Evolving Forehead Augmentation: A Five-step Approach with High G Prime Hyaluronic Acid.

Background: Achieving effective upper-face rejuvenation through forehead augmentation is essential; however, complications such as vascular occlusion leading to skin necrosis or vision loss can occur. The complex forehead anatomy, characterized by ligaments and septa, often results in uneven outcomes with dermal filler treatment. The learning curve for successful forehead augmentation was longer than that anticipated. Herein, we present a specialized program for clinicians to expedite the learning process. This study explores a five-step technique for forehead augmentation using high elastic (G prime) hyaluronic acid fillers. Methods: We enrolled 10 Asian female participants with no history of dermal filler injections, surgery, or nonsurgical forehead procedures. All participants provided written informed consent, and their progress was assessed using photography and the Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale. Results: Immediate post-treatment Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale ratings averaged 3.0 ±â€…0.0, decreasing to 2.5 ±â€…0.5 at 6 months, and 1.8 ±â€…0.6 at 12 months. Mild tenderness (10%), temporary swelling (30%), and a rapid recovery period underscored the safety and reliability of our approach. Importantly, no adverse vascular events were observed. Conclusions: Our five-step injection technique utilizing high-G prime hyaluronic acid leverages a profound understanding of the forehead anatomy, systematic methodology, and dynamic potential of advanced fillers. By implementing this paradigm, plastic and reconstructive surgeons can increase the standards of forehead augmentation and consistently achieve harmonious and effective results.

YOLO-B:An infrared target detection algorithm based on bi-fusion and efficient decoupled.

The YOLO-B infrared target detection algorithm is proposed to address the problems of incomplete extraction of detailed features and missed and wrong detection of infrared targets by YOLOv5s. The algorithm improves the SPPF of YOLOv5s feature extraction network by proposing the CSPPF structure to increase the sensory field of the model. The Bifusion Neck structure is invoked to fuse the shallow location information with deep semantic information to enhance the feature extraction capability of the model. Taking fully into account the different information of concern for classification and localization, the efficient decoupled head is used as the prediction head of this algorithm, which reduces the latency while maintaining the accuracy. WIoUv3 loss is used as a bounding box regression loss function to reduce the harmful gradient generated by low-quality examples and reduce the competitiveness of high-quality anchor frames. Comparative experiments were conducted for each of the four improvement points, and the experimental results showed that each improvement point had the highest detection accuracy in the comparative experiments of the same category. All improvement points are fused in turn and ablation experiments are performed. The YOLO-B algorithm improves 1.9% in accuracy, 7.3% in recall, 3.8% in map_0.5, and 4.6% in map_0.5:0.95 compared to YOLOv5s. When compared with YOLOv7 and YOLOv8s, the proposed algorithm has better performance in terms of the number of parameters and detection accuracy.

Synthesis of nano-Fe3O4/ZnO composites with enhanced antibacterial properties and plant growth promotion via one-pot reaction.

Bordeaux mixture is commonly used in agricultural production due to its certain antibacterial activity. However, it has been observed to promote plant growth at a slow pace. Therefore, it is crucial to explore an effective antibacterial agent that can enhance the antibacterial activity and promote plant growth in commercially available Bordeaux mixture, which can significantly contribute to the development of the agricultural economy. The investigation into inorganic agents with both bacteriostatic and plant-promoting properties has a broad application potential in agriculture. Fe3O4/ZnO (FZ) composites were synthesized from FeCl3, ZnCl2, and NaAc in a "one-pot approach" and analyzed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). To investigate the antibacterial activity and mechanism of FZ nanocomposites, Gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were used as model bacteria, and human mammary epithelial cells and model plant mung bean were used as targets to study the effects of FZ on human and plant growth. The results revealed that at 300 µg/mL for 80 min, the antibacterial efficacy of FZ composites was 99.8% against E. coli, which was 20% greater than that of Bordeaux liquid (FC), and 99.9% against S. aureus, which was 28.6% higher than that of FC. The inhibitory mechanism demonstrated that the substance could efficiently damage the bacterial cell wall of a concentration of 300 µg/mL. The IC50 of the material to human mammary epithelial cells was 49.518 µg/mL, and it also increased mung bean germination, root growth, and chlorophyll content, indicating that the application performance was 1.5 times better than that of FC. Its exceptional performance can be used to treat agricultural diseases.

Linear DNA amplicons as a novel cancer vaccine strategy.

BACKGROUND: DNA-based vaccines represent a simple, safe and promising strategy for harnessing the immune system to fight infectious diseases as well as various forms of cancer and thus are considered an important tool in the cancer immunotherapy toolbox. Nonetheless, the manufacture of plasmid DNA vaccines has several drawbacks, including long lead times and the need to remove impurities from bacterial cultures. Here we report the development of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-produced amplicon expression vectors as DNA vaccines and their in vivo application to elicit antigen-specific immune responses in animal cancer models. METHODS: Plasmid DNA and amplicon expression was assessed both in vitro, by Hela cells transfection, and in vivo, by evaluating luciferase expression in wild-type mice through optical imaging. Immunogenicity induced by DNA amplicons was assessed by vaccinating wild-type mice against a tumor-associated antigen, whereas the antitumoral effect of DNA amplicons was evaluated in a murine cancer model in combination with immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). RESULTS: Amplicons encoding tumor-associated-antigens, such as telomerase reverse transcriptase or neoantigens expressed by murine tumor cell lines, were able to elicit antigen-specific immune responses and proved to significantly impact tumor growth when administered in combination with ICIs. CONCLUSIONS: These results strongly support the further exploration of the use of PCR-based amplicons as an innovative immunotherapeutic approach to cancer treatment.

Ultra-High Electromagnetic Absorption Property of One-Dimensional Carbon-Supported Ni/Mo2C and Polyvinylidene Fluoride.

A novel one-dimensional carbon-supported Ni/Mo2C (Ni/Mo2C-C) nanocomposite with excellent electromagnetic wave absorption properties was successfully synthesized by annealing NiMoO4@PDA directly, and then the (Ni/Mo2C-C)/polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composites were fabricated using a simple blending and hot-molding technique. An excellent reflection loss (RL) of -55.91 dB at 9.28 GHz with a low filler loading (15 wt%) and effective bandwidth (RL < -10 dB) of 14.12 GHz in the thickness range of 1.5-5.0 mm was obtained. Dielectric loss is considered to be the dominant mechanism of (Ni/Mo2C-C)/PVDF, which was confirmed by the Debye relaxation process and attenuation theory.

Human interferon regulatory factor-1 gene and its promoter sequences revealed by population-based complete gene sequencing.

Interferon regulatory factor-1 (IRF-1) plays important roles in host immunity, cell proliferation and apoptosis. The current GenBank sequence for human IRF-1 (accession number: L05072) was derived from a human placenta DNA library and reported in 1992. In one recent population-based sequence study, we observed consistent discrepancies between our IRF-1 sequence data and GenBank reference sequences suggesting that, current IRF-1 reference sequence was not representative for all populations. By complete gene sequencing, we obtained a representative full-length IRF-1 sequence from a single subject. Compared to submission L05072, our population-based data contains: 35 nucleotide additions, 8 nucleotide removals and another 12 nucleotide replacements. A single nucleotide difference was observed in the IRF-1 promoter sequence compared to GenBank sequence (X53095). These changes were confirmed in 350 Kenyans and 28 non-African donors. The accuracy of a reference sequence is crucial for downstream genetic and functional studies and this study provides more complete and accurate data on the sequence of the human IRF-1 gene and its immediate promoter region.

Next generation sequencing of the hepatitis C virus NS5B gene reveals potential novel S282 drug resistance mutations.

Identifying HCV drug resistance mutations (DRMs) is increasingly important as new direct acting antiviral therapies (DAA) become available. Tagged pooled pyrosequencing (TPP) was originally developed as cost-effective approach for detecting low abundance HIV DRMs. Using 127 HCV-positive samples from a Canadian injection drug user cohort, we demonstrated the suitability and efficiency of TPP for evaluating DRMs in HCV NS5B gene. At a mutation identification threshold of 1%, no nucleoside inhibitor DRMs were detected among these DAA naïve subjects. Clinical NS5B resistance to non-nucleoside inhibitors and interferon/ribavirin was predicted to be low within this cohort. S282T mutation, the primary mutation selected by sofosbuvir in vitro, was not identified while S282G/C/R variants were detected in 9 subjects. Further characterization on these new S282 variants using in silico molecular modeling implied their potential association with resistance. Combining TPP with in silico analysis detects NS5B polymorphisms that may explain differences in treatment outcomes.

Low abundance drug resistance variants in transmitted HIV drug resistance surveillance specimens identified using tagged pooled pyrosequencing.

HIV drug resistance (DR) testing using Sanger sequencing (SS) is limited by the inability of the method to identify low abundance drug resistance variants. The application of tagged pooled pyrosequencing (TPP) for HIV DR surveillance is described and the results compared with SS. HIV(+) serum specimens were genotyped using both SS and TPP. Surveillance drug resistance mutations were identified using SS and TPP consensus reads at multiple mixed base identification thresholds (MBITs). Drug resistance patterns were highly concordant between SS and TPP when the MBIT was set at 20%. DR mutations were detected in 7.1% of the subjects, with 1.6% of individuals harboring resistance to NRTI, 3.3% NNRTI and 2.7% PI. Analyzing the TPP reads for each subject confirmed that drug resistance mutations with frequencies <20% were inconsistently detected by SS. Conversely, low abundance drug resistant variants were easily identified using TPP with mixed base identification threshold set at low value. In conclusion, at considerable savings when compared to commercial assays, TPP produces HIV DR profiles that are concordant with those from SS, furthermore, these same data can be used to identify low abundance drug resistant variants.

Microarray analysis of HIV resistant female sex workers reveal a gene expression signature pattern reminiscent of a lowered immune activation state.

To identify novel biomarkers for HIV-1 resistance, including pathways that may be critical in anti-HIV-1 vaccine design, we carried out a gene expression analysis on blood samples obtained from HIV-1 highly exposed seronegatives (HESN) from a commercial sex worker cohort in Nairobi and compared their profiles to HIV-1 negative controls. Whole blood samples were collected from 43 HIV-1 resistant sex workers and a similar number of controls. Total RNA was extracted and hybridized to the Affymetrix HUG 133 Plus 2.0 micro arrays (Affymetrix, Santa Clara CA). Output data was analysed through ArrayAssist software (Agilent, San Jose CA). More than 2,274 probe sets were differentially expressed in the HESN as compared to the control group (fold change ≥1.3; p value ≤0.0001, FDR <0.05). Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of the differentially expressed genes readily distinguished HESNs from controls. Pathway analysis through the KEGG signaling database revealed a majority of the impacted pathways (13 of 15, 87%) had genes that were significantly down regulated. The most down expressed pathways were glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, pentose phosphate, phosphatidyl inositol, natural killer cell cytotoxicity and T-cell receptor signaling. Ribosomal protein synthesis and tight junction genes were up regulated. We infer that the hallmark of HIV-1 resistance is down regulation of genes in key signaling pathways that HIV-1 depends on for infection.

Next-generation sequencing of dried blood spot specimens: a novel approach to HIV drug-resistance surveillance.

BACKGROUND: HIV drug-resistance (DR) surveillance in resource-limited settings can be performed using dried blood spots (DBS) because of ease of collection, transportation and storage. Analysis of pooled specimens on next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based platforms, such as the 454 pyrosequencing, is an efficient sequencing method for determining HIV DR rates. In this study, we conducted HIV DR surveillance on DBS using NGS and identified minority variants in individual patients. METHODS: A total of 48 extracts of DBS from an HIV DR surveillance study in Mexico City were re-amplified using primers tagged with multiplex identifiers, pooled and pyrosequenced. Consensus sequences were generated for each specimen with mixtures identified at positions where >20% of the reads contained a variant. Individual consensus sequences were then analysed for DR mutations and compared with those derived from Sanger sequencing. RESULTS: DBS analysed with tagged pooled pyrosequencing (TPP) were highly concordant with Sanger sequencing genotypes from matching plasma and DBS (99.21% and 99.51%, respectively). An exception was an M184I mutation only detected with TPP of DBS at a frequency of 20.4%. Multiple specimens had minority variant reads below the 20% mixture threshold. CONCLUSIONS: TPP using DBS is an effective method for HIV DR surveillance. TPP for genotyping results in cost savings of 40% over conventional in-house methods. The effect of low-abundance DR mutations, undetectable by conventional methods, remains to be determined. This technology might be applied to any HIV specimen (plasma/serum) and can also be used for other diagnostic assays where DNA sequencing is required.

HIV drug resistance surveillance using pooled pyrosequencing.

BACKGROUND: Surveillance for HIV transmitted drug resistance (TDR) is performed using HIV genotype results from individual specimens. Pyrosequencing, through its massive parallel sequencing ability, can analyze large numbers of specimens simultaneously. Instead of using pyrosequencing conventionally, to sequence a population of viruses within an individual, we interrogated a single combined pool of surveillance specimens to demonstrate that it is possible to determine TDR rates in HIV protease from a population of individuals. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The protease region from 96 treatment naïve, HIV+ serum specimens was genotyped using standard Sanger sequencing method. The 462 bp protease amplicons from these specimens were pooled in equimolar concentrations and re-sequenced using the GS FLX Titanium system. The nucleotide (NT) and amino acid (AA) differences from the reference sequence, along with TDR mutations, detected by each method were compared. In the protease sequence, there were 212 nucleotide and 81 AA differences found using conventional sequencing and 345 nucleotide and 168 AA differences using pyrosequencing. All nucleotide and amino acid polymorphisms found at frequencies >/=5% in pyrosequencing were detected using both methods with the rates of variation highly correlated. Using Sanger sequencing, two TDR mutations, M46L and I84V, were each detected as mixtures at a frequency of 1.04% (1/96). These same TDR mutations were detected by pyrosequencing with a prevalence of 0.29% and 0.34% respectively. Phylogenetic analysis established that the detected low frequency mutations arose from the same single specimens that were found to contain TDR mutations by Sanger sequencing. Multiple clinical protease DR mutations present at higher frequencies were concordantly identified using both methods. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We show that pyrosequencing pooled surveillance specimens can cost-competitively detect protease TDR mutations when compared with conventional methods. With few modifications, the method described here can be used to determine population rates of TDR in both protease and reverse transcriptase. Furthermore, this pooled pyrosequencing technique may be generalizable to other infectious agents where a survey of DR rates is required.

Oral immunization with pBsVP6-transgenic alfalfa protects mice against rotavirus infection.

A critical factor in edible plant-derived vaccine development is adequate expression of the exogenous antigens in transgenic plants. We synthesized a codon-optimized gene (sVP6) encoding the VP6 protein of human group A rotavirus and inserted it into the alfalfa genome using agrobacterium-mediated transformation. As much as 0.28% of the total soluble protein of the pBsVP6-transgenic alfalfa was sVP6. Female BALB/c mice were gavaged weekly with 10 mg of transgenic alfalfa extract containing 24 microg of sVP6 protein and 10 microg of CpG-rich oligodeoxynucleotides as mucosal adjuvant. Immunized mice developed high titers of anti-VP6 serum IgG and mucosal IgA. Offspring of immunized dams developed less severe diarrhea after challenge with simian rotavirus SA-11, indicating that antibodies generated in the dams provided passive heterotypic protection to the pups. These results suggest that oral immunization with pBsVP6-transgenic alfalfa provides a potential means of protecting children and young animals from severe acute rotavirus-induced diarrhea.