bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma: The Frontier of Cancer Immunoprevention
Authors: Chang Michael S. , Azin Marjan , Demehri Shadmehr
Published: January 2022

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is the second most common cancer, with its incidence rising steeply. Immunosuppression is a well-established risk factor for cSCC, and this risk factor highlights the critical role of the immune system in regulating cSCC development and progression. Further highlighting the nature of cSCC as an immunological disorder, substantial evidence demonstrates a tight association between cSCC risk and age-related immunosenescence. Besides the proven efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade therapy for advanced cSCC, novel immunotherapy that targets cSCC precursor lesions has shown efficacy for cSCC prevention. Furthermore, the appreciation of the interplay between keratinocytes, commensal papillomaviruses, and the immune system has revealed the possibility for the development of a preventive cSCC vaccine. cSCC shares fundamental aspects of its origin and pathogenesis with mucosal SCCs. Therefore, advances in the field of cSCC immunoprevention will inform our approach to the management of mucosal SCCs and potentially other epithelial cancers.
Effect of Bipolar Electrochemical Process on Tunnel Etching Characteristics of Aluminum Foil
Authors: Xu Guiren , Peng Ning , Wang Pan , Xiao Yuan
Published: January 2022

In this study, closed bipolar electrochemical etching was introduced to prepare etched tunnels on aluminum foils. The morphological evolution and tunnel etching behaviors of aluminum foils in the traditional electrochemical etching system and closed bipolar electrochemical etching system were thoroughly investigated using scanning electron microscopy and electrochemical measurements. Compared with the tunnels etched on the aluminum foil by traditional electrochemical etching, those by closed bipolar electrochemical etching had a larger diameter and a more uniform distribution of length. These characteristics are beneficial for improving the specific surface area of the etched aluminum foil. Furthermore, aluminum foils do not need direct electricity connection, thus offering a potential advantage in industrial production.
Three-Dimensional Nano Polyaniline Modification Graphite Fiber as High-Capacity Electrode Material for Uranium (VI) Electrosorption
Authors: Cao Meng , Cheng Wanting , Gao Jianzhang , Gui Yunyang , Ma Fuqiu , Liu Peng , Xue Yun , Yan Yongde
Published: January 2022

To improve the adsorption performance of graphite felt, aniline was directly polymerized on the surface of graphite felt by electrochemical method. The material test results showed that the electropolymerized polyaniline presented a three-dimensional nanofiber structure and the specific surface area of the electrode increased from 24.23 to 42.17 m2 g−1 after modification. The electrochemistry test results showed that the electrode had a large specific capacitance 144.6 F g−1 in 1 M NaCl at a sweep speed of 5 mV s−1. When pH = 4 and E = −0.9 V (vs SCE), the adsorption capacity of the electrode can reach 187.8 mg g−1. 94.6% adsorbed uranium can be eluted by 0.1 M hydrochloric acid. After 7 cycles, the performance loss was only 25%, which indicated that the electrode had a good regeneration performance. The uranyl ions combined with the amino and imino groups of polyaniline on the electrode surface, and were partially reduced to U (V), which greatly improved the adsorption capacity of electrode. All the results show that the electrode had exceptional potential applications in the extraction of U(VI) from aqueous solution, and it provides a feasible method for U(VI) environmental pollution cleanup in uranium mining and fuel processing.
Conductive Heat Transfer in Partially Saturated Gas Diffusion Layers with Evaporative Cooling
Authors: van Rooij Sarah , Magnini Mirco , Mularczyk Adrian , Xu Hong , Büchi Felix N. , Haussener Sophia
Published: January 2022

Heat transport is an important, though often neglected function of gas diffusion layers (GDLs) of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. Thermal conductivity is a key property, especially in partially water saturated GDLs and when the phase change of water is considered, such as required for evaporative cooling applications. Continuum models require effective transport properties as input, which in this work were determined for different types of dry and partially saturated commercial GDLs (Toray 060 and 120, Freudenberg H23). Three-dimensional microstructures and phase distributions were recorded using X-ray tomographic microscopy, digitalized and used in direct pore-level simulations. The governing energy conservation equation was solved in the three phases (gas, liquid, solid) with interfacial heat transfer between the phases to determine the effective thermal conductivity. Correlations for through-plane effective thermal conductivity in the different GDL types as a function of saturation are provided. An energy sink term, accounting for the evaporation of water, was added, enabling a quantification of the effective conductive heat transfer in GDLs with evaporative cooling. The water distribution (clustered or layered) in the GDLs was found to be a key factor for the thermal conduction and evaporative cooling ability.
(Invited) Designing Efficient Photoelectrochemical Solar Energy Conversion Devices and Their Integration with Redox Flow Battery Devices
Authors: Jin Song
Published: January 2022

Due to the intermittent nature of sunlight, practical solar energy utilization systems demand both efficient solar energy conversion and inexpensive large scale energy storage. We will first discuss the rational design and demonstration of efficient photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation systems using efficient semiconductors and earth-abundant catalyst materials. We have further developed novel hybrid solar-charged storage devices that integrate regenerative photoelectrochemical solar cells and redox flow batteries (RFBs) that share the same pair of redox couples. In these integrated solar flow batteries (SFBs), solar energy is absorbed by semiconductor electrodes and photoexcited caries are collected at the semiconductor-liquid electrolyte interface and used to convert the redox couples in the RFB to fully charge up the battery. When electricity is needed, the charged up redox couples will be discharged on carbon electrodes to generate the electricity as in a RFB. We have demonstrated that such SFB devices can be charged under solar light without external electric bias and deliver a high discharge capacity comparable with state-of-the-art RFBs over many cycles. After developing silicon solar cells and high performance solar cells, carefully matching them with various organic or inorganic redox couples, and optimizing several generations of SFB device designs, we have recently achieved integrated SFB device with an overall direct solar-to-output electricity efficiency (SOEE) of 14%. These high performance SFBs can serve as distributed and standalone solar energy conversion and storage systems in remote locations and enable practical off-gird electrification.
Role of (pro)renin receptor in cyclosporin A-induced nephropathy
Authors: Hu Jiajia , Tan Yandan , Chen Yanting , Mo Shiqi , Hekking Brittin , Su Jiahui , Pu Min , Lu Aihua , Du Yanhua , Symons J. David , Yang Tianxin
Published: January 2022

The present study reports, for the first time, that activation of the (pro)renin receptor drives the renin-angiotensin system to induce renal injury during cyclosporin A administration. More importantly, our study has identified that antagonism with PRO20 offers a novel intervention in the management of side effects of cyclosporin A.
Histamine receptors rapidly desensitize without altering nerve-evoked contractions in murine urinary bladder smooth muscle
Authors: Jones B. Malique , Mingin Gerald C. , Tykocki Nathan R.
Published: January 2022

Histamine is commonly associated with inflammatory bladder pathologies. We sought to investigate the role of histamine on urinary bladder contractility. Histamine contracts the bladder, but this response is highly variable and desensitizes completely in minutes. This desensitization is not due to internalization of the receptor or metabolism of histamine. Because nerve-evoked contractions are also not increased in the presence of histamine, our findings suggest that histamine is not directly acting to change contractility.
SPARCL1 Is a Novel Prognostic Biomarker and Correlates with Tumor Microenvironment in Colorectal Cancer
Authors: Zhang Hai-Ping , Wu Jun , Liu Zhi-Feng , Gao Jing-Wen , Li Shu-Yu
Published: January 2022

Background. Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine‐like 1 (SPARCL1) plays an important role in tumor pathogenesis. We aim to evaluate the clinical significance and potential biological roles of SPARCL1 in colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods. Datasets from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases were downloaded to evaluate the expression levels of SPARCL1 in CRC. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed to evaluate the diagnostic value of SPARCL1. Then, comprehensive database search was conducted for published clinical studies to explore clinical significance of SPARCL1. In addition, coexpression genes of SPARCL1 were identified through the cBioPortal database and enrichment analysis of SPARCL1 and its coexpression genes were performed by the “clusterProfiler” R package. Finally, the correlations between SPARCL1 and tumor microenvironment scores, tumor‐infiltrating immune cells in CRC were determined by “ESTIMATE” and “GSVA” R packages. Results. SPARCL1 was significantly downregulated in CRC tissues, and SPARCL1 showed high accuracy for diagnosis of primary CRC in both GEO and TCGA datasets. Pooled results from published clinical studies showed SPARCL1 expression was associated with differentiation (OR = 1.89, 95% CI: 1.38‐2.59), tumor stage (OR = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.29‐0.77), distant metastasis (OR = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.33‐0.84), and overall survival (HR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.43‐0.74). SPARCL1 and its top 300 coexpression genes were involved in several KEGG pathways, such as focal adhesion, cell adhesion molecules, PI3K‐Akt signaling pathway, cGMP‐PKG signaling pathway, and ECM‐receptor interaction. Besides, the SPARCL1 expression was significantly correlated with stromal score, immune score, ESTIMATE score, and diverse immune cells. Conclusion. SPARCL1 significantly correlated with clinicopathological features and tumor microenvironment in CRC.
Research on Multimodal Image Fusion Target Detection Algorithm Based on Generative Adversarial Network
Authors: Wu Zhaoli , Wu Xuehan , Zhu Yuancai , Zhai Jingxuan , Yang Haibo , Yang Zhiwei , Wang Chao , Sun Jilong
Published: January 2022

In this paper, we propose a target detection algorithm based on adversarial discriminative domain adaptation for infrared and visible image fusion using unsupervised learning methods to reduce the differences between multimodal image information. Firstly, this paper improves the fusion model based on generative adversarial network and uses the fusion algorithm based on the dual discriminator generative adversarial network to generate high-quality IR-visible fused images and then blends the IR and visible images into a ternary dataset and combines the triple angular loss function to do migration learning. Finally, the fused images are used as the input images of faster RCNN object detection algorithm for detection, and a new nonmaximum suppression algorithm is used to improve the faster RCNN target detection algorithm, which further improves the target detection accuracy. Experiments prove that the method can achieve mutual complementation of multimodal feature information and make up for the lack of information in single-modal scenes, and the algorithm achieves good detection results for information from both modalities (infrared and visible light).
Additive Effect of Sarcopenia and Anemia on the 10-Year Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes
Authors: Zeng Feihui , Huang Lingning , Zhang Yongze , Hong Xinyu , Weng Suiyan , Shen Ximei , Zhao Fengying , Yan Sunjie
Published: January 2022

Objective. To investigate the association between sarcopenia and anemia and the 10-year cardiovascular disease risk in diabetic patients. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 4673 hospitalized patients (2271 men and 2402 women) with type 2 diabetes mellitus, with an average age of

60.66
±
11.93

years, of whom 542 were followed up for a median follow-up period of 24 months. All participants underwent body composition measurements, and they were grouped by sex and presence of sarcopenia using the Framingham risk model to assess their 10-year cardiovascular risk. According to the changes in the cardiovascular risk during follow-up, the patients were divided into four groups: low-low, low-high, high-low, and high-high. Results. The prevalence of anemia was higher in the sarcopenia group than in the nonsarcopenia group (11.5% vs. 24.1% for men,

P
<
0.001

; 13.9% vs. 19.7% for women,

P
<
0.05

), and the difference remained significant after adjusting for confounders. Patients with sarcopenia and without anemia had a 46.2% increased risk of high 10-year cardiovascular disease (CVD) (

odds
 
ratio
 

OR

=
1.462

, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.085–1.972,

P
=
0.013

), and the risk was twofold higher in patients with sarcopenia and anemia than in those without (

OR
=
3.283

, 95% CI 2.038–5.289,

P
<
0.001

). In follow-up studies, sarcopenia was associated with an increased risk of CVD at 10 years, and a reduction in appendicular skeletal muscle mass index independently predicted the increased risk of CVD. Conclusion. Sarcopenia is associated with an increased risk of anemia, and the presence of both has an additive effect on the 10-year CVD risk in patients with type 2 diabetes. Loss of muscle mass can independently predict an increased CVD risk in diabetic patients.
An Analytical Calculation Method for Displacement Criterion on Tunnel Surrounding Rock Mass Stability
Authors: Zhang Zhiqiang , Chen Fangfang , He Mingming , Wang Hui
Published: January 2022

Assessment on the stability of a tunnel surrounding rock mass is an important issue during designing and construction of the tunnel. There is still no good enough analytical method to calculate the displacement criterion on the stability of the tunnel surrounding rock mass due to its multifactors dominated. In this paper, an innovative method to achieve the assessment displacement criterion, based on elastoplastic theory, is formed by considering multifactors, such as the quality of surrounding rock mass, initial stress, tunnel size, and supporting system. The calculation formula in this method is deduced by taking into consideration of combination the displacement and plastic region of surrounding rock mass and the reinforcement zone by systemic bolt, based on the equilibrium in elastic region, plastic region, and border between elastic region and plastic region. Furthermore, the influence of critical factors on the displacement criterion, such as deformation property and strength property of surrounding rock mass, tunnel size, and tunnel overburden, is discussed to make it clear that how these factors affect the stability of the tunnel surrounding rock mass. The validity of the analytical calculation method is testified by the application in the Zipingpu tunnel engineering.
Comparison of Radiographic Reconstruction and Clinical Improvement between Artificial Cervical Disc Replacement and Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion
Authors: Chen Yuxiang , Li Yue , Hai Yong , Yin Peng , Liu Yuzeng , Yang Jincai , Su Qingjun
Published: January 2022

Background. The surgical management of cervical degenerative disc degeneration (CDDD) has not reached a consensus. Artificial cervical disc replacement (ACDR) has been shown to be efficient in reducing symptoms after CDDD, although the topic remains highly controversial in this field. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of ACDR on the treatment of CDDD on the aspect of radiographic reconstruction and clinical improvement compared with anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF). Methods. This was a retrospective comparative study with 47 patients who underwent single-level ACDR and 46 patients who underwent single-level ACDF. The radiographic reconstruction was assessed by the cervical sagittal alignment parameters, consisting of two aspects, distance and angle, such as cervical sagittal vertical axis (cSVA), cervical lordosis (CL), T1 slope (T1s), and intervertebral space height (ISH). The clinical improvement was assessed by patient-related outcomes (PROs), consisting of two aspects, relief of axial neck pain and recovery of cervical dysfunction, measured through the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Neck Disability Index (NDI), and Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA). Results. Significant variations were achieved on aspects of radiographic reconstruction and clinical improvement after ACDR (

P
<
0.05

), which were similar to that of the ACDF group (

P
<
0.05

). A significantly larger postoperative range of motion (ROM) was found in patients less than 45 years of age in the ACDR group (

P
<
0.05

). In addition, a significantly better postoperative JOA was found in patients with a preoperative ISH less than 4 mm in the ACDF group than that in the ACDR group (

P
<
0.05

). Other than that mentioned above, no significant variations in radiographic and clinical outcomes were found between the two groups (

P
>
0.05

). Conclusions. Overall, this study showed that a similar capability in terms of radiographic reconstruction and clinical improvement was found between the two methods. Specific concerns should be analyzed while choosing between an ACDR and an ACDF. It should be pointed out that, based on our experience, if the patient is younger, ACDR is recommended; for patients with preoperative ISH less than 4 mm, ACDF is more recommended.
Cooperative Multiagent Attentional Communication for Large-Scale Task Space
Authors: Zou Qijie , Hu Youkun , Yi Dewei , Gao Bing , Qin Jing
Published: January 2022

With the rapid development of mobile robots, they have begun to be widely used in industrial manufacturing, logistics scheduling, intelligent medical, and other fields. For large-scale task space, the communication between multiagents is the key to affect cooperation productivity, and agents can coordinate more effectively with the help of dynamic communication. However, the traditional communication mechanism uses simple message aggregation and broadcast and, in some cases, lacks the distinction of the importance of information. Multiagent deep reinforcement learning (MDRL) is valid to solve the problem of informational coordination strategies. However, how different messages affect each agent’s decision-making process remains a challenging task for large-scale task. To solve this problem, we propose IMANet (Import Message Attention Network). It divides the decision-making process into two substages: communication and action, where communication is considered to be part of the environment. First, an attention mechanism based on query vectors is introduced. The correlation between the query vector agent’s own information and the current state information of other agents is estimated, and then, the results are used to distinguish the importance of information from other agents. Second, the LSTM network is used as the unit controller for each agent, and individual rewards are used to guide the agent training after communication. Finally, IMANet is evaluated on tasks on challenging multi-agent platforms, Predator and Prey (PP), and traffic junction. The results show that IMANet can improve the efficiency of learning and training, especially when applied to large-scale task space, with a success rate 12% higher than CommNet in baseline experiments.
ZNF488 Promotes the Invasion and Migration of Pancreatic Carcinoma Cells through the Akt/mTOR Pathway
Authors: Qiu Hongquan , Zhang Liang , Wang Dongzhi , Zhang Yu , Cai Hongyu , Miao Haiyan , Chu Feihu
Published: January 2022

Objective. Studies have demonstrated that zinc finger protein 488 (ZNF488) is highly expressed in pancreatic carcinoma (PC), but its effect on PC and its molecular mechanism remains unclear. Methods. Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was employed to detect the ZNF488 expression in PC patients’ cancer tissues and cell lines. After interfering with or overexpressing ZNF488 in PANC-1 and AsPC-1 cells, respectively, the CCK-8, cell cloning, Transwell, and scratch assays were performed to detect cell proliferation, cell viability, invasion ability, and migration ability. In addition, Western blot was applied to assess the protein expression of Akt, p-Akt, mTOR, and p-mTOR in the Akt-mTOR pathway. Results. The ZNF488 expression was evidently raised in PC tissues and cell lines, and the starBase V3.0 database indicated that the higher the ZNF488 expression, the lower the survival rate of PC patients. Furthermore, we discovered that overexpressing ZNF488 can markedly promote the proliferation, invasion, and migration of PC cells. At the same time, highly expressed ZNF488 distinctly increased the p-Akt and p-mTOR expressions and the p-Akt/Akt and p-mTOR/mTOR ratios. However, after knocking down the ZNF488 expression, it had the opposite results. In addition, the Akt agonist SC79 can alleviate the effect of ZNF488 knockdown on Akt/mTOR pathway-related proteins, while Akt inhibitor AZD5363 had the opposite effect. Conclusion. ZNF488 could promote the proliferation, invasion, and migration of PC cells, and its mechanism may be related to the activation of the Akt/mTOR pathway. This study demonstrated that ZNF488 could be used as a molecular target for diagnosing and treating PC.
Robust Crater Detection Algorithm Based on Maximum Entropy Threshold Segmentation
Authors: Wu Peng , Mu Rongjun , Deng Yanpeng
Published: January 2022

For future lunar exploration and planetary missions, the digital elevation model (DEM) of the target object may not be well prepared before the mission, so developing a new robust crater detection algorithm (CDA) without prepared high-precision DEM is needed to meet the requirements of a high-reliability and high-precision detection and navigation system. In this paper, we presented a new robust lunar CDA method based on maximum entropy threshold segmentation. By calculating the entropy distribution of the ternary image, the threshold for retaining the maximum amount of image information is selected adaptively, a variety of evaluation indicators are proposed, and a multiple-indicator constraint matrix is constructed to realize the extraction and fitting of the craters. The proposed method has the following advantages: (1) it has strong robustness and is capable of extracting complete craters under multiple illumination conditions, which makes it suitable for the extraction of large-scale planetary and lunar images; (2) the extracted crater edges are clear and complete and do not merge with the surrounding environment edge; and (3) it avoids the problem of parameter sensitivity that is present in a traditional CDA algorithm. The proposed method was verified using an image taken by the Chang’e-2 lunar probe, and a comparison with the traditional method based on morphology and adaptive Canny edge detection shows that the number of craters detected increases by more than 35%, while the computational efficiency is improved by more than 40%.
Einstein-Ordered Weighted Geometric Operator for Pythagorean Fuzzy Soft Set with Its Application to Solve MAGDM Problem
Authors: Zulqarnain Rana Muhammad , Siddique Imran , EI-Morsy Salwa
Published: January 2022

The Pythagorean fuzzy soft set (PFSS) is the most influential and operative tool for maneuvering compared to the Pythagorean fuzzy set (PFS), which can accommodate the parameterization of alternatives. It is also a generalized form of intuitionistic fuzzy soft sets (IFSS), which delivers healthier and more exact valuations in the decision-making (DM) procedure. The primary purpose is to extend and propose ideas related to Einstein’s ordered weighted geometric aggregation operator from fuzzy structure to PFSS structure. The core objective of this work is to present a PFSS aggregation operator, such as the Pythagorean fuzzy soft Einstein-ordered weighted geometric (PFSEOWG) operator. In addition, the basic properties of the proposed operator are introduced, such as idempotency, boundedness, and homogeneity. Moreover, a DM method based on a developed operator has been presented to solve the multiattribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problem. A real-life application of the anticipated method has been offered for a capitalist to choose the most delicate business to finance his money. Finally, a brief comparative analysis with some current methods demonstrates the proposed approach’s effectiveness and reliability.
Adaptive Weight Adjustment and Searching Perception Strategy for Multivariate Complex Environments
Authors: Wang Wenshan , Sun Jianguo , Li Sizhao , Wu Junpeng , Da Qingan
Published: January 2022

Affected by the complex environment and the destruction of communication infrastructure in the disaster-stricken area, it has brought great challenges to the search and rescue team. The use of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for search tasks can minimize casualties. Therefore, in order to avoid any possible collision and search for unknown targets in the shortest time, it is necessary to design a multi-UAV cooperative target search strategy. In this paper, we analyze the unknown target search problem of multi-UAVs under random dynamic topology and propose an adaptive target search strategy based on the whale algorithm. First of all, each UAV detects the environmental information of its current area and uses the probability map search algorithm to gain the target existence probability map in the task area. Then, the whale optimization search method of shrinking circle or spiral is selected to update the position of the UAV to continuously approach the target. Finally, the obstacle avoidance strategy based on artificial potential field is designed to solve any collision problems that may be encountered during the flight of UAVs. Simulations on multi-UAVs target search in different scenarios show that compared with the whale optimization algorithm, the proposed algorithm can reduce the search time by 43.1% and the total path cost by 18.1%, and it is also superior to the advanced metaheuristic optimization algorithms such as PSO and GWO.
Teaching Model Design of Computer Programming Courses for Digital Media Technology Students
Authors: Zhan Qianyi , Wang Jing , Pan Xiang , Ding Yanrui , Liu Yuan
Published: January 2022

Digital media technology major is aimed at improving students’ skill on technological aspects of multimedia and developing their artistic and creative thinking. Therefore, the fundamental programming courses, including C, C++, Java, and Python, should meet the demand of digital media technology. In this paper, we design the teaching model of programming courses, which consists of three parts: theoretical research on the deep integration of programming course cluster and digital media, teaching and learning method of programming courses led by “art-technology integration,” and teaching quality control and evaluation system of programming course cluster.
The Effect of Virtual Reality on Motor Anticipation and Hand Function in Patients with Subacute Stroke: A Randomized Trial on Movement-Related Potential
Authors: Chen Ling , Chen Yi , Fu Wen Bin , Huang Dong Feng , Lo Wai Leung Ambrose
Published: January 2022

Background. Impaired cognitive ability to anticipate the required control for an upcoming task in patients with stroke may affect rehabilitation outcome. The cortical excitability of task-related motor anticipation for upper limb movement induced by virtual reality (VR) training remains unclear. Aims. To investigate the effect of VR training on the cortical excitability of motor anticipation when executing upper limb movement in patients with subacute stroke. Methods. A total of thirty-six stroke survivors with upper limb hemiparesis resulting from the first occurrence of stroke within 1 to 3 months were recruited. Participants were randomly allocated to the VR intervention group or conventional therapy group. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and electromyography (EMG) were used to simultaneously record the cortical excitability and muscle activities during palmar grasp motion. Outcome measures of the contingent negative variation (CNV) latency and amplitude, EMG reaction time, Upper Limb Fugl-Meyer Assessment (UL-FMA), Action Research Arm Test (ARAT), and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) were recorded pre- and postintervention. The between-group difference was analysed by mixed model ANOVA. Results. The EMG onset time of the paretic hand in the VR group was earlier than that observed in the control group (

t
=
2.174

,

p
=
0.039

) postintervention. CNV latency reduction postintervention was larger in the VR group than in the control group (

t
=
2.411

,

p
=
0.021

) during paretic hand movement. The reduction in CNV amplitude in the VR group was larger in the VR group than in the control group (

p
<
0.001

for all electrodes except for C3) when executing paretic hand movement. ARAT and UL-FMA scores were significantly higher in the VR group than in the control group (

p
=
0.019

and

p
=
0.037

, respectively) postintervention. No significant difference in the reduction in NIHSS was found between the VR and control groups (

p
=
0.072

). Conclusions. VR intervention is superior to conventional therapy to improve the cognitive neural process of motor anticipation and reduce the excessive compensatory activation of the contralesional hemisphere. The improvements observed in the cognitive neural process corroborated with the improvements in hand function.
Multiscale Tail Risk Connectedness of Global Stock Markets: A LASSO‐Based Network Topology Approach
Authors: Du Yuting , Zhang Xu , Ding Zhijing , Yang Xian
Published: January 2022

Due to the advent of deglobalization and regional integration, this article aims to adopt LASSO‐based network connectedness to estimate the multiscale tail risk spillover effects of global stock markets. The results show that tail risk varies across frequencies and shocks. In static analysis, the risk is centered mostly on the developed European and North American markets at a low frequency (long term), and regionalization is imposed on the moderate frequency (midterm). Moreover, emerging markets could be sources of risk spillover, especially at the highest frequency (short term) where there is no absolute risk center. In dynamic analysis, we use rolling window estimation and find that different frequencies identify distinct episodes of shocks, which provides us with the reason for the diverse risk centers at different time scales in static analysis. Our findings provide heterogeneous financial practitioners, regulators, and investors with diverse characteristics of stock markets under multiple time horizons and help them operate their own trading strategies.
Regularity for a Nonlinear Discontinuous Subelliptic System with Drift on the Heisenberg Group
Authors: Zhang Junli , Wang Jialin
Published: January 2022

In this paper, we prove the partial Hölder regularity of weak solutions and the partial Morrey regularity to horizontal gradients of weak solutions to a nonlinear discontinuous subelliptic system with drift on the Heisenberg group by theA-harmonic approximation, where the coefficients in the nonlinear subelliptic system are discontinuous and satisfy the VMO condition forx, ellipticity and growth condition with the growth index1<p<2for the Heisenberg gradient variable, and the nonhomogeneous terms satisfy the controllable growth condition and the natural growth condition, respectively.
DFAN: Dual Feature Aggregation Network for Lightweight Image Super-Resolution
Authors: Li Shang , Zhang Guixuan , Luo Zhengxiong , Liu Jie
Published: January 2022

With the power of deep learning, super-resolution (SR) methods enjoy a dramatic boost in performance. However, they usually have a large model size and high computational complexity, which hinders the application in devices with limited memory and computing power. Some lightweight SR methods solve this issue by directly designing shallower architectures, but it will adversely affect the representation capability of convolutional neural networks. To address this issue, we propose the dual feature aggregation strategy for image SR. It enhances feature utilization via feature reuse, which largely improves the representation ability while only introducing marginal computational cost. Thus, a smaller model could achieve better cost-effectiveness with the dual feature aggregation strategy. Specifically, it consists of Local Aggregation Module (LAM) and Global Aggregation Module (GAM). LAM and GAM work together to further fuse hierarchical features adaptively along the channel and spatial dimensions. In addition, we propose a compact basic building block to compress the model size and extract hierarchical features in a more efficient way. Extensive experiments suggest that the proposed network performs favorably against state-of-the-art SR methods in terms of visual quality, memory footprint, and computational complexity.
The Effect of Prosopis farcta and Its Bioactive Luteolin on the Hippocampus of Mice after Induced Ischemia Reperfusion
Authors: Mohammadpour Shahram , Ghiasyzadeh Fereshteh , Darvishi Marzieh , Karimi Elahe , Ghaneialvar Hori , Alizadeh Rafieh , Moayeri Ardeshir , Abbasi Naser
Published: January 2022

Background. Ischemia plays an important role in increasing damage to the nervous system. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of Prosopis farcta (PFE) and its bioactive luteolin (Lu) and forced swimming exercise on the hippocampus of mice after induced ischemia reperfusion. Methods. The bioactive component of PFE (Lu) was identified by HPLC. Fifty-six male mice were divided into different groups. Ischemia was induced by ligation of the common carotid artery. After mice training (swimming exercise, 8 weeks) and consuming PFE and Lu, the mice’s memory ability was evaluated in the shuttle box. Histological examination was performed by Nissel staining and immunohistochemistry. Results. Results showed that the ischemic mice exercised and treated with PFE and Lu had higher step-through latency (STL) compared with the nonexercised mice, and this was confirmed with time spent in the dark compartment (TDC). The number of dark cells in the ischemic group exercising and receiving PFE and Lu decreased compared to that of the other groups in the hippocampus. DCX protein expression was increased in nonexercised groups compared to that of the exercised groups and those treated with PFE and Lu, while NeuN decreased. Conclusions. Forced swimming exercise following ischemia, as well as consumption of PFE and Lu, has reduced cell death and increased neurogenesis in the hippocampus and thus may help improve memory in ischemia.
Research on the Communication Strategy of History and Culture in Shaanxi Based on BP Neural Network Model
Authors: Xie Dan , Yin Chao
Published: January 2022

Shaanxi is one of China’s most important cradles of civilization. The main vein of Chinese culture is rich history and culture, and brilliant red culture embodies the essence of socialist core values. It is still relatively weak to deeply analyze the related research of Shaanxi Province’s cultural province construction on the basis of studying the achievements of cultural development in foreign countries and China and combining with the reality of Shaanxi Province. In this paper, a BPNN (BP neural network) model is selected to study the comprehensive evaluation of tourism competitiveness of smart tourism cities, and the software is used to realize the simulation of the comprehensive evaluation system of tourism competitiveness of smart tourism cities, which more comprehensively and objectively reflects the level of comprehensive competitiveness of each city. It is believed that there are some problems in Shaanxi regional cultural communication, such as insufficient exploration of content resources, insufficient communication channels, and low audience awareness, hoping to provide ideas and reference for further exploring the promotion of cultural communication power.
A Composite Index for Measuring Stock Market Inefficiency
Authors: Mattera Raffaele , Di Sciorio Fabrizio , Trinidad-Segovia Juan E.
Published: January 2022

Market inefficiency is a latent concept, and it is difficult to be measured by means of a single indicator. In this paper, following both the adaptive market hypothesis (AMH) and the fractal market hypothesis (FMH), we develop a new time‐varying measure of stock market inefficiency. The proposed measure, called composite efficiency index (CEI), is estimated as the synthesis of the most common efficiency measures such as the returns’ autocorrelation, liquidity, volatility, and a new measure based on the Hurst exponent, called the Hurst efficiency index (HEI). To empirically validate the indicator, we compare different European stock markets in terms of efficiency over time.
A New Feature of Nesting Ecology in the Vulnerable European Turtle Dove: Nest Site and Nesting Tree Sharing with Coexisting Species at Three North African Wetlands
Authors: Squalli Wafae , Mansouri Ismail , Ousaaid Driss , Ben Hichou Badr , Achiban Hamid , Fadil Fatima , Dakki Mohamed
Published: January 2022

Investigations of niche splitting in the European turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur) have primarily addressed feeding habitats and foraging features and been limited to conspecific species, counting laughing dove and wood pigeon. The recent degradation of natural and suitable habitats for turtle doves, particularly in North Africa, would push this species to refuge in wetlands with a variety of other bird species. The understanding of potential cohabitation between doves and other species in these less disturbed ecosystems would help in the conservation measures of this declining game. This study, conducted from early March to September between 2015 and 2017, attempted to determine which species cohabit with turtle doves in three Northwest African wetlands in Morocco and how these species select nesting sites and trees. We used detrended corresponding analysis (DCA) to test the relevance of nest site and nesting tree variables in the nest distribution of the breeding species. The obtained results show a wide sharing of nest-niche between turtle doves and 7 breeding species, especially at the intermediate zone and downstream of the rivers. The lack of competition for food resources with neighbouring species may help in this harmonious sharing of both nesting sites and nesting trees. We further suggest guidelines for future research that seek to understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of species coexisting with turtle dove in the same habitats.
Evaluation of Serum MicroRNAs (miR‐9‐5p, miR‐17‐5p, and miR‐148a‐3p) as Potential Biomarkers of Breast Cancer
Authors: Li Xiaoqin , Tang Xinyue , Li Kunsong , Lu Ling
Published: January 2022

Background. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in the initiation and progression of cancers. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the use of serum miRNA biomarkers in the early diagnosis of breast cancer. Methods. The expression levels of miR-9-5p, miR-17-5p, and miR-148a-3p were analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction in 49 patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer and 49 healthy controls. The associations between miR-9-5p, miR-17-5p, and miR-148a-3p levels and clinicopathological parameters were also analyzed. Regression analysis and sensitivity and specificity analyses were used to determine the diagnostic efficacy of the miRNAs. Results. Serum levels of miR-9-5p and miR-148a-3p were significantly higher in breast cancer patients than in healthy controls (both P < 0.05), but miR-17-5p levels were not different between the two groups (P = 0.996). Serum miR-9-5p levels were markedly higher in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2‐ (HER2‐) positive breast cancer than in those with HER2‐negative breast cancer (P = 0.049). Serum levels of miR-9-5p and miR-148a-3p were positively correlated with the presence of breast cancer, and both miRNAs had high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of breast cancer. Conclusions. These findings provide evidence that serum miR-9-5p and miR-148a-3p levels may be used as noninvasive biological markers for the clinical diagnosis of breast cancer.
Genome-Wide Association Analyses Identify CATSPERE as a Mediator of Colorectal Cancer Susceptibility and Progression
Authors: Meng Yixuan , Du Mulong , Gu Dongying , Li Chen , Li Shuwei , Zhang Qiuyi , Ben Shuai , Zhu Qiuyuan , Xin Junyi , Zhang Zhengdong , Hu Zhibin , Shen Hongbing , Jiang Kewei , Wang Meilin
Published: January 2022

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed numerous genetic loci associated with colorectal cancer risk, but the mechanisms underlying these loci have not been comprehensively elucidated. In this study, we performed a GWAS meta-analysis with a two-stage replication strategy by combining eight colorectal cancer cohorts encompassing 7,186 cases and 8,512 controls in Chinese populations, accompanied by an evaluation encompassing 29,832 cases and 406,694 controls in European populations. The genetic variant rs505706 A>G, located at chr1q44 in the upstream region of catsper channel auxiliary subunit epsilon (CATSPERE), was associated with colorectal cancer risk and exhibited genome-wide significance (OR, 0.73; 95% confidence interval, 0.67–0.80; P = 9.75 × 10–12). Cell line and animal models were applied to assess the biological function of the genetic risk variant and the corresponding susceptibility gene. Genetically, the G allele of rs505706 resulted in long-range regulatory effects, reducing the binding affinity of POU2F1 for the CATSPERE promoter and thus abolishing the inhibitory effect of POU2F1 on CATSPERE transcription. Phenotypically, CATSPERE upregulation attenuated tumor growth in both colorectal cancer cells and xenograft models. Mechanistically, CATSPERE promoted calcium ion influx and apoptotic pathway activity. In zebrafish models, CATSPERE exerted pleiotropic effects, enhancing the progression of colorectal cancer. Collectively, these findings highlight a colorectal cancer susceptibility locus that acts to remotely modulate the activity of CATSPERE, a gene that mediates multiple functions involved in colorectal tumorigenesis and progression.

Significance:

A GWAS meta-analysis identifies a novel susceptibility locus harboring a genetic risk variant that mediates pleiotropic biological effects in colorectal tumorigenesis and progression.
Mecanismos del COVID-19 en el cuerpo humano: Lo que sabemos hasta ahora
Authors: Kumar Ashutosh , Narayan Ravi K. , Prasoon Pranav , Kumari Chiman , Kaur Gurjot , Kumar Santosh , Kulandhasamy Maheswari , Sesham Kishore , Pareek Vikas , Faiq Muneeb A. , Pandey Sada N. , Singh Himanshu N. , Kant Kamla , Shekhawat Prakash S. , Raza Khursheed , Kumar Sujeet
Published: January 2022

Ha transcurrido más de un año y medio desde el inicio de la pandemia debida a la enfermedad por coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), y el mundo se esfuerza por contenerla. Al ser causada por un virus hasta ahora desconocido, en el periodo inicial hubo una escasez extrema de conocimientos sobre los mecanismos de la enfermedad, lo que dificultó las medidas preventivas y terapéuticas contra el COVID-19. En un esfuerzo por comprender sus mecanismos patogénicos, se han llevado a cabo extensos estudios experimentales en todo el mundo con experimentos basados en cultivos celulares, organoides de tejidos humanos y modelos animales, enfocados en varios aspectos de la enfermedad, como las propiedades del virus, su tropismo tisular y su patogénesis específica en ciertos órganos, la implicación de los sistemas fisiológicos y la respuesta inmunitaria humana contra la infección. El enorme conocimiento científico acumulado sobre todos los aspectos del COVID-19 cambió el escenario, de una gran desolación, a la esperanza. A pesar de que se han producido avances espectaculares en todos estos aspectos, quedan múltiples lagunas de conocimiento que deben abordarse en futuros estudios. Además, desde el inicio de la primera oleada de COVID-19 han surgido en todo el mundo múltiples variantes del coronavirus tipo 2 del síndrome respiratorio agudo severo (SARS-CoV-2), que parecen tener mayor transmisibilidad/virulencia y capacidad de escape inmunológico que la cepa de tipo salvaje. En esta revisión narramos los avances realizados desde el inicio de la pandemia en nuestros conocimientos sobre los mecanismos del COVID-19 en el cuerpo humano, incluyendo las interacciones virus-huésped, las manifestaciones pulmonares y sistémicas, las desregulaciones inmunológicas, las complicaciones, la vulnerabilidad específica del huésped y las consecuencias a largo plazo en los supervivientes. Además, ofrecemos una breve revisión de las pruebas actuales que explican los mecanismos moleculares que confieren mayor transmisibilidad, virulencia y capacidad de escape inmunológico a las variantes emergentes del SARS-CoV-2.
The Histopathology of Two Eyes Enucleated after Continuous Transscleral and Micropulse Transscleral Cyclophotocoagulation for Refractory Secondary Glaucoma
Authors: Williams Imani M. , Neerukonda Vamsee K. , Stagner Anna M.
Published: January 2022

Introduction: Cyclodestructive procedures, which target the nonpigmented epithelium of the ciliary body, have been utilized to treat recalcitrant glaucoma since the early 1930s. There are now various types of cyclophotocoagulation (CPC) available. The authors provide a retrospective description that details the histopathologic findings in 2 patients who underwent CPC for uncontrolled uveitic and neovascular glaucoma (NVG) with subsequent enucleation. Case Presentations: Two enucleated globes from 2 patients with secondary refractory glaucoma underwent cilioablative therapy: one with uveitic glaucoma and a remote history of micropulse transscleral CPC (MP-TSCPC) and the other with NVG and a recent history of traditional continuous transscleral CPC (CW-TSCPC). The clinical histories are summarized, and light microscopy reviewed for degree of coagulative necrosis and inflammation of the ciliary body and surrounding structures, as well as the underlying pathology of the glaucoma. Conclusion: Both patients ultimately experienced pain and vision loss with either a recrudescence of elevated intraocular pressure or inflammatory hypotony and subsequently underwent enucleation of the affected eye. One globe was enucleated shortly after CW-TSCPC and found to have near full-thickness coagulative necrosis of the pigmented and nonpigmented ciliary epithelium and ciliary muscle as well as necrosis of adjacent nontarget tissues with fibrin in the anterior chamber. The second patient underwent enucleation many months after MP-TSCPC with partial healing fibrosis of the ciliary body and some remaining viable ciliary processes. The histopathologic findings post-CPC may vary based on the method used and evolve over time; additional study is needed.