Kidney transplantation from a systemic lupus erythematosus donor and 1-year follow-up: A case report.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is usually regarded as a relative contraindication for deceased kidney donation. The pathological variations because of the changes in the immune environment after kidney transplantation (KT) are unclear, and the recovery of renal function is poorly understood. We present a case of KT from a deceased donor with SLE who was followed-up for one year. Although SLE-related hemangioma developed during the perioperative period, it was cured after interventional treatment. A pre-planned biopsy was performed one year after KT, and it was found that most of the pathological changes and immunofluorescent markers of lupus had resolved. Renal function was stable, and urinary protein and occult blood levels reduced one year after KT.

Evaluation of vaccine candidates against Rhodococcus equi in BALB/c mice infection model: cellular and humoral immune responses.

Rhodococcus equi (R. equi) is a zoonotic opportunistic pathogen that mainly causes fatal lung and extrapulmonary abscesses in foals and immunocompromised individuals. To date, no commercial vaccine against R. equi exists. We previously screened all potential vaccine candidates from the complete genome of R. equi using a reverse vaccinology approach. Five of these candidates, namely ABC transporter substrate-binding protein (ABC transporter), penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBD2), NlpC/P60 family protein (NlpC/P60), esterase family protein (Esterase), and M23 family metallopeptidase (M23) were selected for the evaluation of immunogenicity and immunoprotective effects in BALB/c mice model challenged with R. equi. The results showed that all five vaccine candidate-immunized mice experienced a significant increase in spleen antigen-specific IFN-γ- and TNF-α-positive CD4 + and CD8 + T lymphocytes and generated robust Th1- and Th2-type immune responses and antibody responses. Two weeks after the R. equi challenge, immunization with the five vaccine candidates reduced the bacterial load in the lungs and improved the pathological damage to the lungs and livers compared with those in the control group. NlpC/P60, Esterase, and M23 were more effective than the ABC transporter and PBD2 in inducing protective immunity against R. equi challenge in mice. In addition, these vaccine candidates have the potential to induce T lymphocyte memory immune responses in mice. In summary, these antigens are effective candidates for the development of protective vaccines against R. equi. The R. equi antigen library has been expanded and provides new ideas for the development of multivalent vaccines.

PARP inhibitor-related acute renal failure: a real-world study based on the FDA adverse event reporting system database.

BACKGROUND: Current clinical trial data on PARP inhibitors (PARPis)-related acute renal failure (ARF) are not entirely representative of real-world situations. Therefore, in this study, the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) was used to evaluate PARPis-related ARF. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Data were obtained from 1 January 2015, to 30 September 2023. ARF event reports were analyzed based on four algorithms. The time-to-onset (TTO) and clinical outcomes of PARPis-associated ARF were assessed. RESULTS: The total included cases were 2726. Significant signals were observed for olaparib, niraparib, and rucaparib (reporting odds ratio (ROR): 1.62, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.49-1.78, 1.25, 95% CI: 1.19-1.32 and 1.59, 95% CI: 1.47-1.72 respectively). The median TTO of ARF onset was 57, 36, and 85 days for olaparib, niraparib, and rucaparib, respectively. The proportion of deaths with olaparib (9.88%) was significantly higher than for niraparib (2.52%) and rucaparib (2.94%) (p < 0.005). The proportion of life-threatening adverse events associated with niraparib (4.89%) was significantly higher than for rucaparib (0.98%) (p < 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: ARF and PARPi were related, with the exception of talazoparib. More emphasis should be given to PARPis-related ARF due to the high proportion of serious AEs and delayed adverse reactions.

Enhancer demethylation-regulated gene score identified molecular subtypes, inspiring immunotherapy or CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The 5-year survival rate of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is approximately 20%. The prognosis and drug response exhibit substantial heterogeneity in ESCC, impeding progress in survival outcomes. Our goal is to identify a signature for tumour subtype classification, enabling precise clinical treatments. METHODS: Utilising pre-treatment multi-omics data from an ESCC dataset (n = 310), an enhancer methylation-eRNA-target gene regulation network was constructed and validated by in vitro experiments. Four machine learning methods collectively identified core target genes, establishing an Enhancer Demethylation-Regulated Gene Score (EDRGS) model for classification. The molecular function of EDRGS subtyping was explored in scRNA-seq (n = 60) and bulk-seq (n = 310), and the EDRGS's potential to predict treatment response was assessed in datasets of various cancer types. FINDINGS: EDRGS stratified ESCCs into EDRGS-high/low subtypes, with EDRGS-high signifying a less favourable prognosis in ESCC and nine additional cancer types. EDRGS-high exhibited an immune-hot but immune-suppressive phenotype with elevated immune checkpoint expression, increased T cell infiltration, and IFNγ signalling in ESCC, suggesting a better response to immunotherapy. Notably, EDRGS outperformed PD-L1 in predicting anti-PD-1/L1 therapy effectiveness in ESCC (n = 42), kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC, n = 181), and bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA, n = 348) cohorts. EDRGS-low showed a cell cycle-activated phenotype with higher CDK4 and/or CDK6 expression, demonstrating a superior response to the CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib, validated in ESCC (n = 26), melanoma (n = 18), prostate cancer (n = 15) cells, and PDX models derived from patients with pancreatic cancer (n = 30). INTERPRETATION: Identification of EDRGS subtypes enlightens ESCC categorisation, offering clinical insights for patient management in immunotherapy (anti-PD-1/L1) and CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy across cancer types. FUNDING: This study was supported by funding from the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFC2501000, 2020YFA0803300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82030089, 82188102), the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2021-I2M-1-018, 2022-I2M-2-001, 2021-I2M-1-067), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (3332021091).

Catalyst-free contact-electro-catalytic H2O2 synthesis via simple combination of a poly(tetrafluoroethylene) stir bar and ultrasound.

Herein, we present a catalyst-free contact-electro-catalytic method for synthesizing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) by combining continuous agitation with a poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) stir bar and ultrasonication. A high H2O2 production rate of 256.6 µM h-1 is achieved under ambient conditions without adding particle catalysts and sacrificial agents, which is competitive with recent advancements in redox technology. Eco-friendliness, convenience and efficiency make this process a promising alternative method for H2O2 synthesis.

Immune-related adverse events of immune checkpoint inhibitors combined with angiogenesis inhibitors: A real-world pharmacovigilance analysis of the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database (2014-2022).

INTRODUCTION: Although immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) combined with angiogenesis inhibitors (AGIs) has become increasingly used for cancers, the impact of combination therapy on immune-related adverse events (irAEs) in real-world settings has not been well elucidated to date. METHODS: The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database from 2014 to 2022 was retrospectively queried to extract reports of irAEs referred as standardized MedDRA queries (SMQs), preferred terms (PTs) and system organ classes (SOCs). To perform disproportionality analysis, information component (IC) and reporting odds ratio (ROR) were calculated and lower limit of 95 % confidence interval (CI) for IC (IC025) > 0 or ROR (ROR025) > 1 with at least 3 reports was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Compared to ICIs alone, ICIs + AGIs demonstrated a lower IC025/ROR025 for irAEs-SMQ (2.343/5.082 vs. 1.826/3.563). Regarding irAEs-PTs, there were fewer irAEs-PTs of significant value in ICIs + AGIs than ICIs alone (57 vs. 150 PTs) and lower signal value for most PTs (88 %) in ICIs + AGIs. Moreover, lower IC025 for most of irAEs-SOCs in ICIs + AGIs (11/13) compared with ICIs alone was observed. As for outcomes of irAEs, ICIs + AGIs showed a lower frequency of "fatal" for irAEs-SMQ than ICIs alone (4.88 % vs. 7.83 %), so as in cardiac disorder (SOC) (15.45 % vs. 26.37 %), and respiratory, thoracic and mediastinal disorders (SOC) (13.74 % vs. 20.06 %). Similarly, there were lower occurrence and fewer fatality of irAEs in ICIs + AGIs + chemotherapy (CT) than ICIs + CT. CONCLUSION: ICIs combined with AGIs may reduce incidence and mortality for most of irAEs compared to ICIs alone whether or not with CT.

Interactions between biocrusts and herbaceous communities are divergent in dry and wet semiarid ecosystems.

Biocrusts are a prevalent form of living cover in worldwide drylands, and their presence are intimately associated with herbaceous community, forming a spatially mosaic distribution pattern in dryland ecosystems. The role of biocrusts as modulators of herbaceous community assembly is extensively studied, whereas, less is known whether their interactions are permanent or changeable with various environmental conditions. This study conducted a field survey of herbaceous community accompanied by three types of biocrusts (cyanobacterial, cyanobacterial-moss mixed, and moss crusts) in two contrasting (dry and wet) semiarid climate regions in the Chinese Loess Plateau, to explore whether or not climatic aridity gradient affects the interactions between biocrusts and herbaceous community. Our results showed that in dry semiarid climate, the biomass, species richness, and diversity of herbaceous community from biocrust plots were 89 %, 179 %, and 52 % higher than that from the uncrusted plots, respectively, while in wet semiarid climate, those herbaceous community indices from biocrust plots were 68 %, 43 %, and 23 % lower than that from the uncrusted plots, respectively. The impacts of biocrusts on herbaceous community were highly dependent on the types and coverage of biocrusts. Regardless of aridity gradient, the richness and diversity of herbaceous community were the lowest in the moss-covered plots, followed by the cyanobacteria-covered plots and the plots with a mixed cyanobacteria and moss population. Along with increasing biocrust coverage, the species richness and diversity of herbaceous plants initially increased and then decreased in dry semiarid climate, while in wet semiarid climate they decreased linearly with biocrust coverage. Structural equation modeling revealed that the factors of biocrust types and coverage affected herbaceous community indirectly through soil properties in dry semiarid climate, whereas in wet semiarid climate they directly affected herbaceous community through biotic interactions. Together, our findings indicated that cyanobacterial and moss biocrusts facilitate the development of herbaceous community in dry semiarid climate by increasing soil stability and nutrient levels, but in wet semiarid climate they restrict herbaceous plant growth through competing niche space. These results highlight the divergent relationships between biocrusts and herbaceous community across aridity gradient in dryland ecosystems, and this knowledge may be critically important in light of the projected global climate change which is going to change the aridity of global drylands.

[Source Apportionment and Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Dust Around Bus Stops in Kaifeng City Based on APCS-MLR Model].

In order to reveal the influence of urban transportation systems on the quality of urban ecological environment, this study selected surface dust from bus stops, which is strongly disturbed by transportation, as the research object. The contents of eight heavy metals (V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb) in the dust were determined through inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-ASE). The spatial distribution characteristics and pollution levels of the eight heavy metals in the dust were analyzed using the geo-accumulation index method. A combined qualitative (correlation analysis and principal component analysis) and quantitative (absolute principal component scores-multiple linear regression model (APCS-MLR)) method was used to explore the sources of heavy metals in surface dust near bus stops. The spatial distribution characteristics of heavy metals from different sources were elucidated using the Kriging interpolation method. The health risk assessment model proposed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency was used to evaluate the human health risks. The results showed that the average values of ω(V), ω(Cr), ω(Co), ω(Ni), ω(Cu), ω(Zn), ω(Cd), ω(Pb), and ω(As) in the bus stop surface dust were 68.36, 59.73, 5.81, 19.34, 40.10, 208.32, 1.01, and 49.46 mg·kg-1, respectively. The concentrations of heavy metals (Cd, Zn, Pb, Cu, and Cr) in the dust were all higher than the background values in the surrounding dust, exceeding them by 3.37, 2.70, 2.01, 1.95, and 1.28 times, respectively. The order of the geo-accumulation index for the eight heavy metals was Cd > Zn > Pb > Cu > Cr > V > Ni > Co, with Cd, Zn, Cu, and Pb in the dust indicating mild pollution levels and the others showing no pollution. The source analysis results showed that Cr, Co, and Ni were natural sources, whereas Cu, Zn, Pb, and Cd were traffic sources, and V was derived from a combination of industrial and natural sources. The APCS-MLR results indicated that the average contribution rates of the four sources were as follows:natural source (34.17 %), traffic source (29.84 %), industrial-natural mixed source (14.64 %), and unknown source (21.35 %). The spatial distribution map of the contribution rate of the traffic source was consistent with the trends of traffic volume and bus route density distribution. According to the health risk assessment, the cancer risk and non-cancer risk for children were both higher than those for adults. Cr was the main non-cancer factor, and Cd was the main cancer-causing factor. Natural and traffic sources contributed the most to non-cancer risk and cancer risk, respectively.

Effect of an extraoral scavenging device on eliminating droplets and aerosols generated in ultrasonic supragingival scaling: A randomised clinical trial.

OBJECTIVES: Ultrasonic scaling is extensively applied as part of the initial therapy for periodontal diseases, which has been restricted since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic due to droplets and aerosols generated by ultrasonic devices. An extraoral scavenging device (EOS) was designed for diminishing droplets and aerosols in dental clinics. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of EOS on eliminating droplets and aerosols during ultrasonic supragingival scaling. METHODS: This single-blinded, randomised controlled clinical trial enrolled 45 patients with generalised periodontitis (stage I or II, grade A or B) or plaque-induced gingivitis. The patients were randomly allocated and received ultrasonic supragingival scaling under three different intervention measures: only saliva ejector (SE), SE plus EOS and SE plus high-volume evacuation (HVE). The natural sedimentation method was applied to sample droplets and aerosols before or during supragingival scaling. After aerobic culturing, colony-forming units (CFUs) were counted and analysed. RESULTS: Compared with the level before treatment, more CFUs of samples throughout treatment could be obtained at the operator's chest and the patient's chest and the table surface when using SE alone (p < 0.05). Compared with the SE group, the SE + EOS group and the SE + HVE group obtained decreasing CFUs at the operator's chest and the patient's chest (p < 0.05), while no significant difference was determined between these two groups. CONCLUSIONS: The EOS effectively eliminated splatter contamination from ultrasonic supragingival scaling, which was an alternative precaution for nosocomial contamination in dental clinics.

Salvaging donated kidneys from prolonged warm ischemia during ex vivo hypothermic oxygenated perfusion.

Prolonged warm ischemic is the main cause discarding donated organs after cardiac death. Here, we identified that prolonged warm ischemic time induced disseminated intravascular coagulation and severe capillary vasospasm after cardiac death of rat kidneys. Additionally, we found a significant accumulation of fibrinogen in a hypoxic cell culture of human umbilical vein epithelial cells and in isolated kidneys exposed to prolonged warm ischemic following flushing out of blood. However, pre-flushing the kidney with snake venom plasmin in a 90-minute warm ischemic model maximized removal of micro thrombi and facilitated the delivery of oxygen and therapeutic agents. Application of carbon monoxide-releasing CORM-401 during ex vivo hypothermic oxygenated perfusion achieved multipath protective effects in prolonged warm ischemic kidneys. This led to significant improvements in perfusion parameters, restoration of the microcirculation, amelioration of mitochondrial injury, oxidative stress, and apoptosis. This benefit resulted in significantly prolonged warm ischemic kidney recipient survival rates of 70%, compared with none in those receiving ex vivo hypothermic oxygenated perfusion alone. Significantly, ex vivo hypothermic oxygenated perfusion combined with cytoprotective carbon monoxide releasing CORM-401 treatment meaningfully protected the donated kidney after cardiac death from ischemia-reperfusion injury by reducing inflammation, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and pathological damage. Thus, our study suggests a new combination treatment strategy to potentially expand the donor pool by increasing use of organs after cardiac death and salvaging prolonged warm ischemic kidneys.

Crohn's disease treatment and memory T-cell subset changes: insights from a case series.

Background: Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease with significant morbidity, affecting millions worldwide. The intricacies of immune responses in CD, especially post-treatment, remain a vital area of exploration. While memory T (Tm)-cell subsets play a pivotal role in adaptive immunity, their specific function in patients with CD after treatment is not well-understood. This study aims to investigate the effect and function of Tm-cell subsets in these patients, addressing a crucial knowledge gap in the context of CD therapeutics. Methods: A total of eight patients diagnosed with CD were selected based on predefined inclusion criteria. All patients were treated with either anti-inflammatory agents, immunosuppressive drugs, or a combination of both. For comparison, healthy donors were enrolled based on exclusion of autoimmune or inflammatory diseases. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and lymphocytes were isolated from blood and lymph node tissue respectively. The phenotype and cytokine production of T lymphocytes from both CD patients and healthy donors were analyzed using flow cytometry. Statistical comparisons of the outcomes between CD patients and healthy donors were made using Mann-Whitney test (two-tailed) and Student t-test. Results: Post-treatment CD patients exhibited an altered T cell distribution with a notable increase in CD8+ T cells in PBMCs (P=0.0005), and altered frequencies of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs). Tm cells showed decreased interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) production, with significant alterations in the frequency of IFN-γ-producing CD8+ stem cell-like Tm (Tscm) cells in lesions of the MLNs from patients with CD (CD-M-Lys) compared to healthy MLNs from patients with CD (N-M-Lys) (P=0.0152). Differences in tissue-resident Tm (Trm)-cell subset frequencies were observed between the MLNs and small intestinal mucosa in CD patients. Conclusions: The treatments with anti-inflammatory agents and/or immunosuppressive drugs have a significant effect on the frequency and function of Tm-cell subsets. Clinically, these findings suggest a potential therapeutic avenue in modulating Tm-cell responses, which might be particularly beneficial for conditions where immune response modulation is crucial. Further clinical studies are warranted to explore the full therapeutic implications of these findings.

The effect of illness perception on psychosocial adjustment of patients with breast cancer and their spouses: actor-partner independence model.

OBJECTIVE: With the increase in the prevalence rate and improvements in the survival of breast cancer patients, there is a growing interest in understanding the level of psychosocial adjustment in these patients. The study aimed to describe the illness perception and psychosocial adjustment levels of both breast cancer patients and their spouses, to use the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) to clarify the actor-partner relationships between spouses, and to explore the impact of illness perception on psychosocial adjustment to the disease within the joint actions of both spouses. METHODS: A total of 216 female patients with breast cancer and their spouses participated in the study. They were selected from two tertiary hospitals in Guangdong Province, China from October 2022 to May 2023 using a convenience sampling method. The participants were assessed using the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire and the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale to examine the relationship between illness perception and psychosocial adjustment. AMOS24.0 was used to test and analyze the actor-partner interdependence model. RESULTS: The illness perception score (57.75 ± 10.91) was slightly higher than that of the spouse (57.10 ± 11.00), and the psychosocial adjustment score (64.67 ± 6.33) was slightly lower than that of the spouse (64.76 ± 7.49). The results of the actor-partner interdependence model indicated that there was a couple partner between breast cancer patients and their spouses: the spouse's illness perception significantly affected the patient's psychosocial adjustment (ß = 0.095, p = 0.015); the patient's illness perception also significantly affected the spouse's psychosocial adjustment (ß = 0.106, p = 0.033). Among them, the patient's psychosocial adjustment was found to be related to the patient's illness comprehensibility or coherence of illness (ß = 0.433, p = 0.009), the spouse's emotional illness representation (ß = 0.218, p = 0.037), and the spouse's illness comprehensibility or coherence of illness (ß = 0.416, p = 0.007), while the spouse's psychosocial adjustment was only related to the spouse's illness comprehensibility or coherence of illness (ß = 0.528, p = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: The psychosocial adjustment of breast cancer patients is affected by both their own and spouse's illness perception. Therefore, in the future, the healthcare staff can implement early psychological interventions for patients diagnosed with breast cancer and their spouses as a unit to promote the psychosocial adjustment of them.

Fair evaluation of federated learning algorithms for automated breast density classification: The results of the 2022 ACR-NCI-NVIDIA federated learning challenge.

The correct interpretation of breast density is important in the assessment of breast cancer risk. AI has been shown capable of accurately predicting breast density, however, due to the differences in imaging characteristics across mammography systems, models built using data from one system do not generalize well to other systems. Though federated learning (FL) has emerged as a way to improve the generalizability of AI without the need to share data, the best way to preserve features from all training data during FL is an active area of research. To explore FL methodology, the breast density classification FL challenge was hosted in partnership with the American College of Radiology, Harvard Medical Schools' Mass General Brigham, University of Colorado, NVIDIA, and the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute. Challenge participants were able to submit docker containers capable of implementing FL on three simulated medical facilities, each containing a unique large mammography dataset. The breast density FL challenge ran from June 15 to September 5, 2022, attracting seven finalists from around the world. The winning FL submission reached a linear kappa score of 0.653 on the challenge test data and 0.413 on an external testing dataset, scoring comparably to a model trained on the same data in a central location.

Design and Implementation of Pavlovian Associative Memory Based on DNA Neurons.

In the field of biocomputing and neural networks, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) strand displacement (DSD) technology performs well in computation, programming, and information processing. In this article, the multiplication gate, addition gate, and threshold gate based on DSD are used to cascade into a single DNA neuron. Multiple DNA neurons can be cascaded to form different neural networks. The DNA neural networks are designed to implement seven classical conditioned reflexes from Pavlovian associative memory experiments. A classical conditioned reflex is a combination of a conditioned stimulus (CS) and another un CS with a reward or punishment. So that the individual develops a conditioned reflex that is similar to an unconditioned reflex in the use of CS alone. The seven classical conditioned reflexes include acquisition and forgetting, interstimulus interval effect, blocking, conditioned inhibition, overshadowing, generation, and differentiation. The simulations are verified by the software visual DSD. This article provides a direction for the integration of biology and psychology.

Pretransplant use of immune checkpoint inhibitors for hepatocellular carcinoma: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) as a downstaging or bridging therapy for liver transplantation (LT) in hepatocellular carcinoma patients are rapidly increasing. However, the evidence about the feasibility and safety of pre-LT ICI therapy is limited and controversial. To this end, a multicenter, retrospective cohort study was conducted in 11 Chinese centers. The results showed that 83 recipients received pre-LT ICI therapy during the study period. The median post-LT follow-up was 8.1 (interquartile range 3.3-14.6) months. During the short follow-up, 23 (27.7%) recipients developed allograft rejection, and 7 of them (30.4%) were diagnosed by liver biopsy. Multivariate logistics regression analysis showed that the time interval between the last administration of ICI therapy and LT (TLAT) ≥ 30 days was an independent protective factor for allograft rejection (odds ratio = 0.096, 95% confidence interval 0.026-0.357; P < .001). Multivariate Cox analysis showed that allograft rejection was an independent risk factor for overall survival (hazard ratio = 9.960, 95% confidence interval 1.006-98.610; P = .043). We conclude that patients who receive a pre-LT ICI therapy with a TLAT shorter than 30 days have a much higher risk of allograft rejection than those with a TLAT longer than 30 days. The presence of rejection episodes might be associated with higher post-LT mortality.

A Precise Framework for Rice Leaf Disease Image-Text Retrieval Using FHTW-Net.

Cross-modal retrieval for rice leaf diseases is crucial for prevention, providing agricultural experts with data-driven decision support to address disease threats and safeguard rice production. To overcome the limitations of current crop leaf disease retrieval frameworks, we focused on four common rice leaf diseases and established the first cross-modal rice leaf disease retrieval dataset (CRLDRD). We introduced cross-modal retrieval to the domain of rice leaf disease retrieval and introduced FHTW-Net, a framework for rice leaf disease image-text retrieval. To address the challenge of matching diverse image categories with complex text descriptions during the retrieval process, we initially employed ViT and BERT to extract fine-grained image and text feature sequences enriched with contextual information. Subsequently, two-way mixed self-attention (TMS) was introduced to enhance both image and text feature sequences, with the aim of uncovering important semantic information in both modalities. Then, we developed false-negative elimination-hard negative mining (FNE-HNM) strategy to facilitate in-depth exploration of semantic connections between different modalities. This strategy aids in selecting challenging negative samples for elimination to constrain the model within the triplet loss function. Finally, we introduced warm-up bat algorithm (WBA) for learning rate optimization, which improves the model's convergence speed and accuracy. Experimental results demonstrated that FHTW-Net outperforms state-of-the-art models. In image-to-text retrieval, it achieved R@1, R@5, and R@10 accuracies of 83.5%, 92%, and 94%, respectively, while in text-to-image retrieval, it achieved accuracies of 82.5%, 98%, and 98.5%, respectively. FHTW-Net offers advanced technical support and algorithmic guidance for cross-modal retrieval of rice leaf diseases.

PMC-LLaMA: toward building open-source language models for medicine.

OBJECTIVE: Recently, large language models (LLMs) have showcased remarkable capabilities in natural language understanding. While demonstrating proficiency in everyday conversations and question-answering (QA) situations, these models frequently struggle in domains that require precision, such as medical applications, due to their lack of domain-specific knowledge. In this article, we describe the procedure for building a powerful, open-source language model specifically designed for medicine applications, termed as PMC-LLaMA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We adapt a general-purpose LLM toward the medical domain, involving data-centric knowledge injection through the integration of 4.8M biomedical academic papers and 30K medical textbooks, as well as comprehensive domain-specific instruction fine-tuning, encompassing medical QA, rationale for reasoning, and conversational dialogues with 202M tokens. RESULTS: While evaluating various public medical QA benchmarks and manual rating, our lightweight PMC-LLaMA, which consists of only 13B parameters, exhibits superior performance, even surpassing ChatGPT. All models, codes, and datasets for instruction tuning will be released to the research community. DISCUSSION: Our contributions are 3-fold: (1) we build up an open-source LLM toward the medical domain. We believe the proposed PMC-LLaMA model can promote further development of foundation models in medicine, serving as a medical trainable basic generative language backbone; (2) we conduct thorough ablation studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of each proposed component, demonstrating how different training data and model scales affect medical LLMs; (3) we contribute a large-scale, comprehensive dataset for instruction tuning. CONCLUSION: In this article, we systematically investigate the process of building up an open-source medical-specific LLM, PMC-LLaMA.

Cyanobacterial and moss biocrusts shape soil nematode community in dryland mountain ecosystems with increasing aridity.

Soil nematodes are the most abundant animals on Earth and play critical roles in regulating numerous ecosystem processes, from enhancing primary productivity to mineralizing multiple nutrients. In dryland soils, a rich community of microphyte organisms (biocrusts) provide critical habitats for soil nematodes, but their presence is being threatened by increasing aridity induced by global climate change. Despite its importance, how types of biocrusts and aridity index influence soil nematode community in dryland mountain ecosystems remains largely unknown. To fill these knowledge gaps, we conducted a field survey with contrasting aridity indexes (0.2, 0.4, and 0.6) and three types of biocrusts (cyanobacterial, cyanobacterial-moss mixed, and moss crusts) in the topsoil (0-5 cm) from the northern Chinese Loess Plateau. We found that the abundance (number of individuals per gram of soil), richness (number of Operational Taxonomic Units; OTUs), and diversity (number of different species) of soil nematodes were remarkably higher under biocrusts than in bare soils, regardless of aridity index and types of biocrusts. Our results also showed that the same variables had the highest values in moss crusts compared to cyanobacterial and cyanobacterial-moss mixed crusts. Structural equation modelling further revealed that biocrust types and traits (i.e., biocrust thickness, chlorophyll content, shear force, and penetration resistance) are the most important factors associated with both nematode abundance and richness. Together, our findings indicate that biocrusts, especially moss cover, and less stressful aridity conditions favor soil nematodes community in dryland mountain regions. Such knowledge is critical for anticipating the distribution of these animals under climate change scenarios and, ultimately, the numerous ecosystem services supported by soil nematodes.

Corrosion Degradation Mechanism of Cr-Coated Zr-4 Alloy under Simulated Nuclear Conditions for Accident-Tolerant Fuel.

Cr coatings with a thickness of about 19 µm were synthesized on Zr-4 cladding using plasma-enhanced arc ion plating. A Zr-Cr micro-diffusion layer was formed via Cr ion cleaning before deposition to enhance the interface bonding strength. Cr coatings exhibit an obvious columnar crystal structure with an average grain size of 1.26 µm using SEM (scanning electron microscopy) and EBSD (electron backscatter diffraction) with a small amount of nanoscale pores on the surface. A long-term aqueous test at 420 ± 3 °C, 10.3 ± 0.7 MPa and isothermal oxidation tests at 900~1300 °C in air were conducted to evaluate the Cr-coated Zr-4 cladding. All the results showed that the Cr coatings had a significant protective effect to the Zr-4 alloy. However, the corrosion deterioration mechanism is different. A gradual thinning of the Cr coating was observed in a long-term aqueous test, but a cyclic corrosion mechanism of void initiation-propagation-cracking at the oxide film interface is the main corrosion characteristic of the Cr coating in isothermal oxidation. Different corrosion models are constructed to explain the corrosion mechanism.

Identification and validation of DHCR7 as a diagnostic biomarker involved in the proliferation and mitochondrial function of breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Energy metabolism has a complex intersection with pathogenesis and development of breast cancer (BC). This allows for the possibility of identifying energy-metabolism-related genes (EMRGs) as novel prognostic biomarkers for BC. 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase (DHCR7) is a key enzyme of cholesterol biosynthesis involved in many cancers, and in this paper, we investigate the effects of DHCR7 on the proliferation and mitochondrial function of BC. METHODS: EMRGs were identified from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and MSigDB databases using bioinformatics methods. Key EMRGs of BC were then identified and validated by functional enrichment analysis, interaction analysis, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression, Cox analysis, and immune infiltration. Western blot, qRT-PCR, immunohistochemistry (IHC), MTT assay, colony formation assay and flow cytometry assay were then used to analyze DHCR7 expression and its biological effects on BC cells. RESULTS: We identified 31 EMRGs in BC. These 31 EMRGs and related transcription factors (TFs), miRNAs, and drugs were enriched in glycerophospholipid metabolism, glycoprotein metabolic process, breast cancer, and cell cycle. Crucially, DHCR7 was a key EMRG in BC identified and validated by WGCNA, LASSO regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. High DHCR7 expression was significantly associated with tumor immune infiltration level, pathological M, and poor prognosis in BC. In addition, DHCR7 knockdown inhibited cell proliferation, induced apoptosis and affected mitochondrial function in BC cells. CONCLUSIONS: DHCR7 was found to be a key EMRG up-regulated in BC cells. This study is the first to our knowledge to report that DHCR7 acts as an oncogene in BC, which might become a novel therapeutic target for BC patients.