Improved interfacial compatibility between unsaturated polyester resin and rice straw fibers after non-washing treatment with Ca(OH).

The agricultural industry produces a substantial volume of rice straw (RS) annually, highlighting the importance of recycling RS for sustainable materials. However, the poor interfacial compatibility between RS and polymers often leads to drawbacks in their composites, such as water-swelling and limited tensile strength. Here, we propose a novel approach using Ca(OH) that offers several distinct advantages: enhancement of interfacial compatibility, elimination of the need for water washing, and formation of calcified hybrid particles on fiber surfaces by capturing CO from the atmosphere.

Janus Structure Construction of Polyester-Cotton Fabrics for Achieving Excellent Moisture, Moisture-Permeability, and Antibacterial Capability.

Integration of hydrophobic and antibacterial functionalities into polyester-cotton blended (PTCO) textiles has attracted more attention but remains a challenge. Here, a Janus fabric with antibacterial effect, hydrophobicity, and enhanced moisture-permeability is fabricated using a "mist polymerization" approach. The PET fibers in the PTCO fabric are amino-functionalized through ammonolysis reactions of PET molecules with HDA, and mist treatments of poly lauryl methacrylate (PLMA) and poly(DMC-co-MA) (PDM) are applied on the two side surfaces of the PTCO-HDA fabric, respectively.

Gap-App: A sex-distinct AI-based predictor for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma survival as a web application open to patients and physicians.

In this study, using RNA-Seq gene expression data and advanced machine learning techniques, we identified distinct gene expression profiles between male and female pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients. Building upon this insight, we developed sex-specific 3-year survival predictive models along with a single comprehensive model. These sex-specific models outperformed the single general model despite the smaller sample sizes.

Nucleotide-level prediction of CircRNA-protein binding based on fully convolutional neural network.

CircRNA-protein binding plays a critical role in complex biological activity and disease. Various deep learning-based algorithms have been proposed to identify CircRNA-protein binding sites. These methods predict whether the CircRNA sequence includes protein binding sites from the sequence level, and primarily concentrate on analysing the sequence specificity of CircRNA-protein binding.

Effect of inoculating thermophilic bacterial consortia on compost efficiency and quality.

The objective of this study was to investigate the potential effects of thermophilic bacterial consortia on compost efficiency and quality. The application of bacterial consortia resulted in an earlier onset of the thermophilic period (THP), an increased upper temperature limit, and an extended duration of the THP by 3-5 days compared to the control group (CK). Microbial inoculation significantly improved the efficiency of organic matter degradation, as well as the content of water-soluble nitrogen (WSN) and humic acid-carbon (HAC).

Dopaminergic damage pattern predicts phenoconversion time in isolated rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder.

Purpose: The exact phenoconversion time from isolated rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) to synucleinopathies remains unpredictable. This study investigated whole-brain dopaminergic damage pattern (DDP) with disease progression and predicted phenoconversion time in individual patients.

Methods: Age-matched 33 iRBD patients and 20 healthy controls with C-CFT-PET scans were enrolled.

A facile and scalable strategy for constructing Janus cotton fabric with persistent antibacterial activity.

Natural cotton fibers have attached considerable attention due to their excellent wearing comfort, breathability and warmth. However, it remains a challenge to devise a scalable and facile strategy to retrofit natural cotton fibers. Here, the cotton fiber surface was oxidized by sodium periodate with a mist process, then [2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl] trimethylammonium chloride (DMC) was co-polymerized with hydroxyethyl acrylate (HA) to obtain an antibacterial cationic polymer (DMC-co-HA).

Influence of Light-EmittingDiode-Derived Blue Light Overexposure on Rat Ocular Surface.

We aim to investigate the effect of overexposure to blue light on the rat ocular surface and explore the potential mechanisms. 450 nm light-emitting diode (LED) derived light at 1000 lux was used to irradiate SD rats, 12 hours a day, for consecutive 28 days. Rats in the control group were exposed to 400 lux white light at the same time (in an indoor environment).

Facile Strategy for Constructing Highly Thermally Conductive Epoxy Composites Based on a Salt Template-Assisted 3D Carbonization Nanohybrid Network.

The construction of an interconnected nanofiller network is critical for the preparation of highly effective thermal management composites, though it remains a challenge to eliminate the anisotropic thermal conductivity of the nanofiller-induced defective interfacial heat-flow efficiency. In this work, a facile and novel approach is proposed to optimize phonon transport by building a salt template-assisted three-dimensional (3D) carbonization nanohybrid network in an epoxy system. The advantage of the salt template relied on green and scalable merits to construct a 3D nanofiller network and supporting abundant holes for the introduction of a polymer matrix after washing.

Association of Plasma and Electroencephalography Markers With Motor Subtypes of Parkinson's Disease.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the correlations of plasma neurodegenerative proteins and electroencephalography (EEG) dynamic functional network (DFN) parameters with disease progression in early Parkinson's disease (PD) with different motor subtypes, including tremor-dominant (TD) and postural instability and gait disorder (PIGD).

Methods: In our study, 33 patients with PD (21 TD and 12 PIGD) and 33 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled. Plasma neurofilament light chain (NfL), α-synuclein (α-syn), total-tau (t-tau), β-amyloid 42 (Aβ42), and β-amyloid 40 (Aβ40) levels were measured using an ultrasensitive single-molecule array (Simoa) immunoassay.

Prolyl Isomerization-Mediated Conformational Changes Define ATR Subcellular Compartment-Specific Functions.

ATR is a PI3K-like kinase protein, regulating checkpoint responses to DNA damage and replication stress. Apart from its checkpoint function in the nucleus, ATR actively engages in an antiapoptotic role at mitochondria following DNA damage. The different functions of ATR in the nucleus and cytoplasm are carried out by two prolyl isomeric forms of ATR: - and -ATR, respectively.

Expression and clinical significance of CXCL17 and GPR35 in endometrial carcinoma.

Endometrial carcinoma is one of the most common gynecologic malignancies. CXCL17-CXCR8 (GPR35) axis is reported to play an indispensability role in tumors. Our purpose is to screen possible prognostic and immune-related factors in endometrial carcinoma by detecting the mRNA and protein expression of CXCL17 and CXCR8.

CKMT1A is a novel potential prognostic biomarker in patients with endometrial cancer.

Purpose: The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage remains the standard staging system for the assessment of endometrial cancer (EC) prognosis. Thus, we aim to identify the significant genes or biomarkers associated with the stage of endometrial cancer, which may also help reveal the mechanism of EC progression and assess the prognosis of patients with EC.

Materials And Methods: We compared the mRNA expression levels of EC patients with stages I and II as well as stages III and IV in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database.

Dynamic PET Imaging Using Dual Texture Features.

This study aims to explore the impact of adding texture features in dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) reconstruction of imaging results. We have improved a reconstruction method that combines radiological dual texture features. In this method, multiple short time frames are added to obtain composite frames, and the image reconstructed by composite frames is used as the prior image.

Effective degradation of VOCs from wood by Fe chelate activated dual oxidant (HO-PS).

Wood is rich in extractives and volatile oils that emit unpleasant odors and some harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Chemical oxidation technologies processes high efficiency on the destruction of aqueous organic components via oxidation by radicals, however, wood block treatment scenarios suffer from the low availability of radicals in aqueous conditions owing to the special structure of the wood blocks, limitations of mass transfer and the short life of free radicals. Herein, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is selected as a chelating agent to synthesize EDTA-Fe chelate, thus introducing Fe into the wood by vacuum impregnation.

Differentiation of paediatric posterior fossa tumours by the multiregional and multiparametric MRI radiomics approach: a study on the selection of optimal multiple sequences and multiregions.

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of a radiomics model based on multiregional and multiparametric MRI to classify paediatric posterior fossa tumours (PPFTs), explore the contribution of different MR sequences and tumour subregions in tumour classification, and examine whether contrast-enhanced weighted (T1C) images have irreplaceable added value.

Methods: This retrospective study of 136 PPFTs extracted 11,958 multiregional (enhanced, non-enhanced, and total tumour) features from multiparametric MRI (- and weighted, T1C, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery, and diffusion-weighted images). These features were subjected to fast correlation-based feature selection and classified by a support vector machine based on different tasks.

Effect of Tai Chi on cardiac function in patients with myocardial infarction: A protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Myocardial infarction is 1 of the most serious cardiovascular diseases. Early interventional therapy preserves the cardiac function of patients with myocardial infarction to the greatest extent, but it is far from meeting people's need only limited to cardiac revascularization. It is also necessary to help patients improve their quality of life, exercise tolerance, and reduce the incidence of acute cardiac recurrence as much as possible.

Accurate segmentation for different types of lung nodules on CT images using improved U-Net convolutional network.

Since lung nodules on computed tomography images can have different shapes, contours, textures or locations and may be attached to neighboring blood vessels or pleural surfaces, accurate segmentation is still challenging. In this study, we propose an accurate segmentation method based on an improved U-Net convolutional network for different types of lung nodules on computed tomography images.The first phase is to segment lung parenchyma and correct the lung contour by applying α-hull algorithm.

Low expression of developing brain homeobox 2 (Dbx2) may serve as a biomarker to predict poor prognosis in endometrial cancer.

Objective: For investigating Dbx2's expression in endometrial cancer (EC) and its effect on prognosis of patients with EC.

Methods: A comparison was performed in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database in terms of the expression profiling of EC and the survival data. To obtain differential expression genes (DEGs), Volcano plot and Venn analysis were adopted.

miR-140-5p Aggravates Insulin Resistance via Directly Targeting GYS1 and PPP1CC in Insulin-Resistant HepG2 Cells.

Background: Much attention has been paid to the regulatory role of microRNA (miRNA) in insulin resistance. Nevertheless, how miR-140-5p regulates insulin resistance remains unclear. In this research, we aim to investigate the roles of miR-140-5p in insulin resistance.

Direct and indirect parameter imaging methods for dynamic PET.

The method of reconstructing parametric images from dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) data with the linear Patlak model has been widely used in scientific research and clinical practice. Whether for direct or indirect image reconstruction, researchers have deeply investigated the associated methods and effects. Among the existing methods, the traditional maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) reconstruction algorithm is fast but produces a substantial amount of noise.