Development research of latent fingermarks based on aggregation-induced emission technique.

Fingerprints hold evidential value for individual identification; a sensitive, efficient, and convenient method for visualizing latent fingermarks (LFMs) is of great importance in the field of crime scene investigation. In this study, we proposed an aggregation-induced emission atomization technique (AIE-AT) to obtain high-quality fingermark images. Six volunteers made over 1566 fingerprint samples on 17 different objects. The quality of fingermark development was evaluated using grayscale analysis for quantitative assessment, combining the fluency of fingermark ridges and the degree of level 2 and level 3 features. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to explore the effectiveness of AIE molecule C27H19N3SO in developing fingermarks, its applicability to objects, and its individual selectivity. Additionally, the stability of the AIE molecule was examined. Comparative experimental results demonstrated the high stability of the AIE molecule, making it suitable for long-term preservation. The grayscale ratio of the ridges and furrows was at least 2, with high brightness contrast, the level 2 and level 3 features were clearly observable. The AIE-AT proved to be effective for developing fingermarks on nonporous, porous, and semiporous objects. It exhibited low selectivity on suspects who leave fingermarks and showed better development effects on challenging objects, as well as efficient extraction capability for in situ fingermarks. In summary, AIE-AT can efficiently develop latent fingermarks on common objects and even challenging ones. It locates the latent fingermarks for further accurate extraction of touch exfoliated cells in situ, providing technical support for the visualization of fingermarks and the localization for extraction of touch DNA.

What influence farmers' relative poverty in China: A global analysis based on statistical and interpretable machine learning methods.

Poverty eradication has always been a major challenge to global development and governance, which received widespread attention from each country. With the completion poverty alleviation task in 2020, relative poverty governance becomes an important issue to be solved in China urgently. Because of a large population, poor infrastructures, insufficient resources, and long-term uneven development raising the living standard of farmers in rural areas is critical to China's success in realizing moderate prosperity. Therefore, identifying the poor farmers, exploring the influence factors to relative poverty, and clarifying its effect mechanism in rural areas are significant for the subsequent poverty governance. Most of the previous studies adopted the method of apriori assuming the factor system and verifying the hypothesis. We innovatively constructed a relative poverty index system consistent with China's actual conditions, selecting all the possible variables that could affect relative poverty based on the existing literature, including individual characteristics, psychological endowment, and geographical environment, and rebuilt an experimental database. Then, through data processing and data analysis, the main factors influencing the relative poverty of farmers were systematically sorted out based on the machine learning method. Finally, 25 chosen influencing factors were discussed in detail. Research findings show that: 1) Machine learning algorithm is proved it could be well applied in relative poverty fields, especially XGBoost, which achieves 81.9% accuracy and the score of ROC_AUC reaches 0.819. 2) This study sheds light on many new research directions in applying machine learning for relative poverty research, besides, the paper offers an integral framework and beneficial reference for target identification using machine learning algorithms. 3) In addition, by utilizing the interpretable tools, the "black-box" of ML become transparent through PDP and SHAP explanation, it also reveals that machine learning models can readily handle the non-linear association relationship.

A study on the long-term effects and mechanisms of internet information behavior on poverty alleviation among smallholder farmers: Evidence from China.

China has historically accomplished the task of eradicating absolute poverty, however, as a result of multiple external constraints and a lack of their own endogenous motivation, there is a general lack of viability among farmers who have been lifted out of poverty, with some of those who have been lifted out of poverty at risk of returning to poverty and marginalized populations at risk of becoming poor, and there are certain challenges to the longevity and stability of the poverty eradication of smallholder farmers. In the era of rapid development of information technology, the use of Internet information has become an important way to change the information asymmetry in rural areas, narrow the urban-rural digital divide and reduce the vulnerability of poverty at present. Based on this, this paper puts forward the corresponding research hypotheses on the theoretical basis of how Internet information behavior affects the long-term effects of poverty alleviation of smallholder farmers, and this paper is based on the empirical analysis of the household survey data of 240 smallholder farmers in 3 cities and 3 counties of H Province, in an attempt to explore empirical testing of the impact of Internet information behavior on the long-term effects of poverty alleviation of smallholder farmers, and to further reveal the intrinsic mechanism of the role of the internal mechanism of the transformation between the smallholder farmers' Internet information behavior and poverty alleviation of the long-term effects of poverty alleviation. This study found that (1) Internet information usage would be positively related to the long-term poverty alleviation of smallholder farmers; (2) Among the mechanisms of Internet information usage on the long-term poverty alleviation of smallholder farmers, agricultural income opportunities, employment opportunities and entrepreneurial business opportunities have significant mediating effects; (3) Formal social support and informal social support, all play a significant positive moderating role in the process of transformation of development opportunities carried out by smallholder farmers. The findings of the study have important practical implications for accelerating the poverty alleviation effect of the Internet and achieving sustainable poverty alleviation among small farmers to promote common prosperity.

Optimized Small Waterbird Detection Method Using Surveillance Videos Based on YOLOv7.

Waterbird monitoring is the foundation of conservation and management strategies in almost all types of wetland ecosystems. China's improved wetland protection infrastructure, which includes remote devices for the collection of larger quantities of acoustic and visual data on wildlife species, increased the need for data filtration and analysis techniques. Object detection based on deep learning has emerged as a basic solution for big data analysis that has been tested in several application fields. However, these deep learning techniques have not yet been tested for small waterbird detection from real-time surveillance videos, which can address the challenge of waterbird monitoring in real time. We propose an improved detection method by adding an extra prediction head, SimAM attention module, and sequential frame to YOLOv7, termed as YOLOv7-waterbird, for real-time video surveillance devices to identify attention regions and perform waterbird monitoring tasks. With the Waterbird Dataset, the mean average precision (mAP) value of YOLOv7-waterbird was 67.3%, which was approximately 5% higher than that of the baseline model. Furthermore, the improved method achieved a recall of 87.9% (precision = 85%) and 79.1% for small waterbirds (defined as pixels less than 40 × 40), suggesting a better performance for small object detection than the original method. This algorithm could be used by the administration of protected areas or other groups to monitor waterbirds with higher accuracy using existing surveillance cameras and can aid in wildlife conservation to some extent.

A Dynamic Membrane-Active Glycopeptide for Enhanced Protection of Human Red Blood Cells against Freeze-Stress.

Intracellular delivery of freezing-tolerant trehalose is crucial for cryopreservation of red blood cells (RBCs) and previous strategies based on membrane-disruptive activity usually generate severe hemolysis. Herein, a dynamic membrane-active glycopeptide is developed by grafting with 25% maltotriose and 50% p-benzyl alcohol for the first time to effectively facilitate entry of membrane-impermeable trehalose in human RBCs with low hemolysis. Results of the mechanism acting on cell membranes suggest that reversible adsorption of such benzyl alcohol-grafted glycopeptide on cell surfaces upon weak perturbation with phospholipids and dynamic transition toward membrane stabilization are essential for keeping cellular biofunctions. Furthermore, the functionalized glycopeptide is indicative of typical α-helical/ß-sheet structure-driven regulations of ice crystals during freeze-thaw, thereby strongly promoting efficient cryopreservation. Such all-in-one glycopeptide enables achieving both high cell recovery post-thaw >85% and exceptional cryosurvival >95% in direct freezing protocols. The rationally designed benzyl alcohol-modified glycopeptide permits the development of a competent platform with high generality for protection of blood cells against freeze-stress.

Integration of Trehalose Lipids with Dissociative Trehalose Enables Cryopreservation of Human RBCs.

Cryopreservation of red blood cells (RBCs) is imperative for transfusion therapy, while cryoprotectants are essential to protect RBCs from cryoinjury under freezing temperatures. Trehalose has been considered as a biocompatible cryoprotectant that naturally accumulates in organisms to tolerate anhydrobiosis and cryobiosis. Herein, we report a feasible protocol that enables glycerol-free cryopreservation of human RBCs by integration of the synthesized trehalose lipids and dissociative trehalose through ice tuning and membrane stabilization. Typically, in comparison with sucrose monolaurate or trehalose only, trehalose monolaurate was able to protect cell membranes against freeze stress, achieving 96.9 ± 2.0% cryosurvival after incubation and cryopreservation of human RBCs with 0.8 M trehalose. Moreover, there were slight changes in cell morphology and cell functions. It was further confirmed by isothermal titration calorimetry and osmotic fragility tests that the moderate membrane-binding activity of trehalose lipids exerted cell stabilization for high cryosurvival. The aforementioned study is likely to provide an alternative way for glycerol-free cryopreservation of human RBCs and other types of cells.

Achieving high intracellular trehalose in hRBCs by reversible membrane perturbation of maltopyranosides with synergistic membrane protection of macromolecular protectants.

Trehalose is considered as a biocompatible cryoprotectant for solvent-free cryopreservation of cells, but the difficulty of the current trehalose delivery platforms to human red blood cells (hRBCs) limits its wide applications. Due to cell injuries caused by incubation at 37 °C and low intracellular loading efficiency, development of novel methods to facilitate trehalose entry in hRBCs is essential. Herein, a reversible membrane perturbation and synergistic membrane stabilization system based on maltopyranosides and macromolecular protectants was constructed, demonstrating the ability of efficient trehalose loading in hRBCs at 4 °C. Results of confocal laser scanning microscopy exhibited that the intracellular loading with the assistance of maltopyranosides was a reversible process, while the membrane protective effect of macromolecular protectants on trehalose loading in hRBCs was necessary. It was suggested that introduction of 30 mM poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) 8000 combined with 1 mM dodecyl-ß-D-maltopyranoside and 0.8 M trehalose could increase the intracellular trehalose to 84.0 ± 11.3 mM in hRBCs, whereas poly(ethylene glycol), dextran, human serum albumin or hydroxyethyl starch had a weak effect. All the macromolecular protectants could promote the cryosurvival of hRBCs, exhibiting membrane stabilization, and incubation and followed by cryopreservation did not change the basic functions and normal morphology of hRBCs substantially. This study provided an alternative strategy for glycerol-free cryopreservation of cells and the delivery of membrane-impermeable cargos.

A novel approach for forensic identification of automotive paints using optical coherence tomography and multivariate statistical methods.

Automotive paint is one of the most important evidence in solving vehicle-related criminal cases. It contains the critical information about the suspected vehicle, providing essential clues for the investigation. In this study, a novel approach based on optical coherence tomography combined with multivariate statistical methods was proposed to facilitate rapid, accurate and nondestructive identification of different brands of automotive paints. 164 automotive paint samples from 8 different manufacturers were analyzed by a spectral-domain optical coherence tomography system (SD-OCT). Two-dimensional cross-sectional OCT images and three-dimensional OCT reconstruction of vehicle paints of different paints were obtained to show the internal structural differences. Visual discrimination of A-scan data after registration and averaging processing was first used to distinguish different samples. An scanning electron microscope was utilized to obtain the cross-sectional image of the sample to evaluate the effectiveness of OCT technique. Then the original A-scan data, first derivative data and second derivative data of 136 paints with four layers from 7 different manufacturers were collected. Multivariate statistical methods, including principal component analysis (PCA), multi-layer perceptron (MLP), k-nearest neighbor (KNN) algorithm and Bayes discriminant analysis (BDA), were used to analyze different datasets. The results show the hybrid PCA and BDA model based on the first derivative OCT data achieved the best result of 100% accuracy on the testing dataset for identifying automotive paints. It is demonstrated that the OCT technique combined with multivariate statistics could be a promising method for identifying the automotive paints rapidly and accurately.

Membrane stabilization versus perturbation by aromatic monoamine-modified γ-PGA for cryopreservation of human RBCs with high intracellular trehalose.

As a nonreducing disaccharide, trehalose can be used as a biocompatible cryoprotectant for solvent-free cell cryopreservation, but the membrane-impermeability limits its cryoprotective efficiency. Herein, a series of aromatic monoamines with a 1-4 methylene spacer were grafted onto γ-poly(glutamic acid) (γ-PGA) for promoting intracellular trehalose uptake in human red blood cells (hRBCs) via membrane perturbation. The self-assembled nanoparticles of the obtained amphiphilic γ-PGA could be adsorbed on the cell membrane by the hydrophobic interaction to disturb the lipid arrangement and increase the membrane permeability of trehalose under hypertonic conditions. Results suggested that the intracellular trehalose could be enhanced progressively with the methylene spacer length, significantly increasing to 75.1 ± 0.7 mM by incubating hRBCs in 0.8 M trehalose containing phenylbutylamine-grafted γ-PGA at 4 °C for 24 h. Meanwhile, the other three polymers exhibited membrane stabilization in addition to improved intracellular trehalose, maintaining the membrane integrity during cryopreservation to achieve high cryosurvival. Molecular dynamics simulation further confirmed that defects could be formed by interaction of the above four amphiphilic polymers on the modeled phospholipid bilayer. It was believed that glycerol-free cryopreservation of human cells could be realized by using trehalose as the biocompatible cryoprotectant, and membrane stabilization can be a compensatory approach to membrane perturbation during impermeable biomolecule delivery.

Structural and optical characterization of banknotes using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

Counterfeiting of banknotes remains a severe threat to economic security and social stability. The characterization of banknote has mainly relied on the assessment of various security features applied to the surface of the note. However, the surface features are easy to forge and contain insufficient information to discover the source. In this paper, a novel approach for banknote characterization has been proposed by employing spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) that can provide structural and optical features. Three groups of counterfeit Chinese 100 Yuan banknotes produced by different printing manners and one group of authentic banknotes were examined by SD-OCT without any sample preparation and four distinct areas were selected for imaging. High-resolution tomographic and three-dimensional (3D) volumetric OCT images were obtained and a set of features were first revealed to characterize the banknotes qualitatively and quantitatively. The results demonstrated that SD-OCT was effective to detect and classify different types of counterfeit banknotes and could potentially be used to link counterfeit banknotes to their sources in a fast, simple and nondestructive manner.

[Effect of Anti-Oxidative of Ethyl Pyruvate and Taurine on the Red Blood Cell Storage at 4 ℃].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the anti-oxidative effect of ethyl pyruvate (EP) and taurine (TAU) on the quality of red blood cells stored at 4±2 ℃, hemolysis, energy metabolism and lipid peroxidation of the red blood cells in the preservation solution were studied at different intervals. METHODS: At 4±2 ℃, the deleukocyte red blood cells were stored in the citrate-phosphate-dextrosesaline-adenine-1 (CPDA-1) preservation (control group), preservation solution with EP (EP-AS), and TAU (TAU-AS) for long-term preservation. The enzyme-linked immunoassay and automatic blood cell analyzer were used to detect hemolysis and erythrocyte parameters. Adenine nucleoside triphosphate (ATP), glycerol 2,3-diphosphate (2,3-DPG) and malondialdehyde (MDA) kits were used to test the ATP, 2,3-DPG and MDA concentration. RESULTS: During the preservation, the rate of red blood cell hemolysis in EP-AS and TAU-AS groups were significantly lower than that in CPDA-1 group (P<0.01). The MCV of EP-AS group was increased with the preservation time (r=0.71), while the MCV of the TAU-AS group was significantly lower than that in the other two groups (P<0.05). The concentration of ATP and MDA in EP-AS and TAU-AS groups were significantly higher than that in CPDA-1 group at the 14th day (P<0.01). The concentrations of 2,3-DPG in the EP-AS and TAU-AS groups were significantly higher than that in the CPDA-1 group from the 7th day (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: EP and TAU can significantly reduce the red blood cell hemolysis rate, inhibit the lipid peroxidation level of red blood cells, and improve the energy metabolism of red blood cells during storage. The mechanism of EP and TAU may be related to their antioxidation and membrane protection effect, so as to improve the red blood cell quality and extend the preservation time.

Cryopreservation of human erythrocytes through high intracellular trehalose with membrane stabilization of maltotriose-grafted ε-poly(L-lysine).

Cryopreservation of human erythrocytes via suitable cryoprotectants is essential for transfusion during emergencies, but the conventional glycerolization method requires a tedious thawing-deglycerolization process. Alternatively, trehalose, a nonreducing disaccharide, has gained much attention as a biocompatible cryoprotectant due to its nature in living organisms capable of surviving extreme cold and desiccation. In this work, cryopreservation of human erythrocytes was realized through high intracellular trehalose enhanced by benzyl alcohol at 4 °C with membrane stabilization of maltotriose-grafted ε-poly(L-lysine). Intracellular trehalose could reach 94.2 ± 12.1 mM with slight impacts on morphology and cell functions, and the post-storage cryosurvival of human erythrocytes could achieve 96.2 ± 3.4% via membrane protection by the glycopeptide. It has been demonstrated that the functional glycopeptide performed as an extracellular cryoprotectant accompanied by high intracellular trehalose for synergistic cryopreservation of human erythrocytes in the biocompatible glycerol-free conditions. This two-step approach involving augmentation of intracellular trehalose at a hypothermic temperature and membrane stabilization of the functional glycopeptide could be an alternative way for human cell cryopreservation.

Screening and identification of differentially expressed long non-coding RNAs in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: Efforts to eradicate tuberculosis are largely threatened by drug-resistant tuberculosis, particularly, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Screening and identification potential biomarkers for MDR-TB is crucial to diagnose early and reduce the incidence of MDR-TB. METHODS: To screen the differentially expressed long non-coding RNAs in MDR-TB, the lncRNA and mRNA expression profiles in serum derived from healthy controls (HCs), individuals with MDR-TB and drug-sensitive tuberculosis (DS-TB) were analyzed by microarray assay and 10 lncRNAs were randomly selected for further validation by reverse transcription-quantitative real-time PCR(RT-qPCR). The biological functions of differentially expressed mRNAs as well as relationships between genes and signaling pathways were investigated using Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), respectively. RESULTS: A total of 353 differentially expressed lncRNAs (312 upregulated) and 202 mRNAs (99 upregulated) were found in the MDR-TB group compared to HCs. And compared with the DS-TB group, 442 differentially expressed lncRNAs (115 upregulated) and 190 mRNAs (87 upregulated) were found in the MDR-TB group. The expression levels of lncRNA n335659 were found to differ significantly between each group by RT-qPCR. Compared with DS-TB group, the GO analysis showed that the differential mRNAs were mainly enriched in the processes associated with the detection of the chemical stimulus, the regulation of mRNA metabolic process and neutrophil activation in the MDR-TB group; the KEGG analysis indicated that the differential mRNAs between DS-TB and MDR-TB were mainly enriched in proteasome and Notch signaling pathway, which might reveal a fraction of the mechanism of MDR-TB. The discovery of the serum lncRNA n335659 might serve as a potential biomarker for MDR-TB and Notch signaling pathway provided a new clue for the investigation of the pathological mechanism of MDR-TB.

Facilitating trehalose entry into hRBCs at 4 °C by alkylated ε-poly(L-lysine) for glycerol-free cryopreservation.

Currently, glycerol is a conventional cryoprotectant of human red blood cells (hRBCs), but the time-consuming thawing and deglycerolization processes are essential before transfusion. Much of the research up to now has been conducted on the delivery of impermeable trehalose to hRBCs at 37 °C, but the cryoprotective effect of trehalose and deterioration of cells still remain challenging. Encouraged by the interaction of hydrophobic or cationic groups on cell membranes and osmotic stabilization, herein, we propose a novel cryopreservation system to facilitate trehalose entry into hRBCs at 4 °C and pH 7.4. High intracellular trehalose contents and cryosurvival of hRBCs were achieved with small function variations via the assistance of self-assembled nanoparticles of alkylated ε-poly(L-lysine) (ε-PL) along with poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). The effect of amphipathic alkylated ε-PL with various alkyl chains and grafting ratios on membrane perturbation with protection of PVP was systematically investigated. Overall, by the combination of alkylated ε-PL and PVP, the intracellular trehalose could be enhanced to 109.7 ± 6.1 mM and subsequently hRBC cryosurvival reached 91.7 ± 5.5%, significantly higher than those containing trehalose only, 11.9 ± 1.1 mM and 50.0 ± 2.1%, respectively. It was observed that the biocompatible trehalose-loading system could benefit glycerol-free cryopreservation of hRBCs and also provide a feasible way for impermeable biomacromolecule delivery.

Development of Icephilic ACTIVE Glycopeptides for Cryopreservation of Human Erythrocytes.

Ice formation and recrystallization exert severe impairments to cellular cryopreservation. In light of cell-damaging washing procedures in the current glycerol approach, many researches have been devoted to the development of biocompatible cryoprotectants for optimal bioprotection of human erythrocytes. Herein, we develop a novel ACTIVE glycopeptide of saccharide-grafted ε-poly(L-lysine), that can be credited with adsorption on membrane surfaces, cryopreservation with trehalose, and icephilicity for validity of human erythrocytes. Then, by Borch reductive amination or amidation, glucose, lactose, maltose, maltotriose, or trehalose was tethered to ε-polylysine. The synthesized ACTIVE glycopeptides with intrinsic icephilicity could localize on the membrane surface of human erythrocytes and improve cryopreservation with trehalose, so that remarkable post-thaw cryosurvival of human erythrocytes was achieved with a slight variation in cell morphology and functions. Human erythrocytes (∼50% hematocrit) in cryostores could maintain high cryosurvival above 74%, even after plunged in liquid nitrogen for 6 months. Analyses of differential scanning calorimetry, Raman spectroscopy, and dynamic ice shaping suggested that this cryopreservation protocol combined with the ACTIVE glycopeptide and trehalose could enhance the hydrogen bond network in nonfrozen solutions, resulting in inhibition of recrystallization and growth of ice. Therefore, the ACTIVE glycopeptide can be applied as a trehalose-associated "chaperone", providing a new way to serve as a candidate in glycerol-free human erythrocyte cryopreservation.

CCL17 and CCL22 induce CCR4 receptor expression and promote cytokine-induced killer cells migration.

Recently, cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells have been shown to possess effective cytotoxic activity against some tumor cells both in vitro and in clinical research. Furthermore, dendritic cell-activated CIK (DC-CIK) cells display significantly increased antitumor activity compared to unstimulated CIK cells. Study findings indicate DC cells can secrete chemokine C-C motif ligand 17 (CCL17) and chemokine C-C motif ligand 22 (CCL22) with a common receptor molecule, C-C chemokine receptor type-4(CCR4). CCL17 and CCL22 levels were measured by ELISA from CIK cell culture supernatants and the expression of CCR4 on CIK and DC-CIK cells was analyzed by flow cytometry. Through Migration and Killing assays, further analyzed the effects of the altered expression levels of CCR4 on the chemotactic ability and the tumor-killing efficiency of CIK cells. We found markedly increased CCL17 and CCL22 in supernatants of DC-CIK co-cultures. Similarly, the expression of CCR4 was also increased on CIK cells in these co-cultures. Further, the stimulation of CCL17 and CCL22 increased expression of the CCR4 and enhanced the migratory capacity and antitumor efficacy of CIK cells. Simultaneously, similar effects had achieved by transfecting the CCR4 gene into CIK cells. DC cells may promote the expression of CCR4 on CIK cells by secreting CCL17 and CCL22, thereby promoting infiltration of DC-CIK cells into the tumor microenvironment, and exerting stronger antitumor activity than CIK cells.

Integrating serum microRNAs and electronic health records improved the diagnosis of tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: To verify the differential expression of miR-30c and miR-142-3p between tuberculosis patients and healthy controls and to investigate the performance of microRNA (miRNA) and subsequently models for the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). METHODS: We followed up 460 subjects suspected of TB, and finally enrolled 132 patients, including 60 TB patients, 24 non-TB disease controls (TB-DCs), and 48 healthy controls (HCs). The differential expression of miR-30c and miR-142-3p in serum samples of the TB patients, TB-DCs, and HCs were identified by reverse transcription-quantitative real-time PCR. Diagnostic models were developed by analyzing the characteristics of miRNA and electronic health records (EHRs). These models evaluated by the area under the curves (AUC) and calibration curves were presented as nomograms. RESULTS: There were differential expression of miR-30c and miR-142-3p between TB patients and HCs (p < 0.05). Individual miRNA has a limited diagnostic value for TB. However, diagnostic performance has been both significantly improved when we integrated miR-142-3p and ordinary EHRs to develop two models for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. The AUC of the model for distinguishing tuberculosis patients from healthy controls has increased from 0.75 (95% CI: 0.66-0.84) to 0.96 (95% CI: 0.92-0.99) and the model for distinguishing tuberculosis patients from non-TB disease controls has increased from 0.67 (95% CI: 0.55-0.79) to 0.94 (95% CI: 0.89-0.99). CONCLUSIONS: Integrating serum miR-142-3p and EHRs is a good strategy for improving TB diagnosis.

Tissue factor promotes airway pathological features through epithelial-mesenchymal transition of bronchial epithelial cells in mice with house dust mite-induced asthma.

It has recently been shown that expression levels of tissue factor (TF) are high in the serum and peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with asthma. However, whether TF impacts airway inflammation and remodelling in asthma remains unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of TF in asthma airway inflammation and remodelling using a house dust mite (HDM)-induced chronic asthma model and human bronchial epithelial (16HBE) cells. A chronic asthma model was constructed in BALB/c mice by the intranasal instillation of HDM. Mice were treated with short hairpin TF (shTF), and airway inflammation and remodelling features of asthma and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) were assessed. 16HBE cells were induced by transforming growth factor-ß1 (TGF-ß1) and HDM in the presence or absence of shTF; then, EMT markers and invasion and migration ability were determined. TF expression increased in the lung tissue and 16HBE cells when exposed to HDM. TF downregulation in the lung significantly reduced airway hyperresponsiveness, eosinophil inflammation, the EMT process, and levels of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-6, IL-13, and TGF-ß1 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of asthmatic mice. Moreover, TF downregulation inhibited migration and incursion and decreased the expression levels of fibronectin 1 and TGF-ß1, but increased the expression of E-cadherin in HDM- and TGF-ß1-stimulated 16HBE cells. These results demonstrated that TF promoted airway pathological features by enhancing the EMT of bronchial epithelial cells both in vitro and in mice with house dust mite-induced asthma.

Exploration and analysis of the value of tumor-marker joint detection in the pathological type of lung cancer.

Lung cancer is a disease characterized by the uncontrolled growth of cells in lung tissue. If left untreated, cell growth can spread beyond the lungs to a process called metastasis and reach surrounding tissues or other organs. This experiment was set up to discuss and analyze the research value of joint detection of tumor markers including carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratin 19 fragments (CYFRA21-1) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in the diagnosis and pathological type of lung cancer. From November 2016 to February 2018, 378 cases of patients with lung cancer treated in our hospital and 200 cases of people with healthy physical examinations were collected. The electrochemical immunoluminescence method was adopted to detect the CEA, CYFRA21-1 and NSE. The detected positive rate and the concentration of CEA, CYFRA21-1 and NSE of lung cancer group were higher than that of the healthy physical examination group. The differences were of statistical significance (P<0.05); the detected positive rate of CEA and CYFRA21-1 and the concentration of CEA, CYFRA21-1 and NSE of squamous carcinoma group were higher than that of the adenocarcinoma group. The differences were of statistical significance (P<0.05). The CEA, CYFRA21-1 and NSE are related to the pathological type of lung cancer and can be regarded as related indicators to diagnose lung cancer.