The correlation between mitochondrial derived peptide (MDP) and metabolic states: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: MOTS-c is known as mitochondrial open reading frame (ORF) of the twelve S c, produced by a small ORF-encoded peptides (SEPs) in mitochondrial 12S rRNA region. There is growing evidence that MOTS-c has a strong relationship with the expression of inflammation- and metabolism-associated genes and metabolic homeostasis, and even offering some protection against insulin resistance (IR). However, studies have reported inconsistent correlations between different population characteristics and MOTS-c levels.

Multifocal multilevel diffractive lens by wavelength multiplexing.

Flat lenses with focal length tunability can enable the development of highly integrated imaging systems. This work explores machine learning to inverse design a multifocal multilevel diffractive lens (MMDL) by wavelength multiplexing. The MMDL output is multiplexed in three color channels, red (650 nm), green (550 nm), and blue (450 nm), to achieve varied focal lengths of 4 mm, 20 mm, and 40 mm at these three color channels, respectively.

Machine learning enables the design of a bidirectional focusing diffractive lens.

Machine learning can efficiently empower the inverse design of cascaded diffractive optical elements. In this work, we explore the inverse design of a bidirectional focusing diffractive lens in a cascaded configuration through the diffractive optical neural network (DONN) machine learning method. The bidirectional focusing diffractive lens consists of two on-axially cascaded multi-level diffractive lenses.

Modified xiaoyao san combined with chemotherapy for breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Background: Breast cancer is a common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Chemotherapy plays an indispensable role in the conventional treatment of breast cancer, bringing some physical burdens and discomfort on cancer patients. Consequently, more and more patients turn to seeking the help of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), mainly traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

CNN-assisted SERS enables ultra-sensitive and simultaneous detection of Scr and BUN for rapid kidney function assessment.

Kidney disease is highly prevalent and may result in severe clinical outcomes. Serum creatinine (Scr) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) are the most widely used biomarkers for kidney function assessment, yet when measured alone, the result can be affected by a variety of parameters such as age, gender, protein consumption, Measuring Scr and BUN simultaneously can eliminate most of the external influences and greatly improve the assessment of kidney function. In this study, a real-time kidney function assessment system based on dual biomarker detection was proposed.

Three-dimensional direct lithography of stable perovskite nanocrystals in glass.

Material composition engineering and device fabrication of perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) in solution can introduce organic contamination and entail several synthetic, processing, and stabilization steps. We report three-dimensional (3D) direct lithography of PNCs with tunable composition and bandgap in glass. The halide ion distribution was controlled at the nanoscale with ultrafast laser-induced liquid nanophase separation.

Why are pollution damages lower in developed countries? Insights from high-Income, high-particulate matter Hong Kong.

Conventional wisdom suggests that marginal damages from particulate matter pollution are high in less-developed countries because they are highly polluted. Using administrative data on the universe of births and deaths, we explore birthweight and mortality effects of gestational particulate matter exposure in high-pollution yet high-income Hong Kong. The marginal effects of particulates on birthweight are large but we fail to detect an effect on neonatal mortality.

768-ary Laguerre-Gaussian-mode shift keying free-space optical communication based on convolutional neural networks.

Beyond orbital angular momentum of Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) modes, the radial index can also be exploited as information channel in free-space optical (FSO) communication to extend the communication capacity, resulting in the LG- shift keying (LG-SK) FSO communications. However, the recognition of radial index is critical and tough when the superposed high-order LG modes are disturbed by the atmospheric turbulences (ATs). In this paper, the convolutional neural network (CNN) is utilized to recognize both the azimuthal and radial index of superposed LG modes.

Anomalous transport and magnetic properties induced by slight Cu valence alternation in layered oxytelluride BiCuTeO.

In this paper, we report on the transport and magnetic properties of layered oxytelluride BiCuTeO polycrystals with slight mixed valence of Cu. The temperature-dependent electrical resistivity reveals degenerate semiconductor behavior (similar to metals). Under the action of an external magnetic field, the BiCuTeO polycrystal sample exhibits unsaturated magnetic resistance (MR) of about 8% at 2 K and 9 Tesla.

Opioid Deaths and Local Healthcare Intensity: A Longitudinal Analysis of the U.S. Population, 2003-2014.

Introduction: This study examines the association between local healthcare intensity and drug death rates.

Methods: County-level drug death rates were computed for 2003-2014 using vital statistics data adjusted for incomplete reporting of drug involvement. A county-level healthcare intensity index was constructed using Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care data.

Laplacian-Uniform Mixture-Driven Iterative Robust Coding With Applications to Face Recognition Against Dense Errors.

Outliers due to occlusion, pixel corruption, and so on pose serious challenges to face recognition despite the recent progress brought by sparse representation. In this article, we show that robust statistics implemented by the state-of-the-art methods are insufficient for robustness against dense gross errors. By modeling the distribution of coding residuals with a Laplacian-uniform mixture, we obtain a sparse representation that is significantly more robust than the previous methods.

Breastfeeding, schooling, and income: Insights from the Indonesian Family Life Survey.

Recent research has highlighted associations of breastfeeding with IQ, schooling, and income, but uncertainty about such links remains. The Indonesian Family Life Survey, representative of 83% of the Indonesian population, provides data on breastfeeding, parents' years of schooling, wealth, and other family characteristics in 1993-1994, as well as schooling and income in 2014-2015 for 5,421 children of those families. Using linear regressions and controlling for village or neighbourhood, as well as propensity score matching, we analysed breastfeeding associations for boys and girls separately, when regularly fed foods/beverages other than breast milk is significantly associated with years of schooling in 2014-2015 for girls, but not for boys, after controlling for the village or neighbourhood of residence in 1993-1994.

Hydrothermal treatment and butylphosphonic acid derived self-assembled monolayers for improving the surface chemistry and corrosion resistance of AZ61 magnesium alloy.

The hydrothermal treatment followed by a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of 1-butylphosphonic acid through the tethering by aggregation and growth (T-BAG) method was employed to produce protective surface coatings on the Mg-6Al-1Zn alloy (AZ61) for reducing the degradation rate in physiological environments. Potentiodynamic polarization measurements revealed that the organic self-assembled monolayer and Mg(OH) coating can further enhance the surface chemical stability and corrosion resistance of Mg alloys. SAM-treated Mg(OH) coatings can be served as a more passive surface layer as a result of their much higher charge transfer resistance and the presence of Warburg impedance in electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement.

Phenolic Modified Ceramic Coating on Biodegradable Mg Alloy: The Improved Corrosion Resistance and Osteoblast-Like Cell Activity.

Magnesium alloys have great potential for developing orthopedic implants due to their biodegradability and mechanical properties, but the rapid corrosion rate of the currently-available alloys limits their clinical applications. To increase the corrosion resistance of the substrate, a protective ceramic coating is constructed by a micro-arc oxidation (MAO) process on ZK60 magnesium alloy. The porous ceramic coating is mainly composed of magnesium oxide and magnesium silicate, and the results from cell cultures show it can stimulate osteoblastic cell growth and proliferation.

Composition and temperature-dependent phase transition in miscible MoWTe single crystals.

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) WTe and MoTe with orthorhombic Td phase, being potential candidates as type-II Weyl semimetals, are attracted much attention recently. Here we synthesized a series of miscible MoWTe single crystals by bromine vapor transport method. Composition-dependent X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy, as well as composition and temperature-dependent resistivity prove that the tunable crystal structure (from hexagonal (2H), monoclinic (β) to orthorhombic (Td) phase) can be realized by increasing W content in MoWTe.

Dramatically decreased magnetoresistance in non-stoichiometric WTe2 crystals.

Recently, the layered semimetal WTe2 has attracted renewed interest owing to the observation of a non-saturating and giant positive magnetoresistance (~10(5)%), which can be useful for magnetic memory and spintronic devices. However, the underlying mechanisms of the giant magnetoresistance are still under hot debate. Herein, we grew the stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric WTe2 crystals to test the robustness of giant magnetoresistance.

Microstructure-modified biodegradable magnesium alloy for promoting cytocompatibility and wound healing in vitro.

The microstructure of biomedical magnesium alloys has great influence on anti-corrosion performance and biocompatibility. In practical application and for the purpose of microstructure modification, heat treatments were chosen to provide widely varying microstructures. The aim of the present work was to investigate the influence of the microstructural parameters of an Al-free Mg-Zn-Zr alloy (ZK60), and the corresponding heat-treatment-modified microstructures on the resultant corrosion resistance and biological performance.

Heat treatment mechanism and biodegradable characteristics of ZAX1330 Mg alloy.

Heat treatments are key processes in the development of biodegradable magnesium implants. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors of microstructures and metallurgical segregation on the functionality of biodegradable magnesium alloy. The solid solution heat treatment and strain induced melting activation heat treatment were employed to alter the microstructures of ZAX1330 alloy in this study.

The effect of dynamic culture conditions on endothelial cell seeding and retention on small diameter polyurethane vascular grafts.

Due to the limited number of cells available in endothelial cell (EC) seeding of small diameter vascular grafts, high seeding rate and ideal proliferation are normally required and can be achieved by optimizing the EC seeding and culture procedures. In this study, by using rotational seeding at 0.16 rpm for 12 h in an incubator, 90% cells were successfully seeded on the polyurethane vascular grafts.