Publications by authors named "Kai Wei"

Objective: To assess CXC chemokine receptor 5 (CXCR5) circulating DNA methylation differences in autoimmune rheumatic diseases and their relation with clinical features.

Methods: Targeted methylation sequencing was performed using peripheral blood from 164 rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 30 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 30 ankylosing spondylitis (AS), 30 psoriatic arthritis (PsA), 24 Sjögren's syndrome (SS) patients, and 30 healthy controls (HC).

Results: Significant differences in CXCR5 cg19599951 methylation were found between RA and HC, as well as AS and SLE.

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Background: It has been reported that the cognitive responses to physical activity (PA) in postmenopausal women vary by parity status, and women with higher parity show a significant association between PA and cognitive function. However, the potential pathways mediating the relationship between PA and cognitive function in women with higher parity remain unclear. The objective of this study was to examine this association in Chinese cohort and further investigate the mediating pathways.

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease with no effective treatment, often preceded by mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Multimodal imaging genetics integrates imaging and genetic data to gain a deeper understanding of disease progression and individual variations. This study focuses on exploring the mechanisms that drive the transition from normal cognition to MCI and ultimately to AD.

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Rice is exposed to attacks by the three most destructive pathogens, (), pv. (), and (), which cause substantial yield losses and severely threaten food security. To cope with pathogenic infections, rice has evolved diverse molecular mechanisms to respond to a wide range of pathogens.

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Dissociation, characterized by altered consciousness and perception, underlies multiple mental disorders, but the specific neuronal subtypes involved remain elusive. In mice, we find that dissociation-inducing doses of ketamine significantly inhibit retrosplenial cortex (RSC) parvalbumin interneurons (PV-INs), enhancing delta oscillations (1-3 Hz) and delta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling (δ-γ PAC) and inducing dissociation-like behaviors. Optogenetic inhibition of RSC PV-INs triggers delta oscillations, δ-γ PAC, and some dissociation-like behaviors without ketamine.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates HIPK3 DNA methylation as a potential biomarker for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and its relationship with clinical indicators in multiple rheumatic diseases.
  • Researchers analyzed methylation levels in 368 participants, using advanced sequencing technology, and discovered that HIPK3 methylation was significantly lower in RA, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and dermatomyositis (DM) compared to healthy controls.
  • Findings indicate a negative correlation between HIPK3 methylation levels and various clinical markers in RA, suggesting HIPK3 hypomethylation could serve as a diagnostic indicator for RA and related diseases.
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Shack-Hartmann-based wavefront sensing combined with deep learning, due to its fast, accurate, and large dynamic range, has been widely studied in many fields including ocular aberration measurement. Problems such as noise and corneal reflection affect the accuracy of detection in practical measuring ocular aberration systems. This paper establishes a framework comprising of a noise-added model, Hartmannograms with corneal reflections and the corneal reflection elimination algorithm.

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The inflammatory response is the core of the pathogenesis of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sepsis myocardial injury (SMI). Pinus massoniana pollen polysaccharide (PPPS) is a natural polymer with known biological activities, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiviral properties. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of PPPS on SMI, myocardial enzyme levels, pathological changes, oxidative stress, cell apoptosis, and related signaling pathways in LPS-induced SMI models were observed by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining, immunohistochemical (IHC) staining, qPCR, Western blot analysis, with a particular focus on anti-inflammatory effects of PPPS.

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Article Synopsis
  • Drought stress significantly hinders plant growth, and this study focuses on how the wild tomato Solanum chilense adaptively responds to it in arid environments in South America.
  • Through transcriptome analysis under varying conditions, researchers identify two main gene networks involved in drought response: one regulating the cell cycle, which is older and more stable, and another related to metabolism, which is newer and more variable.
  • The integration of population genomics shows that older genes under positive selection are more interconnected in these networks, suggesting that adaptations to drought stress first occur in key genes, leading to changes that may contribute to species evolution and colonization of drier areas.
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Unlabelled: Duck circovirus (DuCV) is widely recognized as a prominent virus in China's duck farming industry, known for its ability to cause persistent infections and significant immunosuppression, which can lead to an increased susceptibility to secondary infections, posing a significant threat to the duck industry. Moreover, clinical evidence also indicates the potential vertical transmission of the virus through duck embryos to subsequent generations of ducklings. However, the limited availability of suitable cell lines for cultivation of DuCV has hindered further investigation into the molecular mechanisms underlying its infection and pathogenicity.

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Soil salinity is a major limiting factor in soybean ( (L.) Merr.) yield in Xinjiang, China.

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Article Synopsis
  • Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that leads to inflammation of the joints, primarily driven by fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) which produce inflammatory substances like TNF-α and IL-6.
  • FLS in RA behave similarly to tumors, proliferating aggressively and resisting cell death, contributing to joint damage.
  • Targeting E3 ubiquitin ligases like cIAP2 may offer potential treatments for RA by reducing inflammation and FLS survival, though the potential side effects of these treatments need further investigation.
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Objective: This study aims to explore the effect of NONHSAT042241 on the function of rheumatoid arthritis -fibroblast-like synoviocyte (RA-FLS) and the underlying mechanisms.

Methods: RA-FLS was treated with NONHSAT042241 overexpression and NONHSAT042241 knockdown lentiviruses. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, colony formation assay, flow cytometry, Transwell assay, western-blot, ELISA, and qRT-PCR were used to measure the changes of cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, secretion of inflammatory cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs).

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Childhood asthma is one of the most common respiratory diseases with rising mortality and morbidity. The multi-omics data is providing a new chance to explore collaborative biomarkers and corresponding diagnostic models of childhood asthma. To capture the nonlinear association of multi-omics data and improve interpretability of diagnostic model, we proposed a novel deep association model (DAM) and corresponding efficient analysis framework.

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Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), as a feasible alternative to replace the traditional fossil fuel-based energy converter, contribute significantly to the global sustainability agenda. At the PEMFC anode, given the high exchange current density, Pt/C is deemed the catalyst-of-choice to ensure that the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) occurs at a sufficiently fast pace. The high performance of Pt/C, however, can only be achieved under the premise that high purity hydrogen is used.

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Objectives: Malnutrition and nutritional risk are risk factors for many adverse health outcomes in older adults, but they have rarely been assessed in China. The aim of this study was to evaluate the availability of Elderly Nutritional Indicators for Geriatric Malnutrition Assessment (ENIGMA), a nutritional scale originally developed to predict mortality, in assessing nutritional risks and predicting adverse health outcomes in Chinese community-dwelling older adults.

Methods: This was a population-based longitudinal cohort study (Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey), with a 4-y follow-up of 2063 community-dwelling adults aged 65 y or older.

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Carrier-phase noise limits both the performance and the maximum operation range of coherent LiDAR. To address this issue, we propose a carrier-phase-noise-canceled LiDAR based on an auxiliary interferometer and adaptive filters. Compared to previous methods, this approach is calibration-free and offers higher compensation accuracy, as well as applicability of dynamic target detection.

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Customizing the engineering targeted thermal deformations is of vital significance for dimensional stability or shape morphing in materials and structures. However, current metamaterials are designed solely in the homogeneous form to respond only to the time-variant temperature (TVT) stimuli, far behind the practical engineering scenario and demands. Here, a new strategy is originally proposed and experimentally verified to design a series of both homogeneous and inhomogeneous multimaterial metamaterials, which uniquely output various thermal deformation modes, responding to time-variant and space-variant temperature (SVT) stimuli.

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Objective: Comprehensive analysis of histopathology images and transcriptomics data enables the identification of candidate biomarkers and multimodal association patterns. Most existing multimodal data association studies are derived from extensions of the joint nonnegative matrix factorization model for identifying complex data associations, which can make full use of clinical prior information. However, the raw data were usually taken as the input without considering the underlying complex multi-subspace structure, influencing the subsequent integration analysis results.

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Background: The integration of inorganic and organic fertilizers is increasingly being recommended to address the demand for sustainable cotton cultivation and to mitigate the ecological impacts of reliance on inorganic fertilizers. However, the nuanced effects of this combined fertilization approach on soil quality, cotton growth, yield, and their interaction mechanisms, remain unclear.

Method: To elucidate this, a 2-year field trial (2022-2023) was conducted, incorporating five fertilization treatments: low inorganic fertilizer (BI1), high inorganic fertilizer (BI2), organic fertilizer (BO), combined low inorganic and organic fertilizer (BIO1), and combined high inorganic and organic fertilizer (BIO2).

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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease causing progressive joint damage. Early diagnosis and treatment is critical, but remains challenging due to RA complexity and heterogeneity. Machine learning (ML) techniques may enhance RA management by identifying patterns within multidimensional biomedical data to improve classification, diagnosis, and treatment predictions.

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Methyl paraoxon (MP) is a highly toxic, efficient and broad-spectrum organophosphorus pesticide, which poses significant risks to ecological environment and human health. Many detection methods for MP are based on the enzyme catalytic or inhibition effect. But natural biological enzymes are relatively expensive and easy to be inactivated with a short service life.

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Addressing critical challenges in sustainable agriculture, notably water scarcity and soil degradation, necessitates innovative irrigation and fertilization methods. This investigation thoroughly assessed the effects of combining inorganic and organic fertilizers under brackish water irrigation, particularly focusing on magnetized-ionized brackish water-a promising solution for these challenges. The study shows that the integration of inorganic and organic fertilizers notably enhances soil water retention and salt leaching when applied with magnetized-ionized brackish water irrigation (MIBIO treatment), with water storage rate and salt accumulation rate observed at -0.

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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by persistent synovial inflammation and progressive joint destruction. Macrophages are key effector cells that play a central role in RA pathogenesis through their ability to polarize into distinct functional phenotypes. An imbalance favoring pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages over anti-inflammatory M2 macrophages disrupts immune homeostasis and exacerbates joint inflammation.

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