Abstract Introduction In recent years, the prevalence of infertility has significantly increased and has become a global reproductive health problem. The female ovarian reserves have been shown to decrease progressively with an increase in age. Besides, the rate of embryo implantation and clinical pregnancy also decreases. Traditional Chinese medicine has been widely applied in assisted reproductive technology. It is reported to have a significant influence on improving the quality of oocytes, improving endometrial receptivity, increasing...

The gate-controllable electronical property of graphene provides a possibility of active tuning property for THz modulator. However, the common modulation technology which only depends on voltage cannot solve the problem of power consumption limitation in communication applications. Here, we demonstrated a Brewster angle-controlled graphene-based THz modulator, which could achieve a relatively high modulation depth with low voltage. First, we explored the complex relationships among the Brewster angles, reflection coefficients and the conductivities of graphene. Then,...

Abstract Background Tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) is an important economic tea crop, but flowering will consume a lot of nutrients of C. sinensis, which will seriously affect the nutritional growth of C. sinensis. However, there are few studies on the development mechanism of C. sinensis flower, and most studies focus on a single C. sinensis cultivar. Results Here, we identified a 92-genes’ C. sinensis flower development core transcriptome from the transcriptome of...

Abstract Peripheral myelin protein 22 (PMP22) and epithelial membrane proteins (EMP-1, -2, and -3) belong to a small hydrophobic membrane protein subfamily, with four transmembrane structures. PMP22 and EMPs are widely expressed in various tissues and play important roles in cell growth, differentiation, programmed cell death, and metastasis. PMP22 presents its highest expression in the peripheral nerve and participates in normal physiological and pathological processes of the peripheral nervous system. The progress of molecular genetics...

Abstract Background Emerging evidence have revealed that circRNAs exert important biological effects in the development and progression of various diseases, including cancer. Our study aimed to elaborated the biological effects of hsa-circ_0003570 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development at the molecular level. Results The results of functional experiments showed that knockdown of circ_0003570 induced HCC cell growth, migration and invasion, whereas overexpression of circ_0003570 presented the opposite effects. In vivo experiments, xenograft tumors grown from circ-overexpressed...

Abstract Background We attempted to estimate dietary vitamin A requirements based on dietary vitamin A intake in well-nourished Chinese children with adequate liver vitamin A reserves. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in a kindergarten and an elementary school in Shiyan city, Hubei province of China from December 2009 to July 2010. After screening, 60 children (22 aged 4 ~ 6 y and 38 aged 7 ~ 9 y) were randomly subjected to a 3-d...

Abstract Background Diabetic cardiomyopathy is characterized by left ventricle dysfunction, cardiomyocyte apoptosis, and interstitial fibrosis and is a serious complication of diabetes mellitus (DM). Autophagy is a mechanism that is essential for maintaining normal heart morphology and function, and its dysregulation can produce pathological effects on diabetic hearts. Neuregulin-4 (Nrg4) is an adipokine that exerts protective effects against metabolic disorders and insulin resistance. The aim of this study was to explore whether Nrg4 could ameliorate...

Wall shear stress (WSS) is of fundamental physiological and pathological significance. Current measurement technologies suffer from poor spatial resolution, or cannot measure instantaneous values in a label-free manner. Here we demonstrate dual-wavelength third-harmonic-generation (THG) line-scanning imaging, for instantaneous wall shear rate and WSS measurement in vivo. We used soliton self-frequency shift to generate dual-wavelength femtosecond pulses. Simultaneous acquisition of dual-wavelength THG line-scanning signals extract blood flow velocities at adjacent radial positions for instantaneous wall shear...

Abstract Background Most cancer disability-adjusted life year (DALY) studies worldwide have used broad, generic disability weights (DWs); however, differences exist among populations and types of cancers. Using breast cancer as example, this study aimed to estimate the population-level DALYs in females in China and the impact of screening as well as applying local DWs. Methods Using multisource data, a prevalence-based model was constructed. (1) Overall years lived with disability (YLDs) were estimated by using numbers...

Abstract Background RING (Really Interesting New Gene) zinc finger (RING-zf) proteins belong to an important subclass of zinc fingers superfamily, which play versatile roles during various developmental stages and in abiotic stress responses. Based on the conserved cysteine and histidine residues, the RING-zf domains are classified into RING-HC (C3HC4), RING-H2 (C3H2C3), RING-v, RING-D, RING-S/T, RING-G, and RING-C2. However, little is known about the function of the RING-zfs of wheat. Results In this study, 129 (93.5%)...

Abstract Background Moderate physical exercise is conducive to the brains of healthy humans and AD patients. Previous reports have suggested that treadmill exercise plays an anti-AD role and improves cognitive ability by promoting amyloid clearance, inhibiting neuronal apoptosis, reducing oxidative stress level, alleviating brain inflammation, and promoting autophagy–lysosome pathway in AD mice. However, few studies have explored the relationships between the ubiquitin–proteasome system and proper exercise in AD. The current study was intended to investigate...

Abstract Background DNA methylation-regulated genes have been demonstrated as the crucial participants in the occurrence of coronary heart disease (CHD). The machine learning based on DNA methylation-regulated genes has tremendous potential for mining non-invasive predictive biomarkers and exploring underlying new mechanisms of CHD. Results First, the 2085 age-gender-matched individuals in Framingham Heart Study (FHS) were randomly divided into training set and validation set. We then integrated methylome and transcriptome data of peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs)...

Background:Social well-being of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is garnering increased attention; however, the impact of social isolation remained poorly understood.Objectives:We investigated the joint association of social isolation and IBD with premature deaths to articulate the profound impact of social isolation in IBD prognosis.Design:Longitudinal cohort study.Methods:We leveraged data of 486,014 participants from UK Biobank (including 5791 with IBD), the mean follow-up was 11.84 years. Diagnoses of IBD and its subtypes of Crohn’s disease (CD)...

Abstract Background Swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV) causes acute vomiting and diarrhea in piglets, leading to significant financial losses for the pig industry. Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) is a rapid nucleic acid amplification technology used under constant temperature conditions. The study established a real-time reverse transcription (RT)-RPA assay for early diagnosis of SADS-CoV. Results The detection limit of the real-time RT-RPA was 74 copies/µL of SADS-CoV genomic standard recombinant plasmid in 95% of cases....

Abstract Background The cranial region is a complex set of blood vessels, cartilage, nerves and soft tissues. The reconstruction of cranial defects caused by trauma, congenital defects and surgical procedures presents clinical challenges. Our previous data showed that deficiency of the proteoglycan (PG) form of dentin matrix protein 1 (DMP1-PG) could lead to abnormal cranial development. In addition, DMP1-PG was highly expressed in the cranial defect areas. The present study aimed to investigate the potential...

Abstract Objective The therapeutic effect of umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) in combination with pirfenidone (PFD) on pulmonary fibrosis in mice and its possible mechanism were investigated. Methods C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into six groups: control group, model group, P10 group, P30 group, P100 group, and P300 group. Modeled by tracheal intubation with 3 mg/kg bleomycin drip, each dose of PFD was administered daily by gavage from day 7 onwards. The mice were...

Abstract Background Visits to the emergency department (ED) are inflection points in patients’ illness trajectories and are an underutilized setting to engage seriously ill patients in conversations about their goals of care. We developed an intervention (ED GOAL) that primes seriously ill patients to discuss their goals of care with their outpatient clinicians after leaving the ED. The aims of this study are (i) to test the impact of ED GOAL administered by trained nurses...

Abstract Background Immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown promise in microsatellite instability-high/mismatch repair deficient (MSI-H/dMMR) advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) immunotherapy, and many clinical trials have been conducted. Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in advanced CRC. Method PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and The Cochrane Library were searched for relevant studies up to September 2021. A retrospective cross-sectional data analysis was performed and Stata 16 software was used for analyses. Results Sixteen...

Abstract Background In China diabetes care is gradually shifting from secondary to primary care with great infrastructure investment and GP training. However, most GPs in China lack communication skills training, which is a huge obstacle in communication with their patients in primary care. In this study we seek to identify training priorities that is evidence-based, appropriate for the context of primary care in China, and that meet the real needs of both GPs and people...

Abstract Background Dengue is the fastest spreading arboviral disease, posing great challenges on global public health. A reproduceable and comparable global genotyping framework for contextualizing spatiotemporal epidemiological data of dengue virus (DENV) is essential for research studies and collaborative surveillance. Methods Targeting DENV-1 spreading prominently in recent decades, by reconciling all qualified complete E gene sequences of 5003 DENV-1 strains with epidemiological information from 78 epidemic countries/areas ranging from 1944 to 2018, we established and...

Abstract Background Birth weight is considered not only to undermine future growth, but also to induce lifelong diseases; the aim of this study is to explore the relationship between birth weight and adult bone mass. Methods We performed multivariable regression analyses to assess the association of birth weight with bone parameters measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and by quantitative ultrasound (QUS), independently. We also implemented a systemic Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to explore the...

In general, 𝑘 lenses with different materials can achieve at most (𝑘+1)-color correction (𝑘≥2). In this paper, a superachromat containing three lenses is designed to achieve five-color correction in the 600 - 1600 nm waveband, where the maximum chromatic focal shift is controlled within 1/100,000 of the focal length, achieving an almost unprecedented result. Conditions for lens power combination of three thin lenses in contact are firstly derived based on the Buchdahl dispersion equation, then...

Abstract Background The aim of the study were to analyze the lumbar volumetric bone mineral density (BMD), fat distribution and changes of skeletal muscle with quantitative computed tomography (QCT) in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and to evaluate the relationship between body composition and BMD. Methods One hundred seventy-seven postmenopausal women with T2DM and 136 postmenopausal women without diabetes were included in the study and were divided into two groups according to...

Abstract Background Single-cell transcription data provided unprecedented molecular information, enabling us to directly encode the ecosystem of colorectal cancer (CRC). Characterization of the diversity of epithelial cells and how they cooperate with tumor microenvironment cells (TME) to endow CRC with aggressive characteristics at single-cell resolution is critical for the understanding of tumor progression mechanism. Methods In this study, we comprehensively analyzed the single-cell transcription data, bulk-RNA sequencing data and pathological tissue data. In detail, cellular...

Abstract Background Besides featured glucose consumption, recent studies reveal that cancer cells might prefer “addicting” specific energy substrates from the tumor microenvironment (TME); however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Methods Fibroblast-specific long noncoding RNAs were screened using RNA-seq data of our NJLCC cohort, TCGA, and CCLE datasets. The expression and package of LINC01614 into exosomes were identified using flow cytometric sorting, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The...