AMPK, a hub for the microenvironmental regulation of bone homeostasis and diseases.

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a crucial regulatory kinase, monitors energy levels, conserving ATP and boosting synthesis in low-nutrition, low-energy states. Its sensitivity links microenvironmental changes to cellular responses. As the primary support structure and endocrine organ, the maintenance, and repair of bones are closely associated with the microenvironment.

Computational identification of antibody-binding epitopes from mimotope datasets.

A fundamental challenge in computational vaccinology is that most B-cell epitopes are conformational and therefore hard to predict from sequence alone. Another significant challenge is that a great deal of the amino acid sequence of a viral surface protein might not in fact be antigenic. Thus, identifying the regions of a protein that are most promising for vaccine design based on the degree of surface exposure may not lead to a clinically relevant immune response.

Cultivated Artemisia rupestris L. polysaccharide CARP2 as an adjuvant for influenza vaccines to prolong immune responses.

In the study, the adjuvant features of the immunoregulatory polysaccharide component CARP2 isolated from cultivated Artemisia rupestris L. for influenza virus vaccine (IVV) and the mechanism responsible for its action in DCs were further explored. CARP2 showed a typical absorbance peak of polysaccharides in spectral analysis.

An MRI-Based Radiomics Model for Predicting the Benignity and Malignancy of BI-RADS 4 Breast Lesions.

Objectives: The probability of Breast Imaging Reporting and Data Systems (BI-RADS) 4 lesions being malignant is 2%-95%, which shows the difficulty to make a diagnosis. Radiomics models based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can replace clinicopathological diagnosis with high performance. In the present study, we developed and tested a radiomics model based on MRI images that can predict the malignancy of BI-RADS 4 breast lesions.

Atomic Defect Induced Saturable Absorption of Hexagonal Boron Nitride in Near Infrared Band for Ultrafast Lasing Applications.

Defect-induced phenomena in 2D materials has received increasing interest among researchers due to the novel properties correlated with precise modification of materials. We performed a study of the nonlinear saturable absorption of the boron-atom-vacancy defective hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) thin film at a wavelength of ~1 μm and its applications in ultrafast laser generation. The h-BN is with wide band gap of ~6 eV.

A Plasmon-Enhanced SnSe Photodetector by Non-Contact Ag Nanoparticles.

The 2D layered materials are promising candidates for broadband, low-cost photodetectors. One deficiency of 2D materials is the relatively low absorbance of light, limiting the applications of the 2D photodetectors. Doping of plasmonic nanoparticles into 2D materials may enhance the optical absorbance owing to the localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) effect; however, considerable defects may be introduced into the 2D materials at the same time, resulting in certain degradation of device performance.

A Seven-Long Non-coding RNA Signature Improves Prognosis Prediction of Lung Adenocarcinoma: An Integrated Competing Endogenous RNA Network Analysis.

Early and precise prediction is an important way to reduce the poor prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients. Nevertheless, the widely used tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM) staging system based on anatomical information only often could not achieve adequate performance on foreseeing the prognosis of LUAD patients. This study thus aimed to examine whether the long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), known highly involved in the tumorigenesis of LUAD through the competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) mechanism, could provide additional information to improve prognosis prediction of LUAD patients.

Research Status of Differentially Expressed Noncoding RNAs in Type 2 Diabetes Patients.

Aims: Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) play an important role in the occurrence and development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This paper summarized the current evidences of the involvement microRNAs, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs) in the differential expressions and their interaction with each other in T2DM.

Methods: The differentially expressed miRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs in the blood circulation (plasma, serum, whole blood, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells) of patients with T2DM were found in PubMed, GCBI, and other databases.

Plasmonic core-shell nano-heterostructures with temperature-dependent optical nonlinearity.

Plasmonics in bimetallic heterostructures have emerged as powerful tools for tunable ultrafast dynamics in nonlinear optical responses. Despite numerous studies on the mechanism of nonlinearity tailoring with various influence factors, so far, a fundamental investigation of temperature-controlled nonlinearity modulation remains blank in heterostructure systems. Here, we report on the fabrication of embedded Y@Ag/AgY core-shell nanostructures (CSNs) in fused silica for tunable nonlinearity with a laser-intensity-dependent temperature switch.

A Novel Hierarchical Nanostructure for Enhanced Optical Nonlinearity Based on Scattering Mechanism.

Surface modification of nonlinear optical materials (NOMs) is widely applied to fabricate diverse photonic devices, such as frequency combs, modulators, and all-optical switches. In this work, a double-layer nanostructure with heterogeneous nanoparticles (NPs) is proposed to achieve enhanced third-order optical nonlinearity of NOMs. The mechanism of modified optical nonlinearity is elucidated to be the scattering-induced energy transfer between adjacent NPs layers.

Prediction of the mechanisms of Xiaoai Jiedu Recipe in the treatment of breast cancer: A comprehensive approach study with experimental validation.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) holds a great promise for preventing complex chronic diseases through a holistic way. Certain Chinese medicine formulae from TCM are effective for treating and preventing cancer in clinical practice. Xiaoai Jiedu Recipe (XJR) is a Chinese medicine formula that has been used to treat breast cancer (BC).

Stratified meta-analysis by ethnicity revealed that ADRB3 Trp64Arg polymorphism was associated with coronary artery disease in Asians, but not in Caucasians.

Background: Previous studies demonstrated that ADRB3, beta-3 adrenergic receptor, participated in lipolysis and thermogenesis in adipose tissue. Consequently, this gene has attracted an increasing number of genetic studies examining its association with coronary artery disease (CAD) in different ethnicities in recent years, but no conclusion has been reached so far. The aim of this study was to explore whether the well-studied locus ADRB3 Trp64Arg in this gene confers a race-specific effect to CAD by conducting a stratified meta-analysis involving 15 independent studies and 11,802 subjects.

8.8 GHz Q-switched mode-locked waveguide lasers modulated by PtSe saturable absorber.

We demonstrate high-repetition-rate fundamentally Q-switched mode-locked Nd:YAG waveguide laser modulated by platinum diselenide (PtSe) saturable absorber. The laser operation platform is a femtosecond laser-written monolithic Nd:YAG waveguide, and the saturable absorber is large-area few-layer PtSe that possesses relatively lower saturation intensity and higher modulation depth in comparison with graphene. With the superb ultrafast nonlinear saturable absorption properties of as-synthesized PtSe, the waveguide laser could operate at ~8.

Plasmonic Ag nanoparticles embedded in lithium tantalate crystal for ultrafast laser generation.

We report the Ag nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in LiTaO (AgNP:LT) by direct Ag ion implantation. Transmission electron microscope imaging indicates that the embedded Ag NPs have an average diameter of 3.65 nm.

Tailoring optical nonlinearities of LiNbO crystals by plasmonic silver nanoparticles for broadband saturable absorbers.

We report on the synthesis of plasmonic Ag nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in a LiNbO crystal (AgNP:LN) by ion implantation and its application as an efficient broadband saturable absorber (SA) to realize Q-switched pulsed laser generation at both visible and near-infrared wavelength bands. The nonlinear optical response of AgNP:LN is considered as a synergistic effect between Ag NPs and LiNbO. We apply the AgNP:LN as visible-near-infrared broadband saturable absorbers (SAs) into Pr:LuLiF bulk and Nd:YVO waveguide laser cavity, achieving efficient passively Q-switched laser at 639 nm and 1064 nm, respectively.

Ag nanoparticles embedded in Nd:YAG crystals irradiated with tilted beam of 200 MeV Xe ions: optical dichroism correlated to particle reshaping.

We report on the fabrication of reshaped Ag nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in a Nd:YAG crystal by combining Ag ion implantation and swift heavy Xe ion irradiation. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect is proved to be efficiently modulated according to the phenomenon of polarization-dependent absorption. The LSPR peak located at 448 nm shows red shift and blue shift at 0° and 90° polarization, respectively, which is in good agreement with calculation by discrete dipole approximation.

Nonlinear Absorption Response Correlated to Embedded Ag Nanoparticles in BGO Single Crystal: From Two-Photon to Three-Photon Absorption.

We report on the embedded silver (Ag) nanoparticles fabricated by Ag ion implantation into the BiGeO (BGO) crystal. Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) phenomenon has been observed by linear optical absorption spectrum, which is accordance with the expectation based on Mie theory calculation. Further proofs are given by SRIM, TEM and SAED analysis, which explain the slight difference between experiment and calculation.

Giant Enhancement of Nonlinear Optical Response in Nd:YAG Single Crystals by Embedded Silver Nanoparticles.

We report on the enhancement and modulation of nonlinear optical response in an Nd:YAlO (Nd:YAG) laser crystal through embedded silver nanoparticles (NPs) fabricated by Ag ion implantation. The linear absorption spectrum of the sample clearly reveals a localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band from 350 to 700 nm correlated to the Ag NPs. By using the Z-scan technique with femtosecond pulses at a wavelength of 515 nm, which is considered as an optical excitation within the SPR band, the nonlinear refraction index reaches values as high as ∼10 cm/W, enhanced by ∼4 orders of magnitude in comparison to that of unimplanted Nd:YAG (without Ag NPs).

Selection of reference genes for normalization of quantitative polymerase chain reaction data in mouse models of heart failure.

The accurate measurement of mRNA expression levels is crucially dependent on the use of relevant reference genes for the normalization of data. Currently, heart failure is a serious and widespread disease, and multiple mouse models are utilized for the study of this complex disease. Although mouse models are commonly used to study cardiovascular disease, various studies have not employed the appropriate selection strategies.