebbi soliton mode localized on a dislocation in a two-dimensional photonic crystal, as proposed theoretically and discovered experimentally. Such a strongly confined cavity mode is found to be robust against perturbations. Our study unveils a mechanism for topological light-trapping in lower dimensions, which is invaluable for fundamental physics and various applications in photonics.

An efficient and robust hybrid method for segmentation of zebrafish objects from bright-field microscope images.

Accurate segmentation of zebrafish from bright-field microscope images is crucial to many applications in the life sciences. Early zebrafish stages are used, and in these stages the zebrafish is partially transparent. This transparency leads to edge ambiguity as is typically seen in the larval stages. Therefore, segmentation of zebrafish objects from images is a challenging task in computational bio-imaging. Popular computational methods fail to segment the relevant edges, which subsequently results in inaccurate measurements and evaluations. Here we present a hybrid method to accomplish accurate and efficient segmentation of zebrafish specimens from bright-field microscope images. We employ the mean shift algorithm to augment the colour representation in the images. This improves the discrimination of the specimen to the background and provides a segmentation candidate retaining the overall shape of the zebrafish. A distance-regularised level set function is initialised from this segmentation candidate and fed to an improved level set method, such that we can obtain another segmentation candidate which preserves the explicit contour of the object. The two candidates are fused using heuristics, and the hybrid result is refined to represent the contour of the zebrafish specimen. We have applied the proposed method on two typical datasets. From experiments, we conclude that the proposed hybrid method improves both efficiency and accuracy of the segmentation of the zebrafish specimen. The results are going to be used for high-throughput applications with zebrafish.

Efficacy of pneumocystoscopic Cohen ureteric reimplantation for congenital malformation of vesicoureteral junction obstruction / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

Objective To explore the efficacy of Cohen ureteric reimplantation for congenital malformation of vesicoureteral junction in children.Methods From February 2014 to August 2016,12 children with congenital monstrositas of vesicoureteral junction obstruction who were treated with pneumoeystoscopic Cohen ureteric reimplantation in Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital were selected.In these cases,8 males and 4 females,their ages ranged from 2 months past 1 year to 11 years,and the average age was 5.26 years.In the 12 patients,there were 6 cases with left vesicoureteral junction obstruction,and 1 case with right vesicoureteral junction obstruction,1 case with left ureter cyst and duplication of ureter ectopic opening,1 case with right duplex kidney and ureter cyst,1 case with right primary vesicoureteric reflux and left vesicoureteral junction obstruction,2 cases with bilateral primary vesicoureteric reflux and 1 case with ureter cyst.A foley catheter and ureteral stent was indwelled in each patient but no bladder fistula was made.All of the patients underwent pneumocystoscopic Cohen ureteric reimplantation.The stenting catheters were removed in 1-3 months after surgery.B ultrasonography was used to follow the degree of the dilatation of ureter and hydronephrosis.Urinalysis was conducted to detect the urinary tract infection.Intravenous urography examination was conducted to detect anastomotic stenosis.Voiding cystourethrography was performed to show ureteral reflux.Results All procedures were accomplished without conversion.The duration of operations ranged from 100 to 330 min (mean 207 min).All patients were followed up for 3 to 10 months,but no urinary tract infection and anastomotic obstruction occurred,and B ultrasonography showed that hydronephrosis or dilatation of ureter were improved in different degrees or disappeared.Two cases of ureteral reflux occurred in the early follow-up,and these cases recovered after being given symptomatic treatment.Conclusions The pneumocystoscopic Cohen ureteric reimplantation is a safe and effective option for congenital malformation of vesicoureteral junction in children.

Strategies for exome sequence data analysis for discovering genes underlying autosomal recessive disorders / 中华医学遗传学杂志

Introduced in 2009, whole-exome sequencing (WES) is a technology in which target capture methods are used to enrich sequences of coding regions of genes from fragmented total genomic DNA, which is followed by high-throughput sequencing of the captured fragments. As reported, WES has been successfully applied for discovering genes underlying several Mendelian diseases, especially autosomal recessive types. In this review, authors have summarized the main computational strategies which have been applied to identify novel autosomal recessive diseases genes using whole-exome data.

c.359T>C mutation of the MYH14 gene in two autosomal dominant non-syndromic hearing impairment families with common ancestor / 中华医学遗传学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To identify the gene mutation for two Chinese families with autosomal dominant non-syndromic hearing impairment(NSHI).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Two NSHI pedigrees with common ancestor were identified by clinical examination and family investigation. Linkage analysis was performed for all known NSHI loci, and all exons and exon-intron boundaries of the non-muscle myosin heavy chain 14 (MYH14) gene were amplified by PCR and sequenced.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The disease-causing gene of these 2 pedigrees was fine mapped to the DFNA4 locus on 19q13.33. A heterozygous transition of c. 359T>C (p.S120L) in MYH14 gene was identified. The mutation was detected in all patients but not in normal members in the two families.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>It is the first report that mutation in MYH14 gene can cause dominant non-syndromic hearing impairment in Asian population, suggesting that MYH14 gene can be a disease-causing gene of Chinese patients with hearing impairment.</p>

Selective embolization for surgical treatment of carotid body tumor / 华西口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the value of carotid arteriography and selective embolization in surgical treatment of carotid body tumor.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Seven patients with carotid body tumor were operated, and four patients were performed with carotid arteriography and selective embolization before operation. All patients were treated by stripping the carotid body tumor from the carotid artery. Treatment effectiveness of the patients with and without selective embolization were compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Seven cases were classified as Shamblin III type. The CT scan and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) showed the tumor lesion in the carotid bifurcation, and the tumor and its relation with the surrounding arteries were expressed by CT and three dimensional CT images. All cases of carotid body tumor were resected without any carotid artery ligation. No serious complications occurred after operation. There was average 160 mL blood loss in operation of four patients that had angiograms and were preoperatively embolized, and average 2.5 h were expended. There was average 600 mL blood loss in operation of three patients without preoperatively embolized, and average 4 h were expended. Preoperatively high-selected embolization of the tumor-feeding artery could effectively reduce the intraoperative bleeding. With 1.5-3 years follow-up, none of the carotid body tumor recurred in all the seven cases.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Carotid arteriography and embolization therapy may decrease blood loss and higher risk for operation in the patients with carotid body tumor.</p>