Publications by authors named "Wei Ji"

Vector bending sensors can be utilized to detect the bending curvature and direction, which is essential for various applications such as structural health monitoring, mechanical deformation measurement, and shape sensing. In this work, we demonstrate a temperature-insensitive vector bending sensor via parallel Farby-Perot interferometers (FPIs) fabricated by etching and splicing a multicore fiber (MCF). The parallel FPIs made in this simple and effective way exhibit significant interferometric visibility with a fringe contrast over 20 dB in the reflection spectra, which is 6 dB larger than the previous MCF-based FPIs.

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The 26S proteasome is a crucial protease complex responsible for degrading specific proteins to maintain cellular function during salt stress. Previous studies have shown that GmRPN11d, a subunit of the regulatory particle in soybean, is upregulated in response to short-term salt stress. This research discovered that GmRPN11d is localized in the nucleus and cytoplasm, with its expression increasing under high salinity and other stress conditions.

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The apelin receptor (APJR) emerges as a promising drug target for cardiovascular health and muscle regeneration. While prior research unveiled the structural versatility of APJR in coupling to Gi proteins as a monomer or dimer, the dynamic regulation within the APJR dimer during activation remains poorly understood. In this study, we present the structures of the APJR dimer and monomer complexed with its endogenous ligand apelin-13.

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β-coronavirus rearranges the host cellular membranes to form double-membrane vesicles (DMVs) via NSP3/4, which anchor replication-transcription complexes (RTCs), thereby constituting the replication organelles (ROs). However, the impact of specific domains within NSP3/4 on DMV formation and RO assembly remains largely unknown. By using cryogenic-correlated light and electron microscopy (cryo-CLEM), we discovered that the N-terminal and C-terminal domains (NTD and CTD) of SARS-CoV-2 NSP3 are essential for DMV formation.

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The aging process is associated with a loss of bone mass and an accumulation of senescent cells, which is under epigenetic control. Morphological and molecular analysis revealed a notable reduction in bone mass and alveolar crest height in aged mice, accompanied by increased levels of senescent mouse jaw bone marrow stem cells (mJBMSCs). To investigate whether specific transcription factors are involved, assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing (ATAC-seq) was performed on mJBMSCs isolated from 2-, 4-, 8-, and 20-month-old mice.

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Parkinson's Disease (PD) is the second-most common neurodegenerative disorder. There is a certain pathological connection between PD and dysphonia. Speech signals have been successfully used to identify PD and predict its severity.

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Objective: The clivus is trapezoidal in shape with uneven bone structure, the optimal number and position of screws for clival fixation are not clear. Therefore, this study aims to explore the optimization clival screw fixation method for occipitocervical instability using finite element analysis.

Methods: Seven finite element models were developed to evaluate biomechanical properties of clival screw fixation for treating occipitocervical stability, including (i) one clival screw fixation A1 and A2 models; (ii) two clival screws fixation B1 and B2 models; (iii) three clival screws fixation C1 and C2 models; (iv) four clival screws fixation D1 model.

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Objective: This study was recruited to investigate the role of mitophagy in activating NLRP3 inflammasome in the kidney of uric acid (UA) nephropathy (UAN) rats.

Methods: This study developed a uric acid nephropathy (UAN) rat model divided into five groups: Negative control (NC), UAN model (M), UAN + autophagy inhibitor (3-MA), UAN + lysosome inhibitor (CQ), and ROS scavenger (N-acetylcysteine, N). H&E staining assessed renal structure, ROS levels were measured with 2, 7dichlorofluorescin diacetate, and ELISA measured serum markers (, , cystatin , , , ).

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A rapid, low-cost and reliable interfacial plasmonic nanoarray is presented as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensing platform for preliminary quantification and identification of flavonoids. Here, CTAB-modified Au colloidal nanoparticles self-assemble at the cyclohexane/acetone-water interface to form a uniform interfacial plasmonic nanoarray. The target hydrophobic analytes including organic dye methyl red and water-insoluble flavonoids, are effectively captured at the air-water interface and enter the "hot spots" between nanoparticles during the evaporation of the oil phase, which contributes to sensitive and reproducible SERS signals.

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Respiratory tract fistulas, including tracheal and bronchial fistulas, usually cause prolonged hospitalization with developed complications and even death, while respiratory tract fistula healing remains challenging. Exploring effectiveness and mechanism in animal systems using well-designed bio-nanomaterials will improve our understanding of fistula management. Hyaluronate (hyaluronan or hyaluronic acid) has been widely studied as a promising coating material for bio-nanomaterials in treatment applications.

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Intelligent safety systems (ISS) for autonomous vehicles, integrating advanced perception capabilities and passive protection devices, are expected to reshape traditional pedestrian safety systems and play a key role in reducing the risk of pedestrian injuries in traffic accidents. However, traditional active control and passive protection modules remain disconnected due to insufficient evidence supporting the effectiveness of collaborative strategies in integrated systems, particularly concerning activation criteria and timing. This study aims to address this gap by developing a comprehensive ISS that incorporates advanced perception systems, a vehicle dynamic control module, and controllable passive safety devices.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how tobacco use impacts sleep quality in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), analyzing data from 1017 hospitalized patients over three years.
  • Findings show that tobacco users with OSA experienced significantly worse sleep quality, marked by longer light sleep and less deep sleep (N3), while the severity of tobacco dependence did not correlate with sleep quality.
  • The results suggest that tobacco use adversely affects sleep structure in OSA patients, with greater disruptions in those with more severe OSA.
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Osteoblasts are the functional cells capable of bone formation in the bone microenvironment and play an important role in bone growth, development, and the maintenance of bone mass. The cells cultured in vitro are derived from preosteoblasts in tissues and possess the ability to divide and proliferate. Osteoblasts form the bone matrix by secreting collagen and other matrix proteins, which provides a foundation for the deposition of minerals such as calcium and phosphorus, ultimately resulting in the formation of hard bone tissue.

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  • The study focuses on the role of ferroelectric domain walls in polarization switching of the two-dimensional material α-InSe, which hasn't been thoroughly investigated.
  • It reveals that the stacking order (2H vs. 3R) of α-InSe affects the properties of ferroelectric domain walls and their behavior in semiconductor-metal junctions.
  • The research shows that 3R α-InSe exhibits a larger hysteresis in response to electric fields, while 2H α-InSe has a more complex reaction involving bond changes, highlighting the importance of stacking configurations for tuning ferroelectric properties.
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Background: Low muscle mass, defined as appendicular lean mass adjusted for body mass index (BMI), may indicate early skeletal muscle deterioration.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between Life's Essential 8 (LE8), the updated cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics by the American Heart Association, and low muscle mass, including the impact of related biomarkers on muscle quality.

Methods: This cross-sectional study utilized data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycles 2011-2014, selected due to their inclusion of the most recent appendicular lean mass measurements available in the NHANES dataset.

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  • Mixed lineage kinases (MLKs), part of the MAP3K family, are linked to cancer progression but their specific functions in glioblastoma (GBM) remain unclear.
  • Our study used bioinformatics to assess MLK expression in low-grade gliomas and GBM, revealing that MLK1-2 are downregulated in GBM and correlate with better patient survival, while ZAK's expression rises in contrast.
  • We developed a risk score model for predicting patient outcomes and confirmed the antitumor effects of MLK1-2, suggesting their potential as therapeutic targets in glioma treatment.
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Anti-ferromagnetic insulator chromium oxychloride (CrOCl) has shown peculiar charge transfer and correlation-enhanced emerging properties when interfaced with other van der Waals conductive channels. However, the influence of its spin states to the channel material remains largely unknown. Here, this issue is addressed by directly measuring the density of states in bilayer graphene (BLG) interfaced with CrOCl via a high-precision capacitance measurement technique and a surprising hysteretic behavior in the charging states of the heterostructure is observed.

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  • Wireless neural signal transmission is crucial for neuroscience and treating neural disorders but traditional systems face limitations such as low sampling rates and single transmission modes.
  • The new bi-directional brain-computer interface features both Bluetooth for low-frequency signals (up to 14.4 kS/s) and Wi-Fi for high-frequency signals (up to 56.8 kS/s), making it adaptable for different research needs.
  • It also includes wireless stimulation capabilities that can deliver adjustable current pulses, providing a comprehensive solution for neural recording and stimulation.
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Global climate warming has led to the deepening of the active layer of permafrost on the Tibetan Plateau, further triggering thermal subsidence phenomena, which have profound effects on the carbon cycle of regional ecosystems. This study conducted warming (W) and thermal subsidence (RR) control experiments using an Open-Top Chamber (OTC) device in the river source wetlands of the Qinghai Lake basin. The aim was to assess the impacts of warming and thermal subsidence on soil temperature, volumetric water content, biomass, microbial diversity, and soil respiration (both autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration).

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  • Axions are theoretical particles that might explain dark matter and a specific physics problem (strong CP problem), and this study investigates their interactions using ^{129}Xe gas and Rb vapor.
  • The method used enhances the detection sensitivity for these axion interactions by 145 times compared to traditional approaches through magnetic amplification and effective field exploitation.
  • The research led to significant improvements in constraints on interactions related to axions, expanding the search for these particles and their potential links to dark matter, with implications for future investigations in this field.
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A half-dose influenza vaccine (7.5 μg hemagglutinin per strain) has been used for children under 3 years of age for a long time. However, several studies indicate that a full-dose influenza vaccine (15 μg hemagglutinin per strain) may bring more benefit to this population without increasing the risk of adverse reactions.

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To enhance the fast and accurate detection of pollution-free green apples for food safety, this paper uses the DETR network as a framework to propose a new method for pollution-free green apple detection based on a multidimensional feature extraction network and Transformer module. Firstly, an improved DETR network main feature extraction module adopts the ResNet18 network and replaces some residual layers with deformable convolutions (DCNv2), enabling the model to better adapt to pollution-free fruit changes at different scales and angles, while eliminating the impact of microbial contamination on fruit testing; Subsequently, the extended spatial pyramid pooling model (DSPP) and multiscale residual aggregation module (FRAM) are integrated, which help reduce feature noise and minimize the loss of underlying features during the feature extraction process. The fusion of the two modules enhances the model's ability to detect objects of different scales, thereby improving the accuracy of near-color fruit detection.

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Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a collection of metabolic abnormalities including insulin resistance, atherogenic dyslipidemia, central obesity, and hypertension. Recently, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as pivotal regulators of metabolic balance, influencing the genes associated with MetS. Although the prevalence of insulin resistance is rising, leading to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its vascular complications, there is still a notable gap in understanding the role of lncRNAs in the context of clinical diabetes.

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