Autonomous enzymatic synthesis of functional nucleic acids for sensitive measurement of long noncoding RNA in human lung tissues.

Aberrant long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) expression is linked to varied pathological processes and malignant tumors, and lncRNA can serve as potential disease biomarkers. Herein, we demonstrate the autonomous enzymatic synthesis of functional nucleic acids for sensitive measurement of lncRNA in human lung tissues on the basis of multiple primer generation-mediated rolling circle amplification (mPG-RCA). This assay involves two padlock probes that act as both a detection probe for recognizing target lncRNA and a domain for producing complementary DNAzyme. Two padlock probes can hybridize with target lncRNA at different sites, followed by ligation to form a circular template with the aid of RNA ligase. The circular template can initiate mPG-RCA to generate abundant Mg2+-dependent DNAzymes that can specifically cleave signal probes to induce the recovery of Cy3 fluorescence. The inherent characteristics of ligase-based ligation reaction and DNAzymes endow this assay with excellent specificity, and the introduction of multiple padlock probes endows this assay with high sensitivity. This strategy can rapidly and sensitively measure lncRNA with a wide linear range of 1 fM - 1 nM and a detection limit of 678 aM within 1.5 h, and it shows distinct advantages of simplicity and immobilization-free without the need of precise temperature control and tedious procedures of nanomaterial preparation. Moreover, it enables accurate measurement of lncRNA level in normal cells and malignant tumor cells as well as differentiation of lncRNA expressions in tissues of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and normal individuals, with promising applications in biomedical studies and disease diagnosis.

Development and validation of a clinical prediction model for ischemic stroke recurrence after successful stent implantation in symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyze the risk factors for recurrent ischemic stroke in patients with symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (ICAS) who underwent successful stent placement and to establish a nomogram prediction model. METHODS: We utilized data from a prospective collection of 430 consecutive patients at Jining NO.1 People's Hospital from November 2021 to November 2022, conducting further analysis on the subset of 400 patients who met the inclusion criteria. They were further divided into training (n=321) and validation (n=79) groups. In the training group, we used univariate and multivariate COX regression to find independent risk factors for recurrent stroke and then created a nomogram. The assessment of the nomogram's discrimination and calibration was performed through the examination of various measures including the Consistency index (C-index), the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (AUC), and the calibration plots. Decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to evaluate the clinical utility of the nomogram by quantifying the net benefit to the patient under different threshold probabilities. RESULTS: The nomogram for predicting recurrent ischemic stroke in symptomatic ICAS patients after stent placement utilizes six variables: coronary heart disease (CHD), smoking, multiple ICAS, systolic blood pressure (SBP), in-stent restenosis (ISR), and fasting plasma glucose. The C-index (0.884 for the training cohort and 0.87 for the validation cohort) and the time-dependent AUC (>0.7) indicated satisfactory discriminative ability of the nomogram. Furthermore, DCA indicated a clinical net benefit from the nomogram. CONCLUSIONS: The predictive model constructed includes six predictive factors: CHD, smoking, multiple ICAS, SBP, ISR and fasting blood glucose. The model demonstrates good predictive ability and can be utilized to predict ischemic stroke recurrence in patients with symptomatic ICAS after successful stent placement.

PERF: Panoramic Neural Radiance Field from a Single Panorama.

Neural Radiance Field (NeRF) has achieved substantial progress in novel view synthesis given multi-view images. Recently, some works have attempted to train a NeRF from a single image with 3D priors. They mainly focus on a limited field of view with a few occlusions, which greatly limits their scalability to real-world 360-degree panoramic scenarios with large-size occlusions. In this paper, we present PERF, a 360-degree novel view synthesis framework that trains a panoramic neural radiance field from a single panorama. Notably, PERF allows 3D roaming in a complex scene without expensive and tedious image collection. To achieve this goal, we propose a novel collaborative RGBD inpainting method and a progressive inpainting-and-erasing method to lift up a 360-degree 2D scene to a 3D scene. Specifically, we first predict a panoramic depth map as initialization given a single panorama and reconstruct visible 3D regions with volume rendering. Then we introduce a collaborative RGBD inpainting approach into a NeRF for completing RGB images and depth maps from random views, which is derived from an RGB Stable Diffusion model and a monocular depth estimator. Finally, we introduce an inpainting-and-erasing strategy to avoid inconsistent geometry between a newly-sampled view and reference views. The two components are integrated into the learning of NeRFs in a unified optimization framework and achieve promising results. Extensive experiments on Replica and a new dataset PERF-in-the-wild demonstrate the superiority of our PERF over state-of-the-art methods. Our PERF can be widely used for real-world applications, such as panorama-to-3D, text-to-3D, and 3D scene stylization applications. Project page and code are available at https://github.com/perf-project/PeRF.

Effect of Halomonas titanicae on fluctuating water-line corrosion of EH40 steel.

The fluctuating water-line corrosion of EH40 steel in sterile and biotic media was investigated with a wire beam electrode. When the coupons were partially immersed in the sterile medium, the position of the low water-line acted as the cathodic zone and the area below the low water-line constantly served as the main anodic zone. The thin electrolyte layers with uneven thickness promoted the galvanic current of the region below the low water-line. Different from the sterile environment, the metabolism of Halomonas titanica with oxygen as the final electron acceptor reduced the dissolved oxygen concentration, which resulted in the position of the low water-line acting as the anodic zone.

The application of impulse oscillometry system based on machine learning algorithm in the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

OBJECTIVE: Diagnosing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) using Impulse Oscillometry (IOS) is challenging due to the high level of clinical expertise it demands from doctors , which limits the clinical application of IOS in screening. The primary aim of this study is to develop a COPD diagnostic model based on machine learning algorithms using IOS test results. Approach:Feature selection was conducted to identify the optimal subset of features from the original feature set, which significantly enhanced the classifier's performance. Additionally, secondary features area of reactance (AX) were derived from the original features based on clinical theory, further enhancing the performance of the classifier. The performance of the model was analyzed and validated using various classifiers and hyperparameter settings to identify the optimal classifier. We collected 528 clinical data examples from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital for training and validating the model. Main results:The proposed model achieved reasonably accurate diagnostic results in the clinical data (accuracy=0.920, specificity=0.941, precision=0.875, recall=0.875). Significance:The results of this study demonstrate that the proposed classifier model, feature selection method, and derived secondary feature AX provide significant auxiliary support in reducing the requirement for clinical experience in COPD diagnosis using IOS. .

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for patients with somatoform disorders: A pilot preliminary randomized controlled trial.

Background and objective: Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for somatoform disorders (SFDs) is understudied in China. Western findings may not be applicable to Chinese culture. This preliminary study evaluated the efficacy of CBT for patients in China, relative to treatment-as-usual (TAU). Methods: Seventy patients with SFDs randomly received either combined CBT and TAU (CBT + TAU), or TAU alone between January 2018 to May 2019. The CBT + TAU group received 12 weekly individual 50-minute CBT sessions. Participants were blindly assessed at 4 timepoints (baseline, week 6, end of treatment: week 12; 12 weeks post-treatment: week 24) using the following outcome measures: SQSS (Self-screening Questionnaire for Somatic Symptoms); PHQ-15 (Patient-Health-Questionnaire-15) and the WI (Whiteley Index); GAD-7 (General Anxiety Disorder-7); HAMD-17 (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-17); Family Burden Interview Schedule (FBIS); Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS); and the Short Form of Quality-of-Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q-SF). The primary endpoint was the difference between the SQSS total score at week 24 and the baseline. A mixed model for repeated measures was used to analyze inter- and intra-group changes from the baseline. Results: At week 24, The least-squares mean (LSM) change of the total score on the SQSS was -18.87 points and -9.69 points, respectively in the CBT + TAU group and in the TAU group (LSM difference, -9.18 points; 95% confidence interval, -15.72 to -2.64; P = 0.0068). At week 24, the LSM changes from baseline in the WI, HAMD, PHQ15, FBIS and SDS total scores were significantly different between the two groups, however, there was no significant difference in the Q-LES-Q-SF. The SQSS of group effect sizes were 0.63 at 24 weeks. The dropout rates of the CBT + TAU and TAU groups were comparable (22.9% and 19.3%). Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest that CBT may be helpful for improving the symptoms of patients with SFDs in China.

Zearalenone Decreases Food Intake by Disrupting the Gut-Liver-Hypothalamus Axis Signaling via Bile Acids.

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a mycotoxin that is harmful to humans and animals. In this study, female and male rats were exposed to ZEN, and the results showed that ZEN reduced the farnesoid X receptor (FXR) expression levels in the liver and disrupted the enterohepatic circulation of bile acids (BAs). A decrease in food intake induced by ZEN was negatively correlated with an increase in the level of total BAs. BA-targeted metabolomics revealed that ZEN increased glycochenodeoxycholic acid levels and decreased the ratio of conjugated BAs to unconjugated BAs, which further increased the hypothalamic FXR expression levels. Preventing the increase in total BA levels induced by ZEN via Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG intervention restored the appetite. In conclusion, ZEN disrupted the enterohepatic circulation of BAs to decrease the level of food intake. This study reveals a possible mechanism by which ZEN affects food intake and provides a new approach to decrease the toxic effects of ZEN.

Deficiency of smooth muscle cell ILF3 alleviates intimal hyperplasia via HMGB1 mRNA degradation-mediated regulation of the STAT3/DUSP16 axis.

Intimal hyperplasia is a complicated pathophysiological phenomenon attributable to in-stent restenosis, and the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Interleukin enhancer-binding factor 3 (ILF3), a double-stranded RNA-binding protein involved in regulating mRNA stability, has been recently demonstrated to assume a crucial role in cardiovascular disease; nevertheless, its impact on intimal hyperplasia remains unknown. In current study, we used samples of human restenotic arteries and rodent models of intimal hyperplasia, we found that vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) ILF3 expression was markedly elevated in human restenotic arteries and murine ligated carotid arteries. SMC-specific ILF3 knockout mice significantly suppressed injury induced neointimal formation. In vitro, platelet-derived growth factor type BB (PDGF-BB) treatment elevated the level of VSMC ILF3 in a dose- and time-dependent manner. ILF3 silencing markedly inhibited PDGF-BB-induced phenotype switching, proliferation, and migration in VSMCs. Transcriptome sequencing and RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing depicted that ILF3 maintained its stability upon binding to the mRNA of the high-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1), thereby exerting an inhibitory effect on the transcription of dual specificity phosphatase 16 (DUSP16) through enhanced phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3). Therefore, the results both in vitro and in vivo indicated that the loss of ILF3 in VSMC ameliorated neointimal hyperplasia by regulating the STAT3/DUSP16 axis through the degradation of HMGB1 mRNA. Our findings revealed that vascular injury activates VSMC ILF3, which in turn promotes intima formation. Consequently, targeting specific VSMC ILF3 may present a potential therapeutic strategy for ameliorating cardiovascular restenosis.

Endoscopic lithotripsy combined with drug lithotripsy vs. drug lithotripsy for the treatment of phytobezoars: analysis of 165 cases.

AIM: To analyze efficacy of endoscopic lithotripsy combined with drug lithotripsy as compared with drug lithotripsy for the treatment of phytobezoars. METHODS: We collected and evaluated case records of 165 patients with phytobezoars from 2014 to 2023. And we analyzed demographic and clinical characteristics, imaging features, endoscopic features, complications of phytobezoars, and compared efficacy between endoscopic lithotripsy combined with drug lithotripsy (Group A) and drug lithotripsy (sodium bicarbonate combined with proton pump inhibitor) (Group B). RESULTS: The median age of patients with phytobezoars was 67.84 ± 4.286 years old. Abdominal pain was the most common symptom and peptic ulcers (67.5%) were the most common complication. Bezoar-induced ulcers were more frequent in the gastric angle. The success rate of phytobezoars vanishing in Group A and Group B were similar (92.3% vs. 85.1% within 48 h, 98.7% vs. 97.7% within a week), while the average hospitalization period, average hospitalization cost, second endoscopy rate, and average endoscopic operation time were significantly lower in patients in Group B than in Group A. CONCLUSION: Drug lithotripsy is the preferred effective and safe treatment option for phytobezoars. We advise that an endoscopy should be completed after 48 h for drug lithotripsy.

Temporal dynamics of lignin degradation in Quercus acutissima sawdust during Ganoderma lucidum cultivation.

Despite a fair amount of lignin conversion during mycelial growth, previous structural analyses have not yet revealed how lignin changes continuously and what the relationship is between lignin and ligninolytic enzymes. To clarify these aspects, Quercus acutissima sawdust attaching Ganoderma lucidum mycelium collected from different growth stage was subjected to analysis of lignin structure and ligninolytic enzyme activity. Two key periods of lignin degradation are found during the cultivation of G. lucidum: hypha rapid growth period and primordium formation period. In the first stage, laccase activity is associated with the opening of structures such as methoxyls, ß-O-4' substructures and guaiacyl units in lignin, as well as the shortening of lignin chains. Manganese peroxidases and lignin peroxidases are more suitable for degrading short chain lignin. The structure of phenylcoumarans and syringyl changes greatly in the second stage. The results from sawdust attaching mycelium provide new insights to help improve the cultivation substrate formulation of G. lucidum and understand biomass valorization better.

In Situ Loading of Ni3ZnC0.7 Nanoparticles with Carbon Nanotubes to 3D Melamine Sponge Derived Hollow Carbon Skeleton toward Superior Microwave Absorption and Thermal Resistance.

The simple and low-cost construction of a 3D network structure is an ideal way to prepare high-performance electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption materials. Herein, a series of carbon skeleton/carbon nanotubes/Ni3ZnC0.7 composites (CS/CNTs/Ni3ZnC0.7) are successfully prepared by in situ growth of Ni3ZnC0.7 and CNTs on 3D melamine sponge carbon. With the increase of precursor, Ni3ZnC0.7 nanoparticles nucleate and catalyze the generation of CNTs on the surface of the carbon skeleton. The minimum reflection loss (RL) value of the S60min composite (loading time of 60 min) reaches -86.6 dB at 1.6 mm and effective absorption bandwidth (EAB, RL≤-10 dB) is up to 9.3 GHz (8.7-18 GHz). The 3D network sponge carbon with layered micro/nanostructure and hollow skeleton promotes multiple reflection and absorption mechanisms of incident EMW. The N-doping and defects can be equivalent to an electric dipole, providing dipole polarization to increase dielectric relaxation. The uniform Ni3ZnC0.7 nanoparticles and CNTs play a key role in dissipating electromagnetic energy, blocking heat transfer, and enhancing the mechanical properties of the skeleton. Fortunately, the composite displays a quite low thermal conductivity of 0.09075 W m·K-1 and good flexibility, which can provide insulation and quickly recover to its original state after being stressed.

Polygonatum kingianum Polysaccharides Enhance the Preventive Efficacy of Heat-Inactivated Limosilactobacillus reuteri WX-94 against High-Fat-High-Sucrose-Induced Liver Injury and Gut Dysbacteriosis.

Limosilactobacillus reuteri (L. reuteri) is an efficacious probiotic that could reduce inflammation and prevent metabolic disorders. Here, we innovatively found that Polygonatum kingianum polysaccharides (PKP) promoted proliferation and increased stability of L. reuteri WX-94 (a probiotic strain showing anti-inflammation potentials) in simulated digestive fluids in vitro. PKP was composed of galactose, glucose, mannose, and arabinose. The cell-free supernatant extracted from L. reuteri cultured with PKP increased ABTS•+, DPPH•, and FRAP scavenging capacities compared with the supernatant of the medium without PKP and increased metabolites with health-promoting activities, e.g., 3-phenyllactic acid, indole-3-lactic acid, indole-3-carbinol, and propionic acid. Moreover, PKP enhanced alleviating effects of heat-inactivated L. reuteri on high-fat-high-sucrose-induced liver injury in rats via reducing inflammation and regulating expressions of protein and genes involved in fatty acid metabolism (such as HIF1-α, FAßO, CPT1, and AMPK) and fatty acid profiles in liver. Such benefits correlated with its prominent effects on enriching Lactobacillus and short-chain fatty acids while reducing Dubosiella, Fusicatenilacter, Helicobacter, and Oscillospira. Our work provides novel insights into the probiotic property of PKP and emphasizes the great potential of the inactivated L. reuteri cultured with PKP in contracting unhealthy diet-induced liver dysfunctions and gut dysbacteriosis.

Cadmium Exposure was Associated with Sex-Specific Thyroid Dysfunction: Consistent Evidence from Two Independent Cross-Sectional Studies Based on Urinary and Blood Cadmium Measurements.

Population-based studies on the association between cadmium (Cd) exposure and thyroid function are limited and have shown conflicting results. Two independent cross-sectional studies using different Cd biomarkers were carried out in six rural areas with different soil Cd levels in China. Thyroid dysfunction was defined based on levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4). Multivariable linear regression, multiple logistic regression, and restrictive cubic splines models were used to estimate the association between Cd and thyroid dysfunction. For both of the two independent studies, higher Cd levels were observed to be associated with lower TSH levels and higher risk of thyroid dysfunction. The negative relationship between urinary Cd and TSH was found in both total participants (ß = - 0.072, p = 0.008) and males (ß = - 0.119, p = 0.020) but not in females; however, the negative relationship between blood Cd and TSH was only found in females (ß = - 0.104, p = 0.024). Higher urinary Cd was associated with higher risk of thyroid dysfunction (OR = 1.77, p = 0.031), while higher blood Cd was associated with higher risk of thyroid dysfunction (OR = 1.95, p = 0.011). Results from the two independent cross-sectional studies consistently suggested that higher Cd levels were associated with sex-specific thyroid dysfunction.

Segmentation method of magnetic resonance imaging brain tumor images based on improved UNet network.

Background: Glioma is a primary malignant craniocerebral tumor commonly found in the central nervous system. According to research, preoperative diagnosis of glioma and a full understanding of its imaging features are very significant. Still, the traditional segmentation methods of image dispensation and machine wisdom are not acceptable in glioma segmentation. This analysis explores the potential of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain tumor images as an effective segmentation method of glioma. Methods: This study used 200 MRI images from the affiliated hospital and applied the 2-dimensional residual block UNet (2DResUNet). Features were extracted from input images using a 2×2 kernel size (64-kernel) 1-step 2D convolution (Conv) layer. The 2DDenseUNet model implemented in this study incorporates a ResBlock mechanism within the UNet architecture, as well as a Gaussian noise layer for data augmentation at the input stage, and a pooling layer for replacing the conventional 2D convolutional layers. Finally, the performance of the proposed protocol and its effective measures in glioma segmentation were verified. Results: The outcomes of the 5-fold cross-validation evaluation show that the proposed 2DResUNet and 2DDenseUNet structure has a high sensitivity despite the slightly lower evaluation result on the Dice score. At the same time, compared with other models used in the experiment, the DM-DA-UNet model proposed in this paper was significantly improved in various indicators, increasing the reliability of the model and providing a reference and basis for the accurate formulation of clinical treatment strategies. The method used in this study showed stronger feature extraction ability than the UNet model. In addition, our findings demonstrated that using generalized die harm and prejudiced cross entropy as loss functions in the training process effectively alleviated the class imbalance of glioma data and effectively segmented glioma. Conclusions: The method based on the improved UNet network has obvious advantages in the MRI brain tumor portrait segmentation procedure. The result showed that we developed a 2D residual block UNet, which can improve the incorporation of glioma segmentation into the clinical process.

Wet 3D printing of biodegradable porous scaffolds to enable room-temperature deposition modeling of polymeric solutions for regeneration of articular cartilage.

Tissue engineering has emerged as an advanced strategy to regenerate various tissues using different raw materials, and thus it is desired to develop more approaches to fabricate tissue engineering scaffolds to fit specific yet very useful raw materials such as biodegradable aliphatic polyester like poly (lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA). Herein, a technique of 'wet 3D printing' was developed based on a pneumatic extrusion three-dimensional (3D) printer after we introduced a solidification bath into a 3D printing system to fabricate porous scaffolds. The room-temperature deposition modeling of polymeric solutions enabled by our wet 3D printing method is particularly meaningful for aliphatic polyester, which otherwise degrades at high temperature in classic fuse deposition modeling. As demonstration, we fabricated a bilayered porous scaffold consisted of PLGA and its mixture with hydroxyapatite for regeneration of articular cartilage and subchondral bone. Long-termin vitroandin vivodegradation tests of the scaffolds were carried out up to 36 weeks, which support the three-stage degradation process of the polyester porous scaffold and suggest faster degradationin vivothanin vitro. Animal experiments in a rabbit model of articular cartilage injury were conducted. The efficacy of the scaffolds in cartilage regeneration was verified through histological analysis, micro-computed tomography (CT) and biomechanical tests, and the influence of scaffold structures (bilayerversussingle layer) onin vivotissue regeneration was examined. This study has illustrated that the wet 3D printing is an alternative approach to biofabricate tissue engineering porous scaffolds based on biodegradable polymers.

Soil redox status governs within-field spatial variation in microbial arsenic methylation and rice straighthead disease.

Microbial arsenic (As) methylation in paddy soil produces mainly dimethylarsenate (DMA), which can cause physiological straighthead disease in rice. The disease is often highly patchy in the field, but the reasons remain unknown. We investigated within-field spatial variations in straighthead disease severity, As species in rice husks and in soil porewater, microbial composition and abundance of arsM gene encoding arsenite S-adenosylmethionine methyltransferase in two paddy fields. The spatial pattern of disease severity matched those of soil redox potential, arsM gene abundance, porewater DMA concentration, and husk DMA concentration in both fields. Structural equation modelling identified soil redox potential as the key factor affecting arsM gene abundance, consequently impacting porewater DMA and husk DMA concentrations. Core amplicon variants that correlated positively with husk DMA concentration belonged mainly to the phyla of Chloroflexi, Bacillota, Acidobacteriota, Actinobacteriota, and Myxococcota. Meta-omics analyses of soil samples from the disease and non-disease patches identified 5129 arsM gene sequences, with 71% being transcribed. The arsM-carrying hosts were diverse and dominated by anaerobic bacteria. Between 96 and 115 arsM sequences were significantly more expressed in the soil samples from the disease than from the non-disease patch, which were distributed across 18 phyla, especially Acidobacteriota, Bacteroidota, Verrucomicrobiota, Chloroflexota, Pseudomonadota, and Actinomycetota. This study demonstrates that even a small variation in soil redox potential within the anoxic range can cause a large variation in the abundance of As-methylating microorganisms, thus resulting in within-field variation in rice straighthead disease. Raising soil redox potential could be an effective way to prevent straighthead disease.

Association of persistent postoperative hyperglycemia with mortality after elective craniotomy.

OBJECTIVE: The influence of persistent postoperative hyperglycemia after craniotomy has not yet been explored. This study aimed to investigate the hypothesis that persistent postoperative hyperglycemia is associated with mortality in patients undergoing an elective craniotomy. METHODS: This study included adult patients (age ≥ 18 years) undergoing an elective craniotomy between January 2011 and March 2021 at the West China Hospital, Sichuan University. Peak daily blood glucose values measured within the first 7 days after craniotomy were collected. Persistent hyperglycemia was defined by two or more consecutive serum glucose levels of mild, moderate, or severe hyperglycemia. Normoglycemia, mild hyperglycemia, moderate hyperglycemia, and severe hyperglycemia were defined as glucose values of ≤ 6.1 mmol/L, > 6.1 and ≤ 7.8 mmol/L, > 7.8 and ≤ 10.0 mmol/L, and > 10.0 mmol/L, respectively. RESULTS: This study included 14,907 patients undergoing an elective craniotomy. In the multivariable analysis, both moderate (adjusted OR 3.76, 95% CI 2.68-5.27) and severe (adjusted OR 3.82, 95% CI 2.54-5.76) persistent hyperglycemia in patients were associated with higher 30-day mortality compared with normoglycemia. However, this association was not observed in patients with mild hyperglycemia (adjusted OR 1.32, 95% CI 0.93-1.88). Interestingly, this association was observed regardless of whether patients had preoperative hyperglycemia. There was no interaction between moderate or severe hyperglycemia and preexisting diabetes (p for interaction = 0.65). When postoperative peak blood glucose values within the first 7 days after craniotomy were evaluated as a continuous variable, for each 1-mmol/L increase in blood glucose, the adjusted OR of 30-day mortality was 1.17 (95% CI 1.14-1.21). Postoperative blood glucose (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.78) was superior to preoperative blood glucose (AUC = 0.65; p < 0.001) for predicting mortality. Moderate and severe persistent hyperglycemia in patients were associated with an increased risk of deep venous thrombosis (adjusted OR 3.20, 95% CI 2.31-4.42), pneumonia (adjusted OR 2.77, 95% CI 2.40-3.21), myocardial infarction (adjusted OR 4.38, 95% CI 3.41-5.61), and prolonged hospital stays (adjusted OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.29-1.59). CONCLUSIONS: In patients undergoing an elective craniotomy, moderate and severe persistent postoperative hyperglycemia were associated with an increased risk of mortality compared with normoglycemia, regardless of preoperative hyperglycemia.

Development of a novel humanized anti-TSLP monoclonal antibody HZ-1127 with anti-allergic diseases and cancer potential.

Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) is a member of the IL-2 cytokine family and has been widely recognized as a master regulator of type 2 inflammatory responses at barrier surfaces. Recent studies found dysregulation of the TSLP-TSLP receptor (TSLPR) pathway is associated with the pathogenesis of not only allergic diseases but also a wide variety of cancers including both solid tumors and hematological tumors. Thus, the blockade of TSLP represents an attractive therapeutic strategy for allergic diseases and cancer. In this study, we report the development of a novel humanized anti-TSLP monoclonal antibody (mAb) HZ-1127. Binding affinity, specificity, and ability of HZ-1127 in inhibiting TSLP were tested. HZ-1127 selectively binds to the TSLP cytokine with high affinity and specificity. Furthermore, HZ-1127 dramatically inhibits TSLP-dependent STAT5 activation and is more potent than Tezepelumab, which is an FDA-approved humanized mAb against TSLP for severe asthma treatment in inhibiting TSLP-induced CCL17 and CCL22 chemokines secretion in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Our pre-clinical study demonstrates that HZ-1127 may serve as a potential therapeutic agent for allergic diseases and cancer.

DSCNet: lightweight and efficient self-supervised network via depthwise separable cross convolution blocks for speckle image matching.

Speckle structured light has become a research hotspot due to its ability to acquire target three-dimensional information with single image projection in recent years. To address the challenges of a low number of extracted speckle feature points, high mismatch rate and poor real-time performance in traditional algorithms, as well as the obstacle of requiring expensive annotation data in deep learning-based methods, a lightweight and efficient self-supervised convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed to achieve high-precision and rapid matching of speckle images. First, to efficiently utilize the speckle projection information, a feature extraction backbone based on the depthwise separable cross convolution blocks is proposed. Second, in the feature detection module, a softargmax detection head is designed to refine the coordinates of speckle feature points to sub-pixel accuracy. In the feature description module, a coarse-to-fine module is presented to further refine matching accuracy. Third, we adopt strategies of transfer learning and self-supervised learning to improve the generalization and feature representation capabilities of the model. Data augmentation and real-time training techniques are used to improve the robustness of the model. The experimental results show that the proposed method achieves a mean matching accuracy of 91.62% for speckle feature points on the pilot's helmet, with mere 0.95% mismatch rate. The full model runs at 42ms for a speckle image pair on an RTX 3060.