Procedural Complications and Factors Influencing Immediate Angiographic Results after Endovascular Treatment of Small (<5 mm) Ruptured Intracranial Aneurysms.

Background And Objective: There are technical challenges to complete occlusion of small (<5 mm) ruptured intracranial aneurysms (SRAs) using endovascular treatment (EVT). This study analyzed factors influencing immediate angiographic results in SRAs after EVT.

Material And Methods: Intraoperative angiograms and medical records of 290 patients, who underwent EVT for SRAs at 2 stroke centers in China between January 2009 and October 2016, were retrospectively reviewed and evaluated.

Trends in hospital procedure volumes for intra-arterial treatment of acute ischemic stroke: results from the paul coverdell national acute stroke program.

Background: Rates of intra-arterial revascularization treatments (IAT) for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) are increasing in the USA. Using a multi-state stroke registry, we studied the trend in IAT use among patients with AIS over a period spanning 11 years. We examined the impact of IAT rates on hospital procedure volumes and patient outcome after stroke.

Effectiveness of Live Poultry Market Interventions on Human Infection with Avian Influenza A(H7N9) Virus, China.

Various interventions for live poultry markets (LPMs) have emerged to control outbreaks of avian influenza A(H7N9) virus in mainland China since March 2013. We assessed the effectiveness of various LPM interventions in reducing transmission of H7N9 virus across 5 annual waves during 2013-2018, especially in the final wave. With the exception of waves 1 and 4, various LPM interventions reduced daily incidence rates significantly across waves.

A Bayesian Approach to the Analysis of Local Average Treatment Effect for Missing and Non-normal Data in Causal Modeling: A Tutorial With the ALMOND Package in R.

One practical challenge in observational studies and quasi-experimental designs is selection bias. The issue of selection bias becomes more concerning when data are non-normal and contain missing values. Recently, a Bayesian robust two-stage causal modeling with instrumental variables was developed and has the advantages of addressing selection bias and handle non-normal data and missing data simultaneously in one model.

How Does the Male Penisfilum Enter the Female Copulatory Pore in Hangingflies?

Hangingflies are characterized by the interesting nuptial feeding behavior and unusual belly-to-belly hanging mating position. However, the mating behavior and the copulatory mechanism remain poorly known for Bittacidae, especially how the elongated male penisfilum enters the copulatory pore of the female. In this study, the mating behavior and copulatory mechanism of (Huang and Hua, 2006) were investigated to reveal the functional morphology of hangingfly genitalia.

Membrane fouling potential of the denitrification filter effluent and the control mechanism by ozonation in the process of wastewater reclamation.

A process of denitrification filter (DNF) coupled with ultrafiltration (UF) and ozonation (DNF-UF-O) has been widely applied to advanced nitrogen removal for wastewater reclamation. Despite of the effective removal of nitrogen by DNF, the influence of DNF stage on the operation of UF was still unclear. In this study, a laboratory filtration system was used to investigate the membrane fouling potential of DNF effluent and the fouling control of ozonation.

Two-Dimensional TiCT MXene/GO Hybrid Membranes for Highly Efficient Osmotic Power Generation.

Osmotic power has emerged as one of the promising candidates for clean and renewable energy. However, the advancement of present osmotic power-harvesting technologies, specifically pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) in this work, is hindered by the unsatisfactory membrane transport properties. Herein, we demonstrate the freestanding transition-metal carbides and graphene oxide hybrid membranes as high-performance PRO membranes.

Dual Networks for High-Precision and High-Speed Registration of Brain Electron Microscopy Images.

It remains a mystery as to how neurons are connected and thereby enable use to think, and volume reconstruction from series of microscopy sections of brains is a vital technique in determining this connectivity. Image registration is a key component; the aim of image registration is to estimate the deformation field between two images. Current methods choose to directly regress the deformation field; however, this task is very challenging.

MYOCD and SMAD3/SMAD4 form a positive feedback loop and drive TGF-β-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition in non-small cell lung cancer.

Myocardin (MYOCD) promotes Smad3-mediated transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling in mouse fibroblast cells. Our previous studies show that TGF-β/SMADs signaling activation enhances epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. However, whether and how MYOCD contributes to TGF-β-induced EMT of NSCLC cells are poorly elucidated.

KGF Is Delivered to Inflammatory and Induces the Epithelial Hyperplasia in Trinitrobenzene Sulfonic Acid-Induced Ulcerative Colitis Rats.

Introduction: KGF-modified MSCs can promote the repair of spinal cord injury and pulmonary fibrosis injury in rats. However, the effect of KGF-modified MSCs on UC rats is unclear. We aimed to explore the therapeutic effect and possible mechanism of KGF gene-modified MSCs on trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced UC rats.

Fouling properties of reverse osmosis membranes along the feed channel in an industrial-scale system for wastewater reclamation.

Membrane fouling is an inevitable disadvantage of the reverse osmosis (RO) process for wastewater reclamation. In order to clarify the development process of membrane fouling, all the fouled membranes along a feed channel of a two-stage industrial-scale RO system for wastewater reclamation (six elements in each stage) were autopsied and analyzed. The water flux and salt rejection efficiency of the fouled membranes at the head and tail were the lowest among 12 elements, thereby indicating more severe fouling on these membranes.

Data-Driven 3D Neck Modeling and Animation.

In this article, we present a data-driven approach for modeling and animation of 3D necks. Our method is based on a new neck animation model that decomposes the neck animation into local deformation caused by larynx motion and global deformation driven by head poses, facial expressions, and speech. A skinning model is introduced for modeling local deformation and underlying larynx motions, while the global neck deformation caused by each factor is modeled by its corrective blendshape set, respectively.

Machine learning for detecting mesial temporal lobe epilepsy by structural and functional neuroimaging.

Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE), the most common type of focal epilepsy, is associated with functional and structural brain alterations. Machine learning (ML) techniques have been successfully used in discriminating mTLE from healthy controls. However, either functional or structural neuroimaging data are mostly used separately as input, and the opportunity to combine both has not been exploited yet.

[Kirenol relieves dextran sulfate sodium-induced ulcerative colitis in mice by inhibiting inflammatory cytokines and inducing CD4 T lymphocyte apoptosis].

Objective: To investigate whether kirenol, the major pharmacologically active compound of the Chinese medicinal herb , can protect mice from dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced ulcerative colitis (UC).

Methods: C57BL/6 mice with or without kirenol pretreatment were treated with DSS in drinking water for 7 days to induce UC. The symptoms of UC including weight loss, diarrhea and bloody stool were observed daily and graded using the disease activity index (DAI).

Lipid Droplet Accumulation in Human Pancreatic Islets Is Dependent On Both Donor Age and Health.

Human but not mouse islets transplanted into immunodeficient NSG mice effectively accumulate lipid droplets (LDs). Because chronic lipid exposure is associated with islet β-cell dysfunction, we investigated LD accumulation in the intact human and mouse pancreas over a range of ages and states of diabetes. Very few LDs were found in normal human juvenile pancreatic acinar and islet cells, with numbers subsequently increasing throughout adulthood.

AgBrO₃/Few-Layer g-C₃N₄ Composites: A Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalyst for Tetracycline Degradation.

The AgBrO₃/few-layer g-C₃N₄ composite photocatalyst has been developed via an in-situ synthetic method. The structure, morphology, light response range, separation and migration efficiency of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs and element valence state of the as-obtained samples have been characterized. The tetracycline was used to discuss the photocatalytic activities of the samples.

Function of agricultural waste montmorillonite-biochars for sorptive removal of 17β-estradiol.

Agricultural wastes of cow manure and wheat straw were used to prepare montmorillonite (Mt)-biochars (CMt and WMt) for sorptive removal of 17β-estradiol (E2) from aqueous solution. The E2 adsorption performance of the two Mt-biochars was investigated using systematic adsorption kinetics and isotherms. The results exhibited that the maximum E2 adsorption amount of CMt was 41.

Endovascular Treatment of Small Ruptured Intracranial Aneurysms (<5 mm) : Long-term Clinical and Angiographic Outcomes and Related Predictors.

Purpose: To investigate the long-term clinical and angiographic outcomes and their related predictors in endovascular treatment (EVT) of small (<5 mm) ruptured intracranial aneurysms (SRA).

Methods: The study retrospectively reviewed patients with SRAs who underwent EVT between September 2011 and December 2016 in two Chinese stroke centers. Medical charts and telephone call follow-up were used to identify the overall unfavorable clinical outcomes (OUCO, modified Rankin score ≤2) and any recanalization or retreatment.

AIDE: annotation-assisted isoform discovery with high precision.

Genome-wide accurate identification and quantification of full-length mRNA isoforms is crucial for investigating transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulatory mechanisms of biological phenomena. Despite continuing efforts in developing effective computational tools to identify or assemble full-length mRNA isoforms from second-generation RNA-seq data, it remains a challenge to accurately identify mRNA isoforms from short sequence reads owing to the substantial information loss in RNA-seq experiments. Here, we introduce a novel statistical method, annotation-assisted isoform discovery (AIDE), the first approach that directly controls false isoform discoveries by implementing the testing-based model selection principle.

Nanowire Quantum Dot Surface Engineering for High Temperature Single Photon Emission.

Generating single photons at high temperature remains a major challenge, particularly for group III-As and III-P materials widely used in optical communication. Here, we report a high temperature single photon emitter based on a "surface-free" GaAs quantum dot (QD) in a GaAsP nanowire. By using self-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid growth and simple surface engineering, we can significantly enhance the optical signal from the QDs with a highly polarized photoluminescence at 750 nm.

Synaptic Injury in the Thalamus Accompanies White Matter Injury in Hypoxia/Ischemia-Mediated Brain Injury in Neonatal Rats.

The broad spectrum of disabilities caused by white matter injury (WMI) cannot be explained simply by hypomyelination. Synaptic injury in the thalamus may be related to disabilities in WMI survivors. Neuronal injury in the thalamus has been found most commonly in autopsy cases of preterm WMI.

Current trends in the acute treatment of ischemic stroke: analysis from the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program.

Background: The intra-arterial treatment (IAT) of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is now evidence-based and given the highest level of recommendation among eligible patients. Using a multi-state stroke registry, we studied the trend in IAT among patients with AIS over 11 years and its impact on the utilization of intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) within the same 11 years.

Methods: Using data from the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program (PCNASP), we studied trends in IVT and IAT for patients with AIS between 2008 and 2018.

A low-energy compact Shanghai-Wuhan electron beam ion trap for extraction of highly charged ions.

A low-energy, compact, and superconducting electron beam ion trap (the Shanghai-Wuhan EBIT or SW-EBIT) for extraction of highly charged ions is presented. The magnetic field in the central drift tube of the SW-EBIT is approximately 0.21 T produced by a pair of high-temperature superconducting coils.

Association between maternal education and breast feeding practices in China: a population-based cross-sectional study.

Objective: To investigate the association between maternal education and breast feeding in the Chinese population, with a consideration of household income and health-seeking behaviours.

Design: A nationally representative population-based cross-sectional study.

Setting: 77 counties from 12 geographically distinct regions in China.