Highlights • Detection of irisin immunoreactivity in skeletal muscle and cardiomyocyte. • Presence of irisin immunoreactivity in the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum. • Co-expression of irisin ...immunoreactivity and glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) immunoreactivity in the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum. • Hypothetical neurocircuitry connecting the cerebellum to the fat tissue that may regulate adipocyte metabolism.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration radio transients
of unknown origin. Two possible mechanisms that could generate extremely coherent emission from FRBs invoke neutron star ...magnetospheres
or relativistic shocks far from the central energy source
. Detailed polarization observations may help us to understand the emission mechanism. However, the available FRB polarization data have been perplexing, because they show a host of polarimetric properties, including either a constant polarization angle during each burst for some repeaters
or variable polarization angles in some other apparently one-off events
. Here we report observations of 15 bursts from FRB 180301 and find various polarization angle swings in seven of them. The diversity of the polarization angle features of these bursts is consistent with a magnetospheric origin of the radio emission, and disfavours the radiation models invoking relativistic shocks.
Given observed initial conditions, how well do coupled atmosphere-ocean models predict precipitation climatology with 1-month lead forecast? And how do the models' biases in climatology in turn ...affect prediction of seasonal anomalies? We address these questions based on analysis of 1-month lead retrospective predictions for 21 years of 1981-2001 made by 13 state-of-the-art coupled climate models and their multi-model ensemble (MME). The evaluation of the precipitation climatology is based on a newly designed metrics that consists of the annual mean, the solstitial mode and equinoctial asymmetric mode of the annual cycle, and the rainy season characteristics. We find that the 1-month lead seasonal prediction made by the 13-model ensemble has skills that are much higher than those in individual model ensemble predictions and approached to those in the ERA-40 and NCEP-2 reanalysis in terms of both the precipitation climatology and seasonal anomalies. We also demonstrate that the skill for individual coupled models in predicting seasonal precipitation anomalies is positively correlated with its performances on prediction of the annual mean and annual cycle of precipitation. In addition, the seasonal prediction skill for the tropical SST anomalies, which are the major predictability source of monsoon precipitation in the current coupled models, is closely link to the models' ability in simulating the SST mean state. Correction of the inherent bias in the mean state is critical for improving the long-lead seasonal prediction. Most individual coupled models reproduce realistically the long-term annual mean precipitation and the first annual cycle (solstitial mode), but they have difficulty in capturing the second annual (equinoctial asymmetric) mode faithfully, especially over the Indian Ocean (IO) and Western North Pacific (WNP) where the seasonal cycle in SST has significant biases. The coupled models replicate the monsoon rain domains very well except in the East Asian subtropical monsoon and the tropical WNP summer monsoon regions. The models also capture the gross features of the seasonal march of the rainy season including onset and withdraw of the Asian-Australian monsoon system over four major sub-domains, but striking deficiencies in the coupled model predictions are observed over the South China Sea and WNP region, where considerable biases exist in both the amplitude and phase of the annual cycle and the summer precipitation amount and its interannual variability are underestimated.
Summary
Increasing evidence has suggested that the host inflammatory status is associated with prognosis of several solid tumors. Preoperative platelet–lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and ...neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR), both acquired from routine blood tests, can reflect the status of systematic inflammation. However, whether they are correlated with clinical outcomes of esophageal carcinoma is still unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine the prognostic value of preoperative PLR and NLR in patients with resected esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Preoperative PLR and NLR were evaluated in 317 eligible ESCC patients from September 2008 to December 2010. Receiver operating characteristic curves were applied to establish optimal cutoff points. The prognostic values of PLR and NLR were determined by both univariate and multivariate analyses. The optimal cutoff value of preoperative PLR and NLR were 103.0 and 2.1, respectively. One hundred and ninety‐seven (62.1%) patients showed high level of preoperative PLR, while 148 (46.7%) patients showed high level of preoperative NLR. Both elevated PLR (P < 0.001) and NLR (P = 0.009) were correlated with poor disease‐specific survival in univariate analysis. However, only preoperative PLR (P = 0.003) had a significant correlation with prognosis in multivariate analysis. In subgroup analyses, the predictive value of PLR was significant for stage I (P = 0.008) and stage II (P = 0.044) patients, but not for stage III patients (P = 0.100). Preoperative PLR is easily obtained from a routine blood test and may provide additional prognostic information for ESCC patients, especially in the early stage.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
We present the second release of value-added catalogues of the LAMOST Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic Anticentre (LSS-GAC DR2). The catalogues present values of radial velocity Vr, ...atmospheric parameters – effective temperature Teff, surface gravity log g, metallicity Fe/H, α-element to iron (metal) abundance ratio α/Fe (α/M), elemental abundances C/H and N/H and absolute magnitudes MV and $M_{K_{\rm s}}$ deduced from 1.8 million spectra of 1.4 million unique stars targeted by the LSS-GAC since 2011 September until 2014 June. The catalogues also give values of interstellar reddening, distance and orbital parameters determined with a variety of techniques, as well as proper motions and multiband photometry from the far-UV to the mid-IR collected from the literature and various surveys. Accuracies of radial velocities reach 5 km s−1 for the late-type stars, and those of distance estimates range between 10 and 30 per cent, depending on the spectral signal-to-noise ratios. Precisions of Fe/H, C/H and N/H estimates reach 0.1 dex, and those of α/Fe and α/M reach 0.05 dex. The large number of stars, the contiguous sky coverage, the simple yet non-trivial target selection function and the robust estimates of stellar radial velocities and atmospheric parameters, distances and elemental abundances make the catalogues a valuable data set to study the structure and evolution of the Galaxy, especially the solar-neighbourhood and the outer disc.
Recently, piezoelectric thin films including zinc oxide (ZnO) and aluminium nitride (AlN) have found a broad range of lab-on-chip applications such as biosensing, particle/cell concentrating, ...sorting/patterning, pumping, mixing, nebulisation and jetting. Integrated acoustic wave sensing/microfluidic devices have been fabricated by depositing these piezoelectric films onto a number of substrates such as silicon, ceramics, diamond, quartz, glass, and more recently also polymer, metallic foils and bendable glass/silicon for making flexible devices. Such thin film acoustic wave devices have great potential for implementing integrated, disposable, or bendable/flexible lab-on-a-chip devices into various sensing and actuating applications. This paper discusses the recent development in engineering high performance piezoelectric thin films, and highlights the critical issues such as film deposition, MEMS processing techniques, control of deposition/processing parametres, film texture, doping, dispersion effects, film stress, multilayer design, electrode materials/designs and substrate selections. Finally, advances in using thin film devices for lab-on-chip applications are summarised and future development trends are identified.
Summary
From 2014 to 2015, four novel highly pathogenic PRRS virus (HP‐PRRSV) strains named 14LY01‐FJ, 14LY02‐FJ 15LY01‐FJ, and 15LY02‐FJ were isolated from high morbidity (100%) and mortality ...(40%–80%) in piglets and sows in Fujian Province. To further our knowledge about these novel virus strains, we characterized their complete genomes and determined their pathogenicity in piglets. Full‐length genome sequencing analysis showed that these four isolates were closely related to type 2 (North American type, NA‐type) isolates, with 88.1%–96.3% nucleotide similarity, but only 60.6%–60.8% homology to the Lelystad virus (LV) (European type, EU‐type). The full length of the four isolates was determined to be 15017 or 15018 nucleotides (nt), excluding the poly(A) tail. Furthermore, the four isolates had three discontinuous deletions (aa 322–432, aa 483, and aa 504–522) within hypervariable region II (HV‐II) of Nsp2, as compared to the reference strain VR‐2332. This deletion pattern in the four isolates is consistent with strain MN184 and strain NADC30 isolated from America. Phylogenetic and molecular evolutionary analyses indicated that these virulent strains originated from a natural recombination event between the JXA1‐like HP‐PRRSV (JXA‐1 is one of the earliest Chinese HP‐PRRSV strains; sublineage 8.7) and the NADC30‐like (lineage 1) PRRSV. Animal experiments demonstrated that these four strains caused significant weight loss and severe histopathological lung lesions as compared to the negative control group. High mortality rate (40% or 80%) was found in piglets infected with any one of the four strains, similar to that found with other Chinese HP‐PRRSV strains. This study showed that the novel variant PRRSV was HP‐PRRSV, and it is therefore critical to monitor PRRSV evolution in China and develop a method for controlling PRRS.
Highlights • Phoenixin, a novel peptide, is detected in superficial layers of the rodent dorsal horn. • A population of dorsal root, trigeminal and nodose ganglion cells express phoenixin. • ...Phoenixin by intrathecal injection reduces the number of writhings elicited by acetic acid.
The subfamily of the Lemnoideae belongs to a different order than other monocotyledonous species that have been sequenced and comprises aquatic plants that grow rapidly on the water surface. Here we ...select Spirodela polyrhiza for whole-genome sequencing. We show that Spirodela has a genome with no signs of recent retrotranspositions but signatures of two ancient whole-genome duplications, possibly 95 million years ago (mya), older than those in Arabidopsis and rice. Its genome has only 19,623 predicted protein-coding genes, which is 28% less than the dicotyledonous Arabidopsis thaliana and 50% less than monocotyledonous rice. We propose that at least in part, the neotenous reduction of these aquatic plants is based on readjusted copy numbers of promoters and repressors of the juvenile-to-adult transition. The Spirodela genome, along with its unique biology and physiology, will stimulate new insights into environmental adaptation, ecology, evolution and plant development, and will be instrumental for future bioenergy applications.
Body mass index (BMI) has been associated with the risk of oesophageal cancer. But the influence of BMI on postoperative complication and prognosis has always been controversial.
In total, 2031 ...consecutive patients who underwent oesophagectomy between 1998 and 2008 were classified according to Asian-specific BMI (kg m(-2)) cutoff values. The impact of BMI on overall survival (OS) was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard models. We performed a meta-analysis to examine the association of BMI with OS and postoperative complication.
Patients with higher BMI had more postoperative complication (P=0.002), such as anastomotic leakage (P=0.016) and cardiovascular diseases (P<0.001), but less incidence of chylous leakage (P=0.010). Logistic regression analysis showed that BMI (P=0.005) was a confounding factor associated with postoperative complication. Multivariate analysis showed that overweight and obese patients had a more favourable survival than normal weight patients (HR (hazard ratio) = 0.80, 95% CI (confidence interval): 0.70-0.92, P=0.001). Subgroup analysis showed that the association with higher BMI and increased OS was observed in patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) (P<0.001), oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) (P=0.034), never-smoking (P=0.035), ever-smoking (P=0.035), never alcohol consumption (P=0.005), weight loss (P=0.003) and advanced pathological stage (P<0.001). The meta-analysis further corroborated that higher BMI was associated with increased complication of anastomotic leakage (RR (risk ratio)=1.04, 95% CI: 1.02-1.06, P=0.001), wound infection (RR=1.03, 95% CI: 1.00-1.05, P=0.031) and cardiovascular diseases (RR=1.02, 95% CI: 1.00-1.05, P=0.039), but decreased incidence of chylous leakage (RR=0.98, 95% CI: 0.96-0.99, P<0.001). In addition, high BMI could significantly improved OS (HR=0.78, 95% CI: 0.71-0.85, P<0.001).
Preoperative BMI was an independent prognostic factor for survival, and strongly associated with postoperative complications in oesophageal cancer.
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