Live-Birth Prediction of Natural-Cycle Fertilization Using 57,558 Linked Cycle Records: A Machine Learning Perspective.

Background: Natural-cycle fertilization (NC-IVF) is an fertilization (IVF) cycle without gonadotropins or any other stimulation of follicular growth. Previous studies on live-birth prediction of NC-IVF were very few; the sample size was very limited. This study aims to construct a machine learning model to predict live-birth occurrence of NC-IVF using 57,558 linked cycle records and help clinicians develop treatment strategies.

Roseococcus pinisoli sp. nov., lacking pufL and pufM bacteriochlorophyll a: synthesizing genes.

A Gram-stain-negative, cocci-to-oval-shaped bacterial strain, designated XZZS9, was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica and characterized taxonomically using a polyphasic approach. Growth occurred at 20-35 °C (optimum, 28 °C), pH 6.

Physical Mechanism of Amyloid-β Peptide Chain Aggregation on Fluidic Lipid Nanotubules.

The question of how peptide chain aggregation is influenced by lipid membranes with varying shapes and structures is crucial for a detailed understanding of the neurotoxicity effect of the peptide chains. Not like the more usual spherical liposomes and planar lipid membranes, herein, we use lipid nanotubules as a model of important neuron synapse nanowire structures and devote particular attention to the effect of nanotubule fluidity on amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) chain aggregation. We apply single-molecule tracking (SMT) to elucidate how Aβ chains diffuse and aggregate on lipid nanotubules with different fluidities.

Rational Design of a Gd(III)-Cu(II) Nanobooster for Chemodynamic Therapy Against Cancer Cells.

Copper (II) containing coordination complexes have attracted much attention for chemodynamic therapy (CDT) against cancer cells. In this study, the bimetallic nanobooster [GdCu(L)(HO)]·6HO was prepared by a solvothermal method based on tetrazole carboxylic acid ligand HL [HL = 3,3-di (1H-tetrazol-5-yl) pentanedioic acid]. It showed considerable cytotoxicity toward three kinds of human cancer cells (HeLa, HepG2, and HT29).

Local injection of botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) prevents scarring esophageal stricture caused by electrocautery in rabbit models.

Background: Benign esophageal strictures are common in clinical practice. The commonly used methods for preventing benign esophageal strictures still have many shortcomings. In this study, we investigated the preventive effect and possible mechanism of endoscopic local injection of botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) on scarring esophageal stricture caused by electrocautery in rabbit models, with an attempt to provide a theoretical basis for the clinical application of BTX-A in the prevention of benign esophageal stricture.

Data-driven discovery of high performance layered van der Waals piezoelectric NbOI.

Using high-throughput first-principles calculations to search for layered van der Waals materials with the largest piezoelectric stress coefficients, we discover NbOI to be the one among 2940 monolayers screened. The piezoelectric performance of NbOI is independent of thickness, and its electromechanical coupling factor of near unity is a hallmark of optimal interconversion between electrical and mechanical energy. Laser scanning vibrometer studies on bulk and few-layer NbOI crystals verify their huge piezoelectric responses, which exceed internal references such as InSe and CuInPS.

Ecological balance emerges in implementing the water-energy-food security nexus in well-developed countries in Africa.

Although many African countries have made significant progress towards universal access to water, energy, and food resources (WEF), assessing the ecological response to the increasing productivity of these resources is not well researched, which carries the risk of ecological deficit, resource degradation, and inefficient policy responses to resource management. This study seeks to assess the ecological sustainability response to the high increase demand for WEF resources in well-developed African countries. The study developed new measurement metrics for the WEF production system, including three indicators of ecological footprint (EF), ecological biocapacity (EBC), and eco-balance.

Upregulated Linc01836 in Serum Promisingly Serving as a Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarker for Colorectal Cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract with high incidence and mortality worldwide. Studies have shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in CRC. Our purpose is to investigate the potential of serum Linc01836 as a diagnostic and prognostic marker in CRC.

Giant tunnelling electroresistance through 2D sliding ferroelectric materials.

Very recently, ferroelectric polarization in staggered bilayer hexagonal boron nitride (BBN) and its novel sliding inversion mechanism were reported experimentally (, 372, 1458; , 372, 1462), which paved a new way to realizing van der Waals (vdW) ferroelectric devices with new functionalities. Here, we develop vdW sliding ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) using the sliding ferroelectric BBN unit as an ultrathin barrier and explore their transport properties with different ferroelectric states and metal contacts first principles. It is found that the electrode/BBN contact electric field quenches the ferroelectricity in the staggered BBN, resulting in a very small tunnelling electroresistance (TER).

UBR3 promotes inflammation and apoptosis via DUSP1/p38 pathway in the nucleus pulposus cells of patients with intervertebral disc degeneration.

Intervertebral disc disease (IDD) is a primary cause of low back pain, affecting 5% of individuals. Previous study have shown that dual-specificity (Thr/Tyr) phosphatase 1 (DUSP1) regulates p38 MAPK activity and DUSP1 level is regulated by ubiquitination. As an E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase, UBR3 has been shown to regulate a variety of biological processes through ubiquitination.

Engineering Nanointerfaces of Au Clusters for Chaperone-Mediated Peptide Amyloidosis.

Synthetic nanomaterials possessing biomolecular-chaperone functions are good candidates for modulating physicochemical interactions in many bioapplications. Despite extensive research, no general principle to engineer nanomaterial surfaces is available to precisely manipulate biomolecular conformations and behaviors, greatly limiting attempts to develop high-performance nanochaperone materials. Here, we demonstrate that, by quantifying the length (-SCR, = 3-11) and charges (R = -COO, R = -NH) of ligands on Au gold nanochaperones (AuNCs), simulating binding sites and affinities of amyloid-like peptides with AuNCs, and probing peptide folding and fibrillation in the presence of AuNCs, it is possible to precisely manipulate the peptides' conformations and, thus, their amyloidosis via customizing AuNCs nanointerfaces.

The relationship between adolescent risk perception and emotions during the COVID-19: a short-term longitudinal study.

This study explores the relationship between adolescents' perceptions of epidemic risk and their emotions through three follow-up surveys during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic on February 11th (T1), 18th (T2), and 25th (T3), 2020. Three hundred and four adolescents in different academic stages (junior high middle school, senior high middle school, and university) participated in the online survey, and cross-lag analysis was used to examine the causal relationship between epidemic risk perceptions and positive and negative emotions. The results found that the individual's positive emotions were significantly higher than the negative emotions in T1, T2 and T3.

Induces Apoptosis of Human Ovarian Cancer Cells via ATF3-Mediated Regulation of Foxo3a by Tip60.

Forkhead transcription factor 3a (Foxo3a) is believed to be a tumor suppressor as its inactivation leads to cell transformation and tumor development. However, further investigation is required regarding the involvement of the activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3)-mediated Tat-interactive protein 60 (Tip60)/Foxo3a pathway in cancer cell apoptosis. This study demonstrated that upregulated the expression of ATF3 and Tip60 and promoted Foxo3a nuclear translocation, ultimately increasing the level of Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) protein.

CabZIP23 Integrates in CabZIP63-CaWRKY40 Cascade and Turns CabZIP63 on Mounting Pepper Immunity against via Physical Interaction.

CabZIP63 and CaWRKY40 were previously found to be shared in the pepper defense response to high temperature stress (HTS) and to inoculation (RSI), forming a transcriptional cascade. However, how they activate the two distinct defense responses is not fully understood. Herein, using a revised genetic approach, we functionally characterized CabZIP23 in the CabZIP63-CaWRKY40 cascade and its context specific pepper immunity activation against RSI by interaction with CabZIP63.

-Containing Chinese Herbal Medicine Combined With GnRH Agonist for Postoperative Treatment of Endometriosis: A Systematic Review and meta-Analysis.

Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent gynecological inflammatory condition that may lead to infertility and recurrent pelvic pain. The purpose of this research was to determine the efficacy and safety of -containing Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) combined with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRH-a) for postoperative endometriosis management. Eight databases were systematically searched before October 2021, including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Sceince, CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang.

Sphingomonas quercus sp. nov., Isolated from Rhizosphere Soil of Quercus mongolica.

Strain XMGL2, isolated from rhizosphere soil of Quercus mongolica in China, was characterized using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Cells were Gram-negative, aerobic, non-spore-forming, and rod-shaped. Growth occurred at 20-37 °C (optimum, 28 °C), pH 5.

Spin-orbit coupling suppressed high-capacity dual-step-index ring-core OAM fiber.

We design and fabricate a dual-step-index ring-core fiber (RCF) for orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode transmission. It has been proven that the proposed novel, to the best of our knowledge, dual-step-index ring-core structure can suppress the spin-orbit coupling and cut off the radial higher-order modes when the mode number becomes very large. In experiments, we demonstrate that the fabricated fiber can support OAM with the interferometric method, where four higher-order mode groups are weakly-coupled.

CaSWC4 regulates the immunity-thermotolerance tradeoff by recruiting CabZIP63/CaWRKY40 to target genes and activating chromatin in pepper.

Pepper (Capsicum annuum) responds differently to high temperature stress (HTS) and Ralstonia solanacearum infection (RSI) but employs some shared transcription factors (TFs), such as CabZIP63 and CaWRKY40, in both cases. How the plant activates and balances these distinct responses, however, was unclear. Here, we show that the protein CaSWC4 interacts with CaRUVBL2 and CaTAF14b and they all act positively in pepper response to RSI and thermotolerance.

Long-haul intermodal-MIMO-free MDM transmission based on a weakly coupled multiple-ring-core few-mode fiber.

Mode-division multiplexing (MDM) technique based on few-mode fibers (FMFs) can achieve multiplicative growth in single-fiber capacity by using different linearly polarized (LP) modes or mode groups as spatial channels. However, its deployment is seriously impeded because multiple-input multiple-output digital signal processing (MIMO-DSP) with huge computational load must be adopted to combat intermodal crosstalk for long-haul FMF transmission. In this paper, we present an intermodal-MIMO-free MDM transmission scheme based on weakly coupled multiple-ring-core FMF, which achieves ultralow distributed modal crosstalk (DMC) so that the signal in each LP mode can be independently received by single-LP-mode MIMO-DSP even after hundreds-of-kilometer transmission.

Low-crosstalk laser-direct-writing FI/FO device for 8×100-Gbps optical interconnection.

Fan-in/fan-out (FI/FO) device with low crosstalk is essential for weakly coupled short-reach optical interconnect based on multicore fibers (MCF), for which the laser-direct-writing (LDW) technique is one of the preferred fabrication schemes. In this paper, the influence of FI/FO crosstalk on short-reach intensity-modulation/direction-detection MCF optical interconnection is firstly evaluated, and the crosstalk related to different refractive-index profiles of waveguides and misalignment is analyzed for LDW-FI/FO devices. Then low-crosstalk compact LDW-FI/FO devices matching 8-core MCF are fabricated, adopting multiple-scan method for waveguides with a flat-top refractive-index profile and aberration correction method for precise alignment.

Design, fabrication, and characterization of a low-index center and trench-assisted 7-ring-core 5-mode-group fiber for dense space-division multiplexing.

An optimized design of 7-ring-core 5-mode-group fiber for mode-group-based dense space-division multiplexing (DSDM) is proposed. It is found that decreasing the refractive index of the center and trench of each ring core can increase the available ring-core thickness and meanwhile suppress the radial higher-order modes. Based on the simulation, a fiber, with a thicker ring core and a relatively low refractive index contrast at the ring-core boundaries, is found of higher mode purity and lower macro-bending-caused mode coupling.

The role of amygdala neuropsin/serpinb6 pathway in the regulation of gastric hypersensitivity and anxiety by electroacupuncture.

Objective: To investigate whether the neuropsin pathway in the amygdala and stomach may participate in the development of anxiety-related gastric hypersensitivity, and whether electroacupuncture (EA) at the Zusanli acupoint could improve this condition by regulating such pathway in the rat model of functional dyspepsia (FD).

Methods: A total of 48 SD rats were randomly divided into the control group, FD model group and FD + EA group (stimulation at Zusanli acupoint for 30 min daily for 7 consecutive days). Abdominal withdrawal reflex (AWR) score and open field test were used to evaluate visceral hypersensitivity and anxiety-like disorder, respectively.

Isotope-dilution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for quantification of human retinol binding protein 4 in serum.

Serum retinol binding protein 4 levels play critical roles in the early diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of diabetic kidney disease. In this paper, an liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry approach for the absolute quantification of serum RBP4 with high sensitivity and specificity was presented. Following series of procedures including denaturation, reduction, alkylation and trypsin digestion, the signature peptides of RBP4 were separated on the HPLC system by gradient elution.

Profiling Secreted miRNA Biomarkers of Chemical-Induced Neurodegeneration in Human iPSC-Derived Neurons.

Elucidation of predictive fluidic biochemical markers to detect and monitor chemical-induced neurodegeneration has been a major challenge due to a lack of understanding of molecular mechanisms driving altered neuronal morphology and function, as well as poor sensitivity in methods to quantify low-level biomarkers in bodily fluids. Here, we evaluated 5 neurotoxicants (acetaminophen [negative control], bisindolylmaleimide-1, colchicine, doxorubicin, paclitaxel, and rotenone) in human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons to profile secreted microRNAs (miRNAs) at early and late stages of decline in neuronal cell morphology and viability. Based on evaluation of these morphological (neurite outgrowth parameters) and viability (adenosine triphosphate) changes, 2 concentrations of each chemical were selected for analysis in a human 754 miRNA panel: a low concentration with no/minimal effect on cell viability but a significant decrease in neurite outgrowth, and a high concentration with a significant decrease in both endpoints.