Treatment mode and prognosis of esophageal perforation after radiotherapy in patients with esophageal carcinoma.

Objective: Retrospectively analyzed the esophageal carcinoma (EC) patients with esophageal perforation (EP) after radiotherapy to discuss the treatment and prognosis.

Methods: Data of patients with EC who had EP after radiotherapy in Hebei Cancer Hospital were collected from 2001 to 2020 and retrospectively analyzed. All analyses were performed using SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 18.

Effect and mechanisms of Polygonatum kingianum (polygonati rhizome) on wound healing in diabetic rats.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Diabetic dermatopathy is one of the most serious and common complications of diabetes. It has been found that high glucose can lead to abnormal glycometabolism. The skin microenvironment pollution caused by the increase in glucose and the oxidative stress mediated by the deposition of advanced glycation end products can lead to invisible skin injury, and the interaction between them is the key factor that makes the skin wounds of diabetic rats difficult to heal.

Cadmium induced skeletal underdevelopment, liver cell apoptosis and hepatic energy metabolism disorder in Bufo gargarizans larvae by disrupting thyroid hormone signaling.

Cadmium (Cd) is hazardous to human health and it is also highly detrimental to amphibian life. In this study, Bufo gargarizans larvae were exposed to environmentally relevant Cd concentrations of 5, 100 and 200 μg L from Gosner stage (Gs) 26 to Gs 42 of metamorphic climax about 6 weeks. The results showed thyroid structural injuries and thyroid signaling disruption were induced by high Cd exposure (100 and 200 μg L).

Learning Aligned Image-Text Representations Using Graph Attentive Relational Network.

Image-text matching aims to measure the similarities between images and textual descriptions, which has made great progress recently. The key to this cross-modal matching task is to build the latent semantic alignment between visual objects and words. Due to the widespread variations of sentence structures, it is very difficult to learn the latent semantic alignment using only global cross-modal features.

Exosomes secreted by chemoresistant ovarian cancer cells promote angiogenesis.

Background: Ovarian cancer (OC) has the highest mortality rate in gynecologic tumors. Despite decades of continuous efforts, the survival rate of patients has not improved significantly, mostly due to drug resistance. Exosomes are hot topics in recent years.

Evolution characteristics and policy implications of new urbanization in provincial capital cities in Western China.

New urbanization is the fundamental approach to achieve the healthy, stable, and sustainable development of the Chinese economic society. It is also the basic outlet to eliminate the "dual economic structure" in urban and rural areas. Based on the connotation of new urbanization, we constructed an evaluation system using population development, economic development, quality of life, infrastructure, resources and environment, and urban and rural harmonious development.

Identification and functional prediction of soybean CircRNAs involved in low-temperature responses.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a newly characterized type of noncoding RNA and play important roles in microRNA (miRNA) function and transcriptional control. To unravel the mechanism of soybean circRNAs in low-temperature (LT) stress response, genome-wide identification of soybean circRNAs was conducted under LT (4 °C) treatment via deep sequencing. In this study, the existence of backsplicing sites was validated and circRNAs exhibited specific expression patterns in response to LT.

The effects of chronic cadmium exposure on the gut of Bufo gargarizans larvae at metamorphic climax: Histopathological impairments, microbiota changes and intestinal remodeling disruption.

Cadmium (Cd) is carcinogenic to human and it also has adverse effects on aquatic life such as amphibian larvae. However, its influences on amphibian gut morphology and development as well as intestinal microbiota are still hardly understood. In this study, we examined the effects of chronic cadmium exposure on the gut of tadpoles at Gosner stage 42 of metamorphic climax by using Bufo gargarizans as a model species.

The effects of chronic cadmium exposure on Bufo gargarizans larvae: Histopathological impairment, gene expression alteration and fatty acid metabolism disorder in the liver.

Cadmium (Cd) a highly toxic metal to human and wildlife health and it is hazardous to both terrestrial and aquatic life. In this study, we used RNA sequencing analysis to examine the effects of chronic cadmium exposure on liver lipid metabolism of Bufo gargarizans larvae. Tadpoles were exposed to cadmium concentrations at 0, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 200 μg L from Gosner stage 26-42 of metamorphic climax.

The effects of chronic lead exposure on the liver of female Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica): Histopathological damages, oxidative stress and AMP-activated protein kinase based lipid metabolism disorder.

Lead (Pb) is one of the most toxic metals to human and wildlife. It also had multiple negative influences on birds with physical, neurological and hematological clinical signs. However, the impacts of lead on bird liver lipid metabolism are still unclear.

Expression patterns of intermediate filament proteins desmin and lamin A in the developing conduction system of early human embryonic hearts.

Since embryonic heart development is a complex process and acquisition of human embryonic specimens is challenging, the mechanism by which the embryonic conduction system develops remains unclear. Herein, we attempt to gain insights into this developmental process through immunohistochemical staining and 3D reconstructions. Expression analysis of T-box transcription factor 3, cytoskeleton desmin, and nucleoskeleton lamin A protein in human embryos in Carnegie stages 11-20 showed that desmin is preferentially expressed in the myocardium of the central conduction system compared with the peripheral conduction system, and is co-expressed with T-box transcription factor 3 in the central conduction system.

Isl-1 positive pharyngeal mesenchyme subpopulation and its role in the separation and remodeling of the aortic sac in embryonic mouse heart.

Background: Second heart field cells and neural crest cells have been reported to participate in the morphogenesis of the pharyngeal arch arteries (PAAs); however, how the PAAs grow out and are separated from the aortic sac into left and right sections is unknown.

Results: An Isl-1 positive pharyngeal mesenchyme protrusion in the aortic sac ventrally extends and fuses with the aortic sac wall to form a midsagittal septum that divides the aortic sac. The aortic sac division separates the left and right PAAs to form independent arteries.

Exposure to cadmium induced gut histopathological damages and microbiota alterations of Chinese toad (Bufo gargarizans) larvae.

Cadmium (Cd) is highly hazardous to both terrestrial and aquatic life and it also has multiple negative impacts on amphibian tadpoles and frogs. However, its effects on gut health of amphibian tadpoles are still poorly understood. We used Chinese toad (Bufo gargarizans) tadpoles to examine the effects of chronic cadmium exposure on gut histology and intestinal microbiota by using regular histology analysis and high-throughput sequencing techniques.

Septation of the Intrapericardial Arterial Trunks in the Early Human Embryonic Heart.

Background: Outflow tract (OFT) septation defects are a common cause of congenital heart disease. Numerous studies have focused on the septation mechanism of the OFT, but have reported inconsistent conclusions. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the septation of the aortic sac and the OFT in the early embryonic human heart.

[Changes of liver fibrosis-related miRNAs induced by soluble egg antigen of ].

Objective: To investigate the expression of miRNA associated with hepatic fibrosis induced by soluble egg antigen stimulation in mouse hepatocytes (AML12), so as to lay the foundation for clarifying the mechanism of schistosome infection leading to hepatic fibrosis.

Methods: The expressions of miR-122, miR-182, miR-23b, miR27b and KSRP in AML12 cells treated with SEA were measured by q-PCR. KSRP protein in cell lyses was measured by Western blotting.

GmPLP1, a PAS/LOV protein, functions as a possible new type of blue light photoreceptor in soybean.

Light is one of the most important environmental factors for the growth and development of plants. To adapt to changes in day length, the photoreception and transmission of the light signals in plants mainly depend on the various light receptor proteins. The PAS/LOV protein (PLP) has a PAS domain in the N-terminal and LOV domain in the C-terminal and has been confirmed as a new type of blue light receptor in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Integrating Epigenomic Elements and GWASs Identifies BDNF Gene Affecting Bone Mineral Density and Osteoporotic Fracture Risk.

To identify susceptibility genes for osteoporosis, we conducted an integrative analysis that combined epigenomic elements and previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) data, followed by validation at population and functional levels, which could identify common regulatory elements and predict new susceptibility genes that are biologically meaningful to osteoporosis. By this approach, we found a set of distinct epigenomic elements significantly enriched or depleted in the promoters of osteoporosis-associated genes, including 4 transcription factor binding sites, 27 histone marks, and 21 chromatin states segmentation types. Using these epigenomic marks, we performed reverse prediction analysis to prioritize the discovery of new candidate genes.

p-Cresyl sulfate is associated with carotid arteriosclerosis in hemodialysis patients and promotes atherogenesis in apoE-/- mice.

p-Cresyl sulfate (PCS) is a risk factor of cardiovascular disease in patients with chronic kidney disease. Here we tested whether serum PCS levels were related to the rate and evolution of carotid atherosclerosis in hemodialysis patients and identified a potential mechanism. A total of 200 hemodialysis patients were categorized as with or without carotid atherosclerotic plaque and followed for 5 years.

High-efficiency AgInS(2)-modified ZnO nanotube array photoelectrodes for all-solid-state hybrid solar cells.

Highly ordered AgInS2-modified ZnO nanoarrays were fabricated via a low-cost hydrothermal chemical method, and their application as all-solid-state solar cells was also tested. A sensitizer and a buffer layer were developed around the surface of ZnO nanotubes in the preparation process, and this method is easily be manipulated to produce uniform structure. In this structure, the ZnO served as direct electron transport path, the ZnS as the buffer layer, and the ternary sensitizer AgInS2 as absorber and outer shell.

Development of high-performance liquid chromatographic for quality and authenticity control of Chinese propolis.

A RP-high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was developed for quality control of Chinese propolis by simultaneous analysis of 12 flavonoids and 8 phenolic acids. The results showed that vanillic acid, rutin, myricetin, and luteolin were not detected in all of the analyzed propolis and poplar tree gum samples. The caffeic acid, ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid were not detected in poplar tree gum but were detected in propolis, which suggest that they are practical indexes of distinguishing propolis from poplar tree gum.

Dendritic TiO2 /ln2 S3 /AgInS2 trilaminar core-shell branched nanoarrays and the enhanced activity for photoelectrochemical water splitting.

Hierarchical TiO2 /ln2 S3 /AgInS2 trilaminar core-shell branched nanorod arrays (T-CS BNRs) have been fabricated directly on conducting glass substrates (FTO) via a facile, versatile and low-cost hydrothermal and successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. On the basis of optimal thickness of AgInS2 shell, such TiO2 /ln2 S3 /AgInS2 T-CS BNRs exhibit a higher photocatalytic activity, the photocurrent density and efficiency for hydrogen generation are up to 22.13 mA·cm(-2) and 14.

Pulmonary endoderm, second heart field and the morphogenesis of distal outflow tract in mouse embryonic heart.

The second heart field (SHF), foregut endoderm and sonic hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway are all reported to associate with normal morphogenesis and septation of outflow tract (OFT). However, the morphological relationships of the development of foregut endoderm and expression of SHH signaling pathway members with the development of surrounding SHF and OFT are seldom described. In this study, serial sections of mouse embryos from ED9 to ED13 (midgestation) were stained with a series of marker antibodies for specifically highlighting SHF (Isl-1), endoderm (Foxa2), basement membrane (Laminin), myocardium (MHC) and smooth muscle (α-SMA) respectively, or SHH receptors antibodies including patched1 (Ptc1), patched2 (Ptc2) and smoothened, to observe the spatiotemporal relationship between them and their contributions to OFT morphogenesis.

Second heart field and the development of the outflow tract in human embryonic heart.

The second heart field (SHF) is indicated to contribute to the embryonic heart development. However, less knowledge is available about SHF development of human embryo due to the difficulty of collecting embryos. In this study, serial sections of human embryos from Carnegie stage 10 (CS10) to CS16 were stained with antibodies against Islet-1 (Isl-1), Nkx2.

Photoinduced superhydrophilicity of TiO thin film with hierarchical Cu doping.

Hydrophilic Cu-TiO thin films with a gradient in the Cu concentration were prepared on glass by layer-by-layer dip-coating from TiO precursors. The effects of the Cu doping on the structure and properties of TiO self-cleaning thin films are discussed. The Cu gradient markedly affects the hydrophilicity of the films, with the water contact angle significantly reduced compared with those of the pure or uniformly doped TiO thin films.

TiO₂ photoanode structure with gradations in V concentration for dye-sensitized solar cells.

V-TiO₂(GC) photoanode film with graduated structure was prepared in a dye-sensitized solar cell work electrode by layer-by-layer method using TiO₂ precursor with gradations in V concentration on the indium tin oxide transparent conducting glass from substrate to surface. The effects of the gradient in V concentration on the structures and properties of TiO₂ photoanode film were discussed. The structure of the gradient V concentration has remarkable influence on the final performance of the DSSCs and I-V characteristic measurement indicates an enhanced efficiency by 31% as compared to pure TiO₂ nanoparticles film samples due to abundant solar light, fast injection and transmission velocity and the slowdown recombination of photoexcited electrons, simultaneously.