bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Diagnostic Value of Neutrophil Cd64 in Sepsis Patients in the Intensive Care Unit: A Cross-sectional Study
Authors: Pham Huy Minh , Nguyen Duy Ly Minh , Duong Minh Cuong , Tran Linh Thanh , Pham Thao Thi Ngoc
Published: February 2023

Background
Sepsis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in intensive care units (ICUs). The neutrophil CD64 (nCD64) index has been suggested to be a biomarker that can help early diagnose sepsis in these settings. However, little is known about the role of this biomarker in Asian patients. This study examined the cut-off and predictive values of nCD64 for diagnosing sepsis in Vietnamese ICU patients.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted at the General ICU of Cho Ray Hospital between January 2019 and April 2020. All 104 newly admitted patients with or without sepsis were included. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were calculated to compare the diagnostic value of nCD64 with that of serum procalcitonin (PCT) and while blood cell (WBC) count for sepsis.
Results
The median nCD64 index in sepsis patients was statistically higher than that of non-sepsis patients (3,106 [1,970-5,200] vs 745 [458-906] molecules/cell, P<0.001). ROC analysis found that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) value of nCD64 was 0.92, which was higher than that of PCT (0.872) and WBC (0.637), nCD64 combined with WBC (0.906), and nCD64 combined with WBC and PCT (0.919) but lower than that of nCD64 combined with PCT (0.924). With an AUC value of 0.92, the nCD64 index of 1,311 molecules/cell detected sepsis with a sensitivity of 89.9%, specificity of 85.7%, positive predictive value of 92.5%, and negative predictive value of 81.1%.
Conclusions
nCD64 can be used as a useful marker for early detecting sepsis in adult ICU patients. A combination of nCD64 and PCT may improve the diagnostic accuracy. More large studies are needed to examine the variance of the cut-off values of nCD64 for diagnosing sepsis in the wider Vietnamese population and comparable countries.
Representation of sensorimotor states in mouse medial prefrontal cortex
Authors: Kvitsiani Duda , Lopez-Yepez Junior , Barta Anna , Moltesen Maria , Martin Juliane , Woo Tsz-Fung , Hulme Oliver
Published: February 2023

When foraging for food, animals must track the sensory events of their environment and their own actions over time. Memory of these sensorimotor events is crucial for learning the values of different options and foraging policies1. To investigate the role of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in foraging behavior, we conducted experiments on mice using foraging tasks that required integration of past oro-sensory rewards and past choices. We found that the mPFC selectively represents sensorimotor events, which organize into a spatiotemporal map encoding location and temporal delay of past rewards and choices relative to the animal's current epoch in time. These representations of sensorimotor events, which we refer to as sensorimotor state representations, play a critical role in foraging behavior. Inactivation of the mPFC affected the integration of past rewards and choices into the mice's decisions, leading to a decrease in reward harvesting efficiency, particularly for longer temporal delays. Behavioral models that compute values and policy failed to capture the representations in mPFC. Our results suggest that the mPFC plays a critical role in representing sensorimotor states independently of value and policy computations. This highlights the importance of considering sensorimotor state representation in the mPFC in understanding foraging behavior.
Transcriptome Profiling Reveals the Genes Involved in Tuberous Root Expansion in Pueraria (Pueraria thomsonii Benth.)
Authors: Xufeng XIAO , Yuanfeng HU , ZHANG Ming , Shucheng SI , Haonan ZHOU , Weifeng ZHU , Fei GE , Caijun WU , Shuying FAN
Published: February 2023

Pueraria is a dry root commonly used in Traditional Chinese Medicine or as food and fodder, and tuberous root expansion is an important agronomic characteristic that influences its yield. However, current research has identified no specific genes regulating tuberous root expansion in Pueraria. Therefore, we aimed to explore the expansion mechanism of Pueraria at six developmental stages (P1–P6), by profiling the tuberous roots of an annual local variety “Gange No.1” harvested at 105, 135, 165, 195, 225, and 255 days after transplanting. Observations of the tuberous root phenotype and cell microstructural morphology revealed that the P3 stage was a critical boundary point in the expansion process, which was preceded by diameter thickening and yield gain rapidly of the tuberous roots, and followed by longitudinal elongation at both ends. A total of 17,441 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by comparing the P1 stage (unexpanded)against the P2–P6 stages (expanded) using transcriptome sequencing; 386 differential genes were shared across the six developmental stages. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that the DEGs shared by P1 and P2–P6 stages were mainly involved in processes related to the “cell wall and cell cycle”, “plant hormone signal transduction”, and “sucrose and starch metabolism”. This finding is consistent with the physiological data collected on changes in sugar and hormone contents for Pueraria. The combination of KEGG and trend analyses revealed six essential candidate genes involved in tuberous root expansion; of them, CDC48, ARF, and EXP genes were significantly upregulated during tuberous root expansion while the INV, EXT, and XTH genes were significantly downregulated. These findings provide insights into the complex mechanisms of tuberous root expansion in Pueraria and candidate target genes, which can aid in increasing Pueraria yield.
Expression of genes related to iron homeostasis in breast cancer
Authors: Mutlu Tuba , Ozoran Emre , Trabulus Didem Can , Talu Canan Kelten , Erhan Duygu , Mete Meltem , Guven Mehmet
Published: February 2023

Background: The dysfunctions in the metabolism of iron has an important role in many pathological conditions, ranging from disease with iron deposition to cancer. Studies on malignant diseases of the breast reported irregular expression in genes associated with iron metabolism. The variations are related with findings which have prognostic significance. This study evaluated the relationship of the expression levels of transferrin receptor 1 (TFRC), iron regulatory protein 1 (IRP1), hepcidin (HAMP), ferroportin 1 (FPN1), hemojuvelin (HFE2), matriptase 2 (TMPRSS6), and miR-122 genes in the normal and malignant tissues of breast cancer patients.
Methods & Results: The normal and malignant tissues from 75 women with breast malignancies were used in this study. The patients did not receive any treatment previously. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used in figuring the levels of gene expression associated with the iron metabolism. When the malignant and normal tissues gene expression levels were analyzed, expression of TFRC increased (1.586-fold); IRP1 (0.594 fold) and miR-122 (0.320 fold) expression decreased; HAMP, FPN1, HFE2 and TMPRSS6 expressions did not change. FPN1 and IRP1 had a positive association, and this association was statistically significant (r=0.266; p=0.022). IRP1 and miR-122 had a positive association, and this association had statistical significance (r=0.231; p=0.048)
Conclusions: Our study portrayed the important association among genes involved in iron hemostasis and breast malignancy. The results could be used to establish new diagnostic techniques in the management of breast malignancies. The alterations in the metabolism of malignant breast cells with normal breast cells could be utilized to achieve advantages in treatment.
Mechanisms of Premotor-Motor Cortex Interactions during Goal Directed Behavior
Authors: Diester Ilka , Alyahyay Mansour , Kalweit Gabriel , Kalweit Maria , Karvat Golan , Ammer Julian , Schneider Artur , Adzemovic Ahmed , Vlachos Andreas , Bödecker Joschka
Published: February 2023

Deciphering the neural code underlying goal-directed behavior is a long-term mission in neuroscience1,2. Neurons exhibiting preparation and movement-related activity are intermingled in the premotor and motor cortices3,4, thus concealing the neural code of planned movements. We employed a combination of electrophysiology, pathway-specific optogenetics, phototagging, and inverse reinforcement learning (RL) to elucidate the role of defined neuronal subpopulations in the rat rostral and caudal forelimb areas (RFA and CFA), which correspond to the premotor and motor cortical areas. The inverse RL enabled the functional dissection of spatially intermingled neuronal subpopulations, complementing our pathway-specific optogenetic manipulations and unveiling differential functions of the preparation and movement subpopulations projecting from RFA to CFA. Our results show that the projecting preparation subpopulation suppresses movements, whereas the projecting movement subpopulation promotes actions. We found the influence of RFA on CFA to be adaptable, with the projection either inhibiting or exciting neurons in the superficial and deep CFA layers, depending on context and task phase. These complex interactions between RFA and CFA likely involve the differential recruitment of inhibitory interneurons in the CFA, which is supported by our electron microscopy analysis of the connectivity between these regions. We provide here unprecedented mechanistic insights into how the premotor and primary motor cortices are functionally and structurally interlinked with the potential to advance neuroprosthetics.
Human Cancer Risk due to Chromium and its Bioaccumulation in Physids in Central Punjab, Pakistan
Authors: Aziz Safia - , Altaf Javaria , Khalil Abdullah - , Khalil Hassan , Jehangir Kiran - , Awan Faisal Saeed
Published: February 2023

The present study aims to assess the ecological risk of chromium in the water and soil of Central Punjab and its natural bioremediation through Physids. Genus Physa has been found cosmopolitan and resistant to pollutants. The snails of the genus Physa were sampled from October through March and three species were identified. The foot, shell, water, and soil samples were tested for the presence of the heavy metal chromium, using ICP-MS. The results show the concentration of chromium exceeds the National Environmental Quality Standards in water making it extremely high cancer risk for human consumption and various areas of Punjab (Pakistan) have been found extremely polluted due to chromium. No significant difference among the three species was found in terms of bioaccumulation of chromium in their snail shell and body. Physids play an active role in the bioremediation of soil and water yet may become cancer-causing tablets in the food chains of the region.
A biomolecular magnetic switch by diamagnetic cations
Authors: Yang Haijun , Mu Liuhua , Zhang Lei , Wang Zixin , Sheng Shiqi , Wang Jihong , Chen Hanxiao , Song Yongshun , Jiang Jie , Xiu Peng , Tong Wei , Zhang Yueyu , Song Sanzhao , Zhang Nian , Cao Jiefeng , Zhu Fangyuan , Zhou Limin , Zhang Lijuan , Shi Guosheng , Hu Jun , Wang Yong , Zhang Xin , Zhang Feng , Fang Haiping
Published: February 2023

The magnetism of proteins and their contributions to magnetoreception and other magnetic bio-effects have been debated for decades, mostly focusing on the insufficient iron atoms and lacking physical explanations. Here we show that divalent metal cations alone, including Mg, Ca, and Zn cations, which are not traditional magnetic materials, can abruptly switch aromatic biomolecules from diamagnetic to exceptionally strongly paramagnetic. Remarkably, their paramagnetism is so strong, together with sequence-dependence, enabling the separation of DNA with different sequences under a moderate magnetic field, thus resulting in a DNA magnetophoresis prototype without any magnetic particle addition. Theoretical computations show that water helps stabilize the hydrated MgCl on the single aromatic ring via hydrated cation–π interactions, and the complex of the hydrated MgCl on the single aromatic ring possesses a magnetic moment of 1.0 μB, which induces the exceptionally strong paramagnetism of the biomolecules with cations. X-ray experiments demonstrate the novel electronic states of the cations adsorbed on aromatic rings, indicating the existence of magnetic moments in the complex. The finding reveals a new origin for the exceptionally strong paramagnetism and biological magnetism, provides new insights into the interactions between biological systems and magnetic fields, and will greatly benefit magnetically controlled applications and beyond.
Stroke as Initial Manifestation of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer with Trousseau Syndrome
Authors: Hong Weiping , Zhang Tongtong , Shan Changguo , Li Hainan , Lin Tao , Liu Da , Zhen Junjie , Li Juan , Lai Mingyao , Zhou Zhaoming , Zhou Cheng , Zhou Meijuan , Wang Minghua , Cai Linbo , Wen Lei
Published: February 2023

Objective
Stroke is a rare but fatal complication of advanced cancer with Trousseau syndrome, especially as initial symptoms. Here, we report the clinical characteristics, treatment, and prognosis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who initially presenting with acute multiple cerebral infarction.
Methods
The clinical characteristics, imaging, treatment, and oncological outcomes of 10 patients diagnosed with Trousseau syndrome and NSCLC between 2015 and 2021 at Guangdong Sanjiu Brain Hospital were retrospectively collected and analyzed. The clinical course of two typical cases were presented.
Results
All 10 patients with pathologically confirmed lung adenocarcinoma initially presented with neurological symptoms, including hemiplegic paralysis (7 patients, 70%), dizziness (5 patients, 50%), and unclear speech (3 patients, 30%). The median age was 63.5 years. Eight and two cases were stage III and IV, respectively, at the initial diagnosis. Five patients underwent driver gene testing, revealing three patients with EGFR-sensitive mutations, one patient with ALK fusion, and one patient with wild-type EGFR. All 10 patients received antiplatelet therapy, and six patients subsequently received anti-cancer treatment. The median overall survival of the patients was 8.5 months (95% confidence interval) and 1-year survival rate was 57.1%. Patients who received antitumor treatment, especially those harboring driver gene mutations and received tyrosine kinase inhibitors, had better neurological symptom recovery and superior oncological prognosis (median overall survival, not reached versus 7.4 months, p = 0.038).
Conclusion
Trousseau syndrome, presenting as multiple cerebral infarctions, is a rare complication of lung adenocarcinoma. Both antiplatelet and antitumor treatment are recommended to achieve better neurological recovery and oncological prognosis in these patients.
Low back pain (LBP) prevalence and its role in depressive symptoms among nurses in Damascus, Syria – a cross-sectional study
Authors: Aldroubi Louna , Safiah Mhd Homam , Ashabi Khaled Kalalib AL , Khalayli Naram , Kudsi Maysoun
Published: February 2023

Background: Nurses are more predisposed to low back pain (LBP), due to the nature of their work. Its prevalence varies from 62% to 84%. We aimed to reveal low back pain prevalence, and its characteristics, including its relation with depressive symptoms among a sample of Syrian nurses.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 156 female nurses, working at Al Mouwasat hospital, Syria, between July 2021 to July 2022. Demographic data, occupational factors data, and psychological data including the presence of symptoms of depression were collected. The use scales were: the Numerical Rating one to measure pain and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale to measure depression.
Results: Out of 156 evaluated nurses, 90 (57.7%) of them have had lower back pain within the last year. 60% suffered from acute mechanical pain. The presence of Low back pain was correlated with physical activity, duration of work (in years), and type of work that include lifting. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was found in 46 (29.5%) nurses. Low back pain was found in 33 (71.7%) of the nurses who had depressive symptoms with a static significance deference as nurses with low back pain are more likely to have depressive symptoms and other factors are also correlated such as the duration of pain.
Conclusion: The nursing staff is one of the crucial cornerstones of the Syrian healthcare system, which has been struggling for years. Both low back pain and depressive symptoms were found to be highly prevalent. In nurses who had depressive symptoms, the majority of low back pain was greater, and this difference was statistically significant. This study's findings must be actively addressed, and precautions must be taken.
Systematic Reduction of Gray Matter Volume in Anorexia Nervosa, but Increase With Clinical Symptoms in the Prefrontal and Posterior Insular Cortices: A Multicenter Neuroimaging Study
Authors: Sekiguchi Atsushi , TOSE Keima , Takamura Tsunehiko , Isobe Masanori , Hirano Yoshiyuki , SATO Yasuhiro , Kodama Naoki , YOSHIHARA Kazufumi , MAIKUSA Norihide , Moriguchi Yoshiya , NODA Tomomi , Mishima Ryo , KAWABATA Michiko , NOMA Shun'ichi , TAKAKURA Shu , GONDO Motoharu , Kakeda Shingo , Takahashi Masatoshi , Ide Satoru , Adachi Hiroaki , HAMATANI Sayo , KAMASHITA Rio , MATSUMOTO Koji , NAKAZATO Michiko , NUMATA Noriko , HAMAMOTO Yumi , SHOJI Tomotaka , MURATSUBAKI Tomohiko , SUGIURA Motoaki , Murai Toshiya , Fukudo Shin
Published: February 2023

Although brain morphological abnormalities have been reported in anorexia nervosa (AN), the reliability and reproducibility of previous studies were limited due to insufficient sample sizes, which prevented exploratory analysis of the whole brain as opposed to regions of interest (ROIs). Objective was to identify brain morphological abnormalities in AN and the association with severity of AN by brain structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a multicenter study, and to conduct exploratory analysis of the whole brain. Here, ｗe conducted a cross-sectional multicenter study using T1-weighted imaging (T1WI) data collected between May 2014 and February 2019 in Japan. We analyzed MRI data from 103 female AN patients (58 anorexia nervosa restricting type [ANR] and 45 anorexia nervosa binge-purging type [ANBP]) and 102 age-matched female healthy controls (HCs). MRI data from five centers were preprocessed using the latest harmonization method to correct for intercenter differences. Gray matter volume (GMV) was calculated from T1WI data of all participants. Of the 205 participants, we obtained severity of eating disorder symptom scores from 179 participants, including 87 in the AN group (51 ANR, 36 AMBP) and 92 HCs using the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) 6.0. GMV reduction were observed in the AN brain, including the bilateral cerebellum, middle and posterior cingulate gyrus, supplementary motor cortex, precentral gyrus medial segment, and thalamus. In addition, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and posterior insula volumes showed positive correlations with severity of symptoms. This multicenter study was conducted with a large sample size to identify brain morphological abnormalities in AN. The findings provide a better understanding of the pathogenesis of AN and have potential for the development of brain imaging biomarkers of AN.
Trial Registration: University Hospital Medical Information Network Individual Case Data Repository: UMIN000017456. https://center6.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/icdr/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000019303
Sulfur metabolism in sugarcane is affected by high titers of Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli
Authors: Garcia Fernando Henrique Silva , Domingues-Júnior Adilson Pereira , Nogueira Marina de Lima , de Paula Samuel , Ferreira Jacson , Lavres José , Martins Samuel J. , Fernie Alisdair R. , Kluge Ricardo Alfredo
Published: February 2023

Aims Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli (Lxx) is the most common sugarcane bacterial pathogen that affects plant development and primary metabolism. For example, cysteine and methionine are sulfur-containing essential amino acids used for bacterial growth and the title of Lxx in sugarcane plants might affect sulfur metabolism. The goal of this study were to evaluate how the increase in bacterial titers affects nutritional status and sulfur metabolism in sugarcane.
Methods: The study was carried out with a susceptible sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) genotype CB49260, with low and high Lxx titers, evaluating the mineral status and levels of primary metabolites.
Results: Plants with high Lxx titers increased leaf sulfur content (S) compared to plants with low Lxx titers where plants with high Lxx titers displayed increased levels of sulfate, sucrose, maltose, raffinose, shikimic acid, malate, putrescine, glycerol, and, erythritol but decreased levels of methionine and glutathione in leaves. In the culm, plants with high Lxx titers displayed increased contents of maltose but decreased levels of threonine, ornithine, phenylalanine and myo-inositol when compared with plants with low Lxx titers.
Conclusions: This study thus demonstrated that high bacterial titers increase sulfur demand in sugarcane. However, the increase in S content in the leaf did not result in higher sulfur assimilation, which was verified by increases sulfate level and decreases in methionine and glutathione levels. Therefore, our study showed that plant metabolism fails to meet the increased sulfur organic compound demand due to lower methionine and glutathione biosynthesis and methionine catabolism to putrescine biosynthesis in the leaves.
Transcranial focused ultrasound-induced blood‒brain barrier opening in mice without shaving hairs
Authors: Xu Lu , Gong Yan , Chien Chih-Yen , Leuthardt Eric , Chen Hong
Published: February 2023

Acoustic coupling through hairs remains a challenge to performing transcranial focused ultrasound procedures. Here, we demonstrated that this challenge could be addressed by using oil as the coupling medium, leveraging oil's high affinity to hairs due to their inherent hydrophobicity. We compared focused ultrasound-induced blood‒brain barrier opening (FUS-BBBO) outcomes in mice under three coupling conditions: oil with hairs ("oil + hairs"), ultrasound gel with hair shaving ("ultrasound gel + no hair"), and ultrasound gel with hairs ("ultrasound gel + hairs"). The quality of the coupling was evaluated by T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and passive cavitation detection (PCD). The outcome of FUS-BBBO was assessed by MRI contrast agent extravasation using in vivo T1-weighted contrast-enhanced MRI. It was also evaluated by ex vivo fluorescence imaging of the mouse brain after intravenous injection of a model drug, Evans blue. The results showed that "oil + hairs" consistently achieved high-quality acoustic coupling without trapping air bubbles. The FUS-BBBO outcome was not significantly different between the "oil + hairs" group and the "ultrasound gel + no hair" group. These two groups had significantly higher levels of BBB opening than the ultrasound gel + hairs group. This study demonstrated that oil could be used as a coupling medium for performing transcranial FUS procedures without shaving hairs.
Maritime safety precaution of unmanned ship based on artificial intelligence algorithm
Authors: Zhu Qiuli
Published: February 2023

In the context of the new era, the development strategies of countries and research institutions around the world are gradually expanding to the ocean. As a hot technology, unmanned ship technology has been widely used in military and civil fields. Compared with traditional ships, it has great development potential in terms of safety and economy. The emergence of unmanned ships has contributed to China's maritime security. The collision avoidance path planning capability of the unmanned ship is one of its key technologies, and it is also an important manifestation of its artificial intelligence. Based on artificial intelligence algorithm, this paper studies the maritime safety control system of unmanned ships. The system completes the control system design based on the position and distance of obstacles, water leakage detection, own position and attitude, image acquisition and remote monitoring. Afterwards, the design experiments were carried out to test, and the results showed that after continuous evolution, the path with higher fitness function was retained, and the optimal path was created in the 100th generation, indicating that the system designed in this paper can effectively provide the optimal path for unmanned ships. airway. This platform is small in size and flexible in use, and has complete basic functions, which can provide a useful design reference for ensuring the safety of unmanned ships. In this paper, an effective control system is designed by introducing artificial intelligence algorithms into the field of unmanned ship maritime security.
A Successful Central gastrectomy and Gastro-gastric Anastomosis for A Large Gastric GIST
Authors: Zidan Mohamed , Hassan Eslam , Refaie Mostafa
Published: February 2023

partial gastrectomy is always the preferred technique for GIST resection. Central gastrectomy is a practical technique that can be employed in many situations during the resection of both subepithelial stromal tumors and gastric tumors. We are presenting a case of a large gastric GIST managed by central gastrectomy and gastro-gastric anastomosis.
The early prognostic value of the 1-4-day BCM/PA trend after admission in neurocritical patients
Authors: Li Feng , Peng Jingjing , Xiang Yanling , Liu Guangwei , Ling Shuya
Published: February 2023

Background:The purpose of this study was to investigate early dynamic changes in relevant indicators in neurocritical patients to identify biomarkers that can predict a poor prognosis at an early stage.Methods:This study retrospectively collected clinical data, inflammatory indicators, and nutritional indicators from 77 patients at the neurology intensive care unit of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. The 3-month modified Rankin scale score was used as the outcome indicator. A linear mixed model was used to analyze changes in inflammatory indicators and nutritional indicators in neurocritical patients over time from 1-4 days after admission. Logistic regression was used to determine the independent risk factors for a poor prognosis in neurocritical patients and to construct a predictive model. The predictive efficacy of the model was verified using leave-one-out cross-validation and decision curve analysis methods.Results:The analysis results showed that 1-4 days after admission, the inflammatory indicators of white blood cell and absolute monocyte counts and the nutritional indicators of body cell mass (BCM), fat-free mass, BCM/phase angle (PA), intracellular water, extracellular water, and skeletal muscle index increased overall, while the nutritional indicators of albumin and visceral fat area decreased overall. The logistic multivariate regression model showed that the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) (odds ratio (OR)=2.526, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.202, 5.308]), hemoglobin (HB)(on admission)-Hb(min)(OR=1.049, 95% CI [1.015, 1.083), BCM(on admission)(OR=0.794, 95% CI [0.662, 0.952]), and the change in BCM/PA 1-4 days after admission (OR=1.157, 95% CI [1.070, 1.252]) were independent risk factors for a poor prognosis in neurocritical patients. The predictive analysis showed that the predictive power of Model 1 with BCM/PA (area under the curve (AUC)=0.95, 95% CI (0.90, 0.99)) was 93%, 65%, 141%, and 133% higher than that of Model 2 without BCM/PA, the CCI, the APACHE Ⅱ score, and the NRS2002 score (all P<0.05), respectively.Conclusions:The CCI, Hb(on admission)-Hb(min), BCM(on admission), and an increase in BCM/PA 1-4 days after admission were independently associated with a poor prognosis in neurocritical patients. Of these variables, BCM/PA may be a valid indicator for early prediction of a poor prognosis in neurocritical patients.
Multi-objective optimization of forging surface structure parameters of radial forging die with cycloidal
Authors: Wang Junshi , Wang Zhaohui , Xu Wenxia , Du Zun , Wang Hongxia
Published: February 2023

To improve the strain homogeneity and damage homogeneity of radial forging hollow shaft. Proposed radial forging die with a cycloid as a generatrix entrance surface. The effects of the structural parameters of the die forging surface, such as the radius of cycloid base circle (R), the length of sizing zone (L) and the radius of sizing zone (r) on the strain homogeneity and damage homogeneity of the machined shaft were investigated. Numerical simulations were performed according to the orthogonal design L25, and an artificial neural network approach was used to develop a mathematical prediction model and apply it to the optimization process of the genetic algorithm. The results show that the optimized structural parameters of the compromise solution are R = 68.27mm, L = 49.36mm, r = 11.01mm, εσ and Cσ are 0.2113 and 0.02562, respectively. Compared with the original structural scheme, εσ is reduced by 21.83% and Cσ is reduced by 31.58%, which indicates that the plastic deformation is more uniform and the machining damage is less during the hollow shaft forging process.
Serum and Salivary MicroRNA-31 in Early Detection of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma- a Systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: abbasi Fatemeh , mortazavi Nazanin , behnampour nasser
Published: February 2023

Oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the world and the third most common cancer in developing countries. Early detection of oral cancer can reduce mortality in several ways, including using biomarkers such as MicroRNA (miRNA). MicroRNAs act as tumor suppressors or oncogenes, which play an important role in cancers such as oral cancer. Serum or Saliva miRNA is currently one of the most important biomarkers in the early detection of non-invasive oral cancer. The present study aimed to use a meta-analysis method and combine the quantitative results of articles from 2000 to 2022 on serum and saliva miRNAs for early detection of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Data analysis method: - Extraction of statistical indicators of sensitivity, specificity, and Area Under the Curve (AUC) - Use a funnel diagram to diagnose the publication bias of preliminary research before and after sensitivity analysis - Using the Cochrane Q test to determine the degree of heterogeneity in the results of preliminary studies - Use of models with fixed and random effects and meta-regression method The sensitivity index for miR-31 in the fixed model was 71.68% based on the meta-analysis. The funnel diagram shows no heterogeneity between the studies and the Begg test indicates that diffusion bias is absent based on the P-values for these indicators. Based on the results, serum, plasma, and saliva miRNAs may provide a non-invasive and cost-effective method of diagnosing HNSCC; however, large-scale controlled trials are needed to validate different miRNAs.
FuseBot: Mechanical Search of Rigid and Deformable Objects via Multi-Modal Perception
Authors: Boroushaki Tara , Dodds Laura , Naeem Nazish , Adib Fadel
Published: February 2023

Mechanical search is a robotic problem where a robot needs to retrieve a target item that is partially or fully-occluded from its camera. State-of-the-art approaches for mechanical search either require an expensive search process to find the target item, or they require the item to be tagged with a radio frequency identification tag (eg, RFID), making their approach beneficial only to tagged items in the environment. We present FuseBot, the first robotic system for RF-Visual mechanical search that enables efficient retrieval of both RF-tagged and untagged items in a pile. Rather than requiring all target items in a pile to be RF-tagged, FuseBot leverages the mere existence of an RF-tagged item in the pile to benefit both tagged and untagged items. Our design introduces two key innovations. The first is RF-Visual Mapping, a technique that identifies and locates RF-tagged items in a pile and uses this information to construct an RF-Visual occupancy distribution map. The second is RF-Visual Extraction, a policy formulated as an optimization problem that minimizes the number of actions required to extract the target object by accounting for the probabilistic occupancy distribution, the expected grasp quality, and the expected information gain from future actions. We built a real-time end-to-end prototype of our system on a UR5e robotic arm with in-hand vision and RF perception modules. We conducted over 180 real-world experimental trials to evaluate FuseBot and compare its performance to a state-of-the-art vision-based system named X-Ray. Our experimental results demonstrate that FuseBot outperforms X-Ray’s efficiency by more than 40% in terms of the number of actions required for successful mechanical search. Furthermore, in comparison to X-Ray’s success rate of 84%, FuseBot achieves a success rate of 95% in retrieving untagged items, demonstrating for the first time that the benefits of RF perception extend beyond tagged objects in the mechanical search problem.
How various adaptation schemes in the education systems of European countries affect the inclusion of refugee children from Ukraine in their educational system.
Authors: Chovpan Ganna
Published: February 2023

The article compares how the children of Ukrainian refugees are included in the school systems of Poland, Germany, and the UK. The main factors influencing the school adaptation of refugee children are analyzed. We conducted an anonymous survey of schoolchildren's parents. It is concluded that most children went to school in the host countries and continue to study remotely in Ukrainian schools. The general situation with the inclusion of children in educational systems looks optimistic but requires further monitoring.
A novel cuproptosis-related signature for predicting prognosis and immune response in gastric cancer
Authors: Liang Kai , Li Duguang , Liu Xiaolong , Zhou Fengbin , Shi Weixin , Yang Jin
Published: February 2023

Cuproptosis is a novel non-apoptotic programmed cell death distinguished from classical cell death. However, the direct prognostic value of cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs), and corresponding detailed mechanisms in gastric cancer (GC) remain unknown. Here, we collected RNA-sequencing data, copy number variation, single nucleotide variation and clinical information of GC from TCGA database. Then, two distinct cuproptosis-related clusters were established based on the expression patterns of 13 CRGs using consensus unsupervised clustering analysis. Based on the differentially expressed genes with prognostic value between the two CRGs clusters, a predictive signature was developed which divided all patients into high- and low-risk two groups. It was found that patients in the low-risk group showed better survival prognosis than those in the high-risk group. Moreover, the accuracy of this model in prognostic prediction was further confirmed in two independent GEO cohorts. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses demonstrated that the CRG score was an independent prognostic predictor for GC patients. In addition, there were also an obvious differences of immune cells infiltration and tumor mutation burden (TMB) between the two groups. Meanwhile, this signature could help to predict chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity and immunotherapy efficacy in GC patients. Collectively, we demonstrated a comprehensive overview of CRG profiles in GC and established a novel risk model for the prediction of therapy effect and prognosis in GC patients.
Genetically Engineered CXCR4-modified Exosomes for Delivery of miR-126 mimics to Macrophages Alleviate Periodontitis
Authors: Luo Haotian , Chen Danying , Li Ruoyu , Li Runze , Teng Yungshan , Cao Yang , Zou Xuenong , Wang Weicai , Zhou Chen
Published: February 2023

Biofilm related diseases are a group of diseases that tolerant antimicrobial chemotherapies therefore refractory. Periodontitis as a non-device chronic biofilm disease induced by dental plaque, can serve as an excellent in vivo model for studying the important implications of host factors in the biofilm microenvironment. Macrophage activity is one of the key factors that modulate the progression of inflammatory destruction in periodontitis, thus an important host immunomodulatory factor. In this study, the decrease of microRNA-126 (miR-126) with the recruitment of macrophages in periodontitis is confirmed in the clinical samples, and a strategy to target-deliver miR-126 to macrophages is explored.Exosomes overexpressing C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) loaded with miR-126 (CXCR4-miR126-Exo) are successfully constructed, which reduce the off-target delivery to macrophages and regulate macrophages toward the anti-inflammatory phenotype. In vivo local injection ofCXCR4-miR126-Exo into sites of periodontitis in rats effectively reduces the bone resorption and osteoclastogenesis, and inhibited the progression of periodontitis. These results provide new insights for designing novel targeted delivery system of immunomodulatory factor to treat periodontitis and other biofilm related diseases.
Construction of the Novel Immune Risk Scoring System Related to CD8 + T Cells in Uterine Corpus Endometrial Carcinoma
Authors: Zhang Ganghua , Yin Zhijing , Fang Jianing , Wu Anshan , Chen Guanjun , Cao Ke
Published: February 2023

Uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) is a gynecological malignant tumor with high incidence and poor prognosis. Although immunotherapy has brought huge survival benefits for some specific patients, the traditional evaluation indicators cannot accurately identify all beneficiaries. To construct a new scoring system to predict patient prognosis and responsiveness of immunotherapy, key genes related to CD8+T cells and prognosis were selected out to develop the novel immune risk score (NIRS). Subsequently, correlations between NIRS and other prognostic features such as clinical characteristics, microsatellite status, immune infiltration and tumor mutation burden were investigated. Five module genes (GPR18, CD48, LCK, LTA, and SLAMF1) were selected to construct NIRS after multiple screening procedures. NIRS is considered as an independent prognostic factor of UCEC. The increase in NIRS is accompanied by decreases in infiltrated immune cells and immune checkpoint expression; thus, indicating a lower sensibility to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Five module genes were considered protective factors and positively linked to the level of CD8+ T cells by single gene multi-omics analyses. In this research, we
constructed NIRS as a novel prognostic signature of UCEC. NIRS can not only distinguish patients with different prognoses and immune responsiveness, but also guide their therapeutic regimens.
Context-dependent activation of a social behavior brain network associates with learned vocal production
Authors: Anderson Katherine L. , Colón Lionel , Doolittle Violet , Martinez Raysa Rosario , Uraga Joseph , Whitney Osceola
Published: February 2023

In zebra finches, an avian brain network for vocal control undergoes context-dependent patterning of song-dependent activation. Previous studies in zebra finches also implicate the importance of dopaminergic input in producing context-appropriate singing behavior. In mice, it has been shown that oxytocinergic neurons originated in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) synapse directly onto dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), implicating the necessity of oxytocin signaling from the PVN for producing a context-appropriate song. Both avian and non-avian axonal tract-tracing studies indicate high levels of PVN innervation by the social behavior network. Here, we hypothesize that the motivation for PVN oxytocin neurons to trigger dopamine release originates in the social behavior network, a highly conserved and interconnected collection of six regions implicated in various social and homeostatic behaviors. We found that expression of the neuronal activity marker EGR1 was not strongly correlated with song production in any of the regions of the social behavior network. However, when EGR1expression levels were normalized to the singing rate, we found significantly higher levels of expression in the social behavior network regions except the medial preoptic area during a social female-directed singing context compared to a non-social undirected singing context. Our results suggest neuronal activity within the male zebra finch social behavior network influences the synaptic release of oxytocin from PVN onto dopaminergic projection neurons in the VTA, which in turn signals to the vocal control network to allow for context-appropriate song production.
GastroEffNetV1- CNN based Automated detection of Gastrointestinal abnormalities from capsule endoscopy images
Authors: S Rajkumar , V.A Sairam , G.K Krithika , C.S Harini , P Dhanusha , G.E Chandrasekar , V Sapthagirivasan
Published: February 2023

Purpose: Gastrointestinal disorders are a class of prevalent disorders in the world. Capsule endoscopy is considered as an effective diagnostic modality for diagnosis of such gastrointestinal disorders.
Aim: The work is to leverage an algorithm for automated classification of the gastrointestinal abnormalities using capsule endoscopy images using Deep learning algorithms.
Method: In this method we proposed a deep learning architecture GastroEffNetV1 for automatic classification of the abnormalities in the capsule endoscopy images. The gastrointestinal abnormalities considered are ulcerative colitis, polyps and esophagitis. The curated dataset consists of 6000 images with ground truth labeling. A website was developed using the trained algorithm to execute automatic classification of the input image as either ulcerative colitis, polyp, esophagitis or as normal condition.
Result: The classifier produced 99.15% validation accuracy, 0.0918 validation loss, 99.25% specificity and 99.25% sensitivity and 0.991 AUC. These results exceed that of the state-of-the-art systems.
Conclusion: Hence the GastroEffNetV1 could be used to identify the different gastrointestinal abnormalities in the capsule endoscopy image which will in turn increase quality of healthcare.
Repolarization of inflammation-associated macrophages by multifunctional dual drug-loaded liposome with antibacterial capacity for acute lung sepsis synergistic therapy
Authors: Zhang Qing , Zhang Lin , Zhang Yuhan , Wang Yi , Ju Rong , Wei Guoqing
Published: February 2023

Background Sepsis is defined a systemic inflammatory response syndrome caused by a dysregulated host response to bacterial infection and is the leading cause of death in the intensive care unit at hospitals. At present, despite the discovery of many potential therapeutic methods for anti-infective treatment and immune-suppressing treatment, effective drug treatments for sepsis are lacking in the clinic.
Results Herein, a novel coloaded dual therapeutic agent liposomes (Cip·HCl/Cur@Lip-γ3) nanoplatform was developed by enveloping Cip·HCl and Cur into pH-responsive and inflammation-targeted liposomes. These liposomes simultaneously kill bacteria and regulate the polarization type of macrophages in infected lung tissue to relieve the infected microenvironment, providing antibacterial-anti-inflammatory therapy for synergetic acute lung sepsis antibacterial-anti-inflammatory therapy. In vitro and in vivo results showed that Cip·HCl/Cur@Lip-γ3 exhibits excellent antibacterial properties against both S. aureus and P. aeruginosa and can effectively reduce inflammation and the immune response in acute lung infection. In addition, Cip·HCl/Cur@Lip-γ3 was administered to mice with acute lung infection, and the survival rate was 80% within 72 h.
Conclusion This study provides a novel nanoplatform to treat lung infection-induced sepsis, providing a new strategy to design multifunctional nanomedicine for infectious disease therapy.
WITHDRAWN: Neurological manifestations of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in children (MIS-C) associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection: A clinico-demographic profile with short-term outcome in patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India.
Authors: Roy Santanu , Ghosh Prakash Chandra , Biswas Sandip , Majumder Sananda
Published: February 2023

Background: In April 2020, a novel syndrome termed multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), related to SARS-CoV-2 infection was first described. This syndrome has a wide spectrum of systemic involvement, has shown to include the nervous system as well. Our study aims to obtain a baseline clinical and demographic profile of varied neurological manifestations of MIS-C. It also aims to delineate a profile of short-term outcome in these patients with regards to residual neurological sequelae.
Methods: A single-centre, retrospective, observational and hospital based study for 5 months was conducted among patients in the age group from 1 month to 12 years, with MIS-C with co-existing neurological symptoms. The subjects who had pre-existing neurological diseases were excluded from the study. A total of 34 subjects were collected. Post-discharge, each patient was followed up for a period of 1 month. The residual neurological deficits, if any, at discharge and follow-up.
Results: The neurological complication found were Acute Symptomatic Seizure (29.4%), Aseptic Meningitis (23.5%), Encephalitis (11.8%), Guillain-Barré Syndrome (11.8%), Miller-Fisher Syndrome (2.9%), ADEM (8.8%), Autoimmune Encephalitis (8.8%) and Acute Haemorrhaegic Stroke (2.9%). 11.8% expired and 50% required P.I.C.U admissions. 23.5% had residual neurological deficit at discharge and 8.8% at follow-up after 1 month of discharge.
Conclusions: In spite of great variability in manifestations, prognosis is favourable if early aggressive treatment is initiated.
Investigation of the adsorption mechanism of formaldehyde on pure and Pt- doped rutile SnO2 (110) surfaces: a theoretical analysis via first principles study
Authors: Gulshanah Shaheen , Bhattacharjee Ayon
Published: February 2023

This work presents an extensive study for analysing the adsorption mechanism of formaldehyde on pure and Pt-doped rutile SnO2 (110) surfaces via Density Functional Theory (DFT) method. Out of the two suitable surface sites for Pt-doping, namely, Sn5c and Sn6c, the latter was found to be more suitable for Pt-doping. Three formaldehyde configurations were considered, η1(O)-straight, η1(O)-tilted and η2(O,C)-tilted. It was found that after Pt-substitution, the adsorption energies for η1(O)-tilted and η2(O,C)-tilted formaldehyde geometries were improved. This improvement could be due to strengthened interaction between formaldehyde and Sn5c sites after doping, and also due to the surface coverage induced by the tilt angle of the gas molecule w.r.t the surface. Also, the overall adsorption energy values were better for the tilted configurations rather than the straight geometry. Bader charge analysis results show the presence of both chemisorption as well as physisorption for tilted formaldehyde geometry, whereas only chemisorption has been observed in case of straight orientation. Charge density difference (CDD) plots visually verified the above stated results. Total density of states show the injection of additional electronic states near zero energy (Fermi energy) level after Pt-doping and an additional peak upon introduction of the gas molecule.