Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) hydrosol based on serotonergic synapse for insomnia.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) has been widely used as a traditional remedy for insomnia, depression and anxiety in China and Western countries. Modern pharmacological studies have shown that rosemary has important applications in neurological disorders. However, the mechanism of action of rosemary hydrosol in the treatment of insomnia is not known. AIMS OF THE STUDY: Insomnia is closely linked to anxiety and depression, and its pathogenesis is related to biology, psychology, and sociology. Rosemary is a natural plant that has been used to treat insomnia and depression and has good biological activity, but its material basis and mechanism for the treatment of insomnia are not clear. Here, we report on the role of aqueous extracts of rosemary in the treatment of insomnia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was based on network pharmacology, using a combination of RNA-sequencing, "quantity-effect" weighting coefficients, and pharmacodynamic experiments. DL-4-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA) was intraperitoneally injected into SD rats to replicate the insomnia model with a blank, model, diazepam, and rosemary hydrosol low-, medium-, and high-dose groups were set up for the experiment. The key pathways in the treatment of insomnia with rosemary hydrosol were analyzed by molecular docking, open field assay, ELISA, western-Blot, Rt-PCR, and immunohistochemical assay. RESULTS: Rosemary hydrosol was analyzed by GC-MS to identify 19 components. 1579 differential genes were obtained by RNA-Seq analysis, 533 targets for rosemary hydrosol and 2705 targets for insomnia, and 29 key targets were obtained by intersection. The KEGG results were ranked by "quantity-effect" weighting coefficients, resulting in serotonergic synapse was the key pathway for the treatment of insomnia with rosemary hydrosol. Molecular docking results showed that 1,7,7-trimethylbicyclo[2.2.1] heptan-2-one, 3-methyl-4-isopropylphenol, caryophyllene, and citronellol of rosemary hydrosol acted synergistically to achieve a therapeutic effect on insomnia. Caryophyllene acts on the HTR1A target by upregulating 5-HT1AR, leading to increased 5-HT release, and upregulation of ADCY5, cAMP, PKA and GABAA at serotonergic synapses; citronellol upregulated ADCY5 and 1,7,7-trimethylbicyclo[2.2.1] heptan-2-one, and 3-methyl-4-isopropylphenol up-regulated GABAA to improve insomnia symptoms. In open-field experiments, ELISA kits (5-HT, GABA, and DA), Western-blotting, Rt-PCR and immunohistochemical assay experiments, insomnia rats in the low-, medium- and high-dose groups of rosemary hydrosol showed different degrees of improvement compared with the model group. CONCLUSIONS: It was shown that rosemary hydrosol may exert its therapeutic effects on insomnia through serotonergic synapses by combining RNA-Seq, "quantity-effect" weighting coefficients network pharmacology and pharmacodynamic experiments. We have provided a preliminary theoretical study for the development of rosemary hydrosol additive into a beverage for the treatment of insomnia, but it needs to be studied in depth. This study was conducted in rats and the results have limitations and may not apply to humans.

Buddleja officinalis Maxim.: A review of its botany, ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and therapeutic potential for ophthalmic diseases.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Buddleja officinalis Maxim. (B. officinalis), commonly known as "Menghua" "Yangerduo" is a widely recognized traditional herbal medicine in China, Korea, and Vietnam. For thousands of years, it has been used to treat dry eye disease, conjunctivitis, keratitis, eye ulcers, eye pain, cough, asthma, hemoptysis, and other medical conditions. AIM OF THE REVIEW: This review article aims to provide a concise summary of the botany, ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmacology, medicinal potential, and application of B. officinalis in treating ophthalmic diseases and critically evaluates the existing literature to establish a scientific basis for its reasonable utilization and further investigation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The information reviewed in this study was collected from various electronic resources, including the Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar. RESULTS: To date, 80 structurally diverse compounds have been isolated and characterized from B. officinalis, primarily flavonoids, phenylethanoids, triterpenoids, and monoterpenes. Extracts and compounds derived from B. officinalis have been reported to possess broad pharmacological effects including anti-dry eye disease, anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, anti-diabetes, anti-obesity, improving osteoporosis and treatment of skin diseases. This review provides a reference for the future studies on of B. officinalis. CONCLUSIONS: As a natural medicinal plant, B. officinalis is worthy of further development in botany, ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and therapeutic potential for ophthalmic diseases. Although some components have demonstrated multiple pharmacological activities, their mechanisms of action remain unclear. Further studies on the underlying molecular basis and mechanism of action are warranted.

Thymol targeting interleukin 4 induced 1 expression reshapes the immune microenvironment to sensitize the immunotherapy in lung adenocarcinoma.

Immune checkpoint blockades are the most promising therapy in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). However, the response rate remains limited, underscoring the urgent need for effective sensitizers. Interleukin 4 induced 1 (IL4I1) is reported to have immunoinhibitory and tumor-promoting effects in several cancers. However, the targetable value of IL4I1 in sensitizing the immunotherapy is not clear, and there is a lack of effective small molecules that specifically target IL4I1. Here, we show that silencing IL4I1 significantly remodels the immune microenvironment via inhibiting aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) signaling, thereby enhancing the efficacy of anti-PD-1 antibody in LUAD, which suggests that IL4I1 is a potential drug target for the combination immunotherapy. We then identify thymol as the first small molecule targeting IL4I1 transcription through a drug screening. Thymol inhibits the IL4I1 expression and blocks AHR signaling in LUAD cells. Thymol treatment restores the antitumor immune response and suppresses the progression of LUAD in an orthotopic mouse model. Strikingly, the combination treatment of thymol with anti-PD-1 antibody shows significant tumor regression in LUAD mice. Thus, we demonstrate that thymol is an effective small molecule to sensitize the PD-1 blockade in LUAD via targeting IL4I1, which provides a novel strategy for the immunotherapy of LUAD.

[Diagnostic Efficacy of 68Ga-Labeled Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen and 18F-Labeled Sodium Fluoride PET/CT in Prostate Cancer With Bone Metastasis].

Objective To compare the efficiency of 68Ga-labeled prostate-specific membrane antigen (68Ga-PSMA-11) and 18F-labeled sodium fluoride (18F-NaF) PET/CT in the diagnosis of bone metastasis in the patients with prostate cancer.Methods The prostate cancer patients suspected of bone metastasis who underwent 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT and 18F-NaF PET/CT from January 2018 to January 2021 were included in this study.The number of lesions,maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax),and tumor-to-background (T/B) ratio were compared between the two methods.Results 18F-NaF PET/CT detected more metastases than 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT (310 vs.264,P<0.001).The median SUVmax[23.2 (16.4,33.4) vs.4.1 (2.5,5.6)] and median T/B ratio[7.0 (4.9,9.9) vs.6.7 (3.7,9.6)] of 18F-NaF PET/CT were higher than those of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT (all P<0.001).With the number of lesions as the indicator,the sensitivity,specificity,accuracy,positive predictive value,and negative predictive value of 18F-NaF PET/CT were 100.0%,92.0%,92.0%,98.7%,and 100.0% respectively,and those of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT were 85.2%,94.0%,79.2%,98.9%,and 50.5%,respectively.Conclusion 18F-NaF PET/CT is superior to 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT in the detection of bone metastases of prostate cancer.

Unprecedented Neoverrucosane and Cyathane Diterpenoids with Anti-Neuroinflammatory Activity from Cultures of the Culinary-Medicinal Mushroom Hericium erinaceus.

The culinary medicinal mushroom Hericium erinaceus holds significant global esteem and has garnered heightened interest within increasingly ageing societies due to its pronounced neuroprotective and anti-neuroinflammatory properties. Within this study, two novel diterpenes, 16-carboxy-13-epi-neoverrucosane (1) and Erinacine L (2); three known xylosyl cyathane diterpenoids, Erinacine A (3), Erinacine C (4), and Erinacine F (5); and four lanostane-type triterpenoids, and three cyclic dipeptides (10-12), in addition to orcinol (13), were isolated from the rice-based cultivation medium of H. erinaceus. Their structures were determined by NMR, HR-ESI-MS, ECD, and calculated NMR. Compound 1 marks a pioneering discovery as the first verrucosane diterpene originating from basidiomycetes, amplifying the scope of fungal natural product chemistry, and the intricate stereochemistry of Compound 5 has been comprehensively assessed for the first time. Compounds 2-5 not only showed encouraging neurotrophic activity in rat adrenal pheochromocytoma PC-12 cells, but also significantly inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide (NO) production in BV2 microglia cell cultures with IC50 values as low as 5.82 ± 0.18 µM. To elucidate the mechanistic underpinnings of these bioactivities, molecular docking simulation was used to analyze and support the interaction of 1 and 2 with inducible NO synthase (iNOS), respectively. In particular, compound 2, a cyathane-xyloside containing an unconventional hemiacetal moiety, is a compelling candidate for the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases. In summation, this investigation contributes substantively to the panorama of fungal diterpene structural diversity, concurrently furnishing additional empirical substantiation for the role of cyathane diterpenes in the amelioration of neurodegenerative afflictions.

DDB2 and MDM2 genes are promising markers for radiation diagnosis and estimation of radiation dose independent of trauma and burns.

In the field of biodosimetry, the current accepted method for evaluating radiation dose fails to meet the need of rapid, large-scale screening, and most RNA marker-related studies of biodosimetry are concentrating on a single type of ray, while some other potential factors, such as trauma and burns, have not been covered. Microarray datasets that contain the data of human peripheral blood samples exposed to X-ray, neutron, and γ-ray radiation were obtained from the GEO database. Totally, 33 multi-type ray co-induced genes were obtained at first from the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and key genes identified by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), and these genes were mainly enriched in DNA damage, cellular apoptosis, and p53 signaling pathway. Following transcriptome sequencing of blood samples from 11 healthy volunteers, 13 patients with severe burns, and 37 patients with severe trauma, 6635 trauma-related DEGs and 7703 burn-related DEGs were obtained. Through the exclusion method, a total of 12 radiation-specific genes independent of trauma and burns were identified. ROC curve analysis revealed that the DDB2 gene performed the best in diagnosis of all three types of ray radiation, while correlation analysis showed that the MDM2 gene was the best in assessment of radiation dose. The results of multiple-linear regression analysis indicated that such analysis could improve the accuracy in assessment of radiation dose. Moreover, the DDB2 and MDM2 genes remained effective in radiation diagnosis and assessment of radiation dose in an external dataset. In general, the study brings new insights into radiation biodosimetry.

Ultra-processed food consumption and mortality: three cohort studies in the United States and United Kingdom.

INTRODUCTION: Given the increase in ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption, their potential health effects have aroused concern. Whether UPF consumption is associated with cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality is debatable. This study evaluates the association of UPF consumption with mortality. METHODS: A total of 108,714 US adults from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial (1993-2001), 208,051 UK adults from UK Biobank (2006-2010), and 41,070 US adults from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 1999-2018) were included. Dietary data were collected by dietary questionnaire and classified using the NOVA classification. UPF consumption was expressed as the weight proportion of UPFs in total foods consumed. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Mediation analysis was used to evaluate whether multiple metabolic pathways mediated the associations in UK Biobank. Analyses were performed in 2022-2023. RESULTS: Combined analyses of the three cohorts showed that those with the highest quartile of UPF consumption had higher risks of all-cause mortality (HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.11-1.20) and CVD mortality (HR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.06-1.28) compared to the lowest quartile of UPF consumption. UPF consumption was not associated with cancer mortality risk. Biomarkers of liver function have the greatest mediating effects on all-cause mortality (20.3%), and biomarkers of inflammation have the greatest mediating effects on CVD mortality (29.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Higher UPF consumption was associated with increased all-cause and CVD mortality risk, with multiple metabolic pathways playing mediating roles.

An interpretable deep learning framework for predicting liver metastases in postoperative colorectal cancer patients using natural language processing and clinical data integration.

BACKGROUND: The significance of liver metastasis (LM) in increasing the risk of death for postoperative colorectal cancer (CRC) patients necessitates innovative approaches to predict LM. AIM: Our study presents a novel and significant contribution by developing an interpretable fusion model that effectively integrates both free-text medical record data and structured laboratory data to predict LM in postoperative CRC patients. METHODS: We used a robust dataset of 1463 patients and leveraged state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning techniques to construct a two-layer fusion framework that demonstrates superior predictive performance compared to single modal models. Our innovative two-tier algorithm fuses the results from different data modalities, achieving balanced prediction results on test data and significantly enhancing the predictive ability of the model. To increase interpretability, we employed Shapley additive explanations to elucidate the contributions of free-text clinical data and structured clinical data to the final model. Furthermore, we translated our findings into practical clinical applications by creating a novel NLP score-based nomogram using the top 13 valid predictors identified in our study. RESULTS: The proposed fusion models demonstrated superior predictive performance with an accuracy of 80.8%, precision of 80.3%, recall of 80.5%, and an F1 score of 80.8% in predicting LMs. CONCLUSION: This fusion model represents a notable advancement in predicting LMs for postoperative CRC patients, offering the potential to enhance patient outcomes and support clinical decision-making.

Discovery and experimental verification of the spectral characteristics at different growth stages of Aurelia.

Under the dual pressure of human activities and global changes, jellyfish outbreaks have occurred frequently in China's offshore waters in recent years, with serious impacts on marine fisheries, coastal tourism, marine ecology and cooling water systems for coastal industries. In order to accurately identify the origin of Aurelia and to be more proactive in the prevention and control of Aurelia outbreaks, this article proposed the use of ultraviolet (UV) and fluorescence spectroscopy to detect the polyps, ephyrae and larvae of Aurelia at different growth stages. The AvaSpec-2048 UV visible fibre spectrometer and the F-7000 fluorescence spectrophotometer were used to focus on studying the UV absorption spectrum and three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum of the polyps, ephyrae, and larvae of Aurelia cultured under laboratory conditions. The research results showed that the three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum of the three different growth stages of Aurelia, namely polyps, ephyrae and larvae of Aurelia, had relatively similar fluorescence distributions, and the fluorescence intensity was different from each other. However, the absorption peaks of the three UV absorption spectrum appeared in different UV light bands and there were absorption peaks of different intensities. The different spectral characteristics at different growth stages of Aurelia provide new ideas and methods for exploring the birthplace of Aurelia.

Rotational gland dissection for refractory granulomatous mastitis: A single-center retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Refractory granulomatous mastitis (RGM) is a chronic benign breast disease that commonly occurred in women of childbearing age and is usually treated with surgery, with numerous cases suffering from unsatisfied postoperative recovery of breast shape, high rates of surgical complications, and even high recurrence. This study tries to evaluate the efficacy of an innovative surgical procedure, the rotational gland dissection for the treatment of RGM. METHODS: 129 patients with RGM who underwent surgical treatment at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University between Apr. 2017 and May. 2021 were retrospectively included in this study. The article analyzed the age, local symptoms, lesion location, and size, days in hospital, recurrence rate, and satisfaction rate of the patients. RESULTS: Patients ranged in age from 19 to 58 years, with a median age of onset of 32 years. In 63 patients (48.84%), their lesions coverage exceeded two quadrants, and 52.71% of patients had lesions larger than 10 cm2. The average days in hospital of patients was 7.5 days, and 85.27% of them were satisfied with their post-surgery breast appearance. Within the median follow-up of 56 months, only 3.10% of patients experienced a recurrence of mastitis on the operation side. CONCLUSION: This novel surgical procedure we created is an effective treatment for RGM with a high success rate, high patient satisfaction, and low recurrence rate, and is significantly superior to other studies for it has the largest sample size and longest follow-up in this field.

Clinical Potential of Expanded Noninvasive Prenatal Testing for Detection of Aneuploidies and Microdeletion/Microduplication Syndromes.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the clinical performance of expanded noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT-Plus) for the detection of aneuploidies and microdeletion/microduplication syndromes. METHODS: A total of 7177 pregnant women were enrolled in the study from June 2020 to March 2022 at Xijing Hospital, China. Cases with NIPT-Plus-positive results were further confirmed by chromosomal karyotyping and a chromosomal microarray analysis. RESULTS: A total of 112 positive cases (1.56%) were identified by NIPT-Plus, including 60 chromosome aneuploidies and 52 microdeletion/microduplication syndromes. Ninety-five cases were validated by amniocentesis, and 57 were confirmed with true-positive results, comprising 18 trisomy 21, 4 trisomy 18, 1 trisomy 13, 17 sex chromosome aneuploidies, 1 other aneuploidy, and 16 microdeletion/microduplication syndromes. The positive predictive value of total chromosomal abnormalities was 60% (57/95). For trisomy 21, trisomy 18, trisomy 13, sex chromosome aneuploidies, other aneuploidies and microdeletion/microduplication syndromes, the sensitivity was all 100%, the specificity was 100, 99.986, 100, 99.888, 99.958, and 99.636%, and the positive predictive value was 100, 80, 100, 68, 25, and 38.10%, respectively. For all clinical characteristics, the abnormal maternal serum screening group was found to have the highest prevalence of chromosomal abnormalities (1.54%), and the ultrasound abnormality group presented the highest positive predictive value (73.33%). CONCLUSIONS: NIPT-Plus has great potential for the detection of aneuploidies and microdeletion/microduplication syndromes owing to its high sensitivity, safety, and specificity, which greatly reduces unnecessary invasive procedures and the risk of miscarriage and allows informed maternal choice.

Decoupled learning for brain image registration.

Image registration is one of the important parts in medical image processing and intelligent analysis. The accuracy of image registration will greatly affect the subsequent image processing and analysis. This paper focuses on the problem of brain image registration based on deep learning, and proposes the unsupervised deep learning methods based on model decoupling and regularization learning. Specifically, we first decompose the highly ill-conditioned inverse problem of brain image registration into two simpler sub-problems, to reduce the model complexity. Further, two light neural networks are constructed to approximate the solution of the two sub-problems and the training strategy of alternating iteration is used to solve the problem. The performance of algorithms utilizing model decoupling is evaluated through experiments conducted on brain MRI images from the LPBA40 dataset. The obtained experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm over conventional learning methods in the context of brain image registration tasks.

Clinical and Molecular Characteristics of Early-Onset versus Average-Onset Esophagogastric Cancer.

PURPOSE: The rate of esophagogastric cancer (EGC) is rising among individuals under the age of 50. It remains unknown whether early onset (EO)-EGC represents a unique entity. This study investigates the clinical and molecular characteristics of EO- and average onset (AO)-EGC. METHODS: We reviewed the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center gastric, esophageal and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer database. Associations between baseline characteristics and tumor and germline molecular alterations were compared between those with EO- and AO-EGC using Fisher's exact test, and the Benjamini-Hochberg method for multiple hypothesis correction. RESULTS: We included 1123 patients with EO-EGC (n = 219, median age 43, range 18-49 years) and AO-EGC (n = 904, median age 67, range 50-94 years) treated between 2005 and 2018. The EO group had more females (39% vs 28%, p = .002). Patients with EO-EGC were more likely to have a gastric primary site (64% vs 44%, p < .0001). The signet ring cell/diffuse type was three-times more common in the EO-EGC group (31% vs 9%, p < .0001). EO tumors were more frequently genomically stable (31% vs 18%, p = .0002) and unlikely to be microsatellite-instability-high (2% vs 7%, p = .003). After restricting to adenocarcinoma and signet ring cell/diffuse type carcinomas, we observed no difference in stage (p = 0. 394) or overall survival from stage IV diagnosis (median 22.7 vs 22.1 months, p = .78). CONCLUSIONS: Our study supports a preponderance of gastric primary disease site, signet ring histology and genomically stable molecular subtype in EO-EGC. This highlights the need for further research to define the underlying pathogenesis and strategies for early detection and prevention.

Carbon neutral contribution and regional differences of clean energy based on life cycle assessment.

Developing clean energy is an important strategy to achieve global carbon neutrality. In the entire life cycle industrial chain of clean energy systems, fossil energy was directly or indirectly consumed during the processes from raw material production to waste disposal stages. The energy consumed by clean energy construction differed across regions, resulting in various carbon neutrality contributions of clean energy in different regions. We used bibliometrics to sort out the energy consumption of clean energy construction in different regions, including photovoltaic power generation, wind power, hydropower, and other clean energy sources. By combining the loss of land to decrease carbon pool during the operation of clean energy, we analyzed the current research hotspots, development status and trends, and difference in carbon emissions, and summarized the carbon neutral contributions of different regions. The intensity of clean energy carbon emission in China was significantly lower than global mean value. The average intensity of carbon emission in China in the four fields of onshore wind power, offshore wind power, hydropower, and photovoltaic power was 28.8%, 18.2%, 10.1%, and 16.7% lower than global average, respectively. For further research on carbon neutrality of clean energy, it is important to establish a unified life cycle assessment system, put forward construction strategies according to geographical differences, carry out ecological benefit evaluation for clean energy, and establish a clean energy transmission network system.

New insights into the regulation mechanism of Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) hepatopancreas under 4-nonylphenol exposure using transcriptome analysis.

4-Nonylphenol (4-NP) is one of the common endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in estuaries and coastal zones, which can exert detrimental effects on the physiological function of aquatic organisms. However, the molecular response triggered by 4-NP remains largely unknown in Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). In this study, transcriptomic analysis was performed to investigate the underlying mechanisms of 4-NP toxicity in the hepatopancreas of L. vannamei. Nine RNA-Seq libraries were generated from L. vannamei at 0 h, 24 h, and 48 h following exposure to 4-NP. Compared with 0 h vs 24 h, 962 up- and 463 down-regulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, indicating that many genes in L. vannamei were induced to resist adverse circumstances by 4-NP exposure. In contrast, 902 up- and 1027 down-regulated DEGs were revealed in the comparison of 0 h vs 48 h, demonstrating that prolonged exposure to the stress from 4-NP resulted in more inhibited genes. To validate the accuracy of the transcriptome data, eight DEGs were selected for quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), which were consistent with the RNA-Seq results. Through KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, three specific pathways related to hormonal effects and endocrine function of L. vannamei were enriched significantly, including tyrosine metabolism, insect hormone biosynthesis, and melanogenesis. After 4-NP stress, genes involved in tyrosine metabolism (Tyr) and melanogenesis pathway (AC, CBP, Wnt, Frizzled, Tcf, and Ras) were induced to promote melanin pigment to help shrimp resist adverse environments. In the insect hormone biosynthesis, ALDH, CYP15A1, CYP15A1/C1, and JHE genes were activated to synthesize juvenile hormone (JH), while Spook, Phm, Sad, and CYP18A1 were induced to generate molting hormone. There is an enhanced interaction between the molting hormone and JH, with JH playing a dominant role and maintaining its "classic status quo action". Our study demonstrated that 4-NP exposure led to impairments of biological functions in L. vannamei hepatopancreas. The genes and pathways identified provide novel insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying 4-NP toxicity effects in prawns and enrich the information on the toxicity mechanism of crustaceans in response to EDCs exposure.

Exploring Sparse Spatial Relation in Graph Inference for Text-Based VQA.

Text-based visual question answering (TextVQA) faces the significant challenge of avoiding redundant relational inference. To be specific, a large number of detected objects and optical character recognition (OCR) tokens result in rich visual relationships. Existing works take all visual relationships into account for answer prediction. However, there are three observations: (1) a single subject in the images can be easily detected as multiple objects with distinct bounding boxes (considered repetitive objects). The associations between these repetitive objects are superfluous for answer reasoning; (2) two spatially distant OCR tokens detected in the image frequently have weak semantic dependencies for answer reasoning; and (3) the co-existence of nearby objects and tokens may be indicative of important visual cues for predicting answers. Rather than utilizing all of them for answer prediction, we make an effort to identify the most important connections or eliminate redundant ones. We propose a sparse spatial graph network (SSGN) that introduces a spatially aware relation pruning technique to this task. As spatial factors for relation measurement, we employ spatial distance, geometric dimension, overlap area, and DIoU for spatially aware pruning. We consider three visual relationships for graph learning: object-object, OCR-OCR tokens, and object-OCR token relationships. SSGN is a progressive graph learning architecture that verifies the pivotal relations in the correlated object-token sparse graph, and then in the respective object-based sparse graph and token-based sparse graph. Experiment results on TextVQA and ST-VQA datasets demonstrate that SSGN achieves promising performances. And some visualization results further demonstrate the interpretability of our method.

Case Report: Semaglutide-associated depression: a report of two cases.

Semaglutide, as a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA), was approved for glucose control in type 2 diabetes mellitus in 2017 and approved for weight loss in 2021 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). No psychiatric adverse effect associated with semaglutide has been reported so far. Here we report two cases of semaglutide-associated depression. One is a middle-aged man with no previous history of depression who developed depressive symptoms about 1 month after taking semaglutide. The other one is a middle-aged woman with recurrent depressive disorder whose symptoms also recurred about 1 month after semaglutide treatment. Depression was improved or relieved after discontinuation of semaglutide in both cases. Possible psychiatric adverse effects of depression should be taken into consideration when semaglutide is administered to patients.

Genetic structure shows the presence of small-scale management units in a relict tree species.

Identifying conservation units is crucial for the effective conservation of threatened species. Previous cases are almost exclusively based on large-scale but coarse sampling for genetic structure analyses. Significant genetic structure can occur within a small range, and thus multiple conservation units may exist in narrowly distributed plants. However, small-scale genetic structure is often overlooked in conservation planning especially for wind-pollinated and wind-dispersed trees, largely due to the absence of dense and elaborate sampling. In this study, we focused on a representative endangered relict plant, Metasequoia glyptostroboides. Using both nuclear microsatellites (nSSRs) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) fragments, we sampled across the narrow distribution range of this species and determined its conservation units by exploring its genetic structure and historical demography. cpDNA haplotypes were classified into two groups, but mixed in space, suggesting that the existent wild trees of M. glyptostroboides cannot be divided into different evolutionarily significant units. However, using nSSRs, we detected strong spatial genetic structure, with significant genetic differentiation and weak gene flow between the samples in the east of the species' distribution range and other samples. The divergence between the two nSSR groups was dated to the Last Glacial Maximum (c. 19.6 kya), suggesting that such spatial genetic structure has been maintained for a long term. Therefore, these two nSSR groups should be considered as different conservation units, that is, management units, to protect intergroup genetic variations, which is likely to be the outputs of local adaptation. Our findings highlight the necessity to reveal small-scale genetic structure and population demography to improve the conservation strategies of evolutionary potential of endangered plants.

Prognostic role of the peritoneal cancer index in ovarian cancer patients who undergo cytoreductive surgery: a meta-analysis.

Advanced-stage ovarian cancer is usually associated with peritoneal carcinomatosis. This study evaluates the prognostic role of the Peritoneal Cancer Index (PCI) in predicting the survival of patients with ovarian cancer. A literature search was conducted in electronic databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, Ovid, and Science Direct) and study selection was based on precise eligibility criteria. Random-effects meta-analyses were performed to estimate survival with low and high PCI scores and to pool hazard ratios (HR) of survival between lower and higher PCI scores. A total of 20 studies (2588 patients) were included. Median follow-up was 39 months [95%CI: 25, 54]. Complete cytoreduction rate was 80% [95% CI: 73, 87]. The median PCI score was 11.3 [95% CI: 9.9, 12.7]. Median survival was 56.7 months [95% CI: 45.2, 68.2] with below and 28.8 months [95% CI: 23.0, 34.6] with above any PCI cutoff. Most studies used PCI cutoffs between 10 and 20. The median progression-free survival was 23.7 months [95% CI: 16.5, 30.8] with below and 11.9 months [95% CI: 5.9, 17.9] with above any PCI cutoff. 5-year survival rates were 61.3% [95% CI: 49.9, 72.8] with PCI<10 cutoffs, 21.7% [95% CI: 11.6, 31.8] with PCI>10 cutoffs, 50.1% [95% CI: 39.0, 61.2] with PCI<20 cutoffs, and 21.7% [95% CI: 16.2, 27.1] with PCI>20 cutoffs. Pooled analysis of HRs showed that a higher PCI score was associated with worse survival in both univariate (HR 2.14 [95%CI: 1.63, 2.66]) and multivariate (HR 1.10 [95% CI: 1.02, 1.18]) analyses. In a set of studies that used varying PCI cutoffs, the PCI has been found to have a significant inverse association with the survival of patients with advanced ovarian cancer who underwent cytoreductive surgery.

Tricolor narrowband planar perovskite photodetectors based on FP microcavity structure.

This paper presents a novel tunable narrowband photodetector based on Ag-MgF2-Ag (metal-dielectric-metal: MDM) Fabry-Perot (FP) microcavity structure. The tunability is achieved through precise adjustment of the thickness of the metal and intermediate dielectric layers of the FP microcavity, taking into account the response spectral range of planar perovskite. After optimizing the parameters mentioned above, the prototype devices were prepared by combining the perovskite layer and MDM layer. The center wavelength of the planar detector can be tuned from 430 nm to 680 nm within the detection band of 400-800 nm, with a narrow FWHM about 30 nm and a relatively high response of 0.05 A/W @ 5 V bias voltage for 500 nm. Meanwhile the rise and fall times of the detector are 375 ms and 550 ms, respectively. The experimental results are corroborated by the theory. Our design is highly beneficial to such applications as hyperspectral photography and color-related active optical devices, which paves the way to design this kind of triple structure.