Publications by authors named "Xiaoliang Zhu"

Background: Currently, most multimodal medical image fusion techniques focus solely on integrating the edge details of image features, often overlooking color preservation from the source images. Hence, this paper proposes a multi-channel fusion algorithm based on gradient domain-guided image filtering.

Purpose: This study aims to enhance the color preservation of source images in multimodal medical image fusion algorithms.

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The management of rural waste, particularly agri-food waste, poses a major challenge to the ecosystem health. This study investigated the efficacy of black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens L., BSFL) bioconversion for agri-food waste under independent treatment or co-treatment strategies using chicken manure and food waste as a model system.

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Egg production traits are crucial in the poultry industry, including age at first egg (AFE), egg number (EN) at different stages, and laying rate (LR). Ducks exhibit higher egg production capacity than other poultry species, but the genetic mechanisms are still poorly understood. In this study, we collected egg-laying data of 618 Peking ducks from 22 to 66 weeks of age and genotyped them by whole-genome resequencing.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study identifies a new pair of transcription factors, Bhlhe40 and Pou2af1, that regulates CXCR5 expression, which is crucial for follicular T helper (Tfh) cell migration into germinal centers.
  • Pou2af1 promotes Tfh formation and migration by increasing CXCR5 levels, while Bhlhe40 inhibits this by repressing Pou2af1 expression.
  • The research suggests that the Bhlhe40-Pou2af1 regulatory circuit operates independently of the well-established Bcl6-Blimp1 circuit that traditionally governs Tfh cell fate.
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Human emotions are complex psychological and physiological responses to external stimuli. Correctly identifying and providing feedback on emotions is an important goal in human-computer interaction research. Compared to facial expressions, speech, or other physiological signals, using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals for the task of emotion recognition has advantages in terms of authenticity, objectivity, and high reliability; thus, it is attracting increasing attention from researchers.

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We herein described a practical and efficient protocol for hydrodifluoromethylation of unactivated alkenes using readily available difluoroacetic anhydride as a difluoromethyl source by merging photocatalysis and -hydroxyphthalimide activation. This method features a wide substrate scope and excellent compatibility with various functional groups, as demonstrated by more than 50 examples, including bioactive molecules and pharmaceutical derivatives. Mechanism investigation indicated that -hydroxyphthalimide may also serve as the hydrogen atom donor.

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Qianggan capsule (QGC) is a complex preparation composed of 16 traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) that can clear heat and dampness, fortify the spleen and blood, typify qi and relieve depression. However, the chemical composition of QGC remains incompletely understood, despite its clinical use in treating chronic hepatitis and liver injury. The objective of this study was to explore the quality markers of QGC through qualitative and quantitative analysis of its chemical components.

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Piperlonguminine (PLG) is a major alkaloid found in Piper longum fruits. It has been shown to possess a variety of biological activities, including anti-tumor, anti-hyperlipidemic, anti-renal fibrosis and anti-inflammatory properties. Previous studies have reported that PLG inhibits various CYP450 enzymes.

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is a clinically significant opportunistic fungus that is generally treated with antifungal drugs such as itraconazole and fluconazole. However, the recent emergence of fungal resistance has made treatment increasingly difficult. Therefore, novel antifungal treatment methods are urgently required.

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Background: At present, there are some problems in multimodal medical image fusion, such as texture detail loss, leading to edge contour blurring and image energy loss, leading to contrast reduction.

Objective: To solve these problems and obtain higher-quality fusion images, this study proposes an image fusion method based on local saliency energy and multi-scale fractal dimension.

Methods: First, by using a non-subsampled contourlet transform, the medical image was divided into 4 layers of high-pass subbands and 1 layer of low-pass subband.

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Objective: To evaluate the effect of Dahuang Mudan Tang (, DHMD) and allopurinol on the treatment of chronic kidney disease staged G1-G3b patients with hyperuricemia and to provide novel insights into the clinical management of chronic kidney disease complications.

Methods: A total of 80 chronic kidney patients staged G1-G3b with hyperuricemia were randomly grouped to receive single allopurinol treatment (control) and combined treatment with DHMD (treated) for 8 weeks. The kidney function and proteinuria indicators of patients were compared between pre-and post-treatment.

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How CD4 lineage gene expression is initiated in differentiating thymocytes remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the paralog transcription factors Zfp281 and Zfp148 control both this process and cytokine expression by T helper cell type 2 (T2) effector cells. Genetic, single-cell, and spatial transcriptomic analyses showed that these factors promote the intrathymic CD4 T cell differentiation of class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC II)-restricted thymocytes, including expression of the CD4 lineage-committing factor Thpok.

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Background: Although overnight fasting is recommended prior to endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), the benefits and safety of high-carbohydrate fluid diet (CFD) intake 2 h before ERCP remain unclear. This study aimed to analyze whether high-CFD intake 2 h before ERCP can be safe and accelerate patients' recovery.

Methods: This prospective, multicenter, randomized controlled trial involved 15 tertiary ERCP centers.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The study showed that GATA3, a transcription factor typically associated with Th2 cell differentiation, is crucial for the pathogenic function of Th17 cells in EAE, particularly in their early differentiation stages.
  • * Late deletion of GATA3 led to reduced GM-CSF production and an inability to induce EAE symptoms, suggesting GATA3 plays a critical role in maintaining the pathogenic characteristics of T-bet-expressing Th17 cells by influencing gene regulation.
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By evaluating learners' perceived preferences for the learning environment, we can understand the important characteristics and better improve the learning environment, ultimately to provide great potential for the optimization of teaching practice. Seeing that the current research pays less attention to teachers' and students' preferences for the space environment simultaneously, based on the survey of 1937 undergraduates and 107 teachers from a university in central China, this study aims to explore their preferences for smart learning environment. Based on the ecological theory and research results of the existing learning environment, this paper constructed an ecological model and a conceptual model of learning space preferences.

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Facial expression recognition (FER) has received increasing attention. However, multiple factors (e.g.

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The aim of the study was to analyze population-based prostate cancer (PCa) screening and the incidence of PCa among males ≥50 years of age residing in the Luqiao district of Taizhou, China. From October to December 2020, male residents ≥50 years of age were screened for serum total prostate-specific antigen (total-PSA). If t-PSA re-test levels persisted above 4 μg/L, subjects underwent further noninvasive examinations, including digital rectal examination or multiparameter magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) of the prostate.

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Because of its ability to objectively reflect people's emotional states, electroencephalogram (EEG) has been attracting increasing research attention for emotion classification. The classification method based on spatial-domain analysis is one of the research hotspots. However, most previous studies ignored the complementarity of information between different frequency bands, and the information in a single frequency band is not fully mined, which increases the computational time and the difficulty of improving classification accuracy.

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Type 2 T helper (Th2) cells and group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) provide protection against helminth infection and are involved in allergic responses. However, their relative importance and crosstalk during type 2 immune responses are still controversial. By generating and utilizing mouse strains that are deficient in either ILC2s or Th2 cells, we report that interleukin (IL)-33-mediated ILC2 activation promotes the Th2 cell response to papain; however, the Th2 cell response to ovalbumin (OVA)/alum immunization is thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) dependent but independent of ILC2s.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to investigate a modified ureteral catheter to minimize thermal injury to the ureter during holmium laser lithotripsy, a procedure to break up kidney stones.
  • Various laser power settings, firing times, and irrigation rates were tested to observe their effects on ureter temperature during the procedure.
  • Results indicated that using the modified catheter and specific irrigation techniques helped keep the ureter temperature below 43°C, significantly reducing the risk of thermal damage.
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A community-based prostate cancer screening program was conducted to assess the morbidity and associated factors for prostate cancer among the subpopulation of men aged ≥50 years in Taizhou, China. Taizhou Integrated Prostate Screening (TIPS) is a large, observational, population-based study of prostate cancer screening data based on serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentrations. A pilot census of all male residents aged 50 years or older was conducted in Luqiao District, one of the field sites of the TIPS cohort in the city of Taizhou, Zhejiang.

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Substantial drug resistance afforded by Candida albicans biofilms results in ineffective treatment with conventional drugs and persistent infection. Our previous study showed that hexyl-aminolevulinate ethosomes (HAL-ES) act against C. albicans biofilms and weaken their drug resistance and pathogenicity; however, the mechanism involved remains unclear.

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Understanding learners' emotions can help optimize instruction sand further conduct effective learning interventions. Most existing studies on student emotion recognition are based on multiple manifestations of external behavior, which do not fully use physiological signals. In this context, on the one hand, a learning emotion EEG dataset (LE-EEG) is constructed, which captures physiological signals reflecting the emotions of boredom, neutrality, and engagement during learning; on the other hand, an EEG emotion classification network based on attention fusion (ECN-AF) is proposed.

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As an important task in computer vision, head pose estimation has been widely applied in both academia and industry. However, there remains two challenges in the field of head pose estimation: (1) even given the same task (e.g.

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A lack of confidence on the vaccination drive hinders the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to assess the antibody response to the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine among hospitalized patients in China. This case-control study was based on SARS-CoV-2 sero-surveillance during hospitalization.

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