Traditional Chinese medicine Ze-Qi-Tang formula reduces inflammation in mice with asthma by inhibiting PI3K/AKT/NF-κB signaling pathway.

Asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory disease. The excessive proliferation of airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) is associated with airway remodeling. Ze-Qi-Tang (ZQT) is a popular traditional Chinese medicine preparation and has been confirmed to have therapeutic effects on lung diseases.

Interrogating the Presence of RNA Phosphorothioate in Nature by a Highly Selective and Sensitive Fluorescence Method.

In nature, DNA phosphorothioate (PT) is found in the genomic materials of some prokaryotes. In contrast, whether there is natural RNA PT is still a question under debate. A groundbreaking study reported the discovery of RNA PT in cellular RNA samples from both prokaryotes and eukaryotes at contents of >100 PT per million nucleotides (PPM-nt) according to liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis.

FveDREB1B improves cold tolerance of woodland strawberry by positively regulating FveSCL23 and FveCHS.

Cold stress has seriously inhibited the growth and development of strawberry during production. CBF/DREB1 is a key central transcription factor regulating plant cold tolerance, but its regulatory mechanisms are varied in different plants. Especially in strawberry, the molecular mechanism of CBF/DREB1 regulating cold tolerance is still unclear.

FvemiR160-FveARF18A-FveAP1/FveFUL module regulates flowering time in woodland strawberry.

Flowering is an indicator of plant transformation from vegetative to reproductive growth. miR160 has been shown to have a significant effect on the growth and development of fruits, leaves, and roots of plants or their stress response to environment, but the participation of miR160 in regulating flowering time in plants is unclear. In this study, we found that two FvemiR160s (FvemiR160a/FvemiR160b) mature sequences in strawberry (Fragaria vesca) were consistent.

Bilateral insufficiency fracture of coracoid process: A rare case report.

A 69-year-old man was admitted to the hospital for a left femoral neck fracture. A preliminary chest computed tomography scan showed no coracoid process fracture. The patient had no history of trauma during his hospitalization.

Visualizing Nascent RNA by Exploring DNA-Templated Oxidative Amination of 4-Thiouridine.

Tracking and mapping the nascent RNA molecules in cells is essential for deciphering embryonic development and neuronal differentiation. Here, we utilized 4-thiouridine (sU) as a metabolic tag to label nascent RNA and developed a fluorescence imaging method based on the DNA-templated oxidative amination (DTOA) reaction of sU. The DTOA reaction occurred between amine-modified DNA and sU-containing RNA with high sequence specificity and chemical selectivity.

Chemical synthesis of stimuli-responsive guide RNA for conditional control of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing.

CRISPR-Cas9 promotes changes in identity or abundance of nucleic acids in live cells and is a programmable modality of broad biotechnological and therapeutic interest. To reduce off-target effects, tools for conditional control of CRISPR-Cas9 functions are under active research, such as stimuli-responsive guide RNA (gRNA). However, the types of physiologically relevant stimuli that can trigger gRNA are largely limited due to the lack of a versatile synthetic approach in chemistry to introduce diverse labile modifications into gRNA.

Auxin-induced AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR4 activates APETALA1 and FRUITFULL to promote flowering in woodland strawberry.

Flowering time is known to be regulated by numerous pathways, such as the autonomous, gibberellin, aging, photoperiod-mediated, and vernalization pathways. These regulatory mechanisms involve both environmental triggers and endogenous hormonal cues. Additional flowering control mechanisms mediated by other phytohormones, such as auxin, are less well understood.

Successful treatment for bilateral femoral neck insufficiency fractures: a rare lesion case report and an updated review of the literature.

Background: The incidence of insufficiency fracture (IF) at femoral neck is low, accounting for about 5% of all insufficiency fractures, and IF at bilateral femoral neck is less common with more occurrence in athlete or serviceman. With the aging of populations, more cases of bilateral femoral neck IF have occurred recently, while the standard clinical treatment still remains lacking due to the complexity of these patients.

Case Presentation: A 55-year-old male patient complained pain in his bilateral hip, with no history of trauma, glucocorticoid hormone consumption or radiotherapy, and imaging examination revealed fracture nonunion and shortening in his left femoral neck, and double fracture line on the right femoral neck.

Traffic Patrolling Routing Problem with Drones in an Urban Road System.

The remarkable development of various sensor equipment and communication technologies has stimulated many application platforms of automation. A drone is a sensing platform with strong environmental adaptability and expandability, which is widely used in aerial photography, transmission line inspection, remote sensing mapping, auxiliary communication, traffic patrolling, and other fields. A drone is an effective supplement to the current patrolling business in road traffic patrolling with complex urban buildings and road conditions and a limited ground perspective.

Prognostic value of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin and glycosylated hemoglobin for non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients with single concomitant chronic total occlusion following primary percutaneous coronary intervention: A prospective observational study.

To investigate factors predicting the onset of major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (MACCEs) after primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) for patients with non-ST-segment elevation infarction (NSTEMI) and single concomitant chronic total occlusion (CTO). Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) both play essential role in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular homoeostasis. However, current knowledge of its predictive prognostic value is limited.

Mini-Generator Based on Reciprocating Vertical Motions Driven by Intracorporeal Energy.

Most implantable devices rely on a power supply from batteries and require replacement surgeries once the batteries run low. Mini-generators that harvest intracorporeal energy available in the human body are promising replacements of batteries and prolong the lifetime of implantable devices, thus reducing surgery pain, risks, and cost. Although various sources of energy available in the human body are used for electricity generation using piezoelectric and triboelectric materials or intravascular turbines, concerns about material durability or thrombus risks remain, and developing novel strategies to fabricate a mini-generator to harvest the intracorporeal energy is still challenging.

Effects of home-based cardiac exercise rehabilitation with remote electrocardiogram monitoring in patients with chronic heart failure: a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) can benefit from exercise rehabilitation (ER) with significant improvements in exercise capacity, quality of life and reduction in hospitalisations. Despite its reported benefits, only a small number of patients with CHF attend ER due to poor adherence, and improper exercise may even lead to adverse events. Remote ECG monitoring system (REMS) has the potential to overcome these obstacles.

Privacy Protection for Point-of-Care Using Chaotic Maps-Based Authentication and Key Agreement.

Recently, remote points-of-care as a novel medical model has emerged and received considerable attention due to its convenient medical services such as efficient real-time monitoring and prompt information feedback. Although the points-of-care has more attractive advantages compared with traditional health care systems, some important issues still require a serious consideration such as privacy protection and the security of the transmitted biomedical signals. In this study, we propose a novel authentication and key agreement mechanism that ensures privacy preservation and provides biomedical signals protection during the communication process by negotiating a shared key to encrypt/decrypt sensitive information.

Integrated optimization of unmanned aerial vehicle task allocation and path planning under steady wind.

Wind has a significant effect on the control of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), resulting in changes in their ground speed and direction, which has an important influence on the results of integrated optimization of UAV task allocation and path planning. The objective of this integrated optimization problem changes from minimizing flight distance to minimizing flight time. In this study, the Euclidean distance between any two targets is expanded to the Dubins path length, considering the minimum turning radius of fixed-wing UAVs.

Elliptic Curve Cryptography-Based Authentication with Identity Protection for Smart Grids.

In a smart grid, the power service provider enables the expected power generation amount to be measured according to current power consumption, thus stabilizing the power system. However, the data transmitted over smart grids are not protected, and then suffer from several types of security threats and attacks. Thus, a robust and efficient authentication protocol should be provided to strength the security of smart grid networks.

Fujinon intelligent color enhancement for the diagnosis of early esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and precancerous lesion.

Background/aims: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is a common malignant tumor in recent years, and the key for improving the survival rate is early diagnosis and treatment. Computed virtual chromoendoscopy with the Fujinon intelligent color enhancement (FICE) system was reported to improve visualization of neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions in gastroscopy and colonoscopy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the value of FICE in the diagnosis of early esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and precancerous lesions.

Study on the resonance light-scattering spectrum of anionic dye xylenol orange-cetyltrimethylammonium-nucleic acids system and determination of nucleic acids at nanogram levels.

The interaction of xylenol orange (XO) and nucleic acids in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTMAB) in aqueous solution has been studied by a resonance light-scattering (RLS) technique with a common spectrofluorometer. In hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) buffer (pH7.30), XO and nucleic acids react with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide to form large particles of three-component complex, which results in strong enhanced RLS signals characterized by three peaks at 295.