Cosine convolutional neural network and its application for seizure detection.

Traditional convolutional neural networks (CNNs) often suffer from high memory consumption and redundancy in their kernel representations, leading to overfitting problems and limiting their application in real-time, low-power scenarios such as seizure detection systems. In this work, a novel cosine convolutional neural network (CosCNN), which replaces traditional kernels with the robust cosine kernel modulated by only two learnable factors, is presented, and its effectiveness is validated on the tasks of seizure detection. Meanwhile, based on the cosine lookup table and KL-divergence, an effective post-training quantization algorithm is proposed for CosCNN hardware implementation. With quantization, CosCNN can achieve a nearly 75% reduction in the memory cost with almost no accuracy loss. Moreover, we design a configurable cosine convolution accelerator on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and deploy the quantized CosCNN on Zedboard, proving the proposed seizure detection system can operate in real-time and low-power scenarios. Extensive experiments and comparisons were conducted using two publicly available epileptic EEG databases, the Bonn database and the CHB-MIT database. The results highlight the performance superiority of the CosCNN over traditional CNNs as well as other seizure detection methods.

Analysis of the clinical profile and treatment efficiency of hyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of hyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis (HLAP) has been increasing annually. However, population-based morbidity assessments need to be updated. Early, rapid, and effective lipid-lowering may minimize pancreatic injury and improve clinical prognosis. It is essential to choose the proper treatment. However, treatment options for HLAP are controversial, and there is no uniform treatment protocol. METHODS: In this retrospective study, 127 patients with hyperlipidemic severe acute pancreatitis (HL-SAP) were registered from January 2018 to December 2022 at the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University. Medical and radiological records of hospitalized patients were collected to determine clinical features, severity, complications, mortality, recurrence rate, and treatment. Risk factors for HL-SAP were analyzed using multifactorial logistic regression. A propensity score matching method was used to compare the clinical outcomes of standard and plasma exchange therapies. RESULTS: In this research, the prevalence of HLAP increased about 1.6 times, and the prevalence of HL-SAP was 50.60%. HL-SAP occurs most often in people between the ages of 30 and 39. Amylase exceeded 110 U/L in 84.3% of patients and 330 U/L in only 47.2%. 83.5% of HL-SAP patients had fatty livers and high body mass index (BMI). A total of 48.0% of patients experienced organ failure, ICU treatment (55.1%), recurrence (33.1%), and death (21.3%). Between the hyperlipidemic group and the biliary group in terms of age, gender, BMI, fatty liver, pleural effusion, abdominal constriction syndrome (ACS), multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), length of hospital, medical costs, morbidity and mortality, triglyceride, cholesterol, creatinine, blood glucose, D-dimer, amylase, albumin, lactate dehydrogenase, serum phosphorus, serum calcium, oxygenation index, and recurrence rate were statistically significant (P < 0.05). High BMI (P = 0.0038, odds ratio (OR) = 1.336, 95%CI: 0.99-1.804), high C-reactive protein (CRP) (P = 0.022, OR = 1.011, 95%CI: 1.003-1.019), low calcium (P = 0.003, OR = 0.016, 95%CI. 0.001-0.239), low albumin (P = 0.012, OR = 0.045, 95%CI: -0.062-0.192), and high D-dimer (P = 0.041, OR = 0.619, 95%CI: 0.053-2.510) were risk factors for HL-SAP, according to multifactorial logistic regression analysis. Adjusted for propensity score matching (PSM), Serum triglyceride (TG) was significantly lower in both the standard treatment (P < 0.001) and plasma exchange (P < 0.001) groups at 48 h compared with the initial test after the attack. Clearance (83.20% ± 0.0% vs. 84.4% ± 0.0%, P = 0.531), length of hospital stay (19.9 ± 4.9 vs. 19.8 ± 11.1, P = 0.092), and death (26.3% vs. 23.6%, P = 0.791) showed no difference between the two groups. However, the difference in medical costs(P = 0.039)between the two groups was statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The incidence of HLAP exhibited a significant increase, remarkable severity, recurrent trend, and mortality. High BMI, high CRP, low calcium, low albumin, and high D-dimer are risk factors for HL-SAP. Compared with standardized treatment, plasma exchange does not improve the prognosis of HL-SAP patients, and standardized treatment is equally effective, safe, and low-cost in early treatment.

Rational Design of F-Modified Polyester Electrolytes for Sustainable All-Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries.

Solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) are one of the most practical candidates for solid-state batteries owing to their high flexibility and low production cost, but their application is limited by low Li+ conductivity and a narrow electrochemical window. To improve performance, it is necessary to reveal the structure-property relationship of SPEs. Here, 23 fluorinated linear polyesters were prepared by editing the coordination units, flexible linkage segments, and interface passivating groups. Besides the traditionally demonstrated coordinating capability and flexibility of polymer chains, the molecular asymmetry and resulting interchain aggregation are observed critical for Li+ conductivity. By tailoring the molecular asymmetry and coordination ability of polyesters, the Li+ conductivity can be raised by 10 times. Among these polyesters, solvent-free poly(pentanediol adipate) delivers the highest room-temperature Li+ conductivity of 0.59 × 10-4 S cm-1. The chelating coordination of oxalate and Li+ leads to an electron delocalization of alkoxy oxygen, enhancing the antioxidation capability of SPEs. To lower the cost, high-value LiTFSI in SPEs is recycled at 90%, and polyesters can be regenerated at 86%. This work elucidates the structure-property relationship of polyester-based SPEs, displays the design principles of SPEs, and provides a way for the development of sustainable solid-state batteries.

Identification of Unambiguous Borrelia Peptides in Human Urine Using Affinity Capture and Mass Spectrometry.

The combination of advanced mass spectrometry and enrichment-based sample preparation methods has enhanced analytical capabilities in clinical proteomics. In this chapter, we describe a method of proteome analysis to identify Borrelia-derived peptides in urine that includes a sample affinity enrichment method coupled with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis and a bioinformatic peptide authentication algorithm.

Epileptic Seizure Detection with an End-to-End Temporal Convolutional Network and Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory Model.

Automatic seizure detection plays a key role in assisting clinicians for rapid diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. In view of the parallelism of temporal convolutional network (TCN) and the capability of bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) in mining the long-range dependency of multi-channel time-series, we propose an automatic seizure detection method with a novel end-to-end TCN-BiLSTM model in this work. First, raw EEG is filtered with a 0.5-45 Hz band-pass filter, and the filtered data are input into the proposed TCN-BiLSTM network for feature extraction and classification. Post-processing process including moving average filtering, thresholding and collar technique is then employed to further improve the detection performance. The method was evaluated on two EEG database. On the CHB-MIT scalp EEG database, our method achieved a segment-based sensitivity of 94.31%, specificity of 97.13%, and accuracy of 97.09%. Meanwhile, an event-based sensitivity of 96.48% and an average false detection rate (FDR) of 0.38/h were obtained. On the SH-SDU database we collected, the segment-based sensitivity of 94.99%, specificity of 93.25%, and accuracy of 93.27% were achieved. In addition, an event-based sensitivity of 99.35% and a false detection rate of 0.54/h were yielded. The total detection time consumed for 1[Formula: see text]h EEG data was 5.65[Formula: see text]s. These results demonstrate the superiority and promising potential of the proposed method in real-time monitoring of epileptic seizures.

The relationship between decline rate of residual renal function in the first year and mortality in peritoneal dialysis patients.

INTRODUCTION: To assess the relationship between the rate of residual renal function (RRF) decline in the first year and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. METHODS: Incident PD patients were divided into two groups by the corresponding RRF decline value, when hazard ratio (HR) = 1 was found by the restricted cubic spline. The associations of rate of decline of RRF in the first year with mortality were evaluated. RESULTS: Of 497 PD patients, 122 patients died. After adjusting for confounding factors, patients in fast-decline group had a significant increase risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality (HR: 1.97 and 2.09, respectively). Each 0.1-mL/min/1.73 m2 /month decrease in RRF in the first year of PD was associated with a 19% and 20% higher risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Faster decline of RRF in the first year was independently associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in PD patients.

Grain-growth Inhibitor with Three-section-sintering for Highly Dispersed Single-crystal NCM90 Cubes.

Single crystallization of LiNix Coy Mn1-x-y O2 (NCM) is currently an effective strategy to improve the cycling life of NCM cathode, owing to the reduced surface area and enhanced mechanical strength, but the application of single crystal NCM(SC-NCM) is being hindered by severe particle agglomeration and poor C-rate performance. Here, a strategy of three-section-sintering(TSS) with the presence of grain-growth inhibitor was proposed, in which, the TSS includes three sections of phase-formation, grain-growth and phase-preservation. While, the addition of MoO3 inhibits the grain growth and restrains the particle agglomeration. With the help of TSS and 1 mol % of MoO3 , highly dispersed surface Mo-doped SC-NCM(MSC-NCM) cubes are obtained with the average diameter of 1.3 µm. Benefiting from the surface Mo-doping and the reduced surface energy, the Li+ -migration preferred (1 0 4) crystalline facet is exposed as the dominant plane in MSC-NCM cubes, because of which, C-rate performance is significantly improved compared with the regular SC-NCM. Furthermore, this preparation strategy is compatible well with the current industrial production line, providing an easy way for the large-scale production of SC-NCM.

Gold-Nanorod-Assisted Live Cell Nuclear Imaging Based on Near-Infrared II Dark-Field Microscopy.

Dark-field microscopy offers several advantages, including high image contrast, minimal cell damage, and the absence of photobleaching of nanoprobes, which make it highly advantageous for cell imaging. The NIR-II window has emerged as a prominent research focus in optical imaging in recent years, with its low autofluorescence background in biological samples and high imaging SBR. In this study, we initially compared dark-field imaging results of colorectal cancer cells in both visible and NIR-II wavelengths, confirming the superior performance of NIR-II imaging. Subsequently, we synthesized gold nanorods with localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) absorption peaks in the NIR-II window. After bio-compatible modification, we non-specifically labeled colorectal cancer cells for NIR-II dark-field scattering imaging. The imaging results revealed a sixfold increase in SBR, especially in the 1425-1475 nm wavelength range. Finally, we applied this imaging system to perform dark-field imaging of cell nuclei in the NIR-II region and used GNRs for specific nuclear labeling in colorectal cancer cells. The resulting images exhibited higher SBR than non-specifically-labeled cell imaging, and the probe's labeling was precise, confirming the potential application of this system in photothermal therapy and drug delivery for cancer cells.

m1A Regulatory gene signatures are associated with certain immune cell compositions of the tumor microenvironment and predict survival in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma.

Adenosine N1 methylation (m1A) of RNA, a type of post-transcriptional modification, has been shown to play a significant role in the progression of cancer. The objective of the current research was to analyze the genetic alteration and prognostic significance of m1A regulators in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC). Genomic and clinicopathological characteristics were obtained from 558 KIRC patients in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Omnibus Expression (GEO) databases. Alterations in the gene expression of ten m1A-regulators were analyzed and survival analysis was performed using the Cox regression method. We also identified three clusters of patients based on their distinct m1A alteration patterns, using integrated analysis of the ten m1A-related regulators, which were significantly related to overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) and tumor microenvironment (TME) immune cell infiltration cells in KIRC. Our findings showed that m1A alteration patterns have critical roles in determining TME complexity and its immune cell composition. Furthermore, different m1A expression patterns were significantly associated with DFS and OS rates in KIRC patients. In conclusion, the identified m1A RNA modification patterns offer a potentially effective way to classify KIRC patients based on their TME immune cell infiltration, enabling the development of more personalized and successful treatment strategies for these patients.

Epileptic Seizure Prediction Using Attention Augmented Convolutional Network.

Early seizure prediction is crucial for epilepsy patients to reduce accidental injuries and improve their quality of life. Identifying pre-ictal EEG from the inter-ictal state is particularly challenging due to their nonictal nature and remarkable similarities. In this study, a novel epileptic seizure prediction method is proposed based on multi-head attention (MHA) augmented convolutional neural network (CNN) to address the issue of CNN's limit of capturing global information of input signals. First, data enhancement is performed on original EEG recordings to balance the pre-ictal and inter-ictal EEG data, and the EEG recordings are sliced into 6-second-long EEG segments. Subsequently, EEG time-frequency distribution is obtained using Stockwell transform (ST), and the attention augmented convolutional network is employed for feature extraction and classification. Finally, post-processing is utilized to reduce the false prediction rate (FPR). The CHB-MIT EEG database was used to evaluate the system. The validation results showed a segment-based sensitivity of 98.24% and an event-based sensitivity of 94.78% with a FPR of 0.05/h were yielded, respectively. The satisfying results of the proposed method demonstrate its possible potential for clinical applications.

Identification of cuproptosis-related genes for predicting the development of prostate cancer.

Copper can be toxic at very high intracellular concentrations and can inhibit prostate cancer (PCa) progression. Recently, a study reported the mechanism of cuproptosis and the potentially associated genes. However, the function of these cuproptosis-related genes in PCa remains unknown. Based on the RNA sequence and clinical data from public databases, we analyzed the clinical value of cuproptosis-related genes in PCa. DLD, DLAT, PDHA1, and CDKN2A were expressed differently between normal and PCa tissues. The FDX1, LIAS, DLAT, GLS, and CDKN2A genes can affect PCa progression, while PDHA1 and CDKN2A influence the patients' disease-free survival (DFS) status. The expression of LIAS, LIPT1, DLAT, and PDHB did not alter upon the incidence of PCa in Chinese patients. A constructed regression model showed that FDX1, PDHA1, MTF1, and CDKN2A can be risk factors leading to PCa in both Western and Chinese patients with PCa. The lasso regression model reflected that these genes can affect the patients' DFS status. Additionally, the cuproptosis-related genes were associated with immune cell infiltration. We also verified the high expression of PDHA1 and CDKN2A, in clinical samples. In conclusion, we identified a novel cuproptosis-related gene signature for predicting the development of PCa.

Combination of sequencing batch reactor activated sludge process with sludge lysis using thermophilic bacterial community for minimizing excess sludge.

Sludge reduction is a major challenge in biological wastewater treatment. Hydrolytic enzymes secreted by thermophilic bacteria can lyse sludge and thus achieve sludge reduction, and the indigenous thermophilic community in sludge can lyse sludge more effectively. In this study, the feasibility of combining a sludge lysis reactor based on thermophilic bacteria community (LTBC reactor, 75 °C) with a conventional sequencing batch activated sludge reactor (SBR) for sludge reduction (i.e., LTBC-SBR process) was systematically investigated first time. The effect of lysed sludge returning to the biochemical tank on pollutant removal efficiency, sludge flocculation, sludge settling, and microbial community and function of the LTBC-SBR process was studied. In the LTBC1-SBR process, a sludge growth rate of 0.71 g TSS/day was observed when the lysed sludge reflux ratio (LRR) was 1, and the sludge generation was reduced by 81.5% compared to the conventional SBR reactor. In the LTBC1-SBR process, the removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand and total nitrogen were 94.0% and 80.5%, respectively. There was no significant difference in the sludge volume index from the SBR to the LTBC1-SBR stage, however, the effluent suspended solids concentration increased from 35.2 ± 2.1 mg/L to 80.1 ± 5.3 mg/L. This was attributed to the reflux of sludge lysate. In addition, the changes in extracellular polymers content and composition resulted in poor sludge flocculation performance. Heterotrophic bacteria associated with Actinobacteria and Patescibacteria enriched in LTBC1-SBR with relative abundance of 28.51 ± 1.25% and 20.01 ± 1.21%, respectively, which decomposed the macromolecules in the refluxed lysed sludge and contributed to the sludge reduction. Furthermore, due to the inhibition of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria, the nitrite concentration in the effluent of the LTBC1-SBR system reached 4.7 ± 1.1 mg/L, and part of the denitrification process was achieved by short-cut nitrification and simultaneous denitrification. These results indicate that in-situ sludge reduction technology based on lyse sludge lysing by thermophilic community has considerable potential to be widely used in wastewater treatment.

Photodissociation dynamics of the ethyl radical via the Ã2A'(3s) state: H-atom product channels and ethylene product vibrational state distribution.

The photodissociation dynamics of jet-cooled ethyl radical (C2H5) via the Ã2A'(3s) states are studied in the wavelength region of 230-260 nm using the high-n Rydberg H-atom time-of-flight (TOF) technique. The H + C2H4 product channels are reexamined using the H-atom TOF spectra and photofragment translational spectroscopy. A prompt H + C2H4(X̃1Ag) product channel is characterized by a repulsive translational energy release, anisotropic product angular distribution, and partially resolved vibrational state distribution of the C2H4(X̃1Ag) product. This fast dissociation is initiated from the 3s Rydberg state and proceeds via a H-bridged configuration directly to the H + C2H4(X̃1Ag) products. A statistical-like H + C2H4(X̃1Ag) product channel via unimolecular dissociation of the hot electronic ground-state ethyl (X̃2A') after internal conversion from the 3s Rydberg state is also examined, showing a modest translational energy release and isotropic angular distribution. An adiabatic H + excited triplet C2H4(ã3B1u) product channel (a minor channel) is identified by energy-dependent product angular distribution, showing a small translational energy release, anisotropic angular distribution, and significant internal excitation in the C2H4(ã3B1u) product. The dissociation times of the different product channels are evaluated using energy-dependent product angular distribution and pump-probe delay measurements. The prompt H + C2H4(X̃1Ag) product channel has a dissociation time scale of <10 ps, and the upper bound of the dissociation time scale of the statistical-like H + C2H4(X̃1Ag) product channel is <5 ns.

Self-attention-based convolutional neural network and time-frequency common spatial pattern for enhanced motor imagery classification.

BACKGROUND: Motor imagery (MI) based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have promising potentials in the field of neuro-rehabilitation. However, due to individual variations in active brain regions during MI tasks, the challenge of decoding MI EEG signals necessitates improved classification performance for practical application. NEW METHOD: This study proposes a self-attention-based Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) in conjunction with a time-frequency common spatial pattern (TFCSP) for enhanced MI classification. Due to the limited availability of training data, a data augmentation strategy is employed to expand the scale of MI EEG datasets. The self-attention-based CNN is trained to automatically extract the temporal and spatial information from EEG signals, allowing the self-attention module to select active channels by calculating EEG channel weights. TFCSP is further implemented to extract multiscale time-frequency-space features from EEG data. Finally, the EEG features derived from TFCSP are concatenated with those from the self-attention-based CNN for MI classification. RESULTS: The proposed method is evaluated on two publicly accessible datasets, BCI Competition IV IIa and BCI Competition III IIIa, yielding mean accuracies of 79.28 % and 86.39 %, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with state-of-the-art methods, our approach achieves superior classification results in accuracy. Self-attention-based CNN combining with TFCSP can make full use of the time-frequency-space information of EEG, and enhance the classification performance.

Efficiencies of Various in situ Polymerizations of Liquid Electrolytes and the Practical Implications for Quasi Solid-state Batteries.

In situ polymerization of liquid electrolytes is currently the most feasible way for constructing solid-state batteries, which, however, is affected by various interfering factors of reactions and so the electrochemical performance of cells. To disclose the effects from polymerization conditions, two types of generally used in situ polymerizing reactions of ring-opening polymerization (ROP) and double bond radical polymerization (DBRP) were investigated on the aspects of monomer conversion and electrochemical properties (Li+ -conductivity and interfacial stability). The ROP generated poly-ester and poly-carbonate show a high monomer conversion of ≈90 %, but suffer a poor Li+ -conductivity of lower than 2×10-5  S cm-1 at room temperature (RT). Additionally, the terminal alkoxy anion derived from the ROP is not resistant to high-voltage cathodes. While, the DBRP produced poly-VEC(vinyl ethylene carbonate) and poly-VC(vinylene carbonate) show lower monomer conversions of 50-80 %, delivering relatively higher Li+ -conductivities of 2×10-4  S cm-1 at RT. Compared two polymerizing reactions and four monomers, the VEC-based F-containing copolymer possesses advantages in Li+ -conductivity and antioxidant capacity, which also shows simultaneous stability towards Li-metal with the help of LiF-based passivating layer, allowing a long-term stable cycling of high-voltage quasi solid-state cells.

A Review of Recent Advances for the Detection of Biological, Chemical, and Physical Hazards in Foodstuffs Using Spectral Imaging Techniques.

Traditional methods for detecting foodstuff hazards are time-consuming, inefficient, and destructive. Spectral imaging techniques have been proven to overcome these disadvantages in detecting foodstuff hazards. Compared with traditional methods, spectral imaging could also increase the throughput and frequency of detection. This study reviewed the techniques used to detect biological, chemical, and physical hazards in foodstuffs including ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectroscopy, terahertz (THz) spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging, and Raman spectroscopy. The advantages and disadvantages of these techniques were discussed and compared. The latest studies regarding machine learning algorithms for detecting foodstuff hazards were also summarized. It can be found that spectral imaging techniques are useful in the detection of foodstuff hazards. Thus, this review provides updated information regarding the spectral imaging techniques that can be used by food industries and as a foundation for further studies.

Study on clinical outcomes between non-transecting urethroplasty and lingual mucosal urethroplasty for iatrogenic bulbar urethral stricture treatment.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to compare the clinical outcomes of non-transecting urethroplasty and lingual mucosal urethroplasty in the treatment of iatrogenic bulbar urethral stricture. RESULTS: A total of 25 patients with iatrogenic bulbar urethral stricture were enrolled, 12 of whom underwent lingual mucosal urethroplasty, 13 patients who underwent non-transecting urethroplasty. All patients were followed-up and evaluated at 3 postoperative months. Evaluations included urethrography, maximum urine flow rate (Qmax), nocturnal erectile function testing, International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) assessment, and Anxiety Related Scale (SAS) assessment. In terms of operation time, there was a significant difference between non-transecting urethroplasty and lingual mucosal urethroplasty. However, there was no significant intergroup difference in intraoperative blood loss. Both techniques were associated with significantly improved Qmax relative to preoperative rates, but there was no significant difference between the groups in this regard over 3 months of postoperative follow-up. Nocturnal penile tumescence and rigidity results showed that there was no significant change in tip hardness after surgery in the non-transecting urethroplasty group. Moreover, IIEF-5 scores indicated that there was no significant intergroup difference in terms of subjective postoperative erectile function. According to the preliminary psychological evaluations during postoperative follow-up, the anxiety scores of patients undergoing non-transecting urethroplasty significantly improved, but there was no significant change in the mean SAS score among patients who underwent lingual mucosal urethroplasty. CONCLUSION: Both surgical methods can achieve the clinical goal of treating iatrogenic bulbar urethral stricture. Non-transecting urethroplasty has the characteristics of short operation time, relative technical simplicity, and retention of the original erectile function of most patients, and the surgical outcomes of non-transecting urethroplasty are not inferior to those of lingual mucosal urethroplasty, and it is a promising technique for widespread use to treat bulbar urethral strictures.

RéSUMé: CONTEXTE: Cette étude visait à comparer les résultats cliniques de l'urétroplastie non transectante et de l'urétroplastie avec greffe de  muqueuse linguale dans le traitement de la sténose urétrale bulbaire iatrogène. Un total de 25 patients présentant une sténose urétrale bulbaire iatrogène a été recruté, dont 12 ont subi une urétroplastie avec greffe de muqueuse buccale et 13 une urétroplastie non-transectante. Tous les patients ont été suivis et évalués à 3 mois postopératoires. Les évaluations comprenaient une uréthrographie, le débit urinaire maximal (Qmax), un test nocturne de la fonction érectile, l'évaluation de l'index international de la fonction érectile (IIEF5) et une évaluation de l'échelle d'anxiété. RéSULTATS: En termes de durée opératoire, il y avait une différence significative entre l'urétroplastie non-transectante et urétroplastie avec greffe de muqueuse buccale. Cependant, il n'y avait pas de différence significative entre les groupes en ce qui concerne la perte de sang peropératoire. Les deux techniques ont été associées à une amélioration significative du Qmax par rapport aux taux préopératoires, mais il n'y avait pas de différence significative entre les groupes à cet égard sur 3 mois de suivi postopératoire. Les résultats de la tumescence et de la rigidité nocturnes du pénis ont montré qu'il n'y avait pas de changement significatif de la dureté de l'extrémité du pénis après l'opération dans le groupe d'urétroplastie sans transsection. De plus, les scores IIEF-5 ont indiqué qu'il n'y avait pas de différence significative entre les groupes en termes de fonction érectile subjective postopératoire. Selon les évaluations psychologiques préliminaires au cours du suivi postopératoire, les scores d'anxiété des patients ayant subi une urétroplastie non-transectante se sont améliorés de manière significative, mais il n'y a pas eu de changement significatif du score moyen de l'échelle d'anxiété chez les patients ayant subi une urétroplastie avec greffe de muqueuse buccale. CONCLUSIONS: Les deux méthodes permettent d'atteindre l'objectif clinique du traitement de la sténose urétrale bulbaire iatrogène. L'urétroplastie sans transsection présente les caractéristiques suivantes: temps d'opération court, simplicité technique relative et maintien de la fonction érectile initiale chez la plupart des patients. Les résultats chirurgicaux de l'urétroplastie sans transsection ne sont pas inférieurs à ceux de l'urétroplastie avec greffe de muqueuse buccale et cette technique est prometteuse pour une utilisation généralisée dans le traitement des rétrécissements urétraux bulbaires.

Identification and validation of MSMB as a critical gene for prostate cancer development in obese people.

Prostate cancer (PCA) is one of the most common types of cancer and can seriously endanger the health of older men. Obesity is prevalent all around the world and triggered by lots of factors such as diet, environment and fat metabolism disorder can cause many neoplasms, including PCA. Evidence suggests that genetic changes increase the risk of PCA and obesity. However, the specific obesity-related genes leading to PCA are unknown. Obesity-related genes associated with PCA were identified and analyzed though three public electronic databases: Gene Expression Omnibus, The Cancer Genome Atlas, and Chinese Prostate Cancer Genome and Epigenome Atlas. The effect of obesity-related genes in PCA were analyzed using clinical data from different databases, while associations with immune cells were determined by TIMER web tool. The expression and function of obesity-related genes were verified using clinical samples from obese patients with PCA and PCA cells. We found that four genes, MSMB, BMP5, THBS4, and POPDC3, may lead to PCA occurrence in patients with obesity. In Gene Expression Omnibus database, MSMB and BMP5 were downregulated, while THBS4 and POPDC3 were upregulated. This trend was mainly preserved in the other electronic databases. We also discovered MSMB and THBS4 can affect PCA progression, and all these genes were risk factors for castration-resistant prostate cancer. Moreover, MSMB can impact disease-free survival status of patients with PCA. These obesity-related genes were also correlated with immune cells and immune cell infiltration in PCA. We further uncovered that MSMB was downregulated in clinical PCA and castration-resistant prostate cancer samples from patients with obesity and MSMB decreased PCA cells proliferation. These results indicate that MSMB is essential for PCA development in people with obesity and can be a biomarker for predicting PCA occurrence and progression in obese people.

Highly boosted trace-amount terahertz vibrational absorption spectroscopy based on defect one-dimensional photonic crystal.

Although terahertz (THz) spectroscopy demonstrates great application prospects in the fields of fingerprint sensing and detection, traditional sensing schemes face unavoidable limitations in the analysis of trace-amount samples. In this Letter, a novel, to the best of our knowledge, absorption spectroscopy enhancement strategy based on a defect one-dimensional photonic crystal (1D-PC) structure is proposed to achieve strong wideband terahertz wave-matter interactions for trace-amount samples. Based on the Fabry-Pérot resonance effect, the local electric field in a thin-film sample can be boosted by changing the length of the photonic crystal defect cavity, so that the wideband signal of the sample fingerprint can be greatly enhanced. This method exhibits a great absorption enhancement factor, of about 55 times, in a wide terahertz frequency range, facilitating the identification of different samples, such as thin α-lactose films. The investigation reported in this Letter provides a new research idea for enhancing the wide terahertz absorption spectroscopy of trace samples.

Circular RNA HIPK3 facilitates ferroptosis in gestational diabetes mellitus by regulating glutathione peroxidase 4 DNA methylation.

BACKGROUND: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is the most frequently occurring complication during pregnancy, with a high prevalence rate. Ferroptosis, a type of iron-dependent cell death, is closely associated with GDM nosogenesis. The present study aimed to examine the potential role and mechanism of circHIPK3 in GDM. METHODS: Placental tissues, plasma samples, and HTR-8/SVneo cells were used. A receiver operating characteristic curve was used to analyze the diagnostic value of circHIPK3 in GDM. Actinomycin D and RnaseR were added to identify circHIPK3 characteristics. The expression of circHIPK3, miR-1278, and DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) was assessed using a quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR. Cell counting kit-8 and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling assays and specific kits were employed to assess cell viability, apoptosis, reactive oxygen species (ROS), malondialdehyde, iron, glutathione, and glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) levels. RESULTS: The interaction between miR-1278 and circHIPK3 or DNMT1 was validated via luciferase reporter and RNA pull-down assays. circHIPK3 expression was found to be high in GDM placental tissues, plasma, and cells, with a high diagnostic value. In high glucose (HG)-induced HTR-8/SVneo cells, the inhibition of circHIPK3 provoked cell viability and mitigated cell apoptosis, ROS, and iron levels, but it was rescued through the downregulation of miR-1278. Mechanism experiments showed that circHIPK3 bound with miR-1278 targeting DNMT1 in GDM. The elevation in DNMT1 expression abolished the effects of miR-1278 overexpression on ferroptosis in HG-cultured HTR-8/SVneo cells. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, circHIPK3 might facilitate ferroptosis via miR-1278/DNMT1 to regulate GPX4 DNA methylation in HG-cultured HTR-8/SVneo cells. CircHIPK3 could be a therapeutic agent for GDM treatment.