Clinical efficacy of single-channel percutaneous endoscopic nucleotomy with annulus fibrosus suturing for lumbar disc herniation: A retrospective study.

This retrospective study aimed to investigate the clinical efficacy of single-channel percutaneous endoscopic nucleotomy combined with annulus fibrosus suturing for treating lumbar disc herniation (LDH). The study included 86 patients with LDH treated in our spinal department from August 2020 to January 2022. The suture group consisted of 26 males and 18 females, while the control group (nucleotomy alone) included 25 males and 17 females.

Multiscale dynamically parallel shrinkage network for fault diagnosis of aviation hydraulic pump and its generalizable applications.

Aiming to address the multiscale characteristics and noise corruption problems in the vibration signals of aviation hydraulic pumps, this article develops a novel Multiscale Dynamically Parallel Shrinkage Network (MDPSN) to learn complementary and rich fault-related multiscale features, with the ultimate goal of yielding higher diagnostic accuracy. One significant property is the development of a novel dynamically parallel shrinking module (DPSM) that adaptively generates independent soft thresholds for different scales, effectively shrinking noise-related features to zeros. On one hand, DPSM aggregates and interacts with features at all scales to construct a global feature representation containing richer fault-related information, which is served as the foundation for soft thresholding generation, significantly improving the accuracy and rationality of the generated thresholds.

DeepSS2GO: protein function prediction from secondary structure.

Predicting protein function is crucial for understanding biological life processes, preventing diseases and developing new drug targets. In recent years, methods based on sequence, structure and biological networks for protein function annotation have been extensively researched. Although obtaining a protein in three-dimensional structure through experimental or computational methods enhances the accuracy of function prediction, the sheer volume of proteins sequenced by high-throughput technologies presents a significant challenge.

Improving prediction of NO emissions during composting using model-agnostic meta-learning.

Nitrous oxide (NO) represents a significant environmental challenge as a harmful, long-lived greenhouse gas that contributes to the depletion of stratospheric ozone and exacerbates global anthropogenic greenhouse warming. Composting is considered a promising and economically feasible strategy for the treatment of organic waste. However, recent research indicates that composting is a source of NO, contributing to atmospheric pollution and greenhouse effect.

Alterations in leukocyte telomere length and mitochondrial DNA copy number in benzene poisoning patients.

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine and evaluate the impact of benzene poisoning on the relative content of the mitochondrial MT-ND1 gene and telomere length in individuals with occupational chronic benzene poisoning (CBP) compared to a control group. The study will analyze and gather data on the mitochondrial gene content and telomere length in cases of benzene poisoning, and investigate the relationship with blood routine parameters in order to contribute scientific experimental data for the prevention and treatment of CBP.

Method: The case group comprised 30 individuals diagnosed with occupational chronic benzene poisoning, whereas the control group consisted of 60 healthy individuals who underwent physical examinations at our hospital concurrently.

Detection of magnetospheric ion drift patterns at Mars.

Mars lacks a global magnetic field, and instead possesses small-scale crustal magnetic fields, making its magnetic environment fundamentally different from intrinsic magnetospheres like those of Earth or Saturn. Here we report the discovery of magnetospheric ion drift patterns, typical of intrinsic magnetospheres, at Mars using measurements from Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission. Specifically, we observe wedge-like dispersion structures of hydrogen ions exhibiting butterfly-shaped distributions (pitch angle peaks at 22.

CO2-mineralization and carbonation reactor rig: Design and validation for in situ neutron scattering experiments-Engineering and lessons learned.

CO2 mineralization via aqueous Mg/Ca/Na-carbonate (MgCO3/CaCO3/Na2CO3) formation represents a huge opportunity for the utilization of captured CO2. However, large-scale mineralization is hindered by slow kinetics due to the highly hydrated character of the cations in aqueous solutions (Mg2+ in particular). Reaction conditions can be optimized to accelerate carbonation kinetics, for example, by the inclusion of additives that promote competitive dehydration of Mg2+ and subsequent agglomeration, nucleation, and crystallization.

A Self-Attention Integrated Learning Model for Landing Gear Performance Prediction.

The landing gear structure suffers from large loads during aircraft takeoff and landing, and an accurate prediction of landing gear performance is beneficial to ensure flight safety. Nevertheless, the landing gear performance prediction method based on machine learning has a strong reliance on the dataset, in which the feature dimension and data distribution will have a great impact on the prediction accuracy. To address these issues, a novel MCA-MLPSA is developed.

A mitochondrial SCF-FBXL4 ubiquitin E3 ligase complex degrades BNIP3 and NIX to restrain mitophagy and prevent mitochondrial disease.

Mitophagy is a fundamental quality control mechanism of mitochondria. Its regulatory mechanisms and pathological implications remain poorly understood. Here, via a mitochondria-targeted genetic screen, we found that knockout (KO) of FBXL4, a mitochondrial disease gene, hyperactivates mitophagy at basal conditions.

Impact of chronic benzene poisoning on aberrant mitochondrial DNA methylation: A prospective observational study.

Benzene is used as an industrial solvent, which may result in chronic benzene poisoning (CBP). Several studies suggested that CBP was associated with mitochondrial epigenetic regulation. This study aimed to explore the potential relation between CBP and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) methylation.

The influence of mouth opening on pharyngeal pressure loss and its underlying mechanism: A computational fluid dynamic analysis.

During inspiration, mechanical energy generated from respiratory muscle produces a negative pressure gradient to fulfill enough pulmonary ventilation. The pressure loss, a surrogate for energy loss, is considered as the portion of negative pressure without converting into the kinetic energy of airflow. Mouth opening (MO) during sleep is a common symptom in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS).

Mitochondrial cristae architecture protects against mtDNA release and inflammation.

Mitochondrial damage causes mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) release to activate the type I interferon (IFN-I) response via the cGAS-STING pathway. mtDNA-induced inflammation promotes autoimmune- and aging-related degenerative disorders. However, the global picture of inflammation-inducing mitochondrial damages remains obscure.

Morphology and Anti-Corrosive Performance of Cr(III) Passivated Zn-Fe Alloy Coating on NdFeB Substrate.

In this study, low-iron Zn-Fe alloy coatings and pure Zn coatings, with or without trivalent chromium passivation treatment, were electrodeposited onto a sintered NdFeB magnet from a weak acid chloride bath. The surface morphology and structure of the coatings were then examined using the X-ray diffraction, a scanning electron microscope and 3D white-light interfering surface analysis. Meanwhile, the electrodeposition behavior and anti-corrosive properties of the coatings were investigated using cyclic voltammetry, potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and natural salt spray tests.

A Database of Solution Additives Promoting Mg Dehydration and the Onset of MgCO Nucleation.

Formed via aqueous carbonation of Mg ions, the crystallization of magnesite (MgCO) is a promising route to carbon capture and reuse, albeit limited by the slow precipitation of MgCO. Although magnesite is naturally abundant, forming at low temperature conditions, its industrial production is an energy-intensive process due to the temperatures required to prevent the formation of hydrated phases. The principal difficulty in aqueous conditions arises from the very strong Mg···HO interaction, with high barriers to Mg dehydration.

Identification and characterization of novel MPC1 gene variants causing mitochondrial pyruvate carrier deficiency.

Pyruvate, the end product of glycolysis, is a key metabolic molecule enabling mitochondrial adenosine triphosphate synthesis and takes part in multiple biosynthetic pathways within mitochondria. The mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) plays a vital role in transporting pyruvate from the cytosol into the organelle. In humans, MPC is a hetero-oligomeric complex formed by the MPC1 and MPC2 paralogs that are both necessary to stabilize each other and form a functional MPC.

A recursive approach for aeroacoustic phased array measurements in wind tunnels.

Noise-interference suppression and data-processing acceleration are crucial to aeroacoustic measurements with phased array in wind tunnels. In this paper, we develop a "multi-window" beamforming algorithm that recursively processes data based on an array-acquisition model. This spatial filtering algorithm is derived from the Kalman filter theory for signal processing.

Glycerol-3-phosphate biosynthesis regenerates cytosolic NAD to alleviate mitochondrial disease.

Electron transport chain (ETC) dysfunction or hypoxia causes toxic NADH accumulation. How cells regenerate NAD under such conditions remains elusive. Here, integrating bioinformatic analysis and experimental validation, we identify glycerol-3-phosphate (Gro3P) biosynthesis as an endogenous NAD-regeneration pathway.

A Novel Time-Series Memory Auto-Encoder With Sequentially Updated Reconstructions for Remaining Useful Life Prediction.

One of the significant tasks in remaining useful life (RUL) prediction is to find a good health indicator (HI) that can effectively represent the degradation process of a system. However, it is difficult for traditional data-driven methods to construct accurate HIs due to their incomprehensive consideration of temporal dependencies within the monitoring data, especially for aeroengines working under nonstationary operating conditions (OCs). Aiming at this problem, this article develops a novel unsupervised deep neural network, the so-called times series memory auto-encoder with sequentially updated reconstructions (SUR-TSMAE) to improve the accuracy of extracted HIs, which directly takes the multidimensional time series as input to simultaneously achieve feature extraction from both feature-dimension and time-dimension.

Monochromatic Carbon Nanotube Tangles Grown by Microfluidic Switching between Chaos and Fractals.

The nature of chaos is in that elusive flow that is an advanced order out of our vision. It is wise to take advantage of chaos after recognizing or modifying its unique fractal properties. Here, a magnetron weaving strategy was developed for producing chaotic but monochromatic carbon nanotube tangles (CNT-Ts) under Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI).

Very-Low-Frequency transmitters bifurcate energetic electron belt in near-earth space.

Very-Low-Frequency (VLF) transmitters operate worldwide mostly at frequencies of 10-30 kilohertz for submarine communications. While it has been of intense scientific interest and practical importance to understand whether VLF transmitters can affect the natural environment of charged energetic particles, for decades there remained little direct observational evidence that revealed the effects of these VLF transmitters in geospace. Here we report a radially bifurcated electron belt formation at energies of tens of kiloelectron volts (keV) at altitudes of ~0.

Systematic characterisation of the structure and radical scavenging potency of Pu'Er tea () polyphenol theaflavin.

The structure, energetics and radical scavenging potency of theaflavin (TF), a natural polyphenolic antioxidant found in oxidised tea, have been characterised by a series of density functional theory (DFT) determinations. Exploratory conformational searches yielded 153 distinct neutral structures. Results showed TF's structural preferences to be regulated by its unique fused double ring benzotropolone moiety, and its degree of planarity, with structural diversity, principally arising from variations of its nine -OH groups.

HK(R)-modified pH-sensitive self-assembled nanoparticles delivering small interfering RNA targeting hepatoma-derived growth factor for malignant glioma treatment.

The lack of effective glioma therapeutics mandates the development of novel treatment strategies. Hepatoma-derived growth factor (HDGF) has been considered as a potential glioma therapeutic target, and its expression level in gliomas is positively related to the malignant grade. Although there are no effective and specific inhibitors against this target, small interfering RNA targeting HDGF (siHDGF)-mediated RNA interference (RNAi) can inhibit the target protein function by knockdown of HDGF expression.

[The functions of yhcZ gene during Bacillus thuringiensis growth].

yhcZ and yhcY genes constitute a two-component system in Bacillus subtilis and B. cereus that regulates bacterial growth. However, the exact biological function of yhcZ gene in B.

Positively charged and flexible SiO@ZrO nanofibrous membranes and their application in adsorption and separation.

Tiny particles with a negative charge in water can be removed effectively by inorganic positively charged nanofiber membranes due to their physical separation and electrostatic adsorption properties. However, the charged positive and isoelectric points (IEP) on the surface of the positively charged nanofiber membranes need to be further improved to meet the requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency for virus filters (excellent adsorption and separation properties in solutions with pH between 5 and 9). The positively charged SiO@ZrO nanofibrous membrane was fabricated by electrospinning combined with the impregnation method and calcined in an anoxic atmosphere.

High calcium diet alleviates 5/6 nephrectomy-induced bone deteriorations of lumbar vertebrae in mice.

Dietary calcium (Ca) supplementation has beneficial effects on bone health. However, it is not clear whether a high calcium diet (HCD) following 5/6 nephrectomy (5/6 Nx) is beneficial to bone health. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of an HCD on bone metabolism using a chronic kidney disease (CKD) mouse model.